I'm still trying to minimize our posessions. Even my email box was horribly clogged. I had 124 emails on my private account. Most of them were from nonprofits. During grad school I did a newsletter signup frenzy. I must have been lonely or something! I unsubscribed to almost all of them. Wow! What a difference. Our house is also filled with things we can't seem to say no to. Gifts from family, my mom sends me boxes of junk. Last night I made a list of things I want vs things I need. Need: Clothing, food, shelter. Medicine and cleaning products. Safety items (phone, flashlight) That doesn't sound like a lot until you remember that clothing alone is shoes, shirts, fall coats, winter coats, boots, gloves, jogging clothes, agh! Want: Art and supplies, amenities, furniture, books, cat toys, modest decor, some electronics. Girly things. That is still a lot of stuff, and it doesn't even include sentimental things. Very hard to choose. On a somewhat unrelated note, I love this clothing site called Prana. They make great yoga clothes and they are partnered with Conservation Alliance, a wonderful nonprofit. And they don't brag about stuff. I love that.
Going to my favorite semi-local market today. Finding products that aren't wasteful gives me a raging migraine. Companies brag about all sorts of things that are weak or completely meaningless. Like "made from sustainable materials". Says who? Oh yeah, the company who makes the product. Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission has finally decided to step in. ABC news had a good story on the matter. As they point out in the story, a few good labels exist already. Terrachoice mentions Ecologo and Green Seal. Here's a quick and dirty eco-guide: ** Items that will be tossed in days or weeks are wasteful, period. The "biodegradeable" label is not regulated by law. Packaging should be minimal. **Plastic is evil. The end. Try glass or metal. **As our beloved Alton Brown says, we don't like Unitaskers. If you buy a glass bottle of milk, or whatever, think of ways you can Reuse the item. Put candies in it as a Christmas gift. That way you'll also avoid gift wrap for the holiday. **Paper can be biodegradeable, but habitat loss and deforestation are, in my opinion, the most serious environmental problem these days. Buy used furniture, use a cloth bag. Be happy and dance.
"I hope I stay unemployed as a war photographer until the end of my life".
"The pictures are there und you just take them".
Robert Capa
Robert Capa at Magnum Photos.
more of robert capa.
Born of Jewish parents in Budapest, Austria-Hungary in 1913, Capa left the country in 1932 after being arrested because of his political involvement with protestors against the government (his parents had encouraged him to settle elsewhere).
Capa originally wanted to be a writer; however, he found work in photography in Berlin and grew to love the art. In 1933, he moved from Germany to France because of the rise of Nazism, but found it difficult to find work there as a freelance journalist. He adopted the name "Robert Capa" around this time because he felt that it would be recognizable and American-sounding since it was similar to that of film director Frank Capra. (In fact, "cápa" is a Hungarian word meaning 'shark'.)
Spanish Civil War and Chinese Resistance to Japan
From 1936 to 1939, he was in Spain, photographing the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, along with Gerda Taro, his companion and professional photography partner, and David Seymour.[2] In 1938, he traveled to the Chinese city of Wuhan to document the resistance to the Japanese invasion. [3]
In 1936, he became known across the globe for a photo (known as the "Falling Soldier" photo) presumably taken in Cerro Muriano on the Cordoba Front of a Loyalist Militiaman who allegedly had just been shot and was in the act of falling to his death. There has been a long controversy about the authenticity of this photograph. A Spanish historian identified the dead soldier as Federico Borrell García, from Alcoi (Alicante). This identification has been disputed; in fact there is a second photograph showing another soldier falling exactly on the same spot.[4][5] According to the Spanish newspaper El Periodico, the photo was taken near the town of Espejo, at 10 kilometres from Cerro Muriano, proving that the photo was staged [6][7]. In 2009, a Spanish professor published a book titled Shadows of Photography, in which he alleged that the photograph could not have been taken where, when or how Capa and his backers have alleged.[8]
Many of Capa's photographs of the Spanish Civil War were, for many decades, presumed lost, but surfaced in Mexico City in the late 1990s.[9] While fleeing Europe in 1939, Capa had lost the collection, which over time came to be dubbed the "Mexican suitcase".[9] Ownership of the collection was transferred to the Capa Estate, and in December, 2007, moved to the International Center of Photography, a museum founded by Capa's younger brother Cornell in Manhattan.[9][10]
[edit] World War II
