August 27, 2017

Student fights for 0.05 points to graduate

Filed under: Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 8:59 pm

An 18-year-old student from Breda is taking the Exam Board to court for having failed her final French exam by 0.05 points, preventing her from graduating and going to university in September.

While the Exam Board admitted that the question the student got wrong was not corrected properly, they did not admit to in a timely manner and the additional amount of points given afterwards was less than it was supposed to be, creating the 0.05 points shortage.

In fact, it has been known since this summer by everyone involved that this exam contained a handful of mistakes, even with multiple answers being correct. However, the correctors were obliged to correct the exams using an answer sheet with mistakes in it, which, even after having brought this to the Exam Board’s attention to be corrected, still had mistakes in it. In the words of a least one of my friends who teaches French here, c’est le bordel (it’s a mess).

Many of you know that the Dutch enjoy solving problems amicably, but the Exam Board is known for being reluctant to admit their mistakes despite having come under heavy fire as of late, especially with this French exam (in Dutch). A court is currently looking at the case, so the student does not miss her university registration deadline. According to the press, it’s also the first time that the Exam Board is going to court over this type of case.

If the student loses, this will get ugly and if the student wins, a whole bunch of other duped students will use the ruling in their favour, again putting pressure on the Exam Board to clean up their act. No wonder many Dutch students hate studying French.

UPDATE: The court found in favour of the Exam Board (in Dutch)

(Links: nu.nl, nos.nl)

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August 7, 2017

Dutch women’s football team European champions

Filed under: Dutch first,Sports by Orangemaster @ 9:57 pm

After an exciting win 4-2 for the ‘Orange Lionesses’ against Denmark yesterday in Enschede, the Dutch women’s football team have won the UEFA Women’s European Championship for the first time.

And while their Amsterdam counterparts had to celebrate their national victory with a small party in their locker room, the Lionesses had some 22,000 people show up in Utrecht to welcome and applaud them. It’s about time this country took notice of how much work goes into women’s sport. Since the Dutch enjoy putting a price tag on everything, the argument of being able to win with much lesser means and ‘less ego’ is appealing even to the sceptics.

Besides having watched this game, I went to my first ever football game recently as well to watch Russia vs. Germany (Germany won 2-0, Russia made too many mistakes). I had a great time and didn’t feel at any moment that I was watching a lesser sport or that I couldn’t cheer for Russia because German fans were there, too. Everybody was having a great time despite the lousy weather. It was exactly what live football should be: fun for everyone.

Here’s a glimpse of the canal boat with Lionesses on board:

(Photo of flag by Wikimedia user Carolus Ludovicus, some rights reserved)

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July 18, 2017

Second biggest yacht in the world sails by

Filed under: Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 10:12 pm

Yacht

Off the coast of the Netherlands near Wijk aan Zee, North Holland someone has apparently spotted and filmed Dutch-built yacht Oceanco Y712, the second biggest sailing yacht ever-built in the world, which looks like a modern-day pirate ship when its sails are out. Someone also took a video of its maiden voyage last February in Hoek van Holland, South Holland, which has that pirate feel as well, thanks to the weather.

The Y712 is 106 metres long (or 105 metres depending on sources), and earlier this year was the biggest yacht ever built until it was surpassed by the Jubilee Y714, which looks very different and is 110 metres long, making it the biggest yacht ever built in the world.

The rumours were that someone super rich was taking the Y712 out for a spin, but nobody knows who that was. I can tell you that Oceanco’s website is in English and in Russian, which gives you an idea of their clientele.

UPDATE: Now called the Black Pearl, the yacht belongs to a Russian man.

(Links and photo: bic-news, quotenet.nl)

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July 15, 2017

World’s biggest mobile swing ride in Uden

Filed under: Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 8:56 pm

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The city of Uden, Noord-Brabant is currently featuring the biggest mobile chair swing ride in the world. It stands at 80 metres and can go up to 70 kilometres an hour. Specification wise, it is identical to the Star Flyer at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, although that swing ride is a fixed one.

The biggest fixed swing chair ride in the world can be found at Six Flags Over Texas in the United States, and its called Sky Screamer. It has a height of 121 metres and reaches speeds of 56 kilometers an hour, which makes sense given the sheer size of the ride (POV video).

(Link: ed.nl, Photo of a chair swing ride at Oktoberfest, Munich)

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July 7, 2017

Vertical forest to pop up in Utrecht

Filed under: Architecture,Dutch first,Nature by Orangemaster @ 4:13 pm

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In Utrecht near Central Station, in the new district of the Jaarbeursboulevard, Milanese firm Stefano Boeri Architetti will erect the ‘Hawthrone Tower’, a Dutch vertical forest after having won an international competition.

“The 90-metre-tall tower will be covered by 10,000 plants of many different species, aimed at creating ‘an innovative experience of cohabitation between city and nature.’ The green façade will allow Hawthorne Tower to absorb more than 5.4 tons of CO2, scrubbing the air for healthier living conditions for both residents of the tower and the wider city.

Construction will start in 2019 and should be finished in 2022. As well, on the ground floor it will also house a ‘vertical forest hub’, a research centre for the implementation and education of urban forestation worldwide, open to the public.

