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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Tuesday, September 15, 2015

The Daily Drift

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Today in History

1588 The Spanish Armada, which attempted to invade England, is destroyed by a British fleet.
1776 The British occupy Manhattan.
1788 An alliance between Britain, Prussia and the Netherlands is ratified at the Hague.
1858 The Butterfield Overland Mail Company begins delivering mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. The company’s motto is: "Remember, boys, nothing on God’s earth must stop the United States mail!"
1862 Confederates capture Harpers Ferry, securing the rear of Robert E. Lee’s forces in Maryland.
1891 The Dalton gang holds up a train and takes $2,500 at Wagoner, Oklahoma.
1914 President Woodrow Wilson orders the Punitive Expedition out of Mexico. The Expedition, headed by General John Pershing, had been searching for Pancho Villa, a Mexican revolutionary.
1916 Armored tanks are introduced by the British during the Battle of the Somme.
1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers, by accident, that the mold penicillin has an antibiotic effect.
1935 In Berlin, the Reich under Adolf Hitler adopts the swastika as the national flag.
1937 Prime Minister of England Neville Chamberlain flies to Germany to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia with Adolf Hitler.
1939 The Polish submarine Orzel arrives in Tallinn, Estonia, after escaping the German invasion of Poland.
1950 U.N. Forces, lead by the U.S. Marine Corps, invade occupied Korea at the port of Inchon. Considered the greatest amphibious attack in history, it is the zenith of General Douglas MacArthur’s career.
1959 Nikita Khrushchev becomes first Soviet leader to visit the US.
1961 Hurricane Carla comes ashore in Texas, the second-most powerful ever to make landfall in that state.
1963 Four young African-American girls are killed by the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama.
1966 US President Lyndon Johnson urges Congress to adopt gun control legislation in the wake of Charles Whitman’s sniper attack from the University of Texas’s Texas Tower; in all, Whitman shot and killed 15 people before being shot dead himself by an Austin police officer.
1968 The USSR launches Zond 5, which becomes the first spaceshipt to orbit the moon and reenter Earth’s atmosphere.
1971 The environmental group Greenpeace is founded.
1981 Sandra Day O’Connor is unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to become the first female justice on the US Supreme Court.
1983 Menachem Begin resigns as premier of Israel.
1990 France announces it will send 4,000 troops to join those of other nations assembling in the Persian Gulf to protect Saudi Arabia and force Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein to withdraw troops from occupied Kuwait.
1998 MCI WorldCom begins operations after a landmark merger between World Com and MCI Communications.
2004 National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces a lockout of the players union.
2008 The largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy in US history is filed by Lehman Brothers financial services firm.

