Athens Housing Authority: Fill & Download for Free

Assuming you mean the figurative ‘mic drop’ here, then gather around, ladies and gents, and let me tell you about the most savage philosopher of all time. Just how cool was this guy? Well, let’s just say he dropped the mic on Alexander the Great. That’s right: this Greek philosopher allegedly roasted the most powerful man of the 4th century BC. Who was he?His name is Diogenes the Cynic, and he gave not even a single fuck.When scolded for masturbating in public, Diogenes said "I wish it were as easy to banish hunger by rubbing my belly."Diogenes was a quite a controversial figure in Athens because he staunchly rejected the social norms of the city while simultaneously declaring that ‘living simply’ was integral for achieving wisdom and happiness. This idea, living free from possessions, is central to an ancient philosophy called Cynicism, which Diogenes more or less founded. In a word, he thought that civilization was just plain stupid and regressive.Consequently, he did some pretty obscene stuff and defied basically all of Athenian tradition with a smile.That’s because Diogenes didn’t just tout his philosophical ideas, he actively sought to put them into practice. I mean, what better way to teach by example than by peeing on people who insult you? Because yeah, that’s exactly what ol’ Diogenes did. He also liked to poop in theaters and jerk off in public because, y’know, CYNICISM.One of my favorite stories of him, however, is when a man invited Diogenes into his particularly magnificent house and asked him to please not spit anywhere. Diogenes heard this, cleared his throat, then naturally spat directly onto the man’s face. The man, now understandably furious, asked why he did so?"Because," Diogenes, "I saw nothing so dirty and filthy in all your house.”Anyway, now that you have a good idea of the kind of guy Diogenes actually is, I can tell you about his encounter with Alexander the Great. Now, no one knows for sure how true this story is, but it’s just too fun to ignore; most of what we know comes from Roman author Plutarch, who wrote a couple hundred years after the presumed incident.Diogenes was captured by pirates while he was journeying out of Athens, and was eventually sold into slavery to a man living in Corinth (a city located a little west of Athens). And so it was in Corinth where Diogenes and Alexander supposedly met.The Greek philosopher was relaxing in the morning sunlight when Alexander, thrilled to talk with the famous Cynic, approached Diogenes, saying:“I am the most powerful man in the world, if you need anything, I can grant it. Is there any favor I can do for you?”To which Diogenes replied:"Yes, stand out of my sunlight."*Diogenes drops the mic*Alexander, thoroughly amused at this response, then declared, "If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes.""If I were not Diogenes, I would still wish to be Diogenes," Diogenes replied.Assuming the story is true, I think it can be said to be the earliest mic drop in history since it happened over 2000 years ago.And Lord, I dearly hope it’s true.Thanks for reading.The three articles I used for researching this answer are:Diogenes and AlexanderDiogenesDiogenes of Sinope

In 2002, I wanted to get two Boeing 767–300ERs (which later became B777–200s) and fly between the States and Europe (livery pictured below). September 11, 2001, turned things upside down and put these plans on hold indefinitely. This model was for two long-range aircraft going between four cities internationally. Starting a US domestic airline would change the model somewhat, the fleet requirements would be for smaller airplanes, but the corp structure/financials would be the same.This is the first time I have ever published or told this story outside of my team. You ready? Here we go!Olympic Airways was no longer going to fly their US/Canada-Greece routes, and I thought it would leave a vacuum in the market (which it did), more specifically the following routes: ORD-ATH-ORD, IAD-ATH-IAD, JFK-ATH-JFK (between Athens and Chicago, Washington DC and New York JFK). In 1999, it was just an idea, which was soon to change…In the spring of 2000, while taxing to the gate at LAX, I saw the blue livery of the A340 Air Tahiti Nui from my window seat. I did some research on the airline, and found out, in 1998, Air Tahiti Nui, or “TN”, started long-haul services flying from Papeete (capital of French Polynesia) to Los Angeles and Tokyo with two A340s.Their business model was similar to what I wanted to do over the Atlantic, the only difference being TN flew over the Pacific. Mr. Nelson Levy, the founder of Air Tahiti Nui, was an incredible, charismatic, gentleman in his 40s. You would never notice his 5′7″ height because his personality was larger than life. He was able to get funding from the French Polynesian government for his airline and ended up taking a large chunk of the shares. He still kept minority share and the CEO title.E-mail exchanges between the two of us led to telephone conversations. Mr. Levy, pictured with me in 2000 (above) at TN’s headquarters, with the Air Tahiti Nui livery in the background and me holding the Aellas livery blueprint.Mr. Levy gave me the gift of full access to his entire organization in Papeete. He provided me with an empty cubicle at TN’s headquarters, at no charge, and allowed me to meet with the various divisions, sort of an incubation set-up. It was truly incredible. In the span of about eight months, I was able to go back and forth to Papeete (I only had to pay the taxes for the business class seat) and put together my business plan, and most importantly, work on the numbers.The market analysis showed routes to/from Athens to/from various cities in the United States and Canada to be hugely underserved for business travelers, tourists