Clipmarks | Elfrida's clips

Let's not pinkwash proper discussion about breast cancer

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:54:24 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

There are many and various good reasons to wear a Fashion Targets Breast Cancer T-shirt, but I remain to be convinced that "it matches my eyes" is one of them. This, however, is the reason attributed to the actor Anna Friel in the latest ad campaign for the charity, which has raised millions for research and education in Britain and the US since it was founded by Ralph Lauren in 1990.

I walk past Friel's matching eyes every morning

asked myself frequently why I find them irritating

I wonder about pink - the signature hue of breast cancer - because, when my mum got her diagnosis, the colour was definitely black

"Let me die of anything but suffocation by the pink sticky sentiment embodied in that [ribbon-branded] teddy bear."

Disease rates have increased by more than 50% over the past 20 years

majority of money raised goes to treatment rather than prevention

meanwhile, car and cosmetics manufacturers continue to appropriate the

pink ribbon

corporate co-option, environmental factors and attitudes

New "Sea Monster" Species Identified

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:01:50 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

The remarkably well-preserved fossil of a dinosaur-era sea creature found in a Canadian mine is turning out to be a gold mine for paleontologists.

The Cretaceous-period reptile, dubbed Nichollsia borealis, is not only a new species—it represents a whole new genus

It's also one of the oldest and most complete plesiosaur fossils ever unearthed in North America.

carnivorous reptiles that roamed the seas between about 205 million to 65 million years ago

The scans and other analyses of the reptile have provided more detail than for any other plesiosaur ever found, they said.

The newfound reptile also gave them a window into an ancient seaway that once cut through North America and teemed with marine life.

"It represents the oldest known forerunner of this amazing period in North American prehistory."

9 Newest Discovered Sea Creatures

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:23:36 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

Clip Source: www.purpleslinky.com

Dumbo Octopus

Scientists call this a Dumbo Octopus with fins. Researchers from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) find these creatures close to the bottom of the ocean floor, miles below the surface. They are studying them but have not yet figured out their behavior patterns or biology. The largest specimens are almost five feet tall.

Also called a Dumbo Octopus, this Pokemon-like creature is found at 3 miles deep and is about 8 inches tall. It and others like it have been found sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor with their mantles spread out around them. They sit there quietly for no apparent reason, researchers say.

Crown Jelly

Aequorea

Flower Hat Jelly

Jellies have no head, heart, brain, bones, or eyes, yet they are among the major predators of the ocean

Deepstaria enigmatica always seems to have an isopod living inside it. Isopods are small crustaceous creatures

Jewel Squid

Big Red Jelly

Ctenophore

Beautiful Somerset

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:10:40 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Lots more beautiful photos of my home county at the site

Clip Source: www.tonyhowell.co.uk

Photographs of Somerset, England


Somerset Page 1	Somerset Page 2

Clip Source: www.tonyhowell.co.uk

Secular Humanism

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:38:01 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

Clip Source: www.secularhumanism.org

Secular Humanism is a way of thinking and living that aims to bring out the best in people so that all people can have the best in life. Secular humanists reject supernatural and authoritarian beliefs. They affirm that we must take responsibility for our own lives and the communities and world in which we live. Secular humanism emphasizes reason and scientific inquiry, individual freedom and responsibility, human values and compassion, and the need for tolerance and cooperation.

The Council for Secular Humanism promotes rational, human-based viewpoints on important social and ethical issues. In particular, it tackles issues where traditional religion obstructs the right to self-determination, for example, freedom of choice in sexual relationships. reproduction, and voluntary euthanasia. The Council also promotes critical thinking about supernatural and paranormal claims.

Why I Quit Going To Church (1924)

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:17:02 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

Clip Source: biblioblography.blogspot.com

I quit because I came to believe that what is preached in the churches is mainly untrue and unimportant, tiresome, hostile to genuine progress

I ceased to worship him because I could no longer believe in him or respect what is alleged of him

I can no longer adore in a god what I despise in a man

Knowledge relieves miseries, brings comfort, saves lives, spreads beauty within the reach of the poorest. If the billions spent in huge empty buildings were devoted to housing the sick and the poor; if the billions spent on the wages of myriads of clergymen who waste their lives in calling aloud to their god Baal or whatever they call him, were spent in really useful human works, these often well-meaning and often gifted men would not squander so much history, so much power, so much eloquence on the hideous folly that "the fear of god is the beginning of wisdom" and the secret of virtue

let us make a religion of pity, of mutual help, of the search for truth and power, and the increase of freedom

Mental illness and the media

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:01:22 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida
clipper's remarks: or "From the mouths of morons in the media"

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Somehow what doesn't get into the papers is as interesting as what does.

while murders by people like you have continued to increase, and roughly trebled (0.6 per 100,000 of population in the 1950s, and almost two per 100,000 now), murders by people with serious mental illnesses, despite the hype and the fear, the public pronouncements and the headlines, have come down massively since the 1970s, to fewer than 20 a year today

this startling new analysis of several different databases worth of information was not considered newsworthy. It got coverage in New Scientist (ooh) and BBC Online only. Nobody else touched it. What a mystery

Journalists are traditionally fascinated by mental illness after all.

we formulate our approach as a society to tens of thousands of people on the basis of the actions of about 20

the attitudes we have, and the prejudices we express are all entirely rational, when analysed in terms of the flawed information we are fed, only half chewed, from the mouths of morons

That's not Bigfoot, that's a gorilla suit!

