The Daily Drift

Don't Forget:

This has been a Public Service Announcement from Carolina Naturally as is the one below.

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Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Luquillo and San Juan, Puerto Rico

Mississauga, Montreal, Hamilton, Toronto, North York, Quebec, Regina, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Saint John's and Kitchener, Canada

Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Curitiba, Brazil

San Jose, Costa Rica

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

The Bottom, Sint Eustatius-Saba

Deltona, Racine, Tacoma, Atlanta and Sarasota, United States

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Europe

Poznan and Warsaw, Poland

London, Englnad

Laval, Salon-De-Provence, Rouen, Lyon and Velizy-Villacoublay, France

Cacem, Portugal

Kista and Stockholm, Sweden

Ivrea, Padova, Milan, Naples and Montefiascone, Italy

Prague, Czech Republic

Reykjavik, Iceland

Novosibirsk and Ryazan, Russia

Montana, Bulgaria

Roosendaal, Netherlands

Dublin, Ireland

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Alicante and Madrid, Spain

Oulu, Finland

Vienna, Austria

Asia

Bangkok, Thailand

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Patna, Meerut, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Kolhapur, Kolkata, Hangloi and Bhopal, India

Ahvaz, Iran

Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Jhawarian, Pakistan

Africa

Lagos, Nigeria

Boksburg, South Africa

Ciaro, Egypt

The Pacific

Homebush and Sydney, Australia

Auckland, New Zealand

Quezon City and Makati, Philippines

Today in History

79		The city of Pompeii is buried by eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.
1512		Michelangelo's painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling is exhibited for the first time.
1582		Maurice of Nassau, the son of William of Orange, becomes the governor of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht.
1755		A great earthquake at Lisbon, Portugal, kills over 50,000 people.
1765		The Stamp Act goes into effect in the British colonies.
1861		Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, 50 year-veteran and leader of the U.S. Army at the onset of the Civil War, retires. General George McClellan is appointed general-in-chief of the Union armies.
1866		Wild woman of the west Myra Maybelle Shirley (Belle Starr) marries James C. Reed in Collins County, Texas.
1869		Louis Riel seizes Fort Garry, Winnipeg, during the Red River Rebellion.
1911		Italian planes perform the first aerial bombing on Tanguira oasis in Libya.
1923		Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company buys the rights to manufacture Zeppelin dirigibles.
1924		Legendary Oklahoma marshal Bill Tilghman, 71, is gunned down by a drunk in Cromwell, Oklahoma.
1936		Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini announces the Rome-Berlin axis after Count Ciano's visit to Germany.
1936		The Rodeo Cowboy's Association is founded.
1943		American troops invade Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
1945		John H. Johnson publishes the first issue of Ebony magazine.
1950		Two members of a Puerto Rican nationalist movement attempt to assassinate President Harry S Truman.
1951		Algerian National Liberation Front begins guerrilla warfare against the French.
1967		The first issue of Rolling Stone hits the streets.
1968		President Lyndon B. Johnson calls a halt to bombing in Vietnam, hoping this will lead to progress at the Paris peace talks.
1968		The Motion Picture Association of America officially introduces its rating system to indicate age-appropriateness of film content.
1973		Leon Jaworski appointed as new Watergate Special  Prosecutor.
1981		Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.
1982		Honda opens a plant in Marysville, Ohio, becoming the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the US.
2000		Serbia joins the United Nations.

The Small Swedish Apartment With A Whole Lot of Storage Space

388 square feet isn't much, but with a clever renovation by Karin Matz, this Swedish apartment still feels surprisingly airy and roomy. The secret is the combined closet/bed/kitchen/storage area at the heart of the space that was actually inspired by popular Ikea designs.

