Clipmarks | haraya's People collection

Thai school offers transsexual toilet

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:28:51 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks:

Thailand is well known for its tolerance of transgender men, and they are very visible in everyday life. Sex-change surgery has become a speciality of the Thai health industry, and it is relatively inexpensive; patients come here from all over the world for the operation.

Despite their high profile in Thailand, transsexuals complain that they are still stereotyped - they can find work easily enough as entertainers, in the beauty industry, the media, or as prostitutes, but it is much harder to become a transgender lawyer or investment banker.

And their biggest complaint is that they cannot change their legal status.

Despite a proposal during the drafting of a new constitution last year, to allow them to change the gender on their identity cards, this has not yet been approved.

What the third toilet looks like [video].

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Kampang is proud of its toilets. Spotless, and surrounded by flowering tropical plants, they have won national awards for cleanliness.

But there is something else about them too. Between the girls' toilet and the boys', there is one signposted with a half-man, half-woman figure in blue and red.

The headteacher, Sitisak Sumontha, estimates that in any year between 10% and 20% of his boys consider themselves to be transgender - boys who would rather be girls.

"They used to be teased every time they used the boys' toilets," he said, "so they started using the girls' toilets instead. But that made the girls feel uncomfortable. It made these boys unhappy, and started to affect their work."

So the school offered to build the transgender boys their own facility, and they welcomed it.

The pupils have to wear boys' uniforms, but use feminine accessories

Tolerance, said Suttirat, is not the same thing as acceptance.

Tags: gender, society, asia, thailand, discrimination, news, toilets, school, transsexuals, culture

Penis Theft Panic Hits City

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:11:20 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks:

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa

They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

Tags: africa, congo, witchcraft, sorcerers, culture, people, men, penis, crushed

Child Genius

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:57:50 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks: Japanese TV commercial. The teacher says, "You can draw your imagination as it appears in your heart." Then watch the rest of the vid.

Melodramatic but makes a lot of sense.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: children, commercial, television, advertising, entertainment, education, perception, time, help, patience

People power transforms the web in next online revolution

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:52:02 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks:

Watching 'I Love Bees' unfold is a bit like being in Detroit in 1905 when Henry Ford was still experimenting with mass production. A new organisational possibility is unfolding before our eyes. Where might We Think culture take us?

We are just at the start of exploring how we can be organised without the hierarchy of top-down organisations. There will be many false turns and failures. But there is also huge potential to create new stores of knowledge to the benefit of all, innovate more effectively, strengthen democracy and give more people the opportunity to make the most of their creativity.

The motto of the generation growing up with the collaborative logic of the web is not the solitary 'I think, therefore I am', it is be the social 'We think, therefore we are'.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

In July 2004, US cinema advertisements for Halo 2, the science fiction computer game, briefly carried the address for a website - ilovebees.com - which appeared to belong to a beekeeper who had mysteriously disappeared. Her honey-based recipes had been replaced by an apparently random list of numbers. Over four months 600,000 people joined in solving the mystery of what the numbers meant. What unfolded was a striking display of 'We Think': structured, mass collaborative creativity and intelligence.

If ingenious games designers can inspire thousands of people to collaborate to solve a puzzle, could we do something similar to tackle global warming, keep communities safe, provide support for the elderly, help disaster victims, lend and borrow money, conduct political and policy debates, teach and learn, design and make physical products?

We are just starting to explore how we can organise ourselves without the trappings of traditional organisations.

Tags: web, internet, technology, mobilization, politics, organization, communication, world, community, collaboration

The Simpul Spelling Moovment

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 05:18:33 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks:

Among the words targeted were though (tho), confessed (confest), dropped (dropt), through (thru), kissed (kist), fixed (fixt), enough (enuf), prologue (prolog), thoroughfare (thorofare) and depressed (deprest).

Clip Source: www.neatorama.com

In 1906, millionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie was approached by ~~Melvin~~ Melvil Dewey, the head of the New York libraries, and Brander Matthews, a Columbia University professor, with a revolutionary plan to simplify spelling. Carnegie was enthusiastic. He believed that easier spelling could lead to world peace. Together, the threesome formed the Simplified Spelling Board; their expressed goal was to convince authorities to begin changing the spelling of 300 words.

President Theodore Roosevelt was an instant convert to the plan. On August 29, 1906, he ordered the U.S. Printer to use the new spelling on all executive branch publications.

Roosevelt’s plan made front-page news, both here and abroad. Unfortunately for TR, most of the publicity was unfavorable. U.S. newspaper mocked the idea, and the London Times ridiculed him with a headline reading “Roosevelt Spelling Makes Britons Laugh.”

