Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Elfstedentocht

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 129 posts

Re: Elfstedentocht

#111

Post by Freak_NL »

benjohnson wrote: post #106
Freak_NL wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't get me started. There is a town in this province called Grou, which was called Grouw (extra 'w') in Dutch until the Frisian (which was always 'Grou') and Dutch names were made the same thirty years ago. It's only a small town (a village really), so the further you get away from the province, the less known it is. This is fine. In the province of Fryslân many people speak Dutch as the first (or only) language, a…

There's a small chance that Goru caves and changes their name - the extra W in Grouw standing for Wikipedia.

Not likely in the digital age perhaps, but I'm sure there must have been places that have got their names changed because tertiary resources called them thus.

And of course there is the classic “you are now called 'X' because I've got a (bigger) gun and/or bring [what I consider superior] civilization”, but that's a rather different beast (e.g., Formosa, Batavia, New Zealand, Ayers Rock).

Re: Elfstedentocht

#112

Post by Cthulhu_ »

rollulus wrote: post #23

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.

To add, if I recall correctly (I was 11 at the time) the 1997 event was only possible due to emergency shutdowns of factories (warm waste water) and 'ice transplants' where they moved tons of ice around into the main Elfstedentocht waters.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#114

Post by Cthulhu_ »

brettkromkamp wrote: post #2

We can only hope that maybe this year we will have another Elfstedentocht :)

Nah not going to happen; they need at least two weeks of serious frost for that, and as it stands, we'll get above zero weather again during the day next week. The sun seems to be melting a lot of the snow as well at the moment.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#115

Post by berkes »

Someone wrote: post #104
furyg3 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given how much of a priority climate change has been in the Netherlands... This is an important point for those who don't live in The Netherlands. NL has done an amazing job of marketing how 'green' they are, but has been really terrible at addressing climate change or even hitting their own climate targets.

I think it’s partly the effect of being an outlier in terms of population density (makes it harder to build wind or solar farms), natural resources (few possibilities for hydro-electricity, for example), and quality of farmland (moving production to poorer grounds often isn’t a net win, globally) There also may be an effect that making Dutch agriculture greener makes it more competitive, increasing output and thus of…

> population density (makes it harder to build wind or solar farms)

This is more an excuse than an actual reason. Because the Dutch have large patches of shallow sea: which is ideal for building huge scale windparks that are, relatively cheap. The "ground" can still be used for fishing, so you hardly loose anything. Yet even building parks in sea is met with strong opposition. From wildlife preservation orgs to people complaining that this will ruin their view over the sea.

Furthermore, the IJsselmeer and Markmermeer have often been suggested as "energy storage" where water is pumped up a few meters by wind, or overcapacity electro. The Netherlands, has, in fact, build some of the largest dams in the world, but "forgot" to use them as power stations. Anyone who has ever visited Neeltje-Jans, for example, will see the opportunity to harvest some of the enormous amounts of water being pushed through the Netherlands. I live on the riverside of the Waal (part of the Rhine), where currently over 7000m³/second of (in winter warm-ish and in summer cold-ish) water passes by my office-window. There must be ways to harvest some of this energy.

There is a lack of will and a lack of urgency. Not a lack of opportunities.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#116

Post by matsemann »

codetrotter wrote: post #12
m463 wrote: post #11

When I was a kid, I grew up in the US where we had snow in the winter but we had to walk or take a bus to school. People would say folks in scandanavian countries were able to skate to school or work and we would all just dream how amazing it would be.

I grew up in a Scandinavian country but have never been able to skate to school. We have a lot of snow and ice but only the ice on the lakes and the arenas has been appropriate for skating where I grew up. The ice on the roads between my home and my schools has not been skateable with skates. Short stretches of it maybe.

Yeah, skating is only applicable if there is a lake between where you are and where you're going.

But what I did as a kid up in the mountains in Norway was using a kicksled if it was icy, or skiis if it was snowy. Full send down the 2 km hill to school, I think everyone in my neighborhood grew up learning to be adrenaline junkies.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#117

Post by vanderZwan »

Vinnl wrote: post #73
vanderZwan wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only makes the event more mythological. Also, it's easy for non-Dutch to underestimate how big of a deal speedskating is to the Dutch (and how big of a deal the Dutch are in speedskating). EDIT: I'll attempt to give an impression. The medal count at the 2018 Winter Olympics might be a good starting point, look at how the Dutch dominated that event[0]. Keep in mind that we're a really tiny nation, so that suggests…

I didn't know [2], but that was lovely. That said, the same things you said hold for Korfball as well, which definitely doesn't whip up the same fervour as an Elfstedentocht does.

Speak for yourself, I played korfball for twelve years ;). Jokes aside, korfball isn't an olympic sport, and it didn't have Ard & Keessie to popularize it either.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ard_Schenk

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kees_Verkerk

Re: Elfstedentocht

#118

Post by tobyhinloopen »

namenotrequired wrote: post #54

Any HNers ever participated and want to share their experience?

My last name (see username) is similar to one of the cities.

Many people spell my name wrong because they know the city and write it the way the city is spelled.

Hinloopen (my name) vs Hindeloopen (the city)

Re: Elfstedentocht

#119

Post by contravariant »

sgaduuw wrote: post #65
the-dude wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot to mention we pay him a lot of money each year.

I don't mind him being paid. I would like to see him and his family taxed though.

I mean there's something slightly silly about taxing someone who's income is 100% taxes.

Re: Elfstedentocht

#120

Post by aarchi »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #113
ragebol wrote: post #86

As a Dutch guy, I'm just curious to hear everyone just butcher the pronounciation :-)

bonus points if they go for the Frisian pronunciation, "Alvestêdetocht".

According to Wikipedia, Elfstedentocht is pronounced [ɛlf'steːdə(n)tɔxt] and Alvestêdetocht [ɔlvəˈstɛːdətɔχt]. Elfstedentocht is close to how I'd pronounce it as a non-native German speaker, except I was pronouncing ‹st› as [ʃ] and ‹o› as [o] (my native dialect has the cot-caught merger, so I don't use ɔ). Alvestêdetocht isn't much different, except for the ‹A› as [ɔ] that I wasn't expecting.
Post reply on HN