The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:

The written word holds a lot of power for you today, especially if you put your creative writing talents to work! 

So if you can take a little more time with every email you send, that will yield impressive results. 

Think about what the recipient cares about most, and put that in the subject line -- that way, you'll rise above all the competition in their inbox and get read first! 

Keep it short, and they're more likely to get back to you as soon as possible to find out more!

Some of our readers today have been in:

Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Albury, New South Wales, Australia
Kiev, Kyyiv, Ukraine
London, England, United Kingdom
London, Ontario, Canada
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom
Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Newbury, England, United Kingdom
As, Akershus, Norway
Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Crawley, England, United Kingdom
Dusseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

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 Dodge City, Osage City, Overland Park, Leavenworth and more.

Today is:

Today is Tuesday, August 16, the 228th day of 2011.

There are 137 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

There isn't one.

  

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Best places to live in U.S.

The best places to live in America

These towns are tops for safety, jobs, schools, and fun, according to Money's new ranking.  

What's No. 1 this year? 

Also: 

• Values for home buyers
• Where to retire abroad
• Local housing prices

Is The Internet Killing "Big Ideas?"

Is information overload via the internet and social media killing our thirst for new “big ideas?” Some say we no longer have great thinkers like Freud and Einstein since we are all so distracted by the hoard of information at our fingertips that is less qualitative and more quantitative. I was struck by the grand profunditiy of this idea, but then remembered I had a few more posts to do. Do you think the web is a distraction from thinking about big ideas?

It is certainly no accident that the post-idea world has sprung up alongside the social networking world. Even though there are sites and blogs dedicated to ideas, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, etc., the most popular sites on the Web, are basically information exchanges, designed to feed the insatiable information hunger, though this is hardly the kind of information that generates ideas. It is largely useless except insofar as it makes the possessor of the information feel, well, informed. Of course, one could argue that these sites are no different than conversation was for previous generations, and that conversation seldom generated big ideas either, and one would be right.

Full Story

Non Sequitur

The truth comes out

Hackers protest blocked phones

Anonymous group attacks BART site

California transit officials prepare for chaotic protests after hackers post thousands of people's information.  

Phones blocked 

Also: 

• How tech shaped riots
• Android can be hacked
• Verizon strike continues

Buffett: Stop coddling the rich

Buffett: Stop coddling the super-rich

The "Oracle of Omaha" urges Congress to raise taxes on people like him to help cut the deficit.  

 Will it hurt investment? 

Also: 

• More on Warren Buffett
• View of S&P. downgrade
• Buying in down market

***

Shared sacrifice is only being shared by the middle class and poor, thanks to the political class.

NY Times:

OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.

These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.

Mimi and Eunice

NAACP vows to fight new Congressional districts

North Carolina's NAACP chapter says it will fight the General Assembly's plan to redraw legislative and congressional boundaries in court and within the Obama administration .

Full Story

Reasons ...

6 reasons the tea party is more dangerous than McCarthyism.

Corporate Fantasyland

In actuality it is exactly opposite of what he said - but management lives in fantasyland.

Degrees with solid potential

Five degrees that have solid potential

These college majors are linked to strong average earnings, a study notes. 

Specialties in business and computers 

Also: 

• Hot business careers
• Fields for a fresh start
• Back-to-school savings

Reality is ...

A Quick One

What does it mean when the flag at the Post Office is flying at half mast?

They’re hiring.

Odds and Sods

The world's largest stove, a Michigan landmark, has been destroyed by fire. The 15-ton stove, first displayed at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, was lost to a fire sparked by lightning on Saturday.

World's Largest Stove Destroyed - By Fire

'Healthy' habits that aren't

Nine supposedly 'healthy' habits

Hand sanitizer, bottled water, even your toothbrush could actually cause you harm.

  Cardio and fat burning 

Also: 

• Stay young naturally
• Low carb or low fat?
• Truth of 'healthy' menus

Highly fattening fast-food drinks

Incredibly fattening fast-food beverages

One Wendy's Caramel Frosty Shake has more calories than three Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers.

Other drinks to skip 

Also: 

• 11 healthy food swaps
• Weight-loss surgery study
• Definition of obesity

Did you know ...

… lemons
contain more
sugar than
strawberries.

And I Quote

OK, that is different

Butch Cassidy text stirs debate

Experts' startling Butch Cassidy theory

A book may prove the legendary outlaw survived the famous shootout and lived out his life in the U.S.

'Horse pucky' 

Also: 

• Tracing the Bible's origin
• One of every book written
• Shocking Mick Jagger bio

Ain't it the truth ...

Diapers and Chocolate

$1.4M In Cocaine Smuggled In Diaper Boxes

Drug agents have arrested a Beloit couple they say was transporting $1.4 million worth of cocaine in large diaper boxes.

Full Story

Drug dealer told police he was chocolate salesman

Labib Arshid who has been jailed for 40 months for possession of cocaine with intent to supply 

A shopkeeper and cocaine dealer who tried to convince police he was a chocolate salesman has been jailed for 40 months.

Full Story

Man Arrested for Drunk Driving on a Motorized Beer Cooler

A man in Noosa, Australia was arrested for driving down a road on a motorized beer cooler while intoxicated. The defendant:

[...] faces charges of driving under the influence and driving without a license after police caught him on the makeshift vehicle, which was powered by a 50cc engine.

The defendant’s lawyers are currently challenging the notion that the cooler constitutes a vehicle.

