The Daily Drift

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Today in History

1901		A great fire ravages Montreal, resulting in $2.5 million in property lost.
1913		The "Young Turks" revolt because they are angered by the concessions made at the London peace talks.
1932		Franklin D. Roosevelt enters the presidential race.
1948		The Soviets refuse UN entry into North Korea to administer elections.
1949		The Communist Chinese forces begin their advance on Nanking.
1950		Jerusalem becomes the official capital of Israel.
1951		President Truman creates the Commission on Internal Security and Individual Rights, to monitor the anti-Communist campaign.
1969		NASA unveils moon-landing craft.
1973		President Richard Nixon claims that Vietnam peace has been reached in Paris and that the POWs would be home in 60 days.
1977		Alex Haley's Roots begins a record-breaking eight-night broadcast on ABC.
1981		Under international pressure, opposition leader Kim Dae Jung's death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment in Seoul.
1986		U.S. begins maneuvers off the Libyan coast.

Non Sequitur

Why you can't "bootstrap" yourself out of poverty

by Nicole Goodkind 

It’s a counterintuitive idea to say the least, but it costs a lot to be poor in the United States. When money is at its tightest, cost-saving choices are often impossible to make, digging impoverished Americans deeper and deeper into the pit of day-by-day living.

A common narrative in today’s political arena is that the nation’s least fortunate only need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps – that they’re just not working hard enough. What often goes unnoticed, however, are the overwhelming barriers that those living below the poverty line face on a daily basis.
A car, for example, is a necessity for many jobs but the down payment can be insurmountably high. And even after the down payment poor drivers still face monthly payments, high gas prices, and the fact that low-income car buyers pay 2% more for a car loan than affluent people. Low-income drivers can also pay up to $400 more annually than wealthier drivers to insure their cars (for a car of the same model and with the same driver risk).
A lack of capital can also make it impossible to afford the security deposit on an apartment causing those in poverty to live day-to-day in expensive hotels. Chris Arnade, a friend of The Daily Ticker, has documented this phenomenon. Those in poverty who are able to rent or buy homes are also more likely to get household appliances through rent-to-own companies and end up paying more due to added interest.
Even saving money is a burden for the poor, as banks often charge large fees for those who don’t have a minimum amount of capital in their accounts—this makes cash checking establishments, who charge incredibly high interest rates on pay-day loans, the only choice for many.
Ben Hecht, CEO and president of Living Cities, an organization that works to revitalize impoverished areas, joined The Daily Ticker to discuss why it costs so much to be poor.
“Many of us are salaried employees and many poor people, if they’re working, are hourly employees,” explains Hecht.
If you’re an hourly employee who needs to apply for benefits or even see a doctor, you’re missing out on vital pay, Hecht points out.
Another challenge that low-income Americans face is a lack of services. “If you walk in many neighborhoods they’ll have one store—it may even be a corner store and not a grocery store,” Hecht says. The competition that neighborhood stores typically face doesn’t exist in poorer areas, allowing them to charge more for goods.
High quality food and produce is also often hard to come by. “You can’t find fresh broccoli…and if you think about it, it’s a logical, rational and economic choice for people to pick fast food in cheaper and larger quantities,” Hecht explains. This leads to obesity and other health issues that end up costing individuals more down the line.
“In many cities there are food deserts where you can’t even go to get the fresh food that we’re used to everyday," Hecht says.
One of the biggest disadvantages that those in poverty experience is a lack of broadband Internet. “One of the fundamentals about poverty is a lack of access to economic opportunity,” says Hecht. “And we all know that the number one factor in economic opportunity is education and we know that in today’s world much education, even in public schools, is done online.” 
Furthermore, the Internet provides social networks where we can exchange vital information. Hecht gives this example: “I gave a speech years ago to 500 folks who helped people get jobs and I said to them -- how many of you got your job by a reference? All of them. How many of you got your doctor by reference? All of them. The power of those networks is being shut out in these neighborhoods and without the access to those types of technology.”

Did you know ...

