"Law Abiding Citizen" by F. Gary Gray with Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx

Three movies in Athens with Gerard Butler in a month is more than anyone can take. "Gamer", "The Ugly Truth", "Law Abiding citizen"! Btw, I saw the last two

Butler's latest movie with Jamie Foxx is a movie with an incredulous scenario that is trying to "modernise" (sic) the old classic theme of american vigilantism that is trying to fight a convoluted legal system trapped in personal agendas of it's members instead of awarding justice. Not a success here King Leonidas! Of course it had the usual amount of blood and gore to attract the 12-16 year olds. And oh! a small detail, Butler can't act.

Rating 2 out of 5.

PS1: Charles Bronson in the 1974 movie "Death Wish", in the role of a one man vigilante posse was by far, far better.

PS2: Trying to make a Scotsman like Butler speak with an American accent is a bad idea!

PS3: Poor acting reminded me the other night, in the wee hours of the morning as I couldn't sleep, I watched on TV the 1993 novie, "The Remains of the Day" with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thomson, that I hadn't seen as we were living in Hong Kong at the time. To any of these new actors, a la Gerard Butler, that pretend they are acting, I would send a dvd of that movie so they can understand what good, in fact superb acting, is all about. As my tired eyes were trying to close and my body was pushing me to sleep, my brain was resisting in the presence of true acting. There is a scene in the movie where Emma is trying to take a book from Hopkins' hands to see what he was reading that was so poetic, showing the true depth of love between these two individuals, as well as the abyss of conformity that separated them...Aaaah! Btw if you haven't seen this movie, get the dvd pronto!

Dora!

For those of you that do not "reside in Jerusalem" (a Greek expression meaning, for those of you that are not in the know), Dora (see photo), who was the minister of foreign affairs with the New Democracy government, that was routed out of power in the national elections six weeks ago, is running to be elected for the position of party chairman of her party, now that the previous chairman and the PM that lost the elections, K. Karamanlis, resigned in shame.

Now, Dora is the daughter of K. Mitsotakis, an ex-PM, a neferious political character, that for a big chunk of the electorate is considered as the most hated politician because of some backstabbing work he did in the sixties against the till today idolised PM at the time "The Old Man of Democracy", George Papandreou, father of Andreas Papandreou, and grand father of the current PM, GAP, short for George Andrea Papandreou, that opened the way for the junta to take over in April 1967, with the open support of the US (one of the two reasons why there is such a strong anti-american sentiment of mistrust in Greece. The second was Kissinger's "betrayal" on the Cyprus invasion in '74).

Back to Dora. The issue is that there is a very strong anti-Dora sentiment as the party elections are approaching, based not on her own track record, which is quite respectable I should add, but based on what her father did more than 40 years ago. Obviously, Dora is screaming "foul", unfair" etc.

Prima facie she is absolutely right.

However, I'll throw a spanner in the works to put a different spin, as usual, on what appears a very logical argument.

How about the fact that if it weren't for her father, her "neighbourhood kiosk owner" wouldn't know who she was (another Greek expression). So the argument goes, is it fair to benefit from the positives of your father's name but not the negatives? Fair point.

"What's in a name. That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet."

Romeo and Juliet

Well, Juliet, Dora followed your recommendation to Romeo, "... doff thy nane" , (doff Sheakspearese for dump), to no avail (Her name is Dora Bakoyianni, her late husband's name, not her father's family name which is Mitsotakis)

I am with Dora's side on this argument, which is extremely well articulated by prophet Ezekiel, albeit stated in a gender incorrect way for today, appropriate though at the time it was said:

Ezekiel 18:20 " The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him."

PS1: "The sins of the parents torture their offspring" old Greek saying

PS2: Dora is short for Dorothea which means "God's gift". I think she will be needing help from upstairs as well to win the chairmanship!

PS3: As you will notice, Greeks, because of their illustrious ancient past, have a propensity to cling and remember the past, much more than other nationalities, and make the Greek national psyche and behaviour constantly misunderstood by other countries.

"The age of the unthinkable" by Joshua Cooper Ramo

I always had a problem understanding what triggered the collapse of the USSR, or why Palestinians would elect Hamas as their legitimate government, or how intelligent people can argue in favour of Hesbollah and its gun carrying leader Hassan Nasrallah. Also how is it that the vast majority of suicide bombers come from non-religious, middle class families, or the assymetry of just 19 youngsters on Sept. 11th 2001 brought the super power of the US on its knees. Well, this book is attempting to give an answer to these questions.

It gave me clues on why the fantastic might of the US and previously of the USSR cannot win in Afghanistan, and how the tremendous military prowess of Israel, could not clean the clocks of Hammas.

This book opened my thinking to new ways at looking at geo-politics. Good book, worth a 4, but again overbearing with too much detail, a lot of it to fill the pages. Tiring read with the exception of some brilliant parts.

Rating 3 out of 4.

