All the Best for 2011

New Year's Eve -- traditionally a time for reflection -- 365 days in 2010 to think about.
Lots to be thankful for, lots to be sad about, lots to be excited about and lots to worry about -- in other words, this year had it all (for me anyway).
One year older and (one hopes) wiser too.

To all my friends I would like to extend my warmest wishes for 2011.
First and foremost I wish you all good health (something we take for granted all too often).
I would also like to wish you success and happiness too.

For 2011, I have some simple hopes (some might call them resolutions):
I am looking forward to the challenges and the opportunities I am sure the new year will bring.
I hope to be able to do the right things.
I hope to continue learning and expanding my horizons.

I wish you all the best for 2011 !

White Christmas

Mother Nature helped make the wishes of many children come true this morning by coating Pittsburgh with a blanket of snow and delivering a White Christmas.
The temperature was a few degrees below freezing and we had about an inch (3 cm) on the ground this morning, as I grabbed the shovel to clean the driveway.

I paused during the shoveling and gazed in wonder at a nature-made Christmas tree, outside my house.

The silence was absolute, every sound muffled by the snow -- even the birds and other critters were being quiet.  The lyrics to 'Silent Night' came to mind:

Silent Night

Silent night holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight,
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing alleluia;
Christ the Savior, is born
Christ the Savior, is born.

Silent night holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

 

The work completed, I snapped a couple more pictures before heading inside to warm-up.

I'd like to wish everyone a merry Christmas.

May all your wishes come true.

Ready for the Holidays?

You know this thing with the cold is getting very tiresome ... !
And winter doesn't officially begin until December 21 !
We have been under this constant barrage of frigid arctic air for many days now.
It is very cold and windy = a bad combination.
The temperature this morning was 15F (-9C), however when the wind was factored-in (the so-called wind-chill temperature), it felt like 4F (-15C).
Yesterday's high temperature was 16F (-9C), today we will get as warm as 22F (-5C), however we are not expected to get warmer than the freezing mark for the next few days.

With all this in mind, we might have a "white Christmas" after all -- or at least a very cold one.
The good news for me was that the temperature warmed-up to a few degrees above freezing last weekend and I was able to install the various lighted decorations outside my house (they help to put you in a Christmas mood, don't you know?).

Street view at night in the falling snow - reindeer in "liftoff" mode

Driveway/Walkway view - you can also see some neighbors' lighted decorations in the background

Now that the lights are up, all that is required is to actually get into the spirit!
I wish you all a blessed Christmas.

Unseasonably Cold

It was 18F (-8C) when I left my house this morning of December 9, 2010.
The projected high temperature is 25F (-4C) today.
I was listening to the weatherman who was explaining that so far in the month of December, our temperature has not yet risen above the freezing point and that temperatures are significantly below normal (duh).

A few random thoughts:

• The road crews have been busy applying salt to roadways. As a result, cars are covered with gray salt splatter and the car washes likely expect to do a brisk business as soon as people want to see their car's original paint color again.
• There are fewer Christmas decorations outside houses (including mine), since the frigid weather makes it so much tougher to string the lights, etc.
• People will be in for an unpleasant surprise when they receive their utility bills, as the heaters have had to work overtime to keep us warm.
• The walking trails through the woods where I go to stretch my legs are so much quieter these days - even the animals seem to be staying under cover.  I expect most creatures see the "walking fool" and wonder why in the world he goes on his walks.

Things will likely change tomorrow, when the temperatures are expected to rise a few degrees above freezing and what falls from the sky will be liquid instead of frozen -- though of course it will certainly freeze later, causing slick roads, heavy, ice-covered tree branches and all sorts of other "un-fun" conditions.

Parting thought: only 16 days until Christmas!

Winter has Arrived

We woke up to 30F (around -1C) this morning and the weatherman was talking about all the rain from the last 24 hours changing to snow later in the day.
I didn't pay much attention ... I was running late.
Then I stepped outside and noticed the landscape was covered in white.
I snapped a quick picture of my car in the dark, before clearing off the light blanket of wet snow.

The commute in to work was a bit sloppy and the traffic was pretty snarled.
Thankfully there were no accidents or cars that had driven off the road.

First "snow-on-the-ground" of the cold season on the first day of December.
I must admit it looks pretty.
Ask me how I feel about the snow in a couple of months though, and I might have a slightly different opinion...

Even though technically there are still a few weeks left in autumn, I would like to wish everyone a "Good Winter" (Kalo Xeimwna in Greek).

What makes a Fan?

Saturday seemed pretty ordinary until the opportunity presented itself to go to the 1:00 pm Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game against the visiting Calgary Flames.  We are not what you may call a "rabid" Pens fans, however both my daughter and I jumped at the opportunity to attend.
This game was being played at the new Consol Energy Center - a really nice venue, as hockey arenas go.

We wore our Pittsburgh Pens black shirts, braved the wind and the cold (it was around 38F or 3C at noon time) and filed into the arena along with a whole bunch of other fans.  This was another sold-out game, so there were plenty of folks there (capacity is stated at over 18,000 and there were folks standing too).

The game started with a 3-0 run by the Penguins, and the fans in the Arena were going wild!

I snapped this picture immediately after the Penguins scored their second goal, while every person in the Arena was on their feet.

 
Then the Flames came alive.  They scored a goal and were really pressuring the Pens.  With little time left in the last period, the Flames pulled their goalie and replaced him with another player, so they could outnumber the Pens players, as they tried to score again.

There were mere seconds left in the last period and the Penguins were still leading by a score of 3-1, however they were short-handed, as they had a player in the penalty box - the Flames now had a two-man advantage.
Then I saw the Penguins captain, Sidney Crosby, entering the game.
Time seem to slow down and the thought raced through my head that he just might try to score again (Crosby had scored two of the Pens' three goals in the game at that point, including the 200th goal of his career).

With 37 seconds left to play, Crosby indeed scored an "empty-netter", achieving the elusive hat-trick and setting-off a frenzied celebration in the crowd!  Hats rained onto the ice from all directions, as the fans showed their appreciation for Crosby and game was suspended for several minutes, as the Arena crew tried to collect them all.

