July 31, 2017

Inflatable flamingo hinders holiday floating session

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:30 pm

Screen Shot 2017-07-31 at 21.10.15

A couple on vacation on Mallorca decided to blow up their inflatable flamingo they had bought at the toy shop before leaving. They jokingly posted on social media that the flamingo has an abnormality, but that they are open minded and accept him the way he is. The flamingo’s neck is the other way around, which means it’s not very comfortable to float around in as it pokes you.

They wrote a letter to the shop they bought it from to ask them jokingly what went wrong during the flamingo’s gestation. As of this morning, their post was viewed over 22,000 times and someone even offered them 50 euro for the abnormal inflatable flamingo.

The shop jokingly wrote back that in a sea of pink flamingoes, they would know exactly which one was theirs, a bit like having an odd car in a huge car park, and that they could also come by and trade it in.

(Link and photo: omroepbrabant.nl)

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June 17, 2017

The fate of the two-headed porpoise

Filed under: Animals,Weird by Orangemaster @ 7:45 pm

Two-headed-porpoise

Recently the world media reported about the two-headed porpoise, found caught in a beamtrawl net, in the North Sea, about 15 nautical miles (28 km) west of Hoek van Holland, South Holland.

And apparently, it was a one-in-a-billion discovery. Problem is, even though photos of the animal have been doing the rounds, the creature was thrown back into the sea.

Unknown to Edwin Kompanje, the Dutch scientist desperate to get his hands on this rarity and who co-wrote a paper about it, the fishermen said they thought it was illegal to collect it. “They took four photographs and threw it back into the sea, losing it forever.

(Link: improbable.com, Photo hetnatuurhistorisch.nl)

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May 31, 2017

Thieves break into give-away shop, take nothing

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 7:37 pm

screwdriver

In a give-away shop, people can come and take stuff. Sure, sometimes there are limits, but the stuff is still free and the shop has no use for money whatsoever.

Oddly enough, some thieves decided to bust into the give-away shop in Zeist, Utrecht and leave all their tools behind. The thieves came in at night, forced open the doors with a crowbar which they left along with some screwdrivers. And they didn’t even take anything.

According to the shop, the place was tossed and the thieves poked around everywhere, possibly trying to find stuff of value. It’s also possible that they were trying to open an old safe in this former school, but the safe has nothing of value in it. The place is going to incur costs to fix, but the shop was open for ‘business’ today already.

I dunno, maybe it was a practice run, albeit a dumb one.

(Link: telegraaf.nl, Photo of screwdriver by Noel Hankamer, some rights reserved)

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May 10, 2017

‘Here’s the money for it, but you can’t build it’

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:52 am

The city of Emmen, Drenthe has been known to be innovative with bikes and people gladly visit the eastern city for its main attraction, their zoo.

However, months ago the city approved a subsidy for the construction of a bandstand, but tragically enough the city also denied the permit for building it, even after having agreed to the actual design of the bandstand. Thankfully, after publishing this absurdity in the local press, city council said they would have a look at the situation. Comments on this so far are ‘?’ and ‘this can’t be for real’.

Just around the corner from 24HQ in Amsterdam, a kiosk was going to appear where there had never been one before in recent times, but the same situation occurred: the business got the permit to operate but not to build, and a bit further down the road another kioske got the permit to build but not to operate.

It all sounds very Soviet-era to me, minus the bribes.

(Link: dvhn.nl, Photo of wilted tulip by Graham Keen, some rights reserved)

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April 21, 2017

Scottish murder suspect fakes Dutch accent

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 5:57 pm

windmill-leiden-branko-collin

Called a ‘bizarre European twang’ from a Scottish newspaper (pot, kettle, black, no?), fugitive murder suspect Harris Binotti has been faking a Dutch accent while living in Glasgow in order to stay under the radar. Even though he’s currently on Interpol’s most wanted list, Scottish police cannot arrest him unless overseas officials issue a warrant for his arrest, so he’s just hanging out now scaring the crap out of everyone.

Binotti fled Yangon, Myanmar after the death of Northern Irish colleague Gary Ferguson in November 2016, where they both taught English at a school there.

In the meantime, people living near Binotti are alarmed and the neighbours have complained about the smell of weed coming from the flat Binotti and his girlfriend are holed up in, which he’s also getting away with at the moment.

