Clipmarks | debbyski's Comments

Oral sex

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 04:08:41 GMT

clipped by: dakotayii
clipper's remarks: "Well," Grandpa said, "She goes to bed in her bedroom, and I go to bed in my bedroom ... And she yells, 'Fuck You!!!!!' and I holler back, 'Fuck You too.' "

Clip Source: losangeles.craigslist.org

A young fellow was about to be married and was asking his grandfather about sex. He asked how often you should have it.

His grandfather told him that when you first get married, you want it all the time ...and maybe do it several times a day.

Later on, sex tapers off and you have it once a week or so.

Then as you get older, you have sex maybe once a month. When you get really old, you are lucky to have it once a year..... maybe on your anniversary.

The young fellow then asked his grandfather, "Well how about you and Grandma now?"

His grandfather replied, "Oh, we just have oral sex now."

"What's oral sex?" the young fellow asked.

Tags: jokes

Virtual worlds carve out new path

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:42:25 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: "The first step is to have virtual worlds as a common medium for ordinary people. It has to become far more ubiquitous, more like a toaster than a DVR,"
What virtual worlds do well is contextualise social encounters in a way that social networking cannot do, he thinks.

"Without places it is hard to have activities. The bowling alley or the alcohol does not matter as much as the people but if you do not have the bowling alley or the alcohol it's just an empty room and no-one comes,"

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Virtual worlds carve out new path

If you are walking with orcs in the World of Warcraft or setting up a business on planet Calypso, the real world is probably very far from your mind.

There is a sharp divide between so-called Massively Multi-player Online games (MMOs) which aspire to draw from the real world, such as Second Life, and those, like World of Warcraft, which proudly inhabit a land of pure fantasy.

Cityscape

Hoping to change that is Twinity, one of a growing number of games determined to make a link between the virtual world and the real.

allows users to hang out in some of the world's most famous cities

Twinity is a virtual world from Metaversum with avatars that walk around real cities. Metaversum chief executive Jochen Hummel says people can feel as though they have been to a city.

Networking avatars

"Virtual worlds are about experimenting and doing something different," she said.

Going one step farther, Myrl has created a social network exclusively for avatars.

Anonymity

Tags: virtual, reality

Why Tip?

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:35:57 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: This is a subject near and dear to my heart. Both my daughters worked as waitresses throughout high school and college. I saw and heard what they went through and I always tip at LEAST 20 percent.
And on a personal note, I love the flirt for pay system

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

“How do you feel about eliminating tipping?” he asked them.

Porter’s question strikes at the very heart of the American dining experience.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Opposition to tipping was not limited to the media. In 1904, the Anti-Tipping Society of America sprang up in Georgia, and its 100,000 members signed pledges not to tip anyone for a year.

Ultimately, even those who in principle opposed the practice found themselves unable to stiff their servers.

Typically, waiters receive an hourly wage — as little as $2.13 in some states, though California law mandates at least $8 — plus tips, some of which they may pass on, or “tip out,” to their support staff.

Porter considered raising the prices of each item on the menu and simply increasing the wages of his employees. But that would have penalized the restaurant’s many takeout diners

Turning Facts Into Speculation

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:41:14 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Let a bisexual woman say for once and all that all women are NOT bisexual. How silly to put up one picture of a man who looks like a player with bad hair and bad jewelry and a huge package swathed in purple and make a statement that all women are bisexual because they found the second picture of the woman to be more appealing. Bisexuality is very complex and most likely a variant. Does that mean there aren't a lot of women who are bisexual and closeted? Of course not. Is attraction based on more than just the image in the retina? YES, YES, YES.
Do I have to post a link to a video of PINK to forget all of this? DUH.

Clip Source: laconicreply.wordpress.com

It seems like every couple days another study is released. At that point the journalism machine spins into overdrive and starts turning facts into speculation, correlation into causation.

