Clipmarks | arifsali's Comments

ram das, universe,

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:02:36 GMT

clipped by: fivment

"I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells,
I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace.
When you are in that place in you,
and I am in that place in me,
we are One."

(Ram Dass, Grist for the Mill)

Pixar grants girl's dying wish to see 'Up'

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:37:05 GMT

clipped by: Efrain Alvarado

Clip Source: www.ocregister.com

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing – a movie.

From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.

After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.

The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.

Tags: girls last wish

Digital Doubles: Sparring Over Screen Names

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:29:52 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

Nick Jonas has a bone to pick with Nick Jonas.

More than a thousand friend requests beg for his attention on Facebook. An endless stream of unwanted messages leap at him whenever he goes online. The social networking giant even suspended his account for two weeks.

All because the recent college grad happens to share a name with the pop star du jour: Nick Jonas of the boy band The Jonas Brothers.

As social networking continues to boom and the virtual world continues to shrink, people are becoming more and more aware of others who share their names.

But even if you don't share a name with a teen pop sensation, sharing a name with anyone can lead to chaos and comedy online.

Tags: online, facebook, social networking, name, identity

Twitter trending topics and the danger with real-time statistics

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:55:49 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: rashmisinha.com

Everytime I see Twitter trending topics, it reminds of the scientific adage that when we observe something we change it. It is a recognized effect in physics (see Wikipedia for an explanation of Observer effects). By allowing us to observe trending topics in real time, Twitter gives us the opportunity to change them. Contrast that with post-hoc analysis like Google Zeigeist. It is way past the event, and as such, harder to influence.

It goes beyond the observer effect: real time statistics also facilitate herding behavior even more than the internet typically does. The analogy is to crowd behavior more than anything else.

This is not just Twitter, this is the danger (and opportunity) with real-time statistics. When we find out about something in real time, we don’t just observe, we also participate and change the phenomenon itself. Recall the type of information and misinformation that spread when Swine Flu was a trending topic on Twitter.

Tags: 1-distortion, 1-self signifying, 1-statistics, 2-risks, 2-trends, 3-critique, 4-intl

Why the outrage over Iran?

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:29:28 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: Election fraud is common in much of the world-why is Iran in this moment more important than other countries? Why the whipping up of outrage at this moment? The US has a long history or meddling in the election process of other nations. The world has a long history of suppressing democracy. The conservatives in the US were appalled that citizens of other nations were so vocal on the American election with their preference. Do you really think you understand the whole picture enough to be speaking in favor of the seemingly more progressive party in Iran, and that the US government should meddle in their election affairs? Stop meddling America-it makes us less safe.

Clip Source: 123realchange.blogspot.com

Human Rights Watch in 2006

Egyptian authorities should drop threats to dismiss two senior judges protesting election fraud and investigate the violence and fraud that plagued elections last year

2003 presidential election results in Azerbaijan

The government clearly stole the election, and then brutally beat hundreds of people who poured out in the streets in protest.

Click here

to watch a protest against election fraud in Agri, Turkey.

the dictator government of Uzbekistan (supported by us)

was (and probably still is) engaged in atrocious human right abuses

we certainly were closely courting a dictator regime where the dissenters were/are boiled alive.

remember Black Friday

of 1978 in Iran?

Clip Source: 123realchange.blogspot.com

Are allegations of election fraud designed to further isolate Iran? Are they meant to be used to massage and shape domestic and international public opinion to lead the way for ‘further action’ on Iran?

Tags: iran, politics, democracy

King Barack the Cautious

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:35:45 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: a food taster!

Clip Source: catholic-caveman.blogspot.com

The Imperial Presidency

It's good to be da king

First we had Pope Barry I, then Grand Mufti of the World Hussein... now King Barack the Cautious.

President Obama's French food tested by 'taster'

PARIS (AFP

) — A US "taster" tested the food being dished up to President Barack Obama at a dinner in a French restaurant, a waiter said Sunday.

"They have someone who tastes the dishes," said waiter Gabriel de Carvalho from the "La Fontaine de Mars" restaurant where Obama and his family turned up for dinner on Saturday night.

