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Frank Brenner
Director General EUROCONTROL
My Lord Mayors, Directors General, CEO and Directors, distinguished guests, colleagues and friends of EUROCONTROL's Brétigny facility: a warm welcome to EUROCONTROL's Experimental Centre on this special occasion.
Today, you help us celebrate fifty years of the Experimental Centre's existence: fifty years in which it has played a pivotal role in leading research, development and validation in European air traffic management. We have received excellent presentations on the current research in the past hours and I would like to start by thanking the staff for their dedicated work in presenting the results.
It was over fifty years ago that the far-sighted founders saw the necessity of building a centre for developing and perfecting harmonised European solutions to solve the challenges that a rapidly expanding air transport industry was causing.
The founders' creation, the EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre, was housed – appropriately enough – on a military airfield. Its purpose was always to deliver workable, practical solutions for both civil and military airspace users.
The emphasis has always been on the pragmatic, the affordable and the possible – even with the blue sky research that was carried out. The constant aim has always been to deliver ideas, research and work that could be used.
Since the beginning, the EEC's main strength has been in its simulations. Over the last fifty years, we have accumulated considerable expertise in this area.
We have carried out many large-scale, real-time simulations that have facilitated countless air traffic management projects and programmes. We combine this expertise with our abilities in research and leading-edge innovation.
Not only did we come up with short-term solutions to time-based issues but we also undertook conceptual research – many elements of which are being applied today.
Another key element in our success over these last fifty years has been our insistence on partnership.
EUROCONTROL not only works for our 41 Member States but also with them. The Experimental Centre does the same.
Maurice Georges, the Director of DSNA in France, will speak to you just now and I feel sure that he will confirm this position.
The EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre did Research and Development and also experimented with new technologies for the Air Traffic Management. But EUROCONTROL was not the only one doing this, each Air Navigation Service Provider did its own Research which led to overlap in Research, as not all innovative ideas had yet been researched by everybody. There is benefit in competition in finding the best solution for the future. There is waste when duplication is done if results are only acceptable when done within the own perimeter's fence. Coordination in R&D through the SESAR programme is a very successful means of avoiding such duplication and waste. We contribute by building significantly in the Single European Sky Research Programme.
These achievements made have created our reputation. Indeed, on reviewing EUROCONTROL's strategy at a meeting of our Provisional Council last December, our Member States agreed that EUROCONTROL should continue to play a pivotal role in the research field.
The States also upheld our position as a founding member and influential player in the SESAR Joint Undertaking.
Florian Guillermet, the SESAR Joint Undertaking's Executive Director, will soon tell you more about the role that we have played as a founder and the largest contributor to the SESAR programme.
With a broad outlook and even balance, the Centre also works in very close cooperation with a variety of other partners, drawn from industry, academia, aviation authorities and air navigation service providers.
Naturally, we also rely on good cooperation with our neighbours – and we are glad to be on excellent terms with our neighbours here in Brétigny-sur-Orge. You will hear more about this from Olivier Leonhardt, Président Coeur d'Essone Agglomération, at first hand just now.
Together with our partners, we have notched up many successes. Pierre Andribet, the Centre's Head, will tell you about these, but I should like to highlight three of the most important ones.
To start with: simulations, as I said just now, were the raison d'être of the Centre. Over the years, they have become more sophisticated, more complex, more wide-ranging. History was written in this centre when German Civil and Military Air Traffic controllers battled over months on the best concept to choose: co-location or integration. In the end, the integrated model won. For instance, multi-state simulations have been run in the build-up for improving the workings of various FABs or Functional Airspace Blocks.
Secondly, the Centre was deeply involved in the preparation and setting up of the Central Flow Management Unit, which became the Network Manager. As part of this work, it played an important role in establishing the IFPS – one section of which is situated here in Brétigny-sur-Orge.
Finally, working closely with the Network Manager and EUROCONTROL's operational air traffic control centre in Maastricht has given sharp focus to our work, ensuring that it is rooted in reality.
Our research aims at delivering real value, real results for real world air traffic and flow controllers – across the entire continent of Europe.
Fifty years is as I know out of own experience, a good age to be: it also should show that a degree of maturity has been reached.
But all of us at EUROCONTROL know that the road to success is always under construction.
We are well aware that nothing stops an organisation faster than people who believe that the way they worked yesterday is still the best way to work tomorrow.
Although we are proud of what we have achieved over the last fifty years at the Experimental Centre, new challenges are upon us. For instance, Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems will add huge amounts of air traffic to the system: they will have to be dealt with intelligently. And with the increased data exchange and digitalisation cybersecurity just has to become our industry's watchword.
Their youthful spirit and can-do attitude that have always characterised the Staff of the Experimental Centre I am sure it will serve well over the next fifty years.
I have every confidence that the Centre will continue to handle all the challenges that confront it with the high degree of excellence and expertise that we have come to expect. Thank you to you all joining us here together.
Now, it is my pleasure to hand the floor to Maurice Georges, Director of DSNA, the Direction des services de la navigation aérienne, in France.


