Clipmarks | arifsali's Share collection

Welcome to ClipCast

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:19:10 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Welcome but so far I feel I have lost my community by entering into a room with no lights. What in the world is going on and what in the world is ClipCast. What happened to my Clipmarks Community?

Okay I will keep on playing more to make some sense.

Clip Source: clipmarks.com

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An Islamic Conscience: The Aga Khan and the Ismailis

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:51:55 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.thecrimson.com

The hour-long film, “An Islamic Conscience: The Aga Khan and the Ismailis,” depicted the spiritual leader’s message of religious tolerance as well as his heavy funding of development organizations in Asia and Africa to help eliminate poverty, to support women’s rights, and to promote Islamic art and architecture.

“In a post-9/11, post-London bombing world, we really need to examine the plurality of Islam,” said Shamir Allibhai, the documentary’s producer and a student at Harvard Divinity School. “Right now, there’s a lot of media coverage of Islam associated with terrorism and extremism. This project looks at a different side of things.”

In contrast with other Shia sects, Ismailis believe that the Aga Khan is a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed and trust in his interpretation of the faith. The documentary discusses the history of the Ismailis and the policies of the three previous Aga Khans.

Clip Source: agakhanfilm.blogspot.com

Full website is now up with story details, bios, and much more: www.agakhanfilm.org

Tags: islam, muslims, documentary

Video: Iranian Town Carved From Rock

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:40:20 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: This is not a video of caves, they have five star hotel carved up in rocks. Amazing video.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Video: Iranian Town Carved From Rock

December 5, 2007—Carved into Iranian mountains, the village of Kandovan may be older than 700 years old. The energy-efficient homes draw tourists from around the world.

Tags: iran, mountains, village

Amazingly detailed pictures of Mars

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:34:40 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.esa.int

This image was taken by the High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), onboard ESA’s Mars Express imaged the Noctis Labyrinthus region, the ‘Labyrinth of the Night’ on Mars.

The HRSC took these pictures on 25 June 2006 in orbit 3155, with a ground resolution of approximately 16 m/pixel.

This colour scene has been derived from the three HRSC colour channels and the nadir channel.

Credits: ESA/ DLR/ FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Clip Source: esamultimedia.esa.int

Tags: mars, pictures

Politician owns up killing

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:35:46 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

With the first phase of polls, just a week away, whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment is back on Modi's agenda. On Tuesday morning, the CM, apparently apprehensive that his development plank may not work, told a rally at Mangrol in south Gujarat that "Sohrabuddin got what he deserved". The communal angle is thus back in the rhetoric of Hindutva's poster boy.

It was vintage Modi in his campaign speech at Mangrol: "Sonia Gandhi spoke of terrorism. But she has no right to talk of this. Till today, those who attacked Parliament haven't been sent to the gallows. Congress in Gujarat is raising its voice on the Sohrabuddin issue. But, it should explain to the people what should be done to a man who stored illegal arms and ammunition. You tell me, what should have been done to Sohrabuddin?"

The rally echoed with shouts of "Kill him, kill him." Modi responded with: "Well, that is it. Do I have to take Sonia Gandhi's permission to do this?"

Tags: india, politics

‘Allah made me funny’

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:29:11 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

LONDON: One-hundred-and-fifty people are crying tears of laughter in the darkened auditorium in the bowels of the fortress-like US embassy in the British capital. A huge bearded Indian-American is on stage and he’s being fantastically funny and very rude about desi accents, Indian dads, Asian Auntyjis, Pakistani pretensions to importance, Bollywood movies, modern Muslim culture and the world’s erroneous belief that Muslims can never ever be funny.

"Indians smell, let’s face it...it’s all the masalas in our food, we literally sweat it out, but there’s a great branding business opportunity out here – a new fragrance, ‘Paseena’ from Calvin Klein", deadpans US-born-and-bred Patna boy Azhar Usman, sniffing his armpits.

And then there’s the one about the stereotypical world view that Muslim men are terrorists and Muslim women oppressed. "Don’t believe that," yells Usman, aka ‘bin Laughin’, "Have these people ever been in a Muslim household? It’s the other way round, believe me".

Tags: comedy, muslims

Pope criticizes atheism

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:06:55 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Ouch! Pop that you atheists of Clipmarks

Clip Source: www.iht.com

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI rebuked modern-day atheism for bringing untold cruelty and suffering to a world seeking justice, exhorting Roman Catholics to embrace instead the Christian message of hope.

"We must do all we can to overcome suffering, but to banish it from the world is not in our power," Benedict wrote in the second encyclical of his papacy. "Only God is able to do this."

The pope also critically questioned modern Christianity, saying its focus on individual salvation had ignored Jesus' message that true Christian hope involves salvation for all.

"Saved by Hope" is an exploration of hope in the Christian sense: that in the suffering and misery of daily life, Christianity provides the faithful with a "journey of hope" to the Kingdom of God.

"Christianity did not bring a message of social revolution like that of the ill-fated Spartacus, whose struggle led to so much bloodshed. Jesus was not Spartacus, he was not engaged in a fight for political liberation," the pope wrote.

Tags: pope, christianity, atheism

In India's north, the worst place to be born a girl

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:56:07 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.iht.com

MACHRIHWA, India: The birth of a boy in Machrihwa is celebrated with the purchase of sweetmeats, distributed with joy to fellow villagers.

The birth of a girl is, for the most part, not celebrated at all.

Women in this village are not eager to dwell on the subject, but many of those with daughters grudgingly admit that worse than the pain of childbirth was the misery of realizing that they had delivered a girl.

