Clipmarks | JohnWaterman's Comments

Oxford University on iTunes U

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:35:17 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

More than 150 hours of free audio and video podcasts from the University of Oxford are now available on a new site on iTunes U.

Highlights include lectures by, and interviews with, world-leading academics and researchers; and a film about the University’s campaign ‘Oxford Thinking’ – the largest fundraising campaign in European university history – featuring Michael Palin.

Tags: oxford, university, itunes, audio, video, podcast

Guantanamo prosecutor who quit had 'grave misgivings' about fairness

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:31:52 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Cont....

Vandeveld is at least the fourth prosecutor to resign under protest. Questions about the fairness of the tribunals have been raised by the very people charged with conducting them, according to legal experts, human rights observers and current and former military officials.

Vandeveld's claims are particularly explosive.

In a declaration and subsequent testimony, he said the U.S. government was not providing defense lawyers with the evidence it had against their clients, including exculpatory information -- material considered helpful to the defense.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Convinced that key evidence was being withheld from the defense, Lt. Col. Darrel J. Vandeveld went from being a 'true believer to someone who felt truly deceived' by the tribunals.

WASHINGTON -- Darrel J. Vandeveld was in despair. The hard-nosed lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, a self-described conformist praised by his superiors for his bravery in Iraq, had lost faith in the Guantanamo Bay war crimes tribunals in which he was a prosecutor.

His work was top secret, making it impossible to talk to family or friends. So the devout Catholic -- working away from home -- contacted a priest online.

Even if he had no doubt about the guilt of the accused, he wrote in an August e-mail, "I am beginning to have grave misgivings about what I am doing, and what we are doing as a country. . . .

"I no longer want to participate in the system, but I lack the courage to quit. I am married, with children, and not only will they suffer, I'll lose a lot of friends."

Tags: justice, torture, guantanamo, show trials

Beautiful Women in Beautiful Dresses by J.W. Waterhouse

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:36:20 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: - oh and a mermaid

Clip Source: www.jwwaterhouse.com

Waterhouse's works are perhaps the best of the Pre-Raphaelites (although really a Neoclassic). His combination of mythology, poetry and mystique femme fatale is absolutely outstanding and soulfully touching

Clip Source: www.threadsofrohan.com

Fair Rosemund

Psyche opening the Golden Box

Destiny

Ophelia

Lady of Shallot

Ophelia

The Lady Clare

Lamia

St. Cecilia

Finding the head of Orpheus

Miranda the Tempest

Circe Invidiosa

The Charmer

Cupids Garden

I am half sick of shadows

Nymps finding the head of Orpheus

The Rose

The Mermaid

Pandora

Boreas

La Belle

At the Shrine

Circe offering the cup to Ulysses

Juliet

Miranda in the South

The Sorceress

The picture

Flora

Gather Ye Rosebuds

The Danaides

The Magic Circle

Ariandne

Thisbe

Apollo and Daphine

Echo and Narcissus

Penelope and the Suitors

Sweet Summer

The Awakening of Adonis

Invisible to the naked eye - Fascinating images of life under the microscope.

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:37:29 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: They are all finalists in Nikon's Small World competition, which for 34 years has celebrated this technique known as photomicrography.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

'Small World is regarded as the leading forum for showcasing the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope,'

incredible images that use microscopes and digital imaging software to capture views of nature which are invisible to the naked eye.

It looks like a tiny, blue, bug-eyed alien - its miniature spine visible through translucent skin. But this fascinating image is actually a close-up of a chicken embryo and finalist in a 'small world' photography competition.

They are all finalists in Nikon's Small World competition, which for 34 years has celebrated this technique known as photomicrography.

Images are taken through microscopes, which magnify an image by at least 20 times using ordinary light, ultraviolet, infrared, electrons or X-rays.

