Clipmarks |

Shaking things up on Clipmarks.com

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:55:57 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Please read the entire post by clicking the source link before reacting.

Clip Source: clipmarks.wordpress.com

Unfortunately, we have recently become increasingly concerned that the site has become overly antagonistic and inappropriately controlled by a disproportionately loud group of users. In all honesty, we no longer feel that the processes of our site are producing a unique, high quality blend of content. Instead, the magical blending of diverse topics on the Clipmarks home page has seemed to dissolve into a battleground for extremely hostile politically oriented users who are overwhelming the rest of the site. Because of this we are working on making some fundamental changes to the way the Clipmarks site works. We will do our best to make changes that improve the site and will continue to iterate until we are comfortable that it is just right.

Tags: clipmarks

7 Writing Habits of Amazing Writers

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:48:57 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: This extremely prolific writer has won numerous awards, including the National Book Award. She writes in longhand, and while she doesn’t have a formal schedule, she says she prefers to write in the morning, before breakfast . She’s a creative writing professor, and on the days she teaches, she says she writes for an hour or 45 minutes before leaving for her first class. On other days, when the writing is going well, she can work for hours without a break — and has breakfast at 2 or 3 in the afternoon!

Clip Source: writetodone.com

1. Stephen King. In his book On Writing, King says that he writes 10 pages a day without fail, even on holidays.

2. Ernest Hemingway. By contrast with King, “Papa” Hemingway wrote 500 words a day.

3. Vladimir Nabokov. The author of such great novels as Lolita, Pale Fire and Ada did his writing standing up, and all on index cards.

4. Truman Capote. The author of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “In Cold Blood” claimed to be a “completely horizontal author.” He said he had to write lying down, in bed or on a couch, with a cigarette and coffee.

5. Philip Roth. One of the greatest living American writers, Roth works standing up, pacing around as he thinks. He claimed to walk half a mile for every page he writes.

6. James Joyce

Joyce prided himself in taking his time with each sentence. A famous story has a friend asking Joyce in the street if he’d had a good day writing. Yes, Joyce replied happily. How much had he written? Three sentences, Joyce told him.

7. Joyce Carol Oates

Subaquatic Photography

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:50:32 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth

Clip Source: www.crookedbrains.net

Alix Malka - Subaquatic Photography.

Alix Malka began his carrier in world of the fashion in 1985 working with Thierry Mugler. Today he is one of the most asked for photographers by the international magazines, who draws inspiration from the likes of Pedro Almodovar & John Waters, & designers like John Galliano & Alexander McQueen.

Tags: photos, beautiful

The bigges World Body painting Festival - Beautiful!

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:11:31 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: freshpics.blogspot.com

World Body Painting Festival 2008 in South Korea

Daegu in South Korea is playing host to the World Bodypainting Festival, it's the largest bodypainting event on the planet.

The main festival is held every year in Seeboden, Austria, but expanded into Asia for the first time this year with a bonus exhibition. It lasts until 31 August.

The World Bodypainting Festival is the biggest annual event of the body painting culture and community. The festival is the first of its kind in the world and has become the “Mecca of Bodypainting”. It draws over a hundred artists and models, and thousands of visitors, from all over the world every year.

[Video]

Scientists Develop New Computational Method To Investigate Origin Of Life

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:33:15 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: "Retroelements are an ancient and highly diverse class of proteins; therefore, they provide a rigorous benchmark for us to test our approach. We are happy with the results we derived, even though our method is in an early stage," said Patterson. The team plans to make the algorithms that they used in their method available to others as open-source software that is freely available on the Web.
Scientists map out the evolutionary histories of organisms by comparing their genetic and/or protein sequences. Those organisms that are closely related and share a recent common ancestor have greater degrees of similarity among their sequences.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Scientists at Penn State have developed a new computational method that they say will help them to understand how life began on Earth. The team's method has the potential to trace the evolutionary histories of proteins all the way back to either cells or viruses, thus settling the debate once and for all over which of these life forms came first.

"We have just begun to tap the potential power of this method," said Randen Patterson, a Penn State assistant professor of biology and one of the project's leaders. "We believe, if it is possible at all, that it is within our grasp to determine whether viruses evolved from cells or vice-versa."

The team is focusing on an ancient group of proteins, called retroelements, which comprise approximately 50 percent of the human genome by weight and are a crucial component in a number of diseases, including AIDS.

Tags: life, computers, science

Buddhist Cave Art

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:49:58 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.paulstravelblog.com

The Ajanta caves, set in a bend in the Waghur River, a day's travel east of Bombay

The Ajanta caves are cut out of the cliff itself, with rock chiseled away to form spectacular interiors of monasteries and shrines

High relief composition at Ajanta

Paintings at Ajanta

Ellora Caves

Statuary, Ellora

Tags: art, buddhism, india

Underwater Photos

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:37:05 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: community.livejournal.com

Meditation sharpens focusing abilities

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:24:51 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Zen Training Speeds The Mind's Return After Distraction, Brain Scans Reveal

Experienced Zen meditators can clear their minds of distractions more quickly than novices, according to a new brain imaging study.

The study compared 12 people from the Atlanta area with more than three years of daily practice in Zen meditation with 12 others who had never practiced meditation.

While having their brains scanned, the subjects were asked to focus on their breathing. Every once in a while, they had to distinguish a real word from a nonsense word presented at random intervals on a computer screen and, having done that, promptly "let go" of the just processed stimulus by refocusing on their breath.

