April 17, 2009

Dutch Project Gutenberg reader for April 2009

Filed under: Animals,Literature,Music,Nature by Branko Collin @ 1:37 pm

What is it with adventurers and gadgets? Do they need the distraction when all there is between them and a 2000-metre drop is an almost negligible amount of tent cloth? Or do they feel they have to be at the frontier of everything, including that of technological advances?

This photo shows an early iPod, 1909, used by Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to the South Pole. As you can see, there’s only one earbud—which is rather large, the idea being that the music might be shared with penguins this way. Shackleton failed his bid but did set a record for going farthest South. When he came back later that year, he wrote an article about his adventures which got translated into Dutch and published in De Aarde en Haar Volken.

My Nederlandse Project Gutenberg Reader for April (Dutch) dips into a number of translations, among which translations of the chapter Birds of Brehms Tierleben, of Durch das Land der Skipetaren (Karl May), and of Erasmus’ Morias Enkomion (The Praise of Folly).

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March 11, 2009

Rubber rhinoceros by Tom Claassen

Filed under: Animals,Art by Branko Collin @ 9:20 am

Tom Claassen made this rubber rhinoceros in 2004 and put it in a sluice in Amsterdam’s newest neighbourhood, IJburg (reclaimed in true Dutch fashion from the water—the neighbourhood that is, not the rhino). Several questions spring to mind, such as “wha?” and “brrr?” and I wish I had thought of it. Amsterdam.nl provides some answers (English), such as “first public art in the neighbourhood” and “visibility depends on the water level.”

Photo: Tom Claassen. Here’s what IJburg looked like in 2004 (Wikipedia). Via Trendbeheer (Dutch).

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February 23, 2009

Driver gets money back for not driving over cat

Filed under: Animals,Automobiles by Orangemaster @ 8:58 pm

Little over a year ago, we reported on a driver in Schiedam who was fined EUR 75 for not driving over a cat, or technically, ignoring a green light. The man was trying to avoid running over the cat by waiting until it got out of the way.

The story goes on telly that after going to court over the matter, the driver got his money back, as he was given the benefit of the doubt. The police’s argument is that they did not see a cat crossing the road.

I can’t imagine someone making that up and purposely stopping at a green light. Good news.

(Photo of Cat crossing the street by ll_browneyes_ll, some rights reserved)

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February 21, 2009

Monkey business

Filed under: Animals,General by Eric @ 5:10 pm

Gyasi, financial gururillaWhat do you do, when all the money you invested in stocks and options is losing weight faster than the contestants in the tv show de Afvallers XXL? Whom do you turn to, when your own financial advisor is only foreseeing doom and gloom and you’re desperatly looking for impartial and unbiased tips on where to put those 50 eurocents you still call your capital?

Enter Gyasi, a six year old gorilla, currently living with her family in Primate Park Apenheul in Apeldoorn. Over the next thirteen weeks, Gyasi will pick one share listed on the AEX from a stock of ten, each week. In order to raise Gyasi’s interest in the experiment and possibly also to ensure an impartial and unbiased selection, Gyasi will not pick the share directly, but she will be presented a row of numbered walnuts. Each number corresponds to a share on the AEX. The walnut that gets munched first, will be the winner for the week.

The real question, of course, is: will Gyasi outperform the dolphins from the Harderwijk Dolfinarium?

Link and photo: freesun.be

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February 3, 2009

Amsterdam gets its first food bank for animals

Filed under: Animals,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 4:46 pm
Cat food

The very idea that people have to go to the food bank in the Netherlands, considering all the money and resources the poor have at their disposal, is shameful and embarrassing for many Dutch people. Not necessarily for the people who depend on the food banks, but the general view is that food banks should not exist and are painful to talk about.

But there’s a crisis on, and according to Animal Rescue Nederland, the first thing poor people skimp on is pet food. Animal Rescue Nederland is currently talking to several pet food manufacturers about putting together food parcels for people’s pets.

Will a food bank for animals be less of a taboo than for humans or will people comment about poor people owning pets they can’t afford in the first place? I wonder.

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December 17, 2008

‘Vegetarian’ star eats chicken

Filed under: Animals,Design,General by Orangemaster @ 8:14 am
Jan Vayne Unox

While I’m looking forward to a special get together this week with a bunch of local musicians where I was asked to bring a vegetarian dish (a refreshing change), some self-proclaimed vegetarians apparently ‘omit details’ about their chosen eating patterns when it suits them. Jan Vayne, a celebrity who plugs Unox smoked sausage on television but who does not eat it, was not only nominated as one of the sexiest vegetarians of the Netherlands, but he does eat chicken every once in a while, as apparently shown on television. As far as I can read, he is not a vegetarian. He also claims not to take the ‘election’ seriously, which is obviously a good thing. I voted for columnist Leon Verdonschot; the difference is plain to see. The activists at Wakker Dier were ready to let the smoked sausage thing slip, but eating chicken and saying ‘mmm, delicious’ on television has got their forums buzzing.