and “VFRs” or Visiting Friends and Relatives. (The study also showed Athens-Sydney/Melbourne/Johannesburg underserved as well.)Boeing’s North American sales office liked the concept. I started working with Boeing to secure two 767–300ERs financed by GE Capital (TN assisted in the process) and other funding sources. As the project started to materialize, it changed to two 777–200s.For the sake of space and time, there are big chunks missing. I am going to stay away from anything to do with the financials side, some marketing aspects and other things, like scheduling, I don’t think would be relevant to share. Also, Boeing has a website called StartupBoeing - Boeing: StartupBoeingHere is the cover page business plan for Aellas, this was the first livery rendition drawn according to specification (below). It took me a good two years to put this plan together, taking all the information collected from meetings with Air Tahiti Nui, Boeing, various airport authorities and other sources. Note the Table of Contents - about 100 pages for a macro-level snapshot for a start-up airline. The numbers were the most important part and a lot of work went into making sure everything was identified and realistic.A new US airline has to obtain an FAA 121 Flight Certificate (each country has their own counterpart to the FAA), the time frame being twelve to fourteen months. The Chief Pilot has to be a part of this process. Also, we had to get approval from the Greek Aviation Authority to obtain right to fly into and out of Athens.Other things on the list:Jeppesen supplies the software for proper flight planning. They also supply weather en route among other things.ATPCO - anything that has to do with fares, fare displays, confirmation numbers, all goes through Airline Tariff Publishing Company. They in turn, “push” it to SABRE for it to be published. Every travel agency company/travel website has a “PSUEDO Code” (pronouced pu-say-dough). So when you look for fares online, the airline had to file them and “push” it through. Also the airlines publish “Private Fare Filings” for specific consolidators, travel agents, websites, etc. This is why you may find different fares on multiple websites.Sabre for revenue, global evaluation capabilities, market share info, comparing fares.“Open Sky”/Gaitan responsible for baggage and boarding passes, this was going to be outsourced to Swissport.IATA Registration, Set-up of Codeshare/Interline Network, Set-up of Ground Operations, Completion of Department of Transportation Criteria, Landing Rights at ORD, IAD and ATH as well as securing gate availability.Below you will see the Organizational Chart for Aellas, which would be similar to any start-up airline. The Chief Pilot would manage a total of 16 pilots and co-pilots, 45 flight attendants would be under the Chief Purser, and all the Station Managers would report to the COO. This for two Boeing 777–200s serving four cities, three in the United States and one in Athens, Greece.A 767–300ER Route Analysis Summary from Boeing, below (note the various routes). There is one for the 777–200 as well, but not pictured. Many parts of the business plan has been purposely omitted.Some key points and facts:Air Tahiti Nui livery is a flower dropped in the water.Air Tahiti Nui executives told me when their newly purchased A340 landed at the Papeete airport for the delivery, they got emotional and teary-eyed.Upon boarding a Papeete-Los Angeles flight, the pilot came to my seat, and asked me to follow him to the cockpit. One of the most incredible memories of my life - flying jump seat on the A340 for take-off.I met with the various airport management offices of the three airports. This is where I was able to get airport rates (like the document below) and discuss the process of securing a slot.Olympic Airways was tentatively going to give Aellas their JFK slots in exchange for a codeshare. At that time, Olympic was very interested to work together.I discussed with the CEO of Ethiopian to codeshare the US-Athens-Addis Ababa route. The Aellas flight would connect to a Athens-Addis flight 2–3xs a week.The engines are better off without paint and/or logo. This is because if the outer shell needs to be replaced (or an engine) it can be taken off another plane without having to worry about matching the color or logo. The same goes for the nose.Swissport was to be the handling agent on behalf of Aellas at all airports. The Airport Manager at the various airports would serve as liaison between Aellas and Swissport. Swissport provides passenger handling, weight and balance of aircraft, ramp/cleaning, aircraft maintenance, deicing and counter space. Also cargo handling, departure lounges for VIPs and biz class passengersRoyal Olympic Cruises (ROC) committed to 40,000 to 50,000 seats during the May through August, 2003–2005, for their cruise ships. ROC wanted a separate check-in counter at airport as well as their logo on the headrests for a number of seats. Shortly after 9/11, ROC ran into financial problems and was folded into the Louis Group.Wanted to take advantage of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.I met with the then CEO of United Airlines who put me in touch with the codeshare office. I have to dig up the correspondence between United and Aellas for names, but at that time they were, “…happy with the Lufthansa relationship” but were interested in an interline agreement, which is one step before a codeshare.I met with founders of Aegean Air to see if there were any opportunities to work together. Aegean was just beginning to offer a handful of international destinations. They were not too happy with the plans for Aellas.Most in-flight magazines are out-sourced to publication houses like Conde-Nast.Cost of catering for business class per seat is less than $20.Business class kits are