I just updated the code that runs in the background of this website. The improvements are mainly useful for the editors, so nothing much should change for you, our readers. If you come across any anomalies, I’d be glad to hear about them. Thanks!
February 16, 2009
Minor site update
Tags: 24oranges
December 29, 2008
Branko’s favourite 24 Oranges postings of 2008
A short selection of my favourite stories of 2008, some of them funny, some sad, some just weird:
- Sixties slaughterhouse how-to finally aired, made by a vegetarian and censored because of the children
- Murder scene straddling the border, local Poirots could only collect evidence from their side of the line
- The man who disliked traffic signs, unnoticed in his home country (Dutch)
- Frenchman can marry a Dutchman and still stay French (follow-up), it’s all Greek to me
- Van Gogh discovered, Frans Hals discovered, Brueghel the Younger discovered, it’s been a good year if you’re into Dutch painters
- Iranian Muslims get free asylum, but only if they convert to Christianity
- Quacks get legal recognition, so now they can be prosecuted for malpractice
- Dutch sports fans as seen from space—the Orange, oh the Orange!
- 1970’s Junior Woodchucks guidebook, teaching kids how to clean their own clothes
- Jewish WWII interior discovered (follow-up), you saw the photos here first
- Coin designed using only open source software legal tender in the Netherlands, all your mintz are belong to us
So, which 24 Oranges story of 2008 would top your list?
Tags: 24oranges
September 1, 2008
24 Oranges goes Flickr
Over the years we have illustrated many of our articles with photos from Flickr and Wikimedia Commons, released by their authors using liberal licenses. Now it’s payback time. We have started to upload the photos that we made ourselves and that we used here at 24 Oranges to Flickr. Most of these will be posted using an equally liberal Creative Commons Share-Alike license.
Often these are larger versions of what we posted here. And sometimes there are extra photos that would have added little to the story, but that we uploaded just to “complete the set,” so to speak. See www.flickr.com/photos/24oranges/.
You can also find this link in the menu on the right.
Photo by Orangemaster.
August 29, 2008
Images are back in the feed
The anti-leeching saga continues, but for now and by popular request I’ve switched the images back on in the feed. More here.
August 28, 2008
Problems with the images? Please report here
We’re experimenting with a leeching blocker, and as a result you may see our regular images replaced by one that says “I am a bandwidth thief.” These images should only appear on the websites of leeches, not on 24oranges.nl itself. If you nevertheless see these images popping up, please report so here. Mention the web- or RSS-browser you are using, including version number, operating system, and how you are connected to the internet (proxy? firewall?).
Update: I’ve changed the RSS feed so that online feed readers no longer display images. Good or bad?
Tags: 24oranges, feedback, house keeping, leeching
June 6, 2008
Play “Oranje”‘s manager with my online football fridge magnets
The European Football Championship 2008 kicks off on Saturday, 7 June. If you want to discuss tactics with your mates or if you just want to show coach Van Basten that you know better than he does, and if you lack a fridge and the right player magnets to play coach, I’ve created a web page that will let you come up with your own formations for Oranje to your heart’s content. Just drag around the ‘magnetic’ players onto the virtual, pitch shaped ‘fridge door’ until you’re satisfied.
Once you’ve created your formation, a link will be created by background magic, which if you click it will recreate that specific formation. Bookmark it, e-mail it to your friends (just click Uitleg(‘Explanation’) and copy the link that starts with Kopieer(‘Copy’)), or post it here in the comments to discuss with other readers.
The play dates for Oranje this year are: Monday, June 9, Friday, June 13, and Tuesday, June 19.
Tags: 24oranges, EURO2008, football, Marco van Basten
December 28, 2007
Branko’s favourite 24 Oranges articles of 2007
Below are some of the 24 Oranges posts of 2007 I like best.
- Robotic library seat to follow patrons around – I for one welcome our robotic underlords
- National government bans electronic voting for now – not my government, but this they did right
- Prostitutes offer deflowering service for nerds – rates are IT level
- Priest fined for ringing bell at ungodly hours – this month he won in court though
- Canon of Dutch movies – Haanstra, Verhoeven, Maas
- 150 Parliamentarians micromanage job seeking strategies of a few dozen unemployed – let’s get these lazy do-nothings to work, the voter must have thought
- KLM’s flight personel get baby-making breaks – there goes the Mile High Club
- HEMA’s famous sausage exposed as just another Unilever product – a nation mourns
- Bird-friendly lighting for oil rigs – less distracting to flying critters
- Driver replacing driver who got stopped for drunk driving after replacing driver who got stopped for drunk driving, got stopped for drunk driving – I think I am dizzy now
- Floating luxury hotel made from rescue pods – don’t use these to rescue a relationship
December 7, 2007
Follow 24oranges on Twitter
February 23, 2007
Coming very soon!
24 oranges is a Netherlands-based, English-language weblog about anything Dutch that’s fun, interesting, weird, cool and otherwise unique. We plan to virtually dredge Dutch canals and bike along the dikes to deliver snapshots and stories of juicy Dutch coolness just waiting to be ‘WordPressed’.
Forget the tourist traps, the Dutch clichés and all that ‘how to for expats’ bla bla: 24 oranges wants to become your suitable or not suitable for work link, a fav in your RSS and a blog that will make the Dutch and the world smile like when you stick an orange slice in your mouth.
Tags: 24oranges, odd Dutch news, The Netherlands