The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Changes are coming soon, and you may feel as if you're just about to start a new chapter in your life.
You should be excited, but you might also feel a bit queasy.
Transitions are hard for you -- you almost never jump in headfirst, so give yourself a break and give yourself credit for working through this rough patch.
If you try to foresee problems, you just make yourself crazy -- let it ride.

Today is:

Today is Tuesday, August 3, the 215th day of 2010.

There are 150 days left in the year.

Today In History August 3

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

Watermelon Day

It is also National Night Out

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Solar eruption could trigger light show

Solar eruption could trigger light show

The sun is ramping up activity, and sky watchers could be in for a treat.  

Best times, places to view 

Also: 

• Geomagnetic storms
• Testing Einstein's theory
• Space station repair

Colin is on his way

 Oh, Bloody fantastic joy!

 

Tropical Depression 4 now a small tropical storm named Colin

And he is expected to hang around the North Carolina Coast wrecking havoc ... there goes those beach plans.

A Chimp is born ...

A female chimpanzee has been born at the North Carolina Zoo, the first of its species born there in 12 years.

A statement from the zoo said the yet-to-be-named infant was delivered around 7:30 a.m. on Monday.

The mother is Maki, a 16-year-old female who was born at the N.C. Zoo.
The father is Sokoto, a nine-year-old male who came to Asheboro in 2007 from the Miami Metro Zoo.

Both mother and infant were in good condition Monday afternoon and officials expect them to be on exhibit when the zoo opens on Tuesday.

The birth brings the number of chimps in the N.C. Zoo to 13 and remains the largest chimp troop in U.S. zoos.

German couple to swim 500 km to North Sea with pet ducks

Two Germans set out on an unusual summer holiday on Monday, beginning a 500 km (311 miles) swim down a river from central Germany to the North Sea with seven pet ducks.

Starting in the town of Kassel, 33-year-old Pia Marie Witt, 58-year-old Wilfried Arnold and their ornithic companions will swim down the Fulda and Weser rivers, hoping to reach the North Sea port of Bremerhaven by mid-September.

Photo from here.

The pair says that the journey is about self-fulfillment. "It's our version of the pilgrimage to Santiago," Arnold said.

Witt and Arnold aim to swim 10 to 15 km per day - an order too tall for the seven runner ducks, which will swim for about 20 minutes a day, following by car or boat when exhaustion kicks in.

Reserve owner’s plan to inject rhino’s horns with poison

The owner of a South African game reserve intends to inject his rhino’s horns with poison to deter poachers. Ed Hern, owner of the Rhino and Lion Reserve near Johannesburg, hopes this extreme measure will dissuade poachers who have slaughtered more than 150 rhinos this year. He believes the only way to stop the thriving black market trade would be to make the horns deadly to humans.

“The aim would be to kill, or make seriously ill anyone who consumes the horn,” Hern said. “If someone in China eats it and gets violently sick, they’re not going to buy it again.” In China, powdered rhino horn is believed to be an aphrodisiac and recent demand has led to a dramatic new wave of rhino poaching across South African game parks.

The animals, including the critically endangered black rhino, are being massacred at the rate of two or three a week with horns fetching up to £45,000 on the black market. Poachers use helicopters and night vision equipment to track down and target their prey, with more than 150 killed this year. Hern’s idea to poison the horns of his herd of white rhino has provoked uproar among conservationists although he claims the animals will not be harmed.

“We are experimenting by injecting a little of the substance every day into one of the rhino, and monitoring him carefully for any effects,” Hern said. He admitted while his plan might seem barbaric, he stressed “what’s really outrageous is the sight of a dead rhino with its horn sawn off”. Research has proved the keratin inside rhino horns has no medicinal value yet myth surrounding its properties continues to drive illegal trade.

Girl risks death by lying between rail tracks as train speeds over her

A teenage girl has been filmed risking death by lying between rail tracks as a train speeds past just inches over her body.

The stunt, believed to have been taken in Russia, is filmed by a friend while a group of youths can be seen in the background encouraging the girl.