The apartment sat largely unused for the last 50 years, even after the owner started a renovation 20 years ago, but had to stop the process due to a health problem. Now the property is a prime piece of real estate in the heart of Stockholm.
View more pictures of the space over at Homes and Hues: This Swedish Apartment Makes the Most of Its Small Space

After Acid-Attacks, Thousands Of Iranian Women Take To The Streets

by Beenish Ahmed

At least four women in Iran's cultural capital were attacked with acid this week. Although police have arrested four men in connection to the acid-throwing, about 2,000 protesters marched on the department of justice in Ifsahan to decry the crime, which is relatively rare there. This massive outcry reflects on a burgeoning, social media-driven movement for increased social freedoms in the theocratic country.
One 28-year-old woman was attacked while driving her car with her window rolled down. She suddenly lost control while driving and then stumbled out of the door screaming, "I'm burned, I'm burned." She then stripped off her head scarf - the covering is mandated by law for women in Iran along with loose-fitting clothing over the torso, arms, and legs.
"The level of acid used was so much that all her clothes were in the processes of melting and I saw the acid create white spots on the asphalt," one witness told the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.
The acid that is thrown on people - mostly women - is often highly corrosive and meant to disfigure and maim them. Acid-throwing occurs around the world from South Asia to South America and is on the rise in Italy and in the United Kingdom.
Acid-throwing is unusual in Iran and the recent attacks have led many to believe that this recent spate of attacks are a natural outgrowth of a new law protecting, as the New York Times put it, "those citizens who feel compelled to correct women and men who in their view do not adhere to Iran's strict social laws" which was enacted by the country's parliament on Sunday. Though, to be sure, the law affords private citizens with the right to hand out verbal or written comments on social codes - not partake in vigilante violence.

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Undaunted Patriots Fight repugican Block the Vote Tyranny

The American people are truly exceptional and it is heartening to know they will continue to fight against repugican tyranny to win elections and brutalize the people.…

It is always curious why, in countries with alleged free and fair democratic elections, a hated brutal dictator easily wins re-election. Logic dictates that a population brutalized by a monster would vote the tyrant out of office in a fair election, but still, a tyrant like Saddam Hussein consistently emerged victorious with an extremely high percentage of the vote. Last week, a former Iraqi citizen and an Army Veteran helping supervise Iraq’s first truly free democratic election explained that Saddam won by using thugs to intimidate voters at polling places, tossed out ballots, or denied non-loyalists the right to vote. It is what a brutal tyrant did to win elections, and it is what repugican tyrants are attempting in states across America.

Now, repugicans began claiming after they lost control of Congress in 2006 and Barack Obama won in 2008 that out-of-control voter fraud required abolishing the Voting Rights Act and implementing severe vote suppression tactics. However, out of over a billion votes cast since 2000 in every primary, general, special, and municipal election in the nation, a comprehensive analysis revealed there were only 31 documented cases of voter fraud; that is 0.000000031% over the past thirteen years. It is likely fraud that was more as a result of errors than deliberate vote suppression repugicans practice routinely.

What is a testament to Americans’ resolve to participate in democracy despite the 8 year repugican assault on voting rights, including intimidation and death threats, is that true patriots are undaunted in helping every eligible voter cast a ballot. In some areas of the country, it is becoming a life-threatening endeavor to participate in democracy not unlike Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s brutal tyranny.

In Arizona last week, repugicans were apoplectic when, as the Blaze reported, “Surveillance video catches a guy doing something at the ballot box that left the repugican monitor stunned.” In fact, not only were repugicans stunned, they accused the “guy,” an Hispanic volunteer for Citizens for a Better Arizona, of being “a vulgar, disrespectful, violent thug that has no respect for our laws.” The man, Ben Marine, was following Arizona election procedures to the letter and delivering sealed absentee ballots to the polling station according to Arizona elections law.

The chairman of the Maricopa County repugican cabal, A.J. La Faro, told an Arizona newspaper that Marine’s behavior was suspicious (read Hispanic) and incited a barrage of violent threats as repugicans demanded the patriotic American be hunted down and killed for delivering sealed ballots to a polling location “as part of an ordinary GOTV operation.” A sampling of the repugican commenters’ rage and calls for Mr. Marine’s death were; “This is a high crime, it is treason to this country and a betrayal of democracy,” and “This should be a crime punishable by death,” and “I am going to find this illegal-loving scumbag and kill him.”

