Skûtjesilen
Just like last year, we went with a lot of my
colleagues to in Elahuizen, a small village in Friesland, to go sailing on
the Fluessen lake. I drove there with two students. Once I made a
wrong turn. I had left a little earlier than the others from Enschede.
We met four open bridges. The funny thing is that the four cars from
Enschede and Hengelo all arrived at about the same time. Perfect
timing. Inside some other people had arrived. We were served coffee or
tea and an apple pie with cream. This time we were going to sail with
three boats. I wanted to go on the Eelkje II again with captain Rindert.
The wind was around 3 to 4 Beaufour. We quickly got out of the harbour,
and I decided to help with the jib (foresail) again. Robert, the captains
helper, was helping us.
Around one o'clock we arrived in the harbour of Gaastmeer and had
a simple lunch with Frysian union soup. It was quite warm, and somehow
I regretted that I had not brought my swimming clothes. But when we
were on the water again, it was colder.
Around five o'clock, we were back in the harbour, and we were offered
a herring on arrival. We sat down in the shadow and later we were
served a barbeque. My eye was hurting a little and troubling me. Just
before we left, I decided to close my eyes hoping that that would
improve my eye. Some one decided to take
a picture. We left
around eight o'clock and were home around ten, just when the soccer
match between Twente and PSV was finished. It was very busy around our
office, and I decided to go inside and wait a while.
follow-up
Natasia
Natasia is one of the people who stayed for some time in
De Gouden Kooi,
a rather controversional Big Brother like program broadcasted in the
Netherlands. She was first critized for leaving her children behind
to enter the contest. On July 26, 2007 she was evicted. Arriving home
she discovered that her boyfriend had robbed her account and left with
their children to Suriname and bought a new house there.
Yesterday evening, she announced that she started dating with a milionair
with the name Tjeerd, who is into music and real estate. She remarked
that now she has someone who can gently suck her breasts. This kind of
remarks shows what kind of woman she is.
House of cards
This evening, Annabel and I went to
the university to play Go. When we arrived
only Araldo was there. Annabel started to play with the
Grolsch beermats that were
laying on the table. She started to play house of cards with them.
After a while, Araldo and I decided to start a game where I was
given seven stones ahead. Soon some others arrived and started
playing. Annabel continued playing house of cards. The highest
house she build was four layers. Then I suggested that she would
play a game against Rudi, who was playing already playing against
Rudi. She was given nine stones and 70 points ahead. In the end
game Araldo made some trick move, which I did not recognize as
such, resulting in the death of one of my groups. This decided
made me decide to resign. Not much later, Annabel also resigned
because Rudi had managed to kill one of her groups. We left
rather early and were home around ten o'clock.
Uru: Path of the Shell
Today, the copy of Uru: Path of the Shell, which I had
bought on the internet, arrived through the mail. In the evening,
I installed it. I was afraid I was having to play through
Uru: Ages beyond Myst
Uru: To D'ni, but luckily,
I only had to get to Relto to play this extention pack.
It is rather difficult to buy Path of the Shell for
a reasonable price here in the Netherlands. For a detail
description of my findings see the logbook I am writing.
Paronychia
This afternoon, Annabel was sent
to the hospital with respect to a paronychia nail infection
on the little finger on her right hand. She already went to
our general practitioner last Wednesday and was given some
antibiotics. This afternoon she had to return for a check-up
and she was sent to the hospital. I met her at the hospital.
We had to wait for almost two hours before it was our turn.
She got two injections on the base of little finger and then
some doctor cut the infection and let the pus come out. The
doctor told us that she was lucky because the infection was
only on one side of the nail, and not on the top. I asked him
how often he had to do this, and he answered that he had to
do it almost daily.
Into the city
This afternoon, I went into the city. At "De Slegte" bookshop I bought three architecture books for
€ 2 each. These are "Ga Document extra 04: Christian De Portzamparc",
"New Loft Living" by Elisabeth Wilhide, and "Modernes Bauen in Japan"
by Reyner Banham and Hiroyuki Suzuki.
On the way home, I picked three chestnuts.