The girl, wearing jeans, trainers and a woolly hat is pictured running onto the track and lying facedown before a train whizzes over her.

After the train passes just inches from her head, the teenager is seen walking from the tracks, grinning as two female friends and a male photographer looks on.

When The Stars Go Blue

 

The Corrs

Paintings by a Congenitally Blind Man

Esref Armagan was born blind to an impoverished Turkish family.

First, using a Braille stylus, he etches an outline of his drawing… When he is satisfied with his drawing, he starts to apply the oils with his fingers. Because he applies only one color at a time (the colors would smear otherwise), he must wait two or three days for the color to dry before applying the next color

His work has been displayed at dozens of exhibitions in Turkey and in Europe. 

A gallery of his work (non-flash version).

Mini Monet takes art world by storm

A seven-year-old 'mini Monet' has taken the art world by storm - selling his latest collection of paintings for £150,000 in just 30 minutes. The sale of schoolboy Kieron Williamson's work attracted buyers and bids from all over the world, including New York and South Africa.

Some fans even went to the extreme of camping outside the gallery in the art prodigy's home town of Holt, Norfolk, where his work was to be exhibited. The paintings in Kieron's latest collection, which is his third, featured mostly local Norfolk landscapes and coastal scenes. Kieron said: "I like landscapes as they've got the big Norfolk skies in them and not too many hills or mountains."

One of the biggest sellers at the sale was a 20in by 30in oil painting called 'Sunrise at Morston', which went for £7,995. Kieron paints up to six paintings a week and there currently around 700 people on a waiting list for an original.

The youngster first started painting two years ago after he was inspired by boats in dock during a family holiday to Cornwall. Gallery owner Adrian Hill said: "Kieron has probably become one of the most collectable artists worldwide." Kieron's parents plan to buy him a house with his earnings and invest the rest for him until he is 25.

You can see some of Kieron's paintings here.

The Famed Home Of The Count Of Monte Cristo

The Chateau d'If, constructed on a tiny island in the Bay of Marseilles in France, was erected as part of the island's defenses. It was constructed by Francois I, its purpose initially for military use, however it was never put to the test.

Chateau d’If was one of France's most notorious prisons. During the 17th century, the prison also housed thousands of religious prisoners, most of them Huguenots. The most legendary occupant was the Count of Monte Cristo, a fictitious prisoner made famous in the novel by Alexandre Dumas.

Diana Dors car expected to fetch £4m at auction

The car once owned by a young Diana Dors – Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe – is expected to fetch up to £4m when it is auctioned in California later this month. The 1949 Delahaye Type 175 S Roadster, with its swooping lines, vivid turquoise paintwork and glinting chrome, was described as "extravagant and outrageous, a rolling sculpture'' by Alain Squindo, of RM auctions, which is selling the car.

It is a one-off, the chassis built by the French car manufacturer Delahaye and the body created by the Parisian coach-building company Saoutchik. Squindo said: "There was a tradition in France and other parts of Europe in which coach-building companies would take a chassis and engine and do the bodywork.

"They were often outlandish designs, and many were built just for shows and for impressing people. This car was made when this coach-built era was almost at an end, but this is one of the most spectacular and outrageous examples." The car was bought for Dors by Sir John Gaul, a resident of Monte Carlo, friend of Prince Rainier and an admirer of spectacular cars. Dors was in her late teens at the time and it is not clear why he bought the car for her.

"She didn't even have a licence, but it was curvaceous, sexy and flamboyant, just like her. There will be plenty of collectors from around the world who want it," Squindo said. By the 1970s the car had made its way to Colorado, where it was completely restored over the last 10 years. Dors died in 1984. The car still has only a few miles on the clock, but lovers of speed will not be too impressed: its top speed is little over 70mph. RM is selling the car on 14 August.

A bus that literally straddles traffic

A bus that literally straddles traffic

China's planned 3D Express Coach will be able to drive over cars to help ease gridlock.  

