The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
In one of your newer relationships, things are well on their way toward gaining real momentum.
This is a partnership built on mutual respect and a shared sense of what is right.
Finding a person who brings out the best in you no matter what mood you're in is rare -- this is a person you can rely on, a person you should rely on.
You are starting to align yourself with the people who deserve you.
Let others from your past stay there.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Dusseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Muscat, Masqat, Oman
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Milan, Lombardia, Italy
Ankara, Ankara, Turkey
Geneva, Geneve, Switzerland
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Madrid, Madrid, Spain

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 Ithaca, Sparta, Athens, Syracuse and more.

Today is:

Today is Sunday, May 29, the 149th day of 2011.

There are 216 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebrations is:

There isn't one today.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

The meaning of Memorial Day

The meaning of Memorial Day

The tradition of gracing headstones with American flags grew from the holiday's origin. 

Differs from Veterans Day 

Also: 

• Ways to honor military
• Memorial Day photos
• Army's recruiting slogans

Culinary DeLites

10 keys to making the perfect burger

A grill master shares the secrets of preparing the All-American classic at home.  

Choosing the right cheese 

Also: 

• More burger recipes
• Backyard barbecue tips
• Essential grilling tools

Pointers for Avoiding Food Poisoning During Grilling Season

With Memorial Day weekend bringing summer grilling season into full swing, the American Dietetic Association and ConAgra Foods' Home Food Safety program have released some pointers to avoid food poisoning.

Full Story

How eating broiled or baked fish improves heart health?

It has been common knowledge for quite some time that eating fish is healthy for you, especially for your heart. A new study, published in the May 24 edition of the AHA journal Circulation: Heart Failure, has revealed that there is much more to this however, since it reveals that how you prepare the fish can change the way it affects your health.

Full Story

Snack Food Fails: 

Weird Food Names Around the World

Milk was sold in bags, eggs weren't refrigerated, the cheese looked like butter, there were weird spiky fruits I'd never seen, and everything else was in a language I barely understood.

 Full Story

Tornado!

Free Bird

Lynyrd Skynyrd playing live on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test in 1975.

Why the Democratic Party Has Abandoned the Middle Class in Favor of the Rich

American politicians don't care much about voters with moderate incomes.

Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels studied the voting behavior of US senators in the early '90s and discovered that they respond far more to the desires of high-income groups than to anyone else.

By itself, that's not a surprise.

He also found that repugicans do not respond at all to the desires of voters with modest incomes.

Maybe that's not a surprise, either.

Full Story

Non Sequitur

High School Students Take on Bachmann and Creationists

MSNBC featured two very bright high school students on Hardball and then on Lawrence O'Donnell's Last Word and seeing these kids stand up to the history revisionists like Michele Bachmann or these people trying to push creationism into our school kids as science gives me some hope for our future.

Full Story

Another take on this:

Bachmann Called out on Hardball by 17 Year Old Kid for Lying about Nobel Laureates Supporting Creationism

And I Quote

"While our soldiers are overseas fighting for our freedoms, Republicans are safely at home, fighting to take them away." 

~ Jon Stewart

The repugican Job Creators Myth

On Thursday, John Boehner and the House repugican leadership team unveiled their " Plan for America's Job Creators ."

As he repeatedly made clear before the Economic Club of New York and again on CBS Face the Nation , Boehner's "job creators" are the top two percent of income earners whose shrub tax cuts President Obama has proposed ending.

Full Story

repugicans - they can't help lying it's inbred in them.

Why the wingnut's Approach to Reading the Constitution Is Destroying This Country

That idea that judges should interpret the Constitution by discovering the original intent or meaning of the text ignores the history of this country's founding.

Full Story

repugican Medicare debacle proves Americans 'love socialized medicine after all'

Dems didn't "cut" Medicare, they scaled back the "unnecessary giveaway to insurance companies"

~ Steve Benen comments on the "the Democrats are the real Medicare killers" new lying strategy from repugicans.

Full Story

In one state now, it is official: health care is "a right and not a privilege."

Vermont has broken through the barrier set up by those opposed to cost-efficient, single-payer systems and, now, has a law that commits the state to providing health care to all its residents.

A Slice of Philosophy

Mongo speaks ...

