Clipmarks | arifsali's clips

'My father chose me for himself'

Sun, 04 May 2008 21:57:36 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

She was kidnapped by her father, imprisoned in a cellar for 24 years and had seven babies by him, but Elisabeth Fritzl survived thanks to her devotion to her children. Fears are growing, though, that a transition to normal life could prove impossible, reports Caroline Davies in Amstetten

They won't have told her yet; it is much too soon. Any hopes that Elisabeth Fritzl may have of living a normal life with her children, funded by compensation from the father who imprisoned and repeatedly raped her, will be in vain.

Yesterday it was revealed that Josef Fritzl, the 73-year-old grandfather who incarcerated Elisabeth in a dank dungeon for 24 years beneath the family home and fathered her seven children, is financially ruined, with millions of euros in debts.

As Fritzl was moved to solitary confinement for his own safety, his heavily mortgaged property empire was on the brink of collapse, taking with it any dreams of a haven where Elisabeth and her children could find happiness.

Tags: austria

Being 'different' in the People's Republic of China

Sun, 04 May 2008 21:21:43 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.iht.com

We were visiting the Forbidden City in Beijing, part of a two-week family vacation to China, when a young woman pulled down her antipollution mask and stared, open-mouthed, at my 7-year-old son, Patrick. She didn't seem dangerous, just amazed, so I let the moment pass, and we moved along to the next stop on our tour.

But the next day, during a visit to the Great Wall, my maternal defenses kicked in when another woman approached us. Without asking permission, she sidled up to my 11-year-old son, Aidan, and draped her arm around him. Her husband was about to snap a quick photograph when I shouted furiously at her in halting Mandarin to get away from my son.

By then, it had become clear why my children were attracting so much attention. They look Chinese, but not exactly. They look Western, but not quite. What they really look like is what they are: a blend of me, a Chinese-American, and my husband, a blond 6-footer of English and Irish descent.

Tags: china

Pakistani Fashion

Sun, 04 May 2008 20:45:17 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: What the hec, these are gorgeous! More at the source.

Clip Source: www.facebook.com

Tags: fashion, pakistan

Tantalizing questions about obesity

Sun, 04 May 2008 20:28:53 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Every year, whether you are fat or thin, whether you lose weight or gain, 10 percent of your fat cells die. And every year, those cells that die are replaced with new fat cells, researchers in Sweden reported Sunday.

The result is that the total number of fat cells in the body remains the same, year after year throughout adulthood. Losing or gaining weight affects only the amount of fat stored in the cells, not the number of cells.

The finding was published online Sunday in the journal Nature.

Obesity investigators say the study raises tantalizing questions: What determines how many fat cells are in a person's body? When is that number determined? Is there a way to intervene so people end up with fewer fat cells when they reach adulthood? Could obesity be treated by making fat cells die faster than they are born?

"This is a new way of looking at obesity," said Lester Salans, an obesity researcher and emeritus professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Tags: obesity, medicine, science

Friends May Be the Best Guide Through the [Internet] Noise

Sun, 04 May 2008 13:02:29 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Where's Clipmarks in this noise? Low key, eh?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

CATHY BROOKS is a typically unapologetic Silicon Valley Web addict. Last week alone, she produced more than 40 pithy updates on the text messaging service Twitter, uploaded two dozen videos to various video sharing sites, posted seven photographs on the Yahoo image service Flickr and one item to the online community calendar Upcoming.

Her friends, similarly peripatetic in their Web journeys, also liberally sprinkled photos, videos, blog items and news-article links across the Internet.

But they all followed one another’s activities in one place: a buzzy, online water cooler called FriendFeed that lets people funnel all their online activities into a single information broadcast, and then blast that broadcast to anyone who wants to listen in.

“It’s a great catch-all way for me to have all my stuff in one place, and it lets me see a more comprehensive view of the ecosystem of my friends,” said Ms. Brooks, 39, a business development director at an online video start-up company in San Francis

Tags: internet, social networking, rss