May 10, 2019

Amsterdam marketing appropriates another castle

Filed under: History by Orangemaster @ 4:53 pm

Back in 2013, Muiderslot (Muiden Castle) was rebranded to Amsterdam Castle Muiderslot, which is 16 kilometres from Amsterdam Central Station, closer if you leave from the East of Amsterdam, and most people here thought it was ridiculous.

And now, in the spirit of peeing on something and claiming it is part of your territory, Het Loo Palace near Apeldoorn, Gelderland, 88 kilometres from Amsterdam, is being branded as the ‘Versailles of Amsterdam’.

Just what Amsterdam needs, to be compared to Paris. Even Versailles is in the city of Versailles, not Paris. It’s been ages and I’m still miffed that one of the classic songs about Amsterdam, ‘Geef mij maar Amsterdam’ talks more about Paris than Amsterdam, but that’s because many people Dutch or otherwise don’t know all the lyrics.

Het Loo is nowhere near Amsterdam and it’s beautiful enough not to need any Amsterdam stamp of approval. As well, calling everything Amsterdam is incorrect and incredibly arrogant, a Dutch cardinal sin if there ever was one. We’ve already had to deal with the world-famous Keukenhof being referred to Amsterdam Flowers, Zandvoort as Amsterdam Beach and a whole bunch of other idiotic rebranding ideas, all of it in English as well.

It’s bad enough Holland is used as a synonym for the Netherlands, why is this even necessary? Make it stop.

(Link: waarmaarraar.nl , Photo by Wikipedia, some rights reserved)

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July 14, 2015

Apeldoorn plans to pay hackers for finding leaks

Filed under: IT by Orangemaster @ 3:58 pm

Need some cash? As of today if you find a proper security leak in the online systems of the city of Apeldoorn, Gelderland they’ll give you 300 euro for it. However, there are some rules to follow to get your hands on the cash.

– You can’t expose or mess around with employee data
– You can’t damage the system and make it inaccessible
– You can’t post any information you find online

If you’re up for the challenge, hit up Apeldoorn with your security leak by mailing them to incident@apeldoorn.nl, I’m guessing preferably in Dutch. You’ll be asked to encrypt your findings and if all goes well, 300 euro and more could be yours. Let the hacking begin!

(Link: www.binnenlandsbestuur.nl)

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July 29, 2010

Thieves make off with church bells

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 7:01 am

While increasingly more copper is being stolen from train tracks, warehouses, lighting rods, construction containers and the likes, some thieves have moved up to bronze church bells.

In Apeldoorn, two 100 kg bronze bells were stolen from a church sometime on Tuesday 27 July. In nearby Twello, thieves scored 11 17 kg worth of bells.

(Link: dutchnews.nl. Photo: bells in Valkenburg, Limburg)

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February 20, 2009

2000 metre steel wire artwork wins prize

Filed under: Art,Nature by Orangemaster @ 11:36 am
Poema

This huge steel artwork, entitled ‘Kooi-Met-Geen-Poema-Er-In’ (‘Cage with no puma in it’) by artist Maarten de Reus, won a Dutch Building Award last week. It can be admired in the city of Apeldoorn atop a former garbage dump site. The building contractor of the artwork from Moerkapelle won a National Steel Award in 2008.

The theme of the work, chosen in 2005, refers to puma sightings in the Veluwe woods, which where in fact some sort of big house cat gone wild.

(Link: bright.nl, Photo: Maarten de Reus)

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December 1, 2008

Blame the navigation device

Filed under: Automobiles,General,Technology by Orangemaster @ 1:36 pm

According to the police, a 47-year-old man on a scooter in Apeldoorn, Gelderland was fined last Friday for driving on the A50 motorway. The man listened and blindly obeyed the advice of his navigation system (I’d love to know which one, as I can’t automatically assume it’s from that Dutch brand, but it’s a distinct possibility).

The guy drove his scooter over the emergency lane of the A50 in the direction of Zwolle en route to Leeuwarden. The police eventually stopped him and fined him. The man claimed his GPS ‘told’ him that the quickest route to Leeuwarden was to scoot over the A50.

So the GPS obviously screwed up, but the man deserves a ticket for forgetting anything he learned about driving and safety. And how about that GPS software?

And just in case it was that Dutch brand:

(Link depers.nl)

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August 3, 2008

Flower-filled walk in Apeldoorn

Filed under: Architecture,Nature by Branko Collin @ 1:52 pm

Until August 30 visitors of the Triënnale in Apeldoorn will be able to walk the Royal Mile, a path lined with flowers on both sides. One half of the path contains annual flowers and bulbs, the other half—designed by Jacqueline van der Kloet—is planted with perennials. The organization claims that in total there will be 48,000 flowers and bulbs. The walk is located in Park Berg en Bos, entrance limited to holders of a Triënnale pass.

The Triënnale is a 100-day exhibit of “garden, culture and landscape” in and around Apeldoorn, amongst others in the CODA and Kröller-Müller museums, the Het Loo palace and National Park Hoge Veluwe, each location worthy of a visit by itself.

Via Blik op Nieuws (Dutch). Photo: Triennale.nl.

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March 1, 2008

Symbols as furniture in high school

Filed under: Architecture,Design by Branko Collin @ 8:17 am

The frog once sang: it’s not easy being green. This ultra-cool reception area that Tjep designers came up with for a high school in Apeldoorn raises the question how easy it is being in green. Students get to sit on buttons of an old fashioned calculator, get to hang in “key” areas, and get to have meetings in a tiny see-through factory, all executed in bright green. The floor plan looks like a wonderful circuit board, with symbols from the realm of economics replacing plain old conductive pathways. The reception area is in the new economics building of ROC Apeldoorn, that’s why.

The design was nominated for a 2007 Dutch Design Award in the category interior design, where it was beaten by the reception area for chemicals company DSM — the ceiling-wide mirror of which just screams “illicit office sex” to me. But perhaps that’s just me. I’ll shut up now. Go watch the pretty pictures.

Source image: Dezeen Magazine.

Thank you for the tip, Laurent.

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July 6, 2007

Man steals woman’s underwear

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:16 am
underwear1.jpg

A 20-year-old man from tax capital Apeldoorn, Gelderland was accused of stealing underwear from a 40-year-old woman’s home while working there. The woman noticed the missing goods after the man left her house one day, according to the police.

After her discovery, she called the man’s boss and had him taken down to the police station. The man had about 10 pairs of her undies in a bag. He was put in a cell; the woman is pressing charges.

(Link: bisnis)

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