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A Grain of Sand: Nature's Secret Wonder

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:11:05 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Gary Greenberg photographs the world, one grain of sand at a time, in A Grain of Sand: Nature's Secret Wonder

(magnification 40X)

Maui Sand:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Star Sand:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Namibia:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Minnesota:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Six Sand Grains:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Ireland:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Lahaina Maui:

Tags: nature, sand, photography

The amazing new Apple store

Thu, 15 May 2008 14:21:21 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Clip Source: gizmodo.com

Head of Apple Retail Ron Johnson gave some insight into the planning behind the Boylston Street location. The spot was picked out in 2000, but took eight years of planning to get it built. Because of Apple's recent success, the store has grown significantly from what was originally planned.

The first floor is all Mac, the company's "most important product" according to Johnson. Floor two is dedicated to iPod, iPhone and all the third party accessories Apple offers. The third floor is dedicated to service, with a massive Genius Bar, sections for one-on-one, workshops and a second location for Apple's new "Pro Labs" initiative.

The Genius Bar, which boasts 17 black stools, can serve 1,000 people per day at full capacity, with the store open from 8AM to 11PM.

The store is also environmentally friendly, with vegetation on the roof and a rainwater recollection system which directs water from the roof directly into the Back Bay water table.

The store opens tomorrow, Thursday the 15th, at 6PM.

Clip Source: www.apple.com

Clip Source: gizmodo.com

Tags: apple, apple store

The Online Books Page

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:01:21 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: Just in case some of you just might be suffering from the delusion that someday you might be able to shut down your computers and go and breath the fresh air that someone once told me is actually to be found outside.

Clip Source: digital.library.upenn.edu

BOOKS ONLINE

Search our Listings -- New Listings -- Authors -- Titles -- Subjects -- Serials

NEWS

New public domain material, new forums -- More books, added faster, with new form -- Latest Book Listings

FEATURES

A Celebration of Women Writers -- Banned Books Online -- Prize Winners Online

ARCHIVES AND INDEXES

General -- Foreign Language -- Specialty

THE INSIDE STORY

About Us -- FAQ -- Get Involved! -- Books In Progress/Requested -- More Book Links

Listing over 30,000 free books on the Web - Updated Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Dead Sea Scroll Put on Rare Display in Israel

Wed, 14 May 2008 04:36:16 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

One of the most important Dead Sea scrolls is going on display in Jerusalem this week—more than four decades after it was last seen by the public.

The 24-foot (7.3-meter) scroll with the text of the Bible's Book of Isaiah had been in a dark, temperature-controlled room at the Israel Museum since 1967. It went on display two years earlier, but curators replaced it with a facsimile after noticing new cracks in the calfskin parchment.

The museum decided to put the scroll back on show for three months as part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations.

The priceless manuscript, written by a Judean scribe around 120 B.C., was in a long glass case Tuesday, its neat rows of Hebrew letters distinct and legible.

The Isaiah manuscript was the only complete biblical book discovered among the Dead Sea scrolls, one of the great archaeological finds of the 20th century.

(See a time line of early Christianity.)

Tags: dead sea scrolls, jerusalem, religion

Keith Olbermann:To Mr. Bush Shut the Hell Up!

Thu, 15 May 2008 19:46:13 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: The video!

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: you tube, olbermann, truth, special comment, bush, shut, the, fuck, up

I demand one, NOW!

Thu, 15 May 2008 13:01:57 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: pikpunk.com

Biden: Bush's Comments Are Bullsh*t, Ridiculous, Outrageous

Thu, 15 May 2008 17:21:29 GMT

clipped by: ericw

Clip Source: www.politico.com

“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset . . . and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is—the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Tags: joe biden, bush, israel, politics

Replacing Highways with Parks

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:03:43 GMT

clipped by: Rebecca Ruiz
clipper's remarks: Some cities are planning to tear down aging highways and replace them with parks. This strategy represents a continuing shift in the way public places are designed, particularly when it comes to park space and transportation. The idea is really to make cities more livable. On a similar note, we recently did a story on best cities for the outdoors which you can read here: http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/05/12/outdoors-health-cities-forbeslife-cx_rr_0512realestate.html

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

Oklahoma has a radical solution for repairing the state's busiest highway.

Tear it down. Build a park.

The aging Crosstown Expressway — an elevated 4.5-mile stretch of Interstate 40 — will be demolished in 2012. An old-fashioned boulevard and a mile-long park will be constructed in its place.

More than a dozen cities have proposals to remove highways from downtowns. Cleveland wants to remove a freeway that blocks its waterfront. Syracuse, N.Y., wants to rid itself of an interstate that cuts the city in half.

In the 1950s and '60s, mayors, governors and planners thought downtown highways would help keep cities alive by paving the way for suburban commuters to get in and out. Today, many of those same groups view downtown highways as a plague, wrecking neighborhoods, dividing cities and blocking waterfronts.

Some cities want traffic routed around downtowns. Others want tunnels or highways that pass under streets. A number of cities want to close highways and replace them with — nothing.

Solar bra brings conservation closer to the heart

Thu, 15 May 2008 16:18:42 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Ladies, take your battle for the environment a little closer to your heart with a solar-powered bra that can generate enough electric energy to charge a mobile phone or an iPod.

Lingerie maker Triumph International Japan Ltd unveiled its environmentally friendly, and green colored, "Solar Power Bra" on Wednesday in Tokyo which features a solar panel worn around the stomach.

The panel requires light to generate electricity and the concept bra will not be in stores anytime soon, said Triumph spokeswoman Yoshiko Masuda, as "people usually can not go outside without wearing clothes over it."

But it does send the message of how lingerie could possibly save the planet, Masuda said, adding that the bra should not be washed or sunned on a rainy day to avoid damaging it.

