Clipmarks | enbar's clips

For safety-conscious New Yorkers: CraneWatch b.v0.8

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:04:21 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: An interactive social mashup site where New Yorkers can research construction sites in their neighborhoods, find current information on safety violations, report street-level observations, and submit news and photos. Very intelligent use of social web technology.

Clip Source: www.unlimited-solutions.com

If you spot something, say something!
beta v0.8

Why CraneWatch?

A series of crane-related construction accidents – including one on Sept. 4 at 600 West 42nd Street - has left New York City residents, workers and visitors scared and skeptical of the safety of many of the construction sites they pass every day on the streets of Manhattan. Revelations about unanswered 311 complaints, safety violations and the lack of adequate inspection and permitting has contributed to a need for timely information about crane safety.

That's why we, as concerned New Yorkers, have developed CraneWatch, an impartial, non-governmental Web site dedicated to monitoring the safety of New York City cranes and construction sites.

Getting information about a crane is easy on CraneWatch.com - just click the markers on the interactive map to see a summary, or click on the crane's address to see detailed information about it, including names and contact information for the site owner and construction manager.

Tags: safety, nyc, resources, social, 2.0, web, mashup, maps, cool, via:twitter

"Ceremonial deism," U.S. civil religion, and the law

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:33:45 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A Pew Forum backgrounder on the status of (supposedly) religiously-neutral invocations of a deity by government agents.

Clip Source: pewforum.org

On Ceremonial Occasions, May the Government Invoke a Deity?

Through these and many similar practices, the government invokes the concept of a deity. Opponents of these religious invocations say such proclamations promote religion and thus violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits all laws “respecting an establishment of religion.” Defenders of governmental religious invocations, by contrast, claim that such expressions do not explicitly promote religion; rather, defenders say, religious proclamations merely acknowledge the historical and cultural connections between the United States and belief in God.

In an influential 1962 lecture, Dean Eugene Rostow of Yale Law School argued that the government’s “conventional and uncontroversial” expressions of faith, which he called acts of “ceremonial deism,” do not violate the Establishment Clause.

A Supreme Court justice first used the phrase “ceremonial deism” in an opinion in Lynch v. Donnelly (1984)

Tags: religion, pluralism, america, church_and_state, civil_religion, god, politics, law

Today's word of the day: Hendiadys

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:52:07 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A "hendiadys" (fr. Gk. "one through two") is a literary figure in which a pair of concepts in a subordinate relationship are presented as conjoined. Examples: "nice and warm" instead of "nicely warm"; "sound and fury" instead of "furious sound"; "pain and toil" intead of "painful toil"; and so forth. First spotted in Robert Alter's footnote to Genesis 5.29.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Hendiadys

Hendiadys (a Latinized form of the Greek phrase ἓν διὰ δυοῖν hen dia duoin 'one through two') is a figure of speech used for emphasis — "The substitution of a conjunction for a subordination". The basic idea is to use two words linked by a conjunction to express a single complex idea.

The typical result is to transform a noun-plus-adjective into two nouns joined by a conjunction.

For example, "sound and fury" (from Act V, Scene V of Macbeth) seems to offer a more striking image than "furious sound". In this example, as typically, the subordinate idea originally present in the adjective is transformed into a noun in and of itself.

"The kingdom and the power and the glory" (from the Lord's Prayer) extends the principle, transforming the idea of a "glorious, powerful kingdom" into a sequence of three nouns joined by conjunctions.

Tags: language, literature, words, bible, cie100

Pre-RNC raids: so who hates freedom now?

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:50:01 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Doesn't look like any evidence has been uncovered thus far of intent to commit anything beyond non-violent protests. Kind of an unnerving story if you ask me, but, hey, it's a post-9/11 world, and the cops are just trying to keep us all safe, right? (It's funny, when I was a kid growing up in the eighties, there used to be after-school specials about how this kind of thing happened in apartheid South Africa.)

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Dozens Detained Ahead of Convention

ST. PAUL, Minn. — On the weekend before the Republican National Convention, law enforcement agencies detained dozens of people and issued a series of search warrants aimed at groups believed to be organizing demonstrations while delegates and Republican officials are in town.

