The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Deep inside of you lays all the resolve and ambition you need to make some major headway today -- be on the look out for coworkers and other people who may be showing you a shortcut.
Saving time is on your mind, so you'd be wise to devote time to finding the tricks you need to shave precious seconds and gain a little more breathing room.
Any health concerns you've had should be speedily improving as well -- all a testament to your discipline and positive thinking.
Keep up the good work!

Some of our readers today have been in:

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Milan, Lombardia, Italy

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

London, England, United Kingdom

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Colchester, England, United Kingdom

Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Caen, Basse-Normandie, France

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

Nice, Provence-Alpes-Cote D'Azur, France

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Elizabeth, South Australia, Australia

Chambery, Rhone-Alpes, France

as well as 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, 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 Montpelier, Kirkland, Minneapolis, Statesville and more.

Today is:

Today is Tuesday, January 11, the 11th day of 2011.

There are 354 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is: 

There isn't one.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

And I Quote

"Yeah. The whole tea party."
    ~ Gabrielle's father, when asked "Does she have any enemies?"     

Link

Thank you sheriff Dupnik

The sheriff of Pima County is getting carpet-bombed w/negative comments about his opinions he expressed.
Opinions shared by Real Americans.

Why not leave a message of support for sheriff Dupnik?

Paul Begala to the wingnuts: Why so defensive about Arizona shooting?

From Greg Sargent:

Paul Begala -- who was in the trenches with Bill Clinton in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing and remembers how quickly the promises of civility vanished -- gets in touch to say that he hopes Democrats and repugicans alike do a much better job this time around of showing some restraint in the wake of the Arizona shooting.

Begala has a simple question for the wingnuts: Why are you reacting so badly to those who are insisting that we all exercise some judgment going forward?

Sheriff Dupnik blasts Dimbulb: 'he is irresponsible'

I like this sheriff

Lush Dimbulb was spewing his usual incendiary language yesterday and aimed some of it at Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. Unlike many elected officials, particularly repugicans, who cower when Dimbulb attacks them, Dupnik went on ABC News and criticized Dimbulb by name for his role in inciting hatred and violence:

The Arizona sheriff investigating the Tucson shooting that left U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded had harsh words today for those engaging in political rhetoric, calling wingnut hate radio host Lush Dimbulb "irresponsible" for continuing the vitriol.

"The kind of rhetoric that flows from people like Lush Dimbulb, in my judgment he is irresponsible, uses partial information, sometimes wrong information," Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said today. "[Dimbulb] attacks people, angers them against government, angers them against elected officials and that kind of behavior in my opinion is not without consequences."

Dimbulb today railed against the media and Dupnik for trying to draw a link between the heated political climate and the shooting rampage, calling the sheriff a "fool." But Dupnik stood by his assertions.

"The vitriol affects the [unstable] personality that we are talking about," he said. "You can say, 'Oh no, it doesn't,' but my opinion is that it does."

This, of course, makes Dupnik vulnerable to attacks from the all repugicans and wingnuts. They'll all do anything to protect Lush. But, Dupnik is absolutely right. And, most of the repugicans know it.

Here's the video:

More incendiary language from Dimbulb, only two days after Giffords was nearly assassinated

They Never Learn!

Lush Dimbulb's response to the near assassination of Congresswoman Giffords (and the assassination of a federal judge and a nine year old girl):

"They're shutting down any opposition and criminalizing it. They've had a plan filed away in a drawer to take away as many of our political freedoms as they can. The Democrats just lost an election, and now the only other thing they can try to do is silence the opposition."

So the politicians who just got gunned down had a secret plan to take away as many of our political freedoms as they can...

... well, that's news to we sane people.

Insane Dimbulb Quotes

"We're better then the Democrats.  You don't see any Republicans running
  to a microphone to blame a Democrat for the shooting in Arizona, do you?"
     -- The Oxy-d out Pigboy, just now, live on the radio in Tulsa


 Hey Pigboy, he SHOT a DEMOCRAT!
 
