Clipmarks | Antara's Comments

Not guilty

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:50:42 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Former Marine Acquitted of Iraqi Killings in Landmark Trial

IRVINE, Calif. — A former Marine accused of killing unarmed Iraqi detainees was acquitted of voluntary manslaughter Thursday in a first-of-its-kind federal trial.

The jury took six hours to find Jose Luis Nazario Jr. not guilty of charges that he killed or caused others to kill four unarmed detainees on Nov. 9, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq, during some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

The verdict left the 28-year-old defendant in tears. He cried so loud that the judge smacked his gavel to call for order. Nazario's family and friends also sobbed in the courtroom.

"It's been a long, hard year for my family," Nazario said outside the courtroom. "I need a moment to catch my breath and try to get my life back together."

Thursday's verdict marks the first time a civilian jury has determined whether the alleged actions of a former military service member in combat violated the law of war.

McCain - A Joke too bad to print

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:10:35 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.salon.com

The fact that McCain had made the tasteless joke was reported in major newspapers, as was the vain attempt by his press secretary to initially deny what McCain had done. But in several major newspapers, the joke itself was kept a secret. When McCain subsequently apologized to President Clinton, the Washington Post, in its personality section, noted the apology but said the joke "was too vicious to print."

The joke did appear in McCain's hometown paper, the Arizona Republic, and the Associated Press did report the joke in full, so everyone in the press had access to McCain's words. But by censoring themselves, the Post, the Times and others helped McCain deflect flak and preserved his status as a Republican presidential contender.

Salon feels its readers deserve the unadulterated truth. Though no tape of McCain's quip has yet emerged, this is what he reportedly said:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."

Tags: mccain, clinton, reno

Russia to cut oil supply to Europe?

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:15:59 GMT

clipped by: tommy2balmy
clipper's remarks: Threatened response to EU sanctions.

Clip Source: kommersant.com

Russia to Cut Oil Supplies to Europe In Response to Sanctions

A worker examines a sample at the receiving station of the oil pipeline ''Druzhba'', or Friendship, in Szazhalombatta, 29 kilometers (18 miles) south of Budapest, Hungary.

Russia’s government may prompt at least one oil company to cut supplies of crude oil to Europe in response to the threats to impose sanctions in the wake of the conflict with Georgia.

It is rumored that supplies via Druzhba pipeline that meets oil requirements of Poland and Germany will be probably reduced and that the LUKOIL leadership has been given the notice.

The reduction might happen already starting from September 1, the sources speculate. People in LUKOIL, however, say they know nothing about the plans to cut down supplies, and people in the Kremlin declined to comment.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner declared yesterday that the EU was deliberating whether to impose sanctions on Russia in the wake of events in South Ossetia and Georgia.

Tags: russia, oil

Lililth in the Darkness East of Eden

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:26:52 GMT

clipped by: bakancs
clipper's remarks: Lililth in the Darkness East of Eden

Clip Source: www.kalilily.net

Lililth in the Darkness East of Eden

Phelps Makes Reading About Swimming Exciting

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:31:50 GMT

clipped by: Andrew Farrell
clipper's remarks: He's that good. Michael Phelps, the guy that won eight gold medals in the Olympics, just got a $1.6 million book advance.

Clip Source: www.nypost.com

OLYMPIAN STROKES HIS WAY TO $1.6M BOOK ADVANCE

EVEN before landing back in the US, Olympic swimming champ Michael Phelps, winner of eight gold medals in Beijing and the man being hailed as the greatest Olympian of all time, was converting his fame into a big pool of Yankee dollars.

Phelps snagged an estimated $1.6 million advance from the Free Press imprint of Simon & Schuster for his latest book, to be called "Built to Succeed."

Little things you can do to boost your mental agility

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:16:23 GMT

clipped by: Lexica

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

Dr. Karen Francis, a behavioral neuroscientist at USF and author of "Physical Dimensions of Aging," urges people to do at least one new thing every day to challenge the mind and body. She believes that mental and physical agility can be enhanced by even the smallest of changes in one's routine.

Here are some of her suggestions:

-- Take your first step up a flight of stairs with the "other" leg, the less dominant one.

-- Control your computer mouse with your "other" hand.

-- Brush your teeth with your "other" hand.

-- Stand up while you read or work.

-- Hike on a new trail instead of walking your usual route.

-- Do a crossword puzzle with a friend and read the questions out loud. Don't always do a crossword puzzle from the same source.

-- Read an article in the paper out loud while walking around the house.

