Clipmarks | ruralart's clips

American tourist Killed in Beijing

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:19:57 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: How unexpected! And how tragic.... my sympathy goes to the family.

American Tourist Is Reported Killed in Beijing

BEIJING (AP) -- Team officials and state media say a knife-wielding Chinese man attacked two relatives of a coach for the U.S. Olympic men's volleyball team at a tourist site in Beijing.

One of the victims was killed and one was injured in the attck on the first day of the Olympics Saturday.

The man then committed suicide by throwing himself from the second story of the site, the 13th century Drum Tower three miles from the main Olympics site.

The brutal attack shortly after midday was all the more shocking because of the rarity of violent crime in tightly controlled China, which has ramped up security measures even more for the Olympics.

Olympics censorship by NBC

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:18:15 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: I tried to view the Olympics live on the internet yesterday, and kept getting blocked. This is censorship, and unacceptable.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Tape Delay by NBC Faces End Run by Online Fans

NBC, which owns the exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics in the United States, spent most of Friday trying to keep it that way.

NBC’s decision to delay broadcasting the opening ceremonies by 12 hours sent people across the country to their computers to poke holes in NBC’s technological wall — by finding newsfeeds on foreign broadcasters’ Web sites and by watching clips of the ceremonies on YouTube and other sites.

In response, NBC sent frantic requests to Web sites, asking them to take down the illicit clips and restrict authorized video to host countries. As the four-hour ceremony progressed, a game of digital whack-a-mole took place.

As the first Summer Games of the broadband age commenced in China, old network habits have never seemed so archaic — or so irrelevant.

Tags: olympics, censorship, nbc, television, internet

Russia and Georgia clash

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:37:29 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

GORI, Georgia — Russia conducted airstrikes on Georgian targets on Friday evening, escalating the conflict in a separatist area of Georgia that is shaping into a test of the power and military reach of an emboldened Kremlin. Earlier in the day, Russian troops and armored vehicles had rolled into South Ossetia, supporting the breakaway region in its bitter conflict with Georgia.

The United States and other Western nations, joined by NATO, condemned the violence and demanded a cease-fire. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went a step further, calling on Russia to withdraw its forces. But the Russian soldiers remained, and Georgian officials reported at least one airstrike, on the Black Sea port of Poti, late on Friday night.

Before dawn on Saturday a senior Georgian official said by telephone that Russian bombers were flying over Georgia and that the presidential offices and residence in Tbilisi had been evacuated.

Major Internet Security Issue

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:31:24 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This is really scary. Hope they find a patch quickly!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Internet Security Patch May Not Do the Job

SAN FRANCISCO — Faced with the discovery of a serious flaw in the Internet’s workings, computer network administrators around the world have been rushing to fix their systems with a cobbled-together patch. Now it appears that the patch has some gaping holes.

On Friday, a Russian physicist demonstrated that the emergency fix to the basic Internet address system, known as the Domain Name System, is vulnerable and will almost certainly be exploited by criminals.

The flaw could allow Internet traffic to be secretly redirected so thieves could, for example, hijack a bank’s Web address and collect customer passwords.

“They are relying on infrastructure that was not intended to do what people assume it does,” said Clifford Neuman, director of the Center for Computer Systems Security at the University of Southern California. “What makes this so frustrating is that no one has been listening to what we have been saying for the past 17 years.”

Tags: internet, identity theft

Mayor Charged with Assault

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:23:54 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: What leadership! What morals! What values! Not!!!!!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Detroit Mayor Charged With Assaulting Officer

DETROIT — Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick’s already debilitating legal troubles compounded here on Friday as Michigan’s attorney general charged him with two felony counts of assaulting police officers.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kilpatrick sat in a county jail serving time for violating a bond agreement on an unrelated charge. He had to be arraigned in the afternoon via video, although he had an earlier court appearance Friday in person.

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in court during an emergency bond appeal hearing on Friday in Detroit.

Mike Cox, the attorney general and a frequent critic of the mayor, accused Mr. Kilpatrick of shoving and shouting expletives at two officers who were trying to serve a subpoena to one of Mr. Kilpatrick’s friends about two weeks ago while Mr. Kilpatrick was in the man’s home.

Hatfill Exonerated in Anthrax Attacks

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:19:37 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: What a shame that they turned an innocent man's life upside down like this.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Scientist Officially Exonerated in Anthrax Attacks

WASHINGTON — Six years after labeling Steven J. Hatfill a “person of interest” in the anthrax attacks, the Justice Department formally exonerated him on Friday and told his lawyer it had concluded that Dr. Hatfill “was not involved in the anthrax mailings.”

The department agreed in June to pay $4.6 million to settle Dr. Hatfill’s lawsuit against the government, but until Friday it had conspicuously avoided declaring that he had nothing to do with the attacks.

