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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:
This is one of those times that absolutely everyone wishes for -- especially since it's happening at a good in-between point.
You're endowed with all the right energy to have a warm, sweet, romantic adventure with the one you love. And whether you choose to take off to somewhere wild or just turn your living room into a love den doesn't matter.
You should truly enjoy each other's company.  
Some of our readers today have been in:
Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Rapperswil, Sankt Gallen, Switzerland
Copenhagen, Kobenhavn, Denmark
Leer, Niedersachsen, Germany
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
London, England, United Kingdom
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Port-Au-Prince, Oest, Haiti
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Piove De Sacco, Veneto, Italy
Sheffield, England, United Kingdom

as well as  the United States in such cities such as Deerfield, San Diego, Beaumont, Vidalia, Severna Park, Natchitoches and more

Today is Tuesday, April 20, the 110th day of 2010.
There are 255 days left in the year.
 
There are no unusual holidays or celebrations today

As The World Turns

As The World Turns
Top al-Qaida leaders killed in Iraq
The U.S. and Iraq claimed a major victory against al-Qaida on Monday, saying their forces killed the terror group's two top figures in this country in an air and ground assault on their safehouse near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the killings of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri at a news conference and showed photographs of their bloody corpses. U.S. military officials later confirmed the deaths, which Vice President Joe Biden called a "potentially devastating blow" to al-Qaida in Iraq.

Threat Of New, Larger Icelandic Eruption Looms
For all the worldwide chaos that Iceland's volcano has already created, it may just be the opening act.

Local Hospitality

Local Hospitality
Amazon refuses to turn over customers' reading records to North Carolina tax department
North Carolina's tax department wants to ding NC residents for sales tax on purchases from out-of-state retailers like Amazon.com, so they've asked Amazon to cough up a list of everything its NC customers have bought -- books, sex-toys, steaks, CDs, whatever. Amazon's taken the high-road, and has gone to court to protect its customers' privacy.
The lawsuit says the demand violates the privacy and First Amendment rights of Amazon's customers. North Carolina's Department of Revenue had ordered the online retailer to provide full details on nearly 50 million purchases made by state residents between 2003 and 2010. Amazon is asking a federal judge in Seattle to rule that the demand is illegal, and left open the possibility of requesting a preliminary injunction against North Carolina's tax collectors.
"The best-case scenario for customers would be where the North Carolina Department of Revenue withdraws their demand because they recognize that it violates the privacy rights of North Carolina residents," Amazon spokesperson Mary Osako told CNET.

Daily Comic Relief

http://imgsrv.gocomics.com/dim/?fh=70602f4e8e6fe7ddc43761673404a21b

Camera-snatching octopus is Web star

Camera-snatching octopus is Web star

People are buzzing about footage accidentally shot by a thieving sea creature.  
Also: 
*****

Supreme Court strikes down law aimed at banning animal cruelty videos

In another example of incorrect decisions this 'court' has made recently:
The Supreme Court struck down a federal law today aimed at banning videos that show graphic violence against animals, saying it violates the right to free speech.

Woman Accused Of Hitting TSA Agent Over Applesauce

 More stupidity from the TSA
A judge Tuesday threw out a case against Nadine Hays, who is accused of hitting a TSA agent who allegedly tried to take away her elderly mother's applesauce.

"I just said I am not going to plead guilty to something I did not do," Hays, 58, of Camarillo, said before her court appearance.

Contraband could hide in plain sight

As airport security employees scan luggage for a large variety of banned items, they may miss a deadly box cutter if they find a water bottle first.
According to new research at Duke University, identifying an easy-to-spot prohibited item such as a water bottle may hinder the discovery of other, harder-to-spot items in the same scan.

Speaking of birthers and teabaggers

"They cannot stand being called racist. 
   Another thing they cannot stand is black people." 
     ~  Bill Maher on birther/tea baggers,

How your Web coupons are spying on you

How your Web coupons are spying on you

Coupons printed from the Internet can be loaded with your personal information. 
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Lunatic Fringe

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Idiot law

...or wingnuttery manifest ...

A new law in Arizona authorizes local cops to enforce federal immigration laws, including checking the immigration status of anyone cops "reasonably" believe might be an illegal immigrant.

In other words, May I see your papers please? Since illegal immigrants rarely wear t-shirts emblazoned "illegal immigrant", it's difficult to see this as anything but a new excuse to hassle non-white folks, but c'mon — cops in Arizona didn't need a new excuse for that in the first place.

Key 'point man' emerges in fraud case

Key 'point man' emerges in fraud case

Paolo Pellegrini made $175 million on a huge housing bet tied to the Goldman Sachs suit.
Also: 

It's The Economy Stupid

It's The Economy Stupid
Repugicans in SEC vote against Goldman lawsuit

Why do the repugicans hate America?  