Enlarge This Image

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Police released one person at a time from a protest-planning headquarters where people were detained in St. Paul on Friday night.

On Friday night the Ramsey County sheriff's department, accompanied by the St. Paul police, detained people inside a building here that was being used as a headquarters to plan protests.

“They handcuffed all of us,” said Sonia Silbert, 28, from Washington. “They searched everyone.”

People who had been inside said teach-ins and legal training had been conducted there, and that the space was also a repository for such items as computers and bicycles.

Tags: news, politics, presidential_campaign_2008, police, crime, civil_rights, law

Only 8% of Guantánamo detainees alleged to be al-Qaeda...

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:31:58 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: ... and 55% are "not alleged to have engaged in any hostile act" against the US. 95% were turned in by bounty hunters seeking rewards, not captured on the battlefield. How is this justifiable?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Madness and Shame

By BOB HERBERT

“After reviewing 517 of the Guantánamo detainees’ cases in depth,” she said, “they concluded that only 8 percent were alleged to have associated with Al Qaeda. Fifty-five percent were not alleged to have engaged in any hostile act against the United States at all, and the remainder were charged with dubious wrongdoing, including having tried to flee U.S. bombs. The overwhelming majority — all but 5 percent — had been captured by non-U.S. players, many of whom were bounty hunters.”

“One source of ideas,” she wrote, “was the popular television show ‘24.’ On that show as Ms. Mayer noted, “torture always worked. It saved America on a weekly basis.”

I felt as if I was in Never-Never Land as I read: “In conversation with British human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, the top military lawyer in Guantánamo, Diane Beaver, said quite earnestly that Jack Bauer ‘gave people lots of ideas’ as they sought for interrogation models.”

Tags: guantanamo, human_rights, gwot, civil_rights

Quotiki: social quotes

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:23:30 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I've been hoping to find a replacement for BigCite, a nicely designed social quotation site that vanished some time ago. This might be it. Collect, share, tag, and save quotations. Fully Web 2.0-compliant with widgets and all that.

Clip Source: www.quotiki.com

Quotiki is social quotes site that lets you quickly find and enjoy quotes. As a member of our community, you can start tagging, submitting, rating and collecting quotes.

Search Autosearch is On

Search Examples: Mark Twain, war, I have a dream

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems."
- Mahatma Gandhi

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tags: 18 responsibility

submitted by rbf2000 (189)

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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submitted by Richard (480)

Tags: quotations, research, tools, social, 2.0, check_this_out

"Religious literacy" courses now required in Modesto, CA public schools

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:43:11 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: More religious knowledge has got to be a good thing, I think. On the other hand, a course like this has got to be fantastically easy to screw up. It would be interesting to study what they're doing and how it's working out. Thanks to ~C4Chaos at Friendfeed for the link.

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

Teaching Not Preaching In CA Bible Belt

Most Schools Avoid Religion, But It's Required In Modesto Schools

Modesto, Calif., is home to the only school district in the country that requires the teaching of world religions to high school students. (CBS)

Like many other places, Modesto is becoming more religiously diverse.

But unlike any other place, religion is a required course in high school here.

"And now we're going to be looking at Judaism, Christianity, and Islam," Taylor said to her class.

"The United States is one of the most religious countries on Earth. And yet Americans know almost nothing about religion," said Stephen Prothero, author of a new book, "Religious Literacy."

But in Modesto, the lessons aren't about distant cultures, so much as about the student at the next desk.

While there are many religions here, the goal is to create one community where everyone is accepted.

Tags: religion, schools, education, teaching, california, pluralism, america, news

Russian judge: sexual harrassment is good because it produces children

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:04:31 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Glad I'm not a Russian woman, is all I can say.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Sexual harassment okay as it ensures humans breed, Russian judge rules

A Russian advertising executive who sued her boss for sexual harassment lost her case after a judge ruled that employers were obliged to make passes at female staff to ensure the survival of the human race.

The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.

