Clipmarks | arifsali's Pops

The magic of black and white images (37 pics)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:41:01 GMT

clipped by: perellicippo

The magic of black and white images (37 pics)

It's not just photos, they have something that can touch your soul.
After the jump, you will see great examples of black and white photography.

[Source]

Sadness is good for you...

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:13:38 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 6:00PM GMT 14 Jan 2009

Sadness is good for the health because it helps people change their lives for the better, a study claims.

Scientists have warned that growing tendency to medicate against sadness like a disease stops us embracing our miserable side and removes the motivation to mature emotionally.

Like the saying "what does not kill me, makes me stronger", being sad and melancholic can leave sufferers better able to cope with life's challenges, more resilient and spur them to greater achievements, it is claimed.

The researchers point out that today's society prizes personal happiness above all else and there is little tolerance for wallowing in despair after losing a job, the break-up of a relationship or the death of a loved one.

But a growing number of mental health experts fear the increasing tendency to take a pill to beat the blues could actually affect human evolution.

McCain Campaign Emails Contradict Palin's "Going Rogue"

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:44:41 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Sarah Palin's much-discussed book, "Going Rogue," hasn't even been officially released yet and already its accuracy is in question.

The Huffington Post has obtained internal McCain campaign emails -- addressed to and by the former vice presidential candidate -- that directly contradict or cast serious doubt on several of Palin's assertions. The emails were passed along by a mid-level staffer who called early excerpts of "Going Rogue", a serious mixing of truth and imagination."

In one email thread, dated October 14, 2008, Palin says she is "not thrilled" with the idea of going on Saturday Night Live as a way of marginalizing the show's unflattering impersonations of her.

Schmidt would respond minutes later, telling Palin that, "if you don't want to do it you should not," while adding that a guest appearance would "get an enormous amount of" attention and help her "to fly above all this."

Tags: palin, lying, book, selling, out, caribou barbie, snl

Tropical Ocean Photography

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:08:21 GMT

clipped by: chestnut501

Clip Source: www.yeeta.com

Tags: science, oceanography, photographs, tropical, coral, fish, pictures, photography

Spiritual Warriors

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:32:38 GMT

clipped by: tidbit2
clipper's remarks: any warriors out there?

Clip Source: www.crystalinks.com

To fight the battles, that entrap you in the emotional games of reality, is to be a spiritual warrior. Most adults are fractured souls after years of being in the grid program of our reality. Their spiritual theme is about healing issues, resulting from what they have done to others, what others have done to them, and from a never ending soap opera called 3D. They study martial arts, and other techniques to help them focus and empower themselves, thus hoping to become spiritual warriors.

Life is all about regaining your personal power by not allowing the illusion to take it away. To be a spiritual warrior is to bring balance to yourself and hopefully to others you meet. It is about not believing everything others tell you that has worked in their reality, but finding your own truth. It is about listening to your inner voice, higher guidance, your soul. It is then you regain your personal power and identity. You become the spiritual warrior who has broken free.

The sleazy advocacy of a leading "liberal hawk"

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:43:15 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: What Galbraith kept completely concealed all these years was that a company he formed in 2004 came to acquire a large stake in a Kurdish oil field whereby, as the NYT put it, he "stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars." In other words, he had a direct -- and vast -- financial stake in the very policies which he was publicly advocating in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and countless other American media outlets, where he was presented as an independent expert on the region. As Cobban wrote:

Galbraith has never expressed any such regrets, and last November, he was openly scornful of Bush's late-term agreement to withdraw from Iraq completely. The revelation that for many years Galbraith had a quite undisclosed financial interest in the political breakup of Iraq may now further reduce the clout, and the ranks, of the remaining liberal hawks.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

The New York Times today details the unbelievably sleazy story of Peter Galbraith, one of the Democratic Party's leading so-called "liberal hawks" and a generally revered Wise Man of America's Foreign Policy Community. He was Ambassador to Croatia under the Clinton administration in the mid-1990s and, in March, 2009, the Obama administration (specifically, Richard Holbrooke, Galbraith's mentor) successfully pressured the U.N. to name Galbraith as the second-in-command in Afghanistan. The NYT does a good job today of adding some important details to the story, but it was actually uncovered by Norwegian investigative journalists and reported at length a month ago in pieces such as this one by Helena Cobban. In essence, this highly Serious man has corruptly concealed vast financial stakes in the very policies and positions he has spent years advocating while pretending to be an independent expert.

Tags: iraq, war, empire, conquerst, neomercantilsim, theft, hawks

Blackwater:Ain't Misbehaving, Saving My Contracts for You

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:03:53 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Of course the US government was blind to this - they didn't want to know, they turned a blind eye to what Blackwater was doing because it would have been too hard to arrange for another contractor to do all the security missions that it had ongoing. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there are as many private contractors as there are uniformed military personnel. Most of them are not security guards as Blackwater's most visible function was. The lack of oversight is abhorrent but not surprising; the State Dept's failure to can this company is inexcusable.

