Clipmarks | Ostrich Clips

Giant 'deformed penis' flower in bloom

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:12:03 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Looks like an upended mushroom to me now, but at another time it could look like an ostrich.

Clip Source: www.brisbanetimes.com.au

SYDNEY - Described as a deformed banana sticking out of a pleated purple skirt, the giant and stinky carcass flower is again in bloom at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens.

The rare Titan Arum, whose Latin name is Amorphophallus titanium, meaning giant deformed penis, is the world's largest flower.

Found in the equatorial rainforests of Indonesia, the endangered flower stinks like a dead rat and only blooms for two or three days.

It last bloomed in Sydney in October 2004.

The Titum Arum has flowered at the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Photo: Robert Pearce

Botanic Gardens Trust executive director Tim Entwisle said the flower was expected to be in full bloom on Friday night, with the weekend the best time to see it.

"The growth rate of the Titan Arum is phenomenal," he said.

"It can grow up to 10 centimetres a day.

Dr Entwisle said the plant mimicked the stench of dead animals to attract insect pollinators, particularly sweat bees and carrion beetles.

Tags: nature

New Program Aids Homeless Vets, But Not Nearly Enough

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:28:10 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: The shelter that housed the two homeless Vets, called "Soldier On", was mentioned in an article from the Boston Herald today. Veterans in the Boston area and across the nation are getting some much needed assistance in securing their own rental homes, thanks to a new federal program.

Last week, housing authorities from Boston to Northampton began issuing 245 rental assistance vouchers to chronically homeless veterans. In the Boston area, 1,950 former service members are considered homeless.

"With the new number of homeless vets that we are creating because of Iraq and Afghanistan, this is focusing on their needs," said U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Somerville), who will make a formal announcement Tuesday

Clip Source: www.vetvoice.com

by: RockRichard

Mon Jul 07, 2008

I'm sure we all remember this little SNAFU from our favorite ostrich, Bill O'Reilly:

[Video]

On the heels of Bill's ridiculous assertion, I wrote him an open letter. Here is an excerpt:

Dear Bill, I seem to remember you stating that if anyone can find a homeless veteran, just let you know and you'd house them. Well, Bill, today I happened across an article from the Associated Press. Let me introduce you to a couple Veterans:

LEEDS, Mass. - Peter Mohan traces the path from the Iraqi battlefield to this lifeless conference room, where he sits in a kilt and a Camp Kill Yourself T-shirt and calmly describes how he became a sad cliche: a homeless veteran.

...Mike Lally, still only 26 years old, is here, booted out of his house by his wife, padding around in an old T-shirt and sweats at a Leeds shelter called Soldier On, trying to get sober and perhaps, on a day he can envision but not yet grasp, get his home and family and life back.

Tags: homeless, veterans

No, Global Warming did NOT stop in 1998!

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:06:00 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Facts, Willie and all you other ostrich's!

Clip Source: gristmill.grist.org

Objection: Global temperatures have been trending down since 1998. Global warming is over.

Answer: At the time, 1998 was a record high year in both the CRU and the NASA GISS analyses. In fact, it blew away the previous record by .2 degrees C. (That previous record went all the way back to 1997, by the way!)

According to NASA, it was elevated far above the trend line because 1998 was the year of the strongest El Nino of the century. Choosing that year as a starting point is a classic cherry pick and demonstrates why it is necessary to remove chaotic year-to year-variability (aka: weather) by smoothing out the data. Looking at CRU's graph below, you can see the result of that smoothing in black.

Clearly 1998 is an anomaly and the trend has not reversed.

Winter the dolphin gets a prosthetic tail

Tue, 06 May 2008 18:17:00 GMT

clipped by: michellezm
clipper's remarks: "With a dolphin, it needs to move along with her full spine. But the months of work were worth it.

When Winter was finally fitted with a 30in silicone and plastic tail she was a dolphin transformed.

She may never be the most elegant dolphin who ever swam but, as she splashes about in the aquarium, it is safe to say that she probably doesn't care. "

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Two years ago Winter was the dolphin that could not swim.

Instead of powering through the water with a flick of her tail, the bottlenose could barely waggle from side to side.

She had lost her tail in a crab trap at just two months old and was found floating in distress off the coast of Florida.

Winter survived but there was a problem … where her tail should have been there was only a stump.

Aquarium director David Yates said: "She had to learn how to swim without a tail, which no dolphin has ever done in captivity.

"We didn't know if she could do that. But vets feared her waggling might damage her spine.

