Clipmarks | abailart's Comments

Shaking things up on Clipmarks.com

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:55:57 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Please read the entire post by clicking the source link before reacting.

Clip Source: clipmarks.wordpress.com

Unfortunately, we have recently become increasingly concerned that the site has become overly antagonistic and inappropriately controlled by a disproportionately loud group of users. In all honesty, we no longer feel that the processes of our site are producing a unique, high quality blend of content. Instead, the magical blending of diverse topics on the Clipmarks home page has seemed to dissolve into a battleground for extremely hostile politically oriented users who are overwhelming the rest of the site. Because of this we are working on making some fundamental changes to the way the Clipmarks site works. We will do our best to make changes that improve the site and will continue to iterate until we are comfortable that it is just right.

Tags: clipmarks

Are there two Americas?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:31:14 GMT

clipped by: jimbo1000
clipper's remarks: Is this true?

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

there are two hopelessly incompatible Americas

Small-town Americans have values and a lot of those values are good ones: neighbourliness, family life, a knowledge of the land and what grows in it. The other America they see on TV seems without ethics - crime, violence, drug addiction, pornography and prostitution - and they don't want any part of it.

So clear is the divide between big-city and small-town America that one American friend said to me: "These whitebread Republicans are like children - someone has to tell them what to do and what to think, they're incapable of independent ideas."

Tags: us election, election, politics

What is Asset Poverty?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:08:21 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: Asset poverty is a measure of whether a household can support itself using savings or other available assets for 12 weeks at a poverty-level income.

Clip Source: www.bread.org

What is Asset Poverty?

Most people think of poverty as a lack of income, but by limiting our understanding of poverty to income alone, we miss a critical piece of what families need to get by. An asset-poor household is one in which a sudden halt in income would have serious consequences immediately. Asset poverty is a measure of whether a household can support itself using savings or other available assets for 12 weeks at a poverty-level income. Far more households are asset-poor compared to income-poor: 22.4 percent compared to 10.2 percent respectively. ¹

Asset Poverty Rates by Race in the United States

African American

43.2%

Hispanic

39.0%

Native American

34.5%

Asian

23.1%

White

16.6%

Source: Corporation for Enterprise Development (www.cfed.org), 2007 – 2008 Assets and Opportunity Scorecard, analysis based on U.S. Census Data (2004).

In their book Black Wealth/White Wealth, Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro expose the shocking inequalities of wealth along racial lines in the United States.

Republicans Use Fake Troops for RNC Video

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:48:59 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: One of the actors, Perry Denton of Chicago, IL also confirmed that he was hired on a day-rate as an actor for the shoot and told CBS News he was surprised to learn the footage was shown at the convention.

Clip Source: www.vetvoice.com

by: Brandon Friedman

Thu Sep 04, 2008

For its "Pledge of Allegiance video" on Tuesday night, the Republican National Convention used stock footage of a staged military funeral, along with actors dressed as soldiers and sailors. CBS has the story:

It was a video that was supposed to elicit soaring patriotism and real emotions about the Pledge of Allegiance. But to do that, it used fake soldiers and a staged military funeral instead of the real thing.

CBS News found that the footage of the 'funeral' and soldiers is what is called 'stock' footage. The soldiers were actors and the funeral scene was from a one-day film shoot, produced in June. No real soldiers were used during production.

The footage, sold by stock-film house Getty Images was produced by a commercial filmmaker in Chicago. Both Getty and the production company, Mr. Big Films, confirmed that the footage was shot on spec and sold to the Republican National Committee.

Tags: fake

the myth of nation-state

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:08:45 GMT

clipped by: pascual
clipper's remarks: syndicate

Clip Source: www.project-syndicate.org

This fall, thousands of college students will be taught a myth presented as fact. It is a myth that has helped fuel wars and may hinder finding solutions to the world’s biggest problems. Though the origin of this myth is cloudy, science has proven its falsity, and a globalized world has rendered it anachronistic. I am talking about the nation-state.

Tags: politics, history, psychology

Subaquatic Photography

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:50:32 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth

Clip Source: www.crookedbrains.net

Alix Malka - Subaquatic Photography.

Alix Malka began his carrier in world of the fashion in 1985 working with Thierry Mugler. Today he is one of the most asked for photographers by the international magazines, who draws inspiration from the likes of Pedro Almodovar & John Waters, & designers like John Galliano & Alexander McQueen.

Tags: photos, beautiful

Giant Spider Terrifies Liverpool

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:36:45 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: The spider was sedated and is now down by the River Mersey being examoned by scientists. The worry is that it laid eggs before it was caught.

Clip Source: s232.photobucket.com

Tags: la machine

Scientists Tackle Liverpool Spider Terror

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:59:22 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

Passer-by Louise Smith, 33, from Wallasey, said: “My brother texted me this morning. He works nights and saw it crawling up the building and we heard a rumour it was going to move.

