The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:

Sometimes it's tough to know how much information you should share and how much you should keep to yourself. 

Other people's secrets are just that -- other people's -- so those are definitely off limits today. 

But a piece of information of a more ambiguous classification will fall into your lap today -- this juicy dirt is much more powerful if you share it, so feel free! 

The tough part will be figuring out who you can trust. 

Just consider who is least likely to overreact. 

 Some of our readers today have been in:
Annecy, Rhone-Alpes, France
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Versailles, Ile-De-France, France
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
As, Askersus, Norway
Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia
London, England, United Kingdom
Tranbjerg, Arhus, Denmark
Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Basauri, Pais Vasco, Spain
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Mysore, Karnataka, India
Manila, Manila, Philippines
Paris, Ile-De-France, France

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 Anchorage, Indian Orchard, Indian Trail, Overland Park and more!

Today is:

Today is Thursday, October 20, the 293rd day of 2011.

There are 72 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

Information Overload Day.

  

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Non Sequitur

Thorough Thursday

Funny Pictures

Guess this wasn't one of the 'Hey, 25% of the time we get it correct' times, eh?

You Choose!

OK, so there's no choice here. One the one hand you have a human being that cares for his fellow human beings and on the other you have two demonic vipers.

Occupy Wall Street to start airing branding ads in response to repugican smears

As DailyKos notes, this may be in response to the repugican's attempt to brand all the protesters as anti-Semites or whatever.

Wingnut groups are currently running ads on cable news accusing Occupy Wall Street of anti-Semitism. Wingnut-media, and even the repugican nithing cabal, are piling on those attacks.

Soon, however, Occupy Wall Street will begin running a television ad of its own. The ad features a diverse set of protesters speaking directly into the camera what they hope the movement will achieve. Here it is...

You can watch a copy of the ad over at DKos.  It is interesting that the repugican propaganda machine has gone into high gear to tarnish the OWS protesters.  Their protests haven't been particularly partisan.  So it's interesting that repugicans are making things partisan by, yet again, defending rich people behaving badly.  Considering that a majority of American supports OWS, its a dumb move - but then again no on have ever accused repugicans of being intelligent.

Are you part of the 99%?

Breaking down the protest's '99 percent'

The Occupy Wall Street movement claims to represent most Americans. Find where you fit in.

  Big top number 

Also: 

• Leaders don't love Obama
• Mace cop disciplined
• 'Occupy Tundra' in Alaska

'Misery Index' at 28-year high

U.S. 'Misery Index' highest since 1983

Americans grow extremely glum due to struggles with unemployment and rising prices.  

 One bright spot for economy 

Also: 

• Housing woes grip public
• Jobless claims fall
• Europe rescue in doubt

Richest area in U.S.

Washington, D.C. area now the richest

The nation's capital, loaded with federal workers and lawyers, swaps top spots with the Silicon Valley. 

 Typical income 

Also: 

• Cities for the super rich
• The richest Americans
• Best places to live, work

Moammar Gadhafi dead

KGW-TV Portland

Hometown captured, Gadhafi dead

NATO confirms it hit a convoy of Moammar Gadhafi's loyalists fleeing Sirte as the city fell Thursday, but there are conflicting reports whether the ousted Libyan leader was in the convoy or possibly killed or captured.

Full Story

Moammar Gadhafi killed in hometown

Celebrations erupt throughout Libya as officials confirm the former dictator's death. 

Details still murky 

Also: 

• Gadhafi's warped vision
• Scenes from streets
• Lockerbie families rejoice

Crabby Road

FDA Cites Dirty Equipment In Cantaloupe Outbreak

Pools of water on the floor and old, hard-to-clean equipment at a Colorado farm's cantaloupe packing facility were probably to blame for the deadliest outbreak of foodborne illness in 25 years, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

Full Story

Products still made in U.S.

Seven products still made in the U.S.

The No. 1 bat of Major League players has been built in Louisville since the 1880s. 

  Iconic motorcycles, mixers 

Also: 

• Food, gas costing more
• Home building up 15%
• Why U.S. public is gloomy

It just won't go ...

... oh!

Colombian Students Call for a "Kiss-a-Thon" for Education

Students from Colombia's National University are calling for a kissing march, a kiss-a-thon, for a free, quality public education.

Full Story

Random Photos

Don't Listen To Most Relaxing Song Ever Created While Driving

It slows your breathing and reduces brain activity to such an extent that 'Weightless,' written by Manchester band Marconi Union, is said to be the 'most relaxing song ever'. The eight-minute track is so effective at inducing sleep, motorists have now been warned they should not listen to it whilst driving.

The band worked with sound therapists to get advice on how to make the most effective use of harmonies, rhythms and bass lines. The result on listeners is a slowing of the heart rate, reduced blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortiso

Back to the (Near) Future: DeLorean Electric Cars

Great Scott! Fans of Back to the Future rejoice, the DeLorean is making plans to bring the iconic car back to the near future:

There is still a DeLorean Motor Co. of Humble, Texas, which supplies parts and occasionally builds new cars for DeLorean lovers, and it has now announced a new version -- a DeLorean powered entirely by electricity.
"The car of the future has really become the car of the future," joked James Espey, a vice president at DeLorean, which has about 60 employees.
So far, said Espey, the company has retrofitted one car with an electric motor. If all goes well, he said, the company would start selling built-to-order electric DeLoreans around 2013. The sticker price (if a custom-built car can have a sticker): about $90,000.

