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the spectator sport China DOESN'T want you to see

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:22:11 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

It could have been a happy scene from a family zoo anywhere in the world but for what happened next.

A man hoisted up the goat and nonchalantly threw it over a wall into a pit full of hungry lions. The poor goat tried to run for its life, but it didn't stand a chance. The lions quickly surrounded it and started tearing at its flesh.

The scenes witnessed at Badaltearing Safari Park in China are rapidly becoming a normal day out for many Chinese families.

Baying crowds now gather in zoos across the country to watch animals being torn to pieces by lions and tigers.

Just an hour's drive from the main Olympic attractions in Beijing, Badaling is in many ways a typical Chinese zoo.

Next to the main slaughter arena is a restaurant where families can dine on braised dog while watching cows and goats being disembowelled by lions.

The zoo also encourages visitors to "fish" for lions using live chickens as bait.

"In China, if you love animals you want to kill yourself every day out of despair."

con tem po rary art

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:04:11 GMT

clipped by: syncopath
clipper's remarks: seems like an interesting site 4 photography & art.

last photo:
"Guys & Dolls: Seeing Stars", is a two-person exhibition of photographs by Rose Hartman and Holger Keifel that juxtaposes revealing moments of boxing personalities with those of social celebrities. Dating from the 1970's through today, Rose Hartman and Holger Keifel's photographs include world known figures, such as Jackie O, Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell, Oscar de la Hoya,

Clip Source: www.dailyserving.com

Photographer Rhona Bitner has spent the past 15 years of her career observing and capturing the performer and the performance space. Though the artist documents the space, the photos are far from documentary. In her new body of work titled "STAGE," Bitner captures the silent moments just before and directly after someone appears on the stage.

Clip Source: www.dailyserving.com

The new exhibition and book titled "Hybrids" explores various subcultures through photographs taken by Klaus Thymann from 2003 - 2007, investigating gay rodeos, an underwater striptease, snow polo and religious theme parks among many others.

Clip Source: www.dailyserving.com

The photographic works of young Korean Artist Myoung Ho Lee have gained international acclaim for their simple concept and potent outcome.

inspiring questions of reality, existence, and identity in relation to the surrounding environment.

Clip Source: www.dailyserving.com

Well known filmmaker and installation artist, Isaac Julien

Clip Source: www.dailyserving.com

"Saved with water," by Finnish artist Susanna Majuri.

Clip Source: www.dailyserving.com

Alison Jackson: Confidential

Clip Source: www.dailyserving.com

by Rose Hartman and Holger Keifel

the terrifying moment a gorilla dragged a tourist off into the jungle

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:04:08 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

He weighs more than 30 stone and is nearly 6ft tall. Built like a brick outhouse, he could probably crush your skull in his hand.

So the important thing to remember when you're invited into a silverback gorilla's backyard is just who's the boss. Oh, yes. And don't look him in the eye unless you want to start a fight.

Sighting: The group of tourists catch their first glimpse of the 30 stone male as they wade through the Rwanda undergrowth

Stand-off: The jungle giant, joined by a younger member of its family, looks down warily as the visitors smile and take pictures

Sulky: The male momentarily turns away, with a look that says he's not too happy

Scarey: Suddenly, the silverback rears up and pounds his chest with his huge fists

Snarling: Next second, the tourists reel back in terror as the gorilla launches itself at them

Snatched: With astonishing strength, the male hauls away a man in a blue anorak

Stepping in: A ranger waves a coat to distract the gorilla as the man scrambles away

In Defense of Real Food

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:47:19 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma.

In his new book, "In Defense of Food," what Michael Pollan advocates is nothing less than a wholesale rejection of the modern American food chain. It's a radical proposal in a time when "cooking from scratch and growing any of your own food qualify as subversive acts." Pollan argues convincingly that in recent decades, we have shifted from the traditional diets of our ancestors to what he calls the "western diet" - industrialized food, reconstituted, repackaged and redefined to conform with the latest whims of nutritional science.

