The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Don't forget to laugh ...! 

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 192 countries around the world daily.

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Today is Bad Poetry Day

as well as Serendipity Day

and Daffodil Day   
 

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Today in History

Today in History

1587		In the Roanoke Island colony, Ellinor and Ananias Dare become parents of a baby girl whom they name Virginia, the first English child born in what would become the United States.
1590		John White, the leader of 117 colonists sent in 1587 to Roanoke Island (North Carolina) to establish a colony, returns from a trip to England to find the settlement deserted. No trace of the settlers is ever found.
1698		After invading Denmark and capturing Sweden, Charles XII of Sweden forces Frederick IV of Denmark to sign the Peace of Travendal.
1759		The French fleet is destroyed by the British under "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen at the battle of Lagos Bay.
1782		Poet and artist William Blake marries Catherine Sophia Boucher.
1862		Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart's headquarters is raided by Union troops of the 5th New York and 1st Michigan cavalries.
1864		Union General William T. Sherman sends General Judson Kilpatrick to raid Confederate lines of communication outside Atlanta. The raid is unsuccessful.
1870		Prussian forces defeat the French at the Battle of Gravelotte during the Franco-Prussian War.
1898		Adolph Ochs takes over the New York Times, saying his aim is to give "the news, all the news, in concise and attractive form, in language that is permissible in good society, and give it early, if not earlier, than it can be learned through any other medium."
1914		Germany declares war on Russia while President Woodrow Wilson issues his Proclamation of Neutrality.
1920		Tennessee becomes the thirty-sixth state to ratify the nineteenth amendment granting women's sufferage, completing the three-quarters necessary to put the amendment into effect.
1929		The first cross-country women's air derby begins. Louise McPhetride Thaden wins first prize in the heavier-plane division, while Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie finishes first in the lighter-plane category.
1939		The film The Wizard of Oz opens in New York City.
1942		Japan sends a crack army to Guadalcanal to repulse the U.S. Marines fighting there.
1943		The Royal Air Force Bomber Command completes the first major strike against the German missile development facility at Peenemunde.
1963		James Meredith, the first African American to attend University of Mississippi, graduates.
1965		Operation Starlite marks the beginning of major U.S. ground combat operations in Vietnam.
1966		Australian troops repulse a Viet Cong attack at Long Tan.
1969		Two concert goers die at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, one from an overdose of heroin, the other from a burst appendix.
1973		Hank Aaron makes his 1,378 extra-base hit, surpassing Stan Musial's record.
1974		Luna 24, the USSR's final major lunar exploration mission, soft-lands on moon.
1979		Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini demands a "Saint War" against Kurds.
1982		Pete Rose sets record with his 13,941st plate appearance.
1987		Ohio nurse Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life terms for poisoning 24 patients.
1988		Republican Convention in New Orleans nominate the George H.W. Bush-Dan Quayle ticket.
1991		A group of hard-line communist leaders unhappy with the drift toward the collapse of the Soviet Union seize control of the government in Moscow and place President Mikhail S. Gorbachev under house arrest
1993		Historic Kapelbrug (chapel bridge) in Luzern, Switzerland, burns, destroying 147 of its decorative paintings. It was built in 1365.
1992		Dennis Rader, the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) killer receives 10 consecutive life sentences. He had terrorized Wichita, Kansas, murdering 10 people between 1974 and 1991.
2010		Edelmiro Cavazos, mayor of Santiago, Nuevo Leon, is found handcuffed, blindfolded and dead following his abduction three days earlier. He had championed crackdowns on organized crime and police corruption.
2011		Gold hits a record price of $1,826 per ounce.

Non Sequitur

Daily Comic Relief

The 'Joke's on you' Edition

CIA acknowledges Area 51 in newly declassified documents

Did You Know ...

The CIA acknowledges the existence of Area 51 in newly declassified documents obtained by George Washington University's National Security Archive through a public records request, the results of which were released Thursday.

