Clipmarks | Chile Clips

50 Billion Suns! -The Biggest Single Object in the Universe

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:17:51 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Based on this self-regulating maximum rate, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Massachusetts, and the European Southern Observatory, Chile, have calculated an upper limit for these mega-mammoth masses. Fifty billion suns, that's 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg, otherwise known as "ridiculously stupidly big" and triple the size of the largest observed black hole, OJ 287.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Scientists have determined the mass of the largest things that could possibly exist in our universe, and they don't appear in the Oprah studio audience.

New results have placed an upper limit on the current size of black holes - and at fifty billion suns it's pretty damn big. That's a hundred thousand tredagrams, and you'll never get the chance to use that word in relation to anything else.

While there's theoretically no upper limit on how big a black hole can be, there are hard limits on how big they could have become by now. The universe has only existed for a finite amount of time, and even the most voracious black hole can only suck in matter at a certain rate. The bigger the black hole, the bigger the gravitational field and the faster it can pull in matter - but that same huge gravitational gradient means that the same matter can release huge amounts of radiation as it falls, blasting other matter further away.

Tags: astronomy, cosmology

Mexican regional varieties of tamales

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:00:51 GMT

clipped by: Lexica
clipper's remarks: Also Chiapas (countless varieties using different herbs, beans, chicharrón (crispy, fried pork rind) and even flower buds), Tabasco (one of Mexico's biggest cattle producers and grows sugar cane, cacao, coffee, corn, rice, peppers, bananas, coconuts, pineapple, watermelon and a variety of exotic fruit. All these, in addition to Maya herbs and spices more often associated with the Yucatán, flavor Tabasco's tamales, which are usually filled with pork, pejelagarto (large freshwater gar), chicken or even iguana), Veracruz (most famous for its fantastically large zacahuil tamale, which can be made up to 12 feet long for festive occasions and contain whole chickens, fish, turkeys, roasts or game, along with chiles, garlic and tomatoes, all wrapped in banana leaves and slow-roasted in a mud-brick and earth pit), and Yucatán (pork and chicken fillings marinated in achiote (with orange and lemon juices) are wrapped with tomato, peppers, onion and toasted garlic in banana leaves, and cooked in a

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

There's virtually no end to what you might encounter in a tamal, but here are some of the most distinctive regional variations:

Sinaloa

Seafood is wrapped into tamales all along Mexico's Pacific coast.

Nayarit

South of Sinaloa, in the state of Nayarit, shrimp tamales may be filled with fresh or dried shrimp, often accompanied by roasted tomatillos, onions, garlic, chiles, cilantro and pineapples; ground chilacate or guajillo peppers and shrimp powder is traditionally added to the dough.

Michoacán

Instead of being wrapped around fillings, the masa itself is made with the traditional doblecrema (a creamy, salty cheese), and roasted poblano pepper strips; a variety of other ingredients may be mixed in. Most of the spice comes from the simple green sauce of tomatillos and hot chile peron.

Oaxaca

a complex sauce based on poblano (or even better, the local chilhuacle) peppers and superior Oaxacan chocolate, flavors large tamales wrapped in banana leaves and typically filled with chicken and onion

Tags: food, mexico, travel, tamales

Most Ethical Destinations?

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:03:01 GMT

clipped by: Rebecca Ruiz
clipper's remarks: Worried about your travel footprint? Want to support tourism in a developing country but don't want to support bad environmental practices or human rights abuses? Check out this list of "most ethical destinations" compiled by ethicaltraveler.org.

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

In an effort to get travelers off the main tourist grid and support destinations in developing countries, a Bay Area group called Ethical Traveler has published a list of the "10 best ethical destinations."

To create the list, Ethical Traveler looked at environmental protection, social welfare and human rights in the world's developing nations. The honorees on the Ethical Traveler's list, in alphabetical order, are Argentina, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Namibia, Nicaragua and South Africa.

The organization used various resources to make the determinations, including data collected by the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network; progress made by countries in reducing infant mortality rates as measured by UNICEF; and reports on civil liberties and human rights from sources like Amnesty International and Freedom House.

For more details, visit www.ethicaltraveler.org.

