Clipmarks | PatParslow's Pops

"'Human Rights' for Apes"

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:04:09 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly

Spanish Parliament Approved 'Human Rights' for Apes

Lee Glendinning, Guardian: Great apes should have the right to life and freedom, according to a resolution passed in the Spanish parliament, in what could become landmark legislation to enshrine human rights for chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos.

The environmental committee in the Spanish parliament has approved resolutions urging the country to comply with the Great Apes Project, founded in 1993, which argues that "non-human hominids" should enjoy the right to life, freedom and not to be tortured.

The project was started by the philosophers Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri, who argued that the ape is the closest genetic relative to humans — that it displays emotions such as love, fear, anxiety and jealousy — and should be protected by similar laws.

A female chimpanzee holds her one-month-old baby. Photograph: Tom Gilbert/AP

'Earth worship' on the rise among evangelical youth

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:42:48 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.onenewsnow.com

Janice Crouse, a senior fellow with Concerned Women for America, says it's disturbing that many young people in evangelical churches are experimenting with the Wiccan religion. Church leaders and Christian parents, she warns, must be ready to counter that growing interest among their youth.

Crouse cites an article in Religion Journal which said youth pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention were worried about large numbers of evangelicals taking part in Wicca, a religion that involves nature worship, stresses moral autonomy, and includes remedies and spells -- beliefs that Crouse points out are distinctly different from orthodox Christianity, not to mention incompatible with the Bible.

According to Crouse, "earth worship" -- as she describes Wicca -- appeals to people who do not want to be bound by any book of authority or have imposed on them any requirements to be "believers."

Tags: religion, wicca, nature, evangelical, youth, christian, earth

Are we becoming a Nazi Germany?

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:31:49 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: We should never allow this to become the norm... It's not normal and it is scary. If our rights keep being denigrated the terrorist groups will surely be the winners in this supposed "war on terror".

View video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxVXZqMN6XI

Clip Source: checkpointusa.org

Roadblock Revelations

Exposing The Police State One Checkpoint At A Time

Post details: Homeland Security Checkpoint Video

Homeland Security Checkpoint Video Now Availale

I was stopped at the checkpoint while traveling back to Tucson late in the afternoon. I videotaped the encounter and have posted the 9MB wmv file online so others can experience a suspicionless federal checkpoint for themselves. It can also be accessed from YouTube:

It should be noted by those who live far from the border that internal suspicionless checkpoints are quickly becoming the norm while our fundamental right to travel unmolested absent reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing is being routinely trampled on. Keep in mind, this checkpoint did not take place on the border. It took place inside the country over 40 miles North of the border along a regularly traveled State highway that never intersects the border at any point.

Welcome to Checkpoint USA.

Tags: war, on, terror, roadblock

Work for Free!

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:44:29 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.gurteen.com

Steve Pavlina is spot on here when he talks about working for free! Its a philosophy that as a one man independent consultant I have adopted from the outset. You simply start by doing work for free. Forget developing glossy brochures or fancy traditional marketing. Doing stuff for free and giving stuff away for free is marketing and the best form of it. You are providing value - you are demonstrating what you can do in an authentic way.

You are working for free when you blog or create a newsletter or a resource website as I do or you can speak at conferences for free and even for organizations for free. This way you get to build relationships and you get to build trust and get to establish a reputation. Now slowly you can start to charge - as Steve explains - as the work load increases - you can start to raise your fee and to throttle back the demand to what you can deliver.

Tags: work for free

Funny Graffiti and Signs From Around The World

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:47:17 GMT

clipped by: jplnoons
clipper's remarks: The funniest graffiti and signs from around the world that you ever seen!

Clip Source: my.mmoabc.com

Funny Graffiti and Signs From Around The World

Tags: funny, humor, graffiti, signs

How Writing Changed the World

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:48:52 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Humans had been speaking for a couple hundred thousand years before they got the inspiration or nerve to mark their ideas down for posterity.

But when a Mesopotamian people called the Sumerians finally did scratch out a few bookkeeping symbols on clay tablets 5,000 years ago, they unknowingly started a whole new era in history we call, well ... history.

The presence of written sources denotes the technical dividing line between what scholars classify as prehistory versus what they call history, which starts at different times depending on what part of the world you're studying.

In most places, writing started about the same time ancient civilizations emerged from hunter-gatherer communities, probably as a way to keep track of the new concept of "property," such as animals, grain supplies or land.

The system developed quickly to incorporate signs that represented sounds, and soon all of Mesopotamia was taking notes, making to-do lists and (presumably) writing love letters.

Tags: writing, history, civilization

Meet a Geep (cross between a sheep & a goat)

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:32:01 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

this curious creature is making scientists do a double-take. Meet Lisa the geep... a cross between a goat and a sheep.

