Month: August 2008

Wheatherbill: Betting for Good or for Bad wheather

WheatherBill Logo

WeatherBill will pay refunds to Itravel2000 customers if it snows five inches (12.7 centimetres) or more on Jan. 1 at Calgary, Halifax, Montreal or Toronto airports.

This quote from The Star drew my attention to WheatherBill

What is WheatherBill

According to its site:

WeatherBill is the first service to provide affordable and easy-to-use weather coverage to protect revenue and control costs for the millions of businesses impacted by the weather.

WeatherBill coverage is safe and reliable. There is no unnecessary paperwork, no claims process, no proof-of-loss and no waiting for payment. WeatherBill is the only service that enables customers to customize, price and buy weather coverage online in just minutes, and pays automatically when good or bad weather occurs.

In addition to weather coverage, WeatherBill provides free services for businesses affected by the weather. Our free weather correlation tools help individual businesses understand how weather impacts their financial performance. Our research reports provide insight into the ways weather affects all industries. We believe every business should understand how the weather affects demand, yields, costs, schedules and the bottom line. WeatherBill can provide the earnings protection critical to every weather sensitive business.

In order to create an account with WeatherBill, you must meet several eligibility requirements. They are listed as follows.

  1. You must be acting for your own account.
  2. You must be based in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Norway, or The Netherlands.
  3. You must meet the definition of “Eligible Contract Participant”. We have made it simple for you to determine if you qualify as an ECP – when you register for an account you will be asked several questions that will determine your eligibility.

    In short the requirement is assets of over US $ 5mio for pools, assets of over US 10 Mio for corporations or individuals, unless a Committee designates you as eligible.

So its not for the lesser to do of this world…..

The site gives examples of possible contracts.

WeatherBill has its own Blog

A recent Blog Entry refers to the following publication and clarifies it a bit:

Priceline.com Includes Potential Hurricane Season Destinations In New Sunshine Guaranteed Vacation Packages Promotion for Fall 2008

Get a Full Refund for Airfare, Hotel, Rental Car & More If Rain Ruins Your Vacation

NORWALK, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Travelers who missed their first chance to book a Priceline Sunshine Guaranteed vacation package now have another opportunity. Today, priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) www.priceline.com announced a new Sunshine Guaranteed promotion for late Summer/Fall 2008 that will refund customers if rain ruins their vacation.

“We were pleased by the positive customer response this summer to our Sunshine Guaranteed vacation packages, and we have decided to offer them again for late summer and fall travel,” said Tom Trotta, priceline.com’s Senior Vice President, Vacation Packages. “With schools back in session, fall can be an excellent time for a crowd-free vacation. We also recognize that rainouts may be a particular concern for some destinations during the peak hurricane season, and we have included many of these destinations in our new Sunshine Guaranteed promotion.” Priceline’s Sunshine Guaranteed promotion includes over 100 destinations in the U.S., the Caribbean, Canada and Europe. Destinations throughout Florida are included, as well as New Orleans, Hawaii, Nassau/Freeport, Costa Rica, Jamaica and San Juan.

Priceline also announced today that, so far, it has refunded nearly 200 packages for families and individuals whose rainy vacations qualified for Sunshine Guaranteed refunds. In addition to refunding 100% of the airfare, hotel and rental car, several of the payments included refunds for Disney theme park passes and other tours and attractions purchased as part of the Sunshine Guaranteed packages.

Hannah Singleton of Rockport, IN, was one of those Priceline customers who qualified for a Sunshine Guaranteed refund for her trip to Charleston, SC. “I purchased the package through Priceline because the price was fantastic and no other service was offering Sunshine Guaranteed vacations,” said Ms. Singleton. “Now, because of the refund, I can take two vacations. Thank you, Priceline.”

It is not insurance, because insurance is against loss or damage. It is coverage of a clearly defined future uncertainty. Close to betting, but not really betting. If I translate the Dutch equivalent contract in English I would call it a chance contract.

I wonder whether the organization of the Opening Party of the 2008 Olympics took coverage…

Update August 13: The Olympics people simply used planes with lots of stuff to make the rain stay away. They simply didn’t need the coverage.

Eco Design

Clearing up and posting old Stuff:
Wallpaper makes clear Eco Design has its attention.

It’s a great source for Eco friendly design.

Hotel Basico

Mexican Caribbean coast located Hotel Basico is mentioned among others. The architects used a lot of recycled materials.

Rotterdam City Welcomes Back SS Rotterdam

Monday August 4, 2008 the former Holland America Line (H.A.L.) Liner and later Cruise Ship “SS Rotterdam”, Dutch and Rotterdam Pride, was welcomed back in Rotterdam. There it will be berthed to serve as a Hotel, Congress Center, Theater, School and Museum, after extensive renovations. Currently the owner, a Rotterdam Social Building Society, has invested already Euro 175 Mio where they estimated it would cost Euro 25 Mio. It certainly meets some critique.

