The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:

Divide and conquer -- that's not only an effective strategy for battle. 

It can help you conquer many different conflicts in your life, too. 

Separating the good parts of people's personalities from the bad parts will help you argue your case without getting too personal. 

Focus on what you like about the people around you, and if you can't come up with anything, then ask yourself why you're so personally invested in this disagreement.

Some of our readers today have been in: 

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
London, England, United Kingdom
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Ankara, Ankara, Turkey
Paris, Ile-De- France, France
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

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 Atlanta, Charleston, Miami, Richmond and more.

Today is:

Today is Thursday, September 29, the 272nd day of 2011.

There are 93 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

National Coffee Day.

  

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Thorough Thursday

Today Only

From the "Just for shits and giggles" Department:

Today we posted in a random manner - OK, so most of you thought we did that every day.
No, we actually try to have thematic posts together ... not that we do that well all the time, but we try.
With exception of the traditional opening and closing posts, every thing else today is random.
We should be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow or something to that effect.

Crabby Road

Non Sequitur

That about sums it up ...

Ziggy

Awesome Pictures

Oh, Yeah

Woman driver spared lashes

Saudi woman spared lashes for driving

King Abdullah revokes a court-ordered punishment for violating the country's car ban. 

Where she was going 

Also: 

• The last all-male vote
• Israel rejects criticism
• Raid of Al-Jazeera Egypt

Reality sets in

U.S. man charged in Pentagon, Capitol explosive plot

U.S. authorities on Wednesday arrested and charged a Massachusetts man with plotting to damage or destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol by using remote-controlled aircraft filled with plastic explosives.

Full Story

Boy's 1911 grave dug up in Pennsylvania cemetery

The grave of a 12-year-old boy who was hit by a train 100 years ago has been dug up in a Pennsylvania cemetery.

Full Story

You Can Help Name A Red Panda

Did you ever wish you could play a part in naming an adorable zoo animal? If so, head on over to the Binder Park Zoo website, donate one dollar towards the zoo’s species survival program and vote on your favorite name for this adorable little red panda.

The choices and their translations are: Dagan, meaning grain of rice in Hebrew; Connolly meaning fierce in Gaelic; Reid meaning red-haired in Gaelic; Xu (pronounced “shoe”) meaning to snort in Chinese; and Di meaning younger brother in Chinese.

Which one would you choose?

Full Story

Alabama’s Immigration Law

Police To Enforce Parts Of Immigration Law

Police in Alabama are getting ready to enforce what is considered by many as the toughest immigration law in the nation.

Full Story

Getting tough on people who don't look like citizens: Alabama police to enforce 'strongest' immigration law.

Police in Alabama are getting ready to enforce what is considered by many as the toughest immigration law in the United States.
Beginning Thursday, authorities can question people suspected of being in the country illegally and hold them without bond, and officials can check the immigration status of students in public schools, Gov. Robert Bentley said.
Those two key aspects of Alabama's new law were upheld by a federal judge on Wednesday. The governor said parts of the law take effect immediately.

Florida Teen Murder Suspect Says She's a Vampire

A Florida teen murder suspect says she's a vampire and claims to have drunk the blood of her fiance and co-defendant. An 18-year-old Florida girl accused of helping lure a 16-year-old boy into a fatal trap says she's a vampire who has drunk the blood of her boyfriend.

 Full Story

Daily Comic Relief

The State Of The Internet 2011

 

The Internet is a strange, huge beast. It is getting bigger, faster and more mobile each day. Ferocious social networks fight each other to be on top and gain more of our attention and personal information. An entire economy is generated from our browsing habits.
This is the face of the Internet now.

The Origins Of 7 Common Superstitions

Halloween is coming up soon and what better time to talk about superstitions than a holiday focused on spirits and symbolism. Whether you're superstitious or not, discovering the origins of these common beliefs is a fascinating look at religion and human psychology.