Their solution was an artificial tail and Kevin Carroll, who has designed prosthetics for dogs, an ostrich, and even a duck, offered his services.

"Little did I know it was going to take a year and a half. He added: "With a person, when we fit a socket we have one long, solid bone. We don't have to have the socket moving in every direction.

Ireland- the good the bad & the ugly

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:51:51 GMT

clipped by: tidbit2
clipper's remarks: more funny stuff
Most dangerous thing in Africa = Angry Hippo.
Most dangerous thing in Ireland = Angry bumble bee.
got to link hyperspace into wierd wonderful world of boards.ie
the after hours topics/discussions can ve fairly interesting special if your irish or think you are

Clip Source: www.boards.ie

Good things - Culture, following of music, rich history.. Great sights to see, not too hot (although rains a bit too much).

Bad things - Expensive to live here, housing costs, food, drink, Stupid things like VRT... Awful health system and roadworks. Weather is about as predictable as an ostrich on steroids.

Still in saying that, I like Ireland. Just a bit costly. But if you're rich and healthy, the craic is ninety.

People, scenery, culture, decent Guinness, relatively safe, little or no chance of being killed in a natural disaster.

No doubt the usual suspects will be on saying how much better things are in Belgium or wherever but that's my opinion

Good Things: Our sense of pride, our down to earth attitude, our dark humour, Father Ted, The fact we turned ourselves from a third world country into a rich country and our ability to absorbs huge quantities of alochol

Bad Things: Justice and Health System, Very limited on what you can buy, expensive and Knackers

good

and bad

about Ireland

The many faces of Africa

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:05:42 GMT

clipped by: dakotayii

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Two Wodaabe Charm Dancers, Nige

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Surma Man, Ethiopia

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Maasai Warrior with Ostrich Feather Headdress, Kenya

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Bassari Initiate, Senegal

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Surma Girl, Ethiopia

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Wodaabe Man Preparing for Charm Dance, Niger

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Wodaabe Man at Geerewol Beauty Dance, Niger

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Berber Child Bride, Morocco

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Fulani Bride, Mali

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Zulu Bride, South Africa

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Karo Courtship Dancer, Ethiopia

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Painted Karo Courtship Dancer, Ethiopia

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Yoruba Mask Portraying Pregnant Girl, Benin

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Ndebele House Painting, South Africa

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Advisor to the Sultan of Agadez, Niger

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Female Companions of Maasai Warriors, Kenya

Clip Source: www.africanceremonies.com

Bodyguard of the Sultan of Agadez, Niger

Tags: photography

He is not the decider

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:58:47 GMT

clipped by: wendy6552

Clip Source: www.thepetitionsite.com

He is not a well person,he is not in charge and his handlers have been using him as a dummy puppet,a front man,the idiot fall guy and as a professional I feel his mental state is severly in question.They have taken this sosiopathic,pitiful guy and convinced him that "HE IS THE DECIDER" he is a distraction.The folks at the wheel have us convinced that he is in charge.He is not,he is part of and only the tip of one of the most corrupt poliical iceburg machines we have been under the oppression of in quite a while.Look past this guy G.W Bush to see the real story,that is what they don't want you to do.He is a smoke screen folks,a dummy propped up to distract us.Starting to see? Sociopaths have no conscious re their destruction and inhumane behavior.

Tell George Bush the REAL State of the Union

Tags: optional. separate by commas., ostrich alert, humanity/politics

White teen kills four blacks in rifle rampage in South African squatter camp

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:12:54 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

A white teenage boy told his mother he "snapped" just before he was arrested by police for opening fire on a South African squatter camp, killing a baby, a young boy, and two adults.

"Mom, something just snapped inside me," 18-year-old Johan Nel reportedly told his mother Corrie just before he was arrested by South African police for the incident.

Nel allegedly shouted the derogatory term "kaffir, kaffir, kaffir" as he began shooting his .303 rifle at the Swartruggens camp, 100 miles west of Johannesburg.

His victims included a three-month-old baby, a 10-year-old boy, a 30-year-old man, and a woman who died 24 hours later in hospital. A further seven people suffered gunshot wounds, three seriously.