Full Story

The Spaghetti Western Orchestra

Ennio Morricone, composer of music for A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, amongst others, is probably either smiling or tearing what remains of his hair when he hears about the Spaghetti Western Orchestra.
The group of 5 musicians specialize in playing Spaghetti Western music scores using some unconventional musical instruments, including "asthma inhalers, rubber bands, tree branches, rubber gloves and even a box of cornflakes."

Hit play or go here.

Once-in-a-lifetime snow event in New Zealand

Residents of New Zealand's capital city Wellington are taking delight in the unusual sight of snowflakes falling in what forecasters are describing as a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Full Story

This is what a falling star looks like … from space!

This photograph of a meteor burning up in our atmosphere was taken by astronaut Ron Garan from the International Space Station. Dr. Phil Plait brings us the picture and a little math to explain how many more meteors you could see from the ISS than from the planet’s surface, which leads to the question of meteors hitting the ISS. What are the odds? Find out at Bad Astronomy Blog.

Ziggy

Twelve Romantic Tree Tunnels

It’s not easy getting trees to build a tunnel -they have to grow that way! But after many years, you end up with something spectacular. Check out a list of lovely tree tunnels from around the world, blossoming, growing, dormant, and even photographed in glorious autumn color. This photo shows a tunnel in Portugal.

Full Story

The Baatara Gorge

Near Tannourine, Lebanon, you can find a beautiful underground waterfall that plunges down 837 feet. Three natural bridges stretch across the gorge of Jurassic limestone. Kuriositas has more photos at the link of this amazing natural wonder.

Full Story

Lightning capital of the world

Spark returns to world's lightning capital

After mysteriously disappearing, a town's nightly "river of fire" light show is back.

Enough bolts to light a small city 

Also: 

• What causes lightning
• More images of strikes
• Earth's tallest lightning

Raging Storms and Rising Seas Swelling the Ranks of Climate Refugees

Photo credit: paul (dex)/Creative Commons

In late August 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approached the U.S. Gulf Coast, more than 1 million people were evacuated from New Orleans and the small towns and rural communities along the coast. Once the storm passed, it was assumed that the million or so Katrina evacuees would, as in past cases, return to repair and rebuild their homes. Some 700,000 did return, but close to 300,000 did not. They are no longer evacuees. They are the first large wave of modern climate refugees.

Article continues: Raging Storms and Rising Seas Swelling the Ranks of Climate Refugees

Romeo and Juliet

Together in eternity.

Woman finds set of fossilized woolly mammoth teeth in late husband's garden shed

Kathie Read made an unusual find among the flower pots and cobwebs as she cleaned out her garden shed – a box of fossilized mammoth teeth. Mrs Read, from Broome, near Bungay, Norfolk, was tidying up when she came across a wooden box belonging to her late husband, John. Mrs Read, from Broome, near Bungay, was tidying up when she came across a wooden box belonging to her late husband, John.

Inside she found what she thought were bones, but on closer inspection they appeared to be huge teeth. Mr Read, who died in 2008, aged 82, had never spoken in detail to his wife about the find, only once making a vague passing reference to it. The newspaper the teeth were wrapped in was dated November 16, 1950, eight years before the couple married.

Keen to get to the root of the puzzle, Mrs Read contacted his friend, Vic Cossey, who came and had a look. Mr Cossey took the teeth to David Waterhouse, curator of natural history at Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service, who examined them and said they were molars from the lower jaw of an adult woolly mammoth.

It is thought Mr Read found
the teeth when gravel was being extracted to construct local airfields at Flixton and Seething during the war years. Mrs Read, 75, said the family was delighted to learn more about the find. “I don’t expect he knew what they were,” she said. “He liked books, but he wasn’t a reader as such. If he found anything he would bring it home. He was a collector of anything. John would have been really pleased. It is just a shame he is not here to know.”

B.C.

Riders can't handle bull

Bull may be once-in-a-lifetime champ

A young 1,600-pound beast named Bushwacker is proving to be more than his riders can handle. 

  Watch 

Also: 

• How to ride a bull
• Horse racing in trouble
• Running of the bulls

Upping the cute factor

The Spirit Bear

 

image credit

The Kermode bear (Ursus americanus kermodei) is a subspecies of the American Black Bear living in the central and north coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is noted for about 1/10 of their population having white or cream-coloured coats. This colour morph is due to a recessive allele common in the population.

Because of their special color and rarity, the Kermode bear is referred to as the spirit bear or ghost bear by the Canadian First Nations and American Indians of the area. According to legend, the spirit bear is a reminder of times past, specifically the white color of ice and snow. The master of the universe created one white bear for every ten black bears as a reminder of the hardships during the ice age. During this period glaciers and cold blanketed the planet. The spirit bear also symbolizes peace and harmony.

Desperate Hunt for a Runaway Cow Resorts to an Animal Psychic and a €10,000 Reward

Photo: Bala under a Creative Commons license.

In late May, a cow named Yvonne decided not to be eaten, and broke through an electric fence to escape from the farm in Bavaria where she was being fattened for slaughter. Since then, she has been on the run.
After she jumped onto a road in front of a police cruiser, Yvonne was deemed a traffic hazard by local officials, who authorized her shooting. Activists decided to come to her aid, and hoped to find Yvonne before she was killed . But no one has been able to catch her, and as her time on the run approaches three months, the search for what is now a celebrity cow has gotten somewhat out of hand.

Article continues: Desperate Hunt for a Runaway Cow Resorts to an Animal Psychic and a €10,000 Reward

Animal Pictures