I Want My Country Back

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:37:50 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "I love America, and I can't stand quietly by while the land of peace and liberty is being destroyed.

I love the America of the Constitution and limited government - not the America of the Patriot Act and the Orwellian Department of Homeland Security.

I love the America that Washington and Jefferson said should be far removed from all the age-old quarrels of Europe and Asia, while trading benevolently with people all over the world - not the America that has troops in a hundred countries while our own government prohibits us from peaceful trading with dozens of countries."

Clip Source: www.populistamerica.com

Thoughts on the American empire

Is it an empire?

Whenever I say that America has become an empire, someone is sure to say I'm being ridiculous.

But what do you call a government that has tried (usually successfully) to force "regime changes" in Panama, Grenada, South Vietnam, Cuba, Guatemala, Chile, Rhodesia, South Africa, Iraq (in 1963), the Philippines, Serbia, Afghanistan (twice), Iran and several other countries that don't immediately come to mind?

What do you call a government whose leader says everyone must play by his rules or risk being attacked?

World government

America rules the world - by force.

And that's ironic. Because for as long as I can remember, conservatives have been railing against the threat of world government.

But now we actually have a form of world government - a government run by George Bush and enforced by the American military - and most conservatives are all for it.

If you ask

foreigners, they make it clear that it's America's bullying foreign policy they detest.

100 Million Green Facts You Didn’t Know About Junk Mail

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:20:57 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Jim Ford, the report’s author, said: “Junk mail has implications for climate change that start in the forest, continue through paper production, printing and distribution, and end with recycling or landfilling.”

Clip Source: ecoworldly.com

A report by ForestEthics, the nonprofit environmental organization whose mission is to protect endangered forests, has made a very startling revelation: that there are 100 million green reasons why junk mail are an annoying intrusion.

Not that the 100 billion pieces of junk mail Americans receive each year are irksome enough or that the emissions of junk mail are equal to those of over nine million cars or 51 million tons of greenhouse gases.

The group estimates that every year, more than 100 million trees are cut down to make junk mail - the equivalent of clear-cutting all of Rocky Mountain National Park every 4 months!

According to the report (PDF), those trees come from endangered forests like Canada’s Boreal, the forests of the Southeastern United States, Indonesia and northern Europe, as well as smaller areas of rare or disappearing forest ecosystems in the Western United States, Brazil, Chile, and Russia.

Tags: environment, trees, junk mail

Spectacular Chile Volcano Eruption

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:09:11 GMT

clipped by: Smoke TNT

Clip Source: mysterytopia.com

Nature still has the best special effects....

Chile Volcano eruption!!
Several weeks ago, a volcano that had been dormant for 9,000 years near the
coast of Chile erupted spectacularly, hurling liquefied rocks many miles
into the sky with lightning. The results, which you see here, are called a

'dirty thunderstorm,' and are quite rare.

Nobody is certain what causes them, but according to National Geographic
it's believed to be 'the result of rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in
the plume colliding to produce static charges-just as ice particles collide
to create charges in regular thunderstorms.'

Tags: science, volcanoes, chile

Volcanoes. Wow!

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:35:08 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Great Pics.

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Recent Volcanic Activity

Several volcanoes have erupted in the past few months - two in Chile (Chaiten and Llaima) and one in Alaska (Okmok). At any given time, approximately 20 to 50 volcanoes are active worldwide (depending on the definition of "active"). Collected here are photos of volcanic events from the the past several years, seen from many angles, including low Earth Orbit. (15 photos total)

Lava explodes from the Llaima volcano, one of Chile's most active volcanoes, in Cherquenco, Chile, early Thursday, July 10, 2008

Okmok Caldera in Alaska as viewed from an Alaska Airlines jet in early June, 2007. The 3,500-foot Okmok Caldera, which consists of a 6-mile-wide circular crater about 1,600 feet deep, erupted with little warning Saturday morning July 12, 2008