Images of the vehicle 

Also: 

• Traffic-battling efforts
• China's energy problem
• U.S. inaction on climate

Floods in Pakistan

Floods devastate millions in Pakistan

An ill-prepared government didn't warn flood victims that raging waters were coming.  

Snake bites and cholera 

Also: 

• Photos of the flooding
• Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
• Unrest in Karachi

Culinary DeLites

Culinary DeLites

Strategies to fight 11 food temptations

Learn to handle diet-busting situations like a 300-calorie slice of birthday cake at work.  

What to say and do 

Also: 

• Four smoothies to avoid
• Food craving myths
• 100-calorie snacks

How Cleopatra could have drunk a pearl

How Cleopatra could have drunk a pearl

A common household item lends credibility to a legend out of Egypt.

Gulp worth a fortune 

Also: 

• More on Cleopatra
• Bombed museum's rebirth
• Teutonic Knights honored

Unusual Uses for those New-Shoe Packets

You know those silica gel packs that are always in new shoe boxes and vitamin packets? Turns out there’s an amazing number of clever re-uses for them. Coolest one: Keep garden seeds fresh. Wildest one: Keep your gun collection moisture-free.

Silica gel is a desiccant, a substance that absorbs moisture. Despite its misleading name, the silicate is actually a very porous mineral with a natural attraction to water molecules. Manufacturers utilize the gel to keep goods from spoiling, molding or degrading due to humidity. The gel itself is nontoxic, but can have a moisture indicator added (cobalt chloride) which is a known toxin that turns pink when hydrated and is otherwise blue in its dry form.
Then I discovered several great suggestions for using these packs around the house and keeping them from the landfill just a wee bit longer.

Full Story

Amazing Facts From mental_floss

mental_floss makes excellent magazines, but this month’s issue, their 50th, is particularly good.
Here’s an example of the golden nuggets of trivia you can expect from mental_floss, from their article 50 Amazing Facts For Our 50th Issue:

1. In 1943, Philip Morris ran an ad acknowledging “smokers’ cough.” They claimed it was caused by smoking brands other than Philip Morris.
2. In the 1970s, Mattel sold a doll called “Growing Up Skipper.” Her breasts grew when her arm was turned.
5. Only female mosquitoes will bite you.
10. Roger Ebert and Oprah Winfrey went on a couple dates in the mid-1980s. It was Roger who convinced her to syndicate her talk show.
26. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell is also responsible for starting up the Chuck E. Cheese’s franchise.
48. At the Wife Carrying World Championships in Sonkajärvi, Finland, first prize is the wife’s weight in beer.

Full Story | Get the magazine here

Shark attack videos

It's time again for Shark Week on Discovery Channel. For a taste, Discovery posted a collection of their "Top 10 Shark Attack Videos."


From Jaws:

What we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all.

Top 10 Shark Attack Videos

Biologist's interesting idea for Gulf sea life

Biologist's interesting idea for Gulf sea life

A Florida naturalist is collecting hundreds of species to protect them from the oil spill.

Reminiscent of Noah's Ark 

Also: 

• Operation Noah's Ark
• Threats to Gulf diversity
• Conservation efforts

Venus Flytrap Sea Anemone

Photo: I. MacDonald, D.L. Felder and D.K. Camp

That wonderful monster of the deep, is the Venus flytrap sea anemone (Actinoscyphia sp.) from the Gulf of Mexico.

Its name is derived from two land plants (the carnivorous venus fly trap and the flower anemone), but it’s actually a type of polyp, related to corals and jellyfish.

The Venus flytrap sea anemone is part of undersea life that is threatened by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as the latest update of the Census of Marine Life revealed:

Full Story

Ziggy

People Initially Overestimate Then Later Underestimate Their Abilities

Have you ever bought a new electronic device, or tried a new activity, and then dropped it because you were sure you couldn’t possibly master it? Well, don’t give up so quickly. [...]
Then, after trying, they were asked how quickly they’d become good at it. But this time they were pessimistic and thought it’d take them longer to learn than it actually did.