 You're right - nobody is blaming the Democrats for this shooting.

Isolated act? Read this.

The NYT has a blockbuster piece detailing the threats and violent repugican innuendo leading up to the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Giffords. Read this, and tell me that this was an isolated act. There was a clear pattern of increasing threats of violence, fed in part by the repugicans and the teabaggers, which ended up in a bullet going through her brain.

Yeah, isolated.

[T]he shootings came after a disconcerting run of episodes in this district of mountains and desert, raising temperatures here in a way that some of Ms. Giffords’s friends argue fed an atmosphere that might encourage violence.

Several of them pointed back to the smashed door of her district headquarters at 1661 North Swan Street last March as a turning point; a time when a cloud of unease settled over Ms. Giffords and her staff.

She and aides began expressing worry about what they saw as an escalation of threats after a year of brutal town hall meetings over health care. They began to take precautions. “When we did a swing through the district, we began telling the police what we are doing: We let them know where we were going to be,” said Rodd McLeod, her campaign manager.

And Ms. Giffords made no secret at that time of saying she owned a handgun.

“She was extremely concerned about it,” said Thomas Warne, a friend and fund-raiser. “She was concerned about various threats that the office had received: they were general threats on the office itself, on her life.”

There have been no arrests related to the attack on her district office, said Sgt. Diana Lopez of the Tucson Police Department. It came after months in which Ms. Giffords, like other Democrats, found herself being battered at loud town hall meetings on health care. At one of her public meetings on health care, a man with a gun showed up. “There was a sense, even in ’09, that there was a real anger in the district,” Mr. McLeod said.

Last summer, Ms. Giffords found herself challenged by Jesse Kelly, a repugican candidate with tea party backing, who assailed Ms. Giffords on health care and immigration. He held a “targeting victory” fund-raiser in which he invited contributors to shoot an M-16 with him. This was playing out against a backdrop of a souring national economy and rising unhappiness with Democrats everywhere.

Mr. Kelly, who won the nomination after defeating a moderate Republican, offered tough-worded attacks on the establishment and Ms. Giffords. “These people who think they are better than us, they look down on us every single day and tell us what kind of health care to buy,” he said at a rally in October. “And if you dare to stand up to the government they call us a mob. We’re about to show them what a mob looks like.”

Let's not forget the repugican inspired teabagger mobs that stormed the healthcare reform town hall meetings. The repugicans intentionally got people enraged, organizing as they themselves described it, "mobs," and finally someone snapped.

The culture of violence was established, and fed, until someone finally got the message.

When you call for domestic terrorism you get domestic terrorism.

The asshole is at it again

Fred Phelps's Westboro Baptist Cult is going to picket the funeral of the six people who died in Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson -- including the nine-year-old girl. 

The mass funeral for all of the victims is Tuesday; there will be another funeral for Christina Green on Thursday.

I hope the people of Tucson turn out in droves to thwart these WBC assholes.

And yes, I've known Phelps is a pitiful excuse for a human being for many years.

Not even the funeral for a nine-year-old girl is off-limits to him?

What happened to that man to make him that way?

I occasionally have really bad days, too, but come on...

Repugicans move quickly to block Clean Air Act

Because clean air for humans is obviously a terrible idea. Anything that might increase costs for business is bad and anything that promotes higher health care costs to individuals is good.

All clear?

Three days into the new Congress, rank-and-file repugicans in the House are quickly making it clear that one of their main priorities will be blocking new air regulations from U.S. EPA -- and not just the ones that are aimed at climate change.

On the climate side, with top-ranking repugicans promising to pass legislation that would block agency actions they see as harmful to the economy, there are already plenty of options on the table. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Ted Poe of Texas opened up the new session by introducing bills that take different approaches to stopping EPA's new rules for greenhouse gas emissions.

And yesterday, John Carter (retard-Texas) put forward a resolution to block the agency's new regulations for toxic air pollution from cement kilns, prompting a swift backlash from environmentalists and Democrats, who painted the repugicans as putting business interests ahead of human lives.

