The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
If you are waiting for more free time to come into your life soon, don't hold your breath.
It's up to you to do whatever you have to do to make things work, and there's simply no getting around it.
You are capable of scheduling your day exactly the way you want to, as long as you are willing to accept the consequences.
Unleash some of your charm and diplomacy in the right direction and you can find the time you need.
Step back and try to stay flexible.

Some of our readers today have been in:

 Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Harelbeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia
Bilbao, Pais Vasco, Spain
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
London, England, United Kingdom
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Florence, Toscana, Italy

Copenhagen, Kobenhavn, Denmark

Seoul, Kyonggi-Do Korea

Bamberg, Bayern, Germany

Moscow, Moskva, Russia

Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Iasi, Iasi, Romania

Kiev, Kyivv, Ukraine

Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia

as well as Slovakia, Malta, Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Maldives, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland

and in cities across the United States such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, New Orleans and more.

Today is:

Today is Sunday, July 31, the 212th day of 2011.

There are 153 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

There isn't one.
  

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Non Sequitur

Endgame of debt maneuvers

Debt saga turns to Democrats's plan

Harry Reid's deficit-cutting alternative takes focus after the Senate swiftly rejects the repugican's bill.  

Next moves 

Also: 

• Details of rival plans
• Answers to big 'what-ifs'
• 14th Amendment option?

The truth be told

Locked in debt stalemate

Leaders locked in debt stalemate

Democrats and repugicans can't even agree if progress is being made on a compromise.

Mixed messages 

Also: 

• repugicans talk to Obama
• Reid: Deal not close
• Stocks face pressure

Reality is ...

Did you know ...

That if corporations paid 1960 level taxes, the debt would vanish.

Green

Couple slashes debt by $46K

Slashing $46,000 in debt in 10 months

Ryan Hawkins and his wife found ways to whittle down their steep loans one by one.

How they were able to do it 

Also: 

• Lowest borrowing rates
• Mortgage deduction eyed
• Credit card calculator

When to fix it or replace it

Should you fix it or get rid of it?

Here's how to decide whether it pays to repair your electronics, appliances, and clothes.

  Rule of thumb for cars 

Also: 

• Trim your cell phone bill
• Save $1,000 this summer
• Car insurance advice

Careers that you can enjoy

Careers you can be passionate about

One of these seven positions could make you eager to go to work every day.  

The best education programs for them 

Also: 

• Finding work-life balance
• Five in-demand degrees
• Disappearing work perks

It's hot

Norway suspect eyed other government targets

The anti-Muslim extremist who confessed to a bombing and youth camp massacre that killed 77 people in Norway has told investigators he also considered attacking other targets linked to the government or the prime minister's Labor Party, police said Saturday.

Full Story

Murdoch’s staff at NY Post told to "preserve and maintain" info. on phone hacking

Well, well, well:

News Corp. has told staffers at its New York Post tabloid to "preserve and maintain" any information related to phone hacking or government payoffs in exchange for scoops.

The memo comes in response to an ongoing probe in Britain about phone hacking done by News Corp.'s now-shuttered News of the World tabloid. That paper was found to have hacked into the voice mail messages of celebrities, members of the Royal Family and even victims of crime and terrorism.

"All New York Post employees have been asked to do this in light of what has gone on in London at News of the World, and not because any recipient has done anything improper or unlawful," said the paper's Editor Col Allen in a memo to his staff.

Uh-hum.

Is the same memo being sent to FAUX News?

Awesome Pictures

Passengers survive jet crash

Passengers survive terrifying jet crash

All 163 people on board Flight 523 from N.Y. live to tell the tale after their plane breaks in half.  

 'I just started to cry' 

Also: 

• Caribbean Airlines crash
• Wright replica wrecks
• Air France pilots' ordeal

Blood clot killed Xbox addict

Xbox addict killed by blood clot

Chris Staniforth, 20, died after sitting in the same position for several hours.  

 His family's campaign 

Also: 

• Info on pulmonary embolus
• Game addiction study
• Exercise, fitness tips

Will Closing Food Banks Help End Hunger?