-- Walk 20 minutes from your house or office, taking as many turns as possible.

-- Learn a new language.

Tags: aging, brain-science, research

Obama: Know where it’s really great to do business?

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:39:56 GMT

clipped by: Smoke TNT

Clip Source: hotair.com

Well, as long as you forget about the oppressive Communist government and the lack of freedom and the Internet filtering and the re-education camps … China sounds really groovy:

[Video]

Does Barack Obama understand the nature of the Beijing regime? The reason that the government can afford all of this spending is that they control the means of production and the wealth of the nation. They can confiscate what they want at will and spend it where they like. And in Beijing, they spent it where the cameras would be pointed.

The Chinese infrastructure that so enthralls Obama remains decades behind that of the US. What infrastructure China manages to build, however, gets its energy from oil and coal, not from wind and solar.

iTunes doesn’t think China’s such a great place to do business today:

Customers in China of Apple Inc.’s iTunes online music store were unable to download songs this week, and an activist group said Beijing was trying to block access to a new Tibet-themed album.

Tags: obama, communism, china

how could you ever win though?

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:38:48 GMT

clipped by: kroqben

Clip Source: www.explosm.net

New evidence for prayer: gas prices

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:43:30 GMT

clipped by: laceym
clipper's remarks: Obviously the fluctuation of prices are due to mixed prayers. You see, every few minutes, an Arab prays, “Allah, raise the price of oil!” And Allah answers their prayer. Then an American prays, “Jesus, lower the price of oil!” And Jesus does it. And so on and so forth, thus the fluctuation.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A prayer group in Washington DC is claiming the credit for the recent sharp drop in the US price of petrol.

Rocky Twyman says God, not market forces, brought prices down

"We were down in Huntsville, Alabama. We finished praying," Mr Twyman said. "Immediately the owners came out and changed the gas prices. They brought it down. We had marvellous success down in St Louis, Missouri."

Clip Source: unreasonablefaith.com

Well this changes everything. Here I thought there was no evidence for prayer being effective, but this is so utterly convincing! Who needs scientific prayer studies? This anecdotal evidence should be more than enough to convince the unfaithful of the power of prayer.

Tags: faith, gas, gasoline, prayer, fail

Muslim backlash

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:07:23 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: We are so afraid of Muslims blowing us up that we are afraid to publish books about Islam.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

NEW YORK — A racy, historical novel based on the Prophet Muhammad's child bride A'isha was supposed to hit book stores in the U.S. Tuesday.

But in a rare case of self-censorship to preempt possible violent reaction by Muslims, one of the world's largest publishing houses pulled the plug on the book just before its release date.

Sherry Jones, author of The Jewel of Medina, said she received word from Random House Inc. that the book's release would be "postponed indefinitely." The decision came after copies of her book were sent to stores, her book tour was scheduled and her work of fiction was accepted by the Book of the Month Club (it was scheduled to be in the August selection).

"My book is a respectful portrayal of Islam, of A'isha, of Muhammad. And anyone who reads it with [an] open mind will come away with an understanding of Islam as a peaceful religion," said the American author.

The Hollow Lives of the Happy

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:45:37 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: <<<Who wouldn't question this apparently hollow form of American happiness? Aren't all of us late at night, when we're honest with ourselves, opposed to shallow happiness? Most likely we are, but isn't it possible that many of us fall into superficiality without knowing it? Aren't some of us so smitten with the American dream that we have become brainwashed into believing that our sole purpose on this earth is to be happy? Doesn't this unwitting affection for happiness over sadness lead us to a one-sided life, to bliss without discomfort, bright noon with no night?

My sense is that most of us have been duped by the American craze for happiness. We might think that we're leading a truly honest existence, when we're really just behaving as predictably and artificially as robots, falling easily into well-worn "happy" behaviors, into the conventions of contentment.>>>

Clip Source: chronicle.com

Why are most Americans so utterly willing to have an essential part of their hearts sliced away and discarded like so much waste?

Surely all this happiness can't be for real. How can so many people be happy in the midst of all the problems that beset our globe — not only the collective and apocalyptic ills but also those particular irritations that bedevil our everyday existences, those money issues and marital spats, those stifling vocations and lonely dawns?

Doctors offer a wide array of drugs that might eradicate depression forever. It seems truly an age of almost perfect contentment, a brave new world of persistent good fortune, joy without trouble, felicity with no penalty.

Don't we fear that this rabid focus on exuberance leads to half-lives, to bland existences, to wastelands of mechanistic behavior?

