Clipmarks | This Month's Top Clips

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

50 Great Free Online Libraries

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:44:51 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.fotolia.com

Clip Source: www.attiaspace.com

50 Great Free Online Libraries

1. California Digital Library

2. The Online Books Page

3. Free Books

4. Project Gutenberg

5. Research Assistance

6. BookRags - E-Books and Book Notes

7. All Bookstores.com

8. FreeTech Books

10. Free E-Books.net

12. The eBook Directory

13. University of Virginia's E-Book library

14. BizzyDays Ebook Publications

15. Web Source

16. free-ebooks-4u.com

18. Free eBooks and Best Sites

19. Free Electronic Books

20. CIW Free E-Books

21. My Free EBooks

22. Free E-Books

25. EBookstand

26. Bibliomania

27. Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts

28. The eText Archive

29. Free Books 5000

33. Page by Page Books

34. bartleby.com

35. Free Books 4 Doctors

37. Chapter-a-Day - Free Books in Your E-Mail!

38. Free-Book.co.uk: The directory of free online books

39. FreeBooknotes.com - Free study guides for over 250 books

42. BeyondBooks.com

46. eBooks4free.net - Download free books and manuscripts

48. Free Joke Books

56. Be Successful!

57. Daily Literature

58. Bookyards: library to the world

4shared.com

ReadPrint.com

Collection of Eye-Catching Advertisments

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:32:44 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: my.mmoabc.com

Tags: advertisement

Motion blur photos - Beautiful!

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:35:26 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: digital-photography-school.com

New clues on "The Great Dying"

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:55:48 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

The lessons of the Permian-Triassic massacre are "directly applicable to the present," said John Isbell, a geoscientist at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He said the world today is in danger of exceeding a CO2 "threshold" that could set off an environmental upheaval as great as the one 251 million years ago.

Clip Source: www.chron.com

An estimated 95 percent of all marine species and up to 85 percent of land creatures perished, according to Peter Ward, a paleobiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Scientists call it "The Great Dying." Life took millions of years to recover.

Scientific sleuths, however, now think they're making progress toward pinning down what caused the extinction of most plants and animals on Earth some 251 million years ago.

The perpetrator wasn't an asteroid or comet, like the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and inspired movies such as Deep Impact and Armageddon.

Instead, it was a cascade of events that began with a monstrous outpouring of hot, reeking lava in Siberia. Repeated floods of lava released massive amounts of carbon dioxide, which produced a runaway greenhouse effect, oxygen-starved oceans and a poisoned atmosphere.

Tags: earth, mass extinction, carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, atmosphere, geology, science

The era of the American Internet is ending.

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 12:45:18 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “Since passage of the Patriot Act, many companies based outside of the United States have been reluctant to store client information in the U.S.,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. “There is an ongoing concern that U.S. intelligence agencies will gather this information without legal process. There is particular sensitivity about access to financial information as well as communications and Internet traffic that goes through U.S. switches.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

SAN FRANCISCO — The era of the American Internet is ending.

Invented by American computer scientists during the 1970s, the Internet has been embraced around the globe. During the network’s first three decades, most Internet traffic flowed through the United States. In many cases, data sent between two locations within a given country also passed through the United States.

Engineers who help run the Internet said that it would have been impossible for the United States to maintain its hegemony over the long run because of the very nature of the Internet; it has no central point of control.

And now, the balance of power is shifting. Data is increasingly flowing around the United States, which may have intelligence — and conceivably military — consequences.

“Because of the nature of global telecommunications, we are playing with a tremendous home-field advantage, and we need to exploit that edge,”

Tags: net, traffic, routing, us

Human Brain Made for Counting

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:28:01 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Aug. 18, 2008 -- Answer this without counting: Are there more X's here XXXXXX, or here XXXXX? That's a problem facing people whose languages don't include words for more than one or two. Yet researchers say children who speak those languages are still able to compare quantities.

"We argue that humans possess an innate system for enumeration that doesn't rely on words," says Brian Butterworth of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London.

In an attempt to prove it, Butterworth compared the numerical skills of children from two indigenous Australian groups whose languages don't contain many number words with similar children who speak English.

All the groups performed equally well, his research team reports in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tags: numbers, language, brain, neuroscience, science

Top 9 comments made by NBC sports commentators during the Olympics

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:00:05 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: Howl-arious!

Clip Source: www.snopes.com

1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."

2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."

3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."

4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries,and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."

5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again."

6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."

7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."

8. Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."

Tags: nbc, commentators, humor, olympics, sports, comedy

Weird Gadgets from the 1920's

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:31:58 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

TOE SOCKS

These pre-shrunk 'To Sox' were designed to act as toe protectors. Produced during World War II, it was claimed that they could reduce hosiery costs by up to 80 per cent. They were designed to be worn over the big toes, to protect socks from wear.

LIGHT SPECTACLES

Invented in the U.S. in the 1930s, these specs were adorned with two small, battery-powered lights, with a long wire trailing beneath. The experience was marred only by the likelihood of electrocution when it rained.

