The Daily Drift

Well, 'someone' is getting a whole lot (and we mean a WHOLE lot) of sleep then ...

Carolina Naturally is read in 195 countries around the world daily.   

 Beware the Ides ... !

Today is - The Ides Of March

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

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Sangaree, Woburn, Yonkers, Brooklyn, Anchorage, Pocatello, Pomeroy, Spotsylvania, Carlsbad, Mebane, Utica and Cullowhee, United States

Britannia, Vancouver, Montreal, Pikangikum, Saint John's, Calgary, Scarborough, Surrey, Sioux, Lookout, Sherwood Park, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Byward Market, Canada

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Managua, Nicaragua

Santiago, Valdivia and Lo Prado, Chile

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Bogota, Medellin and Cali, Colombia

San Isidro, Peru

Montevideo, Uruguay

Kingston, Jamaica

Port-Of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

Europe

Milan, Rome, Ivrea and Ravenna, Italy

Rouen and Paris, France

Warsaw, Gdynia, Kedzierzn-Kolze, Wroclaw and Tarnow, Poland

Ostrava, Czech Republic

London, Maidenhead, Manchester, Southampton, Harrow and Leeds, England

Vladivostok, Dolgoprudnyy, Ryazan, Kazan, Moscow and Novgorod, Russia

Nokia, Vantaa and Espoo, Finland

Altstadt, Sulzbach, Bochum, Rothe Erde and Heidelberg, Germany

Varna, Bulgaria

Dublin, Ireland

Madrid, L'Olleria and Cadiz, Spain

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Vilnius, Lithuania

Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria

Torshavn, Faroe Islands

Zhovti Vody, Ukraine

Riga, Latvia

Copenhagen and Bording Kirkeby, Denmark

Oslo and Arendal, Norway

Costa De Caparica, Portugal

Ankara, Turkey

Reykjavik, Iceland

Stockholm, Sweden

Asia 

Kota Tinggi, Bayan Lepas, Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Nanning, Beijing, Zhengzhou and Guangzhou, China

Medan, Surabaya and Jakarta, Indonesia

Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Shillong, Vepagunta, Jodhpur, New Delhi, Cuttack, Thanjavur, Vadodara, Bangalore and Delhi, India

Quatre Bornes and La Dagotiere, Mauritius

Vung Tau, Hanoi, Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh and Haiphong, Vietnam

Tehran, Hamadan and Tabriz, Iran

Pita Kotte and Kandy, Sri Lanka

Rayong, Thailand

Sanaa, Yemen

Doha, Qatar

Le Port and Saint Denis, Reunion

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Africa 

Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Centurion, Pretoria and Kempton Park, South Africa

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Agadir, Morocco

Pacific

Homebush, Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia

Makati, Quiapo and San Juan, Philippines

Today In History

44 BC		Julius Caesar is assassinated by high-ranking Roman Senators.
933		Henry the Fowler routs the raiding Magyars at Merseburg, Germany.
1493		Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first voyage to the New World.
1778		In command of two frigates, the Frenchman la Perouse sails east from Botany Bay for the last lap of his voyage around the world.
1820		Maine is admitted as the 23rd state.
1862		General John Hunt Morgan begins four days of raids near the city of Gallatin, Tenn.
1864		The Red River Campaign begins as the Union forces reach Alexandria, La.
1892		New York State unveils the new automatic ballot voting machine.
1895		Bone Mizell, the famed cowboy of Florida, appears before a judge for altering cattle brands.
1903		The British complete the conquest of Nigeria.
1904		Three hundred Russians are killed as the Japanese shell Port Arthur in Korea.
1909		Italy proposes a European conference on the Balkans.
1916		General John Pershing and his 15,000 troops chase Pancho Villa into Mexico.
1934		Henry Ford restores the $5-a-day wage.
1935		Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda bans four Berlin newspapers.
1939		Germany occupies Bohemia and Moravia, Czechoslovakia.
1944		Cassino, Italy is destroyed by Allied bombing.
1949		Almost four years after the end of World War II, clothes rationing in Great Britain ends.
1951		French General de Lattre demands that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Indochina.
1955		The U.S. Air Force unveils the first self-guided missile.
1956		The first performance of My Fair Lady, starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, takes place on Broadway.
1960		Ten nations meet in Geneva to discuss disarmament.
1965		Gamal Abdel Nasser is re-elected Egyptian President.
1967		President Lyndon Johnson names Ellsworth Bunker as the new ambassador to Saigon. Bunker replaces Lodge.
1968		The U.S. mint halts the practice of buying and selling gold.
1991		Four Los Angeles police are charged in the beating of Rodney King.

