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The 70 coolest FREE applications in existence

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:47:08 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

The 70 coolest free applications in existence

At the end of August I created a list of the 40 coolest free applications around which proved quite popular. As with all lists of this type the wisdom of the crowds brought forward numerous other suggestions that I'd overlooked for one reason or another - so here is the revised list.

As with the original list, the purpose is to collate some of the best free applications (and sometimes online services) that can be found on the Internet. I spend a lot of time on the Internet (through my work as a web developer) so it's always worth pooling a decent list of resources to those who are more fortunate to have time away from computers. See below for a brief list of what's covered:

Image, Image Editing and Graphics

Office

Web and web development

Development Applications (IDE's)

Operating Systems

Video Playback

Audio

Anti-Virus and Security

Downloading and Download Managers

Remote Access

Tags: software, internet, windows, free, freeware

mirrors to deflect asteroids

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:57:21 GMT

clipped by: mona

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

Are mirrors the best way to deflect asteroids?

Focusing sunlight onto an asteroid with space-based mirrors is the best way to deflect Earth-bound space rocks, a new study finds. The mirrors beat out nuclear blasts and "gravity tractors" in the study, which compared nine different deflection methods.

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

The method that came out on top was a swarm of mirror-carrying spacecraft. The spacecraft would be launched from Earth to hover near the asteroid and concentrate sunlight onto a point on the asteroid's surface.

they would heat the asteroid's surface to more than 2100° C, enough to start vaporising it.

To deflect a 20-kilometre asteroid, about the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, it would take the combined work of 5000 mirror spacecraft focusing sunlight on the asteroid for three or more years.

not the first time

In 1993, Jay Melosh of the University of Arizona in Tucson, US, proposed using one very large mirror deployed by a single spacecraft for this purpose.

Tags: science, space, asteroids

Former President Jimmy Carter Says He Knows U.S. Tortures Prisoners

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:32:25 GMT

clipped by: boniface

Clip Source: www.allheadlinenews.com

Former President Jimmy Carter Says He Knows U.S. Tortures Prisoners

"I don't think it, I know it," Carter told CNN's Wolf Blitzer when asked pointedly if he believed that the Bush administration used torture.

"Our country for the first time in my life has abandoned the basic principle of human rights... We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime to which they are accused," he said.

Carter however rebuked the administration's justification of its practices saying that President Bush's statement was not "accurate' when set against international norms of torture and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don't violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don't violate them," Carter said.

Tags: former, president, jimmy, carter, says, he, knows, tortures, prisoners

The irregular verb is being 'drived' to extinction

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 08:25:07 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

The process beginned hundreds of years ago and bringed a huge change in our use of the language.

Now researchers believe more of the irregular verbs that make English such a rich and varied experience are heading for extinction.

In future, 'stank' will evolve into 'stinked', 'drove' will become 'drived' and 'slew' will turn into 'slayed', a team of linguists and mathematicians say. And if the simplification becomes really serious, 'begun' could change to 'beginned', 'brought' to 'bringed' and 'fell' to 'falled'.

The prediction comes from the first study of its kind into how irregular verbs have evolved in literature over the last 1,200 years.

Around 97 per cent of verbs in English are regular. That means in the past tense they simply take an '-ed' ending – so 'talk' becomes 'talked', and 'jump' becomes 'jumped'.

Irregular verbs, however, do their own thing. Some like 'wed' stay the same in the past tense while others like 'begin' take a different ending to become 'begun'.

Tags: english, language, grammar, verbs

Good For U Dear Abby!

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:39:54 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

SAN FRANCISCO - For years, rumblings have surfaced on the Internet, conjecture about her casual references to "sexual orientation" and "respect." Now, Dear Abby is ready to say it flatly: She supports same-sex marriage.

"I believe if two people want to commit to each other, God bless 'em," the syndicated advice columnist told The Associated Press. "That is the highest form of commitment, for heaven's sake."

What Jeanne Phillips, aka Abigail Van Buren, finds offensive and misguided are homophobic jokes, phrases like "That's so gay," and parents who reject or try to reform their children when they come out of the closet.

Her views are the reason she's being honored this week by Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a national advocacy group that provides support for gay people and their families. The original Abby, Phillips' 89-year-old mother, Pauline, helped put PFLAG on the map in 1984 when she first referred a distraught parent to the organization.

Tags: homosexuality, same, sex, marriage

Hello All You Godless Infidels And Happy Heathens

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:43:32 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: Gaylor said this to start her show,

Hello all you godless infidels, out-of-the-closet atheists and happy heathens. You can turn on the radio or TV 24/7 to be preached at. This is one hour a week of the public airwaves that offers an alternative. This program is an antidote to the domination of public airwaves by the religious right.

