The Daily Drift

Ain't that the truth ...!

Carolina Naturally is read in 194 countries around the world daily.
 

Don't be such a tight ass ... !


Today is - Loosen Up, Lighten Up Day

 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Boxborough, Swedesboro and Titusville, Unites States

Fermont, Byward Market, Mississauga, Sioux Lookout, Blainville, Pikangikum, Lansing, Thunder Bay, Saint, John's and Ottawa, Canada

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Santiago, Chile

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Quito, Ecuador

Montevideo, Uruguay

Mexico City, Mexico

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Managua and Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Europe

London and Surrey, England

Krakow and Bialystok, Poland

Lisbon and Porto, Portugal

Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg, Russia

Rothe Erde and Nuremberg, Germany

Milan, Rome, Pistoia and Ivrea, Italy

Oberhaslasch, Paris, Rouen, Boulogne-Billancourt and Cerny, France

Dublin, Ireland

Groningen, Netherlands

Sandsli and Oslo, Norway

Kista, Sweden

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Budapest, Hungary

Madrid, Spain

Odessa, Ukraine

Zurich, Switzerland

Nokia, Finland

Edinburgh, Scotland

Riga, Latvia

Newport, Wales

Asia

Coimbatore, Pune, Shillong, Bangalore, Kolkata and Pondicherry, India

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Jakarta and Gresik, Indonesia

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Seoul, Korea

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Kajang and Bayan Lepas, Malaysia

Bangkok, Thailand

Islamabad, Pakistan

Hanoi, Vietnam

Africa

Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa

Benin City, Nigeria

Tunis, Tunisia

Yaounde, Cameroon

Pacific

Homebush, Melbourne and Darwin, Australia

Manila, Makati and Quezon City, Philippines

Today in History

1380 - King Charles VI of France crowned at age 12
1524 - Francisco Pizarro begins his 1st great expedition, near Colombia
1666 - Samuel Pepys reports on 1st blood transfusion (between dogs)
1680 - Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680 (Kirch's Comet/Newton's Comet)
1732 - 1st US professional librarian, Louis Timothee, hired in Phila
1832 - 1st streetcar (horse-drawn) (John Mason) debuts in NYC; fare 12 cents rode on 4th Avenue between Prince and 14th Sts
1833 - Charles Darwin departs by horse to Montevideo
1834 - William Thomson enters Glasgow University at 10 yrs 4 months
1888 - St Andrews Golf Club, Yonkers NY, opens with just 6 holes
1888 - USC Trojans (then Methodists) play their 1st football game
1889 - New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began her attempt to surpass fictitious journey of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg by traveling around world in less than 80 days She succeeded, finishing the trip in January in 72 days and 6 hours
1896 - Power plant at Niagara Falls begins operation
1908 - Albert Einstein presents his quantum theory of light
1910 - 1st airplane flight from deck of a ship, Norfolk, Va
1935 - Nazis deprive German Jews of their citizenship
1942 - Last Vichy-French troops in Algeria surrender
1957 - The Appalachian Meeting outside Binghamton, New York is raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures are arrested.
1960 - OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), forms
1965 - US government sends 90,000 soldiers to Vietnam
1968 - "National Turn in Your Draft Card Day" features draft card burning

Non Sequitur

Deny You Are Human with Shreddies

Despite the fact that everyone farts, and everyone knows that everyone farts, some people are horrified by the thought that someone else will know they fart. For these particularly paranoid people, there's a new kind of flatulence filtering underwear embedded with activated charcoal called Shreddies. It's doubtful that they'd make a good Christmas gift, unless it's for someone you really, really want to embarrass. Why are they called Shreddies? That's a mystery for another day.  

Did you know ...