A recent example is the an article in the New York Times that summarizes a study on female bisexuality.

the journalist then speculates that all women are inherently bisexual, or at least significantly more so then men. This is a pretty big leap in my opinion.

Attraction is based on more than just the image on my retina.

Just because a select group of women were not as aroused by a certain photo of a naked man as they were by a certain photo of a naked woman does not instantly mean that all women are inherently bisexual.

It’s these sorts of extreme extrapolations that always bother me.

Palin's Foreign Policy Experience - 20 Meetings for a total of 12 hours

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:11:46 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: Examples:

March 10, 2007 -- Palin hosts the annual Fur & Ice reception in Fairbanks for about 30 diplomats and international tourism representatives. A Palin press release issued before the event noted, "Governor Sarah Palin will welcome members of Alaska's diplomatic corps to Fairbanks to view the ice carvings of Ice Alaska's 2007 World Ice Art Championship." Following the afternoon reception, Palin attends the NCAA rifle championships.

March 19, 2007 -- Palin meets with 10 foreign exchange students.

May 15, 2007 -- Palin holds a "brief courtesy" meeting with Martin Uden, then the head of the British consulate in San Francisco. The calendar notes, "He'll be visiting Juneau today off of one of the Cruise Ships."

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Calendars Show Gov. Palin's Foreign Policy Experience: About 20 Meetings for About 12 Hours

after John McCain picked her to be the GOP's vice presidential nominee, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin claimed that her foreign policy credentials were enhanced because "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska." She also pointed out that she had experience dealing with trade delegations

Later, asked by CBS News' Katie Couric if she had ever participated in negotiations with Russia, Palin said, "We have trade missions back and forth. We—we do—it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia

the calendars tracking Palin's official meetings

as governor contain not one listing indicating she ever met with a Russian official.

the 562 pages of her daily schedules

indicate that Palin had few meetings at all with any foreign representatives and rarely dealt with any topic related to foreign policy

Clip Source: farm2.static.flickr.com

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Palin spent

12 hours over the course of 19 months on these meetings

Tags: stunning foreign policy experience

Ageless and Defiant

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:08:16 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

AC/DC has always delivered an aggressive take on rock’s raw essentials: slicing guitars, driving rhythms and lyrics about sex, drink and rock ’n’ roll. Its new album, “Black Ice” (Columbia), which will be sold in the United States only at Wal-Mart starting Oct. 20, is its most focused release in almost two decades, full of the fist-pumping riffs and shout-along choruses the band is known for. And it is expected to be one of fall’s biggest rock releases.

Gradually, and without getting much media attention, AC/DC has become the most popular currently active rock band in the country, to judge by albums sold.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

For this, and much else, Angus is unapologetic. “People say it’s juvenile music, but pardon me” — he speaks these last two words with exaggerated politeness — “I thought rock ’n’ roll was supposed to be juvenile. You sing what you know. What am I going to write about — Rembrandt?”

In ‘Sweetie’ and ‘Dear,’ a Hurt for the Elderly

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:13:58 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In ‘Sweetie’ and ‘Dear,’ a Hurt for the Elderly

Professionals call it elderspeak, the sweetly belittling form of address that has always rankled older people: the doctor who talks to their child rather than to them about their health; the store clerk who assumes that an older person does not know how to work a computer, or needs to be addressed slowly or in a loud voice. Then there are those who address any elderly person as “dear.”

“People think they’re being nice,

but when I hear it, it raises my hackles.”

studies are finding that the insults can have health consequences

“Those little insults can lead to more negative images of aging,”

those who had positive perceptions of aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer

phrases like “good girl” or “How are we feeling?”

words like “dear” or “sweetie”

elderspeak sent a message that the patient was incompetent

She said she considered elderspeak a form of bullying. “It’s talking down to them,”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

avoid stereotyping

it’s belittling

What is democracy?

