January 25, 2016

Fishing for a Dutch Captain Iglo

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 1:24 pm

Volendam

Headquartered in Utrecht, Dutch frozen fish company Iglo is looking for a new Kapitein Iglo (Captain Iglo). It’s a real job with requirements and everything. From 1967 to 1998 well-known British actor John Hewer was the face of Captain Birdseye, as it’s either Birdseye or Iglo depending on where you buy the products in Europe. German taxi driver Gerd Deutschmann played the captain from 2008 until his death in 2012.

There’s never been a Dutch captain and since there’s no time like the present, Iglo wants someone to hand out fish sticks, sail around a bit and show up at sea-related festivals. However, it doesn’t say they want a man because that would be illlegal as women are technically allowed to apply as well, if they feel like wasting their time that is.

The job vacancy cleverly uses the Dutch word ‘gastheer’ (‘male host’), which automatically excludes women the same way ‘gastvrouw’ (hostess) always excludes men. On a darker note, wouldn’t a Dutch captain be expected to be Caucasian? One could argue that the captain should look the same as he (not she) always has, so then you’d get an older white man with a full white beard. The vacancy says “candidates of all ages may apply”, which is odd because technically you can’t exclude anyone based on age unless the salary is such that it fits the complicated ageist EU rules of paying younger people less and older people more in certain roles. In other words, they’ve overtly omitted specifying a man or a skin colour, which means women and non-Caucasian can apply and waste their time, but they have no problem telling us they’d be willing to pick a younger man by highlighting something that’s already a legal given. It smells a bit fishy.

If you’re casting a Dutch film and you need a Russian gangster type, you can then specify you want a man who looks Russian, is bad ass and 30 without any bad feelings. In this case, why don’t they just come out and say that Caucasian and male would be preferable? My money says the winner is going to be a man as white as the inside of a fish stick.

(Link: www.waarmaarraar.nl, Photo of Volendam by quantz, some rights reserved)

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January 2, 2016

Amsterdam’s bike paths were not built overnight

Filed under: Bicycles by Orangemaster @ 2:28 pm

CyclingProfessor

Anyone saying a city is not like Amsterdam and implying that it can’t possibly have bike paths like a Dutch city has no clue what Amsterdam fought for and went through to get the world-class cycling infrastructure it has today. When I saw the bike lanes in London where people could get run over if they didn’t have eyes all around their heads, I was reminded of what we often take for granted in Amsterdam, despite it not always being that stress-free to get around, especially in the city centre.

In Brussels you need to wear a high visibility vest and expect cyclists in both directions. In London and Paris, cycling is mostly done on the street and you need to take up your rightful space, which discourages many people from cycling. I’ve cycled in Munich and it was OK if you’re not travelling large distances. Although it may have changed, cycling in Barcelona was done on the sidewalk, which meant unwillingly terrorising pedestrians. Most of my experience comes from cycling in Montréal, which consistently makes the list of the world’s most bicycle friendly cities, but then I biked before the advent of bike paths and got hit by cars a few times.

The point is, all those amazing bike paths didn’t appear overnight, as many of these before and after pictures show.

The argument of ‘but there’s no hills’ is true, but then there’s wind and rain so bad that we get weather warnings with trees falling and people going to hospital. There’s scooters speeding by hitting cyclists, wobbly tourists who don’t look where they’re going and irresponsible parents with kids cycling while on the phone, endangering everyone around them. However, we can get around everywhere without a cycling map by following proper road signs, and in many places we cycle separately from cars.

Bike parking is still a problem, but then there’s cities like Utrecht who will show the Netherlands how it’s done.

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October 14, 2015

Biggest bra sizes and interesting condom purchases

Filed under: General,Health by Orangemaster @ 2:06 pm
bra

Dutch online lingerie shop Pabo.nl, also Europe’s biggest, conducted its own survey into who has the biggest boobs and the longest dongs per province, something to briefly take your mind off the fact that the Netherlands is not playing in the European Football Champs this summer.

Women in Zeeland have lots of cup A fans, but Utrecht takes the win for the smallest boobs overall. However, Zeeland has about 10% of women ordering cup F, which no other province has. The cup B fans come from Flevoland, the C cups are for Utrecht, D cups Overijssel, and most of the bigger sizes go to Groningen in the lead for Cup E.

If you believe in condoms sales as a size indicator, North Holland and Friesland buy the biggest condoms. Friesland stands out as a province that buys twice as many flavoured condoms as the rest of the country. I wonder if they’re orange flavoured.

(Link: www.bndestem.nl, photo: ecollo.com)

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September 18, 2015

Feel-good bicycle art from Utrecht

Filed under: Art,Bicycles by Orangemaster @ 10:21 am

zadeldier

Since June someone in Utrecht has been going around putting eyes on bike saddles to make them look like birds of prey and give them names.

They have French, English and Russian names, some of which could be related to the Tour de France that started off in Utrecht this summer, others not at all. It’s making people smile and talk, like a feel-good art project should. The eyes do come off easily, but most people apparently leave them on.

The artists behind the stickers remain unknown and apparently they do fix their work if they see an eye drooping. However, one of their ‘creations’, Gino was tagged and taken away to ‘bike prison’ for being ‘illegally’ parked and they couldn’t fix that.

Will Gino ever get out? Stay tuned.

