The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
For the sake of your self-esteem: When you see a chance to get ahead today, you have to take it.
Save the conservative thinking and deep contemplation for another time.
This phase of your life is meant to be full of action and risk-taking.
You're going to have to get comfortable with the idea that you can't hit a home run every time you step up to the plate.
Expecting a perfect score every time isn't realistic, and could be paralyzing.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Nottingham, England, United Kingdom

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Rio De Janeiro, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Riyadh, Ar Riyad, Saudi Arabia

as well as 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, 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, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland and in cities across the United States such as Presque Isle, Tampa, Tucson, Brookings and more.

Today is:

Today is Sunday, January 9, the 9th day of 2011.

There are 356 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:

Balloon Ascension Day

Positively Penguins Day

and

Stephen Foster Day.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Good Advise

Wingnuts you are on notice

It's time to remove the vitriol and bile from our country.
It is time to put the hate and fear mongering wingnuts in prison where they belong.

No more sleeping through the years for Real Americans.
The 'Silent Majority' will no longer be silent.

The majority's wishes were ignored for the last time in the previous election.

Wingnuts you are on notice - you are not liked nor wanted.
Go away on your own or you will be sent away.

Giffords was gunman's target

This is a direct result of wingnut hate and fear mongering rhetoric.

Officials: Rep. Giffords was shooter's target

A gunman who killed 6 and wounded a congresswoman and others in Arizona may not have acted alone.

The victims 

Also: 

• Remembering Judge Roll
• Giffords had faced threats
• Health care vote halted

'Complete chaos' at Arizona shooting

Witnesses describe 'chaos' of Ariz. shooting

New details emerge as police seek a second man in the rampage that killed six.

'Guarded optimism' for Giffords 

Also: 

• Gunman's online trail  
• Media faces scrutiny
• Leaders react to tragedy

Among the victims: 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green and Giffords' Aide Gabe Zimmerman

The Pima County Sheriff's Office released the names of the victims who were killed in the shooting rampage:

The Sheriff confirmed 5 were pronounced deceased at the scene and a 9 year old was later pronounced at the hospital. The deceased have been identified as: John Roll (63), Dorothy Morris (76), Dorwin Stoddard (76), Christina Greene (9), Phyllis Schneck (79) and Gabriel Zimmerman (30).

John Roll was the Federal Judge.

Christina Taylor-Green, the 9-year-old:

Aspiring politician Christina-Taylor Green was born in the midst of tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001, and died Saturday morning while trying to meet Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

The strong-willed 9-year-old third-grader had gone to meet Giffords with a neighbor when she was shot. She died later at University Medical Center.

Her neighbor was shot four times and was recovering from surgery Saturday evening.

Christina-Taylor had just been elected to the student council at Mesa Verde Elementary School and had been interested in politics from a young age, her father, John Green, said Saturday night.

"She was a good speaker. I could have easily seen her as a politician," her father said.

Gabe Zimmerman, the Congressionial aide:

Gabe Zimmerman organized the event in Tucson on Saturday where he was shot to death.

As Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' community outreach director, Zimmerman was a key organizer for all the "Congresswoman on the Corner" events over the years that were aimed at bringing his boss closer to constituents. This work was a natural fit, said friends and fellow politicos, who described Zimmerman as a tireless organizer and gentle man uniquely gifted at working with average folk.

"He was at Gabrielle's side at these 'Congresswoman on the Corner' events," recalled a longtime colleague, Tom Zoellner, an author and a volunteer in Giffords' campaigns. "He would take down their names and their information, and he would pledge to get to work on it. This stuff matters. The 'Congresswoman on the Corner' thing was Gabrielle's idea, but it was Gabe's bailiwick."

Zimmerman, 30 and a Tucson native, worked for Giffords since her first congressional campaign in 2006. He started as a field organizer, became constituent services director when Giffords took office and later took on outreach duties. That job put him in charge of logistics for all of Giffords' public district events. He helped constituents with day-to-day details such as Social Security checks.

Rampage will affect discourse

Shooting casts light on toxic politics

Analysis: A deadly rampage that injured Rep. Giffords will affect national debate.

'Politics has become too personal' 

Also: 

• Giffords still sedated  
• Judge among victims
• House suspends vote

Faux News cuts live feed from Tucson when Sarah Palin mentioned

Typical reaction for the wingnuts at Faux News

They are the direct cause of this tragedy, but in typical form they're totally denying any culpability.

This is how Faux News came to the defense of Sarah Palin -- exactly the way anyone who has been paying attention to the violence-laden rhetoric typical of the far right would expect Faux News to act.

This is how these people roll. 

Sane people already knew this.

Now, everybody knows...

Damn, wingnuts are stupid, ignorant assholes!

Fred Phelps thanks god for shooting of Congresswoman

 

I can think of no words to describe how much I despise this asshole and everything he stands for.

One thing that struck me in this video is when he said that god intervened when someone was trying to shoot westboro baptist church cultists who were picketing.  “god restrained the hand of them all.  Then he turned the violent veteran on you…”, talking about the guy who shot the Congresswoman, as if it is god’s will.

