The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
If you thought yesterday's turn of events was crazy -- and a burden on your tight schedule -- expect today to be even more so.
The good news is that these days are also quite delightful, so much so that you may rethink the importance of sticking to the same schedule day in and day out.
Once you've taken a walk on the wild side, it can become incredibly enticing to keep on walking.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Ipswich, England, United Kingdom

Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Seoul, Kyonngi-Do, Korea

Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, Australia

Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

London, England, United Kingdom

Stevenage, England, United Kingdom

Bourges, Centre, France

Montpellier, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

as well as in cities across the United States such as Kent, Norwalk, Ashland, Wake Forest and more.

Today is:

Today is Monday, August 31, the 243rd day of 2010.

There are 122 days left in the year.

Today In History August 31

Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:

There are none.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

The Web mobilizes to find the girl seen throwing puppies into a river

Full story

Just days after a woman in the U.K. was berated and threatened for placing a cat into a garbage bin, where it sat for 15 hours, the latest such horror video is one of a young girl throwing puppies in a river, where they will most certainly drown.

More here.

Chile Miners

Why Chile miners' rescue is so far off

The men trapped underground will have to assist in their own escape, which could take until Christmas.

Obstacles 

Also: 

• Enormous drill at work
• NASA sends help
• Survival stories

My name is Earl

Hurricane fever has Web on high alert

As Earl strengthens, Web searchers can prepare with storm-tracking tools and readiness tips.  

Quick updates 

Also: 

• Earl batters Caribbean
• Worst hurricanes ever
• Lessons of Katrina

Based on the 5 day track from the National Hurricane Center, Earl will be roaring up the East Coast towards the end of this week. It's a big storm -- and powerful. Looks like Earl will maintain winds over up to 115 mph through Friday, when it will be off the Mid-Atlantic coast.

NHC's Earl page is here. 

The Weather Channel's Earl page is here.

Volcano's return to life

A long-dormant volcano's return to life

As Indonesia's Mount Sinabung spews hot ash, more than 21,000 people are forced to flee.  

Photos of the eruption 

Also: 

• Two possible deaths
• More about Sinabung
• Colombian eruption

Falling Off the End of the Earth

We have all encountered the common misconception that Columbus’ crew was afraid of sailing off the edge of the earth, as if the explorer’s view of a round world were something new.

Columbus’ crew may have been fearful and unruly, but not because of any fear of an edge to the earth.  They were concerned because they were sailing south – into the “torrid zone” – where they thought the heat might evaporate the water to render the seas too shallow for their ships.  They also may have been concerned that a westward voyage to reach the Indies was impossible because they didn’t have enough food and water to cover such a distance (and they were correct – they didn’t have enough provisions for a voyage to Asia and would in fact have died had they not bumped into the Americas).

Full Story

Asteroids, anyone?

30 years worth of asteroids in 3 minutes

A British astronomer has created a visual history of asteroid discovery in the Solar system with a time-lapse video squeezing 30 years into three minutes.

Full story

Parched English fields reveal ancient sites

Unusual crop patterns surface in U.K.

Dry weather aids in the discovery of hundreds of mostly prehistoric human settlements.  

Crop marks explained 

Also: 

• More about crop marks
• Confederate POW camp
• Gladiator tourism

Parched English fields reveal ancient sites

The exceptionally dry early summer months in Britain have revealed the ghostly outlines of several hundred previously unknown ancient sites buried in fields across the English countryside.

Also in Archaeological News:

Alps Iceman may have been buried

Oldest evidence of arrows found

Scalpels and skulls point to Bronze Age brain surgery

Önder Bilgi talks about his discovery of a razor-sharp 4000-year-old scalpel and what it was originally used for.

Ancient disposable cutlery discovered

Israeli archaeologists believe thousands of ancient shards of flint found scattered around a fire pit in a cave near Tel Aviv might be the world's oldest known disposable knives.

Full story

Science News

Clue to ancient Antarctic seaway

Scientists have found evidence for an ancient sea passage linking currently isolated areas of Antarctica.

