Clipmarks | debbyski's clips

A truly Graphic Truth.

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:38:23 GMT

clipped by: graphictruth

The Keepers Of The Moon

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:47:11 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

HOUSTON — In the lab, the Moon rocks look nondescript — dark gray basalt, a whitish mineral called anorthosite and mixtures of the two with crystals thrown in. Yet nearly 40 years after the Apollo astronauts brought the first rocks back to Earth, these pieces of the Moon are still providing scientists with new secrets from another world.

“We know the Big Bang happened about 14.5 billion years ago,” Mr. Allen said, “and this rock is a third that old. You will never see a solid piece of stuff in our solar system that is any older.”

“It’s hard to wrap your mind around a place where nothing ever happens,” Mr. Allen said. “But the Moon is that place.”

The samples — 2,200 of them — are kept in nitrogen-filled boxes in a stainless steel vault on the second floor of the 14,000-square-foot repository, and are transferred to other parts of the lab in airlocks. Technicians prepare shipments in glove boxes containing sterile tools and containers.

Evolution Of Dance

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:40:31 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: hahahahahahahahaha!

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Lottery Adds To Prizes

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:33:36 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "To be sure, some see the gas prize as a kind of bait and switch"

HA! I'd take the quarter million any day.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

MIAMI — Rising gasoline prices have brought a new twist on the state lottery in Florida.

Once a week for the next two months, the second-prize winner in the latest lottery promotion, Summer Cash, will win free gasoline for life. And some people think that is a better deal than the game’s first prize, a quarter of a million dollars.

“If gas keeps going up and up — and I expect it will — then I’d rather have free gas for life,” said Robert Acosta, who spends about $50 a week on fuel for his four-cylinder Toyota Scion and bought a $5 Summer Cash ticket in anticipation of the first drawing, this Wednesday.

But with a gallon of unleaded regular in South Florida costing an average of about $4.30, some players are ready to forgo the math.

“Gas has become more precious than cash now,” Bernard Feldman said.

A high-school teacher shares his story of being bullied

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:11:11 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I haven't listened to the audio yet, but I plan to. It's a thirty-minute talk this teacher gave to his ninth-grade class when he suspected there were some bullying dynamics developing.

Clip Source: beyond-school.org

My Suicidal High School Years: A Happy-Ending Bullying Story

I told the story to my grade 9 class last year - there was some stuff going on in the hallways that made me hope it might help - and recorded it as I told them.

And I thought, in the spirit of this season of good will, that I would share that story here. Here’s the enhanced podcast for download, with chapters for quick navigation.

But if you want to listen without downloading first, see the bottom of this post.

Most of the bullying content we see online tries to make bullying stop. It’s a nice goal. But this story does things differently.

It’s to the bullied.

It tells them that, for me, over 700 consecutive days of bullying in high school was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. It just took me a couple decades to realize that. This does not mean those two decades were bad.

http://pod.kis.or.kr//blojsom_resources/meta/cburell/High%20School%20Hell.m4a

Tags: education, school, teaching, cruelty, podcast, blogclip

For those who think war is all glory

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:36:35 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: Pictures from the Hell zone that Bush and Cheney created.

Clip Source: www.zoriah.net

My hands still shake and my heart pounds despite my fatigue. A combination of depression, fear, and adrenaline makes my thoughts race with the realization that a simple decision was the only thing that seperated me from a body count that grows daily. I look at the images I took on the 26th of June, and realize they do nothing to capture the emotion of being an eyewitness to the aftermath of the Al-Qaeda suicide attack in Karmah/Garma... the smell... the sound of screams and crying.

I want you to observe and comprehend what others live through on a daily basis -- to see what the Iraqi civilians and foreign soldiers see. I want people who follow my photography to understand that although I am able to bring images of war to the world in a form of art, what actually goes on here is horror. My message is not that war yields great photography. My message is: War yields human misery and suffering.