Image: Walmart Stores via flickr CC

Food banks first rose to prominence in the 1980's as an emergency measure to stave off hunger during a time of recession and high unemployment. While often very prominent in the community, these institutions are increasingly coming under fire from food activists. Some go so far as to say that if we are truly going to end hunger in North America, food banks should be closed.

Article continues: Will Closing Food Banks Help End Hunger?

Random Celebrity Photo

Ziggy

Dancing With The Ponch!

 

Television is about to get a lot cheesier thanks to Erik Estrada being the first "star" confirmed for Univision's hit reality show "Mira Quien Baila" . The announcement was made this week during the network's "El Gordo y La Flaca" entertainment show.

Full Story

Vintage Photo

Flappers a.k.a. good time girls (back in the 1920s)

And the Father of the Year Award goes to ...

Dad slept while 8-year-old drove

Louisiana state police say an 8-year-old boy was driving a pickup truck down an interstate while his drunken father slept in the passenger seat.

Woman dresses as man, draws on beard in robbery

Authorities say a woman who dressed like a man and drew a beard on her face has robbed an Alabama bank.

 Full Story

Mayor Won't Step Down After 3-Day Drinking Binge

Full Story

Mayor Bob Ryan of Seboygan, Wisconsin, was found passed out at a local bar over the weekend.

Chemistry

A female student wished to make some potassium hydroxide solution (aqueous) and decided to throw a large lump of potassium into a bucket of water.

Her professor observed what she was about to do, out of the corner of his eye and hurried towards her, and after confirming this was what she was intending to do, asked her first to stir the water in the bucket for five minutes before adding the potassium.

She was puzzled and ran after him to ask the purpose of this action.

"It will give me time to get away' said the professor.

Thieves Steal 22 Restroom Doors

Thieves Steal 22 Restroom Doors

German motorists were forced to take their restroom breaks in public after thieves made off with 22 stainless steel cubicle doors from highway service stops, news website The Local reported Saturday.

The Biggest Locks On Earth

Today we have to deploy increasingly sophisticated measures to secure our possessions and deter would-be thieves. Past decades have introduced key cards, number pads and Total Recall style biometric scanning.

As these more advanced security measures become further integrated into our everyday lives, remember that sometimes the best form of protection is a great big lump of reinforced steel.

A bridge to somewhere

Amateur Archeologists Invited to Decipher Papyri

Hundreds of thousands of fragments of ancient papyri have been put online in a bid to crowd source translations.  

Read more 

People from Polar Regions Have Bigger Brains

They're not more intelligent, but the bigger brain (and eyeball) size permits better vision in areas with less sunlight.

Read more 

Russia Rapidly Loosing Permafrost

Russia's vast permafrost areas may shrink by a third by the middle of the century due to global warming, endangering infrastructure in the Arctic zone.

Read more 

B.C.

Baby hippo's water dance

Baby hippo dances underwater

There are many words that describe a hippopotamus, but "graceful" has never been one of them.  

Until now 

Also: 

• Pygmy hippo's first swim
• Polar bear's new hat
• Gorilla finds a camera

Golden Textile Made From Spiders Silk

There’s an amazing collaboration between man and insect on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, a cloth woven purely from the silk of over a million Golden Orb spiders. This magnificent textile, naturally golden in color and seemingly imbued with it’s own luminescence, took over four years to make after eighty gatherers spent five years gathering the silk. Such a feat has not been attempted since 1900, when a spider silk textile that disintegrated over time was created for the Paris Exposition Universelle, and it’s not surprising that such a feat is almost never attempted, for the spiders with the best silk can only be found in Madagascar. But is all the effort really worth it for a piece of cloth that isn’t long for this world?

Full Story

Dolphin Blubber Holds Secrets to Healing

Studying dolphin blubber may yield insights into better treatments for skin injuries in the future.  

Read more 

Cancers Might Be Newly Evolved Species

Cancerous tumors are parasitic organisms, new species, that depend on their host for food, says a new study.