The man that incited outrage and repugican threats of violence, A.J. La Faro, certainly knew the Hispanic man delivering the sealed ballots was following the letter of the law. La Faro is part of the Russell Pearce xenophobic racist Arizona repugican cabal that passed a law, HB 2305, to make it illegal, but even the extremist repugican legislature repealed it. La Faro would have felt right at home in Saddam Hussein’s brutal administration, and based on the overt racism against Hispanics in Arizona, Mr. Marine displayed true American patriotism in courageously delivering other Americans’ sealed absentee ballots; particularly knowing he was being videotaped and that a repugican election monitor was watching him closely.

Wisconsin repugicans have embraced brutal voter intimidation tactics Saddam used to win elections. Less than a week after the Supreme Court delayed implementation of Wisconsin’s severe voter ID law, a repugican election official directed activists to take matters into their own hands and intimidate voters before they have a chance to mark a ballot. Last week Milwaukee County repugican Elections Commissioner Rick Baas directed repugican supporters “to challenge people you think are not supposed to be voting. You’ve got to do that!” Under a tyrannical Wisconsin law, election workers, official observers, or any member of the public can challenge the validity of someone’s vote, but they must first swear under oath they know with certainty the person is not qualified to vote; a challenge cannot be based on suspicion or hunch about a voter’s party affiliation, gender, age, how the person is voting, or a voter’s race.

Another Wisconsin repugican running for attorney general, Brad Schimel,  counseled Republicans that “The best way you can prevent someone from stealing your vote is if you make sure no one can go in and take your line in the ballot box.” Earlier this year, corrupt Scott Walker signed a law allowing repugican intimidators to stand as close as three feet to a voter while they mark their ballot; a tactic that was used to great effect by Saddam Hussein to win elections. Still, patriotic Wisconsin Democrats and people of color turn out to vote in spite of clear voter intimidation tactics by repugican tyrants.

Georgia repugicans, instead of issuing death threats or calling for polling place intimidation, took another page out of Saddam’s election-rigging and just threw out over 50,000 voter registration forms; all of them belonging to people of color in the Democratic-leaning regions around Atlanta, Savannah and Columbus. The repugican tactic was in response to The New Georgia Project’s massive registration drive last March and April that covered nearly all 159 counties in the state and registered nearly 90 thousand people who never voted in their lives; nearly all of them were people of color and many were under the age of 25. The exact Georgians the state’s repugicans do not want casting ballots.

When the New Georgia Project’s organizers appealed to Georgia’s repugican Secretary of State, Brian Kemp, for an explanation or assistance to locate the lost registration forms, he refused to meet with them. Undaunted, and willing to fight for the people’s right to vote, the NGP took the state to court and said, “If they thought it would have a chilling effect on voter registration efforts, they were mistaken. It has emboldened our efforts. It has awakened the consciousness of people that the right to vote is still precariously endangered.”

It is likely not the response tyrannical repugicans expected because they just cannot countenance that most Americans are not timid or terrorized Iraqis willing to sit idly, or quietly, while a truly vile, brutal, and tyrannical repugican movement relentlessly attempts to rob them of their right to vote. In that one sense, the American people are truly exceptional and it is heartening to know they will continue to fight against repugican tyranny trying to steal elections and brutalize the people.

Sarah Palin Threatens America By Suggesting That She May Run For Office Again

Sarah Palin is claiming that she bugs liberals, and she is using this as her latest justification for threatening the country with another run for office.

On Faux Business, Sarah Palin was asked by a sycophantic Stuart Varney if liberal hatred had driven her out of politics for good.

