Clipmarks |

My God these are beautiful

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 20:11:50 GMT

clipped by: swampfoxz
clipper's remarks: I don't know this guy but man can he take pictures.

Clip Source: www.flickr.com

Tags: photos

Mystery of Antarctica's 15-Million Year-Old Lake

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:31:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Researchers have thawed ice estimated to be perhaps a million years old or more from above Lake Vostok, an ancient lake that lies hidden more than two miles beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica using novel genomic techniques to determine how tiny, living "time capsules" survived the ages in total darkness, in freezing cold, and without food and energy from the sun.

Lake Vostok is located beneath four kilometers of ice in East Antarctica. The lake is approximately 250 km long and 50 km wide. The overlying ice provides a continuous paleo-climatic record of 400,000 years, although the lake water itself may have been isolated for as long as 15 million years.

Because of the long isolation, it's believed that Lake Vostok could contain new lifeforms, and unique geochemical processes. For five years, scientists in Russia and the United States have sought to probe the ancient lake to discover the secrets lying inside this pristine body of water.

Tags: antarctica, lake, water, genomics, ice, time, life

You are more bacteria than you are you

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:25:14 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

We compulsively wash our hands, spray our countertops and grimace when someone sneezes near us—in fact, we do everything we can to avoid unnecessary encounters with the germ world. But the truth is we are practically walking petri dishes, rife with bacterial colonies from our skin to the deepest recesses of our guts.

All the bacteria living inside you would fill a half-gallon jug; there are 10 times more bacterial cells in your body than human cells, according to Carolyn Bohach, a microbiologist at the University of Idaho (U.I.), along with other estimates from scientific studies. (Despite their vast numbers, bacteria don't take up that much space because bacteria are far smaller than human cells.) Although that sounds pretty gross, it's actually a very good thing.

The infestation begins at birth: Babies ingest mouthfuls of bacteria during birthing and pick up plenty more from their mother's skin and milk—during breast-feeding, the mammary glands become colonized with bacteria.

Tags: life, bacteria, cells, human, ten times

World War III Cancelled

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:35:32 GMT

clipped by: Elisabeth Eaves
clipper's remarks: So it turns out that Iran stopped developing nuclear weapons in 2003, according to the new National Intelligence Estimate. It's easy to distrust the U.S. intelligence community, which not only made mistakes on Al-Qaeda and Iraq, but also told us in 2005 that Tehran was determined to build nukes. But there's at least one thing we can all be relieved about today: Imminent open warfare between the U.S. and Iran is almost certainly off the table.

Clip Source: www.slate.com

If there was ever a possibility that President George W. Bush would drop bombs on Iran, the chances have now shrunk to nearly zero.

In one of the most dramatic National Intelligence Estimates ever, the 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community concluded today "with high confidence" that Iran "halted its nuclear weapons" four years ago, in the fall of 2003.

The NIE, which was released this afternoon, also judges "with moderate confidence" that Iran won't be "technically capable" of producing enough materials for an atom bomb—much less the bomb itself—until 2010-15 or possibly later.

Tags: iran, nuclear weapons, intelligence

Love Everybody, Even The Squirrelly Ones......TOO CUTE!

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:41:20 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: www.bloggingwv.com

Debby Cantlon, who plans to release Finnegan, the young squirrel, back into the wild, bottle-fed the infant squirrel after it was brought to her house.

When Cantlon took in the tiny creature and began caring for him, she found herself with an unlikely nurse’s aide: her pregnant Papillion, Mademoiselle Giselle.

Finnegan was resting in a nest in a cage just days before Giselle was due to deliver her puppies.

Cantlon and her husband watched as the dog dragged the squirrel’s cage twice to her own bedside before she gave birth.

Cantlon was concerned, yet ultimately decided to allow the squirrel out and the inter-species bonding began.

Finnegan rides a puppy mosh pit of sorts, burrowing in for warmth after feeding, eventually working his way beneath his new litter mates.

Two days after giving birth, mama dog Giselle allowed Finnegan to nurse; family photos and a videotape show her encouraging him to suckle alongside her litter of five pups.

Tags: animals

Is Photography Dead?

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:20:56 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

GALLERY

Is Photography Dead?