Beefy dino sported fearsome claws

Fossils of a new type of dinosaur, which looks like a beefy version of the predatory Velociraptor, have been unearthed in Romania.

Troy's hair insured for $1 million

The long, flowing black hair that tumbles out of NFL star Troy Polamalu's helmet and down his back has been insured for $1 million by Head and Shoulders, the shampoo brand that is endorsed by the Pittsburgh Steelers player.

Full story

Slackers Better at “Fun” Activities

The researchers first screened participants of comparable academic ability, categorizing them as interested in achievement or interested in fun. They then had the students look at a computer screen that flashed words related to high achievement (for instance, “win,” “excel” and “master”). In subsequent tests of ability such as a word-search puzzle, the participants who were interested in achievement performed significantly better than did those who were not.
That experiment confirmed conventional assumptions, but the next one had a confounding outcome. Participants were again primed with high-achievement words and asked to complete a word-search puzzle. But instead of describing the task as a serious test of verbal proficiency as before, the researchers called it “fun.” The results of that simple semantic change were profound: not only did the supposed slackers perform better on the task this time around, their scores actually surpassed those of the high-achievement crowd.

Slackers Better at “Fun” Activities

Twenty Experiences to Try Before you Die

Everyone should have a personal bucket list. Once in a lifetime events like skydiving or attending the olympics or even visting the Titanic first-hand are all things all of us CAN do… if we so desired. I haven’t done many of the ones on this list (except for Comic-Con, awesome, by the way) but that certainly doesn’t mean I won’t get to them in the future. Check out this great list of 20 Experiences to Have Before you Die and see which ones you can already cross off your own bucket list. Have you tried skydiving?

Sky-diving is the closest we humans will come to taking flight (at least right now)…so why not experience it? Sky-diving schools are located all around the country and provide an exhilarating, and safe, journey into thewild, blue yonder.

Of course, this list is highly subjective. 

What would you add to it?  

Full Story

Lighthouses you can spend the night in

10 lighthouses you can spend the night in

Guests at California's Pigeon Point Lighthouse soak in a cliff-top hot tub.

Stay on Lake Michigan, Hudson River 

Also: 

• 'Dr. Beach's' top 10 list
• Book a seaside break
• Historic lighthouses

Let the kids play

Michael Jordan's generous donation

The basketball legend helps save middle school sports programs from budget cuts in Charlotte, N.C.  

Why he did it 

Also: 

• Jordan's top moments
• Big honor for Pippen
• McGrady not washed up?

Massive Emerald Found At NC Farm

Massive Emerald Found At NC Farm

An emerald so large it's being compared with the crown jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great was pulled from a pit near corn rows at a North Carolina farm.

Farm emerald cut into stunning shape

A 65-carat gem was discovered near corn rows in North Carolina.

Comparable to royal jewels 

Also: 

• Largest diamonds
• $550K gold bar stolen
• Bold jewelry at Emmys

Low Bridge

North Carolina has some stories ...


(Video Link) There’s a railroad trestle over Gregson Street in Durham, North Carolina that has a clearance of only 11 feet, 8 inches. Truck drivers have been crashing into it since as early as 1956. The above video shows 13 crashes taking place there over a 13 month period, but the link is to a site chronicling even more crashes at the site over more than 50 years.

Full Story

Been under that bridge a few times over the years, myself - seen more than a few meetings between the bridge and trucks. Truth be told the 11 feet 8 inches is a bit generous ... the height of the bridge above the street below seems a wee bit lower than that.

Upping the cute factor

Bad Cops

Bad Cops

Records show Indianapolis Police Chief was heavily involved in immediate response to cop's fatal wreck

California deputy is charged with firing gun in home, filing false sex assault report against ex-

Arts student sues over Pittsburgh police beating

Suspended New Jersey State Police sergeant files whistleblower lawsuit

Suit alleges on-duty sexual assault by Alabama cop

Virginia cop is arrested on assault and firearm charges

New Jersey sheriff's detective is suspended after domestic violence incident

Dumb Crooks

Dumb Crooks

Burglars blow the front off house 

Burglars blew the front off a house after triggering an astonishing explosion during a break in, say police. The house breakers had sneaked into the three-story detached property in Bochum, Germany, and made off with a laptop and jewelery.