Palin answered, “No, bless their hearts. Those haters out there, they don’t understand that it invigorates me, it wants me to get out there and defend the innocent. It makes me want to work so hard for justice in this country. So hey, the more they’re pouring on, the more I’m gonna bug the crap out them by being out there, with a voice, with a message, hopefully running for office again in the future too.”

Do you know how stores keep trying to start the holiday season earlier and earlier each year by putting Christmas merchandise out before Halloween? Sarah Palin was doing the same thing in this interview. One of the ways that Palin has managed to trick her loyal supporters into sending her money is by teasing them with a possible presidential run on a regular basis. She did it before the 2012 election with the bus tour and her unforgettable mangling of Paul Revere’s ride.
It isn’t Palin’s consistent habit of being a candidate tease that is interesting. It is her level of complete and comprehensive self-delusion that is fascinating.

Sarah Palin isn’t bothering liberals. She doesn’t “bug” the left.

Palin doesn’t seem to understand that:

1). Liberals would love to see her bring her special brand of destructive train wreck politics to the flaming tire fire that is that 2016 Republican primary.

2). Sarah Palin doesn’t scare liberals. The left laughs at her. Sarah Palin is a joke, and only the most hardcore believers in the Cult of Sarah take her seriously.

Palin does have one useful purpose. She is a megaphone for wingnut hate, if a person wants to understand more fully the fatal disease that has infected the repugican cabal.

The repugicans and the media are fond of discussing things that “disqualify” Democrats from office. If being Sarah Palin weren’t enough to disqualify her, her family’s drunken Alaska brawl should do the trick.

The only people that should be scared of Sarah Palin are repugicans who ought to be terrified that she will come back to finish the job of destroying their cabal.

Americans Are Costing Themselves Billions Of Dollars By Working Too Hard

A new study finds Americans are losing billions by not taking time off. Not taking time off from work isn't just making you more stressed — it's costing you money.

That's because employees who don't use all of their paid time off are essentially working for free during the extra days, a new study says.

The study,  paid for by the US Travel Association and conducted by Oxford Economics, finds that American workers lost a staggering $52.4 billion due to unused vacation time in 2013.

That's an average of $504 per worker, all because people are worried what will happen if they take time off.

"Americans are taking the value of their time for granted," Adam Sacks, founder and president of Oxford Economics' Tourism Economics division, says in a statement.

The study says that Americans, known as some of the hardest workers in the western world, are taking even fewer vacation days now than they were in the past.

Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a survey of 1,303 American workers done by GfK Public Affairs and Corporate Communications, Oxford Economics finds that US employees took an average of 16 vacation days in 2013, down from an average of 20.3 days between 1976 and 2000.

Oxford Economics also included this chart, which shows how Americans have started to take fewer vacation days over the past 20 years (note that the bottom of this chart is 14 vacation days and not zero):

 

The study found that if workers were to go back to taking 20 vacation days a year, they would add $284 billion to the US economy, including $118 billion in direct travel spending and another $166 billion spent in other places like restaurants and retail shops.

Man ordered to pay child support for child that isn't his

Carnell Alexander's ex-girlfriend named him as the father of her child in the early 1990s when a social worker told her she had to provide a name to receive income assistance. Just one problem: Alexander is not the father, as DNA testing has since proved.
Unfortunately, the State of Michigan doesn't seem to care about that little detail, and has embroiled Alexander in a paternity case for years. The DNA evidence and testimony of Alexander's ex-girlfriend both agree that he should not have to pay a dime for a child that isn't his, but Michigan insists he still owes about $30,000.
Alexander has refused to pay and has been threatened with jail time as a result. The child in question, meanwhile, is 27 years old.

Bill Maher's solution to teabagger IRS complaints: Tax charities

Real Time host Bill Maher slammed wingnuts for creating a "scandal" over perceived targeting by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), arguing on his blog that exemptions for certain types of charitable groups should be abolished.

