Obama Smacks repugicans Right Between The Eyes With The Facts On His Record Job Growth

President Obama hit repugicans with the cold hard facts about his job creation record, which repugicans can only dream of matching.

The rnc chairwimp Reince Priebus responded to the news of historic Obama job creation by saying, “Creating 300,000 jobs in one month shouldn’t be a new high; it should be the minimum we expect. Today’s jobs report shouldn’t be an aberration; it should be the norm. Sadly, it’s not.”

The president responded to the repugican criticism with a dose of reality.

Video:

The president said,

Last month, America’s businesses created more than 300,000 jobs. This keeps a pace so far this year that we have not seen since the 1990s. So far this year, over the first 11 months of 2014, our economy has created 2.65 million jobs. That’s more than in any entire year since the 1990s. Our businesses have now created 10.9 million jobs over the past 57 months in a row. And that’s the longest streak of private sector job growth on record.

We also know that the pickup in the pace of job growth this year has been in industries with higher wages. And overall, wages are rising — a very welcome sign for millions of Americans. So we’ve got an opportunity to keep up this progress if Congress is willing to keep our government open, avoid self-inflicted wounds, and work together to invest in the things that support faster job growth in high-paying jobs. That means exports, infrastructure, streamlining our tax code, immigration reform, giving minimum wage workers a raise.

President Obama’s economy created over 300,000 jobs in a month, whereas the shrub averaged 58,000 jobs created per month during his presidency. Priebus said that the economy should at minimum create 300,000 jobs per month, but during the shrub years job growth only grew by 300,000 or more six times. The shrub also lost 300,000 or more jobs six times during his junta.

The president delivered a dose of hardcore reality by highlighting the fact that he is doing something that the repugican cabal failed to do. The repugicans created the Great Recession, while this president has dug the country out of the depths of economic despair.

Obama has accomplished this feat while being saddled with a repugican controlled House that has spent their days trying to devise ways to wreck the economy. Beyond the basic job creation numbers, President Obama has overcome repugican obstruction and gotten the economy back on the right foot.

Obamacare Is Working: Millions More Are Insured Than A Year Ago

The Urban Institute’s latest Health Reform Monitoring Survey, released on December 3rd, shows that Obamacare is working. The survey finds that the number of uninsured nonelderly American adults fell by over 10 million between September 2013 and September 2014. That figure represents over a 30 percent decrease in the number of uninsured adults age 18-64, in just one year’ s time.

In September 2013, an estimated 17.7 percent of Americans between the ages of 18-64 lacked health insurance. By September 2014, the percentage had fallen to just 12.4 percent of 18-64 year-olds. The gains in coverage benefited Americans across all ages, income levels, and ethnic groups. However, the most substantial improvements in coverage came for low-income Americans in states that accepted the federal Medicaid expansion.

If Republican Governors in many states had not blocked Medicaid expansion, even more Americans would have health insurance coverage. The uninsured rate plummeted a staggering 36.3 percent in the states that implemented the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. By contrast, in states that rejected the Medicaid expansion, the uninsured rate dipped just 23.9 percent.

One of the primary stated goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) was to make coverage more secure for those who had insurance, and to extend affordable coverage to those who were without insurance. The Urban Institute’s latest survey of health care outcomes demonstrates quite clearly that Obamacare is working as intended. The study also reveals that it would be working even better if Republican Governors and state legislatures would have accepted the Medicaid expansion instead of being hell bent on preventing the Affordable Care Act from working.

For the over 10 million adults between the ages of 18-64 who are now insured, the numbers are not mere statistics. They are opportunities for better health, obtaining necessary medications, and enjoying a longer life. Despite all of the criticisms heaped upon “Obamacare” by the charlatans and naysayers on the far right, the program is working as intended. For most Americans that is a good thing.

Senator Ron Wyden introduces a bill banning FBI backdoors

It's a legislative shot across the bow of the FBI, who are demanding back-doors in phones and other devices, claiming "children will die" unless our pocket supercomputers are designed to allow untrusted parties to secretly take them over.
Wyden points out that crypto that is as strong and well-implemented as possible is the best way to keep Americans' data safe.
Wyden makes one want to move to Oregon. It'd be nice to be represented by a lawmaker who wasn't a total, colossal asshole for a change.

U.S. government and independent experts have extensively documented the multi-billion dollar threat posed by constant cyberattacks from criminal organizations and foreign government-sponsored hackers. The U.S. government also urges private companies and individuals to protect sensitive personal and business data, including through the use of data security technologies such as encryption. The recent proposals from U.S. law enforcement officials to undercut the development and deployment of strong data security technologies by compelling companies to build backdoors in the security features of their products work against the overwhelming economic and national security interest in better data security.
Moreover, the decision of government officials to repeatedly mislead the American public about domestic surveillance activities has resulted in an erosion of public trust. Requiring computer hardware and software companies to now create intentional gaps in their data security products to facilitate further government access to personal data will undermine the effort to restore trust in the U.S. digital economy.
Government-driven technology mandates to weaken data security for the purpose of aiding government investigations would compromise national security, economic security and personal privacy.

