61
POPSClipmarks and the Art of Highlighting Clipper {{JICWyllie}} published this piece in Inside Knowledge magazine. His insight regarding annotation and classification is fascinating. And it's inspiring to read about the potential of Clipmarks as a tool for group intelligence -- World Mind here we come! Thanks Jan!
35
POPS25 Greatest Science Books of All Time The Origin of Species (1859) Darwin's masterwork is, undeniably, The Origin of Species , in which he introduced his theory of evolution by natural selection. Prior to its publication, the prevailing view was that each species had existed in its current form since the moment of divine creation and that humans were a privileged form of life, above and apart from nature. Darwin's theory knocked us from that pedestal. Wary of a religious backlash, he kept his ideas secret for almost two decades while bolstering them with additional observations and experiments. The result is an avalanche of detail—there seems to be no species he did not contemplate—thankfully delivered in accessible, conversational prose. A century and a half later, Darwin's paean to evolution still begs to be heard: "There is grandeur in this view of life," he wrote, that "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
33
POPSNative American Wisdom Quotes What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator 1830 - 1890 Go to the site, read some more, and listen. :)
32
POPSYour life is Perfect. We often don't know if we want something until we get it, and then find it wasn't what we wanted. Through that discovery, we can start to believe we really wanted something else, and the chase continues, turning goals into hurdles. Often confusing improvement with change. Perhaps another angle could be learning what we need to, but also trying to improve what we can already do well, without neglecting the opportunities to learn from what we can consider to be failures. We can change situations, but changing who we are may not be possible, and if it is we don't have the foresight to make it a likely improvement.
32
POPSAmazing Shark Pictures Off South African Coast "To see a perfectly streamlined great white slowly cruising in clear water with shafts of light bouncing off its back is like watching a sports car effortlessly cruise past you on the freeway. It is just one of those moments that makes you appreciate a beautiful creation."
28
POPSBefore the Big Bang - the Big Bounce Now, however, Dr Bojowald and fellow physicists are exploring territory unknown even to Einstein - the time before the Big Bang - using his new theory, called Loop Quantum Cosmology. An analysis of this, one of a series of newly-emerging theories which combine Einstein's theory of gravity (general relativity) with that of the subatomic world (quantum theory), "is supposed to provide a non-singular framework in which one could address the question of what was there before the Big Bang," he says.
28
POPSIs your English Pronunciation O.K.? I was inspired by the earlier clip on the difficulty of learning English to post this page. I first got a copy of a variation of this nearly 30 years ago. I've only included the first three verses here. There are are about 12 more verses like this one on this page. Check it out and let me know if you don't hung up on some of this!!
24
POPSStunning Photo of Saturn Backlit By the Sun With our sun behind it, Saturn carves out a majestic silhouette against the vastness of space. And the tiny speck peeking through the rings? That's us! Click on images for full-size. (Transmitted by the Cassini probe looking back at the Earth from a billion-mile-out vantage point. Background behind the image's creation.)
22
POPSThe Stick Figure Guide to Winning in Iraq As described in the article, the creator of this humorous, optimistic cartoon, a young Captain Travis Patriquin, was killed by an improvised explosive device in Iraq just last Wednesday. His creation has been circulating among the troops and, lately, across the internet. PDF version of the presentation .
21
POPSAnaïs Nin From being a cult figure of the early feminist movement, Anais later rose to international prominence with her writing. She is best known for her diaries but also produced a number of novels and a prose poem in surrealistic style as well as wonderful erotic short stories, published posthumously. Characterized by the use of powerful and, at times, disquieting imagery, her work reveals great sensitivity and perception. In 1973 she received an honorary doctorate from Philadelphia College of Art. She was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1974.<<
19
POPSFaith is a mental illness. The article goes off in another direction, but I think this quote nicely describes the box of mirrors people with religious faith lock themselves into. Let the games begin.