Bright sparks, wow and a cute little thing

After last week's doom and gloom I thought I'ld better make up for it.
Driving to work early in the morning this time of year means that I'm in my car before sunrise. The day is breaking but the sun not up yet which results in vibrant colours. Nope, no pictures, I'm driving :-)

Two bright "stars" were clearly visible against the blue sky and these two "stars" were very close together making me conclude that they probably weren't stars as it were the only two heavenly objects visible (except for the moon). The next day they were still there but a bit further apart so I deduced that they had to be planets. But which? A quick internet search learned me that it was Jupiter and Venus:

Monday 18 August 05:45 (local): Venus is 11,9' north of Jupiter (-1,3m). They are closest at 07:10,at a height of 21°. The planets are in ENE about 8° above the horizon, 12' separation.

Those of you who saw it too may have marvelled at it just like I did. Staring at the infinity of universe always is very comforting to me.


Talking about the universe, here's a picture from astronaut Reid Wiseman currently serving as flight engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 41. If that ain't "wow" I don't know what is...

The US celebrated Aviation Day this week. Wiki learned me that it was established in 1939 by Franklin Roosevelt, who issued a presidential proclamation which designated the anniversary of Orville Wright's birthday to be National Aviation Day.So let's celebrate as well with a picture from the unlimited Farnborough source. This time it is from this year's event, and I chose something that epitomises the joy of flying: the Starduster. It's a nice little homebuilt, if you want one, you can order plans and parts here.

And to get you into the right mood, here's the brave show it put up at Farnborough:

Do you have the stomach for it, promisses promisses and backfire

To all of you whom believe we are living in countries that defend the basic principles of human rights, freedom, privacy and democracy, please read this book: 'No Place To Hide' by Glenn Greenwald. I bought it in a whim and didn't regret it. Put all your prejudices and everything you heared about Snowden aside and read it with an open mind. Then draw your conclusions. But beware: you have to have the stomach to do it because reading it risks making you sick.





In the mean time Rasmussen, NATO's boss, tweeted this yesterday whilst there was unclarity about Ukraine and Russian fighting:

Things like that make me worry, really worry. They all hapilly come over to Belgium to commemorate the start 100 years ago of WWI and make speeches who horrible it all was, but they don't seem to grasp that they are playing with fire once again.


In the mean time on the financial markets, George Soros is making one big bet on stocks crashing. When people like him do that, people tend to take notice. When that news broke it became official that Germany and France are in a recession (not that they call it like that). The Portuguese bank which went belly up was bailed out by the taxpayers and broken into a 'good bank' and a 'bad bank'. Compare this with what Mr Barroso said 6 months ago: "Banks, not taxpayers, will carry the cost for their own mistakes". Right copy that Mr Barroso. Reality is yet again different from the statements and promisses made by politicians.

This is turning out a rather dark blog isn't it...

So let's brighten it up. One of my friends (@Arielshocron) posted some wonderful pictures of a Tu-22M on twitter. I know, it's a Soviet bomber. That's not why I put it up, I do this beacuse for us aviation nuts it is an emblemic airplane and a very beautiful one as well. I saw it only once back in 1992 in Farnborough. Here is the proof!

Just a question, social media prevents war, byebye US Dollar and some happiness

Lots has happened in the world since my last blog. And not much of it is good.
MH17 went down, Gaza is under attack, Libya becomes more unstable by the day, Syria goes from bad to worse,  Argentina was pushed into bankruptcy by a US court. I could write pages and pages about every single catasptophy but the net is already overflowing with propaganda and other nonsense so I won't.

