November 25, 2013

Dutch cars on the road are black, grey and white

Filed under: Automobiles by Orangemaster @ 11:38 am

Recently the Dutch Road Transport Directorate (RDW) has made some information about car registration accessible as open data, which means you can have a look at types of cars, license plates and even car colour.

In 2013 black, grey and white cars accounted for 80% of all cars sold. In Munich, Germany I was once told that most cars, besides being German brands like BMW, Audi, Mercedes and Volkswagen are usually dark blue, black or grey. The only exception would be Porsche as it is more high end, and then red, orange and yellow come into the mix.

The reason for the drab colours according to no statistics whatsoever and a decent amount of beer was that ‘neutral’ colours are easier to sell second hand than red, yellow and green cars. And when I think of a red car, I picture a Ferrari and if I think Lamborghini I picture a bright yellow car. I’ve seen a dark blue Ferrari and a grey Lamborghini and not only are they both boring, but they actually seem less expensive.

I heard a few times that pink cars get stolen more often as do red and white Opel Kadetts, which practically had their own column in Nijmegen’s regional paper De Gelderlander when I used to live out there.

(Link: sargasso.nl, Photo of Coen Tunnel by Erik Tjallinks, some rights reserved)

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October 28, 2013

Runner’s chip took away the need to cheat

Filed under: Sports by Branko Collin @ 3:31 pm

On Sunday 17 November the 30th edition of the Seven Hills Run in Nijmegen will be held.

About 20 years ago I was a volunteer for the event and I had to guard one of the four starting cages, which taught me a thing or two about human nature.

The Seven Hills Run was and is an immensely popular race along 15 kilometres of undulating roads in and near Nijmegen. Both the global running elite and recreational runners take part. To ensure that the latter would not rob the former of fast finishes—the outdoor world records for 15 kilometre runs have been set at the Seven Hills course for both men and women—the runners were divided into four cages before the start, with the fastest group in the first and the slowest in the last.

At the start of the race, the cages would be opened back and front. The inevitable result was that the slower runners would not pass the starting line until minutes after the start, so that their official time would be composed of their running time and then some. My job at cage three was to make sure that only the people with the right starting number were allowed in and to redirect the others to their cage.

I received threats of violence that day and at one point a runner was so livid that he blocked the entrance to the cage and refused to go away. Thirty runners (my personal count) were sure that the faster cage was their rightful place. I got to redirect exactly one runner to a faster cage—I assumed that she was genuinely mistaken.

Around that time a company was founded by several students of the local university that produced an RFID transponder, the ChampionChip, that would make skewed race times a thing of the past. A computer would register the runners both when they passed the starting line and when they passed the finish line, and immediately spit out the right times. During the 25th anniversary of the race, the organisers even used the ChampionChip transponder (now owned by MYLAPS from Haarlem) to honour the 250,000th runner right after her finish.

I imagine that getting one’s exact time took some of the edge off the aggression and the need to cheat of some runners.

(Photo by Peter van der Sluijs, some rights reserved)

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June 20, 2013

Nijmegen to let people choose the model of their home

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 4:03 pm

Nijmegen plans to let potential home buyers pick from 30 different models that have a DIY look to them. Buyers must meet a lot of financial conditions, as the Dutch have very strict rules related to housing.

“The scheme is modeled on the self-built success of another Dutch city, Almere, where hundreds of new homes have been built since 2006 by individuals given free reign to do with plots of land as they wish.” Wired magazine, who picked up the story, also picked the most extreme model that does look like a shack made of discarded Eur-pallets, giving way to snarky comments.

In 2008 we claimed that anything went in Almere when it came to architecture because it was a ‘planned city’ built on a polder, which means urban planners had a field day. And we also told you how cool housing can be in Nijmegen as well.

It is true that ‘affordable’ housing has a reputation for being of poor quality, something I can vouch for personally after being forced to move out of a flat with cement rot in Amsterdam and seeing an entire neighbourhood of badly built flats destroyed in Rotterdam.

Let’s see how this project in Nijmegen pans out.

(Links: www.ugenda.nl, www.wired.com. Photo of Nijmegen and the Waal river by Rein Ketelaars, some rights reserved)

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February 7, 2013

Hotel chef finds pearl in oyster

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am

Dutch chef Jacco Beck who works at Hotel Sanadome in Nijmegen found a pearl in an oyster, 7.7 mm in diameter and worth an estimated 1000 euro. The good news is, he can keep it. According to a representative of the fishing authorities, the chance of finding a pearl is 1 out of 35,000. The five-year-old oyster came from the Grevelingen lake in Zeeland where a pearl of this diameter has never been found.

(Link: www.bnr.nl, Photo of pearl by Amboo who, some rights reserved)

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September 11, 2012

Exhibition Pop Art in Europe

Filed under: Art,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 7:40 pm

Until January 2013 Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen will hold a unique exhibition entitled ‘Pop Art in Europa’ featuring European Pop Art, a style usually associated with the United States and the likes of Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein. More than 100 works of European Pop Art from the Netherlands, the UK, France, German, Spain, Portugal and Belgium can be admired, something that has never been shown this way before, with many works that have never been on display in the Netherlands.