Read more 

Facebook Page Lists Sitka, Alaska, Bear Sightings

Residents of Sitka, Alaska, are using social media to share reports about bear activity in the area.

Full Story

The 20 Greatest Sharks in Pop Culture History

Shark Week starts this Sunday! Who’s your favorite pop culture shark? I have several, and they’re all here in a list of the greatest sharks from movies, TV, and even viral news. I bet you’ll see some you’d forgotten about -like SNL’s Land Shark.

One of the most classic recurring sketches in Saturday Night Live history, Chevy Chase’s Land Shark character was basically a shark who would coerce its victims into opening their doors by pretending to be plumbers, repairmen or, in this clip, a member of Unicef.
Once the unsuspecting people opened their doors, the Land Shark would eat them whole, making a comment on the ridiculousness of the hysteria over sharks after the release of Jaws.

Full Story

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
You have two choices today: Either focus your energy on communicating more clearly, or suffer through a series of time-consuming misunderstandings.
Being the smart person you are, you will likely choose to work harder on conveying your ideas to others and -- more importantly -- listening more completely to what other people say.
Remember, communication is a two-way street and it's impossible for you to listen while you are talking.
Opt to say less and hear more today.

Some of our readers today have been in:

 Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Pyrmont, New South Wales, Australia
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Copenhagen, Kobenhavn, Denmark
Brtaislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
London, England, United Kingdom
Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia
Barcelona, Catalonia, Australia
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Nizhniy Novgorod, Nizhegorod, Russia
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Moscow, Moskva, Russia
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Oslo, Oslo, Norway

as well as Slovakia, Malta, Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Maldives, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland

and in cities across the United States such as Greenville, Charleston, Columbia, Rock Hill and more.

Today is:

Today is Saturday, July 30, the 211th day of 2011.

There are 154 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

Cheesecake Day. 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

President Obama's Weekly Address

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Washington, DC

Today, I’d like to speak with you about the ongoing and urgent efforts to avoid a first-ever default and get our fiscal house in order.
Republicans in the House of Representatives just spent precious days trying to pass a plan that a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate had already said they wouldn’t vote for.  It’s a plan that wouldn’t solve our fiscal problems, but would force us to re-live this crisis in just a few short months.  It would hold our economy captive to Washington politics once again.  If anything, the past few weeks have demonstrated that’s unacceptable.
Any solution to avoid default must be bipartisan.  It must have the support of both parties that were sent here to represent the American people – not just one faction of one party.  There are multiple ways to resolve this problem.  Congress must find common ground on a plan that can get support from both parties in the House.  And it’s got to be a plan that I can sign by Tuesday.
Look, the parties are not that far apart here.  We’re in rough agreement on how much spending we need to cut to reduce our deficit.  We agree on a process to tackle tax reform and entitlement reform.  There are plenty of ways out of this mess.  But there is very little time.
We need to reach a compromise by Tuesday so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time – bills like Social Security checks, veterans’ benefits, and contracts we’ve signed with thousands of American businesses.  If we don’t, for the first time ever, we could lose our country’s Triple A credit rating.  Not because we didn’t have the capacity to pay our bills – we do – but because we didn’t have a Triple A political system to match it.  And make no mistake – for those who reflexively oppose tax increases on anyone, a lower credit rating would be a tax increase on everyone – we’d pay higher interest rates on mortgages, car loans, and credit cards.
That would be inexcusable, and entirely self-inflicted by Washington.  The power to solve this is in our hands.  All that’s needed is a simple vote that Democrats and Republicans have taken for decades, including all of the leaders in Congress today.  It was done 18 times under President Reagan.  7 times under George W. Bush.  And it must be done again now.  It’s not a vote that allows Congress to spend more money.  Raising the debt ceiling simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills Congress has already racked up.  It gives the United States of America the ability to keep its word.  And it will let businesses and our economy breathe a sigh of relief.
On Monday night, I asked you to make your voice heard in this debate.  And the response was overwhelming.  One of the emails we received was from a woman named Kelly Smith, who wanted to send this message to Washington:
“I keep my home clean, work hard at a full time job, give my parents any monies I can so they can afford their medications, I pay my bills and by all appearances I am a responsible person.  All I’m asking is that you be responsible.  I have my house in order and all I’m asking is that you get yours the same way.”
Here in Washington, we need to get our house in order.  And I have to say, Democrats in Congress and some Senate Republicans have been listening and have shown themselves willing to make compromises to solve this crisis.  Now all of us – including Republicans in the House of Representatives – need to demonstrate the same kind of responsibility that the American people show every day.  The time for putting party first is over.  The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now.  Thank you.