Airline economics

On my recent trip to London I was surprised to see how empty the BA flight was on both legs of the trip and knowing the massive losses that BA has accumulated over the last 18 months, $1.2 billion ending Sept. 2009, I thought of running a very rough break even analysis on their financials. Normally, non peak fares for a return ticket Athens/London-Heathrow, direct flight, coach, fixed dates, without conditions, all in, is around 320 euro. Of course during peak ie Christmas, July/August fares increase and in some cases double.
Lets now run some numbers:
The costs of an airline are around 10 eurocents per seat per flown mile at current jet fuel prices. This index assumes that the plane operates at full capacity.
Now, the distance between Athens and London, "as the crow flies", is 1,500 miles each way. Therefore the average cost per seat for the return trip is about 300 euro, implying that BA breaks even, after netting out 75 euro for airport taxes and handling fees, very roughly, at 120% capacity, on average, for every flight at non-peak periods. Hello!

The same holds true of course for the other two airlines that cover this route ie Aegean and Olympic.

PS: No wonder, the airlines are after the business class clientele, and are aggressively pursuing new revenue streams by charging quite hefty charges for, online booking, changing ticket dates, pre-booking seats, being pedantic on excess luggage etc

The political situation in Greece

The new socialist government in Greece, since it was elected over a month ago, is doing very, very well in the hearts and minds of Greeks and most people think that Greece has finally cracked the code and the foundations are laid for Greece becoming a truly egalitarian, prosperous country where the rule of law and equal opportunities prevail. And I cannot disagree that George Papandreou (notice we don't call him "Yiorgaki" anymore, which means "Small George", and his government has given a new vision and hope to Greeks. However, I keep my reservations, not because I am not a socialist, but because I need to see how they are going to deal with the three most important things (why is it always "three things") to get Greece, sustainably, out of the woods:
1-Growth
Whilst its very nice to announce that you are going after the rich that own big villas in Myconos, via offshore companies or go to the Parliament to inform that the CEO and Chairman of the Greek Electricity Board (50% owned by the government and 50% floated in the stock exchange with a capitalisation equal to 3% of GDP, which in relative US GDP terms translates to twice the size of Exxon, the biggest market cap in the world) who was an ex-Executive VP of Toyota Motor Company makes the mythical salary of 350,000 euros a year (doh!), and this will has to stop. And people with incomes of 30,000 euro and above are considered well off and 60,000 euros and above are considered "rich". It plays very well to the gallery, but the real question is, what will the government do to kick start real economic growth and consequently employment, in a created environment where "profits", private or corporate, are considered anathema, hey?
2-Education
Are they going to make radical changes in the Greek education system so as to really educate the youth and give them the necessary skills to drive the Greek economy out of the rut it is in? or are they will be cowed by the political costs associated with displeasing the Greek parents who want their children to get a degree irrespective of whether its worth anything or not?
3-Unions
Are they going to take on their buddies in the Greek unions, that still live in the Dark Ages, so as to make the Greek economy competitively efficient and productive or their socialist mantra will prevent them pushing for productivity improvements and a flexible work force?

These are the real stress tests of the current Greek government. The rest, is nice opiate for the masses to paraphrase good old Karl.

Females rule!

Breeders Cup 2009, $5.0 million in prize money, Santa Anita, California, last Saturday, a beautiful mare, Zanyatta, competing against 11 of the best stallions in the US, beating them cold in a superb race making 14 wins in 14 starts. One of the best wins ever. Watch her as No 4 with the jockey, Mike Smith, wearing teal green with a pink stripe silks, coming from the dead last position to win by more than a length! I am mesmerised. What an animal!



I also included a video showing Zanyatta, this beautiful phenomenon of a horse, doing very unique dance moves, which shows that she is suis generis, and a horse with special character becoming of a star. Wow!
The pink bow tie of her jockey is "ola ta lefta" as they say in Greece, which can be freely translated to mean the "money shot".

Will justice remain blind?

I am perplexed by the US Attorney General's decision, with obviously Obama's blessings, after 8 years of delay, to prosecute the five Guantanamo Bay detainees, including accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in a civilian court in Manhatan. Obviously they know, that they are running a huge risk that these guys might "walk", based on some legal technicality of which this particular case is full of, ranging from where can anyone find 12 unbiased New Yorkers to sit as jury, to whether the "Miranda rights" of the accused have been infringed when they were arrested and interogated to whether Khalid's confession is admissible when the Administration itself has admitted in a memo that Khalid was waterboarded (a form of torture) 183 times in a single month? Why are they doing it?

Does the US Attorney General have an iron clad prosecution case? Is it going to turn out to be a parody of justice? Will we see the end of the ensuing legal saga before an asteroid hits Earth and irrevocably resolves the issue :-)?
Of course, there is the official reason which is that the "rule of law" demands it.
Any other thoughts on this intriguing development?

