links for 2008-04-01

• Clipmark: Siberian, Native American languages linked
  (tags: linguistics anthropology culture asia siberia native americans language clipmarks)

 

Have you voted for Webware 100 awards?

For some personal reasons, related to some unpleasant things happening in my life, I haven’t been able to update this blog as often as I wanted, recently. Hopefully, after mid-March I’ll end this unintentional “winter slumber” and keep on posting. But now, here comes just a short post, about an important thing which you have been probably hearing around for some time: Yes, it’s the “2008 Webware 100” awards.

As you can see on the “badge” in this post, I have just voted for 3 websites/services I value much - services, without whom my online life would be very different (in negative terms) than it is now.

As most of you can easily guess, my first vote was in “Browsing” category and I voted for (of course) the best online community/tool: Clipmarks. It’s been almost two and a half years since I joined CM and every single day of this valuable experience has been simply great for me. Voting for Clipmarks is just a very humble way to say “thank you” for the great comfort and fun it brought to my online life.

My second vote was, in “Social” category and it went to Second Life. I’ve been a Second Life resident since October 2006 and with the rich possibilities it brought to my online experience, SL fairly deserves a vote on this important poll.

Finally, my third vote was in “Publishing & Photography” category and guess whom I voted for? Again, a very important, powerful and high quality service that I have been using for two years: WordPress & WordPress.com, of course. Thanks Matt and all WP team, keep up the excellent work.

 

links for 2008-02-18

• Clipmark: The “Out-of-control” Military Machine
  [quote]Citizens must fight the militarism that’s choking our democracy. Given the power and money of the military lobby, we’re not likely to get any encouragement from either party or any presidential candidates, at least not at first. But we can force th
  (tags: military economy united states war recession clipmarks)

 

The Forerunners of the Renaissance and the Islamic World

Sacred-Texts.com has always been one of my favourite resource sites on the net. Especially, for the last 5 years, I have regularly checked what they had new on their collection and most of times I come up with very valuable titles I downloaded, which helped me well on my works and researches. The site does a very remarkable, priceless job for those who are deeply interested in philosophy, ancient texts, world culture and history.

Now, a new title on their collection, added just a few days ago: De Lacy O’Leary’s “Arabic Thoughts and Its Place in History“. An 85-year-old work but I think it’s still very important for understanding the transformation in Medieval world. Islam has been one of the three very intolerant religions, along with Judaism and Christianity, but there had been a time in history that it served to preserve, develop and transfer the ancient wisdom, classical thought and pre-Christian universal philosophies to the West. With its self-explanatory title, O’Leary’s book suggests the link between the “wake up” in the Western World and this preservation/development of classical thought in Islamic world. Particularly, during Abbasid Khalifat in Iraq (9th and 10th centuries) and with the contribution of Sufis and the Mutazilat sect. Well worth reading.

clipped from www.sacred-texts.com The transmission of ancient Greek philosophy to the forerunners of the Renaissance was through the Islamic world. This book details each of the steps along that path, identifying the Syriac writers of the late classical period as introducing Hellenic philosophy into the Middle East. The book details the growth of Islam, including the major branches such as the Shia, Sunni, and Sufi, and many minor as well, and their relation to the schools of Islamic philosophy. From the Baghdad of the Arabian Nights, we pass to Islamic Spain, where Arabic philosophy was increased by both Muslim and Jewish scholars. Finally, we see how Plato and Aristotle were re-introduced into Europe through Christian scholars, and became one of the precursors of the Italian Renaissance. The equivalent of a college-level course on the history of Islamic thought, this book is essential background reading if you want to understand this topic.

 

Dead fish surface on Indian river

Now I suspect if it’s really pollution which killed the fish or if there’s something “geological” happening around the Assam riverbed. If the latter is true, then it means there is a serious trouble which can trigger a scary seismical event near Brahmaputra and Assam.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Pollution may be responsible (Pics: Subhamoy Bhattacharjee) Thousands of dead fish have been washed ashore in a river in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam river since early this week. They were discovered on the banks of the Brahmaputra river in the state capital, Guwahati. An equal number of sick fish were found in the same place, officials said. They blamed rising pollution levels. An investigation has been ordered by the Assam government, said C.K.Bhuiyan, senior district official in Guwahati. Earlier in the year, the Assam Pollution Control Board (APCB) told all the oil refineries in the state to achieve “zero pollution” levels by 31 December, otherwise they would be threatened with closure. The Guwahati refinery was found to be the worst polluting refinery and was perhaps the only one in Assam not to have yet complied, pollution control board officials said.

 

‘Active glacier found’ on Mars

Since 1998, our view on Mars have been changing very fast: from a “dead planet” with “nothing interesting at all” to an exciting world that hides the mysteries of life in it.This sounds intriguing to me:

If microbes survive deep below Mars, they could be transported to the surface by water gushing up from deep underground.

Keep an eye on Mars; it seems we’ll get a series of “shocking news” very soon.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk White tips may be areas of freshly exposed ice Enlarge Image A probable active glacier has been identified for the first time on Mars. The icy feature has been spotted in images from the European Space Agency’s (Esa) Mars Express spacecraft. Ancient glaciers, many millions of years old, have been seen before on the Red Planet, but these ones may only be several thousand years old. The young glacier appears in the Deuteronilus Mensae region between Mars’ rugged southern highlands and the flat northern lowlands. “If it was an image of Earth, I would say ‘glacier’ right away,” Dr Gerhard Neukum, chief scientist on the spacecraft’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) told BBC News. “We have not yet been able to see the spectral signature of water. But we will fly over it in the coming months and take measurements. On the glacial ridges we can see white tips, which can only be freshly exposed ice.