Technically it is not a Steam Ship, but a Steam Turbine driven Vessel. Anyway, it is not important anymore, because the motors don’t operate anymore. It was towed all the way from Wilhelmshaven in Germany where the major part of the renovation was done including an extensive asbestos cleaning.

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Under the welcoming consorting vessels was a spraying Rotterdam Port Authority vessel.

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Thousands of spectators on shore welcomed SS Rotterdam Back.

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SS Rotterdam was launched in 1959 by then Queen Juliana. The wear and tear of 49 years of Ocean cruising is clearly visible here as the hull is reasonably dented.

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Four red tugs of Kotug, a relatively small company owned by the Kooren family, proudly push and pull where necessary. It is remarkable that the Kooren Family succeeded to take over almost all towing in Rotterdam Harbor after a long struggle with Smit International. I still remember vividly when the first Kotug Tug arrived in Rotterdam years ago. They got an real grim escort from the whole fleet of Smit International. Grim, because the Smit tugs sailed so close to the new tug that it seemed as if they would like to sink the new competitor. Till then Smit International had the towing monopoly in almost all Dutch harbors and was a stock exchange quoted company with very deep pockets.

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Those with an eye for ship design claim this is a vessel with a clear line as opposed to the boxes they create nowadays as Liners or Cruise ships.

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The elegand funnels for the steam turbines are very characteristic for SS Rotterdam

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I do like its silhouette!

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Under the escorting vessels is the former motor yacht “Piet Hein”, currently owned by the Rotterdam Port Authority, but formerly owned by Queen Juliana and her husband Prince Bernhard. A super yacht in those days, but dwarfed here against the colossus of SS Rotterdam.

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To the left of SS Rotterdam you see a very characteristic office building called “De Bolder” (ie “The Bollard”) serving as main office for the Mammoet company that lifts and transports whole offshore installations, factories and other heavy material over the seven seas. This is located in the city of Schiedam, located between Rotterdam and the North Sea. Schiedam is famous for its Dutch Genever distilleries.

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A real Grand Old Lady with a properly curved backside.

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On its way to its last Berth. I do appreciated they didn’t demolish or sink it.

Tourmalijn

I made these photos on board of the Rotterdam River Cruising Vessel “Tourmalijn”, that in a cooperation with AD ( A Rotterdam based News Paper) had provided a free welcome the SS Rotterdam tour of 2,5 hours for those who brought a coupon that was printed in the AD. I really appreciate this clever way of marketing a news paper and a river cruise company to the advantage of the citizens of Rotterdam and elsewhere with less to spend. I hadn’t read it off course, but had to pay only Euro 5.- Kudos for this social thinking of the two companies. There were more than 1200 people on board and it was like a good party as everybody enjoyed this trip tremendously!

See for more photo’s this Flickr Account of Nell a Dutch Photographer and Blogger of High Profile.

Dutch Design (28): Arnold van Bezooyen

Clearing up and posting old stuff:

Arnold van Bezooyen at Virtual Shoe Museum
Photo found on Virtual Shoe Museum

Arnold van Bezooyen‘s site seems dismantled. It redirects you to: Material Stories. Arnold owns it. He is possesed by material. Material Identity was an exposition he organized back in 2007. There I found this quote about Arnold, or Aart:

Material Stories ™ was initiated by Aart van Bezooyen in 2005 with the goal to bridge the gap between companies, creative professionals and the materials industry in an independent, conceptual and highly inspirational way.

With a background in industrial design and passion for materials, he supports clients such as Royal Philips Electronics, Hyundai/KIA, PARK, MUTTER and P&G in creating strategic, technological and innovative perspectives for materials in design and branding.

Besides conducting workshops, projects and trend research he lectures at universities in Hamburg and Bremen, usually in cooperation with suppliers, manufacturers and research institutions such as The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. For the Core77 Design Network, probably the biggest industrial design community based in the U.S., he reports as a materials expert about the European design scene and the latest material developments.

His link with Core77 drew my attention, as I am always amazed how much coverage Dutch Designers get on foreign fora. This link about Arnold explains the fingers in the Dutch Design Pie of Core77:

Arnold van Bezooyen: an independent Industrial Designer who is in it for the process. This ‘Dutch Designer’ enjoyed life and work in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany where he is currently based. Trained as a design all-rounder he received his M.Sc. degree from the Delft University of Technology. After a two year work period at PARK advanced design management he now conducts material innovation by exploring the role and potential of new materials in design, so called Material Stories. His private life is more about ‘no-tech’ as in enjoying good friends, his guitar, and live Jazz.

Real Travel

Cleaning up and publishing old stuff:

Real Travel logo

Real Travel is another community generated travel guide I discovered some time ago on the Internet. I checked out their part of The Netherlands to see that they have the usual disadvantage: Only a bit info about Amsterdam. Nothing else. I fear that they will not be able to compete against the big players in the field. Maybe an idea for Uptake to include them in their database.