Welcome to ...

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, May 20, 2011

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:
It's all about mind over matter today.
If you want a positive outcome to your latest endeavor, then you have to think positively!
For you right now, every dark cloud hides a glorious silver lining.
If you can hold onto the hope that's inside you, then nothing can bring you down.
An optimistic mind is one of the most powerful, motivating things in the universe.
Use yours to sway the powers that be to your way of thinking.

Some of our readers today have been in:
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Gloucester, England, United Kingdom
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Oldham, England, United Kingdom
Cork, Cork, Ireland
London, England, United Kingdom
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Annecy, Rhone-Alpes, France
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Geneva, Geneve, Switzerland
Gengenbach, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germang
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Inverness, Scotland, United Kingdom

as well as Slovakia, Malta, Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Maldives, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland

and in cities across the United States such as Redwood City, Jonesboro, Clayton, Chandler and more.

Today is:
Today is Friday, May 20, the 140th day of 2011.
There are 225 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:
Mike: The Headless Chicken Day
and
Rhubarb Day.
Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Random Celebrity Photo

Marilyn
Marilyn Monroe

Non Sequitur

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'Our problems are going to end'

Atheists pity believers awaiting May 21

As followers of lunatic broadcaster Harold Camping await the Rapture he predicts will happen Saturday evening, atheists are holding a 3-day convention in Washington.

American Atheists President David Silverman jokes, "Our problems are going to end because apparently all the christians are going to go away."

On a more serious note, Silverman says he pities believers who have quit their jobs, only to face disappointment and embarrassment when the sun comes up Sunday morning and they're still here.

Hundreds of christians who believe Camping's prediction met recently in Delaware, certain that they'll soon be taken up to be with Jesus.

Camping, who made a similar prediction in 1994, insists he's calculated correctly this time.http://d.yimg.com/a/p/umedia/20110520/largeimage.5b154861b39aab308e17d4004284e067.gif

Redneck Girls

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Take a good look because after tomorrow (according to a lunatic in California) she will most probably not be here due to the "Rapture".

Random Sign

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Just for the wingnuts out there.

More repugican chicanery

repugican legislative aide works on punitive voter ID bill, boasts of illegally voting in another district

A repugican legislative aide votes in her home district even though she lives in Madison full time.
She also forced her mother to sign a false affidavit claiming that she had been living back at home for two months.

This from a party that JUST TODAY passed a heinously restrictive voter ID bill, using (you guessed it) voter fraud as their excuse.
Petryk, Malszycki's boss, is one of several co-sponsors of the controversial voter ID bill that passed the Senate Thursday. In a post on Facebook the day of the 2010 general election, Malszycki said she had voted for repugican candidates Scott Walker, Ron Johnson, Dan Kapanke, Mike Huebsch and J.B. Van Hollen and planned to return to her South Side neighborhood the next day.
Former Dane County Sup. Patrick DePula challenged Malszycki's right to vote in Onalaska on her Facebook page then posted the exchange on his blog last month. A Madison man read the blog and filed a complaint.

How Wall Street avoided jail

One possibility is that the people behind the financial crisis were given a pass to help banks.  
Also: 

The truth be told

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Culinary DeLites

One theme park favorite racks up more than 1,000 calories and 59 grams of fat.  
Also: 

Shoe

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Better Homes and Bunkers


Are any of you old enough to recall the Cuban Missile  Crisis in 1962?  The world came close to a nuclear war and kids like me participated in nuclear attack drills in which we were instructed to hide under our desks at school. I still remember the sound of the air raid sirens. This was very scary stuff. Starting with the Cold War in the 1950s and the creation of the hydrogen bomb tens of thousands of Americans built fallout shelters to ensure survival after a nuclear attack.
In 1959, the government published and distributed millions of copies of a 32-page booklet called The Family Fallout Shelter. It included step-by-step instructions for building the Concrete Block Shelter, a cube constructed of concrete block and mortar.
Shelter mania continued until the early 1960s when people lost faith that a shelter could protect them from a nuclear holocaust.

Unabomber case shocker

Officials are investigating a possible link between Ted Kaczynski and the 1982 Tylenol poisonings.
Also: 

Woman arrested after talking for 16 hours on mobile phone on train

Passengers on a train complain that Lakeysha Beard talked for 16 hours in the designated quiet car.
Also: 
    Woman arrested after talking for 16 hours on mobile phone on train - and rightly so.
    A woman traveling on a train's quiet carriage refused for 16 hours to stop talking on her mobile phone. Lakeysha Beard was speaking loudly on her mobile phone on the journey between Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon.

    Passengers complained to train staff about Beard's talking, but the 39-year-old ignored requests for her to be quiet. Beard is then said to have been involved in a "verbal altercation", resulting in workers for train operator Amtrack calling police to come and remove her.

    The train was called to a halt at a crossing just outside Salem, Oregon, where police boarded to remove the talkative traveler. She has now been charged with disorderly conduct.

    Speaking after the incident Ms Beard said she felt "disrespected". She admitted to talking on her phone, but saw no reason why she should have been escorted from the train.

    Refs punished for pink whistles

    A decision by referees to show support for breast cancer research on the field costs them dearly.
    Also: 

    'Botox mom' recants story


    A mother's story that she injected her 8-year-old daughter with Botox is once again raising eyebrows after reports surfaced that she made the whole thing up for money.