My only observation on this article is to suggest how the US government got into this predicament, and it's pretty easy to see. The Bush administration wanted to hold onto the fiction of a few conservative principles, one of those being the concept of a small federal government. Since it already blew that "principle" with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, I'm betting there was White House guidance that directed "no mo

Clip Source: crooksandliars.com

I am shocked, shocked to discover that US contractors bribed Iraqi government officials to overlook its misconduct... Really, does this surprise anyone when it comes to Blackwater?

Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Tags: blackwater, mercenaries, iraq, murder, empire

Near death, aided by ghostly companion

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:42:23 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Sevigny had had a premonition that he would die like this. He just didn't have any inkling that it would happen on this spring morning.

When Sevigny awakened, he could barely stand. His back was broken in two places, his knees were busted, and he had internal bleeding. He gave up hope of surviving and curled up in the snow to die. But then he felt an odd sensation. He felt someone behind him and heard a voice: "No, you can't give up. You have to live." Read all about cheating death

What happened next was so profound that Sevigny, a scientist who disdains organized religion, says he couldn't talk about it for years afterward without crying. Sevigny still doesn't know who that voice belonged to, but another man does. He calls it "The Third Man."

John Geiger has sifted through the survival stories of people like Sevigny for six years. Adventurers, sailors, prisoners of war and pilots, they all tell strikingly similar stories of being saved from death by a mysterious presence, he says.

Tags: death, ghosts, belief

Get this: Muslims actually contributed to science 800 years ago

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:30:23 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: And don't you freakin forget it. Funny how they are Muslim scientist, not Arab scientists.

Clip Source: entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

scientists using the Hubble space telescope reported the first sighting with visible light of a planet circling a star other than our own sun. It orbits 25 light years away around one of the brightest stars in the sky, called Fomalhaut.

Isn't that a curious name for a star? Not obviously mythological, it sounds as if it derives from some forgotten French astronomer. Not so; it is, in fact, from the Arabic fum u'l haut, meaning “mouth of the fish”. And Fomalhaut is not alone in having an Arabic derivation - there are well over 100 others, including Betelgeuse, Aldebaran and Deneb. How did the Arabs get to name stars?

The answer, as these two revealing books make clear, is that they once led the world in astronomy. Muslim scientists were mapping the heavens, and pondering our place in them, while Europeans were still gazing at the night sky with baffled awe.

Report: 237 millionaires in Congress

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:15:00 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: And the rest will be

Clip Source: www.michaelmoore.com

As Washington reels from the news of 10.2 percent unemployment, the Center for Responsive Politics is out with a new report describing the wealth of members of Congress.

Among the highlights: Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That’s 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall.

CRP says California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is the richest lawmaker on Capitol Hill, with a net worth estimated at about $251 million. Next in line: Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), worth about $244.7 million; Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth about $214.5 million; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), worth about $209.7 million; and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), worth about $208.8 million.

All told, at least seven lawmakers have net worths greater than $100 million, according to the Center’s 2008 figures.

Tags: who, said, the, rich, rule?

New quantum algorithm helpes solving big problems.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:02:18 GMT

clipped by: dopesick
clipper's remarks: “Large-scale linear systems of equations exist in many fields, such as weather prediction, engineering, and computer vision”, says Harrow. “Quantum computers could supply serious improvements for these and many other problems. For example, a trillion-variable problem would take a classical computer at least a hundred trillion steps to solve, but using the new algorithm, a quantum computer could solve the problem in just a few hundred steps”.

The solution could also be applied to other complex processes such as image and video processing, genetic analyses and even Internet traffic control.

Sounds pretty good to me!

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

One of the most basic problems in maths is solving very large linear equations. There's nothing mysterious about them, they simply take time and the more variables there are, the longer it takes. Even a supercomputer would struggle to solve a system of equations that has a trillion variables.

Aram Harrow at the University of Bristol and colleagues from MIT in the United States have discovered a quantum algorithm that solves large problems much faster than conventional computers can.

To understand how the quantum algorithm works, think of a digital equaliser in a stereo CD player. The equaliser needs to amplify some components of the signal and attenuate others. Ordinary equalisers employ classical computer algorithms that treat each component of the sound one at a time.

By contrast, a quantum equaliser could employ a quantum algorithm that treats all components together at once (a trick called 'quantum parallelism'). The result is a huge reduction in the difficulty of signal processing.

Tags: algorithm, computers, mathematics, mit, quantum, science, technology

'Let's Get Ready to Rumble' Worth $400M

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:50:25 GMT

clipped by: dgreplay
clipper's remarks: Here's another catch phrase from the great sports announcer, Phil Rizzuto, that says it better than I can... "HOLY COW!"