11 reasons the US would be a better place if Americans traveled more

by Matt Hershberger
1. A USA where we use all of our vacation days would be a happier, more relaxed USA.
Americans love their work, and apparently they’re willing to sacrifice their paid vacation days to prove it. In 2013 alone, Americans forfeited $52.3 billion in time-off benefits, according to a study by Oxford Economics. In 2014, a poll found that 42% of Americans didn’t take a single vacation day.
There’s nothing wrong with loving your job, but taking a break and going on vacation every now and then is tied to a number of health benefits. People who take vacations are happier, and men who don’t take vacations for several years are 30% more likely to suffer heart attacks. On top of this, vacations are a great way to de-stress, and stress is a huge factor in a wide array of physical and mental health conditions.
2. Meeting people from other cultures helps make us more worldly.
The stereotype about Americans is that we never travel abroad, and there’s a false stat that still flies around the internet about how only one-fifth of us have passports. The true number is now up to one-third, which can only be a good thing.
But that leaves two-thirds of Americans who don’t have a passport, and therefore can’t travel abroad. There’s evidence that travel is tied to greater creativity and open-mindedness — when you get away from home, you can better see the world as a whole, rather than just from your tiny corner of it. And that most certainly results from meeting people you’d never encounter at the Shop ‘n’ Save in Anytown, USA.
3. By seeing more of the world’s endangered animals and ecosystems, Americans could become better stewards of our own environment.
The Nature Conservancy has found that kids who spend time in nature are more likely to feel a personal investment in protecting the environment. And while the US has plenty of beautiful ecosystems of its own, most of us have to work pretty hard to access them, traversing endless miles of suburban strip malls and developed agricultural land along the way. Compare this with a country like Costa Rica — just a few hours away by plane — where 26% of the land area is protected and harbors a huge variety of wild animals that we just don’t have in the United States.
Tropical rainforests are one of the most important and fragile ecosystems — Americans could benefit from exposure to places like this that are unavailable to us in the continental US. A more environmentally aware United States is a more environmentally friendly United States.
4. A USA that’s more multilingual could be a kinder, more inclusive place.
About a quarter of Americans are multilingual, which is actually surprisingly low for a country of immigrants. Choosing to learn another language — especially when you weren’t raised with it — is an act of opening your mind not only to the language you’re learning, but to the culture surrounding it. It’s also an active decision to try to better understand the perspective of a group of people to which you don’t yet belong.
5. Getting out into nature is good for our physical and mental health — and Americans could use a bit more of both.
Vacation is good for your health, but so is getting out into nature. It’s been tied to lower levels of depression, increased fitness, lower levels of stress, and even a decrease in the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and dementia. So taking a vacation to a place that’s out in nature is going to be doubly good for your physical and mental health.
Tell your friends (and your boss): Trips to free-flowing rivers, jungles, and beaches can help you relax and get healthy. You’ll find all three on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica.
6. Americans absorb the best parts of other cultures and make them their own — especially when it comes to food.
Because the United States is a country of immigrants, we’ve become particularly good at taking the best elements of the countries we’ve left behind and making them our own. Everything from our music to our literature to our food is a product of the melting pot.
And the great thing about a melting pot is that you never have to stop adding ingredients to it. If your family has been in the US for 17 generations, so what? Travel somewhere else, learn a new custom or dish, and bring it back to America and share it with the rest of us.
7. Young people who see the world today are those who change the world tomorrow.
I studied abroad back in 2007, and I’ve stayed in touch with most of my friends from that time over the years. The vast majority of us were transformed by our time abroad, and most of my friends have decided to spend their lives helping people other than themselves.
There’s the friend who works on political campaigns while also helping to fund a Cambodian orphanage on the side, the two public health workers, the five who chose to teach English in Japan, Korea, and China for years, and a huge number of people who continue to be environmental, anti-poverty, or human rights activists in addition to working full-time jobs.
Young people who learn about the world go on to change the world. The more young people we can get traveling, the better.
8. Through travel, we learn more about our own history.
One of the best ways to learn about your own culture is to see it from afar. Travel provides a chance to step back and view your history and culture through the eyes of those who live outside it. And the fact is that the history of the United States is inextricably linked with the history of the rest of the world, particularly our neighbors to the south. Nothing builds an appreciation for nuance more quickly than stepping out of our day-to-day routines.
9. We could use a bit more adrenaline in our lives.
The two best travel memories I have are of bungee jumping into the mouth of a cave in Brazil, and ziplining along a ropes course in the jungle canopy of Arenal Volcano National Park in Costa Rica. Adventure travel is the way to go. You haven’t lived until you’ve flown past a pack of spider monkeys in the treetops of a tropical rainforest.
10. Other countries — all of them — have something to teach us.
The great thing about travel is that it’s unpredictable. You can’t know what’s going to happen ahead of time. You can’t know which moment’s going to stick with you for the rest of your life. Will it be an afternoon of solitude on the beach? Will it be something your guide says over drinks at a local bar? An interaction with a local while visiting a remote town?
This moment happens on every trip: the moment that teaches you something you never knew — something you never realized you didn’t know — and changes you, in a big or a small way.
11. It’s affordable to travel — and it’s unaffordable not to.
There’s an entire subsection of the internet devoted to helping you travel affordably. There are sites that help you find the cheapest flight, sites that help you maximize your frequent flyer points, sites that help you with virtually every other aspect of paying for your travels.
On top of this, the evidence continues to grow that not traveling is bad for your physical and mental health, which can make life very expensive down the road. In that sense, travel is not only an affordable option. It’s a necessity.

