The Daily Drift

The Third of our trees of December ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 200 countries around the world daily.   

 
Boketto, everyone ... !

Today is  - There is no special celebration today

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Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Brasilia, Brazil

Montrel, Quebec, Henry Farm, Ottawa and Waterloo, Canada

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Bogota, Colombia

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

Santiago and Lo Prado, Chile

Mexico City, Mexico

Europe

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Madrid and Valencia, Spain

Paris, Villeurbanne, Cherbourg-Octeville, Salon-De-Provence and Roubaix, France

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Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Kuala Lumpur, Bayan Lepas and Cheras, Malaysia

Bangkok, Thailand

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Makassar, Indonesia

Tel Aviv, Israel

Africa

Madina, Ghana

Lusaka, Zambia

The Pacific

Cebu City, Philippines

Today in History

1468   Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano succeed their father, Piero de Medici, as rulers of Florence, Italy.  
1762   France cedes to Spain all lands west of the Mississippi–the territory known as Upper Louisiana.  
1818   Illinois admitted into the Union as the 21st state.  
1800   The French defeat an Austrian army at the Battle of Hohenlinden, near Munich.
1847   Frederick Douglass and Martin R. Delaney establish the North Star, and anti-slavery paper.  
1862   Confederate raiders attack a Federal forage train on the Hardin Pike near Nashville, Tenn.
1863   Confederate General James Longstreet moves his army east and north toward Greeneville. This withdrawal marks the end of the Fall Campaign in Tennessee.
1864   Major General William Tecumseh Sherman meets with slight resistance from Confederate troops at Thomas Station on his march to the sea.  
1906   The U.S. Supreme Court orders Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leaders extradited to Idaho for trial in the Steunenberg murder case.  
1915   The United States expels German attaches on spy charges.  
1916   French commander Joseph Joffre is dismissed after his failure at the Somme. General Robert Nivelle is the new French commander in chief.  
1918   The Allied Conference ends in London where they decide that Germany must pay for the war.  
1925   The League of Nations orders Greece to pay an indemnity for the October invasion of Bulgaria.  
1926   British reports claim that German soldiers are being trained in the Soviet Union.
1950   The Chinese close in on Pyongyang, Korea, and UN forces withdraw southward.  
1965   The National coven of cults asks the United States to halt the massive bombings in North Vietnam. 1977   The State Department proposes the admission of 10,000 more Vietnamese refugees to the United States.  
1979   Eleven are dead and eight injured in a mad rush to see a rock band (The Who) at a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio.  
1984   Toxic gas leaks from a Union Carbide plant and results in the deaths of thousands in Bhopal, India.  
1989   Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev announce the official end to the Cold War at a meeting in Malta.  
1992   A test engineer for Sema Group sends the world's first text message, using a personal computer and the Vodafone network.
1997   Representatives of 121 nations sign the Ottawa Treaty prohibiting the manufacture or deployment of antipersonnel landmines; the People's Republic of China, the US and the USSR do not sign.  
2005   First manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail takes place in Mojave, Cal.  
2009   Suicide bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, kills 25 people, including three miniseries of the Transitional Federal Government.

4 Ways to Beat Holiday Stress

“How we perceive a situation and how we react to it is the basis of our stress. If you focus on the negative in any situation, you can expect high stress levels. However, if you try and see the good in the situation, your stress levels will greatly diminish.” – Catherine Pulsifer

Holidays are a time to gather with friends and family to enjoy the festivities the season brings. Everyone seems to look forward to the holidays, the time off of school and work, and even coziness with movies by a fire.
However, the holiday season can also be a huge source of stress…
To prepare presents, host parties, bake goodies, have family stay over, and decorate, the stress can easily add up.  This can make the holidays seem like more a chore than a celebration. If this sounds like you during the holidays, try to implement these tips into your daily routine this season.  You’ll feel less overburdened with stress, and can embrace more of the true joy the holiday season brings.

