The Daily Drift

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Today in History

1397		John of Gaunt marries Katherine Rouet.
1846		President James Polk dispatches General Zachary Taylor and 4,000 troops to the Texas Border as war with Mexico looms.
1862		President Lincoln names Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War.
1900		To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary decrees German the official language of the Imperial Army.
1919		California votes to ratify the prohibition amendment.
1923		Hitler denounces the Weimar Republic as 5,000 storm troopers demonstrate in Germany.
1927		A woman takes a seat on the NY Stock Exchange breaking the all-male tradition.
1931		The bridge connecting New York and New Jersey is named the George Washington Memorial Bridge.
1937		The United States bars Americans from serving in the Civil War in Spain.
1943		General Leclerc's Free French forces merge with the British under Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery in Libya.
1944		Plants are destroyed and 64 U.S. aircraft are lost in an air attack in Germany.
1945		The Red Army opens an offensive in South Poland, crashing 25 miles through the German lines.
1947		British troops replace striking truck drivers.
1955		Chase National and the Bank of Manhattan agree to merge resulting in the second largest U.S. bank.
1965		Two U.S. planes are shot down in Laos while on a combat mission.
1968		U.S. reports shifting most air targets from North Vietnam to Laos.
1976		Argentina ousts a British envoy in dispute over the Falkland Islands.
1980		The United States offers Pakistan a two-year aid plan to counter the Soviet threat in Afghanistan.
1982		Air Florida Flight 90 Boeing 737 jet crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge shortly after takeoff, then plunges into the Potomac River; 78 people, including 4 motorists, are killed.
1990		In Virginia, Douglas Wilder, the first African American elected governor of a US state, takes office.

Non Sequitur

Virgin Galactic reaches new supersonic heights, completes third powered flight

Feathered Flight during SpaceShipTwo's third powered flight on 10 January 2014 over the Mojave desert.

Richard Branson's commercial spaceline Virgin Galactic today completed the third rocket-powered supersonic flight of its passenger carrying reusable space vehicle, SpaceShipTwo (SS2). Here's the company's news brief, from Mojave:

In command on the flight deck of SS2 for the first time under rocket power was Virgin Galactic’s Chief Pilot Dave Mackay. Mackay, along with Scaled Composites’ (Scaled) Test Pilot Mark Stucky, tested the spaceship’s Reaction Control System (RCS) and the newly installed thermal protection coating on the vehicle’s tail booms. All of the test objectives were successfully completed.
Today’s flight departed Mojave Air and Space Port at 7:22 a.m. PST with the first stage consisting of the WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft lifting SS2 to an altitude around 46,000 ft. At the controls of WK2 were Virgin Galactic Pilot Mike Masucci and Scaled Test Pilot Mike Alsbury. On release, SS2’s rocket motor was ignited, powering the spaceship to a planned altitude of 71,000 ft. – SS2’s highest altitude to date – and a maximum speed of Mach 1.4. SS2’s unique feather re-entry system was also tested during today’s flight.
Two important SS2 systems, the RCS and thermal protection coating, were tested during today’s flight in preparation for upcoming full space flights. The spaceship’s RCS will allow its pilots to maneuver the vehicle in space, permitting an optimal viewing experience for those on board and aiding the positioning process for spacecraft re-entry. The new reflective protection coating on SS2’s inner tail boom surfaces is being evaluated to help maintain vehicle skin temperatures while the rocket motor is firing.
SS2’s propulsion system has been developed by Sierra Nevada Corp and is the world’s largest operational hybrid rocket motor. Although today’s flight saw it burn for a planned 20 seconds, the system has been successfully tested in ground firings to demonstrate performance characteristics and burn time sufficient to take the spaceship and its private astronauts to space.
Commenting on the successful test flight, Sir Richard Branson said: “I couldn’t be happier to start the New Year with all the pieces visibly in place for the start of full space flights. 2014 will be the year when we will finally put our beautiful spaceship in her natural environment of space. Today, we had our own Chief Pilot flying another flawless supersonic flight and proving the various systems required to take us safely to space, as well as providing the very best experience while we’re up there.”
This flight was the third opportunity to see a supersonic, rocket-powered test of the Virgin Galactic system after dozens of successful subsonic test flights. “Today’s flight was another resounding success,” said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides. “We focused on gathering more transonic and supersonic data, and our chief pilot, Dave, handled the vehicle beautifully. With each flight test, we are progressively closer to our target of starting commercial service in 2014.”
For Mackay, the flight was a “dream come true.”
“I have watched SS2 evolve over the years into an incredible vehicle that is going to open up space to more people than ever before,” he said. “To be behind the controls and fly it as the rocket ignited is something I will never forget. She flew brilliantly. All the tests went really well and generated vital data that will be used to further fine-tune our operations.”

