The Daily Drift

Yeah, Health ...!

 

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Bubba... !

Today  is  -  National Bubba Day

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Some of our reader today have been in:

The Americas

Caracas, Venezuela

Thunder Bay, L'ancienne-Lorette, Toronto, Edmonton and Waterloo, Canada

Chaparral, Marblehead, Terre Haute, Somerset and Pocatello, United States

Sao Paulo and Pocao De Pedras, Brazil

Lima, Peru

Mexico City, Mexico

Agua De Dios, Colombia

Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Europe

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tirana, Albania

Yerevan, Armenia

Gosport, London, Walton Le Dale and Crook, England

Perugia, Florence, Milan and Ivrea, Italy

Salon-De-Provence, Paris and Strasbourg, France

Moscow and Vladivostok, Russia

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Stockholm, Sweden

Zhovtivody, Ukraine

Dresden and Rothe Erde, Germany

Madrid, Spain

Reykjavik, Iceland

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Mechelen, Belgium

Asia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Rat Burana, Thailand

Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai, Loni, Thiruvananthapuram, New Delhi and Cochin, India

Rangoon, Burma

Mashhad, Iran

Jakarta, Indonesia

Doha, Qatar

Africa 

East London and Cape Town, South Africa

Algiers, Algeria

The Pacific

Manila, Philippines

Today in History

1537		Pope Paul III bans the enslavement of Indians in the New World.
1774		The Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to allow British soldiers into their houses, is reenacted.
1793		Maximillian Robespierre, a member of France's Committee on Public Safety, initiates the "Reign of Terror."
1818		The British army defeats the Maratha alliance in Bombay, India.
1859		French forces cross the Ticino River.
1865		At Galveston, Texas, Confederate general Edmund Kirby Smith surrenders the Trans-Mississippi Department to Union forces.
1883		The first baseball game under electric lights is played in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
1886		Grover Cleveland becomes the first American president to wed while in office.
1910		Charles Stewart Rolls, one of the founders of Rolls-Royce, becomes the first man to fly an airplane nonstop across the English Channel both ways. Tragically, he becomes Britain's first aircraft fatality the following month when his biplane breaks up in midair.
1924		The United States grants full citizenship to American Indians.
1928		Nationalist Chiang Kai-shek captures Peking, China, in a bloodless takeover.
1942		The American aircraft carriers Enterprise, Hornet and Yorktown move into their battle positions for the Battle of Midway.
1944		Allied "shuttle bombing" of Germany begins, with bombers departing from Italy and landing in the Soviet Union.
1946		Italian citizens vote by referendum for a republic.
1948		Jamaican-born track star Herb McKenley sets a new world record for the 400 yard dash.
1953		Elizabeth II is crowned queen of England at Westminster Abbey.
1954		Senator Joseph McCarthy charges that there are communists working in the CIA and atomic weapons plants.
1969		The Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne slices the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half off the shore of South Vietnam.

Non Sequitur

How To Eat A Hamburger ...

... According To Science

Is there an efficient way to hold and eat a hamburger without the guts going everywhere? Three researchers spent four months finding the best way to hold a large hamburger.

YouTube link

What's Behind Children's Reincarnation Claims?

What's Behind Children's Reincarnation Claims?

Are claims of reincarnation by children just the products of the power of suggestion or the manufacturing of false memories? Or can some children really remember past lives?

The 25 Most Powerful TV Shows Of The Last 25 Years

TV doesn't get much respect. It rots your brain and grows couch potatoes. But the so-called idiot box also swings elections, rewires brains, snares criminals, and even sways the Supreme Court.

The following 25 TV shows may not be the best shows of the last 25 years - in fact, some are among the worst - but their impact reaches far beyond the living room.

Why Is Online Shopping So Confusing?

Why Is Online Shopping So Confusing?

Shopping without leaving the house may be the pinnacle of convenient consumerism, but it can also completely flummox even the best and the brightest among us. Find out why.

Top 10 Countries with the Most Obese People

Top 10 Countries with the Most Obese People Named

More than 50 percent of the world's 671 million obese people live in these 10 countries.