"It wasn't very pleasant for the cooks at first, but the person was very nice and was relaxed, so it all went well," he said on the Itele news channel.

Asked by AFP to comment, the restaurant confirmed the report.

Oops, I almost forgot. He's God Almighty, too.

Tags: royalty, lol

King Barack the Cautious

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:35:45 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: a food taster!

Clip Source: catholic-caveman.blogspot.com

The Imperial Presidency

It's good to be da king

First we had Pope Barry I, then Grand Mufti of the World Hussein... now King Barack the Cautious.

President Obama's French food tested by 'taster'

PARIS (AFP

) — A US "taster" tested the food being dished up to President Barack Obama at a dinner in a French restaurant, a waiter said Sunday.

"They have someone who tastes the dishes," said waiter Gabriel de Carvalho from the "La Fontaine de Mars" restaurant where Obama and his family turned up for dinner on Saturday night.

"It wasn't very pleasant for the cooks at first, but the person was very nice and was relaxed, so it all went well," he said on the Itele news channel.

Asked by AFP to comment, the restaurant confirmed the report.

Oops, I almost forgot. He's God Almighty, too.

Tags: royalty, lol

Our Historically Challenged President

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:36:32 GMT

clipped by: jatfla
clipper's remarks: FTA: "With all due respect to our president, this assertion is again not fully accurate. The only thing that ended slavery in the United States was the Civil War, which saw some 600,000 Americans — the vast majority of them white — lost in a violent struggle to ensure that nearly half the country would not remain a slave-owning society. Also, the massive urban riots of the 1960s and 1970s were certainly violent."

Selective historical interpretation. Probably learned it at those Ivy League colleges and from Rev. Wright.

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

Our Historically Challenged President

in Cairo, President Obama proclaimed he was a “student of history.” But despite Barack Obama’s image as an Ivy League-educated intellectual, he lacks historical competency, in areas of both facts and interpretation.

He began, “I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city.” He apparently forgot that for the prior eight years, the official faces of American foreign policy in Germany were Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice — both African-Americans.

Obama seemed to suggest that the world had come to together to save Berlin during the Airlift. In fact, it was almost an entirely American and British effort — written off by most observers as hopeless and joined by a handful of Western allies only when the lift looked like it might succeed.

“For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation.

not violence that won full and equal rights.”

Buddhism, but not religion

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:07:40 GMT

clipped by: deb2012
clipper's remarks: If religious war is ever to become unthinkable for us, in the way that slavery and cannibalism seem poised to, it will be a matter of our having dispensed with the dogma of faith.

Clip Source: www.shambhalasun.com

There is no reason whatsoever to think that Buddhism can successfully compete with the relentless evangelizing of Christianity and Islam.

Buddhism is not a religion

Clip Source: www.shambhalasun.com

Given the degree to which religion still inspires human conflict, and impedes genuine inquiry, I believe that merely being a self-described “Buddhist” is to be complicit in the world’s violence and ignorance to an unacceptable degree.

Clip Source: www.shambhalasun.com

Buddhism is very much like science. One starts with the hypothesis that using attention in the prescribed way (meditation),

and engaging in or avoiding certain behaviors (ethics), will bear the promised result (wisdom and psychological well-being).

For this reason, the methodology of Buddhism, if shorn of its religious encumbrances, could be one of our greatest resources as we struggle to develop our scientific understanding of human subjectivity.

Incompatible religious doctrines have balkanized our world into separate moral communities

religion is as much a living spring of violence

Tags: religion, buddhism, war, faith, dogma

Buddhism, but not religion

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:07:40 GMT

Clip Source: www.shambhalasun.com

There is no reason whatsoever to think that Buddhism can successfully compete with the relentless evangelizing of Christianity and Islam.

Buddhism is not a religion

Clip Source: www.shambhalasun.com

Buddhism is very much like science. One starts with the hypothesis that using attention in the prescribed way (meditation),

and engaging in or avoiding certain behaviors (ethics), will bear the promised result (wisdom and psychological well-being).