Non Sequitur

What's the Difference Between Baking Soda and Baking Powder?

by Lauren Salkeld

Anyone who’s done any from scratch baking is familiar with baking soda and baking powder. But what’s the difference and are they interchangeable? As odorless white powders they certainly seem similar, but baking soda and baking powder are indeed two distinct leavening agents.

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and when combined with an acidic ingredient (buttermilk, lemon juice, etc.), it creates carbon dioxide gas, which expands in the heat of the oven and helps cookies, cakes, and other baked goods rise. The acid also neutralizes baking soda’s by-product, sodium carbonate, which happens to have a rather unpleasant metallic flavor.  One very important thing to take away from all this is that you need to be careful with substitutions. For instance, in a recipe calling for baking soda and buttermilk, you can’t just use regular milk and get the same results (you’ll need to add an acid like lemon juice or vinegar).

Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda, an acid, and cornstarch. In other words, that essential neutralizing acid is built in, so there’s no need to include an additional acidic ingredient in the recipe. If you’re experimenting and decide to add an acidic ingredient to a baking powder recipe, you’ll need to add baking soda to neutralize the acid. Baking soda is about 4 times as powerful as baking powder so using 1/4 teaspoon baking soda for every teaspoon baking powder is a good estimate.

As you’ve probably noticed, some recipes contain both baking soda and baking powder. In this case the baking powder is doing most the actual leavening, while the baking soda is there to neutralize the acid in the recipe as well as contribute to the rise.

Here are a few more points to keep in mind:

Always read recipes carefully to make sure you use the correct chemical leavening agent or the right amount of each one when they’re both included. Even without all the acid issues, baking soda is significantly stronger than baking powder so you can’t just swap one for the other.

If you’re out of baking powder but do have baking soda and cream of tartar, you can make your own homemade baking powder.

Cocoa powder complicates things. Natural cocoa powder is acidic so it’s used with baking soda, while Dutch process cocoa powder has been alkalized to remove the acid, and therefore goes with baking powder. It’s all yet another reason to read recipes and labels carefully.

Recipes typically call for whisking or sifting together the dry ingredients. Sifting is a bit of a hassle and not always completely necessary, but it is important to at least whisk dry ingredients together as it helps distribute either or both chemical leavening agents, and that makes for even rising.

Colorado makes $2 million in pot taxes in 1 month

The state of Colorado collected $2m (£1.2m) in taxes from newly legalised recreational marijuana businesses in January.

Colorado became the first US state to legalize the commercial sale of cannabis in 2012, and stores opened for business on 1 January 2014.
In total, 59 marijuana firms filed tax returns on an estimated $14m in sales.
Overall, the state collected a total of $3.5m in marijuana taxes if medical marijuana firms are included.

More

Did you know ...

About the 7 most absurd things kids are learning thanks to wingnuts

That the Ft. Hood sexual harassment prevention coordinator is accused of running prostitution ring

About how the wingnuts are spinning hatred for LGBT people

And here's a handy what if your income grew as fast as the 1%'s calculator

That it's a great time to own a business, and a terrible time to be an employee

That Obama has nominated a higher percentage of campaign donors to ambassadorships than any previous modern president

That it's time for a federal approach to marijuana legalization

And can anything short of breaking up the big banks stop them?