Sen. Wyden puts forward a bill to ban data “backdoors”

Congress gives Native American lands to foreign mining company with new NDAA

Congress is poised to give a foreign mining company 2,400 acres of national forest in Arizona that is cherished ancestral homeland to Apache natives. Controversially, the measure is attached to annual legislation that funds the US Defense Department.
This week, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees quietly attached a provision to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would mandate the handover of a large tract of Tonto National Forest to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of the Australian-English mining company Rio Tinto, which co-owns with Iran a uranium mine in Africa and which is 10-percent-owned by China.
The “Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015” - named after the retiring chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services panels - includes the giveaway of Apache burial, medicinal, and ceremonial grounds currently within the bounds of Tonto. News of the land provision was kept under wraps until late Tuesday, when the bill was finally posted online.
The land proposed to be given to Resolution Copper, in exchange for other lands, includes prime territory Apaches have used for centuries to gather medicinal plants and acorns, and it is near a spot known as Apache Leap, a summit that Apaches jumped from to avoid being killed by settlers in the late 19th century.
Lands included in the plan will stop 1,500 feet short of Apache Leap and will not initially include an area known as Oak Flats, though, when it comes to the oaks, contradictory legal parameters are but a minor hurdle for a company like Resolution Copper to eventually drill there.
The House may vote on the NDAA as soon as this week with rules included that would bar the Senate from amending the legislation. On Wednesday night, a last-minute effort to strip the land provision from the NDAA failed in the House Rules Committee, which voted to give one hour for debate over the NDAA in the House.
Terry Rambler, chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, told The Huffington Post he was saddened by news of the proposal, yet not all that surprised.
“Of all people, Apaches and Indians should understand, because we’ve gone through this so many times in our history,” Rambler said.
“The first thing I thought about was not really today, but 50 years from now, probably after my time, if this land exchange bill goes through, the effects that my children and children’s children will be dealing with,” Rambler added.
“Since time immemorial people have gone there. That’s part of our ancestral homeland," Rambler said. "We’ve had dancers in that area forever - sunrise dancers - and coming-of-age ceremonies for our young girls that become women. They’ll seal that off. They’ll seal us off from the acorn grounds, and the medicinal plants in the area, and our prayer areas.”
Arizona Sen. John McCain was instrumental in adding to the NDAA the land deal that had been pursued by Rio Tinto for a decade, according to HuffPo. Some in Congress were reportedly concerned with the deal, but it ultimately materialized thanks to economic assurances. Rio Tinto claims mining in Tonto will generate $61 billion in economic activity and 3,700 direct and indirect jobs over 40 years.
Rambler said whether Rio Tinto’s economic assertions are true or not, it may not matter.
“It seems like us Apaches and other Indians care more about what this type of action does to the environment and the effects it leaves behind for us, while others tend to think more about today and the promise of jobs, but not necessarily what our creator God gave to us,” he said.
Rambler said he was particularly concerned with long-term ramifications, including the company’s intent to use “block cave” mining, which means digging under the ore, causing it to collapse.
“What those mountains mean to us is that when the rain and the snow comes, it distributes it to us,” Rambler said. “It replenishes our aquifers to give us life.”
Resolution Copper has said its mining plan for the area has been filed with the National Forest Service and that it will comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that supposedly protects federal lands.

But Rambler said NEPA is no match for Resolution Copper’s intent.
“This is what will happen - the law in one area says there will be consultation, but the law in another area of the bill says the land exchange will happen within one year of enactment of this bill,” Rambler said. “So no matter what we’re doing within that one year, the consultation part won’t mean anything after one year. Because then it’s really theirs after that.”
Basically, NEPA will only protect lands that remain in federal hands. The rest is fair game, according to federal law.
“We would only have to do NEPA on any activity that would take place on remaining federal land,” said Arizona Bureau of Land Management official Carrie Templin.
The 2015 NDAA contains other land deals, including one that would subject 70,000 acres of Tongass National Forest in Alaska to logging and another provision that would give 1,600 acres from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State for purposes of industrial development, a plan that has spurred tribal protest.

Michigan License To Discriminate A Portent Of Impending Theocracy

It is astonishing, but the extremist christian fundamentalists are basing their punitive power on the religious freedom guarantee in the First Amendment; with Supreme Court approval.…

There has been no dearth of news stories, reports, and commentary over the past few months on the epidemic of racists, whether in law enforcement or the general population, either inflicting or attempting to inflict, punishment on African Americans for being African Americans. As noted, “there are certain groups who are adamant that as superior human beings they have authority to mete out punishment for violations of their beliefs that are usually borne of religion.”

Despite protections in the U.S. Constitution and federal and state laws, the past six years have seen an increase in religious fundamentalists claim they have theocratic authority to punish women, gays, and any American unwilling to comply with their theocratic edicts. It is apparent that Americans have no more constitutional protections from religious tyranny than unarmed African Americans have from racist cops shooting them with impunity. It is astonishing, but the extremist christian fundamentalists are basing their punitive power on the religious freedom guarantee in the First Amendment; with Supreme Court approval.

