Month: April 2012

Impressions of Today’s 070 Twitterlunch in The Hague by 020

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Location just next to The “New” Church of The Hague which dates back to 1658

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Birdies were necessary to keep the tweeps focussed

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Excellent sandwiches and soup by Pavlov

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KeesBteA had had his hair sharply coiffured for the occasion.

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The Organizing Trio. Thanks!

Twitterlunch The Hague

Yesterday Dutch Government resigned after Geert Wilders withdrew his support for the minority Government led by Mark Rutte. Today there was a big debate in Parliament here in The Hague whether or not to have new elections and before or after the summer holidays…

But for me the most important event of the day was the Twitterlunch in the Hague, organized by Amsterdam Based Event Queen @Puur, together with the The Hague based @filosoof and @1espresso who organized a 070 Twitterlunch in Pavlov

As always when I go to such events, it is good to see that apart from their actual looks or  sizes, the characters of those who act on line – in this case twitter – and who dare to attend such events are generally in line with the impressions they give you online. A nice feel of meeting old friends even with the ones you haven’t met before yet.

The venue Pavlov is excellently located for such event and they did their best to accommodate everyone.

And the best of all? Hardly anyone’s attention distracted by a mobile. Tweeps were communicating In Real Life;-)

The best compliment for The Hague? @Puur commented: “Where can you find a city where surfers are walking in the city center with their surfboard under their arm?”

Interested in the photoset? Here it is on my Flickr Account.

It was an animated event and will certainly be repeated.

Why the by 020?

Oh yes and why the by 020 in the title to this post? The fact that it was someone based in Amsterdam who took the initiative…a telling tale…while there are many people involved in social media and active on Twitter in or from The Hague and many events in the Hague…maybe a bit sleepy mentality? I do agree, but my motto is always: “You should sleep in The Hague and Party in Amsterdam” The exception of a well organized event proves it;-)

The End of the Wilders Era?

Rutte and Verhagens with Wilders Hairdo

The End of the Wilders Era?

As you may know, my hometown The Hague is the center of Dutch Government.

Today Geert Wilders left the coalition talks that lasted already 7 weeks and were aimed to create an acceptable package of cutting expenditure by Dutch Government.

Wilders stated he withdrew his support for the minority Government led by Mark Rutte.

Less than two years, on another platform I presented Rutte (left on the photo) and Maxime Verhagen (right on the photo) as our new Prime Minister and Vice Prime Minister when they started this adventure. Both with the typical Geert Wilders hairdo. An apt and fabulous caricature I found on FB then.

New General Elections expected in September/Ocober 2012

It is expected that new General Elections will be held in September Oktober 2012. Until then Rutte and Verhagen will remain in office and have a difficult task of getting the 2013 budget accepted by a Parliament that is divided an has too many small political parties.

Again Rutte may need his life vest to keep the Dutch Ship of State afloat.

My expectations

I expect Rutte’s VVD (Liberal) party to win the elections, but how the landscape will look after the elections is very unsure. Verhagen’s CDA (Christen Democratic) party most certainly will lose. I do hope Wilders PVV party will lose according to a very old Dutch political wisdom: “He who breaks a Coalition Government, will suffer in the elections” . The darkest horse is the conglomerate of left wing (various Social Democrats and Labour) parties. I believe it is likely a new government will consist of Liberals and some left wing parties.

America’s Cup World Series in Naples

Team Energy Wins First Naples Fleet Race
Team Energy Wins First Naples Fleet Race Photo AC

The Spectacle is back with AC 34

For quite some time I’d left the America’s Cup for what it was: A court room affair. It was not very clear where they were heading. Returning to them again I see that Larry Ellison who is the defender of record with his team Oracle, has made some clever moves to bring spectacle back to the race courses.

The 34th America’s Cup brings the competition for the oldest trophy in international sport back to the United States: New boats, a new format for the racing and television and web coverage as never before. See the above footage of the current 4th of 6 pre America’s cup series, called the AC World Series of races in uniform 45′ catamarans with wing sails to enable the various crews to train in very fast multi-hulls. There are fleet races as well as match races per venue and there will be a fleetrace champion and a match race champion per venue.

Past events of the AC World Series were in 2011 in Cascays, Portugal, in Plymouth, UK and in San Diego, USA.

In past contests we had Dutch designers involved: The (in)famous wing keel was developed and tested in Delft. Now we have two Dutchman as part of the Oracle Team: Dirk de Ridder and Piet van Nieuwenhuyzen.

New ways of following Sailing Races

Media coverage is fantastic. Here I’ve embedded the summary of last Monday’s race as then the weather conditions were more spectacular for multi-hull racing. One cat even capsized.

With the current new generation of cameras on board of the competing race machines (“boat” would be a “too slow” term for them) and in helicopters and on board of boats around the course, it feels like you are watching a Formula 1 race on land. Never before has it been easier to follow a sailing match.

After Naples

Races for today are postponed until tomorrow as the wind was too strong in Naples today.

After Naples Venice, Italy, will host the AC World Series May 15-20, 2012 and Newport, Rhode Island, USA, will host the AC World Series June 26 – July 1, 2012

The New 75’AC class will be unveiled soon

Soon the class for the second and third stage, the match racing series for the Louis Vuiton Cup (04 July – 1 September 2013) and the Final Match races between the wi9nner of the Louis Vuiton Cup, who will be the Challenger of record and the Defender of record, will be unveiled: A 72’Catamaran with a wing mainsail. The winner of the Louis Vuiton cup may challenge the defender of record, Team Oracle in SFO Bay 7-22 September 2013.

The general idea is that the boats will be as equal as possible and that speed differences are caused by boat handling and racing experience of the teams only and not influenced by design differences.

Update:

The Italian Prada team entered the AC World Series for the first time: It won the final fleet race and with that won the Naples Fleet race Championship. Team Oracle Spithill became second and now leads the Fleetrace pack overall.

The Swedish Artemis team that you can see capsizing in the Monday race, became first in the Napels Match Races Championship. Here are the Naples results:

Naples score board AC World Series

Last edited by GJE on April 16, 2012 at 11:24 am

Hey Grampa! Are you Pulling My Leg?

Grampa with Little Princess

Hey Grampa! Are you Pulling My Leg?

Just a short intermezzo. Having grand children is such a joy. Sometimes little princess comes along and then we drink a cup of coffee together. Me a cappuccino, she hot milk with nice froth on top. As in a conspiracy we spoon up our froth together. Then she gets a “mouftathe”.

Usually she first wants some raisins. She had just asked for them. And by the look at me she says: “Grampa don’t act as if you don’t know where the raisins are, because if you don’t know, I certainly know where you’ve hidden them”

I wonder how the World will look like when she will be my age. That will be 2073…

Just an afterthought. Our wall needs to get painted. Any volunteers to help me out?