Author: Willem

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Tuesday/ stamps from Belgium 🇧🇪

There were several stamps from Belgium on the outside envelope from my Ebay vendor in Antwerp, and I looked them up in the Scott stamp catalogue.

P.S. —The stamps that I buy on Ebay from overseas still come through without getting a tariff slapped on them. The de minimis exemption* for goods purchased from overseas suppliers will end soon, though.

*Historically, the US has had a de minimis exemption that allowed goods valued below a certain amount (currently $800, subject to change) to enter duty-free. However, the US eliminated the de minimis exemption for products from China and Hong Kong on May 2, 2025, and plans to eliminate it for all countries on August 29, 2025.
– Google AI Overview

1989 Belgium: Young Philatelists
Issued Oct 9, 1989
Perf. 11½ |Photogravure |No watermark
#1328 A575 9Fr Multicolored |Mr. Nibbs
*”The Adventures of Nibbs” is a Belgian cartoon series that was also adapted into a Brussels cartoon mural by the cartoonist Marc Sleen.
1991 Belgium: Tourism
Issued Jun. 17, 1991
Perf. 11½ |Design: Jacques Doppée & Paul Deweerdt |Photogravure & Engr. |Engraving: Patricia Vouez & Guillaume Broux |No watermark
#1406 A603 14Fr Multicolored |Neptune’s Grotto, Couvin
2016 Belgium: Qualifying Education (from minisheet of 5)
Issued Mar. 14, 2016
Perf. 12 |Design: Bart Van Leuven & Wim Vandersleyen |Litho. |No watermark
#2791a A1370 1.00€ Multicolored |Dredge near island, Abu Dhabi
[Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2018 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1]
1976 The 25th Anniversary of King Baudouin’s Regency
Issued Jun. 26, 1976
Perf. 11½ |Design: Anton Luyckx |Photo. |No watermark
Se-tenant pair from mini-sheet
#952a A374 20Fr Yellow-green |King Baudouin, in profile
#952b A374 30Fr Prussian blue |King Baudouin, in profile
[Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2018 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1]
1999 Belgium: Greeting Stamps
Issued Jan. 23, 1999
Perf. 11¾ |Design: Karl Meersman |Photogravure & Engr. |Engraving: De Schutter |No watermark
#1722 A738 17Fr Multicolored |Heart-shaped head on woman ‘Happy birthday Mama/ Long live Mama’
#1723 A738 17Fr Multicolored |Heart-shaped head on man ‘Long live Papa/ Happy birthday Papa’
[Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2018 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1]
2005 Belgium: Greeting Stamps
Issued May 9, 2005
Perf. 9 ¼ on 2 or 3 sides |Booklet panes of 10 |Design: Myriam Voz & Thierry Martin |Photogravure |Engraving: Offset |Self-adhesive |No watermark
#2095 A915 0.80€ Multicolored |Doves and wedding rings
#2096 A916 0.80€ Multicolored |Wedding rings
[Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2018 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1]

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Monday/ all the things we do not know 📈

Headlines and image from The Atlantic magazine online.

Can anything stop the stock market? The U.S. economy recently weathered the worst pandemic in 100 years, the worst inflation in 40 years, and the highest interest rates in 20 years. Yet from 2019 through 2024, the S&P 500 grew by an average of nearly 20 percent a year, about double its historical average rate. Despite President Donald Trump’s erratic economic policies, which include the highest tariffs since the 19th century, the market is already up by about 8 percent in 2025.

As the stock market soars ever higher, the theories of why it rises have suffered the opposite fate. One by one, every favored explanation of what could be going on has been undermined by world events. The uncomfortable fact about the historic stock-market run is that no one really knows why it’s happening—or what could bring it to an end.

-Rogé Karma, staff writer at The Atlantic.

Monday, Aug. 11, 2025
S&P 500: +8.6% year-to-date.
Nasdaq Composite: +11.1% year-to-date (new all-time high).
Dow Jones Industrial Average: +4.8% year-to-date.

We do know that the US stock market is overvalued— but by how much?
Rogé Karma closes out his excellent article by noting that the explosion of passive funds* over the past 15 years could explain why the market has become less sensitive to real-world shocks and headwinds.