Texas Shoplifter Gets Life after Walmart Worker Dies

A Texas man is facing a harsh sentence for a shoplifter. He was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for stealing a TV from a Walmart valued at around $348 in June 2010.

Full Story

The truth be told

Origins of Oktoberfest

Surprising origins of Oktoberfest

A horse race celebrating a royal wedding was the big draw at the first festival in 1810. 

Which traditions were missing 

Also: 

• Top festivals in the U.S.
• German-inspired recipes
• Plan a trip to Munich

Bank of America to charge $5 debit card fee

Bank of America to charge $5 debit card fee

The largest bank in the U.S. will begin charging customers to make debit purchases. 

In addition to regular fees 

Also: 

• No more free checking?
• Hackers target Goldman
• Mortgage rates drop again

Dancing Mouse

Eerie invasion off California coast

Eerie invasion off California coast

Vast numbers of these large, ravenous creatures are making a rare visit from southern waters. 

Photographer's view 

Also: 

• Sea photographer's work
• Sailor heads to danger
• Kin's Mississippi trek

Chariots Discovered in Ancient Chinese Tomb

Photo: Zhang Xiaoli/Xinhua

Archaeologists in Luoyang, China, dug up 5 chariots and 12 horse skeletons from a 2,500-year-old tomb. The photos over at National Geographic are fantastic, but can someone explain to me why the skeletons of the horses are flat?

Full Story

Back in The Day

Albino Hummingbird

Have you ever seen an albino hummingbird? Fifteen-year-old Marlin Shank took lots of lovely photographs of this rare white ruby-throated hummingbird he saw at a park in Staunton, Virginia. Link to article. Link to photo gallery.

It's Just a Huge Solar Flare

Don’t worry, the Earth isn’t that close! It was just inserted into the picture so you could get a sense of the size of this huge solar flare that emerged last Thursday. It was spat out by sunspot AR 1302, which is so big that you can see it with the naked eye.

Full Story

Beautiful autumn drives

Seven sensational autumn drives

One route boasts not only blazing fall foliage, but also the aptly named Moose Alley.  

Affordable stops en route 

Also: 

• Fall foliage 2011 gallery
• Classic American drives
• Odd roadside attractions

Tool-Using Fish Captured on Video

That's one smart fish! An orange-dotted turkfish was captured for the first time on video digging a clam out of the sand, then repeatedly throwing it against a rock to crush it.

"The animal excavates sand to get the shell out, then swims for a long time to find an appropriate area where it can crack the shell," videographer Giacomo Bernardi, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said in a statement. "It requires a lot of forward thinking, because there are a number of steps involved. For a fish, it's a pretty big deal." [...]
The clam-cracking tuskfish isn't the first fish to be observed using tools. The tuskfish is a kind of reef fish known as wrasse, and these species have been seen using rocks as anvils to crush shellfish. But this is the first time the behavior has been caught on video.

LiveScience has the story and video clip.

Unique Photos of Sea Life

Stunning pictures of sea creatures

A photographer builds an aquarium to capture unique, close-up shots of underwater animals.

  Look 

Also: 

• Cat with two faces
• Amazing desert animals
• Dead Sea not really dead

Planet Getting Too Hot for Chocolate?

Image: Siona Watson via flickr

The world's cocoa supply could be in danger from climate change, according to a new study from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which says that prices are likely to skyrocket if preventative measures aren't taken. The report predicts that the expected annual temperature increase of more than two degrees Celsius by 2050 will leave many cocoa-producing areas in West Africa—the source of more than half the world's chocolate—too hot to continue growing the crop. And the report says the decline could begin as soon as 2030.

Article continues: Planet Getting Too Hot for Chocolate? Study Finds Climate Change Could Threaten Cocoa Farmers

B.C.

Martian Life's Last Stand?