"The simple solution is to stop asking the IRS to make value judgments about what's a legitimate charity called 'Patriots for the Violent Overthrow of the Negro Usurper' and what's just a family sex party, like the kind the Palins would crash," Maher wrote on Tuesday. "Make them all pay taxes."
Maher said this double standard in the tax code was highlighted by the increased scrutiny on Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson's tax-exempt non-profit group, the All Day Foundation, following allegations that he used a foundation credit card in 2011 to pay for a party that turned into "a night of drinking, arguing and sex."
According to the Minnesota Star-Tribune, the organization pulled in more than $247,000 in revenue three years ago but listed only three groups benefiting from donations. A Maryland ministry also disputed the foundation's 2009 report that it donated $70,000 to the organization.
"You think Citizens United has created an orgy of dark money? Adrian Peterson threw an actual tax-free orgy," Maher wrote.
Meanwhile, he said, teabagger wingnuts have accused the IRS of targeting them because of their political leanings. Though the allegations have been debunked, Maher said the agency had to make a "angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin distinction between an organization that raises money for politicians and one that "promotes social welfare." (… by raising money for politicians.)"

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U.S. FTC sues AT&T over mobile data throttling

The U.S. government today filed a lawsuit against AT&T, accusing the nation's second-largest wireless carrier of selling users unlimited data plans, then slowing down Internet speeds after they hit a certain data use threshold. Here is the FTC's press release. Snip:

The FTC alleges that AT&T, despite its unequivocal promises of unlimited data, began throttling data speeds in 2011 for its unlimited data plan customers after they used as little as 2 gigabytes of data in a billing period. According to the complaint, the throttling program has been severe, often resulting in speed reductions of 80 to 90 percent for affected users. Thus far, according to the FTC, AT&T has throttled at least 3.5 million unique customers a total of more than 25 million times.
According to the FTC’s complaint, consumers in AT&T focus groups strongly objected to the idea of a throttling program and felt “unlimited should mean unlimited.” AT&T documents also showed that the company received thousands of complaints about the slow data speeds under the throttling program. Some consumers quoted the definition of the word “unlimited,” while others called AT&T’s throttling program a “bait and switch.” Many consumers also complained about the effect the throttling program had on their ability to use GPS navigation, watch streaming videos, listen to streaming music and browse the web.

From Reuters:

The Federal Trade Commission said this throttling of Internet feeds was deceptive and that in some cases data speeds were slowed by nearly 90 percent. FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said that AT&T wanted to retain longtime customers and so allowed them to buy unlimited data plans, in some cases after new customers were no longer offered unlimited plans. Then they unilaterally changed the terms, she said. "They stopped providing the service that customers understood they had purchased when they entered into their contract," she said. "Customers would be subject to an early termination fee if they wanted to get out of their existing contract."
AT&T called the allegations "baseless" and said the practice was needed to manage network resources.

The case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is Federal Trade Commission v. AT&T Mobility, LLC.

Actress Felicia Day Opens Up About GamerGate Fears, Has Her Private Details Exposed Minutes Later