Full Story

Save money with vinegar

Money-saving ways to use vinegar

You can replace pricey cleaners, weed killers, and insecticides with a nontoxic solution.  

 Streak-free glass, too 

Also: 

• Inventive uses for tea
• Celebs' money mistakes
• Calm financial fears

R. Lee Ermey Knitting

Yes, the former Marine sergeant and actor who played the drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket  can knit.
Got a problem with that?

America's emptiest cities

The emptiest cities in America

These metro areas are saddled with the highest vacancy rates for homes and apartments.  

 19% of rentals in one 

Also: 

• What homes will look like
• Biggest U.S. bank
• Fields that are hiring

State's water controversy

Company allowed to halt water deliveries

People are outraged after Pennsylvania regulators say a drilling firm has met its obligations.  

 Water looks like milk? 

Also: 

• World water worries
• Pa. drilling jobs rise
• Classes in demand

Spiderman with sword no match for clerk with broom

The Onslow County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina says Spider Man armed with a sword was no match for a convenience store clerk armed with a broom.

Full Story

* A note to would-be crooks channeling their favorite superheroes: Just because you're wearing the mask, it doesn't mean you have super powers. 

A twist in the basement kidnapping case?

Basement kidnapping case's possible twist

Four people may face unprecedented charges for allegedly locking up mentally disabled adults.  

 Expanded hate laws 

Also: 

• Fourth person charged
• Police search for baby
• Kidnapped woman dies

Ten children also found in US cellar horror case

Ten children have been found in the care of a woman accused of locking up four mentally-disabled people in a dank Philadelphia cellar, as a fourth person was arrested in the case.

Full Story

First name lands woman in jail

First name lands woman in jail for 53 days

A phone call to the police takes a very unexpected turn for Atlanta's Teresa Culpepper. 

  'I didn't know what to do' 

Also: 

• NYPD pepper spray flap
• Superhero arrest fallout
• Thief back from the 'dead'

Ziggy

Ok, if you say so.

The Top 50 Best Breakfasts Of The World

 

image credit

Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day.

Different countries have different breakfast dishes. Take a look.

A Cafe That Sits Right On The Borderline Between Belgium And The Netherlands

There are 22 Belgian exclaves in the Netherlands and 6 Dutch exclaves located within the largest Belgian exclave. Such land distribution results in complexity of borders between the two countries. It is not unusual that one part of the building is located in Belgium and the other in the Netherlands, like this cafe in the town of Baarle-Nassau.

Awesome Pictures

Ten Words You Might Think Came from Science, But Are Really From Science Fiction

Last week the phrase 'blast off' was coined by E. E. Smith, an early science fiction author often referred to as 'the father of space opera.' The term appeared in Smith's 1937 story Galactic Patrol, when one character inquires of another, 'How long do you figure it'll be before it's safe for us to blast off?'
And it turns out blast off isn't the only scientific word or phrase with science fictional origins. Here's a list of nine more.

First look at birth of a planet

First-ever look at planet being born

Astronomers photograph a planet 450 light years from Earth being formed out of gas and dust. 

  Youngest ever found 

Also: 

• 'Doomsday' comet zips by
• Ancient star cluster found
• Space tourism biz heats up

Oldest sports manual unveiled

World's oldest sports manual unveiled

The document dates back to 200 A.D. and offers helpful pointers in Greek on a sport still in vogue today.

  Details 

Also: 

• World's oldest sports
• Phelps loses in Moscow
• Olympian returns to slalom

Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut May Have Been Killed By Her Medicine

Queen Hatshepsut lived around 1450 B.C. A tiny flask owned by the queen, which is on exhibit in the permanent collection of the Egyptian Museum of the University of Bonn. may have held a deadly secret for 3,500 years, according to Head of the collection Michael Höveler-Müller and Dr. Helmut Wiedenfeld from the university's Pharmacology Institute.

After two years of research it is now clear that the flacon did not hold a perfume but was a kind of skin care lotion or even medication for a monarch suffering from eczema.
The pharmacologists found a strongly carcinogenic substance. Queen Hatshepsut may have been killed by her medicine.

Ancient Images of a Mother Giving Birth Found

The unique find, which could be the earliest representation of childbirth in western art, show the head and shoulders of a baby emerging from a mother.

Read more 

B.C.

The Ancient Tradition Of Fishing With Cormorants

 

image credit

Sitting quietly on a bamboo raft, with his birds at his side, the man listens to the gentle splashing as water laps at the side of his craft. The light of a flaming lantern illuminates the scene - in Guilin, in the Chinese province of Guangxi.

Cormorant fishing is an age-old art practiced in China and Japan (as well as a few other countries) that is long past its glory days. Today, it exists largely due to the tourism industry, but is no less intriguing for that fact.

Liberated Battery Hens Find a New Home in Prison

Photo: bhwt

It's the "only in Britain" category for this one... The British Hen Welfare Trust has proudly announced that it has rescued 20 battery hens and "re-homed" them in a high security prison for women.
The jailbirds will live at the prison as part of a garden program offering educational and therapeutic projects to the inmates.

Article continues: Liberated Battery Hens Find a New Home in Prison

Animal Pictures