Golden wonder: Using fibre optics, this image shows the wing scales of a sunset moth

Clip Source: www.nikonsmallworld.com

New BBC Series on America

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:29:01 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: The first episode of The American Future: A History will be broadcast on Friday 10 October on BBC Two at 9pm BST. There are three further episodes on subsequent Fridays, at the same time, covering war, faith, and immigration.

Video at source. Series will perhaps we available at BBC site.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Barack Obama's emergence as a presidential candidate in the US represents a profound change in the American psyche, distinguished historian Simon Schama argues in his new series for the BBC, The American Future.

He says that although Americans have a belief in their country as a "city on a hill" - a shining example to others - they are not complacent about the economic and foreign policy issues facing the US.

Americans are by no means as militaristic as the rest of the world seems to believe, he says, with the debate about how big the military should be going right back to the Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

But Professor Schama believes that one of America's great strengths is its ability to re-invent itself at the time of crisis.

And at the moment America's self-image is being remade.

Tags: simon schama, american politics, history

How low can we go?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:55:23 GMT

clipped by: lifecyce1898
clipper's remarks: The mavericks using low road Rove tactics to divide country at the worst possible time. I'm sure Bin Ladin is saying "mission accomplished."

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Fox News' faux documentary sets new low

Sean Hannity's Sunday report, 'Obama and Friends: The History of Radicalism,' relied on innuendo and guilt by association to label the Illinois senator a dupe of the shadowy forces of the left.

Now and then, Fox News makes a stab at living up to its "fair and balanced" tag line.

At other times, the cable network's operatives throw off all pretense, let their neatly trimmed hair down and do what they seem to love best -- blame all of the world's evils on those pointy-headed, America-hating liberals. Like, say, Barack Obama!

Fox's hourlong screed is just the kind of media coverage that has contributed to the increasingly angry and irrational tone on the campaign trail. Even by the low standards of this election's advocacy journalism, the program plumbed new depths -- relying on innuendo and guilt by association to paint the Illinois senator as a dupe of the shadowy forces of the left.

You are missed Alanocu

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:28:23 GMT

clipped by: michellezm
clipper's remarks: This is a re-clip of one of Alanocu's clips. I really miss him.

Clip Source: viewer.zoho.com

What I did with my son yesterday

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:43:58 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: I'm getting way too old for this!!

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

not for the faint hearted

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:10:17 GMT

clipped by: mona

Clip Source: einestages.spiegel.de

Thomas Woodruff’s Solar System (The Turning Heads)

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:23:02 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: paintalicious.org

Thomas Woodruff’s paintings

entitled: “Solar System (The Turning Heads),”on show at NYC’s P.P.O.W. Gallery on October 10th - 15th Nov. This new series is a dazzling parade of super magical otherworldliness to celebrate a fanciful universe of weird beauty with an incredibly unique touch, using richly layered paint and subdued colors

every painting from this series is meant to be flipped, thereby revealing an inverse meaning

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

Mercury
The bringer of glad tidings/
The messanger who is blamed

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

Venus
The object of affection/
The demon of lust

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

Earth
Our stern mother/
The charismatic zealot

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

Mars
The weathered General/
The rose pachyderm

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

Jupiter
The jolliest fellow you'll ever meet/
The saddest girl in the universe

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

Saturn
The bringer of old age/
The brat with promise

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

Uranus
The legendary magician/
The dazzlin' rodeo star

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

Neptune
The mystic/
The monkey

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

Pluto
Boy and his dog ... adrift/
Boy and his dog ... adrift

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

Sun

Clip Source: www.ppowgallery.com

World Timelines

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:06:44 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.worldtimelines.org.uk

Have you ever looked at an exhibit in a museum and wondered what was happening in other countries at that time?

Worldtimelines.org.uk places 2,000 artefacts from museums around the British Isles in their geographical and chronological context. The

Timeline Viewer (requires Flash)

lets you navigate using interactive maps and timelines. Select one of the regions on the right to get started.

