March 3, 2018

Amsterdam turns into picturesque skating rink

Filed under: General,Sports by Orangemaster @ 10:41 am

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As of Thursday, people started skating on a few selected stretches of canals in Amsterdam, mainly the Prinsengracht. Yes, there’s been skating of all kinds happening in the north of the country as it is somewhat colder, but when skate fever hits Amsterdam, it’s a big deal worldwide. The sheer amount of spectators on the canal bridges means we’re all on someone’s holiday pictures and social media.

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While co-blogger Branko was taking pictures, I cleared my schedule on Friday and went skating. I’ve own a pair of custom Riedell ice skates since I was girl in Canada and they are at my door with my hats and gloves at 24oranges HQ ready to go skating. The last time the canals froze in Amsterdam was February 2012 and back then I had a broken leg from roller skating and missed out on all the fun. I couldn’t be happier to finally get to skate this time around. Practicing any of my figure skating jumps was not an option though, sadly, since the ice would crack in places as we all skated over it. It got a bit scary: getting on and off the ice at strategic places meant relying on the help of strangers and nobody is going to tell you where to skate and where not to, which is all very unregulated yet freeing.

I saw a guy cycle on the ice while texting, I saw girls and boys playing hockey together with some adults and I saw people skating for the first time on speed skates.

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February 22, 2018

Multi-purpose robot boats to float on canals

Filed under: Technology by Orangemaster @ 3:37 pm

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Amsterdam will get the world’s first fleet of autonomous boats, ushering in a new chapter in the international push for autonomous vehicles thanks to ROBOAT, the world’s first large-scale research that explores and tests the possibilities of autonomous systems on water. A collaboration between America’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS), the ROBOAT project will have a round of testing in Amsterdam’s canals in September 2018.

“This project imagines a fleet of autonomous boats for transporting goods and people that can also work together to produce temporary floating infrastructure, such as pontoons or stages that can be assembled or disassembled in a matter of hours,” explains Carlo Ratti, Professor of the Practice of Urban Technologies in the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

ROBOAT will also deploy environmental sensing to monitor water quality and offer data for assessing and predicting issues on public health, pollution, and the environment.

Here’s a smaller version zipping around Amsterdam’s canals:

(Links: designboom.com, ams-institute.org)

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December 22, 2017

Looking back at Dutch cycling in 2017

Filed under: Bicycles by Orangemaster @ 3:29 pm

Here are some cycling stories for starters, then you can watch a proper main course of Dutch cycling ups and down through the Netherlands and beyond from Bicycle Dutch here below.

This fall saw the opening of the world’s first printed bike bridge, made by the Dutch. Next, we had the success story of Amsterdam Central Station’s shared space, also mentioned in the video below.

And there’s a great one shot video with no editing whatsoever on a Canon Powershot (before mobiles had cameras) of my co-blogger and me getting ready to ride through Amsterdam with Christmas lights on our bike 11 years ago!

(Photo by Mike Porcenaluk, some rights reserved)

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December 13, 2017

Cat narrates nature film about Amsterdam

Filed under: Animals,Film,Nature by Orangemaster @ 1:40 pm

From the makers of ‘De Nieuwe Wildernis’ (‘The New Wilderness’), a documentary about wildlife in the Oostvaardersplassen (‘the lakes of those who sailed to the East’) that got 400,000 people to the cinema in just a month, comes ‘De Wilde Stad’ (‘The Wild City’), with all the amazing wildlife you can find in Amsterdam.

The film is ‘narrated’ by a cat called Abatutu that runs into many animals, including those crayfish we keep telling you about.

From seagulls that steal your fries to the grey mice found everywhere in Amsterdam, the movie’s trailer was released this week and gives us a glimpse of what’s to come on 1st March 2018, a later release date than originally planned, when Dutch cinemas will be showing the film. Music in the trailer by Dutch band The Kik, with ‘Ik zie je in stad’.

(Link: parool.nl, Photo of Brown rat by Jean-Jacques Boujot, some rights reserved)

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December 11, 2017

Cheesiest slogans of 2017 up for vote

Filed under: Animals,General by Orangemaster @ 11:52 am
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Yes, 2016 had a real winner with ‘Zit je haircut’. Pronounce ‘hair’ in English and ‘cut’ (‘kut’) in Dutch, the latter being the word for what the Brits call the ‘c-bomb’, but in this case means ‘shitty’.

Here are some contenders for the ‘Worst Business Slogans of 2017’: ‘Voor iedere gleuf een doos’ (Moniss packing materials, Lelystad), which is ‘For every slit (possibly, tab), there’s a box’. The problem is that ‘gleuf’ is slang for female genitalia and so is ‘box’. For the advance students, it might remind you a bit of this song by Herman Brood. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s ‘Wees geen domme gans, steun de Dierenambulance!’ (Animal ambulance, Amsterdam), which translates as ‘Don’t be a silly goose, support the animal ambulance!’. It rhymes in Dutch and has a cheesy, family-friendly animal pun.

And there’s always the aural squinting, where you have to read one word in Dutch and one word in English to make the joke work that in fact doesn’t work at all. In that category, there’s ‘Haring is caring’, from the herring monger at camping Bakkum near Amsterdam. ‘Haring’ (herring) is then pronounced in Dutch ‘HA-ring’, which doesn’t rhyme with ‘caring’ in English. In fact, ‘Herring is caring’ would have been less fishy.

The winners will be announced later this week.