It is a red shift that Pollan believes has set us adrift in a "treacherous food environment," bereft of "cultural tools to guide us through it." All this has brought us increased obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes along with the troubling paradox that "the more we worry about nutrition the less healthy we become."

Tags: food, real food

Fun With Words

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:38:04 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.rinkworks.com

Contronyms

A synonym is a word that means the same as another. "Necessary" and "required" are synonyms. An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another. "Wet" and "dry" are antonyms. While synonyms and antonyms are not in themselves interesting, the complexities and irregularities of the English language sometimes make synonyms and antonyms interesting to explore. Many complexities result from words having multiple definitions. A trivial example is a word with synonyms that aren't synonyms of each other, the word "beam," for example, having the synonyms "bar" and "shine." Similarly, some words have antonyms that are neither synonyms nor antonyms of each other but completely unrelated: the word "right," for example, having the antonyms "wrong" and "left."

Common Misconceptions

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:49:52 GMT

clipped by: sitegeist
clipper's remarks: This articlecovers a broad field of misconceptions, such as geography, health, even food. Evolution is, to me, the most interesting.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

In biology the word evolution describes the changes that occur in populations of living organisms over time. Describing these changes does not address the origin of life: for that, see abiogenesis. The two are commonly and mistakenly conflated. Biological evolution likewise says nothing about cosmology, the Big Bang, or where the universe, galaxy, solar system, or Earth came from.

Humans did not evolve from chimpanzees or any other modern ape; instead they share a common ancestor (possibly Sahelanthropus tchadensis) that existed around 7 million years ago in the late Miocene epoch.^[26]^[27] However, the genuses Ardipithecus and Orrorin are alternative candidates for this common ancestor.^[28]

Evolution is not a progression from "lower" to "higher", and evolution does not require an increase in complexity (see Evolution of complexity). A population can evolve to become simpler, and have a smaller genome — often called "devolution", but that is a misnomer.^[30]^[31]

Tags: misconceptions, evolution, wikipedia

Lost Fingers And Low Pay

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 10:15:06 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: I've said it many times, the rich constantly exploit the poor, and fail to share even a meager portion of their wealth with them.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

GUANGZHOU, China — Nearly a decade after some of the most powerful companies in the world — often under considerable criticism and consumer pressure — began an effort to eliminate sweatshop labor conditions in Asia, worker abuse is still commonplace in many of the Chinese factories that supply Western companies, according to labor rights groups.

The groups say some Chinese companies routinely shortchange their employees on wages, withhold health benefits and expose their workers to dangerous machinery and harmful chemicals, like lead, cadmium and mercury.

And so while American and European consumers worry about exposing their children to Chinese-made toys coated in lead, Chinese workers, often as young as 16, face far more serious hazards. Here in the Pearl River Delta region near Hong Kong, for example, factory workers lose or break about 40,000 fingers on the job every year, according to a study published a few years ago by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Tags: this, makes, me, sick

Meet Snakegirl!

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:46:15 GMT

clipped by: mickfinn
clipper's remarks: An amazing young lady.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Her nickname is Snakegirl - and just one look at her extraordinary stage act reveals why

The 18-year-old contortionist, who dresses in a snakeskin costume, is amazing audiences with her incredible poses and eye-watering gyrations

Nokulunga Buthelezi is so naturally flexible that her mother found her asleep one day when she was three - with her legs tucked behind her neck

Flexible: Lunga looks like she doesn't have a bone in her body

Six years later, the young girl from South Africa joined a touring circus in the United States and is now a major star of Afrika! Afrika!, a £4.2million extravaganza opening at the O2 arena in London on January 17

The performer, who now financially supports her mother, grandmother, aunts and cousins, said: "There are so many kids out there in Africa with talent, but I had something different

"My mum saw someone doing acrobatics and they mentioned that there were auditions for an American circus. She took me along and they were impressed

OUCH:

eye-watering pose

Tags: acrobat, circus, contortionist, show