The game ended with the Penguins winning 4-1, while the excitement was palpable in the crowd.
Here's a link to a recap of the game online.
After the game we walked rapidly through the cold, stopping traffic and savoring the victory.
Maybe we were not quite die-hard fans, but on this day, most Pittsburghers certainly counted themselves as Pittsburgh Penguins fans.

This picture was taken right after the game ended, as the Penguins players were congratulating each other.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Leaving the house at 7:00 am yesterday, I noticed a pretty thick blanket of fog and it felt quite cold. 
My car was covered in what appeared to be rain drops. 
Upon closer examination however, it became clear the water on my car was frozen.

I snapped a picture of my car's roof, before I began to scrape the ice off the windshield and windows.

The meteorologists are talking about "freezing precipitation", or "wintry mix" starting tomorrow.
Indian Summer seems to have left us for good.

Thus the title of this blog entry, and a cute little song too: Baby It's Cold Outside
(link to YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3H6YE-40xg)

Indian Summer

Last Saturday we experienced snow flurries in Pittsburgh and a temperature which struggled to reach the high 40'sF (10C).  Every night since then the sky has been clear and the temperatures dip down to (or below) freezing.  Every morning I scrape ice off my car's windshield -- the meteorologists talk about a "hard frost".

Despite the frigid mornings however, the last few days the weather has been warm and sunny, with temperatures ranging from 60-70F (16-21C).  My mid-day walks in the woods are an absolute pleasure and the warmer temperatures provide a chance to wear short-sleeve shirts for a few more days before the cold weather returns with a vengeance.

Traditionally this is called "Indian Summer" and it is a part of autumn I really look forward-to every year.
According to the wikipedia link I inserted above, Indian Summer typically occurs between mid-October and late-November.  While the colors on the leaves this year are not as dramatic as in past years, it is the balmy temperatures which really make these days so enjoyable.

The picture was taken in the latter part of October, as I was driving around my neighborhood, when the leaves were still mostly on the trees -- now they are mostly on the ground.

Speaking of driving, the car's heater needs to work in the morning to warm-up the frigid car, while if you drive during midday, you might actually get to use the A/C -- that's another definition of Indian Summer, I guess.
My advice to myself: enjoy it while you can, since the cold and cloudy skies will be here soon enough - and the "white stuff" will not be far behind.

Feel free to follow the link to my Facebook below to see some of the pictures I have taken during autumn in Pittsburgh (and feel free to connect with me while you are there):
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?aid=235126&id=820847511

Politicos

The word "politics" comes from the Greek word "Πολιτικά" (politika), modeled on Aristotle's "affairs of the city", the name of his book on governing and governments, which was rendered in English mid-15 century as Latinized "Polettiques".^[4] Thus it became "politics" in Middle English c. 1520s (see the Concise Oxford Dictionary). The singular "politic" first attested in English 1430 and comes from Middle French "politique", in turn from Latin "politicus",^[5] which is the romanization of the Greek "πολιτικός" (politikos), meaning amongst others "of, for, or relating to citizens", "civil", "civic", "belonging to the state",^[6] in turn from "πολίτης" (polites), "citizen"^[7] and that from "πόλις" (polis), "city".^[8] via Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics

As for the title of this blog entry, "politicos" is a word commonly used to describe those who are involved in politics (see above) and in modern Greek it is literally translated as anybody involved in politics, e.g. "a politician".

I posted the following to my Facebook this morning:
OK, I voted this morning -- can we now please stop all the disgusting political advertisements?
Enough is enough I say -- don't these folks have anything better to spend their money on, than slinging mud at each other?

For those of you who live in the U.S., I think you know where I am coming from.
Every time there is an election approaching, the advertisements begin to flood the airwaves and they are decidedly not pretty to watch and/or hear.
Each year it seems these advertisements get worse, as the advertisers strive to attain new levels of shock value -- of course repeated exposure to these advertisements causes sheer disgust in the public, however why should the politicos care about the public - right?

"I just need your vote," the politicos seem to be saying to the public -- "after that, you can leave me alone."

I am also astounded by the economic aspect of the pre-election advertisements.
One estimate I heard calculated that the political advertisements will amount to approximately $3 billion this year!
That's a major "cash burn" and what makes it even more eye-opening is that this kind of money is being spent while we are trying to pull ourselves out of the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Most politicos like to talk about how they will be better stewards of the public's money than their predecessors, however I don't see them taking aim at this most egregious spending of cash.

Enough of my rant however, Election Day is here, I have cast my vote and I declare to all the politicos out there:
Take your mud and leave me alone ... at least until the 2012 Presidential election approaches, when I expect you will start this all over again with renewed fervor.

Football fever

Here I sit in my hotel room in Cologne, just returned after a brisk 25 minute walk from the Haxenhaus zum Rheingarten restaurant, when a message causes my Blackberry to buzz.

My friend Brian sent me a message informing me there's a football game on TV -- Bayer Leverkusen is playing against Aris Saloniki - in Saloniki, Greece.  This is not American football, rather it is "real" (according to the locals) football, aka soccer.

I am sitting a few kilometers from the Bayer Leverkusen stadium, cheering the lads playing for the team from Saloniki - a city where I lived for a few years when I was younger - something tells me I'm in the minority compared to the rest of the fans in this town.
Memories of going to similar games decades ago wash over me, as I watch the game.
The fans are a churning sea of yellow and black, chanting at the top of their lungs, worked-up to a fever pitch as neither team has managed to score and the game will soon be ending.
Color-wise, it is very reminiscent of Pittsburgh Steelers (American) football games, where black and gold colors dominate the stands and the fans are equally boisterous and loud.

The game finally ends 0 - 0 and the fans are delirious, as the visiting powerhouse club leaves without managing to score any points and has only a scoreless tie to show for its efforts.
I in turn, feel the excitement of cheering for a team, which despite having their trials and tribulations from the last few years escape my conscious, have managed to light some sport-related excitement in me on this chilly night in Germany.

Time Flies!