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission split 3-2 along party lines to approve an enforcement case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to two people with knowledge of the vote.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro sided with Democrats Luis Aguilar and Elisse Walter to approve the case filed on April 16, said the people, who declined to be identified because the vote wasn’t public. Republican commissioners Kathleen Casey and Troy Paredes voted against suing, the people said yesterday.

Charges Against Goldman Sachs Boost Case for Financial Reform

The Obama administration's efforts to reform the financial industry is getting an unexpected boost after the Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) accused one of the largest U.S. investment bankers of fraud.  Goldman Sachs denies it misled its investors by selling them mortgaged backed securities that were expected to fail.  But analysts say the civil charges filed against Goldman Sachs on Friday could lead to closer scrutiny of the way financial firms do business.

Habits putting your retirement at risk

6 habits putting your retirement at risk

These bad decisions could leave you working longer or even flat broke at retirement. 
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The work chore everyone loves to hate

The work chore everyone loves to hate

A management expert calls for an end to a "bogus practice" that almost all companies require.   
Also: 

In Matters Of Health

In Matters Of Health

50 secrets from real-life dentists

Dentists from across the country share what they're really thinking as they peer at our teeth.
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Dietary sugar linked to high cholesterol

Added sugars in packaged foods may increase the risk of heart trouble, a new study says.  
Also: 

Extra pounds can boost breast cancer risk

Even gradual weight gain nearly doubles women's chances of breast cancer, a new study finds.  
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Report: FDA may set legal limits on salt

Health advocates say regulating sodium could be the best way to reduce heart attacks.  
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Why you don't need laundry detergent

Why you don't need laundry detergent

Many people put way too much soap in their washing machines already.  
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Seven easy dinners

Seven easy dinners

These quick and delicious mu shu-style pork roll-ups will please your entire family. 
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School lunches a national security threat?

School lunches a national security threat?

Some retired military officers worry about the effects of cafeteria food on future recruiting.  
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In The Ghetto

Elvis Aron Presley

Want a higher GPA?

Want a higher GPA? Try a private college

Grade inflation has affected public and private universities much differently, a study shows.  
Also: 

School with no tests, no books, no rules

School with no tests, no books, no rules

For the Biegler kids, education means learning about what they think is important.  
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Frontal Cortex: Classroom Creativity

just another brick in the wall
This interesting study, which looked at how elementary school teachers perceived creativity in their students. While the teachers said they wanted creative kids in their classroom, they actually didn’t. In fact, when they were asked to rate their students on a variety of personality measures – the list included everything from “individualistic” to “risk-seeking” to “accepting of authority” – the traits mostly closely aligned with creative thinking were also closely associated with their “least favorite” students. As the researchers note, “Judgments for the favorite student were negatively correlated with creativity; judgments for the least favorite student were positively correlated with creativity.”
This shouldn’t be too surprising. The point is that the classroom isn’t designed for impulsive expression – that’s called talking out of turn. Instead, it’s all about obeying group dynamics and exerting focused attention. Those are important life skills, of course, but decades of psychological research suggest that such skills have little to do with creativity.

Viruses harnessed to split water

Angela Belcher
A team of MIT researchers has found a novel way to mimic the process by which plants use the power of sunlight to split water and make chemical fuel to power their growth. In this case, the team used a modified virus as a kind of biological scaffold that can assemble the nanoscale components needed to split the hydrogen and oxygen atoms of a water molecule.
Splitting water is one way to solve the basic problem of solar energy: It’s only available when the sun shines. By using sunlight to make hydrogen from water, the hydrogen can then be stored and used at any time to generate electricity using a fuel cell, or to make liquid fuels (or be used directly) for cars and trucks.

Scientific Minds Want To Know

Scientific Minds Want To Know
Our planet has taken its share of hard knocks over the years – here's our rundown of chart-topping blasts from the past
Once more, a subtle mental trait thought to be uniquely human has been found in great apes
From the mysterious and unplumbed depths of the ocean, a National Geographic gallery of tiny sea critters inventoried in the recent Census of Marine Life. These otherworldly beasties are weird, wonderful and captivating.

Remind you of someone you know ...

http://imgsrv.gocomics.com/dim/?fh=907270aab8159f0bc5929d2e6dd1d64f

Winds blow volcanic ash back over Britain

Winds blow volcanic ash back over Britain

While planes gradually take to the skies in parts of Europe, U.K. travelers are hit with more bad news.
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World's rarest tree gets some help

The tree species known only as Pennantia baylisiana could be the rarest plant on Earth. In fact, the Guinness Book of World Records once called it that. Just a single tree exists in the wild, on one of the Three Kings Islands off the coast of New Zealand, where it has sat, alone, since 1945.