How homes kept cool before the age of Air Conditioning

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The modern air conditioner was invented only in the 1920s, and it didn’t become a common home feature until the latter half of the 20th century.
But, while some of us might wonder how our grandparents survived hot and steamy summers, the fact is those older homes had a few tricks up their sleeves. They were designed and built with features to help them stay cool without AC.
Mary Wheeler Schap is a registered architect who designs and restores historic buildings to their former glory in Cincinnati, Ohio. She offered this expert insight into the features that made older homes livable in the heat.
Airflow
In northern states, it was common to create a “stack effect” by opening windows in the basement and top floor. This generated a cool breeze through the house. Further south, before AC many homes were built on blocks, allowing breezes to flow underneath and help keep them cool all summer long.
Tall ceilings
Ceilings as high as 10, 12 and even 14 feet were common in older homes. As heat rose to the ceiling, lower areas stayed cool and comfortable. Ceiling fans—powered by electricity or elaborate rope systems—also facilitated air movement.
Transoms
A transom—a small window over a door—allowed warmer air at the ceiling to circulate up to higher floors, providing more air movement throughout the house. Transoms over exterior doors often had hinges and special hardware. This allowed easy access to open and close, helping create airflow while still providing security.
Large windows
Many older and historic homes had large, double-hung windows. Opening the top sash would allow hot air near the ceiling to escape. Opening the bottom sash, especially at night, allowed cool air to flow inside. Rooms had many windows, some as large as doors. Thick, long draperies were often used in these large windows to keep out the heat. People would “draw the drapes” to help keep a room cool without sacrificing light.
Porches
Wraparound porches offered shade from the direct sun while still allowing light to pour through windows. Screened and furnished sleeping porches were also very common. People would sleep outside to catch the cool breeze of the summer night without all the bugs. Many believed that fresh air had health benefits.
Reflective roofs
Many older homes had light-colored or silver-metal roofs made of lead, tin or copper. This was a great way to reflect heat away from the home to reduce interior temperatures. It’s quite a contrast to today’s dark asphalt shingles that can absorb a lot of the sun’s rays.
Thick walls
If you could afford them, thick brick masonry or stone walls were a great insulator and kept homes cool before AC. Walls 12 to 24 inches thick were common in the Deep South, blocking the heat from the inside as the day wore on, and providing some warmth as the evening chill set in.

Here’s an expert tip: If you own or are considering buying a house built before the age of air conditioning, Mary recommends contacting an architect or energy advisor who focuses on historic homes: “An hour or two walk-through can help you identify a home’s potential for energy savings. He or she can even help you find ways to preserve the ‘look’ of an older home using modern, energy-efficient materials.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also offers some energy tips for owners of historic homes.

The Top 10 Most Dangerous Ads

What Were We Thinking?
Throughout the history of advertising, we have been lured into trying products that are anything but good for us. Sometimes this was due to ignorance: the real effects of consumption weren’t known at the time a new “miracle” product was developed. Other times, manufacturers and advertisers just chose to ignore the downsides. Like in the promotion of lead paint.
The most heartbreaking part of this 1923 brochure is its emphasis on kids having fun with the whole “Lead Family” of products, whose presence in everything from their nursery walls to their windup toys made young children particularly susceptible to its dangers. Combined with lead paint’s seductively sweet flavor, putting kids in environments literally covered with the stuff was a recipe for disaster.
In fact, the effects of lead poisoning (brain damage, seizures, hypertension, etc.) were known long before the Consumer Product Safety Commission finally banned them in 1977; the industry had simply refused to acknowledge them.
What were they thinking? See the other product advertisements that were downright dangerous in a collaborative list from Collectors Weekly at mental_floss.

Can Porn Enhance a Couple’s Sex Life?

Before you ask ...Yes, the article is SFW

What Will It Take To Solve The Nation’s Physician Shortage?

Do ‘deeply held’ religious beliefs force doctors to commit malpractice?

Across the U.S., religious healthcare corporations are absorbing once secular and independent hospitals and in the process imposing religious restrictions that sometimes pit standard medical practice against theology.

