Clipmarks | Red Pen's clips

Gloria Steinem on Sarah Palin

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:49:45 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen
clipper's remarks: It's not about gender. It's about issues.

Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling.

Tags: sarah palin, election, issues, politics

Signpost for Change

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:38:26 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen
clipper's remarks: from the Manifest Hope Gallery
manifesthope.com

Clip Source: pol.moveon.org

Signpost For Change

By Lisa Marie Regan from Tulsa, OK

Tags: obama, hope, manifest hope, art, gallery, signpost

Teen passengers don't buckle up

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:01:18 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen

Clip Source: well.blogs.nytimes.com

Motor-vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among adolescents in the United States, accounting for nearly 5,000 fatalities and over 400,000 injuries annually among teens 16 and older. The crash rate for teen drivers is four times higher than for older drivers.

But studies show that it’s more than just teen drivers who are at risk — 40 percent of teen motor-vehicle deaths involve passengers.

Overall, 59 percent of students always used seat belts when driving, but only 42 percent always buckled up as passengers, the researchers found. Only about one out of three students said they always wore seat belts whether driving or riding as a passenger.

Tags: teenagers, seat belts, safety, driving, accidents, passengers, teen drivers

Impossible experiments

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:59:52 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen
clipper's remarks: Psychology Today bloggers were asked what experiment they would love to carry out if neither ethics nor practical reality stood in their way. This is my favorite among the responses.

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

Baby Swapping

I would collect all newborn babies and randomly reassign them to new parents. I'm confident that we will confirm the 50-0-50 rule: Adult personality is roughly 50 percent genetic, 0 percent how we were raised by our parents, and 50 percent socialization by peers and friends. I think we will discover that, within a broad range, it doesn't really matter how parents raise their children. —Satoshi Kanazawa (The Scientific Fundamentalist) is an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics.

Tags: psychology, genetics, nature, nurture, parenting, peers, socialization

Milgram and human nature

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:37:00 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

Despite the variety of research Milgram produced, his obedience studies continue to overshadow his other work. Milgram's book Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View has been translated into 11 languages.

Milgram's warning—that when an individual "merges...into an organizational structure, a new creature replaces autonomous man, unhindered by the limitations of individual morality, freed of human inhibition, mindful only of the sanctions of authority"—has much resonance.

We didn't need Milgram to tell us we have a tendency to obey orders. What we didn't know before Milgram's experiments is just how powerful this tendency is. And having been enlightened about our extreme readiness to obey authorities, we can try to take steps to guard ourselves against unwelcome or reprehensible commands.

Cost of living up, wages worth less

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:57:25 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The cost of living, led by the soaring cost of gasoline and food, is rising at the fastest rate since the recession of the early 1990s, the government said on Thursday, handing a de facto pay cut to the American worker.

Prices of a wide range of common products in the Consumer Price Index were 5.6 percent higher last month than they were in July 2007, the sharpest annual increase since January 1991.

The higher prices have made many workers’ wages effectively worth less.

In July, rank-and-file workers — those in production or nonsupervisory roles — earned 3.1 percent less than they did a year ago, after adjusting for the rising cost of living.

Mara Triangle photos by Joseph Kimojino

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:26:55 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen

Clip Source: www.maratriangle.org

Make the Switch

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:39:10 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen

Clip Source: www.wecansolveit.org

[Video]

Tags: renewable electricity, clean power, make the switch, climate change, commercial, advertising, we can solve it, video clip

Indirect communication

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:17:50 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen
clipper's remarks: One-way conversation strikes me as a contradiction in terms.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Slydial, lets callers dial a mobile phone but avoid an unwanted conversation — or unwanted intimacy — on the other end. The incoming call goes undetected by the recipient, who simply receives the traditional blinking light or ping that indicates that a voice mail message has been received.

The concept may sound antithetical to a digital era defined by ubiquitous communication and interactivity, but Slydial turns out to be only the latest in a breed of new technologies that fit squarely into an emerging paradox: tools that let users avoid direct communication.

Indirect communication, experts suggest, may be turning some people into digital-era solipsists more interested in broadcasting information than in real time give-and-take.