Stuffed cabbage rolls a la Greka or "Lahanodolmathes"

"Lahanodolmades" is my most favourite dish. My numero uno by a country mile! It's a bit tedious to prepare, but the result is worthwhile the hassle.
I am presenting here the recipe with two different sauces, the traditional and the one I like more, which has blue cheese. I had it yesterday for lunch, with both the sauces and had a very nice Chauteau Pontent-Chappaz, Margaux 2005 (17 euro a bottle) :
Ingredients: ( Serves 4 Greeks!)
-1/2 kg minced beef
-1/2 cup uncooked rice
-100 g. blue cheese
-1 egg
-1 tomato finely chopped
-1 lemon
-1 onion finely chopped
-1 yogurt
-2 tsp of mayonaise
-2 tsp of olive oil
-1 tsp corn starch
-1 bunch of chopped parsley
-25g butter
-Salt & pepper
Preparation:
Cabbage
-Cut the center of the cabbage, remove the heart and discard it
-Boil the cabbage in salted water for 5 minutes in a pot
-Peel the cabbage leaves one by one and allow them to drain and cool in a large dish. Don't throw away the water as you will be needing it later
Minced meat & rice mixture
-Put the minced meat, rice,chopped onion, finely cut tomato, chopped parsley, 2 tsp olive oil, salt & pepper in a pot and mix well with your hands.

-Take small quantities of the meat mixture and place them in the center of an open cabbage leaf as in the photo
- Create a roll as per photo
-Place the cabbage rolls in a pot in layers one on top of the other, use the water that you have collected from the original boiling of the cabbage, add hot water if necessary to submerge the cabbage rolls, add the butter. Cover the top cabbage roll layer with an inverted plate to prevent the rolls to move and unfold during boiling, boil for 45 minutes. Remove water and place rolls on a serving plate. Serve hot.

Sauces

A- Conventional: Take 2 cups of the broth prior to draining in a small pot, add 2 tsp of corn starch, one egg, squeeze one lemon, mix well and let it boil till it thickens

B-Blue cheese: Mix well one yogurt, 2 tsp mayonaise and 100g of blue cheese

From my management series: Problem solving

Yesterday, in a conference call with my London Client, I shared with them the outline of my recommendations to address the issues of the consulting assignment.They were quite pleased with the proposed solution, which I now have to write it down (Grrrrh). I am, obviously, very happy that I was able to solve the problem but most importantly I was proud that my proposed solution was elegant ie simple and effective.

As I reviewed the journey of how I arrived to the solution, a very useful habit that helps one understand and learn from his mistakes and successes, I realised that the cracking of the problem of this assignment was primarily due to clearly defining and restating the problem that needed to be solved. Once the correct problem was defined and articulated, free of "noise" and confusing interpretations, the solving part of it was a cinch.

The key skill a consultant needs to posess in understanding and defining client's problems and issues is attentive listening. The ability to be ignorant, create an atmosphere of trust that the client feels comfortable and doesn't hold back, ask a few questions, hear what the client is saying, interpret what you are hearing and what the client is feeling and try to see the world with his eyes. In other words first establish the relevant "dots" and then "connect" them. No rocket science here.

PS: I am sure some people of the top team of the client will be reading this. What a great way to mentor your client, because I always believe that the quality of the work of the consultant depends on how good his client is.

2012

As you probably know, if you live on planet Earth, everybody is talking about 21 December 2012, the day when, according to the Mayan calendar, Time ends and hence it is inferred that Earth will be destroyed by a catastrophic event, and human existence will be wiped out, the same way the dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years ago. In the case of dinosaurs, scientists have been trying, after the fact, to find what caused the cataclysmic event that made dinosaurs museum pieces and the most predominant theory being an asteroid hitting earth triggering a catastrophic sequence of events that put dinosaurs "out of business". In the case of the 2012 looming catastrophy, however, since the event hasn't happened and there is no scientific evidence supporting this particular date versus any other date, we are left in the "able" hands of doomsday pundits and charlatans who, with pseudo-scientific obscure language, are creating the beginnings of mass hysteria, stoked of course by our friends in Hollywood. We now have the same kind of mania on what will cause the mother of all disasters that resembles a lot the "Who killed J.F.K?" saga or the "Who shot J.R?" ie now we have "Who is going to kill Man?", an asteroid ? the reversal of the magnetic poles? etc. As an aside, there are a few excellent stock market trading strategies as the Final Day approaches that can be very profitably applied from shorting the market, to going "all in" before the Final Day because if it happens then everybody loses, so you are not worse off (hahaha) than anybody else, but if it doesn't, you are "all in" "long", and you can really "break the bank". Yihaaa! Remember also that, 21 of December 2012 is a Friday, usually a short trading day ahead of the weekend, you can leverage that too. Hahaha.

On a more serious note, if the Mayan prophecy is correct, then for Christians at least, shouldn't they ask themselves why didn't the Big Guy wait four more days for us to celebrate his birthday first and then do His gig?

Answer 1: Read previous post

Answer 2: Who cares, because when it happens, we will have first hand knoweledge what's out there!