Obama Has Last Laugh As Funny Or Die Video Bumps Healthcare.gov Traffic Up 40%

Last Tuesday, the comedy website Funny or Die posted a video featuring the President being interviewed by actor Zach Galifianakis. The interview was part of a comedy series of Galifianakis’ known as ‘Between Two Ferns’, where the actor performs comedic interviews with well-known people. Overall, while the video was generally regarded as very funny and showcased the President’s comedic skills, wingnuts still found a reason to whine and complain about it.
In the end, it appears that the President will have the last laugh regarding the comedy stint. In just 24 hours, the video was viewed a whopping 13 million times. 54,000 viewers of the video immediately went and visited the federal healthcare exchange website, Healthcare.gov. This led to a one-day increase of 40% over the site’s normal traffic for the previous month. The video will likely still continue to get millions of hits over the next few days, so it won’t be surprising if the ACA website continues receiving higher-than-normal traffic in that time.
Obviously, this will come as more bad news for critics of the ACA, especially for Republicans who still think they can go about repealing the law. Not only did the President come off as much ‘cooler’ than the normal repugican due to the hilarious sketch, but he was definitely aware that the video would help in the final month’s push in enrolling more people in individual healthcare plans. As always, the President is two steps ahead of his critics.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney had the following to say about the video:

“Very quickly this video went viral and not just because people thought it was funny and the regular viewers of Funny or Die clicked on it and watched it, but that it was getting folks – the video itself was causing the action that we hoped it would cause, which is getting folks to go to HealthCare.gov and look at the options available to them and hopefully enroll.”

Currently, it is estimated that 4.2 million people have signed up on the state or federal insurance exchanges. Roughly 25% of those are young adults, aged 18-34. While critics have pointed out that optimistic estimates early on wanted 40% of new enrollees to fall into that age group, the law will remain economically feasible with the 25% figure. With this video hitting that target age group specifically, it is very possible that the final figures will show a nice little bump in young adults signing up.

Obama Blasts House repugicans For Stomping All Over The Constitution

 

In a statement of policy, the Obama administration laid into House repugicans for trying to assume unconstitutional powers with their bill that would sue the president for doing his job.
Here’s the statement from the Executive Office Of The President:

The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 4138 because it violates the separation of powers by purporting to permit the Congress to challenge in court the exercise by the President of one of his core constitutional functions – taking care that Federal laws are faithfully executed.
Congress ordinarily has the power to define the bounds of the Executive Branch’s enforcement authority under particular statutes, and persons who claim to be harmed by the Executive Branch’s actions may challenge them as inconsistent with the governing statute. But the power the bill purports to assign to Congress to sue the President over whether he has properly discharged his constitutional obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed exceeds constitutional limitations. Congress may not assign such power to itself, nor may it assign to the courts the task of resolving such generalized political disputes.
If the President were presented with H.R. 4138, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

The ENFORCE Act is a piece of House repugican legislation that would take away President Obama’s constitutional power to implement the law. It is ironic that while screaming about President Obama making his own laws, House repugicans are trying to steal the president’s constitutionally mandated powers, with a piece of legislation that allows either the House or the Senate to sue President Obama if they don’t like the way that he is implementing the law.
In case anyone needs a refresher, this is not the way our system of government is supposed to work. Congress passes the laws, and the president implements them. Congress does not have the ability to pass and implement their own laws. For decades, the courts have agreed that presidents have the power to implement the law. The only requirement is that they must implement the law within a reasonable period of time.
The ENFORCE Act is even worse than the usual grandstanding propaganda that House repugicans try to pass off as legislation. What repugicans are proposing is a fundamental transformation of the separation of powers. The president and his administration are correct to smack down this awful piece of half-baked legislation. The bill exists for the purpose of letting House repugicans go back to their districts and campaign against “Obama the dictator.”
House repugicans are frustrated because their power is diminishing as President Obama gets more willing to act on his own when and where he can. The Founding Fathers built a perpetual tug of war between the executive and legislative branches into our system of government. The separation of powers exists for a reason, and repugicans don’t get to trample the Constitution just because they don’t like the current occupant of the White House.

Paul Ryan Claims Black Men Are Lazy And The Cause Of Poverty In This Country

Paul Ryan (r-WI) was on the wingnut hate speech radio show ‘Morning In America’, which is hosted by Bill Bennett. Bennett is the former Secretary of Education under Reagan. He is also known for gambling away millions of dollars while at the same time preaching about living a virtuous life. Anyway, Bennett had Ryan on to discuss Ryan’s recent ‘War on Poverty’ report, where Ryan stated that anti-poverty programs developed under President Lyndon Johnson and after were actually the root cause for the continued existence of poverty in this country.
During the interview, Ryan used thinly-veiled ‘code’ language to claim that black men do not want to work and are satisfied with being poor. He also stated that anti-poverty programs create a culture of laziness and that what we really need is for affluent white people from the suburbs to spend more of their time mentoring those in the inner-city. Obviously, the answer for those living in abject poverty in a jobless environment is to have someone come down from their lofty perch and whitesplain about how to lift yourself up by your bootstraps.
Below is an excerpt from Ryan’s conversation with Bennett:

 ”We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with…you need to get involved, you need to get involved yourself, whether through a good mentor program or some religious charity, whatever it is to make a difference. And that’s how we resuscitate our culture.”