She was born after an unscheduled amorous encounter on the farm of Klaus Exsternbrink, in Schwerte, in northern Germany's Ruhr Valley. One of his young billy goats leapt over a fence and had a passionate liaison with a ewe.

The result a month ago was Lisa - resembling a lamb in shape and stature, but with the colouring and agile back legs of a goat.

Her mother seems unfazed by her unusual offspring and has raised her happily so far.

Now Lisa is booked into a specialist animal medical school in Hanover for genetic tests to determine her hybrid status. "These whims of nature are extremely rare," said the school's Professor Karl-Heinz Waldmann.

So far, it's unclear whether the geep will produce the milk of a goat or a sheep - but the farmer thinks it will be drinkable. "We will find out what the milk and cheese tastes like in the autumn," he said.

The Science of Fairy Tales

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:43:24 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Kids of any age love to read fairy tales because the storyline never limits the possibility that anything could happen. Curses, spells, and handsome princes reign in worlds beyond the reader’s imagination.

Although brown hair is thicker, Rapunzel's blonde locks are strong enough for several real-life princes to climb. Credit: Project Gutenberg
An artists' depiction of the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid." Scientists have developed technology that can block sound waves in much the same way the sea witch's curse silenced the mermaid Ariel's singing voice. Credit: Project Gutenberg

More Images

Although brown hair is thicker, Rapunzel's blonde locks are strong enough for several real-life princes to climb. Credit: Project Gutenberg

But are the most magical moments from some of our favorite stories actually possible? Basic physical principles and recent scientific research suggest that what readers might mistake for fantasies and exaggeration could be rooted in reality.

Tags: fairy tales, science, imagination

Free software to use after Windows reinstallation

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 05:28:46 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: One day all software will be free, is the message at the top of the page,
and the Author created the page/site after reinstalling windows clean, and outfitting the system with free and open source software. He goes through his installation step by step, and there are user comments under his post, with feedback and other freeware suggestions by users.

Clip Source: www.freewaregenius.com

Description: I recently clean installed Windows XP on my laptop, and this meant that I had to re-install all the essential software that I use. It also presented an opportunity to write a posting about how you can outfit your computer with all the essential (and non-essential) software you need using strictly 100% freeware and/or open source titles.This posting could have been titled any of the following:

How to never use a paid program again (aside from Windows).

53 essential freeware programs that can take care of the majority of your computing needs.

I am writing this from the perspective of myself clean-installing Windows and re-installing all the software I find to be essential afterwards. This post took a long time to write, please Digg and/or Stumble it ;).

Pre-installation: before reformatting my hard drive, I used the following programs:

1. Gparted Live CD

2. Unstoppable Copier

3. Amic Email Backup

4. DriverMax:

5. Produkey

Post installation: now the fun begins.

6. PC Decrapifier

Tags: free, software, reinstall, windows, freeware, open source

Brain 'closes eyes' to hear music

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:43:10 GMT

clipped by: iskandar

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Brain 'closes eyes' to hear music

A US study of 20 non-musicians and 20 musical conductors found both groups diverted brain activity away from visual areas during listening tasks.

The researchers, from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the University of North Carolina, used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which can measure real-time changes in brain activity based on the blood flow to different areas of the brain.

What the scientists found was that while activity rose, as expected, in the auditory part of the brain, it correspondingly fell in the visual part.

As the task was made harder and harder, the non-musicians carried on diverting more and more activity away from the visual parts of the brain to the auditory side, as they struggled to concentrate.

However, after a certain point, the conductors did not suppress their brains, suggesting that their years of training had provided a distinct advantage in the way their brains were organised.

Tags: research, brain, music

2012: The New Age Will Begin

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:40:45 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Personally I much prefer people spending their time getting into all this stuff than becoming fundamentalist killers.

Clip Source: weinholds.org

My research about 2012 and The Shift indicates that the fields of science and spirituality are merging. Some of the greatest spiritual advances seem to be coming from people who once were “hard-core” scientists. Many of them are validating the prophesies spiritual traditions of indigenous people and simultaneously invalidating outdated scientific paradigms such as Darwin’s theory of evolution. Even quantum theory is now being replaced with plasma theory, which says that the world is electrical. Prophesy is slowly becoming fact and science is supporting it.

The astrological conjunction of 2012 is also expected to involve a shift in Earth’s magnetic poles.

Our DNA is being reprogrammed to trigger our metamorphosis and activate our light body

Once we understand that we are connected to everything in the universe, we can become conscious, active participants in it.

geophysicists and astrophysicists in India released a computer model predicting a geomagnetic reversal in 2012.