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A maze-like system of deep valleys in Mars called Noctis Labyrinthus ("the labyrinth of the night") may just be Martian life's last stand on the Red Planet:

Scientists have found water-bearing deposits on Mars that are out of step with what was happening elsewhere on the planet, raising the prospect that the sites could have hosted Martian life's last stand.
The deposits are a type of clay called smectites, which contain a blend of silica with aluminum, iron or magnesium. They form in the presence of water. [...] The Noctis Labyrinthus smectites are believed to have formed around 2 to 3 billion years ago, possibly providing a haven for life when the rest of the planet dried out.
"It was a surprise to see such young clays that must have formed in a persistent water under neutral conditions," Weitz said. "If there's life on Mars, if it had persisted, this would be a nice place for it, because it does indicate that there was water in this location on the surface at that relatively young age."

Read the rest at Discovery News.

Thor Saves Fallen Woman

Colin Heaton and Anne Lewis of Southport, North Carolina, adopted a Pit Bull/Rottweiler mix that had been rescued from a “bad situation.” They named him Thor. The dog has since protected chickens from foxes, coyotes, and even a snake which bit him. Earlier this month, Thor got the chance to rescue a human.

Barbara Simmons, 78, fell on the side of the road while checking her mail on a hot day earlier this month.
She said she yelled for help but no one came to her rescue for at least a half hour.  Thor, a dog with a heroic name, noticed Simmons and went to check it out.
“He was just so gentle and like, ‘are you okay, are you okay?’” explained Simmons.  “It was like somebody asking, ‘are you okay, are you okay?’”
Thor’s owners said he was acting strangely that day, ignoring their commands.
“He ran to this point and he stopped and looked back at my husband and barked at him a couple of times like, ‘I’m not going to listen to you,’ and he took off right around the corner,” said owner Anne Lewis.
Thor led his owners to Simmons nearly a block away.  They called for help and the EMT told Lewis that Thor probably saved her life.

Full Story

Vintage Maps Trace The Meandering Mississippi

For anyone obsessed with beautiful maps, these colorful and informative examples tracking the many paths of the lower Mississippi are a dream come true. The monumental collection was produced in 1944 by Harold N. Fisk, who drew in a rainbow of colors the path of past and current flows as the mighty river changed course and flooded over time.

Greyhound who lost every race turns out to be blind

When Jack Sprat the greyhound came last in every race in which he competed, his owners thought they had a dud. But in fact, he did well to keep up with the pack at all because it turns out Jack is almost completely blind and couldn’t see the rabbit. The hound, who was born in Ireland, was entered into dog races in Wimbledon, London, last year after he hit speeds of 40mph in training.

Despite his disability, Jack can still run 100 meters in just 6.39 seconds. But three-year-old Jack, competing under the name Centurys Gunner, came sixth in both of his races at the Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium. His baffled owner, believing he just wasn't fast enough, retired him and handed him over to the Dogs' Trust in Snetterton, Norfolk, in July this year.

Photo from SWNS.

Vets at the animal charity examined Jack and realized a rare condition had left him completely blind in his left eye and with only 20 per cent vision in his right. They diagnosed him with Chorioretinitis, a swelling and irritation of the middle layer of the eye, which is irreparable. Kate Brewster, 27, of the Dogs' Trust, said Jack would have been 'terrified' racing with no vision in his left eye - used by dogs to follow the rabbit.

She said: 'We don't think Jack's racing owner realized the severity of his blindness and it would have been terrifying for him to race because of the noise. He must have followed the other dogs or maybe used his sense of smell to get around the track. He clearly had no way of seeing the rabbit.' The Dogs' Trust is hoping to re-home Jack but recommend that his new owners have children over the age of 11 and don't have small pets he could chase.

Hawaiian resort sits empty

Hawaiian resort becomes ghost town

This stunning property on Kauai has a world-class spa, plenty of pools, and a $100 million clubhouse.

  But no guests 

Also: 

• Incredible public pools
• 6 hot trends in hotels
• Outlook for home prices

Animal Pictures