Clipmarks | sunbeam's clips

Women's bill 'unites' Iran and US

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:01:38 GMT

clipped by: sunbeam

Women's bill 'unites' Iran and US

By Kambiz Fattahi
BBC News, Washington

For more than 27 years, America and Iran have rarely seen eye-to-eye on anything.

Iran's legal system discriminates against women

So, how is it that these archrivals have a similar position, albeit for very different reasons, on a key women's rights convention?

Iran and the US are two of only eight countries that have not joined the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw).

Supporters call Cedaw an international "bill of rights" for women.

"This treaty deals with the most basic rights for women and girls, including access to basic medical care, legal redress against violence, and access to education,"

Tags: women, us, iran, rights, religion, conservatives, sex

Iraq - counting the casualties of war

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:34:32 GMT

clipped by: sunbeam

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Counting the casualties of war is an important task. Several organisations are keeping track of civilians who have died since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but with no agreed estimate it is difficult for journalists to steer around ideological obstacles when they report the numbers.

according to the Iraq Body Count website (IBC) around 70,000 civilians have died in Iraq.

the Lancet research which estimated that by July 2006 more than 650,000 civilians had died

The UN estimate of civilians who died violent deaths is based on numbers compiled by the Iraq ministry of health and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad

researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Mustansiriya University in Baghdad

produced a death rate of 5.5 per 1,000 people per year before the invasion and 13.3 per 1,000 after it

it attributed over 600,000 deaths to violence

What is the right estimate to use for the civilian death toll?

Tags: iraq, iraq war, death, war, us, uk, media, civilian-killings, occupation

Total Solar Eclipse Paths 2001-2025

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:59:28 GMT

clipped by: Lingsy

Clip Source: strangemaps.wordpress.com

158 - Total Solar Eclipse Map (2001-2025)

Tags: maps solar

ACtual radio conversation between a U.S Navy ship and the British authorities, near

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:50:47 GMT

clipped by: sunbeam
clipper's remarks: I've read Spanish versions, Portugese versions, Italian versions, Russian versions , etc etc all with the same plot ....

Clip Source: www.cyprus-forum.com

The following transcript was released by the MOD on 10/10/95:

BRITISH: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the south, to avoid collision.

U.S. NAVY: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the North, to avoid collision.

BRITISH: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid collision.

U.S. NAVY: This is the captain of a U.S Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

BRITISH: Negative. I say again. You will have to divert YOUR course.

U.S. NAVY: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN. THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH. THAT'S 15 DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.

BRITISH: This is a lighthouse. Fuck off!!

Tags: us, uk, navy, ships, hunour, threat

Criminalizing the antiwar movement

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:19:27 GMT

clipped by: 911INSIDEJOB144
clipper's remarks: "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq

Clip Source: www.prisonplanet.com

Bush executive order: Criminalizing the antiwar movement

Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
Monday July 23, 2007

The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of whoever opposes the US led war.

A presidential Executive Order issued on July 17th, repeals with the stroke of a pen the right to dissent and to oppose the Pentagon's military agenda in Iraq.

In substance, under this executive order, opposing the war becomes an illegal act.

Tags: conspiracy, martial law, news, politics, terrorism, war

Shakespearean Insults explained

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 11:18:34 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: See the site for explanations

Clip Source: www.bbc.co.uk

You jackanapes with scarves!

Click on the bard to be blasted with another Shakespearean swearword, oath or insult.

Looks like gibberish to you? Here's what it all means:
'Jackanape' was a word for someone pompous, jumped-up and ridiculous - someone who thought too much of themself. It came from the nickname of a medieval Duke of Suffolk, William de la Pole. He was an unpopular social climber, who ended up being beheaded by Henry VI.

William's coat of arms featured a chained monkey, then called a 'jack ape' or 'jack nape.' This led to Jack Napis becoming William's nickname.

Scarves were a bit dressier in Shakespeare's time than now, so the whole insult means, 'you jumped-up, ridiculous, overdressed idiot.'

Fancy reading more like that? It's from:
All's Well That Ends Well, Act 3, Scene 5

You are a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen.

You're pigeon-livered and lack gall.

You Banbury cheese!

Your horrid image does unfix my hair.

A gallimaufray of gambols!

Your horrid image does unfix my hair.

Tags: literature, shakespeare, insults

Political cartoons - Steve Sack

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 19:20:15 GMT

clipped by: liotropi

Clip Source: www.creators.com

Tags: political cartoons

Confessions from U.S. Soldiers in Iraq on the Brutal Treatment of Civilians

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 19:54:39 GMT

clipped by: Rasmus
clipper's remarks: Continuing, same source:

Some participated in such killings; others treated or investigated civilian casualties after the fact. Many also heard such stories, in detail, from members of their unit. The soldiers, sailors and marines emphasized that not all troops took part in indiscriminate killings. Many said that these acts were perpetrated by a minority. But they nevertheless described such acts as common and said they often go unreported -- and almost always go unpunished.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Interviews with 50 Iraq war veterans reveal disturbing patterns of behavior by US troops in Iraq against innocent civilians -- brutal acts that often go unreported and almost always go unpunished.

