<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/0093594f-d668-4f9f-aba7-c83517403a6d/C3364DD9-7148-45D0-94DC-AE3598058003/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/20/in-praise-swan-upping-thames-windsor" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/20/in-praise-swan-upping-thames-windsor" style="font-size: 11px;">www.guardian.co.uk</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/20/in-praise-swan-upping-thames-windsor">Early this morning, on a quiet stretch of the Thames just outside London, six skiffs were decked with flags, stocked with cord and manned by a crew of trained bird-catchers. <A title="bird-catchers" href="http://www.royal.gov.uk/RoyalEventsandCeremonies/SwanUpping/SwanUpping.aspx">Swan-upping</A> must be one of the stranger rituals of a culture that enjoys its fair share of arcane ceremony: an ornithological census that takes place in July each year between Windsor and Abingdon, it is presided over by such Lewis Carroll characters as the Queen's swan marker and <A title="Warden of the Swans" href="http://www.zoo.ox.ac.uk/egi/people/faculty/chris_perrins.htm">warden of the swans</A>. The origins of their task – to round up and ring all the swans they find on the river – can be traced back to our medieval monarchs' weakness for swan meat. Today, the point is not to catch them for the kitchen, but to count, weigh and check them for signs of injury or disease.</blockquote><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/clip-icon.gif" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.royal.gov.uk/RoyalEventsandCeremonies/SwanUpping/SwanUpping.aspx" href="http://www.royal.gov.uk/RoyalEventsandCeremonies/SwanUpping/SwanUpping.aspx" style="font-size: 11px;">www.royal.gov.uk</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.royal.gov.uk/RoyalEventsandCeremonies/SwanUpping/SwanUpping.aspx"><div align="center"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KUFB_mH0to0&hl=en&fs=1" height="329" width="400" wmode="opaque" quality="high" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.royal.gov.uk/RoyalEventsandCeremonies/SwanUpping/SwanUpping.aspx">Today, the Crown retains the right to ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water, but The Queen only exercises her ownership on certain stretches of the Thames and its surrounding tributaries.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/C3364DD9-7148-45D0-94DC-AE3598058003/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

New from the makers of Clipmarks:  Amplify.com - Don't just share the news...Amplify it!