![2010_Warmth 2010_Warmth](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/2010_Warmth.jpg)
Rural Manitoba, Canada
Here’s a big Happy New Year! to friends far and near… may 2010 bring you peace, good health, and much happiness. Be good to each other, OK?
Also, a hearty Thank You! for your visits to this blog during this past year—over 68,000 unique visits (75% from first time visitors) from 168 countries in 2009—that’s more than three times the traffic in 2008. A very special thanks to all who have contributed ideas and inspiration and have taken the time to contact me directly with your comments, thoughts, and suggestions.
Cheers!
![Yoga_desk_Salvador_Dali Yoga_desk_Salvador_Dali](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/Yoga_desk_Salvador_Dali.jpg)
(another one for you, Jennifer)
“There is only one difference between a madman and me.
I am not mad.” —Salvador Dali
![with-gusto_career with-gusto_career](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/with-gusto_career.png)
![with-gusto_nautical with-gusto_nautical](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/with-gusto_nautical.png)
(and a bit of passive-aggressive humour for you, Nicole… more here)
![beyond_petroleum beyond_petroleum](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/beyond_petroleum.jpg)
(meme-fighting greenwashing)*
*See Eddie Adams’ 1968 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo here of the (then U.S.-backed) Republic of Vietnam’s Chief of National Police, General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, executing handcuffed Vietcong prisoner Nguyễn Văn Lém on a Saigon street—a history-changing image that became an anti-war icon and is now a powerful meme.
![Banksy_Camden_Town Banksy_Camden_Town](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/Banksy_Camden_Town.jpg)
![Banksy_Regents_Canal_Camden_Town Banksy_Regents_Canal_Camden_Town](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/Banksy_Regents_Canal_Camden_Town.jpg)
Camden Town, London (UK)
The renowned street artist’s latest(?) intervention, as seen along the Regent’s Canal…
![cigarette_cards_1 cigarette_cards_1](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/cigarette_cards_1.jpg)
![cigarette_cards_3 cigarette_cards_3](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/cigarette_cards_3.jpg)
![cigarette_cards cigarette_cards](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/cigarette_cards.jpg)
New York, New York
The images above are but a few from a lovely post that I stumbled across by ephemera-nut Eric Baker on Design Observer.
![peace_on_earth peace_on_earth](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/peace_on_earth1.jpg)
(poster by the talented and prolific McRay Magleby)
![Christmas_Truce_1914 Christmas_Truce_1914](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/Christmas_Truce_19142.jpg)
![record record](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/record.png)
![journal journal](http://www.robertlpeters.com/news2013/wp-content/uploads/journal.png)
Ypres, Belgium
95 years ago today, late on Christmas Eve in 1914, a remarkable impromptu truce took place on the Western Front of World War l. British and German troops entrenched in freezing mud began serenading each other with songs and carols. By the following day, a full truce was on, with soldiers and officers from both sides meeting in no-man’s land to bury fallen comrades, fraternize, and exchange gifts of food and drink. There was even an informal international soccer match played with teams comprised of warring soldiers… read more about this remarkable day of peace here. Find lots of video tributes and historic photographs by simply Googling “Christmas truce.”
The quotations above are from a first-hand account written by Henry William Williamson, who had just turned 19 at the time.