Clipmarks | merrie's clips

BBC's First Warped Headline Before It Gets Changed

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:21:35 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Our Special One Year Analysis of the BBC demonstrated how its headline selection for stories focused on combat and terrorist attacks was inconsistent and favored the Palestinian side. Stories about Palestinian attacks never directly named the aggressors,
headlines such as "Rocket injures dozens in Israel" were used.

Indeed, even the latest BBC headline "Bulldozer rampage hits Jerusalem", is also fundamentally flawed, failing to attribute the attack to the Palestinian individual who carried it out. It was not the city of Jerusalem, the subject of the headline, that was murdered, but at least three innocent Israelis.

For accurate coverage and the latest developments from Jerusalem on this breaking story, see English-language Israeli sources such as The Jerusalem Post, Ha'aretz and YNet News. You can also read the thoughts of HonestReporting's Backspin blog editor who happened to be in downtown Jerusalem at the time of the terror atttack.

Clip Source: www.honestreporting.com

At the time of writing, more details are emerging on today's (Wednesday July 2) terror attack on Jerusalem's busy Jaffa Street thoroughfare. A Palestinian resident of Jerusalem went on the rampage in a bulldozer, attacking two buses, a number of cars and innocent passers-by, killing at least three people and wounding dozens more before being shot by an Israeli policeman.

While BBC Online currently covers the story "Bulldozer rampage hits Jerusalem," this was not the original headline. Offering a glimpse into the BBC's warped journalism

This pattern was also repeated on the BBC's television coverage (screenshot below from BBC World).

That this terror attack took place opposite Jerusalem Capital Studios, the local headquarters for many international media outlets, including BBC, Sky News and CNN, ensured that footage and coverage were available almost immediately.

Tags: bbc, news, media bias, bulldozer, jerusalem, palestinian

It's All About Obama

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:11:17 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Americans overwhelmingly find it a hopeful, optimistic sign that the country could elect an African-American president. But they rightly want to know what kind of leader he might be. They may well reject as cynical any maneuver to discourage close examination of him by suggesting any criticism is racially motivated.

The candidate's self-centeredness has been on display before. Having effectively sewed up the Democratic nomination, he could have agreed to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations (states Hillary Clinton had carried). While reducing his lead by 50 to 55 delegates, it would not have altered the outcome. But Mr. Obama supported cutting these battleground-state delegations in half. At a time when magnanimity was called for, the candidate decided he'd strut.

In a contest over who is willing to put principle above personal ambition and self-interest, John McCain, a war hero and a former POW, wins hands down.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Last month he replied "anywhere, anytime" to John McCain's invitation to have joint town hall appearances. Last week he changed his mind. Fearing 10 impromptu town halls, Mr. Obama parried the invitation by offering two such events – one the night of July 4, when every ambulatory American is watching fireworks or munching hotdogs, and another in August. His spokesman then said, "Take it or leave it." So much for "anywhere, anytime."

My former White House colleague Yuval Levin pointed out that Mr. Obama, in his first national TV ad rolled out Friday, claims credit for having "extended health care for wounded troops," citing the 2008 defense authorization. That bill passed 91-3 – but Mr. Obama was one of only six senators who didn't show up to vote. This brazen claim underscores the candidate's thin résumé and, again, his chutzpah.

Mr. Obama has now also played the race card, twice suggesting in recent weeks that Republicans will draw attention to the fact that he's black

Tags: obama, clinton, mccain, wounded warriors health bill, race card, townhall debates

Iran Announces Bid For UN Security Council Seat

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:41:41 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced his country's bid today for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, a candidacy that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad immediately rejected.

U.S. opposition would be based on the unwritten rule at the UN that nations under Security Council sanctions aren't elected to the panel. The council has adopted three resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment as part of its nuclear program.

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

Mottaki told envoys at a meeting of the group of 57 Islamic nations that Iran would seek the seat that will become open when Indonesia's two-year term ends on Dec. 31, according to diplomats who attended the closed session. Iran would compete with Japan, the only other declared candidate for a seat that is designated for an Asian nation.

``For a country that is under sanctions and is not in compliance with the requirements that the international community has repeatedly asked of it, it is surprising that it would believe that it could become a Security Council member,'' Khalilzad said. ``That would be extraordinarily strange for Iran in the current circumstances.''