Before becoming one the Supreme Court’s papal-5 imposing the vatican’s edicts in the Humanae Vitae on America’s women, Justice Antonin Scalia firmly believed the Constitution’s Framers did not define “religious freedom” as the right to violate state or federal laws. In fact, in writing for the majority in Employment Division v. Smith, Scalia said that the First Amendment freedom of religion does not allow individuals to break the law: he said, “We have never held that an individual’s beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the state is free to regulate.” He said it would be “courting anarchy” to create exceptions every time a religious group claims that a law infringes on its religious freedom.

Around the nation over the past few years, repugicans have not “courted anarchy” in creating religious exceptions to established constitutional laws, they attempted to impose evangelical tyranny under the guise of “religious freedom.” There has been so much attention on trigger-happy cops exercising their racist freedom to shoot and kill unarmed African Americans recently that pundits overlooked biblical repugicans exercising religious freedom to impose theocracy on Michigan residents.

The latest religious tyranny is Michigan House Bill 5958, The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that legalizes a christian extremist’s religious freedom to discriminate, among other atrocities in an alleged civilized society. But even that description understates the abomination about to be forced on Michigan residents as a prelude to the theocracy about to be unleashed on America. The law makes it legal to refuse service, deny employment, housing, and violate other citizens’ rights, any rights, if a theocrat claims it violates their religious freedom and objects on religious grounds. The bill’s proponents cried foul and claimed H.B. 5958 is not a “license to discriminate,” but a Democratic representative proved it is that and much more.

The Democratic representative, Jeff Irwin, was concerned the RFRA was more than protecting religious freedom so he introduced an amendment to the legislation that explicitly stated that RFRA would not permit evangelical actions such as putting up a sign that says, “No christians will be served.” Obviously, a bill that was not a license to discriminate would not necessitate such an amendment, and to prove the religious repugicans were lying, the amendment was rejected out-of-hand by the majority repugicans who would not countenance language that explicitly forbid discrimination masked as “religious freedom.”

However, as atrocious as legalized discrimination may appear, and it is an abomination, it is the legislation’s other uses that should terrify Michigan residents. For example, as the ultimate “conscience clause,” an extremist christian in the healthcare industry can put a stop to medical care if they claim their objection is founded on religious beliefs. Under the legislation, a healthcare provider would be obliged to send a patient away. It is bad enough that religious pharmacists refuse to fill prescriptions if they “think” a person is gay, a woman is a single mother, or the patient is the “wrong religion,” but that is just the beginning. A first responder, whether law enforcement, fire protection, or ambulance personnel can use “religious objections” to refuse to provide service to a person or group they feel violates their religion’s tenets.

Americans just cannot accept that their freedoms, all of their freedoms, are under siege by a small majority of religious extremists. It is important for all Americans to comprehend that in Iraq and Syria, brutal islamic extremists in ISIL are a small majority and yet they are wreaking death and destruction on the region. The extremists in the christian wingnuttery movement, as author Chris Hedges explains and the fundamentalists admit, adhere to an ideology that calls for the “eradication of social ‘deviants’ including gay men and lesbians, muslims, liberals, feminists, intellectuals, left-wing activists, undocumented workers, poor African-Americans and those dismissed as ‘nominal christians’—meaning christians who do not embrace this peculiar misinterpretation of the bible—will also be ruthlessly repressed and quickly eradicated. That also includes ‘deviant’ government (secular), ‘deviant’ media, ‘deviant’ schools, and ‘deviant’cults that will be crushed. In their place “all institutions will propagate ‘christian and ‘family values, and all education (indoctrination) will be handed over to the cult.

None of those prospects are imaginary, or overstated by any means, and any American that believes that because they claim christianity as their faith, or live under a founding document that protects them from religious tyranny are safe, they are deluded. Americans likely believed the days when white law enforcement officers could murder African Americans with impunity were over; recent events prove that is  not the case. Americans also likely believed that their Constitution protected them from religious imposition, or guaranteed their equality under the law; that is also no longer the case after the Supreme Court deconstructed and demolished the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses in the First Amendment.

The Michigan RFRA is a product of a lazy apathetic population that just cannot comprehend that elections have consequences. Subsequently, now that the religio-wingnuts control both houses of Congress, there is nothing except President Obama to stop them from passing personhood laws the House has passed every year since 2011. Senate repugicans introduced the same “life begins at intercourse” legislation as well, but they were thwarted because they did not have the majority; that ends next month. The recent midterms put more wingnut religious extremists in the House and  Senate than the 2010 elections, and now that they are in power, the Michigan RFRA will look tame compared to what morons like Ted Cruz have planned for the people who will wish that a “license to discriminate” was their only worry.