Here I am checking my often-overlooked blog and am shocked to discover I have not posted anything since August ...  Where has the time gone?
Actually, I have a pretty good idea what happened in September -- my children are still "young" enough that the beginning of the school year can easily be identified as a culprit.
Then there are also work-related things, such as business trips for example, which manage to invade in my personal time.

The main point I want to make however refers to the visualization I frequently see in my mind's eye, of time represented as sand in an hourglass.  Sand, which once it has flowed through the narrow opening, is gone and cannot be taken back.  The same holds true for time - for once it goes by, it is gone and cannot be recovered.  We each have a finite amount of time entrusted to us and we should strive to make the most of it.

What is even more important however is that the world around us will also have changed through time's passing.  The dynamic environment we live in does not remain static - it changes based on the actions (or inactions) of everyone else.  This point was depicted brilliantly in the "Back to the Future" movies for example, where the time machine was used to go back in time and attempt to alter events, which would then lead to an alternate future.

I think of my children, one in high school, the other in college, and think about how quickly they seem to have grown up.  Time sure seems as if it has flown by since they were much younger!
Time has indeed passed, and since I do not have access to a time machine, I can only plan for how I will use my time today and in the future.  I hope to use it wisely.

A Question of Speed

I posted a blog entry a couple of months back about Books and e-Readers.
I ended-up buying an iPad (for my wife), though it is not quite fulfilling eReader duties yet -- that is content for another blog entry however.

This story about Seth Godin giving-up on traditional book publishing brings things into a sharper focus however.
Here is a very well known author who has decided traditional (paper) book publishing is too cumbersome, convoluted, slow and exasperating.  He feels it is difficult to get his audience to buy (paper) books, so he is adapting his distribution model.

To quote Stan Schroeder, the article's author, "Paper books aren’t a particularly elegant way to spread an idea in the age of blogs, e-readers and social media."

This news would seem to rock the foundation of the publishing world.
I recently saw these words related to coping with change and feel they fit here:
"We feel uncomfortable about change, however we would be terrified if things stayed as they are."
I'll be curious to see what comes next.

Friend Request

I was talking to the incoming class of Sustainability MBA students at Duquesne University yesterday about the approaches Bayer MaterialScience is taking towards Sustainability and after fielding their questions, I mentioned that they could reach out to me via social media for any questions that might arise in the future.
I got a few strange looks - like, "aren't you a bit old to be using social media?"

Well, the truth is that I now use social media more than ever - and statistics indicate that this domain, which used to belong to the young, is now being embraced more and more by their parents (people my age).
As I have begun to understand and use the privacy controls on Facebook for example, I have been expanding my friends and contacts lists (each groups only sees the content I want them to see).
I always get a kick when I see: "you have X new friend requests" and I check-out the profiles of the people who have sent me these requests.

It really brought a smile to my face therefore, when I recently saw this picture:

Why shouldn't the church also adopt humor and modern communication pathways for getting its message out?

By the way, here is a link to my profile on Facebook (feel free to send me a friend request):
Gianni's profile

The Right to Protest

I have returned from a brief visit to Greece and Cyprus.
Being in Athens the past week was not very "fun"...
The truck drivers were on strike when we arrived and as a result, fresh fruit and produce was getting scarce in the markets.
Worse, the gas stations were running out of gas since the tank truck drivers were also on strike and the lines of cars waiting to fill-up their gas tanks at those stations which still had gas were sometimes obscenely long. Tempers were rising along with the summer temperatures. 

"Vacation time" for Greeks arrives with the beginning of August and the truck driver's strike seemed aimed at creating the maximum degree of discomfort to the public who were attempting to leave on their summer vacations - not to mention any foreign tourists who decided to visit Greece.
I heard hotel bookings were being cancelled en-masse and the vacancy rates at many prime destinations were running around 50%. 

I forgot to mention the air traffic controller's strike during the last two weeks, which delayed many flights departing from Greece and Cyprus (the main way people depart Cyprus in through Greece). 
Since flights were being delayed, planes were late arriving and the next flights (which required those same planes) were delayed as well.

I really enjoy using the Athens Metro when I visit - it is a marked improvement over the bus routes I remember using when I was young.
I heard that workers at the Metro will also be continuing a strike however -- once everybody returns from their summer vacations.

Why the public tolerates the strikes by those groups mentioned above, as well as by others is beyond me. Greece depends on a well-run tourism machine to bring in some sorely needed cash during the summer months and the situation seems to be deteriorating compared to my visits in years past. 
Truly a sad sight to behold. 

I am not contesting worker's right to protest, however I cannot support those workers who cause discomfort to their fellow citizens through acts such as the strikes mentioned above.
I guess I can pray for a miracle...

Take the A-Train

As I prepare to make a brief visit to Greece, I came across an article that brought into stark focus the enormity of the economic problems this country is wrestling with.

Hellenic Railways is drowning in debt -- its debt is estimated at $13 billion, or 5% of Greece's gross domestic product.  It is losing 3 million Euros a day!

With that type of debt load you can begin imagining the types of drastic measures that will need to be taken.
These measures will definitely be unpopular.
More popular rage will undoubtedly be forthcoming.
The people who are responsible for this mess will probably evade being held accountable.

Why should I care?
It has to do with family history.
My paternal grandfather was an employee of Hellenic Railways, back when the trains were the main means of transportation within Greece.  He was a railway man, proud of the company he worked for and I still remember his pocket chronograph, a token of his many years of service at the railway.
Grandpa Gianni would surely be distressed at the state of the company he once worked for.

Since I'm feeling sentimental, here's a link to an old-time, train-related, jazz tune with the same title as this post from the legendary Duke Ellington -- Take the A-Train.

Opportunity

The objective was vague.
The resources meager, to non-existent.
The location was challenging.
The visibility would be minimal.
It could have been viewed as a dead-end job.
Something best left untouched.

And yet he cherished a challenge.
He saw potential in all "opportunities."
He could visualize success.
He accepted the assignment.
He forged ahead down that less-traveled road.

Ten years later, the situation is markedly changed.
The improvement impressive.
The future encouraging.
The road, though still challenging, seems to be easier to travel.

I met the man a week ago.
I was impressed.
His name is Athenagoras.