Just 2 things before we move to another subject that maybe brings a smile on your face. If only people would smile more, we wouldn't be in such a mess.
First the serious stuff:
1. Just a question no mass media journalist seems to ask: if MH17 was shot down by a rocket, why is there shrapnell damage to various sections of the airplane? With all propoaganda (from all sides) that started flowing minutes after MH17 went down, I found social media (twitter, youtube) to be very useful as it quickly uncovered lies and misinformation that was (purpously or not) reported in mass media. With the 100 year commemoration of WWI it makes me think: if social media would hae been around in 1914, would the people have been able to prevent war from errupting? And the other way around, if social media would not have been around today, would MH17 and the mass media reports have pushed us helplessly into another period of cold war (at best) or war (at worst)?

2. On July 15, something happened that did not hit the mass media in our Western world and it should have as it will fundamentally change the world as we know it today. The BRICS set up their own "IMF", providing it with capital and undertaking to trade beteen them not in US dollars but through currency swaps. You can not overestimate the importance of BRICS telling the world "scr#w the US Dollar". The US will not take this lightly and if BRICS is succesful it will mark the beginning of the end of US (Dollar) world dominance. Here's an excerpt from the press release:
"We are pleased to announce the signing of the Treaty for the establishment of the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) with an initial size of US$ 100 billion. This arrangement will have a positive precautionary effect, help countries forestall short-term liquidity pressures, promote further BRICS cooperation, strengthen the global financial safety net and complement existing international arrangements.... The Agreement is a framework for the provision of liquidity through currency swaps in response to actual or potential short-term balance of payments pressures."

That were the serious bits, now for the smiles:

With my change of job I upgraded from an old cell phone (the boring stuff that can only make phone calls and send a text messages), to a smartphone. I'm still struggling to make the smartphone do what I want it to, making me wonder why on earth they call it a 'smart'-phone. And then I came across this:

And my new job brought me to Farnborough for business! First time I went was back in 1990 and 1992. As I said during a speech I had to give during a reception: in those days the stars of the show were a big twin engined airliner from across the Atlantic and some fighter aircraft from a country that had just opened its borders. Since then the world has changed a lot. In those days I could spend 2 full days taking pictures at the threshold of runway 24. This time, although being there for a week, I could only sneek out once to get some quick shots. But hey, I'm not complaining!

The good thing about the WorldCup, library books and change of command

The good thing about the WorldCup football is that there is nothing to watch on tv if you don't like football (like me). So that leaves plenty of time to read a good book.
Number two of my recent harvest is now also consumed. 'Flash Boys' is written in the same investigative style we know from Michael Lewis. It tells the (true) breathtaking story of Wall Street boys who come to realise that they are getting screwed by HFT's (high frequency traders) an decide to fight them. It shows that even well meant regulation is just another tool for people apt in finding loopholes to take benefit. I wonder why there no Belgians on Wall Street... we're good in finding loopholes in regulations! Maybe the Russians are just better than us (lots of HFT firms are stacked with Russian traders).
The "benefit" for HFT firms equals billions of dollars per year. With >90% of all orders placed on the stock exchanges coming from HFT's and >50% of all orders executed coming from HFTs one can rightfully wonder if this is still worthy the name of investing. Afterall they only hold shares for some microseconds and only execute an order when they can act as middle man: meaning only when they have someone to sell it from and someone else to sell it to, so they never take any risk either. The book is highly recommended except if you have some shares yourself and suffer from imsomnia, then reading the book will not help you...


With that book being finished I was strolling around my local library desparatly trying to find something else to read. And it struck me that the fate of library books are to be rejected more than chosen while owned books are read once but cherrished forever. I'm still recovering from that rare moment of insight...


On June 12, I was invited to attend the official ceremony of the change of command of one of the Belgian airforce basis. The ceremony was very impressive and the reception afterwards very well attended! As the picture below tells you I was sitting on the second row :-)

Buy a microscope, first harvest and I saw Joey

There you have it. The ECB lowered once again the interest rate so you can bet that banks will follow suit. So throw away that magnifying glass you used to look for your interest payments on your savings account and go find yourself a microscope. Before the crisis the public had no clue what "percentagepoint" meant. Now we are all too familiar. If the ECB and banks continue like this we will soon hear a new financial term "per mille". The overnight interest rate even goes into negative teritory for the first time in history. This means that when banks park cash with the ECB overnight, they have to PAY for it. If you have a savings account, do not expect any return soon (soon = years).

