Clipmarks | bethcan2's clips

Language. It’s the preferred method of communication in our culture — the fuel we use to empower our desires, and to direct and align our energy. Language has immense power, and its impact depends entirely on how we wield it.

Because words are so often used automatically and unconsciously, we have learned to treat them lightly. In daily conversation, we speak the majority of our words from habit, convenience and social obligation rather than from clear intent.

If we realized the potential that language has to create and transform our lives, we would pay a great deal more attention to our utterances. We’d be as determined to get our language “in shape” as we are to master and hone our bodies.

The Power of “I”
“I” is a super-charged word. When you say, “I am,” the words that follow speak volumes — to yourself and others — about how you define yourself.

Manipulation and Coercion

Vagueness and Ambivalence

Verbal Runoff

85-Year-Old Granny Pulls Gun On Intruder, Makes Him Call 911

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:35:01 GMT

clipped by: ofcapri
clipper's remarks: Good for you Granny!
She grabbed a .22-caliber revolver that she said she began keeping by her bed when a neighbor's home was burglarized recently.

"I motioned with the gun -- 'Come on' -- and he went ahead of me in the hallway to the living room, and we got by the telephone and I said, 'Call the cops,' and he picked it up and he dialed 911," said Smith.

Smith was able to hold the teenager at bay until the state troopers arrived.

"I put him on the floor," Smith said. "I said, 'Lay down on the floor, turn your head that way, spread-eagle your arms and your legs.' That's what they told me to do, and I did it."

The suspect will be charged as a juvenile with attempted burglary and related offenses, police said. His name was not released because of his age.

Clip Source: www.thepittsburghchannel.com

85-Year-Old Granny Pulls Gun On Intruder, Makes Him Call 911

Police Find Helpless Suspect Waiting In Fayette County Woman's Home

SPRINGHILL TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- An 85-year-old great-grandmother in Fayette County busted a would-be burglar by pulling a gun, then forcing him to call for help while she kept him in her sights.

"Yes, um, there's a ma'am here and she thinks I broke into the house, which I didn't, which I was just coming up here," the suspect told a county 911 dispatcher.

Then, the suspect said, "Here's the ma'am," and handed the phone to Leda Smith so she could explain what was happening at her Springhill Township home.

"You come home and found a boy, a male, in the house that's not supposed to be there?" the dispatcher said.

"Yes," Smith said. "He's right here. I got a gun on him."

When state police arrived, Smith told them that she had walked in on the 17-year-old boy as she returned to her house on Old Lake Lynn Road at about 3 p.m. Monday.

Tags: granny

Bay of Fundy

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:14:35 GMT

clipped by: ofcapri
clipper's remarks: 40' tides! natural wonder!

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Come and explore all of what New Brunswick Bay of Fundy has to offer, from the world's highest tides experience to whale watching off the coast. Find out all the fun things to do at the Bay of Fundy.

Tags: tide

Four stages of life

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:11:05 GMT

clipped by: wiganfootie

Clip Source: www.funnytimes.com

Hedgehog joke wins comedy prize

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:07:29 GMT

clipped by: wiganfootie
clipper's remarks: What do you think?

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Comedian Dan Antopolski has won a prize for the funniest joke of this year's Edinburgh Fringe.

• 1) Dan Antopolski - "Hedgehogs - why can't they just share the hedge?"

• 2) Paddy Lennox - "I was watching the London Marathon and saw one runner dressed as a chicken and another runner dressed as an egg. I thought: 'This could be interesting'."

• 3) Sarah Millican - "I had my boobs measured and bought a new bra. Now I call them Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes because they're up where they belong."

• 4) Zoe Lyons - "I went on a girls' night out recently. The invitation said 'dress to kill'. I went as Rose West."

• 5) Jack Whitehall - "I'm sure wherever my dad is; he's looking down on us. He's not dead, just very condescending."

• 6) Adam Hills - "Going to Starbucks for coffee is like going to prison for sex. You know you're going to get it, but it's going to be rough."

