Me and AI in a short interview…

Under the weight of the train accident in Tempe, the lights fall on the Infrastructure of our country, and how much we have invested in it, as a development requirement… I thought I’d ask the AI and see what it says…

me: Do you have any data about the Public Investments in Infrastructures in Greece?

AI: Yes, I can provide you with some data about public investments in infrastructure in Greece.

According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), the total public investments in Greece for the year 2020 amounted to €8.9 billion, of which €3.3 billion (37%) was allocated for investments in infrastructures.

Specifically, the breakdown of public investments in infrastructures in Greece for 2020 was as follows:

€1.8 billion for transportation infrastructure
€1.1 billion for energy infrastructure
€244 million for water supply and sanitation infrastructure
€91 million for telecommunications infrastructure
€58 million for other types of infrastructure

Greenwich estate that held title of America’s priciest home now lists for $150M

Copper Beech Farm is the largest waterfront parcel in Greenwich. Situated on a private peninsula, it spans over 50 acres with almost a mile of frontage.

When Connecticut’s Copper Beech Farm sold for $120 million in 2014, it was the priciest home sale the country had ever seen, but the buyer’s identity remained secret. Now the mystery owner of the storied 50-acre estate is putting it back on the market for $150 million.

With nearly a mile of private frontage on Long Island Sound in affluent Greenwich, Copper Beech Farm is considered among the most significant single-family properties in the country. Originally known as Kincraig, the estate dates to the 1890s and once belonged to the Lauder Greenway family—Harriet Lauder Greenway’s father helped Andrew Carnegie start what would become U.S. Steel. The centerpiece is a French-Renaissance mansion spanning around 13,500 square feet.

One of the listing agents, declined to comment on the current owners, saying only that they are “Connecticutites.” She said their identity has been a “closely guarded secret” in the community since they purchased the property from timber tycoon John Rudey. Records list the owner as the Connecticut-based The Conservation Institute, LLC.

Destination spotlight: Porto Cheli

Don’t tell this to anyone in Ibiza or on the Côte d’Azur, but the Mediterranean’s most exclusive summer destination is in Greece. You may think we’re talking about Mykonos or Santorini, but this most under-the-radar slice of paradise is not an island: it’s Porto Cheli, on the southern tip of the Peloponnese’s most easterly peninsula. Continue reading »

Mediterranean Price Observatory

Three Parisian mansions to Lionel Messi

In August 2021, Lionel Messi signed a two-year contract with Paris Saint-German. Funded for a decade by Qatari sovereign wealth, PSG is one of the few clubs in the world that can afford the 34-year-old player’s salary.

Messi reportedly will be paid $41 million (35 million euros) a year. His former club Barcelona couldn’t meet the soccer star’s salary expectations after the Spanish football league inclined and stated that it wouldn’t be complying with salary cap regulations.

Messi arrived in Paris in mid-August with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and three kids. The soccer player and his family stayed in one of Royal Monceau suits while looking for a long-term rental in residential areas close to Parc des Princes, PSG’s home stadium. The family expected to find the same home features they were used to living in Barcelona, including a swimming pool, an amenity rare to spot in Paris, even in the high-end segment. Continue reading »

Planet alert…

Το περιβάλλον είναι ένα δώρο που μας έχει προσφέρει η φύση. Έχουμε υποχρέωση να το προστατεύσουμε και να το παραδώσουμε στα παιδιά μας. Η εξάντληση των φυσικών πόρων όπως το νερό και τα ορυκτά καύσιμα και η αλόγιστη χρήση τους, υπονομεύουν το μέλλον του πλανήτη και τη ζωή των επερχόμενων γενιών.
Δημοσιευμένες μελέτες δείχνουν ότι έως το 2030, τα μεγάλα κράτη πρόκειται να αυξήσουν την παραγωγή άνθρακα κατά 240%, φυσικού αερίου 71% και πετρελαίου 57%, τινάζοντας στον αέρα τη Συμφωνία του Παρισίου, που στόχο έχει την αύξηση της μέσης θερμοκρασίας του πλανήτη κατά +1,5C το μέγιστο.

Dear friends,

We are responsible for the future of this planet and the life we create for our children. Environmentalists say that governments also need to focus on future plans for fossil fuel extraction.

Fifteen countries, among them the U.S., Norway and Russia, plan to dramatically increase their production of oil, gas andcoal in the decades ahead, potentially undermining pledges to curb emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, according to a U.N.-backed report released Tuesday. Continue reading »

Property Prices

Greek home prices will grow at an average annual rate of 4.9% through 2027, according to a study by Piraeus Bank, bringing them back in line with pre-crisis levels. For this year, the bank expects residential real estate prices to rise by 5.7%, and by 6.4% in 2022.

Property Prices

Greek property prices showed surprising resilience in 2020, rising 4.2% from a year earlier, according to the latest data by the Bank of Greece.

But the coronavirus pandemic has weighed on real estate transactions overall with last year’s price increase below the 7.2% rate recorded in 2019.

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Cost of an engineer…

The engine of a giant ship broke down and no one could fix it, so they hired a mechanical engineer with over 40 years of experience.

He inspected the engine very carefully, from top to bottom. After watching everything, the engineer unloaded the bag and pulled out a small hammer.

She knocked something gently. Soon, the engine came back to life. The engine has been fixed!

7 days after the engineer said the total cost of repairing the giant ship was euros 10,000 to the owner of the ship.

′′ What?!” said the owner.

′′ You’ve done almost nothing. Give us a detailed account.”

The answer is simple:

Hammer Tap: 2,00€

Know where to knock and how much to knock: 9,998€

The importance of appreciating your competence and experience… because these are the results of struggles, experiments and even tears.

If I do a job in 30 minutes it’s because I spent 10 years learning how to do it in 30 minutes.

You owe me years not minutes.

…lesson from life

Main Building of Hellenikon Airport

Hellenikon, Attica, 1959-63

Architect

Eero Saarinen (1910-1961)

The main building of the Athens Airport (referred to as the East Terminal) was one of the last works by the world renowned Finnish-born American architect Eero Saarinen whose headquarters were in Birmingham, Michigan. He had already gained international recognition for the original and elegant expressionism of the TWA passenger terminal in New York and the Dulles International Airport near Washington DC.
The object of his design, as he himself pointed out, was to combine the best functional solution and to create a building that would be representative of 20th century technology and express the Greek spirit as well.

Saarinen was so successful in achieving this goal that his building transcended its utilitarian-technological nature and functioned symbolically as the gateway to Athens and to modern Greece.

The building was laid out as follows:

at the entrance level were the check-in booths, customs inspection, shops and a balcony with restaurants that was also open to the transit lounge,
the mezzanine housed the foreign exchange services, customs offices, etc, on the runway level was the splendid transit lounge, with an internal height of three floors, and the departure gates
and in the basement were the luggage handling facilities, and the airport’s operating services.

The large projecting upper floors included restaurants and the roof overlooked the runways and the Saronic Gulf and was popular among passengers and visitors alike. On an intervening floor was the VIP lounge, administration offices, etc.

The dynamic and plastic form of the building was particularly elegant. It was built of pre-stressed, bare concrete permitting the creation of large openings and projections. The façade overlooking the airport is divided into five parts, supported on large piers and crowned with two parallel projections. The projections provide shade to the extensive glass surfaces.

Now that the Hellenikon airport has been abandoned (in 2001, after the opening of the new Eleftherios Venizelos airport at Spata), provision has been made for Saarinen’s heritage building to be utilised by acquiring a new, cultural function.

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