Clipmarks |

Amanda Mooney as Clipmarks for Halloween

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:37:04 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Okay, how freaking awesome is this? Amanda dressed up as Clipmarks for halloween, complete with a paper full of "clipped" sections. Brilliant!

Clip Source: americanshelflife.wordpress.com

Amy (@amyyen on Twitter) and I decided to bring a little social media flair to our agency’s Halloween party. I was dressed as Clipmarks and Amy as RSS. Amanda Gravel will be dressing as Twitter this year too. Amy and I used our costumes as a fun way to teach attendees about social media… any way to get everyone engaged.

Animal shelter Doberman saves toddler

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:14:29 GMT

clipped by: cillby
clipper's remarks: wow, just 4 days out a shelter and in a new home! Who said dobermans were bad with kids!

Clip Source: news.ninemsn.com.au

Doberman saves toddler from deadly snake bite

A Doberman has saved a toddler from a deadly snake bite in what has been described as an unbelievable act.

Khan, a Doberman new to the Svillicic's Atheron home just four days after rescuing it from an animal shelter, was alerted to the danger and miraculously flung the little girl from the snake's reach, and earned a poisonous bite on the leg for its troubles.

"Khan was really concentrating and was acting aggressive towards Charlotte and kept trying to nudge her but it wasn't working, so he grabbed her by the back of the nappy and threw her more than a metre.

Khan received a shot of anti-venom from a local vet and apart from being very sick of the night of the attack, will make a full recovery.

Tags: dog, rescure, baby, snake, poison, bush, wildlife

THE Lightnings

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:46:49 GMT

clipped by: doomer4
clipper's remarks: holy crap!! i wish not to see it in real time, but admit: AWESOME

Clip Source: bizprodirectory.info

Professional photos of the Lightnings.

Tags: nature

Morality Free From Threat of Damnation

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:58:12 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: One person's opinion concerning the superfluous need for god in being a moral person. Succinct and to the point.

Clip Source: blogs.kansascity.com

Examining atheism

Teresa Hamilton (10/24, Letters) thinks that the only reason people do anything good is that a god somewhere is keeping track and holding them “accountable” for their actions.

This leads illogically to the mistaken idea that meaning for our actions is provided to us solely by god.

As far as atheists “dol(ing) out goodness or evil to whomever they choose,” I would suggest that she study the histories of major world religions and see that a belief in god does not exempt one from atrocity.

She questions whether atheist’s actions are “valuable.” Feeding a hungry person, loving one’s children, giving to the poor and fighting injustice are valuable to the hungry, children, poor people and the persecuted. Does it matter that these deeds are done out of compassion rather than divine coercion?

She asks, what is the “good news” of atheism? It is that we can make the world a better place out of our inherent recognition of the worth of humanity and the world around us

Tags: theism, atheism, religion, morality

"Like a Fox on the Run" Rummy Runs Ragged. Flees EU

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:40:43 GMT

clipped by: righthand

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

U.S. embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush's "war on terror" for six years

Under international law, authorities in France are obliged to open an investigation when a complaint is made while the alleged torturer is on French soil

According to activists in France, who greeted Rumsfeld, shouting "murderer" and "war criminal" at the breakfast meeting venue, U.S. embassy officials remained tight-lipped about the former defense secretary's whereabouts citing "security reasons"

Anti-torture protesters in France believe that the defense secretary fled over the open border to Germany

French law enforcement agents are allowed to cross the border into Germany in pursuit of a fleeing fugitive

"Rumsfeld must be feeling how Saddam Hussein felt when U.S. forces were hunting him down,"

war crime doesn't pay."

Tags: war, crimes, torture, prison, iraq, wmd, usa

Spiraling tentacles of galactic doom!

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:24:14 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.badastronomy.com

Beauty. Sheer, incredible, perfectly coincidentally-timed beauty. Behold:

Holy Haleakala! Click on it for access to a much, much more beautiful version. This small one does it no justice at all.

This newly released Hubble image shows the intertwined pair called Arp 87, two big galaxies undergoing a collision. Halton Arp is an astronomer who cataloged peculiar galaxies in the 1970s, and many of them have been found to be colliding, or at least interacting in some way. This pair consists of NGC 3808A, the big spiral on the right, and NGC 3808B, the odd cigar-shaped dude on the left (actually, it’s an edge-on spiral). They are about 300 million light years away in the constellation of Leo, for those keeping track at home. They are separated by about 100,000 light years. The other edge-on spiral is a background galaxy, apparently.

they swept past each other. Gravity from 3808B drew out a long tendril of stars, gas, and dust from 3808A

Tags: astronomy, galaxies, space, hubble

The yawn: more complicated than you think?

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 04:41:30 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Is the yawn a "mini-orgasm"? One Dutch researcher claims it is.

