A barometer takes the temperature (?), and distant memories to chilean halcones

I stumbled over a small article on Reuters that wasn't picked up in mainstream media. It's important nevertheless: the Cypriot bail-in has apparently been raised to 47,5% (up from 37,3% - see http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/28/uk-cyprus-bank-idUKBRE96R03Y20130728). Let me translate that for you: everyone in Cyprus who had > € 100000,- on an account, will be robbed of 47,5% of everything above that € 100000,- mark. Yes 'robbed'. How else do you call it when politicians and European institutions decide that you loose a big part of your money. And don't give me anything of that: "the rich can afford it" nonsense. This is not about the rich. It is confiscation of savings, something people have worked for all their lives. Just imagine you just sold your house to go and live in a retirement home! Or you were saving to guy a house! Thank you very much says the bank and the government. And Cypriots should still count their blessings because if it hadn't been for some brave parliamentarians who blocked the first proposal of going through, the confiscation would have applied to all deposit holders, without a minimum.
In the mean time in Greece the situation is so bad it is heart braking. Our national radio 1 sent a reporter to Greece and he gave a description from the war zone: people have no money for medication, those who are diagnosed with cancer actually get a dead sentence as they don't have the money for the therapy, infants are brought in underfed, a three month baby had not gained any weight since his birth,  people who still have some money for food and medicine try to share as much as they can with others who don't, voluntary organisations are set up  for the distribution of food and medicine. Does this read like a refugee camp on the border between Syria and Turkey? Well this is what is happening in Greece right now. To add insult to injury, the Troika published this week its third review on Greece's second economic adjustment program saying "Greece continues to make overall, albeit often slow, progress under the Second Economic Adjustment Programme..." (http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/occasional_paper/2013/pdf/ocp159_summary_en.pdf)
But Europe is fine,all is well, the politicians are enjoying their holidays taking a break from the eurocrisis that seems only like a bad nightmare to them. And then surprise on their (the politicians) faces when they see the results of the latest eurobarometer. You can read the full Eurobarometer report here: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb79/eb79_first_en.pdf
Dear Mr Van Rompuy and Mr Barroso, your little project doesn't look well:

As I write this, aviation's walhalla is located at N43°59.06’ W88°33.42’. Google it and you will see a map of Wittman Regional Airport the home of the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh. Nope, I am not going to put up some pictures of this year's event. It's too painful to look at these whilst being stuck in an office in Brussels. But by all means have a look on their website: http://www.airventure.org/

It did make me think about those very first airshows I went to. Of course nothing comparable to Oshkosh but still. One vivid memory is of the Leopoldsburg Sanicole airshow. These were the days when public was still allowed close up to the action (I'm showing my age here...). In fact in this case, the barriers were right on the edge of the grass strip. Which resulted in these pictures. You have to excuse me for the poor quality, in those days I had a cheap camera with no zoom and no possibility to tweak the exposure or shutter speed. A basic push-the-button-swing-the-handle-5-times-to-get-to-the-next-frame camera. Yes I know I am that old already. In case you are wondering what the blurs are on the pictures: a Pitss Special S-2A of the Chilean Halcones (isn't that exotic to see in Belgium!), a Let L-410 (just after rotation) and the venerable Avro Shackleton (do you remember that airplane!? - bet they don't have one of these in Oshkosh :-) ). Those were the days!