It might keep going up, or something unforeseen may bring it down dramatically.

*A passive fund is an investment fund, like an exchange-traded fund (ETF) or index fund, that aims to match the performance of a specific market index, rather than trying to outperform it.

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Sunday/ it’s World Lion Day 🦁

World Lion Day is celebrated annually on August 10th. 

It’s a day dedicated to raising awareness about the challenges lions face in the wild and supporting their conservation. The day was founded in 2013 by Derek and Beverly Joubert to highlight the declining lion populations and the threats they face, such as habitat loss and poaching. 

The Lion Hotel in the city of Springs in South Africa, advertising Lion Beer, circa 1954. Lion Beer would later become Lion Lager. Lion Lager is a popular choice for various gatherings and social events to this day. It’s often enjoyed during braais (South African barbecues), sports matches, and family celebrations.
Lion safety matches. There was a time in the ’50’s in South Africa when an entire little box of 50 matches could be bought for one penny.
I had been to Botswana with my family for more than a dozen times by 1993, and even by then had never seen a lion in the wild from up close there.
When we were there in July 1993, though, one of the locals came to tell us of a lion that they had spotted nearby. Seven or eight of us piled into an open-top Jeep ( ! ), and I took this picture through the mopane leaves with a telephoto lens.
2018 Austria Copper €5 New Year’s ‘A Lion in Winter’ coin.
Artwork by David Pollack, used in Jell-o’s campaign of printed ads in LIFE magazine and others in the 1950s. The lion and a plate of Jell-O appeared in the ads, with the words
“When I’m eating Jell-O, I wish I were a lion .. because then I could roar for more of my favorite dessert! (Jell-O, of course!)”
I took this picture in New York City in 1999.
The Pleistocene Epoch, often referred to as the Ice Age, in Alaska, as with the rest of the world, extended from approximately 2.6 million years ago to 11,700 years ago.
Look at the center of the picture for the lions that once roamed in North America.
The North American lion, also known as the American lion, became extinct around 10,000 years ago along with several other large mammals.
[Picture taken inside University of Alaska Museum of the North, Fairbanks in 2023]
A ‘Hungry Lion’ fast food franchise in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in 2017.
A pride of lionesses inspect a remote controlled camera buggy.
I believe the photographer is Chris McLennan and that the pictures were taken in 2019. I’m sure it is in Africa, but I don’t have the specific location.
On a South African bank note from 1992: lionesses at the water hole, and a regal stare from the king of the beasts.
Luggage locker in Tokyo Station, Japan.
Lion figurine (model #17107) by toymaker Schleich.

 

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Saturday/ Kitsap’s fast ferries ⛴️

I took at few pictures today (at about 6 p.m. tonight) of the fast ferries from Kitsap Transit at Pier 50 on the Seattle waterfront.

The fast ferries are passenger-only, so no vehicles.
The first pictures shows the Enetai at the terminal, waiting to depart for Southworth on the Kitsap Peninsula.
The Solano is approaching in the distance, about to complete its 26-minute crossing.
The Enetai backs away and departs after the Solano has docked next to it at the terminal.

Another fast ferry arrived shortly after that— the Reliance— in from Bremerton.

The Southworth-Seattle crossing is about 26 minutes.
The Enetai and the Solano service this crossing.
Enetai at terminal, Solano coming in.
Enetai was built in 2020. She can transport 250 passengers and 26 bicycles at a cruising speed of 35 knots and a top speed of 37 knots.
Enetai at terminal, Solano coming in.
Solano spent 15 years shuttling passengers between the city of Vallejo and downtown San Francisco. The county is named after a Native American Chief.
She can transport 250 passengers and 23 bicycles at a cruising speed of 30 knots and a top speed of 32 knots.
Solano is in, Enetai departing.
Solano is in, Enetai departing.
Solano is in, Enetai departing.
Enetai departing.
The Bremerton-Seattle crossing is about 30 minutes.
The Reliance services this crossing.
Reliance has arrived and is backing in to dock at the terminal.
Reliance was built in 2019. She can transport 118 passengers and 12 bicycles at a cruising speed of 34 knots and a top speed of 37 knots.
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Friday/ 80 years on 🕊️

