The Daily Drift

 

Today happens to be National Chicken Dance Day so we posted the picture above to express our feelings about that insidious 'dance', so kiss it.

Today's readers have been in:

Reykjavik, Iceland

Petah Tikva, Israel

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Cork, Ireland

Sofia, Bulgaria

Tallinn, Estonia

Kiev, Ukraine

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Makati, Philippines

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Dublin, Ireland

Antwerp, Belgium

Binche, Belgium

Brussels, Belgium

Tel Aviv, Israel

Cebu City, Philippines

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Klang, Malaysia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Montevideo, Uruguay

Zurich, Switzerland

Limerick, Ireland

Groningen, Netherlands

Warsaw. Poland

Tangerang, Indonesia

Krakow, Poland

Bratislava, Slovakia

Barisal, Bangladesh

Oslo, Norway

Athens, Greece

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Islamabad, Pakistan

Singapore, Singapore

Santiago, Chile

Taipei, Taiwan

Carolina Naturally

 

It is places like this that make North Carolina the place where if you ask the Gods where they would prefer to live they all answer in unison 'Carolina, naturally!'.

Non Sequitur

Today in History

1264		King Henry III is captured by his brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, at the Battle of Lewes.
1509		At the Battle of Agnadello, the French defeat the Venitians in Northern Italy.
1610		French King Henri IV (Henri de Navarre) is assassinated by François Ravillac, a fanatical monk.
1796		English physician Edward Jenner gives the first successful smallpox vaccination.
1804		Explorer William Clark sets off from St. Louis, Missouri.
1853		Gail Borden applies for a patent for condensed milk.
1863		Union General Nathanial Banks heads towards Port Hudson along the Mississippi River.
1897		Guglielmo Marconi sends first communication by wireless telegraph.
1897		"Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Phillip Sousa is performed for the first time in Philadelphia.
1935		A plebiscite in the Philippines ratifies an independence agreement.
1940		Holland surrenders to Germany.
1942		The British Army, in retreat from Burma, reach India.
1948		Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion establishes the State of Israel.
1961		A bus carrying black and white civil rights activists is bombed and burned in Alabama.
1969		Three companies of the 101st Airborne Division fail to push North Vietnamese forces off Hill 937 in South Vietnam.
1973		The U.S. space station Skylab is launched.
1991		In South Africa, Winnie Mandela is sentenced to six years in prison for her part in the kidnapping and beating of three black youths and the death of a fourth.

Underground America Day

May 14th is Underground America Day, a time to honor the 6,000 or so North Americans who make their homes not only on the Earth but in it. Underground America Day began in 1974, when architect Malcolm Wells came up with the idea. "I woke up one day to the fact that the Earth's surface was made for living plants, not industrial plants." "On May 14th each year hundreds of millions of people all across this great land will do absolutely nothing about the national holiday I declared in 1974, and that's just the way it should be. "It's a holiday free of holiday obligations. "You don't even have to lose a day of work. But if you're the partying type, here are some of the ways in which you can observe the big day."

It's a Carolina thing

Thief Forgets to Logout of Facebook Before Robbing Internet Cafe

Well-appointed Internet cafes have signs that remind users to log out of any applications before leaving. Not everyone pays attention, including as two robbers at one in Colombia:

It happened in the neighborhood of Calima, north of the city of Cali, Colombia. Two men arrived to an internet cafe, rented two computers, did their thing for a bit and, as they pretended to be paying, they took out guns and got all the money.

One of the two robbers forgot to log out of his Facebook account. Police used it to trace his home address.

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Man pulled over by police for being too radioactive

Mike Apatow was minding his own business on Wednesday, driving to an appointment for work in Washington Depot when a state police car appeared suddenly and signalled for the Milford resident to pull over. Apatow, 42, was entering Interstate 84 in Newtown when the cruiser appeared, and he had no idea what he'd done to merit police attention. It turns out he didn't do anything.
But earlier that day, Apatow, who'd experienced a recent spike in his blood pressure, had a nuclear stress test at Cardiology Associates of Fairfield County in Trumbull. In the test, a small amount of a radioactive material is injected into the veins and used to help track blood flow to the heart. Though the amount of radioactive material used in the test is relatively low - equal to a few X-rays or a diagnostic CT scan - it was enough to set off a radioactivity detector in the state police car.

