Archive for 2009
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Adult Americans
Between 1989 and 2007 Americans knowledge of current events dropped by 8.3%
93% know Arnold Schwarzenegger while 36% know Vladimir Putin
32% know Sunni and Shia as two branches of Islam
41% know the name Muslims use to refer to God and the name of Islam's sacred text
33% believe that Iraq carried ...
Posted in Cultures, Geopolitics, US Politics | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Americans don’t get out much.
That should come as no surprise considering that, according to the U.S. State Department, only 27 percent of Americans hold a valid passport. That means that 73 percent of Americans couldn’t get out to see the rest of the world even if they wanted to; even ...
Posted in Cultures, Geopolitics, Travel | 6 Comments »
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
Reentering the grid is a challenging experience when planned and voluntary. When unexpected, arbitrary and not of your own making, it is doubly so.
At times, the pragmatic aspects are overwhelming in their breadth, requiring an entire life to be reconstructed and assembled out of sometimes moving parts. But those challenges ...
Posted in Cultures, Motorcycles, Travel | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Our friends often ask us about our perspective on national and international issues due to our travels, experiences and perspectives.
This is an excerpt from a recent email exchange on that topic:
There continues to be very little insight and understanding of the challenges that face the country among the American people, ...
Posted in Cultures, US Politics | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife, I’m a bit of a pack rat, as well as a horizontal filer.
What that translates into is an office that inevitably evolves into stacks of material covering every horizontal surface.
To my wife’s and others amazement, I can locate the correct strata of ...
Posted in Cultures, Expedition Vehicles, Motorcycles, Travel | 16 Comments »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
When you're inside the United States, it is nearly impossible to realize how insular it is, especially related to information and perspective.
Since we're going to be here for a while, I'm providing a semi-regular injection of outside perspectives and information gleaned from other cultures, counties and regions in an effort ...
Posted in Cultures, Geopolitics, Outside the Fishbowl, Religion | No Comments »
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
Setting up a house can often be laborious, if not tedious, but there are some hidden joys.
Such as unpacking all the motorcycle stuff that's been stored in various locations around the U.S.A. for the last few years.
While there were plenty of Christmas morning moments for me, one of my favorites was ...
Posted in Motorcycles, Travel | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
I recently read Dan Brown’s new thriller novel, The Lost Symbol.
I promise not to reveal any plot twists or surprise endings. However, I will say that there was only one plot twist that I found truly surprising, and that is indicative of my feelings about the book as a whole.
In ...
Posted in Media, Religion | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
In marketing, the goal is to create the perception of need.
In advertising, marketing's shock troops, the goal is to create the propensity to buy.
I just received this advertisement from CompUSA.com via email.
Read that ad copy carefully.
Does that ad create the propensity to buy something--anything--from CompUSA.com?
In marketing, perfection is the baseline. First you deliver perfection, on ...
Posted in Business | 1 Comment »
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
Our friend, Lee Wochner, recently attended a town meeting on health care. It was, by his account, less scrum, and consequently more exchange of information, than other such events held recently around the country.
While there, Lee took some photos of the signs some of the attendees were displaying. When asked ...
Posted in US Politics | 5 Comments »