Stromness

Abandoned Whaling Station Of South Georgia

The island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic is remote, to say the least - they are 1,390 kilometers (864 miles) east-southeast of the Falkland Islands, considered the ends of the earth by many themselves.
There is no air strip and visitors must arrive on the island by boat. On the northern coast of the island is the former whaling station of Stromness, named for a village in the Scottish Orkney isles. The last time the place was used commercially was in the early 1960s. Now it's left to decay, its only company the seals and penguins native to the islands.

The Red Beach In Panjin, China

Seeing red? Don't worry, you're not having some eyesight issues; it's just the Red Beach in Panjin, China. Unlike the usual beaches, the Red Beach doesn't have red sand, but only seaweeds that cover almost the entire Liaohe Delta. When autumn comes the landscape's colors turn from orange, to pink, and to flaming red.
Other than the vivid red color that paints the marsh, you can also see the Crown Cranes and Black Beaked Gulls around the area. That's why the Red Beach is also called the 'home of the cranes.'

Straight Razors And Social Justice

The Empowering Evolution Of Black Barbershops

In a country where institutionalized racism has been the norm for centuries, black barbershops remain an anomaly. Though initially blocked from serving black patrons, these black-owned businesses evolved into spaces where African Americans could freely socialize and discuss contemporary issues.
Quincy Mills spent a decade researching the history of black barbershops for his recent book, which provides a fascinating look into our nation's complicated racial dynamic: Barbershops remain both a proud symbol of African American entrepreneurship and a relic of an era when black labor exclusively benefited whites. Collectors Weekly spoke with Mills about the roots of black barbershops and their relevance today.

Mother angry after teenage daughter's armpits were shaved by teacher

A mother is furious that a teacher shaved her teenage daughter's armpits in front of two other girls in a classroom as part of the school's "life skills" program.

Railway station platform closed by pair of jogging bottoms

Trains in and out of Coventry railway station were stopped by a pair of jogging bottoms hanging on overhead lines. Virgin Trains, said one platform was closed for over an hour and ten trains had to be re-routed to other parts of the station. A Virgin Trains’ customer service manager called Dotty later said: “We have no idea how the trousers got up there in the first place.

“Sadly, we haven’t seen anybody running around half naked - although we have been looking. Network Rail came and they had to take the power out of the lines so they could safely remove the offending item.
“Since they’re 25,000 volt lines, they couldn’t have removed the trousers without cutting the power, or they’d have been hot pants. The workmen used a litter-picker to reach up nine feet to take them off.”

Ziggy

Absolutely charming 89-year-old lady fought off sword-wielding robber with a golf club

An 89-year-old store owner in Washington state used a golf club to beat off a suspected robber who wielded a sword, prompting the suspect to drop the stolen cash register as he made away on a bicycle, according to police. Police in the 21,000-population city of Moses Lake say owner Miyo Koba was inside Frank's Superette on Sunday morning when a tall, slender male wearing a ski mask and dark glasses swooped in.

Koba has owned the store in this community between Seattle and Spokane for 60 years, and kept it up even after her husband died, police said. When Koba found the suspect standing behind the cash register, she set about a campaign of aggression. Police describe Koba as a small woman who weighs no more than 125 pounds. "I had the scissors in my hand like this, and he was trying to open the till, and he said, 'Open the till!' " Koba said. "I said, 'No, I'm not going to open the till for you,' and I said, 'If you don't get your hands off the till, I'm going to stab you with my scissors.' But I didn't. I didn't have the nerve to stab him,"

However, her tactics apparently had an effect. The suspect became unnerved when Koba would not open the register. "He started pounding on the register trying to open it," Koba said. "He pulled out his little sword out of his little jacket, and he just kind of waved it a little bit," she said, making reference to the man's 3-foot weapon. “I didn't feel threatened. It just probably made me a little bit more brave,” said Koba. She said the man pushed her slightly to get away. “I fell down here and so I got into a sitting position.

 Original news video.

“I got into a sitting position and I found the club so I went tried to swing this club at him and I tried to hit his head a couple times but I couldn't reach it,” said Koba. So she went for his legs, swinging and hitting them. The man escaped on a bicycle, cash register and sword in tow, but police said Koba later recovered the register nearby with the money still in it. The man apparently stripped after he left the store because police found his clothing after the incident. “He must have been running around in his underwear and no shoes because that's what they said, they found all his clothes,” said Koba. Police are still searching for the man.