July 13, 2008

the Okmok Caldera erupting

Rabaul volcano, near Kokopo, Papua New Guinea on Sunday, April 13, 2008

Mt. Etna's eruption on October 30th, 2002

Mt Augustine

2006

Chaiten volcano

Chile

June 17, 2008

Kliuchevskoi Volcano

TURKEY MANDARIN ORANGE WRAP

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:44:29 GMT

clipped by: saved1

Clip Source: www.dvo.com

   4 (10 inch) whole-wheat flour tortillas
   4 ounces (half of a large block) cream cheese, softened
   1/3 cup mandarin oranges, chopped and drained
   1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper, optional
   1/4 cup sliced green onions
   6 ounces deli smoked turkey breasts, sliced very thin
   20 medium spinach leaves, washed, dried, and stems removed

Combine cream cheese, chopped mandarin oranges, and chipotle pepper until mixed. Spread 1/4 of the mixture on each of the tortillas. Sprinkle each tortilla evenly with the green onions.

Divide the turkey into 4 portions and mound down the center of the tortilla leaving 1 inch open around the edges. Top with spinach leaves. Fold wrap envelope-style by folding up the bottom and top edges 2 inches, then folding each side inward. Slice each wrap in half at an angle to serve.

Turkey & Mandarin Orange Cheese Wraps

Internet-Telescope Will Provide Movie-like Window on Universe

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:33:10 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: LSST is designed to be a public facility. The database and resulting catalogues will be made available to the public with no proprietary restrictions. A sophisticated data management system will provide easy access, enabling simple queries from individual users. The public will actively share the adventure of discovery.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

"LSST is truly an Internet telescope, which will put terabytes of data each night into the hands of anyone that wants to explore it. The 8.4-metre LSST telescope and the 3-gigapixel camera are thus a shared resource for all humanity — the ultimate network peripheral device to explore the universe."

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, partially funded by $30 million from Microsoft founders Bill gates and Charles Simyoni, the developer of Word and Excel, is projected for ‘first light’ in 2014 in Chile's Atacama Desert -the world's Southern Hemisphere space-observatory mecca. The 8.4-meter telescope will be able to survey the entire visible sky deeply in multiple colors every week with its 3-billion pixel digital camera. The telescope will probe the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, and it will open a movie-like window on objects that change or move rapidly: exploding supernovae, potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids and distant Kuiper Belt objects.

Tags: telescope, internet

'Intellectuals' Pining For Higher Tax Rates

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:30:00 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Why are the treasuries of Hong Kong and Singapore flush with revenue? Why have the U.S. and Britain shown tremendous growth since Reagan and Thatcher while Continental Europe with their pseudo-socialism putters along with chronic double-digit unemployment? Go around the world these last 25 years and compare nations with high tax rates to countries with low tax rates, you'll find a pattern.

Growth produces wealth, which leads to higher tax revenues and a more prosperous nation. Less growth produces less wealth and in turn lowers tax revenues. High tax rates retard economic growth; low tax rates encourage more growth. It really isn't that complicated.

Seriously.

The Washington Post's Sebastian Mallaby

The Return Of Voodoo Economics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/14/AR2006051400806.html

Bush Should End This Tax Cut Myth

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/07/AR2006050700924.html

Clip Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

The Washington Post's Sebastian Mallaby is on a crusade to discredit pro-growth or supply-side economic policies.

What gives Mallaby the right to think that he is a "serious" person when it comes to economic policy, but President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Majority Leader Frist and Finance Chairmen Grassley are not?

Why is it so hard to explain the concept to many "intellectuals" that the idea is to grow the pie as big as possible, and that taking a smaller percentage of a bigger pie can yield more than a higher percentage of a smaller pie? Mallaby can quote all the economists and studies he wants to justify his attack on the economic wisdom of lower tax rates.

I guess he pines for the pre-Voodoo Economics days of the 1970's when the highest marginal tax rate was 70% and the country had anemic growth, high unemployment and a Dow languishing below 1,000.

I'll just look at what happens in the real world.

Why has Chile prospered for 25 years, while Argentina languishes?

Tags: tax-cuts, economic growth, higher tax revenues, lower unemployment, stock market investors

Nature Unleashed: Volcanic Light Show

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:30:22 GMT

clipped by: milmufmas

Clip Source: www.killerweather.com

Nature Unleashed: Volcanic Light Show

In early May the Chaitén volcano which had been dormant for more than 9,000 years spewed forth a 40,000 foot tall ash plume .

