The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Opportunities will come in many forms today, although you might not recognize every one of them.
Not to worry -- the ones you're ready for will be obvious.
Keep in mind that nothing is a sure thing -- a friend's promise may fall through, a work meeting may swerve off the planned agenda.
Just go with the flow and don't let these little detours bug you too much.
Everyone is trying their best, you have to remember (and appreciate) that.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Canarias, Spain

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Mechelen, Antwerpen, Belgium

Sittard, Limburg, Netherlands

Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada

Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

Madrid, Madrid, Spain

as well as Mexico, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Singapore, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Finland, Korea,  Argentina, Vietnam, Egypt, Russia, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates and in cities across the United States such as Gaffney, Ephrata, Tallmadge, Bellmore and more.

Today is:

Today is Sunday, December 5, the 339th day of 2010.

There are 26 days left in the year.

Today In History December 5

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

There isn't one.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

'Secret Santas' dole out $100 handshakes in N.C.

"Secret Santas" are roaming the streets of North Carolina, handing out $100 handshakes.

Full Story

Retro Photo

Mlle Fouguet, Follies Bergere Paris ca. 1925

There Is A WAR Being Waged Against The Working Families Of America!

Bernie Sanders telling it like it is.

The House Finally Passes The Child Nutrition Act

Photo: Ben+Sam

Not a moment too soon the House passed The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act just two days ago after it passed the Senate in August. This is long overdo as far as I'm concerned and just before the holiday season, it puts school nutrition and our kids on the front burner again. That's not to say that disconcerting compromises didn't make for a less than perfect bill, but getting the bill passed is still a victory for kids faced with unhealthy lunches and pangs of unnecessary hunger across the nation.

Article continues: The House Finally Passes The Child Nutrition Act

Woman creates DIY TSA-like scanner

Want to scan friends and neighbors in all their naked glory? Well, Jeri Ellsworth decided the TSA was having too much fun with its own backscatter scanners and decided to come up with something similar. 

Full Story

Your Web surfing history is accessible (without your permission) via JavaScript

The Web surfing history saved in your Web browser can be accessed without your permission. JavaScript code deployed by real websites and online advertising providers use browser vulnerabilities to determine which sites you have and have not visited …

Full story

Fear of being envied makes people behave well toward others

It’s nice to have success — but it can also make you worry that the jealous people will try to bring you down. New research in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, has found that the fear of being the target …

Full story

Famous People You Did Not Know Were Adopted

Famous People You Did Not Know Were Adopted

Farmers slowed down by hunter-gatherers: Our ancestors’ fight for space

Agricultural — or Neolithic — economics replaced the Mesolithic social model of hunter-gathering in the Near East about 10,000 years ago. One of the most important socioeconomic changes in human history, this socioeconomic shift, known as the Neolithic transition, spread gradually across Europe until it slowed down when more northern latitudes were reached.

Full story

Non Sequitur

Amazon.com adds Wikipedia-based book shopping pages

Amazon.com has quietly begun a project to duplicate Wikipedia content and use links in the content to point to books that can be purchased on Amazon.com. The so-called Shopping-enabled Wikipedia Page was reportedly created in November. 

Full Story

China's high-rise boom

Skyscrapers setting records in China

The country overtakes the U.S. as the global leader in building the planet's tallest structures.  

Reason for shift 

Also:

• World's tallest buildings
• Inside the priciest home
• Mecca's building boom

Chaos over two presidents

Ivory Coast sinks into political chaos

Presidential turmoil sweeps the African nation after two candidates take dueling oaths of office.  

Obama weighs in

Also: 

• More on the election
• Nigerian oil delta raids  
• South African corruption

Israeli forest fire arrests

Arrests in connection with Israeli blaze

While the forest fire continues to burn, police dismiss arson as the likely cause of the deadly incident.

41 killed 

Also: 

• Photos of the forest fire
• More on the blaze 
• Last resort for Abbas?

Sweet Dreams

Eurythmics

Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
Travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something
Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused

Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
Travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something
Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused

I wanna use you and abuse you
I wanna know what's inside you
(Whispering) Hold your head up, movin' on
Keep your head up, movin' on
Hold your head up, movin' on
Keep your head up, movin' on
Hold your head up, movin' on
Keep your head up, movin' on
Movin' on!

Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
Travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something
Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused

I'm gonna use you and abuse you
I'm gonna know what's inside
Gonna use you and abuse you
I'm gonna know what's inside you

On The Job

Why 'recession-proof jobs' don't exist

Workers in these professions once had almost guaranteed job security, but not anymore.  