The formal exoneration underscored the wrong path that the investigation had taken before the F.B.I. began looking two years ago at a colleague of Dr. Hatfill, another military scientist named Bruce E. Ivins.

Umbrella Attacks Man

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:13:18 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Ok, this is just weird.

Clip Source: www.wect.com

LELAND -- A Leland man is in the hospital after a bizarre accident at his apartment complex swimming pool.

According to police, the man was relaxing poolside at the Village Oaks Apartments when he was struck by a beach umbrella.

Police say the umbrella stand pierced the man's head like an ice pick.

Police say they initially thought the man had been stabbed, only to find out an umbrella was to blame.

Two Faced Kitten Dies

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 02:30:46 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Poor little thing - such a sweetie!

Clip Source: www.wect.com

OHIO -- The one-of-a-kind cat in Wood County Ohio with two faces died Wednesday evening.

It was born last week to a shop cat at Woodville Auto Finance in Northwood.

It has four eyes, which all open, two noses, but only one mouth.

The mother cat doesn't seem to mind the abnormality and has been nursing and caring for it like any other kitten.

Dancing Mare - fabulous!

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:08:30 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This mare can really dance - just incredible. If you know anything about dressage, it is just mind-blowing.

Clip Source: www.beboframe.com

[Video]

$30,000 kids tree house - over the top!

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:28:46 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Wow - but at what price!!!

Clip Source: www.samsclub.com

$29,511.36

Faces of the Dead

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:38:48 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Interactive NY Times site featuring each US soldier killed to date. I could not get it to clip anything except the headline.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Casualties of War

Tags: iraq, war, army, military, soldiers

Randy Pausch links

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:02:55 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Great links.

Clip Source: well.blogs.nytimes.com

It was the power of the Internet that propelled computer science professor Randy Pausch to fame around the world after his inspiring last lecture and helped launch his best-selling book. So it seems a fitting tribute to document the many links, videos and other items that make up his online legacy.

A Google search of Dr. Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” generates more than 9 million links and counting. Here are some of the best.

“The Last Lecture” discussion guide: A guide to the book for parents, educators and book clubs.

“The Time Management Lecture”: Despite the hype about “The Last Lecture,” Dr. Pausch’s favorite lecture was this one.

The Alice Project: Educational software that teaches computer programming to children, and the project that Dr. Pausch viewed as his professional legacy.

Carnegie Mellon graduation speech: A six-minute talk to the university’s class of 2008, an event described by Dr. Pausch as “the perfect day.'’

Randy Pausch and his family (Randy Pausch)

Losing - or Saving - Pompeii

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:40:56 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Saving Pompeii From the Ravages of Time and Tourists

POMPEII, Italy — Citing threats to public security and to the site itself, the Italian government has for the first time declared a yearlong state of emergency for the ancient city of Pompeii.

This month the government drafted a retired lawman, Renato Profili, the former prefect of Naples, to map out a strategy to combat neglect and degradation at the site. Mr. Profili has been given special powers for one year so he can bypass the Italian bureaucracy and speedily bolster security and stop the disintegration.

The 109-acre ruins, about an eighth the size of Central Park (50 more acres or so are underground), are severely understaffed. Workers are prone to wildcat strikes that can leave visitors standing outside locked gates. Local criminal organizations must constantly be kept at bay when bids are solicited for maintenance work or for operating public concessions at the site.

Reading - books vs the Internet

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:32:09 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

Critics of reading on the Internet say they see no evidence that increased Web activity improves reading achievement. “What we are losing in this country and presumably around the world is the sustained, focused, linear attention developed by reading,” said Mr. Gioia of the N.E.A. “I would believe people who tell me that the Internet develops reading if I did not see such a universal decline in reading ability and reading comprehension on virtually all tests.”

Nicholas Carr sounded a similar note in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in the current issue of the Atlantic magazine. Warning that the Web was changing the way he — and others — think, he suggested that the effects of Internet reading extended beyond the falling test scores of adolescence. “What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation,” he wrote, confessing that he now found it difficult to read long books.

Tags: reading, books, internet

Obama - Innocence, Optimism and Reality - or is it missing?

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:54:31 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Insightful take on things. And rather frightening.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Radical optimism is America’s contribution to the world. The early settlers thought America’s founding would bring God’s kingdom to earth. John Adams thought America would emancipate “the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.” Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush preached their own gospels of world democracy.

Barack Obama is certainly a true American.

Obama’s tone was serious. But he pulled out his “this is our moment” rhetoric and offered visions of a world transformed. Obama speeches almost always have the same narrative arc.

When I first heard this sort of radically optimistic speech in Iowa, I have to confess my American soul was stirred. It seemed like the overture for a new yet quintessentially American campaign.

His Berlin Victory Column treacle would have made Niebuhr sick to his stomach.

Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.

Tags: obama, europe, politics