Califonia officials uphold ex-Uber driver's right to apply for unemployment benefits

Uber has lost another legal round in the dispute over whether its drivers are independent contractors or employees, an issue that threatens the core of the ride-hailing company’s business model.

Woman told her bus pass was no longer valid on account of her being dead

A pensioner had her bus pass confiscated and was then told: "I'm sorry, our records show that you're dead." Maria Illingworth, who is 70 years old and a grandmother-of-four, said she "almost passed out" when a town hall worker said they thought she was deceased. She said she had been "embarrassed and confused" when the bus driver insisted he had to take her pass from her and is calling on Bournemouth council to ensure the same mistake is not made with anyone else. The problem arose when she tried to board a bus to take her from her home in Hengistbury Head, Dorset, to her doctor's surgery.
She had used her free bus pass two days before with no problem but this time it triggered an alert to the driver that it could be being used fraudulently. He said he had no choice but to confiscate it and Mrs Illingworth had to pay to board the bus. "It was so embarrassing," she said. "The bus was full and everyone was looking at me and I just couldn't understand what the problem could be. It was lucky I had my bag with me and enough money to get on the bus." She went straight to Bournemouth town hall and waited to see an advisor.
"I could see she had a little smile on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she said 'Well, according to the computer you are deceased.' I nearly passed out. I said 'I know I'm not very well but I'm not dead yet.'" Mrs Illingworth was told a new bus pass would be sent to her but she had to pay to take the bus back home from the town hall. She said: "What concerns me is no-one seems to know how this happened. What if it happened to somebody much older, who might not be able to sort it out? It was not a nice experience at all. I found it very worrying and embarrassing and I wouldn't want it to happen to anybody else."
Richard Barnes, public and community passenger transport manager, said: "We apologize to Mrs Illingworth for what happened and any distress this may have caused. The concessionary bus pass is a smartcard and in certain circumstances, usually when a passholder has deceased or been provided with a replacement pass, then the relevant pass is cancelled. This then shows up on the bus driver’s ticket machine to protect against fraudulent use. This is clearly not the case in this instance, so we have sent Mrs Illingworth a replacement pass and will reimburse any expenses that she incurs until the day that she receives it."

South Carolina high school suspends girl after declaring her ‘Nobody knows I’m a lesbian’ shirt is ‘disruptive’

‘You promised me you wouldn’t kill me’

Natasha McKenna

Oregon cop and his family face death threats for denouncing racist police chief

Officer Alex Stone, pictured in Clatskanie, Oregon, told AFP that he has received death threats from the local community and been racially abused since he and officer Zack Gibson filed a complaint earlier this summer (AFP Photo/)
"Just yesterday one of the local business owners said he wanted to take me into the woods and shoot me in the head. Another said he wanted to string me up by a noose," said the 36-year-old officer.

Man driving at 112 mph was heading to court to resolve speeding ticket

A man from West Hartford, Connecticut, clocked at 112 mph on Interstate 89 on Wednesday afternoon, was on his way to traffic court, police have said.
The Vermont State Police police dispatch center received reports about a vehicle traveling in excess of 100 mph and weaving in and out of traffic, Trooper Rich Slusser said.
He said the stop was made in a 65 mph zone in Royalton at about 1:30pm. Seth Tichenor, 33, explained he was headed to traffic court to resolve a speeding ticket.
Slusser said Tichenor received a citation ordering him to appear in Vermont Superior Court in White River Junction on Oct. 27. The new offenses are excessive speeding and negligent operation.

Pour Yourself a Shot of Unicorn Tears

This sparkly liqueur based on gin is surely the drink of choice for those of us with a grudge against the one-horns. Firebox isn't clear how much content is pure unicorn tears, but $61.59 a bottle, I'd hope for at least half. Edible silver flakes inside remind you of what those monsters did to us when they said we could use them as an employment reference, then said terrible things about us when prospective employers called. Drink up.