Your humble correspondent eagerly await the nauseating and hypocritical outcry from Fox Noise and the religious right in this country which is sure to come. For to them, freedom of religion has never meant freedom from religion and certainly not from our own brand of home-grown Christianity which more and more Americans are viewing as blatantly hypocritical, judgmental and overbearing.

Clip Source: bravenewfilms.org

So said Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, as she kicked off her inaugural, one-hour weekly radio show that began broadcasting on Saturday on Air America.

Atheist Christopher Hitchens, author of the bestselling book “God Is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything”, was Annie Gaylor's first guest. Imagine that, true freedom of expression in America; who would have guessed it was possible.

Small wonder that atheism and agnosticism seem to be gaining some momentum among people who are tired of the hypocrisy of organized religion; you can see it in literature and a variety of public forums including the Internet, as more free-thinkers confront different religions and urge other questioning persons to come out of the shadows.

Tags: when, religion, becomes, sin

Dog saves family from fire started by cat

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:33:27 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Who's going to get the leftovers now ?

Clip Source: www.mail.com

Thumper, a black Labrador retriever, is getting credit for saving a Greenville man when a fire swept through his home.

Roland Cote said his wife and their 7-year-old grandson were away when the blaze started early Sunday in a converted two-story garage. He said Thumper grabbed him by the arm to wake him, leaving just enough time for him to dial 911 before fleeing the fast-moving fire.

While the dog is the hero, a cat is the bad guy in this story.

Cote said the fire marshal investigator believes the blaze was started when Princess, the family cat, tipped over a kerosene lantern. Cote says he and his pets escaped safely, but

he says Princess did get her tail singed by the flames

Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

Tags: dog, cat, family, fire, hero, labrador

Christian Nation???

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:31:04 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: This canard is regularly heard when talking with Fundamentalists. They seem to be impervious to facts. It's as though they view history in the same way they view the bible. They pick and choose what they need to bolster their ungrounded speculations.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

The Puritans Were Not The Founding Fathers

It's like -- look at us, we're still a democratic nation! The Ten Commandments haven't replaced the Bill of Rights. Evolution is still being mentioned in schools. Planned Parenthoods haven't been completely outlawed. And it's STILL against the law to stone homosexuals, pornographers and uppity women (pending a two-thirds majority vote in Congress).

I'm no pollster -- but I am willing to bet that there is a big chunk of folks who think that the Puritans and the Founding Fathers were the same people. Yes, the group of people that branded an 'H' on the cheeks of accused heretics were the same people responsible for the phrase 'freedom of speech'.

But that's what the Religious Right wants us to believe. It gives them a sense of entitlement.

John McCain now famously told Beliefnet that the United States is a Christian nation.

Looking back to colonial days for religious precedent is like looking back at the Black Plague for health care reform.

Tags: christianity, history, lies, theocracy, puritans

Ben Gurion: We are the aggressors

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 21:11:29 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: An astonishing admission from one of Israel's early leaders

Clip Source: ressentiment.blogspot.com

Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves.... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country. - David Ben Gurion

Tags: israel, zionism, palestinians, war on terror, middle east, terrorism

Can't attack the message, go after the messnger! The right goes after a little kid!

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:44:35 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: A real shame, well it would be if they had any....

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 — There have been moments when the fight between Congressional Democrats and President Bush over the State Children’s Health Insurance Program seemed to devolve into a shouting match about who loves children more.

So when Democrats enlisted 12-year-old Graeme Frost, who along with a younger sister relied on the program for treatment of severe brain injuries suffered in a car crash, to give the response to Mr. Bush’s weekly radio address on Sept. 29, Republican opponents quickly accused them of exploiting the boy to score political points.

Then, they wasted little time in going after him to score their own.

In recent days, Graeme and his family have been attacked by conservative bloggers and other critics of the Democrats’ plan to expand the insurance program, known as S-chip. They scrutinized the family’s income and assets — even alleged the counters in their kitchen to be granite — and declared that the Frosts did not seem needy enough for government benefits.

Tags: shame, politics, rightoblogostan, malkin, others, children

Blazingly fast Internet2 gets 10x boost

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:51:53 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: 100 Gbps. Ten different wavelengths at 10 Gbps each. A single computer can have a 10Gbps connection. Things not only get smaller, but they are also finding so many different ways they can make the space more efficient.