by Lauren C. Williams

Instead of greeting two male gamers wearing Halo and Call of Duty shirts, prominent gamer and actress Felicia Day crossed the street.
"Seeing another gamer on the street used to be an auto-smile opportunity, or an entry into a conversation starting with, 'Hey, dude! I love that game too!' the Supernatural actress wrote on her Tumblr. But for the first time maybe in my life, on that Saturday afternoon, I walked towards that pair of gamers and I didn't smile. I didn't say hello. In fact, I crossed the street so I wouldn't walk by them. A small voice of doubt in my brain now suspected that those guys and I might not be comrades after all. That they might not greet me with reflected friendliness, but contempt."
That change is GamerGate - an online movement where a small subset of gamers have harassed female media critics, developers and bloggers with violent and graphic death and rape threats.
Feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian, who was driven from her home by gamers' threats, recently had to cancel a speaking engagement at Utah State University after a letter threatened a massacre if the school did not cancel its event. While the written threat was jarring, Sarkeesian cancelled her talk because of Utah's concealed carry laws, which meant the school couldn't guarantee her safety. Game developers Brianna Wu and Zoe Quinn have also had to leave their homes because of the massive amount of death and rape threats.
Day said she has kept quiet on GamerGate, which recently forced Intel to pull advertising from gaming site Gamasutra, largely out of "self-protection and fear."
"I have been terrified of inviting a deluge of abusive and condescending tweets into my timeline. I did one simple @ reply to one of the main victims several weeks back, and got a flood of things I simply couldn't stand to read directed at me. I had to log offline for a few days until it went away. I have tried to re-tweet a few of the articles I've seen dissecting the issue in support, but personally I am terrified to be doxxed (having personal information such as an address, email or real name released online) for even typing the words 'Gamer Gate.'"
In fact, Day was reportedly doxxed within an hour of writing her post on GamerGate. The immediate doxxing of female GamerGate critics, including Day, has been pointed to as an example of the sexism of the movement. Former NFL player Chris Kluwe, who wrote his own post calling GamerGaters "basement-dwelling, cheetos-huffing, poopsock-sniffing douchepistols," said Day was only targeted because of her gender.
"None of you fucking #gamergate tools tried to dox me, even after I tore you a new one. I'm not even a tough target…Instead, you go after a woman who wrote why your movement concerns her," Kluwe said on Twitter.
In her post, Day explains that, like 18 percent of internet users, she's experienced her share of severe harassment, and has even had stalkers show up on her doorstep. But that while she is sickened by the stigma and fear GamerGate has had on the community, she encourages everyone to keep gaming.
"Games are beautiful, they are creative, they are worlds to immerse yourself in. They are art. And they are worth fighting for, even if the atmosphere is ugly right now," Day said. And that odds are the gamer guys she avoided on the street weren't part of GamerGate and "would have been awesome to talk to."
Complaints of tech companies' lax online harassment policies have escalated as tech and gaming circles have try to combat criticism of a culture that shuts out and abuse women and minorities.
Twitter has been heavily criticized for not taking online threats seriously. In July, users derailed an online Q&A with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo by pointing the conversation to the site's toothless online harassment policies. Twitter also caught flack in 2013 when the site made it so blocked users could still follow and see posts from the users that blocked them. The policy was reversed and Twitter has since vowed to revamp its policies after Zelda Williams, daughter of late actor and comic Robin Williams, received graphic images of her father after his death in August..

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Ban on having the right to drive a car proposed for welfare recipients

People receiving welfare in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, face losing the right to drive a car under proposed legislation that appears to have majority backing.

The parliamentary initiative from the wingnut Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and the Liberals has the backing of two other parties. The proposal would ban recipients of social assistance from using cars. The SVP has already announced a campaign to cut welfare services in Zurich, regarding them as too generous and too costly for the canton.
The party argues that the system is leading to welfare dependency, rather than serving as a bridge in an emergency situation. “To use a car can easily cost 500 francs (£325, $525) a month - that’s something welfare recipients can’t afford,” SVP MP Claudio Schmid said.
An exception would be made in cases where a welfare recipient depends on a vehicle because of illness, disability or for professional reasons. Opponents of the change said it was disproportionate given that not many welfare recipients owned cars. They also suggested it would likely face a legal challenge. A final vote on the proposal is expected next month.

Bicycle fatalities spiked 16 percent in two years after declining for decades

That's the shocking topline finding from a report out this week from the Governors Highway Safety Association, which found that an uptick in ridership may be linked to a spike in cyclist fatalities.

Nationwide, 722 cyclists died in traffic accidents in 2012, up from 621 in 2010. Both totals are significantly lower than the 1,003 fatalities recorded in 1975. Yet the sharp increase in recent years came after fatalities had steadily fallen over the previous three decades.

The report also found that the percentage of deaths involving adult riders is way up. Twenty-one percent of deaths in 1975 involved riders over the age of 20, a figure that shot up to 84 percent in 2012.