My former colleagues gave me a book voucher (much appreciated), and this is the first harvest.
I started off with "The theory that would not die". This book should be compulsory reading for anyone who wants to study mathematics and for anyone who hates mathematics. It reads like a "whodonnit" and shows with fascinating stories how Bayes rule helped in the cracking of the enigma code in Bletchley Park, how it helped in searches for U-boats during WWII and how it was used to locate the wreckage of AF447. Those who don't know Bayes rule here's a simple quote from the book "it's a logic for reasoning about the broad spectrum of life that lies in they grey areas between absolute truth and total uncertainty". The book also discusses who could claim the discovery of the mathemathical practice. Frankly I don't care but I did like how they described Laplace's important role in it. Wonderful reading, just wonderful.

And I saw Joey! In my blog of January 10 of this year, I mentioned the that Aurigny Air Services (the carrier operating from the Channel Islands) is considering the Dornier 228 as a replacement for their Britten Norman Trislander. As I was holidaying in Guernsey I wanted to at least get a glimpse of the Trislander (affectionately referred to as Joey by the islanders). And here you have it in final to EGJB (Guernsey airport).

Whom shall we vote for, minds of our own and a thing of beauty

The European elections are just over one week away and at least here in Belgium we hear hardly anything about them. Of course they are overwhelmed here by the national and regional elections but still. With Europe determining the largest part of our laws and holding the keys in its hands of our financial and economic future, a little bit more attention would be welcome.

In comes Joe Stiglitz. The regular reader of this website will know him (for the others: Stiglitz is one of the most renowned economists globally and Nobel price winner). He just published a slide presentation where he effectively slams the European politics and policy and he proposes a way out of this mess. His main message: the eurocrisis is not over contrary to what politicians now shout from the rooftops. Some of the proof can be found below but I do recommend anyone that wants to cast an informed vote to go through the full presentation.
Not that I agree with (all) his proposed solutions but his analysis does give plenty of food for thought. And, be careful, he also says that the US will never have a eurocrisis because the US can print as many dollars as they want. Of course he is right, but what he fails to mention is that every time, and throughout history there has been NO exception,  any nation that has printed money in the amounts the US is doing now at least one of the following (and often all of the following) happened: inflation, hyperinflation, recession, breakdown of the financial and economic system, war.

All slides from Joe Stiglitz presentation

Two weeks ago the main Flemish economic newspaper offered a small book to its readers that came with the weekend edition. The title: Modern Minds. The subject: is our brain coping with the ever increasing speed of society, work, technological developments? Because after all, our brain has not developed any further since we were living in caves. So this caveman brain that we still have, is it able to cope with today's world? And, won't we be overpowered soon by computers? Will computers not be smarter than us humans? There is too much in the book to explain it all here, but a few things jumped out for me. Firstly, we seem to be able to cope with maximum 100 to 150 social contacts. Anything bigger we can't manage. I've read this before in another book (Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell) and some companies organise themselves such that any business unit is never bigger than 150 people. Secondly, recent studies have shown that we daydream about one third of the time. The thing is, when we daydream our brains become very active! It is often when we stop putting pressure on our brain (by thinking intensively about a certain problem) that suddenly out of the blue the solution pops up in a 'eureka' moment. Seems that what is happening in our brains when we relax and daydream, our grey cells light up like a Christmas tree in Harrods. What is happening is that we see some kind of chaotic behaviour that suddenly creates something new (in this case an idea or a solution). And I have read about this in another very recommendable book: 'The Edge of Chaos' by Mitchell Waldrop. Isn't it wonderful when pieces fall together! All this to say that Modern Minds is a very enjoyable little book that makes you think... which is not good because our brains perform better in idle!

