Clipmarks | chara's clips

Free Running

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:54:43 GMT

clipped by: chara
clipper's remarks: "le parkour"...."jump london"

[Video]

We broke the law, admits CIA agent convicted of rendition

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:33:55 GMT

clipped by: sincitykitty
clipper's remarks: One of the Americans convicted in absentia by an Italian court for her part in the 2003 abduction of a Muslim cleric by CIA operatives has acknowledged they "broke the law" and complained she was given insufficient protection by her superiors in Washington.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

We broke the law, admits CIA agent convicted of rendition

One of the Americans convicted in absentia by an Italian court for her part in the 2003 abduction of a Muslim cleric by CIA operatives has acknowledged they "broke the law" and complained she was given insufficient protection by her superiors in Washington.

Sabrina deSousa, employed in the US consulate offices in Milan at the time of the abduction, made clear in an interview with ABC News that she was disgruntled that she and the other 22 Americans who were convicted by a Milan court on Wednesday had been left to fend for themselves by their country.

Saying she felt "abandoned and betrayed" as the trial unfolded over three years, Ms deSousa said "everything I did was approved by Washington... and we are paying for the mistakes right now, whoever authorised this."

Scientists warn caribou collapse not unlike disappearance of cod stocks

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:31:51 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.google.com

Once a gigantic bloom of life that sustained entire societies, the cod fishery was closed in 1992 after a near-total collapse of fish stocks. The subsequent bust of Newfoundland's outport culture was nearly as complete.

Recent surveys on two major caribou herds in Canada's North suggest the same thing may be happening there. And as scientists begin to unlock the secrets of that decline, aboriginals who still depend on the great herds to feed both body and soul are rethinking old assumptions.

"The elders are saying that there is a cycle, that caribou go away somewhere but they come back," Nitsiza said. "This time, the caribou may not come back."

Climate change has long been suspected as being behind the recent widespread declines.

The Bluenose West herd

was under 20,000 animals in 2006 - a quarter its size at the turn of the millennium

Concern has been building for years. But this summer, survey results carried a distinct whiff of impending catastrophe.

Tags: 1-collapse, 1-ecocide, 1-extinction, 1-population, 2-increase, 2-risks, 3-reported, 4-canada

The Tortured Logic Continues

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:43:24 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

The Tortured Logic Continues

by Amy Goodman

"Extraordinary rendition" is White House-speak for kidnapping. Just ask Maher Arar. He's a Canadian citizen who was "rendered" by the U.S. to Syria, where he was tortured for almost a year.

Just this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York City, dismissed Arar's case against the government officials (including FBI Director Robert Mueller, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former Attorney General John Ashcroft) who allegedly conspired to have him kidnapped and tortured. Arar is safe now, recovering in Canada with his family. But the decision sends a signal to the Obama administration that there will be no judicial intervention to halt the cruel excesses of the Bush-era "Global War on Terror," including extraordinary rendition, torture and the use of the "state secrets privilege" to hide these crimes.

State’s high court dismisses juvenile convictions

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:41:07 GMT

clipped by: disenchantedcitizen
clipper's remarks: Is there any segment of the judicial system that can be trusted?

I’m willing to bet this is not the only judge who uses the judicial system to line his pockets. We have been taught to trust the police, trust the judges and this is what we learn of real life.

This society is going to hell too damned fast.

Clip Source: post-gazette.com

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday dismissed thousands of juvenile convictions issued by a judge charged in a corruption scandal, saying that none of the young offenders got a fair hearing.

The high court yesterday threw out more than five years' worth of juvenile cases heard by disgraced former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, who is charged with accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks to send youths to private detention centers.

The Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which represents some of the youths, said the court's order covers as many as 6,500 cases. The justices barred any possibility of retrial in all but a fraction of them.

The Supreme Court had previously overturned hundreds of juvenile convictions involving low-level offenses. Yesterday's ruling covered all cases heard by Mr. Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, including ones involving more serious crimes.

Pay problem parents not to breed – mayor

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:29:21 GMT

clipped by: disenchantedcitizen
clipper's remarks: No comment.

Clip Source: www.news.com.au

AN outspoken Kiwi politician has proposed a new solution to the country's child abuse problem - pay the "appalling underclass" not to breed.

Michael Laws - who stirred up controversy by calling the late Tongan King a "bloated brown slug'' - has again hit the headlines.

"That there is a group within our society who give their children no hope nor opportunity from the moment that they are born," the regional mayor wrote on the New Zealand radio website where he broadcasts as a talkback DJ.

"That these ‘parents’ are known to authorities ... and yet the authorities can only intervene after children have been harmed."

Mr Laws goes on to write: "it would be far better for this appalling underclass to be offered financial inducements not to have children, given the toxic environment that they would provide for any child in their care."

