Clipmarks | edgewalker's clips

Al Gore's statement on winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize:

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:42:35 GMT

clipped by: edgewalker
clipper's remarks: Now acknowledged for his contributions with the Nobel Prize, Al-Gore is the single most capable person for the job. His illustrious record for commitment to the climate, protection of the constitution, science and technology progress, opposition to war and abhorrence for selfish capitalism n big business politics are the most desirable qualities America and the whole world needs in the next president.

Why Gore? http://www.draftgore.com/free_details.asp?id=46

Spread the WORD!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algore
http://www.algore.com/index-splash.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore%27s_contributions_to_the_Internet_and_technology
http://www.draftgore.com/
http://www.draftgore2008.org/
http://liveearthpledge.org/algore.php

Clip Source: www.algore.org

Al Gore's statement on winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize:

I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis -- a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.

My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

Tags: us election 2008

Ask Al-Gore to run for president!

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:19:19 GMT

Clip Source: www.ipetitions.com

Draft Gore Petition

Dear Vice President Gore:

Never before has America needed a leader of your stature, vision and experience more than now. The next presidential election will be the most crucial one in our history, and you are the only Democrat who can unite the country and lead us to victory. And this country -- indeed, the entire world -- cannot afford anything less.

Our nation and the planet itself are entering “a period of consequences,” as you so well stated in “An Inconvenient Truth,” but in more ways than one. We are ruled by a government of the powerful and for the powerful -- a government that tramples our Constitution, wages unjust war in our name, sacrifices our economic future, and puts our very planet on the endangered species list.

America and the world need you now more than ever. Be our candidate. Run for president. And we pledge that we'll be there for you every day until the last vote is counted.

Tags: us election 2008

Millennium Ecosystems Assessment Reports

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:00:25 GMT

clipped by: edgewalker

Clip Source: www.millenniumassessment.org

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment assessed the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. From 2001 to 2005, the MA involved the work of more than 1,360 experts worldwide. Their findings provide a state-of-the-art scientific appraisal of the condition and trends in the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide, as well as the scientific basis for action to conserve and use them sustainably.

The Working Group assessment reports are between 500–800 pages in length, with a volume of summaries of about 120 printed pages. Learn more
Current States & Trends
Scenarios
Policy Responses
Multiscale Assessments

Tags: climate chagne, global warming

Supreme Court Rules Gore Cannot Accept Peace Prize

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:30:56 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

In a stunning reversal, but true to their core beliefs, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today that Al Gore cannot accept the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded him.

The court, in an unsigned finding (as are all Gore decisions) responded to George Bush's anticipatory plea for a restraining order based on the fact that "it's not all that hot out anyhow and what in the hell has that got to do with peace?"

Dana Perino said the White House would have no comment other than an unconfirmed report by a source that declines to be identified, that the president called Chief Justice John Roberts, effusing "this is the second time that bum has had his ears trimmed by this court and you'd think he'd have finally learned a lesson."

Tags: lololo

Corporation Armies. Private Enterprise Wars & Disasters

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:26:46 GMT

clipped by: citizenbfk
clipper's remarks: This article has a humorous tint to it and a lot of fun with words, yet the same words that can make you laugh also point to new 'capitalistic imperialism,' that could make you cry (if tears are still possible).

It seems that the bold and righteous ideas of America's founders have been twisted into a John Wayne movie where the Cattle Baron pulls all the strings. (If I read this article correctly, that's the idea). I think.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

The Real Blackwater Scandal: Build a Frontier, You Get Cowboys, Part II

Tags: war, capitalism

Gore and UN panel win Nobel prize

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:15:58 GMT

clipped by: edgewalker
clipper's remarks: excellent timing! i wish Gore reconsiders his decision not running for president. democrats can not have a better candidate than him.

Clip Source: mail.google.com

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth was an unlikely box office hit

Gore and UN panel win Nobel prize

Climate change campaigner Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Tags: environment, global warming

Shizophrenia and Creativity

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:45:09 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: This is an informative and absorbing article. Today is World Mental Health Day, and I am disappointed there aren't a lot more items to mark it.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Mount Everest, by Stuart Baker-Brown, represents his struggles in life

Stuart Baker-Brown, 43, a photographer and writer based in Dorset, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1996. On World Mental Health Day, he delivers a unique personal insight into how his condition has nurtured his artistic expression.

The symptoms have been very disabling and destructive and have included psychosis (delusion and hallucinations) which is understood to be a disturbance of sensory perception and creates the inability to recognise reality from the unreal.

Many people with schizophrenia are naturally creative and turn to the arts to release their inner thoughts and emotions

Stuart Baker-Brown

Other daily symptoms, such as depression, suicidal thoughts, the feeling of being controlled by outside forces, paranoia and fear of persecution, have made life very difficult to cope with.

There is also the stigma and discrimination attached to the condition

Tags: schizophreniia, mental health, creativity.