Did you know ...

That Lush Dimbulb has been replaced by hot country in south Florida

About the 6 most terrifying facts about the chemical spill polluting West Virgina's drinking water

That the hype over canceled plans under  The Affprdable Care Act are completely overblown

And RIP one of the original Greensboro 4, civil right activist Franklin McCain

Trans-Pacific Partnership: how the US Trade Rep is hoping to gut Congress with absurd lies

The US Trade Representative is pushing Congress hard for "Trade Promotion Authority," which would give the President's representatives the right to sign treaties like the Trans-Pacific Partnership without giving Congress any chance to oversee and debate the laws that America is promising to pass. With "Trade Promotion Authority" (also called "fast track"), Congress's only role in treaties would be to say "yes" or "no" to whatever the US Trade Rep negotiated -- so if the USTR papered over a bunch of sweetheart deals for political cronies with a single provision that politicians can't afford to say no to, that'll be that.
Not coincidentally, the TPP is one long sweetheart deal with a couple of political sweeteners that no Congresscritter can afford to kill.
The USTR's push for Trade Promotion Authority contains some of the stupidest, easy-to-debunk lies I've ever read. Either the Obama Administration figures that Congress is thicker than pigshit, or the USTR drafted this to give tame Congresscritters cover for selling out the people they represent to the corporations that fund their campaigns.
Techdirt's Mike Masnick has undertaken the unpleasant chore of documenting and rebutting the Trade Rep's falsehoods point-by-point.

TPA does not provide new power to the Executive Branch.
Hell yes, it does. Trade Promotion Authority gives the power of regulating foreign commerce directly to the USTR, rather than Congress. It allows the USTR to negotiate a "final" agreement with other countries, which Congress cannot seek to change, amend or fix. Instead, Congress can only give a simple "yes or no" vote on what the USTR comes back with. Without TPA, the USTR actually needs to engage Congress, and win its support and approval on everything within the agreement. That gives Congress -- which is supposed to represent the public -- a chance to make sure that (as the USTR has shown a proclivity to do) the agreement is not filled with ridiculous "gifts" for cronies and friends at the expense of the public and disruptive innovation.
TPA is a legislative procedure, written by Congress, through which Congress defines U.S. negotiating objectives and spells out a detailed oversight and consultation process for during trade negotiations.
If TPA didn't tie Congress' own hands, the USTR might have a point here. But it's not true. While the TPA bill does officially "define" the negotiating objectives, those objectives listed in the current bill are basically the USTR's own list of what it's working on, reprinted by friends in Congress. And, honestly, how is it possible that it "spells out detailed oversight," when what the bill really does is make sure that the USTR can give Congress whatever it comes up with and say "take it or leave it"? Without TPA, the USTR actually has to go convince Congress that what it's been proposing (secretly and with no public review) is actually in the public interest.

The Lies The USTR Is Spreading About Fast Track Authority To Push TPP Through Congress

The lesson of a ‘free lunch’

by Steve Benen  

Jack Kingston (r-Ga.) generated some national attention last month when he suggested struggling children should either pay more for food at public schools or tackle janitorial tasks in their schools.