GG: A disclaimer: All of the above are written "tongue in cheek"

Faith vs Religion

I am quoting for your benefit, a very well written letter in USA TODAY in the letters to the editor section by Jonathan Horner of Newport. Tenn., on the difference between faith and religion :
"...Religion is not faith. Faith involves unanswered questions, religion is belief in answers formulated by mankind. Unfortunately, these formulations are made without understanding essential questions, and in practice fundamentalism discourages asking deeper questions.
Religious texts should be read as poetry, rather than as a direct statement in prose. This is the difference between a symbol and what the symbol represents. Science is entirely compatible with faith. Religion, conversely, claims to know the future, which is convenietly soothing to those who adamantly and insecurly cling to their egos and wish them to have everlasting life"

Grrrrrrh...

Today is Thursday, not my favourite day. It's the day of the week where my daily average of swearing at the divine ie "descending the candles" (see relevant post of Nov.5th) increases exponentially versus the average of the rest of the week. One reason, of course, is visiting George Jr at 3:00 pm and the chaos created in his neighbourhood because of the "farmer's market" aka "laiki" that I explained in the aforementionned post. The other reason actually preceeds my George Jr visit and lights the fuse for the "laiki" explosion. You see, Thursday's is supermarket day for me. In fact, I just returned from this experience. I know, that for a lot of people it's a pleasant experience bla, bla bla...Not for me mates. It's an unnatural experience and trying to find the stuff you want is like a stupid hide and seek game. Btw, the supermarket I go to, Mega on Vouliagmenis, is one of the best if not the best supermarket in Athens, big, wide aisles, spotless and brightly lit as the photos can attest. My detestation has nothing to do with the supermarket's infrastructure. And now, after I read the book "The Nudge" (book review post dated Oct. 30th) I now see the supermarket as a huge factory of nudging, with the choice architects working their butts off to force me, nudging is too soft a word in this case, to choose what they want rather than what I want. This will not pass. I am Spartacus! Hahaha

Sad...as all addictions are

Down memory lane: Fifi, Charles Jourdan and Edward de Bonno

"Fifi" is the name I gave to my newly adopted neighbourhood cat (see photos). As I was calling her the other day I remembered the other "Fifi", an Arab bottler's wife and the immortal story of the shoes.
One day an Arab bottler and his wife, Fifi, visited me in Athens and since I was a native, he asked me to accompany his wife shopping, as she wanted to buy Charles Jourdan shoes a luxury brand at the time. I asked Popi to help me out at this assignment, and went and picked Fifi up from the hotel and took her to the Charles Jourdan shop in Syntagma Square, not there anymore, I think.
All three go in, and she asks to try a particular shoe model and tells the sales guy that she wears a European size 36-37 (US woman's size 6-6.5). We were floored! No way she would wear such a small shoe size, because I forgot to mention that dear old Fifi dwarfed battleship Potemkin in sheer mass.
Fifi was a definite 40-41 shoe size (US woman's size 9.5-10), but no matter how hard Popi and the sales guy tried to persuade Fifi to try bigger size shoes, she wouldn't budge. Time was passing without any success in sight and I was in Cambronne creek then a flash of genius. I take the sales guy on the side and ask him to tell Fifi that the shoe sizes in Greece are different than the rest of Europe and the Arab world and that if she wanted a European size 36-37 then the corresponding Greek size would be 40-41. As a modern day Alexander the Great I had cut this Gordian Knot and everybody was happy. I was wearing my Edward de Bonno green thinking hat that day :-)

Republican dog

Happiness in the work place

It is a fact that happy employees produce more and better results, are more creative, more energised, make better decisions and are lower maintenance.



If this is a well known fact, why is it then that happiness in the workplace is the most underused productivity tool?
In my view, happiness in the work place produces so spectacular results that the old position of Head of Human Resources, now called position of Chief Talent Officer, should be changed to Chief Happiness Officer if companies want to see sustainable quantum leaps in productivity gains.
In my personal experience, I was consistently very happy in the various jobs and positions I held. In reflection, I think it's because I moved, every 5 years or so, divisions, geographies or companies. It seems it takes HR departments about 5 years to zero in on happy employees and take measures of reducing their happiness as they construe it as a sign of "waste" that should be eliminated!
My advice to companies start measuring the extent of happiness of your employees and take steps to increase it.
PS: Professor Christopher J. Ruhm in his paper "A Healthy Econmy Can Break Your Heart" found that a 1% reduction in unemployment increases acute myocardial infarction (AMI) mortality by 1.3%! In other words, economic recessions reduce smoking, inactivity, and obesity which drive AMI and chronic conditions which account for 75% of the cost of healthcare in the US.

Snippets of my London trip

-London is cheap. With a 25% devaluation of the pound vs the euro and the deep discounting British retailers are doing because of the recession, London is relatively cheap. A double tall, non fat, caramel macchiato costs 2.8 pounds ie 3.1 euro versus 4.7 euro in Athens ie S/B in London is 34% cheaper than Athens! In Tottenham Court Rd, aka the Mecca of computers/electronics, I found some amazing deals. Even clothes for men at Harrods are cheap. Rest assured, the Al-Fayed statue of the 'Chairman' wearing his trade mark double breasted suit is still looming in the men's clothing section of Harrods. Tacky!

