Oscar Niemeyer dies at 104

Oscar Niemeyer single handedly changed Brazil - he not only designed the capital Brasilia but with his clean Modernist architecture with a Brazilian twist put Brazil right at the front of modern architecture and in the 20th (and 21th) century. My favorite: The Brazilian Palacio da Alvorada - breathtakingly beautiful...
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The Newseum, Washington DC

Nice view of Washington from the terrace

The TV tower from the WTC

Piece of Berlin Wall
Front pages from 9-11
 What a great idea to have a news museum. This is really a great new attraction in Washington. It has great exhibitions about Newspapers (remember those?), Radio, TV and new media.
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Alexandria Va

Alexandria is a sweet little town on the border of the Potomac. I was never been there but the shops, restaurants etc tasted like more. This seems a perfect place to stay over when you need to be in Washington DC. The Blue line has a great connection and the atmosphere is village like...
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The day we went into antiques


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On the Potomac River




We went from National Harbor to Alexandria, Va to take the blue line to Washington DC. It was fun to be on the river for a while and to see all the monuments of Washington from the water.
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The end of doctors as we know them...

iHealth bloodpressure (do not worry - I was just fine)
Visi Mobile sensoring
It is almost to much information - but Marijn and I just manage to soak it all up. And the ideas and concepts are bubbling all over. It is good to notice that mHealth is really at the beginning of its fully potential and that everybody is wildly enthusiast to work in this area. Also nice is that this really could make a difference in peoples' lives and will actually saves lives. Most of the start ups here have as a goal not just to make profit but to save X amount of lives - sweet!
Sensors all over the place and the iHealth company makes a couple of the best ones. The app interface is stunning and an example. A question that is addressed in a lot of talks is about patient generated health data and what to do with that. Most doctors now are not interested in that kind of data but one of the most common shared opinions here is that doctors will have to chance rapidly the way they think and act.
Will we have a society without doctors? Maybe! Analytics will be done by computers (better, faster, cheaper), Care will be done by nurses (better, humane, cheaper). So the workday of a doctor is a couple of years: in the morning 3 or 4 really intensive long lasting talks with patients about their decease and treatment - the afternoon scanning various Patient generated health data streams to pick out the ones that need more research.. No more 10 minutes patient visits - less hands on treatment.
The role of the nurse will become even more important - I am happy with that.
Attendees here expect that all to happen withing the next 5 years - too fast? Not if you look at other industries and remember that the cost of Health care is out of control and that Africa and Asia will leap frog us in this perspective...
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Sunny Maryland


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National Harbor and the Gaylord Convention Center

Potomac room - huge!

Aloft Hotel - where we stay

(high tech) X-mas tree with Potomac river view

Gaylord Convention Center
The mHealth Summit takes place in National Harbor, Maryland, just under Washington DC. This is a brand new development, sort of gated community with a "one way in / same way out" entrance. It is actually not bad. The Gaylord Convention center is huge (even by American standards) and can easily accommodate the more then 4.000 attendees that are expected here. Doctors, nurses, care professionals, IT people and people like Marijn & myself. The weather is amazing: high 60's - so no need for a coat.
Every day will start at 07:30 and last till at least 18:00. Packed with presentations. Themes cover things like latest research methods, gaming for treatment, the use of mobile in care communication, messaging in developing countries, global mHealth etc etc.
Lot's of people here to from the UN and from Africa and Asia, where sometimes people do not have clean water - but do have a mobile phone. Marijn and I are more interested in smartphone apps and their mHealth implications.
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The lumia 920 feels great - the MS surface not at all

The first thing in Washington was to head to the Pentagon Fashion Mall and to get some new stuff for the upcoming days. At the Microsoft Store (which as usual was pretty empty compared with the packed Apple Store) we finally could hold and test the Nokia Lumia 920 and it was amazingly nice, super fast and just a sweet gadget. It is a pity we still have to wait until end January before we can have one ourselves. Not so good though is the MS surface - it feels and looks like a iLiad ereader from a decade ago. The new Acers / Sony's and even HPs with windows 8 on the other hand looked and felt better then expected and even the touch screen qualities of these devices took us a little by surprise.
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The day we took the bus to Washington DC

Marijn and I are off to Washington DC for the mHealth Summit. We expect 3 days of intensive lectures, talks, discussions and such about mHealth and hoped to be fully emerged in the eHealth business. As usual we prefer flying via London with BA - because of their (flat bed) service, but we did NOT expect to be picked up by the BA bus...
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Ford Cortina

This ad from the good old days. Actually a pretty car :-)
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Call me!


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Just one second - work in progress...

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Is Milking the new Planking?

It all started in Newcastle a couple of days ago - guys just pour a cart of milk over themselves - just for fun. (Oh yeh: and in front of a camera that is). Now also in in Edinburgh, Oxford, Nottingham, well everywhere you find students actually.  It looks silly, funny and wet and soon near you...
(Have a look at the video here: the fun starts at 33"

By the way - this video shows again that also in movies portrait is the new landscape. Read my earlier post this year.
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Last run

Nice picture of the Westrandweg run last Saturday in todays newspaper.
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Les Miserables

I am not a huge fan of Les Mis and that kind of musicals - but the trailer of Les Miserables, the Movie (by Tom Hooper) looks and sounds terrific. Anne Hathaway should get an Oscar for her performance in the trailer alone..
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Last medal (of this year)

Westrandweg run 10K
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All I want for X-mas

Glass sculpture by Kiley

18th century Travel Clock

Friendship Glass

Roman Coins
Found on the PAN art exhibition in Amsterdam...
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Copycats

Paris?


London?
Hallstatt?
In the outskirts of Shanghai stands a fake Eiffel Tower overlooking a replica of the Champ de Mars and rows of Parisian townhouses. This is not Disneyland in China, this is Tianducheng. Just an hour’s drive from China’s little Paris and you’ll find yourself in little London. Thames Town. A replica of entire historical Hallstatt was unveiled in the Chinese province of Guangdong earlier this year.
What's next? The rebuilding of The Netherlands? If so guys, please make it on a scale 2:1 :-)
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Test ride of Marijns' new (electric) scooter

hmmm... I am not sure if 18 kph is fast enough for me...
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