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POPSWinter in Siberia Photos from a trip across Siberia in January 2006, when the average temperature was -60F. Just thinking of this numbing cold makes my bones ache, but the photos are lovely. Grab a cup of your favorite warm beverage and take a look at these photos of winter in Siberia.
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POPSGiant Turkey Chases Boston Woman, Pecks Bottom Repeatedly When dispatched to the scene of a turkey, Verrier offers advice instead. He tells people not to feed them, not to be intimidated by them, and to keep their distance. Still, some people cannot help themselves. They need to be near the turkeys. Distance-shmistance, we want to be near the turkeys. I, for one, am against the city of Boston trying to regulate mutually consensual human-turkey behavior. A light ass-pecking never hurt anyone, am I right? Even though this incident happened right near my apartment, I have not been lucky enough to experience any super-sized turkeys on my errands, sadly. Look at the size of that sucker...he's gotta be like 12 feet tall! :)
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POPSMe, Myself and I The generally accepted linguistic explanation for the capital “I” is that it could not stand alone, uncapitalized, as a single letter, which allows for the possibility that early manuscripts and typography played a major role in shaping the national character of English-speaking countries. So what effect has capitalizing “I” but not “you” — or any other pronoun — had on English speakers? It’s impossible to know, but perhaps our individualistic, workaholic society would be more rooted in community and quality and less focused on money and success if we each thought of ourselves as a small “i” with a sweet little dot. There have, of course, been plenty of rich and dominant cultures throughout history that have gotten by just fine without capitalizing the first-person pronoun or ever writing it down at all. There have also been cultures that committed atrocities even while capitalizing “you.”
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POPSRight Wing Americans are Getting What They Deserve Here's the last bit :) All I can say is that this is what you get for believing even for a moment what the US corporate media wants you to believe. The rest of us Bush haters are Bush haters for one reason and one reason only; we pay attention! So to my new former Bush supporting friends who seem to be suddenly surrounding me and telling me that I have been right all along: you can tell me I was right but after that shut the hell up because it is too late for forgiveness. From now on, just shut up and listen. Think about it! Yeah!! I just had to clip this. I just had to! .:D I'm just gonna have to take the s*** and excuses and apologetics the Bush supporters and neo-con clippers are gonna try to give me on this, but I don't care. It's most definitely worth it. This clip is for all my fellow "Bush-haters" Enjoy! I did!
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POPSConcrete that literally eats pollution. If it works, then this could be a big breakthrough indeed. However, it's not like cities are going to start re-paving roads that don't need it, or demoing & rebuilding building, (or even just repainting them with this solution)... The cost would be prohibitive. So that 50% savings (just off of 15% of concrete surfaces) is a LONG way away. Plus, this definitely doesn't curb the need for changing the way we pollute...
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POPSThe Earth Will Be Just Fine, Thank You Despite its many flaws, I’m a big fan of human civilization. I marvel at our capacity to organize matter and information, at our ability to learn from mistakes and pass that learning down to subsequent generations. Civilization—writing, cities, trade, the whole lot of it—makes us unique on this planet and, as far as we can tell so far, in our part of the universe.
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POPS30 Excellent Websites for Adventurous Urban Explorers urbex forums, defunct amusement parks, abandonments, sunken ships, photos and more.... From the page: "Ever wonder what is inside that dark tunnel or deserted structure you pass on your way to work every day? There are a vast number of spooky and surreal abandoned buildings that populate even the densest countries, states and cities. Organized into helpful categories here are thirty must-bookmark resources for would-be urban explorers around the world. In addition to those listed below (right-click on the screenshots to jump), sites like DarkRoastedBlend and LookAtThis have entire categories dedicated to abandoned places and vehicles also worth exploring."
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POPSWhy can't the U.S. be more like Varese? If this town in Italy can be 100% dependent on renewable power, why can't towns/cities in the U.S. do the same? It really makes me angry to live in a country that holds itself out as a world leader, yet we need to look at small towns in Italy to see examples of the Power Revolution. It frightens me that Big Oil stands in the way of the U.S. leading the Revolution.
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POPS16 Of The World's Best Squares: Think About The Details From Mexico to Italy to Iran, these remarkable squares can inspire us all. What stands out most is that design is only a small fraction of what goes into making a great square: small details add up to great places. Historically, squares were the center of communities, and they traditionally helped shape the identity of entire cities. Like the tentacles of an octopus extending into the surrounding neighborhood, the influence of a good square (such as Union Square in New York) starts at least a block away. Any great square has a variety of smaller "places" within it to appeal to various people. The use of a square changes during the course of the day, week, and year. The streets and sidewalks around a square greatly affect its accessibility and use, as do the buildings that surround it. Any community where people want to discover the rewards of public life can make a square its centerpiece.
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POPSWhat Will Happen to Biodiversity When the World Becomes A Giant City? “As a species we have lived in wild nature for hundreds of thousands of years, and now suddenly most of us live in cities—the ultimate escape from nature,” says Kareiva. “If we do not learn to build, expand and design our cities with a respect for nature, we will have no nature left anywhere.” Indeed, biocide is occurring at an alarming rate. Experts project that at least half of the world’s current animal species will be completely gone by the end of the century. Wild plant-life is also disappearing. Most biologists say that we are in the midst of an anthropogenic mass extinction that is at least partially caused by human encroachment on more and more areas of the planet. Numerous scientific studies confirm that this phenomenon needs to be addressed quickly.
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POPSNo Gays in Iran… But Many Same-Sex Couples: US Professor
William O.Beeman is professor and chair of the department of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He has been conducting research in Iran for more than 30 years, and is a fluent speaker of Persian. "Active partners in Iran do not consider themselves to be “homosexual.” Indeed, it is a kind of macho boast in some circles that one has been an active partner with another male. Passive partners are denigrated and carry a life-long stigma if their sexual role is known, even after a single incident. They have been deflowered, as it were, in the same way that women might lose their virginity, and they are considered to be "xarob" or "destroyed." "In actual fact, many men are "versatile" in their sexual activity but if they are known to have relations with other men, they will always claim in public to be the active partner. Same-sex relations between females are undoubtedly practised, but this is the deepest secret in Iran, and rarely talked about at all."
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