Stress may increase risk for Alzheimer’s disease

Stress promotes neuropathological changes that are also seen in Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich have discovered that the increased release of stress hormones [...]

Stress may increase risk for Alzheimer’s disease

Fishing therapy

Fishing is being used as a form of therapy at two Scottish hospitals, health bosses said.

Fishing therapy used by hospitals

Things could be worse

Investigation into Farm Labor Shortage

From the "Duh!" Department:

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has asked agriculture officials to assess complaints of farm labor shortages after he signed one of the toughest laws in the country targeting illegal immigrants, including those who help harvest the state's fruit and vegetable crops.

Full Story

The truth be told

On The Job

Prepare for a new career in your spare time

You can earn one of these four popular online degrees without quitting your day job.  

Possible fields to use them 

Also: 

• Pursue a health career
• Is an MBA for you?
• Great entry-level jobs

Ten Shopping Tricks That Stores Hate

Stores are always trying to get you to do what they want. But what if you refuse? What if you do what benefits you and not the store? Aside from outright fraud, what are the things that you can do to come out ahead?
The Consumerist has put together 10 tips that will help you save money, but probably won't help the store. That's why they hate them. And you.

Money Mistakes and Billionaire Abodes

Money mistakes you'll want to avoid

Five people share the lessons they learned from their biggest financial gaffes. 

Dangers of trusting a pro 

Also: 

• Car-buying blunders
• Home sellers' goofs
• Choosing rewards cards

Cities that boast the most billionaires

With just 59 tycoons, New York loses its top spot to a new urban epicenter of luxury.

$375.3 billion in total wealth 

Also: 

• Largest waterfront homes
• Swanky bachelor pads
• Athletes' lavish homes

When to be a nosy neighbor

How being a nosy neighbor can pay off

Attending local open-house events for ideas can help you boost your property value.  

What to look for when you go 

Also: 

• Resale prices on the rise
• Homebuyers' wish list
• Home-listing red flags

Things They Won't Tell You

What fast food restaurants won't tell you

While healthier items are now offered alongside traditional fare, they can be pricey.  

Other little-known facts 

Also: 

• Good diets start at home
• Junk food: A way to fit in?
• Americans cooking less

Ziggy

Slain 'Grandma Bandit' turns out to have been a man

An elderly-looking gun-toting robber nicknamed “Grandma Bandit,” blamed for a string of heists of several Atlanta-area drugstores, was actually a man. The revelation was made by police on Friday evening, hours after the suspect was fatally shot after a police chase.

“Positive identification has been made on the person involved in today’s incident on North Druid Hills. After further investigation detectives have determined the person believed to be a female suspect in fact is a male,” DeKalb County police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said. “His name is Roxanne Taylor, a 57-year-old man.”

Taylor was shot multiple times after leading police on a chase. Taylor had been pointed out by someone who noticed that he matched the description of the "Grandma Bandit." Parish said officers opened fire on the vehicle after hearing a gunshot. It was unclear if Taylor killed himself or died from police gunfire.

Filmed before 'Grandma Bandit' was revealed to be a man.

LiveLeak link.

The "Grandma Bandit" was wanted in at least four robberies of Atlanta-area drugstores in the past two weeks. The most recent hold-up was at a Rite Aid on Tuesday. Taylor had been having financial problems. The company that owned the building where he lived began the process of evicting him, saying in court papers he owed $2,133.

Boy mauled to death by dog in his NYC home

A 4-year-old boy playing with his young brothers in a bedroom was fatally mauled by a family dog that had been feared by neighbors, police said.

Full Story

Two deaths linked to cucumbers

Two more people have died in Germany of a bacterial outbreak allegedly caused by contaminated Spanish cucumbers - bringing the number of deaths to nine.

Full Story

Sunrise

Egypt opens Gaza border

Egypt permanently opens Gaza border

Palestinians celebrate the end of a four-year blockade that cut them off from the rest of the world. 

Israel concerned 

Also: 

• More on the Gaza Strip
• Mubarak fined $91 million
• Arab chief backs UN plan

One of them things

Cultured Vikings

 

This Norse Goddess wants you to know there’s “new evidence that the Vikings were more cultured settlers who offered a ‘good historical model’ of immigrant assimilation.”