Clip Source: www.mail.com

By ANICK JESDANUN

The ultrahigh-speed Internet2 network just got 10 times faster, partly in anticipation of rising demand for capacity after the world's largest particle collider opens near Geneva

Until recently, the Internet2 had a theoretical limit of 10 gigabits per second, which is thousands of times faster than standard home broadband connections. By sending data using 10 different colors, or wavelengths, of light over a single cable, operators are boosting the network's capacity to 100 Gbps.

The new Internet2 network was largely completed in late August, and its operators this week made it possible for researchers to temporarily grab an entire 10 Gbps chunk for specific applications, so that they don't slow down normal Internet operations.

"It's now possible for a single computer to have a 10 gigabit connection and we needed to have a way of making sure that those kinds of demanding applications could be served at the same time as all the normal uses," Doug Van Houweling

Tags: internet2, speed, particle, collider, computer, ultra high, capacity

Greed Is God

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:39:21 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

When greed is worshiped, I, Mammon, am adored. And how much more could I be adored than in America?

Greed is good. Get all you can while you can. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. Only the strong survive. Such cliches are hymns of praise to me.

Damned are the poor, they say, for they are barely fit to inhabit the earth, much less inherit it. Forsaken are the bleeding hearts who moan and groan for they need to be Tasered. Cursed are meek and humble because the world is going to steamroller them.

Screw those who strive to be just and good, for they interfere with the greedy being satisfied. To hell with those do-gooders who are the kind and merciful. Show them no mercy. Frig those with pure hearts and clean consciences. Send them to meet God. Ditto for pinko peacemaking pacifists. Persecute them just like Jesus.

Let those who are hungry now starve. That way there will be more food and wine for the rich on their ivory beds. God curses the poor and blesses the rich.

Tags: hypocrisy, money

Dissenting at Your Own Risk

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:37:43 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: Many times I have been around people who stomped out any discussion of Palestine's plight. Essentially, if you brought it up, people call you Anti-Semitic or they look at you like you just endorsed child abuse.

Clip Source: www.counterpunch.org

Dissenting at Your Own Risk

By CECILIE SURASKY

Why is Israel's increasingly brutal 40-year occupation of Palestinian land regularly debated in the mainstream media abroad, including in Israel, but not here? And why is there an almost total lack of discussion among presidential candidates about the dollars that subsidize this occupation and the American diplomatic support that makes it possible?

Non-Jewish critics, even former President Carter, are denounced as anti-Semites. Special ire is reserved for Jewish dissenters, who are branded as "self-hating" or "marginal," while Muslim and Arab-Americans are easily smeared and even criminalized with charges of supporting terrorism.

Many groups

fighting real anti-Semitism now rely on anti-Semitism to insist that to show one's love of Jews, one must offer uncritical support to Israel. They are especially displeased by Jews who believe that enabling Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights is not good for anyone.

Tags: dissent, israel, zionism

Women Who Serve God

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:00:45 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: OK, I admit I love my husband to death. And I serve him a dish up or two all the time, but this is just ridiculous,

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

God values men and women equally, any student here will tell you. It's just that he's given them different responsibilities in life: Men make decisions. Women make dinner.

Philosophical courses such as "Biblical Model for the Home and Family" teach that God expects wives to graciously submit to their husbands' leadership. A model house, to be completed by next fall, will allow women to get credit toward bachelor's degrees by learning how to set tables, sew buttons and sustain lively dinnertime conversation.

It all sounds wonderful to sophomore Emily Felts, 19, who signed up as soon as she arrived on campus this fall.

Several relatives have told Felts that she's selling herself short. They want her to become a lawyer, and she agrees she'd make a good one. But that's not what she wants to do with her life.

More to the point, it's not what she believes God wants of her.

"My created purpose as a woman is to be a helper," Felts said firmly. "This is a college education that I can use."

Tags: a, woman's, place

Boom Times For Dentists, But Not For Teeth

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:41:19 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

For American dentists, times have never been better.

The same cannot be said for Americans’ teeth.

With dentists’ fees rising far faster than inflation and more than 100 million people lacking dental insurance, the percentage of Americans with untreated cavities began rising this decade, reversing a half-century trend of improvement in dental health.

Previously unreleased figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that in 2003 and 2004, the most recent years with data available, 27 percent of children and 29 percent of adults had cavities going untreated. The level of untreated decay was the highest since the late 1980s and significantly higher than that found in a survey from 1999 to 2002.

In some cases, the results of poor dental care have been deadly. A child in Mississippi and another in Maryland died this year from infections caused by decayed teeth.

Tags: dental, care, children