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:21:43 GMT

clipped by: Rashid Malik

Clip Source: jo-kes.blogspot.com

"Democracy is buying a big house you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you wish were dead. And, unlike communism, democracy does not mean having just one ineffective political party; it means having two ineffective political parties. ...Democracy is welcoming people from other lands, and giving them something to hold onto -- usually a mop or a leaf blower. It means that with proper timing and scrupulous bookkeeping, anyone can die owing the government a huge amount of money. ... Democracy means free television, not good television, but free. ... And finally, democracy is the eagle on the back of a dollar bill, with 13 arrows in one claw, 13 leaves on a branch, 13 tail feathers, and 13 stars over its head -- this signifies that when the white man came to this country, it was bad luck for the Indians, bad luck for the trees, bad luck for the wildlife, and lights out for the American eagle." - Johnny Carson

Tags: jokes, humor, funny quotes

The Sum Of Your Facial Parts

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:32:28 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

IS the woman pictured on the right more attractive than the woman on the left? Do her wider-set eyes, the longer distance between her hairline and the bridge of the nose, and the rounder shape of her face make her more beautiful?

Essentially, they trained a computer to determine, for each individual face, the most attractive set of distances and then choose the ideal closest to the original face. Unlike other research with formulas for facial attractiveness, this program does not produce one ideal for a feature, say a certain eye width or chin length.

Yet, like the many other attempts to use objective principles or even mathematical formulas to define beauty, this software program raises what psychologists, philosophers and feminists say are complex, even disturbing, questions about the perception of beauty and a beauty ideal.

To what extent is beauty quantifiable?

The Mask Slips

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:23:26 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "Remember voodoo economics? That was the derisive term George H.W. Bush used for Ronald Reagan’s fantasy that he could simultaneously increase defense spending, cut taxes and balance the budget. After Reagan became president (with Mr. Bush as his vice president) the budget deficit — surprise, surprise — soared.
Just as they were wrong about trickle down, conservative Republican politicians and their closest buddies in the commentariat have been wrong on one important national issue after another, from Social Security (conservatives opposed it from the start and have been trying to undermine it ever since) to Medicare (Ronald Reagan saw it as the first wave of socialism) to the environment, energy policy and global warming."

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The lesson for Americans suffused with anxiety and dread over the crackup of the financial markets is that the way you vote matters, that there are real-world consequences when you go into a voting booth and cast that ballot.

For the nitwits who vote for the man or woman they’d most like to have over for dinner, or hang out at a barbecue with, I suggest you take a look at how well your 401(k) is doing, or how easy it will be to meet the mortgage this month, or whether the college fund you’ve been trying to build for your kids is as robust as you’d like it to be.

It’s not just the economy.

Voting has consequences.

The first is how wrong conservative Republicans have been on so many profoundly important matters for so many years. The second is how the G.O.P. has nevertheless been able to persuade so many voters of modest means that its wrongheaded, favor-the-rich, country-be-damned approach was not only good for working Americans, but was the patriotic way to go.

It's Called Hubris

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:13:50 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — George W. Bush began his presidency with the worst terrorist attack on American soil and he is ending it with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In between, he confronted a hurricane that nearly wiped New Orleans off the map as his administration showed ineptitude in its response.

Now, as he spends his last months in office trying to avert a global economic collapse, Mr. Bush has been telling people privately that it’s a good thing he’s in charge.

Mr. Bush has always been confident of himself, even when the American public was not, and that has not changed. Just as he is convinced he did the right thing in Iraq, he is convinced he is doing the right thing on the economy — despite job approval ratings at historic lows and a presidential campaign in which both candidates have used him as kind of a battering ram.

McDonald’s Caves In To Anti-Gay Group Demands

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:50:47 GMT

clipped by: zasel
clipper's remarks: Sadly, Mickey D has decided to permit a homophobic hate group dictate their corporate policies. Giving into these boycotts does nothing but encourage groups, such as this one, to continue to strong-arm major businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians. I am hoping my GLBT friends will refuse to do any business with McDonalds.