I Love a Good Book

I have fond memories of reading -- way back to my early years, when I remember reading just about anything written by Jules Verne and checking-out every one of The Hardy Boys Mysteries from the library ...
Paperbacks, hardcover books, I remember their varied shapes, their cover art (or lack thereof), their lightness or heft, their flexibility or stiffness, even their smell.

Now I find myself considering an e-reader like the Kindle from Amazon.
I am even considering an I-Pad, though if I get one, it will likely be used for more than just reading books.

The point is that electronic books are becoming more and more common and as I ponder which books I might take with me on a trip, I also wonder if in the not too distant future I might be carrying an e-reader instead.

Along with myself, many others are also likely considering the move to e-books and this can only mean the gradual decline of printing books on paper.  Someday, books made of paper may only be a distant memory and I can imagine a future where "books" are simply electronic files, stored in microscopic drives, or even in "the cloud".

I think back to the golden age of Archaeology and all we have learned through the deciphering of hieroglyphics, etchings on stones and clay tablets, or markings on papyri and parchments. 
Can you imagine archaeologists in the future digging through piles of electronic data instead of manuscripts and various tomes?  It may be progress, but I don't have to like it.

Canoes & Kayaks

As I had previously mentioned in my "Being Green" blog entry, Saturday June 5 was World Environment Day.  Pittsburgh was selected as the North American host city for events surrounding World Environment Day, so there were all sorts of activities going-on around town.

Friday night we had thunderstorms in the area and Saturday they continued unabated.  Lots of rain was falling.  Events related to World Environment Day taking place in the David L Lawrence convention center might have been continuing on schedule, however anyone with outdoor plans would rightly have expected a washout.

I had heard of a special event planned for Saturday morning.  There was a Guinness World Record for the largest raft of Canoes/Kayaks - the record was for 1,104 (joined by people holding their hands onto the various crafts) set in Inlet, NY.  Pittsburghers decided to break the record.  Over 2,300 had registered for the event - but that was before the storms rolled in.  Would the record stand?

Well, it seems over 1,800 people actually showed-up, put their kayaks and canoes in the rivers (a bit earlier than planned due to the storms) and held-on for a minimum of 30 seconds to set a new world record.  Then they quickly got out of the water and tried to stay dry as the skies opened-up!  The local news channels liked this story too.

I love the quote of the day, captured on Twitter: "last time there were this many paddlers on these rivers, we spoke French" (a reference to the early 1700s when this area was first colonized by the French -- it was finally captured by the British after the French and Indian War in 1763).

Remembering

May 31 was Memorial Day - a holiday to honor those who gave their lives for their country.  Traditionally, the people remembered in this holiday were those who died in the great conflicts of the 20th century - World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam.

There are others however, who have died in more recent years.
There have been over 6000 members of the armed forces of the US and other allied countries who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (224 from the UK in Afghanistan and 126 from the UK in Iraq for example).  There have also been many thousands of civilian casualties.  This CNN website contains a lot of information about the casualties in these two conflicts.

The majority of these casualties were young people, just getting started in their lives and one can only wonder at the potential they held within them.  There were those too, who had families and even children.  It is those children, orphaned by the loss of a parent in a faraway land, in a war they don't understand, for whom I feel the most empathy.

The casualties in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most recent and thus their loss impacts us the most.  Their memories have not been dulled by the passing of time.  Their loved ones continue to talk about them as if they are still around.  This is one holiday that ensures we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Pay-Up!

I was at the store and I took my purchase to the checkout register, I swiped my card, signed the little electronic pad and I was on my way.  The transaction was cleared in milliseconds and my credit card was charged with the appropriate amount.

I thought back to the last week -- when was the last time I used cash to pay for something?
If not this past week, how about the week before?
You see where I am going with this, right?
Cash is fast becoming a form of payment I use less and less.

At the end of the month the credit card statement will arrive and if I want to avoid the finance charges, I will pay for it in full -- pay for it how?
In the past, I would write a check and mail it in to the bank.
You noticed I indicated this was how things used to work.
Now I am equally likely to make an electronic payment - the funds instantaneously transferring from my bank account to the account of the bank that issued the credit card to me.

The above payment method bypasses the Post Office (and all the delays associated with using it).
It also means I will write fewer checks, and thus I will need to order new checks less often ... or never.

Lest you think I am a strange futurist who rapidly embraces all the latest technologies, I freely admit I am typically a "late-adopter", at least for technology that involves money.
This means there are many more like me who are now warming-up to this technology and even more "early adopters" who already use it.  What might this mean then?

I have already mentioned the rapidly declining volume of mail in the US Post Office in a previous blog entry.
The other day I read that check printing orders are also rapidly declining -- people are simply writing fewer checks.

Now check this out -- the latest app for your smartphone even comes with a peripheral credit card scanner that attaches to the headphone jack (read the story about the app for the iPad here).  Credit card transactions will now be easier than ever and you can even send money electronically to people and establishments (and receive receipts through e-mail or SMS) -- who needs cash?

Do you remember the days when you had to physically take your bills to the bank to get them paid?

Can you hear me now?

Among the many changes which seem to be coming our way at what seems to be an ever-increasing speed is likely going to be the demise of the good old fashioned telephone.

Most people I know have a land line and a cell phone - some more than one.
"Why keep the land line?" is a question more and more people (especially the younger folks) are asking with increased frequency - and they are deciding they don't need it (and its associated expense) after all.

A cell phone allows you to call anyone in the US and most companies don't even charge calls against your monthly minute allotment if you call people who use the same cell phone provider.

You say you call overseas?
I remember a few years back, calling friends and relatives overseas - the phone company charges were high and the conversations were typically brief - it was expensive after all.
More recently, third-party providers began offering overseas calling plans at a fraction of what the phone companies used to charge - and the calls got longer.

Then came VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and companies like Vonage and Skype.  Now you can make calls to anyone (in the case of Skype, they can even be video calls) and there is no need for a land line.

Even the phone in my office is now a VOIP variant.  Calling colleagues in other parts of the world who are similarly equipped is a snap and the monthly bill is much lower.

