Friday, October 1, 2010

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Life's been topsy-turvy for you lately, so it's understandable that you've wanted to stay at home in your own cozy nest.
However, now is a good time to poke your head outside again, because a very stable influence is making its way into your celestial sector, which is a very welcome respite.
Of course, just as things calm down, you might be asked to take on a new responsibility.
Say yes, and this challenge may set you on a great adventure.

Some of our readers today have been in:

London, England, United Kingdom

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Kristiansand, Vest-Adger, Norway

Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Edithvale, Victoria, Australia

Sorrento, Campania, Italy

Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

as well as Singapore and in cities across the United States such as Lodi, Dayton, Mesa, Durham and more.

Today is:

Today is Friday, October 1, the 274th day of 2010.

There are 91 days left in the year.

Today In History October 1

Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:

National Lace Day

It is also:

International Day of Older Persons

and

World Smile Day

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Urne gedaeghwarnlican hlaf syle us todaeg

Faeder ure pu pe eart on heofonum

Si pin nama gehalgod

To becume pin rice

Gewurpe din willa

On eordan swa swa on heofonum

Urne gedaeghwarnlican hlaf syle us todaeg

And forgyf us ure gyltas

Swa swa we forgyfad urum gyltendum

Ac alys us of yfele

Soplice

***

A few days ago we posted a piece about how Americans do not know their own religion - with Atheists knowing more than 'believers' about their own brand and other religions.

The citation above is from one of those religions (Atheists know what it is by the way) and it is written in English ... just not the English you can plug into Babelfish and translate.

How many can figure it out?

October is ...

Apple Month

National Chili Month

National Popcorn Poppin' Month

and

Sausage Month

It is also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

And to be sure it is also National Sarcastic Awareness Month

Twenty mind-boggling optical illusions

20 mind-boggling optical illusions

These visual tricks will put a new spin on your sense of perspective and motion.

You won't believe your eyes

Also:

Breast Cancer Awareness

http://www.lazydragon.com/con/images/save_the_boobies02.jpg

http://sandboxthreads.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/300x300/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/s/a/savetheboobies_2.png

Breast Cancer

Essential breast-cancer screening advice

Learn how to cut through the confusion about recent research on mammography and self-exams.

» If you find a lump ...

Also:

Random Celebrity Photo

Salma Hayek

A turn of a phrase

Augur well

Meaning

To foreshadow a successful outcome, indicated by some circumstance or event.

Origin

As you might expect of someone who writes this stuff, I like crosswords. A clue that I came across recently was 'Soothsayer with a noisy implement'. Those of you who are familiar with the arcane rules of cryptic crosswords may have deduced that the answer to this is 'augur'. For those of you who aren't crossword aficionados, an augur is a fortune teller and an auger is a carpenter's tool - the 'noisy' keyword usually translates as 'sounds like' and clearly, 'augur' sounds like 'auger'.

To be more specific about augers and augurs, an auger is the 'bit' part of a carpenter's brace and bit, i.e. a drill. An augur was a Roman official with the job of predicting the future and advising on public policy. That might sound like a difficult task but, in practice, the augurs just had to look mysterious and feign the experience of receiving omens arising from the flight of birds or the appearance of the entrails of sacrificial victims, etc. - no doubt to the accompaniment of a good deal of toga flapping and rolling of eyes.

Of course, 'auguring well' has nothing to do with drilling neat holes but derives from the Roman augur's prediction of a good outcome as the consequence of some portent. Similarly, 'to augur badly' didn't mean 'to make an inaccurate prediction' but 'to predict a bad event'.

The phrase 'augur well' isn't a translation from Latin but originated, in the late 18th century, amongst the classically educated English elite. The first record of it that I have found is from a speech to the UK Parliament, given by the Duke of Richmond and published in the Parliamentary Register for 1778:

"I augur well from the readiness with which it [his request for papers about the movements of British forces] has been granted."

'Augur well' has much in common with 'bode well', which is also of ancient vintage and means much the same thing. A bode was a herald or messenger and was referred to thus as early as circa 888AD in King Alfred's Boethius De consolatione philosophiae. Like 'augur', 'bode' also had to wait until the 18th century to become absorbed into a common phrase. The first known use of 'bode well' comes from John Dryden's Works, circa 1700:

"Whatever now The omen proved, it boded well to you."

Where the Brainiacs are

Ranking America's smartest places

The "brainiest" U.S. city is well-known for jobs that require all kinds of degrees.

Also, the least educated cities

Also:

Book Burning Backdraft

Pentagon's book-burning ploy backfires

A war memoir the military didn't want anyone to see becomes a hit — with key changes.

Original pages leaked

Also:

Bad Cops

Bad Cops

If New York cop is convicted of illegally strip-searching 18 women, he might be fired

Federal lawsuit from 2008 settled against two former Missouri police officers

Florida deputy guilty in lending fraud case

Two Texas police officers resign during internal investigations

2 New Orleans police officers charged with perjury and obstruction in shooting death outside convention center after Hurricane Katrina

Texas police officer indicted on indecency charges

Fired California deputy found guilty of first-degree murder

Woman in California police sex scandal to file lawsuit

Leave it to the Irish

Paddy and Mick are walking down a street in London .
Paddy happens to look in one of the shop windows and sees a sign that catches his eye.