The truth be told

'Instant tsunami' slams Australia

'Instant tsunami' wreaks havoc in Australia

Scores are missing and at least 10 dead after a freak storm unleashes the most violent flooding yet. 

'Truly frightening' 

Also: 

• See dramatic photos
• Soccer stars pitch in
• Flood equipment stolen

Awesome Pictures

Odds and Sods

Panda Politics: China Sending 2 Pandas To Scotland

China's deputy premier kicked off talks with senior British officials Monday, charming Britain with trade deals and a loan of two giant pandas.

Gunshot victim sneezes out bullet

Gunshot victim Darco Sangermano stunned doctors by sneezing out a bullet that had hit him in the head.

Bad Cops

 

Massachusetts cop is arrested for indecent assault and battery

Michigan cop is charged in gas station drive-off, accused of writing bad checks

New Hampshire cop guilty of stiffing bar for beer bill

Utah ex-deputy gets one year for two counts of second-degree felony possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and one count of third-degree felony endangerment of a child

Georgia cop charged with simple battery under the Family Violence Act

Minnesota cop is charged with stealing corkscrew from bar

Fired Texas cop sues, claiming he was stripped of his command for blowing the whistle on the police chief's illegal activities

Curiously un-named Maryland ex-cop charged with impersonating a police officer and using a marked police cruiser while committing several robberies

Oklahoma police officer is arrested for cattle thefts

Ohio police officer pleads guilty in steroids case

South Dakota deputy is accused of sexual crimes against a child

Illinois sheriff's deputy arrested, placed on leave after alleged domestic battery

Fired California deputy is charged with stealing thousands of dollars in traffic stops

Fired California deputy convicted of shooting gun, endangering children

Tennessee jail deputy charged with forging documents

Court upholds fired California sheriff's conviction for witness-tampering

Hmmm: Mississippi police say man was accidentally shot by cop, but the victim said he was shot from behind

Under threat from ACLU, Pennsylvania police promise to stop issuing citations for naughty language

Video shows unidentified St Louis police officer beating the hell out of "suspect"

Vermont police officer accused of stealing neighbor's television from under Christmas tree

Florida cop is suspended without pay for 26 hours, for taunting black cop with "Obama prayer"

Massachusetts cop arraigned on indecent assault charges

DC cop accused of brandishing semi-automatic weapon in bar fight

Dumb Crooks

Woman robs dead boyfriend

Florida woman is accused of robbing her dead boyfriend.

Farmers leave bare-butt thief hog-tied for cops

Two central Alberta farmers served up some cold hard justice to an alleged fuel thief on their property, leaving him tied up and pant-less in the snow until Mounties arrived.

Wizard of Id

Culinary DeLites

Fast, healthy weeknight dinners

This 500-calorie meal starts with a fresh Asian stir-fry and leaves room for a delicious dessert.  

Six more recipes 

Also: 

• Healthy cooking tips
• 5 top food trends
• Low-calorie meals

15 biggest nutrition and dieting myths

Sweet potatoes aren't necessarily healthier than white potatoes.  

'Ideal' snack found at gas stations 

Also: 

• Habits that add pounds
• 6 foods making you fat  
• Cook with sweet potatoes

The 10 Most Essential Nerd Foods

Topless Robot uses the terms nerd and geek interchangeably in this list of foods that easily allow someone to stay at their work desk all day and night without having to cook or wash dishes.

Now, this is not to suggest that we nerds don’t enjoy a night at a gourmet restaurant or a nice home-cooked meal as much as the next person. But so much time, money, and effort goes toward nerdy fandoms and hobbies that we’ve become notorious for our reliance on cheap, quick, easily prepared, and convenient meals. Essentially, anything that takes us away from our computers, TVs, novels, comics, and games for the least amount of time — and leaves us with the most money in our pockets to fuel our obsessions is highly regarded.

