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100 Year-old Tortoise acts as Mom to Baby Hippo

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:28:20 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: An inter species bond like this is a brilliant example to a few lessons we could still learn from nature.

Clip Source: www.floristone.com

A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa

It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP.

After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately , it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond.

They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother.

Tags: animal life

Hang in there Texans!

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:31:36 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: I'm staying put, but for those that need to evacuate, stay safe.

Clip Source: www.click2houston.com

All of the forecast models predict Ike will hit somewhere north of Corpus Christi to near the Texas-Louisiana border.

Hurricane force winds extend 115 miles from Ike's center and tropical storm force winds extend 255 miles.

"About 1 a.m. Saturday it's going to begin to make landfall as a Category 3 -- it wouldn't surprise me at all if it's a Category 4," Yanez said. "It is going to spend much of Saturday moving out of here."

A 15- to 22-foot storm surge is expected wherever Ike makes landfall.

"That's the most dangerous part of a hurricane," Yanez said.

Isolated tornados are expected on the east side, commonly called the "dirty side," of the storm. Some wind gusts in Houston could reach 100 mph.

Tags: hurricane, ike

Spectacular Photos!

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:55:59 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: pixdaus.com

Tags: photography

New Evidence: Palin Had Direct Role In Charging Rape Victims For Exams

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:42:20 GMT

clipped by: bbittner

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Under Sarah Palin's administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today earlier this week that the GOP vice presidential nominee "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test...To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice," Palin, as mayor, fired police chief Irl Stambaugh and replaced him with Charlie Fannon, who with Palin's knowledge, slashed the budget for the exams and began charging the city's victims of sexual assault. The city budget documents demonstrate Palin read and signed off on the new budget. A year later, alarmed Alaska lawmakers passed legislation outlawing the practice.

World wants Obama as president: poll

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:43:07 GMT

clipped by: BobbyRutan
clipper's remarks: Will Americans choose to lead the world, or will they once again squander the goodwill that the world would love to heap on the USA.

What will they do?

The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve relations were America's NATO allies, including Australia (62 per cent).

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to see Senator Obama elected US president ahead of Republican John McCain.

In 17 of the 22 nations, people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Senator Obama wins.

More than 22,000 people were questioned by pollster GlobeScan in countries ranging from Australia to India and across Africa, Europe and South America.

The margin in favour of Senator Obama ranged from 9 per cent in India to 82 per cent in Kenya, while an average of 49 per cent across the 22 countries preferred Senator Obama compared with 12 per cent preferring Senator McCain. Some four in 10 did not take a view.

Large numbers of people around the world clearly like what Barack Obama represents," GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller said.

"Given how negative America's international image is at present, it is quite striking that only one in five think a McCain presidency would improve on the Bush administration's relations with the world."

Clip Source: shotpolitics.com

Tags: mccain equals bush in the eyes of the world

Roger Ebert on Sarah Palin: The American Idol Candidate

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:37:55 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: Save the Republic.

Clip Source: www.suntimes.com

Roger Ebert on Sarah Palin: The American Idol candidate

I think I might be able to explain some of Sarah Palin's appeal. She's the "American Idol" candidate.

There's a reason "American Idol" gets such high ratings. People identify with the contestants. They think, Hey, that could be me up there on that show!

My problem is, I don't want to be up there. I don't want a vice president who is darned near good enough. I want a vice president who is better, wiser, well-traveled, has met world leaders, who three months ago had an opinion on Iraq. Someone who doesn't repeat bald- faced lies about earmarks and the Bridge to Nowhere.

I would also want someone who didn't make a teeny little sneer when referring to "people who go to the Ivy League."

Five different schools in six years. What was that about?

And how can a politician her age have never have gone to Europe?

I trust the American people will see through Palin, and save the Republic in November.

Tags: palin, go home

PC Magazine's list of the 100 best Web sites of 2008...

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:23:54 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "These 100 sites change the way we use the Web, pioneer new technologies and ideas, and inspire tons and tons of mimicry."

Clip Source: www.pcmag.com

		SLIDESHOW (100)

		Slideshow \| All Shots

All Web sites, whether classic or not, tend to follow the same evolutionary path: A site is conceived in the mind of an unusually intelligent person; starts off as a buggy alpha project; evolves into a less-buggy beta project; develops into a full-blown meme usually sometime around launch (Google betas excepted); and swirls around the Internet for a while. That's where the path diverges: the site can fade away into uncoolness and disuse, cater to a niche of hard-core users, or mature into a classic Web site that is used and loved by millions.

