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Elfstedentocht

en.wikipedia.org

81–90 of 129 posts

Re: Elfstedentocht

#81

The organisation behind it has already ruled there wont be an event this year no matter how thick the ice gets. But people get the “fever” every time the temperature drops below 0 Celcius. This happens every year, it’s a thing. Also because of next month’s elections some opportunistic/populistic partys are using this event as the hill to die on, hoping to catch some votes and ignoring what people might really be catc…

As some journalists have noted: the 'fever' shows up mostly below the imaginary line you get if you connect the cities of Alkmaar and Zwolle. That is, there is no 'fever' in the province of Fryslân (or Frisia in English) where the event is held and treasured most dearly. Here in the province people are resigned to the event not happening this year, due to a lack of decent ice and Covid. There will be plenty of skatin…

"Nei twa kear nachtfroast wol de Hollanner der foar

Hy ropt om 't hurdst: 'de tocht der tochten, die gaat door'

Mar wy Friezen witte better

iis is samar ek wer wetter

En dus hâlde wy de kiezzen op elkoar"

Re: Elfstedentocht

#82

Some context: the Elfstedentocht has become pretty rare due to climate change. Now guess what, while currently being in lockdown, the possibility for an Elfstedentocht is increasing since it's pretty cold to our standards right now. This Elfstedentocht typically attracts hundred thousands of people. Interesting times.

> Now guess what, while currently being in lockdown, the possibility for an Elfstedentocht is increasing since it's pretty cold to our standards right now.

It's increased above the 0% it is when the temperature is above freezing, but there has never been any realistic scenario for there to be enough ice to hold it this year: significant parts of the route didn't yet have any ice yesterday. The weather predictions currently also predict increasing temperatures.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#83
post #77

Lake Zürich (Zürisee) last froze in 1963. Videos: https://youtu.be/eauucwl6C24 Short docu-film (DE) https://youtu.be/3_N-wWNXdmQ More details (DE) https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/pd/de/index/stadtpolizei_zueric... Previous years with a frozen lake: > 1223 / 1259 / 1262 / 1407 / 1491 / 1514 / 1517 / 1573 / 1600 / 1660 / 1684 /1695 / 1709 / 1716 / 1718 / 1740 / 1755 / 1763 / 1789 / 1830 / 1880 / 1891 / 1895 / 1929 / 1963…

Lakes can also be subject to tsunamis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauredunum_event

Wow, fascinating to learn

Re: Elfstedentocht

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"due to a lack of decent ice " Well, at least the ice should be there, soon?

Seems doubtful at this point. The quality of the ice is quite bad up North because of the snow (you get brittle snowy ice), and the weather predications note a 75% chance of thaw setting in come Monday: https://www.knmi.nl/nederland-nu/weer/verwachtingen Some people might go skating in the weekend, but really, the thickness of the ice is pretty minimal. As the local ice master says: > Der sil hjir en dêr wol wat ride…

Tangential observation: Google Translate detects your text as Frisian, but regardless of whether I select Frisian or Dutch, it gives an identical translation into English. Which is it really? And are the two languages really so similar that Google should be able to understand them interchangeably?

Re: Elfstedentocht

#85
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As some journalists have noted: the 'fever' shows up mostly below the imaginary line you get if you connect the cities of Alkmaar and Zwolle. That is, there is no 'fever' in the province of Fryslân (or Frisia in English) where the event is held and treasured most dearly. Here in the province people are resigned to the event not happening this year, due to a lack of decent ice and Covid. There will be plenty of skatin…

"Nei twa kear nachtfroast wol de Hollanner der foar Hy ropt om 't hurdst: 'de tocht der tochten, die gaat door' Mar wy Friezen witte better iis is samar ek wer wetter En dus hâlde wy de kiezzen op elkoar"

„It kin net!”

Which means “It's not possible!”, but sounds like “It's just barely possible!” to Dutch not used to the language and dialects from the North of the country.

This commercial was popular back in the day, and is a tongue-in-cheek exploration of this topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUXiqkAKr-0

(Piss-poor quality recording unfortunately, but many Dutch here will remember having seen it.)

Re: Elfstedentocht

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems doubtful at this point. The quality of the ice is quite bad up North because of the snow (you get brittle snowy ice), and the weather predications note a 75% chance of thaw setting in come Monday: https://www.knmi.nl/nederland-nu/weer/verwachtingen Some people might go skating in the weekend, but really, the thickness of the ice is pretty minimal. As the local ice master says: > Der sil hjir en dêr wol wat ride…

Tangential observation: Google Translate detects your text as Frisian, but regardless of whether I select Frisian or Dutch, it gives an identical translation into English. Which is it really? And are the two languages really so similar that Google should be able to understand them interchangeably?

It is West-Frisian (Frysk), and the languages are close, but so are Dutch and German or West-Frisian and German (so not that close).

I'm not getting the behaviour you describe though. It detects West-Frisian and does a passable translation, but if I force it to see Dutch as the source it makes no sense of it at all.

It is also failing quite hilariously on „in smak minsken”, which means “quite a bunch of people”, but gets translated as “a taste people”. Google sees „smak” as a misspelling of „smaak” (taste), but it means “a bunch” or “many”.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangential observation: Google Translate detects your text as Frisian, but regardless of whether I select Frisian or Dutch, it gives an identical translation into English. Which is it really? And are the two languages really so similar that Google should be able to understand them interchangeably?

It is West-Frisian (Frysk), and the languages are close, but so are Dutch and German or West-Frisian and German (so not that close). I'm not getting the behaviour you describe though. It detects West-Frisian and does a passable translation, but if I force it to see Dutch as the source it makes no sense of it at all. It is also failing quite hilariously on „in smak minsken”, which means “quite a bunch of people”, but…

You are right: I tried again and I can't reproduce the behavior. Perhaps I got confused and selected Frisian twice, the first time I tried. (Google's UI lists it as simply "Frisian" for me, not West-Frisian).

Re: Elfstedentocht

#89
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The waterschappen don't stop their pumps out of hospitality or something," So do they get compensation?

I don't think they do, pretty sure they stop out of hospitality..

It's actually pretty well organised, since it's a big event, lots of things need to come together to be able to organise it in 48hrs time. Also the Dutch government has classified it as a so-called 'GRIP-1' type event, which means that all kinds of things have to be coordinated with the local & national government.

There is a great documentary (in Dutch) that shows what the foundation behind the Elfstedentocht has to go through every year to make sure they're ready in case the conditions are right to organise the race, not sure if it's available outside of NL:

https://www.npostart.nl/VPWON_1302414

Re: Elfstedentocht

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow I didn't know Fryslan (Friesland) has its own tld, that pretty cool. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.frl

It's pretty cool. About the province's name though: it's Fryslân (West Frisian (a language spoken in the province) and official Dutch), Frisia (English), or Friesland (Dutch vernacular). The reason it is called 'Friesland' on English language Wikipedia has to with the fact that there are (seemingly) no acceptable sources that can prove that Frisia is what most Frisian folk call their province in English, and what Eng…

> no acceptable sources that can prove that Frisia is what most Frisian folk call their province in English

That is fascinating, I get why Wikipedia has to be careful with what sources are acceptable, but it produces the weirdest conflicts sometimes.

Thanks for correcting me and sharing this!

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