That California Marine reservists accused of scamming $870,000 from fake travel vouchers

That our do-nothing congress will do even more nothing next year

That fewer men are paying for sex or, maybe not

About American hunger and the christian wingnuts

Joke of the Day - Ted Cruz: the mask of sincerity

That a study finds lullaby's reduce pain in children

That Somali pirates hate Britney Spears

For the First Time EVER, a Prosecutor Will Go to Jail for Lying a Man into Prison for 25 years

On Nov 9th in Texas, former prosecutor and judge Ken Anderson pled guilty to intentionally failing to disclose evidence in a case that sent an innocent man,  Michael Morton, to prison for the murder of his wife. When trying the case as a prosecutor, Anderson possessed evidence that may have cleared Morton, including  statements from the crime's only eyewitness that Morton wasn't the culprit. Anderson sat on this evidence, and then watched Morton get convicted.
While Morton remained in prison for the next 25 years, Anderson's career flourished, and he eventually became a judge.

We've taked about this before,
America is so fucked, it's perfectly legal to frame a innocent person for murder.
How can we even live with ourselves?

It's happened hundreds (or thousands) of times and this crooked Tejas asshole finally has to pay, with TEN DAYS in jail for making Mike Morton sit in a cage for 25 years.
Like I say, it's a start but aren't you ashamed of this stupid country?
They set it up so the rich and powerful can imprison any innocent man they want.

And in super-racist Tejas, that has meant, over the centuries, powerless Black men
have done time (or been executed) on the slighest whims of the evil white bastards.

"With liberty and justice for all" is one of the great jokes of our time.

More

Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes Ties Mitch McConnell as repugican Plummets to New Low

A new Lake Research Partners poll of Kentucky found Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes tied with repugican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at 37% as McConnell job approval numbers hit new low.
The poll, which was done for Moveon.org found that McConnell has issues everywhere. McConnell has less strong support than Grimes (27%-29%), and 77% of undecided voters give him a negative job performance rating. When asked if they want to replace or reelect McConnell, 43% of respondents want to replace him and just 27% want to reelect him. McConnell’s favorability is drowning in the negative (52%-42%), and 68% of Kentucky voters gave him a negative job performance rating.
Sen. McConnell’s primary challenger doesn’t seem to pose any real threat. McConnell leads Matt Biven 50%-17%, but the incumbent is so unpopular that he will have to spend time, money, and resources guarding against the tea party backed primary challenger early in 2014.
What all of this means is that Sen. Mitch McConnell is weak, vulnerable, and in serious danger of losing his seat. Kentucky voters don’t like McConnell, or the job that he is doing in the Senate. McConnell may have done himself serious damage back home by supporting the government shutdown over the ACA.
Kentucky will be one of the states where Democrats can definitely run using the ACA as an asset. Kentucky’s health insurance exchange has been a huge success. It is possible that McConnell could pay a high price for opposing something nationally that is working well back home.
Grimes has a real chance to win McConnell’s seat. The polling data hasn’t moved in months. McConnell is extremely unpopular in Kentucky, and Grimes has a strong core of support in the state. None of this will be easy. Mitch McConnell has a mountain of cash in his war chest, and there will be millions upon millions of outside dollars flowing into the race on his behalf.
With McConnell’s numbers as bad as they are, this race is still tied. Grimes has been campaigning on her desire to put Kentucky first over national politics. Polling data makes it clear that voters in the state think that McConnell is neglecting the folks back home.
The polls point to McConnell’s run in the Senate coming to an end, but it is up to Alison Lundergan Grimes to convince the state’s voters that she is the change that they seek.

