Monday, September 6, 2010

REMEMBERING SIMONE COUSTEAU


Jacques Yves Cousteau spend most of his life in the sea, not happy with inventing the equipment use by scuba divers today, he traveled the world aboard the Calypso, to teach humans about the great oceans.


Many of us grew up among his images, we were catched his " sea fever" pretending to be Calypso's scuba divers, we knew his adventures and we followed his dives.


But few of us knew about the day when the Calypso was almost lost in a storm.



It was the end of the 1940's, not a easy time for Europe. The second world war had left France in ruins. Jacques Cousteau, a young navy officer decided to buy helped by friends an old boat and name it " Calypso" and among some diver friends, start a big adventure, filming ocean dives and getting to know the ocean floor.


All his savings, plus selling his home and all his hopes were placed in this old boat.


They set course for the Red Sea where they were going to film his first movie.


They anchored the ship next to the coast of Egypt and all the men went into the water; in the ship only remained the wife of Cousteau, Simone.


While the divers were under the water, dark clouds arrived , the surface of the sea curled, and a strong wind began to blow. The divers could not return to the ship, so they swam towards the coast. Once there they contemplated the Calypso shaking with every blow of the waves, pulling the end of the anchor chain that would break inevitably.


Cousteau was afraid for his wife, a thin woman who did not have any idea of ships not of navigation. The divers, powerless were fearing that the break of the anchor would see all their illusions sinking with the old ship.



The chain broke in a dry explosion, and immediately they listened the engine of the ship that had started, it was changing direction to port and was penetrating in the sea straight ahead towards the thunderstorm.


To the rudder Simone Cousteau was, and she did not seem to be ready to allow the storm to sink the Calypso. Since she did not known anything about seamanship, she decided to go inside, where the boat might not collide with anything.


She was travelling towards the thunderstorm. Eight hours the struggle lasted between the old minesweeper and the sea, eight hours where a woman, who had never been in a ship, was extracting forces of nothing to prevent the dream of her husband from sinking that day.


When the thunderstorm ended, she took the ship towards the coast that was seen at the distance, but since it could not hold it up and it already had no anchor, simply she allowed it to float adrift with the subdued engine, hoping that the divers, who were looking at the maneuver from ground, should approach by swimming.


On coming aboard they found one smiling Simone who, to their surprise, received them with warm coffee. Many years passed, and the old minesweeper turned into one of the oceanográfic ships more famous of the world, sailed all the seas and visited all the ports.


Cousteau acquired international reputation.


In 1980, in an interview, a journalist asked him if it was difficult to command the Calypso, Cousteau answered: " Not, if Simone is on board, she is the cook, the mother of thirty sailors, which advises, which finishes the fights, who tells us to shave, which challenges us, which our best critical one, caresses us, the hairdresser on board, our first admirer, who saves the ship of the thunderstorms. It is the smile every morning and the greeting before going to sleep. The Calypso might have lived without me ... but not without Simone "


A woman who lived between cameras and it did not allowed them to photograph her, did not appear in any of the encyclopedias of the Calypso, refused to be seen in the movies, and the majority of the people never saw her face.


Our homage to Simone Cousteau... and to all these women who work from the silence and whom are valued...

Sunday, August 8, 2010

ISABEL BRAZILIAN PRINCESS


Isabel,

Brazilian Princess
circa 1883
The Thereza Christina Maria Collection consists of 21,742 photographs assembled by Emperor Pedro II and left by him to the National Library of Brazil. The collection covers a vast range of subjects. It documents the achievements of Brazil and the Brazilian people in the 19th century, as well as includes many photographs from Europe, Africa, and North America. This photograph shows Princess Isabel, the daughter of Pedro II and, until the abolition of the monarchy in 1889, the heir to the Brazilian throne. It was taken by Joaquim José Insley Pacheco (1830-1912), one of the most celebrated Brazilian portrait photographers of the day. Pacheco was born in Portugal and immigrated to Brazil as a young man. Between 1849 and 1851, he worked in New York, where he studied with photographers Jeremiah Gurney and Mathew Brady. Returning to Brazil, he opened a studio in Rio de Janeiro. In 1855 he received the title of Photographer to the Imperial House. His best known subjects included members of the royal family, political personalities, and members of the Brazilian aristocracy. He was also a painter and draftsman, and made technical contributions to the development of photography.

Friday, April 23, 2010

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE NANCY PELOSI

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi listens to reporters' questions after the signing of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

BARBARA RIVEROS GANA PRUEBA DEL MUNDIAL DE TRIATLON


La chilena se impuso en Sydney en 2 horas, 4 minutos y 19 segundos.

Domingo 11 de Abril de 2010 06:31

MADRID.-Bárbara Riveros se ha convertido este domingo en la primera iberoamericana que gana una prueba de un Mundial de Triatlón, tras imponerse hoy en la de Sydney.La española Ainhoa Murua ocupó la 32ª plaza, informa la Federación Española.Riveros, de 22 años, se ha impuesto al esprint a la neozelandesa Andrea Hewitt y a la australiana Emma Moffatt, dos de las principales favoritas.Riveros completó los 1,5 kms. de natación en el Puerto de Sydney, los 40 kms. de ciclismo y los 10 kms. de carrera a pie en 2 horas, 4 minutos y 19 segundos.

"Cuando me he visto en cabeza en la última vuelta a pie, me he puesto muy nerviosa,” ha declarado la vencedora al acabar la prueba inaugural del Dextro Energy-Campeonato del Mundo."Normalmente no soy muy buena en el esprint final, pero hoy todo ha salido muy bien,” añadió.

Friday, March 19, 2010

IRENA SENDLER




Irena Sendler


There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena.


During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the WarsawGhetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist.


She had an 'ulterior motive' ...


She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.)


Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..)


She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.


The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises..


During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.


She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely.


Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.


After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family.


Most had been gassed.


Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.


Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ...


She was not selected.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY


United Nation Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speak during a meeting of the commission on

The Status of Women.

The event titled Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All, was held at the UN

headquarters in New York in connection with International Women's Day