January 16, 2021

Sailing from Rotterdam to Amsterdam (time-lapse video)

Filed under: Architecture,Film,History,Nature,Photography by Branko Collin @ 4:22 pm

In 2013 Shell had to transport an eight-story metal building from Rotterdam to Amsterdam.

They hired a company called The Timewriters to create a time-lapse video of the transport, which has now been released in glorious 4K format on YouTube, accompanied by a beautiful, if somewhat ill-fitting Dvořák piece.

The day-long journey begins on the Nieuwe Maas river near the Feijenoord neighbourhood in Rotterdam, then goes past Gouda, Alphen aan de Rijn and Schiphol Airport to end in Amsterdam. If it hadn’t been dark by then, you might even have been able to see my house at 9:14.

This is worth watching for the bridges alone.

And then you come back a second time for the places you know and a third time to figure out how and why the Dutch created their environment the way they did.

Also check out the comments on YouTube, lots of insights from people who recognise certain types of trains, planes and places.

(Source: YouTube / The Timewriters)

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November 15, 2020

Scooter rider misbehaves in Rotterdam, gets jailed in Italy

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 3:41 pm

On 14 November a woman decided to drive over the sidewalk in Rotterdam with her scooter, ending up ramming an automatic teller. As luck would have it, she got caught by the police.

Then, she wasn’t able to produce a driver’s licence for the scooter or identify herself, as she didn’t have any ID on her. In the Netherlands everyone over 14 year of age is obliged to identify themselves if the police asks.

When the cops figured out who she was, they also found out that she was supposed to be doing three years of jail time in Italy for a drug-related crime.

The moral of the story: don’t try and get caught if you’re trying to avoid getting caught.

(Link: ad.nl, Photo by Facemepls, some rights reserved)

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November 11, 2020

Dutch tech journalist hacks lights on Rotterdam bridge

Filed under: Technology by Orangemaster @ 6:00 am

On 9 November Dutch tech journalist and author Daniël Verlaan hacked the online lighting system of the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam. Although he went for the colour pink, most people said it looked more like purple, but that’s besides the point.

In a tweet he claims that the lighting system had been accessible to everyone for a year, and there wasn’t even a password protecting it. That fact is very interesting since his very first book just came out and is aptly called ‘Ik weet je wachtwoord‘ (‘I Know Your Password’). Verlaan got the tip from a white hat hacker who pointed the wide open bridge system out to him. Using the keyword ‘Rotterdam’, the open system showed up in one of the first results on search engine Shodan.io, made for smart devices. The system was accessible online using an IP, protected by an easy to circumvent login.

The city of Rotterdam has now taken the system offline. And the lights are only for special occasions.

(Link: rtlnieuws.nl, Photo of Erasmus Bridge by Joop van Houdt – Beeldbank.rws.nlSome rights reserved)

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September 28, 2019

Dutch touch on Amazon’s ‘Undone’ by Amsterdam’s Hisko Hulsing

Filed under: Comics,Film by Orangemaster @ 12:51 pm

Versatile artist Hisko Hulsing from Amsterdam, known on this blog and from Rotterdam-based comic magazine Zone 5300, has directed ‘Undone’, co-created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg (creator of Bojack Horseman) and Kate Purdy (a writer on Bojack), released by Amazon Studios and co-produced by Michael Eisner’s company Tornante, Submarine Productions Amsterdam, and Minnow Mountain Texas. It premiered on 13 September.

Exploring the elastic nature of reality, the series centers around Alma (Rosa Salazar), a 28-year-old living in San Antonio, Texas, who discovers she has a new relationship to time after nearly dying in a car accident. She learns to harness this new ability in order to find out the truth about the death of her father (Bob Odenkirk).

For Undone, Hulsing used rotoscoping together with actual oil-painted backgrounds giving the animation an old school cinematic feel – a fresh change from all of you bored to tears with the Cal Arts style dominating the last decade of animation.

Here’s the trailer:

(Link: dutchcultureusa.com, Image: Hisko Hulsing)

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July 26, 2019

Rotterdam police asks robbers not to run, too hot

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:28 pm

politie-uniform-2016

Rotterdam police has posted on Twitter that they’d like potential robbers not to run if told to stop because the cops won’t run in this heat. Cue jokes about fitness, but then we don’t have ‘donut shop cops’ here, cops look quite fit. But it’s too darn hot.

“Should the temperature drop under 20 degrees, we’ll run again”, they added. That’s going to take a while.

Their tweet probably won’t help. I wonder want those teenage girls helping the police catch pickpockets in Rotterdam are doing these days.