Here are 4 Ways to Handle Holiday Stress

Don’t take on more than you can handle.
If your family expects you to host the holiday gatherings this year, but you don’t think you can manage, don’t be afraid to speak up and ask if they might be able to host instead. You might have other obligations, or simply not have time to get the house ready for a big party.  There’s nothing wrong with asking someone else in the family to host. You could always offer to bring more snacks or decorations to help them get everything ready for guests; that way, you can still make an important contribution without feeling overwhelmed.
Prioritizing tasks can also help you keep stress levels under control. Many people pack way too much into their days, often producing mounting stress.  If you have to, make a physical list of everything you need to get done.  According to a Harvard study, writing down your goals can dramatically improve your chances for success.
Make sure your “To Done” List (as we like to call it) only includes a few key tasks you need to complete each day. It’s much easier to manage stress when you’re reasonable with what you can accomplish within a specific time-frame.
If you can’t get something done that day, move it to the next day, or even ask someone for help -it’s OK!
Do something fun each day.
The holidays don’t have to be all work and no play.  Even if you have a lot to do, you can still set aside a little time each day to step away from the chaos of the holidays and nourish your spirit with people and activities that makes your heart happy.  After a certain time, set an agreement with yourself to stop what you’re doing and take time for you.   You’ll get everything done that you need to at the right time.
If you can’t get any alone time, spend time with family and friends doing something that doesn’t involve preparation and effort. Play a board game, watch movies, go eat at your favorite restaurant, or something your group can enjoy together.
Leading up to major holidays, you might feel strapped for time and rush to finish cooking and wrapping presents at the last minute.
Keep healthy eating habits.
During the holidays, it can be tempting to indulge in treats more often than you should, but think of how you will likely feel after the holidays are over. Make a pact with yourself to keep up your normal eating habits throughout the holidays, with some “cheat meals” sprinkled in here and there. Of course, many folks enjoy it, and eat what they want in celebration of the holidays, but it’s easy to let a couple days of treating yourself turn into a few more days, then weeks, then months.
To make sure you stay on track, start a healthy holiday eating challenge with friends, so you can hold each other accountable and also have workout buddies to rely on. The holidays can be a prime time for putting on pounds, and weight gain can often be a trigger for stress in a person’s life.
And if you love desserts, (who doesn’t?) try making them lower-fat by using applesauce instead of oil. This way, you can still enjoy your favorite foods without worrying about how your jeans will fit the next day. Making delicious food that everyone enjoys is an important part of the holiday season.  When you feed your body well, you will feel good, leaving less room for stress to creep into your life.
Embrace whatever happens.
Even if you go to the ends of the Earth to make sure something turns out perfectly, it may not always go as planned. Sometimes, you just have to embrace what’s going on in life and make the best of it.
You might put a pie in the oven while you go put the baby down for a nap or take a shower, and before you know it, the pie gets a little too brown on top. Or, you might go out shopping, expecting to find all your gifts in one day, but only come out with a few. Thinking about what could have happened is futile.  The moment has already happened – now you get to create new things in this moment.
There’s always a new day, so don’t stress too much if things don’t go as planned. You may even come to discover that the pie burned because someone else in your family already made the exact same one to bring later, and maybe you didn’t find all your presents because the store you go to the next day will have the perfect gifts for everyone on your list. Whatever happens this holiday, embrace it.  Love it or learn from it.
Keeping calm during the holidays and choosing not to worry about the little things can make a big difference in how much stress you put yourself under. Worrying about something doesn’t solve the problem; it only creates more to worry about. Remember this the next time you find yourself in a stressful situation, and remember – you control your reality. You only feel stressed if you choose to, so choose positively!

Armed Black Residents Protect Respected White-Owned Business During Ferguson Riots

by Frank Minero

The grand jury verdict clearing Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown led to chaos in Ferguson, Missouri. In the unrest that followed the verdict, many area businesses were severely damaged. Some were burned to the ground.
One exception is the white-owned Conoco gas station and convenience store. Conoco is owned by Doug Merello and the business has been in his family since 1984. Merello says he feels deep ties to Ferguson. Fortunately for Merello, the Ferguson community feels the same color-blind love for him and his neighborhood gas station.
A group of black residents, armed with high-powered rifles and pistols, stood guard over Conoco during the riots. They chased away anyone threatening to loot, shoplift or otherwise do harm to the gas station.
Why did these African-American men protect this white-owned business? According to the men, it is a matter of respect.
According to Las Vegas Review-Journal, the men say they feel indebted to Merello. He has employed them the last several years and always treated them with respect.
One of Conoco’s guardian angels is a 6-foot-8-inch tall man named Derrick Jordan. His friends call him “Stretch.” Jordan, 37, was armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and joined by other men from the neighborhood who feel indebted to the store.
A 29-year-old man identifying himself as R.J. said of Merello:

“He’s a nice dude, he’s helped us a lot.”

R.J. said he and the other men had chased away several groups of teens that came to loot the store earlier that evening.
While Conoco’s guardian angels talked, a young man walked into the store. A commotion followed as Merello kicked the youth out of the store.
Sean Turner, another one of the armed guards, showed the kid the gun in his jacket and told him:

“This is what happens if you try to steal from this place.”

Merello admits that without the protection of these men, his gas station would be gone:

“We would have been burned to the ground many times over if it weren’t for them.”

None of the men have been paid to stand guard over Merello’s gas station. It’s simply a matter of respect.

***

This post proves that there are no 'racial' divides in this country it is a lack of R-E-S-P-E-C-T that divides this country.
It is said that one has to earn respect it is not given - that is not entirely correct.
One has to give respect to get respect ... the 'earning' part comes in proving worthy of the respect given to you. (Should you fail to be worthy you will lose the respect - it really is that simple.)
The all too common mistake of equating Esteem with Respect is the root of the problem.
Esteem is what you 'earn' while proving your worthiness of the respect you have been given.
Even the post above makes this false equation.
The store owner's respect for his customers and employees and their respect for him in return built esteem and that esteem was demonstrated by the actions of the men you stood guard against those seeking to do harm.

Did you know ...

That the US govt is going to auction off bitcoins seized in Silk Road closure

Just who judges the judges?

That authorities are discovering many mass graves in Mexico

That 7 of America's top 30 corporations pay their CEO's more than they pay in federal taxes

That the fast-warming gulf of Maine offers hint of future for the world's oceans
About these 7 lives cut short since Ferguson
That sleater-kinney is back together!
That this is what it sounds like when fish shout

It's just as we knew - more guns, more crime: study undermines the NRA

That robots really are coming for your job

Historians Drop A Truth Bomb On CNN: Obama Has Already Built His Legacy

CNN’s Candy Crowley tried to spin Obama as an unpopular president coming down the homestretch of his second term, but she was quickly straightened out by a panel of historians who discussed the fact that the president still has plenty of juice left.

Transcript:

CROWLEY: So, he said in jest, sort of. Here is a man who, for six years, has made no secret about the fact that he doesn’t like either the rhythms or the rituals of Washington, D.C. So, he has two years left. Can a man who doesn’t like the rituals or the rhythms of Washington, D.C., make good on those last two years? Put it first – put it into history for me. Who has made good?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: A lot of presidents made good on their second term when you think about. Look at Ronald Reagan had the Iran-contra problem, but then he was able to do some incredible diplomacy with Mikhail Gorbachev, helping to end the cold war in its last years. I mean, Bill Clinton, his second term I was able to keep driving

on that idea of getting a budget surplus, getting rid of our deficit and by the end of his term, he wasn’t (ph) very popular, Al Gore wanted to be seen with him but nevertheless he had an accomplishment there.

So, in foreign affairs, it’s wide open and then you always have executive power, and you’ve seen a president now using the Clean Air Act of 1970, the provisions in it, to lay down executive orders on climate change, on stopping coal emissions or reducing them. So, there’s an environmental legacy and they all sign these big national monuments on their way out. Greater (ph) (INAUDIBLE) –

CROWLEY: Like post offices on a much higher level, right?

BRINKLEY: Yes. I mean, it’s still (INAUDIBLE) we just saw with the executive order on immigration, he still has a lot of juice left in him.

CROWLEY: Yes.

And Karen, what does he care whether — this is a man in his, percentage wise, in the 43, 44, 45 percent. Does he care about that or just take the executive order route and moving on?

