June 16, 2015

Cafe in Utrecht gives away profits and thrives

Filed under: Art,Food & Drink,Literature,Music by Orangemaster @ 11:40 am

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Cafe Averechts in Utrecht has been around since the 1980s and continues to flourish amidst dwindling profits in the hospitality sector. The cafe’s ‘reverse’ approach to profit-making is the key to their brand of success: it is entirely run by volunteers.

Before anyone thinks ‘why would anyone work for free’, it is important to know that all pop venues in the country rely on volunteers. If you were to remove all pop venues that make a loss in the Netherlands, not a single one would be left standing and the country would be a cultural desert. Even the Paradiso in Amsterdam is subsidised by the city and in order to enjoy a favourable tax rebate as such, patrons pay a membership fee with their tickets. That’s right, the most famous Dutch club in the world needs government money.

During the week Averechts features a small stage with music, poetry and the likes as well as vegetarian food (vegan on demand) at a low cost. It also has lots of beers and more than 20 kinds of whiskey. All profits made go straight to charities and any tips are doubled (you put in one euro, the house matches it, we imagine) to send even more money their way.

Averechts is also a great place to celebrate King’s Day if you’re in Utrecht.

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(Photos: Cafe Averechts)

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March 26, 2015

Park in Utrecht dumps trash for team building

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:12 am

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A park in Utrecht that apparently didn’t have enough trash in it had some trash added to it by the city to make sure that beer giant Inbev could have a proper team building session picking up rubbish.

Imagine being a neighbour watching city employees dump trash into a park for the sake of some company’s team building outing and busloads of white collar employees having fun picking up the trash like problem youth doing community service.

The city of Utrecht admitted it was a bad call to dump more trash in the park, although they still did. They are probably only saying this because they got caught doing it. The idea of putting trash into a park to then have it picked up again is retarded.

To make things worse Inbev claims it knew nothing about the extra trash and would not have gone through with it if they had known, which is plausible. Either way Inbev was stuck dealing with a load of rubbish. The employees, who were geared up to do a good deed, can now team build on the feeling of having been screwed over.

(www.welingelichtekringen.nl)

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March 20, 2015

First ever Dutch Comic Con: many supporting actors

Filed under: Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 2:55 pm

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On 28 and 29 March, the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht will play host to the first ever Dutch Comic Con, which promises to be a proper cheesy nerd fest full of sci-fi, cosplay and meet & greets with famous supporting actors. The big names will be Ernie Hudson who played Winston Zeddemore in the original Ghostbusters film and the Ecto 1 vehicle, as well as a bunch of supporting actors from series and movies that most of us have to look up.

Ivan Lok, owner of Comic Toys, a site that has been pulled offline and associated with theft and bad behaviour by many online, is the organiser of Dutch Comic Con, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying a lot of comics. A weekend admission presale ticket costs 30 euro and if you want to have your picture taken with Ecto 1, it will cost you 40 euro, while an Ernie Hudson signature will cost you 25 euro.

(Links: www.vice.com, www.retecool.com, Photo: Photo of Ecto 1 by Jappalang, some rights reserved)

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February 6, 2015

Utrecht researchers study why cats love boxes

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 10:11 am

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Researchers Claudia Vinke and Ruth van der Leij of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University have studied why cats like to get into boxes. It appears that hiding in a box significantly reduces the stress level of a cat, although many cats just like to play in them, as proven by the multitude of Internet videos.

Studies were carried out in an animal shelter to monitor cats’ behaviour in quarantine for two weeks. Half of the cats were given a box to hide in and the other half was not. The stress level of the cats in the room with a box was significantly lower than the ones without a box. Cats with a lower stress level get used to their new environment more quickly, and a more relaxed cat also does not get sick as quickly. Boxes are good for cats.

On a related note, one of Amsterdam’s cat related attractions is the ‘Poezenboot’ (‘Cat boat’), a cat shelter on a houseboat in one of Amsterdam’s main canals founded back in the late 1960s.

(Link: www.duic.nl, Photo of Cat in a box by Hehaden, some rights reserved)

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December 13, 2014

Crane trashes roof as man proposes

Filed under: Automobiles,Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:05 pm

In IJsselstein, Utrecht, a man ready to propose to his girlfriend rented a crane. Unfortunately, the crane crashed down onto the neighbour’s roof. The neighbour’s daughter had just woken up and was out of her room when the crane came crashing through it.

While trying to lift the crane out of the way with another crane, the arm of the first crane crashed down on the roof a second time, trashing the roof in its entirety.

While the police, city and even the mayor have gone to the scene to assess the damage, the girlfriend did say ‘yes’ and the couple have gone off to Paris, leaving the mess behind them for now.