And don’t get me started on the all-year-round vegetarians except at Christmas when they shove all that turkey, chicken and pâté down their gizzards gullets, claiming their loved ones didn’t want to cook separate dishes just for them and what not – you’re lying too. And there’s always fish if you want to bring your guilt down a notch or two.

(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)

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December 4, 2008

Cruelty to animals used as music video effect

Filed under: Animals,Art,Music by Branko Collin @ 8:51 am

The music video for Amsterdam based rockband zZz’s track Running with the Beast has been pulled by Youtube, according to Omroep Brabant (Dutch). The video apparently shows two roosters fighting. The cocks were smeared with paint before being put into a tiny arena, and were made to fight on top of paper sheets which were later used to produced the artwork for the CD and for posters and so on.

In an elaborate statement (PDF), the band managed to claim that “no animals were injured.” Indeed, “for legal reasons the video was shot in Bangkok, Thailand.”

See also Dozens of hamsters freed from plastic balls for another tale of artists abusing animals for their own personal gain showing the inherent hypocrisy of people who don’t want to be confronted with the maltreatment of animals, but who will for instance gladly enjoy the fruits of factory farming.

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November 26, 2008

Cat up a tree? Fork out the money

Filed under: Animals,General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:20 am
Cat up a tree

Any cat in the small town of De Marne, Groningen that dares climb up a tree in the future will costs their owner a fistful of euro. Ask the friendly, local voluntary fire brigade to fetch kitty kat for you and they will charge you somewhere between 350 to 500 euro. I wonder what the difference in price entails. Tree height? Time? Cat cuteness?

Tjerk Elzinga, the local fire brigade commander says, “providing a service is something that is not part of our legal tasks. (…) There are companies specialised in that sort of thing and it would lead to unfair competition.” Either this man is enlightened and the rest of the country’s volunteer fire brigades should follow suit or he’s really, really annoyed with not having any fires to put out.

Local residents are divided on the issue, but everyone thinks 350 to 500 euro is a helluvalot to ask for a cat up a tree. The idea is that small, non life-threating situations like rescuing cats costs the fire brigade money, so they feel someone else should pay for it.

Dutch entrepreneurship in times of recession or just plain weird, you decide.

(Link: rtvnoord.nl, Photo (non lolcat version): arttherapyblog)

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November 21, 2008

Dutch researcher discovers a new species of penguin

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 9:58 am
Opus

Together with her team, researcher Sanne Boessenkool discovered a never before found species of penguin, the Waitaha penguin in New Zealand, which has been extinct for an estimated 500 years and is named after the very first inhabitants of the country.

Besides obtaining her Ph.D., the goal of the research was to provide the threatened yellow-eyed penguin with a better chance of survival. “While researching, we noticed that some bones where genetically different than those of the yellow-eyed penguin. Later, we also noticed that the bones were smaller and had a different structure,” explains Boessenkool.

The cartoon penguin here is Opus from one of my favourite comic strips, Bloom County. The person posting comments under the name Lola Granola, once Opus’ fiancee, surely knows what I’m on about. Opus is a large-nosed penguin with a herring addiction who lost track of his mother during the Falklands War.

(Link: trouw.nl, Wikipedia)

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November 12, 2008

Meat-plugging vegetarian nominated for sexiest vegetarian award

Filed under: Animals,General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 4:58 am
Jan Vayne Unox

Can you promote eating Dutch smoked sausage as a vegetarian? The animal activists at Wakker Dier don’t seem to have a problem with that. Jan Vayne, currently the main celebrity plugging Unox smoked sausage on television, was nominated as one of the sexiest vegetarians of the Netherlands. (Personally, I would vote for columnist Leon Verdonschot, but that’s just me.)

On the list of Dutch celebrities that claim not to eat meat, the description of Vayne reads “With his wild hair, Jan Vayne would rather sit at the piano keyboard than sit down for a plate of dead animal.” If I remember correctly, he made it pretty clear more than a year ago that sitting down for a plate of dead animal was mmm mmm profitable. You don’t see him eating any sausage on television though.

Wakker Dier is very much against the bad bad bad meat industry, but not when it comes to their annual most sexy vegetarian contest, which is quite odd. Both Wakker Dier and the Netherlands’ political party Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) held a huge campaign last year against Unox because they use pork from pigs that were not castrated under anaesthesia.

I once had a boss who claimed and acted superior because he did not eat meat, but showed up at work once, back from visiting the United States with fire engine red snake skin boots. They had midlife crisis part deux written all over them. When I told this to my best friend she said, “he doesn’t eat animals, he just wears them”.

(Link and photo: vleesmagazine.nl)

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