“Why don’t you have the kids pay a dime, pay a nickel to instill in them that there is, in fact, no such thing as a free lunch? Or maybe sweep the floor of the cafeteria?” Kingston told a repugican audience in Georgia. He added, “[T]hink what we would gain as a society in getting people, getting the myth out of their head that there is such a thing as a free lunch.”

The controversy that followed apparently gave the NBC affiliate in Savannah an idea. If there’s no such thing as a free lunch, why does Kingston seem to get so many of them?

“Kingston and his staff expensed nearly $4,200 in meals for business purposes to his congressional office, paid for by the American taxpayer,” WSAV 3’s Dave Kartunen reported. The amount could have purchased nearly 2,000 Georgia school lunches.

WSAV also found that Kingston also racked up $4,289 of free meals paid for by third-party groups like the Georgia Bankers Association and the Congressional Institute.

On top of this, Kingston has taken several trips abroad in recent years, and when he travels, he enjoys “a generous per-diem allowance,” financed by taxpayers.

Maybe there is such a thing as a free lunch after all?

Got a question for you ...

Why aren't we a "decent" nation?

Food, heat and jobs; we've cut them all

A decent country would care about these things. A decent country would also probably do something about them.
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For low-income households which rely on federal subsidies to meet the cost of their heating bills, the so-called "polar vortex" couldn't have come at a worse time. Since 2010, the federal government has been steadily whittling away at the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), bringing total appropriations for winter heating down by about one-third, according to a 2013 report [PDF] from the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association (NEADA). While government heating subsidies are still available, high energy prices and extreme weather could potentially stretch them beyond capacity. [...]
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Recent cuts to food stamps may also jeopardize low-income families' attempts to stay warm, albeit indirectly. According to the national food bank network Feeding America, nearly half of its clients have at one point been forced to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities. Since Feeding America reported that statistic, automatic cuts have slashed food stamps by $5 billion.
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Since the Serious Person obsession continues to be cutting the federal budget during a recession and damn every one of the consequences, I suppose the more efficient approach will continue to be redefining what "decent" means. It still probably doesn't mean ending unemployment benefits during the dead of winter, but if we've already cut food to the children and heat for the elderly under the banner of freedumz I think the good ship Decent set sail a long while back.

Chris Christie’s Bridgegate Risked Lives with First Responder Delays

Every minute counts in an emergency. EMTs have roughly a three minute window to save someone. The delays caused from the bridge were between three-five minutes …