Yeah, but the still won't tell us anything about the little green men, excuse me, little gray men, ahem, aliens they have running around out there!

Or anything about alien spacecraft they have been studying out there, either!

Did you know ...

Did You Know ...

The real reason the repugican cabal hates Affordable Healthcare

The the first gay divorce has been finalized in Colorado

Is Sweden the most gay-friendly country?

There is an epidemic of bad dental hygiene in nursing homes

Rick Perry Under Investigation For Abuse Of Office

Lunatic Fringe 

From the "It's about Bloody time" 

and the "It couldn't be happening to a 'nicer', guy" Departments:

A Texas judge says he plans to have a special prosecutor review allegations that Governor Rick Perry abused the powers of his office and broke the law over a veto that cut funding for state public corruption investigators.
Judge Robert Richardson told a newspaper in the state’s capitol that he expects to name a special prosecutor as early as next week to look at the complaint filed by a watchdog group, Texans for Public Justice.
Perry’s office on Thursday denied wrongdoing.
The complaint stems from the April drunken-driving arrest of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, whose office houses the Public Integrity Unit that is the state’s criminal ethics arm. Its high-profile cases include the 2010 prosecution of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and an ongoing investigation into the state’s $3 billion cancer research agency.
Lehmberg pleaded guilty after her arrest and served half of a 45-day jail sentence. But she refused calls from Republicans to resign, including from Perry, who publicly said he would eliminate $3.7 million in annual state funding if she did not step down.
Lehmberg stayed in office, and Perry vetoed the money in June.
In a two-page complaint filed shortly after Perry’s veto, the head of Texans for Public Justice accused Perry of possibly violating laws regarding coercion of a public servant, bribery, abuse of official capacity and official oppression.
“Governor Perry violated the Texas Penal Code by communicating offers and threats under which he would exercise his official discretion to veto the appropriation,” wrote Craig McDonald, the group’s executive director, in the June 26 complaint.
Perry spokesman Josh Havens said Thursday he was not aware of any contact from investigators concerning the veto.
Havens said Perry “exercised his constitutional veto authority through line item vetoes in the budget” as he does each session. He went on to point to Perry’s statement following the veto of the prosecution unit dollars.
“Despite the otherwise good work the Public Integrity Unit’s employees, I cannot in good conscience support continued state funding for an office with statewide jurisdiction at a time when the person charged with ultimate responsibility of that unit has lost the public’s confidence,” Perry said.
Richardson, a former state district judge in San Antonio, was first appointed by then-Gov. George W. Bush. He did not immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press Thursday.
Following Perry’s veto, Travis County commissioners originally voted to send layoff notices to nearly three dozen staff members in the public corruption office. They have since approved a reduced budget for the unit that trims the staff cuts to 10.
As part of the reduced budget, the unit will also drop at least 54 of its more than 400 active cases.

This repugican Sues to Keep Wife & Daughters From Accessing Birth Control

Lunatic Fringe 

A (male, repugican, naturally) Missouri state representative is suing the federal government for a personal family exemption from the Obamacare birth control mandate on the grounds that it violates his religious liberty. Since we can assume that this male repugican is not worried about blocking his own access to a pharmaceutical made for and taken exclusively by women, we can conclude that this guy is basically suing to keep his wife and daughters from having the option to access free birth control. I guess I missed that day in catechism when we learned about how the cult believes that the man's religion gets to determine his wife and female offspring's insurance benefits.

To be fair, State Rep. Paul Wieland isn't alone in his lawsuit; joining him is his wife, Theresa. The pair claim that simply having the option to access copay-free birth control through Wieland's state-provided insurance plan violates their catholic dogma, which famously views birth control as basically punching god in the face (god, in his omnipotence, has yet to use his magic to overcome birth control nor is he able to make fetuses less abortable, but give him time. Angels in godlab are working around the clock to overcome the simple inventions of the people god created). Wieland and his wife have three daughters, all of whom would be ostensibly blocked from accessing birth control if Paul and Theresa's dumbass lawsuit is successful. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

“I see abortion-inducing drugs as intrinsically evil, and I cannot in good conscience preach one thing to my kids and then just go with the flow on our insurance,” said Rep. Wieland, who has three daughters. “This is a moral conundrum for me. Do I just cancel the coverage and put my family at risk? I don’t believe in what the government is doing.”

