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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.


Friday, December 3, 2010

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:
Your quick thinking and keen eye are sharper than ever -- use all your skills to keep someone else from making a very big mistake.
They might not appreciate your efforts right away, but in a few days they'll be singing your praises and thanking you for stepping in when you did.
It's just another example that when you know you're right, you're right!
You'll get a glimpse of the future you thought you wanted -- turns out, you're glad to be taking a different path.

Some of our readers today have been in:
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Izmir, Izmir, Turkey
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Seoul, Kyonggi-Do, Korea
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Reutlingen, Baden, Wurttemburg, Germany
Perpignan, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
Prague, Hlavni Mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Delhi, Delhi, India
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Sittard, Limburg, Netherlands
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Perth, Western, Australia, Australia
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

as well as Serbia, Bangladesh, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Singapore, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Finland, Korea, Netherlands,  Argentina, Vietnam, Egypt, Russia, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Belgium, Brazil and in cities across the United States such as Kaysville, Durham, Oklahoma City, Salem and more.

Today is:
Today is Friday, December 3, the 337th day of 2010.
There are 28 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:
There isn't one.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

The brainiest U.S. cities

In a test of smarts, college towns get high marks, with one Western spot at the top.  
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Non Sequitur

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Culinary DeLites

Sweet potatoes are one of the healthiest foods in a season of calorie bombs. 
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Yes and No

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U.S. troops' Taliban reality

In one deadly Afghan city, Americans bargain with the same insurgents they're trying to defeat.  
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Attack leaves ghost town

Charred homes and empty streets are all that remain on tiny Yeonpyeong after North Korea's attack.  
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Shoe

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On The Job

American workers who go without a job for many months are learning some very painful lessons.  
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Economy hopes rattled by news

A surprising setback in unemployment numbers adds to jitters about the wobbly economy.  
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Make more over the holidays

Earn extra cash by filling in for people on vacation and working at seasonal parties.  
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How to avoid a tax penalty

Take one easy action in December, and you could owe less to the IRS in April.  
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Money-saving mortgage tips

By making an extra payment each year, you can save thousands of dollars.  
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Ten money-saving products

A water filter costs as little as $60 per year, versus $504 a year for bottled.  
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Ziggy

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Best places to go in 2011

Doha, Qatar, has beautiful beaches and hosts a prestigious film festival.  
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Luxury camp-like family retreat

Kate Ditzler and Stuart Gasner spent millions to create the perfect getaway. 
Also: 

Believe it or not

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World gets new hottest pepper

A new breed that's 270 times hotter than a jalapeno blows away the notorious "ghost chili."  
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Wizard of Id

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Scientific Minds Want To Know

Absolute zero sounds like an unbreachable limit, but there is a weird realm of negative temperatures that could reveal new states of matter.

Chimps display morality

Primates display a startling ability to share — and care, one biologist claims.  
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Archaeology News

Archaeologists on Orkney are investigating what is thought to be a 5,000-year-old tomb complex.

Lakebed discovered under sand
An ancient lake bed 350 kilometers long has been discovered beneath the sands of the Egyptian Sahara desert.

Coca leaves first chewed 8,000 years ago

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50223000/jpg/_50223707_tv006825453bbccoca.jpgPeruvian foraging societies were already chewing coca leaves 8,000 years ago, archaeological evidence has shown.

B.C.

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Upping the cute factor


Even Dog people like this.

Great white's weakness revealed

Great white shark (Image: Doug Perrine/ naturepl.com)
Adolescent great white sharks' jaws are not strong enough to bite through large prey.

Dog found alive in tornado-leveled house

After spending all night in its owner’s home, a dog was safely rescued on Wednesday morning from a home in the Buford neighborhood that was badly-damaged by a tornado on Tuesday. Cameras captured the special moment when Kirin, an American Eskimo, was reunited with his owners. Kirin was found alive and well at the Bancroft Way home where his owners, Matthew and Reasey Lee, live in the Kirkstone subdivision. The Gwinnett County neighborhood was hit hard Tuesday when severe weather rolled through the area, and spawned a tornado.on

Matthew Lee said that authorities searched his home on Tuesday night, but they told him they didn’t find Kirin inside. So, he and his wife decided to return on Wednesday morning to have another look. Video captured on Wednesday morning showed the happy reunion. Gwinnett County workers helped the couple search through what was left of their bedroom.