Mysterious volcano lightning captured

Mysterious volcano lightning captured

They look like special effects, but the scenes shown in the plume of Iceland's volcano are real.  
Also: 

Mideast's mysterious desert lines explained

Mideast's mysterious desert lines explained

The shapes were first spotted by pilots flying over the eastern Sinai in the early 20th century.  
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Mystery creature sightings create stir

Mystery creature sightings create stir

Reported discoveries of the Montauk Monster and a yeti were not what they seemed.  
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For Sale: Naming Rights to Newly Discovered Species

animal naming rights graphic
Once biologists started figuring out that their discoveries could get a lot of attention riding the coattails of a famous namesake, they began to get quite creative with taxonomy. As a result, there's a myriad of new species named after fictional characters, actors, musicians, and politicians--from the Calponia harrisonfordi ant and the Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi spider, to a species of orange-colored lichen named in honor of Barack Obama. But now, in hopes of raising funds to continue research, scientists in Indonesia have begun granting the rights to name newly discovered species to the highest bidder. So, while you may never rub shoulders with celebrities, a species bearing your name could run with a star-studded crowd--if you have the cash.
Article continues: For Sale: Naming Rights to Newly Discovered Species

Venus flytraps in the wild, and in danger

The most famous of carnivorous plants, the Venus flytrap, is surprisingly rare in the wild. The plant is only found on the 100-mile-long wet pine savannas on the edge of South and North Carolina. And apparently, there are only 150,000 of them out there. And according to James Luken, a botanist at Coastal Carolina University, that population is in danger from development and poaching, among other threats.

From Smithsonian:
 Wikipedia Commons A Af Vft Ne1 In and around North Carolina's Green Swamp, poachers uproot them from protected areas as well as private lands, where they can be harvested only with an owner's permission. The plants have such shallow roots that some poachers dig them up with butcher knives or spoons, often while wearing camouflage and kneepads (the plants grow in such convenient clumps that flytrappers, as they're called, barely have to move). Each pilfered plant sells for about 25 cents. The thieves usually live nearby, though occasionally there's an international connection: customs agents at Baltimore-Washington International Airport once intercepted a suitcase containing 9,000 poached flytraps bound for the Netherlands, where they presumably would have been propagated or sold. The smuggler, a Dutchman, carried paperwork claiming the plants were Christmas ferns... There have been some victories: last winter, the Nature Conservancy replanted hundreds of confiscated flytraps in North Carolina's Green Swamp Preserve, and the state typically nabs about a dozen flytrappers per year. ("It's one of the most satisfying cases you can make," says Matthew Long of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, who keeps a sharp eye out for hikers with dirty hands.) Gadd and others are pushing for stronger statewide protections that would require collection and propagation permits. Though North Carolina has designated the flytrap as a "species of special concern," the plant doesn't enjoy the federal protections given to species classified as threatened or endangered...
Recently, Luken and other scientists used a GPS device to check on wild flytrap populations that researchers had documented in the 1970s. "Instead of flytraps we'd find golf courses and parking lots," Luken says. "It was the most depressing thing I ever did in my life." Roughly 70 percent of the historic flytrap habitat is gone, they found.

CNBC's Porn Special Re-run Gets Bigger Young Audience Than Goldman Sachs Scandal Coverage

Looks like porn is still a big hit for CNBC.

TVNewser wrote that a re-run of "Porn: Business of Pleasure," the network's hour-long special report on the adult entertainment industry, was the most-watched hour in the 25-54 age demographic out of CNBC's entire programming lineup last Friday, the same day Goldman Sachs got sued by the federal government.

"Porn: Business of Pleasure," which premiered last July and is hosted by Melissa Lee, drew 178,000 viewers in the 25-54 age bracket when CNBC aired it at 10 p.m.

In terms of total viewers, "Business of Pleasure" wasn't the most-watched hour on CNBC on April 16. According to Nielsen's stats, it attracted 240,000, versus the second hour of "Squawk on the Street" (10-11 a.m., the time when the Goldman news broke), which had a total of 272,000, or "The Call" (11 a.m-12 p.m.) which had the most viewers: 336,000.

But still, it's a wildly popular show for CNBC (it feels like we stumble upon it at least twice a week while channel surfing!) and one that appears to be bringing in a younger audience.

Odds and Sods

Odds and Sods
In Cop News







The biweekly water aerobics class at a holiday park in northern Australia was postponed today when an unwanted guest entered the pool - a 5-foot-long crocodile.