Clip Source: www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

FRENCH scientist Joseph Browning revealed today that a team of experts would arrive in the city to take samples from the spider.

They will get close to the creature by abseiling 50m down the side of the Concourse Tower.

He said the spider would be lit up because it is hibernating, and said scientists were concerned that the creature could start laying eggs which is why they want to keep it under constant surveillance.

He told the ECHO: "Imagine 200 eggs, 1,000 times bigger than normal and you can just imagine the catastrophe"

three options in how to deal with the creature.

50-metre cordon around the animal but that would mean evacuating around 30,000 people. The second solution would involve shrinking the head of the creature like the headshrinkers of South America.

Tags: la machine

68 Molecules that hold the key to all Cellular Life

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:01:12 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Currently, the vast majority of medical research looks to the human genome and proteome for answers, but those answers remain elusive, and perhaps for good reason.

“We have now found instances where the pathogenesis of widespread and chronic diseases can be attributed to a change in the glycome, for example, in the absence of definable changes in the genome or proteome,” Marth said, adding that, as biomedical researchers, “we need to begin to cultivate the integration of disciplines in a holistic and rigorous way in order to perceive and most effectively manipulate the biological mechanisms of health and disease.”

Marth believes that biology should become more integrative both in academic and research settings. “I’m one who believes that we don’t need to sacrifice breadth of knowledge in order to acquire depth of understanding.”

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Why is it that the origins of many serious diseases remain a mystery? In considering that question, a scientist at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has come up with a unified molecular view of the indivisible unit of life, the cell, which may provide an answer.

Reviewing findings from multiple disciplines, Jamey Marth, Ph.D., UC San Diego Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, realized that only 68 molecular building blocks are used to construct these four fundamental components of cells: the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), proteins, glycans and lipids.

Like the periodic table of elements, first published in 1869 by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, is to chemistry, Marth’s visual metaphor offers a new framework for biologists.

These 68 building blocks provide the structural basis for the molecular choreography that constitutes the entire life of a cell

Tags: biology, cell biology

Before I die I want to...

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 08:46:21 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: Before I die I want to see the world.
And,yes,skydiving of course.

Clip Source: beforeidieiwantto.org

Tags: wishes

Underwater Photos

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:37:05 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: community.livejournal.com

Top 10 Most Depressing Rock Songs

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:45:04 GMT

clipped by: tanjazaric

Clip Source: listverse.com

10. New Order Leave Me Alone

9. Suicide Frankie Teardrop

8. Johnny Cash Hurt

7. The Beatles Eleanor Rigby

6. Metallica Fade to Black

5. Dire Straits Brothers in Arms

4. Jeff Buckley Hallelujah

3. Elliott Smith King’s Crossing

2. Radiohead How To Disappear Completely

1. The Smiths How Soon is Now?

Tags: rock, songs

A Mystical Atheist

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:17:08 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.hermitary.com

What is refreshing about Andre Comte-Sponville’s book L’esprit de l’atheisme is his unexpected attitude. Lately translated into English as The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality in order to emphasize its style — informal, not technical, not hostile

Occasionally Comte-Sponville is proud of his non-belief, occasional cool and nonchalant about it — not militant, angry or crusading. His style is that of Montaigne, Pascal, Renan. His affable personality makes his reflections, which surprisingly culminate in a strong defense of mysticism — however we may construe it — seem eminently reasonable, acceptable, even inevitable.

Comte-Sponville is more sensitive and mystically-oriented than even the average believer in presenting the concept of mystery, of openness to being, of what both Meister Eckhart and Heidegger called “releasement”

He quotes Wittgenstein: “Mysticism wonders not how the world is but that the world is.”

Tags: comte-sponville

Palin: Pledge "Good enough for Founding Fathers"

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:14:46 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Insisting that the Founders wrote "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance (those words date to 1954). Ignorance and zeal are a dangerous combination.

Clip Source: sage

8. Palin: "If Pledge Of Allegiance Was Good Enough For Founding Fathers, It's Good Enough For Me"

Oh. My. God. Giant hat tip to JLFinch's recommended diary: here's McCain's selection for the Vice Presidency of the United States, Sarah Palin, answering a 2006 policy questionnaire:

Q: Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

PALIN: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance

Fun facts: when John McCain's grandfather graduated from the Naval Academy in 1906, the Pledge of Allegiance, as first written, was only fourteen years old. It would not be made the official pledge of the United States until 1942, six years after John McCain himself was born.

When John McCain was born, the words "Under God" were not in the Pledge. They would not appear there until 1954, during McCain's senior year of high school.

Tags: palin

To Forgive One's Self

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:20:43 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: ask.metafilter.com

"Be willing to have a compassionate relationship with the parts of yourself that you feel are not worthy of existing." — Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty

Clip Source: www.quotationspage.com

The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.

Paul Tillich
US (German-born) Protestant theologian (1886 - 1965)

Tags: forgiveness