Clipmarks |

To all clippers - Compliments of the season

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:14:08 GMT

clipped by: michellezm
clipper's remarks: I will be away, so, may you all have a restful, peaceful and safe holiday season and a good New Year.

With fond regards

Clip Source: www.stosyth.gov.uk

The card reproduced above was printed as a postcard
and sent in 1905 with a ½d stamp.

The first known Christmas card is printed on the front cover with a date of 1843. The original was in muted colours, hand painted, printed and sold for 1/- each (5p) - a lot of money in those days. Despite the date on this card, encyclopaedias say that Christmas cards were first sold in 1846!
By the 1860s the idea of sending cards had caught on as they were able to be produced much more cheaply with the invention of less expensive colour printing. The first Christmas cards had lace and flowery borders, but then they changed to more familiar designs.

The robin became very popular as were Victorian snow scenes, religious pictures, holly, Christmas trees etc. Many similar scenes are reproduced in our cards today.

some comments i just had to clip...

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:42:07 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: These words by pokkets are going to be printed on a big sign and hung in our office... no joke! very uplifting pokkets!

The entire comment is awesome...i just clipped a piece.

Clip Source: clipmarks.com

Clipmarks doesn't report news, Clipmarks is news, Clippers aren't reporters, they are witnesses.

Clippers are people. They're not followers, or leaders necessarily, they'd just like to know what is going on in the world. The world being such a convoluted place, clipmarks is a filter that can be used to help distinguish between facts and urban myths.

Tags: clipmarks, clipcast, pokkets

Man Made Life

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:02:07 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: Whoa. The implications from this will be enormous. If this project succeeds expect a concerted campaign of denial and attack from the religious conservatives.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms

It has been 50 years since scientists first created DNA in a test tube, stitching ordinary chemical ingredients together to make life's most extraordinary molecule. Until recently, however, even the most sophisticated laboratories could make only small snippets of DNA -- an extra gene or two to be inserted into corn plants, for example, to help the plants ward off insects or tolerate drought.

Scientists in Maryland have already built the world's first entirely handcrafted chromosome -- a large looping strand of DNA made from scratch in a laboratory, containing all the instructions a microbe needs to live and reproduce.

n the coming year, they hope to transplant it into a cell, where it is expected to "boot itself up," like software downloaded from the Internet, and cajole the waiting cell to do its bidding.

The cobbling together of life from synthetic DNA, scientists and philosophers agree, will be a watershed event,

Tags: christianity, nature, science, social, religion

The Evolution of Evolution: how culture changes genes

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 08:38:38 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Not, as stated, a new idea: been around a long time in complexity theory, and quantum consciousness theory, for instance. This is a short, pithy statement of the claim, read it in a couple of minutes.

Clip Source: www.slate.com

Now we're in the midst of the next mutation in evolutionary theory: Human evolution didn't slow as we advanced from nature to culture. It accelerated and changed. Culture, born of natural selection, became natural selection's driving force.

This is the message of a new study of the human genome. If true, it radically complicates the debate between nature and nurture. The question is no longer simply whether our genes are the source of civilization, but whether they're also its product.

Organisms evolve in response to changing environments. This can lead, paradoxically, to the evolution of traits that change the environment. Once that happens, the process becomes dialectical, and its speed increases, because culture changes more rapidly than nature does.

Much of what now passes for "natural selection" isn't exactly natural. It's social.

It may be true that today's God a human creation. But so, in a way, is today's evolution.

Best Underwater Photos - National Geographic

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:51:17 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Translucent Goby, Indonesia

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Spike-Cheek Anemonefish, Indonesia

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Channel Islands Anemone, California

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Bannerfish, French Polynesia

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Scorpionfish, Papua New Guinea

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Kaikoura Krill, New Zealand

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Longfin Bannerfish, Marshall Islands

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Swimming Snapper, Florida

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Reef Scallop, Yap Islands

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Leopard Seal Underwater, Antarctica

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Australian Sea Lion off Adelaide

Clip Source: photography.nationalgeographic.com

Goby and Bubble Coral, Indonesia

Tags: photo, photography, nature, science

Our own Julia Patricia Roy quoted in Newsweek

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:45:09 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Congrats Julia...making clippers everywhere proud For those of you who don't know her yet, meet juliapatriciaroy

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

"It's an easy, fun, playful and thoughtful way to express excitement," says Julia Roy, a 24-year-old Boston blogger who says she uses the term at the office to IM colleagues, when she blogs on Twitter, and in conversations on social networking sites like MySpace. "W00t is finally getting the recognition it deserves."

Tags: clipmarks, juliapatriciaroy

The Henry Ford of Solar Power?

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:58:14 GMT

clipped by: dgreplay

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Nanosolar, a heavily financed Silicon Valley start-up whose backers include Google’s co-founders, plans to announce Tuesday that it has begun selling its innovative solar panels, which are made using a technique that is being held out as the future of solar power manufacturing.

Nanosolar’s founder and chief executive, Martin Roscheisen, claims to be the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to profitably sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt. That is the price at which solar energy becomes less expensive than coal.

According to the Energy Department, building a new coal plant costs about $2.1 a watt, plus the cost of fuel and emissions, he said.

The "justice" of theocracy: How the victim becomes the "accused" one

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:22:41 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Saudi King, "pardoned" the woman who was raped by seven men. Huh? I beg your pardon? Who's "pardoning" whom? How come the victim becomes the one to be pardoned?

A good example of the "justice" in theocratic states (of which, Saudi Arabia is among the worst.)

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has pardoned the victim of a gang-rape whose sentencing to 200 lashes caused an international outcry, the official news agency said on Monday.

The victim's husband welcomed the news. "I'm happy and my wife is happy and it will of course help lift some of her psychological and social suffering," he told Reuters. "We thank the king for his generous attention and fatherly spirit."

The 19-year-old Shi'ite woman was abducted and raped along with a male companion by seven men last year.

Ruling according to the strict Saudi reading of Islamic law, a court sentenced the woman to 90 lashes for being alone with an unrelated man and the rapists to jail terms of up to five years.

The Supreme Judicial Council last month increased the sentence to 200 lashes and six months in prison and ordered the rapists to serve between two years and nine years in prison.

By pardoning the woman, the royal decree appears to be upholding the original guilty verdict.

Tags: saudi arabia, religion, islam, islamic law, justice, rape