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The Media Needs to Talk Less About What Obama Can Do and More About Why repugicans Won’t Do

Since when was it ever the intention of the U.S. Constitution that one branch should be able to not balance another, but to nullify it?… 

James Oliphant writes in the National Journal that “Obama’s threat of executive action won’t help the economy” because “Congress still calls the shots on the big issues.” This is so undeniably true that one wonders why there is a need to point this out. The problem is not, and has never been, what President Barack Obama can and will do, but what Congress refuses to do. But Oliphant, like so many other journalists, focuses his attention on Obama instead, writing that,

The president recently has become fond of saying he has a “pen and a phone.” And while it’s tempting to snarkily suggest that all he needs now is a laptop and a coffee mug to put him on the same level as every intern in America, there is a promise–or a threat–behind those words.

The pen can sign executive orders, he points out, and the phone, rally support “to bring in outside groups from around the country to push Congress to do more” (I think Oliphant should have made this, “do something – anything” but I am a fan of the precise).
All Oliphant really says about Congress is that it “remains deadlocked” but “deadlocked” isn’t really a word that describes what has happened in Congress, where repugicans have not only refused to act but have attempted to nullify the Obama presidency. Nor does Oliphant happen to mention that the reason for this “deadlock” is specifically the repugican-controlled House of Representatives, which spends all its time (when it is doing anything at all) attempting to roll back a national law, tested in the Supreme Court, as though it is some bill to be debated.
Yes, the White House faces a challenge. It has faced this challenge since those repugicans took their places in the House in 2010. And yes, Oliphant is correct in saying that “there are real limits to what this president can do, especially on the economy: legislative ones, legal ones, pragmatic ones. It means that the administration has to talk big while walking small or risk being viewed as ineffectual.”
It might be viewed that way – by the ignorant – but why aren’t we talking instead about the perception Americans have of Congress, one that is actually accurate, by the way? The story isn’t that Obama’s actions can only “make a difference at the margins” but why those actions are necessary at all. And this is a common failing of the mainstream media; it does not want to talk about what the repugicans have done wrong since 2010, and it is a lot. Surely there is ink somewhere that can be used to talk about this?
Not on National Journal, apparently, and not by Mr. Oliphant, whose recent titles include “Obama’s NSA Proposals Fall Far Short of Real Change” and “Obama Watches While repugicans Steal his Economic Story” and “If you want Obama to Rein in the NSA, You’re About to be Disappointed.” Keep in mind, the National Journal is aimed at Washington insiders, and maybe this is the reason and maybe it isn’t, but members of Congress aren’t going to want to read about how bad and/or inffectual they are. But I am not trying to pick on the National Journal; you see the same imbalance – shall we call it partiality? – everywhere in the mainstream media, print, web, and television alike.
Olphant concludes that “Yes, the president has a pen – and it’s a nice one. But there remains the question of how much ink there’s really left in it.” But that’s not really the question at all, is it? The question is, and shall remain, why the repugicans are so determined that, if they are not allowed to be in charge of this country, nobody shall be, no matter how much it hurts said country.
Yes, Oliphant is right that this is a question of power, but a more important question is this: since when was it ever the intention of the U.S. Constitution that one branch should be able to not balance another, but to nullify it? To use a refusal to participate in government as a means of re-doing the past election?
The real question then, is, why isn’t the mainstream media reporting on Congress, rather than focusing on a president who, through no fault of his own, is being labeled a Marxist, a terrorist sympathizer, a Muslim, a Nazi, a demon, and “not one of us” because he had the audacity, as a black man, to run for the highest office in a land still full of racists.
There are many questions demanding an answer as we move into 2014. Symptoms (i.e. the potency of Obama’s pen) of a repugican attempt to overturn the very structure of this country as ordained by the U.S. Constitution should be far less of a story than the repugican action/inaction that has created those symptoms.
Simple cause and effect seem to go out the window where President Barack Hussein Obama is concerned, and that is a real shame. Sure, maybe Obama can only treat the symptoms of the disease that is today’s repugicanism, but then shouldn’t we be talking about the disease, and why it is so deadly dangerous and what we can do, as a country, to prevent this disease from striking again?

The repugicans Have Admitted Defeat On The ACA By Voting to Fund Obamacare

The dirty little secret that congressional repugicans are carrying around with them is that while they are campaigning on killing the ACA, they quietly threw up the white flag and voted to fund Obamacare before they left town.

