The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
You can feel free to turn a deaf ear toward anyone who is telling you that your life needs more discipline and structure.
This person is projecting his or her own feelings of inadequacy onto you.
Do not let someone with status or a powerful position intimidate you and force you to adopt a style of living that isn't comfortable for you.
The way you manage things is working just fine -- all that matters is that it works for you.

Some of our readers today have been in:

 London, England, United Kingdom
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Albury, New South Wales, Australia
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Kiev, Kyyiv, Ukraine
Hyvinkaa, Southern Finland, Finland
Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Ankara, Ankara, Turkey
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Bucharest, Bucuresti, Romania
Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
Patna, Bihar, India
Manila, Manila, Philippines
Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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 Old Lyme, Center Ridge, Pittsburgh, Charlotte and more.

Today is:

Today is Sunday, August 7, the 219th day of 2011.

There are 146 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:

Friendship Day
and
Lighthouse Day.

  

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

And I Quote

Laughter is an instant vacation!

   ~ Milton Berle

Awesome Pictures

Lunatic Fringe

Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy, it's the incredible shrinking tea party.

The tea party cancels rally after only three positive responses.

And it comes as no surprise that most of Newt Gingrich's twitter followers are fake.

The reasons why business people are terrible at governing

9 reasons why business people are terrible at governing.

There are hundreds more but these nine will do.

Someone's not pleased

China rips U.S. on downgrade

China rips U.S. over credit downgrade

America's biggest creditor blames Washington for losing its AAA rating.

G7 leaders to confer 

Also: 

• Pressure on Congress
• Credit rating: sabotage?
• Stocks end mostly down

How new rating affects you

What downgrade means for your money

There could be small ripple effects for consumers after the U.S. lost its AAA credit rating.

Four areas of impact 

Also: 

• S&P defends downgrade
• Obama: We must improve
• Columnist: U.S. deserved it

Money Myths

8 money myths that will leave you broke

Why buying a house isn’t always a good idea, what really happens when you go up a tax band.  

Falsities debunked 

Also: 

• Find home insurance
• Is buying a house worth it?
• Car insurance myths

How Credit Cards Work

Six boredom-proof careers

Careers that'll never leave you bored

These jobs let you meet new people, manage others, and even organize parties. 

  Business, health, and tech 

Also: 

• Job outlook still grim
• Top state for business
• Best American colleges

Job worries surge as debt-limit issue recedes

Anger at the nation's leaders for taking so long to strike a debt-ceiling deal has turned into high anxiety over jobs and the economy amid growing fears of a new recession.
Full Story

The truth be told

The most walkable cities in the U.S.

The most walkable cities in the U.S.

A mix of businesses and housing helps make these places great for car-free living.

  One West Coast locale in top five 

Also: 

• Gas prices set to drop
• Imagine L.A. without cars
• Hot-weather workout tips

Has it come to this ...

Murdoch v Bradley Manning

Jane Stillwater writes:

What if you were to obtain important government information illegally and then disseminate it widely? 
How should you be punished?  If you are Bradley Manning, you will be thrown in jail, tortured,
humiliated, deprived of even basic creature comforts and forced to sleep naked in an isolation cell.

Can you even imagine this same thing happening to Rupert Murdoch?  Ever?

Full Story

Non Sequitur

Make eggy bread

Easy recipe for delicious eggy bread

Kick off your weekend by indulging in some melt-in-your-mouth, super sweet eggy bread.

  'Light and fluffy' 

Also: 

• Creative egg recipes
• Easy English scones
• Bacon-wrapped eggs

The economics of a backyard garden

Planting a backyard vegetable garden is an age-old tradition that is coming back into style in a big way.

Full Story

Easy ways to start eating real food

Easy ways to start eating real food

Daily Comic Relief

Got ya

Thought you had us there didn't you.

Quit Monkeying Around and Get to Sleep

Forget counting sheep -- Britons now prefer listening to lions roaring and monkeys calling to help them nod off, according to a new survey.

Full Story

Bad Acting

Well, someone had to I guess.

Albino Muslim family terrorized by hate campaign

A family of albino Muslims in Coventry are being terrorized by bigots because their daughter married a Christian. The so-called “honor” retribution has included smashed windows at their Edgwick home, vandalized cars and death threats.

Now, head of the family Aslam Parvez has made a plea to the culprits to end the hatred. “We’re a good family and have done nothing wrong yet we’re being punished in the name of honor,” he said.

