Clipmarks | debbyski's clips

Female Athletes Face Stereotypes

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:35:52 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: OMG, why are women athletes presumed to be only lesbian? This really says something about our society, first of all the fact that homophobia is still alive and well and secondly that women have their place and it's not as an athlete, God forbid, that might be too "unfeminine". I played college basketball and it was purely for the love of the sport. My orientation had nothing to do with it.

Clip Source: media.www.dailygamecock.com

LOS ANGELES -- The day that Alaina Sudeith began playing water polo, the way her peers perceived her changed.

Before the UCLA sophomore joined the water polo team at University High School in Irvine, her classmates knew her as a tomboy. Afterward, many wrongly assumed she was a lesbian.

"There's a double-standard for men and women in sports because men are encouraged to be strong and competitive, but if a woman expresses any interest in sports, she's labeled as butch," said Sudeith, a member of UCLA's club women's water polo team. "There is a homophobic backlash against straight female athletes, and I find it to be pretty ridiculous."

"I've been told from guys on campus that I shouldn't play sports because everybody would think I was a lesbian, and no guys would be interested in me," Sudeith said. "This was even from gay guys."

Are You A Good Or Bad Kisser?

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:23:25 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Well now, I've been told I'm an excellent kisser on more than one occasion
But, I'm with the author. Emotion and the expression of it is the key

Clip Source: hubpages.com

I once refused a second date with someone because he was the worst kisser I'd ever experienced.

But it got me wondering, then and now, what makes a good kisser?

A good kisser adds some real emotion to the moment. Project through your kiss just how much you care for him or her.

A good kisser takes advantage of a romantic moment. Kiss your sweetie while holding hands, hugging, or slow dancing.

Practice

Happy kissing!

Still Saving It

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:24:17 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Not since January 2005 have California drivers had it this good: The state's average retail price for gasoline tumbled 15.7 cents in the last week to puncture the $2-a-gallon barrier, the Energy Department said Monday.

But many motorists -- convinced that the economy was a mess and fuel costs could leap again with little warning -- were still clinging to behavior acquired when pump prices hit record highs during the summer.

"The effects of these influences on income and wealth have overwhelmed the impact of these fuel price drops," said Energy Department economist Neil Gamson. "And gasoline demand will continue to fall. It will be lower in 2009 than it was this year."

"Under normal market conditions, all of this effort to conserve would have been reversed, but people are not feeling secure about their jobs. They aren't feeling good about their financial situations, and they are saving all of the money they can,"

Back To The Comfort Of Routines

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:21:24 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Reporting from Mumbai, India -- With a bit of pluck, even if it was not always heartfelt, a touch of defiance and a dose of the city's famous resilience, Mumbai dusted itself off Monday from last week's terrorist attacks and headed back to work.

Sure I'm scared," said Roshan Tengra, a fiftysomething homemaker in a purple sari, heading into a Bank of India branch a few blocks from the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel where the most protracted militant attack occurred. "I haven't been out of my house for three days. But we have to start our lives again. Whatever else can we do?

She and others joined commentators and Indian celebrities in slamming their politicians and government officials for their response to the attack.

"Let's ask for what's our right," said one, in clipped cellphone-speak. "Right to live fearlessly."

A New Picture

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:13:23 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The first 700 million years of Earth’s 4.5-billion-year existence are known as the Hadean period, after Hades, or, to shed the ancient Greek name, Hell.

That name seemed to fit with the common perception that the young Earth was a hot, dry, desolate landscape interspersed with seas of magma and inhospitable for life.

That is no longer thought to be true.

Over the last decade, the mineralogical analysis of small hardy crystals known as zircons embedded in old Australian rocks has painted a picture of the Hadean period “completely inconsistent with this myth we made up,” Dr. Harrison said.

“The picture that’s emerging is a watery world with normal rock recycling processes,” said Stephen J. Mojzsis, a professor of geology at the University of Colorado who was not involved with the U.C.L.A. research. “And that’s a comforting thought for the origin of life.”

Still Hip

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:57:28 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

In 1959 Joan Baez was a pint-sized college dropout with a hell of a lot of hair playing her folk tunes in pretty much any Boston club that would have her. Once the sixties came—well, we know the rest—Baez met Bob Dylan, and she quickly became the darling of the nascent protest folk-rock scene. Her soprano reworkings of classic spirituals and folk songs became the soundtrack by which a generation remembers their youth.

Today, the 67 year-old Baez refuses to become a relic. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of her recording career, Baez has released The Day After Tomorrow, a new album of covers drawn from sources such as Elvis Costello and Thea Gilmore. (In true Baez style, the title track is a cover of Tom Waits' classic wartime ode to a disheartened soldier.)