What The Vikings Ate

The Vikings were members of the Scandinavian seafaring warriors who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 9th to the 11th century. Overpopulation at home, ease of conquest abroad, and their extraordinary capacity as shipbuilders and sailors inspired their adventures.

The Vikings enjoyed a healthy diet, with lots of protein. Archaeological evidence shows that the Viking settlers in England ate a wide variety of fruits, nuts, and grains; as well as meat, fish, and shellfish. The Vikings ate two main meals a day, one of which usually consisted of some kind of meal or porridge.

Bronze-Age Battle Frozen in Time

A 3,200-year-old battlefield, which may hold the first-ever large-scale battle, occurred at an important crossroads region during the Bronze Age.  

Read more 

The Skull Tower

 

In 1809, the Ottoman Empire wanted to warn the Serbian people not to attempt any more foolish rebellion*, so it created this macabre monument:

Serbian forces dug new trenches under the local command of the Duke, Stevan Sindjelic. Since there was such a great defensive strategy
between the Serbian leaders, Sinjelic found himself unprepared. He realized the situation was hopeless, so he blew up the ammunition store with his own pistol.
Afterwards, Turkish commander, Hurshid Pasha, ordered the decapitation of all the Serbian bodies, even erecting a monument using the heads as building material. The tower itself was 10 feet high, contained 952 skulls, and was topped with the head of Sindjalic himself.
During the later part of the 19th century, the skulls were removed, both as macabre souvenirs of battle and proper burials. In 1892, there were only 50 left on the tower and a chapel was built over top to preserve what little remained.

Full Story | More at Atlas Obscura and Wikipedia

*note: the warning didn’t exactly work. A few years later in 1815, Serbia rebelled again and that time, achieved semi- and then full-independence.

Source of Hawaii Volcanism Found

Plume from mantle wasn't where it was expected.

Read More

A Look at Formerly Top Secret Aircraft

During the Cold War, the US military developed top secret aircraft at the Air Force facilities at Groom Lake, also known as Area 51. Decades after the projects were finished, these designs remained classified. Although these planes were “technology demonstrators” and were never put into service, they were crucial for testing systems and technologies that are part of modern military and civilian aircraft alike.

Read the stories and see photographs of three of these projects (one of which only exists in photographs, as the planes are still missing) at UrbanGhosts.

A trip up the Cairngorm funicular railway in Scotland

A funicular railway is a type of railway used on steep grades, such as on a mountainside. Two counterbalanced cars or trains are linked by a cable, and when one moves down, the other moves up.

Sweden Plans To Build Giant Wooden Moose

Sweden is planning to build a tourist facility in the shape of a large moose on top of Vithatten Mountain which borders on the county Norrbotten. The facility - called Stoorn - is set to become a centre for commercial tourism and adventure activities, with a focus on forest and wildlife.

Stoorn will be home to a restaurant, exhibition venues, a concert hall and modern conference facilities. The moose will have a height of 45 meters (almost 148 feet).

Awesome Pictures

Upping the cute factor

Two foxes and a trampoline.

Stinging Caterpillars Of The United States

 

image credit

Caterpillars - the shapes and sizes that they come in and for many the urge to touch, pick up and hold is almost irresistible. Yet although most butterfly and moth larvae are quite harmless, preferring to curl up in a ball when threatened, some will make it quite plain that they do not like to be touched. They will sting: here is a selection of the stinging caterpillars of the United States.

Safari park visitors warned after meerkats develop fetish for human feet

Warning signs have been put up at a new attraction where meerkats mingle with visitors after the little creatures developed a fetish for human feet.

The small mammals have taken a liking to painted toenails and colorful sandals and jump all over them given the chance.

YouTube link.

Staff at the new Jungle Kingdom enclosure at Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire, have had to put up signs to warn female guests.

The new enclosure is the first place in Britain where people can interact directly with meerkats.

Rare Sight Of Ancient Shark

A shark with the ugly proportions of the pre-historic era has surfaced near Japan offering a rare view of this denizen of the deep.

The 'Frilled Shark' is hardly ever seen because its habitat is 600 meters or more below the ocean surface.

*Note: this is an older story but an interesting one nonetheless.

Animal Pictures