At the start of World War II, Capa was in New York City. He had moved there from Paris to look for new work and to escape Nazi persecution. The war took Capa to various parts of the European Theatre on photography assignments. He first photographed for Collier's Weekly, before switching to Life after he was fired by the former. He was the only "enemy alien" photographer for the Allies. On October 7, 1943, Robert Capa was in Naples with Life reporter Will Lang Jr. and photographed the Naples post office bombing.[11]
His most famous work occurred on June 6, 1944 (D-Day) when he swam ashore with the second assault wave on Omaha Beach. He was armed with two Contax II cameras mounted with 50 mm lenses and several rolls of spare film. Capa took 106 pictures in the first couple of hours of the invasion. However, a staff member at Life in London made a mistake in the darkroom; he set the dryer too high and melted the emulsion in the negatives in three complete rolls and over half of a fourth roll. Only eight frames in total were recovered.[12] Capa never said a word to the London bureau chief about the loss of three and a half rolls of his D-Day landing film.[13]
Although a fifteen-year-old lab assistant named Dennis Banks was responsible for the accident, another account, now largely accepted as untrue but which gained widespread currency, blamed Larry Burrows, who worked in the lab not as a technician but as a "tea-boy". [14] Life magazine printed 10 of the frames in its June 19, 1944 issue with captions that described the footage as "slightly out of focus", explaining that Capa's hands were shaking in the excitement of the moment (something which he denied).[15] Capa used this phrase as the title of his autobiographical account of the war, Slightly Out of Focus.
In 1947 Capa traveled into the Soviet Union with his friend, writer John Steinbeck. He took photos in Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, Batumi and among the ruins of Stalingrad. The humorous reportage of Steinbeck, A Russian Journal was illustrated with Capa's photos. It was first published in 1948.
In 1947, Capa founded Magnum Photos with Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Vandivert, David Seymour, and George Rodger. In 1951, he became the president.
Capa toured Israel after its founding, and supplied the copious photographs for a book on the new nation written by Irwin Shaw, Report on Israel.
First Indochina War and Death
In the early 1950s, Capa traveled to Japan for an exhibition associated with Magnum Photos. While there, Life magazine asked him to go on assignment to Southeast Asia, where the French had been fighting for eight years in the First Indochina War. Despite the fact he had sworn not to photograph another war a few years earlier, Capa accepted and accompanied a French regiment with two other Time-Life journalists, John Mecklin and Jim Lucas. On May 25, 1954 at 2:55 p.m., the regiment was passing through a dangerous area under fire when Capa decided to leave his jeep and go up the road to photograph the advance. About five minutes later, Mecklin and Lucas heard an explosion; Capa had stepped on a landmine. When they arrived on the scene he was still alive, but his left leg had been blown to pieces and he had a serious wound in his chest. Mecklin screamed for a medic and Capa was taken to a small field hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. He had died with his camera in his hand.
Personal Life
In 1934 "André Friedman", as he called himself at that time, met Gerda Pohorylle, a German Jewish refugee. The couple lived in Paris where André taught Gerda photography. Together they contrived the name and image of "Robert Capa" as a famous American photographer. Gerda took the name Gerda Taro, becoming successful in her own right. She traveled with Capa to Spain in 1936 with the intention to document the Spanish Civil War. In July 1937 Capa went on a short business trip to Paris while Gerda remained in Madrid. She was killed near Brunete during a battle. Capa, who was reportedly engaged to her, was deeply shocked and never married.
In February 1943 Capa met Elaine Justin, the beautiful young wife of actor John Austin. They immediately fell in love and the relationship lasted until the end of the war, although Capa spent most of his time in the frontline. Capa lovingly called the redheaded Elaine "Pinky," and their romance became the topic of his war memoir, Slightly Out of Focus. In 1945, Elaine broke up with Capa and married her friend, Chuck Romine.
Some months later Capa became the lover of actress Ingrid Bergman, who was traveling in Europe at the time entertaining American soldiers. In December 1945, Capa followed her to Hollywood, where he worked for American International Pictures for a short time. Bergman tried to persuade him to marry her, but Capa didn't want to live in Hollywood. The relationship ended in the summer of 1946 when Capa traveled to Turkey.
Hat tip to Lil Treva. I thought this was worth posting here. So often I read conservatives nitpicking health care in countries with Universal Health Care. I wonder what they have to say about this example of "the best health care system in the world".