Before leaving they way they had come in - through the basement - they poured petrol on the floor and lit it with a match from outside - but instead of starting a fire it triggered a massive blast.

"The fumes mixed with the air in an enclosed space and exploded the liquid instead of igniting it. We think they intended to cover their tracks by setting a fire - and didn't anticipate what would happen," said a police spokesman.

The crooks escaped although it is unclear if they were hurt in the blast. The three people that lived in the house were not present at the time.

Michigan's Last Wild Wolverine a Victim of Budget Cuts?

 

Taken June 2009. Courtesy Jeff Ford.

Michigan lost its last wild wolverine in March. State wildlife officials later said the animal, a female about nine years old, would be mounted and put on display at a state park. But that was months ago. What happened to plans for the display? It turns out the animal may never be seen again, because there's not enough money in the state budget to pay for it.

Article continues: Michigan's Last Wild Wolverine a Victim of Budget Cuts?

Murphy Laws

For Frequent Flyers

1. No flight ever leaves on time unless you are running late and need the delay to make the flight.
 
2. If you are running late for a flight, it will depart from the farthest gate within the terminal.
 
3. If you arrive very early for a flight, it inevitably will be delayed.
 
4. Flights never leave from Gate #1 at any terminal in the world.
 
5. If you must work on your flight, you will experience turbulence as soon as you touch pen to paper.
 
6. If you are assigned a middle seat, you can determine who has the seats on the aisle and the window while you are still in the boarding area. Just look for the two largest passengers.
 
7. Only passengers seated in window seats ever have to get up to go to the lavatory.
 
8. The crying baby on board your flight is always seated next to you.
 
9. The best-looking woman on your flight is never seated next to you.
 
10. The less carry-on luggage space available on an aircraft, the more carry-on luggage passengers will bring aboard.

Facebook post gets Detroit-area juror in hot water

A judge removed a juror from a trial in suburban Detroit after the young woman wrote on Facebook that the defendant was guilty.

Full story

Ryanair Kicks Kid Off Flight For Not Buying Extra Seat For Her Violin

Extreme discount airline Ryanair kicked a 12-year old girl and her dad off a flight because they didn't buy an extra ticket for her violin.

More at the Consumerist

Non Sequitur

The quest for a perfect credit score

The quest for a perfect credit score

Less than 1 percent of Americans are able to reach the maximum FICO figure.  

What's the magic number, anyway? 

Also: 

• 6 new credit rules to know
• Credit card rates climbing
• How to boost your score

Paying off the house in 15 years

Paying off the house in 15 years

Rates as low as 3.86% are tempting more homeowners to opt for the 15-year mortgage.  

There's one big drawback 

Also: 

• Current mortgage rates
• Home prices near you
• Homeowner tax breaks

Home prices rise for third month

U.S. home prices rise for third month

Boosted by tax credits, median housing prices notch a 1 percent gain in June.  

But don't expect momentum to stay 

Also: 

• New nightmare for housing
• Current mortgage rates
• Boost your home's value

Home repairs you shouldn't ignore

Five home repairs you shouldn't ignore

Never put off fixing rain gutters or other potentially disastrous water-related problems.  

Signs a roof is about to fail 

Also: 

• What termites look like
• 10 extraordinary pools
• What guests won't tell you

Low Unemployment

States with surprisingly low unemployment

These fortunate states have a far lower jobless rate than the national average.

One is only 3.6 percent 

Also: 

• Economy losing steam
• Americans spending more
• Ace a phone interview

Culinary DeLites

A week of tasty late-summer suppers

Use the bounty from your garden or farmers' market in this easy gnocchi dish.  

Six more dinners to whip up 

Also: 

• 5 Labor Day side dishes
• New burger toppings
• How to make gnocchi

Five of the scariest new restaurant meals

Denny's Fried Cheese Melt with fries racks up a staggering 1,260 calories.  