Clip Source: education.guardian.co.uk

Sexy yawns

"The yawn has not received its due attention," argues Seuntjens, of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, who set out to provide an encyclopaedic overview of all available knowledge about yawning, drawing on linguistics (semantics, etymology), sociology, psychology, the medical sciences (anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology), and the arts (literature, film, visual arts).

He then explores whether yawning has an erotic side.

Seuntjens believes there is no good explanation for yawning. He says the common explanation of hypoxia - that yawning is a way for the body to take in more oxygen - is untested.

"In fact, we have really no idea what causes yawning and what purpose yawning serves or what mechanisms are responsible for yawning and even what the essential anatomical constituents of yawning are. In the age in which the human genome has been deciphered and space travel has become almost trite this verdict may sound like an affront," he writes.

Tags: via:twitter, science, weird, psychology

A journey to the center of your mind

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:04:28 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Wonderful talk, the guy is even funny and you'll learn something.

Clip Source: www.ted.com

In a wide-ranging talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with imposters.

About Vilayanur Ramachandran

Neurologist V.S. Ramachandran looks deep into the brain’s most basic mechanisms. By working with those who have very specific mental disabilities caused by brain injury or stroke, he can map functions of the mind to physical structures of the brain. Read full bio »

Tags: brain, nurologist, mind, video

Holier than thou? Employees who believe they are 'ethical' or 'moral' might not be

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:52:02 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "This study proved that their moral identity motivated them to the most extreme behaviors."

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Bad behavior seems rampant in business, and scholars are divided as to why people act ethically or unethically. Many have argued that ethical behavior is the result of simple judgments between right and wrong. Others suggest that the driving force behind ethical behavior is the individual's moral identity, or whether the individual thinks of him/herself as an ethical person.

New research from the University of Washington suggests that both of these forces are at play. In two separate studies, Scott Reynolds, an assistant professor in the Michael G. Foster School of Business, and Tara Ceranic, a doctoral student studying business, surveyed roughly 500 college students and managers about their ethical behaviors.

According to the researchers, a moral identity specifically centers on a person's moral aspects and acts as a self-regulatory mechanism that sets parameters for individual behavior and motivates specific actions that are moral.

Tags: morality, ethics, identity, cheating, behavior, business, science, research

Strange and Spooky Grave

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:29:13 GMT

clipped by: CarnivalBorn
clipper's remarks: Here is a bit of weird spooky trivia to usher in Halloween

Clip Source: veryweirdnews.com

Florence Irene Ford Born: September 3, 1861 Died : October 30, 1871

Ten-year-old Florence died of yellow fever. During her short life she was very frightened of storms and whenever one rolled-in she would rush to her mother to find comfort.

Upon her death her mother was so struck with grief that she had Florence’s casket constructed with a glass window at the child’s head. The grave was dug to provide an area, the same depth of the coffin, at the child’s head, but this area had steps that would allow the mother to descend to her daughter’s level so she could comfort Florence during storms. To shelter the mother during storms, hinged metal trap doors were installed over the area the mother would occupy while at her child’s grave.

In this picture you can see the trap doors behind little Florence’s tombstone, which covers the stairway her mother used. They can still be opened today. In the mid 1950s a concrete wall was erected at the bottom of the stairway covering the glass window

Tags: death, grave, strange, halloween

Iraqi Damn collapse could killed thousands

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:25:25 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: From the article:

"At the same time, a U.S. reconstruction project to help shore up the dam in northern Iraq has been marred by incompetence and mismanagement, according to Iraqi officials and a report by a U.S. oversight agency to be released Tuesday. The reconstruction project, worth at least $27 million, was not intended to be a permanent solution to the dam's deficiencies."

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

AT THE MOSUL DAM, Iraq - The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials.

Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. "The Mosul dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability," in the dry wording of an Army Corps of Engineers draft report.

Tags: iraq, war, you break it you own it

Let's Kill The Oldest Living Creature

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:25:11 GMT

clipped by: bluebabyrhino

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Scientists Find Oldest Living Animal, Then Kill It

British marine biologists have found what may be the oldest living animal — that is, until they killed it.

The team from Bangor University in Wales was dredging the waters north of Iceland as part of routine research when the unfortunate specimen, belonging to the clam species Arctica islandica, commonly known as the ocean quahog, was hauled up from waters 250 feet deep.

Only after researchers cut through its shell, which made it more of an ex-clam, and counted its growth rings did they realize how old it had been — between 405 and 410 years old.

Another clam of the same species had been verified at 220 years old, and a third may have lived 374 years. But this most recent clam was the oldest yet.

"Its death is an unfortunate aspect of this work, but we hope to derive lots of information from it," postdoctoral scientist Al Wanamaker told London's Guardian newspaper. "For our work, it's a bonus, but it wasn't good for this particular animal."

Tags: science, news