'Something just snapped': Johan Nel, with the gun he reportedly used to open fire

"He even shot an ostrich in the veld,

Nearly 100 people protested outside the Swartruggens Magistrates' Court as Nel was charged today

Nearly 100 people chanted, "Kill the Boer, kill the farmer,"

ANTI CHOICE... per Bush Future Nominee for Life

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:24:00 GMT

clipped by: wendy6552
clipper's remarks: yes this site is asking for money ,my intent is to mearly calL attention to this possible disaster called-ANTI CHOICE,FED JUDGE NOMINEE

Clip Source: secure2.convio.net

You probably haven't heard of Richard Honaker, and President Bush wants to keep it that way.

Help say NO to this radical nominee.

Honaker has a long history of fighting to deny women access to safe, legal reproductive services and now President Bush has nominated this anti-choice radical for a lifetime appointment as a federal judge.

Tags: optional. separate by commas., ostrich alert, knowledge is power, humans

Ground the Punk

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:06:21 GMT

clipped by: wendy6552
clipper's remarks: How do we stop this meglomaniac

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

You are here: LAT Home > Opinion

Bush isn't the only decider

Opinion

He shouldn't be allowed to lock in an Iraq treaty without Congress' approval.

By Bruce Ackerman
November 29, 2007

Tags: ostrich alert

A Catalogue Of Errors

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:45:16 GMT

clipped by: wendy6552

Clip Source: commentisfree.guardian.co.uk

The scale of the calamity that is the loss of confidential data relating to 25 million people by a government department is almost beyond calculation. The management system that allows a junior official, apparently off his or her own bat, to commit to TNT's courier system a wallet containing two CDs with the national insurance numbers, bank details and names and ages of the children of 7.25 million families is beyond the merely dysfunctional.

This is a catastrophe that simultaneously verges on the farcical - while jeopardising (yesss!) all the government's grandiose schemes, from ID cards to the leviathan health service computer. It should also make the politicians think again about how they are running the country.

A catalogue of errors

Lost data crisis: Behind today's fiasco, the real story is of a government bureaucracy stretched to breaking point by incessant reform

Tags: ostrich alert.com

Orangutans could be extinct by 2020

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 06:56:44 GMT

clipped by: wendy6552

Clip Source: secure.defenders.org

Orangutans could be extinct by 2020 -- the victims of habitat destruction intensified by illegal timber trafficking.

And while the insatiable demand for cheap wood products and luxury hardwoods in the United States, Europe and Japan is driving illegal logging operations worldwide, America has no law against importing illegally-harvested wood into the U.S.

Orangutans are just one species threatened by illegal timber trafficking (Photo: Tom Lowe, Creative Commons License)

Tags: ostrich alert

Biggest Creatures in the World

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:55:24 GMT

clipped by: vandamonium

Clip Source: www.greenexpander.com

Biggest living animal on Earth

The Blue whale

Biggest land animal

The African Bush Elephant

Biggest carnivore on Earth

the Southern Elephant Seal

Biggest primate on Earth

The Eastern Lowland Gorilla

Biggest rodent in the world

The capybara

Biggest reptile in the world

The Green anaconda

Biggest bird the world

The Ostrich

Biggest fish on Earth

Biggest insect in the world

Giant weta

Tags: animals, fish, reptiles

Amazing and Funny Really Cool Facts

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:10:43 GMT

clipped by: Lapis Lazuli
clipper's remarks: Some things everyone should know

Clip Source: www.world-english.org

50 Completely Useless Facts!

Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren’t added to it.

The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.

Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people

Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different!

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.

Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."

The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words.

Dolphins sleep with one eye open!

Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain

The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old!

Earth is the only planet not named after a god.

Tags: facts, trivia, fun, funny, useless, cool

"Hitler Comparison" T shirts by the Millions!

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:55:59 GMT

clipped by: wendy6552

Clip Source: agonist.org

The war..s continue, and as the fervor grows for another, in Iran and more evidence of official "misdeeds," of lies, of outright criminality, of incompetence, rampant cronyism and fraud continue to seep out from under the closed doors of what has developed into the most secretive, insular, antidemocratic administration in the history of the Republic, the "Hitler comparison" has grown in my mind and, I believe, much of the public's to the point that we need to repeal the "Godwin law" and popularize the idea in the hopes that by holding up the mirror to the tyrant we may drive him from our shores. I'm serious, we need "Hitler Comparison" T shirts, by the millions.

The "Hitler comparison" should be shouted from the rooftops, as should the Goebbels comparison, the Himmler comparison, the Mengele, Stalin, Torquemada, Beelzebub comparisons and all the rest. If it struts like a Nazi, talks like Nazi, tortures like a Nazi and wages aggressive and illegal war like a Nazi... it's not a duck.

Tags: ostrich alert