Clipmarks | Actuality Clips

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: The company 23andMe announced its DNA testing service last month in San Diego. You might think such a comprehensive analysis would costs thousands, but the process is actually relatively affordable. For less than $1,000 customers are able to learn virtually everything science currently knows about their biological code. For those wary of needles, you’ll be comforted to know that the DNA is retrieved conveniently and painlessly from a home mail-in saliva test kit.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Want to know what your genes say about you? According to geneticists, your genes could be saying quite a lot! Your genetics may dictate, for example, what foods you like, what diseases you are prone to develop, how smart you are, and likely factor into nearly every aspect of your being. It’s no wonder that some people would like to take a peek at their personal genetic blueprint.

Three companies are now offering such services. Not only will they test your DNA at nearly one million separate locations where the human genome is known to vary from person to person, but they also help clients interpret what their individual map says about their past, present and future. However, genetics is still an imperfect science. Your genes could indicate you have a very high risk of developing arthritis down the road, for example, but in actuality you may never suffer from stiff joints.

scientists have been mapping out genetic differences for some time now, and have made huge strides in interpreting DNA

Tags: dna, genetics

The Portrayal Of Paganism In The Media

Sun, 25 May 2008 04:43:18 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.informativepost.com

Hi. I'm a Pagan. Yes, you heard me right. What image jumps into your head right now? Is it a person dressed all in black, with large pentacles, dragons and ankhs hanging around their necks? Did you picture me as a hippie who can't seem to escape the Swinging 60s?

Guess what? I'm a normal person. I wear jeans and t-shirts, I have a 9-5 job, and I'm studying to achieve my high school diploma at a mature-age level.

The media has done a fantastic job at portraying Pagans (including Wiccans and Witches) as these ugly women with long fingernails, warts and green skin, tall pointy hats and all dressed in black. Look at the popular film, 'The Craft' - it's portrayal of young witches, all in black, with supernatural powers. What about 'The Wicker Man'? Makes us all out to be lovers of sacrifice, huh?

In all actuality, we're normal people, and my personal mission (as I've come to discover) is to break down this stereotype of modern Pagans. So let's start with the basics...

Tags: pagan, faith, religion, media, wicca, witchcraft, witch

More Prisoner Abuse Claims @ Harrison County, MS

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:46:47 GMT

clipped by: KimbleKency1683
clipper's remarks: I realize that people who commit crimes need to be punished, but no one deserves treatment like that. I am so glad Harrison County got a new sheriff. I hope he will clean up that jail!

Clip Source: www.sunherald.com

The jail booking mug of Only Al-Khidhr taken in October 2005 after Al-Khidhr was jailed on charges including public drunk, was posted around the Harrison County jail booking area as a 'trophy picture.'

Attorneys Jim Halliday and Robert Harenski have filed a civil lawsuit on Al-Khidhr's behalf. The lawsuit is one of two similar lawsuits they have filed in the past two weeks. They seek no specified amounts, but want compensation for physical and emotional damage. And they expect to file others soon.

"All of their stories are similar," Halliday said. "So many people never complained officially because they didn't think anyone would believe the atrocities actually happened.

"The jail hid behind the shield of accreditation and touted itself as meeting national standards. In actuality, the atrocities were covered up and the abused were taunted and threatened with criminal charges of assaulting an officer."

The lawsuit for Al-Khidhr and one for Marguerite Carrubba name many of the same defendant

Tags: harrison county, mississippi, prisoner abuse, jail, jailers

Some strategies of denialists

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 17:46:23 GMT

clipped by: hudgal1
clipper's remarks: Examples of common topics in which denialists employ their tactics include: Creationism/Intelligent Design, Global Warming denialism, Holocaust denial, HIV/AIDS denialism, 9/11 conspiracies, Tobacco Carcinogenecity denialism (the first organized corporate campaign), anti-vaccination/mercury autism denialism and anti-animal testing/animal rights extremist denialism. Denialism spans the ideological spectrum, and is about tactics rather than politics or partisanship.