 

We need our ClipCast widgets, Matt… Thanks.

As many of you know, on Wednesday, the 12th of December, Clipmarks opened a new phase on information management / sharing with its 3.0 version. There are lots of new things, not just about the look and feel of the site but also the functionality and usage of the clipping tools. Without doubt, the most remarkable of them is the brand new ClipCast. This new feature allows clippers to add almost anything they want at Clipmarks site, to their blogs, iGoogle and NetVibes pages, Facebook or MySpace. I said “anything” and I mean it: You can add a ClipCast of your own clips, the stuff your favorite clippers posted or tag specific posts. With adding simple bit of code on your page, you have a continuously updating ClipCast on your web site, blog or any other custom page. An eye-catching gadget which presents the material you choose in a slide show format, with many customization options.

Now, let’s get to the point: It would be great if we could add it to our WordPress hosted blogs too but as you all know, WP does not allow custom codes on hosted blogs (very reasonable security policy.) On the other hand, you can add a bunch of specific widgets you find in the “widgets gallery” to your WordPress blog. So, if we manage to make our voices heard loudly enough, I’m sure Matt Mullenweg and his colleagues would gladly help us on this, by adding ClipCast to WordPress widgets gallery for our convenience (like they did for Flickr, VodPod etc.)

As a Clipmarks member WordPress blogger, I’m taking the first step now, by requesting help:

“Matt, would you please add a ClipCast widget to WordPress widgets gallery? We clipper bloggers will appreciate it very much. Thanks in advance.”

 

2007 data confirms warming trend

Here comes a new study from British scientists confirming well with many previous reports that suggested a very serious warming trend. “The 11 warmest years in this set have all occurred within the last 13 years,” concludes the climatologists from UK’s Hadley Centre and University of Anglia. “Climate alarmism” or the shouting voice of Mother Nature? You decide it.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk In Spain’s 2007 heatwave, people cooled off as best they could 2007 has been one of the warmest years since 1850, despite the cooling influence of La Nina conditions. The UK’s Hadley Centre and University of East Anglia conclude that globally, this year ranks as the seventh warmest. The 11 warmest years in this set have all occurred within the last 13 years. For the northern hemisphere alone, 2007 was the second warmest recorded. The findings come as politicians at the UN climate summit try to agree a path leading to cuts in carbon emissions.

 

My second “Clipiversary”

Time runs so fast and somebody should definitely do something about it; like bribing the sun and convince it for slowing down the earth’s orbital voyage around it. When I was browsing the new clips at Clipmarks this morning, I suddenly noticed that date on my profile: “Joined: 11/10/2005″. Yes, today it’s been exactly 2 years since I joined Clipmarks, which means 730 great days, 104 wonderful weeks or 24 months full of clipping, sharing and fun.

As I often mention it here on this modest blog or elsewhere, Clipmarks has been a very special thing in my online life. Now while I am browsing more than 1700 clips I posted (and many more others, posted by fellow clippers) I can’t help thinking “What if there had not been a site like this, what if Clipmarks never existed?” For me, there is no other online tool and no other information community that could substitute the great joy of learning and sharing that Clipmarks has been giving me for 2 years.

Clipping the information bits on the web; categorizing and archiving them in neat collections; following the great stuff other clippers have been posting and sharing opinions & comments on each individual clip (not to mention the great feature that allows you to post to your blog by simply “clipping”.) By spending just an hour everyday at Clipmarks, you can learn everything that has been happening under the sun. Like one of our fellow clippers said: “I can’t read everything… We can“.

So thanks again Clipmarks, for these great 2 years; and thanks to all clippers who have been making this “infotainment” experience a very special one. I am proud of being a part of this great community.

 

Tension intensifies on Turkey-Iraq border

After the bloody attacks on Sunday, which killed 12 Turkish soldiers and 34 PKK guerillas, the situation looks heated along Turkey-Iraq border. Considering the government having the approval of the parliament for a cross-border incursion, and the growing pressure that comes from the street protests (mostly organized by the extreme-right, nationalist MHP and likes), chances are the region is in the middle of a new “war crisis”.

The timing of the deadly attacks from PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) is very intriguing. There is a group of Kurdish MPs of DTP (Democratic People’s Pary) in the parliament since July 22 elections; there were hopes for a peaceful solution in the Southeastern Turkey, without disturbing the unity and the integrity of the country, and suddenly these violent attacks took place one by one in a very short time. Somebody are trying hard to incite/provoke Turkey to enter Northern Iraq in such a critical time. But who and why? No comments for now; we’ll wait and see soon.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Turkey said on Monday eight of its soldiers were missing a day after clashes with Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border, in which at least 12 soldiers were killed. Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and attack helicopters along its border with Iraq in anticipation of a possible incursion. Asked about any pending attack, Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Sunday: “Not urgently. They are planning a cross-border (incursion)…We’d like to do these things with the Americans.” The United States and Iraq have called on Turkey to refrain from a military push into the largely autonomous Kurdish region, one of the few relatively stable parts of the Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Turkey’s tougher stance has helped propel global oil prices to record highs over the past week. The PKK has said it might target pipelines carrying Iraqi and Caspian crude across Turkey.