Worse: a chain's grilled cheese burger 

Also: 

• Unhealthiest BBQ foods
• How to control portions
• Baked sweet potato fries

What food expiration dates really mean

What food expiration dates really mean

The average family tosses $600 worth of food every year — much of it still safe to eat.  

'Use-by' vs. 'sell-by' dates 

Also: 

• Are organic eggs safer?
• Food safety tips
• 7 foods experts won't eat

The world's most polluted places

Nine of the world's most polluted places

Toxic air and water threaten resources and, in some areas, cause premature deaths.

U.S. cities  

Also: 

• Green grades for cars
• Coal ash contamination
• Causes of pollution

FDA reports filthy conditions at Iowa 'salmonella' egg farm

Dare I say there may have been a slight problem with self-regulation? It's a good thing the Republicans destroyed the food safety system because it only was slowing down business. If only those doggone consumers didn't get in the way of a good thing, profits would have been fine.

LA Times:

Federal officials investigating conditions at the two Iowa mega-farms whose products have been at the center of the biggest egg recall in U.S. history found filthy conditions, including chickens and rodents crawling up massive manure piles and flies and maggots "too numerous to count."

Water used to wash eggs at one of the producers tested positive for a strain of salmonella that appears to match the variety identified in eggs that have sickened at least 1,500 people, according to preliminary Food and Drug Administration reports of inspections at facilities operated by Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms of Iowa Inc.

Fisticuffs in the delivery room

Mother and newborn in critical condition after doctors brawl

Police were yesterday questioning staff at a hospital in Sicily where a child was born with suspected brain damage after two doctors attending his mother allegedly came to blows over the need for a cesarean as she went into labor. Laura Salpietro, 30, had her womb removed following the birth. Her husband claims this took place almost an hour and a half late because of the brawl. Her son had two heart attacks shortly after the birth and is still in a drug-induced coma.

Both doctors have been suspended, and the incident, at the Policlinico hospital, in Messina, last Thursday, is the subject of four investigations – by the hospital authorities, a local prosecutor, the regional health authority, and the ministry of health in Rome. One of the doctors involved and the head of the hospital's obstetrics department have denied a link between the fight and the subsequent events. But the woman's husband, Matteo Molonia, said there had been no previous hint of complications. "The sonographic scans and clinical examinations had ruled out any health problems for my wife and son," he said.

"My wife was already in the labor room when her gynecologist, who followed her pregnancy, and another doctor began to argue. The dispute erupted when her personal gynecologist suggested a cesarean and the other objected." Italy has one of the world's lowest rates of maternal mortality, but also has one of the highest rates of cesarean section, amounting to 38% of all births. According to Italian media accounts, Salpietro's gynecologist, Antonio De Vivo, punched his hand through a window after his collar was grabbed by the second doctor. Asked for a comment De Vivo later said: "I merely say that in this matter I am the wronged party and I was attacked."

Molonia, 37, a private detective, was quoted as saying he saw De Vivo leave the labor room with blood dripping from his hand. "There is a gap that goes from 7.40 [in the morning], when the row blew up, to nine o'clock, when they operated on my wife. Why did all that time go by?" The other doctor, Vincenzo Benedetto, said there had been "exaggeration by the media", and that "everything happened with the greatest speed". He said the complications at the birth were due to a "pre-existing pathology". The head of the obstetrics unit, Domenico Granese, said that the complications at the birth of Salpietro's child occurred "not because of the row or because of any delay".

Ziggy

Every picture tells a story ...

Just not too sure what his is ...

Lunatic Fringe

Lunatic Fringe

Otherwise known as the Seditionists

When dealing with wingnuts ... Remember the rule: 

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

Liars and Fools

Faux's Glenn Beck compares ABC News report to Nazi propaganda.
Coming from a Nazi what would you expect - they are forever accusing all others of their own peccadilloes.

Wingnut Pamela Geller again spreads inflammatory hokum that "We have no paperwork on Obama ... you can't find anything".
You aren't looking then.