 People Initially Overestimate Then Later Underestimate Their Abilities

Mind-Meld is real

Researchers studying human conversation have discovered the brains of listeners and speakers become synchronized, and this “neural coupling” makes for effective communication. In essence, the participants’ brains connect in a kind of “mind meld.”
Psychologist Uri Hasson from Princeton University wanted to find out which areas of the brain were active during speaking and listening to a conversation to test a hypothesis that there is more overlap between these brain areas than generally assumed. It has been noted, for example, that people taking part in conversations will often subconsciously imitate each other’s grammar, rates of speaking and even gestures and posture.

Good conversation results in a ‘mind meld’

Man in trouble for sewing up his own wound

A man in Sundsvall, Sweden with a gash in his leg got sick of waiting in the emergency room so he sewed up his own leg. Now that's the DIY spirit! The hospital reported him to the cops. From The Local:

"They had set out a needle and thread and so I decided to take the matter into my hands," he said. But hospital staff were not as impressed by his initiative and have reported the man on suspicion of arbitrary conduct for having used hospital equipment without authorization.
While Jonas admitted to the newspaper that he has no prior experience of sewing up himself he sought to play down the fuss that his handiwork has caused, arguing that "through the ages people have always sewn themselves up".

Jonas, 32, sewed up his own leg after ER wait

Cancer Cells Get Fat From HFCS Too

(steevithak)

It looks like it's not just our waistlines that are getting larger from consuming a ton of High Fructose Corn Syrup. A new study shows that pancreatic cancer cells find fructose much easier to metabolize than glucose, making it easier for the cancer cells to grow, divide and multiply.
Researchers at UCLA fed both fructose and glucose to pancreatic tumor cells to see if the cells would react similarly to the two sugars. However, their results, published in the journal Cancer Research, showed that the cancer "can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation."
Write the researchers:

“

They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth.

”

Fructose Induces Transketolase Flux to Promote Pancreatic Cancer Growth [Abstract]

Does Cat Parasite Cause Schizophrenia?

Kitteh. They sure are cute and all, but are they secretly trying to drive us all mad? That’s the premise of a new research by John Hopkins researchers:

Johns Hopkins University scientists trying to determine why people develop serious mental illness are focusing on an unlikely factor: a common parasite spread by cats.
The researchers say the microbes, called Toxoplasma gondii, invade the human brain and appear to upset its chemistry — creating, in some people, the psychotic behaviors recognized as schizophrenia. [...]
Evidence that T. gondii infections may be a cause of schizophrenia, while not yet conclusive, is growing, Yolken said. A review of past studies, published last year by Yolken and Torrey, collected a variety of intriguing correlations. For example: People with schizophrenia have a higher prevalence of T. gondii antibodies in their blood. There are unusually low rates of schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis in countries where cats are rare, and unusually high rates in places where eating uncooked meat is customary. And some adults with toxoplasmosis show psychotic symptoms similar to schizophrenia.
Studies have linked a history of toxoplasmosis with increased rates of other mental changes, too, including bipolar disorders and depression. A 2002 study in the Czech Republic noted slowed reflexes in Toxoplasma-positive people and found links between the infection and increased rates of auto accidents.
A University of Maryland study last year found that people with mood disorders who attempt suicide had higher levels of T. gondii antibodies than those who don’t try to take their own lives. Still, the links between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis are not simple. For example, most people infected with T. gondii never become schizophrenic. And not all schizophrenics have been exposed to toxoplasma.
Yolken believes additional factors, such as an unlucky combination of genes, are probably needed to produce schizophrenia among Toxoplasma-infected people. The parasite’s DNA may also be important, since some strains are known to cause more disease.

 Full Story

B.C.

Supplements that could hurt you

12 supplements that could hurt you

Consumer Reports identifies a dozen ingredients in common supplements that everyone should avoid. 