National Journal reports that wingnuts are finally realized that they were duped,
Congress approved its first regular spending bill in years this past week, in a move hailed by many as a return to fiscal sanity. But there’s a potential danger for Republicans lurking in the depths of the $1.1 trillion omnibus appropriation package that sailed through both houses: Obamacare.
While the repugican cabal managed to win some concessions on the Affordable Care Act, conservatives see the spending bill as “funding Obamacare,” as RedState wrote. It’s basically the same thing that Ted Cruz and other wingnutss blocked a few months ago, forcing a government shutdown, and Cruz tried again to rally support for blocking the spending bill.

The tea-party and wingnut cabals railed against the bill, while Heritage Action warned lawmakers to vote against the package, saying that “by continuing to fund implementation of Obamacare, the omnibus bill would continue to entangle taxpayer dollars in abortion coverage.” The bill passed, of course, thanks in part to the lesson of October.
The same thing that repugicans shut the government down because they did not want the ACA funded. They stomped, screamed, faux filibustered, and raised millions of dollars. In the end, they did exactly what they said they wouldn’t do by funding the ACA. The words of congressional repugicans say repeal and kill Obamacare, but their actions are an admission of defeat.
Elected repugicans and repugican cabal candidates now use Obamacare much like they used to use abortion and same sex marriage. They fearmonger on the ACA to get the base to come out and vote on Election Day. The political reality is that the ACA isn’t going anywhere. The repugicans funded it in 2014. They will vote to fund it again in 2015. Since they won’t want to risk a government shutdown during a presidential election year, they will fund it again in 2016.
The repugicans lost, but they are still trying to fool their voters into believing that they can kill the ACA. The truth is that they will continue to vote to fund the ACA, because they are terrified of the political fallout from another government shutdown. The repugicans will blow a lot of hot air about the “evils of Obamacare” from now until November, but they lost.
They know they lost, and that’s why repugicans will continue to try to quietly vote to fund the very law that they rage against for years to come.

Sexist Personal Attacks Against Wendy Davis Explode After She Outraises Her Opponent

Expect these ugly personal attacks to continue, as Ms Davis threatens the good old boys running the state of Texas.

A week ago, Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis announced that she outraised Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, her likely repugican opponent. Davis brought in more than $12.2 million from July through December, while Abbott raised $11.5 million during the same period.
Immediately following this bad news for repugicans, an article taking apart Wendy Davis’ bio appeared in the Dallas Morning News. It seems that in trying to relate to the people (as her policies do), Ms Davis has failed to share the good luck she’s also had, and even though The repugicans don’t relate to the people and their policies harm them, they’re quite gleeful that Ms Davis didn’t spend quite as much time in a trailer between the ages of 19-21 as she led you to believe, because this will somehow change the fact that her policies are pro-individual freedom and pro-98% of the people.
Apparently, when she was 19, Wendy Davis wasn’t a divorced working single mother living in a mobile home. Yes, contrary to her own words, the actual divorce didn’t come until she was 21 and she only lived in the trailer for a short time. Then she lived with her mother and then she got her own place. She was still a single mother, but as you know, this is not difficult at all at the age of 21.
At 24, she married Jeff Davis, a lawyer who the Dallas Morning News says “helped pay for her two years of college” and even cashed in his 401(K) and took loans out to help finance her Harvard degree (while they were married). This, we are told by the DMN, will lead to people questioning how much of her success was her own doing: “Some will question how much of her success was her own doing, and how bad her circumstances were to start.”
OH MY GAWD. Wendy Davis is a sinner who expected family resources to be spent on her career. And if she wasn’t in that trailer from age 19, and wasn’t perfectly, neatly divorced by then (as all divorces go apparently), then she is a liar who never really struggled.
See, things weren’t hard for Wendy, even though she grew up helping to support her single mother, and was later a single mother working two jobs while living in an apartment, because she got married at 24 and this man “paid” for her degree (much like a woman works to put her husband through medical school, and this is championed as supporting her man). Never mind that she contributed to the finances after she graduated, as she explained to the DMN, “I was a vibrant part of contributing to our family finances from the time I graduated to the time we separated in 2003.”
Martial assets are used to support all members of a family unit, and because everyone contributes (even if it is to work for the future, and therefor can’t be counted in dollars, like the man going to medical school), we don’t say that so-and-so paid for x like a prostitute or accuse them of stealing said education.
But the wingnuts are now acting as if Wendy Davis stole those pink tennis shoes too, because she apparently stole this Harvard education from this poor man.
If this article and their reaction to it is repugicans’ idea of helping themselves, they are more clueless than previously determined. As the daughter of a single working mom, I found the original article to be unintentionally condescending, reeking of privilege while attacking someone over poverty cred, and cluelessly patriarchal in its attitude toward joint resources and career women. Very 1950s. I found the sly references to her child bearing history very telling. I was expecting the scarlet letter for Ms. Davis for having had two children with two different men, though naturally this is expected if one is a man (then you are allowed to abandon your first family, in search of the perfect photo op).
The author wrote of Ms. Davis’ second husband:

He paid for her last two years at Texas christian University and her time at Harvard Law School, and kept their two daughters while she was in Boston

If Ms. Davis were a man who went to Harvard, no one would be writing that the woman “kept” their daughters while he was at Harvard. Where else were they to go but stay at home? Pet boarding? Was it somehow not hard for Ms Davis to be a single mother because when she wasn’t anymore, her husband “kept” the children while she was at school? Or are we just to get what an “ambitious” sinner Ms Davis is for abandoning her family. Check.
Judging from the rather vicious attacks trending against Wendy Davis this morning on Twitter stemming from the DMN article, we are reminded that conservatives view working women with contempt. Ben Shapiro of Breitbart was appalled that Ms Davis wasn’t willing to tank a career just because she had children.
Obviously same standards do not apply to men, DUH – they are not expected to chuck career when they have children because they are naturally designed to make money, but if woman dares to rely on this money, she is a very bad person who is stealing from man.
John Nolte of Breitbart can’t understand why Wendy Davis not spending quite as much time in a trailer as she said is not the exact same thing as Chris Christie putting lives at risk by shutting down lanes on a bridge over a personal vendetta, and he curses you liberal media:
The Daily Caller ‏asked, “Who is the real Wendy Davis? http://ow.ly/sLdrI” Because fundamentally, struggling for 10 years instead of 12 is just a completely different animal, and if the folks at Daily Caller know anything, it’s the struggle of the single mother. Oh, I kid. We all know that single mothers are ruining America (thanks Mitt!).
The wingnut twitterati thinks Ms Davis probably stole those tennis sneakers, if her ex didn’t pay for them (woman as kept object even when she has a career is so appealing!):
• Sean Agnew ‏@seanagnew: “I wouldnt be surprised if her ex husband paid for them. RT @Neal_Dewing: I wouldn’t be surprised if Wendy Davis stole those sneakers.”
There were the usual references to “Abortion Barbie” as well, because it’s much better to deny food to children once they are born, and then shame their single mothers over the exact number of hours spent in a trailer than it is to support a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions. Clearly women get pregnant on their own and should pay for it.
Also outrageous to the right is the fact that Mr. Davis got custody of the youngest child and Ms Davis paid child support (she notes of her own volition). Wait, what? What is outrageous about this scenario? Aren’t these the same people who cheered deadbeat dad and tea party hero Joe Walsh (former r-IL) as he told Sandra Fluke to get a job?
Paying child support is the act of a responsible adult. Or is the real point that Ms Davis is a super bad woman because she did not have custody of the youngest child? Yes, that is the point of the attack. Women are naturally supposed to take care of the children for free, not entitled to any joint resources to further their prospects, and if they do not take care of the children, they are suspect at best. Even if they pay child support, they are no good, while men who balk at paying child support (hi, Newt Gingrich) can run for President.
If I were a repugican, I’d be outraged that wingnuts are attacking Ms. Davis’ children.
But the real point here, the thing that should be discussed, is that being a single mother is hard whether you are in a trailer or not. Being a single parent is tough work. Sometimes a person is operating as a single parent even though they are technically still married. Sometimes a spouse is unreliable, or the parents are separated.
Newsflash: Living in an apartment doesn’t magically make being a single parent easy and the only people who would present it thusly are people who are clueless about what it takes to be a responsible parent. They are the people who think children are a woman’s job and that a man “keeps” the children for her, if she dares to study at Harvard. (Mr. Davis seems like a great father, and this is wonderful to see but it should be normal, not worthy of right wing Sainthood — though I can see with their leaders’ histories why they would find it so unusual for a man to be an active parent.)
Even more relevant than how tough things were or were not for 19-year-old Ms Davis is whether or not her policies today support others who are going through tough times.
They do.
For Ms. Davis’ part, she has vowed to be more precise in her language, which is as it should be. But forgive me if I am more appalled by the vicious attacks from a party that pretends it’s Pro life and then removes social safety nets from single parents and demonizes single mothers and women in general, leaving vulnerable children to starve.
Expect these ugly personal attacks to continue, as Ms Davis threatens the good old boys running the state of Texas. They will cluelessly focus on all aspects of Ms Davis’ womanhood. She will be branded with a big scarlet “W” for working while being a mom. Next up, how many hours did she really spend wiping bums? Was it 340 hours like she said, or 240 because she was off at Harvard while her husband “kept” the children?
Update 5:08 PM est: Wendy Davis releases a statement and a bio of her early years that show many of the original accusations, including the not living as a single mother at 19, to be inaccurate.

