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POPSIn Indonesia, life plays out in the shadow of fiery peaks "Death by volcano takes many forms: searing lava, suffocating mud, or the tsunamis that often follow an eruption. In 1883, Mount Krakatau (often misspelled as Krakatoa), located off Java's coast, triggered a tsunami that claimed more than 36,000 lives. The name became a metaphor for a catastrophic natural disaster."
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POPSDhimmi Dutch Prosecutors And Geert Wilders "Fitna" WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES SPIEGEL: You invoke the right to freedom of opinion but you demand a prohibition of the Koran. Does that not contravene the principle of religious tolerance? Wilders: For me, Islam is a vision of a society that defines all forms of interpersonal behavior -- from inheritance to criminal law. This ideology endangers our values. I hate it, I don't hate Muslims. SPIEGEL: Is the comparison between the Koran and Hitler's "Mein Kampf" not totally inappropriate? In making it, you're providing the imams with a perfect image of the enemy. Wilders: I want to provoke a discussion. Certain Koranic verses have moved their followers to commit the most abhorrent acts. Where is the imam who stands up in the Netherlands and says, for us, homosexuals are entitled to equal rights and everyone has the right to abandon their faith. http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/03/geert-wilders-i.html
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POPSMore (Really) Stunning Desktop Wallpapers Smashing Magazine presents more (really) stunning desktop wallpapers related to typography, photography, illustrations, HDR as well as some abstract and fantasy-related wallpapers. All can be downloaded for free.
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POPSSloths Get a Bum Rap
Facts About Sloths • Sloths maintain a low body temperature of 30 to 34 C (86 to 93 F) and lower when resting • Their stomach contents are two-thirds of their weight • The sloth is descended from a family of mammals that appeared on earth about 60 million years ago • There are 6 species of sloths alive today • The 3-toed sloth is the slowest mammal in the world • All living sloths have in fact 3 toes • The 2-toed sloths, however, have only 2 fingers • The Maned Three-toed Sloth is classified as endangered • They’re currently found in the rainforests of Central and South America • Sloths became extinct from parts of North and Central America immediately after the arrival of humans on the continents • Now extinct giant ground sloths, could rear up as high as giraffes and weighed as much as a mammoth • Sloths’ claws serve as their only natural defense • In the wild they can live for 12 years but have exceeded 30 years in captivity • Sloths mate while suspended from branches
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POPSReal facts of health and fitness "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - strawberries in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming “ WOO HOO! What a Ride!"
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POPSThe Origin of Words You Hear at the Office "The original Middle English meaning of team was applied to a group of draft animals yoked together. Around 1828, someone thought of combining the word "team" with the word "work" - probably hoping to spur sluggish workers into action. So "teamwork" really means working like one of many beasts of burden. Depressing, huh?"
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POPSWhatever the history of Desiderata, the Ehrmann's prose is inspirational, and offers a simple positive credo for life. The common myth is that the Desiderata poem was found in a Baltimore church in 1692 and is centuries old, of unknown origin. Desiderata was in fact written around 1920 (although some say as early as 1906), and certainly copyrighted in 1927, by lawyer Max Ehrmann (1872-1945) based in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Desiderata myth began after Reverend Frederick Kates reproduced the Desiderata poem in a collection of inspirational works for his congregation in 1959 on church notepaper, headed: 'The Old St Paul's Church, Baltimore, AD 1692' (the year the church was founded). Copies of the Desiderata page were circulated among friends, and the myth grew, accelerated particularly when a copy of the erroneously attributed Desiderata was found at the bedside of deceased Democratic politician Aidlai Stevenson in 1965.
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POPSThe Online Books Page Just in case some of you just might be suffering from the delusion that someday you might be able to shut down your computers and go and breath the fresh air that someone once told me is actually to be found outside.
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POPSThe Best of ‘Feel Art Again’ Wonderful works - revisited; the links will take you to a detailed discussion for each piece. I actually learned a lot from this - enjoy. Mental Floss has an ongoing series of 'Feel Art Again' - Tues. & Thurs. - http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs
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POPSGet Vista's Best Features in XP Lifehacker covers Vista's small and large features missing from XP, separates them into three categories: applications, functional, and aesthetic (e.g., transparency is aesthetic, the new start menu search is functional). This list is not exhaustive, but it does cover the features readers feel make Vista worth it.
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POPS10 Books That Screwed Up The World "From Machiavelli's The Prince to Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto to Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, these "influential" books have led to war, genocide, totalitarian oppression, family breakdown, and disastrous social experiments. And yet these authors' bad ideas are still popular and pervasive--in fact, they might influence your own thinking without your realizing it. Here with the antidote is Professor Benjamin Wiker. In his scintillating new book, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World (And 5 Others That Didn't Help), he seizes each of these evil books by its malignant heart and exposes it to the light of day. "
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POPSBeer has gone to the dogs "Imported from Holland, where it is called Kwispelbier - "tail-wagging beer" - it is being sold at £1.99 for a 33cl bottle. Made using a traditional brewing process, the drink contains malt barley extract. A spokesman for Pets at Home said: "While initially people may think of the drink as a novelty, it makes a delicious treat for a thirsty dog. "It also encourages drinking, which is good for the kidneys, and is a great source of vitamin B. "It means pets are even more a part of family life as they can enjoy a beer, too."
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POPSThe Gold of Varna Prehistoric Necropolis "There are crouched and extended inhumations. Some graves do not contain a skeleton, but grave gifts (cenotaphs). Interestingly, the symbolic (empty) graves are the richest in gold artifacts. 3000 gold artifacts were found, with a weight of approximately 6 kilograms. Grave 43 (photo) contained more gold than has been found in the entire rest of the world for that epoch. Three symbolic graves contained masks of unburnt clay. The findings showed that the Varna culture had trade relations with distant lands (possibly including the lower Volga and the Cyclades), perhaps exporting metal goods and salt from the Provadiya rock salt mine. The copper ore used in the artifacts originated from a Sredna Gora mine near Stara Zagora, and Mediterranean Spondylus shells found in the graves may have served as primitive currency." The text above from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_Necropolis
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POPSBritish and American diplomats in roadside standoff with Zimbabwe police "McGee climbed onto the hood of the car while his aide snatched the keys from the ignition, then the diplomats used their mobile phone cameras to take photographs of the officer. The confrontation was "a message to us, to try to control what we are doing," said U.S. Embassy spokesman Paul Engelstad, who was among around 50 diplomats and journalists on the tour. Japanese, EU, Dutch and Tanzanian envoys and an Associated Press reporter were also in the convoy. McGee noted the government has denied repeated reports from opposition officials and human rights groups of government-orchestrated violence against the opposition. "The government has said, 'Present us with proof.' I think today we have done just that. "We do have concrete proof of what is happening in the countryside and the government will have to listen," Mr McGee said."
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POPSInca Skull Surgeons Were "Highly Skilled," The new findings show that Inca surgeons had developed a detailed knowledge of cranial anatomy, said lead author Valerie Andrushko, of Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. "These people were skilled surgeons," she said.
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