Use the links above to open
each region in the Timeline Viewer

Follow a timeline to see what was happening in a region through history. Compare with another timeline to see what was happening in another part of the world. Cross the world using interactive maps. Link out to over 2,000 articles with information about the artefacts and the people who made and used them

Index Browse the world
Africa	Americas	Asia
British Isles	Europe	Oceania

Obama Ayers smear ends here

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:39:05 GMT

clipped by: deb2012

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Walter Annenberg, a lifelong Republican and former ambassador who was appointed by Presidents Nixon and Reagan, funded an ambitious program to reform urban education in many cities in the mid 1990s. Ayers was an important member of the group that developed and wrote the grant proposal to the Annenberg Foundation.

But no one on the board or on the Annenberg Challenge staff remembers Obama being any closer to Ayers than to any other member of the board. The Annenberg board also included several civic, business and education leaders, many of them Republicans.

"It's ridiculous. There is no reason at all to smear Barack Obama with this association. It's nonsensical, and it just makes me crazy. It's so silly."

said former Illinois state Republican Rep. Diana Nelson, who worked with both Obama and Ayers over the years.

this attack

"a smear campaign. It's a political diatribe that has no basis in fact. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was an extremely positive initiative.

Tags: politics

Persepolis

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:33:09 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: home.comcast.net

Takht-e-Jamshid (Persepolis)

Clip Source: whc.unesco.org

Founded by Darius I in 518 B.C., Persepolis was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. It was built on an immense half-artificial, half-natural terrace, where the king of kings created an impressive palace complex inspired by Mesopotamian models. The importance and quality of the monumental ruins make it a unique archaeological site.

Clip Source: home.comcast.net

Immortals - elite soldiers

Darius's Palace once filled with jewelled statues and doors covered in gold

Palace of 100 Columns with the tomb of Ataxerxes II behind

a karibu guarding Xerxes' Gateway

the lion of summer devours the bull of winter

Zoroastrian Symbol

Mikhi (cuniform) inscription

the tree of life

the fight between good and evil

Clip Source: video.google.com

Persepolis Recreated

[Video]

Organic food, better and tastier?

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:18:30 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: "Produce from the organically and conventionally grown crops were then fed to animals over a two year period and intake and excretion of various minerals and trace elements were measured. Once again, the results showed there was no difference in retention of the elements"

it still is tastier..

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Organic Food Has No More Nutritional Value Than Food Grown With Pesticides, Study Shows

Many people pay more than a third more for organic food in the belief that it has more nutritional content than food grown with pesticides and chemicals.

there is no clear evidence to back this up.

In the first study ever to look at retention of minerals and trace elements, animals were fed a diet consisting of crops grown using three different cultivation methods in two seasons.

growing the vegetables on soil which had a low input of nutrients using animal manure and no pesticides except for one organically approved product

second method involved applying a low input of nutrients using animal manure, combined with use of pesticides

third method comprised a combination of a high input of nutrients through mineral fertilisers and pesticides

After harvest, results showed that there were no differences in the levels of major and trace contents in the fruit and vegetables

Tags: nutrition, organic food

Earth From Above - Stunning!

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:09:48 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Another Boston Globe must see.

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Earth From Above comes to NYC

Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand will bring his work back to the United States - to New York City for the first time in 2009. Aiming to inspire people to think globally about sustainable living, Arthus-Bertrand has been photographing unique views of our planet, seen from the sky, since 1994 - and has produced an exhibit of over 150 4-ft. by 6-ft. prints which will be on display in New York City at the World Financial Center Plaza and along the Battery Park City Esplanade from May 1, 2009 to June 28, 2009. When completed in New York City, the Earth From Above exhibit will also move on to California in 2010. Photographs and captions all courtesy of Yann Arthus-Bertrand. (38 photos total)

bales of cotton

Sand dune in the heart of vegetation

Flock of sheep

Mountainous countryside

"Tree of life"

Dun Eochla fort on Inishmore Island

Iraqi tank graveyard

The Athabasca Oil Sands

Village of Bacolor under a layer of mud

Waste from the copper mine

graves