The mayor believes "the consequent financial and social savings to our community would be considerable

There are too many people who should not have children

Child Witches

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:28:23 GMT

clipped by: foxyarse
clipper's remarks: In the Democratic Republic of the Congo nearly 50,000 children live on the streets of Kinshasa, the capital, because they were accused of witchcraft and rejected by their families. In Nigeria, the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network reports that nearly 25,000 children have been abandoned or persecuted on the belief they were witches or wizards.

Organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund, Africa Unite Against Child Abuse, and Save the Children have stepped in where they could to stop the witch-hunt. But the phenomenon of “witch children” is so widespread throughout Africa these organizations have set up “witch camps” as shelters for children who cannot be safely placed with a relative.

Throughout history, people described as witches have been tortured, persecuted, and even murdered. And it is usually society’s most vulnerable who are targeted.

With the HIV/AIDS epidemic leaving many children orphaned, and rampant poverty ensuing from crop failure and decade-

Clip Source: www.laprogressive.com

Child Witches

This Halloween, many American children will dress up as witches. And we’ll hear their laughter and see their smiles as they joyfully go from door to door trick-or-treating.

But in some places across the globe and here, children would never pretend to be witches because the consequences are not only dire but they can also be deadly.

For example, nine-year-old Nwanaokwo Edet of Nigeria was accused of being a witch by the family pastor. Nwanaokwo’s father forced acid down his throat as an exorcism, burning away his face and eyes. Nwanaokwo died a month later.

And, eight-year-old Shilua Salifu of Ghana now lives with her grandmother after being accused of being a witch. Shilua’s mother tried to saw off the top of her skull to let the demons fly away.

Tags: child witches

everything is OK

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:33:23 GMT

clipped by: chara

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

How I treated my fertility problem with cosmetics created from my kitchen cupboard

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:03:17 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Forget bathroom cabinets full of expensive lotions and potions, I'm leading a natural revolution.

For while your pots of Lancome and Creme de la Mer may promise to turn back the years and banish wrinkles, scientific studies have shown that they're full of potent chemicals that can damage your health.

In fact, everything you need to keep you looking young and beautiful can be found in your kitchen cupboard.

It was the height of luxury and promised to solve all my beauty problems. But then, just over ten years ago, in my late 20s, I discovered that I had fibroids - benign tumours that grow in the wall of the uterus.

Masterchef: Zita found honey, oats and milk make a sumptuous scrub. Brown sugar, salt and olive oil draw out toxins from her skin

Olive oil

Packed with Vitamin E, antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. Use olive oil as a body moisturiser, on the face as an anti-ageing serum or as an eye make-up remover.

Lemon

Milk/yoghurt

Sugar

Castor oil

Sea salt (not table salt)

Apple cider vinegar

Tags: health, homemade, avacado, coconut, beauty

The only thing certain is nothing is certain.

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:10:19 GMT

clipped by: chara
clipper's remarks: Michel de Montaigne, an influential writer of the French Renaissance, is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre, merging serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers the world over, including Blaise Pascal, René Descartes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Stefan Zweig, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Isaac Asimov, Eric Hoffer, and perhaps William Shakespeare.
Montaigne would be recognized as embodying, perhaps better than any other author of his time, the spirit of freely entertaining doubt which began to emerge at that time. He is most famously known for his skeptical remark, 'Que sais-je?' ('What do I know?'). Montaigne's attempt to examine the world through the lens of the only thing he can depend on implicitly — his own judgment — makes him more accessible to modern readers than any other author of the Renaissance.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness.

Everyone calls barbarity what he is not accustomed to.^[9]

If you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.

When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not passing time with me rather than I with her?^[10]

Life in itself is neither good nor evil, it is the place of good and evil, according to what you make it.

If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.

Our religion is made to eradicate vices, instead it encourages them, covers them, and nurtures them.

Human understanding is marvellously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

The clatter of arms drowns the voice of law.

Man cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.

What is "rape culture"?

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:16:38 GMT

clipped by: Lexica
clipper's remarks: Click through for the whole thing.

More:

Rape culture is treating straight sexuality as the norm. Rape culture is lumping queer sexuality into nonconsensual sexual practices like pedophilia and bestiality… Rape culture is rape being used as a weapon, a tool of war and genocide and oppression. Rape culture is rape being used as a corrective to "cure" queer women. Rape culture is a militarized culture and "the natural product of all wars, everywhere, at all times, in all forms."

