March 28, 2011

Supreme court says participating in a reality show is real work

Filed under: Shows by Branko Collin @ 10:51 am

It took a trip to the Dutch supreme court, but reality show contestant Natasia Blank finally got the unemployment benefits she wanted, Elsevier reports.

Last Friday the judges confirmed the verdict of a lower court. The court felt that since Blank was paid to appear on the show, and she paid unemployment insurance, what she did—even if it was just loafing about all day—counted as real work.

Blank participated in a show called De Gouden Kooi (The Golden Cage) in 2006. Her appearance was heavily criticized at the time, even leading to questions in parliament, because she had left two young children in order to participate.

(Illustration: Photo by Wikimedia user Producer, some rights reserved. Press release Supreme Court.)

Tags: , , ,

April 7, 2007

Whistle while you ipod

Filed under: Gadgets by Orangemaster @ 4:57 pm
ipod11.jpg

This week, city sanitation workers in Maastricht, Limburg all received iPod nanos “in hopes of making them all appear more happy while doing their jobs.” The story goes that the people of Maastricht were unhappy with the sour demeanor of local sanitation workers. Searching for a way to improve the situation, the city council came up with the idea of letting the workers listen to music while working. A few weeks later, the city ordered 280 new ipod nanos for the sanitation team. After two weeks, the music seems to be doing the trick.

(Link, via Funtechtalk)

Tags: , ,