The sugar is in the edges!

Whenever europeans see anything about America, they usually see New York, Philadelphia, LA, Miami or San Francisco. We base our views on these places. Having visited most of these places myself, I can vouch for the fact that they are exciting places to visit. But what most europeans don't realize is that these places are the outer edges of the country. In between New Your and San Francisco, there is 3000 miles of nail studio's, skating rings, graveyards and parking lots!

Having spent some time in illinois and Minnesota, the contrast between places like california was immense. Not just because of the bitter cold, but just the sight of it. There are better roads in India and Malaysia than in Chicago. There are dangerous cracks everywhere! Fast Food restaurants grow like weeds and giant cars polute the air towards a point where it hurts to breathe.

Yet, the people are the same extremely optimistic americans you see everywhere else. Which makes it even more unbelievable. Americans must be the most optimistic people in the world. I guess "the american dream" is still very much alive. "the dream" is the notion that anyone can and will succeed at being the best. Its called a dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it. Simple statistics will show you that.

But there I was, wandering the streets of Chicago. It did give me an opportunity to see the real America, which fascinated me. The real America is not times square, not Miami's south beach and not Hollywood Boulevard. The real America is a parking lot with a blockbuster, a seven-eleven, a barnes & Noble and burger king. around this block you will find row after row of stone and plywood homes, the odd cracked window and a giant monster of a car in the driveway. All this linked together by cracked roads and sidewalks which suddenly stop in the middle of nowhere. Above all this are pole after pole with electricity and telephone wires which get kocked out at the first sight of a medium-sized storm. I guess those low tax rates come around and bite you in the ass after all. Or perhaps oil pipelines in Iraq are more important than roads in Illinois. who knows.

So what makes it worth visiting this gray place? Simple! The american people! No matter how far the have sunk into debt, no matter what they have to deal with, you will not find an american down! they are friendly and optimistic, hard-working people, no matter what! That's commendable!

~ Jeroen Breukels

Beating gravity

Whenever you design and build something, its always exciting to see wether it works or not. With most devices, there is a gradual scale of success. For instance, a lawnmower or a radio can (on the one end of the scale) work or (on the other end of the scale) not work. And in between there is an area of limited success. The lawnmower or radio can "kind of work". Some grass is left standing and the reception is so so.

Now when you design and build something that needs to fly, you enter a field where there is no gray area between success and failure. You cannot say something "kind of" flies. It either flies or crashes! There is no room for mediocre functionality.  This is what makes aerospace an interesting and often unforgiving field. You either do your job 100%, because 99% means crash and failure.

And thus, the victory was sweet when the kiteplane took flight and flew wonderfully. The effect of vertical stabilizers on the lateral dynamic stability was wonderfully obvious. The coupling between the stabilizing effect of dihedral through slipping flight and the weathercock stability was something that was theorized about. And alas, reality concurred. It was a good day!

 

~ Jeroen Breukels

Why life on Palau Redang is better....

Last week I was on a small island called Palau Redang. Life on the island is something straight from the 19th century. Cows and chickens everywhere, old cars and even older buildings. The people of Palau Redang are incredibly sweet and they normally don't see blonde people with blue eyes. Instead of being weary of the strange foreigners, they had an insatiable curiosity. An almost child-like honesty in their way of communicating. Just blindly staring and smiling. I thought of the state of xenophobia everywhere else in the world. Polarisation between people as a result of terrorism and ethnic tensions. I couldn't help but feel like I was on a forgotten island where the ills of the world had simply passed by. These people were not concerned with terrorism. Who is going to invade their small little domain? what good would that do? and so they never had any need to be weary of outsiders. They simply indulged their curiosity by asking questions like: where are you from? does everyone there have yellow hair? why are you so tall? how many cows do you have at home?

And because everyone had no hesitation to honestly ask the questions they had on their mind, I felt like I had no hestitation to ask mine. What is life like on teh island? how much do you make a month? is that headscarf a nuisance or a virtue? How do you feel about having to swim fully clothed? do you feel it is unfair that you have to be covered up all the time and men don't? The answers were honest. No one felt uncomfortable, no one felt as if anyone could be offended. Just curious people from different parts exchanging ideas.

Palau Redang! A very small island, yet an example to the rest of the world!

~Jeroen Breukels

En terwijl de wereld slaapt....

Het is nu precies 4:15 s'nachts op een zaterdag. De wekker rukte me bruut uit mijn slaap. ik kijk net even naar buiten en het is echt net alsof ik de enige ben in Nederland die op dit moment wakker is. Nederland slaapt, maar Jeroen is wakker. raar eigenlijk. Maar vrees niet... nederland slaap zacht.... ik hou een oogje in het zeil ;) haha

~ Jeroen Breukels

2008??

2008 wordt een bijzonder jaar! ik voel het in mijn botten! Hierbij een herinnering aan mijzelf. volgend jaar de evaluatie, hebben mijn botten gelijk?

~ Jeroen Breukels

Een warme kerst...

Ik had het goede geluk dat ik kersmis kon doorkomen in de cariben. Na alle hollandse kou was ik wel even toe aan wat warmte. Tijdens het snorkelen voelde ik de kou uit mijn botten weglopen. het was zalig.

Maar het was ook een rare gewaarwording. Duikers lieopen het witte strand op met een kerstmuts op hun hoofd en een grote kerstboom wierp slechts een kleine schaduw vanwege de hoogstaande zon. Een kerstboom op een warm strand. het leek wel een grap, zo misplaatst zag het er uit. Maar het was geen grap... het WAS kerst... Van huis uit heb ik natuurlijk beelden meegekregen van een koude kerst met sneeuw. Daarom was dit wel een van de vreemdste edities van kerst die ik ooit heb meegemaakt!

volgend jaar weer :)

~Jeroen Breukels