Tags: voice mail, one-way, indirect, communication, conversation, phone, technology

Juvenile campaigning

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:08:57 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen
clipper's remarks: I have a real problem with McCain's recent ads.

Clip Source: blog.washingtonpost.com

[Video]

Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan dismissed the ad as a juvenile stunt.

"It's downright sad that on a day when we learned that 51,000 Americans lost their jobs, a candidate for the presidency is spending all of his time and the powerful platform he has on these sorts of juvenile antics," he said in a statement. "Senator McCain can keep telling everyone how 'proud' he is of these political stunts which even his Republican friends and advisors have called'childish', but Barack Obama will continue talking about his plan to jumpstart our economy by giving working families $1,000 of immediate relief."

Tags: election, mccain, obama, juvenile, campaign, childish, politics, advertising

Marriage, Divorce, and Alzheimer's Risk

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:37:12 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen

Clip Source: well.blogs.nytimes.com

Whether you are single or divorced in midlife appears to influence your risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia as you age.

The newest study, presented at the 2008 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Chicago, focused on the effect relationships in midlife may have on long-term risk.

They found that people who were living with a spouse or a partner in midlife ran a 50 percent lower risk of developing dementia during their older years than people living alone.

Tags: aging, alzheimer's, marriage, dementia, relationships, health, midlife

7 Ways to Cultivate Inspiration

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:37:46 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen
clipper's remarks: Creativity tips for graphic designers.

Clip Source: www.shutterstock.com

1. Revisit your childhood & the things you used to enjoy doing.

2. Procrastinate.

3. Be a Mad Scientist.

4. Put in a CD you haven’t listened to in many years.

5. Take care of yourself.

6. Keep that Sketchbook handy.

7. Browse Shutterstock.

Tags: graphic arts, graphic design, inspiration, creativity, tips

Enduring Legacy

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:39:30 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen
clipper's remarks: Note the toilet plungers in the seal. LOL

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

San Francisco voters, never thrilled with George W. Bush, may give the president a parting shot in November by naming a sewage plant after him.

"What we are doing is satire, part of the proud tradition of skewering political figures that dates back to the Revolution," organizers said on their website, here

Clip Source: presidentialmemorial.wordpress.com

Tags: bush, sewage plant, politics, satire, humor

Catch and release

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:32:19 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen
clipper's remarks: This is truly messed up. I particularly like the quip about the wallet card. Would our barnyard pals have an eelskin wallet to put it in?

Clip Source: gristmill.grist.org

In the not-so-distant past, pigs and chickens ate grass, some grains, and food scraps.

Today, in the throes of a perverse industrial food system that favors cheap protein and quick growth (with often astonishing results such as Mad Cow disease), we now feed farm animals lots of small, tasty fish.

Pigs and chickens eat double the amount of fish that Japan consumes annually and six times more seafood than the entire U.S. population eats each year.

In places where government action is unlikely due to the mantra of free markets, it is more likely we would see some sort of awareness program, such as a seafood wallet card for pigs and chickens (who don't read).

"Better yet, we will tell pigs and chickens they can eat only what they catch," says Daniel Pauly, Director of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre.

Maybe we should feed pigs and poultry (literally) Michael Pollan's advice: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

And we should do the same.

Tags: food production, natural diets, pork, poultry, seafood, health, silly

Perpetual hunger or a glass of wine?

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:32:35 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen
clipper's remarks: This small clip is from an article about a research study. The study suggests that a compound in red wine (resveratrol) may protect the heart against the effects of aging.

I must agree with researchers that going hungry is a rather steep price to pay for longevity. I'm not sure I want to live longer if I have to be desperately pining for food the whole time. But having a glass of red wine? That I can do.

Clip Source: health.yahoo.com

Much as Spaniard Juan Ponce de Leon once searched for the mythical fountain of youth, researchers now are seeking ways to extend the quality and length of human life.

In some studies, animals given a diet with greatly reduced caloric intake have lived longer than animals with normal diets. But perpetual hunger is a steep price to pay for greater longevity, some researchers say.

Tags: red wine, resveratrol, aging, research, extending life