Hello All You Godless Infidels And Happy Heathens

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:43:32 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: Gaylor said this to start her show,

Hello all you godless infidels, out-of-the-closet atheists and happy heathens. You can turn on the radio or TV 24/7 to be preached at. This is one hour a week of the public airwaves that offers an alternative. This program is an antidote to the domination of public airwaves by the religious right.

Your humble correspondent eagerly await the nauseating and hypocritical outcry from Fox Noise and the religious right in this country which is sure to come. For to them, freedom of religion has never meant freedom from religion and certainly not from our own brand of home-grown Christianity which more and more Americans are viewing as blatantly hypocritical, judgmental and overbearing.

Clip Source: bravenewfilms.org

So said Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, as she kicked off her inaugural, one-hour weekly radio show that began broadcasting on Saturday on Air America.

Atheist Christopher Hitchens, author of the bestselling book “God Is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything”, was Annie Gaylor's first guest. Imagine that, true freedom of expression in America; who would have guessed it was possible.

Small wonder that atheism and agnosticism seem to be gaining some momentum among people who are tired of the hypocrisy of organized religion; you can see it in literature and a variety of public forums including the Internet, as more free-thinkers confront different religions and urge other questioning persons to come out of the shadows.

Tags: when, religion, becomes, sin

The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (2005) - Ray Kurzweil

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:33:22 GMT

clipped by: edgewalker
clipper's remarks: Kurzweil's masterpiece. The ultimate Futurist bible. hardcore Futurism, no sci-fi. Read online or download complete pdf. (images are replaced with alt text for size)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/103013/Ray-Kurzweil-The-Singularity-Is-Near-When-Humans-Transcend-Biology-2005

Clip Source: www.scribd.com

Ray Kurzweil - The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (2005)

Kurzweil is one man who has one really counter intuitive idea, 'The Technological Singularity'. When WE (i wonder what I would mean then)would merge with our technology. This book is one of the finest work of 21st century futurism. n it's REAL CLOSE!!!

for the latest in technological progress and exponential growth, check;

http://kurzweilai.net
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_kurzweil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singularity_Is_Near
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_future_doesn't_need_us (less)

Tags: futurism, singularity

A History of Intellectual Discussion of 'Accelerating Change'

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:38:48 GMT

clipped by: edgewalker
clipper's remarks: Accelerating information and communication technologies have today become the most dynamic systems in modern society. Faced with the daunting prospect of further acceleration in their capacity, most people presently either deny the possibility, or ignore the phenomenon entirely. Futurists and Transhumanists believe that the evidence is strongly against the first response, and that the second response is unwise.

Learning about accelerating change and grasping the concept from a broad and multidisciplinary perspective is the most pressing challenge of today. Here's an excellent article from http://www.accelerationwatch.com/history_brief.html that accumulates some of the most incisive thoughts on these topics from a range of careful future thinkers, and to provide a number of synthetic interpretations, including one, the developmental Singularity hypothesis

Clip Source: www.scribd.com

A History of Intellectual Discussion of 'Accelerating Change'

What our universal, species, and technological history of accelerating change may mean for the future and larger purpose of humanity?

It takes educational privilege, curiosity, insight, courage, and mental freedom to engage in this investigation. Almost all of today's religous, philosophical, political, and even our scientific texts are curiously silent on the existence and implications of our record of ever faster emergence of physical-computational systems in universal history. Given our current knowledge of the laws of physics and chemistry, and our record of accelerating performance gains in miniaturizing electronic systems, it presently appears that this accelerating trend will continue as far as we can see into our extraordinary future.

Tags: futurism, singularity

Point of Inquiry podcasts

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:21:51 GMT

clipped by: edgewalker
clipper's remarks: Point of Inquiry is the premiere podcast of the Center for Inquiry, drawing on CFI’s relationship with the leading minds of the day including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, public intellectuals, social critics and thinkers, and renowned entertainers. Each episode combines incisive interviews, features and commentary focusing on CFI’s issues: religion, human values and the borderlands of science. Point of Inquiry explores CFI’s three research areas:

1. Pseudoscience and the paranormal (Bigfoot, UFOs, psychics, communication with the dead, cryptozoology, etc.)

2. Alternative medicine (faith healing, homeopathy, “healing touch,” the efficacy of prayer, etc.)

3. Religion and secularism (church-state separation, the effects and proper role of religion in society, the future of secularism and nonbelief, etc.)

