Clipmarks | abailart's Comments

Why can't science journalists just tell it like it is when it comes to particle physics?

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:46:10 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "On the whole, the best writing about physics for a general audience seems to come from physicists, not journalists. This isn't due to the fact that physicists understand the subject matter better—if anything, people who spend all day in the lab are often the worst at explaining the big picture. Rather, they're better at writing about physics because they don't try so hard to make you care. They don't believe their readers must be seduced with colorful wordplay or end-of-the-world melodramas. Journalists writing popular treatments of subatomic physics could take a lesson from the scientists: Tell it straight and have a little faith that the subject matter itself—a major advance in our understanding of the cosmos—can generate its own wonder and excitement".

Clip Source: www.slate.com

Why can't science journalists just tell it like it is when it comes to particle physics?

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg once summed up his feeling about people who saw evidence of the divine in the laws of physics like so: "I don't know why they use words like 'designer' or 'God,' except perhaps as a form of protective coloration."

God was mostly off the table in recent weeks—except in His particle form—as the Large Hadron Collider revved up for a massive series of experiments in subatomic physics. But among science journalists, there was plenty of protective coloration of another variety. Much of the prose from the hundreds of stories heralding the event arced decidedly toward the purple.

CNN, would provide scientists the opportunity for a "religious experience"; the BBC agreed, pointing out helpfully that "scientific study is often mundane but can occasionally slip into the ecstatic."

Are You Curious?

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:36:21 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: wirelessdigest.typepad.com

Tags: feline curiosity

Ahmadinejad accepts Israel's right to exist

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:56:24 GMT

clipped by: zasel
clipper's remarks: Iran's president finally opens himself to the possibility of recognizing Israel's right to exist, and no one reports on it. I am no fan of this bastard, but when he makes threatening statements about Israel, his words make headlines. But when he starts to soften his stance, his words are ignored. Is this because the media is afraid to report anything positive about this man? And who are they afraid of upsetting?

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has made a remarkable announcement. He's admitted that Iran might agree to the existence of the state of Israel.

Ahmadinejad was asked: "If the Palestinian leaders agree to a two-state solution, could Iran live with an Israeli state?"

This was his astonishing reply:

If they [the Palestinians] want to keep the Zionists, they can stay ... Whatever the people decide, we will respect it. I mean, it's very much in correspondence with our proposal to allow Palestinian people to decide through free referendums.

Since most Palestinians are willing to accept a two-state solution, the Iranian president is, in effect, agreeing to Israel's right to exist and opening the door to a peace deal that Iran will endorse.

Surprisingly, Ahmadinejad's sensational softening of his long-standing, point-blank anti-Israeli stance was not even headlined by the two reporters. Perhaps this was a decision by their editors?

the story wasn't picked up by the world's media.

Tags: iran, ahmadinejad, media

Financial crisis the result of Reaganomics

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:51:17 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: A brief history of economic policies since the New Deal, and why we've had crises like this ever since Reagan. "Obama is correct that the best opportunity for making the economy work for all Americas is to fire those who made up the current rules of the game."

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Today's financial crisis is the predictable

outcome of the policies enacted by the Republican Party since Ronald Reagan's presidency

When Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, the nation was in the midst of a banking meltdown

the hallmarks of the New Deal were designed specifically to curb speculation,

and protect ordinary Americans from becoming collateral damage of Wall Street's predators

In the 1970s

economies stagnated

advocates of the free market

insisted that excessive business regulation and high taxes were the problem

Reagan

slashed taxes on the wealthy, cutting social spending

appointed zealots of deregulation

lax regulation by Reagan's SEC create

the 1987 market plunge, the first

since the 1929 crash

Reagan gloried in

deregulation of the Savings and Loan

more than 1,000 savings and loan institutions collapsed

American taxpayer bailed them out in 1989

each generation of Republicans carrying it to a further extreme. John McCain reiterated at the first debate

he is a proud

Reagan conservative

Tags: economy, republican, reagan

10 easy steps to facism

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:44:49 GMT

clipped by: prin1

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.