Texas Public School Teaching Kids That Jews Practice 'Flawed Religion' and that Blacks Are 'Descended from Ham'

A religious studies professor found instances of students learning a literal interpretation of the bible. A report put out by the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund reveals that in some Texas public schools, classes on the bible's impact on history are being taught from a wingnut, fundamentalist christian standpoint.
A Southern methodist University religious studies professor Mark Chancey found instances of students learning a literal interpretation of the bible, that the earth is approximately 6,000 years old and that judaism is a “flawed and incomplete religion” with materials “designed to evangelize rather than provide an objective study of the bible’s influence.”
TFN also found a lesson explaining “racial origins traced from Noah.”

The claim that Africans are descendants of Ham, whom Noah curses in  Genesis 9 after he “saw the nakedness of his father,” has long been used as a biblical justification for  anti-black racism and slavery.
The report [ PDF] even found courses that embrace the christian nationalist ideology of the religio-wingnuts, including inauthentic quotes attributed to the Founding Fathers:

In a few districts, bible courses echo false claims made by the religio-wingnuts that the Founding Fathers were largely orthodox protestant christians who intended for the United States to be a distinctively christian nation with laws and a form of government based on the bible. This logic is implied, for example, in a Dalhart ISD daily lesson plan: “The student understands the delusions, and idiocies taken from the biblical texts and applied to elements of the American system of government.” These claims are problematic not only because they are historically inaccurate but also because they figure prominently in attempts by the religio-winguts to guarantee a privileged position in the public square for their own religious delusions above those of others.
Lubbock and Prosper ISDs are among the districts that relied on material from the NCBCPS [national coven for bible corruption of public schools] course on this topic. Since at least 2005, the NCBCPS corruption has included a 10-page selection of isolated quotations (at least five of them spurious) praising the bible, dog and christianity set against a blurry backdrop depicting soldiers carrying an American flag.

Random Celebrity Photos

Betty Grable

5 Amazing Health Benefits Of Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in savory foods. Cinnamon is good for your health. For example, one teaspoon of cinnamon packs as much antioxidant potency as a half cup of blueberries, and cinnamon's natural antimicrobial properties have been shown to fight strains of E. coli.
Also, while technically not sweet, 'sweet spices' like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger have been shown to boost satiety and mimic sweetness, which allows you to cut back on sugar in nearly anything, from your morning cup of Joe to a batch of homemade muffins.

Thousand-year-old crucible provides more evidence of the Vikings in Canada’s Arctic

Although it was found about fifty years ago, archaeologists have just determined that a small stone container discovered on Baffin Island in Canada’s Arctic region was actually part of metallurgical equipment used by the Vikings around the year 1000 A.D.
The findings were revealed in an article published in the journal Geoarchaeology, by archaeologist Patricia Sutherland. She and her co-authors report that scanning electron microscopy was employed to determine if metal traces were present in a small stone container (about 48 mm tall) from an archaeological site on Cape Tanfield, part of the southern coast of Baffin Island.
They found that the interior of the vessel contained fragments of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, as well as small spherules of glass which are formed when rock is heated to high temperatures. The object is a crucible for melting bronze, likely in order to cast it into small tools or ornaments. The crucible appears to have been broken while in use, suggesting that it was likely used at the locality where it was found.
The artifact was originally excavated during the 1960s and identified as the fragment of a small soapstone pot made by the local indigenous people, the Palaeo-Eskimo who occupied the area in the centuries around 1000 A.D. However among the Palaeo-Eskimo artifacts Sutherland has identified a wide range of specimens that resemble those used by Europeans of the Viking and medieval periods. These include lengths of yarn spun from the fur of local animals, whetstones bearing metal traces from tools that had been sharpened, and tally sticks of the type used for recording transactions. The authors write:

Copper–tin alloy occurs in crevices between mineral grains, on angular corners of relatively hard albite, within as well as on top of patches of organic-rich matrix, and on both the interior surface and broken edge of the vessel. This variety of settings, together with the “shredded” aspect of individual particles and the presence of glass spherules that are similar to those associated with high-temperature processes, are consistent with the use and breakage of the vessel in an environment where metalworking occurred. One or more small amounts of tin and copper or copper–tin alloy appear to have been melted, probably for the casting of small bronze objects. The broken condition of the crucible would suggest that it was used at the site. The specimen was recovered from an area that also yielded pieces of spun cordage, bar-shaped whetstones bearing traces of smelted metals on the working surfaces, and other specimens related to early European technologies that are consistent with a Norse presence. SEM-EDS analysis of soil matrix from the Nanook site also produced evidence of smelted metal particles.