- I took a cab in Kensington and told the driver to take me to Harrods. Cabbie told me that the usual fare is 6 pounds and he will charge me only 5 if I allowed him not to press the meter! First time this happens to me in London. For a moment I thought I was in Karachi. O tempora O mores!

-Saw "War Horse" at the New London Theater and loved it, puppeteering and all. Very emotional show that had the basic theme that the relationship of humans and animals is the richest of all experiences. Total agreement here. Bobby rules!

-Had terrific fish at the "Poissonnerie de l'Avenue" in Chelsea (82 Sloane Avenue). Good old French cuisine. Unbeatable.

-The business meetings went very well, culminating with the last meeting I had which was with the big banana, the head honcho, the bigwig, top dog, the big enchilada, the big Kahuna, hahaha. It was very exhilarating to intellectually banter with highly intelligent and articulate people and discuss strategic issues, such as, how does one stress test whether the infrastructure and processeses of a business are "fit for purpose" or how do you "future proof" a business. Aaah!, the adrenaline rush!!

Now. I must work to deliver working solutions to these ethereal issues. Love it.

Net, net, a great trip.

"The Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki

The thesis of the book is that if you want to make a correct decision or solve a problem, large groups of diverse people are smarter than a few experts. It gives a plethora of social experiments and experiences to substantiate this counter intuitive proposition. However, it's written in a boring kind of way and whilst at the end you are convinced that there is a lot of truth in this thesis, it is never made clear why this happens. Another tough read.

Rating 2 out of 5

Slaving away

I am, today, on the first BA flight out of Athens with destination London to attend some meetings. And lest some of you that all this business travel is cute and leisure let me inform you that au contraire it's very hard work. Case in point, tomorrow, I am booked to participate in 9, yes nine, business meetings with different groups of people, including a short, non liquid, all sandwich business lunch, and then rush to Heathrow to catch the 4 hour long evening flight back to barbarville. No walk in the park mates.

PS: A great upside here is that there is a Starbucks in the Client's office builiding! Yihaaa!

You taste what you paid for

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Stanford's business school have directly seen that the sensation of pleasantness that people experience when tasting wine is linked directly to its price. And that's true even when, unbeknownst to the test subjects, it's exactly the same Cabernet Sauvignon with a dramatically different price tag.

This graph shows the activity in the brain's pleasure center; there's more activity with wine subjects think costs $90 a bottle (top line) than the same wine priced at $10. The arrow shows the moment when the subjects started tasting the wine.(Credit: CalTech, Stanford)
GG: Who gives a hoot as long as the difference in sensation pleasantness (the area between the two graphs) is worth $80 and there is no aftermath difference ie in hangover intensity if any. So, marketeers, "sock it to me" if you meet the above two conditions! :-)

PS: "Sock it to me" is an old, then hip, expression that was coined by the #1 TV show, aired by NBC "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" that was very osé for its time, full of sexual innuendos and daring political satire, that I use to never miss when I was a university student 40 years ago.

"Buffalo Bill's"

I went last night with a couple of dear friends to "Buffalo Bill's" a Tex-Mex restaurant in Glyfada (Kyprou 13, Tel: 210-894-3128) that I had been once before and had enjoyed the food. The ambiance was great, the service was very good and the food tasty, except the beef in the fajitas was a bit hard and the tequila in the margarita could have been of better quality. All in all it was a nice evening out with good laughs. Btw the place was packed, 35 euro a head with drinks and desert.

What a singer!

There are only two Greek singers, that when they sing certain songs, make my heart stop and my hair stand from emotion. One is Grigoris Bithikotsis aka "Sir Bithi" and the second one is Nikos Ksilouris. All the rest, except Haris Alexiou are "mere toothpastes" as we say in Greek (Sorry Stelio)
Yesterday, in one of those stupid Greek financial papers that I don't read because they are full of the most moronic financial analysis but my brother does as he is CEO of a Greek oil company and should read whatever rubbish the Greek financial community is saying, there was a CD of Nikos Ksilouris, that was given with the paper for free.
I give you one of his songs, not one of his best, but this one you don't need to know any Greek to feel his epic voice. Usually his lyrics are very deep and refer to his beloved island of Crete. Enjoy it.

Missing tip!

I was reading the other day a very interesting article in NY Times titled "100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do" Part 1 & Part 2 and thought that the 100 tips they offered covered everything. Till I went, today for lunch, to "Prytanio" restaurant in the "Golden Hall" of Maroussi in Athens (photo). The missing tip for restaurant staffers would be that "When a customer gives you feedback on the food don't smile and say nothing. Thank him for taking the time to make the restaurant better"

The case in point was, when I finished my penne with mozzarella cheese, I called the waitress and told her to tell the chef that when one puts ice cold mozarella cheese cubes on top of hot penne the laws of heat transfer will apply and you will end up with a plate where the penne at the top would be cold and the penne at the top would be hot.