Random Photos

Inmate on the run recaptured after calling 911 to report he was being chased by coyotes

Police officers in Rock Island County got a little help from an unlikely source when they captured a man who was wanted in Muscatine, Iowa, for escaping. Daniel Rice, 21, was jailed and facing theft, burglary and criminal mischief in Muscatine County, when he was taken to a Muscatine hospital for heart-related issues.

It was during that hospital visit on Monday, October 20, 2014, that Rice allegedly escaped, despite being handcuffed to the bed and wearing only a hospital gown which reportedly came off as he ran away. Rock Island County deputies were sent to Loud Thunder Forest Preserve in Illinois City, Illinois, to investigate a report from someone saying they were being chased by wild coyotes just after midnight on Wednesday October 22.
Deputies said Rice was actually the person who made that call. Rice reportedly gave a false name to police as he told them he used a stick to fend off the animals. Rice said he thought about 30 coyotes were after him. In audio from the call to emergency dispatchers, the caller identifies himself as Zachary Turner and claims he and his sister were chased by about 20 or 30 coyotes at Loud Thunder.
The Rock Island County deputies found Rice, and recognized him as a reported escapee. The pacemaker scar on his chest served as further confirmation that they had a wanted man. Rice was arrested at Loud Thunder, and later transferred from the Rock Island County Jail to the Muscatine County Jail. Rice is in the Muscatine County Jail, held in lieu of $50,000 cash-only bond.

Man dressed as Laa-Laa the Teletubby entered friend's house uninvited and stole Chinese food

Police in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, say no charges were filed after a man dressed as Laa-Laa the yellow Teletubby broke into a friend's house and stole Chinese food leftovers.

Authorities said the costumed intruder damaged a door at his friend's home at about 2am on Sunday.
Police say the man went into the victim's refrigerator and put the Chinese food into his man purse before leaving.
Police say they caught up with the man, who was not named since he was not charged, and identified him as the alleged burglar. Authorities cleared the case without charges at the request of the victim.

Woman charged with driving while intoxicated twice in three hours

Police in Gates, New York, say they arrested the same woman twice in less than three hours for driving drunk.

Police say 26-year-old Catherine Butler of Rochester was arrested at round 2am on Saturday for driving without headlights. Investigators believe she was coming from a Halloween party.
She was charged with DWI and a friend picked her up from the police department. Just before 5am the same day, police say they picked her up again. Officers say Butler was swerving in and out of her lane.
She was charged a second time with DWI. Investigators say Butler was arrested for DWI by Gates Police in 2006 and again in 2011 by Brighton Police. Butler is due back in court next month.

Sleep Disturbance and Alzheimer's

Self-reported sleep disturbances are linked to higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease in men

In a new study, researchers from Uppsala University demonstrate that […]

Rain and the taste of Tea

Tea Tastes Worse When It Rains Too Much

Too much rain can reduce the concentration of chemicals in tea that make it taste good, scientists have discovered.

Crash Test Dummies Are Getting Fatter

Obesity is a growing problem in America. As we've noted previously, it affects not just humans, but also America's laboratory animals. Now even crash test dummies used in car safety studies are putting on extra weight. Pictured above is a new dummy designed by Humanetics, a company that specializes in that field. It weighs 273 pounds and has a BMI (body mass index) of 35. CNN reports:

Humanetics are also rolling out their next generation THOR (Test device for Human Occupant Restraint) for median range occupants, with the most advanced sensitivity yet.
"The idea of these new dummies that they start to measure new types of load, (such as) shoulder loads, they interact with restraints better," says Dr. Joel Stitzel, director of the Center for Injury Biomechanics. "They have more measurement capabilities, so they can do a better job of predicting injury."