The sobering reality 

Also: 

• Why jobs are so scarce  
• Where high earners live  
• Impress your boss

How trade pact affects jobs

How South Korea pact helps U.S. workers

President Obama praises a new trade agreement that could create more than 70,000 new jobs.  

Affected industries 

Also: 

• Obama: 'Landmark' deal
• South Korea slideshow
• New defense minister

Feed a family on $10 a day

Feed a family of four on $10 a day

The secret is buying grocery items that pack the most bang for the buck. 

One $5 chicken = two dinners for four 

Also: 

• Save $100 a month
• More grocery savings  
• Money lessons for women

End-of-the-year money moves

Smart end-of-the-year money moves

This checklist can help ensure that your financial records are in good shape for the new year. 

Spend so you can save 

Also: 

• Organizing tax receipts
• How to earn more money  
• Looking like a cheapskate

Mathematical curiosity

The first few powers of 5 share a curious property — their digits can be rearranged to express their value:

25 = 5²
125 = 5^{1 + 2}
625 = 5^{6 – 2}
3125 = (3 + (1 × 2))⁵
15625 = 5⁶ × 1²⁵
78125 = 5⁷ × 1⁸²

It’s conjectured that all powers of 5 have this property. But no one’s proved it yet.

Down on the Body Farm

A “body farm” is a facility for research on decomposing bodies. It can also be a training ground for criminal investigators. The fifth body farm in the US is preparing to open in Pennsylvania, which will give researchers a new environment to study.

“It’s so environment specific,” said Dr. Richard L. Jantz, Professor Emeritus and Director of the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee. “In east Tennessee, it’s not humid in the summer and it doesn’t get that cold, but in the southwest, it’s hot and dry all the time and things proceed differently.”
Cold weather generally slows the rate of decomposition, while heat, direct sunlight, and high humidity all accelerate it. A buried body, exposed to fewer elements, will decompose more slowly than one on the surface, but acidic soil and high soil moisture can work to speed up the process. The California University of Pennsylvania body farm, to be located in the southwestern corner of the state in a humid continental climate, will be subject to hot, humid summers (with an occasional heatwave); cold, snowy winters; and regular precipitation throughout the year. These climatic conditions, distinct from those in Texas, North Carolina and Tennessee, will likely affect corpses in undocumented ways and provide ample opportunity for new research.

Over 100 people each year donate their bodies for research on the farms. Read more about body farms at The Atlantic.

Ziggy

How You Catch A Cold

The common cold is a viral infection of the upper respiratory system, including the nose, throat, sinuses, eustachian tubes, trachea, larynx, and bronchial tubes. Over 200 different viruses can cause a cold.

Although it is not true that getting wet or being in a draft causes a cold (a person has to come in contact with the virus to catch a cold), certain conditions may lead to increased susceptibility.

How You Catch A Cold.

First Snow

We had our first snowfall of the winter season yesterday.
As normal it was beautiful to watch falling and disappearing as it touched the earth.
We might get snow to stick around a while before the season is over ... well, we can hope can't we?

Hoar frost on a spideweb

Hoar frost may have different names depending on where it forms. For example, air hoar is a deposit of hoar frost on objects above the surface, such as tree branches, plant stems, wires; surface hoar is formed by fernlike ice crystals directly deposited on snow, ice or already frozen surfaces; crevasse hoar consists in crystals that form in glacial crevasses where water vapour can accumulate under calm weather conditions; depth hoar refers to cup shaped, faceted crystals formed within dry snow, beneath the surface.

Yukimarimo

"Yuki" means snow in Japanese, and "marimo" is a ball-like growth of water algae which the yukimarimo resemble.

During a storm on the Antarctic plateau the humidity is higher than normal. After a storm, the temperature rapidly drops and and due to the excess humidity, hoarfrost forms on the surface of the snow. At these low temperatures, electrostatic attraction between the rapidly formed ice crystals is high due to growth charging during formation. When a light wind blows after the formation of this hoarfrost, the hoarfrost breaks apart and the frost crystals clump together and stick due to the high electrostatic attraction and subsequent fusing of the ice crystals, and tumble across the snow in a manner similar to tumbleweed.  The sizes of the yukimarimo range from a few millimeters to several centimeters in diameter.

Giant Pink Snails Invade Miami

 

image credit

It sounds like the name of a long forgotten B-Movie from the 1950s but Miami has indeed been invaded by giant pink snails - 45 of them - and they are there with a purpose. However, unlike many of the alien invaders featured in many science fiction movies, these come in peace.

B.C.

Animal Pictures

Male Elephant Seal  by  Sean Bonnette.