The Vikings and their medieval Norse descendants established colonies in southwestern Greenland about 1000 AD, and occupied the region for over 400 years. After more than a decade of research on material from the Eastern Arctic, the evidence indicates a significant early European presence in Arctic Canada.The Norse would likely have travelled to the area in order to obtain furs and walrus ivory, either by hunting or by trading with the indigenous people.
Dr. Sutherland comments, “the crucible adds an intriguing new element to this emerging chapter in the early history of northern Canada.”
The Inuit and earlier peoples of Arctic Canada cold-hammered meteoric iron and native copper in order to make tools, but neither they nor other indigenous peoples of northern North America practised high-temperature metalworking. This crucible may be the earliest evidence of high-temperature non-ferrous metalworking in North America to the north of what is now Mexico.
Click here to read the article Evidence of Early Metalworking in Arctic Canada from Geoarchaeology
To learn more about Dr. Sutherland’s work, see Arctic encounters between Norse and Natives

Missing tree-climbing sculpture found in different tree

A tree-climbing sculpture that vanished from a park in Dublin, Ohio, reappeared in the same park but in a different tree.

The fiberglass climbing man, one of four displayed in trees in Coffman Park since 2008, was found “sitting” on a lower branch of a small tree near the skate park.
The $9,000 sculpture, which city officials speculated might have been blown from its original perch by high winds, sustained only minor damage, which will be repaired before it is reinstalled.
The four climbers, together titled Exuvia, were created by Todd C. Smith, a tree-climbing enthusiast from LaGrange, Kentucky.

Bank robber's getaway thwarted by heavy stash bag

An armed bank robber has been arrested in China while trying to make his getaway - because the cash bag he stole was too heavy.

The 29-year old man struggled to load the bag onto his motorcycle in Huludao City in the northeast Liaoning Province. The bag contained around 1.77 million Yuan, (£185,000, $290,000), and weighed more than 13 stone (182 lbs).
The robber had used a replica gun to threaten a member of bank staff who was carrying the money from an armored van into the bank building. He was shot in the leg during his failed escape and is being treated in hospital.

YouTube link.

Police say the man owns a shoe-repair shop and committed the crime in order to get enough money to be able pay his mortgage. The robber said: "I hate myself for doing that. How could I do such a thing? I will treat my parents and my wife kindly if one day I'm let out of prison.”

Couple made 911 call about fake shooting to keep police officers busy while they shoplifted

Captain Sheila Lingle of Salisbury Police in North Carolina admits it is one of the strangest shoplifting cases she's seen recently. A couple reportedly called 911 about a fake shooting as a distraction to keep officers busy while they shoplifted from Walmart. According to the report, a woman called 911 just after 7:00am on Tuesday to report that someone had been shot at a business. The caller said that "a woman was down."

The call sparked a large response from police and emergency workers, but nothing was found and witnesses in the area said they had not seen anything unusual or heard any gunshots. At the same time, about two miles away in the Walmart, police say 33-year-old Mark Shrader, Jr and 32-year-old Erin Maureen Shrader, from China Grove, were filling up a shopping cart with items. Just moments earlier, Erin Shrader reportedly borrowed a cell phone from a Walmart employee. The employee overheard her calling 911 to report the shooting. According to police, the employee thought the incident was odd, and when she got the phone back, took it to her manager.
When they looked at the call history, it showed that the last number called was only three digits: 911. Walmart called police and then started watching the Shraders. According to the report, they had filled up a shopping cart, but realized they were being watched, so they left the cart and walked out of the store. Police say they couple then went to their car, which was parked beside the store. That's when the Shraders took items from beneath their shirts and placed them in the car, then walked back into the store and started to fill a second shopping cart.
An undercover police officer then confronted the couple in the store. When additional officers arrived, Mark Shrader was searched and police reportedly found a crack pipe in his pocket and a second crack pipe in his boot. Mark Shrader, Jr was charged with drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. Erin Maureen Shrader was charged with concealment of merchandise and misuse of the 911 system. Two sets of sheets, valued at $37.29, were found in the car. Police also noted that the license plate of the car had been covered over with paper.

Lady's 'Skywalker' passport cancelled for being 'frivolous'

A woman who added Skywalker as a middle name has had her passport cancelled after being told her application was "frivolous". Laura Matthews, 29, had been told her signature - "L. Skywalker" - infringed a trademark in July this year. She was issued with the document several weeks later, after threatening to take legal action.
But she has now been told the passport was issued in error and has been cancelled. Ms Matthews said the decision has left her feeling "upset, frustrated and disappointed". A Home Office spokesman said: "Protecting the integrity of the UK passport is vital and we do not accept a change of name for frivolous reasons." In a letter to Ms Matthews, the Passport Office said its "published guidance provides that we will refuse to recognize a change of name... if it is made for a bet or frivolous purpose.

"Additionally, in your case, the signature used in the passport is different to your surname and by your own admission was done for 'a laugh'. Regrettably, an error was made in issuing your passport," the letter said. "I am sorry that the error was made but I have to inform you that your passport will be cancelled." Ms Matthews said this was the fourth time the Passport Office had changed its mind about her case.
"Now I'm not sure if it's my signature they have a problem with, or my middle name," she said. "All I know it's extremely disappointing that I've been let down again by an organization which doesn't seem to know if it's coming or going. I don't think I'm going to be able to fight it. I don't know what else I can do." The Home Office spokesman added: "We have apologized to the applicant and agreed to meet the cost of a new passport in a name that meets the published guidance."