Do lie-riddled arguments like this give anyone else an instant stress headache? Rather than pointing out all the falsehoods and laughable moral inconsistencies in that statement, I encourage all of you to Highlights: For Kids-style Seek N' Find them. Here's a freebie: birth control doesn't and never has induced abortions; it just interferes with ovulation and possibly sperm mobility. Go!

Further, here's a neat trick that I use when I want to "exempt" myself from certain benefits my insurance plan provides: I don't use them. I don't have diabetes, so I don't use insulin. I've used prescription anxiety medication in the past, but I didn't like how it made me feel, so I don't use it. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of an IUD because I know, like, four people who have gotten pregnant while using them, so I haven't used my insurance benefits to get one. I don't have a dick, so I don't use Viagra.

I don't do things all the time. I'm not doing literally dozens of things right now.

Moreover, it always raises my hackles when allegedly religious people play pick and choose with the tenets of their faith, dishing up a heaping plate of sexual moralizing but skipping the entire peace/anti-poverty/compassion hot bar like a lumpy tub of gravy. You know catholicism isn't Old Country Buffet, folks. It's prix fixe, and the chef is super cranky about substitutions. And if the Wielands are so very catholic that it's an egregious moral violation for them to have the option to use birth control, then we can expect them to sue the federal government for exemption from paying taxes that support wars that the cult condemns as well, right? We can expect to see the Wielands selling their possessions and giving them to the poor, like that Jesus dude did, right? And it should completely go without saying that the Wielands should support any and all social safety net programs that provide for the less fortunate, right?

I'm not holding my breath.

The truth be told

Daily Comic Relief

The 'Truth be told' Edition

Which Congresscritters want to sell out the America's laws to offshore copyright giants?

The State Of The Nation

Since the shrub junta, successive US Trade Representatives have favored secret treaties, made outside of the UN, without any public scrutiny or accountability. Treaties like ACTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership introduce brutal regimes of surveillance, censorship, criminalization, and control in the name of preventing copyright infringement. Only one problem: even if the USTR signs up to the agreement, Congress still has to approve it.
But not for long. A clutch of rogue Congresscritters have introduced legislation that would let the president unilaterally sign the US up to trade agreements that would require changes to US law, without any oversight or debate from America's lawmakers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Maira Sutton has named-and-shamed the lawmakers who're rushing to abandon their duty and hand unchecked power over to the administrative branch. They're heavily funded by the entertainment industry, and publicly committed to undermining democratic, transparent process in favor of back-room deals brokered in the service of multinational corporations. Read on to learn their names, then visit EFF's action center to find out how you can fight the undemocratic "Trade Promotion Authority."

