Clipmarks | JohnWaterman's clips

Shut down Ohio's machinery of death

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:28:43 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

After a botched attempt to execute a prisoner in the US state of Ohio in September caused international outrage, you might have thought Ohio would hesitate before pressing ahead with another execution. Not a bit of it.

The US state that condemned Edinburgh's Kenny Richey to die and came desperately close to killing him is unfazed that its prison staff subjected an inmate called Romell Broom to a two-hour ordeal where they repeatedly shoved a lethal injection needle into various parts of his body – thigh, ankle, feet, muscles and bone. They've done it again, only this time piloting a new lethal injection on a death row inmate called Kenneth Biros, someone I've written to for many years.

Ohio's killing machinery is not fit even for its already macabre purpose. Year after year Ohio botches executions

It's time for Ohio to shut down the machinery of death. And it's time the US came into the modern world and ended the grisly, inhuman business of warehousing people for death

Hubble Advent Calendar

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:38:09 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Once more, we enter the month of December and the traditional western Holiday Season, and once again, I'd like to present a Hubble Space Telescope imagery Advent Calendar for 2009. Keep checking this page, because every day, for the next 25 days, a new photo will be revealed here from the Hubble Space Telescope, some old and some new. I have felt extremely fortunate to have been able to share photographs and stories with you all this year, and I wish for a Happy Holiday to all those who will celebrate, and for Peace on Earth to everyone. - Alan (25 photos total - eventually) [previously: the 2008 calendar]

"Rubenesque" Proportions

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:53:05 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.all-art.org

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Herlinde Koelb

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Herlinde Koelb

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Herlinde Koelb

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Lauriet Toby Edison

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Lauriet Toby Edison

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Lauriet Toby Edison

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Lauriet Toby Edison

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Lauriet Toby Edison

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Lauriet Toby Edison

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Lauriet Toby Edison

Peter Paul Rubens

Fernando Botero

Lauriet Toby Edison

Native American Prints from the Pennington Photo Studio

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:34:59 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: blogs.denverpost.com

In the early 1900s, William Pennington and Lisle Updike spent most days traveling the four corners area of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona in a wagon photographing the people and landscapes

These prints were recently uncovered by Denver Post librarians, tucked away in a folder in a file cabinet. The captions were hand written on the back of each print

Navajo woman

The Scout, Ute Indian

Navajo Indian woman posing with child

Ute Indian, This is the man that made his X, signing away a part of the Ute reserve which is now Mesa Verde Park

Ute Indian Girl

Ute Indian in plain clothes

Old Navajo Warrior holding his weapon

Navajo Brother and Sister

Five-Story Steel Ball Makes Novel Hospital (Jan, 1929)

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:36:46 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: blog.modernmechanix.com

Clip Source: www.lakesidepress.com

One of the strangest experiments in medical science's long and constant fight against disease, an experiment to which H.H. Timken, Canton, Ohio, manufacturer, has given $1,000,000, has been undertaken in Cleveland, Ohio. It is the Timken Tank, a huge airtight, steel ball fitted out as a hospital, in which patients suffering from diabetes and other maladies will live under 30 pounds air pressure, which is forced into the steel ball by powerful compressors.
[Original Photo and Legend, from 1928. Courtesy of Dittrick Medical History Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland]

Questions and Answers about the Monster Steel Ball

Lawrence Martin, M.D.

the Steel Ball "was sold a few times in the mid-1930s and the ground was bought by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese in 1941

The steel ball was dismantled and sold for scrap metal during World War II."

Boom-boom-krak-oo

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:54:09 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Campbell's monkeys combine just six 'words' into rich vocabulary.

Difficult to do this justice in a clip so please follow the link to the whole article.

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Campbell's monkeys have just six basic types of calls but they have combined them into one of the richest and most sophisticated of animal vocabularies

By chaining calls together in ways that drastically alter their meaning, they can communicate to each other about other falling trees, rival groups, harmless animals and potential threats. They can signal the presence of an unspecified threat, a leopard or an eagle, and even how imminent the danger is

six different types of call

described as boom (B), krak (K), krak-oo (K+), hok (H), hok-oo (H+) and wak-oo (W+)

With no danger in sight

a pair of booms - is made when the monkey is far away from the group and can't see them

a summons

Adding a krak-oo to the end of the boom pair changes its meaning

the signal now means "Watch out for that branch"

Interspersing the booms and krak-oos with some hok-oos changes the meaning yet again

"Prepare for battle"

hok-oo is essentially meaningless

they only use it to change the meaning of another call

Isaac Asimov and the fuzzy nature of knowledge

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:24:44 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

when people list great science popularizers of the past

Sagan and Feynman always pop up

people seem to have forgotten Isaac Asimov

one example, in which he addresses a claim we hear all the time, that the errors of the past mean our knowledge now is on very shaky ground. He's answering a complaint from an English Lit student who chastised Asimov for thinking he knew anything at all

My answer to him was, "John, when people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."

