Daily Archives: November 25, 2004

Aluminum Christmas Trees

Posted on by


Bradford McKee reminds me of a cultural icon from the 1960’s (I remember these): the aluminum Christmas Tree:

Mr. Shimon and Ms. Lindemann, while teaching photography together at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., have assembled a short history of the aluminum Christmas tree and its Manitowoc roots in a new book, “Season’s Gleamings: The Art of the Aluminum Christmas Tree” (Melcher Media), out this month. The book contains their photos of their trees ? twinkling limbs presented with deadpan cheer against mostly brightly colored backgrounds.

Elephants in the Living Room

Posted on by

Kuro5hin’s Coryoth writes an op-ed piece on the possibility of a severe economic correction:

The first elephant is debt. There are 3 kinds of debt that are of concern: Household debt, the budget deficit, and the current account or trade deficit. Of those three, it is only the budget deficit that gets any real attention, and even then it is often brushed aside……
The second elephant is the US Dollar. At the time of writing, the US Dollar is running at about 0.77 Euros to the Dollar. One could claim that this is simply due to a strong Euro, but in reality most world currencies, including the Japanese yen and the Great British pound are trading strongly against the US Dollar……
The third elephant is the rise of India and China. Both the Indian and Chinese economies are growing very rapidly. These are the two most populous nations on earth, so they should not be taken lightly.