Clipmarks |

Iranian Gay Teen Faces Hanging In Iran As Britain Denies Asylum

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:42:20 GMT

clipped by: syncopath
clipper's remarks: "According to human rights organizations more than 4,000 gay men and women have been hanged in Iran since the revolution in 1979. Homosexuality is considered illegal in Iran."

Clip Source: www.scoop.co.nz

The flight that will take young Medhi Kazemi from Amsterdam to London, from where he will be deported to Iran, is booked for tuesday february 26th. Everyone Group is appealing to the European Union to overrule the British government's decision, and grant the 19-year-old political asylum.

Medhi is an Iranian homosexual who in November 2005 left Teheran to go and study in London. He was forced to apply for asylum to the British Home Office after the discovery, by the Iranian authorities of his homosexual relationship with another boy, who had already been sentenced to death and executed in April 2006.

"We invite civil society to express its indignation towards the actions of the British Government, aimed at undermining the values of freedom and dignity of the individual".

say the representatives of EveryOne

Clip Source: www.thewordofgeorge.com

Two gay men being executed in Iran

Picture courtesy of Homan, the Iranian Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transgender Organization. Yeah, a blog from those people who don’t exist

π

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:08:54 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: Pi(π) appears where you least expect it.

Coincidentally, Pi Day is also the birthday of Albert Einstein, who no doubt knew more than a little about pi. Pi Day celebrants, usually children with an enthusiastic teacher and a varying degree of personal interest in the subject, learn about pi, circles, and, if they're lucky, eat baked pies of various sorts.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

It's Pi Day, a celebration of the mathematical ratio that man has been trying to unlock for millennia. But why are we driven to find the answers behind it?

As we're all taught at school, pi represents the number you get when you divide the distance around a circle (its circumference) by the distance across (the diameter).

The rough ratio of pi 3.14 gives us the date for Pi Day. March 14, or 3/14 in American dating style, makes sense for a celebration of this famous constant.

Famous constant

Pi, more commonly known by the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, is the most widely-known mathematical constant in the world.

Pi conjures a sense of mystery, so the symbol makes regular appearances in popular culture - it's the secret code in both Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain and the Sandra Bullock vehicle The Net.

In ancient Greece

the great mathematician Archimedes worked tirelessly to discover the ratio

Pi shows up everywhere.

We have pi in our eyes

Pi can be found in the design of the pyramids at Giza

Tags: π, mathematics, math

It’s Official: There’s Too Much Information

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:15:02 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

We’ve hit information overload: The amount of data people create now exceeds the amount of space available to store them.

People sent emails, took digital pictures, processed credit cards and generally did things that collectively created 281 exabytes of data by the end 2007, according to the research company IDC. (“Exabyte” sounds made up, but it’s a real term meaning 1,000,000,000,000 megabytes.) IDC also added up all the computer drives, backup tapes, CDs, DVDs, memory sticks and other devices that store data and estimated that their total capacity is only 264 exabtyes.

Wal-Mart, for example, adds a billion rows of data to its data warehouse every hour.

If businesses don’t start thinking about how they will manage all the data flowing in and out of their organizations “they could become large sink holes,” Reinsel says.

Snowflake - 3 Months of CUTE!

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:17:48 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Polar bear cubs are just heart-breaking adorable.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

Nuremberg's celebrity polar bear cub Snowflake is growing up fast -- and getting ready for her first public appearance.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

Snowflake's keepers allowed the bear to go outside for the first time on Tuesday, but in a private open-air enclosure not accessible to the public.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

According to Nuremberg Zoo, the little furball should be ready for her first public appearance in early April, if she continues to develop at her current rate.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

The zoo decided to raise the little bear by hand after she appeared to be in danger of injury at the paws of her mother.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

On Tuesday she was given her first bone to gnaw on, to celebrate her three-month birthday.

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

Snowflake also has a new toy -- a knotted scarf.

How to build a Universe that doesn't fall apart two days later

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:19:03 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: Maybe, it's as real as our world. Maybe we cannot say that we are in touch with reality and he is not, but should instead say, His reality is so different from ours that he can't explain his to us, and we can't explain ours to him. The problem, then, is that if subjective worlds are experienced too differently, there occurs a breakdown of communication... and there is the real illness.
...
One day a girl college student in Canada asked me to define reality for her, for a paper she was writing for her philosophy class. She wanted a one-sentence answer. I thought about it and finally said, "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." That's all I could come up with. That was back in 1972. Since then I haven't been able to define reality any more lucidly.
...
So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms.

Clip Source: deoxy.org

How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later
by Philip K. Dick, 1978

"What is reality?"

"What constitutes the authentic human being?"

In 1951, when I sold my first story, I had no idea that such fundamental issues could be pursued in the science fiction field.

I began to pursue them unconsciously.

The story was about a real dog

I used to watch him and try to get inside his head and imagine how he saw the world.