"If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children," the judge ruled.

According to a recent survey, 100 per cent of female professionals said they had been subjected to sexual harassment by their bosses, 32 per cent said they had had intercourse with them at least once and another seven per cent claimed to have been raped.

Human rights activists say that Russian women remain second-class citizens and are subjected to some of the highest levels of domestic abuse in the world.

Tags: gender, sex, discrimination, civil_rights, law, russia, international, news

Since when is it elitist to be well-informed?

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:52:43 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: This is Susan Jacoby's column from May 2008, already widely discussed. I hadn't seen it until now.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Best Is the New Worst

PITY the poor word “elite,” which simply means “the best” as an adjective and “the best of a group” as a noun. What was once an accolade has turned poisonous in American public life over the past 40 years, as both the left and the right have twisted it into a code word meaning “not one of us.” But the newest and most ominous wrinkle in the denigration of all things elite is that the slur is being applied to knowledge itself.

Senator Hillary Clinton’s use of the phrase “elite opinion” to dismiss the near unanimous opposition of economists to her proposal for a gas tax holiday was a landmark in the use of elite to attack expertise supposedly beyond the comprehension of average Americans. One might as well say that there is no point in consulting musicians about music or ichthyologists about fish.

Tags: language, politics, class, popular_culture, opinion, presidential_campaign_2008

"Invisible Cities": five-minute audio collages from 24 cities around the world

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:25:36 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Pretty amazing. Twenty-four artists working with field recording teams put together five-minute audio pastiches representing 24 cities -- Beijng, Belfast, Marrakesh, Naples, Washington, and more. All mp3s downloadable.

Clip Source: www.fallt.com

Various Artists | Invisible Cities

Audio Installation/MP3 | F.0037.0001

Curated by Fällt designers Fehler, 'Invisible Cities' offers the opportunity to experience an intimate series of portraits of the world's cities painted with sound.

Through the interface of a gallery wall, each city, represented by an audio work of five minutes duration, is accessible through headphones. Participants in the gallery can transcend distance - moving from Moscow to Montreal, from Berlin to Beijing - in the time it takes to plug a pair of headphones into an alternative location.

A series of artists were invited to contribute a five minute audio work inspired by and utilising the sounds of the cities they cherish. Their contributions range from quiet and contemplative to noisy and frenetic with styles ranging from the pristine digital crackles of Baltimore based artist Richard Chartier (Whitney Biennial, 12k, LINE) to the near-silence of Tokyo based ultra-minimalist *0 (Nosei Sakata).

Tags: audio, art, cool, mp3, global, cities

Leaving school to pursue a Guitar Hero career

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:51:54 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I don't think this is a good idea, personally, but maybe that's just me -- I'm an uptight, Old Media kind of guy, I guess.

Clip Source: thestory.org

Homeschool of Rock

Blake Peebles, credit: Corey Lowenstein - larger >>

When teenager Blake Peebles first asked to leave regular high school to pursue a professional gaming career, his parents dismissed the idea. Then Blake established himself as one of the nation’s top Guitar Hero players in local and online tournaments, and his parents Mike and Hunter reconsidered.

After a year of homeschool, Blake has not only made straight A’s and aced his EOGs; he also has qualified to compete in the regionals of the World Cyber Games, the largest gaming festival in the world. Blake, Mike, and Hunter join guest host Aaron Henkin to explain their decision to let Blake pursue his dream to go pro as a gamer.

Read a Raleigh News & Observer article about Blake

Tags: random_sh!t, news, parenting, funny, games, children

Bonhoeffer's 1934 sermon at Fanø, Denmark, on peace

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:12:40 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: I posted parts of this a long time ago, but the original page disappeared. I'm now posting this new link.

Clip Source: changetolink.com

Bonhoeffer - The Church and the Peoples of the World
Fano, Denmark - Ecumenical Conference of 'Life and Work'

August 1934,

Once again, how will peace come? Who will call us to peace so that the world will hear, will have to hear, so that all peoples may rejoice? The individual Christian cannot do it. When all around are silent, he can indeed raise his voice and bear witness, but the powers of this world stride over him without a word. The individual church, too can witness and suffer - oh, if it only would!- but it also is suffocated by the power of hate.