She smilled and said nothing and left the table. Doh!

PS1: I have to tell you that what I actually said was " Kindly tell your "Botrini" (the Greek TV equivalent of Gordon Ramsey) that when one puts.....". I couldn't restist the dig. :-)

PS2: Pasta, salad with beer & mineral water US$50 a head

Why?

Why is it that although Finland is a wonderful place to live, very clean, organised and civilised with a very good child and health care system, free education, indifinetely long unemployment benefits etc and all the goodies that make its citizen's feel unstressed has more than six times higher suicide rates than Greece ?

I am sure that Bob L., an American who currently is living in Finland, a well travelled person, been to Greece, and a regular reader of this blog will give us an answer to this question, as the scientific analysis on the aetiology of this phenomenon is frequently contradictory and in all cases confusing.

PS: Finland suicide rates are also double those in the US!

Yeh or Nay?

Another winter with women insisting in wearing galoshes, aka wellies, to look trendy. I find them not appealing at all, especially when worn on a sunny day

What do you think? Are they fabulous footwear or a fashion eyesore?

Paranoia

60% of the doctors and 90% of the nurses of the Greek National Health system are refusing to be vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus.
What can I say? I am speechless!

I passed the exam!

It's two years now that I live without my Popi. During that time, "yiayia", the old lady that lives on the 4th floor and adored Popi, has visited me quite frequently and everytime she would bring "le plat du jour" of her excellent cooking, and we sat and talked. Yesterday, she paid me another visit with some fantastic "spanokopitta" and revealed to me that all this time she use to come to inspect how I was coping with the apartment and with myself, under instructions from Popi who was really worried how I would cope when she would "leave". "Yiayia" then told me that she was impressed with the way I am managing my life and the way I keep myself, Bobby and the apartment and that I have passed all her secret and strict tests with flying colours, and that Popi shouldn't be worried.
You made my day "yiayia". Thanks!

"Descending the candles"

Whenever I drive to go to my grandson's apartment to see him, usually at 3:00 p.m, and its a Thursday, as I approach his building, my blood pressure goes up and I start "descending the candles" which translates from Greek meaning "Swearing at the divine". Reason, every Thursday in George's neighbourhood they are having a farmer's market or as they say in Greek there is a "laiki", meaning "layman's". During a "laiki", the whole neighbourhood is taken over by a plethora of stands where they sell everything from women's underwear, clothes, carpets, shoes and a bit of fresh produce which was the original purpose of holding a "laiki". Chaos descends onto the neighborhood during the "laiki" as trucks people, cars, stands and stuff on sale create havoc. If you live in a neighbourhood that holds a "laiki", then the previous night you must take your car out of the garage and park it somewhere far as you will be unable to get out of the garage the next morning as the "laiki" stands and or trucks will be blocking the garage exit. During the duration of the "laiki" you will feel that you are living in the middle of a bazaar in down town Sana'a in Yemen. After the "laiki" finishes, the place looks like downtown Baghdad. Aaagrrrr!. The middle ages!!!

PS: There are three types of people that get produce at the "laiki" depending on the time they go:

Type A: Those that are interested in quality. They go to the "laiki" early to make sure they can pick the best produce.

Type B: Those who are price conscious. They go just before the "laiki" closes and get substantial discounts on the unsold produce.

Type C: Those who are poor. They go just after the "laiki" ends and are given the stuff that the farmers would have thrown away.

Have gold prices peaked?

Gold hit a record high above $1,095 a troy ounce, intraday, yesterday in brisk trading.

Has it peaked? I don't think so because the underlying forces causing the price to go up are here to stay for some time. In my view, the main forces acting are:

1- Dollar weakness

2- Pending inflation caused by excess government spending and lax monetary policies

3- Psychology. "Flight to safety" during uncertain times.

GG: Kindly note that China has recently replaced South Africa as the world's biggest producer of gold, and now connect that dot with my post yesterday on the fact that China holds $2 trillion of US debt, whilst their own, as % of GDP, is 9 times smaller than that of the US, standing at a very healthy 11%, and you start getting the picture. Add Russia' gold, oil and gas (Russia's external debt is only 15% of GDP) and the future picture is complete which leads me to believe that Einstein was smoking pot when he thought that he didn't know how WWIII would be fought (but he knew that WWIV will be fought with bows and arrows implying that WWIII will lead to a nuclear holocaust). Albert, WWIII will be fought with financial and commodities weapons, mate!

The best promoter of US Democrats

Results are just in and for the first time since the american civil war NY 23rd district elects a Democrat, Bill Owens. Owens won, mainly because, I think, his opponent was endorsed by right wing nut heavyweights like Sarah Palin. Thank you Sarah.