Wendy Davis Drops an Atomic Truth Bomb on Desperate Sexist repugicans

Wendy Davis is more than fighting back against the sexist repugicans today who are trying to destroy her gubernatorial campaign. Davis dropped an atomic bomb of truth …

This is so embarrassing for repugicans, who’ve taken to attacking Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis (TX) on whether or not she was technically divorced at the age of 19 when living alone in a trailer with her daughter.

Apparently the Texas repugicans haven’t met Wendy Davis yet. Wendy Davis is a fighter for all people, and she isn’t about to let a few cheap shots at her family or her personal struggles take her down. State Senator Wendy Davis issued a statement today, saying in part, “The truth is that at age 19, I was a teenage mother living alone with my daughter in a trailer and struggling to keep us afloat on my way to a divorce… I am proud of where I came from and I am proud of what I’ve been able to achieve through hard work and perseverance. And I guarantee you that anyone who tries to say otherwise hasn’t walked a day in my shoes.”
Conservatives were claiming that Davis lied about her status at the age of 19 because she wasn’t technically divorced yet and thus couldn’t possibly be a single mother (don’t ask), but as I explained earlier, before the divorce one gets the separation and before the separation, one gets the unraveling of the relationship which often impacts the living situation. Then there is the time spent after filing for divorce. Welcome to reality.
But since repugicans don’t live in reality, Senator Davis felt compelled to offer her biography to clear things up:
Wendy Davis Early Biography
- Wendy Davis’ parents separated for the final time when she was 11, and they were divorced by the time she was 13 years old. Even though the divorce settlement called for child support, Wendy’s father was not able to provide significant income for the family.