    Can you name it ...

    zenlavie:

Ursula Andress…
    The cheesy 'western' that Ursula Andress appears in as a bikini wearing gunfighter …

    Surprising six-figure jobs

    You probably wouldn’t expect the staggering salaries in these eight fields.  
    Also: 

    Welcome to the Real World

    http://d.yimg.com/a/p/umedia/20110520/largeimage.86f25a767f0f62c574f06237d8e023eb.gif

    Women entering the workforce expect less than men

    Women have lower career expectations than men, anticipating smaller paychecks and longer waits for promotions, according to a new study involving a University of Guelph researcher.

    Small-business helpful hints

    Opportunity exists to start your own business and thrive, even in a weak economy.
    Also: 

    Techno-Geek Stuff

    A simple trick will save you from having to type "www." or ".com" in the address window ever again.
    Also: 

    Benjamin Franklin's Armonica

    In 1761, Benjamin Franklin (American author, scientist, diplomat and inventor) unveiled a new musical instrument the like of which few Americans had ever seen. The genesis of Franklin's invention took place several years earlier, during one of his visits to England.

    After seeing a performer play water-filled wine glasses with moistened fingers, Franklin rethought the instrument and invented a new version, consisting of 37 bowls mounted on an iron axis. Franklin dubbed the machine 'armonica.'

    Awesome Pictures

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    Paralyzed man defies the odds

    Doctors said Rob Summers would never stand again after a devastating car crash — but they were wrong.
    Also: 

    Healthy Living

    6 tips for battling loneliness

    Can Gut Bacteria Affect Mental Health?

    http://news.discovery.com/human/2011/05/20/stomach-278.jpg
    A gut feeling may help you make a quick decision, but the digestive system could influence behavior as well.  

    Discovery Of An Entirely New Branch Of Life

     

    In further proof that we never know just how much we don't know, a paper published in Nature suggests that biologists in the UK have discovered an entirely new and unique branch in the tree of life. A group of mysterious microscopic organisms related to fungus are actually so different that they make up their own kind of fungal group.

    Another way to say that: there are so many of these distinctly different kinds of organisms living in so many diverse places, that the biodiversity among this new group might be as vast as the entire known fungal kingdom. In fact, they might not actually be fungi at all.

    Astronomical News

    Milky Way Has Rare Symmetry
    Milky Way
    The galaxy is a rare beauty: One half of the Milky Way is essentially the mirror image of the other.  

    Dark Energy
    Dark Energy
    Albert Einstein was right: Dark energy is constant throughout the universe and causing it to expand.

    Mind Expanding Photos of The Universe


    The Hubble Space Telescope has brought us some truly amazing images of the universe. To appreciate these vast objects check out the gallery at the link.   Who knows what unimaginable mysteries they truly hold?
    The just-turned-21 Hubble Space Telescope has spent its entire life taking photographs of such enormous, otherworldly things that words stop working. And the events in its photographs happened so long ago, notions of time stop working too.

    Amazon tribe has no concept of time

    An Amazonian tribe has been discovered that has no concept of time or dates, scientists have said.

    Maghidet

    The Libyan Rock Forest
    This is Maghidet in the Fezzan desert (Sahara area) in Libya. Fantastic landscape, captured by Marina Savina. See more here.

    (image credit: Marina Savina)

    The Blue Dragon

    photo
    The Blue Dragon

    This photo was taken by Steve Richards on a flight from Cardiff, Wales to Faro, Portugal on June 6, 2010 in Corte Pequena, Faro, Portugal.

    Sea Shepherd to Defend Bluefin Tuna in Libyan Waters

    sea shepherd libya photo  
    Photo: guano / cc
    While the conflict in Libya continues to rage on, another battle for survival is taking place under the sea just offshore. Bluefin tuna were once an abundant species in the Mediterranean, but after decades of overfishing they are now classified as 'critically endangered'. In hopes of preserving one of the most rapidly dwindling fish, the activist group Sea Shepherd is heading to the war-torn region to fight for the survival of bluefin tuna.

    B.C.

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    One Quarter of European Animals at Risk of Extinction

    european bison iucn red list species photo
    The European bison is one of the continent's most vulnerable species. 
    Hunted in the first half of the 20th century and driven out of their habitat since then by rampant coastal development and overfishing in Greece and Turkey, the highly endangered Mediterranean monk seal is just one of hundreds of European animal species threatened with extinction, the European Union warned recently.

    Zebrafish Regrow Fins Using Multiple Cell Types

    What does it take to regenerate a limb?

    Biologists have long thought that organ regeneration in animals like zebrafish and salamanders involved stem cells that can generate any tissue in [...]

    Tarantulas Shoot Out Silk Like Spiderman

    Tarantula
    A fall can be fatal for these spiders, but they have a sticky trick to make sure they land safely.    

    Animal News

    Animals at Risk
    turtle
    In honor of Endangered Species Day, we present photos of 10 animals at risk, from the collections of ARKive.  

    Dolphin, Whale Blubber Harbors Chemicals
    Dolphin
    Since we tend to eat the same fish as these marine predators, this is bad news for humans, too.  

    Animal Pictures

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