some times given by the brand being marketed, otherwise are very inexpensive to produce, about $2-$5.Studies showed a handful of other cities between US to/from Southern Europe are underserved like Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome and Athens. Also charter opportunities existed for the winter months in the Southern Hemisphere$100 million cash to start was what was needed for my model. Air Tahiti Nui thought $70 million was the magic number. You want to have cash available just in case.Looking back, the airline would have hit major headwinds, from 9/11 to the oil crisis and the economic meltdown in 2008–2009.Airport authorities monetize every movement from the moment the plane lands at their airport until it departs. Below you will find two of five pages from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for Washington Dulles, every airport has more of less the same breakdown. Every single action has a price tag - take a look below, which I found to be very interesting. For the first year of service, airlines flying into Athens Airport received a full year of services gratis.A sliver of the numbers part of a business plan for an airline, below. I want to give you an idea of how detailed and thorough a plan is for a start-up airline. The model was kept simple and uncomplicated. Cargo was also included, roughly 10% of revenue.At that time, before the announcement of the Dreamliner, Boeing told me I should get some 737 long-hauls and start flying them across the Atlantic because that is where the future is headed (what Norwegian is doing now).Cash Airplane Related Operating Costs, below, for four types of long-haul aircraft.LOPA or “Layout of Passenger Arrangement” (below). This was during a time when lie flat in business class was a new concept, also the entire economy class cabin was to be similar to United’s Economy Plus.Airline services are broken into four “Modules”, each giving a snap-shot of the the entire airline: Module One - General Information; Module Two -Configuration Data; Module Three - On-board Services (below); Module Four - Ground ServicesADDITION: Some questions I am being asked,Will you consider starting this up again? I never say never. The landscape has changed. Greece is in an economic spiral (even though Aegean is making money) and now United, Delta, and now, Emirates (Emirates!) have jumped into the picture. For Emirates to make this their second European-US route says a lot. What I would do differently is do exactly what Air Tahiti Nui is doing - changing to an all Dreamliner fleet. This is what I would do, the 787 is a very good airplane, and a workhorse. I would get a fleet of 787s and fly to Europe non-stop from places like Kansas City and Des Moines.

Archaic and Classical Sparta were without walls for three reasons: 1) the geography with Taygetos to the West and the Paron range to the East made Sparta comparatively secure from any kind of invasion or raid; 2) Sparta controlled the territory even beyond the natural defensive features, enabling its army to fight at the borders and if necessary withdraw fighting along the mountain passes, and 3) because of the above the Spartans had developed an ethos or tradition that made her army her walls. Spartans of the Archaic and Classical period took pride in not having walls of stone because it underlined their supreme confidence in their ability to defend their borders (and city) effectively with their active army.But the absence of walls was only one of the unique features of Sparta as a physical city. The ancient Athenian historian Thucydides made a prediction in his History of the Peloponnesian War that has come true with a vengeance. He wrote that “…[if] Sparta were to become deserted and only the temples and foundations of buildings remained, I think that future generations would, as time passed, find it very difficult to believe that the place had really been as powerful as it was represented to be. Yet the Spartans occupy two-fifths of the Peloponnese and stand at the head not only of the whole Peloponnese itself but also of numerous allies beyond its frontiers. Since, however, the city is not regularly planned and contains no temples or monuments of great magnificence, but is simply a collection of villages, in the ancient Hellenic way, its appearance would not come up to expectation. If, on the other hand, the same thing were to happen to Athens, one would conjecture from what met the eye that the city had been twice as powerful as in fact it is.” (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I, 10, 2.)This statement was as much a criticism of Athens’ building program under Pericles (that had diverted contributions from the Delian League, intended for defense against the Persians, to building extravagant temples in Athens) as a critique of Sparta.Acropolis of Athens, 2012, Photo by author.Yet it has misled modern scholars and novelists to portray Sparta as if it were a primitive village of dirt and mud. For example, in his best-selling novel Gates of Fire, Stephen Pressfield calls Sparta “a village” adding: “The whole stinking place would fit, with room to spare, within His Majesty’s [Xerxes of Persia’s] strolling garden at Persepolis. It is … a pile of stones. It contains no temples or treasures of note, no gold; it is a barnyard of leeks and onions, with soil so thin a man may kick through it with one strike of the foot.” (p.188).Modern writers are often guilty of both a too hasty reading of Thucydides and a failure to consider other evidence. Thucydides complains that Sparta “is not regularly planned” – but then nor is London. And he says it is “simply a collection of villages, in the ancient Hellenic way.”This is not the same thing as saying Sparta was not a cosmopolitan city, it only means that Sparta had no plan and no walls and hence