Dear members of the KIVI History of Engineering Section
Things are not going well for us, to use an English understatement.
However, it is of course particularly annoying and damaging for young people and society as a whole that we cannot get Corona down for the time being.
The meetings for October and November and probably December cannot take place, unfortunately. Lectures in the Mekel Room of the Science Centre of TU Delft are not possible for the time being. The presentation of the Willem Wolff Prize to Het Industrieel Museum Zeeland in Sas van Gent has also been postponed. Together with SHT, Stichting Historie der Techniek, we were to present them with this prize for their unique collection of timepieces. See: https://industrieelmuseumzeeland.nl
So, unfortunately, it is entirely questionable whether we can still organise any activity this year, even in early 2021. Our travel commissioner is, however, in the starting blocks to allow the foreign excursion to Italy in April 2021 to go ahead again. It is just too early now to be further concrete about that.
It is evident that (foreign) holidays now and meetings in large groups are not allowed. But walking, cycling, petanque, golfing, playing tennis in pairs or threes or fours is, of course, agreed and actually recommended. And also walking the dog, and writing your autobiography, and weeding the garden, and calling each other etc. And you can always revisit a museum -with a mouthpiece on- for which you do have to make reservations first:
https://www.teylersmuseum.nl/nl
https://www.haarlemmermeermuseum.nl (Cruquius pumping station: just redesigned with "touch screens" and with new film)
https://rijksmuseumboerhaave.nl (with current exhibition Infected! and the new latest large room on Dutch Nobel laureates in science)
https://www.oyfo.nl/Techniekmuseum (new name for Heim museum in Hengelo)
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p038cfb4/watch-this-video-to-understand-the-biggest-idea-in-physics ("simple" film by the BBC about the general theory of relativity)
and of course also e.g. Nemo, Baggermuseum (Sliedrecht), the Maritime museums etc.
All the best to you in the coming weeks, if not months.
Stay healthy and look out for each other a bit!
Kind regards,
On behalf of the Board,
Frank van den Berg, chairman Ton de Liefde, secretary
PS - In the spirit of the US elections, and with a nod to Minister Grapperhaus, here is another message from Governor Cuomo of New York State about a planned wedding in Brooklyn with 1,000-and-some invited guests:
"I forbid that, 50 guests is the maximum. And that's fine too, by the way ..... At the end of the day, you have the same result and it's a lot cheaper."