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California Drought Is Worst in 1,200 Years

Record heat is magnifying the effects of the state-wide drought, according to climate scientists from the University of Minnesota and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The Day The Sea Turned To Gunk

It was as if the ocean has been turned in to a giant cup of cappuccino, a particularly frothy one at that. This display of nature's occasional freakiness had people scratching their heads in Cape Town, South Africa.
Sea Point Beach on the outskirts of the city was transformed in to a foamy mess when the sea suddenly frothed itself into a frenzy. It seems that a variety of impurities in the seawater combined at just the right amounts and, shaken and stirred up by the powerful motion of the waves, formed bubbles.

Cosmic Eye

Monster Telescope Will be World's Largest Cosmic Eye

The world's largest telescope has gotten its official construction go-ahead, keeping the enormous instrument on track to start observing the heavens in 2024. 

Is It True That Jupiter Protects Earth?

Is it true that Jupiter could be considered our friendliest planet because - without Jupiter - comets would be more likely to hit us? The answer is yes... and no. Some astronomers believe that one reason Earth is habitable is that the gravity of Jupiter does help protect us from some comets.
Long-period comets, in particular, enter the solar system from its outer reaches. Jupiter's gravity is thought to sling most of these fast-moving ice balls out of the solar system before they can get close to Earth.

Magnetic Heart

The Moon Had a Magnetic Heart

Scientists believe they have solved a 40-year-old mystery about what caused rocks collected by NASA's Apollo astronauts to become magnetized.

Suspicious package left in bank turned out to be a rabbit

Police officers in Bad Säckingen, Germany, were unprepared for what they found when a bank employee called to report a suspicious package on Tuesday.

The cloth bag was left in the bank in the Baden-Württemberg town, but passed unnoticed until clerks became alarmed when it began to move. Rather than risk a mauling from whatever might be inside they decided to call the authorities.
Police cautiously opened the bag to find that the mysterious creature was in fact a rabbit. As they were unable to find either the animal's owner or place for it in a shelter, it has temporarily been taken on by a vet's office.
The rightful owner of the abandoned rabbit is welcome to come forward, but police said they would check claims carefully to discourage people looking for a free Xmas roast dinner.

Buzz to Stun

Electric Eels Can Set Charge to Buzz or Stun

Electric eels deploy a double-pulse of power to first detect and then immobilize prey. 

Blowfish

Puffed-Up Blowfish Aren't Holding Their Breath

Pufferfish can breathe while inflated, but it may actually tire them out and put them at risk of being eaten once they've deflated. 

Wolf Kill

Killing Wolves Can Increase Livestock Attacks

Disruption in pack social cohesion can free more wolves to mate, creating more mouths to feed in a tighter range, 

Snake Bit

What It's Like to Be Eaten by an Anaconda

Hear the answer straight from the anaconda's mouth (so to speak) -- Paul Rosolie describes his experience to DNews. 

The Death of an Orangutan

Borneo Orangutan Dies with 40 Pellets in Her Body

The animal was found on a palm oil plantation in critical condition, riddled with air-rifle pellets, an animal protection group said. 

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The Daily Drift

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Bangalore, Bikaner, Dehra Dun, Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Patna, Pune, Shillong and Solapur,  India 

Tehran, Iran

Tokyo, Japan

Amman, Jordan

Astana, Kazakhstan

Seoul, Korea

Bayan Lepas, Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Bangkok, Thailand

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Africa

Algiers, Algeria

Nairobi, Kenya

Cape Town and Pretoria, South Africa

Tunis, Tunisia

The Pacific

Brisbane, Homebush, Perth and Sydney, Australia

Auckland, New Zealand

Today in History

43 BC   Cicero, considered one of the greatest sons of Rome, is assassinated on the orders of Marcus Antonius.
983   Otto III takes the throne after his father's death in Italy. A power struggle between magnates ensues.  
1787   Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
1808   James Madison is elected president in succession of Thomas Jefferson.  
1861   USS Santiago de Cuba, under Commander Daniel B. Ridgely, halts the British schooner Eugenia Smith and captures J.W. Zacharie, a New Orleans merchant and Confederate purchasing agent.
1862   Confederate forces surprise an equal number of Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.  
1863   Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the "Innocents," robs and then kills Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana.  
1917   The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary with only one dissenting vote in Congress.  
1918   Spartacists call for a German revolution.  
1931   A report indicates that Nazis would ensure "Nordic dominance" by sterilizing certain races.  
1941   Japanese planes raid Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a surprise attack, bringing the US into WWII.
1942   The U.S. Navy launches USS New Jersey, the largest battleship ever built.  
1946   The president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, orders all striking miners back to work.  
1949   The A.F.L. and the C.I.O. organize a non-Communist international trade union.  
1970   Poland and West Germany sign a pact renouncing the use of force to settle disputes, recognizing the Oder-Neisse River as Poland's western frontier, and acknowledging the transfer to Poland of 40,000 square miles of former German territory.  
1972   The crew of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, lifts off at Cape Canaveral, Florida.  
1981   The Reagan Administration predicts a record deficit in 1982 of $109 billion.  
1988   An earthquake in Armenia kills an estimated 100,000 people.  
1988   Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat recognizes Israel's right to exist.  
1995   Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter after a 6-year journey.
1999   The Recording Industry Association of America files a copyright infringement suit against the file-sharing website Napster.
2003   A tornado in Kensal Green, North West London, damages about 150 properties.
 2006   An earthquake in Armenia kills an estimated 100,000 people. 