Congress was outraged by Roosevelt’s decree, too.

Roosevelt quickly withdrew his support for the plan.

Tags: theodore roosevelt, america, spelling, communication, publishing, language, history, government, movement, world peace

Top 10 influential Brits in the US

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:45:09 GMT

clipped by: mickfinn

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

10. MARK BURNETT
Television producer

is credited with introducing reality television to the US

9. NORMAN FOSTER
Architect

Foster creations - the Hearst Tower and the still to be built Tower 2 on the World Trade Centre site

8. SIR PAUL NURSE
Scientist

acclaimed research into the division and shape of cells has led to important developments in the understanding of cancer

7. MICHAEL MORITZ
Venture Capitalist

responsible for providing early funding for

Google, Yahoo, Apple, eBay and YouTube

6. SIR TIM BERNERS-LEE
Computer scientist

creator of the World Wide Web

continues to work towards the web’s advancement

5. RIDLEY SCOTT
Film director

Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982)

Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and

American Gangster

4. GRAHAM KING
Film producer

The Departed, Traffic, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Ali and Blood Diamond

3. SIR HOWARD STRINGER
Chairman and Chief Executive of Sony

2. JO FROST
Nanny

star of Supernanny

1. JONATHAN IVE
Product designer

vice-president

industrial design

at Apple

Tags: clever dudes

Top 10 Drunk American Writers

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:32:14 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks: I'm looking for the women..

Clip Source: www.alternativereel.com

"After a month's sobriety my faculties became unbearably acute and I found myself unhealthily clairvoyant, having insights into places I'd as soon not journey to. Unlike some men, I had never drunk for boldness or charm or wit; I had used alcohol for precisely what it was, a depressant to check the mental exhilaration produced by extended sobriety."

"As I grew older I became a drunk. Why? Because I like ecstasy of the mind."

"First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you."

"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools."

Tags: writers, list, american, quotes, drinking, drink, men, literature, photos

What Kind Of Geek Are You?

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:34:45 GMT

clipped by: zeruel

Clip Source: www.brownbaron.com

What Kind Of Geek Are You?

Clip Source: www.brownbaron.com

The start of a new year is a time of reflection. It’s a time for looking back at what you have accomplished and what you still need to do. More importantly, it’s a time for looking within ourselves and accepting who we are.

This gives rise to the million dollar question, “Who are you?”. In keeping with the tradition here at Brown Thoughts, we’ll rephrase that question to “What kind of geek are you?”.

To help you answer the question, here are 56 kinds of geeks by Scott Johnson. Take a good look and find yourself

So, which one are you?

Fritz Eichenberg, Quaker artist: an oral history

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 07:41:36 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Eichenberg is famous for his illustrations of Russian novels and for his friendship and collaboration with Dorothy Day. He died in 1990; this interview was done in 1979 for the Smithsonian.

Clip Source: www.aaa.si.edu

Interview with Fritz Eichenberg
Conducted by Robert Brown
At the artist's home in Peace Dale, Rhode Island
May 14 1979 and December 7, 1979

ROBERT BROWN: What do they see in it now, do you think?

FRITZ EICHENBERG: They see what I saw in the beginning: the redemption through suffering. You don't necessarily look for suffering but it's built in. Man is a very fragile being. He does his best to corrupt the environment in which he lives. We have now the problems of pollution and nuclear energy and we have gone through a disastrous war. We lost more than the war. We lost our integrity and our standing in the world to a large degree. Whatever I could do as a kind of conciliator coming from the other side I tried to do. That's one of the reasons why I was picked out to go to the Soviet Union for the State Department, at the time. I met thousands of Russians and shook hands with them. They saw my work and they saw I understood "the Russian soul," as they said.

Tags: art, interview, history, oral_history, social_justice, religion, christianity

Have you googled yourself today?

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 10:40:54 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: www.pewinternet.org

The Pew Internet Project's recent report, "Digital Footprints," has been receiving a lot of coverage regarding its statistics related to people searching for information about themselves online. Namely, the process of "googling" oneself has more than doubled in the last five years, from 22% to 47%, according to Pew data. Surprisingly, though, just 3% of respondents claim to check their digital footprints on a regular basis, while 74% have only checked their search results once or twice.

more and more I have become concerned over the possibility of incorrect or otherwise private information being posted online. In the past year, there have been several reports linking negative information found by potential employers in an online search to a lost job opportunity.

one of the most interesting takeaways from this report is that while people are certainly more aware of their virtual identities than they were five years ago, there still remains significant room to grow.

entire report here.