Note that although this list contains one Japanese product, it is aimed toward the US audience. I know a lot of geeks who would argue all day that the ultimate nerd food is poutine.

Full Story

Ziggy

Top 10 Most Valuable American Coins

The history of American coinage is really the history of America itself, and the stories each coin tells are as varied and unique as the people who have used them. They are pieces of art in their own right which is what makes coin collecting such a popular hobby.

While most people understand that coins are valuable in part due to their inherent intrinsic value, most people are often stunned to learn how much a particular coin can command in an auction, or understand why people are willing to pay so much to own them.

Here's a list of the ten most valuable coins in American history.

Why Borders may go bankrupt

Why Borders may go bankrupt

The book seller has stumbled due to three big missteps, while rival Barnes & Noble is rebounding.

Books vs. Nooks 

Also: 

• Nook boosts B&N
• Tablets at gadget show  
• Worst business blunders

On The Job

The job skills you'll need this year

Hiring is expected to remain tepid, so acquiring in-demand skills will be crucial.

Learn project management 

Also: 

• Make more at work
• Advice for unemployed  
• Why small businesses fail

What we all wish we could tell the boss

You've probably worked at a place where the person at the top is totally clueless.  

But has delusions otherwise 

Also: 

• Weird interview questions
• Career mistakes to avoid
• Mulling an office romance?

Working again, for much less

Working again, but for much less

Many laid-off workers who found jobs have been forced to take huge pay cuts.  

$150K money manager earns $8.85/hour 

Also: 

• Worries about Fed plan
• Loan delinquencies up 
• Avoid outliving savings

Law school loans crushing recent grads

Michael Wallerstein is broke and can't pay off his $250,000 student debt.

 Earned $10 an hour after law school 

Also: 

• College debt bubble
• Get out of debt in 2011 
• Best payback colleges

Make extra money in 2011

Seven ways to make more money in 2011

Here's how to find freelance and contract work to boost your income.

Caution on being a sales rep 

Also: 

• Path to $100K jobs
• Money and happiness  
• Jobholders spending more

Most affordable U.S. cities

America's most affordable cities now

The first-ranked metro area boasts cheap housing, low costs, and half the national jobless rate.  

Five best 

Also: 

• Hottest home improvement
• Current mortgage rates
• Homeowner resolutions

Rent costs half her income

She's happy paying half her income on rent

NYC floral designer Amy Merrick says giving up her favorite habits is worth it. 

Suspiciously cheap two-bedroom 

Also: 

• Rules for money success
• We need more rich people  
• Best cities for jobs

Slinky-like dome house

Slinky-like 'Ark' aims to house 10,000

The eco-friendly dome is designed to withstand biblical flood levels and can be built on water.  

The conceptual images 

Also: 

• More on the architect
• A new Broad museum
• DC's 'do not enter' signs

The Touchdown that Shook the World ... Literally

Ecstatic Seattle fans cause seismic shock

A tremor is recorded at Qwest Field just as Marshawn Lynch seals the Seahawks' win.  

'Felt the field shake' 

Also: 

• About the '12th Man'
• Packers/Eagles tough call
• 10 playoff questions

Sales of odd celebrity items

Weird items from famous people drive sales

Auctions of clipped hair or old X-rays offer ways to personalize history, experts say. 

John Lennon's old toilet 

Also: 

• Celebs' beauty secrets
• Stylish films of 2010
• Golden Globes coverage

Out of Anesthetic

A dentist ran out of anesthetic just before the last extraction for the day was scheduled.

He gave the nurse a very large needle, instructing her to jab it hard into the patient's butt when the signal was given, so it would take his attention away from the tooth extraction.

It all happened in an instant.

The nurse, patient, and pliers were in place. The signal was given, and the nurse bayoneted the patient with the needle just as the dentist yanked the tooth.

Afterward, the dentist asked, "Hurt much?"

The patient hesitated, "Didn't hardly feel it come out. And, man, those roots were really deep!"

