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POPSEnglish Bulldog Is A Hero: Saves Kittens From Lake Napoleon got a much deserved hero’s welcome at the adoption center as crowds gathered to praise the brave bulldog and cuddle the rescued kittens. English Bulldogs are notoriously bad swimmers. With a giant head and chest compared to a lighter tail end, they have a tendency to go bottoms up in the water. It’s hard to keep that head up above the waves when it’s the largest part of your body! Most owners are very aware of this problem, and will take care to see that their dogs have a good life vest on if they’re going to be boating or there’s a chance the bulldog could end up in some deep water without someone right at hand to save them if they look like they’re starting to struggle. Don't call me Napoleon, call me Churchill
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POPSDouble Standards What do you call it when just over 3 thousand people were killed in the September 11 attack on the US? – An atrocity. What do you call it when nearly 5 million people were killed in the Vietnam war? – A mistake. What do you call it when very rich people exploit poor people? – Greed and selfishness. What do you call it when very rich countries exploit poor countries? – Globalization. What do you call it when someone carrying a gun enters your house and steals your valuable possessions? – An armed robbery. What do you call it when a multinational corporation supported by armed forces enters your country and steals your valuable possessions? – Free trade. What do you call someone who steals from the rich and gives to the poor? – Robin Hood. What do you call someone who steals from the poor and gives to the rich? – The US government.
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POPSBy imagining many possible worlds fiction can chang our Minds "For more than two thousand years people have insisted that reading fiction is good for bookyou. Aristotle claimed that poetry—he meant the epics of Homer and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, which we would now call fiction—is a more serious business than history. History, he argued, tells us only what has happened, whereas fiction tells us what can happen, which can stretch our moral imaginations and give us insights into ourselves and other people. This is a strong argument for schools to continue to focus on the literary arts, not just history, science, and social studies. But is the idea of fiction being good for you merely wishful thinking?'
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POPSThere are more slaves today... ...than at any other time in history. Twice as many slaves as when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Our Congress just apologized for historical slavery in America, but what about the people in slavery today? I urge you to go to the website www.callandresponse.com and find out ways to respond, ways to act. Here is an opportunity to create hope and change. It isn't called Awarenessism, it's called Activism. Let's act.
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POPSPolice Atrocities Define The Bush Police State
"If you've ever publicly opposed Bush's war of naked aggression in Iraq, you can bet you're in NSA's database, called TALON. War protesters, naturally, were the first to wind up in Big Bro's TALON, or database. This practice most certainly goes far beyond Nixon's 'enemies list'. Bush's database, methods, scope and ruthlessness plops us in Orwellian territory." Well, it's too late now. I'm probably already screwed and plopped and TALON'ed and monitored... END THE OCCUPATIONS! ------------------------- talon: \ˈta-lən\ Middle English taloun heel, hind claw of a bird of prey , from Anglo-French talun, from Vulgar Latin *talon-, *talo, from Latin talus ankle, anklebone 1 a: the claw of an animal and especially of a bird of prey b: a finger or hand of a human being 2: a part or object shaped like or suggestive of a heel or claw: b: the shoulder of the bolt of a lock on which the key acts to shoot the bolt 3 a: cards laid aside in a pile in solitaire
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POPSTop 5 Greatest Movie Monologues According to the author, the top 2 greatest movie monologues ever are: 1. Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove . 2. Ned Beatty as Arthur Jensen in Network . Can you guess the other 3 without looking? Do you have some better suggestions? What makes a great movie monologue? Even more to the point, what qualifies as a monologue? Hamlet's soliloquy would certainly make the cut, but its origins didn't spring from film, so it's probably ineligible. Does a speech have to be a certain length to qualify as a monologue? Can it be addressed to someone who reacts or occasionally interjects something in the middle of the display? (Via kottke.org.)
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POPSI'll Take Hope Over Fear and Loathing, Thank You Very Much I am by training a historian. My focus of study has been 20th century Europe and the rise of fascism. The "othering' taking place on the right and from the Republican candidates themselves is horrifying to behold. Who's to blame for the economic crisis? Barney Frank (faggot!), ACORN (niggers!), Barack Hussein Obama (half-breed Muslim!). I see it on the internet, I see it on TV, I see it in newspapers, I see it here on ClipMarks: race-baiting, fear-mongering, scapegoating. Enough! Not here! Not now! Not ever again! If I may quote Obama, "Not this time!
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POPSScience's Alternative to an Intelligent Creator: the Multiverse Theory
The idea that the universe was made just for us—known as the anthropic principle—debuted in 1973 when Brandon Carter, then a physicist at Cambridge University, spoke at a conference in Poland honoring Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer who said that the sun, not Earth, was the hub of the universe. Carter proposed that a purely random assortment of laws would have left the universe dead and dark, and that life limits the values that physical constants can have. By placing life in the cosmic spotlight—at a meeting dedicated to Copernicus, no less—Carter was flying in the face of a scientific worldview that began nearly 500 years ago when the Polish astronomer dislodged Earth and humanity from center stage in the grand scheme of things. Carter proposed two interpretations of the anthropic principle. The “weak” anthropic principle simply says that we are living in a special time and place in the universe where life is possible. Life couldn’t have survived in the very early universe