I had the chance to wonder around the Airbus 350-900 this week and found myself staring at what is possibly the most beautiful piece of design on any airplane in the last decades. The curved winglet appeals to anyone with a sense for geometry, style and design. I would have to see a drawing of it to do some calculations but I wouldn't be surprised if the golden ratio is hidden in its dimensions (golden ratio: if the ratio of two quantities is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities).
Marcel Dassault once said that if an airplane looks good, it flies good. If that is the case, the 350 will be one smooth ride!

Reset all, what is wrong with us and a see breeze

I've just finished reading this book: The Big Reset by Willem Middelkoop.  The author is Dutch and I've been following him for a while (on twitter) and was eager to learn what he had to say in his latest publication. The book was first published in English (so good news for you all) but I waited for the Dutch version to appear (lazy as I am). It has the benefit that it was already slightly updated as it includes some reference to the recent tensions on the Crimea. This may make you wonder what the book is about. Well it is about finances and more specifically about the Dollar as the world's reserve currency, how this has given the US a major advantage over the rest of the world, how the US has and is doing everything to keep their status and - this is the interesting bit - how this is all coming to an end. Hence the title 'The Big Reset'. Whilst I did not learn much new, it is still enlightening to read it all in one book which connects all the dots and makes you look at some events in a different way. If you think this book is about some wild complot theory you'll be disappointed. If you think you'll read about the upcoming financial armageddon, you'll be disappointed too. It does present you with many facts and does point to what may happen next. It is not so pretentious that it gives you a scenario of the world financial future, nor does it give a timeline of what will happen when. And that's good, if the author would have done that, he would have lost all credibility. But the facts do lead to a certain direction our financial future will take and understanding this is of utmost importance for our (individual) financial future. And, not unimportant, it is an easy read as it is written very fluently avoiding financial speak.

Look at this mind boggling infographic. Things like these are often used to show the speed of development and technological progress. But to be honest, it scares the hell out of me. Millions of people don't have access to drinkable water but we do have an average of 3 connected devices per person on this planet. What is wrong with us?

In the mean time, researchers found for the first time an Earth-like planet in a habitable zone around a star (see here). And it is close by, only 500 light years away which is neglectable in the infinity of our universe. The atmosphere seems to be all CO2 so breathing for us might be a problem. But as it will take a while before we get there, we'll probably have mutated by that time so that CO2 will smell like a fresh see breeze.

Sweden has a problem, Europe an even bigger one and a visit well worth it

Ain't life weird. Greece issued for the first time since years new government bonds and they were oversubscribed 6 times! One of our Belgian top economists even found it necessary to state on national tv that "Greece is the only one that is still offering a reasonable interest". The interest he refers to is 6% and yes that's a lot more than anyone else but, and he didn't mention that did he, Greece is still virtually bankrupt. The only reason that banks are buying the bonds is because of the interest rate and because they have seen that European politicians are not going to let any euro-country default. In contrast Sweden, which has one of the healthiest government finances in the world, had difficulties placing its government bonds. Everyone who is not blinded by the hunt for interest will see that this situation is crazy. Question is: how long will it last before it blows up (again) in our face?


"Human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe now face a crisis unprecedented since the 
end of the Cold War. Serious violations – including corruption, immunity from prosecution, 
impunity, human trafficking, racism, hate speech and discrimination – are on the rise throughout the 
continent. People’s rights are also threatened by the impact of the economic crisis and growing inequalities. 
The Council of Europe and its member States must act urgently to stop this erosion of fundamental rights.": this is the opening paragraph of Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, in a just released report titled: State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Europe.
In the document they list following shocking numbers:

• Discrimination against ethnic and national minorities: 39 of 47 states
• Overcrowded prisons: 30 states
• Corruption: 26 states
• Police misconduct: 23 states
• Violation of human rights of immigrants and asylum seekers: 20 states
• Human trafficking: 11 states
• Limited freedom of speech: 8 states

In addition they found countries where the judicial system is completely corrupt and they fear that unemployment and poverty in some countries will drive the population to extremism and confrontation.