This is Ryan’s way to justify that all social programs need to be gutted. Basically, rich, white people will fill in the gap and provide mentoring to the poor, inner-city black folks that they moved far, far away from. At the same time, there is no need to raise the minimum wage in this country and we also need to destroy unions, since they drive away jobs due to their demands for a living wage for their members. In the end, Ryan’s solutions are for there to be no social safety net and the driving down of median wages. But, no worries. The free-market and basic human decency will provide all the solutions needed.
What is especially disgusting here is the notion that all poverty is centered around inner-city black men and that nobody else utilizes the social programs that Ryan demonizes. He is making sure to stoke the racist flames already ablaze within the repugican cabal by going down this route. Ryan is essentially doing the same thing that Reagan did when he brought up the ‘welfare queen’ myth.
To make matters worse, Ryan cited Charles Murray, who is the author of The Bell Curve. Murray has argued that intelligence is genetic, and that whites are naturally more intelligent than blacks. He has also claimed that all social welfare programs will inevitably have a negative effect on a society. Overall, Murray’s studies have been used by many to justify their notions of white supremacy.
Ryan has long been touted by the repugican cabal as extremely intelligent and a real ‘wonk.’ I guess the fact that he uses numbers a lot to make his points makes him appealing in that regard. It gives the appearance of being knowledgeable and exact. However, he is just using smoke and mirrors to push forward a Randian vision of how America should be. Basically, the wealthy should be coddled at all times and they will decide how much to trickle down upon the masses.

Climate Change Denying Koch Brothers Are Deemed a Threat to National Security

The media is as guilty as the Kochs, repugicans, teabaggers, and the religio-wingnuts for the threat to national security because they perpetuate the population's ignorance about climate change …

