Clipmarks | ouyangwulong's clips

More than 30 places to find free books.

Tue, 08 May 2007 03:35:38 GMT

clipped by: ashleystar
clipper's remarks: love lists like this.

Clip Source: www.friedbeef.com

Best Places to Get Free Books - The Ultimate Guide

Clip Source: www.friedbeef.com

ManyBooks - Free eBooks for your PDA, iPod, or eBook reader - Thanks Tony Bryan & abben

BookCrossing - Where real books are released into the wild to be found by others - Thanks Engtech

LibraryElf - The perfect companion to a public library system - Thanks Engtech

Word Public Library - 400,000 PDF ebooks for download - Thanks Ellen

Scribd - Open library to publish and discover documents online - Thanks CincauHangus

Tags: books, reading, literature, free

20 Things the average person doesn't know about XP

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:16:27 GMT

clipped by: sohil

Clip Source: www.metrocast.net

20 Things the average person doesn't know about XP

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

Tags: microsoft, windows, firefox, internet, interesting, web, computer, computers, windows xp, tips

The most addictive website I have seen in a long ...

Sat, 19 May 2007 16:45:13 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Besides Clipmarks that is ...
This site is unbelievable, you just sit and stare.

Clip Source: flickrvision.com

Tags: flickr, pictures, maps

Heartbreaking Nature Story

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:41:50 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: We know that whales are intelligent. Whether they are self aware is another matter. Yet, there is something very poignant about this story.

Clip Source: www.kuro5hin.org

The Loneliest Mystery of the Deep

For the last 12 years, a single solitary whale whose vocalizations match no known living species has been tracked across the Northeast Pacific. Its wanderings match no known migratory patterns of any living whale species. Its vocalizations have also subtly deepened over the years, indicating that the whale is maturing and ageing. And, during the entire 12 year span that it has been tracked, it has been calling out for contact from others of its own kind.

It has received no answer. Nor will it ever.

Whatever the identity of this strange unidentified alien whale, it is, for now, the very definition of poetic, existential loneliness, in both time and space. The whale is somewhere wandering the Northeast Pacific, right now, in a rudderless, aimless track. And right now the lonely beast could be calling out for others of its kind, and finding none, for over 12 years and counting.

Tags: nature, whale, lonely, sad

French Atomic Bomb Test Photos from 1968

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:28:58 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: Never-before-seen 40-year-old pictures of French atomic bomb tests have surfaced on the internet and they are simultaneously beautiful and terrifying. The epitome of historical human achievement and wanton destruction combined in one split-second.

These are four scanned pictures of hardcopies I possess of the French nuclear test codenamed Canopus, which was fired on 24th August 1968 in the Fangataufa Atoll. The French army had those pictures taken on site.

Full-size links: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Clip Source: flickr.com

This shot was taken in 1968 by the French army in the Fangataufa atoll. Codenamed Canopus, it yielded 2600 kt.

Although this picture, like many of the series, is a work of the French Army (as far as I know) this is an original scan from a hardcopy I posess, and processed to remove dust and scratches.

A strange view on such paradise-like landscapes.

Clip Source: flickr.com

Tags: bomb, atomic, nuclear, blast, mushroom, cloud, 1968, french, france, photos

Repetition Makes False Beliefs Permanent

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:24:18 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: Politicians and other unscrupulous types have long exploited what psychological studies are now confirming: due to the neurophysiology of the learning process, simple repetitive association between two concepts is enough to make false propositions "feel" true and well-supported.

Worse, after enough exposure to such associations, subsequent denials can strengthen the perception of the falsehood instead of weakening it. (This is a major reason why the stigma of a false accusation can persist even after innocence is proven.)

Indeed, repetition seems to be a key culprit. Things that are repeated often become more accessible in memory, and one of the brain's subconscious rules of thumb is that easily recalled things are true.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Persistence of Myths Could Alter Public Policy Approach

Contrary to the conventional notion that people absorb information in a deliberate manner, the studies show that the brain uses subconscious "rules of thumb" that can bias it into thinking that false information is true. Clever manipulators can take advantage of this tendency.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

The experiments do not show that denials are completely useless; if that were true, everyone would believe the myths. But the mind's bias does affect many people, especially those who want to believe the myth for their own reasons, or those who are only peripherally interested and are less likely to invest the time and effort needed to firmly grasp the facts.

The research also highlights the disturbing reality that once an idea has been implanted in people's minds, it can be difficult to dislodge. Denials inherently require repeating the bad information, which may be one reason they can paradoxically reinforce it.

Tags: politics, psychology, bias, manipulation, urban legends, beliefs, brain, cognitive science, myths, learning

GIANT Crystals!

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:55:02 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Uh, yeah, I know, it's a stupid title and I normally have something more cerebral to say, but this is just plain cool.

I wonder what could possibly explain my fascination with these crystals?