The tagline from the Verizon (local land line, cell phone and internet provider) commercial echoes in my ears "...can you hear me now?"
(and if you can hear me, I wonder what kind of device you are using)

News and new Media

One of the sights from Athens which seems to be etched in my mind is of many kiosks, festooned with newspapers and magazines.  There is typically a dizzying array of printed matter pinned to the outside of one of these kiosks, fluttering in the breeze - such a common scene there.

In the US, one would find a similar (though in my humble opinion more sterile) setup in the typical newsstand.  Once again, a multitude of newspapers and magazines can be found here, all printed on paper - what some might consider a waste of natural resources (e.g. trees).

I would like to ask each of you however, when was the last time you got your news from a newspaper or magazine, sitting in your favorite chair?  What about TV?  What about online?  The experts seem to indicate that social media is going to supersede the more traditional media and the antiquated news delivery mechanisms they use.

Young people today do not subscribe to newspapers and magazines - they see no value in this, as printed news is "old news".  e-Readers seem to be popping-up everywhere.  From Amazon's Kindle to the i Pad and of course there's the old standby of taking your laptop to the WiFi-equipped coffee shop to catch-up on the news while you sip your favorite beverage.  I heard one expert proclaim that, in the US at least, the newsstand will disappear within ten years.  It may take a bit longer in Greece, however I think a similar shift will take place over there.

It appears traditional media is facing a critical point in its history.  The economic recession has forced various newspapers and magazines around the world to close, or be sold.  Many others are barely hanging-on.  The staff at these publications are facing a very real possibility of seeing their profession sliding towards extinction.  As is always the case when facing massive change, many resist, refusing to accept the dynamics behind the shift observed in the last few years.  Others however, are beginning to see the writing on the wall and are already positioning themselves to evolve.  The latter are the more intelligent ones in my opinion. 
The choice is not very complicated really - evolve and survive, or resist and perish.

Marathon

May 1 - May Day in most parts of the world, but here it is not a holiday, just another Saturday.
In the US, Labor Day is a holiday reserved for the end of summer - celebrated on the first Monday of September (this year on September 6) and May Day is just not celebrated.

The weatherman spoke of showers and thunderstorms arriving later in the day and the grass needed to be mowed, so I got out and took care of it in the morning, while the sun was shining.

Meanwhile this was also "Move Out Day" at Pitt (University of Pittsburgh), however our son was giving his last final this morning (yes, they have finals on the weekends now), so we decided to wait until noon to drive to the dormitory and help him move out.  Road maintenance/construction (always taking place when the weather is nice) ensured there were delays as we navigated the congested roads. 

Once we arrived at Pitt, there were cars, vans and SUVs parked everywhere.  A crazy ballet of students, siblings and parents, all carrying stuff, was taking place and we joined-in.  Viewed from above, it may have looked like an ant colony busily moving about.  A couple of hours later, we had packed everything into our vehicles - literally every inch of space was used - and we were reassuring ourselves we would not allow our son to bring so much stuff with him when he returns in August (famous last words).

We are happy we managed to complete the move today, since tomorrow, May 2, is the Pittsburgh Marathon and there will be many road closures, making transit to Oakland much more difficult.  Adding to that, the weather forecast for tomorrow is for severe thunderstorms and that will just add to the unpleasantness. 
As for me, I feel like I ran a mini-marathon today - I'll let the runners do their part tomorrow.

Being Green

Earth Day was April 22.
This year was the 40th anniversary of it's celebration.
Some say one of the catalysts for this event was the fact the Cuyahoga river, in Cleveland, caught on fire - in 1969.
I certainly heard about this a lot when I was in college in Cleveland in the early-to-mid 80's.
Earth Day was also a catalyst of sorts for a variety of environmental awareness activities, leading-up to WED on June 5.

Pittsburgh has been selected as the North American host city by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  There are multiple events planned in Pittsburgh which will culminate with the Global "Water Matters" conference on June 3 and World Environment Day (WED) on June 5. Events will be held in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, North America's first LEED-certified (gold) convention center and the largest "green" building in the world.

Closer to home, I'm already getting tired of mowing my lawn and it is only April!
Despite the cold and record snowfall this winter, the grass has sprung-up again, as green as ever, and the spring rains make it grow at a really fast pace.  If you do not mow it a minimum of once a week, you risk damaging it when you cut it later (and you cut off too much of each grass blade).

Related to this, I read a great tweet on my Twitter stream last week, though I don't remember who posted it: "Working on your lawn a bit in the spring, ensures more hard work throughout the summer."
Humor helps in this situation.

Virtual Wanderings

My daughter needs to compose a travel diary for a school project.
Each student was given a hypothetical sum of money (budget) and told to select their destination (somewhere in N. America), make travel arrangements, find lodging, create an itinerary for a seven-day stay at this destination and keep a diary of daily impressions, visits, etc.  Of course she has to stay within her budget too.

Without any direction from me, she chose Charleston, SC as her destination.
She found a low price airfare on a travel website and after considerable research, found a hotel with reasonable prices and accommodations - she even made a list of (actual) restaurants she would visit and estimated how much she would be spending on food.

We lived in Charleston for almost eight years in the 90s, so when it came to the itinerary, she came to me to give her ideas.  Going from memory, I started numbering a variety of places for her to visit and things she could do.  She took notes, as she was much too young to remember any of these when we lived there.  As a next step, she will continue to do her online research, find more information about each destination or activity, including any fees associated with it, and start writing about this fictional trip.

I am looking-on, trying not to interfere too much, amazed at how much information she has been able to uncover online and how much detail she is fleshing-out in her travel diary from her virtual wanderings in this place we used to call home.

Once upon a time, when I was only a few years older than she currently is, I would satisfy my desire for wanderlust by loading a backpack with my stuff and heading-off for one of the Greek islands.  The degree of planning back then was typically limited to word-of-mouth and sometimes on a travel guide that listed mostly historical sites (which I found quite boring in those days).  I am amazed at the degree of information that has been made available in the intervening thirty or so years and can only begin to imagine what the next thirty years will bring.