2. Create a gulag.

3. Develop a thug caste.

4. Set up an internal surveillance system.

5. Harass citizens' groups.

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.

7. Target key individuals.

8. Control the press.

9. Dissent equals treason.

10. Suspend the rule of law.

Creating a terrifying threat -- hydralike, secretive, evil -- is an old trick.

Once you have got everyone scared, the next step is to create a prison system outside the rule of law

where torture can take place.

When leaders who seek what I call a "fascist shift" want to close down an open society, they send paramilitary groups of scary young men out to terrorize citizens

The Stasi needed to keep only a minority of East Germans under surveillance to convince a majority that they themselves were being watched.

Friends Don't Let Friends Use Internet Explorer

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:12:29 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes

Clip Source: www.sembeo.com

A Brief History of Actual Exploding Animals

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:50:48 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: Self-detonating ants! How odd is that?

Clip Source: webecoist.com

In 2005 reports began to come in that hundreds, possibly thousands, of toads were exploding in Hamburg

it was strongly suspected that the frogs, once attacked by birds, were puffing up to defend themselves - only to burst

Another theory is that the toads were self-selecting to reduce their own populations or

some kind of virus. At least one species of ant is known to use self-detonation as a defense mechanism, explosively spraying its opponents with poison as it violently perishes.

Now, humans exploding is a relatively rare phenomenon but it has been known to happen.

King William the First exploded violently after a delay in his burial allowed for advanced decay

a number of divers died due to the explosive decompression of their diving chamber. One of the unfortunate victims violently exploded

Animals have also been intentionally sent into harm’s way during wartime

dogs in World War II being trained to seek out and detonate upon contact

Bats were also trained to

roost and subsequently explode.

Prison art: Art from behind closed doors

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:53:54 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.koestlertrust.org.uk

the Koestler Trust

UK’s best-known prison arts charity

award, exhibit and sell artworks by offenders, detainees and high security patients

Clip Source: www.koestlertrust.org.uk

aims are:

to help offenders lead more positive lives by motivating them to participate in the creative arts;
to demonstrate the power of arts activity in the criminal justice system.

The Koestler Awards attract over 5,000 entries a year from inmates of prisons, young offender institutions, secure hospitals and immigration removal centres across the UK, as well as offenders supervised by probation and youth offending services.

Clip Source: www.koestlertrust.org.uk

entries come in 49 artforms, including

creative writing
film
graphic design
music
needlework
painting and drawing
photography
sculpture
woodcraft

Clip Source: www.koestlertrust.org.uk

Our specially trained arts mentors support the most talented Koestler award winners to continue their arts activity after release from custody.

Clip Source: www.koestlertrust.org.uk

We were founded in 1962 by Arthur Koestler, author of the prison novel Darkness at Noon.

Clip Source: www.koestlertrust.org.uk

How Civil Disobedience Brought Down Thatcher

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:43:37 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Mass illegal actions and protest by the British people against the community charge (poll tax) led to the downfall of Thatcher.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

There were mass protests, called by the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation to which the vast majority of local Anti Poll Tax Unions (APTUs) were affiliated. In Scotland the APTUs called for mass non-payment and these calls rapidly gathered widespread support which spread to England and Wales, even though non-payment meant that people could be prosecuted. In some areas, 30% of former ratepayers defaulted.

A Labour MP, Terry Fields, was jailed for 60 days for refusing to pay his poll tax.

This unrest was instrumental in toppling Margaret Thatcher in 1990.

Tags: poll tax protests

The True Cost of Rewarding Greedy Bankers

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:36:56 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Note the names of some of these great institutions that rewarded greed. Note the immediate cost to UK taxpayers. I would be interested to see figures relating to the taxes of US citizens' tax bills compares. (Oh, meanwhile, Barclays in London have just guaranteed 2.5 billion dollars in bonuses and salaries to a firm called Lehmans that they just bought a bit of.)