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Denialism is the employment of rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of argument or legitimate debate, when in actuality there is none. These false arguments are used when one has few or no facts to support one's viewpoint against a scientific consensus or against overwhelming evidence to the contrary. They are effective in distracting from actual useful debate using emotionally appealing, but ultimately empty and illogical assertions.

5 general tactics are used by denialists to sow confusion. They are conspiracy, selectivity (cherry-picking), fake experts, impossible expectations (also known as moving goalposts), and general fallacies of logic.

Tags: global warming, nazi, hiv, aids, fake, experts

White sands and pink thongs

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:37:14 GMT

clipped by: swampfoxz
clipper's remarks: Question: Does the model make the shot

Clip Source: flickrbikini.com

Pretty in Pink »

White sands and pink thongs.Tan and tone female forms basking in the warm sun while admirers cruise the shore like tiger sharks for groupers.

Question: Does the model make the shot or does the photographer make the model.One micro bikini second in time is all it takes to immortalize the subject for all time in our hearts and fantasies,which,surprisingly enough are not all geared to sex.The sensual illusion of freedom from care and worry overpowers the viewer who,given the right motivation,now turns his surfing attention to travel blogs where he may realize his fantasies in actuality.Happy surfing.

Tags: microkini, bikini, beach

Choiceless Awareness

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 20:07:57 GMT

clipped by: adamc
clipper's remarks: I skimmed through a Krishnamurti book years ago and this idea has stuck with me since. I'd say obtaining a state of choiceless awareness is near the top of my new years resolution list.

Clip Source: www.midimusic.de

Krishnamurti maintains that excepting choiceless awareness, there is no other way of regenerating the human mind and the world irreversibly and instantaneously. Choiceless observation is the observation of 'what is', the fact or the actuality without the movement of thought which is knowledge or past. It is the observation devoid of the observer, the centre, the censor, the 'me' or the thinker which is thought. It is the awareness without the division as the observer and the observed. It is a holistic observation in which the observer 'is' the observed. In it there in no reaction, resistance, justification and condemnation. It is a pure observation sans remembrance, recollection, recognition and naming. It is free from ideas, ideals and opinions. It is observation without prejudice, likes and dislikes. It is without a motive and an end in view. ¹¹

Tags: choiceless, awareness, philosophy, thought, mind, brain, human, science

YOU'RE ON THE AIR WITH RUSH LIMBAUGH.

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:09:55 GMT

clipped by: thinkingblue
clipper's remarks: On the website http://www.thethinkingblue.com/limbaughcomments.html is a remake of the Rush Limbaugh video from YOUTUBE The only changes I made were the pictures. The original film had images of the devastation of war, on all people involved, the men, women and children caught in the horrors of war. I don't know why YOUTUBE pulled the video but I thought perhaps it was because of those sad pictures. We Americans get a WHITEWASHED version of the war and maybe YOUTUBE wanted to keep it that way. But if it was because of what Rush Limbaugh said on the uncut audio of his show and YOUTUBE was protecting him... THE SHAME IS ON YOUTUBE, who like so many on the right spin, twist and cajole TRUTH until it no longer resembles actuality, just so it will fit their account of reality.

You can also view the video on the camaroz28 server: http://videos.camaroz28.com/video/6ebe1dc3-e5e0-4a3a-bcc4-99d401031775.htm

Clip Source: www.thethinkingblue.com

I received this email from youtube today...

After being flagged by members of the YouTube community and reviewed by YouTube staff, the video below has been removed due to its inappropriate nature.

PHONEY SOLDIERS by Rush Limbaugh:

The YouTube Team

This was my response back to them:

I was very saddened to receive an email telling me you removed a video I uploaded... You did not tell me why, just a vague reference that it was flagged by members as being inappropriate. Did you read the comments on that particular video? The negative ones were all Rush Limbaugh supporters but there were many positive ones also. I know it is your server and you can do as you please with any video but it sure seems unfair that members can flag a video that doesn't agree with their ideology as inappropriate and thus its removed, without rebuttal. Sad but true fact of life in what we think is a democracy. Thanks, thinkingblue

Below is a remake of the Rush Limbaugh phony soldiers video

ON THE AIR WITH RUSH

LIMBAUGH

Tags: rush, limbaugh, youtube, war, phony, phoney, soldiers, thinkingblue

What Is Denialism?