Airport Shuffle

I was waiting at a US Airways gate in the Charlotte Douglas International airport (in Charlotte, NC) yesterday for my flight to Pittsburgh to depart. It was a rather monotonous Saturday afternoon, when first one and then a second of the electric carts you typically see transporting elderly or handicapped individuals zoomed up to the gate next to ours.

Three police officers got off the first one and a couple of paramedics got off the second one, which was also equipped with a wheeled stretcher, just like those used with ambulances. Something was up!

Seconds later the door leading to the skyway opened and a couple of individuals with "Charlotte Fire Department" emblazoned on their shirts entered the gate area.  We had a "full house" of emergency responders in the gate area now - a couple of them were already wearing the disposable gloves worn when treating accident victims.  My guess was that a passenger on an inbound plane must have experienced some type of emergency during the flight and they were summoned to treat this individual.

I quietly snapped a picture as they milled-around waiting for a plane to land (they typically do not appreciate being photographed).

Once a plane had landed, they rushed on board and reappeared a few minutes later, helping a middle aged woman walk to the cart and carrying her hand luggage.  What seemed interesting was that the woman seemed perfectly capable of walking on her own, however they insisted she be strapped onto the stretcher, which was subsequently placed on the electric cart and they all zoomed off.

Minutes later, as the rest of the passengers were getting off the plane a very old woman emerged and another electric cart appeared to take her to Baggage Claim - a nice courtesy to an elderly passenger.

Interesting to see the degree of readiness these emergency responders exhibited.
It is good to know they are there, though I hope their services are not required often.

Shaken

Another earthquake struck today ... this time it struck near Mexicali, Mexico and it registered a 7.2 on the Richter scale.

Experts tell us this one was about five times stronger than the one that struck Haiti in January, yet there were only a handful of buildings that collapsed - one was a parking garage in Mexicali - while several buildings (on both sides of the border) were damaged and will need to be repaired before they can be used again.
Loss of life reported so far - two dead (and less than 50 injured).

Why such a disparate difference in damage and casualties between these two earthquakes?

Could it only be the substantially stricter building codes (and the enforcement of those building codes)?
If so, the Haiti earthquake seems all the more tragic.
So much 'preventable' human suffering and subsequent misery...

The Cure

I borrowed this quote from Jane Perdue's (@hrgoddess on Twitter) Twitter stream:

"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea." ~Isak Dinesen

Why does this quote speak to me?
- Is it the fact that I enjoy gardening/landscaping (and the sweat equity that goes with these activities) as a means of "escape"?
- Is it the psychological condition I find myself in these days before Easter?
- Is it my love of the sea, travel, exploring new places (whether by boat or on foot)?

Maybe the correct answer (like in many multiple choice questions) is "all of the above."

@ sign

I heard on the radio that the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in NY acquired the @ sign for its department of architecture and design as a great example of modern design. The @ sign is of course ubiquitous today, with e-mail taking a role of ever-increasing importance as a means of communication.

The surprising news however is this is not a new symbol - it was being used since the middle ages to signify the preposition "at" while using fewer pen strokes. Venetian and Portuguese merchants in the 17th century used the symbol to signify "unit price". In the 20th century it was being used by accountants and had found its way into the teletype keyboard when it was "discovered" by Ray Tomlinson (a computer scientist) in 1971. He had been contracted by the US government and was working on what would eventually become e-mail. He used the @ symbol to make the e-mail address shorter and boosted this once-obscure symbol into modern day consciousness.

Mail

The US Post Office is swimming in red ink.
Repeated postage price hikes over the last few years have not managed to bring a balance to the equation and it is now facing budget deficits approaching $4B.
Meanwhile, the amount of mail in the system is decreasing, as people have switched to electronic delivery of documents and are using online tools such as e-banking.

One approach being considered is to eliminate Saturday mail delivery.
I mention this because it is one of the most obvious differences when I compare my mail experiences in the US vs. say in Greece.

Eliminating Saturday mail delivery may be slightly less convenient, however it will bring the experiences of people in the US closer to those of people in other parts of the world.
It will also save a bunch of money and will actually provide the Post Office with a smaller carbon footprint.
I think I can live with that.

Water II

Water is a strange and marvelous substance. It is an amazingly powerful solvent and scientists tell us that life on Earth is due to the existence of this simple molecule in wide abundance on this planet. We humans are made up of about 70% water and depend on water for our survival, but too much water can lead to various catastrophes, such as floods for example (see my previous post titled "Water" or today's news about the Red river flooding).

Is Global Warming real?
If so, we may see a dramatic change in the Earth's shorelines during our lifetimes, due to rising sea-levels, fueled by the melting of ice. This might also be explained as the release of many, many water molecules which were previously kept frozen in ice and "out of circulation" so to speak.

Futurists tell us that as the global population continues to grow, clean water will be in short supply at some point in the future. Water conservation efforts are under way all over the US and the days when a large, lush, dark green lawn was a highly desirable status symbol may soon be behind us (and I for one, will not complain about that).

As I take another sip of water from my glass, marveling at its clean taste, I wonder where the various water molecules in that glass of water may have been since they were created. As Lawrence Krauss describes in his book Atom:
"... It (an oxygen atom located in a water molecule) could have been in a drop of sweat dripping from Michael Jordan's nose as he leapt for a basketball in the final game of his career, or in a large wave that is about to strike land after traveling 4,000 miles through the Pacific Ocean."
It could just as easily have coursed through the veins of a famous person - or more likely, if you embrace the laws of probability - those of one of the many, many types of insects that roam this Earth.

Wherever the molecules of water may have been in the past, I hope all of us can aspire to maintain a supply of abundant, clean water for generations to come.

Water

The weekend came and is (almost) gone, the cold rain keeps falling, but the flooding that was widely expected seems to have spared us.

The record-breaking snowfall from the last few weeks has finally melted and the landscape is no longer a monochromatic white.
The cleanup is ongoing. In my yard today I was trudging through the cold mud, collecting the large branches that had been splintered-off the trees by the massive weight of the snow we received. I cut them into meter-long pieces and bundled them together at the curb, so the trash collectors will pick them up (if you don't make it easy for them, they may just leave them there).