Survivors of the atomic bombing have campaigned for a world free of nuclear weapons. But 80 years on, that dream is fading. Three of Japan’s neighbors — Russia, China and North Korea — are nuclear powers, and Tokyo depends on the American nuclear umbrella to protect it. With tensions in the Pacific heightening and firsthand memories of nuclear devastation waning, more Japanese are questioning the national commitment to peace at all costs.
– Hannah beech reporting for the New York Times from Hiroshima

Sadly, it seems unlikely we will ever have a planet without nuclear weapons.
The world also stopped building nuclear reactors after some major accidents turned public support against it. Now we need them for fossil-free energy generation, and for all those power-hungry AI server farms.
By the way, I thought— how is that first fusion reactor coming along?

Google AI Overview says:
While the dream of practical fusion energy has been “30 years away” for decades, recent advancements and growing investment suggest a more optimistic timeline. While widespread commercial fusion power generation is unlikely before 2050 or 2060, some start-ups are aiming for electricity generation by the 2030s. The “ITER” research reactor* is scheduled to achieve first plasma around 2033-2034, and a demonstration reactor (DEMO) is planned for operation around 2050.

*A large-scale international nuclear fusion research project in France, aiming to build the world’s largest tokamak (a type of fusion reactor). The temperatures inside the ITER Tokamak must reach 150 million °C, or ten times the temperature at the core of the Sun. The hot plasma must then be sustained at these extreme temperatures in a controlled way.

I bought this little ceramic bowl at the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in 2016. It is the oldest operating public Japanese Garden in North America— built for the Winter Exposition of 1894.
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Thursday/ food for a strong stomach 💪

Here’s a cartoon from today’s Seattle Times— the ‘Loose Parts’ cartoon by Dave Blazek that frequently features animals.
I added a few notes. 😉

Vultures have special digestive systems adapted for consuming carrion (dead animals). Their digestive system is unique due to the presence of extremely strong stomach acid*, which helps them break down bacteria and toxins present in decaying meat. They also have specialized gut microbiomes: despite the harsh stomach acid, some bacteria survive and thrive in the vultures’ lower intestines (high levels of Clostridia and Fusobacteria, which are pathogenic to most vertebrates).
*The most acidic stomach acid in the animal kingdom, in fact, with a pH level that can be as low as 1.0. This high acidity is crucial for neutralizing harmful bacteria and pathogens that are often abundant in decaying flesh. 
[Source: Google AI Overview]
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Wednesday/ off Gough Island 🪨

Check out this cool 1979 envelope.
It was mailed paquebot off Gough Island, with all kinds of outrageous postmarks on the envelope.

Paquebot cancellations on postage stamps indicate that the mail was posted on a ship at sea and canceled at the ship’s next port of call.
The term paquebot is French for “packet boat” (steam ship, steam vessel) and signifies that the mail was handled according to international regulations for mail posted on vessels. These cancellations are distinct from regular postmarks and are often sought after by collectors. 