This brand of supposed joy, moreover, seems to foster an ignorance of life's enduring and vital polarity between agony and ecstasy, dejection and ebullience.

Tags: happiness, melancholy, depression

Should technology be allowed to tumble records?

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:50:47 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Should technology be allowed to tumble records?

Spectators at Beijing's Olympic swimming pool have witnessed some outlandish goings-on over the last couple of weeks: 25 world records have fallen, compared with eight at the Athens Olympics four years ago. Seven of them were broken by one swimmer, Michael Phelps of the US, while the UK's Rebecca Adlington improved on the 800 metres freestyle record - unchallenged for 19 years - by more than two seconds.

The Beijing pool is 3 metres deep, a metre deeper than standard competitive pools. As explained in this week's issue of New Scientist magazine, the extra depth helps dissipate the turbulence caused by the swimmer's movement, causing less resistance. In other words, they are being helped by the architecture.

You could argue that technological "fixes" like this diminish the value of modern sporting records, making it unfair to compare the performances of this year's athletes with those through history.

Tags: tech

Breakfast of a Champion?

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:48:58 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: The announcement yesterday that Phelps, 23, winner of a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, would grace Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes boxes instead of the traditional athlete's choice of Wheaties left many perplexed.

Frosted Flakes has three times the amount of sugar as Wheaties and 1/3rd the fiber.

This doesn't matter much to a virtuoso swimmer who consumes 12,000 calories a day.

Still, in a country where childhood obesity is an alarming issue, Phelps' iconic image sharing space with Tony the Tiger sends the wrong message, experts say.

"For a guy like Michael Phelps who isn't worried about obesity because he's burning thousands of calories as an athlete...eating Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes every so often is not an issue," Solomon said.

The Phelps-emblazoned cereal boxes hit supermarket shelves in mid-September

Clip Source: www.nydailynews.com

After winning a record eight Olympic gold medals in Beijing, American swimming superstar Michael Phelps signs on with sugar-loaded cereal.

You better eat your . . . Frosted Flakes?

Olympic legend Michael Phelps will appear on boxes of the Kellogg's brand sugar cereal, drawing sharp criticism from health experts worried about the message he'll be sending to children across America.

"I would not consider Frosted Flakes the food of an Olympian," said nutritionist Rebecca Solomon of Mount Sinai Medical Center.

"I would rather see him promoting Fiber One. I would rather see him promoting oatmeal. I would even rather see him promoting Cheerios."

Tags: michael phelps, kellogg, frosted flakes and corn flakes

Jennifer Love Hewitt: I Wish I'd Spent More Time Naked

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:02:09 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.people.com

Jennifer Love Hewitt is looking forward to turning 30 – but if she could turn back the clock, she would have spent more time showing off her figure.

"I wish I had been nude from the time I was 12 until I was 28. I looked great!" the Ghost Whisperer actress, 29, tells Health magazine in its September issue.

"I so wish I had listened to my mom and grandma when I was 18 and would complain about some little tiny bump or feeling bloated," says the star, who is engaged to Scottish actor Ross McCall. "I used to scoff and say, 'No, I feel fat today!' Now the joke's on me."

The next milestone for the actress is turning 30 this February – and she can barely wait. "I'm so excited! It's my dream age," she says. "I don't know why but, literally since my 12th birthday I've wanted to turn 30."

Tags: actress, hollywood, celebrity, body, woman, image

Buttock-clenching at the bus stop

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:43:41 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead
clipper's remarks: Tory MP Philip Davies lashed out at the move. He asked: ‘Is this April 1st? The Government is virtually bankrupt and yet it is spending its last few pounds encouraging people to do Pilates at bus stops.

‘It is the nanny state gone completely mad and a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money.’

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

A bizarre Government-funded campaign is being launched to encourage people to exercise while they’re waiting for a bus.

According to the campaign’s organisers, those minutes spent at the bus stop watching the traffic go by could be spent more usefully – by standing on one leg, pointing your toes or clenching your buttocks.

But the latest attempt to get Britain fit has been slammed by an MP as ‘a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money’.

And one angry passenger said last night: ‘Fares are ridiculously high as it is. So why don’t they use the money they’re spending on this nonsense to cut the cost of bus travel?’

Leaflets and posters setting out six Pilates-style exercise moves to do at the bus stop are being distributed to passengers travelling on buses between Blackburn and Manchester.

Organisers claim it will help people with busy lives to fit exercise into their day and avoid health problems such as heart disease and obesity.

Tags: politics, humour, humor, weird, idiots