Sharron Angle (retard-Nevada) twice refuses to disavow her claim that there are "domestic enemies" in Congress.
Actually there is no need for her to disavow her claim - because it is true ... they are called repugicans and she is wanting to join them.

Wingnut Pamela Geller lies: President Obama's treaties "supersede the Constitution".
Someone obviously does not know a thing about how our government actually works - which is no surprise given she is a batshit crazy moron .

Need we say more?

A few stats for you

1.) 90% of Americans not married to their cousins identify themselves as Democrats
2.) 86% of repugicans think terrorists bombed Pearl Harbor on 9/11
3.) 2% of teabaggers have their original teeth
4.) .01% of repugicans actually know somebody of another race.
     (100% of them have met Clarence Thomas)
5.) 100% of repugicans claimed criticizing the shrub during war time
      encouraged our enemies and endangered our troops
6.) 100% of repugicans now criticize President Obama, thus encouraging
      our enemies and endangering our troops 

Truly Bizarre Mental Delusions

Notice how all 15 describe wingnuts ...


When you are delusional, you lose the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy. Sufferers stumble through life, constricted by pseudo-worlds of their own making. Although the term was first coined in 1977, symptoms of delusion have been recorded for over 150 years.

The billionaire Koch brothers

Excerpts from a New York Times column, "The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party":

There’s just one element missing from these snapshots of America’s ostensibly spontaneous and leaderless populist uprising: the sugar daddies who are bankrolling it... You’ve heard of one of them, Rupert Murdoch. The other two, the brothers David and Charles Koch, are even richer, with a combined wealth exceeded only by that of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among Americans...

All three tycoons are the latest incarnation of what the historian Kim Phillips-Fein labeled “Invisible Hands” in her prescient 2009 book of that title: those corporate players who have financed the far right...

You can draw a straight line from the Liberty League’s crusade against the New Deal “socialism” of Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission and child labor laws to the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater assault on J.F.K. and Medicare to the Koch-Murdoch-backed juggernaut against our “socialist” president...

When David Koch ran to the right of Reagan as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket (it polled 1 percent), his campaign called for the abolition not just of Social Security, federal regulatory agencies and welfare but also of the F.B.I., the C.I.A., and public schools — in other words, any government enterprise that would either inhibit his business profits or increase his taxes. He hasn’t changed...

The Koch brothers must be laughing all the way to the bank knowing that working Americans are aiding and abetting their selfish interests...

More at the link, which cites a New Yorker article by Jane Mayer, "Covert Operations."  Here are some excerpts from that article:

The gala marked the social ascent of Koch, who, at the age of seventy, has become one of the city’s most prominent philanthropists. In 2008, he donated a hundred million dollars to modernize Lincoln Center’s New York State Theatre building, which now bears his name. He has given twenty million to the American Museum of Natural History, whose dinosaur wing is named for him. This spring, after noticing the decrepit state of the fountains outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Koch pledged at least ten million dollars for their renovation. He is a trustee of the museum, perhaps the most coveted social prize in the city, and serves on the board of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where, after he donated more than forty million dollars, an endowed chair and a research center were named for him...

With his brother Charles, who is seventy-four, David Koch owns virtually all of Koch Industries, a conglomerate, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, whose annual revenues are estimated to be a hundred billion dollars...

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests... The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus...

The White House has expressed frustration that such sponsors have largely eluded public notice. David Axelrod, Obama’s senior adviser, said, “What they don’t say is that, in part, this is a grassroots citizens’ movement brought to you by a bunch of oil billionaires.”

By giving money to “educate,” fund, and organize Tea Party protesters, they have helped turn their private agenda into a mass movement...