The detectors are used to help identify potential terror threats. "I asked the officer `What seems to be the problem?' " Apatow said. "He said `You've been flagged as a radioactive car.'" Apatow's doctor had given him a document attesting that he'd had a medical procedure involving a small amount of radioactive material that he handed to the officer. A Stratford firefighter, Apatow was more curious than annoyed by the incident.

"I had no idea the police even had devices like that," he said. "I imagined it being like a cartoon - like I'm driving down the street and my car was glowing." State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance confirmed that many of the state police cars have the radioactivity detectors. "It's part of our homeland security operations here," Vance said. "It's just another layer of public safety that we have in this state."

Europe struggles for climate lead

Europe struggles for climate lead

Key UN climate talks are set to open in Germany, with Europe struggling to maintain its position as a global leader.

• Climate ship sails through battering waves
• Warming 'may rise by 3C' by 2050

Merkel's pro-austerity party crushed in elections on Sunday

And yet another blow to the failing austerity program in Europe.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party was defeated in its worst result since World War II in elections in Germany’s most populous state that saw the Social Democrats extend their influence across the country’s regions.

The Social Democrats, the main opposition party nationally, took 38.3 percent to win today’s vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, while Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union had 26.1 percent, ZDF television projections showed as of 7 p.m. The Greens took 12.1 percent, giving a majority to SPD Prime Minister Hannelore Kraft’s SPD-Greens coalition that ruled for two years in a minority government in the state capital Dusseldorf.

Elizabeth Warren calls for Jamie Dimon's resignation from Fed

For those wondering why we have such a failed banking system, take a look at how it works. People like Jamie Dimon are sitting on the board of the NY Federal Reserve, the board that is supposed to be keeping an eye on Wall Street. Tim Geithner was schmoozed by Wall Street and bought into their lies, just as NY Fed presidents before and after. The relationship between banks and those tasked with oversight are too cozy.
Warren is right to ask for Dimon to step down, but that should be a minimum. The days of close and friendly relationships between the feds and the banks needs to end. That system has run its course and needs major reform. Bloomberg, speaking with Elizabeth Warren:

“After the biggest financial crisis in generations, the American people are frustrated that Wall Street has still not been held accountable and does not appear to consider itself responsible,” she said. “Dimon should resign from his post at the New York Fed to send a signal to the American people that Wall Street bankers get it and to show that they understand the need for responsibility and accountability.”

Former Murdoch journalist: stories made up, lived in culture of fear

Anyone who has been paying attention can't be surprised. The Rupert Murdoch empire has been bullying opponents for years so it's perfectly believable that they also bullied employees.
The former Murdoch journalist raises a key point about the way Murdoch's News Corp is run. News Corp desperately needs to be investigated because there's too much smoke around its operations.

The Guardian:

A former News of the World reporter has claimed that journalists at the now defunct newspaper regularly made up stories and unethical practices were rife because of a "culture of fear" at the tabloid.

Graham Johnson, who worked at the newspaper between 1995 and 1997, said many employees carried out illegal operations and fabricated articles due to pressures from the top.

He told the BBC: "You can't get through the day on a tabloid newspaper if you don't lie, if you don't deceive, if you're not prepared to use forms of blackmail or extortion or lean on people, you know, make people's lives a misery. You just have to deliver the story on time and on budget, and if you didn't then you'd get told off.

"The News of the World culture was driven by fear, because it's a hierarchy, it's a military operation, it's a seamless operation."

How John Roberts Orchestrated Citizens United

By having the case re-argued, Roberts put the liberals in a box and transformed the decision's impact on political campaigns.

When Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was first argued before the Supreme Court, on March 24, 2009, it seemed like a case of modest importance. The issue before the Justices was a narrow one. The McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law prohibited corporations from running television commercials for or against Presidential candidates for thirty days before primaries.

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Did you know ...

That the last 12 months were the hottest on record since records have been kept.

How the affordable healthcare act helps combat preventable hospital infections.

Oh, and here's a comprehensive list of which corporations belong to ALEC.

In yet another reason not to trust Angie's List ... Angie's List is now sponsoring Lush Dimbulb.

Bill would stop employers from asking for social media passwords

The Password Protection Act would prohibit employers from gaining access to a person's private Facebook, Twitter or other social media profile.