Unlike our list of Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites, you've probably heard of most of these sites, but we hope there are some new finds and old friends here for you to enjoy.

Web site categories:

Apps and Services • Fun and Games • Health and Science
Info, Search, and Reference • Lifestyle
Money and Real Estate • Music • News • Photo
Shopping • Social Networking • Technology
Travel and Maps

Luis Bunuel Quotes

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:45:48 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: I like this guy!

Clip Source: www.brainyquote.com

A paranoiac like a poet, is born, not made.

Luis Bunuel Quotes

Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese.

Fortunately, somewhere between chance and mystery lies imagination, the only thing that protects our freedom, despite the fact that people keep trying to reduce it or kill it off altogether.

Frankly, despite my horror of the press, I'd love to rise from the grave every ten years or so and go buy a few newspapers.

God and Country are an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression and bloodshed.

I can only wait for the final amnesia, the one that can erase an entire life.

If you were to ask me if I'd ever had the bad luck to miss my daily cocktail, I'd have to say that I doubt it; where certain things are concerned, I plan ahead.

In the name of Hippocrates, doctors have invented the most exquisite form of torture ever known to man: survival.

Thank God I'm an atheist.

The decline of the aperitif may well be one of the most depressing phenomena of our time.

US war on the Future: From Alvin Toffler to Sarah Palin

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:22:48 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This is a must read commentary by Adam Greenfield.

"What you get when you swallow too much change too quickly isn’t a mass outbreak of twitching, hebephrenic breakdown, nor some neo-Amish wave of technological renunciation. You wanna know what it looks like? A hockey mom and former beauty queen with an upswept ‘do and a pregnant daughter in high school. Sarah Palin is future shock personified."

Clip Source: speedbird.wordpress.com

I think we actually had two paperback copies of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock floating around the house when I was a kid

Most of it sailed over my head at that age. What I do remember sticking with me was the notion of accelerating change, an idea which did then and still does make the hairs at the back of my neck tingle.

to suffer from future shock was simply to be paralyzed by “too much change experienced in too short a period of time

Mainstream Americans, by contrast, where they were once called to dream and to believe that their best days as a community still lay ahead, are now at war with the future. And this is one war situation that is definitely not developing necessarily to their advantage.

among fully-developed nations, the US stands out as having generally rejected “futuristic” interventions in everyday urban life, to the point that what I’m bound to present as innovative to US audiences is almost laughably banal elsewhere.

Tags: futurism, us politics

Ohio GOP plans to challenge voters on the basis of home foreclosures

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:13:41 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: The Ohio Republican Party is stationing volunteer "election challengers" at polling places around the state and arming them with a list of foreclosed homes. Anyone on the list who tries to vote will be challenged, even though the Republican officials are not claiming that these people are legally ineligible to vote.

Clip Source: www.michiganmessenger.com

Lose your house, lose your vote

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

“At a minimum what you are seeing is a fairly comprehensive effort by the Republican Party, a systematic broad-based effort to put up obstacles for people to vote,” he said. “Nobody is contending that these people are not legally registered to vote.

Tags: conservatives, republicans, presidential_campaign_2008, ohio, election, civil_rights, poverty

Old forests absorb CO2 too; study

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:21:11 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They hold Carbon That will be released, when culled, they are also, contrary 'calculations', Not carbon Neutral. The Value of old growth forests can never be calculated, and are Priceless. Their Value should not be based on some cheap corrupt accounting trick. they Help us Breathe, the Earth Breathe And The Planet has Lung Cancer

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A new study has found that old-growth forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to curb the greenhouse gases that drive global warming.

The finding overturns previous assumptions that only younger forests, mainly in the tropics, absorb significantly more CO2 than they release

The study appears in the latest issue of Nature

Many forests in temperate and subarctic regions are not protected by international treaties, and do not figure in climate change negotiations

Some 30% of the world's forests are unmanaged, of which half consist of old-growth trees.

"Old-growth forests can continue to accumulate carbon, contrary to the long-standing view that they are carbon neutral," says lead researcher Sebastiaan Luyssaert, a professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

"Old-growth forests accumulate carbon for centuries and contain large quantities of it," says Luyssaert. If these pools of CO2 "are disturbed, much of this CO2 will move back into the atmosphere."