KAREN TUMULTY, WASHINGTON POST, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think he is very much looking toward his legacy at this point.

He came to Washington to sort of change the way it worked. I think he’s given up on that idea. So yes, he’s going to use his executive power. It’s a – it’s going to be a gigantic job just to implement the laws that passed in the first couple years of his term.

And finally you talk to people at the White House and they say that it is very important to the president before he leaves office to use the bully pulpit to sort of change the terms of engagement, so that no future presidential candidate could ever run as opposing gay marriage or as opposed immigration reform. Essentially he wants to leave behind a national conversation that has changed because he was here.

CROWLEY: Richard Norton Smith?

RICHARD NORTON SMITH, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: That’s a lot harder to do. I would agree with Karen. In effect, he created his legacy early. He created his legacy with the Health Care Act, and now he’s going to make sure that it is defended, well-defended and almost invulnerable to the next president, whoever it might be.

That said, you know, we’re not talking about our fathers, let alone our grandfather’s presidency. This is a dynamic office. This is not T.R.’s bully pulpit or FDR’s fireside chats. In many ways a president’s — Harry Truman was the first president to pardon a White House turkey and I guarantee — and he went out of office with a whole lot lower popular approval ratings than this president has at the moment, but in the end it doesn’t matter what the popular approval rating is on the last day in office because guess what? We are the folks who are going to be the ultimate electoral jury…

CROWLEY: Right.

SMITH: …the historians who decided that Harry Truman wasn’t near (ph) a (ph) great president.

CROWLEY: (INAUDIBLE) George H. W. Bush about that, too, out of office with that.

Candy Crowley’s comments were another example of Beltway media running down President Obama because he doesn’t like Washington. Chuck Todd wrote a book that is based around the premise that Obama is not a good president because he never played the games that the press that cover the president require in order to have their egos properly soothed.

It isn’t that Obama hasn’t done anything. If anything, the president has been a victim of his own early successes in office. As Rachel Maddow pointed out nearly four years ago, President Obama accomplished 85% of his entire first-term agenda in two years.

In 2010, Maddow listed what the president had done in his first two years, “The fair pay act for women, expanding children’s health insurance, new hate crimes legislation they said could not be done, tobacco regulation, credit card reform, student loan reform, the stimulus — which in addition to helping pull this country back from the brink of a great depression, was also the largest tax cut ever, the largest investment in clean energy ever, the largest investment in education in our country ever. There was also a little thing you may have heard of called health reform. Also, Wall Street reform, the improvements to the new G.I. Bill, the most expansive food SAFETY BILL SINCE THE 1930s. And tomorrow, President Obama will officially sign a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

The idea that Barack Obama has not been a successful president is myth that was created by his Republican opponents, and embraced by a bitter mainstream media.

This president has been very successful, and history will regard his accomplishments kindly even if the media will never give him his fair due.

President Obama Single-Handedly Protects Americans’ Health and Combats Climate Change

Now, every repugican and related wingnut is under the illusion that providing for the general welfare means providing for the fossil fuel industry, corporations …

For all the alleged Constitutional adherents, originalists, and devotees in the conservative movement, particularly the repugican corporatist movement, there is an abundance of ignorance about a very important responsibility of the federal government. In particular, is the reference in the Preamble to the Constitution as well as Article I, Section 8 that both feature the duty to “provide for the general welfare of the United States.” Now, every repugican, teabagger, and related wingnut is under the illusion that providing for the general welfare means providing for the fossil fuel industry, corporations, the wealthy, christian clergy, and financial sector’s general welfare, but that is not what the Founding Fathers or the first four American presidents believed; neither does President Barack Obama.

Obviously, providing for the general welfare would certainly include the government doing what it could to protect the people from preventable sickness, disease, and infirmity, maintain worker productivity, and save unnecessary expense for the government and the people. Unfortunately, there has been precious little legislation aimed at providing for the people’s general welfare since 1981, or during any repugican pretense of governance because they hate the people. However, they have provided every and anything for the general welfare of corporations and business; it is just where repugicans’ loyalty, and duty to repay campaign donations, lie.