The repugicans are Reeling as Support For Raising The Minimum Wage Surges to 76%

 

Congressional repugicans have vowed to block any bill raising the minimum wage, but a new Gallup poll shows that 76% of Americans and 58% of repugicans supporting increasing the minimum wage.
The Gallup poll found that support for raising the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour has jumped from 71% in March to 76% today. Sixty nine percent of those polled support a minimum wage that increases as inflation goes up. 91% of Democrats, 76% of Independents, and 58% of repugicans support increasing the minimum wage. Democrats (92%) and Independents (71%) strongly support linking the minimum wage to inflation.
While the American people want a higher minimum wage, repugicans in Congress support getting rid of all minimum wage laws. In an interview with CBS, Marco Rubio (r-FL) said, “I support people making more than $9. I want people to make as much as they can. I don’t think a minimum wage law works. We all support — I certainly do — having more taxpayers, meaning more people who are employed. And I want people to make a lot more than $9 — $9 is not enough. The problem is you can’t do that by mandating it in the minimum wage laws. Minimum wage laws have never worked in terms of having the middle class attain more prosperity.”
Speaker of the House John Boehner likes to make the false argument that raising the minimum wage kills jobs, “When you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it.”
Rand Paul (r-KY) echoed Boehner’s bogus argument that raising the minimum wage kills jobs, “It’s not a question of whether (the federal government) can or cannot. I think that’s decided. I think the question you have to ask is whether or not when you set the minimum wage it may cause unemployment. The least skilled people in our society have more trouble getting work the higher you make the minimum wage.”
Lamar Alexander (r-TN) admitted to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that he wants to abolish the minimum wage. Elected repugicans are moving in the opposite direction from the rest of the country. They are even out of step with a majority of their own cabal on the minimum wage.
Democrats are planning on using the minimum wage issue to help candidates around the country in 2014. The minimum wage is a powerful issue that brings out voters who otherwise might stay home and skip a midterm election. `
The repugicans are in big trouble on the minimum wage. The elected radical repugicans want to abolish it, while the rest of the country is trying to raise it. This is one of those issues where a pragmatic political party would support a minimum wage increase because opposing it could do serious damage to them in the next election. However, this repugican cabal is ideological. They will never support a minimum wage increase, and voters will make them pay dearly at the polls.
Democrats need to pound and press, because raising the minimum wage isn’t just a political issue. It’s the right thing to do for millions of hard working Americans.

When will workers realize that big business is not their friend?

Big business is the friend of it's owners - whether the owners be private individuals or share holders. Wages take a bite out of profits. We need regulation of businesses - big and small - to ensure that workers and customers alike are protected from deceit and harm.

Walmart Workers Go On Strike Demanding Better Treatment and a Living Wage

The working poor continue to push back and fight for a better life, as Seattle area Walmart workers are staging a one day strike to demand a living…

The working poor continue to push back and fight for a better life, as Seattle area Walmart workers are staging a one day strike to demand a living wage.
The Seattle area strike comes on the heels of a Southern California Walmart worker strike. Both protests are leading up to a big national day of strikes and protests against Walmart that will be happening on Black Friday.
Salon talked to a Seattle area Walmart worker who said before the strike, “I don’t know if I’ll see it in my lifetime, but I want all of the associates, including myself, to be able to walk into our workplace, you know, this place that they call our family…and not be physically ill, not just feel like you want to throw up or pass out or even just turn around and walk out over intimidation and humiliation. I want people to be able to live better, you know, like the commercial says…Nobody lives better except for the Waltons now.”
Walmart has been struggling all year as they have seen their model of holding down employee wages cause a public relations nightmare that has sent shoppers fleeing their stores and heading to competitors like Costco who pay their employees a living wage. Walmart tried to spin last year’s Black Friday strike and protest as something that didn’t really happen. In the lead up to the 2012 action Walmart tried to bully their employees, even going as far as going to court to try to get an injunction by claiming unfair labor practices.

The group Our Walmart is organizing and leading the fight for better wages and conditions for the 1.2 million workers that Walmart employs. They have a petition urging President Obama to meet with striking Walmart workers that you can sign here.
The strikes and protests against Walmart are playing out against the backdrop of a changing nation. Seventy six percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. Nearly 70% of Americans support tying the minimum wage to inflation. Democrats are preparing legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2015 if it became law.
The Walmart strikes and protests are about people risking everything because they can’t survive in a system where an employer pays so little that they have to rely on food stamps in order to shop at the same store that they work in. People across this country are realizing that hard work for no pay isn’t what America is supposed to be.
Walmart and the other corporate giants have taken from their workers for too long. Consumers are voting with their wallets and not shopping at Walmart, while employees are risking it all to take a stand for a better life.
America is rejecting the business model of low prices at the cost of exploited workers. People from coast to coast are standing up and saying no to Walmart.