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FDA delays rules meant to ease sunscreen confusion

Sunscreen confusion won't be over before summer after all. The government is bowing to industry requests for more time to make clear how much protection their lotions really offer.

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Americans support national clean-energy standard

The average U.S. citizen is willing to pay 13 percent more for electricity in support of a national clean-energy standard ...

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First AIDS, now bone marrow to the rescue of diabetes?

A combination therapy that reverses established Type 1 diabetes in mice sets the stages for development of a new human ...

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Marijuana Restaurant Opens in Oregon

After scraping together a mound of zucchini, broccoli, beef, pineapple and noodles on a big round Mongolian grill, Kevin Wallace measured out a shot of grape-seed oil infused with hashish and poured it over the steaming food, setting off a sizzle.

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International Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, 'army commander.' Historically, it has been variously described as 'the shorthand of history' and 'the floral border in the garden of history.'

The origins of heraldry lie in the need to distinguish participants in combat when their faces were hidden by iron and steel helmets. Truly heraldic devices seem to have been first used in Carolingian times. Seals and banners confirm that they were being used in the Flemish area of Europe during the reign of Charlemagne.

Awesome Pictures

A 100,000 LED Spheres Floating Down a River in Japan

At last weekend’s Tokyo Hotaru festival, 100,000 little balls with LEDs inside floated down the Sumida River. From a distance, they look like a blur on the river. Close up, they look like fireflies dancing on the surface of the water.

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OK, now that is something you don't see everyday.

The rise and fall of a marine volcano

Rise and fall of marine volcano

The violent rise and collapse of an underwater volcano in the Pacific Ocean is captured in startling clarity for the first time.

• Light shed on underwater volcano Watch
• Sub-sea mountains' 'march to ruin'

A Dozen Of The Most Beautiful Bays In The World

A bay is loosely defined as a body of water partly enclosed by land. Generally they have calmer waters than the surrounding sea and are a good place for ships to shelter from the weather. Also, bays are often very beautiful and represent unavoidable tourist attractions in the countries where they are located. Here are 12 of the most beautiful bays in the world.

Patagonia dam project halted

Chile's supreme court has halted construction on the Rio Cuervo hydroelectric project in the country's remote and pristine Patagonia region, after accepting an appeal from environmental groups. 

 Chile supreme court halts Patagonia dam project.

The Mystery Of Resin

Resin is a chemical that oozes out of various trees. It is known as a secretion rather than an excretion. Excretions are purely waste products whereas, although the reasons behind resin are still a little obscure, most scientists believe that it has some sort of purpose or function.

No one knows for absolute sure why some trees secrete resin. However, with the aid of some marvelous macrophotography, although the mystery surrounding this subject cannot be solved for certain, its beauty - at times deadly - becomes evident.

Garfield

Orangutan forced to chew off own hand to escape from snare recovering

An orphaned orangutan who was forced to gnaw off its own hand to escape from a snare is now recovering after life-saving surgery. Pelangsi lived off nothing but rainwater for 10 days before chewing off his own hand in a desperate bid to escape. Thankfully the orphan was eventually rescued by the team at International Animal Rescue in Indonesia.
Pelangsi now could be released back into the wild in just a few months after a five-hour operation to amputate his damaged hand and arm. Karmele Llano Sanchez, Veterinary Director at International Animal Rescue Indonesia, said Pelangsi was looking alert and eating. "Pelangsi was clearly young and fit before getting trapped in the snare," he said.

"While it is a tragedy that he has lost his limb this is far better than him losing his life through septicaemia. There is no reason why he shouldn't return to the wild and fend for himself again. He's a wild orangutan so finds it quite stressful to be in captivity, he tries to hide under the foliage in his cage whenever we approach him with darts and the blowpipe to sedate him." Alan Knight, the charity's chief executive, said Pelangsi's story reflected the plight of many orang-utans in Borneo.

"He was driven from the forest when it was destroyed to make room for a palm oil plantation," he said. "He was forced into an area where wildlife and humans are competing for space and food. Unfortunately we came too late to save his damaged hand but we certainly saved his life." The team are now looking for a potential release site for Pelangsi so he can be released into a safe area of forest which is free from man-made threats.

Animal Pictures