Postmarks and stamp on envelope—
S.A. Agulhas is a South African ice-strengthened training ship and former polar research vessel. She was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Shimonoseki, Japan, in 1978. S.A. Agulhas retired from Antarctic service in April 2012 when the replacement vessel, S. A. Agulhas II, was commissioned. She was transferred to the South African Maritime Safety Authority as a training ship.
Mailed paquebot off Gough Island on Nov. 2, 1979.
Penguin and Gough Island coordinates. Gough Island is home to northern rockhopper penguins (Eudyptes moseleyi).
Neutron research postmark from University of Potchefstroom in South Africa. The main scientific station on Gough Island is a South African weather station, which has been in operation since 1956. The Physics department at Potch University studied cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are primarily composed of high-energy particles, with about 90% being protons (hydrogen nuclei). Neutrons are secondary particles that are knocked out of atoms in the earth’s atmosphere.
The blue helicopter postmark is most likely a commemorative or mission-specific cachet used on mail handled during the 1979 Gough Island expedition. The 22 might refer to a flight number or a team identification.
The Cape Town postmark of Nov. 17, 1979 likely marks the arrival of the vessel there, at which time it was dispatched to the street address in Stellenbosch.
The 4c stamp is from South Africa’s Third Definitive Series
Issued May 27, 1977 |4c Protea longifolia |Perf. 12½ |Photogravure |Fluorescent paper |No watermark
Look at the bottom of this map for Gough Island.
The island is also known historically as Gonçalo Álvares, and is a rugged volcanic island (area 35 mi²) in the South Atlantic Ocean.
It is a dependency of the Tristan da Cunha island group and part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
Nobody lives on Gough Island except for the workers of a weather station, which is usually six people. The South African National Antarctic Programme has maintained the island with British permission since 1956.
[From Wikipedia]
[Map in Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection by Rand McNally and published in 1984 in an atlas by Encyclopdia Britannica]
One of these stamps would have fitted the envelope perfectly.
Unfortunately, it would be 18 more years after 1979 before these stamps featuring the Antarctic skua would be issued.

South Africa Sixth Definitive Series (Endangered Fauna, Redrawn)
Issued Aug. 27, 1997 |R1.20 Antarctic skua (additional value to series first issued in 1993) |Perf. 14×14¼ |Lithography |Coated paper |No Watermark

 

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Tuesday/ a little rain is coming 🌧

The meteorologists are promising us (well, a 95% chance) that we will get a little rain tomorrow here in the Seattle metro area— actually, as much as 0.45 inches.

These coneflowers in the Republican Street/ 20th Ave East community garden look just like little suns, drawn with crayons. ☀
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Monday/ just one word .. plastics ☠️

There is a scene in The Graduate* where one of his of his parents’ well-meaning friends— Mr. McGuire— corners Benjamin for a brief, earnest bit of unsolicited career advice. He pulls him aside and says:

“I just want to say one word to you. Just one word… Plastics.”

*1967 movie with Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who is seduced by an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson played by Anne Bancroft).

And here we are 58 years later, and it’s 100% clear that we are poisoning the environment and ourselves.
And that it is unfortunately a very bad time for the European Union and other countries to get support from the United States for their efforts to curb the production of plastic.

From The Japan Times:
GENEVA – Hopes for a “last-chance” ambitious global treaty to curb plastic pollution have dimmed as delegates gather this week at the United Nations in Geneva for what was intended to be the final round of negotiations.
Diplomats and climate advocates warn that efforts by the European Union and small island states to cap virgin plastic production — fueled by petroleum, coal and gas — are threatened by opposition from petrochemical-producing countries and the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump.
Plastic production is set to triple by 2060 without intervention, choking oceans, harming human health and accelerating climate change, according to the OECD.
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Sunday/ the Blue Angels 🌅

It was Seafair weekend here in Seattle.
So the Blue Angels were in town to give their airshow yesterday and today.
Down below on Lake Washington, there were the hydroplane races (high-speed boats that skim across the water’s surface).

I caught one of the Blue Angels with my phone’s 5x zoom lens* as I ran outside.
It’s hard to resist running outside when you hear the thundering noise overhead!
*I cropped the original 3024×4032 photo to 2016×2424 pixels. 

These jets are F/A-18 Super Hornets. 
From the Blue Angels website: The basic acquisition price of a single F/A-18 Super Hornet is approximately $67.4 million. The cost of additional weapons-related equipment varies according to the configuration, and the use of each aircraft can significantly increase the total price.
The F/A-18 can reach speeds just under Mach 2, almost twice the speed of sound or about 1,400 mph. The maximum rate of climb of the F/A-18 is 30,000 feet per minute.

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Saturday/ it’s wildfire season 🔥

It’s summer, so it is wildfire season— and the dry conditions everywhere in Washington State are not helping.
There was only a trace of rain (less than 0.01 in) this July here in the city.
The last year that had happened was in 2003.