At home I put the chestnuts on the table, and Andy took them.
When Annabel saw the architecture books,
she was quite enthuastic about them.
Soccer match
Today, Annabel had her first scoccer
match of this season. I was one of the parents who had to drive.
At first Annabel was not very enthousiastic about playing, because
one of her feet was hurting. About 25 minutes into the first half,
she started playing and then played till the end. She did not get
the ball that often. They lost with 1-5, but it was only the first
time that the team played in this combination, and the keeper was
not very well trained. Annabel is the only girl in her team. At
the moment there are no other girls of her age. She told me that
she liked the team better than one she played with last year.
I taked some with the woman who is responsable for the organisational
part of the team. She is the mother of the keeper. She is also very
active in a hockey club. I presume because the twin sister of the
keeper is playing hockey. She made some remark that maybe Annabel
should start playing hockey, because there are many more girls
playing hockey. I am not going to make the suggestion. Let her
find it out by herself.
Liberal party falling apart
This afternoon, it was announced that
Rita Verdonk
had been expelled from the Dutch liberal party
(VVD).
She has been a minister in the previous government. Before the
last elections, the Dutch liberal party decided to have an
election for the leadership. Rita Verdonk decided to
join this election and she soon became one of the favourites.
It was also during this time that Rita Verdonk played an
important role of stripping Ayaan Hirsi Ali of her Dutch citizenship, which led to
her resignation from the parliament, and indirectly to the
fall of the Second Balkenende cabinet. She lost the bid
for the leadership by a small margin. At first it seemed
that she accepted the leadership of Mark Rutten, but after
the 2006 election it became known that she received more
preference votes than Mark Rutten. During a press meeting
she expressed her desire to become the party leader. But
after some hours she retracted this statements. Since that
time there have been various cases where she critisized
Mark Rutten. Some days ago she made some critical remarks
during some non-public meeting, and because of this Mark
Rutten decided to expell her. It looks like this is going
to be very damaging for the Dutch liberal party. It looks
like Mark Rutten will be forced to step down as well. This
weekend there will be party congress.
I think that all this trouble is the result of the decision
if the party to have a leadership election. The manner in
which this election was held, was unique in the Dutch history.
So far, most parties choose their leaders without an election
among the members. It is my believe that having a leadership
election, you indirectly emphasize the importance of individual
party members, and that by doing this, you give them more power.
It is to be expect that this in the end will harm the party.
Another party that was centered around the leadership of
a single person, Pim Fortuyn, has fall apart after his assassination, due
to internal conflicts among its members. On a general assembly
of the party it is decided that the party will dissolve itself
from the first of january 2008.
Eight Dutch Kabuki day
Today, the eight Dutch Kabuki day was held. Li-Xia and I went with the two of us. Annabel stayed home all by herself and Andy stayed at the weekend care where he goes every two weeks.
Another reason why we did not bring Andy was because we were afraid
it would be to busy for Li-Xia with respect to her Alzheimer's Disease. The previous Kabuki day was held on
September 24, 2005. It was again held in
"De Regenboog" in Maarn. There were about 60 adults attending this
day and about 20 children, most of them affected by Kabuki Syndrome.
It looks like the next time we should look for a large facility, preferable
one where the catering is provided.
In the morning, Prof. Dr. C. Schrander-Stumpel
discussed a number of subjects. These included problems with the
hips and knees. She suggested that the problems around these
would be charted by a student of her. She also remarked that
with sugery the weekness of the connective tissue should be taking
into account. The problems around contraception were discussed.
Furthermore behaviour problems and the prevailance of disorders
in the Autism spectrum were discussed. Finally Dr. Schrander
spoke about the search for the cause of Kabuki Syndrome. She
explained that with the newest DNA array techniques, blood from
the parents would be needed. During the lunch break there was
a possibility to donate blood. Li-Xia and I also joined the
queue. It turned out that a lot of people wanted to donate
some blood for the research, and the collection of blood samples
continued far into the afternoon.
After the lunch, two workshops were organized based on the
age of the children. We joined the under ten workshop during
which Els Vergouwen told a lot about all the possible training
programs and services that are available. She even told about
several free holiday possibilities. Around four o'clock the
day was brought to a close.