Mr Parvez was born in Pakistan and moved to Coventry at the age of 10 to join his family. He later met and married his wife Shameem, who is also an albino.

Their six children inherited their parents’ condition, which causes an absence of pigmentation and partial sightedness. Mr Parvez says their condition has meant they have been subjected to ridicule, but recent events have made their lives unbearable.

Saw Mill

Dudley Do-Right

Ten 'Secret' British Bars

Top secret drinking dens around Britain

From hidden doorways to keys and pin codes, here are some places to hang in undercover style. 

Egyptian tomb inside 

Also: 

• Summer holiday deals
• Most iconic British bars
• World's weirdest pubs

Motorcycle

The 1902 WERNER.

Bluegrass on Traditional Chinese Instruments

(Video Link) Here’s a video of The Jaybirds, a bluegrass group, and Red Chamber, a Chinese string ensemble, playing bluegrass music. The members of Red Chamber are performing their contributions on several Chinese instruments: a liuqin, a pipa, a sanxian, and a ruan.

Ziggy

Redneck Medical Terms

Benign..........................What you be after you be eight.

Bacteria........................Back door to cafeteria.

Barium.........................What doctors do when patients die.

Cesarean Section..........A neighborhood in Rome.

Catscan........................Searching for Kitty.

Cauterize......................Made eye contact with her.

Colic............................A sheep dog.

Coma...........................A punctuation mark.

D&C............................Where Washington is.

Dilate...........................To live long.

Enema..........................Not a friend.

Fester...........................Quicker than someone else.

Fibula...........................A small lie.

G.I.Series....................World Series of military baseball.

Hangnail......................What you hang your coat on.

Impotent......................Distinguished, well known.

Labor Pain...................Getting hurt at work.

Medical Staff................A Doctor's cane.

Morbid........................A higher offer than I bid.

Nitrates.......................Cheaper than day rates.

Node...........................I knew it.

Outpatient...................A person who has fainted.

Pap Smear...................A fatherhood test.

Pelvis...........................Second cousin to Elvis.

Post Operative.............A letter carrier.

Recovery Room...........Place to do upholstery.

Rectum.......................Damn near killed him.

Secretion.....................Hiding something

Seizure........................Roman emperor.

Tablet.........................A small table.

Terminal Illness...........Getting sick at the airport.

Tumor..........................More than one.

Urine..........................Opposite of mine.

Varicose......................Near by/close by

Where rare diseases lurk

States where rare diseases lurk

Climate change and uneven vaccination have left parts of the U.S. vulnerable to outbreaks.  

Whooping cough out West 

Also: 

• New bacterium found
• Pet problems solved
• How to travel with kids

Video Game-Like Programs Treat Schizophrenia

Computer-based brain training looks to be effective for treating some symptoms.

Read more 

Just how Hot was it?

July was so hot, that if you plot the location of each daily heat record that was broken, a nearly complete image of the contiguous united states is visible.

Science News

Antimatter belt 'surrounds Earth'

Researchers discover that the Earth's magnetic field holds around it a band of antimatter particles between the bands of "normal" matter particles.

• Antimatter 'streams from storms'
• Mission to sense ocean magnetism

Captain Morgan's Pirate Ship Found

The cargo has yet to be opened, but funder Captain Morgan USA hopes it's rum.

Read more 

Fifteen Weird And Mysterious Books

Amongst the many reasons to prefer a book over a file on your e-reader: books have history. Sometimes, the history is obvious and evident. A book might have memories attached to it, or sentimental value. Sometimes, however, the history is weird, twisted, and hidden. There's an air of mystery to certain books, a thrill of an enigma, a hint of something outside the realm of normality.

Here's a list of mysterious books, ones that have stumped scholars and titillated bibliophiles. And while there's plenty to be excited about with ebooks, the mysterious origins of a book are never going to translate to the new format.

B.C.

Last rites for elephant with 'longest tusks in Asia'

An elephant said to have the longest tusks in Asia has died in Sri Lanka.

The animal, named Millangoda Raja, was about 70 years old and had served in a ceremonial capacity for several decades in the city of Kandy.

Many Asian elephants, smaller in stature than their African cousins, fail to grow tusks at all.

YouTube link.

But Millangoda Raja's tusks were so long that they reached to the ground. There are now plans to stuff the dead elephant and put him on public display.

Animal Pictures