In 1958, Fred Koch [their father] became one of the original members of the John Birch Society, the arch-conservative group known, in part, for a highly skeptical view of governance and for spreading fears of a Communist takeover. Members considered President Dwight D. Eisenhower to be a Communist agent. In a self-published broadside, Koch claimed that “the Communists have infiltrated both the Democrat and Republican Parties.” He wrote admiringly of Benito Mussolini’s suppression of Communists in Italy, and disparagingly of the American civil-rights movement. “The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America,” he warned. Welfare was a secret plot to attract rural blacks to cities, where they would foment “a vicious race war.” In a 1963 speech that prefigures the Tea Party’s talk of a secret socialist plot, Koch predicted that Communists would “infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the President is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us.”

As their fortunes grew, Charles and David Koch became the primary underwriters of hard-line libertarian politics in America. Charles’s goal, as Doherty described it, was to tear the government “out at the root.”

Of course, Democrats give money, too. Their most prominent donor, the financier George Soros, runs a foundation, the Open Society Institute, that has spent as much as a hundred million dollars a year in America. Soros has also made generous private contributions to various Democratic campaigns, including Obama’s. But Michael Vachon, his spokesman, argued that Soros’s giving is transparent...

The Kochs have long depended on the public’s not knowing all the details about them. They have been content to operate what David Koch has called “the largest company that you’ve never heard of.” But with the growing prominence of the Tea Party, and with increased awareness of the Kochs’ ties to the movement, the brothers may find it harder to deflect scrutiny. Recently, President Obama took aim at the Kochs’ political network. Speaking at a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser, in Austin, he warned supporters that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Citizens United case—which struck down laws prohibiting direct corporate spending on campaigns—had made it even easier for big companies to hide behind “groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity.” Obama said, “They don’t have to say who, exactly, Americans for Prosperity are. You don’t know if it’s a foreign-controlled corporation”—or even, he added, “a big oil company.”

Much more at the link, including the Koch association with the Cato Institute and Americans for Prosperity. The author of the New Yorker story is interviewed at NPR.

Glenn Beck, a Mormon, says 'People aren't recognizing [Obama's] version of christianity'

Wonder what would have happened had Beck bothered explaining his own version of Christianity, in which Jesus had sex with his mother, Mary.

‘Sinner’ singer given 39 lashes by rabbis

Further proof all religions are bogus

An Israeli singer who performed in front of a “mixed audience” of men and women was lashed 39 times to make him “repent,” after a ruling by a self-described rabbinic court on Wednesday.

Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, founder of the Shofar organization aimed at bringing Jews “back to religion” (hazara betshuva), has made it his recent mission to fight against musical performances for both men and women. His “judicial panel,” with Rabbi Ben Zion Mutsafi and another member, sentenced Erez Yechiel to 39 lashes in order to “rid him of his sins.”

Ben Zion said that those who make others sin (mahtiei rabim), such as artists who make men and women attend performances or dance together, have no place in the world to come. He displayed a leather strip he said was made by his father from ass and bull skin, with which Yechiel was to have been whipped.

Yechiel, who said, “I accept upon myself the lashing for my sins,” was ordered to stand by a wooden poll with his head facing north (“from whence the evil inclination comes”), his hands tied with a azure-coloured rope (“a symbol of mercy”), and served his “sentence.”

Taliban says mosque controversy is helping them recruit terrorists

ThinkProgress citing Newsweek:

Newsweek reveals the most concrete evidence yet that this campaign is serving to bolster support for Islamic radicalism abroad. In an interview with the magazine, a Taliban operative going by the name Zabihullah said that, by “preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor.” He goes on to explain that the anti-mosque campaign is providing the Taliban with “with more recruits, donations, and popular support.” Another Taliban official expects that the anti-mosque campaign will provoke a “new wave of terrorist trainees from the West,” similar to suspected Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad. Zabihullah concludes, the “more mosques you stop, the more jihadis we will get”:

Taliban officials know it’s sacrilegious to hope a mosque will not be built, but that’s exactly what they’re wishing for: the success of the fiery campaign to block the proposed Islamic cultural center and prayer room near the site of the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan. “By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor,” Taliban operative Zabihullah tells NEWSWEEK. (Like many Afghans, he uses a single name.) “It’s providing us with more recruits, donations, and popular support.” [...]

