Clipmarks | dakotayii's clips

Zoom in to get full effect....

Thu, 08 May 2008 03:00:30 GMT

clipped by: mooner-one

Clip Source: www.franksemails.com

Fascination of Agate

Thu, 08 May 2008 02:27:55 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: flickr.com

Death toll nears 100,000 in Myanmar

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:43:48 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: afp.google.com

The death toll from the Myanmar cyclone could top 100,000, the top US diplomat in the country said Wednesday, as thousands of shell-shocked survivors emerged from the flood waters, desperate for food.

The dramatic warning came as global pressure mounted on Myanmar's ruling generals to open up to foreign aid, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling it a "critical moment" for one of the world's poorest nations.

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said the country once known as Burma was facing a "major catastrophe", urging the junta to facilitate the arrival of disaster relief teams and the distribution of badly-needed emergency supplies.

An AFP reporter who reached the town of Labutta in the remote southern Irrawaddy delta hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, which officially left more than 65,000 dead or missing, said there was virtually no food or fresh water left.

Tags: myanmar, cyclone, death toll

The American People are the Problem

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:07:20 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: There is no doubt that when a first term senator, without a credible achievement, who proved himself incompetent at the mere act of casting a vote as a State Senator, who is the most Leftist member of the Senate and all of Congress, who talks about sacrifice while giving 1% of his windfall salary to charity, who will not talk about his record, agenda, or be "distracted" by questions of his intended policies, who has befriended a terrorist and racist preacher, who has a wife that says there is a "veil of impossibility" in America ( She went to Yale, remember), who is an adherent of Black Lib (marxist) Theology, who never worked in Business or Industry, never managed a company, and never served his country. A man who whips his naive supporters up using tactics, imagery, and organic unity not seen since the early 1930's. The American People are in fact the problem when this is the man that one of the major parties in the US seems to believe is fit to be President of the U.S.

Clip Source: therant.us

In a national epidemic of individual irresponsibility, it has become a national pastime to accuse politicians of destroying America, but it is the American people who are the real problem.

When the American vote was not for sale, it could not be purchased at any price. When most Americans were real patriots, “a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion” – they were not so easily fooled by promises of free benefits (paid for by others) and snake oil salesmen promising dancing sugar plums from the campaign stage.

Politicians are nothing more than a manifestation of the perceived will of the people. Politicians pander. Most politicians don’t care what they have to promise to purchase your vote, so long as your vote is for sale.

The Gegenschein Over Chile

Wed, 07 May 2008 13:59:14 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator

Clip Source: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Clip Source: www.coolscifi.com

a rarely discernable faint glow known as the gegenschein (German for "counter glow") can be seen 180 degrees around from the Sun in an extremely dark sky. The gegenschein is sunlight back-scattered off small interplanetary dust particles. These dust particles are millimeter sized splinters from asteroids and orbit in the ecliptic plane of the planets.

The gegenschein is distinguished from zodiacal light near the Sun by the high angle of reflection. During the day, a phenomenon similar to the gegenschein called the glory can be seen in reflecting air or clouds opposite the Sun from an airplane.

notable background objects include the Andromeda galaxy toward the lower left and the Pleiades star cluster just above the horizon.

Tags: space, gegenschein, chile, counter-glow, sunshine

Dead Man Walking

Wed, 07 May 2008 08:56:34 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: "The Dead Man Walking" is reprinted from Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses. Thomas Hardy. London: Macmillan and Co. 1909.

Clip Source: www.poetry-archive.com

THE DEAD MAN WALKING

Thomas Hardy

HEY hail me as one living,
But don't they know
That I have died of late years,
Untombed although?

I am but a shape that stands here,
A pulseless mould,
A pale past picture, screening
Ashes gone cold.

Not at a minute's warning,
Not in a loud hour,
For me ceased Time's enchantments
In hall and bower.

There was no tragic transit,
No catch of breath,
When silent seasons inched me
On to this death ....

-- A Troubadour-youth I rambled
With Life for lyre,
The beats of being raging
In me like fire.

But when I practised eyeing
The goal of men,
It iced me, and I perished
A little then.

When passed my friend, my kinsfolk,
Through the Last Door,
And left me standing bleakly,
I died yet more;

And when my Love's heart kindled
In hate of me,
Wherefore I knew not, died I
One more degree.

And if when I died fully
I cannot say,
And changed into the corpse-thing
I am to-day,

Yet is it that, though whiling
The time somehow
In walking, talking, smiling,
I live not now.

Tags: betrayal

The Science of Cyclones

Wed, 07 May 2008 08:46:14 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com

The catastrophic cyclone that hit Myanmar hints at the shape of things to come in a warming world — but probably not for the reason you think. Chris Mooney, the author of "Storm World," argues that the tragedy says more about the sad state of infrastructure in the developing world than it does about the raw impact of climate change. However, shifts in climate will likely accentuate that global rich-vs.-poor split.

Mooney has been focusing on the intersection of science and politics for years - in his Weblog, aptly titled "The Intersection," as well as in his first book, "The Republican War on Science."

"Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics and the Battle Over Global Warming" traces more than a century of often-sharp disputes over climate science. Mooney, who grew up in New Orleans, was moved to delve deeply into the subject by Hurricane Katrina, one of the most politically charged storms in U.S. history.

Tags: cyclones, storms, infrastructure, rich, poor