So, if someone were to assassinate this asshole, would it be god’s will then?

 ***

Damn, wingnuts are stupid, ignorant assholes!
They directly cause tragedies such as the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Giffords and then they revel in it while denying culpability.

Wingnuts in other lands

Al-Qaida-linked militants in war-torn southern Somalia have banned unrelated men and women from shaking hands, speaking or walking together in public, residents said Saturday. People who break the rules could be imprisoned, whipped or even executed.

The insurgents already have banned women from working in public, leaving many mothers with a terrible choice: risk execution by going to sell some tea or vegetables in the marketplace, or stay safely at home and watch the children slowly starve.

"It's an awful rule. I feel like I'm under arrest. I've started to ignore the greetings of the women I know to avoid punishment," Hussein Ali said by phone form the southern Somali town of Jowhar. The edict is also being enforced in the town of Elasha.

Source ...

CCTV shows mother drop girl onto train track

The moment a mother lowered her daughter onto a rail track in front of a train has been caught on CCTV. The girl survived the ordeal by scuttling into a hollow underneath the platform. The drama unfolded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when the mother tried to avoid being caught by ticket collectors.

First she is seen lowering the child onto the tracks before clambering down herself. But then she sees the approaching train and scrambles back up onto the platform - without her daughter. The train whizzes past before coming to a stop further down the platform and the woman can be seen peering into the gap. Witnesses then raise the alarm.

 

YouTube link.

Guillermo D'Abenigno, of Buenos Aires Trains, said the electrical current was turned off as soon as the pair were spotted on the line. "You couldn't hear anything. We feared the worst - that the girl was dead, torn to pieces under the train," he said.

Workers managed to crawl underneath the platform where they found the girl terrified but unharmed in a tiny gap. The mother and daughter have not been identified. It is not clear whether the woman will face charges. Mr D'Abenigno said people commonly do "all kinds of things to get out of paying the fare".

Non Sequitur

Snoring

A woman was having a medical problem -her husband was snoring very loudly and every night! So she called the doctor one morning, and asked him if there was anything he could do to relieve her suffering.

"Well, there is one operation I can perform that will cure your husband" said the doctor, "but it is really rather expensive. It will cost you $10,000 down, and payments of $1000 for 36 months, plus payments for extras of course."

"My goodness!" the woman exclaimed, "that sounds like I'm buying a yacht!"

"Humm," the doctor murmured, "too obvious, huh?"

Clubbing

Ain't what it used to be.

Cars and Girls

Baracuda

Amazing Pictures Of Old London

Beautiful photographs of Old London.

Ani, City of Forty Gates

Ani is an abandoned city in Turkey near the Armenian border. At one time it had 200,000 residents, but no one has lived there for 300 years. Huge empty ancient buildings remain, all alone in their magnificence. The history of this city is long and bloody, and the remaining archaeological site is in danger of disappearing completely. See lots more pictures at Kuriositas.

image credit

Ani - some call it the City of 1001 Churches, others the City of Forty Gates. Yet no one has called it home for more than three centuries.

Abandoned by its once prosperous and powerful inhabitants, it is situated on the Turkish side of a militarised zone between the border of Turkey and Armenia. The city of Ani is no stranger to death, destruction and desertion.

Ziggy

Empty wine bottles sell for £300 in China

China's booming wine market has created an astounding demand for empty bottles of famous wines, with fraudsters paying up to £300 for a good bottle that can be filled with a less celebrated vintage. Counterfeiters have begun collecting empty bottles and then refilling them to scam rich Chinese. A particular favorite is Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982, which sells for over £2,000 an intact bottle at auction.
"We only collect Lafite and Maotai [China's most famous spirit]," said one Beijing-based bottle dealer, who gave his name was Mr Huang. "We pay in cash and can collect from the seller. We're offering 2,900 yuan (£282) for a good vintage bottle of Lafite Rothschild. We'll offer 100 yuan less for the Carruades de Lafite," he added.

Mr Huang said his firm collected empties from bars and restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing and that the run-up to Chinese New Year, in February, was peak season, as counterfeiters targeted wine lovers looking to celebrate in style. "The bottles need to be in the best condition possible," said another dealer, called Mr Ye, at a Shanghai company. "It is very important. And I only want genuine bottles, no fakes," he added.

In the past year China has become the world's fastest-growing wine market with legions of millionaires anxious to appear sophisticated. Last year, a case of Chateau Lafite 2009 sold for £43,000 in Hong Kong – three times more than it would have cost in London.

'Shoestring budget' origin

Origin of living on a 'shoestring budget'

The phrase apparently can be traced to a game that was played more than a century ago. 

People provide details 

Also: 

• How to create a budget
• Living on a tight budget  
• Ways that you can splurge

Reasons to avoid credit

Nine good reasons to say 'no' to credit

We rationalize borrowing money in many ways, but they don't always make financial sense.  