So who are the proponents of this unconstitutional procedure? Unsurprisingly, the most ardent supporter is the new US Trade Rep himself, Michael Froman. On multiple occasions, he has called fast track authority a “critical tool” for passing secretive trade agreements. Really that’s just a cute, misleading euphemism for a procedure that directly undermines checks and balances in government. What Froman is saying is that he could do his job more easily if only he didn’t have to deal with those pesky lawmakers who have the power to question his office’s trade priorities. Fortunately for us, that’s just not how democratic lawmaking works. It's just not possible that his office could represent the broad interests of the public [PDF] while giving a few entrenched corporate interests preferential access to negotiations.
More strangely, some of the biggest proponents for fast track authority are Congress members themselves: Notably, Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Max Baucus of Montana. They’ve called on the U.S. Trade Rep to “aggressively protect” intellectual property through its trade agenda, and ahead of Froman’s confirmation for US Trade Rep, Sen. Hatch made a dramatic speech that again reiterated the idea that fast track is a “tool” necessary for trade negotiators do their job. Hatch has had a long-standing relationship with the entertainment industry and also attempted to pass a bill to create a new “Chief Intellectual Property Negotiator” for the US Trade Rep’s office in an effort to entrench copyright and patent issues as a policy matter in secret trade negotiations.
Hatch and Baucus are only a few of many Congress members who support or who have supported fast track (you can see how lawmakers have voted on this in the past here and here). Thankfully, there are some lawmakers who are taking a stand against this unbalanced trade process. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts took a stand against Froman’s confirmation as the U.S. Trade Rep due to lack of assurances from him during his nomination hearings that he would improve transparency in the negotiating process. The Senate went ahead and confirmed Froman, but immediately following the vote, 36 Democratic freshmen in the House wrote a letter to the top Democrat on the trade panel to declare their opposition to giving fast track authority to the Obama administration. Then just last week, a bipartisan coalition of Congressional members called for the US Trade Rep to uphold digital, economic interests in trade agreements and to publicly release “detailed information” about copyright provisions in the TPP.

Congress' Copyright Cowards: the Members Who Could Betray Internet Users

Armed TSA teams now roam in public, conduct “suspicionless searches” on demand

The State Of The Nation

That police state you were warned of has already arrived

Federal agents make their presence known at a train station

America’s illusions of freedom are becoming more and more transparent, with the federal government’s now standard practice of deploying armed agents to actively roam public venues and conducting “suspicionless searches” on anyone they want. The TSA sends out its Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams to set up unannounced checkpoints used to “Dominate, Intimidate, & Control” American travelers. The purpose of VIPR teams is to maintain a presence in public areas and force travelers to submit to searches, including opening up bags and being patted down.
The New York Times wrote of the TSA on August 8, “With little fanfare, the agency best known for airport screenings has vastly expanded its reach to sporting events, music festivals, rodeos, highway weigh stations and train terminals.”

TSA agents with terror-sniffing dogs 

 TSA records show that the teams ran more than 8,800 unannounced checkpoints outside of airports last year alone. These included searches at train stations, bus stations, the Indianapolis 500, the Superbowl, the Democratic and Republican national conventions, political speeches, and sports stadiums, more.  CBS Los Angeles reported that TSA conduct an estimated 9,300 “suspicionless” spot searches of travelers in 2011.
Brian Bennett wrote in 2011, that “TSA teams have checked people at the gangplanks of cruise ships, the entrance to NASCAR races, and at ferry terminals taking tourists to the Outer Banks.”

The Feds are also deploying “TSA assets” in and around sporting arenas.  The official TSA Blog wrote in February, “Super Bowl fans may encounter TSA Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams on local transportation venues, including commercial and general aviation facilities and mass transit… TSA assets will also work with law enforcement at Mercedes-Benz Superdome during the high-profile game.”   Fans had their clothing searched, their bags X-rayed, and their persons sniffed with dogs.

In one shocking story from New Mexico, TSA agents were scheduled to conduct warrantless searches of high school students attending their Senior Prom.  The TSA ended up not having time to comply with the court order, but another disturbing precedent was set.

A TSA agent searching a vehicle

TSA has also made their presence felt on America’s roads, setting up VIPR teams to perform checkpoints right in the middle of highways.  After all, as one TSA official pointed out, “We are not the Airport Security Administration.”  Federal roadblocks have been set up in Virginia and Tennessee, among other states.  Vehicles were subject to VIPR agents inspecting them for terrorists and terror-related materials.

VIPR now has a $100 million annual budget and is growing rapidly, increasing to several hundred people and 37 teams last year, up from 10 teams in 2008.
“It was an incredible waste of taxpayers’ money,” said attorney Robert Fickman, after being searched in a train station. “Did we need to have T.S.A. in here for a couple of minor busts?”
“The problem with TSA stopping and searching people in public places outside the airport is that there are no real legal standards, or probable cause,” said Khaliah Barnes, law counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). “It’s something that is easily abused because the reason that they are conducting the stops is shrouded in secrecy.”