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia, which along with the U.S., Britain, China and France have permanent seats on the Security Council, said the sanctions on Iran would ``be a problem.''

Voting for five new temporary members will be held in October.

Tags: iran, u.n.security council, u.s. ambassador, britain, france, russia, china

Wikipedia Blamed For Declining Test Scores

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:48:52 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: The group singled out online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows entries to be logged or updated by anyone and is not verified by researchers, as the main source of information. . . .

Clip Source: blog.camera.org

Wikipedia Blamed For Declining Test Scores

As if any more confirmation were needed that Wikipedia is riddled with inaccuracies and false information, a Scottish parent-teacher group has come out against it as the cause of declining test scores. The Scotsman reports:

Several further education institutions have already banned students from using the interactive encyclopaedia. At one college in Vermont in the US, a history professor found several students repeated the same error in exam papers. On discovering the information came from Wikipedia, the college outlawed its future use.

The Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC) said pupils are turning to websites and internet resources that contain inaccurate or deliberately misleading information before passing it off as their own work.

WIKIPEDIA and other online research sources were yesterday blamed for Scotland's falling exam pass rates.

Tags: wikipedia, inaccuracies, false information, vermont college, outlawed

Family Details Troubled Life Of Man Behind Rampage

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:14:05 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: But then, he said, a Jewish watchdog group stole her away in the dead of night and returned her to her family.

Shortly afterward, he was sent to prison for a year, for what other family members and police said were drug-related charges.

“The problems started after he was in jail. After he came out of jail, he was always alone. … He is a good man, but after prison, he was confused and nervous,” his cousin said. However, his family arranged a marriage with a young woman from his village, and they now have two young sons.

Israeli police spent Wednesday afternoon interrogating his family but then left, and have said they believe he was acting alone.

Clip Source: www.theglobeandmail.com

At his home in Sur Baher, a Palestinian village now part of east Jerusalem, friends and neighbours gathered to offer condolences as the family prepared to erect a traditional mourning tent. But there was little sign of the celebration that sometimes accompanies a “martyr” death, and no flags that would suggest political affiliation.

Mr. Dwait was a married father of two young sons who worked in construction with Israeli companies from the age of 15. A holder of an Israeli-issued “blue” ID card reserved for Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, he was legally employed and working on the city's light-rail line, expected to open by 2010.

Mr. Dwait's family said he had never been the same after a soured romance with a young Russian Jewish woman, whom he met eight years ago, and a subsequent jail term.

“She came here, she lived here in his parents' house with him, she stayed for a month,” remembered his cousin, Osama Dwait, 35, last night.

Tags: jerusalem attack, hussam dwait, palestinian attacker

Ben Franklin Took The Parisian Salons By Storm

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:12:40 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Franklin's miracle was that, armed only with his canny personal charm and assisted by his international reputation as a scientist and philosopher, he was able to cajole a wary French government into lending the fledgling American nation an enormous fortune. Not only did Franklin help seal the French alliance with a formal treaty in 1778 and keep it alive throughout the war; he was instrumental, as well, in negotiating the peace with Britain. By the time Franklin sailed back to Philadelphia in 1785, he had proved himself "the most indispensable leader of the American Revolution next to George Washington," says Dull. [author of A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution]

The enduring image of Franklin in Paris tends to be that of a flirtatious old man, too busy visiting the city's fashionable salons to pursue affairs of state as rigorously as John Adams.

The French consistently asked the Continental Congress to retain Franklin as America's chief spokesman.

Clip Source: www.usnews.com

The extraordinary popularity served Franklin's diplomatic purposes splendidly. Not even King Louis XVI could ignore the enthusiasm that had won over both the nobility and the bourgeoisie. Significantly, Franklin had found in the French minister for foreign affairs, Charles Gravier, the comte de Vergennes, a wily and willing listener—a pragmatic strategist eager to weaken Britain, with which France had been warring for centuries.

Franklin, here in the court of France, was hugely popular with the French.

When, in 1785, Thomas Jefferson arrived in Paris to become America's next minister to France, Gravier said, "You replace Dr. Franklin, then." Jefferson responded: "I succeed; no one can replace him."