• 7) Marcus Brigstocke - "To the people who've got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn't invent it!"

Some spectacular macro-snaps

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:02:55 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly

Clip Source: acidcow.com

Monday Pics

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:47:47 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly

Clip Source: acidcow.com

Humour is an "act of aggression"

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:47:06 GMT

clipped by: mmlee
clipper's remarks: (continued ...) "Until the sexual revolution of the 1960s women rarely became comediennes in public or private because most humour is an act of aggression, she said. "A study in the late 1980s showed that men use sexual jokes as a way of verbally undressing a woman who rebuts his advances; his humour was aggressive in essence." More @ source.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

published in the Journal of Pragmatics, suggest that the role of humour is not to make other people laugh as much as it is to make others know who is in charge.

theory explains why until recently it has been extremely rare for women to tell jokes in front of men, according to Helga Kotthoff of the Frieburg University of Education.

"Those 'on top' are freer to make others laugh. They are also freer to be more aggressive and a lot of what is funny is making jokes at someone else's expense.

"Comedy and satire are based on aggressiveness and not being nice,"

She said humour, including teasing, was a mix of 'bonding and biting' and women often use humour to form social bonds with their friends while men often use humour to vent frustration. But both sexes use comedy as a means of controlling others.

She said: "For example, doctors sometimes use humour to comfort patients but also to silence them if, for example, the patient displays too much knowledge of a medical condition.

Tags: humor, humour, aggression, research, comedy, teasing, satire, control

Plea for Help as Fire and Destruction Advance on Athens

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:46:48 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Thousands flee as fire and destruction advance on Athens

Greek authorities in plea for help as they struggle to fight flames

By Elinda Labropoulou in Athens and Claire Soares

Monday, 24 August 2009

Raging fires were closing in on the Greek capital Athens last night, having already forced thousands of people to flee, razed acres and acres of forest and olive groves, and demolished scores of buildings in the northern suburbs.

Struggling to extinguish the blazes, which sent black clouds of smoke spewing over the Acropolis, the Greek government called on EU allies for reinforcements. Italian planes joined the 20 Greek aircraft dumping gallons of water on the flames, and more were expected from France and Cyprus. "The fire is raging, rekindled by the constant change in the wind's direction," said fire brigade spokesman Giannis Kapakis.

Tags: athens wildfires

Goodness! Evolution and the War between Fundamentalist Atheism and Religion

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:28:31 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: This will settle nothing, but it is a good read. The clip is a 'taster'' of an article focused on debates around evoulution and moral motivation. It ends: <<< Of course, religion doesn’t have a monopoly on awe and inspiration. The story that science tells, the story of nature, is awesome, and some people get plenty of inspiration from it, without needing the religious kind. What’s more, science has its own role to play in knitting the world together. The scientific enterprise has long been on the frontiers of international community, fostering an inclusive, cosmopolitan ethic — the kind of ethic that any religion worthy of this moment in history must also foster.

William James said that religious belief is “the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto.” Science has its own version of the unseen order, the laws of nature. In principle, the two kinds of order can themselves be put into harmony ...(more follows)

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

THE “war” between science and religion is notable for the amount of civil disobedience on both sides. Most scientists and most religious believers refuse to be drafted into the fight. Whether out of a live-and-let-live philosophy, or a belief that religion and science are actually compatible, or a heartfelt indifference to the question, they’re choosing to sit this one out.

Still, the war continues, and it’s not just a sideshow. There are intensely motivated and vocal people on both sides making serious and conflicting claims.

I bring good news! These two warring groups have more in common than they realize. And, no, it isn’t just that they’re both wrong. It’s that they’re wrong for the same reason. Oddly, an underestimation of natural selection’s creative power clouds the vision not just of the intensely religious but also of the militantly atheistic.