How KFC Makes Their Fried Chicken

I have to say I was honestly surprised by an article at Sploid that explains how KFC makes fried chicken. First, I was surprised that so many people did not already know how fried chicken is made, and also by how many people were surprised by KFC’s technique. But then I remembered that I live down the street from Colonel Sander’s first restaurant (now a museum) and that I’ve made fried chicken all my life. I also worked at KFC for a short time, which I’m sure many folks have. But if it’s new to you, it’s worth telling you about.
The process is pretty much how your grandmother would make chicken (and you should have paid attention), with one big difference: the pressure frying. Grandma would love to be able to fully cook chicken pieces in ten minutes like KFC does, but the equipment to do it is large and expensive. Read the entire procedure at Sploid.

Retro Photos

The 10 Largest Lakes In The World

The largest lakes in the world aren't only known for their enormous size. These lakes are more often visited for their rich flora and fauna, the outdoor activities and tours offered that'll guarantee you a unique experience.

Stellar Fireball

Stellar Fireball Captured in Action

The expanding fireball of a nova explosion has been observed in unprecedented detail for the first time.

Chaotic Magnetism

Baby Stars' Twisted Magnetism More Chaotic Than Thought

The morphology of a baby star's magnetic field is thought to impact the evolution of any planetary system -- and now astronomers have gained an insight to how complex these fields can be.

Nicely preserved mammoth carcass shown in Moscow

Nearly 40,000 years old and in surprisingly good shape, the carcass of a woolly mammoth has gone on display in Moscow.

The scientists who found the teenage mammoth in 2010 in Russia's far north region of Yakutia have named it Yuka. The carcass had gone on display in Japan and Taiwan before it was exhibited in Moscow.

Albert Protopopov, a researcher from Yakutia, said Yuka's carcass bore traces indicating that humans hunted for mammoths during the Ice Age. The young mammoth, aged between six and nine years old when it died, also had injuries left by an encounter with a predator, he said.

Protopopov told The Associated Press that Yuka is an estimated 38,000 years old, while other researchers have put its age at about 39,000.

Yuka was pulled out of permafrost in a spectacular condition, its soft tissues and reddish fur well preserved. Even most of its brain is intact, offering scientists a rare opportunity to study it.

Up to 4 meters (13 feet) in height and 10 tons in weight, mammoths once ranged from Russia and northern China to Europe and most of North America before they were driven to extinction by humans and a changing climate.

Woolly mammoths are thought to have died out around 10,000 years ago, although scientists think small groups of them lived longer in Alaska and on islands off Siberia.

Researchers have deciphered much of the woolly mammoth's genetic code from their hair, and some believe it would be possible to clone them, if living cells are found.

Protopopov, though, was skeptical about that. "It is not possible to find living cells as they don't survive after tens of thousands years," he said.

Blue Frog Hopping in Massachusetts

Rare Blue Frog Hopping in Massachusetts

The leopard frog with a blue hue is a 1 in 300,000 rarity.

Tortoises Stage a Comeback

Galapagos Island Giant Tortoises Stage a Comeback

Population deemed secure after large creatures rebound from just 15 to more than 1,000 on Espanola.

Tortoise swallowed turtle pendant

Veterinarians see a little bit of everything in their day-to-day work, but Dr. Don Harris got a bit of a surprise when he X-rayed a tortoise on Monday.

Harris was examining Lola the tortoise after his owner brought the male tortoise into Avian & Exotic Animal Medical Center in Miami, Florida, because he was poorly over the weekend and wasn’t as hungry as usual. It turns out, Lola had been having stomach problems for about a month, so Harris sent the tortoise for an X-ray.
“When I saw the X-ray, I thought the staff was playing a joke on me,” Harris said. “What I saw in the tortoise’s intestines was a little metallic sea turtle. I thought they had slipped a pendant under the tortoise. But somewhere along the way, this guy ate a little metallic sea turtle.”
Harris said tortoises graze like cattle and eat the grass, plants, and other things; so it’s not uncommon for them to eat rocks and other objects. But, the vet said this was the first time he’s ever seen a tortoise eating a turtle pendant. The vet said Lola is in good health and that the small turtle pendant should be digested soon.
There's a news video here.

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