Jail for 'spiritual healer' who promised to hang cash from magical tree in Amazonian rainforest

A woman described as “pure evil” has been has been jailed for 10 years after swindling £1 million from vulnerable people by claiming to be spiritual healer who could cure cancer or help them to get pregnant by sending money to the Amazon jungle. Juliette D’Souza, 59, extracted huge sums of cash from 11 people across Hampstead and north London – including opera singers, photographers and solicitors – by claiming to be a shamanic healer with links to the rainforest in Suriname.

D’Souza was such a persuasive con-artist that she managed to convince her victims she could cure terminal illnesses, help disabled children or enable them to conceive by sending cash to the South American jungle – to be hung from a sacred tree. Her victims believed she was working with two other shamans in Suriname, known as Pa and Oma, who would hang their cash “sacrifices” on the tree in the heart of the jungle. Instead, D’Souza spent the money on a lavish lifestyle, renting three or four luxury flats at a time in Hampstead and splashing a fortune on Louis Vuitton bags, jewellery, antique furniture and holidays. She boasted of celebrity clients including Princess Diana and Simon Cowell.

Her victims described her as confident, well-spoken and attractive, and said she was incredibly manipulative and persuasive, convincing them that terrible things would happen if they did not hand over cash sacrifices. The victims were so under her spell during the 12-year scam that one woman, who cannot be named, had an abortion at her say so, while another, Ruth Fillingham, sold her home because D’Souza said it was “spooked”. The woman who had the abortion had previously given D’Souza more than £170,000 in the belief it would help her to conceive. Ms Fillingham, had paid £169,000 from 1998 to 2004 to ward off the evil spirit of her deceased brother, save her partner from a nonexistent tumour and ensure her eye surgery would be a success – which it was not.
Her boyfriend, Geoff Wheeler, handed over £195,000 in the same period. Much of the money was supposed to secure his job, but he was still made redundant. Retired opera singer Sylvia Eaves, 83, was conned out of a total of £353,000. D’Souza had multiple identities and a litany of addresses across Hampstead, as well as in West Hampstead, Belsize Park, Kensington and St John’s Wood. She would pay up to a year’s rent in advance – in cash – and occupy several flats at once. It emerged during the trial that she was previously convicted of 28 counts of fraud and four of theft, spending time in Holloway prison in the 1980s. Sentencing her to 10 years in prison for each of 23 counts to run concurrently - the maximum sentence allowed by Parliament, Judge Ian Karsten QC said: “It is the worst confidence fraud I have ever had to deal with or indeed that I have heard of”.

Serial feet tickler on the loose at college

A man has been breaking into the homes of students who live near Boston College in Massachusetts and watching them sleep or tickling their feet, police and several alleged victims have confirmed. Police report at least 10 sightings of the so-called Tickler, who some in the neighborhood had long believed to be a myth. At least three students report having encountered him on the same night. “This is no myth,” said Sergeant Michael O’Hara, community service officer for the Boston Police district that covers Allston and Brighton. “It’s happening.” Victims have described him as a 5-foot-8-inch black male of unknown age in dark clothing and a hoodie, he said. Some reported that the man watched them through their windows as he committed a sex act.
Teddy Raddell, a BC junior, said he was jolted from a sound sleep at 5am on a Sunday by the sound of someone running down the stairs of the house he shares with several fellow Boston College students. “I thought my roommate had fallen down the steps,” Raddell said, “but then he started yelling. I got up and he said that he had woken up to someone touching his feet.” Like other students, he said no valuables were stolen. “The guy didn’t take anything and there were laptops and wallets out in the main room,” said Raddell. BC junior Daniel Marenzi said he woke up late, also on a Sunday, to his feet being tickled.
“I thought my friend was just trying to annoy me, but I soon realized it wasn’t anyone I knew,” Marenzi says. “I freaked out and sat up but he was already on the way out.” He said he and his housemates now lock all their doors. O’Hara said many students living off campus leave their doors unlocked, however. “Absolutely students should be concerned,” he said. “You don’t know what this guy is going to do or if he has a weapon. You need to lock your doors. It’s not as safe as you think.” There is no hard evidence in the cases, O’Hara said, and no photos or video of the alleged Tickler. “If we had something to go on,” he said, “we would.”

Chocolate thief caught in Thailand

Amid the very serious military coup in Thailand, an even more serious piece of news: Police have nabbed this brazen chocolate thief. He stole 35 candy bars from a 7-11, "for distribution to friends." At last, the citizens of Thailand can sleep soundly, knowing the candy criminal is off the streets.