Juganti Prasad, 30, remembers the reproachful silence that settled over the room where she gave birth to her third daughter. Her mother-in-law handed her the child, and said curtly, "It's a girl, again," before leaving her.

"There was no one even to give me a glass of water," Prasad said. "No one bothered to look after me or feed me because it was a girl."

As she lay recovering, she could hear relatives in the next-door hut lamenting the calamity. A few weeks afterward, her husband threw her and their three daughters out of his home.

Tags: india, girls

India: Two brothers make $ 4 bn in 20 min

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:54:20 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.hindustantimes.com

After a stock market twister brought him and his brother Rajesh $4 billion in 20 minutes, Gautam Adani, the 45-year-old chairman of Adani Group, entered Forbes magazine’s exalted list of billionaires for the first time this year on Tuesday.

By the end of the day, on which Adanis’ latest venture Mundra Port & Special Economic Zone Ltd — a diversified conglomerate into everything from port operations to power trading to edible oils and commodity exports — listed on the stock exchanges, the brothers’ notional wealth had swelled by a staggering $8 billion. The first $4 billion came in the 20 minutes after the listing at 9.55 am.

Tags: india, stock market, billionaire, forbes

It is proper to challenge Islam - By Jemima Khan

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:27:26 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Jemima Khan is a former Jew who converted to Islam when she married sportsman turned politician Imran Khan in Pakistan (they're now separated).

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

In my experience, having lived for 10 years in a Muslim country and visited many others, there is a huge variety of beliefs within Islam and a cultural diversity amongst Muslims that is not often taken into account. Islam is not a monolithic entity. Which Islam, which Muslims do they hate? Mystical Sufi Islam? The culturally-influenced Islam of the Subcontinent? The literalist and extreme Wahabbi Islam? Militant jihadist Islam?

The Albanian Muslim is different from his Saudi brother. There are devout Muslims and less devout Muslims. Some drink, some don't. Some believe in arranged marriages, others have sex outside marriage. A minority believe that homosexuals and infidels should be murdered. A majority find such views repugnant.

It's true that the Muslim community is bad at introspection and self-criticism. Labelling all critics Islamophobes, as often happens

is an old ploy to close down debate

It was used 70 years ago, when a critic of the Soviet Union could expect to be called a fascist

Tags: islam

New York manhole covers, forged barefoot in India

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:03:18 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.iht.com

NEW DELHI: In India, barefoot, shirtless, whip-thin men rippled with muscle are forging prosaic pieces of the urban jigsaw puzzle: manhole covers for the world.

Seemingly impervious to the heat from the metal, the workers at one of West Bengal's many foundries relied on strength and bare hands rather than machinery. Safety precautions were barely in evidence; just a few pairs of eye goggles were seen in use on a recent visit.

The foundry, Shakti Industries in Howrah, produces manhole covers for cities in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. The company makes covers for Con Edison and New York City's Department of Environmental Protection, as well as for departments in New Orleans and Syracuse, New York.

Workers in Haora, India, have few protections while making manhole covers for Con Edison and some cities' utilities. (J. Adam Huggins for The New York Times)

Tags: india, united states

Saudi to cull over 3.5 million birds

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 22:57:11 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Have Mercy, God. 3.5 million is a freaking large number of life to be destroyed.

Clip Source: www.presstv.ir

Saudi Arabia is in process of destroying over 3 million birds after detecting the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus near Riyadh.

"Over 3.5 million birds have been destroyed or are in the process of being culled since the first incidence of bird flu infection was reported on November 12," the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture said on Thursday.

The H5N1 strain has also been detected in infected poultry in areas around Riyadh as well as the pigeon market south of the city.

The ministry has banned live poultry imports following an outbreak in March. It has also urged people to refrain from hunting migrant birds, which it said was the main source of the infection.

No cases of human infection with the deadly virus have yet been reported in the country.

Tags: saudi arabia, bird flu, birds

Difference between Canada and United States

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 02:30:21 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: BTW, we're looking at conservative government on both sides.

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

The case has drawn criticism internationally, with Canada saying on Monday it would complain to the Saudi authorities about the sentence.

Josee Verner, Canada's minister responsible for the status of women, called the Saudi ruling "barbaric" and said it would only further violate the 19-year-old victim.

Verner said Canada would formally express its condemnation to "the appropriate Saudi authorities".

But the US, which wants Saudi Arabia to attend its Middle East conference in Annapolis next week, did not condemn the ruling.

Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the US state department, said: "This is a part of a judicial procedure overseas in the court of a sovereign country," when asked to comment on the case.

"That said, most would find this relatively astonishing that something like this happens."

Asked whether the Saudi authorities should reconsider the sentence against the woman, McCormack said he could not "get involved in specific court cases in Saudi Arabia dealing with its own citizens".

Tags: canada, united states, saudi arabia, human rights, women

'Mythical Roman cave' unearthed

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:37:37 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Italian archaeologists say they have found the long-lost underground grotto where ancient Romans believed a female wolf suckled the city's twin founders.

The cave believed to be the Lupercal was found near the ruins of Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine hill.

The 8m (26ft) high cave decorated with shells, mosaics and marble was found during restoration work on the palace.

According to mythology Romulus and Remus were nursed by a she-wolf after being left on the River Tiber's banks.

The twin sons of the god Mars and priestess Rhea Silvia are said to have later founded Rome on the Palatine in 753 BC.

Tags: roman, discovery, archaeology

Journalists protest in Pakistan

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:15:32 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: geo.tv

Tags: pakistan, journalists, politics