Every minute counts in an emergency. The delays caused by New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie’s bridgegate were a danger to the public interest.
“For every minute lost in response, there is a growing loss of recovery on a percentage basis that is greater than 1:1,” R. Leckey Harrison explained to me in an interview when I asked him if and how a three-five minute delay would impact first responders.
Mr. Harrison has fifteen years as a firefighter/EMT, is an active volunteer EMT with shifts to the level of 144 hours a month and he is also the co-director of Whidbey CareNet, which provides Stress and Trauma Relief Training for emergency responders.
I questioned Mr. Harrison about the impact of delays on recovery/rescue after reading Patrick Foye, who is quoted in part of the document dump regarding the closure of a lane in the bridge by Chris Christie’s administration as writing, “I pray that no life has been lost or trip of a hospital-or-hospice bound patient delayed.”
As we now know, the trips of several hospital bound patients were delayed, and at least one person died.
Mr. Foye explained in his September 13th email that he made calls over this “very troubling” matter and found that three lanes in Fort Lee eastbound to the GWB were reduced to one lane on that Monday without notifying Fort Lee, the commuting public, the ED or the Media. “A decision of this magnitude,” he continued, “should be made only after careful deliberation and upon sign off by the ED… I am appalled by the … dangers created to the public interest.”
In a September 10, 2013 letter to Mayor Sokolich from Paul E Favia, an EMS Coordinator from Fort Lee/Office of Emergency Medical Services, Mr. Favia detailed the delays caused by the lane closures which obstructed medical help.
Mr. Favia wrote that on the 9th, response to calls that should have been less than 4 minutes were 9 to 7 minutes. Another delay occurred when they responded to a 91-year-old woman who was unconscious due to cardiac arrest. Another call that should have been 3 minutes took 8 minutes, to respond to chest pains. Again on the 10th, they responded to a male with chest pains, and a 3-4 minute call took 7 minutes for the letter writer and 11 minutes for the ambulance.
Mr. Harrison explained how critical a minute can be in responding to an emergency. “As to delayed response times, consider what Paramedics and EMTs operate by: ABC: A-irway, B-reathing, C-ircualtion. Patients need air. The window for that is roughly three minutes, meaning that if the brain is cut off from oxygen for three minutes, brain death can occur.”
A three minute window to save someone. The delays caused from the bridge were between three-five minutes and sometimes longer.
“A closed airway causes breathing difficulties. A body lacking air goes into respiratory and possibly cardiac arrest as the heart needs air to function. Circulation means the blood needs to flow. It can be interfered with by injuries to arteries and veins by accidents or illness. The bigger the blood vessel, the quicker the body loses blood. That can happen in minutes as well.”
Then Mr. Harrison addressed strokes and cardiac arrests where every minute counts, once again. “A related issue are strokes and cardiac arrest. If either can be interdicted sooner rather than later, the odds of successful recovery are good. For every minute lost in response, there is a growing loss of recovery on a percentage basis that is greater than 1:1.”
Does time matter? “(I)t is the reason we have lights and sirens on our vehicles. The lights and sirens are simply a request for right of way. We have no legal right to assume it.”
It’s not just individuals who are at risk, though. Whole neighborhoods are put at risk when first responders are delayed. Mr. Harrison explained that a “fire can double in size quickly, depending on a lot of variables. From a smoldering cigarette butt in a chair, in less than 6 minutes a room can be fully engulfed.”
Mr. Harrison finished with the sober reminder, “Timely response matters in fire and medical emergencies.”
It is one thing to face obstacles that can’t be helped in attempting to rescue people; it’s quite another when the delay was deliberately inflicted upon a community for revenge.
This goes far beyond the political. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior. Absolutely none. It is truly beyond the scope of responsible people to endanger the lives of their fellow citizens for something so petty as political punishment.

Bernie Sanders Slams repugican Hypocrites Who Voted For 5 UI Extensions Under the shrub

Sen. Bernie Sanders is making repugicans pay for refusing to extend unemployment benefits by pointing out their hypocrisy, and slamming the immoral treachery of the repugican cabal as they devastate millions of Americans for political gain.
Video:

Sen. Sanders said,

I think there’s just an enormous amount of politics here. Ed, when the shrub was pretending repugicans voted for five extensions of emergency unemployment without any offsets. That was when the shrub was pretending. Obama is president it becomes a different story. What these guys want to do, I believe, is pretend that they are concerned about these 1.3 million workers, and I want to thank you very much for really talking about what happens to somebody’s life when they have no income coming in. What it means in terms of rent, or a cell phone, or your ability to get a job. That is something our repugican colleagues are not thinking about at all.
So what they are talking about now are quote unquote offsets. Not under the shrub, but now they want it under Obama, and what these offsets will be is taking money from Peter to help pay Paul. What they want to do is cut the Affordable Care Act. They want to cut health insurance. These guys have been vicious about cutting food stamps. They want to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They want to cut any and all programs which benefit the working families of our country. That’s what they want to do now. That’s what they’ve always wanted to do.