House passes repugican debt plan

House passes repugican debt-ceiling bill

repugicans finally close ranks and support the plan backed by John Boehner.

  Focus shifts to Senate 

Also: 

• S.C. takes credit
• Moody's to affirm rating
• Bad week for Wall Street

Senate swiftly rejects repugican plan

Senate swiftly rejects repugican debt plan

The standoff continues as Democrats kill the measure adopted earlier by the House.  

Weekend of negotiations 

Also: 

• Debt crisis rundown
• Moody's to affirm rating
• Bad week for Wall Street

Apple has more cash than U.S.

Company has more cash than Uncle Sam

While the U.S. government struggles to find a way to pay its bills, Apple is thriving.  

How much it has in reserve 

Also: 

• Again at Christmas?
• World Bank warns U.S.
• Seniors fear hard times

Recession risks up amid slow growth, debt standoff

The economy is at risk of slipping into another recession.

It nearly stalled in the first six months of the year, the government reported Friday.

Full Story

That Time in 1979 When the U.S. Government Defaulted

The August deadline for lifting the debt ceiling is looming. Will the US government default on its loans? Has that ever happened before? Yes it has -in 1979.

In the spring of 1979, Congress was in the midst of a similarly heated debate about raising the debt ceiling, Legislators eventually reached a last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling and (they thought) save the day, but something went wrong. The Treasury didn’t redeem $120 million worth of securities that matured in April and May.
In other words, the U.S. Treasury defaulted on its securities even though Congress settled the debt-ceiling issue. What happened? It’s not totally clear.

Here’s the short answer: When all else fails, blame the computers.

Full Story

And as a result we got ronny raygun and the entire world went to shit.

Non Sequitur

Judge orders release of grand jury testimony of President Richard Nixon

The secret grand jury testimony of President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal was ordered to be released on Friday by a federal judge because of its significance in American history.

Full Story

Why teachers would cheat

Why would teachers help kids cheat?

Amid a national scandal, one instructor reveals why she helped her students' test scores.

 Intense pressure 

Also: 

• Gates: HS not enough
• Meth closes W.V. school
• Back-to-school shopping

Food that helps keep you cool

Food that will help keep you cool

Ice cream won't do the trick, but a leafy garnish placed on some desserts can work wonders.  

More chilly ingredients 

Also: 

• Is obesity catching?
• Weirdest restaurants
• Great zucchini recipes

'Best' restaurant is closing

'World's best restaurant' shutting down

A world-renowned eatery in Spain is undergoing a radical transformation led by the head chef.

What it will become 

Also: 

• Happy Meal's new look
• Toughest reservations
• Expensive chef lawsuits

Bad Acting

 

Who says only humans can be 'actors'.

America's best campgrounds

America's coolest campgrounds

You won't believe the sights you can see for less than $50 a night if you don't mind roughing it a bit.

Eight gems 

Also: 

• Guide to national parks
• Climate change at parks?
• Best beach hotels

Denver bets on a county fair, aiming at hipsters

Denver has an ambitious plan to revive the county fair: blend throwback chic with urban grit to draw crowds celebrating everything weird and crafty.

Full Story

Optical illusion you'll 'heart'

A perplexing illusion that you'll 'heart'

The background colors have an odd effect on these heart-shaped objects.  

 Not as similar as they might seem 

Also: 

• Software helps map brain
• Animals that glow
• Yoga's effect on pain

Wizard of Id