Contributors to Point of Inquiry include Lauren Becker, Paul Kurtz, Benjamin Radford, Dawkins, Sam Harris, Joe Nickell, Barry Karr, Tom Flynn, David Koepsell, and many m

Clip Source: www.pointofinquiry.org

Clip Source: pointofinquiry.org

Clip Source: www.pointofinquiry.org

Alan Dershowitz - Blasphemy

Clip Source: www.pointofinquiry.org

Joe Nickell - The New Idolatry

Clip Source: www.pointofinquiry.org

Massimo Pigliucci - Making Sense of Evolution

Clip Source: www.pointofinquiry.org

Paul Kurtz - The New Atheism and Secular Humanism

Clip Source: www.pointofinquiry.org

Madeleine Van Hecke - Why Smart People Do Dumb Things

Clip Source: www.pointofinquiry.org

Dr. Francis Collins - The Language of God

Tags: podcast, freethought

The Problem with Atheism

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:51:34 GMT

clipped by: edgewalker
clipper's remarks: How true! religions are such a huge problem but atheism is not the appropriate counter strategy, Up-wing Transhumanism can fill in very well. it is the nature of Homo Sapiens that most individuals are always susceptible to magical thinking and always need to believe in a cosmic caretaker -n punisher- and the post-scarcity utopia called heaven in the afterlife.

Transhumanism, Futurism and Evolutionary Spirituality equip us with just the right weapons to tame the beast. It is essentially Humanistic and promises a bountiful scarcity-free future right here, in this universe!

All religions are based on One basic assumption, "Humans are the ultimate creation", whereas in futurist circles humans are long been viewed as only intellectual primates.

Accepting Evolutionary Spirituality opens the doors for wondering about the future and working forward to make it happen. Its a really paradigm shifting realization that we are not the end result of evolution, the process is still on...

Clip Source: newsweek.washingtonpost.com

Sam Harris

The Problem with Atheism

“On Faith” panelist Sam Harris is the author of the best-selling books Letter to a Christian Nation (2006) and The End of Faith (2005), which won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction and has been translated into many foreign languages.

To begin, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge just how strange it is that a meeting like this is even necessary. The year is 2007, and we have all taken time out of our busy lives, and many of us have traveled considerable distance, so that we can strategize about how best to live in a world in which most people believe in an imaginary God. America is now a nation of 300 million people, wielding more influence than any people in human history, and yet this influence is being steadily corrupted, and is surely waning, because 240 million of these people apparently believe that Jesus will return someday and orchestrate the end of the world with his magic powers.

Tags: religiosity, freethought

The Ultimate Skepticism

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:43:23 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: This clip will self-destruct in 20 seconds.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Whereas 'academic' skepticism, with as its most famous adherent Carneades, claims that "Nothing can be known, not even this", Pyrrhonian skeptics withhold any assent with regard to non-evident propositions and remain in a state of perpetual inquiry. According to them, even the statement that nothing can be known is dogmatic.

For example, Pyrrhonians might assert that a lack of proof cannot constitute disproof, and that a lack of belief is vastly different from a state of active disbelief. Rather than disbelieving psychic powers, for instance, based on the lack of evidence of such things, Pyrrhonians recognize that we cannot be certain that new evidence won't turn up in the future, and so they intentionally remain tentative and continue their inquiry. Pyrrhonians also question accepted knowledge, and view dogmatism as a disease of the mind.

Tags: pyrrho, pyrrhonian skepticism, dogma, knowledge

God vs the Bible

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 03:35:43 GMT

clipped by: Oortcloud
clipper's remarks: There is far to much knowledge at this site to do more than clip a few points that will be made. There is a lot of great information to be found here. As I've said before, no one can prove or disprove "a god" or "a creator", but we have ample evidence to show that the bible god is complete fiction.

Clip Source: www.godvsthebible.com

Summary: The Bible has many harsh critics. The most notable among them is God.

How even the most remedial knowledge of science that every child should know is enough to completely discredit the Bible. Evolution is the least of the Bible's problems.

How the Bible contradicts itself on even the most fundamental of theological issues, from the divinity of Christ to the proper path of salvation.

How the Bible glorfies certain acts of rape, genocide, slavery, bigotry and other cruelties.

The true history of "Hell" and what your church doesn't want you to know.

How the power of reason, God's greatest gift to us, fosters a deeper and healthier spirituality than could ever be possible through faith.

Tags: religion, mythology, bible, god, jesus, theology

Sustainable World SourceBook

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:38:40 GMT

clipped by: edgewalker
clipper's remarks: The Sustainable World SourceBook is a concise (58 pages), attractive and user-friendly personal manual for contributing to a sustainable world. It contains essential information on the state of the planet and recommended solutions, effective actions for greening your life, and a resource directory of useful organizations, books, films and websites.

Clip Source: www.swcoalition.org

Sustainable World SourceBook

The SourceBook is a concise (58 pages), attractive and user-friendly personal manual for contributing to a sustainable world. It contains essential information on the state of the planet and recommended solutions, effective actions for greening your life, and a resource directory of useful organizations, books, films and websites.

Contents a

1. GLOBAL

2. PERSONAL / COMMUNITY

• Overview of the global vital signs and trends in the most critical areas: aaa- Environment: Ecosystems and Natural Resources

Principles and actions for "greening" one's personal life and lowering one's ecological footprint, covering energy use, purchasing & investment guidelines, waste, transportation, food choices, etc.

3. RESOURCE DIRECTORY

• Directory of organizations relevant to personal engagement and action, with description by category. This includes a regional section (San Francisco Bay Area), national and international.

Tags: global warming