Clipmarks | reimers's clips

Penn & Teller: Bullshit!: Being Green

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:14:31 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: www.sho.com

[Video]

Girl With Long, Odd Name Changes It

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:20:26 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: news.aol.com

What's in a name? A lot, apparently. A New Zealand judge rules that a 9-year-old girl named Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii can change hers. Other names blocked by officials there include Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit. Number 16 Bus Shelter and Violence, however, made it through. Full Story

Army Orders NFL Draft Pick to Duty

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:19:12 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: sports.aol.com

Caleb Campbell was a day away from practicing with the Detroit Lions and taking a step toward his dream of playing in the NFL. "He was issued a helmet, ready to go," coach Rod Marinelli said Wednesday.

Now, Campbell will serve his country.

The U.S. Army revised its interpretation of U.S. Department of Defense policy two weeks ago regarding soldiers playing professional sports, requiring cadets to complete two years of active duty before applying for a release.

"It's unfortunate, but it doesn't mean Caleb Campbell's dream is dead. It just means it will be delayed," Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Anne Edgecomb told The Associated Press. "We want to take care of soldiers and dashing their hopes is not what we intend. But it is what it is."

Campbell and the Lions didn't officially receive notice of the change until the eve of training camp.

"Oh yeah, I cried, because I wanted a shot," Campbell, a seventh-round draft pick of the Lions, told The Oakland Press of Pontiac for a story published Thursday.

Obama Berlin Speech Transcript

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:56:22 GMT

clipped by: reimers
clipper's remarks: The entire transcript at source.

Clip Source: drudgereport.com

Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen -- a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father -- my grandfather -- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning -- his dream -- required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West.

Photo Gallery: Obama Takes in the German Capital

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:54:54 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

US presidential candidate Barack Obama flew into Berlin from Israel on Thursday to start the European leg of his overseas campaign trip.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

The Democratic senator began his visit to the German capital with a stop at the Chancellery to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

Merkel had expressed doubts about Obama's original plan to hold a vast public speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate. But she said on Wednesday that she was excited to meet the candidate.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

While in Israel, Obama sought to reassure the country of his commitment to America's "historical" relationship with the Israelis. Prior to jetting off to Berlin, Obama prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem before dawn.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

Tourist attraction: Two actors, dressed in US military uniform and holding the American flag, pose in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

Lonely voice: A man carries an umbrella decorated with McCain posters at the Brandenburg Gate.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

A supporter of Barack Obama outside the Hotel Adlon in Berlin on Thursday.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

Paris Left Cold by Obama Visit

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:49:41 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

While Obama's Berlin visit has caused a stir, hardly anyone is interested in his trip to Paris on Friday. There are hardly any French media reports on the eve of his visit. There is merely some grumbling about the extensive itinerary for his trip to Berlin. "A speech in Berlin, five little hours in Paris," writes French daily Le Monde.

John McCain Has His own Berlin Moment

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:48:19 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain is not leaving Berlin to his Democratic rival. The Republicans are airing anti-Obama radio ads in Berlin on Thursday. Not in Berlin, Germany but in the city's namesakes in the states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. The audience reach may be tiny, but the 60-second ads which accuse Obama of voting against allocating money to military troops, shows that the Republicans can have a bit of fun at Obama's expense.

Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:20:46 GMT

clipped by: reimers
clipper's remarks: "I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real," Dr Mitchell said.

"It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.

"I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes - we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it's been happening quite a bit."

Clip Source: www.news.com.au

FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist.

And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.

Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'

He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.

Chillingly, he claimed our technology is "not nearly as sophisticated" as theirs and "had they been hostile", he warned "we would be been gone by now".

Dr Mitchell, along with with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest ever moon walk, at nine hours and 17 minutes following their 1971 mission.

Why the Press Is Ignoring the Edwards "Love Child" Story

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:18:54 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: www.slate.com

So why hasn't the press commented on the story yet? Is it because it broke too late yesterday afternoon, and news organizations want to investigate it for themselves before writing about it? Or are they observing a double standard that says homo-hypocrisy is indefensible but that hetero-hypocrisy deserves an automatic bye?

