a visual collective outlet of inspiration
damn right we don’t… last time an invisible means of support supported me i was eight and watching star wars. but then we all grew up, well most of us at least. by xy
earth related
Markhor
incredible endangered goat specie that according to folklore, has the ability to kill and eat snakes. the markhor is sought after by the local people, who believe that the foam like substance it produces is an extract for snake poison from snake bitten wounds and by hunters who collect their horns. by cp
and the award goes to…(almost) an entire continent!
the nobel peace prize. it seems odd to me that a ‘prize’ is necessary at all, in other words, isn’t the mere notion of giving and encouraging peace rewarding enough? well, i suppose that’s besides the point, and SOMEtimes humans can be outstanding, but those individuals are few and far between. (gandhi never got one did he? and obama did, albeit prematurely…) anyway, this years’ nobel peace prize has been awarded to the european union, “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”. although, the last time i checked, the union has only been the union since mitterand and kohl established it as so in 1993. doesn’t quite add up to sixty years, but we get the point, we are talking about the origins in the ECSC and the EEC which is completely legitimate i suppose. i am truly trying to play devil’s advocate here; if you think about it, the EU has come light years from where they were decades ago. tumultuous wars, disintegrating world powers, ego fights of the most treacherous and monumental kind…and here we are. sure, there are still some serious economic difficulties and peril, but as much as it pains me to say, those things are often inevitable, especially in a world like ours. citizens in athens are up in arms about this award, where germans are happy and feel as if their work and struggle has paid off in a way. but now the $1.2 million dollar question—where is the check going to go, and who is it going to be awarded to come this december in oslo? this is when we will truly see the demonstrative nature of peace. by sv
 an entire continent! — see more of this on tomorrow started blog){kind=link}
lionel hun: dance of hope
you may have seen this but i like it as the movements are less literal and more liquid. a nice mixture of street and classical done well. here is lionel hun dancer/choreographer performing in tokyo during the tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. four days after he evacuated to macau where he decided to express his love for japan by making this performance. by kc
wired for war…
and that’s the problem. 27% of our tax spending goes to the military, and only 2.5% to education. you ask about science? ah, give em 1%. i think we’ve all seen where countries with nominal education end up, usually praying to some god (pick one) to get ’em out of here and into some heaven. interestingly enough, according to a GE report conducted via 1,000 senior execs from 12 countries, the report shows that a strong majority believe that innovation will take on forms not yet seen in history, and it will be localized to specific markets and driven more by “creativity” than by scientific research alone. now chew on that mister 1% scientist. granted i don’t even see a 0.00005% funding for the arts on that chart. by xy
have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation?
dd, maybe good old stanley can help you out here? by sv
who’s the wild animal?
one-and-a-half ton african rhino poached for his 5.5 kilogram horn. sick. by dd
2012 london olympics: top 20 countries with the most gold medals
a few clear, obvious winners and then some. the US, china, and russia due to their sheer size and probability are easy ones, but then you have great britain at number 3 and korea at number 5 which are impressive to some extent. not to mention, odd balls like kazakhstan-12, hungary-9 and iran-17? mind you, this is based on most golds not grand total of medals, as that would shift the oddities even further. where are brazil, spain, belgium, portugal, sweden, etc? by dd
THE HIGGS BOSON
so, there is a teaser out right now from the scientific community planting anticipation for opening night of the higgs boson. they say this could change the way we understand the world as we know it? maybe us civilians should start by trying to understand the other elements first… THEN we can get logical about the 96% of matter that is invisible.
• the standard model is the simplest set of ingredients – elementary particles – needed to make up the world we see in the heavens and in the laboratory
• quarks combine together to make, for example, the proton and neutron – which make up the nuclei of atoms today – though more exotic combinations were around in the universe’s early days
• leptons come in charged and uncharged versions; electrons – the most familiar charged lepton – together with quarks make up all the matter we can see; the uncharged leptons are neutrinos, which rarely interact with matter
• the “force carriers” are particles whose movements are observed as familiar forces such as those behind electricity and light (electromagnetism) and radioactive decay (the weak nuclear force)
• the higgs boson came about because although the standard model holds together neatly, nothing requires the particles to have mass; for a fuller theory, the higgs – or something else – must fill in that gap
by kl
so done with arizona
the only good thing left from arizona, is the arizona ice tea… and even that is not from arizona but from long island! here’s why they suck in case you didn’t know, like our little ak! by xy
of all places, not australia but ecuador?
let’s not confuse the facts here, ecuador is not exactly a place we’d consider ideal and surely they have their issues and internal agendas for considering taking on julian assange under asylum. but non-the-less i have come to appreciate ecuador’s stance not to mention their balls. the world, or better put the citizens of this world, should be ashamed of themselves when the peace prize is given to war mongers and terrorist and the one person who reveals the truth is being hunted down by our various governments. the very governments we consider to be the best of the best in terms of fairness, in terms of freedom of the press. you think the US is great? how about UK? what about sweden? well think again, an independent international body, “reporters without borders” press freedom index rates sweden today to be ranked as the 12th, the united states justice system to be the 47th in the world, and the UK to be the 28th. that means there are 47 other countries that rate higher in press freedom than the US and 28 country’s above the UK. its mind boggling? imagine that… were would water gate be with out assange and his like? shame indeed. watch the pathetic cnn anchor “do his job”… i wonder what amount of money warrants selling your soul? by xy
Spain is not greece: just incase you didn’t know… but wait there is more
amusing indeed. by ars