9 Chivalrous Habits Of A True Gentleman That Make Women Melt

by Jen Ruiz

In a world filled with late-night booty calls, infidelity and a general “hit it and split it” mentality, it’s easy to become jaded by today’s dating scene.
As women, we brace ourselves for the worst, proceeding with extreme caution during the first few months, for fear of falling victim to the aforementioned debauchery in which so many men partake.
It’s a welcome relief, then, when we stumble upon those few true gentlemen. They exude chivalry with even their smallest actions, and remind us that there are still good ones out there.
It doesn’t take a grand gesture or costly display of affection to win a girl over. Often, it just takes a little sincerity and display of genuine romantic interest.
Despite popular opinion, chivalry is not dead — here are 10 everyday gestures of men that prove it:
1. Opening doors
A guy who takes the time to come around and open the car door for you is a keeper, not to mention a commodity this winter.
With certain states getting up to five inches of snow an hour, do you want to be left standing outside in a blizzard while your date gets nice and toasty in the driver’s seat?
Recognize and appreciate a guy who puts your comfort and well-being first, even if it’s just for a few extra seconds.
2. Saving the last bite of food
They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. So, when he saves the last bite for you, it’s basically him saying he likes you more than whatever meal is in front of him. Which, for the record, is a lot.
3. Spending time with your family
A guy who shows an interest in your baby photos, coaches your little brother on how to throw a football and compliments your mother’s cooking is a guy who’s in it for the long haul. These are small gestures, but they speak volumes about his intentions.
4. Suffering through a girly movie
When a man volunteers to endure a girly show or movie because he knows you’ll enjoy it, he earns major bonus points. (Even more if he does so without complaining or expecting something in return.)
5. Sending flowers
I’m not talking about the $100 bouquet you get on Valentine’s Day. I’m talking about the grocery store assortment he picked up on a random Tuesday while thinking of you. There’s just something about unexpected flowers that makes a girl smile.
6. Walking on the outside of the sidewalk
The first time someone does this, you will probably be confused. But then you’ll start to question how come other men in your life have never been concerned about positioning themselves in such a way that you’d be protected should curbside tragedy strike.
It’s not a must, but it’s certainly nice to have.
7. Kissing your forehead
Sure, if you’re hoping to date someone and he does this, it can be a dreaded sign of sibling-like affection.
But, if you’re in a long-term relationship and your guy does this, it’s a small gesture that can make you feel adored.
8. Filling up your gas tank
Much like walking on the outside of a sidewalk, this gesture will probably surprise you the first time it’s performed.
It’s indicative of a man who was raised right and is generally courteous, which is always a welcome surprise.
9. Putting your jacket on
Women are fully capable of putting their own jackets on, but it’s not a question of ability. It’s gentlemanly and kind for someone to hold out your jacket for you or offer you theirs when it’s cold.
These are little ways men show they care, the same way women have instincts to nurture and protect loved ones.
Chivalry is not dead; men can be everyday knights in shining armor. You just have to learn to spot the subtle, more meaningful gestures.

This Is Whiskey-Scented Fabric

Harris Tweed is a renowned fabric made in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Johnnie Walker Scotch whiskey is, similarly, a famous product of Scotland. The companies that produce both are coming together to produce a combined product: tweed that smells like Johnnie Walker.
Researchers at Heriot Watt University developed a process to infuse the fabric with the whiskey smell in such a way that it will continue to smell even after it's cleaned. BBC News reports:

The scent called Aqua Alba has been designed to replicate aromas released from a glass of whiskey, known as the nose of the liquid.
According to Johnnie Walker, the cloth smells of "rich malt, golden vanilla, red fruit and dark chocolate tones". […]
Donald Mackay, who heads the finishing department at the mill, said: "I have worked with aromas in the past but they were only meant to withstand one dry clean.
"The process we have devised for Johnnie Walker means that this scent is layered into the fabric throughout the finishing process and is permanently imbued in the tweed."

No good flu shot ...

Flu Shots May Not Work Well This Year

One of the dominant flu strains infecting people now is a mutated form that the flu shot may not protect against. 

Faux News Blames Obama for Apartheid, Racist Cops, and repugican cabal Jobs Obstruction

The latest "blame Obama" crusade is reaction to the President's request for funding to train and outfit racist cops with body cameras.…

Blame is holding an individual responsible for, and making negative statements about, their actions that are allegedly morally irresponsible; in plain language it means the person has done something wrong. In the bizarre world of corporate wingnut media, everything wrong in America is President Barack Obama’s fault regardless that most of the nation’s ills either were, or are, created by past and current repugican policies.