Rape culture is 1 in 33 men being sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. Rape culture is encouraging men to use the language of rape to establish dominance over one another ("I'll make you my bitch")… Rape culture is 1 in 6 women being sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. Rape culture is not even talking about the reality that many women are sexually assaulted multiple times in their lives. Rape culture is the way in which the constant threat of sexual assault affects women's daily movements.
Clip Source: shakespearessister.blogspot.com
Frequently, I receive requests to provide a definition of the term "rape culture." I've referred people to the Wikipedia entry on rape culture, which is pretty good, and I like the definition provided in Transforming a Rape Culture
But my correspondents
seem to be looking for something more comprehensive and less abstract
Rape culture is encouraging male sexual aggression. Rape culture is regarding violence as sexy and sexuality as violent. Rape culture is treating rape as a compliment, as the unbridled passion stirred in a healthy man by a beautiful woman, making irresistible the urge to rip open her bodice or slam her against a wall, or a wrought-iron fence, or a car hood, or pull her by her hair, or shove her onto a bed, or any one of a million other images of fight-fucking in movies and television shows and on the covers of romance novels that convey violent urges are inextricably linked with (straight) sexuality.

Tags: rape, rape-culture, violence, misogyny, society

Climate Change: Food Supply Hangs in the Balance

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:49:25 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: We westerners will have food, but it will be expensive. ( even home grown will be expensive because of the high cost of water. )

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Uxbridge, Canada - Rocketing food prices and hundreds of millions more starving people will be part of humanity's grim future without concerted action on climate change and new investments in agriculture, experts reported this week.

The current devastating drought in East Africa, where millions of people are on the brink of starvation, is a window on our future, suggests a new study looking at the impacts of climate change.

"Twenty-five million more children will be malnourished in 2050 due to effects of climate change," such as decreased crop yields, crop failures and higher food prices, concluded the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) study.

"Of all human economic activities, agriculture is by far the most vulnerable to climate change," warned the report's author, Gerald Nelson, an agricultural economist with IFPRI, a Washington-based group focused on global hunger and poverty issues.

Tags: food

Dalai Lama: "I call myself a feminist"

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:42:14 GMT

clipped by: Lexica

Clip Source: jezebel.com

"I call myself a feminist. Isn't that what you call someone who fights for women's rights?" said the Dalai Lama to an audience in Memphis yesterday. "We all come from the same mother. That creates the basis for compassion." [FeministLawProfessors]

Tags: feminism, buddhism, dalai-lama

(satire) 10 things I'd rather do than get a Swine Flu vaccine shot

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:17:37 GMT

clipped by: The Infowarrior
clipper's remarks:

#5) Base jump off a tall building with nothing more than a parachute made under the same quality control oversight as FDA-approved swine flu vaccines.

#6) Be subjected to forced chemotherapy at gunpoint, just like all the other U.S. teens who are kidnapped by state authorities and forcibly injected with chemo.

#7) Have all the superfoods in my pantry secretly replaced with MSG-laced processed food products made by Frito-Lay.

#8) Work as a biological hazards disposal volunteer in the "superbug ward" of a local hospital.

#9) Drink diet soda until my brain explodes from the aspartame exposure.

#10) Get a public relations job at the White House where my sole responsibility is to show the brain-numbed masses how to stupidly sneeze into their own shirt sleeves.

Clip Source: www.naturalnews.com

I admit, the thought of being injected with a chemical cocktail made by a pharmaceutical company and approved by the FDA with virtually no safety testing is somewhat tempting. Who wouldn't want the thrill and rush of being part of a grand pharmaceutical experiment, anyway?

On second thought, it may not be such a bright idea after all. Unless, of course, you enjoy the idea of falling into a long-term coma, being permanently paralyzed or suffering random neurological damage.

That's why there are ten things I'd rather do than get a swine flu vaccine shot:

#1) Eat nothing but McDonald's hamburgers and fries for 30 days straight until I cough up my own liver.

#2) Kiss an H1N1-infected pig smack on the lips.

#3) Legally change my name to "Barack Obama" and then announce it over the loudspeaker of a cowboy bar in rural Texas, just to see what happens.

#4) Be forced to work as a writer in the public relations department of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Tags: swine flu, satire, natural news, fun, humour, h1n1, who, nwo, un, vaccines

Slavery Today

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:03:35 GMT

clipped by: foxyarse
clipper's remarks: During the four years that Benjamin Skinner researched modern-day slavery, he posed as a buyer at illegal brothels on several continents, interviewed convicted human traffickers in a Romanian prison and endured giardia, malaria, dengue and a bad motorcycle accident.

But Skinner is most haunted by his experience in a brothel in Bucharest, Romania, where he was offered a young woman with Down syndrome in exchange for a used car.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in Human History

One writer spent four years inside the world of modern-day slavery; an industry that produces huge profits and countless wasted lives.

The world suffers global recession, enormous inequity, hunger, deforestation, pollution, climate change, nuclear weapons, terrorism, etc. To those who say we’re not really making progress, many might point to the fact that at least we’ve eliminated slavery.

But sadly that is not the truth.

One hundred forty-three years after passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and 60 years after Article 4 of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned slavery and the slave trade worldwide, there are more slaves than at any time in human history -- 27 million.

Today’s slavery focuses on big profits and cheap lives. It is not about owning people like before, but about using them as completely disposable tools for making money.

Tags: slavery, human trafficking