Tags: benjamin franklin, diplomat, king louis xvi, financial loan, french treaty, peace with britain

30 Most Incredible Abstract Satellite Images of Earth

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:03:45 GMT

clipped by: missjackson

Clip Source: www.environmentalgraffiti.com

By Tom Davie and Chris Ingham Brooke

400,000 images taken by the Landsat 7 satellite

A handful of the best were painstakingly chosen and then displayed at the Library of Congress in 2000.

Guinea-Bissau

Garden City, Kansas, USA

Akpatok Island, Canada

Aleutian Clouds, North America

Mayn River, Siberia, Russia

Bolivian Deforestation

Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Ocean Sands, Bahamas

Lake Carnegie, Australia

Chilean Volcanoes

Clip Source: www.environmentalgraffiti.com

Coahuila, Mexico

The Everglades, Florida, USA

Ganges River Delta, (Bangladesh & India)

Ghadamis River, Libya

Baffin Bay, Greenland

Konari, Iran

Iraqi Military emplacement

Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Dasht-e Kavir, Iran

Lena River, Russia

Clip Source: www.environmentalgraffiti.com

MacDonnell Mountains, Australia

Malaspina Glacier, Alaska, USA

The Optimist, Kalahari Desert, Namibia

Parana River, Brazil

Richat Structure, Mauritiana

The Great Sandy Desert, Australia

The Great Sandy Scars, Australia

Terkezi Oasis, Chad

Volga Delta, Russia

Karman Vortices

The Unlikely Role of Patriot Pirates

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:10:03 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: in bloody mismatches of firepower and seamanship. But the payday was deemed worth the risk. One success, shrugged the Philadelphia financier Robert Morris, an avid investor, "will pay for two, three, or four losses." The crews themselves were no less bullish. One New Hampshire seaman, just 14 years old, collected a ton of sugar, 40 gallons of rum, and $100 in gold from the proceeds of one captured ship. Although a six-week privateering jaunt turned into two years of combat and harsh imprisonment for a Connecticut teenager, he astonished his family by hopping another privateer two days after staggering home. He ended the war a wealthy man.

Benjamin Franklin, America's first emissary to France and a strong supporter of privateering, had no illusions about defeating the Royal Navy, but he aimed to prolong the sea war in order to weaken British resolve. "We expect to make their merchants sick of a contest in which so much is risked and nothing gained."

Clip Source: www.usnews.com

Unable to attack British-occupied Boston because of shortages of cannons and gunpowder, George Washington observed the flow of enemy supplies into Boston harbor

Offering a percentage of the spoils as inducement to the crews, he dispatched several armed schooners to prowl Massachusetts Bay.

The last of Washington's schooners left government service in 1777. In their place were a fledgling Continental Navy and a marauding horde of civilian privateers, essentially legalized pirates who were permitted under international law to plunder the enemy's commercial ships.

They seized 600 ships in American waters and hundreds more in the North Atlantic, as well as in the West Indies, then a teeming marketplace for New World

In Britain, privateering caused the price of imports and maritime insurance to soar. Newspaper editorials denounced the American "pyrates," and merchants wondered, "Where is the boasted navy of our country?"

the Royal Navy captured or destroyed hundreds of American privateers

Tags: washington, franklin, boston harbor, royal navy, colonial privateers, continental navy

French Polynesia Photos

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:22:43 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: Stumbled upon this site....

Clip Source: www.johnmirandaphoto.com

French Polynesia

Below A few of my favorite pictures from a May 2008 trip to French Polynesia. We visited Tahiti, Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahaa, Raiatea, and many smaller motu's. We spent a few days on land, then took a week cruise on the M/s Paul Gauguin. I also added underwater images taken with my older Nikon D100 DSLR.

Travelling from the US to Bora Bora required an overnight stop in Tahiti. Our "in-transit" hotel.

Bora Bora surrounded by lagoons, seen from the airplane.

Bungalows near Bora Bora.

Bora Bora Intercontinental, bottom of image, seen from the airplane.

Over-water bungalows.

Moonrise over Bora Bora.

M/s Paul Gauguin anchored at Moorea.

Motu (Island).

Lagoon fishing.

Resort on Bora Bora

Dogs from this small Motu enjoy fetching coconuts thrown into the water.

Sailing outside the reef.

I used an under-water kit with my Nikon D100 to capture reef shark and sting rays while diving.

Black tipped reef shark.

Tahitian Pearl farm.

Early morning, Bora Bora.