The last art form to be tethered to realism, its factual validity has lately been manipulated and pixelated to the point of extinction. Photo: Cindy Sherman

How is that even remotely possible? The medium certainly looks alive, well and, if anything, overpopulated. There are hordes of photographers out there, working with back-to-basics pinhole cameras and pixeled images measured in gigabytes, with street photography taken by cell phones and massive photo "shoots" whose crews, complexity and expense resemble those of movie sets.

Digitalization has made much of art photography's vast variety possible. But it's also a major reason that, 25 years after the technology exploded what photography could do and be, the medium seems to have lost its soul.

we've witnessed all the magical morphing and seen all the clever tricks that have turned so many photographers—formerly bearers of truth—into conjurers of fiction. It's hard to say "gee whiz" anymore.

Tags: photography, media modulation, medium evolution, art

Amazingly detailed pictures of Mars

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:34:40 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.esa.int

This image was taken by the High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), onboard ESA’s Mars Express imaged the Noctis Labyrinthus region, the ‘Labyrinth of the Night’ on Mars.

The HRSC took these pictures on 25 June 2006 in orbit 3155, with a ground resolution of approximately 16 m/pixel.

This colour scene has been derived from the three HRSC colour channels and the nadir channel.

Credits: ESA/ DLR/ FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Clip Source: esamultimedia.esa.int

Tags: mars, pictures

Abandoned baby hedgehogs are too weak to hibernate

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 06:49:47 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

These lame baby hedgehogs are casualties of the chaotic weather.

They should be asleep for the winter - but instead they are nursing their broken bones at Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

The RSPCA says its rescue centres are looking after hundreds of abandoned hedgehogs born during the exceptionally mild autumn and who are too small or weak to hibernate.

The odd weather has also led to a shortage of their favourite grubs, beetles, slugs and caterpillars.

RSPCA wildlife scientist Adam Grogan said: "They need to gain weight before they can hibernate."

Weak hedgehogs like the one above have broken bones and are being nursed back to health

Tags: hedgehogs, animals, creatures, fauna

River Runs Purple, Contaminates Greek Town

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:40:43 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: "Pollution was not the first priority at the time, industrialization of the area was."

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

River runs purple, contaminates Greek town

OINOFYTA, Greece (Reuters) - The river started turning purple 10 years ago, but the people in the small Greek town of Oinofyta who were losing loved ones to cancer never thought of blaming the water.

Factories have been dumping waste in the Asopos River for decades and nearby tourist beaches were declared unfit for swimming, but there were no official warnings to the people of the town, in an industrial zone about 60 km (35 miles) north of Athens.

It took until this year for official tests to show drinking water was contaminated with high levels of the carcinogen chromium 6, catching the attention of U.S. advocate Erin Brockovich and spreading shock and anger in the town.

It poses health risks if inhaled or orally ingested, or comes into contact with skin.

Since 1989, the proportion of deaths in the town caused by cancer has risen to 32 percent from 6 percent

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

A putrid stench rises from the river, whose waters run from red to black

bubbling sludge.

Tags: industrialisation, pllution, profits, developement

Baby Boomers Owe America's Young People an Apology

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:37:56 GMT

clipped by: jatfla
clipper's remarks: Sadly a very true and thought-provoking article. Some will say it's too simplistic; but I was there.

Clip Source: www.townhall.com

Baby Boomers Owe America's Young People an Apology

We live in the age of group apologies. I would like to add one. The baby boomer generation needs to apologize to America, especially its young generation, for many sins.

We baby boomers were allowed perhaps the most innocent childhoods known to history. We grew up without material want, in one of the most decent places in world history, with media that preserved our sexual and other innocence, in schools that generally taught us well, and we were allowed childhood play

Our generation came up with two truly foolish slogans that also ended up robbing you of childhood.

One was, "Never trust anyone over 30."

The other slogan whose awful consequences we baby boomers bequeathed to you was, "Make love, not war."

We made you anti-war and almost completely sexualized your lives.

We had contempt for our parents believing that "Father Knows Best"

e replaced these shows with MTV's mind-numbing parade of three-second images and sex-drenched shows

Tags: youth, culture

The Dogon of Southern Mali, West Africa

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:33:29 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Hidden in the mysterious Bandiagara Cliffs of southern Mali, West Africa, live a people who claim to be the conduit between heaven and Earth: the people of the Dogon.

The Dogon have survived for centuries, withstanding constant slave raiding parties of the successive empires of Ghana, the Sonrai, the Mossi, the Sao, the Fulani, and the Muslims from the north. Consequently, the Dogon have evolved a keen sense of cultural preservation and an ability to withstand outside forces of change.