“Early this morning, we went to what was left of the bedroom, and heard him start whimpering,” Matthew explained. “And those nice gentlemen helped me, I guess, lift the wall, and out he came.” Kirin, who is about 8 years old according to the Lees, appeared to be very happy to see his owners, and the feeling was clearly mutual. “A house is a house,” said Matthew Lee. “Kirin can’t be replaced,” his wife added.

A total of 56 homes were damaged by Tuesday’s twister, and residents were forced to seek shelter elsewhere. Matthew Lee said their house appeared to have been damaged worse than any other home in the neighborhood. Still somehow, the Lees were nothing but grateful on Wednesday morning. “It’s a blessing that I have my husband and I have my dog,” Reasey said, who was clearly emotional upon seeing her dog again. “We’re all still here. Everything else can be taken care of.”

Blind mare led everywhere by one-eyed horse

They say you can lead a horse to water … but this blind mare is being led everywhere by a one-eyed companion who has become her protector. Angel, a 12-year-old rescue horse, has formed a remarkable bond with Tarna, who shadows her everywhere and gently guides her away from danger. The pair have become inseparable since meeting at The Horse Trust animal sanctuary in Buckinghamshire.

Angel is fully reliant on Tarna because she lost her sight when she was starved to within an inch of her life at Spindles Farm, Bucks. The case sparked the largest ever RSPCA equine welfare operation and led farmer James Gray, 47, to be fined £600,000 and banned from keeping horses for life. Angel is now shadowed every second of the day by Tarna, 28, who herself has only one eye after she was impaled on a metal spike.


Susan Lewis, marketing manager at The Horse Trust, the world’s oldest horse sanctuary, described the unlikely friendship as ”remarkable”. She said: ”How Tarna knows Angel is blind we’ll never know. She literally shadows Angel everywhere and they go. Between the two of them they have just the one eye – it’s incredible. Maybe Tarna, because she has one eye, realized Angel was blind. We don’t know. Wherever they go Tarna is there with her good left eye looking out for both of them.

”The two have developed a firm friendship and are now inseparable – Tarna will dig her feet in or cry out if a groom tries to separate the two. Tarna is very protective of blind Angel, leading her to food, defending her from other horses and acting as a physical shield from obstacles. Once when we separated them so Angel could have her sight tested Tarna was pawing at the door and they were crying out to each other. It was quite distressing. It’s incredible to think where they’ve both come from and now, together, there is no reason why they can’t live a happy life.”

Panda dung Venus de Milo sells for £30,000

A 24-inch high replica of the Venus de Milo, sculpted from giant panda dung, has sold for £30,000 to a prominent Swiss art collector. Zhu Cheng, a Chinese sculptor, created the statue with the help of nine 11 year-old art students in the central Chinese city of Chengdu, the home of a giant panda breeding center.

It has already been purchased by Uli Sigg, a Swiss businessman who owns the world's largest collection of contemporary Chinese art, for 300,000 yuan (£30,000). Mr Sigg, who was formerly the Swiss ambassador to China, said that he thought the statue was "full of creativity and innovation".


"We made the statue in October," said Mr Zhu. "We took a clay mold of the statue and then pasted panda dung onto it using vegetable glue," he added. "I have been thinking about using panda dung in my work for years. After all, pandas are China's national treasure, so anything relating to them is interesting.

"It was quite hard to get hold of the dung, however. The first time I applied they declined, and I had to write a letter explaining what I was going to do with it." The statue is currently on display at a charity exhibition at the Zhengzhou Art Museum in Henan province, where it has drawn large crowds.