The basic trouble, you see, is that people think that "right" and "wrong" are absolute; that everything that isn't perfectly and completely right is totally and equally wrong.

It seems to me that right and wrong are fuzzy concepts

Go read the rest, it's worth the time.

Waves of Colour 2

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:11:29 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.colourlovers.com

I know we had a colorful look at waves not too long ago (see it here), but when I came across the shorebreak photography of Clark Little I couldn't resist sharing the incredible palettes created by a mix of sand, shore and water. All of these photos can be seen on his site, and are part of his latest book, The Shorebreak Art of Clark Little.

Renounce your pomp!

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 12:03:33 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

I think I like this woman. Nell McCafferty rips into representatives of the Catholic church, asking, "What's holy about the Vatican?" and insisting that they ought to set aside the titles of "Father" and "Grace" and so forth, because they've betrayed them. I love the Irish when they get that fire in their eye!

[Video]

Stephen Hawking portrait unveiled at Royal Society

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:58:12 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The Cambridge cosmologist Stephen Hawking arrived in London yesterday for the official unveiling of the portrait by Tai-Shan Schierenberg at the Royal Society, the UK's academy of science.

You can see more of the artist's work here.

On the case with Weegee the Famous

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:18:53 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

24 November 2009: Part artist, part detective, Arthur Fellig – better known as Weegee – prowled the seedy underbelly of pre-war New York, looking for crime scenes to photograph. A press photographer whose nickname came from his mysterious, ouija-like ability to sense trouble, he developed his stark and noirish signature style by chasing the city's emergency services.

Clip Source: www.rachelhulin.com

Clip Source: www.bakedinny.com

Clip Source: www.rachelhulin.com

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Weegee later went on to work in film, collaborating with the likes of Stanley Kubrick, but is best remembered for photography that typified New York street life between the wars. A selection of his works – many of which have never previously been seen in the UK – go on display at Michael Hoppen Gallery from 25 November until 10 January 2010

Clip Source: www.michaelhoppengallery.com

Weegee-It's a crime to take photographs this good...

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

2010: A Who Odyssey

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:36:36 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Warning: for major Doctor Who nerds only.

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

I typically don’t like most mashups, but this one was pretty good… especially the last two minutes, which are brilliant! Warning: for major Doctor Who nerds only.

[Video]

Meet the Fuggers

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:21:40 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: bibliodyssey.blogspot.com

The Fugger family dynasty began in the mid-14th century with a modest textile business in the Swabian town of Augsburg. Over the next two hundred years the family amassed one of the greatest fortunes of all time. Through banking and mining interests they acquired the wealth and assets of the Florentine House of Medici and exerted great influence over the Holy Roman Empire and the royal courts of Europe. Like the Medici, the Fuggers were also significant patrons of the arts during the Renaissance.

The Fugger family history, going back to the 1300s, was documented pictorially in two manuscripts from different time periods, displaying the crests, family trees and portraits of family members.

The Fugger family manuscripts are available from Bayerische Landesbibliothek Online in both regular browsing format and 3-D Java (turn-the-page by any other name) displays. The landing page is in English. An exhibition of these works will be held at the Bavarian State Library in March to May 2010.

The Theatre of Cruelty

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:12:39 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: bibliodyssey.blogspot.com

Richard Verstegan

1548-?1636) was a Catholic Anglo-Dutch antiquarian, goldsmith and book publisher. The first half of his life was spent in England, but his religion prevented him from obtaining a degree from Oxford University,

Either following from the prejudice he suffered at Oxford or as a response to the incarceration and treatment of Mary Queen of Scots* (her 1587 beheading is seen above), Verstegan published the first edition of his martyrologium, 'Theatrum Crudelitatum', in 1583. The book may also have been conceived as a Catholic version of the famous Protestant 'Book of Martyrs'

Verstegan's book attempted to record, in gruesome detail, the cruelty, torture and murder of Catholic martyrs in Europe - including English victims under the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I* - at the hands of Protestant heretics

Upon publication, the author was arrested

2+2=4 - What is wrong with you people?

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:28:52 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: aguyinthepew.blogspot.com

Eric Michael Johnson is a primatologist and endocrinologist completing a PhD at Duke University, and he blogs at the Primate Diaries. He has two recent posts that are worth reading. First, some provocative humor:

Fundamentalists: believe 2+2 =5 because It Is Written. Somewhere. They have a lot of trouble on their tax returns.

"Moderate" believers: live their lives on the basis that 2+2=4. but go regularly to church to be told that 2+2 once made 5, or will one day make 5, or in a very real and spiritual sense should make 5.

"Moderate" atheists: know that 2+2 =4 but think it impolite to say so too loudly as people who think 2+2=5 might be offended.

"Militant" atheists: "Oh for pity's sake. HERE. Two pebbles. Two more pebbles. FOUR pebbles. What is WRONG with you people?"

Tags: atheism, religion, humour