After interruption, experienced meditators were able to bring activity in most regions of the default network back to baseline faster than non-meditators. This effect was especially prominent in the angular gyrus, a region important for processing language.

meditation may enhance the capacity

Tags: neuroscience, focus, meditation

Wrong Woman; Wrong Message

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:46:12 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote.

But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

Say wow! the flying jellyfish

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:49:00 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: airshipworld.blogspot.com

Last year Festo surprised everyone with their amazing prototype of the Air_ray a manta ray that swims through the air and the b-IONIC Airfish. We reported on it in a great post which was titled "Airships are just like fish in the sky" Festo is currently at the Hannover Messe 2008 and they brought an just as stunning new project with them. We present the Air Jelly, a jellyfish that swims through the air. Currently the information about the AirJelly is only available in German at the Festo Website but the pictures speak for them self, of course we also provide you with a direct link to the autotranslated Page in English about the AirJelly
The Video on the Website of Festo did not work for me so I uploaded it to YouTube just in case you can not see the "Flim" on the Festo website:

Tags: robotics, jellyfish

Animal Intelligence and the Evolution of the Human Mind

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:50:26 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Subtle refinements in brain architecture, rather than large-scale alterations, make us smarter than other animals

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

The human brain lacks conspicuous characteristics—such as relative or absolute size—that might account for humans’ superior intellect.

Researchers have found some clues to humanity’s aptitude on a smaller scale, such as more neurons in our brain’s outermost layer.

Human intelligence may be best likened to an upgrade of the cognitive capacities of nonhuman primates rather than an exceptionally advanced form of cognition.

As far as we know, no dog can compose music, no dolphin can speak in rhymes, and no parrot can solve equations with two unknowns. Only humans can perform such intellectual feats, presumably because we are smarter than all other animal species—at least by our own definition of intelligence.

Of course, intelligence must emerge from the workings of the three-pound mass of wetware packed inside our skulls

Thus, researchers have tried to identify unique features of the human brain that could account for our superior intellectual abilities

Tags: brain, mind, evolution, intelligence

Joe Klein defends the media's handling of Palin

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:23:44 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: I obviously don't know how this will play out, but i would think that to some extent McCain and Palin's direct assault on the media for its treatment of Palin (which seems so unjustified considering the importance of the issue) could actually backfire. Rather than backing off, could this actually instigate the media to do even further digging as a means to justify their behavior?

Clip Source: www.time-blog.com

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

Tags: mccain, palin, politics, media

10 Most Expensive Paintings in the World

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:55:51 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: blog.knowyourmoney.co.uk

10. $78,100,000. Pierre-August Renoir – Le Moulin de la Galette.

9. $80,000,000. Jasper Johns – False Start.

8. $82,500,000. Vincent van Gogh – Portrait of Dr. Gachet.

7. $86,300,000. Francis Bacon – Triptych, 1976.

6. $87,900,000. Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II.

5. $95,200,000. Pablo Picasso – Dora Maar au Chat.

4. $104,200,000. Pablo Picasso – Garçon à la pipe.

3. $135,000,000. Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.

2. $137,500,000. Willem de Kooning – Woman III

1. $140,000,000. Jackson Pollock – No.5, 1948. It is claimed by the New York Times that this painting was sold by David Geffen (of Geffen Records), to David Martinez (managing partner of Fintech Advisory). However, a press release issued on behalf of Martinez states that he didn’t actually purchase the painting. So the truth is shrouded in mystery, and it can only be rumored to have sold for a record-breaking $140 million.

Tags: art

A pit bull with lipstick is a good thing?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:42:18 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Why would anyone want to refer to themselves as a pit bull with lipstick? Is that some kind of endearing quality? Is that some kind of characteristic we want in our leadership? I just don't get it. Pit bulls are notorious for attacking innocent bystanders (often children) with fierce vengeance - that's certainly their stigma at least. So why in the world is it something that a potential President of the United States would be proud of comparing herself to? Personally, i find it very scary that she would say that and i honestly find it scary that a room full of people would stand up and cheer the idea.

Clip Source: www.slate.com

A Pit Bull With Lipstick

Tags: palin, pit bull, vice president, politics

12 Weirdest Things Ever Insured

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:09:53 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Whiskey company Cutty Sark was offering a $1.5 million prize for capturing the mythical Scottish lake inhabitant, the Loch Ness Monster, alive. They then took out home insurance against paying this prize, just in case someone actually did capture it alive.

During the 1930s, then 13 year old Harvey Lowe insured his hands for $150,000, which was a large sum of money at the time. Harvey was the Yo-Yo World Champion of that era, having been playing since he was 12. He is still yo-yoing and filling up his current account to this day.

Clip Source: blog.knowyourmoney.co.uk

Hollywood actress Betty Grable had her legs insured by 20^th Century Fox for $1 million per leg

TV game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” is insured – again by Lloyds of London – against having to pay major cash prizes.

It’s even possible to take out insurance against being abducted by aliens.

Insurance companies are apparently willing to pay out somewhere in the region of $10-$20 millio

Employers in the UK can be insured against two or more staff leaving work permanently due to winning the national lottery.

Lloyds have also insured a cigar which is twelve and a half feet long, and is the world’s largest.

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has had the middle finger of his left hand insured for $1.6 million.

Australian cricketer Merv Hughes had his trademark walrus moustache insured for £200,000 (around $400,000).

Singer Bruce Springsteen insured his own voice for the tune of $6 million.

Tags: absurd