TSA at work on American travelers 

To justify their unconstitutional infringements, they claim the checkpoints are “administrative searches” that are exempt from probable cause therefore conveniently impervious to constitutional scrutiny.
TSA now has grown to a whopping 56,000 agents, violating rights en masse at 450 American airports. Its complete disregard for individual liberties and the constitution illustrates the uncomfortable fact that the United States is becoming a police state.
“We have to keep [terrorists] on edge,” said Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute, reported Bennett.

Lavabit's owner threatened with arrest for shutting down rather than spying on customers

The State Of The Nation

NBC reports that senior US Attorney James Trump sent Lavabit founder Ladar Levison and his lawyer a veiled arrest threat when Levison shut down his private email service (used by NSA leaker James Snowden) rather than comply with a secret order to spy on his customers. Nothing more can be said definitively, because the order to Levison came with a gag order prohibiting Levison from discussing it. Everyone is pretty sure that Levison was served with a National Security Letter.
This gives additional context to the decision of Lavabit competitor Silent Circle to pre-emptively shut down its own private email service as well, in advance of any sort of court order. If a secret court can issue a secret order requiring you to spy on your customers, and if shutting down the service will land you in jail, then simply not operating the kind of service that spooks find snoopworthy is the only option.

Levison said he has been "threatened with arrest multiple times over the past six weeks," but that he was making a stand on principle: "I think it's important to point out that what prompted me to shut down my service wasn't access to one person's data. It was about protecting the privacy of all my users."
He has also started a legal defense fund and said he's gotten "an overwhelming response," raising more than $90,000 in the past few days. Among those now backing him is former Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, who told NBC News on Tuesday that Levison's legal battle "should be in the interests of everybody who cares about liberty."

Lavabit.com owner: 'I could be arrested' for resisting surveillance order

Ziggy

Daily Comic Relief

The 'They aren't kidding' Edition

Dear airline execs: crowing about new fees and price hikes before your merger makes the DoJ mad

Corporations Behaving Badly

The DoJ has filed suit to block the merger of US Air and American Airlines, because they've noticed that while the airlines' executives publicly gave the reason for the merger as "synergies" and efficiency, they told the industry that the merger would allow them to jack up prices and charge more fees. Pictured to the right, Scott Kirby the US Air President who took to the podium at a conference to say it was "impossible to overstate the benefit" of the new fees he'd be able to charge after a merger.

The suit hearkens back to the time in 2011 when US Airways President Scott Kirby said that industry consolidation had made it possible for airlines to then successfully complete three airfare hikes that year, reports the Associated Press’ Scott Mayerowitz. And then in 2012 he spoke at an industry conference, saying it’s “impossible to overstate the benefit” of mergers in giving airlines the ability to impose new fees.

Past Statements About Moneymaking Mergers Returning To Bite Airline Execs In The Behind

Which States guarantee your right to use a clothesline in the teeth of an uptight homeowner's association?

Did You Know ...

People in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, or Wisconsin are allowed to use clotheslines, even if their homeowners' association objects. In other States, Big Pecksniff has successfully lobbied to allow bans of environmentally friendly clotheslines, citing "unsightliness" and "strangulation hazard." Seriously.

According to the report, a Washington legislator considered a clothesline-protection bill after a bunch of high-school students proposed it, but dropped the idea when lobbyists "came to Olympia intent on crushing the idea." In addition to the argument that hanging underpants outdoors is unsightly and lowers property values, which seems like a reasonable argument, the associations also appear to contend that the lines "pose a strangulation hazard," which doesn't, really. I don't think children could reach them. I guess you could strangle yourself on one if you tried, but I'd like to see the statistics on clothesline strangulations, if any, before making a decision.
These things would definitely impair my ability to ride my motorcycle freely through my neighbors' backyards, which I see as my God-given right as an American, so there is that.