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Giant Crystal Cave Comes to Light

In the new issue of the journal Geology, García-Ruiz reports that for millennia the crystals thrived in the cave's extremely rare and stable natural environment. Temperatures hovered consistently around a steamy 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius), and the cave was filled with mineral-rich water that drove the crystals' growth.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Tags: giant, crystals, big, huge, enormous, phalus?

An Orgasm Is All In The Mind

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:37:35 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: news.scotsman.com

IT’S a scientific fact: human brains are programmed for orgasms - with or without the actual sex act.

"It’s the same reward mechanism that encourages us to share our DNA," said Dr Lomas. "But it can be achieved without the physical act of copulation."

Only humans have this power to induce mental ecstasy, and it’s a complex set of responses that can be achieved by learned behavioural patterns or triggered by hyper-arousal during peak experiences, he says.

"At times of hyper-arousal, our brains are designed to freeload on the behavioural reward that encourages us to reproduce," he said. "And that is another name for orgasm."

Dr Cynthia McVey, a psychologist from Glasgow Caledonian University, said that from puberty onwards, achieving orgasm without sexual contact happens in our dreams.

Tags: inspired, by, rightys, comments, on, the, jodie, foster, clip

The Mathematical Lives of Plants

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:43:06 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

The seeds of a sunflower, the spines of a cactus, and the bracts of a pine cone all grow in whirling spiral patterns. Remarkable for their complexity and beauty, they also show consistent mathematical patterns that scientists have been striving to understand.
...
Scientists have puzzled over this pattern of plant growth for hundreds of years. Why would plants prefer the golden angle to any other? And how can plants possibly "know" anything about Fibonacci numbers?

For the first time, scientists have found convincing biochemical mechanisms responsible for the interlocking spiral growth patterns seen in many plants. (The Romanesco broccoli plant is a striking example.) The video of the experiment with magnetized liquid iron droplets demonstrates how the geometry of such growth could occur in nature.

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

Each yellow nub in the center of this daisy is actually its own miniature flower, complete with a full set of reproductive organs. The buds form interlocking clockwise and counterclockwise spirals.
Scott Hotton

The golden angle is the angle subtended by the smaller (red) arc when two arcs that make up a circle are in the golden ratio.
Wikipedia

This sunflower has 21 clockwise and 34 counterclockwise spirals.
Scott Hotton

Plants form new seeds or buds from the center. In this picture, the circle labeled 1 would be the most recent bud. The circle labeled 2 would have been formed just previously, and it forms the golden angle with bud 1

An image of the tip of a Norway spruce branch, viewed through an electron microscope, shows small buds that are primordial. In this case, they will eventually turn into needles. The primordia form at the tip and then move outward and downward.
R. Rutishauser

This cactus, a Mammilaria moellerana, has golden-angle spirals.
Eleanor Farrington

Tags: math, plants, biology, symmetry, sprial, science, nature, geometry, fibonacci, patterns

Living organism found in nuclear waste

Wed, 16 May 2007 14:00:41 GMT

clipped by: BigBadWolf

Clip Source: chronicle.augusta.com

Organism found at SRS amazes scientific world

One of the world's tiniest celebrities hails from one of the planet's toughest neighborhoods.

Its story began a couple of years ago, when scientists fished a strange slime off a probe used to examine decades-old, high-level nuclear waste inside tanks stored at Savannah River Site.

"At first, nobody was sure what it was," said Christopher "Kitt" Bagwell, a senior scientist at the top-secret Savannah River National Laboratory.

Turns out, the greenish-orange slime was alive.

The more it was studied, the more it enamored scientists who were fascinated with its ability to survive radiation doses thousands of times greater than what is considered lethal to humans.

"Finding an organism in such a toxic environment is very unexpected," said Dr. Bagwell, who will present a paper about the bacteria - dubbed kineococcus radiotolerans - to the American Society for Microbiology next month.

Tags: life, science

What the World Eats : Food habits of people around the globe

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 05:21:11 GMT

clipped by: thefoxalmighty
clipper's remarks: This is interesting.. Go thro the facts in the site...

Clip Source: www.time.com

What the World Eats

What's on family dinner tables in fifteen different homes around the globe? Photographs by Peter Menzel from the book "Hungry Planet"

Clip Source: www.time.com

Japan: The Ukita family of Kodaira City

Clip Source: www.time.com

Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily

Clip Source: www.time.com

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp

Clip Source: www.time.com

Kuwait: The Al Haggan family of Kuwait City

Clip Source: www.time.com

United States: The Revis family of North Carolina

Clip Source: www.time.com

Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca

Clip Source: www.time.com

China: The Dong family of Beijing

Clip Source: www.time.com

Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna

Clip Source: www.time.com

Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo

Clip Source: www.time.com

Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo

Clip Source: www.time.com

United States: The Caven family of California

Clip Source: www.time.com

Mongolia: The Batsuuri family of Ulaanbaatar

Clip Source: www.time.com

Great Britain: The Bainton family of Cllingbourne Ducis

Clip Source: www.time.com

Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village

Clip Source: www.time.com

Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide

Tags: food, world

Is Bisexuality Common Or Rare?