The latest “blame Obama” crusade is reaction to the President’s request for funding to train and outfit racist cops with body cameras. The President’s proposal also calls for a review of, and pledged to tighten, the standards for transferring military equipment from the battlefield to local police in the wake of the Ferguson police’s military response to peaceful African American demonstrators. It is noteworthy that President Obama did not come up with the idea to fund better police training or provide police departments with body cameras unilaterally. He held a series of meetings with law enforcement personnel, civil rights leaders, and Cabinet officials to devise reforms to ease mistrust towards trigger-happy racist cops in predominately minority communities.

Of all the President’s proposals, outfitting racist cops with body cameras is reported by the Department of Justice to be a major tool in reducing the use of force by law enforcement. According to the 2014 DOJ report, in one city alone the “use of force by officers dropped 60 percent, and citizen complaints declined by 88 percent” and that “similar findings applied to other cities with body cameras.” The Justice Department found other benefits such as assisting the resolution of citizen complaints against police, particularly reducing the likelihood of false complaints against law enforcement. In fact, according to UK studies, body cameras reduced the amount of officers’ paperwork, improved their ability to determine whether a crime occurred, and increased the chances of a case ending in a guilty plea instead of a criminal trial. A separate report by the DOJ’s “Community Oriented Policing Services” (COPS) Office, several chiefs of police “heralded the use of body cameras as a means to collect evidence.” However, research and facts are irrelevant to racists in wingnut media and with a convenient Black man to blame, there was no dearth of finger-pointing at President Obama.

According to a concerted wingnut media assault on the President, wingnut shrieking heads claim the President should stop blaming “racist cops” for shooting unarmed African Americans and start focusing on job creation and increased education funding for the African American community.  Seriously, that was the crux of their condemnation of the President’s proposal; he has spent six years not focusing on jobs, or education, and needs to stop criticizing law enforcement or proposing funding for better training for racist police officers.

On his radio hate fest, wingnut Mark Levin assailed the President for not making any effort to address unemployment rates because he is too busy concentrating on the “racist cops” instead of “the desperate socio-economic conditions the President created.” Levin said the President “doesn’t want to fix the situation” because he would rather “lecture the nation on racist cops and white guilt.” Although Levin’s assertion the President has made no effort to create jobs is astonishing even coming from a wingnut, it is his claim that the President created the lingering unemployment resulting from repugican cabal-championed job outsourcing, the shrub-repugican Great Recession, or that the President is responsible for repugicans in Congress blocking each and every one of the Administration’s job creation proposals.

On Faux, the outrage at the President’s request for funding for police training and body cameras was no less absurd than Levin’s. Gretchen Carlson claimed that instead of addressing something as stupid as police accountability, the President “should start a conversation about race relations and the lack of jobs” she said the President “is not really addressing here.” Joining in on Faux was Steve Doocy who said the President should focus on “more pressing issues than police training” such as job creation, education, and the lack of opportunity “instead of trying to guarantee that police are held accountable for their actions.”

According to Bill Kristol, the uber-wingnut who finds everything this President does an abomination portrayed the President’s call for police to wear body cameras “beating up on the cops and a terrible idea.” Instead, Kristol suggested the President’s best course of action to resolve racist cops shooting unarmed African Americans is for “Obama to wear a body camera when he meets in private with civil rights leaders.” There is no printable commentary for that most absurd wingnut 'counsel' to address racist cops to date. Kristol sincerely believes that calling for police accountability to stem the epidemic of gunning down unarmed African Americans is attacking law enforcement.

On Tuesday, the President was blamed again for the racist cops’ actions in Ferguson by another Faux shrieking head, Martha MacCallum, who claimed the President’s reaction to an unarmed African American being murdered was divisive because instead of attacking Michael Brown for being murdered, or condemning the peaceful hands up demonstrators accosted by militarized Ferguson police, he was “pointing the finger of blame at the racist Ferguson police by calling for better police training and funding for body cameras.” MacCallum said, “You see how divisive all of it has been and it looks like race relations have deteriorated in the wake of all of this. I wonder what role President Obama and Eric Holder could have played if he talked about bringing people together in this instead of pointing the finger of blame towards the police.”

No thinking human being ever expects wingnut media to stop blaming President Obama for all the woes of the country because like unarmed murder victims Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and every other victim of racial violence, the President is African American. Because they are the media arm of the racists in the repugican cabal, wingnut media cannot possibly assign even a scintilla of blame to the white racist cops gunning down unarmed African Americans. They also cannot possibly blame the lack of job creation or cuts to education on repugicans because there is a highly-visible Black man in the White House and as every Klan member, white supremacist, and segregationist knows, whenever there is any problem, blame the Black guy for something the white guys did. It was the case with Trayvon, Mike Brown, and for the past six years, it is the case with Barack Obama as evidenced by the racists on Faux and wingnut media outlets around the nation.