August 31st 2009
Okay, so we might as well have had TOURIST stamped on our foreheads.
The hats were practical and necessary. Too many days in the hot Roman sun would have certainly turned this brunette into a blond.
I think my favorite brother Mike just wanted to look cool in a faux secret agent kind of way.
Check out the mastery of architecture behind us-the Coliseum.
They sure knew how to build arches back then. Wow.
August 31st 2009
Store window on the lovely island of Capri
Just back from Italy and I believe that every graphic designer needs to spend time in Europe to understand and then perfect their craft.
The art, sculpture, fashion, design, gardens, interiors and even food presentation are all sensational to behold. One thing I especially noticed is how simple is still and always the best way to go. The design I saw didn’t try so hard. It was organic, working in tandem with the surroundings for maximum impact. Very exciting!
Art is and always will be the basis of communication, at least in my opinion. It’s amazing the stories that are told through art, without words.
August 30th 2009
I was watching the Ted Kennedy tributes this week and was amazed at his life, well lived.
At every turn, he was fallible. At every turn, he was a Lion. At every turn, he was a Lamb. At every turn, he was his Word. There is no greater human quality than that.
He persevered so he could be at every turn. He stayed when things got tough. Ugly. Hurtful. Overwhelming. He stayed committed thru desolate lows. The highs are easy to hang around for.
He found his pace, and by taking his time, he won in the end.
Evidence of that is his senate record; his role as patriarch; his faith; his loyalty. This week of tributes.
Life is tough for us all right now. Here is someone well worth emulating. 
August 19th 2009
My brother at the Villa Borghese in Roma.
See how easily your eyes can trick you? So don’t be so quick to believe everything you see.
August 19th 2009
Just got back from Italy, which is trip #1 on my bucket list. AMAZING- and it’s my fifth trip there. Italy always amazes me.
What a magical place, where history trumps modern day, where art is everywhere, where food and wine rule, and where one can go to be reminded that our little speck on this planet is indeed just that–a little speck.
Being there begs the question: Will we learn from history?
I think not. We never do.
Can you imagine an American shopping mall ruin lasting 1500 years?
August 6th 2009
.
And for good reason.
Bill Clinton is so great at what he does because HE LOVES WHAT HE DOES.
It shows on his face. In his demeanor. In the results he gets.
Look at what he did this week in North Korea. He’s a huge star on the world’s stage. And he earned it. By working hard, which is the only way.
To me, he is completely human. Fallible, complex, brilliant, focused, service-oriented, a leader, not perfect, but PASSIONATE!
What a guy. What a lesson. Bravo!
Oh yes, I am listening. I am completely doing what I love. And doing nothing I don’t love.
Are you?
August 5th 2009
By Shelby Lin Erdman
CNN
(CNN) — It is a problem of massive plastic proportions — a giant floating debris field, composed mostly of bits and pieces of plastic, in the northwest Pacific Ocean, about a thousand miles off the coast of California.
It’s called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and it covers a vast area of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of miles of open ocean.
Now researchers are trying to learn more about the sea-bound trash zone and perhaps find answers to basic questions.
How how much stuff is there? What size is the stuff? Where is it distributed in the ocean, at the surface or at what depth? What does it do to the food chain, especially the small particles of plastic that may be ingested by smaller organisms at the bottom of the food chain?
While the main focus of the Scripps mission is the impact of this plastic trash on marine life, researchers will gather information on a wide variety of issues.
Here’s what scientists do know: They know the size of this zone is huge, maybe as big as Texas. And they know that all the plastic accumulated in the patch has mostly broken down into smaller bits, floating just under the water’s surface like confetti, basically a soupy mix of plastic-filled seawater that stretches for maybe thousands of miles.
They know the garbage patch has been growing for many years, and scientists first became aware of the problem years ago when fisherman reported encountering widespread debris. They know there are other debris fields in other oceans of the world, but this one is the biggest.
Rusty Brainard with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says this giant garbage patch, in addition to plastic, also contains huge masses of fishing nets, which destroys ecosystems around the Hawaiian Islands.
But the plastic is really the toxic killer. While it slowly degrades, it turns into increasingly smaller bits of plastic. Seabirds mistake it for food and they dive down and eat it.
Brainard says they find a lot of skeletons of seabirds on the Islands and “their gut content is just filled with plastic.” Brainard says that has scientists wondering what other animals are eating this plastic.
As the larger animals and marine life eat the smaller animals, this plastic eventually ends up in the human food supply, too.
No More Plastic!
But even the size is of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is uncertain.
“It’s not a hard and fast number. It’s a little bit like a whirlpool on the surface of a river or a lake. You’d be hard-pressed to tell me where the edge is. All you know is that it’s stronger in the middle than it is in the outer reaches. But it’s an area of many hundreds of miles — perhaps thousands — in which the ocean currents tend to bring it together,” according to Knox.
NOAA has tracked the Great Pacific Garbage Patch movement to some degree. Scientists know it moves as much as a thousand miles north and south in the Pacific seasonally. And during warmer ocean periods, known as El Nino, it drifts even further south.