Father charged with child cruelty for making teenage son carry heavy stone

Police in Douglasville, Georgia, arrested a father on child cruelty charges after the man punished his 16-year-old son by making him carry a 23-pound landscape stone for several miles.

Charlie Mayes, a 40-year-old military veteran with no criminal record, told police he used military-style punishment because his son watched too many videos and didn't do his chores and school work. Douglasville Police charged Mayes with first-degree child cruelty. "This was done multiple times over a three-day period, sometimes as early as 3 o'clock in the morning," Police Sgt. Todd Garner said.
Garner said the boy, who is only 4'2" tall, was also punished in-between the 3-mile hikes. In between that time, he was at home having to move rocks and stuff from one side of the back yard to the other and then being taken right back out to the same location and dropped off and made to walk back again," Garner said.

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A pizza delivery driver alerted police to the teen's punishment walks, one of which was captured in the background of a police dash cam video during an unrelated traffic stop. Mayes freely admitted what happened. "He did not feel that this was inappropriate at all and neither did his wife," Garner said. Meanwhile police alerted DFCS about the case and Mayes was released from jail on $3,500 bond. A judge also ordered Mayes to get family counseling.

Man accused of stealing skin from hospital

A man from Delaware County has been arrested for allegedly stealing more than $350,000 worth of human skin from a local hospital over the past few years. Gary Dudek, 54, of Wallingford, Pennsylvania, is charged with theft and tampering with records.

Man in possession of stolen GPS device called 911 to report himself lost

A Florida man who called 911 to say he was lost and being chased by wild hogs was found to have a stolen GPS device in his backpack. Andrew James Joffe, 24, of Chuluota, called 911 at around 1:50am on Thursday, saying he didn't known his exact location, but that he was walking somewhere along Deen Still Road.

Deputies found him still on Deen Still Road. They discovered that he had an open warrant for driving with a suspended/revoked driver’s licence and was taken into custody. As Joffe’s backpack was being inventoried for safe keeping, a deputy found items ranging from electronic equipment, cell phones, ear rings and a GPS device.

The GPS was turned on and a “home address” was programmed in the GPS. The home address was not Joffe’s. It was determined that the resident was a victim of a burglary from her car and was missing her GPS device. Upon questioning, Joffe admitted to deputies that he illegally entering the vehicle and taken the GPS.
“We have had people with warrants call us to turn themselves in before, but it’s unusual for someone with an active warrant, who just burglarized a car, to get lost and call us for help. In his defense, it does get pretty dark out on Deen Still Road in the middle of the night ,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. Joffe was arrested and taken to jail in Bartow.

Two people killed and three injured after woman dropped her phone into toilet

Two people died and three were injured after wading into a cesspit in an attempt to retrieve a woman's mobile phone and rescue those who fainted. The two fatalities were the woman's husband and mother-in-law. The tragedy unfolded after the young woman in Xinxiang city, Henan, China, accidentally dropped her brand new phone into a cesspit when she went to the open-pit toilet on Wednesday.

Her husband jumped in to find the 2,000-yuan (£190, $320) phone but he could not breathe and soon lost consciousness. Then, the husband's mother jumped in to save him but she, too, soon lost consciousness. In panic, the young woman followed and suffered the same fate. Seeing his family lying helpless in waste, her father-in-law called to neighbors for help.
When they arrived, the old man also entered the cesspit but could not get out while two neighbors who jumped inside fainted. “The smell was too strong. I lost consciousness before I could see anything,” said a neighbor. Other villagers found a rope and tied it on rescuers who, taking turns, pulled six people out of the pit.
The husband and mother-in-law died in hospital while the woman and a neighbor remain in the intensive care unit. The father-in-law was also injured. The woman and her husband had a one-year-old son. Villagers said the victims were in the pit, which was knee deep in waste, for no more than five minutes. A hospital doctor said the victims suffocated. Villagers said the dead victims had pulses after being pulled out but the ambulance did not arrive for more than an hour.

Daily Comic Relief

Police found steroids, cocaine, marijuana and a raccoon in a birdcage during drugs bust

A drugs bust in Florida led to police finding a raccoon inside a bird cage when the home of David Watson, 50, in Port St. Lucie was searched.