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Preparation Time
15 minutes
Root Beer or cream soda
Butterscotch (chips, sauce or both!)
Pour the (root beer/cream soda) in a cup, and the butter & butterscotch into a a small bowl.
Put the bowl of butter and butterscotch in the microwave and melt it.
Then put the root beer in the microwave, but not for long because you want it to be moderately warm, or it isn't fizzy and good anymore!
Pour some melted butter and butterscotch in the root beer but not too much!
Then pour some cream (coffee cream) in.
Then stir it all up.
It might take a few tries to make it to your liking!
budget101.com (submitted by: Rebecca, Kendall, & Sarah)

subset: commoncrawl


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The opening of the new Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises was marred by a horrible mass killing at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. According to news accounts, graduate student James Holmes legally purchased several guns (Way to go! NRA) and brought them into the theater to shoot spectators in his role at "the Joker." In a short period of time Holmes was able to buy two pistols, an assault rifle, a shotgun, and 1000s of rounds of ammunition without raising a bit of suspicion. Welcome to the USA!
Violence was in the air before the movie's premier as critics who panned the movie received death threats from ardent fans. I recall thinking that you'd have to be crazy to go to the opening night of a movie whose fans are threatening to murder critics who pan the film — it's a setup for violence! I never imagined, however, this type of violence.
News reports state that Holmes was born on 13 December 1987, probably in San Diego, CA, time unknown. I cast a sunrise chart and superimposed the chart for the time of the shooting around it:
We can always find things in a chart in hindsight to "explain" the events, so I will try to be as objective as possible under the circumstances and read the chart as if I knew nothing about the native.
What first strikes me is the Mars/Pluto conjunction in Scorpio. Mars and Pluto are both considered rulers of Scorpio so this conjunction is especially powerful. Mars is a symbol of the warrior and Pluto is associated with the discovery and use of atomic power. The combination of Mars and Pluto itself is a powerful one, suggesting a great deal of pent up energy that needs an outlet. The metaphor of a volcano is often used in the astrological literature to describe this conjunction. Whether this extremely strong energy is used constructively or destructively is up to the individual, but an intense level of seething energy is clearly indicated.
This chart also has a lot of fire. Jupiter in Aries with Mercury, the Sun, Saturn and Uranus all in Sagittarius suggest a very fiery temperament. So much fire suggests a person who is adventurous, freedom-loving, enterprising, passionate, expansive, wide-ranging in his thinking, and disdainful of restriction and societal limitations. With so much Sagittarius "energy," he is likely to want to make his mark on the world in a big way. This expansive side of him may be someone hidden to public view because his more modest Virgo Moon squares his Sagittarius Sun. There is a conflict between wanting to hide his light under a bushel basket and wanting to shine brightly for all the world to see. The fact that he dyed his hair bright red is consistent with the emphasis of fire in the natal chart.
His Sun conjunct Saturn and Uranus may reflect his self-discipline and interest in scientific and technical fields. Sun/Uranus is often quite willful and a bit eccentric or far-out in its thinking. This natal Sun/Saturn/Uranus conjunction opposes his natal Chiron, suggesting a struggle to heal a deep emotional wound involving fears of abandonment.
Natal Venus in Capricorn often indicates a certain shyness in social relationships (Venus in Saturn's domain) but at the same time a hearty sexual appetite (Venus consorting with the god Pan). There is a natal Venus/Jupiter square that heightens this tension between desiring intimacy and fearing close relationships.
The transits at the time of the shooting are significant for a fairly close T-square involving transiting Uranus in Aries opposing transiting Mars in Libra, with both square to transiting Pluto in Capricorn. This is a rather explosive T-square. The transiting Mars/Uranus opposition falls close to the meridian axis of Holmes natal sunrise chart, giving it special personal importance. Transiting Pluto of the T-square closely conjoins Holmes natal Neptune (illusion, fantasy, delusion, films).
Transiting Uranus at 8 Aries 31 Rx was applying almost exactly to square the fixed star Facies currently at 8 Capricorn 29. Normally I would dismiss this square but Facies conjoins transiting Pluto and participates in the T-Square in which both transiting Uranus and Mars square transiting Pluto and also Facies, which is a star associated with violence and ruthlessness (Hitler had Jupiter conjunct Facies in his chart. Brady wrote that Facies "represents the penetrating stare of a lethal weapon. It is one of the most difficult, and possibly the most violent, objects in the heavens. It gives a penetration of action that has no regard for others…Facies in a chart will indicate that the planet it touches will be very focused and driven…the push to achieve goals and aims may well become ruthless." Back in January 2012 Boots Hart wrote an essay about the Pluto/Facies conjunction that would be in effect all year and stressed that " it embodies a 'violent' energy, or the energy of violence, against which there is the wound of the victim." The fact that this Pluto/Facies conjunction occurs very close to Holmes Neptune (delusional thinking, among other things) strikes me as significant. The fact that transiting Jupiter (expansion) stresses the position of Facies with a quincunx serves to add fuel to the fire.
These are some preliminary thoughts. I'll be interested in what others have to say about this chart.
Addendum (July 21, 2012): A couple of people have commented on the similarity to Bradley Manney's chart. Manning was born just 4 days later than Holmes and in a different city. He is being held in solitary confinement for his role in exposing US atrocities in Iraq and releasing classified information. Several US law scholars have called his detainment unconstitutional under US Law. One could argue that Manning's Pluto/Moon/Mars conjunction in Scorpio indicates a strong emotional need to reveal a secret in an explosive and transformative way. Here is Manning's sunrise chart:


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Why capturing requirements in an Outsourcing Contract is difficult
By Mark Helme
Date 30 November 2010
The job that a contract has to do ought to be simple, even when the suppliers have to manage lots of complexity to deliver the services.
A contract will say what responsibilities the supplier takes on, and what they will be paid for doing so. Of course there are caveats and exclusions, and assumptions, and customer provided elements, and all the usual paraphernalia of a contract, but ultimately it comes down to the question: What is one party obliged to do for the other?
The problem is writing down exactly what you want and exactly what is supposed to happen when things go wrong. We've talked before about contracting with suppliers to sign up to outcomes, not inputs ( here ), and last time whilst addressing target setting and performance management we said that there was a real danger that the targets used to drive behaviour could backfire, sometimes spectacularly. People chase targets, in particular if they are likely to suffer financially from not hitting them.


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Set in a beautiful garden, Jason Lyle Black's music video, "Sacred Romance," is a moving song that seems to reach deeper than a typical love song.
The song is a part of Black's iTunes chart-topping album, Piano Preludes, which also reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top New Age Albums chart.
Lead image from youtube.com
Piano Preludes comes from producer Paul Cardall, a #1 Billboard artist and Steinway concert artist, and features 15 beautiful original piano and orchestral compositions by Jason Lyle Black.


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I am always looking for chances to work on films and the Dolls film seemed like a great opportunity for me. After seeing the position for 'Production Assistant' advertised at my university I checked out the website and straight away wanted to be involved. I love dark, creepy dark films and was intrigued by the proposed mix of live action and stock animation, but also the chance to work with people who are doing the very thing I want to do some day. My application process consisted of a barrage of online harassment via email to Emma (production manger), the film's Facebook group and Twitter. A couple of days later I got the job. I like to think it was my charming personality that secured me the position… but it was probably more to do with the fact I had a car.
After meeting at Elena's flat on day 1 our first job… loading the van with all the gear! Now I like to consider myself a reasonably fit person but it wasn't very long before the four flights of stairs leading up to Elena's flat were branded the Devil's architecture (particularly at 6am after a 12 hour shoot later in the week!)
Second job, picking up the actors before heading over to Lewes. Collecting Myka was easy, she was already waiting outside her flat but on arrival at Christina's there was nobody home! Luckily, hyper organised Emma had provided me with everyone's contact details in the event of such an occurence so I was straight on the phone. I was greeted by a slightly frantic but extremely apologetic Christina who hadn't made it home after her birthday celebrations the night before. After Christina had explained (what can only be described as a possible script idea for The Hangover 3!) I rearranged the pick up time and went on to Lewes to meet the rest of the crew. Luckily, we weren't able to film until it was dark so there was plenty of time for Christina to get home, re group and be picked up in time to be made up before filming. Although the start wasn't ideal for Christina it certainly didn't make any difference to her performance, as you'll see when the film comes out later this year.
Once the crew had all become acquainted with each other it was on to the first scene, a beautiful cobbled street in Lewes. My job was to set the 2.5KW light up at the bottom of the street and block the orange glow of the lampposts with flags to help set the mood of the scene. An hour later we were set and rolling. Filming always comes with logistical problems and shooting through the night in a residential area whilst using a mobile generator to power the gear must come pretty high on that list. After completing the first batch of shots the lights and smoke machine needed for a second angle needed to be be shifted half way up the inclined street. After Jay (editor) and myself had lost our body weights in sweat dragging the generator up the hill and had begun setting up we were 'greeted' with a rather unhappy resident wondering what on earth was happening. Despite being as quite as we could and having all the correct permissions from the police and local authorities to film at that night this resident clearly was very unhappy about a film set being constructed outside her house at 12:30am on a sunday night, and who could blame her. Again, my charm and personality failed me and despite Emma also attempting to appease the resident we could not persuade her to let us carry on. Out of respect we shut down the rest of the scene and moved on. This was a real blow to the production at this early stage but it was the right thing to do and we planned to do the scene later on in the week.
After packing down and moving across the road to the next location it was now getting on for 1:30am. The 2.5kw light was set, lampposts were flagged, everything was in place, we were good to go again. With this scene I really got chance to show off my multi faceted skill set, I was delegated 1st 'smoke wafter'. With my friend Jenn operating the smoke machine, for each shot I used a flag to waft the smoke into the frame, the back light creating that classic 'creepy' feel to the action. You'll have to wait to see if my finest work was successful or not, all I know is that the blister that appeared on my finger as a result proved the effort I put in!
At around 4:30am we wrapped, and apart from the obvious set back, we'd had a successful first shoot. The playback on the camera looked amazing.
For me the most amazing part of the night was being part of a team that, for the majority of which had only met earlier that evening, but worked together so harmoniously. The combination of everyone's enthusiasm and unrelenting effort spurred us on through the night and the final product will no doubt encapsulate the passion, energy and spirit present in all of us (Despite the very lovely, but very veggie based food provided that was fuelling myself and Rich (DoP) – both self confessed carnivores)
This was a great experience to be part of and I am very much looking forward to our hard work come to fruition in the final cut. I encourage you all to do the same.
Russ Stedman
Production Assistant