Sen. Sanders suggested some offsets of his own like forcing tax dodging corporations to pay taxes. Sanders also hammered repugicans hypocrites for supporting repeal of the estate tax, while opposing an extension in unemployment benefits. Their hypocrisy is obvious, but it doesn’t matter to Senate repugicans who are trying to use a potential unemployment benefits extension as leverage to cut Obamacare.
This group of congressional repugicans are the biggest group of hypocrites possibly in the history of the legislative branch. Many of these same repugican senators who oppose helping the unemployed voted repeatedly to fund two wars that cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars, but they didn’t worry about offsets then.
The American people aren’t going to fall for their transparent act of pretending to care about the long term unemployed while refusing to extend an economic lifeline that would keep them afloat while they look for a new job. What Senate repugicans are doing is morally wrong, bad economics, and horrible politics.
Mitch McConnell is wrong if he believes that hurting the unemployed is the path to repugicans taking back the Senate. The heartless actions of these foolish ideologues are destined to backfire, as champions of the working class like Bernie Sanders remind voters of this immoral act of repugican treachery.

CNN Boss Jeff Zucker Calls Out Faux News As a Front For the repugican cabal

CNN head Jeff Zucker didn't mince words when talking to the media recently. Zucker said that Faux News is a front for the repugican cabal

CNN head Jeff Zucker didn’t mince words when talking to the media recently. Zucker said that Faux News is a front for the repugican cabal and that the repugican cabal is being run out of Faux. Jeff Zucker took the opportunity presented by the upcoming release of Richard Sherman’s biography of Roger Ailes to unload on Faux News, “Clearly all I can say at this point, without having read it, is from what I understand it confirms, basically, what we’ve known all along, which is that the repugican cabal is being run out of News Corp headquarters, masquerading as a cable channel.”
Zucker hit Ailes for doing an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on the same week that the book is coming out, “[Ailes] doesn’t do an interview in a long time and then does it the week that the book comes out? He’s trying to deflect attention. Clearly there’s probably no other network in American television that is covering news in such a substantial and serious way than CNN.”
Zucker’s statement seems like a Captain Obvious moment, but consider that one of the reasons why Faux News is able to get away with as much as it does is that the mainstream media largely takes FNC’s side and treats them like a real news organization.
Back in 2010, the media flipped out when President Obama spoke the truth about Faux News in a Rolling Stone interview, “Look, as president, I swore to uphold the Constitution, and part of that Constitution is a free press. We’ve got a tradition in this country of a press that oftentimes is opinionated. The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Faux is part of that tradition — it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It’s a point of view that I disagree with. It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world. But as an economic enterprise, it’s been wildly successful. And I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his number-one concern is, it’s that Faux is very successful.”
After that interview, mainstream media television networks ran to the defense of Faux News. Mainstream outlets that are desperate to follow the money making model of Faux have more times than not defended the network as a real outlet for journalism, so Zucker’s comments are a big deal.
CNN has a multitude of problems. One of which is a bias towards repugicans that makes the network much less of a straight shooter than Zucker claims. I think Al Jazeera America would disagree with Zucker’s statement that no other American network is covering the news as substantially as CNN. Plus it is ironic that Zucker would talk about substance at CNN after he brought back the completely empty Crossfire, and has loaded up his weekend primetime lineup with non-news programming.
If more network heads would speak out against Faux News, the truth might set journalism free. The mainstream media, including CNN, still foolishly believe that America is a wingnut country and their path to huge profits is to copy Faux. Until this changes, the sorry pro-repugican state of corporate media won’t be transformed anytime soon.

Not all repugicans are nut jobs, but - wait - yes they are!

Faux news contributor ‘confirms’ islamists in White House: ‘I haven’t got their names exactly’