Tags: evolution relifion and atheism, atheism, ethics

3D chalk art on pavement by Kurt Wenners

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:22:35 GMT

clipped by: mmlee
clipper's remarks: Street artist Kurt Wenners uses pastel chalk & paint to transform streets & pavements in over 30 countries into 3D images. He uses a style known as anamorphic street painting to create amazing illusions.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Master street artist Kurt Wenner's creations on cobbles and pavements across the world may look like they have been dug into the ground...

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

...but it's all an amazing trick of the eye

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Former Nasa employee Kurt, armed with just pastels and paint, can transform the ground into living art

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Using a style known as anamorphic street painting, the artist is able to create convincing illusions

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Over 25 years ago the pioneering artist was influenced by centuries-old frescoed ceilings...

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Merging the ideas of awe-inspiring murals like Michelangelo's works at the Sistine Chapel with16th century madonnari, the Italian name for street artists...

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

...Kurt has been able to create a staggering collection of work...

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

...and has appeared on pavements in over 30 countries

Tags: art, artist, kurt wenner, 3d, illusion, pavement, streets, fresco, murals, images

American teen brings a playground to Siberian orphanage

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:47:12 GMT

clipped by: infidel70

Clip Source: www.baltimoresun.com

Alex Griffith (second from left) is thanked for his contributions to the playground at the Krasnoyarsk orphanage of his birth. (Photo by the Baltimore Sun by Dwight Griffith / August 18, 2009)

Alex Griffith doesn't remember it, but he lived the first year of his life at a Siberian hospital for abandoned children where the playground consisted of a single metal swing and an unkempt sandbox.

Today, because of the efforts of the North Harford High School sophomore, the play area has slides, a climbing wall and dozens of other pieces, and has become a symbol of friendship and cooperation between two nations separated by an ocean and vastly different ideologies.

Alex lived the first year of his life at a hospital for abandoned children in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

He was adopted in 1994 by Dwight and Jenny Griffith of Jarrettsville. As he grew, the Griffiths shared their journal of their trip to Russia with their son, one of their five adopted children.

The Sky Falls on Environmental Myths

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:16:02 GMT

clipped by: infidel70

Clip Source: www.umich.edu

Myth #1: Global Warming: Despite the rantings of the apocalyptic eco�prophets, the actual temperature records, taken in North America and Western Europe, show no significant or consistent upward trends.

Myth #2: The Hole in the Ozone Layer: Contrary to the environmentalists' claims, there is no permanent hole in the ozone layer and no ozone shortage.

Myth #3: Deforestation and Clear-cutting: America's forests are not vanishing. There are 730 million acres of forest land in the United States today.

Myth #4 Endangered Species: Environmentalists claim that five species go extinct every day, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that five species, subspecies, and varieties of plants and animals have gone extinct every three and three�quarters years since 1620.

The environmentalists use their doomsday predictions as a form of political blackmail.

The ideology of the Greens has roots in both fascism and Marxism.

The Nazis were naturalists

What Your Choice of Words Reveals about You

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 08:53:27 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Interesting. Quite short article but difficult to encapsulate in a clip. The article refers mainly to political rhetoric and to observing medicalised patients over time. It does not factor in emotional lability which often removes the degree of conscious control over expression.

Clip Source: www.scientificamerican.com

No one doubts that the words we write or speak are an expression of our inner thoughts and personalities. But beyond the meaningful content of language, a wealth of unique insights into an author’s mind are hidden in the style of a text—in such elements as how often certain words and word categories are used, regardless of context.

It is how an author expresses his or her thoughts that reveals character, asserts social psychologist James W. Pennebaker of the University of Texas at Austin. When people try to present themselves a certain way, they tend to select what they think are appropriate nouns and verbs, but they are unlikely to control their use of articles and pronouns. These small words create the style of a text, which is less subject to conscious manipulation.

Clip Source: www.scientificamerican.com

studies have shown that words that are used to express balance or nuance (“except,” “but,” and so on) are associated with higher cognitive complexity, better grades and even the truthfulness with which facts are reported.

Tags: words and personality