Taliban officials say they’re looking forward to a new wave of terrorist trainees from the West like this year’s Times Square car bomber. “I expect we will soon be receiving more American Muslims like Faisal Shahzad who are looking for help in how to express their rage,” says a Taliban official who was a senior minister when the group ruled Afghanistan and who remains active in the insurgency. As an indication of the anger that is growing among some Muslims in the West, this official, who requested anonymity for security reasons, mentions the arrest of three Canadian Muslims in Ontario last week on charges of plotting to build and detonate improvised explosive devices. (A fourth individual was arrested in Ottawa last Friday in connection with the case.) The Ground Zero furor will likely add to that anger. “The more mosques you stop, the more jihadis we will get,” Zabihullah predicts.

Tennessee mosque attack also included gun shots

The Teabaggers must be thrilled with the big showing of violence. And yes, the arson and gun shots should be considered terrorism.

"It was nothing like a hunting rifle," said Sbenaty, an MTSU engineering professor and member of the Islamic Center's planning committee.

Female members of the center's congregation were on site and easily recognizable because of their wardrobe. He wasn't sure if the shots were being fired at the Muslim group, but in the aftermath of the weekend arson incident, he said they felt it necessary to report.

"We hope for the best, obviously, but this isn't hunting land. There's plenty of houses around here," he said. "To say we're nervous is a huge understatement. It's terrorism."

Suspicious Tenn. fire fans mosque debate

Burned equipment at the site of a planned mosque has local Muslims concerned.

Movement 'against Islam' 

Also: 

• Residents protest
• The Ground Zero debate
• Cabbie attack indictment

Wizard of Id

Millions of Dead Fish Poison Bolivian Drinking Water

Image credit: psyberartist/Flickr

In the northern hemisphere, the winter of 2010 was notable for its unpredictability and extreme conditions. From East Coast blizzards to a devastating cold snap in Florida, cities struggled to to keep pace and entire ecosystems hovered on the brink of collapse.
Now, as winter wears on in the Southern Hemisphere, Bolivia is reeling from uncharacteristically cold weather that is clearing entire watersheds of life.

Article continues: Millions of Dead Fish Poison Bolivian Drinking Water

New York's Water Filled With Invisible Shrimp

New York's water is some of the most delicious in the land, and it's filled with microscopic shrimp.

More at the Consumerist

Tastes like chicken ...

As fish tales go ...

This one's a whopper ...

7lb 5oz goldfish caught in Norwich

The largest wild goldfish ever caught in the UK has been landed at the broad at the University of East Anglia. To his shock, Lowestoft angler Stuart Thurston, 27, landed the bright gold, 7lb 5oz fish while fishing for carp. He had been fishing for several hours and had caught a handful of carp before hooking the unusual fish.

“To my surprise I lifted it out of the water and it was orange,” he said. “I'm surprised a pike hasn't had it for dinner.” He quickly grabbed a nearby fisherman to take a photograph then released the colorful specimen to be caught another day. There are two goldfish in the 18-acre lake which are well known among the 40 or so anglers that regularly fish it.

It is thought that they were pets discarded by their owners, but their origins are likely to remain a mystery. The same goldfish was last caught in 2007 by Graham Northwood - but then it weighed just 5lb 5oz. Since then it has put on weight and become a record-breaker.

The catch has to be officially verified before it becomes an official British record, but it is already being widely hailed as the largest goldfish ever caught in the UK. It has beaten the 5lb fish caught in Poole by a 16-year-old schoolboy in July. For Mr Thurston it is a strange but welcome record. “I'd rather it was a record-breaking carp but I'm not going to whinge,” he said.

How To Grow A Rainbow Rose

In 2004, two Dutch companies, River Flowers and Zandbergen, experimented and successfully grew a rose that had its petals rainbow colored. As petals get their nourishment through stem, the idea is to split the stem into several channels and dip each one in a different colored water.

This way all the colors will be drawn by the stem into petals and the resultant rose will have all the colors in it. The same method can be applied to other flowers especially to Chrysanthemum and Hydrangea. You can use the same idea to color any flower, anyway you like.