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 20:36:48 GMT

clipped by: laceym
clipper's remarks: 5 general tactics are used by denialists to sow confusion. They are conspiracy, selectivity (cherry-picking), fake experts, impossible expectations (also known as moving goalposts), and general fallacies of logic.

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Examples of common topics in which denialists employ their tactics include: Creationism/Intelligent Design, Global Warming denialism, Holocaust denial, HIV/AIDS denialism, 9/11 conspiracies, Tobacco Carcinogenecity denialism (the first organized corporate campaign), anti-vaccination/mercury autism denialism and anti-animal testing/animal rights extremist denialism. Denialism spans the ideological spectrum, and is about tactics rather than politics or partisanship.

Tags: science, education, politics, religion, denialism

Fall 2008: Fashion World In Search of Joan of Arc

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:09:48 GMT

clipped by: pitim

Clip Source: myitthings.com

Legend has it that Joan of Arc was heavily clad in 50+ pounds of embellished armor when she lead the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War. How else could a woman of small stature lead a pack of wounded soldiers into battle without getting her ass creamed, right? In all actuality, it's likely she wore little heavy armor if any, but instead merely chain maille pieces like those at the Maison de Jeanne d'Arc in Orleans, France.

I'm thrilled that the world of fashion didn't have to find itself in the straits of desperation to pay homage to one of history's greatest women for fall of '08. Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures, even if they come in a petite, breast-clad, vagina-toting, "hearing-strange-voices" package ;)

Anna Sui, Fall 2008

Celine, Fall 2008

Abate, Fall 2008

Christopher Kane, Fall 2008

Rocket Dog Singapore Ballet Flat at solestruck.com

Words Without Borders

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:16:30 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: A chance to read English translations of authors from around the world.

Intriguing methinks.

Clip Source: www.wordswithoutborders.org

January 2008

Vice and virtue clash daily round the world, and while the definition of sin may vary, its literary allure is universal. Perhaps that’s because no matter how easy we think moral failings are to finger, in actuality their elusiveness on the page is what makes for the stuff of great literature. “It’s so easy to forget . . . ” says a former student of an envious teacher; yet do moral failings arise because it’s easy to forget, or because it’s even easier to harbor and remember? Maya Arad, Roberto Bolaño, Lars Saabye Christensen, Doris Kareva, Danilo Kiš , Mathieu Lindon, Sérgio Rodrigues, Kjell Westo, and Yan Lianke put envy, greed, pride, sloth, gluttony, anger, and lust to thought-provoking ends for the New Year.

NEW ON THE BOOKSHELF

This month, there's solace in words at Dorothea Dieckmann's Guantanamo, allusions fill Aharon Megged's The Flying Camel and the Golden Hump and Eastern Europe writhes under capitalism in Andrzej Stasiuk's Nine.

NOAA 2007/2008 Winter Prediction

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:33:34 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: A look back at their prediction versus the actuality.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Warm Winter Predicted For United States

ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2007) — NOAA forecasters are calling for above-average temperatures over most of the country and a continuation of drier-than-average conditions across already drought-stricken parts of the Southwest and Southeast in its winter outlook for the United States, announced at the 2007-2008 Winter Fuels Outlook Conference in Washington, D.C October 9, 2007.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Coolest Winter Since 2001 For U.S., Globe, According To NOAA Data

ScienceDaily (Mar. 15, 2008) — The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In terms of winter precipitation, Pacific storms, bringing heavy precipitation to large parts of the West, produced high snowpack that will provide welcome runoff this spring.