Corporate 'Education'

Batman bin Suparman jailed for theft and abusing heroin

A Singaporean man, Batman bin Suparman, an unemployed 23-year-old was jailed for two years and nine months on Monday for theft, housebreaking and consuming heroin.

District Judge Wong Choon Ning could not suppress a smile when she heard his name.

In July, Batman's elder brother, Mr Nurazman Suparman, 28, reported to the police that his ATM card was missing and there had been unauthorised withdrawals amounting to $650. Investigations then revealed that Batman had stolen the ATM card from their home so as to make the withdrawals.

On the night of August 9, he broke into the office of GF Billiards & Marketing. He then stole $200 from $430 placed in a drawer, probably in the hope that the missing amount might not be noticed. That was not so. An employee checked the surveillance video footage and saw that a thief had forced open a window to enter the premises. Police were informed and Batman was arrested on August 19. A urine test revealed that he had also been abusing heroin.

Sausage stand holder chased armed would-be robber with pair of sausage tongs

A sausage stand holder in the Austrian capital of Vienna chased a would-be robber with a pair of sausage tongs from his stand.
The 52-year-old sausage stand holder on the Währinger Straße took the tongs and hit the gun which the thief was holding, causing him to flee.

The man came to the stand at 3am and order a cheese filled sausage hot dog.

As he prepared the sausage the young man suddenly pulled a scarf over his head and then threatened the owner and shouted 'Hold Up' - whilst pointing a silver gun at him. The owner took his sausage tongs and hit the gun which sent the robber fleeing.

Gun-nut Illogic

You Have An Eye Inside Your Head

Quick: How many eyes do you have? You probably said two. But human beings all have what has been called a vestigial (unused) eye in their brains. This eye has a structure similar to our external eyes, with retinal tissues, and it is sensitive to light.

This eye, known as the pineal gland, has been much-discussed in philosophy and medicine. There are a few explanations of the role played by the eye in your brain - from it's function as a 'third eye' that can perceive things we cannot see with our external eyes to its role in producing melatonin and more.

When your body needs calories, you’re more inclined to help the poor

When your body needs calories, you’re more inclined to help the poor

Imagine that you have not eaten anything for the past few hours. It is almost lunch time, and you are getting hungry. You receive an email. It is a survey asking about your political position […]

Research may improve early detection of dementia

Research may improve early detection of dementia

Using scores obtained from cognitive tests, Johns Hopkins researchers think they have developed a model that could help determine whether memory loss in older adults is benign or a stop on the way to Alzheimer’s […]

Sons of cocaine-using dads may resist drug addiction

Sons of cocaine-using dads may resist drug addiction

A father’s cocaine use may make his sons less sensitive to the drug and thereby more likely to resist addictive behaviors, suggests new findings from an animal study presented by Penn Medicine researchers at Neuroscience […]

Moms may pass effects of stress to offspring via vaginal bacteria and placenta

Moms may pass effects of stress to offspring via vaginal bacteria and placenta

Pregnant women may transmit the damaging effects of stress to their unborn child by way of the bacteria in their vagina and through the placenta, suggest new findings from two animal studies presented by researchers […]

Fast-Mutating DNA Sequences Guided Evolution of Uniquely Human Traits

Fast-Mutating DNA Sequences Guided Evolution of Uniquely Human Traits

What does it mean to be human? According to scientists the key lies, ultimately, in the billions of lines of genetic code that comprise the human genome. The problem, however, has been deciphering that code. […]

Ziggy

Cork

Harvest For The Patient Farmer

Have you ever wondered where that cork in your bottle of wine comes from? The answer is most likely to be Spain or Portugal, where over half of the world's cork is harvested - it is in fact the National Tree of the latter country.