Over the past several months The Nation has interviewed fifty combat veterans of the Iraq War from around the United States in an effort to investigate the effects of the four-year-old occupation on average Iraqi civilians. These combat veterans, some of whom bear deep emotional and physical scars, and many of whom have come to oppose the occupation, gave vivid, on-the-record accounts. They described a brutal side of the war rarely seen on television screens or chronicled in newspaper accounts.

Their stories, recorded and typed into thousands of pages of transcripts, reveal disturbing patterns of behavior by American troops in Iraq. Dozens of those interviewed witnessed Iraqi civilians, including children, dying from American firepower.

Tags: iraq, civilians, occupation, iraq war, usa, war on terror

Right royal fart

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:55:56 GMT

clipped by: sunbeam
clipper's remarks: Prince Philip, farting the national anthem ? Prince Philip farting for queen and country ? Or just a right royal fart ? What do you reckon ?

Clip Source: upload9.postimage.org

Tags: queen, philip, royal fart

Human tetris II

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:16:41 GMT

clipped by: sunbeam
clipper's remarks: Stupidly entertaining

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: teris, game show, japanese

A Badger - shi'ite

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:51:53 GMT

clipped by: sunbeam

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

British blamed for Basra badgers

The badgers appeared near the British base in Basra

British forces have denied rumours that they released a plague of ferocious badgers into the Iraqi city of Basra.

Word spread among the populace that UK troops had introduced strange man-eating, bear-like beasts into the area to sow panic.

But several of the creatures, caught and killed by local farmers, have been identified by experts as honey badgers.

The rumours spread because the animals had appeared near the British base at Basra airport.

UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.

Tags: badger, iraq, iran, basra, war

Argentina: Where Jobless Run Factories

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:36:21 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.thenation.com

But we, like so many others, had been drawn to Argentina to witness firsthand an explosion of activism in the wake of its 2001 crisis--a host of dynamic new social movements

we spent most of our year in Argentina with workers in "recovered companies." Almost entirely under the media radar, workers in Argentina have been responding to rampant unemployment and capital flight by taking over traditional businesses that have gone bankrupt and are reopening them under democratic worker management.

We formed the cooperative with the criteria of equal wages and making basic decisions by assembly; we are against the separation of manual and intellectual work; we want a rotation of positions and, above all, the ability to recall our elected leaders."

The movement of recovered companies is not epic in scale--some 170 companies, around 10,000 workers in Argentina.

it has survived and continues to build quiet strength

Tags: economy, workers, consumers, i-employment, i-self management, i-success

Posters against global warming

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:41:19 GMT

clipped by: djimenez539

Clip Source: good50x70.org

Tags: global warming, energy, efficiency

Outstanding documentary films

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:35:44 GMT

clipped by: sunbeam

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

PROGRAMMES WITNESS There are no main images.








Watch WITNESS Online

The following WITNESS episodes can be watched here in full.

The Other Washington
A look at life in the 'other' Washington DC which is poor, black and disenfranchised

The Long March

A cross-country hike is one school's solution for China's growing number of problem kids.

Gonzaga
Pverty forces many in Brazil, to seek new dreams which can end in tragedy.

Sangoma
In south Africa the sick are more likely to go to traditional healers than to hospital.

Vanished
An unknown fate for one Iraqi-born American who answered US government calls.

Diary of a Massacre
Pacificists learn the hard way that there's no escaping the civil war in Colombia.

Gaza Fixer
Raed Atharmneh helps journalists in Gaza but becomes part of the story himself.

Chechen syndrome
Russian soldiers face a tough return home from their time fighting in Chechnya..

The War Comes Home
Investigating the mood of middle America on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq..

Tags: al-jazeera, witness, politics, war, work, family, poverty

UK inequality at 40 year high

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:51:34 GMT

clipped by: sunbeam

Clip Source: www.jrf.org.uk

New poverty and wealth maps of Britain reveal inequality to be at 40-year high

A new way of comparing poverty and wealth trends across Britain shows inequality has reached levels not seen for over 40 years. This is according to research released today (17 July) by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. A second report, published simultaneously, has found that the public believes the gap between rich and poor people is too large.

households in already-wealthy areas have tended to become disproportionately wealthier and that many rich people live in areas segregated from the rest of society. At the same time, more households have become poor over the last 15 years, but fewer are very poor.

the report contains comprehensive maps which are based on census and survey data illustrating the changes in poverty and wealth across Britain from 1968 to 2005.

It found that over the last 20 years, a large and enduring majority of people have considered the gap between high and low incomes too large.

Tags: poverty, wealth, inequality, uk, census, attitude survey