Yes I know the membership of the Council of Europe is larger than the EU. But with scores like 39 or 30 states out of 49, many EU countries are involved too. None have been named though because of... political pressure. Freedom of speech???

I was scrolling through some photo albums and came across a trip to Seoul in 2007. Every aviation enthusiast has heard about the Smithsonian in Washington DC and, if in the neighbourhood, has visited it (like I did). But I can recommend the Korean War Museum too. Tragic as the Korean military situation has been over the past 50 odd years, they do have a smashing collection! What else would you call following line-up: O-1G Bird Dog, S-2 Tracker, KT-1, T-37, C-46, C-123, H-5H, MiG-15, OH-23G and so much more! So when you do find yourself in that corner of the world, go and have a look, it is well worth it.

O-1G Bird Dog   Picture Kris Van der Plas

OH-23G   Picture Kris Van der Plas

MiG-15    Picture Kris Van der Plas

H-5H   Picture Kris Van der Plas

S-2 Tracker   Picture Kris Van der Plas

C-123   Picture Kris Van der Plas

C-46   Picture Kris Van der Plas

T-37   Picture Kris Van der Plas

KT-1   Picture Kris Van der Plas

Solar Impulse, deep water and a birthday

A new plane was presented this week. Not a Boeing, not an Airbus, not a Bombardier or Embraer.
Nope, a real visionary airplane: the Solar Impulse 2.

Read all about it here.

And this is how it looks.

Picture by Solar Impulse

The data are pretty impressive too:

Picture / data by Solar Impulse

I saw its predecessor once when it visited EBBR. What struck me was the speed (or rather the lack of it) as it flew by. With the Impulse 2 the aim is to do a non stop flight around the world.

About another flight(the MH370), I saw an interesting graph about the challenge of finding the airplane if indeed it came down where the latest pings were heard. Have a look here. One of the things that struck me was that it took 73 years to locate the wreck of the Titanic and if confirmed MH370 is in an area where the seabed is even deeper.

And I had a birthday this week. I received this card from twitter: I'm now a 4 year old twitterer. I don't tweet a lot but I do find it an excellent news source. Once you've found some key twitterers, you get news a lot faster than through the traditional channels (websites, newsreports, radio, ...). It's like being your own press agency. And you can also get the news from different involved actors which gives you in general a much better perspective on the event. Much better than what traditional newspapers/agencies provide you with. So thank you twitter for being around!

CHAT but I prefer sulking in silence, Top Gun II

Not sure what to think of this bit of scientific news: software translated the whistle of dolphins in real time. The thing is called Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry (CHAT). So far only one word was translated but analysis is continuing and scientists hope to be able to communicate with dolphins by Summer. Now imagine, just imagine this would become reality. First question would be: do dolphins know grammar? Do they have names for relatively new things (like boats, fishing nets, ...).  But the real big question for me would be: would we want to speak to them? And more worryingly what would they have to say about us humans?

I have a cat at home. I don't have a CHAT (Cat Hearing and Telemetry), but I don't need one. We understand each other perfectly well. Just a look, the way she parades through the house, the slightest sound, is enough to know what she wants or what she wants me to do. She can entertain complete conversations based on her facial expressions alone. I talk to her, and she understands me very well (note: I didn't say she obeys, she's a cat and she knows it!). Now would I want a CHAT device that allows me to communicate with her? No, I don't think so. Frankly, I am pretty sure I don't want one. Just imagine getting home from work and the cat starting a long story about all the birds (and mice and bees and so much more) that she saw through the windows. That wouldn't be too bad. But then she would start nagging to get outside, or to get some food (the candy like ones, not the ordinary ones), or to go and inspect the garage... Or, and this is the real deal breaker, when the wife gets home, she would go and tell all the stuff I've been up to whilst she was out! O no, my cat and me are pretty happy with the conversations we have without a CHAT. When I choose to ignore her I pretend not hearing her begging to open the door or get some tasty whiskas temptations. And when she is angry at me, I don't get to hear why, she just turns her back and sulks in silence. And that's how I like to keep it: whenever there is a slight disagreement between us, I prefer continuing moping in silence.