- Wendy and her siblings were raised primarily by her mother, who had attended school only into the ninth grade, and whose own father had only a sixth grade education.
- Wendy’s mother worked at a Braum’s ice cream store to support the family. Wendy started working at age 14 to join her siblings in the support of the family.
- Despite the financial struggles at home, Wendy was a good student and attempted to attend to college after graduating high school. She was unable, however, to make ends meet economically, and left believing that a college education was just not available to her.
- Wendy left home at 17, married when she was 18 and had her first daughter Amber when she was 19. She and her husband lived in a trailer, and Wendy continued to live there with Amber after they were separated. As a single mother at age 19, she often struggled to make ends meet. Wendy filed for divorce when she was 20 and she and Amber lived for a short time with her mother. The divorce became final when she was 21.
- After learning about flexible class options from a Tarrant County College brochure, Wendy discovered that she could get back into college. She moved into an apartment with Amber and began attending classes while working multiple jobs.
- Tarrant County College gave her a gateway to higher education. She excelled in classes as she worked hard. She did well enough to get into Texas Christian University, which she attended with the help of financial aid and scholarships.
- While working at her father’s dinner theater during college, Wendy met and later married Jeff Davis, a Fort Worth attorney. While married to Jeff Davis, Wendy had her second daughter Dru and continued to excel academically. She graduated first in her class from TCU. Wendy applied and was accepted to Harvard Law School. As Wendy has said before, Jeff helped her fulfill her dream of attending Harvard by cashing in a 401k and later they took out loans.
- While at Harvard, Wendy and Jeff arranged her schedule and that of her daughters, Amber and Dru, so that they could be together often. The girls lived in Boston during Wendy’s first year. In subsequent semesters, Wendy commuted weekly and Wendy’s mother played a daily caretaking role to assist the family.
- Following her graduation from Harvard, Wendy came home to Texas, completed a judicial clerkship, worked as a successful attorney at the law firm Haynes and Boone and later worked as an officer in their family’s title company.
- Ultimately, Wendy’s marriage to Jeff failed. The couple separated and shared custody of Dru who was still a minor. Dru lived in the family home with Jeff. After sometimes contentious proceedings, the divorce from Jeff became final and the two parents shared custody of their daughters Amber and Dru. Wendy was constantly present and sharing in the support and raising of her daughters as they grew up, attended college and have taken on jobs of their own.
- Wendy and her daughters remain very close. She and Jeff Davis have a healthy and respectful relationship based on their mutual love of their daughters.
In their efforts to avoid discussing policy, repugicans went for the jugular attacking Wendy Davis, her family, her history as a single mother, her time spent in a trailer, and the relationship between her and her now ex husband. They did this based on the idea that she could not be a single mother if she were technically still married, even if she were living alone with her daughter.
This is patently absurd and pathetic.
The repugicans have done nothing but embarrass themselves, especially now that Wendy Davis has set the record straight with a truth bomb.

Probing America

Top German Prosecutor Considers NSA Investigation

Germany and the US appear to be edging closer to political confrontation. The Federal Prosecutor says there is sufficient evidence to open a politically explosive investigation into NSA spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone. More... 

World War I Centenary

The Symbolic Power of French Victory

by Romain Leick

The passionate commemoration of World War I is a vital element of France's contemporary national cohesion. But before a momentous turning point in August 1914, the country looked to be on the brink of defeat.  More... 

• Photo Gallery: Remembering 'La Grande Guerre'

The Bosnian Knot

Conflicts Unchanged in Birthplace of WWI

by Walter Mayr

 

The 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo came in the midst of a bitter power struggle among major European powers in the Balkans. One hundred years and three devastating wars later, peace still eludes the multi-ethnic region.  More... 

Archaeology helping to unravel mysteries of ancient Japanese

Advances in chemical analysis are helping archaeologists to gain a better understanding of what early inhabitants of the Japanese islands were like. Archaeology helping to unravel mysteries of ancient Japanese

A glass ball and beads unearthed at the Takamatsuzuka tomb in Asuka, Nara Prefecture 

