Fast Motorboats – Axopar

Axopar 37 Cabin

Although I’ve abandoned fast motorboating since the European Commission decided to curtail the use of excise duty free diesel for boating, even international boating, largely, I’m still very much interested in new developments.

When i saw this Axopar 37 AC for Aft Cabin berthed in Scheveningen Marina, I thought “Hey that boat must have some potential with those two large outboard”. I hadn’t seen the boat before nor read about it before.

After some research I found a test by Motorboat and Yachting and a Dutch Language extensive demo video by the Dutch dealer Kempers from Aalsmeer.

It’s bow section seems to apply the same principles as the Axe Bowe designed by Damen shipyards for rescue boats and fast patrol-boats and offshore crew tenders.

All The World’s Futures – Out of Bounds 2014-2015

All The World's Futures - Out of Bounds 2014-2015

June 2015 I visited Venice to see the city’s Art Biennial (or Biennale Arte). When leaving the Arsenale there is a narrow alley between two old buildings. There I found these rags:

Okwui Enwezo curated the 56th Art Biennale of Venice. (See Labiennale at Google) which had the subtitle All The World’s Futures.

All The World’s Futures is also the inspiration of an intruiging Art installation by Ibrahim Mahama at the Arsenale’s Exit road. It was named Out of Bounds 2014-2015. The road between two parts of the Arsenale was draped with primarily Jute coal sacks and jute sacks used to transport other goods from all over the world like cocoa that Ibrahim had been collecting over several years. One could say the sacks that are used to transport goods that also serve as futures in various trade systems.

Ibrahim Mahama was born in 1987 in Ghana, Africa. He lives and works in Tamale.

See for an interview:

Obelisk de Caja by Calatrava in Madrid

The Needle by Calatrava, or as he says: “The Obelisk” is located at Plaza de Castilla, in the north of Madrid, next to the “Puerta de Europa” towers and the new CT Business Area. It is a present by the Caja bank to the city of Madrid at the occasion of its 300th anniversary.

A large movable sculpture formed by a central tube of steel covered by a skin of 462 bronze bars that can be moved by means of a hydraulic system. The central tube rests on an auxiliary steel structure that spans over the different tunnels and galleries located beneath the square. The foundation elements are three concrete piles with a diameter of 1m.

On both side of the obelisk you can see the twin leaning towers of Puerta de Europa (114 m, designed by Philip Johnson), behind it the Torre Caja Madrid (250 m, designed by Lord Norman Foster) and partly two other skyscrapers (Torre Sacyr Vallehermoso and Torre Espacio, both 236 m)

The Kiwis won the Auld Mug

After a 6-1 standing this morning ETZ needed just one more win to first reach 7. It performed during the first race today in Bermuda and won the 35th edition of the America’s Cup.

It is a pity that the Americas Cup bobos have decided to keep the entire video coverage of the matches behind pay walls. I have been following the event with interest but feel the matches should be streamed for free like the last time in SFO.

That is also the reason I have been publishing nothing about this 35st edition of the America’s Cup.

Paris National Library

Paris, France.

On 14 July 1988, President François Mitterrand announced the construction and the expansion of one of the largest and most modern libraries in the world, intended to cover all fields of knowledge, and designed to be accessible to all, using the most modern data transfer technologies, which could be consulted from a distance, and which would collaborate with other European libraries. Book and media logistics inside the whole library was planned with an automated 6.6 km Telelift system. Only with this high level of automation, the library can comply with all demands fully in time. Due to initial trade unions opposition, a wireless network was fully installed only in August 2016.

In July 1989, the services of the architectural firm of Dominique Perrault (www.perraultarchitecture.com/en/homepage) were retained. The design was recognized with the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 1996. The construction was carried out by Bouygues. Construction of the library ran into huge cost overruns and technical difficulties related to its high-rise design, so much so that it was referred to as the “TGB” or “Très Grande Bibliothèque” (i.e. “Very Large Library,” a sarcastic allusion to France’s successful high-speed rail system, the TGV). After the move of the major collections from the rue de Richelieu, the National Library of France was inaugurated on 15 December 1996. As of 2016, the BnF contains roughly 14 million books on its 4 parisian sites (Tolbiac, Richelieu, Arsenal, Opéra) as well as printed documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, maps and plans, scores, coins, medals, sound documents, video and multimedia documents, scenery elements…” The library retains the use of the rue de Richelieu complex for some of its collections.

Source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblioth%C3%A8que_nationale_de_France