CLICK HERE to view my June 26th diary entry

Tags: war, glory, or, gory

The Key To Happiness

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:43:55 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "At this stage, what does a society have to look like in order to create more free choice and more happiness? The study indicates that you need democratization and, most important of all, social tolerance."
The study suggests that religious faith and social tolerance are a winning combination. Which leaves me wondering: Perhaps people in the U.S. would all be happier if more ministers, rabbis, imams and priests conducted more gay marriages."

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Who knew? The legalization of gay marriage might make Californians happier. At least that's what a new study based on surveys of 350,000 people in nearly 100 countries suggests.

No, the authors aren't gay activists, nor do they seem to be peddling any particular political agenda. But in their search to discover which countries are happier than others and why, these scholars -- led by University of Michigan political scientist Ronald Inglehart -- have stumbled on one pretty fundamental conclusion about what people want out of life: freedom.

How exactly, you ask, is gay marriage connected with "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"?

In most developed countries, the relative level of their acceptance or rejection is a sensitive indicator of that society's overall tolerance toward minorities. And -- here's the takeaway -- social tolerance "broadens the range of choices available to people," thereby enhancing happiness for both the tolerant and the intolerant alike.

A Lesson On China

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:36:29 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

NEW YORK -- Ted Koppel knows that persuading television viewers to tune into a four-part documentary about China's economic growth could be a difficult sell.

All kidding aside, Koppel feels a particular sense of urgency about “The People’s Republic of Capitalism,” which premieres Wednesday.

"Our future is so tied together with China's future, and [the Chinese] get it. . . . The greatest tragedy of all would be if they keep plowing away at this and we become so relaxed about the permanence of America's place in the world that we fail to see that there are people breathing down our necks."

The point, Koppel said: "The United States and China are so intertwined economically that you can't undo it."

Cholesterol Screening for the Young?

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:19:48 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Some good questions:
Are we as a nation always looking for the easy solution? Are we willing to provide out society with nutritious low cost food? Why is obesity a problem?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The nation’s pediatricians are recommending wider cholesterol screening for children and more aggressive use of cholesterol-lowering drugs starting as early as the age of 8 in hopes of preventing adult heart problems.

The push to aggressively screen and medicate for high cholesterol in children is certain to create controversy amid a continuing debate about the use of prescription drugs in children as well as the best approaches to ward off heart disease in adults.

But proponents say there is growing evidence that the first signs of heart disease show up in childhood, and with 30 percent of the nation’s children overweight or obese, many doctors fear that a rash of early heart attacks and diabetes is on the horizon as these children grow up.

Dr. Bhatia said that although there was not “a whole lot” of data on pediatric use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, recent research showed that the drugs were generally safe for children.

An Ideal Husband

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:33:25 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

“Hollywood says you can be deeply in love with someone and then your marriage will work,” the twinkly eyed, white-haired priest says. “But you can be deeply in love with someone to whom you cannot be successfully married.”

For 40 years, he has been giving a lecture — “Whom Not to Marry” — to high school seniors, mostly girls because they’re more interested.

“Never marry a man who has no friends,”

“Does he use money responsibly? Is he stingy?

“Steer clear of someone whose life you can run, who never makes demands counter to yours.

Does he have a sense of humor?

A therapist friend insists that ‘more marriages are killed by silence than by violence.

“Don’t marry a problem character thinking you will change him

Imagine a religious fundamentalist married to an agnostic.

“After I regale a group with this talk, the despairing cry goes up: ‘But you’ve eliminated everyone!’ Life is unfair.”

Tags: lol, life, is, unfair, eh?

The Truth Commission

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:28:55 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: It will set you free, you know.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

When a distinguished American military commander accuses the United States of committing war crimes in its handling of detainees, you know that we need a new way forward.

The first step of accountability isn’t prosecutions. Rather, we need a national Truth Commission to lead a process of soul searching and national cleansing.