by Travis Gettys

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A Faux News contributor who questions the president’s birth certificate and believes Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were removed just prior to the U.S. invasion claims there are islamic extremists working in the Obama administration.
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Wingnut Nut Daily trumped up comments that retired Air Force Gen. Tom McInerney made Thursday during an appearance on WMAL-AM to discuss a new book written by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
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“McInerney, who served as both assistant vice chief of staff and commander in chief of U.S. Air Forces Europe, has surprised interviewers on a radio program by confirming the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood inside the U.S. government,” the WND report claims.
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The online report cites a book written by Aaron Klein, a WND senior reporter, and Brenda J. Elliott, an anti-Obama blogger, to provide background for the retired general’s claims.
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The book, “Impeachable Offenses: The Case to Remove Barack Obama from Office,” speculates that the Obama administration may have exposed national security information through Huma Abedin, who served as deputy chief of staff to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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The speculation is based on a conspiracy theory alleging Abedin, who is muslim, has family ties to the muslim brotherhood, which has been promoted by Michelle Bachmann (r-MN) and was concocted by islamophobe pundit Frank Gaffney.
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The report also claims Mohamed Elibiary, a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council, has ties to the islamist organization but offers no citations or other proof.
“We’ve got muslim brotherhood in the U.S. government today,” McInerney said on the radio program.
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The radio hosts asked McInerney to reveal their names, but he hesitated.
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“I haven’t got their names exactly but there’s a list of them, at least 10 or 15 of them in the U.S. government,” McInerney said

In latest US retail data breach, hackers steal info from Neiman Marcus

"Responding to inquiries about a possible data breach involving customer credit and debit card information, upscale retailer Neiman Marcus acknowledged today that it is working with the U.S. Secret Service to investigate a hacker break-in that has exposed an unknown number of customer cards," Reports Brian Krebs, at Krebs on Security blog.

Target ups number of customers affected by data breach to 110 million

Target on Friday extensively revised the number of customers whose personal information was stolen in a widespread data hack during the holiday season, bringing the total to from 70 million to 110 million people.
When originally reported in mid-December, the number was a mere 40 million.

Ziggy

London's First Pay-Per-Minute Cafe

Ziferblat is London's first pay-per-minute cafe, based on a Russian chain where 'everything is free, except the time you spend there.' Ziferblat means clock face in Russian and German (Zifferblatt). The idea is guests take an alarm clock from the cupboard on arrival and note the time, then keep it with them, before, quite literally, clocking out at the end.

There's no minimum time. Guests can also get stuck into the complimentary snacks, or prepare their own food in the kitchen; they can help themselves to coffee from the professional machine, or have it made for them. You can stay as long as you want and in the end you pay 3p per minute (that's about 5 cents).

Some interesting facts about language

The word “infant” is from the Latin for “unable to speak”

 

A baby pterosaur is called a flapling.

Nudiustertian means “relating to the day before yesterday.”

The word “journey” is from the French journee and once meant the distance one could walk in a day.

Lalochezia is using swearing to relieve stress or pain.

The faint trace of perfume left in the wake of a passing person is known as sillage.

Plutomania is the delusion that one is immensely rich.

Kayak is an Inuit word meaning “man’s boat”; strictly speaking, the Olympic women’s version should be called the umiak competition.

“Restaurants” were originally meat soups for “restoring” strength.

Ebriety is the opposite of sobriety.

Grenade is French for pomegranate.

Latin and Gaelic have no words for ‘yes’ and ‘no'.

An old name for the kestrel is windfucker.

A spermologer is a collector of trivia.

Selections from 1,339 QI Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop

Tips for Russians Visiting America

Therese Oneill found some Russian guides for those traveling to America and sent it through Google's translator. What resulted was some eye-opening differences between the two cultures. A couple of examples:

“When Americans are talking, they might put their foot on a nearby chair, or even a table. They might cross their legs so that one foot rests on the opposite knee. In American culture, it is considered an acceptable norm, but often causes irritation in other countries.” (Национальные особенности этикета в США)

“Welcome and introductions: men and women tend to shake hands. Mutual kissing and kissing ladies' hands is not accepted. Also, women play a greater role in business. Often they insist to be treated exactly as an equal and not as a lady. In this regard, it is not acceptable to be excessively gallant, and you should avoid personal questions (do not find out whether she is married). (Национальные особенности этикета в США)

Did you know that crossing one's legs was irritating in other cultures? The article also addresses the American habits of smiling a lot and not wanting to listen to complaints. Read the rest at mental_floss.