Helpful Hints

Surprising new uses for dryer sheets

Sprinkle a few drops of water on a fabric softener sheet and scrub to remove soap buildup.

They'll freshen shoes, too 

Also: 

• 40 uses for baking soda
• How to clean with vinegar  
• 6 laundry problems solved

Accents emerge on Twitter

Regional accents emerge on Twitter

Where you live affects how you tweet, with new dialects popping up on the social media site. 

'Suttin' vs. 'sumthin' 

Also: 

• Find Twitter acronyms
• Iceland's Twitter protest
• MySpace to cut staff

Hero of 'Band of Brothers' dies

WWII hero behind 'Band of Brothers' dies

After his bravery saved countless lives, Dick Winters vanished into a life of anonymity.  

Until book made him a star 

Also: 

• More on Easy Company
• 'Secret army' chief's role
• Revelation on Nazi leader

Rollerblading Amish

What? The Amish are into rollerblading? It’s news to me, but here’s a 1996 New York Times article attesting to this cultural quirk:

”It’s faster than a horse, and it’s fun,” said Mr. Herschberger, 20, who skates the 25 miles in two hours, almost twice as fast as an Amish buggy. ”You just feel free.”
Mr. Herschberger has abundant company on the roads of southeastern Pennsylvania. In the last few years, hundreds of Amish, most of them young, have taken up in-line skating to run errands, play hockey or just zigzag for pleasure.
Among the 150,000 or so Old Order Amish, who live in 230 settlements in 22 states and Canada, in-line skating is justified as an efficient, sensible means of locomotion, another example of how the modern can square with the traditional.

Full Story and Pictures

Missed it by that much

Developers demolish all the stairways of a building in bid to evict family on the seventh storey

A furious family is suing property developers after they demolished every staircase in a seven-storey apartment block to make them quit their top floor flat.

Mum Zhao Yanhong, 42, claims developers - who want to demolish the flats in Mianyang, south west China, to build a factory - hired thugs to force out other residents but she refused to budge.

"Then one day they turned up with machines and men and knocked out all the stairs to strand us here. They are just trying to bully us out of our home," said Yanhong. "The only way we can get out now is through ladders and climbing but it is very dangerous," she added.

Developers from Mianyang Yachuan Property Company claim they own the property and have permission to demolish it but deny any wrong doing. Now judges have ordered them to suspend all work for six months while they investigate and restore one staircase for Yanhong's family.

Indian shaman 'poisons women in witchcraft test'

An Indian shaman who allegedly forced women to drink a potion to prove they were not witches has been arrested. Nearly 30 women fell ill after they were rounded up in Shivni village in central Chhattisgarh state on Sunday and made to drink the herbal brew. A senior police officer said that six villagers had also been arrested.

Witch hunts targeting women are common in east and central India, and a number of accused are killed every year. Most of the cases take place in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. Police spokesman Rajesh Joshi said that an 18-year-old villager was accused of witchcraft because she had been unwell.

"Her father Sitaram Rathod and other villagers suspected that it [her illness] could be due to an evil spell cast by a witch," Mr Joshi said. "They [the villagers] called for an ojha [witch doctor] to ward off the spell." Authorities said the shaman, named as Bhagwan Deen, had been helped by a few other residents as he rounded up nearly all the adult women in the centre of the village. He concocted the potion test after conducting rituals which failed to expose the alleged witch.

"The shaman then forced the women to consume a drink that he had made out of a local poisonous herb," Mr Joshi said. "He said that after drinking the brew, the real witch would voluntarily confess." Of the nearly 30 women taken to hospital after the incident, around 25 women have since been discharged. But police said five remained in hospital, including a 70-year-old woman who was in a serious condition.

Out of Time

Slightly anachronistic don't you think?

Half of Worlds Small Glaciers Will Be Entirely Melted by 2100

But There's Good News For The Himalayas

photo: emerson12/Creative Commons

A new study in Nature Geoscience examining glaciers melting due to climate change forecasts tough times for the world's small glaciers, but offers a more hopeful outlook for Himalayan glaciers.