Scholars Make Finds In Search Of Nazi Archive

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:35:35 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: The 50 million pages stored in this central German spa town since the mid-1950s previously had been used by Red Cross staff to respond to inquiries about missing persons or the fate of family members, and later to document compensation claims.

The gray metal shelves and cabinets contain 16 miles (25 kilometers) of transport lists, camp registries, medical records, forced labor files and death certificates of some 17.5 million people subjected to Nazi persecutions.

Taken together with written and oral testimonies and the transcripts of war crimes trials, the dry data at Bad Arolsen add texture to the known picture of the Holocaust, from the first concentration camps created within weeks of Hitler's rise to power in January 1933 to the defeat of Nazism in May 1945.

"It was much more than I expected," said Trouve.

investigative researcher Randy Herschaft contributed to this article from Bad Arolsen

Clip Source: bennauro.blogspot.com

It was the first concentrated academic sweep of the long-private archive administered by the International Tracing Service since it opened its doors last November to Holocaust survivors, victims relatives and historical researchers.

German historian Christel Trouve said the nameless millions of forced laborers began to take shape as individual people as she studied small labor camps _ which existed in astonishing numbers.

Among the striking revelations was the identification of the man who rescued an 8-year-old boy in Buchenwald, Israel Meir Lau, who later became Israel's chief rabbi.

Lau had said his rescuer was a person called Fyodor from Rostow. Kenneth Waltzer of Michigan State University found it was Fyodor Michajlitschenko, 18, arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, who gave the small boy ear warmers and treated him like a father in Block 8 until the camp's liberation.

From prison brothels to slave labor camps, 15 scholars concluded a two-week probe Thursday of an untapped repository

Tags: holocaust survivors, victims relatives, historical researchers, bad arolsen, germany, buchenwald, gestapo

U.S. Ambassador Cites Positive Changes In Iraq

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:16:22 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: The enemy may be pushing back, the Iraqi government’s response displays intolerance for these acts and a determination to reclaim their neighborhoods from the perpetrators, the ambassador said. Leadership response to a June 24 attack in Sadr City aimed at district council members is a prime example.

On June 26, the council reconvened to hold the election that had been scheduled for the day of the attack and elected one of the members who had been wounded as its new chairman. It then denounced the attackers, publicly thanked the United States for its support, and extended sympathy to those affected by the attack, Crocker said.

“We’ve got more hard work in front of us,” he said. “The fighting is by no means over, but clearly we are in a different and better place than we were even six months ago.”

Though work remains to be completed in Iraq, Crocker said, he is certain the climate is in place for Iraqis to build their country on all fronts -- security, political and economic.

Clip Source: www.mnf-iraq.com

WASHINGTON — Iraq is enjoying some substantial political, and economic progress in addition to better security, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq said during an interview on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer” June 29.

“As security has improved, the environment has changed for the better,” Ryan C. Crocker said from Baghdad. “That allows for compromises to emerge that simply were not possible before.”

He pointed to better budget execution as one piece of evidence pointing toward Iraq’s changes for the better, and also noted provincial elections are coming up. “Those elections, in the latter part of this year, will be a very significant step,” he said.

Crocker acknowledged that the United States’ work in Iraq is not over when asked about the increase in casualties in some areas since May.

“We’re up against some resilient and determined enemies [who] have the capacity to hit back, and that’s what we’re seeing, both from al-Qaida and its allies and from Shiia militias.”

Tags: ryan crocker, baghdad, sadr city, election, council members

"The Man Who Invented The Twentieth Century"

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:13:18 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. During this period, in the United States, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture,[4] but due to his eccentric personality and unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist.[5][6] Never having put much focus on his finances, Tesla died impoverished at the age of 86.

Clip Source: encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com

Nikola Tesla (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла) (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was an inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer. Born in Smiljan, Croatian Krajina, Military Frontier, he was an ethnic Serb subject of the Austrian Empire and later became an American citizen. Tesla is best known for his many revolutionary contributions to the discipline of electricity and magnetism in the late 19th and early 20th century. Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, including the polyphase power distribution systems and the AC motor, with which he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.

After his demonstration of wireless communication (radio) in 1893 and after being the victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as America's greatest electrical engineer.