  The riskiest 

Also: 

• What is DSHEA?
• Dietary supplement quiz
• CR rates kitchen gear

World's most outrageous hotel fees

World's most outrageous hotel fees

You may be charged for using the gym, or pay up to $50 to check in early. 

Surprising charges beyond the minibar 

Also: 

• How to pack a suitcase
• 10 secluded U.S. beaches
• Odd roadside attractions

Simple steps to stay private online

Simple steps to stay private online

Visitors to virtually every major website are tracked, but you can limit the snooping.  

Key settings to know 

Also: 

• How hackers crack ATMs
• Mobile devices are targets
• Free virus protection

NASA scrambling to fix space station failure

NASA scrambling to fix space station failure

A weekend malfunction knocked out half of the space station's cooling system.

Significant failure, overheating fears 

Also: 

• Watch video report
• Latest NASA news
• Seach for NASA images

It's Only The Environment After All

It's Only The Environment After All

4.9 million barrels of oil gushed into Gulf

New estimates of the disaster's scope are 10-12 times higher than what officials initially thought.

Big questions 

Also: 

• Dispersant debate
• Damage claims in limbo
• 'Noah's Ark' for sealif

It's Not Like We Don't Have Another One

New credit-card traps

New credit-card traps target consumers

Card companies have a creative way around restrictions on jacking up rates at will. 

Inactivity fees 

Also: 

• Card rewards help the rich
• Tips on balance transfers
• Credit CARD Act details

Repugicans seek to deny citizenship to citizens

14th Amendment faces growing scrutiny

Repugicans push to reconsider the law that automatically grants citizenship to those born in the U.S.

Comments 

Also: 

• Who's joining the debate
• The 14th Amendment
• French citizenship flap

Lunatic Fringe

Lunatic Fringe

When dealing with wingnuts ... Remember the rule: 

If they accuse someone of something, then they're already guilty of it.

Liars and Fools

Notice a pattern? 

Un-American Anti-Family Assholes spokesman Bryan Fischer against warns of "civil unrest" in response to federal "tyranny".
Sedition.

Faux's Glenn Beck is still trying to prove that "we" are "executing" the Weather Underground "plan".
The drugs are wearing off ...

Faux's Glenn Beck stands behind his lies about otherwise un-noted charity, lies which inspired would-be murderer in California.
Lies upon lies ... they never change.

Faux's Glenn Beck suggests that a Weather Underground plan leading to "world communism" and a "dictator" has been initiated.
It was! ... in 2001, but it failed when we ousted the pretender in 2008

Faux's Glenn Beck inanely lies that "We are on the verge of losing freedom of religion".
Again 18th century vernacular and parlance - the word 'of' means 'from' as we use the words today and he's correct  ... we are on the verge of losing our freedom from religion if he and any of his mindless mendicants have anything to do with it.

Zach Wamp (reptile-Tennessee): If you love God, vote for me.
If you love anything don't vote for him

Wingnut hate radio squawker Mark Levin lies: America is "not a representative republic anymore. It is a soft tyranny".
It is a representative republic again and the wingnuts don't like it now that their corporate overlords have less say in how the nation is governed. (even though they still have far too much say as it is!)

Non Sequitur

Bad Cops

Bad Cops

California police officers violate 4th Amendment, make up lie to explain themselves

Maryland man faces jail for videotaping crazed gun-waving cop

Florida corrections deputy charged with sexual battery on teen

Fired Oklahoma deputy sheriff gets 18 months in prison for assaulting three men

Mississippi constable denies involvement in squad car theft or ex-girlfriend's drug use

Un-named Florida deputy is allegedly fired after being charged with aggravated battery on a child and child neglect

Police Arrested Teen for Sharing "Federally Free" Chicken Nugget at Lunch

Sharing your chicken nuggets during school lunchtime? I’ve got two words for you: LAW BREAKER!