Washington May Join 19 Other "Right to Dry" States

Police to Distribute Doritos at Hempfest

Odds and Sods

How to educate the public about the new laws governing marijuana use in Washington state? The Seattle Police Department has a great idea. They will be at the Hempfest pot rally this weekend -giving out bags of Doritos, each bag with a sticker outlining the new laws.

Because while stoners have no problem ignoring a leaflet, police recognize that it's nearly impossible to turn down a bag of Doritos.

"Distributing salty snacks at a festival celebrating hemp, I think, is deliberately ironic enough that people will accept them in good humor," says police department spokesman Sergeant Sean Whitcomb. "We want to make sure people learn the rules and that they respect the vote."

The labels on the snack-sized bags will direct festival attendees to the SPD's post-legalization FAQ titled "Marijwhatnow?" which went viral last November, reminding citizens that possessing up to an ounce of pot is allowed, but selling and growing the stuff remains illegal (until licenses are issued later this year by the state).

With funding for the project coming entirely from the privately run Seattle Police Foundation, police say they plan to distribute about 1,000 bags of Doritos over the weekend.

More

These unremarkable men walked 40 miles for no particular reason

Odds and Sods

Last weekend, a group of unremarkable, middle-aged men walked a long way for no reason. None whatsoever. The "50-ish" residents of Dorking in Surrey picked a random Saturday and a meaningless route and walked 40 miles just because they could. Ian Giles, spokesman for the group of "accountants, surveyors, that sort of thing", explained: "I think we had all become jaded by a series of charitable events and thought we should do something for no particular reason.
"We just wanted to spend some time with each other in some way. There was a brief conversation between us about possibly doing something for charity but that quickly turned to, 'Why don't we just do something for ourselves? Can men not just walk together in fellowship anymore?' It's a return to the daring days of when people just 'did stuff'." Having decided that the event should have no meaning, the group – Ian plus Mark Dorn, Simon Loomes, Chris Child, Chris Jarvis, Chris Shaw and Gareth Stace – chose a route which started and ended nowhere in particular.

Ian said: "We found a random bench on The Nower which was not special in any shape or form. It was falling apart a bit and half buried in a hedge. If it had had some redeeming feature I think we would have shied away, but because a few slats were missing we thought, 'This is perfect'." Starting beside a groyne on Shoreham beach at 6am, the group slogged their way along the Downs Link path via Cranleigh and Holmbury Hill, averting their eyes from interesting sights as they went. Some 16 hours later, they reached the lowly bench, to the acclaim of no-one.

"It was a fairly uneventful 40 miles, which was exactly the point," said Ian. "We didn't want banners or cheering crowds and we certainly didn't get any. In fact if there had been we would probably have taken a different route." Asked whether the event could be seen as an insult to charity fundraisers, Ian responded: "It might look that way but it didn't even have that point to it. I would never knock anyone raising money for a cause close to their hearts. It's just that you don't have to. You can go and do stuff with your mates that is memorable and challenging without then having to go and tap your friends for money. It's not anti-charity; it's pro-friends, pro doing-anything-you-feel-like-doing."

And not forgetting, of course, you can then brag to the local newspaper about it.

Body-painted models used by estate agents to market properties in China

Odds and Sods

Female billboards are the latest way to advertise bricks and mortar throughout China.

Real estate agents have begun using models with their bodies painted with floor plans to sell properties.

Housing fairs are popular with potential home buyers throughout the country, and body paint marketing was devised as a way to stand out from the scores of participating real estate developers.

China has one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world, with the traditional view that the house you live in ought to be your own. And now the country's middle class is investing so much in property the government has enforced a one apartment rule.

How The Speed Of Light Was First Measured

Scientific Minds Want To Know

The speed of light in a vacuum stands at 'exactly 299,792,458 metres per second.' The reason today we can put an exact figure on it is because the speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant that has been measured with lasers; and when an experiment involves lasers, it's hard to argue with the results.

But how was the speed of light first measured?