The Bear Gulch fire in Olympic National Park covered more than 7 square miles as of Saturday, data shows, and firefighters had it 3% contained. The human-caused fire was first reported July 6 near the Mount Rose trailhead in Olympic National Forest. Specifics of how the fire started are still under investigation.
[Map from Seattle Times; reporting by Seattle Times climate reporter Conrad Swanson]
The sun setting through a haze of smoke on Friday night, seen from Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
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Friday/ the July jobs report 📉

Happy Friday.
It’s not a happy Friday on the economic news front.
Only 73,000 jobs were added to the US economy in July, and the numbers for May and June were revised down dramatically.

Headlines from the New York Times.
Trump fires Labor Official Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (commissioner Erika McEntarfer, a Biden appointee).
Will that make the numbers look better, then? Will we believe the numbers?
Fed Governor Steps Down Early For a moment I thought Jerome Powell (Federal Reserve Bank Chair) is retiring early, but it’s a governor (one of seven members) of the Federal Reserve Board, Adriana D. Kugler, that is stepping down. Fed Chair Powell’s term expires in May 2026, but Trump seems determined to fire him or try to fire him, as well.
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Thursday/ it’s almost Aug 1st 🌎

Trump Administration Live Updates: Uncertainty Looms Hours Before Tariff Deadline

President Trump held a news conference at the White House without providing clarity about what will happen to the global trading system in less than eight hours. As of midnight, the stiff tariffs that the president announced on April 2 would go into effect, unless the president signs an executive order to stop them.
– Ana Swanson writing for the New York Times live blog, 2.00 pm EDT

The NYT: ‘Dozens of countries remained in limbo with only hours to go before President Trump’s trade-deal deadline, with tariffs of as much as 50 percent set to snap into effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday’.
[Graphic by Lazaro Gamio & Tony Romm/NYT]
Mexico is getting another 90 days to reach a trade deal, but there is no such extension for Canada (the USA’s second-largest trading partner, the giant orange square) as of now. What will happen if no extension is given to Canada?
The Trump administration will raise the tariff on Canadian exports to the U.S. that are not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA) to 35 per cent – not including tariffs on specific sectors, like automobiles, steel and aluminum.
[From globalnews.ca, graphic by Lazaro Gamio & Tony Romm/NYT]

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Wednesday/ left behind 🛳️

Reporter Claire Fahy writes in the New York Times about passengers from  Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America that were out on an excursion to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (on the island of Hawaii) when the emergency alerts for the tsunami from the earthquake began.

The bus driver turned around to take them back to the ship, but it was too late. They were still 20 minutes away when the ship departed for open waters.  (During a tsunami, it is safer for ships to be at sea than in port. In port the vessel might get washed ashore with disastrous consequences).

The passengers left behind ended up sleeping on the gym floor of a local high school, or in their tour buses. 

Authorities in Hawaii canceled the tsunami advisory and issued an all-clear on Wednesday morning local time. The Pride of America did return to Hilo, Hawaii, to pick up the passengers who were left behind.

Headlines and picture from the New York Times/ Alamy.

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Tuesday/ the 8.8 earthquake 🌎

My phone and watch buzzed a dozen times from my Japan-based NHK app tonight, with tsunami warnings (because of the 8.8 earthquake on the Kamchatka peninsula).

By now the first waves have reached Hokkaido in the north of Japan, though, and it seems the waves will be no more than a few feet high.

Why was this the case? I asked Chat GPT’s AI chatbot.
Great question — and a very reasonable one, given how large-magnitude earthquakes like the 8.8 off the Kamchatka Peninsula can sometimes generate devastating tsunamis. But not all big earthquakes produce massive waves. Here’s why this particular one likely produced only a small tsunami (a few feet):
1. It was very deep
2. It was likely within the subducting slab
3. The tsunami threat is highly dependent on the type of fault motion
4. Energy was spread over a wide area

Magnitude: 8.8
Depth: 21 km 13 mi
Time: GMT 2025-07-29 23:24:50.842
Epicenter: 2025 Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia Earthquake
Agency: USGS (United States Geological Survey)

For this extremely strong earthquake, 64 aftershocks (above mag. 2) have been detected so far. The strongest was a magnitude 7.2 quake that hit 53 seconds after the mainshock in 81 km (50 mi) distance, in 94 km southeast of Vilyuchinsk, Yelizovsky District, Kamchatka, Russia, on Wednesday, Jul 30, 2025 on 11:25 am (Kamchatka local time GMT +12). The most recent aftershock occurred 5 hours ago 217 km south of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Kamchatka, Russia, and had a magnitude of 4.9.