Since repugicans will not take any action to provide for the people’s welfare since repugican demi-god Ronald Reagan was pretending, or particularly since Americans elected an African American as President, it is once again left to President Barack Obama to do what repugicans refuse; provide for the people’s general welfare by protecting Americans’ health, as well as the nation’s economic health and security from the effects of anthropogenic climate change.

Last week the President took advantage of the Clean Air Act of 1970 under the aegis of the Environmental Protection Agency (Richard Nixon) to issue a new set of landmark regulations on air pollutants such as soot, smog, mercury, planet-warming carbon dioxide, and ozone.  The repugicans and their fossil fuel-related industry donors immediately decried, loudly, the President using the authority granted him by the “Act” that has been touted as the most “powerful environmental law in the entire world.” An act, by the way, passed at the birth of the environmental movement with bi-partisan congressional support and at the insistence of a repugican president.

President Obama, like Founding Fathers Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison (1st four presidents), adheres to the Constitutional tenet that government has an obligation to provide for the people’s general welfare. Each of the first four presidents signed and expanded legislation empowering the federal government to provide housing, food, and healthcare for the poor as part of the Constitution’s mandate to “provide for the general welfare of the United States.” President Obama is simply following the Founders’ example, and Constitution’s mandate, to provide for the general welfare of the People that make up the United States.

The new regulations on ozone release will not only protect Americans’ from the deadly health effects of “smog,” they will produce savings for the government and people to the tune of $19 to $38 billion annually according to typically under-estimates by the EPA. That estimate does not include California’s particularly dangerous ozone pollution that will save from $2.2 to $4.1 billion annually. As an aside, Koch and ALEC-funded repugicans in California are on a vicious crusade to completely abolish both federal and state clean air and water standards they claim are “not helping (provide for the general welfare of) the fossil fuel industry.”

The repugicans will, as usual, cry foul, launch a lawsuit, threaten impeachment, and generally go berserk over yet another executive action, but if they fulfilled their Constitutional mandate, the President would not have to do their jobs for them. The repugicans and their corporate backers are incensed and will claim Presidential overreach, again, but like previous instances, Obama is well within his purview according to his repugican predecessors and an agency created by a repugican president with unusually overwhelming bipartisan congressional support.

One of the fiercest critics of the President’s proposals is Mitch McConnell (r-KY) who immediately gave his solemn vow to the Koch brothers to introduce legislation to block the administration’s EPA-enforced regulations. However, in 1990 during the shrub's daddy’s junta, when legislation to update and strengthen the E.P.A.’s authority to issue regulations within the Clean Air Act came up for a vote, McConnell joined 88 other senators and voted to pass the 1990 law empowering the EPA and executive authority. At the time, McConnell said, “I had to choose between cleaner air and the status quo. I chose cleaner air.” Unlimited campaign contributions from the Koch brothers are an incredible motivator for McConnell to change his position and level of hatred for the people by opposing “cleaner air” and deliberately combat actions to provide for the general welfare of the people.

It is shameful that repugicans refuse to do anything for the people and everything for their dirty industry masters, but worse that they will attack the one man in Washington following the Constitution’s mandate to provide for the general welfare of the United States by doing their jobs for them. The President’s executive actions on any number of issues, although entirely legal, have been portrayed as violating the Constitution, instituting socialism, ethnic cleansing, attacking corporations, and destroying America, and because Americans are the world’s second most ignorant population, many will interpret a valiant effort to protect the population as un-American. However, if that were the case, then the Constitution’s Framers, the Founding Fathers, and the first four American presidents were blatantly un-American.

Americans have been programmed to believe, and are so habituated, to repugican ideology they attribute to the WTF Federalist Papers that government exists solely to protect and provide welfare for a tiny percentage of the wealthy elite, that repugicans will have a measure of success convincing them that the African American President is an dictatorial tyrant. Some Americans, though, will see that once again, this President is single-handedly adhering to the Constitution and protecting Americans’ health and economic well-being by providing for their general welfare; precisely as the Constitution demands and the Founding Fathers intended.