Witchcraft plane crash caused commotion

Kasungu Police Station and Gundani location in the Kasungu district of Malawi became the center of attention on Monday as hundreds of people flocked to the two places to see an object which is alleged to be a witchcraft plane. The ‘plane’ is said to have ‘crashed’ in one of the areas in the Municipality called Gundani in front of a house of one Liness Kaulungo.
According to people close to the house where the object fell, the object was discovered in the early hours of Monday after the owner went out to answer the call of nature. The black object which resembles an airplane attracted hundreds of people as the news of the ‘plane crash’ had spread like wild fire in surrounding areas of Chitete, Chiteyeye and as far as Juma and Kasalika. The police had to go to the area and take the object to Kasungu Police Station.
The attention of the people then shifted to Kasungu Police Station where people were gathering to have a rare sight of crashed ‘plane’. The crowd that gathered blocked the busy road which is usually used by vehicles going up north making it difficult for cars to pass. The country’s laws do not recognize the existence of witchcraft and when the Police Publicist Inspector Kaunda was asked why they had to intervene on the issue by taking away the object and questioning a few people, Kaunda said they did it for safety reasons.
“We saw that the issue was causing some commotion in the area so we had to act by taking away the object, to prevent further chaos,” said Kaunda. According to Kaunda the object is being kept at the Police Station but did not say what action will be taken next. The incident ignited some debate on the issue of recognizing witchcraft’s existence in the country with some people saying that was evidence enough that witchcraft exists while some were still of the view that it is difficult to tell from the object itself.

Edible weed eaters angry at council for spraying herbicide in park

Edible weed munchers fear they may have been poisoned after Moreland Council in Melbourne, Australia, sprayed their prized Jones Park patch. Adam Grubb, a weed and garden expert, said council workers indicated they used Bayer Spearhead to control weeds at the Brunswick East park, a spray that carried a two-week avoidance safety warning. Mr Grubb said it seemed unsafe that people were allowed in the park and in contact with the sprayed grass.
“According to the safety precautions, they should have shut down the park for two weeks,” he said. “When herbicides are used by the Merri Creek Management Committee along the creek, at least a blue dye is used and signs erected informing people to stay out of the area for several days. No such signs or dye were used in Jones Park, and presumably children were playing there later that day or even during the spraying.”
Mr Grubb said he was picking edible weeds in the park when he noticed some were showing signs of herbicide spray. Neighbor Liam Oakwood told him council workers had sprayed the park to kill broadleaf weeds. Mr Grubb said there were more than 15 types of edible wild food growing in the park, including mallow, dandelion, plantain, stork’s bill and oxalis. He said people picking these to eat could have ingested unsafe chemicals.
“(Weed picking) is not out of desperation, but for health and cultural reasons,” he said. “For a lot of people from migrant backgrounds, it is a way of connecting to their traditions and their home.” Moreland Mayor Meghan Hopper said the council used selective herbicide to control weeds and adhered to strict safety procedures when spraying, with signs present while work took place. She said the herbicide used would not harm park users who touched it. Cr Hopper said the council did not plant edible plants or trees in public spaces and discouraged eating plants on public land.

The Incredible Story of Humpback Whales Trying to Save a Baby Gray Whale from a Killer Whale Attack


Purin the Beagle sets new record for most balls caught in paws in one minute

Nine-year-old Beagle, Purin, has broken the world record for the most balls caught by a dog with the paws in one minute.
Purin skilfully caught 14 mini footballs smashing the previous record of 11 - a feat she had achieved a year earlier. Owner Makoto Kumagai explains that they practice together for 15 minutes every day.
He carefully throws each ball to Purin, who stands on her back legs and holds out her paws ready to catch them one at a time. The record was achieved in the pair’s hometown in Japan earlier this year.

The gifted hound also holds the record for the fastest 10m traveled on a ball by a dog, after she balanced on an inflatable Swiss ball and crossed the finish line in just 11.90 seconds.

Man Shows Gorilla Photos To A Gorilla At The Zoo

Gorillas are extremely intelligent animals and therefore likely to get bored sitting around a zoo enclosure all day, and there are days when they're both bored and tired of being simply stared at by humans.
They see us staring at small screens all day long and wonder what's so interesting about those shiny objects, because gorillas have never had a friend like this guy
This lucky gorilla calls the Louisville Zoo's award winning 4-acre gorilla sanctuary home, but he has never seen anything as amazing as the gorilla pics this guy's got saved on his smartphone.

Animal Pictures