Baybrook Remodelers sue (and sue and sue) people who give them negative reviews

Since 2010, Kristen A. has maintained a website where she documents the legal hassles she's undergone with Baybrook Remodelers, Ken Carney's Connecticut company, who has sued her for posting a negative online review of the work they did for her. Baybrook has filed more than 40 lawsuits against its online critics. In Kristin A's case, Baybrook has filed for 15 continuances, dragging the case out so that it was never heard -- it's only scheduled for a hearing now because Kristin A's lawyer insisted. It's not the only case that's been dragged out by Baybrook's lawyers.
Kristen A's mother actually moved houses because of legal harrassment from Carney and Baybrook -- after she hung up a sign saying "I do not recommend Baybrook Remodellers" and another showing how many lawsuits the company had filed, Baybrook had the city of Milford pull her zoning approval and make her life hell (nice one, Milford, CT).
The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection's complaints file for Baybrook is 40 pages long.

Here's a look at the docket, which is filled with little else other than the plaintiff's extension requests. As Kristen notes, a trial is forthcoming, with jury selection beginning in March. This is what Baybrook's been avoiding. Obviously, it hoped its threats would be enough to quell the criticism. That has backfired and now the company is in the awkward position of having to explain itself to a jury. This isn't the only case Baybrook is dragging its heels on. Another Tort case filed by Baybrook Remodelers in 2010 is still ongoing, with numerous extensions having been filed here as well. A motion for summary judgement has been filed by the defendant who is obviously hoping to finally have this seemingly endless suit tossed.

Kristen's site contains even more details of Baybrook's shady behavior. She noticed that shortly after she posted her negative review detailing the 40+ lawsuits the company was involved in (Dec. 6, 2010), a flood of Baybrook's "admirers" took to these same sites to post glowing reviews of the company. Most of the reviews were posted Dec. 15-17, which either means the company was posting its own reviews or had just wrapped up a ton of contracts for deliriously happy customers. Some reviews even copy-pasted wording from positive reviews written years earlier. Other identically-worded reviews surfaced under different names in January of 2011. One was even posted on Baybrook's website using yet another name.

But the most damning indicator of the company's negative reputation is the 40 pages of complaints filed with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection. The complaints detail a variety of issues with Baybrook Remodelers, including its tendency to do shoddy work and leave cleanup and damage repairs to the client. Other complaints point out how reluctant the company is to engage with dissatisfied customers ("owner won't answer his phone").

Remodeler Sues Woman Over Negative Reviews, Helps Force Another Critic Out Of Her Own Home

Woman fleeing police jumped from bridge into freezing river

Woman fleeing police jumped from bridge into freezing river

Police in Troutdale, Oregon were chasing a stolen car for miles when the woman behind the wheel suddenly pulled over on the Stark Street Bridge and jumped into the freezing Sandy River.
It began at around 4:40pm on Wednesday with a simple traffic stop. The officer ran the licence plate and the car came back stolen.

YouTube link.

The police car's dash-cam video shows 26-year-old Rebecca Humphries speeding away. The dramatic climax of the chase is also caught on camera. Humphries leapt from the bridge and into the water below, badly injuring herself.
She had to be taken to the hospital and treated for broken vertebrae. Officers cited her for numerous traffic crimes after she was admitted to the hospital.

Police in Amsterdam deal with men caught shoplifting clothes

These two men were apprehended in Amsterdam's Nieuwmarkt and taken to the local police station.

YouTube link.

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Chemical spill in West Virginia leaves 300,000 without drinking water

In West Virginia, more than a quarter million residents are unable to bathe, shower or drink tap water after a chemical spill into the Elk River near state capital Charleston.

The state's governor says up to 5,000 gallons (18,927 liters) of the industrial chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or Crude MCHM, leaked into the river Thursday. A state of emergency for nine counties went into effect yesterday; the President has issued a declaration of emergency. Schools and businesses in Charleston are closed.
The chemical, which smells like licorice, can cause headaches, eye and skin irritation, and difficulty breathing from prolonged exposures at high concentrations." NYT:

The owner of the ruptured tank, Freedom Industries, processes and stores chemicals used in the coal industry in 14 tanks on the Elk River, 2.5 miles upstream from the junction of the Kanawha River in downtown Charleston. An Environmental Protection Agency report on the chemical facility showed no violations in the last three years.