GG1: A lot of people believe that Sarah Palin is a waste of fresh air. I beg to differ. I think that she is an inspiration to university students. At least to some of them. Quite a few, in fact, in Greece. She is a ray of hope to all those "eternal" students that take aeons to graduate, that a person that took 6 years and 3 universities to get a 4 year university degree and believes that the world was created just before Cheops (Khufu) built his pyramid at Gizah, can become a Governor, a vice presidential candidate, write a best selling autobiography (Her second book, a memoire titled "Going Rogue" due to be on the shelves as of Nov.17th) and possibly become the Republican presidential candidate in the 2012 US presidential elections. Wow!

GG2: Spectacles rule! Death to contacts. Hahaha

The power of exponential growth

A great article by the Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy:
"...The biologists are analysing the composition of the virus and trying to create a vaccine to combat the disease, but it is mathematics that now allows the scientists to understand how virulent it is.
Each virus is assigned a number, which is a measure of how quickly it spreads. The number for Aids is between 2 and 5. Measles is much more contagious with a number between 16 and 18. Estimates for the number corresponding to swine flu is somewhere between 1.2 and 1.6. This is much smaller than normal influenza, which is between 1.5 and 3.
Even with a small infection rate, it is remarkable how quickly the disease can spread. If a contagious person infects 1.2 people each day then it takes only 125 days to infect the whole population of the Earth. Such is the power of exponential growth... "
GG: The mathematical cunundrum at the bottom of the article is a gem

The World's Biggest Debtors

Interesting article that puts external debt in perspective. Big absentees in the top 20 list are China, which btw holds $2 trillion of US debt, and Russia. Very inteeeeeresting!

1. Ireland External debt (as % of GDP): 1267% External debt per capita: $567,805 (!!!!)

2. Switzerland External debt (as % of GDP): 422.7% External debt per capita: $176,045

3. United Kingdom External debt (as % of GDP): 408.3% External debt per capita: $148,702

4. Netherlands External debt (as % of GDP): 365% External debt per capita: $146,703

5. Belgium External debt (as % of GDP): 320.2% External debt per capita: $119,681

Denmark, Austria, France, Portugal,Hong Kong, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Spain

16. Greece External debt (as % of GDP): 161.1% External debt per capita: $51,483

Italy, Australia, Hungary

20. United States External debt (as % of GDP): 94.3% External debt per capita: $43,793

GG1: When your EU mates are worse off than you are, you feel less depressed. :-))

GG2: This spiralling of external debt cannot continue for ever. Something is got to give. Again!

I' ll be darned!

Yesterday started the presale of the tickets for the U2 concert that is going to be held in Athens on Sept. next year!!!!!

Young people were queuing up since morning, in the rain, to get the sought after tickets. Including the presales via Internet (70% of total sales), 30,000 tickets were sold in the first day. Thirty thousand for a concert that is going, maybe (mega stars do have the propensity of cancelling for various reasons), held in 11 months time for crying out loud!!! And yes the previous to the Athens U2 concert that will be held on August 30, 2010 in Vienna has been pre-sold out in 3 days!

The ticket prices range from 65 euros through to 330 euros (the 330 euro tickets are now sold out!). The amazing thing is that the young generation that is attending these concerts, at least the Greek version of it, are extremely poor planners and they consistently miss dead lines and almost always are late in their appointments and here they plan almost a year ahead and pre-pay some steep ticket prices!!

"The shortest distance between two points is a straight line"

They finally remembered their Cartesian geometry in London's Oxford Circus and installed diagonal crossings.
For any doubting Thomases out there that are not sure that a straight line is indeed the shortest distance, just kidding guys, click here for the mathematical proof, which is not as simple as you might think!

The American dream?

A recent study by the University of Michigan that looked at data between 1968 through 1997 concluded that 90% (!) of black children were on food stamps at some point by the age of 20.

And this data does not include 2 financial bubble bursts, the 2000 one and the 2008. God blimey!

PS: Children on food stamps are at a higher risk for malnutrition and other health conditions that stem from poverty.

Nothing has changed in 177 years!

The Bible drillers are aggressive softies!

If you read my Oct. 28th post titled " Did He mean olive oil and not petrol oil" on the Zion & Oil Dallas company that were drilling in Israel for oil based on the Bible verses, I found this blog that they tried to intimidate because in one of its posts it said that the well was dry! When the blogger called their bluff, no response yet. Interesting stuff.

Things that bug me in Greek TV

Among the myriad things that bug me in Greek TV, there are these two words that are continiously mispronounced by the majority Greek commentators and sportscasters. They are simple words that are used erxtensively on Greek TV and nobody tries to correct them.
The first word is "Champions League", the famous European soccer competition. For some unfathomable reason Greek sportscasters add the letter 'n' and pronounce it Champions Lea-n-gue!!! This has been going on for years now.
The second one is a very recent addition to the linguistic pantheon of Greek TV. This is the french word "stage" pronounced sta-a-ge, meaning internship/traineeship, and this word is in the news a lot lately because it describes a EU sponsored program for training young people in government/municipal jobs that the new government has discontinued because of blatant abuses and favouritism, making thousands of young people to join the ranks of the unemployed. Most commentators and politicians pronounce it as "states" or in the english form "stage" which in english does not mean internship.