(Links and photo: dearchitect.nl, archdaily.com)

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June 12, 2017

Amsterdam hosts world’s first Bicycle Architecture Biennale

Filed under: Bicycles,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 9:10 pm

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On 14 June, Amsterdam will play host to the world’s first international Bicycle Architecture Biennale, an event organised by cycling innovation agency CycleSpace and held at the Zuiveringshal, located at a former industrial terrain in Amsterdam West.

The Biennale will show off the work of 14 international designers from around the world and aims to see how cycling can improve urban living and how design solutions can inspire and facilitate greater cycling uptake as well as meet transit needs.

One of the main themes is the bicycle in the hierarchy of architecture, having traditionally always been less important than cars and even horses. Amsterdam is known as putting cycling first in many cases and is seen as a proper starting point for the event. The Biennale will have architects, urban planners, designers and many other thinkers work on ideas for the future.

(Link: archdaily.com, Photo of the ‘De Groene Verbinding’ (‘The Green Connection’) by Mark Wagenbuur)

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June 9, 2017

Dutchman pens book about Chinese Indonesian restaurants

Filed under: Dutch first,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 10:13 am

MarkVanWonderen

A friend of 24 oranges HQ, journalist and photographer Mark van Wonderen decided a while back to write a book about Chinese Indonesian restaurants in the Netherlands, and is currently busy visiting all 1097 of them. There used to be a whole lot more ‘Chin. Ind.’ restaurants, but they are slowly being turned into more modern types of restaurants, especially in the province of North Holland. The ethnic Chinese born in the Dutch East Indies eventually came to the Netherlands as of the 1960s, and as a result opened a ton of restaurants, which are different than the usual Hunan and Szechuan Chinese fare you’ll find in other Western countries.

Van Wonderen is motivated by the fading kitsch factor of these family restaurants where the Dutch would either have a sit down meal with the family on a Saturday night for some special occasion or swing by on a Sunday night where you would order at a counter walled off from the main restaurant with its own waiting area and in a matter of minutes someone would slide a bag full of warm plastic containers through a food hatch for you to take home.

While visiting a bunch of restaurants in the province of Drenthe, Van Wonderen spotted the sign of a restaurant being closed to make way for an Italian restaurant. He decided he wanted to have the sign and bring it home, and the new owner said ‘sure, but you have to take it down yourself’, a process that apparently took two days. And yes he’ll be putting the sign in his living room.

(Link and photo: rtvdrenthe.nl)

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June 5, 2017

Word premiere: cuckoos on live stream

Filed under: Animals,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 8:19 pm

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A world first from the ornithologists, the Dutch Bird Protection Society (Vogelbescherming) has set up a live stream on a cuckoo’s nest. And that’s always amusing to say, considering the cuckoo can’t be arsed to build its own nest, but uses other birds’ nest to lay its eggs in. According to Wikipedia, although its eggs are larger than those of its hosts, the eggs in each type of host nest resemble the host’s eggs, a form of mimicry.

In the case of this live stream, this Dutch cuckoo is a bit too big for the nest it is occupying and reminds me of YouTube cat sensation Maru trying to get into a box.

There’s a steady decline of cuckoos in all of Western Europe and the cause is unclear, which is why the Dutch Bird Protection Society has named 2017 the Year of the Cuckoo and is live streaming the nest. Hundreds of thousands of people have tuned in, including us, so give it a whirl.

(Link: naturetoday.com, Screenshot of live stream)

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May 25, 2017

Tree to tweet about the weather and its life

Filed under: Dutch first,Nature,Technology by Orangemaster @ 10:54 am

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As of tomorrow there will be a 30-year-old elm tree at Wageningen University that is going to tweet about the weather and its health – a Dutch first. It will have all kinds of devices stuck it to do so, but that’s par for the course.

Is it getting enough water, it is being properly taken care of, that sort of thing. The tweeting is of course for fun and to make the public aware of trees and their environment. The boffins taking measurements will also use the data they plan to collect for climate change purposes.

Belgium already has three tweeting trees: an oak, a maple and a beech tree, while in Germany there’s a whole ‘forest’ of them. Spain and Switzerland will have some trees on Twitter in the near future as well.

(Link: nos.nl, Photo of Elm tree by Sludge G, some rights reserved)

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March 19, 2017

Big anti-drone competition coming this winter

Filed under: Dutch first,Technology by Orangemaster @ 12:22 pm

In December this year, Delft University of Technology will be hosting ‘DroneClash’, the first ever Dutch anti-drone competition. At this competition participants will use their own drones to take down as many other drones as possible and also avoid a series of anti-drone obstacles.

“Drones can fly into our lives, but we need to be able to take them out again if necessary”, says Bart Remes of the TU Delft Micro Air Vehicle Lab. The goal of the competition is to generate new ideas for the drone and anti-drone industry. A year ago we also told you about the Dutch police training eagles to attack drones.

Watch the video and follow the link to sign up for DroneClash if that’s your thing.

(Link: tudelft.nl, Photo of Drone by Karen Axelrad, some rights reserved)

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