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Plus bikes, or 27+ bikes continue to grow in popularity as the perfect mix between traction on the trails, and rolling resistance, to give riders greater stability and off road capability. The VICE FS2.0 takes this ethos one step further, adding front and rear suspension from Suntour's premium Raidon range. The frame is custom designed by Reid and frame gurus Kinesis and utilises the proven 4 bar Horst linkage system and offers 120mm travel for confident decsents. Anti squat kinematics also improve pedalling efficiency and energy transfer when climbing. It further features double and triple butted tubing, 12mm rear through axle, boost spacing and a tapered steerer to name just a few of the latest frame technologies on offer with this model.
Key features:
- Rider developed custom geometry and tubing profiles to create a perfectly balanced lightweight and extremely durable 27+ full suspension frame with 120mm travel for confidence boosting riding on the trails
- Suntour Raidon front and rear suspension offering adjustable damping, hydraulic lock out functions and adjustable preload. The front fork also features the 15QLC2 thru axle for added rigidity at the front end
- KS eTENi 100mm travel post with remote handle bar control
- Shimano Deore 1×10 gearing with 11-40t rear cassette and FSA Comet MT Boost 148 chainset with 30t chain ring, Mega Exo press fit bottom bracket. Cable guides present if riders wish to add a front derailleur
- Shimano M365 hydraulic disc brakes with 180mm front rotor and 160mm rear rotor
- Formula sealed bearing thru axle hubs front and rear, with WTB Scraper i40 27.5″ rims. WTB Trailblazer 27.5 x 2.8″ tires.
|REID custom by Kinesis 6061-T6 alloy double and triple butted 27+ with Boost 148 spacing. Rear thru axle, tapered steerer, dropper post cable routing, designed for 120mm travel
|Suntour Raidon LO R 650B Plus with tapered steerer and 120mm travel, hydraulic speed lock and rebound damping adjustment
|Shimano Deore RH only
|Front derailleur
|N/A - Cable guides present
|Rear derailleur
|Shimano Deore M6000 SGS Shadow Plus
|Freewheel / cassette
|Sunrace MS3 10-speed cassette (11-40T)
|FSA Comet MT Boost, Mega Exo, 30T chainring
|Bottom bracket
|FSA Mega Exo
|Shimano M365 hydraulic with 180mm front rotor, 160mm rear rotor
|Brake levers
|Shimano M365 hydraulic
|Wheelset rim
|WTB Scraper i40 27.5
|Formula sealed bearing, 15mm front thru axle, 12mm rear thru axle
|WTB Trail Blazer Comp 27.5 x 2.8" wire beaded
|REID oversize alloy riser bar, 760mm
|REID 1 1/8 threadless alloy
|Velo rubber with anodized lock ring
|KS Crux 30.9mm dropper post with 125mm travel adjustment and remote
|VP 538 sealed bearing nylon platform pedal