It is generally expected and hoped that a country’s national security is not threatened by domestic traitors who deliberately jeopardize their homeland for monetary rewards. It hardly matters how powerful and efficient a nation’s military is when its mandate to defend the country is undermined from within the government due to the machinations of the country’s domestic enemies. One of the greatest assets protecting America’s national security is its intelligence community and military that spends a great deal of their time identifying and assessing threats to national security and evaluating terrorism threats at home and abroad. Recently, the Department of Defense identified a major threat to America’s national security and in doing so exposed domestic enemies intent on reinforcing the threat with millions of dollars for propaganda, blatant lies, and diversion. The nation’s enemies are a familiar cult led by the Koch brothers who, with their foot soldiers in the repugican cabal, teabagger movement, and evangelical christians, are working in concert to enable terrorism and threaten America’s national security in the pursuit of power and money. Last week the Department of Defense and Pentagon identified global climate change as a threat to national security and warned it will increase terrorist activities that will certainly affect America. One might think an ominous national security threat warning from the Pentagon would engender a response and call to arms to confront the threat and minimize its danger, but there has been as little reaction to the DOD’s warning today as there was in 2006 when the Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon first alerted the nation to the real and present danger climate change poses to national security.
The only politicians acknowledging the Pentagon and intelligence community warnings are President Obama and Senate Democrats who spent more than 14 hours around the clock Monday night to draw attention to the incredible dangers posed by climate change, and to compel congressional repugicans to stop ignoring the national security threat before it is too late. However, Democrats and the President are up against a formidable foe in the Koch brothers’ John Birch acolytes that could not possibly care less about climate change or the threat it poses to national security.
The Pentagon is not the only national agency that has warned Americans about the threat climate change poses to the nation. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the federal Government Accounting Office (GAO) and a preponderance of climate scientists (97%) have all warned the nation’s leaders about the increasing danger to America of ignoring global climate change. However, there is little activity to combat the threat to national security and increased terrorism because a substantial number of Americans are inclined to believe the traitorous Koch brothers instead of the agencies tasked with protecting America and scientists who have warned for well over a decade that climate change is a legitimate threat to America at home and its interests around the globe.
The Pentagon’s report, 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, identified the impacts of climate change they call “threat multipliers” that “will increase the frequency, scale, and complexity of future missions,” and outlines some “creative ways” of addressing them. The QDR reports that climate change will “devastate homes, land, and infrastructure,” as well as “exacerbate water scarcity and lead to sharp increases in food costs.” According to the QDR, the desperation that many people, particularly in poorer regions like southern America, will face due to climate change impacts could lead to “resource competition” and “terrorist activity. The pressure caused by climate change will influence resource competition while placing additional burdens on economies, societies, and governance institutions around the world. These effects are threat multipliers that will aggravate stressors such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability, and social tensions; conditions that enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence.”
What the report did not cite were recent examples of increasingly severe weather events as a result of climate change that already devastated entire regions in America whether it is the worst drought over the past 500 years in California, increased flooding and wild fires, or Hurricane Sandy that wreaked havoc on the Eastern seaboard precisely as climate scientists predicted 6 years ago. However, it is unlikely to sway many American’s opinion on climate change because the Koch brothers, evangelicals, and repugicans still claim climate change is a liberal conspiracy and hoax to assault the dirty energy industry, or god’s vengeance on America because gays exist, women use contraception, or Americans elected an African American man as President.
The media is as guilty as the Kochs, repugicans, teabaggers, and the religio-wingnuts for the threat to national security because they perpetuate the population’s ignorance about climate change and its effects the Pentagon warns threatens national security. There has been a concerted effort by main stream media to bury information about the legitimacy and devastation of climate change at the same time they promote Kochs’ misinformation denying climate change even exists. The Kochs spend tens-of-millions of dollars on conspiracy theories about climate scientist’s perpetuating a hoax on Americans, and evangelicals claim god controls the climate to punish immorality and welcome climate change’s devastation because it will bring about the end times. The teabaggers and repugicans draw from both the Kochs and evangelicals to enrich the dirty energy industry that in turn brings greater campaign contributions. Denying climate change is big business for repugicans because it equates to greater power and riches despite they are traitors for jeopardizing national security.
The Pentagon has issued the same warning that climate change represents an increasing threat to America’s national security for the past 8 years, and for the duration repugicans, the Kochs, and evangelicals have fought tooth and nail to increase the danger to America. As leaders of the movement to increase the threat to national security the Koch brothers, who know without a doubt climate change is a legitimate threat, are proving they have no regard for the imminent danger to America or its people their industry and campaign to deny climate change is responsible for. In 2012 the Kochs funded a study to disprove the Earth’s climate is undergoing a dangerous man-made change that belied their claim it is a hoax and verified what 97% of climate scientists’ data-driven results reveal as a real and present danger to the planet and America’s national security.
It is reasonable to assume that if intelligence agencies and military leaders in any country on Earth identified a legitimate threat to their national security, the entire nation would mobilize to mitigate the threat immediately. However, America is unlike any country on Earth because it is home to a substantial movement actively working to increase the threat to national security because the Kochs, repugicans, teabaggers, and evangelicals are traitors who hate America and ignore the Defense Department’s warnings to hasten America’s demise.

Random Photos

Genghis Khan and the Weather

Mild Weather May Have Propelled Rise of Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan expanded the Mongolian Empire into the largest contiguous land empire in history in the 13th century during an usual wet spell.

Margery Kempe

Author of a Medieval Autobiography ~ Margery Kempe, born in 1393, was neither royalty nor a noblewoman. But we know about her because she dictated her autobiography to a scribe and one copy still exists. It is the oldest known autobiography in English. And although she is the only source, she appears to have led an extraordinary life. Kempe saw visions of christ, went on numerous pilgrimages, ran several businesses, and bore 14 children -after which she convinced her husband to maintain a celibate marriage.

Throughout her life and adventures, she was constantly in trouble for her behavior, being accused of being a heretic. She was imprisoned by the church and on trial many times but always managed to extricate herself from her troubles. After a few more incidences of getting in trouble, she retired to Lynn. During this time, she had some illnesses and her visions continued. She enjoyed going to hear sermons. She lived with John Kempe for some time but then left the marital home and was always chronically short of funds. Her husband fell and hurt his head becoming an invalid. Margery looked after him.