President Obama Takes Down Chuck Todd and His Obama Bashing Book

President Obama had one comment when he saw Chuck Todd’s Obama bashing book in a bookstore. With one word, Obama summed up Todd perfectly.

According to the New York Post (take it with a huge grain of salt),

Shopping at a Washington, DC, bookstore Saturday, President Obama spotted a copy of “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd’s new book about his presidency.

“Oh, Chuck Todd!” Obama exclaimed. “Let’s see what Chuck has to say here!”

“How is he writing a book already? asked his 16-year-old daughter, Malia. “Sad.”

“He’s just sad,” the president joked in response.

The idea that Todd “wrote” a book is highly debatable. I am working on a review of Todd’s Obama bashing book, and it can be summed up as less of an exploration of the Obama presidency, and more of a dear diary entry from a member of Beltway press centered on why Obama is big meanie who won’t kiss the rings of the D.C. media elite. There is very little in Todd’s book that hasn’t been voiced by President Obama’s critics on the right a million times before.

Chuck Todd is sad. He wasn’t even the first choice to replace David Gregory as moderator of Meet The Press. Chuck Todd was NBC’s safety date, which the network turned to after the people that they really wanted turned them down. Meet The Press is continuing to flounder, because Todd is David Gregory with a love of politics. Notice that I used the terms politics, not policy or journalism.

No one expects the president to be friends with the people who are covering him/her, but the media’s openly hostile treatment of this president has more to do with petty grudges than a job description. The DC media hate this president because he won’t play their game. He doesn’t suck up to them or buy into the whole DC hierarchy. If Obama embraced the symbiotic relationship between the DC media and the White House, the treatment he received would probably be different.

Instead of playing the ego game that the media demands, Obama’s White House has consistently demonstrated how unimportant the DC press are. The most recent example of this came when the president used Facebook to announce his speech outlining his executive action immigration.

Faced with a changing landscape that is making them irrelevant, the Beltway press has taken out their rage on Obama. Chuck Todd is sad, and I would also add pathetic. He is quickly becoming a dinosaur facing extinction, because the way political leaders interact with their constituents is changing and no amount of sad whining can bring back the status that is evaporating for the mainstream press.

Random Celebrity Photos

Marilyn Monroe

DNA smeared on a rocket survives re-entry and tells of life's origins

Well, would you look at that: scientists have discovered that DNA can make it through the hellish ordeal of atmospheric re-entry after all. German and Swiss researchers dotted a rocket's grooves and screw heads with fragments of genetic blueprints to see how they'd fare in situations that could've led to the appearance of life on Earth. Scientific American notes that the 13-minute rocket trip might not perfectly represent how DNA might actually travel from one celestial body to the next (that'd be by meteor), but there is purpose here. What the experiment suggests is that even if the meteor's been scorched, that the material can survive at higher temperatures than previously expected, and as such this paints a better picture of just how resilient DNA is. What's next? Pushing the limits further and seeing exactly what it takes to kill the double helix -- we're pretty sure at least one rock band is itching to find out.

US/Canada merger

Some people think the U.S. and Canada should merge into one country.  "Such a merger makes perfect sense. No two countries on Earth are as socially and economically integrated as the U.S. and Canada... Truth be told, the merger of the U.S. and Canada is already well under way. As many as one in 10 Canadians (more than 3 million people) live full- or part-time in the U.S., and an estimated 1 million Americans live in Canada."

The "choking game"

The "choking game" is "an activity popular among 9- to 16-year-old kids in which they strangle themselves or each other — sometimes at parties or sleepovers — to get a high. The most common reported age of death is 13, Alex’s age. Many kids like Alex — smart kids who do well in school and have loving families — regard the Choking Game as a legal and safe alternative to drugs; one popular nickname for this is the Good Kids’ High."

The Truth Be Told

Cuinary Delites

Orange Chicken is a dish that people just can’t seem to get enough of, ourselves included! Unfortunately, most orange chicken recipes use a lot of sugar and then deep-fry the chicken, so it’s not always the healthiest choice…. (Although it may be the tastiest.) While our recipe still involves a lot of the original ingredients, we try to cut corners where we can to make this yummy dish a little healthier without skimping on taste—we know you’ll love it once you try it!