Square tilings
In the past weeks I have continued working on the program
for square tilings. This evening, I implemented some algorithm
for declaring certain tilings to be impossible.
(program source.) It seems that
this algorithm classifies a lot of tilings as impossible, while
they might be possible. There are 14 square tilings that it
classifies as impossible. These are:
10 01 00 00 10 11 10
00 00 10 01 01 01 11
00 10 11 01 00 01 11 10
00 00 00 10 01 01 01 11
00 10 01 10 01 11 10
00 10 10 01 01 01 11
00 01 00 11 11 10 01
00 00 10 10 01 11 11
00 01 01 11 11 10 01
00 00 10 10 01 11 11
00 11 01 11 11 10 01
00 00 10 10 01 11 11
00 01 00 01 11 11 10 01
00 00 10 10 10 01 11 11
00 10 01 11 01 11 10 01
00 10 10 10 01 01 11 11
00 10 01 11 01 00 11
00 00 00 10 01 11 11
00 10 01 00 11 01 00 11
00 00 00 10 10 01 11 11
00 01 11 00 10 11 01 00 11
00 00 00 10 10 10 01 11 11
00 10 11 00 01 00 11
00 00 10 01 01 11 11
00 10 01 11 00 01 00 11
00 00 00 10 01 01 11 11
00 10 11 10 00 01 11 00 10 11
00 00 00 10 01 01 01 11 11 11
Playing Go
This evening, Annabel and I went
to the university to play Go. When we
arrived Taco and Araldo were already there. We had brought
a playing set and Annabel wanted to play against me. Not much
later Jan-Willem, who I had not seen for more than a year,
arrived. I was not doing very well against Annabel, because
I was playing fast, and each time, when I wanted to resign,
Jan-Willem encouraged me to continue. I made many small
mistakes. In the end I lost with 51 points. Meanwhile, the
others had arrived. I invited Jan-Willem for a game. I was
given nine stones ahead. Annabel played against Edze with nine
stones ahead. She lost with many points, because Edze managed
to kill some of her groups. I took a lot of time to think in
my game agaist Jan-Willem, but at the end, I realized I had
lost and I guessed that I was about 15 stones behind. When we
counted the difference was exactly 15 points.
Technasium
This evening, I went to the school of Annabel. After an introduction in the auditorium for all
the classes, we went to a classroom with the parents of the
class of Annabel to listen to her math teacher and tutor.
I was quite happy with him, because of his engineering
background. He has a master degree on an engineering major.
I think he will appreciate Annabel's stronger non-verbal
sides. He is also one of the people behind the Technasium
in the school. This is a special direction where children
get subjects related to technical and engineering professions.
The get the additional subject "Research and Design" where
they have to investigate real-life problems from companies
and the local government. They have to work in small teams,
make their own planning and divide the work among them. In
some cases the results of these project have been implemented
in reality.
Constitutional treaty
Our government has decided not to held a referendum with
respect to the acceptance of the new constitutional treaty
of the European Union, although the contents of this
treaty is very similar to the Constitution of the European
Union, which was rejected two years ago by means of a
referendum. The government has simply declared that the
new treaty is sufficiently different and has taken into
account the critizism of the Dutch population in a sufficient
manner that a referendum is not required. But as can be
read on site of
Open Europe, politicians in other countries have
declared that this treaty is essential the same as the
Constituion. For example, Angela Merkel, German Changellor
has said: "The substance of the constitution is preserved.
That is a fact." It looks like only the symbolic elements
have been removed. See also
the column "Europe ditches clarity and embraces obfuscation"
by Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times.
(follow-up)
Marriage
Today, our neighbours, who have been living together for
some years already, were going to get married, because
they are expecting a child. Around a quarter to twelve,
the groom arrived on a rickshaw bike. He went inside to
get the bride, and when she saw the bike, she exlaimed:
"Do I have to sit in there." She decided to give it a try
and felt comfortable. (Picture of some family member inspecting the bike.)
About an hour later they left.