You can read a compressed account of Margery Kempe’s life at The Freelance History Writer. Those who have read her autobiography say it’s a real hoot, in which Kempe cries a lot, mainly on cue, makes up ridiculous parables, and includes a section of “Bible fan fiction” in which she witnesses events from christ’s life.

Meet the man who got members booze during Prohibition

Bootlegger to Congress

During the days of Prohibition, there was perhaps no one with easier access to alcohol in the nation’s capital than the very people responsible for ratifying the constitutional amendment that banned the production, sale, and transportation of alcohol: members of Congress.
It was all thanks to Congress’ favorite bootlegger: George Cassiday, who was more commonly known on Capitol Hill as “the man in the green hat.” For 10 years, he ran a bootlegging operation for Congress out of the House and Senate office buildings.
“He kept them wet, even though they all voted dry,” Garrett Peck, author of the book “Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren’t,” told “Power Players” in an interview in the Prohibition-era wine cellar that belonged to President Woodrow Wilson.
Cassiday estimated that “four out of five” members of Congress drank alcohol despite their votes in favor of Prohibition, said Peck, and he went on to blow the lid off Congress’ hypocrisy by publishing a series of expose articles in the Washington Post after his decade-long operation was busted.
“This whole idea that there was somehow a consensus to change the Constitution to ban alcohol, just turned out to be totally ridiculous,” Peck said. “Prohibition turned the whole country into a bunch of scofflaws, and a bunch of hypocrites, as well.”
Cassiday first started selling booze for the House of Representatives in 1920, where he was provided with an office in the House Cannon Office Building and was able to bring his supplies straight through the front door.
“Back then to get into the halls of Congress, you were only searched when you left the building, so you could actually bring a suitcase full of liquor into the Congressional offices,” said Peck, who went on to explain that members of Congress were excluded from searches upon leaving the building, making it easy for them to bring liquor home with them.
Cassiday’s bootlegging operation in the House was busted in 1925, and he gained his famed nickname in the process.
"The way he actually got [his] nickname was when he got arrested...there was some press guy pointing out 'Oh that guy over there who's arrested, the guy in the green hat.'"
The bust only slowed down business temporarily for Cassiday, who promptly moved over to the Senate side.
“He considered senators to be more discreet than Congressmen,” Peck said. “The Congressmen … would come over all the time, they would play cards. They would hang out and so on. The Senators, on the other hand … would send their secretaries.”
But in 1930, Cassiday’s Senate operation was also busted and his bootlegging days came to an end. He signed a deal with a judge that he would never bootleg again and was sentenced to jail time.
“He only actually spent about 90 days in prison, of which he never spent a single night in jail,” Peck said.
Instead, Cassiday would sign in at the jail in the morning and sign out at night. “He lived on Capitol Hill, so he went to the DC jail, which was about two blocks from where he lived.”
Following his sentencing, Cassiday wrote about his experience working as a bootlegger for Congress in the Washington Post. And it was just three years later, in 1933, that Prohibition was ultimately overturned.
To learn more about the story of George Cassiday, and the gin that has since been named in his honor, check out this episode of the “Power Players.”

The 500 MPH Superplane That Bugatti Had To Hide From The Nazis

This is the Bugatti Model 100P: A 900 HP, 500 MPH, race plane imagined by none other than legendary automotive designer Ettore Bugatti, so technologically advanced that it could have single-handedly dominated the skies of WWII for Germany, had the Nazis ever gotten their hands on it.

But after more than seven decades of obscurity in a French barn, the 'Veyron of the Skies' is ready to finally take flight for the first time.

Ziggy

For Your Health

Can 'Oil Pulling' Improve Your Health?

A health fad called "oil pulling" has gone viral, in which people swish their mouths with oil for better health.

5 Illegal Drugs With Medicinal Benefits

There are good reasons why certain drugs aren't legal, but could some of them have potential medicinal benefits? Cristen Conger from Stuff Mom Never Told You joins DNews to discuss how drugs like LSD and ecstasy might be able to help.

Is Skinny-Fat an Actual Health Problem?