grew haphazardly -- as all major European cities did after their confining medieval walls were torn down. No one today would call Paris, Berlin or Rome “a collection of villages” simply because they are in fact many villages which have grown into a single metropolis after the need for fortifications disappeared and economic growth fueled urbanization. Why should we assume that just because Sparta was made up of five distinct villages in pre-Archaic times that it was not – in its years of glory – a cohesive, dynamic city?Sparta, April 2016, Photo by AuthorLikewise, when Thucydides writes Sparta “contains no temples or monuments of great magnificence” he is not denying the existence of temples and monuments, only ones “of great magnificence” – such as Pericles built with stolen funds from Athens satellite states without their consent. In short, Thucydides never claimed that Sparta was not a major, metropolitan city, nor did he deny it had notable monuments, he was only making the astute statement that, judged by its buildings alone, future generations would over-estimate the power of Athens and under-estimate that of Sparta.The assessment of Sparta's architecture has been aggravated for modern observers by the fact that today we cannot see what Thucydides did. Sparta was destroyed by earthquakes many times over the centuries. It was flooded by the Eurotas. It was abandoned. Nothing destroys architectural monuments so completely as abandonment. Nor should it be forgotten that Sparta has not been systematically subjected to archeological excavation in almost a century.The Spartan Hellenistic Amphitheater as it appeared in 2012, Photo by AuthorNevertheless, what has come to light demonstrates definitively that far from being a place full of primitive, mud structures, Spartan architecture was substantial, monumental (not the same as “magnificent”!), and very, very typical of Doric architecture throughout the ancient world. Sparta was, in fact, the ultimate Doric power. It attained its greatest artistic flourishing in the 6th rather than the 5th century BC, and consequently, its greatest monuments were archaic, not classical or Hellenistic. But they existed! We can still see some of the foundations and remnants to this day. Sparta was not just a heap of peasant huts, as Pressfield and other modern novelists would like us to believe.For anyone whose imagination is too weak to mentally reconstruct a great city from the remnants left in Sparta today, we have the meticulous record of an ancient travel guide. Pausanias traveled to Greece in the 2nd Century AD, long after Sparta’s decline from prominence and more than half a millennium after its “golden era” in the 6th Century BC. Yet he needs 26 sections and more than 60 pages to describe the city! And that, although he claims he has not described everything but rather has selected and discussed only “the really memorable things.” (Pausanias, III.10. p. 37)I would also like to point out that no Spartan has left a written description of his/her city that has survived to our time. Would a Spartan have found the Acropolis in Athens “magnificent” or simply “distant, intellectual and arrogant”? Would a Spartan necessarily have admired the altar at Pergamon? Or found it “gaudy” and “busy”-- as many people see rococo architecture today?Sparta was different from other cities of its age, particularly Athens. Does that necessarily mean it was less attractive?Let me be heretical. We know that in ancient Greece most statues and temples were painted vivid colors and the statues of the gods were dressed in robes, ivory, gold, and jewels. What if Spartan austerity indeed extended to temples, statues, and monuments and these were adorned only with natural beauty – i.e. naked stone and marble sculptures set amidst flowering trees and running water? Isn’t that what we find strikingly beautiful in Greek architecture and sculpture today? The perfection of proportion, symmetry, and form in beautiful natural settings? Isn’t it the lifelike poses, gestures, and expressions that appeal to us? Would we rather see Venus de Milo painted in flesh tones with red lips and blond hair? Would we admire the Parthenon in Athens as much if it was dressed in bright paint?Ancient Nemea Today, Photo by AuthorWhat if Spartan homes were indeed devoid of elaborate interior paintings because, unlike their Athenian counterparts, they were not crammed into an over-crowded city and surrounded by high-walls that blocked out almost all daylight? Spartan houses could be built on a generous plan because the city had no plan. They could incorporate interior courtyards planted with fruit trees and herbs, they could surround themselves with gardens and orchards, they could sparkle not with gold and silver but the glinting of sunlight on water in internal fountains. Spartan homes could have windows that let in the light and they might have decorated their homes, as they did themselves, with things of nature: cut flowers, bowls of fruits, running water. Such things are transient; they rarely leave an archeological record.Spartan homes would have had views like this from the windows. Who needs wall paintings? Photo by AuthorSparta, far from being a “stinking village” full of pigsties and mud-huts as modern novelists portray it, was a city – as Pausanias describes -- full of marble monuments, pure Doric temples, sun-soaked theaters and imposing stoas. It was a city with large villas set in blooming gardens. And it was a city where the barracks and civic buildings were interspersed between sunny open spaces set aside for running, ball-games and horse-racing. It was a city decorated with fountains and flowering trees. In short, it was a city much as we would plan one today.The Sparta of my novels is this attractive city rather than the "stinking village" of Pressfield.