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:42:26 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida
clipper's remarks: Just how stupid do these hoaxers think we are?

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Bigfoot's body has been found, according to two Georgia men who, with much media fanfare, showed reporters three blurry photos said to depict the creature at a press conference held today at a hotel a few miles from Stanford University

The promised evidence for Bigfoot DNA turned out to be an e-mail from Curt Nelson, a University of Minnesota scientist who analyzed DNA samples provided by the two men. Nelson said one of the samples came from a human, the other from an opossum. The presenters sidestepped the issue by saying that is what their Bigfoot must have recently consumed

photographs of the body, supposedly stored in a freezer, resemble a widely available Halloween costume

So here these men are in Georgia, which is home to the world-renowned Yerkes Primate Center, and what do they do? They turn to a charlatan instead

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

The claims come down to media and money

for purposes of PR, attracting tourists, selling tabloid newspapers and magazines, creating children's literature, etc

Ten reasons why Bigfoot's a bust.

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:42:21 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida
clipper's remarks: Go to the site for an informative slideshow.

1.) The Empty Fossil Record

2.) Forget Fossils, Where Are the Bones?

3.) Where Do Bigfoot Babies Come From?

4.) Your Lying Eyes

5.) The Ever-Mysterious Blobsquatch

6.) Doctor Who?

7.) The Case of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

8.) This Katydid Couldn't Hide

9.) If It Walks Like a Hoax ...

10.) The Case of the Missing Footprint

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Ten Reasons Why Bigfoot's a Bust

DNA from the beginning

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:15:43 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

Clip Source: www.dnaftb.org

DNA from the Beginning
is organized around key concepts.
The science behind each concept is explained by:
animation, image gallery, video interviews,

problem, biographies, and links.

Click a section below to start.

Clip Source: www.dnaftb.org

Children resemble their parents.

Genes come in pairs.

Genes don't blend.

Some genes are dominant.

Genetic inheritance follows rules.

Genes are real things.

All cells arise from pre-existing cells.

DNA and proteins are key molecules of the cell nucleus.

One gene makes one protein.

A gene is made of DNA.

Bacteria and viruses have DNA too.

The DNA molecule is shaped like a twisted ladder.

A half DNA ladder is a template for copying the whole.

RNA is an intermediary between DNA and protein.

DNA words are three letters long.

DNA is packaged in a chromosome.

Higher cells incorporate an ancient chromosome.

Some DNA does not encode protein.

Some DNA can jump.

Genes can be turned on and off.

Genes can be moved between species.

DNA responds to signals from outside the cell.

Chocolate sculptures - yum

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:13:35 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

Clip Source: thecontaminated.com

London Meltdown

Sat, 03 May 2008 11:31:27 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

Clip Source: leninology.blogspot.com

What could go wrong did go wrong. Boris Johnson is mayor, with a convincing lead. The BNP got a seat on the Assembly. And the Left List failed to make an impact except in a few concentrated areas

New Labour has collapsed decisively not on some right-wing hocus-pocus about crime or immigration (although the media hysteria obviously contributed to this), but on the ten pence tax rate and the economy and the sense that Labour doesn't even try to represent ordinary working people any more

in part because of the poisonous climate generated over immigrants and Muslims, the Nazis of the BNP are on the Assembly while there estranged half-cousins from the National Front (who consider the BNP sell-outs) polled strongly

The Blairites' advice was evidently no use to Ken

Anarchism

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:07:26 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

Clip Source: www.gmu.edu

They [the Marxists] maintain that only a dictatorship -- their dictatorship, of course -- can create the will of the people, while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up.

             --Mikhail Bakunin,
               Statism and Anarchism

If we look at the black record of mass murder, exploitation, and tyranny levied on society by governments over the ages, we need not be loath to abandon the Leviathan State and ... try freedom.

             --Murray Rothbard,
               For a New Liberty

Chaoscope

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:40:43 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

Clip Source: www.btinternet.com

Chaoscope is a 3D strange attractors rendering software. Below is a sample of pictures rendered by the program. You can check the Gallery to see more examples of what Chaoscope can do.
It is an ongoing project created and maintained by Nicolas Desprez ; the current version is 0.3.1. It is a freeware running on the Windows™ platform.