Clipmarks | hitchhiker08's clips

Olympic torch begins its journey in Beijing

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:59:28 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: After the violent start all I hope is the games conclude peacefully...after all it is meant to be the harbinger of peace. A fact most importantly, most seem to have forgotten!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Olympic Torch Begins Its Journey in Beijing

The Olympic torch was welcomed Monday at a tightly controlled event in Tiananmen Square.

BEIJING — President Hu Jintao of China waved the Olympic torch at a ceremony in Tiananmen Square on Monday, smiling as balloons, streamers and confetti filled a mostly blue sky.

Then came the uncertain part. Mr. Hu sent the torch on a 130-day journey that includes places where protests and controversy most likely await. One eventual stop on what Beijing is calling a “Journey of Harmony” will be Lhasa, the Tibetan capital still simmering from violent antigovernment protests.

“I now declare the launch of the torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games,” Mr. Hu said in his only line in a tightly scripted celebration, broadcast across China on state television. Mr. Hu, the Communist Party leader, then handed the torch to China’s star hurdler, Liu Xiang, who raced off to culminate the ceremony.

Tags: olympic games, beijing, tibet, hu jintao, tiananmen square

Beware, the ides of recession - baton passes to Asia

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:51:38 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: Shake your head in disbelief, it doesn't change the truth...its happening!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Baton Passes to Asia

HONG KONG

Roger Cohen

It’s the end of the era of the white man.

I know your head is spinning. The world can feel like one of those split-screen TVs with images of a suicide bombing in Baghdad flashing, and the latest awful market news coursing along the bottom, and an ad for some stool-loosening wonder drug squeezed into a corner.

The jumble makes no sense. It just goes on, like the mindless clacking of an ice-dispenser.

On the globalized treadmill, you drop your eyes again from the screen (now showing ads for gourmet canine cuisine) to the New Yorker or Asahi Shimbun. And another bomb goes off.

There’s a lot of noise and not much signal. Everywhere there is flux and the reaction to it: the quest, sometimes violent, for national or religious identity. These alternate faces of globalization — fluidity and tribalism — define our frontier-dissolving world.

The breaking sound right now is that of the end of the era of the white man.

Tags: recession, china, india, guld, dubai, nyt, asahi shimbun, globalization, economy, currency

Art from Red Bull Cans

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:40:48 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: Wow!

Clip Source: thecontaminated.com

Red Bull Can Art

Below are showed pictures of the Red Bull can competition. The main goal was to built the most interesting sculpture from the Red Bull cans.

Tags: recycle, tin cans, art, creativity

World's largest moth ...

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:36:09 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: ...& i can safely say, also the most beautiful! Guess it derived its name from Charles Atlas?!

Clip Source: www.odditycentral.com

World’d largest moth

Who knew moths this big even existed?

The Atlas moth (Attacus Atlas) is is a large moth found in the tropical and subtropical forests of Southeast Asia, southern China, common across the Malay archipelago, Thailand to Indonesia.

These moths are considered the largest in the world in terms of total wing surface area (65 square inches). In Hong Kong the Cantonese name translates as “snake’s head moth”, referring to apical extension of the forewing, which bears a passing resemblance to a snake’s head.

Another interesting characteristic of the Atlas moth is that it doesn’t have fully developed mouth-parts, so it can’t feed…ever. It survives on the larval fat reserves, throughout their entire 1-2 weeks adult lives.

Tags: moth, insects, entomology, s.e.asia, atlas moth, atlacus atlas, malay archipalego

Have (2) legs will walk - Faith the dog!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:27:05 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: Takes a lot of guts to adopt a handicapped pet...but 'Faith' can move mountains...!

Clip Source: www.faiththedog.net

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An amazing dog.

Faith is an incredible dog. She was born just before Christmas in 2002, and we were lucky enough to have her in our family just 3 short weeks later. She was born to a mother dog, believed to be nearly full blooded chow, along with several other siblings. Faith wasn't the only puppy born with deformities, but because "Princess", her mother, was not our dog, we are not sure of the exact number of puppies she gave birth to. It is certain, however, that Faith was the only puppy with deformities to live.

Faith was rescued by my son Reuben on January 21, 2003, when he and his friend Johnny, the owner of Princess, jumped over the fence of the flea market area that Princess was raised to guard. Princess isn't exactly the mothering kind. She was literally terminating Faith's life because she knew instinctively that Faith was unable to battle the other puppies for a place to feed.

Tags: dog, pets, animals, faith the dog