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

When Hollywood producers cast a ring announcer in a boxing scene, they know there's only one man who can properly play the role: Michael Buffer.

Those five words -- 'Let's Get Ready to Rumble' -- have made Buffer the undisputed king of boxing ring announcers and a hugely successful entrepreneur.

By trademarking his catchphrase, Buffer has generated over $400 million in revenue, selling the rights to music, video games, merchandise and while making personal appearances. His business venture is so successful, Buffer doesn't even have to say his catchphrase to make money. He makes more from the trademark then he does announcing in the ring.

Photo's from Neda's Life

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:55:11 GMT

clipped by: clip-on-tie
clipper's remarks: Neda's mother: She was 'like an angel'

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

When they uncovered her face, I saw her. She was absolutely beautiful ... like an angel.
--Hajar Rostami, Neda's mother

Clip Source: www.copytaste.com

via

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

The night before she was killed on the streets of Tehran, the woman the world would come to know simply as Neda had a dream. "There was a war going on," she told her mom the next morning, "and I was in the front."

Neda's mother had joined her in the street protests that erupted after Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election. But on that fateful morning, she told her daughter she couldn't go with her. As Neda prepared to leave, the mother was filled with anxiety.

"I told her to be very careful, and she said she would."

More than four months after Neda's death, her mother, Hajar Rostami, described the pain her family has endured and how grateful they are to millions across the world who have hailed Neda as a martyr -- a symbol of freedom for Iran

"Neda was a martyr for her homeland," she says

She visits Neda's grave every Friday, and throngs of people still greet her

Tags: rest in peace

Kashmir - Journey To Freedom

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:42:25 GMT

clipped by: Fast T friend
clipper's remarks: In a rare look at the region, Udi Aloni filmed his protagonists as they launched their new struggle. Finally refused re-entry by the Indian government, Aloni was forced to tell the rest of this story far from the land and people he had come to admire.

Clip Source: www.kashmirthefilm.com

My memory is again
in the way of your history:
Army convoys all night
like desert caravans...
We can’t ask them:
Are you done with the world?
In the lake the arms
of temples and mosques
are locked
in each other’s
reflections

Agha Shahid Ali
Kashmiri poet

Clip Source: www.kashmirthefilm.com

[Video]

Clip Source: www.kashmirthefilm.com

Once described by Mahatma Gandhi as “a pillar of light in a subcontinent lost in darkness,” Kashmir has become a land of terror and despair, its people suffering under the strain of constant violence and human rights violations. This film tells the story of a new generation of young Muslim Kashmiris who, after years of armed resistance, decided to lay down their arms and start a nonviolent resistance movement in the hope of finally achieving peace and independence.

Tags: kashmir, documentary, udi aloni

Fort Hood victims: Thirteen Profiles, faces of valor, their lives lost to a madman, in pictures

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:25:32 GMT

clipped by: clip-on-tie
clipper's remarks: PC sickness killed our soldiers. It killed Americans, our friends and those that we care for and love.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Thirteen flag-draped coffins left Fort Hood on Friday as authorities searched for a motive in the massacre that left more than 50 casualties at the largest U.S. military base.

Thursday's mass shooting killed 12 soldiers and one civilian and wounded 38 people at the Fort Hood Army Post in Texas. The suspect in the shooting, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a licensed Army psychiatrist, was among the two dozen who remained hospitalized Friday night.

Clip Source: www.copytaste.com

VIA

Clip Source: www.copytaste.com

via

Tags: islamist terror, liberal idiocy, pc stupidity, heroic americans, a sick madman, horror, the land that i love

Clipmarks | arifsali's Pops

The magic of black and white images (37 pics)

The magic of black and white images (37 pics)

Sadness is good for you...

Sadness is good for the health because it helps people change their lives for the better, a study claims.

McCain Campaign Emails Contradict Palin's "Going Rogue"

Tropical Ocean Photography

Spiritual Warriors

The sleazy advocacy of a leading "liberal hawk"

Blackwater:Ain't Misbehaving, Saving My Contracts for You

Near death, aided by ghostly companion

Get this: Muslims actually contributed to science 800 years ago

Report: 237 millionaires in Congress

New quantum algorithm helpes solving big problems.

'Let's Get Ready to Rumble' Worth $400M

Photo's from Neda's Life

Kashmir - Journey To Freedom

My memory is again in the way of your history: Army convoys all night like desert caravans... We can’t ask them: Are you done with the world? In the lake the arms of temples and mosques are locked in each other’s reflections

Fort Hood victims: Thirteen Profiles, faces of valor, their lives lost to a madman, in pictures

My memory is again
in the way of your history:
Army convoys all night
like desert caravans...
We can’t ask them:
Are you done with the world?
In the lake the arms
of temples and mosques
are locked
in each other’s
reflections