Today, some 300,000 Dogon live along a roughly 125-mile-long (200-kilometer) swath of land against the Badiagara Cliffs. Many live among 700 or so small villages with populations of less than 500.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Our expedition had also come to witness the dances of the Dogon masks, known throughout the world

Dogon masks rank among the most respected within the world of tribal art collections and have influenced such Western 20th-century artists as Picasso and Braque, even the Cubist movement.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Tags: dogons, africa, mali, anthropology, ethnology, cultures

New Tech Toy

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:53:04 GMT

clipped by: ljsdesign
clipper's remarks: Not fair only in Europe right now.

Clip Source: www.tomrichmond.com

Wacom just announced the release of a new version of it’s Cintiq line of pressure sensitive tablets/LCD monitors… the 12WX. Unlike the heavy and bulky 21UX and it’s predecessors, this one designed to be far more portable and lightweight… more like a sketchbook for “on the go”…. sorry, I just drooled a little bit.

The Cintiq’s are a combination of a pressure sentive tablet and an LCD monitor, enabling the user to draw right on the screen using all the benefits and features of a wacom tablet. I use the Cintiq 21UX in the studio, and love it.

With a crisp 1280 x 800 resolution it should also be sharp enough for very detailed work. Best of all, it boasts the same 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, tilt and rotation sensitivity, express keys and touch strip… all the toys it’s big brother has

Unfortunately as of right now it looks like it’s only available in Europe, but I am sure that’s going to change soon. The bad news? if it’s similarly priced in the US it will be over $1,700.00!

Tags: drawing, technology, europe, tablet, wacom, cintiq

Bush: "Begone Facts, Begone"

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:12:19 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: How much evidence do we need to realize this man is nuts?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Bush Says Iran Still a Danger Despite Report on Weapons

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — President Bush said today that a new intelligence finding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003 had not altered his sense that Iran remained a danger.

The world needed to view the report as “a warning signal,” not grounds for reassurance, he said, and the United States would not renounce the option of a military response.

“I have said Iran is dangerous,” Bush said a day after the release of the National Intelligence Estimate, representing the consensus of all 16 American spy agencies, “and the N.I.E. doesn’t do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world — quite the contrary.”

The report was welcomed by Iran today, which said it confirmed Tehran’s frequent protestations that its nuclear program has a purely civilian aim.

Tags: bush, politics, iran, war

Migraine Sufferers Have Thick Brain Fibers

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:43:41 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.itwire.com

Migraine-headache sufferers have thick brain fibers

Harvard researchers scanned the brains of migraine headache patients and volunteers without such headaches. They found that fibers in the brain, which relay pain signals, were thicker in migraine patients.

The conclusion from the experiment was that the somatosensory cortex, the part of the brain that processes sensations from the face and head, was about 21% thicker in migraine headache sufferers than people who do not get migraines.

Hadjikhani was paraphrased, in the New Scientist magazine article "Mighty migraines" (November 24, 2007, page 19): "it's becoming increasing clear that migraines are symptomatic of progressive neurological disease."

Tags: migraine, research, health, science, headache

BIG Surprise? More Bush LIES for WAR with Iran

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:32:58 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Damp squib really. Who is surprised by the Bush lies any more? The Swiftboaters? Even those dumbshixs must be copping on that the emperor has no clothes and that they bought the most GIGANTIC pup of all time!

Clip Source: www.rte.ie

Iran

US overstated Iran nuclear threat

Tuesday, 4 Dec

The National Intelligence Estimate also said that Washington had consistently overstated the threat posed by Iran

The Bush administration had been insisting that the purpose of Iran's nuclear programme was to develop nuclear weapons, but the new assessment concludes that Tehran is not likely to have enough highly enriched uranium to build a bomb until 2015

The intellegence report has raised fresh questions about the White House's battered credibility five years after the US drive to invade Iraq based on dire, but false, warnings

Bush warned of the threat of a nuclear armed Iian and wrongly claimed that Tehran had openly proclaimed its desire for one

The NIE, the consensus view of all 16 US intelligence agencies, said it was unclear whether Iran sought nuclear arms and that halting its still-dormant program suggested greater susceptibility to global pressure than had been thought

Iranian government welcomed a US intelligence report

Mahmoud

Tags: bush, lies, iran, nuclear, war, ni