Find out more about Hamilton, Arman, Richter, Polke, Deschamps and many other who were inspired by film stars, politics and daily life, and arguably had more in-depth meaning than their American counterparts. The Dutch end is being held up by such artists as Wim T. Schippers, Woody van Amen and Rik van Bentum.

And while you’re there, have a good look at the building of the Museum Het Valkhof, which got a major face lift some years ago. The residents of Nijmegen either love or hate, although when I lived there it was mostly bewilderment. It’s a big glass thing that shines bright when there’s sun, located right next to a very big park, the Valkhof Park which boats large Roman ruins.

(Photo of Wim T. Schippers’ floating rock Het Is Me Wat by Wikipedia user Stamper, some rights reserved. Link: Bright.)

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July 5, 2012

Waiter, there’s a swarm of bees in my soda

Filed under: Animals,Nature,Weird by Orangemaster @ 6:04 pm

Imagine you’re chilling on a terrace in downtown Nijmegen, minding your own beeswax when along comes a swarm of bees heading right for your table like a homing device.

Last Tuesday, some 15,000 bees decided to go shopping for a new home and took a liking to the underside of one of the terrace tables. The patrons fled inside and the cafe shut its doors and windows. Forget calling the police, the owner called up a beekeeper to explain to the bees in bee speak that his cafe was not a good place to expand their honey business.

It was a battle to the end, with the queen bee not wanting to go gently. Finally, the beekeeper grabbed her with gloves on and they were all sorted. Nobody was stung.

The year 2012 is the year of the bee, but this major hive meeting was not on the agenda.

(Link: www.gelderlander.nl, Photo of Bee swarm by quisnovus, some rights reserved)

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February 26, 2012

Bicycle thief caught because he could not reach the pedals

Filed under: Bicycles,General by Branko Collin @ 1:48 pm

Last Friday a man in Nijmegen drew the attention of the local constabulary because he failed to reach the pedals of the bicycle he was riding on the Hazenkampseweg.

A quick check of the frame number by the police officers who had been driving in an unmarked car that the bike had been stolen on January 13 from the Dukenberg shopping centre. The 21-year-old man was apprehended on suspicion of theft and handling stolen goods.

The bicycle will be returned to its owner.

(Link: politie.nl)

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January 13, 2012

Hatert tower in Nijmegen redefines the neighbourhood

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 11:32 pm

Built by 24h Architecture in Rotterdam, this residential tower can be found in the Hatert area of Nijmegen, not far from where I used to live back in the noughties.

24H architecture designed a sturdy tower with free formed balconies around, which make a recognizable sculpture from all directions; the new ‘crown’ of Hatert. The parking for the apartments is organized underneath a raised deck that will function as a new public space for the citizens of Hatert. Underneath the housing program the ground floor will be used as a community health centre.

Check out more pictures of this building here)

(Link: www.archdaily.com, Photo of Hatert Housing by Semur Kadal, some rights reserved.

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December 25, 2011

De Sjonnies sing M’n Fiets is Gejat

Filed under: Bicycles,General,Music by Branko Collin @ 1:03 pm

Feliz Navidad, that sounds almost but not quite like M’n Fiets is Gejat (2007, My Bike was Stolen).

My bike was stolen (3x)
That sucks
My bike was stolen (3x)
That sucks

I don’t want to walk home
I have no money to buy a new one
By now my bike is at the bottom of the canal (gracht)

De Sjonnies (The Johnnies, named after Amsterdam singer Johnny Jordaan) were a Nijmegen based band from the 1990s and 2000s who had a smallish hit in 1995 with Dans Je de Hele Nacht met Mij? (Will You Dance All Night With Me?). As I was a student in Nijmegen in those days, I heard that song rather a lot.

Let me conclude by wishing you a mijn fiets is gejat from the bottom of my gracht.

Video: Youtube/Thijs de Nijs. Link: David Hembrow.

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October 19, 2011

American writer Bukowski told Dutch library how it is

Filed under: Literature by Orangemaster @ 2:30 pm

In 1985, following a complaint from a local reader, staff at the Public Library in Nijmegen decided to remove Charles Bukowski’s book, Tales of Ordinary Madness, from their shelves whilst declaring it “very sadistic, occasionally fascist and discriminatory against certain groups (including homosexuals).” In the following weeks, a local journalist by the name of Hans van den Broek wrote to Bukowski and asked for his opinion. It soon arrived.

Look at a picture and read the entire poetic response here.

“If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women it is because of these who I met were that. There are many “bads”–bad dogs, bad censorship; there are even “bad” white males. Only when you write about “bad” white males they don’t complain about it. And need I say that there are “good” blacks, “good” homosexuals and “good” women?”

I think that whoever complained just couldn’t read English or between the lines properly.

(Link: lettersofnote.com, via @ejpfauth on Twitter)

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