Certainly, I decided, that dog sees the world quite differently than I do, or any humans do. And then I began to think, Maybe each human being lives in a unique world, a private world, a world different from those inhabited and experienced by all other humans. And that led me wonder, If reality differs from person to person, can we speak of reality singular, or shouldn't we really be talking about plural realities? And if there are plural realities, are some more true (more real) than others? What about the world of a schizophrenic? Maybe, it's as real as our world.

Tags: philip k. dick

One Truth About Cosmetic Vanity Surgery

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:07:36 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "Can we talk?"

Clip Source: www.cartoonbank.com

The Spell of Islamophobia

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:39:29 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: This is a great writeup. Highly recommend you read at the source.

Clip Source: newsweek.washingtonpost.com

A few weeks ago, I was on Radio Times, the mid-morning talk show on Philadelphia Public Radio.

I spoke about how Muslim history and theology support religious pluralism. I talked about many of my Muslim heroes, scholars and activists

(Listen to the podcast)

The phones started ringing off the hooks.

The callers basically had two questions: “Why don’t Muslims condemn terrorism?” And, “Where are the moderate Muslim voices?"

But I admit, there was a little voice inside my head that wanted to say to some of these callers, “Don’t you feel a little embarrassed revealing that level of ignorance and bigotry on Public Radio? Do you know nothing more about the religion of one-fifth of humankind for over 1000 years but the violent bits? Isn’t that a little like knowing nothing more about the United States Constitution than the clause which states black people only count as three-fifths of a human being”.

Tags: islam

Helene Berr 1942-1944 journal

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:51:16 GMT

clipped by: syncopath

Clip Source: www.digitaljournal.com

The young Jewish woman known as Hélène Berr is deemed to be the French version of Anne Frank. Her diary is an account of two years living under the Nazi occupation of France. It portrays how her life was shattered before being deported on her 24th birthday and then dying in a concentration camp.

Hélène Berr’s diary was supposed to be for Jean Morawiecki, her fiancé. Jean had left Paris to become part of the Resistance. It was turned over to Jean after her death in April 1945.

For the first time this month, the diary of Hélène Berr was published. While the diary had small joys in the entries, it mostly had angst and horror against the Nazis under its occupation. However, it would look as if Berr did not know the word of hate. She was an advanced student of English at the Sorbonne.

Hélène Berr is the Anne Frank of France according to French Media

the diary of Hélène Berr is still exceptional because it is the first account of life under the Nazi occupation of France by a student.

Clip Source: wil51.vox.com

18 Media Flaws & Lies: Do You Remember?

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:20:34 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Could you ever forget?

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

The Iraq Follies

Commentary: Eighteen things you've already forgotten about the media's flawed coverage of Iraq

Table of Contents

O'Reilly said, "If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation; I will not trust the Bush administration again, all right?"

Phil Donahue

"presents a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war.... At the same time our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."

MSNBC's

"We're all neocons now."

"I'm waiting to hear the words 'I was wrong' from some of the world's most elite journalists, politicians, and Hollywood types."

New York Times

"As far as I am concerned, we do not need to find any weapons of mass destruction to justify this war.... Mr. Bush doesn't owe the world any explanation for missing chemical weapons."

Bush's comedy routine

joked, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere...Nope, no weapons over there...Maybe under here?"

Petraeus goes out

in an unarmed Humvee

Tags: iraq, invasion, media, lies

Snow Rage

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:12:58 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: Brrrr!

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Guns and fists as "snow rage" erupts

QUEBEC CITY, Quebec (Reuters) - Although Canada is one of the snowiest countries in the world, a series of violent "snow rage" incidents reveal that even the locals have their limits.

Police in the French-speaking province of Quebec said on Wednesday that people were fighting over snow clearing and even parking spaces.

Recent Canadian winters have been mild but this one looks set to break all-time records for snow. One storm last weekend dumped 23 inches on the capital Ottawa and 19 inches on Quebec City, which has already received 210 inches this year.

Quebec City police said they had been called to a dozen violent disputes about snow from one property ending up on someone else's. The drifts outside some houses are 12 feet and higher.

"It's happened particularly often this year ... you have to be used to snow if you live in Quebec but it's been a bit extreme this year. People are fed up," she said. Continued...

Clipmarks |

Iranian Gay Teen Faces Hanging In Iran As Britain Denies Asylum

π

It’s Official: There’s Too Much Information

Snowflake - 3 Months of CUTE!

How to build a Universe that doesn't fall apart two days later

How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later by Philip K. Dick, 1978

One Truth About Cosmetic Vanity Surgery

The Spell of Islamophobia

Helene Berr 1942-1944 journal

18 Media Flaws & Lies: Do You Remember?

The Iraq Follies

Snow Rage

Guns and fists as "snow rage" erupts

How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later
by Philip K. Dick, 1978