A kind of large, clock-wise circulation of currents driven by the wind around the Pacific ocean basin causes the plastic and other garbage to mix together in convergence zones, forming this giant trash zone and making its movements comparable to a whirlpool.
Researchers believe this enormous trash zone accumulated over many years from trash being dumped off boats and ocean-going ships, and from trash accumulated on beaches, where it eventually washed in the Pacific Ocean and into the huge zone.
This study mission may even help scientists determine whether there’s any way to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and, if so, the best way to do it.
August 4th 2009
“No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger . . . He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.”
- Henry Ward Beecher
August 3rd 2009
With thanks to CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNN) — Brad Baugh lives in Savannah, Georgia, where he buys and renovates houses. He told me two things the other day that exposed a great opportunity in this treacherous recession — and that may even shine a light on our way out of it.
The first thing he told me didn’t surprise me: he’s not buying anything.
It’s not that he can’t find good deals; he showed me several reasonably priced buildings he’d like to buy. The problem is the bank.
Here’s the painful part: Even the bank thinks the deals are good. It’s just that, for the moment, they’ve stopped issuing loans. See, they’re still afraid they might not survive this recession. They’re collecting on old loans, recapitalizing the bank. It’s not that they don’t want to do the deal. It’s just that they don’t feel secure enough to spend the money investing in it. Better to be safe.
Which means the bank won’t make money on new loans. And Brad won’t buy and renovate the building. And the seller won’t sell the house. And the economy won’t move.
We’re clearly not out of the recession yet.
The second thing Brad told me did surprise me. Shocked me actually. He told me that he needed to install a sprinkler system in one of his buildings, a project that costs tens of thousands of dollars, but the sprinkler system guy never returned his calls. It’s been four weeks since Brad left his last message and still nothing. Why won’t this guy call Brad back? Doesn’t he want the work?
After thinking about it, I realized that I was having the same experience as Brad. One morning, I came home to a beautiful doodle drawing made by the young artist Sophia Harrison Bregman, our 4-year-old daughter. The only problem was that she used a small rock as her paintbrush and the side of our minivan as her canvas. I know, cute, right?
So I called the guy at the body shop and asked him when I could bring in the car. Three weeks at the earliest, he told me. Three weeks?
A few days earlier, in an unrelated incident, I asked my insurance agent for a quote on new homeowner’s insurance. When I called him to discuss it, he never returned my call. Eventually, when we got in touch a week later, he told me he was on vacation but no one — not his secretary, not his voicemail, not his e-mail — told me.
Still, after speaking with him, I decided to go ahead. So I called him again. His secretary promised that he or a colleague would call me back. I’m still waiting.
Why, in a recession, aren’t people tripping over themselves to get new business?
In some cases, they’re simply lazy or they just don’t care. But I’d like to think those cases are rare. In other cases, such as the sprinkler system guy in Savannah, they have a monopoly. Perhaps they figure they can’t lose the business, so what’s the rush?
But none of those reasons account for why service seems to have declined in this recession. At a time when it should be at its best, it seems it’s at its worst.
Remember the bank that wouldn’t give Brad his loan? They’re afraid to spend or invest their money. They’d prefer to save it. Well, it turns out that lots of businesses are acting that same way. Over the past year or two, businesses have been reducing expenses, avoiding new investments and laying people off.
It turns out that some businesses aren’t responsive because they can’t be. They simply don’t have the staff. Whole layers in organizations are missing. And the staff they do have are taking on more responsibility and getting less training.
Even when demand exists or in some cases rises, businesses aren’t hiring more people. The auto body shop is getting more customers who, rather than buy a new car, are keeping their old one a few more years. But it’s been a tough few years and they’d rather keep their expenses low and make whatever profit they can.
Which just might be the great opportunity of this recession as well as our way out.
At a time when record numbers of people are out of work, there’s a palpable need for better service. If a new sprinkler guy appeared in Savannah and answered Brad’s call, he’d get the job. If an auto body shop were willing to take my car tomorrow, I’d give it to them.
And the bar has never been so low. If you want to sell insurance, simply let me know when you’re on vacation and you’ll have a leg up on the person I’m using.
This is a great time to get involved in a service business. Especially repair businesses. People are keeping their items longer. And the job of fixing a washing machine or a car or a roof isn’t in danger of being shipped off to China.
The suspension fork on my mountain bike recently died, and I brought it to several bike shops, none of which would repair it. “That bike is 15 years old,” they all said in one way or another, “you need to buy a new one.”
But I didn’t want to buy a new one. So I kept asking around until I met Estella at Eddie’s Bicycle Shop, a tiny hole in the wall. She repaired it with enthusiasm. Now she gets all my business.
Companies who are understaffed would do well to start hiring and training. This is an opportune time for smaller companies and even people who are out of work to compete against more established concerns by promptly, politely and effectively responding to customer needs.
Recessions get worse because people are afraid to spend money. And fear is contagious; if you’re afraid, then I become afraid.
But courage is contagious as well. And it’s courage that will stop this recession: The courage to start businesses and to invest in the ones that already exist. To hire people and to train them.
The demand is there. It’s the courage to meet this demand that will distinguish the winners in this ever-changing economy.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Peter Bregman.