Article continues: Half of Worlds Small Glaciers Will Be Entirely Melted by 2100 - But There's Good News For The Himalayas

Triple suns spotted over China

An astronomical phenomenon that appears to show three suns appears above Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province in northeast China. Two smaller suns appeared on either side of the sun, with a strong light on top.

The smaller twins were about one-tenth of the size of the sun. Together with the bright light, they formed a round, rainbow-like aura around the sun.

 

YouTube link.

Experts said that such a phenomenon is called "phantom sun", which is an optical refraction in the atmosphere. In winter, the clouds are formed by ice crystals and they are relatively higher in the sky than in summer.

When they happen to form a particular shape, they can reflect the sunshine in such a way that produces the astronomical phenomenon of "triple suns".

Sun Halo

 Astronomy Picture of the Day:

As water freezes in the upper atmosphere, small, flat, six-sided, ice crystals might be formed. As these crystals flutter to the ground, much time is spent with their faces flat, parallel to the ground. An observer may pass through the same plane as many of the falling ice crystals near sunrise or sunset. During this alignment, each crystal can act like a miniature lens, refracting sunlight into our view and creating phenomena like parhelia, the technical term for sundogs. The above image was taken last year in Stockholm, Sweden. Visible in the image center is the Sun, while two bright sundogs glow prominently from both the left and the right. Also visible is the bright 22 degree halo -- as well as the rarer and much fainter 46 degree halo -- also created by sunlight reflecting off of atmospheric ice crystals.

Astronomical News

Telescope observes cosmic giants

The European Planck space telescope identifies more than 20 new galaxy clusters, some of the largest structures ever seen in the Universe.

• Bangs big and small in cosmic origins debate
• Planck reveals 'spectacular sky'
• Planck pictures the unseen galaxy
• Planck spies massive dust clouds

Antimatter 'streams from storms'

A space telescope designed to probe the farthest reaches of the cosmos has spotted beams of antimatter streaming from thunderstorms on Earth.

• Telescope spies cataclysmic blast
• Flash tools to monitor lightning

Photo helps unravel space blob mystery

A glowing green form first spotted by a school teacher is strangely alive, the Hubble Telescope reveals.

Giving birth

Also:

• New planet stirs up buzz
• $1 billion probe pays off
• Storms can fling antimatter

Magma Rain During Moon Formation

A collision eons ago between the earth and another celestial body throw vaporized rock into the atmosphere, some of which eventually became the moon. If this is true, you’d think that the earth and the moon would share the same basic materials, but there is more iron on the moon and more magnesium on earth.

Now researchers have an answer, and it’s completely awesome. Magma rain would resolve the mystery, as rising rock vapor would see its magnesium oxide start to condense into droplets and fall back onto the planet’s surface. The iron oxide inside the rock vapor wouldn’t have condensed as easily, meaning far more of it got mixed into the disc that became the Moon.

Which evokes some interesting mental pictures resembling heavy metal album covers.

Full Story

Earliest Winery Yet Found in Armenia

Archaeologists have announced the discovery of the world’s oldest winemaking facility. The winery was found in an Armenian cave near the village of Areni -the same cave where the oldest shoe ever was found last year. Carbon dating shows that the winery dates back 6,100 years!

In September 2010 archaeologists completed excavations of a large, 2-foot-deep (60-centimeter-deep) vat buried next to a shallow, 3.5-foot-long (1-meter-long) basin made of hard-packed clay with elevated edges.
The installation suggests the Copper Age vintners pressed their wine the old-fashioned way, using their feet, Areshian said.
Juice from the trampled grapes drained into the vat, where it was left to ferment, he explained.
The wine was then stored in jars—the cool, dry conditions of the cave would have made a perfect wine cellar, according to Areshian, who co-authored the new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Analysis of residue found malvidin, a plant pigment found in red wine. Read more about the discovery at National Geographic News here.