Drought drove collapse of Late Bronze Age civilizations

Scientific Minds Want To Know

Climate change may have driven the collapse of once-flourishing Eastern Mediterranean civilizations towards the end of the 13th century BC, according to research published August 14 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by David Kaniewski from the University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France and colleagues from other institutions.

This is the region where the study was performed (Salt Lake and the Hala Sultan Tekke in the background) [Credit: Geological Survey of Belgium/ David Kaniewski]

Ancient civilizations flourished in regions of the Eastern Mediterranean such as Greece, Syria and neighboring areas, but suffered severe crises that led to their collapse during the late Bronze Age. 

Here, researchers studied pollen grains derived from sediments of an ancient lake in the region to uncover a history of environmental changes that likely drove this crisis. 

Shifts in carbon isotopes in the Eastern Mediterranean and in local plant species suggest that this lake was once a flourishing harbor that gradually dried into a land-locked salt lake. 

Map of Cyprus with an overview of the Larnaca Salt Lake (Hala Sultan Tekke) in the Larnaca Bay [Credit: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071004.g001]

As a result, crop failures led to famines, repeated invasions by migrants from neighboring regions and eventually, the political and economic collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean civilizations at the end of the late Bronze Age.

Combining this data with archaeological evidence from cuneiform tablets and correspondence between kings, the researchers suggest that the late Bronze Age crisis was a complex, single event comprised of climate change-induced drought, famines, sea-borne invasions and political struggles, rather than a series of unrelated events. 

They conclude that this event underlines the sensitivity of these agriculture-based societies to climate, and demystifies the crisis that led to their end.

Late Roman ring to ward-off 'evil eye' found in Croatia

Scientific Minds Want To Know

Archaeologists in Croatia have found an interesting ring from the 3rd century. At the depth of two meters in the soil in eastern town of Vinkovci they have found the ring with an "eye" that was, according to experts, used to protect the holder from spells.

The ring's "eye" protected the holder from spells [Credit: Croatian Times]

Researchers have at the same place found a lot of ceramics that date from first to sixth century.

"The ring has a drawn rabbit that tastes a flower and that was seen as a symbol of happiness, while the "eye" represents protection against disasters and spells", Vinkovci City Museum director Hrvoje Vulic has told to local news website Cibalia.info.

Researches have started before some building works in center of Vinkovci, the area known for Roman times area of Cibalia.

The Duplex

Daily Comic Relief

The 'On the Job' Edition

World Map Showing Areas with the Same Population as China

Odds and Sods

China has a population of 1.35 billion people. That's a lot of people crowded into the red area of the map above. Every other color also represents 1.35 billion people. So all of the Americas, western Europe and Australia are equal to the population of China.

More

Google Street View driver made to swear on statue of the Buddha that he was not a spy

Odds and Sods

Google's Street View project to map the world by taking pictures from passing cars ignited a minor uproar in northern Thailand where villagers detained a driver and made him swear on a Buddha statue that he was not surveying the area for an unwanted dam project. Villagers in Phrae province have now apologised for mistaking the Google worker for a government snoop.

Deeprom Phongphon was stopped by villagers at Ban Sa-iap, in Song district of the northern province, on Tuesday as he drove through in a marked Google car with a camera attached to a turret. Villagers suspected him of being sent by the government to conduct a survey for a controversial dam project that has stirred local opposition.

They surrounded the man's car, questioned him and then took him to Wat Don Chai in the village to swear in front of a statue of Buddha that he was not working for the government. Devout locals said the man would face bad luck within a week if he lied in front of the Buddha's image. "Villagers apologise to Google for the misunderstanding that he came to survey the area to build the dam," a spokesperson for locals opposing the Kaeng Suea Ten dam said later.

The spokesperson also said that villagers will welcome Google if the firm sends a worker to the area in the future. Acknowledging the incident, a Google spokesman said the company "sometimes encounters unexpected challenges, and Street View has been no exception". But he insisted Google "abides by Thailand's local laws, and only features imagery taken on public property".