(Link: trouw.nl)

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November 29, 2017

Rotterdam café to make Ajax toilet seats

Filed under: Design,Sports,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:48 am

Ajax-seat

For Rotterdam Feyernoord football fans, there were Feyernoord stickers to ‘rebrand’ all those Ajax brand fire extinguishers in 2015 reminding them of the rival Amsterdam Ajax football club. Now, the owner of Sijf in Rotterdam has gone one step further: he plans to make toilet seats out of Ajax arena seats for his Feyernoord-leaning patrons.

The initial plan was to buy the written off arena seats and make terrace furniture out of it, but that didn’t pan out. However, to make the toilet seats, owner Herman Hell still needs someone to design them.

(Link and photo: nos.nl)

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November 13, 2017

Rijksmuseum scanner to be used to solve crimes

Filed under: Art,General,Technology by Orangemaster @ 1:08 pm
The mobile macro-XRF scanner (Bruker M6 Jetstream) developed by the University of Antwerp and Delft University of Technology

The mobile macro-XRF scanner (Bruker M6 Jetstream) developed by the University of Antwerp and Delft University of Technology

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam uses a Macro-X-ray Fluorescence scanner (MA-XRF, similar to this one) to analyse the different chemical elements found in the paint of artworks, making it possible to identify the pigments used and providing more specific information about the stages of the working process. This also helps museums identify whether a painting is really from a certain painter, not something left to the naked eye anymore, thanks to technology.

The Nederlands Forensisch Instituut (NFI – Dutch Forensics Institute) will be collaborating with the Rijksmuseum to use the scanner in order to find evidence material with a view to solve crimes. Besides identifying pigments, the scanner can identify blood, sweat, saliva, urine and sperm on things such as clothing, and can even analyse bullets.

Scientists from the NFI, the University of Amsterdam and the Delft University of Technology published results about using the scanner for solving crimes last week. The NFI doesn’t have its own scanner simply because it’s very expensive. And until the NFI can get their hands on one, they’ll be coming round to the museum when they need to use the scanner. And yes, it does sounds like many a television series’ plot.

A little finch just told me that the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague will be borrowing a scanner just like this to analyse Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring in the new future, but then just to find out more about the painting, not to solve any crime.

(Link: , Photo and a good read: lookingthroughartblog.wordpress.com)

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October 26, 2017

Amsterdam third best architecture start-up city

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 8:32 pm

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I got to talking with an American tourist on the tram in Amsterdam the other day, which actually goes by the buildings in this old picture, and he asked me if we had a lot of startup companies. I enthusiastically said yes, we’re well know for startups in IT, but I couldn’t really say any more than that.

According to Archipreneur.com, after London and Berlin, Amsterdam is one of the largest startup hubs in Europe. Its diverse population and business-friendly environment, along with a host of opportunities for startups to find mentoring make it a great environment for people working in architecture. And as I would have wanted to say to the nice tourist, the startups are in software development, smart energy and 3D printing, the latter we tend to write about more regularly.

Companies such as Startupbootcamp, founded in 2010, the recently launched Sharing City that connects startups with the corporate world and MX3D who were 3D printing a bicycle bridge for Amsterdam, are a few examples of the architecture scene earning Amsterdam a third place ahead of Lisbon, Dublin and Prague.

(Link: archipreneur.com, Photo of Dam Square, Amsterdam by Unknown, some rights reserved)

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October 18, 2017

Sign language coffee bar opens in Amsterdam

Filed under: Dutch first,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 12:01 pm

Signing-guy

After the arrival of cat cafés and the likes, Amsterdam is now jumping on the bandwagon of having a sign language café called the Sign Language Coffee Bar where everyone has to order their coffee by signing. The café will open its doors on 19 October at noon, and you can already start practicing your order (videos, very cool).

Of course, you’ll be able to hone your signing skills with the same short videos mentioned above at the café. The coffee bar is part of a group of companies that find work for people who have visual or hearing impairments. Locals may already know the restaurant Ctaste where you can dine in the dark and be served by blind wait staff.

It’s interesting to know that the Dutch have five sign language dialects because they had five different schools that went their own way. Even though the coffee bar’s menu has items in Dutch (‘Jus d’orange’ is French, but in common use for ‘orange juice’ in Dutch), English and Italian, follow the videos and you’ll be fine.

If you want to take your skills up a notch, learn to sign the names of Dutch cities (sure, also learn the alphabet if you weren’t in Scouts or Girl Guides and know it already). I used the one for Amsterdam once and I know the one for Rotterdam, but this guy has you covered.

(Link: missethoreca.nl, screenshot of signing video)

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October 11, 2017

4DX technology hits theatres in December

Filed under: Film,Technology by Orangemaster @ 1:13 pm

As of December, cinema theatres Pathé De Munt in Amsterdam and Pathé De Kuip in Rotterdam will open their first ever 4D cinema theatres, which include moving chairs, weather simulations like wind, and odours.

The 4DX technology that will be used adds 20 elements to films. Besides motion, weathers and smells, chairs can also move up and down, backwards and forwards, even left and right to get a feel for flying or diving, not unlike a rollercoaster ride, but more like a heavy duty video game.

Of course, you’ll have to pay extra for the fun, and although it hasn’t been determined yet, French cinemas that already offer the service charge an additional 6 euro, to give you an idea. The 4DX cinemas will only have about 150 seats available, with four seats next to each other, and will also have special seats for people with limited mobility.

(Link: bright.nl, tallfoot, some rights reserved)

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