Archeologists have unearthed the oldest wine-making facility ever found, using biochemical techniques to identify a dry red vintage made about 6,000 years ago in what is now southern Armenia. Carbon dating showed a desiccated grape vine found near a wine press was grown around 4000 BC.

The cave complex, known as Areni-1, is in the Little Caucasus Mountains near Armenia's southern border with Iran. The wine press itself is a shallow clay basin about three feet in diameter, surrounded by grape seeds and dried-out grape vines.

Dying Young Didn't Wipe Out Neanderthals

Early humans had the same life expectancy as their ancient cousins before Neanderthals died off about 30,000 years ago  

Read more 

The Reindeer People Of Mongolia

The Tsaatan (and not Tsaan, as the article mentions) are a small culture of reindeer herders living in Mongolia. Only 44 Tsaatan families remain, totaling somewhere between 200 and 400 people. They ride, breed, milk, and live off of reindeer.

Since the democratization of Mongolia, no governmental programs have been in place to replenish reindeer herds with animals from Siberia, direly endangering the Tsaatan way of life. Much of the Tsataan income today comes from tourists who pay to buy their crafts and to ride their domesticated reindeer.

B.C.

Elephant unchained after nine years at Indian temple

After being kept in chains for nearly nine years at a temple in Tamil Nadu, a 22-year-old male elephant has finally been moved to a zoo following the intervention of forest officials. 'Mariappan', kept with all his four legs chained at the famous Mariamman temple at Samayapuram near Tiruchirappalli since 2002, was taken to the Arignar Anna Zoological Park at suburban Vandalur where he can finally walk around freely.

The shackles were removed on Friday. Tamil Nadu Government in 2008 had ordered rehabilitation of four elephants, kept chained at temples, in appropriate rescue centers where they can move about, stretch and exercise.

"The living conditions under which Mariappan was kept were unsuitable for any living being ... Daily walking and mental stimulation are essential to an elephant's mental and physical health," PETA India's Manilal Valliyate said.

Photo from here.

Thanking the Forest Department, he expressed hope that the three other elephants - at Sugavaneswarar Temple in Salem, Alagar Kovil in Madurai and Suchindram Temple in Kanyakumari - would also be rehabilitated.

You can read all about Mariappan's sad ordeal here.

Leopard mauling man in Indian street shot dead

In a disturbing incident of man-animal conflict, Indian police shot dead a fully-grown leopard at Karad in western Maharashtra on Sunday afternoon, after the wild cat ran amok and injured six people. Of the injured, five are undergoing treatment at the Government cottage hospital where the condition of one Hanumant Mane was described as critical. Another injured person is being treated at a local private hospital.

The 45-minute drama unfolded at 1.15 pm in Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s hometown of Karad in Satara district, where residents in densely populated locality of Shaniwarwada panicked seeing the prowling leopard in one of its by-lanes and began to run helter-skelter. After initially having entered a house in the locality, the wild cat chased a few of the local residents and mauled them badly. The frightened residents alerted the police and forest officials about the presence of a leopard in their locality.

On being alerted by the frightened locals, the police and forest officials arrived on the scene minutes later. “By the time we reached the spot, the leopard had unleashed considerable panic among the residents. The wild cat came out of one of the houses and attacked a resident. Using sticks, we managed to rescue the person concerned. Before long, it pounced on another person, sat on his chest and began mauling him. I had no alternative but fire two rounds from service revolver at the wild cat,” Inspector Vikas Dhas said.

“The leopard died on the spot. If I had not shot at leopard, we could not have rescued the person from the clutches of the ferocious leopard. Unfortunately, the forest officials, who were at the scene, were not carrying tranquilizer guns,” Dhas said. Though it has not been established how and from where the leopard had strayed into the human habitation, the local forest officials have a reason to believe that the wild cat might have entered the Karad town from the nearby sugarcane fields, where the animal had earlier entered in search of prey.

Animal Pictures

Fox and Squirrel playing Cat and Mouse