(Links: thescottishsun, news.sky.com)

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April 6, 2017

Dutch drugstore peddles colouring book with Hitler

Filed under: Art,History,Weird by Orangemaster @ 8:21 pm

mein-kampf-adam-jones

Ah yes, it’s truly springtime for Hitler.

A colouring book from Dutch drugstore chain Kruidvat, handed out with a specific condom brand, contains an image of Hitler making a Nazi salute and wearing a Swastika armband, in what has to be one of the oddest sentences I’ve written in a while, with the exception of the title of this posting.

The story started making the rounds after it hit Dutch social media and was quickly removed after being on sale for half a day by the chain, followed by some apologising and refunds. The colouring book also includes other historical figures such as Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein and Abraham Lincoln.

Why a condom manufacturer is handing out colouring book is beyond me. The book was printed in India, which incidentally is where the original symbol of the Swastika comes from, but how that connects in any way, shape or form to a dictator in a colouring book offered by a condom company remains a mystery.

Links: waarmaarraar.nl, bbc.com, Photo by Adam Jones, some rights reserved)

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April 3, 2017

Why is there a lamppost in the middle of a bike path?

Filed under: Bicycles,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:43 pm
Pink bike

Back in 2015 we told you about a woman who got a lamppost on the head while cycling in Zoetemeer. This time around, almost two years after this incident, the city of Schiedam has placed a lamppost right in the middle of a bike path (see pic).

The story goes that the bike path used to be a foot path, so it made sense to have a lamppost there. However, now the lamppost is waiting for a cyclist to crash into it. “Something went wrong in the planning”, said a spokesperson – well duh. Apparently the lamppost has a fence around it and will be moved, so that’s good news.

It just goes to show you that even in our ‘bicycle monarchy’, things sometimes go wrong.

(Link: ad.nl)

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March 31, 2017

Five legged lamb born in Zeeland

Filed under: Animals,Weird by Orangemaster @ 8:16 am

It’s that time of year again when cute baby animals are born with newsworthy physical defects.

Here’s a five legged lamb, born in Sint-Jansteen, Zeeland to farmer Bertus. Bertus is not going to have the leg removed because he says the smell of humans and product could cause the mother to reject her lamb. As you can see in the video below, the lamb is able to function on four legs while dragging the fifth one.

The lamb was born on 21 January 2017, the same day Dutch actor Adèle Bloemendaal died, who also starred in a 1960 Dutch television show called ‘The sheep with five legs’ (‘t Schaep met de 5 pooten).

Back in 2014 the cops actually ‘arrested’ a sheep on the run‘, which made for a very funny tweet.

(Link: waarmaarraar)

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March 10, 2017

Huskies run amok at indoor ski hall

Filed under: Animals,Sports,Weird by Orangemaster @ 7:43 pm

Huskies

The Netherlands is quite flat, but people still ski here albeit indoors. The indoor ski hall SnowPlanet in Velsen-Zuid near Amsterdam had a special day out for dogs, specifically huskies.

Some 68 huskies were allowed to run around in the snow for the whole day, an event organised by a local group of dog enthusiasts for the very first time.

You’ll have to click on the link below for the short video.

(Link and screenshot: nhnieuws.nl)

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February 28, 2017

Dutch vlogger films creepy Belgian ghost tunnel

Filed under: Automobiles,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:43 pm

Screenshot-Liege

Govert Sweep is an 18-year-old adventurous Dutch guy who enjoys filming and adventure. In the video below, Sweep and his friend Seekrz illegally visit and film a tunnel full of old buses, cars and what not, abandoned under the city of Liège.

The story goes that in the early 1970s Liège was supposed to get a subway system. Huge tunnels worth billions were dug and the subway never happened. Since then the tunnel has been stocked full of old vehicles and you can only imagine what happens down there. Have a video look at what it looked like back in the 1980s on French Belgian telly.

Sweep’s video is in Dutch, but you can always use closed captions. At 2:40 they almost get caught by the police breaking in and at 3:35 they finally get into the tunnel. The images say it all and yes, it’s proper creepy.

(Link: limburger.nl, Screenshot of the YouTube video by Govert Sweep)

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