The eruption lasted a month and unleashed a torrent lightning as ash filled the air. The volcano, situated 700 miles south of Santiago, Chile, forced the evacuation of 8,000 people from the nearby village of Chaitén.

Medicine, Art and Design

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:30:39 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Great site. I do not know how the zombie stuff crept in. Something strange is afoot,

Clip Source: www.wegame.com

How to Defeat a Zombie Army

Clip Source: streetanatomy.com

Street Anatomy, created by Vanessa Ruiz, obsessively covers the use of human anatomy in art, advertising, and design. Be sure to take a look through the anatomical street art and tattoo galleries. We're always looking for new additions!

Clip Source: streetanatomy.com

A Surfer’s Body

Clip Source: streetanatomy.com

[Video]

Clip Source: streetanatomy.com

These dreamlike anatomical works were created by Vicente Marti, a graphic designer/illustrator from Chile. He works with a lot of mixed media, collages, paint, and digital art. Although this seems to be his only anatomically themed work, the rest of his portfolio is definitely worth taking a look through.

Clip Source: streetanatomy.com

Delicate Wool Organs

Clip Source: streetanatomy.com

Tags: medicine, art, design

Is sleep deprivation torture?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:56:13 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Menachen Begin tells of getting it from the KGB. From the Wikipedia entry.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Torture

Sleep deprivation is used as an interrogation technique (for example, in Pinochet-era Chile^{[citation needed]}, the Soviet Union, or by the US on Guantanamo-held prisoners^[23]).^[24] Interrogation victims are kept awake for several days; when they are finally allowed to fall asleep, they are suddenly awakened and questioned. Menachem Begin, the Israeli prime minister from 1977-83 described his experience of sleep deprivation when a prisoner of the KGB in Russia as follows:

In the head of the interrogated prisoner, a haze begins to form. His spirit is wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire: to sleep...Anyone who has experienced this desire knows that not even hunger and thirst are comparable with it.

In rats, prolonged, complete sleep deprivation increases both food intake and energy expenditure, leading to weight loss and, ultimately, death.^[26

cruel, inhumane and degrading. If used for prolonged periods of time it is torture."^[24]

Tags: torture, gitmo, war on terror

24 hours in pictures - June 26

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:41:27 GMT

clipped by: righthand

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Grooms take part in a mass wedding organised by the Saudi government at the King Fahd cultural centre

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Qingdao, China: A man walks through blue-green algae at a beach in the host city for sailing events at the 2008 Olympic Games. The government called upon locals to help with a clean up operation ahead of the games

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Switzerland

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Chile: A soldier looks at a cloud of ash from the Chaiten volcano

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

New York, USA: Local children watch the Royal Air Force aerobatic team, the Red Arrows, perform an aerial display

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Panama: A police officer stands guard over packages containing cocaine

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Muslim piligrims touch the Kabaa

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

San Fernando, Philippines: A priest conducts Mass on a beach for relatives of victims of Princess of the Stars ferry tragedy. The hull of the stricken vessel can be seen in the background

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Zimbabweans and South Africans hold a candlelit vigil

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Afghanistan: Drug users smoke heroin

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Israel

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Iraq: A recently graduated policewoman fires a handgun

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

India: A flower seller

Tags: photos

Araucana Chickens

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:15:08 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: Just thought some of you might be interested in this rather unusual breed of chicken, among others, we have here on the tundra.

Clip Source: www.araucanas.co.uk

The Araucana : Pure breed chicken, originally from Chile, South America.

This breeds distinguishing features include Blue eggs, the colour permeating through to the inside of the shell, unlike all other egg colouring; Remarkable feathering around the face : Muffs, tufts, beard, ears; Rumplessness

The Araucana is an unusual bird with an, as yet, undetermined path of movement around the world. There are many tall tales. We have been collating social and industrial history that might give some answers how they came to Northern Europe.

Egg colour :This is the only breed which should carry the blue egg gene alone, it was used in the creation of the Cream Legbar to give that breed its blue tinted egg.