Adam was accused of stealing chicken nuggets from a $2.60 meal. Those are the nuggets his friend, Gakaree Garner, gave to him. Garner says, "Although that month I was fasting so I couldn’t eat meat, and we had chicken nuggets that day."
Garner gave the nuggets to Adam, who got in the lunch line to get some sauce for them. According to Garner and the police report the cafeteria cashier told the Assistant Principal Adam stole the chicken nuggets. The Assistant Principal then told the police officer in the school, who called a squad car. Garner says, "They actually put him in handcuffs, and actually tried to force him into the car."
Ava Hernandez says, "They were like, ‘Well do you know that friend receives federally free lunch?’, and I said, ‘I do now.’, and they said, ‘Well, it’s illegal to share a free lunch so either way Adam was breaking the law’."

Full Story

Guns Drawn, Police Raided ... a Raw Food Grocery

Guns drawn, four police officers raided a building in Venice, California. A terrorist cell take-down? Closing in on an evildoer? Closing down a dangerous criminal enterprise?
Well, let’s just say they’re protecting the public from the dangers of … raw food:

With no warning one weekday morning, investigators entered an organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts.
Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under crates of zucchini, they found the raid’s target inside a walk-in refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk.
"I still can’t believe they took our yogurt," said Rawesome volunteer Sea J. Jones, a few days after the raid. "There’s a medical marijuana shop a couple miles away, and they’re raiding us because we’re selling raw dairy products?"

Full Story

Nine killed in Connecticut workplace shooting

Nine killed in Connecticut workplace shooting

An employee asked to resign from his job instead goes on a rampage in Hartford.

Latest 

Also: 

• Hartford, Conn.
• Indianapolis shooting

Woman shoots two TVs then her husband

A 71-year-old Dingman Township woman has been charged with shooting her husband and then threatening to shoot her daughter following a domestic dispute late on Saturday night.

Jacqueline Grogan of 223 Wild Meadow Drive in Sunrise Lakes retrieved a .25 caliber pistol from her bedroom and fired two shots at two separate television sets in the living room before shooting her 57-year-old husband once in the arm at about 11:30 p.m., according to state police at Blooming Grove. She then threatened to shoot her 45-year-old daughter, police said.

Her husband was taken to Community Medical Center in Scranton, where he was treated for injuries that were not life threatening. Police did not release the names of either the husband or daughter.

Grogan has been charged with aggravated assault, terrorist threats, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. She was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Alan Cooper and placed in Pike County Prison on $50,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Shohola District Court.

Shoplifter left baby behind

Shoplifter left baby behind

A suspected shoplifter was charged with theft and child neglect after she reportedly left her baby behind at a West Palm Beach department store.

LA mortuary worker guilty of faking funerals

Full story

A former Los Angeles mortuary employee has been convicted of defrauding insurers by staging a fake funeral and attempting to cover it up by cremating a mannequin and cow parts she placed in the casket.

Large Beaver Attacks Man

Large Beaver Attacks Man While Fishing

Georgia wildlife officials said they are searching for a large beaver that bit a man on the leg and arm while he was fishing on Lake Lanier in Forsyth County.

'Miss Alphabet' changes name to include a word for each letter

A new mother, formerly known as Ceejay Epton, is believed to have the longest name in Europe after changing it by deed poll to include a word for each letter in the alphabet.

Ceejay A Apple B Boat C Cat D Dog E Elephant F Flower G Goat H House I Igloo J Jellyfish K Kite L Lion M Monkey N Nurse O Octopus P Penguin Q Queen R Robot S Sun T Tree U Umbrella V Violin W Whale X X-Ray Y Yo-Yo Z Zebra Terryn Feuji-Sharemi - better known as 'Mummy' to son Kian - says she made the change ‘for a bit of a laugh’ after her baby was born.

Photo from SWNS.

‘My friend wanted to be called “Pink”, so I thought I might as well change my name too,’ said the 22-year-old from Doncaster, South Yorkshire. ‘I’ve just had a baby, so I thought I would change it to help teach him the alphabet.’

The Legal Deed Poll Service charges just £10 to change your name. ‘We get people applying for all kinds of crazy name changes all the time but this one really is different, even for us,’ said LDPS chief executive Jamie Jackson. ‘We wish “Miss Alphabet” the best of luck and bet her little boy will know the entire alphabet in next to no time.’