Tags: meteorology, science, climate change

Lady Liberty on Lake Mendota: The Statue of Liberty Dropped in Wisconsin!

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 16:46:12 GMT

clipped by: gingembre
clipper's remarks: I knew Leon Varjian when he was a wild & crazy grad student. Last I heard he's teaching math in a New Jersey high school. Lucky students to have such a fun-loving, creative teacher! In 1996 he received the most prestigious award for math teaching.

Clip Source: www.museumofhoaxes.com

In February 1979 Lady Liberty poked her head above the icy waters of Lake Mendota. Astonished local Wisconsin residents flocked to the lake to witness the bizarre spectacle. Unfortunately, she was only there for three weeks before she disappeared in a blaze of fire, the victim of arsonists. But the next year she returned (fireproofed this time) though again she didn't stick around for long. This time she fell victim to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which determined that she resembled a fishing shanty and demanded that she be removed from the ice to satisfy their regulations. She was duly relocated to a shed.

The presence of Lady Liberty on Lake Mendota was the handiwork of Jim Mallon and Leon Varjian, the two leaders of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's notorious Pail and Shovel (P&S) party. That year the P&S party had assumed control of the student government (much to the dismay of their rivals), thanks to compelling campaign promises such as the pledge to dump the entire penny value of the student budget onto the ground and allow students to scoop up whatever they could get with a pail and shovel (hence the name of their party). Mallon and Varjian had also promised to buy the Statue of Liberty and bring it to Wisconsin. Being men of their word, they actually made good on their campaign vow, much to everyone's surprise.

Varjian claimed that the statue had been flown in by helicopter, but that the cable holding it had snapped causing Lady Liberty to crash through the ice until only the top of her head and her arm remained above water. In actuality, the statue had been constructed in a woodworking shop out of chicken wire, papier-mâché, and plywood and then moved out onto the ice. The plan was for the statue to appear overnight, but it actually took three days to erect (ensuring that absolutely no one believed Varjian's tale about the statue plummeting from a helicopter). Once in place it towered 40 feet above the surface of the ice.

Tags: humour, college, prank, funny, student government, education, wisconsin

Weird Statues and Sculptures around the World

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:03:44 GMT

clipped by: hawgwild

Clip Source: www.toroller.com

33 Weird Statues and Sculptures Around The World

Probably you have seen some of these wonderful statues before,but I think it’s worthy to have a collection of these 33 weired art works in one single page.So here they come:

Magic tap, which appears to float in the sky with an endless supply of water. In actuality, there is a pipe hidden in the stream of water.

Location: Aqualand, Cadiz.

Madame Chapeau:

Designed to create a dynamics between two streets, this sculpture beams with its presence in the space that was allocated to the artist.The lady is fearlessly counting her money in an area of Brussels that is famous for its pickpockets. She even teases them with her unsnatchable bronze wallet!

Location: Brussels , Belgium.

La Trobe :

A contemporary representation of Charles La Trobe in central Melbourne (This temporary installation was removed at the end of June 2006 and has been acquired by La Trobe University).

Location: Melbourne

The Hanging Rhino :

The Thumb :

Man at work :

De Vaartkapoen :

Philosophy and Depression

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:34:43 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.philosophicalsociety.com

Philosophy And Depression

"The vanity of existence is revealed in the whole form existence assumes: in the infiniteness of time and space contrasted with the finiteness of the individual in both; in the fleeting present as the sole form in which actuality exists; in the contingency and relativity of all things; in continual becoming without being; in continual desire without satisfaction; in the continual frustration of striving of which life consists."

-- Arthur Schopenhauer, "On The Vanity Of Existence"

"There is little conjunction of truth and social 'reality'. Around us are pseudo-events, to which we adjust with a false consciousness adapted to see these events as true and real, and even as beautiful. In the society of men the truth resides now less in what things are than in what they are not. Our social realities are so ugly if seen in the light of exiled truth, and beauty is almost no longer possible if it is not a lie."

-- R.D. Laing, The Politics Of Experience

Tags: philosophy, depression