Tags: nikola tesla, physicist, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, inventor

Drug Arrests Were Real; the Badge Was Fake

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:34:31 GMT

clipped by: Charlie Martel 732AD
clipper's remarks: Funny, amazing story. Yea, I know there's a down side to vigilante justice, though this vigilante didn't lynch or even physically harm anyone. Got to admire his spirit, if not his means. Apparently he was quite effective while it lasted.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Drug Arrests Were Real; the Badge Was Fake

GERALD, Mo. — Like so many rural communities in the country’s middle, this small town had wrestled for years with the woes of methamphetamine. Then, several months ago, a federal agent showed up.

Arrests began. Houses were ransacked. People, in handcuffs on their front lawns, named names. To some, like Mayor Otis Schulte, who considers the county around Gerald, population 1,171, “a meth capital of the United States,” the drug scourge seemed to be fading at last.

Those whose homes were searched, though, grumbled about a peculiar change in what they understood — mainly from television — to be the law.

They said the agent, a man some had come to know as “Sergeant Bill,” boasted that he did not need search warrants to enter their homes because he worked for the federal government.

Tags: vigilante

Olbama's Tax Plan Designed To Appeal To Class Envy

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:43:54 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: That $40 billion tax hike alone is twice as much as all the federal taxes paid by the 39 million Americans in the bottom quintile.

We're sure that Obama's camp would address our concerns by pointing out that raising the tax bill for the top 1% eases the tax burden on the rest of America. But that's a superficial rationalization designed to appeal to class envy.

First, increasing the burden on the top taxpayers will not make the poor rich, but instead make the rich poorer. There will be 131 billion fewer dollars in the private sector for investments that create businesses and jobs.

Second, squeezing the federal tax burden onto an ever smaller group is not smart. The Marxist appetite for radically progressive taxation is both unfair and dangerous.

Third, the large majority that pays little or no taxes will make excessive demands on the small group that is saddled with the burden because the non- and low-paying group is insulated from the pain.

Clip Source: www.investors.com

Economist Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation, has looked at the Obama plan and found that it "would redistribute more than $131 billion per year from the top 1% of taxpayers to all other taxpayers."

And remember, this isn't the overall tax bill for the top 1% of taxpayers — it's just the amount beyond their current taxes that they would have to pay under the Obama plan.

Apparently Obama believes it's fair for 1.13 million Americans to pay more to the federal government than, as Hodge notes, "128 million of their fellow citizens combined."

These numbers don't even include Obama's plan for hiking the Social Security tax, which he would apply to income above $250,000 a year, leaving a poorly thought-out, tax-free doughnut on income between $102,000, where the tax currently stops, and $250,000.

With this tax hike figured into the equation, the amount of money redistributed from the top 1% goes up by $40 billion in 2009 "and more than $629 billion over the next ten years."

Tags: obama, tax-policies, top 1% tax hike, hike social security tax

How George Washington's Savvy Won The Day

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:02:37 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Fighting force. Washington's vision was vindicated in the winter of 1776-77, as his Army, often working with militias, scored quick-hitting successes at Trenton, Princeton, and other parts of New Jersey. Washington even made the best of a painful setback after the British conquest of the nation's capital, Philadelphia. Settling in for a hard winter at Valley Forge, Pa., Washington built a distinctively American fighting force even while exercising political skills that allowed him to overcome insubordinate rivals in the Army and to mollify critics in the Continental Congress.

Just as important, he had won the lasting support of America's civilian authorities, to whom he returned all power at war's end. Hearing of that gesture, Britain's King George III said that Washington would be the greatest man in history if it was true.

Clip Source: www.usnews.com

As commander in chief of the Continental Army, the Virginia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War did not simply best the world's most formidable fighting machine. He set the template for a new, truly American style of command—a style rightly called leadership.

But many of the greatest generals in history, including Napoleon, did not in the end do what Washington did: "He won," says Ellis. "And he won because he understood the war, the big picture, including the political context."

"In twelve weeks," writes Brandeis University historian David Hackett Fischer in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington's Crossing, "George Washington lost large parts of three states, and 90 percent of the army under his command."

Early defeats had only added to Washington's conviction that militias were inadequate; a disciplined army that would not melt away in the face of artillery and the well-drilled ranks of red-coated soldiers was, in his view, the necessary backbone of a protracted struggle.

Tags: george washington, continental congress, continental army, revolutionary war, historians