I have a confession to make. We don't have a dishwasher. We did have one thirty years ago but decided not to replace it when it entered dishwasher heaven. We figured that by the time we filled it we could have the dishes washed and dried, anyway. So, every night Mrs Snowy and I go through the daily dish washing ritual. She washes, I wipe. It seems that I can't be trusted with the technical side of things. Besides, after thirty-three years of marriage, Mrs Snowy is smart enough to know that the World's Greatest Procrastinator would be washing dishes at midnight if it was left to him. Or next day, more likely, just as in his bachelor days. Or next week. Whatever...
So, I like to give her a little peck just to show her my appreciation for being rescued from a lifetime of dishwasher procrastination. She doesn't even notice it now. Or maybe she does, and just puts it down to another of my little oddities. She's gathering quite a collection.
So why is FNP about something as frivolous as this? Have you looked at the world lately? That's why. So I thought it would be a nice change to talk about love.
US productivity soars as jobless benefit claims lowest since January
- From: Dow Jones Newswires
- November 06, 2009
US productivity, or output per hours worked, surged in the third quarter to hit its highest level in six years as the world's largest economy emerged from its worst downturn in decades.
Meantime, the number of US workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell by more than expected last week to its lowest level since the start of the year, data from the Labour Department showed.
Non-farm business labour productivity rose by an annual rate of 9.5 per cent in the July-to-September period as the economy recovered and employers saved money by slashing staff. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted a 7.0 per cent increase in third-quarter productivity.
A rise in productivity is ultimately good for companies, workers and the economy. More productive companies have greater profits, which allow them to pay higher wages. That also allows the economy to grow faster without generating inflation.
But during a difficult time for the economy, a short-term productivity rise can be a sign that companies slash workers faster that they cut output. In other words, stretching existing workers means hiring fewer new ones.
Still, economic recoveries have in the past generally followed a consistent pattern: first productivity grows, then employment rises, and finally wages increase.
Over the past few weeks, economic data have continued to show that the worst recession since the Great Depression appears to be winding down, with clear improvements in manufacturing and the housing sector.
Gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic activity, rose by an annualised 3.5 per cent in the third quarter as the US government's massive stimulus plan boosted consumer spending.
"Message to the Fed: subdued inflation trends it is," said Jonathan Basile, economist at Credit Suisse, in comments on the two latest economic reports.
In its declaration that interest rates would remain near zero for "an extended period," the Federal Reserve yesterday included new qualifiers explaining the conditions that would justify keeping rates low: "low rates of resource utilisation, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations."
The Fed voted to maintain the target federal-funds rate for interbank lending at a record-low range of zero to 0.25 per cent to bolster the fragile economic recovery.
Productivity is defined as output per hours worked. It rose 6.9 per cent in the second quarter of the year, revised up from a previously estimated increase of 6.6 per cent.
A key gauge of inflationary pressures within the productivity report plunged. Unit labour costs fell 5.2 per cent last quarter at an annual rate. Economists had expected a 4.5 per cent decline.
"Modest unit labour costs indicate that there are few short-term worries about inflation," said Steven Wood, chief economist at Insight Economics.
Big productivity gains are common at the end of a recession or beginning of a recovery. But the increases come at the expense of jobs.
The US employment report for October, out tomorrow (AEDT), is expected to show that the jobless rate stayed close to a 26-year high of 9.8 per cent in September.
In a separate report, the Labour Department said new claims for jobless benefits decreased by 20,000 to 512,000 in the week ended October 31. That is the lowest level since January 3. The previous week's level was revised to 532,000.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a decrease of only 5000 claims.
The four-week moving average of new claims, which aims to smooth volatility in the data, fell by 3000 to 523,750 from the previous week's revised figure of 526,750. That is the lowest level since January 10.
Initial claims still remain at a fairly high level, suggesting the job market has a long recovery ahead.
But some economists still see positive signs in the recent decreases in the four-week-moving average, and the latest 20,000 decrease in initial claims also may suggest an improvement in labour conditions.
There was an interesting conversation on Australia Talks this evening, discussing what commentators and callers thought about Barack Obama's achievements in his first 10 months in office. The theme of the conversation was aimed at Obama's election anniversay, which, frankly, I found just a little misguided.
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