The sign said:

"Suits £5.00 each, Shirts £2.00 each, Trousers £2.50 per pair".

Paddy says to his pal, "Mick, look! We could buy a whole lot of dose, and when we get back to Ireland we could make a fortune.

Now when we go into the shop, you be quiet, OK? Just let me do all the talking, cause if they hear our accent, they might not be nice to us.

I'll speak in my best English accent."

"Roight y'are, Paddy, I'll keep me mouth shut, so I will," replies Mick.

They go in and Paddy says,

"I'll take 50 suits at £5.00 each, 100 shirts at £2.00 each and 50 pairs of trousers at £2.50 each. I'll back up my van and..."

The owner of the shop interrupts. "You're from Ireland , aren't you?"

"Well... Yes," says a surprised Paddy. "How der hell d' y' know dat?"

The owner replied,

"This is a dry cleaners".

How Israel was born ...

Textbook flap stokes tensions in Israel

A high school's unauthorized history book offers a different view of how the Jewish state was born.

Controversy

Also:

Sanchez canned

CNN fires host after controversial remarks

Rick Sanchez comes under fire for calling "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart a "bigot."

Statement about Jews

Also:

Wingnut repugican Senate candidate, and anti-masturbation agitator, caught lying about a new lie

Absolutely incredible. Mind you, she's posing as some wingnut do-gooder, (I know there's no such thing but she's trying to pose as one anyway). And she's now a proven serial liar, in addition to a (former?) witch.

Greg Sargent over at the WashingtonPost.com even caught her today lying about a new lie.

This morning, the Democratic National Committee pointed out that O'Donnell is also described in a ZoomInfo entry as having achieved a "certificate" in "Post Modernism in the New Millennium" from the "University of Oxford." The Zoom Info entry was labeled, "user verified."

ZoomInfo, which has spent the day looking into this, has sent over a statement detailing what happened with this profile. According to the company, O'Donnell's profile was claimed in 2008 through something called a "double opt-in process."

The company says this process cannot function without "response to a verification e-mail message." ZoomInfo is not releasing that email address, citing privacy. But here's the rub: The company is confirming that they have identified the emailer:

We can say, however, that the email address was not of an anonymous nature -- that is, the address was not from a personal free email service and contained identifying information. ZoomInfo's Terms of Service require users to agree that they will not "impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent" their affiliation with a person or entity.
The company is also confirming that O'Donnell -- or whoever claimed the profile -- would have had ample opportunity to change any wrong info, and that after it was claimed, it could not be changed any other way:

All persons who claim profiles on ZoomInfo have the opportunity to review, update, delete and change information that ZoomInfo has compiled from other sources. In addition, persons who claim their profiles may add information of their choosing, including employment and educational history. All employment history (titles and companies), educational background, etc. is "locked" when the registrant claims the profile. Our automated system does not add any new titles, companies or educational records to claimed profiles, even if we find new Web articles and update a profile with these references.
In other words, ZoomInfo knows who claimed this profile and verified the information. And in response to my questions, it's not disputing the idea that it was claimed by O'Donnell or someone apparently authorized by her to do so. Keep in mind: The company could say this wasn't done by O'Donnell or someone authorized by her without violating the poster's privacy.

Repugican member of Congress says it's too soon to support Boehner for speaker

Seems the Tan One isn't as popular as he thinks.

'Tax Cuts for the rich create jobs outside the US'

This is a drive-by, and it won't be news to some of you. But it's not a connection that many have made, since it's a series of dots, where the endpoints aren't obviously related.

Ian Welsh says it simply: Tax cuts for the rich create jobs outside the US. And he's right. If you sweeten the purse of the rich, they put money where it will earn. At this point, that's not the U.S. So if you want jobs here, make investment attractive here, or unattractive abroad. Or both.

Yes, that's managed capitalism (but so are bailouts). And yes, that's contra what Bush defined as "freedom" — meaning freedom for capital to move wherever (you didn't think the Bush definition of "freedom" involved real people, did you?).

But so what. You want jobs here, keep money here. Ian Welsh:

If you can build a factory overseas which produces the same goods for less, meaning more profit for you, why would you build it in the US?

Until that question is adequately answered, by which I mean “until it’s worth investing in the US”, most of the discretionary money of the rich will either go into useless speculative activities like the housing and credit bubbles, which don’t create real growth in the US, or they will go overseas.

There are a number of ways this question can be answered.

Then he lists the ways. A good read, highly recommended.

If when you're done reading, the details float away, just remember — every dollar you hand to the rich in this post-Reagan fever to serve them, means fewer Wheaties for Americans.

If we don't stand up for us, who will?