Test Predicts Early Onset of Heart Attacks

Test Predicts Early Onset of Heart Attacks

A new “fluid biopsy” technique that could identify patients at high risk of a heart attack by identifying specific cells […]

Conjoined twins in 10th century Byzantium

From Medievalists.net:

Leo the Deacon, writing in his History, provides his firsthand observation of seeing the conjoined twins, sometime during the mid-940s:

At this time male twins, who came from the region of Cappadocia, were wandering through many parts of the Roman Empire; I myself, who am writing these lines, have often seen them in Asia, a monstrous and novel wonder. For the various parts of their bodies were whole and complete, but their sides were attached from the armpit to the hip, uniting their bodies and combining them into one. And with the adjacent arms they embraced each other’s necks, and in the others carried staffs, on which they supported themselves as they walked. They were thirty years old and well developed physically, appearing youthful and vigorous. On long journeys they used to ride on a mule, sitting sideways on the saddle in the female fashion, and they had indescribably sweet and good dispositions. But enough about this.

...During the reign of Constantine VII (944-59) the twins returned to Constantinople. Theophanes Continuatus explains what happens next:

When one of the twins died skilled doctors separated them cleverly at the line of connection with the hope of saving the surviving one but after living three days he died also. This is the earliest known attempt to surgically separate conjoined twins, and the fact that the second person survived for a even a few days showed that it was at least partly successful. There would not be another case of conjoined twins being separated until the year 1689.

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Eilean Donan

Loch Duich, Scotland

Located in the Highlands of Scotland, the Eilean Donan island sat abandoned until 1911, when it was restored by a prominent retired military officer.

Stormy Alien Atmospheres May Spark Seeds of Life

Stormy Alien Atmospheres May Spark Seeds of Life

Could the stormy atmospheres of exoplanets and brown dwarfs be hothouses for the formation of prebiotic molecules?

Inch-long cockroach removed from man's ear

Hendrik Helmer from Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory has taken the unofficial title for having the largest cockroach removed from an ear. The inch-long (2cm) pest caused agonizing pain and took about 10 minutes to die after Mr Helmer sought treatment at hospital. Mr Helmer, from the Darwin suburb of Karama, says his ordeal began early on Wednesday morning when he was woken up about 2.30am with a sharp pain in his right ear. He immediately thought some type of insect may have crawled inside while he slept. He says the pain was overwhelming and despite a few bouts of relief, began to get worse.

"Later on, when I stood up and it happened it would sort of hunch me over and drop me down to the ground," Mr Helmer said. "I was hoping it wasn't a poisonous spider. I was hoping it didn't bite me." After using a vacuum cleaner to try to suck it out, and squirting water from a tap down his ear to flush it out, he apparently angered the insect. "Whatever was in my ear didn't like it at all," he said. As the pain increased, Mr Helmer roused his flatmate to take him to the Royal Darwin Hospital, where he was quickly ushered through to see a doctor.

Mr Helmer says the doctor put olive oil down the ear canal, which forced the still-unidentified insect to crawl in deeper. Eventually, it began to die. "Near the 10-minute mark... somewhere about there, he started to stop burrowing but he was still in the throes of death-twitching," he said. At that point the doctor put forceps into his ear and pulled out the cockroach, which measured about two centimeters long. "She said, 'you know how I said a little cockroach? That may have been an underestimate.'

"They said they had never pulled an insect this large out of someone's ear." Despite his ordeal, Mr Helmer says he does not believe he has a cockroach problem in his home and he won't be conducting an eradication program. He also does not intend to sleep any differently or take precautions against it happening again, although friends have since told him they were so freaked out by his experience they have begun sleeping with headphones on or earplugs in. No long-term effects are expected from Mr Helmer's ordeal, although he still had trouble balancing and experienced pain when he moved his jaw.

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