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:41:05 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Interestingly enough there has been lack of research into this field of sexuality and sexual preference.

Clip Source: www.romanceopedia.com

It is not easy to determine how common bisexuality might be since little research has been done on this subject.

Based on research done by Kinsey in the 1940s and 1950s, as many as 15-25% of women and 33-46% of men may be bisexual, based on their activities or attractions.

Bisexuals are in many ways a hidden population. In our culture, it is generally assumed that a person is either heterosexual (the default assumption) or homosexual (based on appearance or behavioral clues). Because bisexuality does not fit into these standard categories, it is often denied or ignored. When it is recognized, bisexuality is often viewed as being part heterosexual and part homosexual, rather than being a unique and complete identity within itself.

As a result, bisexuality is perceived to threaten the
accepted way of looking at the world by calling into question the validity of rigid sexual categories.

Tags: sex, preference, research, socializaiton

Historical Atlas with 4000 year map animation

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:22:31 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: The Download is 2.6 MB and fairly easy to use

Clip Source: www.atlasofworldhistory.com

Free historical atlas software for Windows PCs

4000 year map animation shows change over time.
Click nations on maps for history at that time and place.
Africa, Asia, and Europe to the year 1000.

Download Free

For Windows XP and Vista PCs.
Free version is full feature. FAQ.

For Teachers For Students About Us

Tags: world, atlas, map, history, animation

Why America Will Survive George W. Bush

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 14:53:01 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

Otto von Bismarck saw how American blunders led to American power and allegedly said that God has a special providence for drunks, fools, and the United States of America.

Walter Russell Mead (of the Council on Foreign Relations) puts Bush's 8-year stint in the White House into proper perspective.

America's foreign policy has been short-sighted and often self-defeating from the get-go, alternately collaborative, passive, and interventionist. And, yet, miraculously, we always come out ahead.

With the unstoppable rise of a global capitalist economy, Mead makes the case that America, for all its past and current faults, will continue to be the inevitable leader of this new international buoyancy. Not even our latest mistakes (unprecedented though they may be) can derail such a powerful incentive that is the modern American world trade system.

Which means, more than ever, we're literally all in this together.

Clip Source: www.tnr.com

Failing Upward

Nothing in the field of international affairs is as scandalous and as perplexing as the fact of American power. From Revolutionary times to the present, virtually all observers foreign and domestic have agreed that Americans don't do foreign policy well.

Moralistic, uninformed, unsubtle, alternately isolationist and hyperactive, hamstrung by a clumsy constitutional process and a public that oscillates between fatuous idealism and ignorant bellicosity, U.S. foreign policy has been shocking the world for more than 200 years.

And, worse still, we win. For two centuries, the United States has astounded critics with its bad foreign policy--and, for two centuries, the United States has steadily risen to an unprecedented level of power and influence in the international system.

The spectacle is often surreal. The United States seems to wander nearsightedly but relatively unscathed past one hazard after another

like a version of the chronically oblivious cartoon character Mr. Magoo.

Tags: america, usa, bush, foreign policy, world, history, war, empire, trade, economy

Giant Turkey Chases Boston Woman, Pecks Bottom Repeatedly

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:24:30 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

When dispatched to the scene of a turkey, [Brookline police animal control officer Pierre] Verrier offers advice instead.

He tells people not to feed them, not to be intimidated by them, and to keep their distance. Still, some people cannot help themselves. They need to be near the turkeys.

Distance-shmistance, we want to be near the turkeys. I, for one, am against the city of Boston trying to regulate mutually consensual human-turkey behavior. A light ass-pecking never hurt anyone, am I right?

Even though this incident happened right near my apartment, I have not been lucky enough to experience any super-sized turkeys on my errands, sadly. Look at the size of that sucker...he's gotta be like 12 feet tall!

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Turkeys take to cities, towns

BROOKLINE - On a recent afternoon, Kettly Jean-Felix parked her car on Beacon Street in Brookline, fed the parking meter, wheeled around to go to the optician and came face to face with a wild turkey.

The turkey eyed Jean-Felix. Jean-Felix eyed the turkey. It gobbled. She gasped. Then the turkey proceeded to follow the Dorchester woman over the Green Line train tracks, across the street, through traffic, and all the way down the block, pecking at her backside as she went.

"This is so scary," Jean-Felix said, finally taking refuge inside Cambridge Eye Doctors in Brookline's bustling Washington Square. "I cannot explain it."

Tags: turkey, bottom, pecking, boston, thanksgiving, gobble, giant.turkey.uprising