The illusion of free choice

After reading "Nudge" (see review Oct. 30th) and the choice architects that guide us to the desired option, I saw this picture. There is a lot of truth in this clever picture about a cow who seems to have free choice.

I also remembered an article I read about an experiment that was done by British scientist John-Dylan Haynes, using brain scanners (Functional MRI or fMRI) that can "see" your decisions before you make them by as much as 7 seconds, "an eternity" as Haynes aptly noted.
The experiment, conducted at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, raised questions about whether there is a conscious free choice!

"Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas L. Friedman

Written by the three times winner of the Pulitzer Prize Thomas Friedman the well known foreign affairs columnist of The New York Times.

His thesis in the book is to answer the question why we need a Green revolution and how this can renew America.

Hot: Global warming

Flat: Globalisation of marketplaces

Crowded: Growing competition for resources

The convergence of these three dynamics increase the magnitude and complexity of the problem. He analyses with excruciating detail how we got here and what needs to be done to move forward with the US taking the lead.

The problem of this book is that it contains too many details, too many quotations from various people, too many statistics all hand picked to substantiate the book thesis. A very cumbersome if not boring read.

Rating 2 out of 5.

It's Halloween today and I will give Republicans something to make them smile...

Letter costing $1.26 Billion

When PepsiCo Inc. didn't show up in Jefferson County Circuit Court to defend itself against accusations it hijacked the idea of two Wisconsin men to sell water in bottles, a judge decided against the soft-drink maker and handed the pair one big gulp of a damage award - $1.26 billion, on an issue involving their bottled water Aquafina.
Now PepsiCo, alarmed by the enormous default judgment, is pushing hard to have the award rescinded.
Although the case was filed in April and the damage award was handed down by Circuit Judge Jacqueline R. Erwin on Sept. 30, PepsiCo contends the proper people in the company didn't even know about it until Oct. 5 because of a series of miscues.
One of the reasons for PepsiCo's delayed response, according to court documents, was that a secretary in PepsiCo's legal department, Kathy Henry, was so busy she did not tell anyone about a letter regarding the case or enter it into a log that tracks such matters.
GG1: Poor Kathy! The flack she will be getting will be measured in megatons !

GG2: And all this for a bottled water that 2 years ago was forced to declare on it's label that it is purified tap water!

Trip to Dubai Feb 12th to Feb.16th locked

I am planning to visit my old hunting grounds in Dubai in February for pleasure and maybe some business. Last time I was there it was six years ago, with Popi, and I am certain that tremendous change has happened since that time. Obviously, I will be taking my bathing suit along.

Didn't book at the Burj al Arab hotel: Too expensive, too flash and dash gold plated decorum

Didn't book at the newly completed $1.5 billion Atlantis hotel because of poor customer reviews

Booked at the good old and trusted Jumeirah Beach hotel

"Nudge" by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

This is a very interesting book. It deals with the fact that true choices are rarely presented in a neutral way and that "choice architects" ie people that create the context in which people make choices are everywhere. A nudge by the choice architects will unperceptively to you will make you choose in the designed direction whilst you would think that your choice was a "free choice". A good example of this would be the plethora of default choices that are set in the various softwares and operating systems. Whilst the vendor gives you a series of options, the user hardly changes the default settings.

Small details and apparently insignificant details can have major impacts on people's behaviour. The book is full of scientific social experiments conducted by reputed universities substantiating the efficacy of nudging (the two authors of the book are professors at Chicago University). An interesting example from the book, based on an experiment conducted in Minessota produced big changes in tax compliance behaviour. Four groups were given different kinds of information. One group were told that their taxes went to various good works, including education, police, fire protection etc. Others werte threatened with punishment, others were given information about a help line to assisting filling their tax return and the fourth group were told that more than 90% of Minessotans already complied with their obligation under the tax law. This fourth group had a significant increase in compliance. They were nudged correctly.

This explains the very high incidence of tax evasion in Greece. It's the opposite of the Minessota experiment. Greeks gets bombarded everyday with cases of tax evasion that makes people feel guilty to comply with the tax law. :-))

Very enlightning stuff.

Rating 3 out of 5.

A classic example of how a small "nudge" can influence decisions and behaviours is this video sent by Bob:

What a coincidence Arnold!

Arnold Schwarzenegger will be remembered in future generations for his contribution to linguistics in two instances:

1-For saying "Hasta la vista, baby" in Terminator2: Judgement Day

2-For sending the following letter to a Democratic assemblyman who heckled him during a recent event in San Francisco and actually received two messages: a veto letter and a not-so-subtle rebuke creatively hidden within it.
Like a find-the-word puzzle, the second message was visible by stringing together the first letter of each line down the left-hand margin. It consisted of a common four-letter vulgarity followed by the letters "y-o-u."

Way to go Arnold