In recent years, new hypotheses have emerged from testing of artifacts and amino acids in human remains about the origins of ancient Japanese. By blending conventional archaeological research with the latest advances in chemistry, scientists are slowly unraveling many of these mysteries. A team led by Tokyo University of Science professor Izumi Nakai has developed a special X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer for chemical analysis, which can detect different types of elements and their concentration. Many decorative items, such as glass beads less than 1 centimeter in diameter, have been found in sites dating to Japan's Yayoi Pottery Culture (300 B.C.-A.D. 300) and in tumuli built during the Kofun Period (third century to seventh century).
Glass was not made in Japan at this time, which means the beads came from overseas. But from where is not known. Unlike ordinary glass objects, it is difficult to speculate on the origins of simple glass beads based on their ornamentation or patterns. Nakai's team hopes to reveal the origin of ancient Japanese glass through chemical analysis. The elemental composition of glass varies, depending on where it is made. Researchers can figure out where glass in ancient Japan was brought from by using an XRF analyzer to compare samples from Japan and elsewhere. Nakai's team analyzed glass beads excavated from over 100 tumuli and archaeological sites across Japan, as well as cultural properties kept at Todaiji temple in Nara and Byodoin temple's Phoenix Hall in Kyoto Prefecture.
They also examined artifacts from sites in Turkey and Syria as well as Laos, Vietnam and elsewhere. Many beads excavated in western Japan are alumina soda-lime glass, which contains a large amount of aluminum. The results of the analysis showed that even the beads' trace components closely matched glass found at sites in India and Southeast Asia. Pigments used to color the glass were also of the same type and composition. "We were able to scientifically prove a very high likelihood that ancient glass in Japan was carried from Southeast Asia and South Asia by maritime trade," Nakai said. "This shows us that ancient people used the maritime Silk Road in addition to the overland Silk Road to carry goods to and from West Asia."
From Amino Acids Research is also being done on the eating habits of ancient Japanese by analyzing amino acids taken from human remains and animals excavated at archaeological sites. A University of Tokyo team led by Minoru Yoneda, a professor of isotope ecology, has focused on nitrogen inside amino acids. Through eating, nitrogen is absorbed into the body where it accumulates.
The team believes it may be able to figure out eating habits by examining the proportion of nitrogen isotopes N15 and N14 extracted from bones. Yoneda and his team extracted collagen protein from human and animal bones found at the Tochibara rock shelter, a site in Nagano Prefecture that dates to the Jomon Pottery Culture (8000 B.C.-300 B.C.).
In the samples extracted, the team examined the proportion of nitrogen isotopes in the amino acids phenylalanine and glutamic acid. Yoneda said the size of the Tochibara rock shelter suggests that it likely housed a large number of people. According to one theory, an enormous quantity of food was needed to feed the community. That could have marked the start of farming in the area because of uncertain supplies of food from hunting.
The results of an analysis of the amino acids showed a large divergence in the ratio of nitrogen isotopes between Margaritiferidae, a family of freshwater mussels and mollusks, on one side and humans and land animals on the other. The team said the results indicate that humans relied on land ecosystems for food. Furthermore, the value of the isotopic ratio in humans is nearly the same as that for foxes, which are mainly carnivorous animals, rather than the figure found in largely herbivorous animals such as deer, rabbits and wild boar.
This demonstrates that while the humans were omnivorous, they principally consumed meat. The results allow the researchers to estimate that 50 to 70 percent of the protein consumed by humans came from land animals. This finding caused Yoneda to express doubts about conventional theories. "If they primarily lived as farmers, then the figure should be closer to those of herbivores," he said. "Perhaps agriculture had not developed yet in this region."

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What's that smell?

You know that distinctive "cold air" smell you can't quite describe?

Turns out, it's partly the result of you smelling less.

Cold restricts your ability to smell in a couple of important ways

"Choose Your Own Adventure" in medical school

The Inkfish blog has a guest post by Amy Savage, a woman who is a professional fake patient — somebody hired to act out an office visit and help medical students learn how to both diagnose patients and treat them well. (You may remember this from the episode of Seinfeld when Kramer and Mickey pretended to have gonorrhea and cirrhosis.)
What you don't pick up from that pop culture portrayal, but that is clear in Savage's essay, is that learning how to ask questions is a huge part of this training exercise. Savage is supposed to provide the medical students with information — but that information might be incomplete or seriously skewed if the students don't ask the right questions, or ask the right questions in the wrong way.

I am expected to give specific, memorized lines about my symptoms, but only if the students ask the right questions in the right way. For example, if a student asks if I use tobacco, that is different from asking if I use or have ever used tobacco products. Asking a woman if she has ever been pregnant is different from asking if she has any children. And, of course, those types of oversights in questioning can lead to different diagnoses.
From this experience, I have learned what to expect from an ideal physician, what to ask, and what not to tolerate. For example, your doctor should not ask leading (or possibly judgmental) questions such as, “You don’t smoke, right?” Nor should they run off a list of questions such as, “Do you smoke, drink, or use drugs?” without giving you time to think. They should ask open-ended questions: “Have you noticed any other changes lately?”
I've also learned that it's important to pay attention to symptoms that may seem unrelated to your chief complaint. If you were experiencing extreme fatigue, for example, you might not think that your newly brittle hair had anything to do with your energy levels, but it could be a thyroid problem.