It’s a national disgrace that more than 100 inmates have died in American custody in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo. After two Afghan inmates were beaten to death by American soldiers, the American military investigator found that one of the men’s legs had been “pulpified.”

Among those I admire most are the military lawyers who risked their careers, defied the Pentagon and antagonized their drinking buddies — all for the sake of Muslim terror suspects in circumstances where the evidence was often ambiguous. At a time when we as a nation took the expedient path, these military officers took the honorable one, and they deserve medals for their courage.

The Urge To End It All

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:24:27 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "Quite inadvertently, the British gas conversion proved that the incidence of suicide across an entire society could be radically reduced, upending the conventional wisdom about suicide in the process.
At least a partial answer is that many of those Britons who asphyxiated themselves did so impulsively. In a moment of deep despair or rage or sadness, they turned to what was easy and quick and deadly — “the execution chamber in everyone’s kitchen,” as one psychologist described it — and that instrument allowed little time for second thoughts. Remove it, and the process slowed down; it allowed time for the dark passion to pass."

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem,” Albert Camus wrote, “and that is suicide.” How to explain why, among the only species capable of pondering its own demise, whose desperate attempts to forestall mortality have spawned both armies and branches of medicine in a perpetual search for the Fountain of Youth, there are those who, by their own hand, would choose death over life? Our contradictory reactions to the act speak to the conflicted hold it has on our imaginations: revulsion mixed with fascination, scorn leavened with pity.

Then there is the most disheartening aspect of the riddle. The National Institute of Mental Health says that 90 percent of all suicide “completers” display some form of diagnosable mental disorder. But if so, why have advances in the treatment of mental illness had so little effect?

But if we want to unravel posthumously the thought processes of the lost with an eye to saving lives in the future, the “how” may be the best place to look.

As Web Traffic Grows . . .

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:14:01 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Alex Payne, a 24-year-old Internet engineer here, has devised a way to answer a commonly asked question of the digital age: Is my favorite Web site working today?

In March, Mr. Payne created downforeveryoneorjustme.com, as in, “Down for everyone, or just me?” It lets visitors type in a Web address and see whether a site is generally inaccessible or whether the problem is with their own connection.

There is plenty of disappointment to go around these days. Such technology stalwarts as Yahoo, Amazon.com and Research in Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry, have all suffered embarrassing technical problems in the last few months.

The Web, like any technology or medium, has always been susceptible to unforeseen hiccups. Particularly in the early days of the Web, sites like eBay and Schwab.com regularly went dark.

Now the Web is an irreplaceable part of daily life, and Internet companies have plans to make us even more dependent on it.

Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:38:47 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Lots of theories to be heard this week. The full article may be of interest to those who follow christian religions.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings from that era — in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.

It is written, not engraved, across two neat columns, similar to columns in a Torah. But the stone is broken, and some of the text is faded, meaning that much of what it says is open to debate.

Emails that erase themselves -- Privnote.com

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:53:55 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I can think of a million ways this might be useful. Of course, if your intention is not to leave a paper trail, I suggest not using your computer.

Clip Source: www.readwriteweb.com

Send Messages That Self-Destruct With Privnote

Sending private messages through back channels is nothing new. We do it all the time with emails and direct messages on multiple services. However, sometimes information is just too sensitive to keep around once it's been sent. Wouldn't it be great to have messages self-destruct after being read a la Harry Potter style? Well Privnote is just the service for you.

Developed by Insophia using Django and Python, Privnote allows you to send a message and have it be immediately deleted once it is read. Spotted by MakeUsOf, simply head to the homepage of Privnote and type in your message. Once your done click the "post it" button to grab a link to send to a recipient. Once the message is read or the link is clicked, the link is no longer accessible. You can also receive notifications for when a your link is clicked, which will include the ip address of the reader.

Tags: email, messaging, privacy, blogclip, via:readwriteweb, via:friendfeed, tools