Incompatible religious doctrines have balkanized our world into separate moral communities

religion is as much a living spring of violence

Tags: religion, buddhism, war, faith, dogma

Seeing a Salad Makes Us Crave Fries

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:04:10 GMT

clipped by: chestnut501
clipper's remarks: "The experiment was repeated with a "ballpark" menu showing a fatty hamburger, a breaded chicken sandwich, and fish sandwich. When a veggie burger option was added, the hamburger became a more popular option.

Clip Source: www.aip.org

Seeing this picture on the menu could make you more likely to choose a higer-calorie meal, scientists say

McDonald's carries salads, yogurt parfaits and fish sandwiches.

Kentucky Fried Chicken is rolling out a new line of healthier, grilled meat.

Do these healthy choices lead Americans to eat healthier? Not according to new findings published in the Journal of Consumer Research, which suggest that having these nutritious foods on the menu may ironically influence people to pick the worst options instead.

Most people want to eat things that are good for them. But the problem, according to a group of psychologists at Duke University and Loyola College in Baltimore, is that

our brains may reward us just for looking at healthy foods, so that we can choose foods poor in nutrition with a clear conscience.

"The mere presence of a healthy item on the menu helps to fulfill your goal to eat healthy,"

She calls this psychological trickery "vicarious goal fulfillment."

Tags: sales, marketing, advertizing, kids, fast, foods, health, nutrition

America is Now A Muslim Nation so say Obama

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:37:19 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings
clipper's remarks: Okay show me where the founding fathers prayed to Allah Obama. We know you have a problem with math because we are still looking for the lost 7 states of the United States that you spoke about in your campaign. Now you say we are the LARGEST MUSLIM nation. Can we get a recount on the election results?

Clip Source: thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com

In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” He sought to downplay the expectations of the speech, but he said he hoped the address would raise awareness about Muslims.

“And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world,” Mr. Obama said. “And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.”

Tags: obama, united states, nation, muslims, christian, islam

Obama's Granny lied about her religion?

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:06:59 GMT

clipped by: Antara

Clip Source: www.juliagorin.com

Obama’s “Christian” Grandma to make Hajj this Year Julia Gorin

Remember angry Grandma? The one who last year was saying she didn’t appreciate the “rumors” being spread about her step-grandson, Barack Obama, namely that he is secretly a Muslim? “Untruths are told that don’t have anything to do with what Barack is about. I am very against it,” Sarah Obama said.

Something else she said at the time was that she too was a Christian.

Well that seems to have changed, or been a lie. In a report earlier this month, WND has her as a known Muslim:

President Barack Obama’s paternal grandmother, Sarah Obama, will reportedly perform the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage this year along with her son Syeed Obama.

The Hajj is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world. The fifth pillar of Islam requires every able-bodied Muslim to travel to Mecca at least once in their life in a demonstration of solidarity with fellow Muslims and in an act of individual submission to Allah.

Tags: obama, religion, truth, lies

Falling madly in love with an illegal immigrant.

Sun, 31 May 2009 21:46:28 GMT

clipped by: Anangeli

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The small Texan city of San Angelo has been turned upside down by one of the most unusual sex scandals ever to make an impact on American political life.

Joseph Lown, the popular mayor, suddenly resigned last week after revealing he had fallen madly in love with an illegal immigrant. That was the first revelation; the second was that his new partner was another man.

Not surprisingly the news has become the talk of Texas. In the socially conservative and solidly Republican state, gay marriage and illegal immigration are probably the two hottest potatoes in town. Perhaps, then, it was no wonder that Lown announced the end of his career from Mexico, where he had fled to be with his new boyfriend and from where he could mourn the end of an otherwise successful political career.

"I had to give this situation the opportunity or I would regret it the rest of my life," he said.

Despite the image of Texas as firmly in the anti-gay bible belt, there is a strong chance of that happening.

Time to make the money (said in the voice of donut guy)

Fri, 29 May 2009 14:38:51 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Don't i know it! This clip is from a post on gigaom.com that analyzes/criticizes the fact that Google has tried 100s of new products and none have been able to be monetized other than search. An interesting perspective to consider and one that i'm painfully aware of myself.

Clip Source: gigaom.com

Technology is all well and good, but at some point one must go from “Look at this cool thing we’ve designed!” to “Look at all the money we’re making from this cool thing!”

Tags: business model, google, monetization, wave