Police also found vials human growth hormones (HGH) in Watson's refrigerator, and cocaine and marijuana in the house. Police say they believe the raccoon spent all day, every day in the cage, never being let out.

"The only door that opened up to the cage was zip-tied shut," Master Sgt. Frank Sabol said. "And the raccoon was obese." Along with the raccoon, police also confiscated several rabbits, a snake and two kittens.
Watson's mother came up from Miami to care for most of the animals. The raccoon was transferred to a wildlife shelter in Jupiter. Watson was arrested and was taken to the St. Lucie County Jail for booking.

Police on the hunt for car-attacking raven

Police in Richmond, Maine, are dealing with reports of an amorous raven that has caused hundreds of dollars in damage to at least three cars. Police Chief Scott MacMaster said two people went to the police station last week to report their vehicles had been attacked by the raven, which caused damaged rubber gaskets around windscreen and windows and the windscreen wipers on at least three cars.

MacMaster said the first raven attack, in which a pickup truck was damaged was reported on May 21. The owner said he had watched the raven land and see its reflection in the truck window. The bird caused approximately $500 in damage, according to the owner. “The raven does its territorial strut as he described it and it starts attacking the reflection in the window and pulling off the rubber around the windows and his windshield wipers,” MacMaster said.

“The raven in the reflection would not back down, so he attacked himself.” The next day a resident reported that “a buzzard” had ripped the windscreen wipers off his car. MacMaster said the buzzard was, in fact, a raven. “He had to bring his own car in to be fixed, and while he was having the repairs done and it started attacking the rental car,” MacMaster said. The second victim said he took an unpaid day off from work so he could conduct a stakeout to try to catch the bird in the act. When that failed he went to the police station. “He wanted us to shoot the raven,” MacMaster said.
MacMaster said officers inspected the rental car and found rubber missing from around the window and windscreen and scratches on front. MacMaster said the vehicle owners would be allowed to safely dispatch of the nuisance bird, but he advised both to contact the Warden Service as well. MacMaster said identifying the bird could prove difficult. Ravens are easily mistaken for crows, but the first victim was confident in the type of bird that carried out the attack. “He said he’d researched it,” MacMaster said. “He says he believes it’s a raven because it’s much bigger.”

Shoppers surprised by wandering alligator

Shoppers in North Charleston, South Carolina, were shocked to see an alligator in a parking lot at Tanger Outlets on Tuesday evening.

Danielle McAdory said she was coming out of the Verizon store at around 7:15pm when she noticed a gator at the Hardees parking lot.

"I thought it was strange that a gator could make it that far inland and I was hoping animal control wasn't going to shoot it," McAdory said.

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The gator attempted to crawl to the main road, but police managed to block the animal. Officers with the North Charleston Police Department were able to capture the gator at around 8:30pm. The gator was then placed in the back of a truck before being transported to the Goose Creek reservoir where it was released.

Snake lunging at tires caused traffic delays

A rat snake slowed traffic down at Mayde Creek in Katy, Texas, on Tuesday morning.

Deer that fell from the sky crashed though windshield of vehicle traveling at 70 mph

An Illinois woman had an unusual encounter with a deer as the animal leaped from an overpass and crashed through her windscreen. Heidi Conner says she was driving a minivan with her four children at about noon on Sunday.

Injured deer ran into hospital

A startled deer ran into the Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast in Concord, North Carolina, on Thursday morning, much to the surprise of hospital workers.

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A source inside the hospital says the deer was loose in the hospital's kitchen-storage area before being trapped inside a mop closet. Animal control officers were called to the hospital to capture the injured buck. The deer was tranquilized and removed from the hospital on a rolling cart.

It appears the deer came from a wooded, residential area across from the hospital. It is believed the buck ran across traffic, leaped over the bushes and landed on a vehicle in the parking lot of the hospital, shattering the windscreen. The deer then entered the hospital. Animal control officers say the deer was taken about three or four miles away from the hospital and released in a wooded area.

Officers stayed with the deer until the tranquilizer wore off, which took about 15 to 20 minutes. Once the deer got his bearings, he was able to walk away and into the woods. The deer was reportedly only injured along the protective coating on his antlers. Considering that he'd crashed into a car windscreen, officers say he was in good condition.

Animal Pictures