MOUSTACHE PROTECTOR

designed with a hole for the mustachioed man to sip through.

FINGER STRETCHER FOR PIANISTS

Developed in America in 1910 to help pianists hit the sprawling notes demanded by the likes of Stravinsky and Debussy. Careful use was required: it is thought the composer Schumann destroyed his hands using an early version.

PAGE TURNER

CLOCKWORK TEASMADE

AN EARLY LAVATORY

PEEP SHOW

CIGARETTE HOLDER

PISTOL PURSE

a tiny machine complete with its own map that would tell motorists which way to go.

Tags: weird, funny, bizarre, humour, idiots

Dead Sea Scrolls go from parchment to the Internet

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:07:08 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- More than 2,000 years after they were written, the Dead Sea Scrolls are going digital as part of an effort to better preserve the ancient texts and let more people see them than ever before.

The high-tech initiative, announced Wednesday, will also reveal text that was not visible to the naked eye.

Over the next two years, the Israel Antiquities Authority will digitally photograph and scan every bit of crumbling parchment and papyrus that makes up the scrolls, which include the oldest written record of the Bible's Old Testament.

The images eventually will be posted on the Internet for anyone to see.

Tags: bible, internet

Why I Love Clipmarks

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:34:17 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: So, i didn't write this, I read it. It was posted by Clipmarks user onlinedesign in the "Why I Use Clipmarks" section of her profile. You can click the source link to visit her page.

I wanted to clip this because it really moved me. It is exactly what i hope Clipmarks can provide for people. Knowing that we have accomplished this for some people gives me great pride and satisfaction.

I could never adequately convey how impressed, inspired and grateful i am for the collective contributions of the people who share the content, thoughts, opinion, passion and perspective that gets mixed together here on clipmarks.com. I think it's truly remarkable.

Clip Source: clipmarks.com

I have come to discover that Clipmarks is a truly international gathering of individuals who share their personal news from around the world...and by making the clips public, open up a forum for interesting discussion and debate.

I have come to a deeper appreciation and respect for views and opinions other than my own. Whether I agree with them or not is a non-issue.

Various Clippers have provided endless hours of lively topics for discussion in my home.

I have learned some very obscure "tech stuff" that I ordinarily would never have even thought of on my own. I even follow a few Clippers...because they are wickedly funny, insightful, spiritual...mostly because they are just interesting "thinkers".

Over the last year, Clipmarks has become more than just a way to save and reference articles for research. It has become a tool to help me have an open mind.

Tags: clipmarks

20 Ways the World Could End

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:41:10 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: Scary...yet possible?

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

20 Ways the World Could End

Asteroid impact

1 Asteroid impact Once a disaster scenario gets the cheesy Hollywood treatment, it's hard to take it seriously.

2 Gamma-ray burst If you could watch the sky with gamma-ray vision, you might think you were being stalked by cosmic paparazzi.

3 Collapse of the vacuum In the book Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut popularized the idea of "ice-nine,"

4 Rogue black holes Our galaxy is full of black holes, collapsed stellar corpses just a dozen miles wide.

5 Giant solar flares Solar flares— more properly known as coronal mass ejections

6 Reversal of Earth's magnetic field Every few hundred thousand years Earth's magnetic field dwindles

7 Flood-basalt volcanism In 1783, the Laki volcano in Iceland erupted

8 Global epidemics

9 Global warming

10 Ecosystem collapse

11 Biotech disaster While we are extinguishing natural species, we're also creating new ones

12 Particle accelerator mishap Theodore Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber,

13 Nanotechnology disaster

Tags: natural disasters, human-triggered disasters, willful self-destruction, apocalypse, technology

Free Speech and the Right to Offend

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:49:30 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Free speech is indeed precious, but that doesn't mean that we have to defend without qualification every moron who abuses it

Saying that we have a right to offend skips over the question of whether we are right to offend. I have a right to tell random strangers that I think they're ugly, or that they have terrible taste in clothes, but it would be wrong of me to exercise that right,

we don't just utter words, we do things with them, as the Oxford philosopher JL Austin put it. When words belittle or mock, they can reinforce prejudice and hierarchies that have very real effects on people's lives. Mockery of those already on the margins can shore up the very barriers that limit their life chances.

Tags: morons

A study: birds recognized themselves in the mirror

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:25:49 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: Magpies are the first non-mammal to demonstrate a rudimentary affinity for self-recognition

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

BIRD IN THE MIRROR

A study of magpies showed that the birds recognized themselves in the mirror. This illustration shows signs of self-recognition: a magpie attempting to reach a paint mark on its chest, first with its beak and then with its foot. Full story.

Magpies sing a self-reflective tune to themselves that until now has gone unheard. When placed in front of a mirror, these songbirds realize that they’re looking at themselves, raising the possibility that they have independently evolved the brain power to support a basic form of self-recognition, a new study suggests.

Magpies are the first non-mammal to demonstrate a rudimentary affinity for self-recognition

Magpies and other social birds that possess large brains with expanded cortical-like areas should display at least some level of self-recognition, remarks Irene Pepperberg of Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.

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