The majority of reports came from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy (58 reports), a city with more than 180,000 inhabitants in Kamchatka in 119 km (74 mi) distance northwest of the epicenter, Russia, Yelizovo (10 reports), a town with 41,000 inhabitants in 140 km (87 mi) distance northwest of the epicenter, and Yakutsk (4 reports) (2,085 km or 1,295 mi to the northwest) in Sakha. 
[Source: volcanodiscovery.com]

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Monday/ more animals 🦏

This series is still called the sixth definitive series of South African postage stamps— but the redrawn version of it.

The images of animals and birds are larger and without frames.
Up to four different kinds of paper were used in the printing process for some denominations.

I still don’t have all the combinations, but this is a great start.

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Sunday/ lots of sun ☀

It was a beautiful summer day here in the city (77°F/ 25°C).
I went down to the waterfront to check out the newly renovated Pier 58 that had opened on Friday.

I took the No 12 bus to downtown and walked to Pike Place Market.
I am taking just a quick look here at the overlook towards the Ferris wheel and the aquarium before I head down to the waterfront promenade.
Incoming! Watch out little sail boat!
I did not hear the ferry blare its horn at it, so I suppose it was OK. If I read the ferry schedules right, this was the Kaleetan coming in from Bremerton.
Here is the new play park on Pier 58 with its octopus slide.
The Wings Over Washington theater (with its tilting seats to ‘fly’ over beautiful scenery and mountains) is still there, and popular this time of year with a line of people outside waiting their turn.
The display case at the entrance to the Miner’s Landing arcade with its carousel and video games inside.
Here’s the Pier 57 Historic Carousel inside the Miner’s Landing arcade.
One of several totem poles around the waterfront. This one is on Pier 57.
The Salish Sea Tours boat with its catamaran hull, just arriving back at Pier 57 from its cruise around Elliott Bay.
A display case inside Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on Pier 54. I love the alphabet book that the kids are looking at: L for Loon and M for Moose.
All done! Walking back with the pedestrian overpass over Alaskan Way to 1st Avenue to catch the G-line bus.
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Saturday/ the 6th Definitive Series 🇿🇦

I reworked my pages with the sixth definitive series of South African postage stamps. 
The inscriptions with the animal names were first in Latin (1993). 
A new set with additional denominations was issued later, with inscriptions in English (1996).
These pages with 8 pockets (rows) allows me to display all the stamps in one set on one page— very nice.

P.S. Some of the pairs of stamps look the same but they are printed on different paper, with slightly different shades of white.  That makes the ink colors look different as well. And of course I cannot just choose one. I need to put both in.

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Friday/ dry ⛱

Happy Friday.
These black-eyed Susans must be looking out to the skies for a little rain.
It’s the 25th of the month, and there has been none so far.
The average for July in Seattle is 0.78 in.

The black-eyed Susan or yellow coneflower belongs to the family Asteraceae.
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Thursday/ AI does hard math 🧮

Cade Metz reports from San Francisco for the New York Times:
An artificial intelligence system built by Google DeepMind, the tech giant’s primary artificial intelligence lab, has achieved “gold medal” status in the annual International Mathematical Olympiad, a premier math competition for high school students.

It was the first time a machine — which solved five of the six problems at the 2025 competition, held in Australia this month — reached that level of success, Google said in a blog post on Monday.

Google said Deep Think had spent the same amount of time with the I.M.O. as human participants did: 4½ hours. But the company declined to say how much money, processing power or electricity had been used to complete the test.

I looked up the problems online, and here they are.
Oof. Should I give it a go, and put in two sessions of 4½ hours each?
I think I’d better not. I might damage my self-esteem. 😆