Clipmarks | merrie's clips

One Year Since Madeleine Disappeared

Sat, 03 May 2008 22:42:00 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: And yellow wrist bands from the Find Madeleine campaign were also given out and a photographic slide show of Madeleine was played to music to emphasise the positivity the McCann family has shown in the search for Madeleine.

In the letter, Kate and Gerry thanked the people of Praia da Luz for their initial and ongoing support, as well as their efforts to help in the search to find their daughter, when she went missing one year ago.

The letter spoke of Gerry and Kate’s hope that they will one day find their daughter and that their family can once again be complete.

Clip Source: portugalresident.com

Photo: Mark Rawcliffe - PORTUGAL IMAGES" />

A SPECIAL service was held to remember Madeleine and all missing children at the Nossa Senhora da Luz church in Praia da Luz at 6.30pm today (Saturday).

The emotional service, in both English and Portuguese, was conducted by the local catholic priest José Manuel Pacheco and resident Anglican Church priest Father Haynes Hubbard.

Yellow and green candles were handed out to the congregation to be lit during the service to serve as a light of hope.

Photo: Mark Rawcliffe - PORTUGAL IMAGES" />

Members of the McCann family, including Gerry McCann’s brother John, who arrived in Portugal earlier this morning, were present at the service and read a letter from Kate and Gerry to the congregation.

After the service, members of the McCann family stood outside the church with members of the congregation around them in a large circle and released yellow and green balloons.

John McCann told The Resident that this evening, members of the family would all be taking part in a private and symbolic lighting of candles.

Tags: kate and gerry mccann, portugal, praia da luz

"The Run For The Roses"

Sat, 03 May 2008 22:09:51 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Because the winner gets a blanket of 554 red roses after the race. Whether a horse would rather receive a more practical gift, like some oats or a lump of delicious sugar, is up for debate, but the garland has become a beloved tradition.

The practice springs from Derby parties Louisville's socialites threw in the early days of the race. Each lady would receive a red rose at the parties, and when Churchill Downs' president Colonel Lewis Clark saw their popularity, he made the rose the race's official flower.

According to the Derby's organizers, 1896 Derby winner Ben Brush received the first garland of roses, and in 1925 journalist Bill Corum coined the term "Run for the Roses." The first blanket of roses like the one used today was awarded to the victorious Burgoo King in 1932.

The modern garland is topped with a "crown," a single upturned rose that signifies the struggle a winner must endure. Since 1996, each winner's garland has been immediately freeze-dried for posterity.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Kentucky has been a hotbed of the sport of kings since at least the 18th century, but the Derby didn't begin until 1875. Colonel M. Lewis Clark, a grandson of the Lewis-and-Clark-expedition William Clark, needed a slate of races for his newly formed Louisville Jockey Club, so he decided to run three stakes races at the track's first meet.

The races -- the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks, and Clark Handicap -- were named after England's three marquee races, the Epsom Derby, the Epsom Oaks, and the St. Leger Stakes. The first Derby was held May 17, 1875; Aristides beat the field. (Interestingly, both Aristides' trainer and jockey were both African Americans.)

By 1883, the track would become known as Churchill Downs in recognition of John and Henry Churchill, Clark's uncles who secured the land for the course.

The first runnings of the Derby were also 1.5 miles long; the standard distance of 1.25 miles wasn't adopted until 1896.

Tags: kentucky derby, kentucky oaks, clark handicap, 1875

Revenge of the evil emperor: Mass slaughter in Beijing's Forbidden City

Sat, 03 May 2008 11:40:03 GMT

clipped by: michellezm
clipper's remarks: Interesting read.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Strewn across the gleaming black floor of the imperial harem like blood-stained butterflies pinned to a board, the beautiful young concubines in Beijing's Forbidden City appeared at first to be sleeping, but the crimson pools of blood around their silken robes told a different story.

The palace soldiers had shown no mercy in slaying these fragile creatures on that terrible night in 1421.

Acting on the orders of the Ming Emperor Yongle, one of the most feared despots in Chinese imperial history, they had wielded their swords to ensure no one survived.

Some of their innocent victims were as young as 13, but one horrified chronicler of the time described how they had been "rent, split, ripped and torn to shreds" alongside the servant girls and eunuchs who guarded them.

In all, it is said that 2,800 people were killed in the harem as the Emperor tried to suppress a sex scandal which threatened to humiliate him at what should have been the proudest moment of his reign.

Chinese Nuclear Submarines Prompt 'New Cold War' Warning

Sat, 03 May 2008 08:09:35 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: ”The main source of friction is Taiwan and you cannot rule out a nationalistic military faction coming to power to taking a punt to have a quick go.”

Chinese defence expenditure is estimated by the Pentagon to be $50 billion (£25 billion) but analysts believe large chunks of the budget are “squirreled away” and it could be as high as $200 billion making it the second largest in the world after America.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Satellite photographs passed to The Daily Telegraph this week showed that the secret base at Sanya on Hainan island will house up to 20 of the latest 094 Jin-class nuclear ballistic submarines that could be capable of firing anti-satellite missiles and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.

In the last 20 years China had gone from a coastal force to a navy capable of “exerting its influence far afield,” a senior Royal Navy officer said.

It entails asymmetric conflict in which China would use cyber warfare and laser energy to wipe out communications. Anti-satellite missiles, potentially launched from submarines, would ensure that America was “blind” over the Far East. The Chinese have already proven that they have these capabilities as well as using espionage to remove military technology from the US.

China wishes to power project well into the Pacific and challenge the dominance of the US Pacific Command.

He also said that the Sanya base gave China reach into the Indian Ocean.

Tags: nuclear submarines, 094 jin-class, nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, cyber warfare, laser energy, anti-satellite missiles

'End Of The Ethanol Dream' Astounding TV Commentary

Sat, 03 May 2008 06:43:48 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Frankly, I'd doubt any American broadcaster would have the nerve to say the following with cameras rolling and microphones switched on

Absolutely must-see video available here, transcript follows

The ethanol craze grew out of alarmism and the deep desire of governments, especially here in North America and Europe, to be seen as green. Now, it's clear that growing corn to make ethanol not only takes more energy to produce than it saves on the other end, but the subsidies, particularly in the States and Europe, for such production is one of the factors driving an international food crisis that, as always, is hardest on the poorest people of the world.

(enthusiastic h/t to NBer Par for the Course)
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2008/05/02/astounding-tv-commentary-end-ethanol-dream

Clip Source: newsbusters.org

In the past couple of weeks, NewsBusters has been noting that as food prices around the world have soared causing an international crisis, typically green press members have been surprisingly reporting a rather pessimistic view of ethanol.

Without question, the most comprehensive and daring commentary I've seen on this subject to date comes from a program north of the border called The National.

Though not a household name here in the States, the CBC's Rex Murphy is willing to address the heart of this issue in a fashion so honest and unconcerned with the currently in vogue climate alarmism that it is a metaphysical certitude viewers will want to see and read more of his opinions.

Tags: food prices, international crisis, "green press", canadian "the national"