Clampers sue restaurant for warning off customers

A restaurant owner has spoken of his astonishment after a clamping firm tried to charge him for “loss of earnings” because he warned customers to avoid a private car park next door. Zak Hussein, 50, told customers they faced being clamped and fined £150 if they left their vehicles in the permit-only car park next to his Indian restaurant, The Chillies. But the warning so angered Whites Car Park Solutions it launched a legal action, claiming Mr Hussein’s actions were scaring away its own “customers” and depriving it of release fees. The Chillies’ kitchen door opens on to the car park and many customers leave their vehicles there when collecting takeaways because they believe it belongs to the restaurant. But they often return minutes later to find the clampers have sprung into action. Mr Hussein, who has owned the restaurant in Andover, Hants, for five years, said his business plummeted as victims refused to return.

He put up a sign and told every customer who came into the restaurant to park elsewhere but his warnings angered the clamping firm, which threatened legal action. In a letter to Mr Hussein, Jason White wrote: “If you carry on to warn people away from the car park causing me loss of earning I will have to issue a county court summons in the region of £150 for each day you do this.” Mr Hussein was stunned when he then received a letter from Northampton County Court saying Mr White had lodged a claim for £535. The clamper had demanded £500 “loss of earnings”, a £35 “court fee” and £150 per day until the court case. Mr Hussein said: “The clamping is destroying my business because customers that have been fined do not return – they eat elsewhere. They do not want to come and collect a £20 meal and leave with an additional £150 parking fine. Mr White does not like me warning ­people about his clamping because he says I am taking away his customers but he has no thought for mine. I have had to start a delivery service to try to make up for the lost business.

“Mr White phoned to complain about what I was doing, then sent me a letter. I was amazed when a court claim came through the post a few days later demanding I pay him over £500. It was outrageous.” Whites Car Park Solutions has put up a notice warning drivers of the £150 release fee. The car park has six spaces, two of which are rented by Mr Hussein for himself and his staff. They are issued with parking permits, which they can give to customers. However, Mr Hussein said: “The way the firm clamps is ferocious. My customers do not even have 20 seconds to come in and collect a permit before the clampers pounce.” At Southampton County Court District Judge Andrew Grand dismissed White’s claim, saying that Mr Hussein was allowed to warn customers.

He said: “It is ordered that the claim is struck out as disclosing no reasonable grounds for bringing proceedings. It is not tortious to warn people of vehicle clamping operating in a car park.” Mr Hussein welcomed the court’s decision and has complained to the car park owner about the clamping firm. He said: “The car park used to be monitored by a different clamping company who would always check with us before clamping any vehicles. They were very reasonable and didn’t clamp our customers. I have complained to the landowners and they assure me that when they renew their agreement with the clampers they will no longer police my spaces.”

The Deer Magnet

We’ve all had a string of bad luck – but Kacee Larson’s is quite unusual. The Iowa teen has earned the nickname "Deer Magnet" after hitting 5 deer in the past year:

Seventeen-year-old Kacee Larson of Conrad said her string of bad luck began last July when she was driving home from her job at an ice cream shop. She saw the deer an instant before hitting it.
Larson’s second collision happened a few months later, while she was driving to church on a Sunday morning.
The streak continued. After Larson hit her fourth deer, her pastor’s wife advised her to start praying before she got into a vehicle.

Full Story

And I Quote

A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.

~ James Feibleman

Vatican condemns Sunday lunchtime football kickoffs

Priorities. The Vatican has some.

“I consider this a truly harmful development,” said Monsignor Carlo Mazza in Tuttosport.
“Putting people in front of the television screen at 12.30, when they are having lunch with their families, to me seems like a ‘pitch invasion’ on life.

“Family time is a very important institution and we cannot ‘sell it off’ to other events.”

I guess it interferes with the destruction of lives and families by pedophile priests.