Convincing ourselves 

Also: 

• Creative debt payoffs
• Top mortgage mistakes  
• Easy ways to save

Smart money moves to make

Five smart money moves to make this year

Credit cards that offer points or cash back may seem smart, but they can be dangerous.  

Avoid student loans 

Also: 

• No-fee credit cards
• More money resolutions
• Why 2011 will cost more

Dinner at the movies

Under pressure, theaters make big changes

More movie chains are serving up shrimp and burgers to try to fill their seats.  

And you can expect other lures, too 

Also: 

• Movie showtimes
• Go on a spending diet
• Don't sweat $3.50 gas

Check your change

Vintage coins often go for a lot of money in the collectors market, but it's not often you hear about a penny worth $1.7 million.

Penny worth $1.7 million - check your change

B.C.

Upping the cute factor

Most infested places in U.S.

The most infested places in America

One Florida beach has had 219 documented cases of shark attacks.  

Spots with the most bugs, killer bees 

Also: 

• Worst cities for bedbugs
• Nine truly weird hotels
• What guides don't say

North Carolina Opossum Become German Star

Heidi the cross-eyed opossum charms Germany

Heidi the Cross-eyed Opossum lives at the Leipzig Zoo in Germany, where she is set to be a part of Gondwanaland, a new area of the zoo which will open in July. The two-and-a-half year old opossum has already inspired a song and a plush toy.

It is a long way from home. According to the zoo, Heidi and her sister, Naira, originally came from the US state of North Carolina, where they were turned over as foundlings to a facility for wild animals. The sisters then made their way to the zoo in Odense, Denmark, before ending up in Leipzig.
The reason for Heidi’s crossed eyes is unclear, but zoo officials speculate that it might be because of fat deposits behind her eyes, caused by a bad diet early in life. The eyes might look off, but they cause the animal no pain, and don’t affect her ability to get around, according to the zoo. She is, aside from her looks, a normal opossum.

See more pictures of Heidi at der Spiegel.

***

A new addition to the Leipzig Zoo has yet to be seen by the public, but that hasn't stopped her from becoming a star. Heidi, a young cross-eyed opossum, is shaping up to be the most popular furry critter in Germany since Knut the celebrity polar bear. She won't be visible to the public until July, but a cross-eyed opossum has turned into Germany's new media darling. Two-and-a-half-year-old Heidi has even inspired a YouTube hit, her own high-end stuffed animal, and has more than 57,000 friends on Facebook, and counting.

"It really is surprising how famous and loved she is - I guess it has to do with being cross-eyed," said Dr. Helmut Schache, of the toy manufacturer Kösen, whose hand-made stuffed Heidis will be available for order in two weeks. The Heidi rage started in mid-December, when journalists went to the zoo in the eastern city of Leipzig to photograph animals that will be housed in the zoo's upcoming "Gondwanaland," a tropical center based on the regions of the ancient continent. Once those photos became public, they turned the nocturnal marsupial into an overnight sensation. Leipzig Zoo officials, who say that the enthusiam was "surprising and unplanned," have had to put up a new page on their website answering questions about Heidi in an effort to ward off the unexpected media barrage.

Stefan Langner, a composer and musician in a wedding and party band called "90 Degrees," was immediately inspired. "We saw Heidi on TV, and we were so charmed, that we had to write a song about it," Langner said. Langner collaborated with fellow band member Gitta Lüdicke in writing the song, which he says was completed in two days. Meanwhile, Schache and his family-owned stuffed-animal business have developed a prototype of a Heidi stuffed animal, which will be "handmade in Germany - finest quality." The opossums will come in two different sizes, including a 50-centimetre life-size toy that will sell for €85 ($110), with some of the profits going to the zoo for Heidi's benefit, Schache said.

 
YouTube link.

Hiding behind all of the hoopla is the young opossum, of the Virginia variety, who will live out-of-sight at the zoo until her new house is officially unveiled July 1. It is a long way from home. According to the zoo, Heidi and her sister, Naira, originally came from the US state of North Carolina, where they were turned over as foundlings to a facility for wild animals. The sisters then made their way to the zoo in Odense, Denmark, before ending up in Leipzig. The reason for Heidi's crossed eyes is unclear, but zoo officials speculate that it might be because of fat deposits behind her eyes, caused by a bad diet early in life. The eyes might look off, but they cause the animal no pain, and don't affect her ability to get around, according to the zoo. She is, aside from her looks, a normal opossum.

Bats in blankets

Victims of the flooding in Queensland:

Australian Bat Clinic and Wildlife Trauma Centre director Trish Wimberley and her carers have helped save 130 orphaned bats on the Gold Coast in past weeks... Carers have visited several bat 'camps' on the coast in recent weeks to find four-week-old babies on the ground covered in maggots and fly eggs. Trish said: "They're coming down to feed on the ground. That makes them vulnerable... The surviving youngsters will be bottle fed and kept either hanging on clothes lines or in special intensive care units until they are ready to fly again in about four weeks.

Animal Pictures