Clip Source: www.365gay.com

The American Family Association is calling off a boycott of McDonald’s after the fast-food giant agreed to end its support for the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, a company employee appointed to the chamber’s board of directors has resigned.

McDonald’s incurred the wrath of the AFA after it made a $20,000 donation to the chamber, and Richard Ellis, who until last month was vice president of communications for the chain, was named to the chamber’s
board of directors.

The company at first resisted AFA’s demands that it sever ties with the chamber.

But now in an e-mailed memo to franchise holders, the company said it has dropped ties with the chamber.

"It is our policy to not be involved in political and social issues. McDonald’s remains neutral on same-sex marriage or any ‘homosexual agenda’ as defined by the American Family Association."

"We appreciate the decision by McDonald’s to no longer support political activity by homosexual activist organizations,"

Justice Dept Firings WERE Political. No, really?

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:12:02 GMT

clipped by: ellen_001
clipper's remarks: I know it may be shocking. But the news has been lost with the sky falling and all...

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Justice Department Scandal Almost Buried by Financial Crisis

At any other time, what happened in the U.S. Justice Department last week would have been big news.

But what the Justice Department's exhaustive investigation and blistering report concluded about the enormous damage done to the department through improper politicization is far more troubling than even Sarah Palin in disjointed attack mode.

found that political pressure did indeed drive the dismissal action against at least three of the nine federal prosecutors abruptly fired. At the time, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insisted the individuals were all dismissed for inadequate performance

But it appears the longtime pal and adviser to President Bush was lying through his teeth

Where is my money?

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:25:52 GMT

clipped by: dakotayii
clipper's remarks: "It's in people's minds," Shiller explains. "We're just recording a measure of what people think the stock market is worth. What the people who are willing to trade today — who are very, very few people — are actually trading at. So we're just extrapolating that and thinking, well, maybe that's what everyone thinks it's worth."

Shiller uses the example of an appraiser who values a house at $350,000, a week after saying it was worth $400,000.

"In a sense, $50,000 just disappeared when he said that," he said. "But it's all in the mind."

While the money in your pocket is unlikely to just vanish into thin air, the money you could have had, if only you'd sold your house or drained your stock-heavy mutual funds a year ago, most certainly can.

"You can't enjoy the benefits of your 401(k) if it's disappeared," Jorgenson explains. "If you had it all in financial stocks and they've all gone down by 80 percent — sorry! That is a permanent loss because those folks aren't coming back.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

NEW YORK - Trillions in stock market value — gone. Trillions in retirement savings — gone. A huge chunk of the money you paid for your house, the money you're saving for college, the money your boss needs to make payroll — gone, gone, gone.

If you're looking to track down your missing money — figure out who has it now, maybe ask to have it back — you might be disappointed to learn that is was never really money in the first place.

Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale, puts it bluntly: The notion that you lose a pile of money whenever the stock market tanks is a "fallacy." He says the price of a stock has never been the same thing as money — it's simply the "best guess" of what the stock is worth.

Tags: news

Understanding The Cycle Of Violence

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:26:48 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "Unlocking the developmental link between growing up in an aggressive or violent household and becoming the perpetrator of such behavior could prove useful for stopping the cycle of violence".

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Understanding The Cycle Of Violence

Researchers have long known that children who grow up in an aggressive or violent household are more likely to become violent or aggressive in future relationships. What has not been so clear is the developmental link between witnessing aggressive behavior as a child and carrying it out as an adult. What changes occur in a child that affect whether he or she will choose to deal with conflict in aggressive or violent ways?

children who grow up in aggressive households may learn to process social information differently than their peers who grow up in non-aggressive environments.

Children with high-conflict parents are more likely to think that aggressive responses would be good ways to handle social conflicts,"

"This partly explains why they are more likely as young adults to have conflict in their own romantic relationships."

this research has implications for treatment and prevention.