(Link: www.vogelvrijefietser.nl)

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September 17, 2015

Aggressive ice cream man bullies Dutch village

Filed under: Food & Drink,Weird by Orangemaster @ 4:08 pm

ola_raket
The town of Maarssenbroek, Utrecht is being intimidated by the local ice cream man and the story reads like a creepy Halloween tale.

The ice cream man rings his bell at night, drives too fast and gives children ice cream to then push their parents to pay for it. He’s also been cited for a lack of hygiene and ringing doorbells of former clients. He even dares sell ice cream on Sundays, which pisses off certain folks who still think Sunday is actually mentioned in the Bible as a day of rest.

Some say it’s the people pissed about the Sunday who are fueling the discussion and make life difficult for an ice cream man trying to make a living, others including parents of ice cream interested children say the guy’s antisocial and has to go.

Why anybody would be selling ice cream in pouring rain with 15-16 degrees at the moment is beyond me.

(Link: www.rtlnieuws.nl, Photo of unrelated Dutch rocket ice lolly)

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September 13, 2015

The city of Utrecht received 5,000 answers when it asked which traffic lights should go

Filed under: Automobiles,Bicycles by Branko Collin @ 6:53 pm

cyclist-red-traffic-light-martin-fischTraffic lights generally exist to regulate car traffic, so it doesn’t always makes sense when cyclists have to obey them too.

As part of the campaign Utrecht Fietst (Utrecht Cycles) the city asked its citizens which traffic lights were redundant, Verkeersnet reports. Motorists, cyclists and pedestrians rose to the occasion and sent in a whopping 4,760 reports between February and April. The city then presented responses for each junction on an interactive map (click the “i” icon hovering over each traffic light).

In June the city started to experiment with disabling the traffic lights of seven junctions with a further three junctions scheduled for an experiment later in 2015 in which traffic lights will be shut down during quiet times. These experiments will last six months before evaluation. Cyclists will get an additional free right on red at four junctions.

(Link: Rad-Spannerei; photo by Martin Fisch, some rights reserved)

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September 2, 2015

Man from Utrecht cycles around the world

Filed under: Bicycles by Orangemaster @ 11:17 am

Inspired by long bike trips his grandfather used to take, Dutch cyclist Rick Creemers from Utrecht is leaving the Dom City today to start a trip around the world.

Creemers will first be heading to Basel, Switzerland so he can practice going up and down mountains, then onto Turkey to get ready to hit the desert on his way to the Himalayas in Southern Asia. The route afterwards involves getting to Australia and flying over to Alaska to then cycle all the way down to Chile. Creemers will eventually make it over to Africa and through Turkey cycle back to Utrecht.

The entire trip should take two years. Creemers, who has recently finished his studies, says it will take him 55,000 kilometres with an average of 75 km a day. He also knows he’ll be cycle through unsafe countries and says he’s good at keeping low key.

I hope he posts to social media, so we can write about him again.

(Link: nos.nl, Photo by Mike Porcenaluk, some rights reserved)

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August 13, 2015

A brain operation in Utrecht on a singing tenor

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 1:54 pm
consult

Professional Slovenian tenor Ambrož Bajec-Lapajne recently put a video of him undergoing an ‘awake craniotomy’ where he was asked to sing in order to ensure a successful surgery.

Bajec-Lapajne, who is now fully recovered, was diagnosed with a brain tumour over a year ago. In this video, the music neuro team of the UMC was also involved in order to assist the surgery, like a medical DJ.

“I sing two (first and last) couplets of Schubert’s lied ‘Gute Nacht’ [The first lied of Schubert’s Die Winterreise (‘The Winter Journey’): the minor-major transition in order to see if I can still recognise the key change. All is fine until 2:40 when things start to get very interesting…”

I’m a big fan of Die Winterreise, especially sung by German Hans Hotter (bass-baritone), but it would be great to see Bajec-Lapajne in concert some day.

There’s no blood and guts in this video, consider it ‘safe for work’, and he sings a few times:

(Link: www.ad.nl)

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June 29, 2015

Sisters swap exams, get caught and fail

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 4:01 pm

In Utrecht a girl wanted to help out her sister pass her French exam by switching places with her during the exam and signing her name on the test. Since the older sister had been held back once before, both sisters were able to take the exam at the same time. However, the teacher noticed that the names on the test didn’t match the handwriting on the exam and eventually failed both pupils.

The mother of the two tried to appeal the decision, but the decision stands, and so far there’s no indication of either pupil being able to take the test again now. The youngest daughter had been selected to study medicine, but that’s probably not going to happen any time soon. C’est la vie.

(Link: www.waarmaarraar.nl)

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June 24, 2015

Tree-shaped bike racks to adorn Utrecht for Tour start

Filed under: Bicycles,Design by Orangemaster @ 11:28 am

rack-and-roots-grontmij

Just in time for Le Grand Départ of the Tour de France in Utrecht in early July, tree-shaped bike racks called ‘Rack & Roots’, designed by award-winning student Esther Bergstra will be placed around the city.

“By parking your bicycle against these strong roots, you’re reminded of the world under the tree. Trees are a special addition to the urban landscape and together they form an urban forest.”

In the mean time, there’s still much construction downtown Utrecht as the world’s biggest bike garage dominates much of the construction landscape near the train station.

(Link: nieuws.nl, Photo www.grontmij.nl)

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