(Link: www.rtvutrecht.nl)

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November 26, 2014

Utrecht’s Dom Tower shot in the fog by drone

Filed under: Film by Orangemaster @ 9:58 am

Jelte Keur, 32, from Utrecht shot a video of the Gothic Dom Tower of Utrecht surrounded by fog using a drone. Keur claims he waited 10 months for the right weather conditions to shoot this video, as he has had this thing with fog since he was a boy.

The music definitely suits the video, which I looked up (Shane Carruth, Leaves Expanded May Be Prevailing Blue Mixed With Yellow of the Sand from the 2013 film ‘Upstream Color’).

After you’ve watch this video, check out his other ones.

(Link: www.netherlands-tourism.com, Photo of Drone by Karen Axelrad, some rights reserved)

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November 10, 2014

Women’s Dutch roller derby debuts in World Cup

Filed under: Dutch first,Sports by Orangemaster @ 12:56 pm

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From December 4 to 7 the second edition of the Blood & Thunder Roller Derby World Cup will be held in Dallas, Texas, and Team Netherlands will be participating for the very first time. Notice that this World Cup doesn’t contain the word ‘women’ in it because roller derby is predominantly a women’s sport: it’s the men that have to append an extra word to their World Cup.

Not even a year old, Team NL has been working towards Dallas from the very beginning, with about half the players hailing from the country’s first team, the Amsterdam Derby Dames, and the rest from the Rotterdam Death Row Honeys, Utrecht’s Dom City Dolls, Enschede’s Eastside Rock’n Rollers, Groningen’s Northern Lightning Rollerdgirls and Eindhoven’s Rockcity Rollers.

Today it has been announced that Team NL’s first tournament game will be against World Champion Team USA. Contrary to many other international sports, the US and Canada (ranked 2nd) dominate the sport because since the era of modern-day roller derby that coincidentally started in Texas in 2001, these two countries were pretty much the only ones playing the sport. Since then roller derby has grown exponentially, and countries such as England, France and Germany are now approaching the level of competitiveness driven by the US and Canada.

Some of the Team NL girls will be travelling to the US for the first time and are as excited as can be.

(Disclosure: I skate with the Amsterdam Derby Dames. Photos of Team NL training by Branko Collin)

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April 17, 2014

Rare Medieval coins excavated in Utrecht

Filed under: History by Orangemaster @ 10:58 pm

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The ongoing excavations under the Dom Church of Utrecht have led to the finding of gold copies of tremisses, of the Madelinus type, issued from Dorestad, a large settlement of the province of Utrecht and an international trade hub of Northern Europe from the 7th to the mid 9th century. Also found at the same spot were silver sceattas, minted in England, Frisia (Friesland) and Jutland (Denmark) also around that period.

The coins denote a turbulent period in Dutch history when the Frisians and the Franks were trying to control the strategically located city of Utrecht.

The coins will be on display as of Friday 18 April at the Centraal Museum Utrecht.

(Link and photo: www.cultureelerfgoed.nl)

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March 28, 2014

World’s first-ever 3D skull implant made in Utrecht

Filed under: Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 8:00 am

The UMC Utrecht hospital has recently implanted a 3D printed skull (pic) made of plastic into a 22-year-old woman, a world’s first according to the hospital that claims it is a revolutionary procedure that has never been done before.

The hospital says that the patient suffers from a rare affliction where the skull bone steadily thickens, placing too much pressure on the brain. The woman’s surgeon, Bon Verweij, says she has been losing the ability to make facial expressions, and that it was only a matter of time before she would lose other crucial brain functions and eventually pass away.

UMC Utrecht has performed several operations replacing sections of skull bone, but this is the first time they attempted an entire cranium. The hospital waited a few months before announcing the operation, making sure it was successful first. “The patient has regained her capacity for facial expression, is free of complaints, is back to work and it is nearly impossible to see she was ever operated on”, Verweij says.

The UMC Utrecht thinks this technique of 3D printing can also be used for patients with different bone abnormalities, repairing skulls after accidents, or with tumors.

A year ago Leiden University was developing the 3D printing of skin for medical purposes.

News item in Dutch, but the visuals tell the story:

(Link: www.nltimes.nl, Photo of an Ultimaker 3D printer)

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March 10, 2014

Giant Red Saunders photo made into picnic bags

Filed under: Design,Food & Drink,Photography by Branko Collin @ 8:22 am

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As part of the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Utrecht, the local centre of the arts (UCK) commissioned British photographer Red Saunders to create a large piece depicting the signing of the treaty.

The 200 square metre photo was displayed in front of the city hall, but when it had to come down there was no place large enough to continue to exhibit it. The photo banner was given or sold to Jongkruit, a company whose sole business seems to be to turn festival banners into bags. According to Oranje Flamingo, you can buy one of these for a picnic at the festival on Liberation Day later this year. (It would appear that only some buyers will get a Red Saunders bag.)

The Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of Spanish Succession in 1713 in which a great number of major European powers were involved.

(Photo: Metro Imaging / Red Saunders)

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