That's my sense. Consider how the press treated Jesse Jackson when he admitted to having fathered a daughter outside of his marriage. The baby arrived in 1999, but Jackson didn't go public about it until 2001, after the National Enquirer scheduled its story about the little girl and her mother. Jackson, who loves preaching to others about their morality, suffered less than two seconds of opprobrium from the press after his admission.

New tool from Facebook extends its Web presence

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:14:52 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Facebook, the rapidly growing social network, unveiled some new features on Wednesday as it works to broaden its reach online and to recalibrate its sometimes contentious relationship with the thousands of developers writing programs for the service.

In a speech at his company's annual conference for developers, called F8, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's 24-year-old chief executive, also demonstrated the company's new design. He predicted that there would soon be a wave of social Web sites built on top of the information users give to social networks.

We are going to see the big social networks start to decentralize into a series of social applications across the Web

To carve out a piece of that future, the company announced Facebook Connect, a way that other Web sites can integrate parts of Facebook's service. Web sites can ask users for their Facebook user name and password, instead of creating an identity verification system themselves

Schwarzenegger threatens minimum wage for workers

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:12:39 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: apnews.myway.com

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to pay thousands of state employees the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until lawmakers reach a deal on California's overdue state budget.

Democrats and Republicans have so far been unable to compromise on a solution to the state's $15.2 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year that started July 1. As the stalemate continued, Schwarzenegger has ratcheted up his rhetoric.

Spokesman Aaron McLear said the Republican governor is contemplating signing an executive order next week that would pay about 200,000 state workers the federal minimum wage, which is $1.45 an hour less than California's minimum wage.

Employees would receive their full salary retroactively once a budget is signed.

"Because the Legislature has failed to produce a budget over a month past their deadline and because we don't have a rainy day fund, the governor is looking at a number of options to make sure the state does not run out of cash," McLear said.

Politics Hits The Wall

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:27:11 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: drudgereport.com

OBAMA VISITS WESTERN WALL IN OLD CITY JERUSALEM... ARRIVES AT 5:08 AM LOCAL TIME [10:08 PM ET]... SUNRISE... SHOUTING MAN: 'JERUSALEM IS NOT FOR SALE, OBAMA'... MOB SCENE... CHAOS... POSES FOR PHOTOS AT WALL... LOTS OF SHOUTING... LEAVES 5:20 AM... DEVELOPING...

OBAMA'... MOB SCENE... CHAOS... POSES FOR PHOTOS AT WALL... LOTS OF SHOUTING... LEAVES 5:20 AM... DEVELOPING...

McCain Cartoon

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:40:18 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: marcambinder.theatlantic.com

This cartoon ran on 7/15 in the New York Daily News... the artist is Bill Bramhall.

Tags: mccain, satire, the new yorker, vanity fair, political cartoon

Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:07:40 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: www.nationalenquirer.com

Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

The married ex-senator from North Carolina - whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer -- met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 - and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn't leave until early the next morning.

Rielle had driven to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara with a male friend for the rendezvous with Edwards. The former senator attended a press event Monday afternoon with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the topic of how to combat homelessness.

But a months-long NATIONAL ENQUIRER investigation had yielded information that Rielle and Edwards, 54, had arranged to secretly meet afterward and for the ex-senator to spend some time with both his mistress and the love child who he refuses to publicly acknowledge as his own.

Things a Man Should Know About Drinking

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:54:54 GMT

clipped by: reimers
clipper's remarks: more at site

Clip Source: www.esquire.com

There is no such thing as a chocolate martini.

There is no shame in club soda and cranberry juice.

There is a reason for the scarcity of piano bars.

Visiting the pub will be cheaper in the long run if you tip the bartender regularly and more generously than is necessary.

Never eat the pickled eggs.

Never order a frozen drink in a place that serves pickled eggs.

Actually, never order a frozen drink.

It's also not a bad idea to eschew the pickled pigs' feet,although their presence is fairly strong evidence that you've accidentally stumbled upon a real tavern.

For the sake of the children, leave the pistol at home.

Champagne is a place. Bordeaux is a place. Champaleis not a place.

Grappa is to lighter fluid as ouzo is to lighter fluid.

Garnish matters.

Despite a high ratio of female clientele, an insouciant way with fried mozzarella, and their prevalence in resort towns, establishments where a waitress pours shots into your mouth from a bottle she holsters in a bandolier are fraught with peril.