However, unlike other forms of forestry, the production of cork never involves the death of a tree. Instead, they are gently stripped, leaving a strange but fascinating landscape of denuded trunks.

How Early Earth Cooled After Moon-Forming Impact

How Early Earth Cooled After Moon-Forming Impact

A new hypothesis gives the moon credit for cooling a hot, early Earth to the temperatures necessary for life to evolve.

Spitzer and ALMA Reveal a Star’s Bubbly Birth

Spitzer and ALMA Reveal a Star’s Bubbly Birth

It’s a bouncing baby . . . star! Combined observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the newly completed Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile have revealed the throes of stellar birth as never […]

Daily Comic Relief

Mysterious Disease Turning Sea Stars to Goo

Mysterious Disease Turning Sea Stars to Goo

A mysterious disease is turning hundreds of starfish into limp lumps of goo along both the East and West coasts in recent months.

Dog probably followed ambulance with owner in to hospital following crash

A man injured when a driver suspected of being drunk smashed into his northern Idaho house got some good news on Saturday. His dog which had been missing since the incident on Thursday had been found. Jeffrey Groat was reunited with his "teacup Great Dane" named Burke while recovering in Kootenai Health hospital.

A Coeur d'Alene resident was reading the local newspaper and saw an article about Burke being missing. The photo in the article matched that of a dog he had found limping near Kootenai Health on the night of the accident. "He's (Burke) been hanging out in the guy's living room," said Brandi Bieber, a family friend. "They picked him up Thursday night near the emergency room. We think maybe the dog followed the ambulance and sounds of the sirens."

Shortly after being notified that the resident had Burke, Bieber picked up the dog and friends and family began working on a surprise reunion. "We kept it all very hush, hush," Bieber said. "A nurse told Jeff she was taking him outside to get some fresh air." When Groat and the nurse arrived outside, Burke was eagerly waiting to see his owner. "They were really excited to see each other," Bieber said. "Burke is younger and was really excited. We had to keep him from jumping on Jeff because he wanted to play."

Prior to the reunion, Groat, who was severely injured in the accident but is expected to be released from the hospital soon, kept asking about Burke. "It was a big, big stress for him," Bieber said. "The family is relieved. He is relieved." The relief of finding Burke comes in the aftermath of an accident that left Groat, Sherri Bloom and a 10-year old girl seriously injured and their home damaged to the point it has been condemned. Meanwhile, 27-year-old Thomas Scott Heinbaugh has been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and fleeing an injury accident and is being held in Kootenai County Jail.

Kangaroo spotted in Russian forest unimpressed with offer of a banana

A couple driving through a forest in southeastern Russia had a bizarre encounter after spotting a kangaroo on the side of the road and attempted to feed it a banana before it hopped away.

The male driver drives towards the mysterious creature, apparently thinking it is a hare. But his wife can be heard exclaiming “Kangaroo!” in a thick Russian accent. Oddly enough, she’s right.

The couple pulled over and the woman attempted to feed the rogue 'roo a banana. The confused animal then hopped off into the forest.

YouTube link.

According to local media, residents of the Saratov region have previously spotted the stray kangaroo at least twice this year. There is speculation that the animal could have fled from a private zoo owned by a local businessman.

This Newly Discovered Monkey Has Babies That Purr

This little fluffy monkey was recently discovered in the Amazon back in 2010, but there's more than one reason to be excited about the discovery of this adorable endangered critter -that's because it has babies that purr like kittens. Caqueta titi monkey (Callicebus caquetensis) lives in Colombia and it is estimated that there are only around 250 of these animals in existence, so if you ever want to get to see purring monkey babies either in the wild or in the zoo, you'd better help by donating to conservation efforts immediately. Conservation International is a good source to support the monkeys, but there are plenty of other worthy groups out there as well.

Animal Pictures