Pittsburgh is, among other things, called the city of three rivers, since the Allegheny and the Monongahela meet right by downtown Pittsburgh to form the Ohio river. Well, the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers are each fed by all the snowmelt from the region and each is at - or near - flood stage. Add to this the fact that we have been experiencing a steady rainfall since Friday night, which of course adds to the water load on the rivers, and you can understand why our mayor declared a state of emergency for the city on Friday. He may, at 30 years old, be one of the youngest mayors of a major American city, however he seems to have a team of wise advisers to give him guidance.

It appears then, that the region managed to avoid any major flooding.
Many people who live in flood-prone areas will breathe a sigh of relief.
Those who spent hours preparing for a potential invasion of angry water can now stand-down.
The state of emergency should be lifted soon.
Better to have been safe than sorry they will say.

Fix It!

I came across this website called SeeClickFix that proposes a radical concept: allow people to document non-emergency problems in their community and have those problems reported to the authorities that can take care of them.

With the proliferation of camera-equipped and GPS-enabled smartphones, the concept is simple:
- download the SeeClickFix application for your smartphone
- when you see a problem, open the application, snap a picture and it is Geo-tagged and e-mailed to the appropriate city authority for the location where the picture was taken
- check the website and see how many complaints are received for the same problem and how soon it is fixed

What types of problems are people reporting?
It started with potholes in the streets - a problem we are very familiar with here in Pittsburgh after the snowplows try to clear the streets of snow - and has progressed to anything people find offensive: garbage, graffiti, damaged streetlights, etc.

This tool gives citizens a means of quickly highlighting what bothers them and it also allows city departments to rapidly get a feeling for what the citizens find most offensive. In other words it is a "win-win" situation in my mind: citizens get engaged and city planners focus their limited resources on what bothers citizens the most - what a concept!

Technological challenge

When we moved to Pittsburgh a decade ago, we decided to get Dish Network (satellite TV), due to the extremely poor reception of "over-the-air" TV here (many hills and valleys). The receiver dish is not large (maybe 40 cm diameter), however it needs to have an unobstructed view of a certain part of the sky, where the transmitting satellite is located in geosynchronous orbit.

The installer attached the dish to the side of the house. He failed to notice a young fir tree in a landscaped area however, which was located close to the line-of-sight of the receiver. As the tree grew over the next few years, it's branches spread out and soon encroached on the dish's line-of-sight to the satellite, thus the signal was lost and we also lost TV reception.

When we called the repair crew, they decided to re-locate the satellite dish onto the house's roof, where it would have an unobstructed view of the sky. It was a very difficult climb up to the roof, but the installer insisted it was the best option. Things worked great up until the latest mega-blizzard (Snowpocalypse as some have called it) that we experienced in early February. The roof was covered with many inches of snow and the snow was so deep, that it also managed to cover at least half of the satellite dish - no satellite signal meant no TV reception was possible. We waited a couple of days for the snow to melt, however it just kept snowing and piling more and more snow on the roof. We resorted to listening to the radio - just like in the old days - but it soon got "old".

With the transition to digital TV all across the US on June 12, 2009, even if we could manage to somehow "find" a weak TV signal with an antenna, we would still need to get the required digital converter box to be able to watch TV. After 10 days without TV, we decided to call the service crew. They arrived and told us the best option was to relocate the satellite antenna somewhere where it would both have an unobstructed view of the sky and where it would be within relatively easy reach, in case we needed to clean snow and ice deposited by some future storm off of it. Thus it was relocated onto the side of the house and we are keeping our fingers crossed the third time will be the charm and we will not need to relocate it again.

Snow

Have you heard the latest 4-letter word?
It is spelled S-N-O-W and I'm hearing more and more people in this area who are disgusted by it.

Groundhog Day was Feb. 2 and unfortunately Punxsutawney Phil (the very rotund prognosticator groundhog) saw his shadow that morning, which according to lore means we can expect six more weeks of Winter.

The Pittsburgh area got hit with around 2 feet (60 cm) of snow between Feb. 5 and 6.
Then we received another 8 inches (20 cm) of snow on Feb. 9 and 10.
It has been a week since then and every day we get a bit more snow - sometimes a dusting, sometimes an inch or two (5 cm) - like this morning for example.
My morning routine now is to shovel the driveway, clear the snow off the cars and then carefully negotiate the sloppy roadways to and from work (this morning's commute was twice as long as it normally takes).

Meanwhile our temperature has not been above freezing since late January.
All this snow is not going away - it is just getting piled on top of the older snow and the snowbanks are getting quite large.

The landscape is white and "cabin fever" is very real - it is palpable in this area.
Quite a few folks are planning getaways to warmer places - meanwhile those of us who are still here eagerly await the coming of Spring.

Forecast for tomorrow ... more snow.

Spelunking

I heard a story on the radio while driving the other day, which I found interesting enough to write about it here.

The story discussed the limitations of electronic communications between people underground (e.g. in a cave) and those on the surface. Alexander Kendrick, a 16-year old boy from Los Alamos, New Mexico, working on his science fair project, invented a device that allows text messages to be sent via low frequency radio waves from deep within the Earth. He won the 2009 International Science Fair competition.

This story brought back memories from a few decades back, when along with some other adventurous young people from our local Eagle scout troup, we explored a couple of caves in Greece. A number of impressive caves have been discovered in the southern parts of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, most famous among them the Diros cave, which is typically experienced by visitors on a boat. After visiting the Diros cave, we ended-up exploring a cave near the village of Harouda in Mani - a cave we entered and exited using a rope ladder, since the only way in was by descending around 20 meters into the main chamber through the collapsed cave roof.

I still remember the unpleasant surprise caused by the discovery of a colony of black scorpions which were nesting in the rock pile caused by the collapsed cave roof -- the exact spot we landed-on as soon as we got off the rope ladder. None of us were stung by the scorpions during that adventure, but it just drove home the point that when mishaps happen under ground, it might be important to be able to communicate with the folks on the surface.

I think what caused me to be even more interested in this story however is the fact that this young man was working on his science project! I have already helped judge one science fair at a local school and I am also helping my daughter prepare for her science project as well.
I think this is a story that would be fun to point-out to all the young people who think that these science fairs are just boring affairs...