An Aerial Tour Of Iceland

Planet Earth

Aerial tours of Iceland are a growing business, and it's not hard to understand why. Most of the country is inaccessible by car; only a handful of roads crisscross the ungovernable interior of the country, and even these can only be traversed with 4-wheel drive jeeps.

And even then, they're still dangerous, require river fording, and are completely off-limits during the winter. There are a lot of spots in Iceland which, if you want to see them, you have to do so from the air.

The Amazing Colors of the Danxia Landform

Planet Earth

It may look like a painting, but this is a real landform. The Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park in southeastern China has beautiful rippled shapes of red sandstone.

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Good news about that horrific brain-eating amoeba

News of the positive sort?

Turns out, it doesn't kill absolutely everybody it infects. A 12-year-old girl in Arkansas is recovering from her battle with the killer single-celled organism. She's the third known person to survive. Nobody knows yet how she, or the other survivors, made it through. Why? Well, that's more (sort of) good news. There have only been 130 recorded cases of brain-eating amoeba infection since 1962. It's so rare, that it's difficult for doctors to study.

Shar Pei who has never had puppies began producing milk after owner took in stray kitten

Animal News

Ba Boo, a 3-year-old Shar Pei from Kodak, Tennessee has many scratching their heads in disbelief. Her owner, Sherry Brandt, describes her as a sweet dog who likes to be at home. Ba Boo has everything a single dog could want, her own house, her own yard, her own space. That all changed when Ba Boo's owner brought home a new friend.

Sherry's daughter rescued an abandoned kitten from a local parking lot. They took the kitten in and named her Ally. It didn't take long for Ba Boo and Ally to hit things off, constantly playing and wrestling.

After a few weeks, Sherry noticed that Ba Boo was looking swollen. "I thought, she couldn't have milk because she's never had puppies, she's never been bred," she says. None of that mattered. It was official, Ba Boo was now a mother.

YouTube link.

"She seemed to have faith that this was her mom and that she'd get milk. Ba Boo seems to believe that she's the cat's mom. It's just a miracle that she got milk and she is nursing this kitten," Brandt says.

Hairy dog masquerading as lion at Chinese zoo exposed when it began barking

Animal News

A Chinese zoo's supposed "African lion" has been exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute started barking. The zoo in the People's Park of Luohe, in the central province of Henan, replaced exotic exhibits with common species.

A customer surnamed Liu, who wanted to show her son the different sounds animals made, pointed out that the animal in the cage labelled "African lion" was barking. The beast was in fact a Tibetan mastiff, a large and long-haired breed of dog. "

The zoo is absolutely cheating us," Liu, who was charged 15 yuan (£1.60, $2.50) for the ticket, said. "They are trying to disguise the dogs as lions." Three other species housed incorrectly included a white fox in a leopard's den and another dog in a wolf pen.

The chief of the park's animal department, Liu Suya, said that while it does have a lion, it had been taken to a breeding facility and the dog, which belonged to an employee, had been temporarily housed in the zoo over safety concerns.

Searching for the Elusive Meerkat

Animal News

The family that reddits together, stays together -even when they are in different countries. Robotswana posted this picture, saying it's just another day at his Dad's job. Then his father, Todd Pitock, stepped in to explain.

I'm the guy in the photo. I was visiting the Makhadikhadi, which is in the Kalahari in Botswana. People are doing research as part of something called the Meerkat Project. The meerkats are wild but habituated -- meaning they're used to people and don't see them as a threat. So if you sit down and wait, eventually the alpha male, who is like the chief sentry, will mosey over and climb you like a rock. As one poster noted, he's looking for good viewpoints to gauge threats. The photo was NOT photoshopped. In fact, it wasn't even edited for color. And yes, those are my Brooks trail running shoes, and many thanks to the guy who advised on the new generation of them. The story will appear in National Geographic Traveler, though I don't know when. -- Todd Pitock

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Animal Pictures

Animal Pictures

Awesome