Why do we fear the fury of the world powers? Why don't we take the power from them and give it back to Christ? We can still do it today.

The world is choked with weapons, and dreadful is the distrust which looks out of all men's eyes. The trumpets of war may blow tomorrow. For what are we waiting? Do we want to become involved in this guilt as never before?

Who knows if we shall see each other again another year?

Tags: religion, christianity, peace, war, violence, primary_source, rels327, brilliant

Christ and peace: Bonhoeffer

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 19:08:00 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's famous 1934 sermon at Fanø, Denmark. Bonhoeffer was later hanged for conspiring to assassinate Hitler. "There is no way to peace along the way of safety.... Peace is the opposite of security."

Clip Source: www.cfba.info

T h e C h u r c h a n d t h e P e o p l e o f t h e W o r l d

D i e t r i c h B o n h o e f f e r

A u g u s t 2 8 , 1 9 3 4

TEXT: "Let me hear what God the Lord will speak: for God will speak peace to God's people, and to God's faithful." (Ps. 85:8)

How does peace come about? Through a system of political treaties? Through the investment of international capital in different countries? Through the big banks, through money? Or through universal peaceful rearmament in order to guarantee peace? Through none of these, for the single reason that in all of them peace is confused with safety. There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture. It can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to mistrust, and this mistrust in turn brings forth war. To look for guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means to give oneself altogether to the law of God, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God, not trying to direct it for selfish purposes. Battles are won, not with weapons, but with God. They are won where the way leads to the cross. Which of us can say he or she knows what it might mean for the world if one nation should meet the aggressor, not with weapons in hand, but praying, defenseless, and for that very reason protected by "a bulwark never failing"?

We want to give the world a whole word, not a half word-a courageous word, a Christian word. We want to pray that this word may be given us today. Who knows if we shall see each other again another year?

Tags: religion, christianity, war, violence, peace, primary_source

"Lost" (the TV show) and religion

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:23:59 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Bookmarking this mostly to read later.

Clip Source: www.beliefnet.com

The 'Lost' Tribe

One of TV's most popular shows is also one of the most spiritual. So why aren't the Jews getting any love?

Lilit Marcus

One reason that Lost resonates with so many viewers is that it incorporates elements from many world religions. The show frequently refers to a mysterious string of numbers that add up to 108, a sacred number in Buddhism that represents the number of beads on a mala, or prayer necklace. A secretive group that might be behind the mysterious happenings on the island is called the Dharma Initiative. Lost boasts one of the most diverse casts on TV, with the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 coming from a variety of backgrounds (Nigerian, Korean, Iraqi, etc.) However, religious diversity is where the program fails. Because the majority of the passengers are from the United States, the show assumes them all to be Christian or nonreligious. The Iraqi soldier, Sayid, is Muslim, and has been shown praying on several occasions.

Tags: via:friendfeed, religion, popular_culture, television, media, contemporary, commentary, !toread

How about a little sewage in your water glass?

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:55:02 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Orange County has just set up a system which allows wastewater to be filtered, purified, and then re-injected back into the local aquifer. Permalink: http://snipr.com/3e8gj

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

A Tall, Cool Drink of ... Sewage?

When you flush in Santa Ana, the waste makes its way to the sewage-treatment plant nearby in Fountain Valley, then sluices not to the ocean but to a plant that superfilters the liquid until it is cleaner than rainwater. The “new” water is then pumped 13 miles north and discharged into a small lake, where it percolates into the earth. Local utilities pump water from this aquifer and deliver it to the sinks and showers of 2.3 million customers. It is now drinking water. If you like the idea, you call it indirect potable reuse. If the idea revolts you, you call it toilet to tap.

With the demand for water growing, some aquifers dropping faster than they’re replenished, snowpacks thinning and climate change predicted to make dry places even drier, water managers around the country, and the world, are contemplating similar schemes.

Tags: news, water, environment, cities, technology, weird