Today, Annabel and I, went to the
pet shop to buy two gerbils for her birthday, which is next month. Yesterday
evening, we already bought a "Ferplast Duna fun" cage, some
other items, and some food. The gerbils are sisters. One of
them is rather quiet and has been stamping, and the other is
quite active and curious.
Square tilings
In the past week, I have continued working on the program
for square tilings. Last week, the
program found 14 tiling it could not solve. However, I found
several bugs in that version. Today, I spend some time finding
solutions for a number of left over problems, and I added these
to the program. (source
code; produces a lot of intermediate results.) There are
now 10 square tilings for which no solution is known. These are:
10 01 00 00 10 11 10
00 00 10 01 01 01 11
00 10 01 10 01 11 10
00 10 10 01 01 01 11
00 01 00 11 11 10 01
00 00 10 10 01 11 11
00 11 01 11 11 10 01
00 00 10 10 01 11 11
00 01 00 01 11 11 10 01
00 00 10 10 10 01 11 11
00 10 01 11 01 11 10 01
00 10 10 10 01 01 11 11
00 01 11 00 10 11 01 00 11 (seems impossible)
00 00 00 10 10 10 01 11 11
00 10 01 11 00 01 11 01 00 11 (seems impossible)
00 00 00 00 10 10 10 01 11 11
00 10 11 00 10 00 01 11 10 11 (seems impossible)
00 00 00 10 10 01 01 01 11 11
00 10 11 10 00 01 11 00 10 11 (seems impossible)
00 00 00 10 01 01 01 11 11 11
Cabinet actively opposing referendum
I just read that it seems that last Friday, our cabinet has
decided to use their veto right, if the parlement would decided
that a referendum about the consitutional treaty
would be needed. They have not officially announced that they
would do this. If this is true, it is a very sad thing to make
such a decision beforehand, especially if you do not make it
publicly known. On Friday evening, Minister Timmermans even
stated during a television interview that the decision with
respect to a referendum was up to the parlement.
I have signed the petition on www.wijwillenreferendum.eu.
Voting
Yesterday evening, the result of the voting of the new party
president for the Dutch labour party was announced. And to
surprise of many people a different candidate (Lilianne Ploumen)
had been selected than many people had thought
(Jan Pronk). There had been
seven candidates and it was announced that the result was achieved
after six round. Later on, I understood that each party member could
vote by putting the seven candidates in a prefered order. I do not
know exactly what method has been used, but I guess, it was by
a kind of elimination. In each round you look at who the voters
put at the first place. If there is one candidate who was selected
by more than 50 percent of the voters, then you declare that person
the winner. If not you eliminate the person with the lowest number
of votes from all the votes, and you repeat the procedure. This
means that a person who was placed on the first place by most
voters, can still loose the voting, if there is another candidate
that has been placed before this candidate more often on all votes.
I just read in some article that it is indeed how the counting has been done,
and that it is called the Alternative Vote System.
(Official results.)
Playing Go
This evening, Annabel and I went
to the university to play Go. When we
arrived Araldo and Edze were playing two 13x13 games at the
same time. I suppose that this was an idea of Edze, because
he often makes creative suggestions for playing Go. Not much
later Marcel arrived. Annabel asked me for a game on a 13x13
games. The first game I lost, because I did ignored a trick
move of hers. The second game. After this, I started a game
against Edze with eight stones ahead. I lost it with 11 points.
I asked him, what he thought about my play and he remarked that
he did not know why I lost, because I played the right moves.
Annabel played three games against Marcel (who at the same
played with Araldo) on a 13x13 board with five/six stones
ahead. She won two games and lost one.
Code 46
Yesterday evening, really this morning very early, I watched
the movie Code 46
(IMDB).
A very interesting Science Fiction movie set in the near
future.
Power grid
Since August 2, I have been working
on finding all high voltage lines of the Netherlands that are
visible on Google Earth. I think
I am done. Of course, there is still room for improvement. Yesterday,
I spend some time finding the power plants. Today, I published my
results on
Google Earth Community.
(follow-up)
This months interesting links
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Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Gerbils