Some skinny people have a high percentage of the most dangerous type of body fat, leading to serious health risks.

Insomniacs brains are different

What Makes Insomniac Brains Different?

Insomnia isn't fun. It can have some pretty harsh physical and psychological side effects. Anthony breaks down some of the causes of insomnia, and explains what exactly it's doing to the brain.

Havin' the Look and Talkin' the Talk

DNews: Even Children Judge Your Looks!

Sometimes, we find ourselves judging people based on their appearance, but do we also judge people's character traits based on their face? Anthony talks about how children and adults both judge people's characters simply by looking at them.

Could Neanderthals Talk Like Us?

Could Neanderthals, long thought to be unable to vocalize, actually talk to each other? Trace is here to tell you about a tiny bone found in Neanderthals and modern humans that might hold the answer.

10 Interesting Psychological Facts About Love

Scientists have found that love is more than just a purely emotional activity. They have found that love can be pretty similar to a chemical reaction at times, and that it is not necessarily a choice whether we fall in love with certain people or not.

Sometimes love can cause people to do things they might not otherwise, like these outrageously creative wedding proposals. There might be a few interesting ideas for those of you considering proposing to your loved ones anytime soon.

Vintage Photos

Scientists have a break-thru in developing fusion power

US scientists have announced an important milestone in the costly, decades-old quest to develop fusion energy, which, if harnessed successfully, promises a nearly inexhaustible energy source for future generations.
For the first time, experiments have produced more energy from fusion reactions than the amount of energy put into the fusion fuel, scientists at the federally funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California said on Wednesday.

More

For the first time, scientists have got more power out of the system than they have put in. Doesn’t sound like much bit is a great thing!

Science and Humans

World Wide Web Was 'Born' 25 Years Ago

In March 1989, a CERN physicist came up with a revolutionary idea that has transformed the way we communicate, work and play.

Can Math Equations Be a Form of Art?

Sometimes, math can be hard ... but can it also be beautiful? Our resident mathematician Tara Long joins DNews today to discuss a new study shows how math can be perceived as a beautiful piece of art in the brain.

Not Dead Yet! 'Resurrection' in Science and Fiction

As the dead return in TV's latest water-cooler drama, we look at the history of the resurrection story.

FDA OK's Headband to Reduce Migraines

A device worn like a tiara for 20 minutes idea reduces migraines by 50 percent in some people.

What's Wrong With People That Don't Like Music?

We all love music, right? Is it possible for someone to listen to music and have no emotional response? Anthony reports on how close to 5 percent of the population simply do not like listening to music.

Underwater Hunter

A hunter goes deep sea fishing without air by running along the ocean floor 65 feet underwater.

YouTube link

Diamond Oceans

Vast Oceans Beneath Earth Revealed by Gem

A Brazilian diamond offers clues about large amounts of water beneath the Earth.

Daily Comic Relief

Chimp empathey and Human engagement

Chimp empathy key to understanding human engagement

In their latest study about empathy, Yerkes National Primate Research […]

Animal News

Chimps Trust Some People More Than Other Chimps

Chimpanzees who are treated well by people trust and show more empathy for humans more than they do baboons and unfamiliar chimps.

Elephants Can Tell Gender, Ethnicity in Human Voices

African elephants can differentiate between human languages and move away from those considered a threat.

Are Some Dog Breeds More Aggressive?

It's widely debated whether a dog's level of aggression toward strangers is due to its breed, or the way its owner raises it. Anthony gets to the bottom of this question and finds the reasons why certain dogs can be so aggressive.

More Animal News

T. rex Had a Small, Cute Cousin

A 'pygmy tyrannosaur' found in Alaska was a pint-sized cousin of T. rex.

Do Animals Like Music?

Listening to music is a great way to relax and unwind. In fact, certain animals enjoy listening to music too. Trace discusses why animals like music, and also how listening to a certain genre might just cause cows to produce more milk!

First-Ever IVF Shark Hatched at Melbourne Aquarium

The hatching is part of a nine-year project into understanding the reproductive behaviors of sharks.

Secret to Ancient Sloths' Aquatic Lives Found

These now-extinct swimmers had highly dense bones that facilitated their transition from land to sea by helping them sink to seafloors to graze.

Animal Pictures