Clip Source: business.timesonline.co.uk

November 20, 2007

Wall Street’s five biggest investment banks are expected to pay a record $38 billion (£18.6 billion) in staff bonuses this year, even though the shareholders in those firms have collectively lost about $74 billion in stock declines this year.

The bonuses will be split between 186,000 staff globally at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. This year’s bonuses would compare with the $36 billion paid by Wall Street’s five biggest firms last year and equate to $201,500 per person. Collectively, the bonus is larger than the gross domestic products of Sri Lanka, Lebanon or Bulgaria, while the average payout is more than four times the $48,201 median household income in America, according to the US Census Bureau.

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

TAXPAYERS in Britain face up to 5p in the pound in extra taxes because of the credit crunch created by the banks

Tags: economics

Gore Calls For Civil Disobedience To Stop Coal Plants

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:13:06 GMT

clipped by: Brian Caulfield
clipper's remarks: We used to do this to nuclear power plants out on the West Coast. How things have changed...

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon.

Tags: nukes, energy, carbon

Europeans on left and right ridicule U.S. money meltdown

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:20:04 GMT

clipped by: sunstreak509

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

LONDON -- It's a rare day when finance officials, leftist intellectuals and ordinary salespeople can agree on something. But the economic meltdown that wrought its wrath from Rome to Madrid to Berlin this week brought Europeans together in a harsh chorus of condemnation of the excess and disarray on Wall Street.

The finance minister of Italy's conservative and pro-U.S. government warned of nothing less than a systemic breakdown. Giulio Tremonti excoriated the "voracious selfishness" of speculators and "stupid sluggishness" of regulators. And he singled out Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, with startling scorn.

Tags: economy, finance, money, credit, markets

Ireland Now in Recession

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:34:07 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The Irish Republic's economy has fallen into recession after shrinking for a second quarter in succession.

The economy is now facing its most difficult period since high unemployment and emigration hit in the early 1980s.

Economists pointed to the collapse of a decade-long bonanza in Ireland's property market, coupled with a slump in construction activity.

The country has enjoyed a boom since the late 1990s, with multinationals arriving to take advantage of one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe.

Bloxham Stockbrokers chief economist Alan McQuaid said:"Although the domestic side of the economy is contracting at a significant rate, the external side - the multinationals - is holding up quite well, but one would have to question how long that's going to last."

Tags: economics, ireland

Why we walk on two legs?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:05:53 GMT

clipped by: syncopath

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

The truth about why we walk on two legs: it saves energy

Scientists compared the amount of energy expended by humans and chimps when walking on a treadmill and found that a two-legged gait is about 75 per cent less costly compared with walking on all fours.

The study suggests that it all comes down to energy expenditure and how costly it is to move around in terms of the food required.

Explaining why humans went from a four-legged gait to a two-legged, upright posture has proven to be one of the most difficult and contentious issues in evolution.

Rival theories

* Tree walking: A recent theory suggests that our tree-living ancestors walked upright on branches, using their arms for balance.

* A cooling effect: Another idea is that it was cooler to walk upright in savannah grasslands because by doing so there was less surface area of the body exposed to the Sun.

* Wading in water:

Modern-day chimps often adopt a two-legged gait when walking through water.

Clip Source: my.opera.com

Under The Thumb Of Corporations

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:17:12 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

How do you grapple with the Dow falling 500 points in one day? How do you comprehend the largest bankruptcy in American history? And how do you even begin to understand the implications of the Bank of America’s buyout of Merrill Lynch or the implications of the nationalization or quasi-socialization of banks as the government bails out banks whose board of directors conducted operations like gamblers at a casino?

The state of the American economy [lies] somewhere between the four horsemen riding steeds and wielding blades of fury over a charred hulls cape and something you get at your chiropractor. That’s your range, America! Go confidently and plan your financial future.”

Nader said, “Pure greed, coupled with concentrated power on Wall Street and elsewhere” brought about this mess.

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

The FDIC is not likely to address its own inability to clearly assess the current risks posed to depositors and taxpayers by the high-rolling banking industry.”