Godparents

This Sunday's service at our church was dedicated to Godparents and their Godchildren.
Naturally, I thought of my Goddaughter, who lives far away in sunny Orlando, Florida.
We had brilliant sunshine today, which reminded me of Orlando and combined with the snow still on the ground, made it necessary to wear sunglasses when driving. That is where our similarities ended however, as our high temperature will struggle to get to 25F (-4C), while in Orlando the high is expected to reach 60F (16C).

I also thought of my childrens' Godparents - one lost her life in a car accident many years ago and the other lives in faraway Cyprus. Godparents have a special bond with their Godchildren and are tasked with stepping-in to perform parental duties should their Godchildren need them.
Godparents are like an insurance policy for their Godchildren and those who have them are lucky indeed.

Thoughts also turn to all the children orphaned from the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti. There are reports in the news media of young children surviving on their own, of gangs trafficking in children and of orphanages being overwhelmed with the sheer numbers of orphaned children. One hopes these children had Godparents and somehow these surrogate parents may have survived and can assist them in this hour of dire need.

My dearest Goddaughter, I love you and am here for you, should you ever need me.

Moving

Monday was Martin Luther King Day, during which government offices, Banks, the Post Office and the schools were closed (but of course most people, myself included, were working).
Tuesday, Jan. 19 -- this morning we learned that a plane-load of orphans from Haiti arrived at the Pittsburgh airport, where they were greeted by various politicos (who were working today).

The orphans had been transported from Haiti in the pre-dawn hours on a military flight, which took them to Homestead AFB in Florida and from there a chartered plane brought them to Pittsburgh.
From the airport they were whisked to Children's Hospital (downtown), where after undergoing physical exams, several were picked-up by various adopting families that came from all over the U.S. to pick them up, while the remainder were placed in foster care.

These were 53 orphans whose adoption process had begun months, or for some, even years ago and whose adoption was accelerated by the earthquake in Haiti, which resulted in the collapse of their orphanage. A happy ending to cap the sadness they experienced up to now in their young lives and the misery and terror they experienced the last few days.

The news reports indicate there are approximately 900 such pending adoptions of orphans from Haiti, which are at some stage of the adoption process.
One only wonders however, how many more children were added to the ranks of the orphans in Haiti by the earthquake from a week ago and when they might experience their own happy ending to the nightmare they now find themselves trapped in.

Catalyst

The last few days the attention of the world has been riveted on the impoverished island of Haiti and the unimaginable degree of death and destruction caused by the earthquake there.
Shocking as it might seem, it was reported that the initial emergency responders could hardly land on the single strip of the airport that no longer had any air traffic control tower - and once they landed, they found it very hard to maneuver in the streets, which were clogged with debris and bodies, further complicating their rescue efforts.

I heard one appeal that asked not for emergency relief supplies, but for cash donations, as the island's infrastructure was so badly damaged and the logistics for moving materiel so complicated, that the relief agencies preferred not to have to sort and distribute donations "in kind".
The relief agency donation mechanisms also seem to have entered the 21st century, with widespread adoption of $10 donations performed by sending a text message to a special number. The Red Cross was reporting that they were receiving millions of dollars in donations daily through this mechanism.

The mind starts to wonder why a nation sitting on a major tectonic fault did not have a more robust engineering standard for their building construction. The counterargument I heard was that this is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere and demanding such building codes was a bit too much to ask for.
I can understand the poor trying to skirt any potential building codes that might have existed as they attempted to create a roof over their heads any way they could. When I see the symbols of government, such as the presidential palace, and of the church, such as the national cathedral, when I see hospitals and the UN offices destroyed by the earthquake however, I wonder why these important buildings were not built to a higher standard.

As the days grind on and the relief supplies slowly arrive and get distributed to the survivors, as the medical care slowly reaches the injured, as the people of Haiti absorb another massive catastrophe and begin rebuilding their lives, I hope the rest of us take a moment to reflect.

The lives of every one of us are in a balance more delicate than we care to admit. It might be a violent act of nature, or an act of man, and we could find ourselves facing the same, or worse, fate as the people of Haiti. Maybe the events we witnessed over the last few days will act as a catalyst to make us ask the important questions:
- Are we proud of the way we have lived our lives?
- Have we made a difference?
If we do not like the answers to these questions, we should strive to improve ourselves.

DIY Fun

I bought the house we are living in in 2000 when we moved to Pittsburgh. It was a new construction.
Now after 9 years, certain things need to gradually be repaired.
An example was the shower in our bathroom, which had started to drip. The obvious fix for this would be to replace the O-rings.

All the faucets and bathroom fixtures in the house are Moen brand - the reason I mention this is that when installed in a new home construction, Moen provides a warranty for as long as the original home purchaser owns the home.

Therefore I called Moen customer service and described the problem - they mailed me the necessary parts and instructions on how to change the O-rings.
Now it was time to "play plumber" - something I've done before, but which I'm not very good at.
After shutting off the water supply, I took apart the shower assembly (not a trivial task) and replaced the various O-rings on the shower cartridge.
While attempting to re-assemble the shower however, I found that I could not quite get the cartridge pushed in all the way into the receptacle.
I repeated the steps over and over again, however the same frustrating result was obtained.

In desperation, I used my trusted hammer to try to hammer the cartridge back into the assembly. This did not work either, so dejectedly I called Moen's customer service number and talked with a representative. He pointed-out that if there was any residual water in the receptacle it would prevent the cartridge from seating fully. Too bad the instructions did not mention this ...

Once the receptacle was dry, the cartridge body did indeed seat fully and I was able to secure it in place and restore water service.
The shower now worked as it was supposed to and did not drip or leak. All I had to do was install the handle and it would be good as new.

The handle however would not install over the tip of the cartridge. It seems that while trying to force the cartridge into the receptacle, I had managed to deform the tip enough that the precisely machined handle would no longer fit. More calls to the customer service number followed, more replacement parts were sent out and the repair was finally completed but with significant delay.

The lesson from all this -- while DIY may be possible by the average person and might even be perceived as fun by some, I think I need much more practice before I can be counted in the ranks of the latter group.