Tags: mumbo jumbo, new age, 2012, pseudoscience

Jewish Intelligence

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 09:04:27 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: In Norman Costner's history of Judaeism, The Sacred Chain, it is taken as true that by cultural selectivity, many Jews have inherited genes for 'intelligence'. Thus they have provided the world with the likes of Einstein, Marx and Freud, and also some of the cleverest gangsters and swindlers.

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

Is Jewish intelligence genetic? Will Saletan reported in Slate about a forum at the American Enterprise Institute.

The average IQ of Ashkenazi Jews is 107 to 115, well above the human average of 100. This gap and the genetic theories surrounding it stirred discomfort

According to Entine, the rate of Jewish "outbreeding" - procreating with non-Jews - is half a percent. That's the lowest rate of any population in the world today. What drives this phenomenon? Culture.

Zoloth, speaking for many liberals, recalled a family member's revulsion at the idea of a Jewish race. Judaism is about faith and values, she argued. To reduce it to biology is to make it exclusive, denying its openness to all. Worse, to suggest that Jews are genetically smart is to imply that non-Jews are inherently inferior, in violation of Jewish commitments to equality and compassion.

Tags: intelligence, jews

Kids' Mental Health Hit by Hidden Caffeine

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:30:32 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: borntoexplore.org

Caffeine use in the United States has exploded. These days, even young children are guzzling soda spiked with caffeine, with or without their parents’ knowledge. While pretty much everyone knows that colas contain caffeine, many people are not aware that some brands of orange soda, root beer, and even bottled water are caffeinated.

It is truly worrisome that so many health care professionals do not bring up the topic of caffeine when patients describe symptoms that can be caused by caffeine consumption.

several ways that caffeine can affect behavior. First, and most obvious, is the direct affect of being wired.

disturbing their sleep, and a lack of sleep causes many of the symptoms of ADD.

chronic hypervigilante state, also called “anxiety”. Some people are genetically prone to hypervigilance, and caffeine puts their system into overdrive

worsened by too much caffeine

People resist the idea that caffeine can cause such problems, especially the people who drink a lot of it.

Tags: caffeine, dopamine, risk taking behaviour, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, add

Turkey Not Welcome in Europe

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:47:02 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

A growing number of prosecutions against writers and academics is damaging Turkey’s case to become a fully fledged member of the European Union, an annual assessment report said yesterday.

The country has made little progress in the past year and its failure to end torture, improve minority rights or guarantee freedom of expression were all highlighted as significant stumbling blocks to EU membership.

One of the key demands was for the repeal of Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity. The article has been used to prosecute the Nobel prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk and the murdered journalist Hrant Dink for commenting on the killings of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century.

“Turkey needs to create the conditions for the predominantly Kurdish population there to enjoy full rights and freedoms.”

Tags: turkey, kurdistan

Talking Sense Makes Sense

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:52:50 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Jargon is a refuge for those who are yet to come to terms with commercial reality

When was the last time you called your spouse into the kitchen to make a presentation about the “challenges to the family going forward”? You haven’t? Of course not, for this nonsense is talked only in the office. These phrases mangle language. Going forward? That would be instead of backwards?

Second, why discuss nasty things clearly when you can make them sound friendly? That is why sacking became redundancy became downsizing became “rightsizing”. That last one sounds as if employers aim for a Goldilocks-style balance, rather than to cut costs by whacking half the workforce.

when did you last ring the repair man and say you had a challenge with the washing machine? You can get ahead by translating these euphemisms into English and gaining a reputation for “telling it like it is”.

never to use any word that you wouldn’t use in real life.

be the only person in the office talking sense.

Tags: jargon

Clipmarks | PatParslow's Pops

"'Human Rights' for Apes"

Spanish Parliament Approved 'Human Rights' for Apes

'Earth worship' on the rise among evangelical youth

Are we becoming a Nazi Germany?

Roadblock Revelations

Homeland Security Checkpoint Video Now Availale

Work for Free!

Funny Graffiti and Signs From Around The World

Funny Graffiti and Signs From Around The World

How Writing Changed the World

Meet a Geep (cross between a sheep & a goat)

The Science of Fairy Tales

Although brown hair is thicker, Rapunzel's blonde locks are strong enough for several real-life princes to climb. Credit: Project Gutenberg

An artists' depiction of the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid." Scientists have developed technology that can block sound waves in much the same way the sea witch's curse silenced the mermaid Ariel's singing voice. Credit: Project Gutenberg

Free software to use after Windows reinstallation

Brain 'closes eyes' to hear music

2012: The New Age Will Begin

Jewish Intelligence

Kids' Mental Health Hit by Hidden Caffeine

Turkey Not Welcome in Europe

Talking Sense Makes Sense

Jargon is a refuge for those who are yet to come to terms with commercial reality