And some other exciting news, although we'll have to wait longer than this Summer for it to become true:  a sequel of Top Gun is on the charts! Producer Jerry Bruckheimer said such a movie is getting closer to reality. The idea would be that all pilots have become redundant because of the use of drones and that Pete "Maverick" Mitchell would prove that pilots will always be needed. That's an interesting intake! I just hope that they won't make any basic flying errors in their filming as they did in the 1986 movie.
But as this movie has probably inspired many guys and girls from my age to start flying, another such movie is mostly welcome! The star in the original Top Gun was the F-14 Tomcat. And... you know me, just for nostalgia reasons here are some pictures of that variable wing! Whilst you scroll through them, enjoy listening to Berlin: take my breath away!

F-14 which I built about 25 years ago

F-14 at Koksijde 1992

F-14 at Koksijde 1992

Being a contrarian helps, don't take your aircraft for a spin and nice-sounding jargon

Obama made a blitz-visit to Brussels (less then 24h) and the whole country became victim of Obamania.
Police had warned car drivers not to drive to Brussels during the Obama visit as the complete city would be in gridlock. I chose to ignore the advise figuring everyone else would listen to the police and I would have a pleasant drive to work. So I did and had the swiftest most relaxing morning drive into Brussels ever. Sometimes it really helps being contrarian!

In our airspace it was less pleasant. EBBR shut down for Air Force One to get in and out. Obama flew with Marine One a return between EBBR and EBKT which basically shut down the main part of Belgium. This is the chart that went with the NOTAM...

So unless you wanted to test the interception alertness of the Belgian airforce, taking your aircraft for a spin was not a good idea.

And I can't help but also post this table which crossed my internet travels this week:

Do you think there is a problem in the eurozone with non-performing loans? Non-performing loans is nice-sounding jargon for loans that are not being paid back. Nothing to see here, please move on.

The possibilities are infinite, I am not that important

They found proof! They had to build a giant telescope on the South Pole to do it but if validation comes out

Image: Steffen Richter (Harvard University)

positive there is proof that the big bang inflation theory is no longer a theory.
We all heard about the big bang but very little does public know that some observations were contradicting the big bang. If our universe is 13,8 billion years old, why are some galaxies more than 13,8 billion light years apart? That is impossible if the speed of light is indeed the top speed in this universe. And why are temperature differences almost non existent at opposite sides of the universe? That's not something one would expect in a big explosion like the big bang either. So they came  up with a tweak to the theory in the eighties that the big bang actually should not be seen as an explosion but as an enormous inflation within the first fractions of the second when the big bang occurred. They are talking about 10^-34 second. And to give you a bit of an image, compare it with someone flicking a light switch. First there is nothing, and then - click - the whole universe is there! The technical proof that confirms this theory can be found here. By the way it also provides evidence for gravitational waves which were theorised upon by Einstein 98 years ago.

But let's look at what it all means. There are many conclusions to make but two are particularly interesting.

Our universe might indeed be infinite! It may, and does probably, stretch beyond our horizon (we can't look further than 13,8 billion light years, ie the distance light travelled since the big bang, As the universe came into being in an inflation there may, and probably are, galaxies way beyond our horizon. Secondly, there are multiple, possibly infinite, universes! They may have different properties than ours (physical parameters may be different), but there are an infinite amount of universes. If you want to understand more about multiple universes and alternative histories I can recommend 'The Grand Design' by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow.

I let your imagination run wild on what this means for us humans. In the history of the Earth we have only been around for a fraction of time, there are now more than 7 billion people on this planet, our solar system is just a dust particle in our galaxy, our galaxy is just a blimp in the universe that we can see, our universe is infinite and there are an infinite number of universes. So let's face it, we are not that important are we.