 

Drinking and Driving Unsafe at any Level

Drinking and Driving Unsafe at any Level, Study Says

Zero tolerance may be the best policy for drinking and driving, suggests a new large-scale study.

Chocolate, tea and berries could guard against diabetes

Chocolate, tea and berries could guard against diabetes

Eating high levels of flavonoids including anthocyanins and other compounds […]

New Technique Busts Chocolate Counterfeiters

New Technique Busts Chocolate Counterfeiters

A new DNA test could spot fakes, but it won't make chocolate taste any better.

Ziggy

The best way to protect yourself from lightning?

Live in a developed country.

Last week, there was a story about a Brazilian woman whose death by lightning strike was captured in a photograph. The death of Rosangela Biavati was tragic. Thankfully, it's also very rare. In fact, deaths by lightning strikes seem to become more rare the more developed a country is.
The United States is a big case study for the phenomenon, which Rebecca Rosen wrote about at The Atlantic. Early in the 20th century, something like 400 Americans were struck by lightning and killed every year. In 2011, that number was 23.
There's more than one thing going on here, but as Rosen reports, the trend towards urbanization (living in cities, rather than rural areas) and modernization (increased access to technology and improved housing, no matter where you live) is thought to play a big role. The urbanization matters because it generally means there are fewer people working in farm fields every day, and thus, fewer people outside. The modernization matters because improved technology means even farmers are safer (as with a car, the metal shell of a fully enclosed tractor cab will channel the electricity around the occupant). The same effect also probably helps explain why more people died in lightning strikes inside their homes in the past. If a house that's struck by lightning has plumbing and electric wiring the electricity can follow those pathways, and not hit people. (Of course, that's not foolproof protection. If you're talking on a landline phone during a lightning strike, the electricity could follow that wire right to you.)
It's likely that improvements in healthcare, public education, and other factors also contribute to reducing lightning deaths in more developed countries. But the general trend of "development = fewer lightning deaths" does seem to hold. Even countries with big differences in levels of development — like South Africa — show equally big differences between rates of lightning death in the relatively developed urban areas (1.5 deaths per million people) compared to the relatively undeveloped rural regions (8.8 deaths per million people). Where the trend doesn't hold true, you're also talking about countries that lack strong documentation of deaths and it's likely that there are many lightning strike deaths not being reported and tallied.
In Brazil, for instance, the best data comes from just the last decade. That makes it difficult to tie the country to any larger trends, but you can still see that most of the people who die from lightning strikes there are A) in rural areas and B) working in agriculture.
 

Get used to heat waves

Get used to heat waves: Extreme El Nino events to double

Rain pattern research confirms the impacts of unusual and extreme […]

Waves aren't just on the surface of the water

You've probably heard before about the idea of ocean mixing, where cold water from the murky depths rises up to the surface and warm water from the surface flows down. Turns out, one of the mechanisms that creates this effect is massive underwater waves — some of which can be more than 1600 feet high.

Daily Comic Relief

Cosmic 'web' seen for first time

Cosmic 'web' seen for first time

The hidden tendrils of dark matter that underlie the visible Universe may have been traced out for the first time, astronomers say.

• How close are we to finding dark matter?
• Cern has eye on 'dark Universe'
• Images detail dark matter mystery

Milky Way may have formed ‘inside-out’

Milky Way may have formed ‘inside-out’

Gaia provides new insight into Galactic evolution A breakthrough using […]

Save the sea, eat a lionfish

"If You Can't Beat 'Em, Eat 'Em" — that's the name of a fishing tournament dedicated to ridding the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and Atlantic coast of an invasive species the best way we humans know how — by making it into our lunch.
Bonus, unlike some invasive species, lionfish are said to be delicious. In fact, Christie Wilcox, a marine biologist who actually studies lionfish for a living, reports that they are also one of the flakiest, sweetest fish she's ever put in her belly.

How to: Put a grizzly bear in an MRI

Very carefully ...

You will need some sedatives and about a dozen trained personnel.

Chimps Can Use Gestures To Communicate In Hunt For Food

You, there! Chimps Can Use Gestures To Communicate In Hunt For Food

Remember the children’s game “warmer/colder,” where one person uses those […]

Animal Pictures