"It is very comfortable and I can really feel involved in eco-friendly efforts as well," model Yuko Ishida said.

Tags: bra, lingerie, solar power, green

Most Extreme Places on Earth

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:37:51 GMT

clipped by: sahara
clipper's remarks: From the Google Earth Extreme Series...

Clip Source: bbs.keyhole.com

Tristan da Cunha : Remotest archipelago on the Earth

Shah Faisal Mosque, Islamabad, Pakistan : Largest Mosque on the Earth

Nile, African continent : Longest River on the Earth

Dingo Fence , Australia : Longest Fence on the Earth

Burj Dubai ( Dubai Tower ), United Arab Emirates : Tallest Man made structure on the Earth

Colca Canyon, Peru : Deepest Canyon on the Earth

Mt. Washington Observatory : Windiest place on the Earth

More here..

Great Barrier Reef , Australia : Largest natural feature on the Earth

Jack Hills, Australia : Oldest piece of earth on th Earth

Seoul, Korea : Most populated city on the Earth

Rafflesia arnoldii, Indonesia : Largest Single Flower / parasite on the Earth

Voronya Cave, Krubera, Georgia : Deepest Cave on the Earth

Vredefort Crater, South Africa : Largest impact crater on the Earth

ScoresbySund Fjord, Greenland : Longest & Deepest Fjord on the Earth

Bishop Rock, Isles of Scilly : Smallest Island on the Earth

Mera Peak, Nepal : Greatest Vertical Drop on the Earth

Deepest point

Dungeon case leads to gender rethink in Austria

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:35:28 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: I realize that this outrage is and has been written about everywhere. However I really am quite intrigued by this columnist's insights

Go to site and read all of it

Clip Source: www.rabble.ca

Dungeon case leads to gender rethink in Austria

Here's a little-known fact. Opinionators do wake at 3 a.m. after a column has been published and realize that a piece can be incontrovertible and still have missed a target.

I'm referring to last week's column advising readers not to tar all Austrians with the same brush after the revelations about Josef Fritzl, 73, who kept his daughter Elisabeth in a sunless, nearly airless dungeon beneath his house for 24 years for rape and procreation. I stand by it; damning entire nations is absurd and dangerous.

But relations between men and women in Austria are still a bizarre backwoods matter, as one reader e-mailed to inform me. Thank you for the article, she wrote politely, but I am Austrian-German, and you are wrong. Her traditional upbringing by an authoritarian father and passive mother had scarred her as well as her own children, she said, causing one of her brothers to commit suicide and leaving the other emotionally unable to cope with life.

Quake aftermath in Dujiangyan, Sichuan -pics

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:15:27 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Remember, for the vast majority these are ONE CHILD parents. The loss of any child is unbearable but to lose your only one is imaginable.

Let us judge the Chinese government on how they deal with the aftermath of this disaster that diminishes the scale of Katrina. Yet we still remember the aftermath of Katrina and how the Bush government didn't deal with its largely man-made disaster.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Rescuers search the remains of the Long Tai Wan complex

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The remains of a block of flats

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Residents shelter under an umbrella in front of rubble

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Rescuers help a victim from the ruins of the Xin Jian elementary school

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Anxious parents wait for news outside the Xin Jian school

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Security forces struggle to hold back desperate parents at the school

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

A mother collapses in grief as the body of her child is driven away from the remains of the school

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Grieving parents outside the remains of the Long Tai Wan housing compound, where their one and a half year old daughter Xi Xi has been buried by rubble

Tags: china, photos, disasters

World's smallest helicopter to fly in da Vinci birthplace

Wed, 14 May 2008 23:35:14 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: I like the gesture.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

The world's smallest one-man helicopter will soon take flight in the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci, who is credited with having first thought of a vertical-flight machine, its developer said.

The 75-kilogram (165-pound) helicopter will make a demonstration flight in the city of Vinci, near Florence, on May 25, according to Japanese developer Gennai Yanagisawa, 75.

"Since the concept of our helicopter came from Italy, I always wanted to take a flight in the birthplace of da Vinci," Yanagisawa said.

"I feel like I'm greeting an ancestor. I hope da Vinci would be pleased," Yanagisawa told AFP.

Renaissance genius da Vinci was born in Vinci in 1452 and spent the first several years of his life there.

His sketch, dated in 1493 and discovered in the 19th century, shows a vertical flight machine. As in the drawing, the GEN H-4 has no tail.

The current model is priced at six million yen (58,250 dollars).

Tags: aviation, history of aviation

Lots of Monty Python

Thu, 15 May 2008 09:54:30 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: monty.python.videowall.sytes.org

Village on the Edge of TIme

Wed, 14 May 2008 13:03:32 GMT

clipped by: Beholder

Clip Source: ngm.nationalgeographic.com

For a thousand years the lives of the Dong people have resounded with song.

The sun was already low and the air still hot when I arrived at the tall ceremonial gate that led into the village. From the top of the dirt road, my eyes took in a valley in mid-harvest: a patchwork of pale green fields brushed with gold, broken by dark waves of upswept roofs.

Without warning, two ten-year-old girls ran up and locked elbows with mine, singing their welcome in staccato rhythm as they escorted me over a flagstone path through a maze of three-storied homes made of wood. Turbaned grannies watched from their porches. Three grizzled men wearing old-style Mao caps looked up from their pipes. A huddle of children followed. The girls led me past grain sheds, which stood on stilts over pens of fleshy pigs and ponds of ducks.

I had arrived in Dimen, home to five clans and 528 households of the Dong minority, an enclave nestled in the luxuriant mountains of Guizhou.

Clip Source: ngm.nationalgeographic.com

Photo Gallery »

Tags: china, culture