(Link: waarmaarraar.nl, image politie.nl)

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June 5, 2019

Police app helps people help the police

Filed under: Dutch first,Technology by Orangemaster @ 7:18 pm

Dutch police and Public Prosecution Service have launch an app, allowing civilians victims of theft to help the police with their investigation. It is currently being tested for two months in four police regions: Rotterdam, East Netherlands, Northern Netherlands and East Brabant.

Although there are apps that people can use like Find My Phone after a theft or using WhatsApp for neighbourhood watch, this is the first time Dutch police are letting civilians help them solve crimes. Another good reason to open this door is that many civilians take action themselves if they fall victim to a crime, which can hinder investigations. Then again, many people feel that the police is not doing anything when they don’t get the results they want, so using this app can keep them busy in a productive way.

It is important to note that this app is in no way meant for people doing the police’s work. A spokesperson for the police, Oscar Dros, said “We genuinely see it as a form of cooperation.”

(Link: iamexpat.nl, Photo by Facemepls, some rights reserved)

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May 2, 2019

Rotterdam bills festival after confetti throwing attempt

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 1:49 pm

During King’s Day at the Kingsland Festival in Rotterdam, people attempted to break a confetti throwing record, but failed. What also failed was the attempt at cleaning up the mess, since the organisers are being billed with extra clean-up costs.

Festival organisers had until 30 April (3 days) to clean up their mess, but there was still a lot of confetti to be found in the grass and the woods.

The city of Rotterdam is now cleaning the rest of the confetti up and will be sending the bill to the organisation. The city was completely OK with the record attempt as long as the confetti was picked up. It will take cleaners two more days to fully clean the area, to the tune of a few extra thousand euro.

Two local political parties were sceptical of the confetti attempt and now it turns out they were right. The city is also considering fining the organisation as well.

Everyone should feel like a King on King’s Day, but some people have ended up looking more like fools.

(Link: rijnmond.nl)

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March 19, 2019

University student bequeaths record amount

Filed under: Dutch first,Science by Orangemaster @ 4:05 pm

An alumna of Utrecht University from Rotterdam has left 1.2 million euro to the university, making it the biggest amount ever bequeathed to it in Dutch history.

Annie van Leerzem studied medicine in the 1950s in Utrecht, as Rotterdam did not have a faculty of medicine back then. Although she graduated, she never practiced medicine, as the care of both her parents fell on her shoulders.

A fund has been set up in her name, the Familie van Leerzemfonds. The money will be used for young clinical researchers in general medicine.

(Link: rijnmond.nl, Photo by Tom Varco, published under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license)

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March 3, 2019

Crime is down, but a lot of it is in Limburg

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 4:29 pm

While I was in a tram this morning riding along a crime scene today in East Amsterdam, I started thinking about crime. Apparently, the top 10 cities with the most crime in the Netherlands includes four municipalities from the province of Limburg: Heerlen (4th place), Maastricht (5th place), Sittard-Geleen (7th place) and Roermond (9th place).

Amsterdam remains the city with the most crime, followed by Eindhoven and Rotterdam. A city next to Amsterdam, Diemen, has gone from 26th place to number 8, as some gang was quite busy with break-ins, but finally got rolled up.

Rounding off the top 10, there’s The Hague in 6th place and Schiedam in 10th place, both together with Rotterdam representing the province of South Holland. Amsterdam and Diemen are in North Holland, with Eindhoven in Noord-Brabant.

All in all crime is down, including pickpocketing, a classic in cities with a lot of tourists.

(Links: binnenlandsbestuur.nl, ad.nl, Photo: Dutch police officers politie.nl)

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January 28, 2019

Homeless get free laser removal of tattoos in Rotterdam

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 2:05 pm

A foundation called ‘Spijt van Tattoo’ (roughly ‘Regretting tattoos’) is providing the homeless with free laser removal of tattoos at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The foundation, started from out of a tattoo parlour, is helping a handful of homeless people to have tattoos removed on their face, neck and hands. Andy and Dex of the foundation had their daughter come home one night with the tattoo of a wine glass behind her ear, and felt they had to do something about such decisions.

So far, some 117 homeless people have signed up for the free laser removal, as it’s expensive, something the homeless have no money for. Everybody who has signed up must be willing to be featured in a documentary that warns teens about the effect tattoos can have on their lives, particularly when it comes to getting a job. Participants must also cooperate with research on tattoos by culture professor Henri Beunders of the Erasmus University.

A few temporary agencies have also said they will help the newly lasered find some work.

(Link: nieuws.nl)

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