Tags: google, search, search engine, web, internet, identity, survey, personal information, technology, digital footprints

Mad about the man

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 04:39:00 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks: Comic by Kate Beaton.

History is Rad and she's going to come up with more.. List:
1- Soren Kierkegaard
2- Benedict Arnold
3- Agnes McPhail
4- Mary Shelley
5- Queen Elizabeth I
6- Emperor Norton
7- Benjamin Disraeli
8- Nikola Tesla
9- Genghis Khan
10- David Hume

Clip Source: www.katebeaton.com

Oh ladies, must you disrupt science with your emotions? And your underwear?

Tags: comic, illustration, cartoon, entertainment, humor, science, tesla, silly, fun

Kids tell it like it (generally) is

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 13:01:30 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks: This one's old but still nice. When I Grow Up - Advertising Career (Monster.com viral)

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: advertising, advertisement, work, jobs, viral, video, monster, kids, children, funny

The 9 Manliest Names In The World

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:14:38 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks: Ye-ah!

Visit the source. The entire article is entertaining.

Clip Source: www.cracked.com

Lance Armstrong

It’s impossible to hear this name without picturing many men getting impaled on a battlefield.

#8.

Powers Boothe

The Only Way It Could Have Been Manlier:
Superpowers Boothe.

#7.

Max Planck

a brilliant scientist, being one of the founders of modern quantum theory

he was an avid hiker for most of his life, and once climbed 3,000 meters into the German Alps at the age of 85 in the middle of World War Fucking II

#6.

Commander Flex Plexico

This guy is a walking action figure.

#5.

Dr. Duncan Steel

That’s right, he’s Bruce Willis in Armageddon.

#4.

Stirling Mortlock

Rugby Union is a game where large men run at each other and then stomp on each other with spiked boots for 80 minutes. Mortlock is considered especially good at it.

#3.

Magnús Ver Magnússon

The Only Way It Could Have Been Manlier:
What, are you people made of stone? Magnús Ver Magnússon, and you want it manlier?

#2.

Dick Pound

We're really drawing a blank on this guy.

#1.

Staff Sgt. Max Fightmaster

Max Fightmaster. Holy shit.

Tags: names, list, manly men, brilliant men, max planck, lance armstrong, duncan steel, stirling mortlock, science, sports

Estrada gets life for corruption

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 03:07:32 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks: It's especially easy to detect hard-earned wealth vs. stolen wealth (or newly-acquired weath vs. old wealth) in a poor country. It's about time a decision was made on the trial.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada has been found guilty of corruption and jailed for life.

Mr Estrada was accused of embezzling about $80m (£42m) before he was forced from office by street protests in 2001.

He denies the allegations, accusing his successor Gloria Arroyo and Church leaders of conspiring against him.

There was tight security in the Philippine capital, Manila, ahead of the verdict, as Mr Estrada's supporters were kept away from the courthouse.

Analysts say that the fact that Mr Estrada will be spending more time behind bars is likely to anger the urban poor who make up the bulk of his support.

Tags: news, politics, philippines, president, trial, sentence, corruption, erap

The greatest letters ever written

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 03:59:26 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks:

When the Swiss lawyer Albin Schram died in 2005, he left behind an extraordinary collection of letters by some of Western civilisation's greatest minds. They will soon go under the hammer - but here are the highlights of the collection.

Another:

Oscar Wilde's thankyou letter to Emily Wren, whose son Chrissie had sent a seasonal gift, dated 13 December 1888.

"I cannot tell you how charmed I am with Chrissie's present. It is a very sweet picture of him, and I prize it very much in memory of my little friend. I have considered it my duty to write him a letter expressing my gratitude... Give my regards to your husband."

See source for more.

Clip Source: arts.independent.co.uk

Ernest Hemingway to Ezra Pound, July 1925. A satirical diatribe on the virtues of bulls, written at Burguete, Spain, on the way to Pamplona.

"Bulls at least are not the greatest stylists in English. No bull has ever been a political exile. Bulls don't run reviews. Bulls of 25 don't marry old women of 55 and expect to be invited to dinner. Bulls do not get you cited as co-respondent in divorce trials. Bulls do not borrow money. Bulls do not expect you to marry them and make an honest woman of them. Bulls are edible after they have been killed. Fewer bulls are homosexual. To me bulls ain't exotic. They are normal. And such a goddam relief from all this horseshit about Art etc... To hell with delicate studies of the American scene. Fuck the American scene. Fuck manners, customs, all that horseshit. Let us have more and better fucking, fighting, and bulls."

Tags: letters, collection, writing, history, people, life, correspondence