Low-Sugar Orange Chicken

(Serves 4) 
Ingredients 

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 2-inch pieces
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 teaspoons orange zest
• 2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoon all-natural honey
• 1 1/2 tablespoon low-sugar orange marmalade
• 1-3 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375º F and spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray.
2. Place chicken in a small bowl and add salt, pepper and beaten egg. Toss well.
3. Shake off excess egg and, one-by-one, dredge chicken pieces in bowl of flour. Evenly spread out on baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.
4. In a separate small bowl, combine cornstarch with chicken broth until completely dissolved. Set aside
5. In a saucepan, heat vegetable oil over medium heat and cook ginger and garlic until fragrant. 1-2 minutes. Add orange juice, zest, honey, red pepper flakes, soy sauce and marmalade. Bring to a boil and stir for 2 minutes, then lower heat and simmer until sauce thickens and reduces by 1/4.
6. Pour in cornstarch mixture and bring back to a boil, stirring for 2-4 minutes. Take off heat, but keep warm. Toss in chicken and coat thoroughly with sauce. Serve hot.

The Victorian Orphan Diet

And other, better alternatives to the Paleo Diet craze.

by Frank Lesser

The only difference between Kate Moss and Oliver!'s Artful Dodger is some chimney soot and a jauntily placed top hat.

The carbohydrate-free “Paleo Diet” is all the rage, mostly because if you cut out all carbs you will be all rage. But if you don’t want to follow a diet that might be based on inaccurate assumptions about historical eating habits, don’t despair. Here are some diets that are definitely based on inaccurate assumptions about historical eating habits.

The Victorian Orphan Diet

Weight-loss plans with too many rules are tough to follow, so this diet keeps things simple: You may have one serving per day of gruel, and no more. Don't worry, you can still “cheat”: You’re allowed to eat any food you pick from the pockets of a well-heeled gentleman, as long as you give a cut to an anti-Semitic caricature. Follow this diet, and you'll have the supple, malnourished limbs of a sallow-faced street urchin, or as it’s called today, “thigh gap.”

The Founding Father Diet

The Founding Fathers were full of great ideas like declaring independence, protesting taxation without representation, and convincing Ben Franklin to give up his ridiculous comb-over. So doesn't it stand to reason that their diet was equally virtuous? The Founding Fathers ate only the most American of foods: hot dogs, apple pie, bald eagles, and hot eagle pies. Another popular colonial dish was a snake cut up into 13 parts and served on a political newspaper.

The Shakespeare Diet

The works of the Immortal Bard are open to interpretation, but careful readers will notice that not once does a character scarf down a Dairy Queen Blizzard. (His poems are more cryptic, especially Sonnet 155, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Sonic’s Shake?”). The best nutritional guidelines come from Macbeth: Not only is “eye of newt” an effective appetite suppressant, but if you're about to indulge at a feast, the ghastly blood-covered ghost of the murdered Banquo will materialize to help you with portion control.

The Wizard Diet

Know why Merlin always wore that robe? Because if he took it off, Arthur might have gotten confused and tried to pull the sword from his rock-hard abs. That’s right, wizards were totally ripped. With the Wizard Diet, eat whatever you want, then use the power of alchemy to transform the contents of your stomach into nutritious broccoli.

The Ancient Israelite Diet

Eat only foods allowed in the Old Testament: no pork, no shellfish, no meat mixed with dairy. This diet can be difficult to follow in the modern day, so meet with a support group of like-minded dieters once a week—say, on Saturday. If you question this diet’s legitimacy, remember that it was invented thousands of years ago by an all-powerful, invisible God, which is a much better reason than “because a caveman maybe ate it.”

The Pharaoh Diet

Archaeologists and nutritionists agree: There's no such thing as a fat mummy. Their secret? Pharaohs were so careful about what they put in their bodies, they had their internal organs removed during the mummification process. Consume nothing but a proprietary mixture of natron, bitumen, and preserving salts (just think of it as a “juice cleanse”) and you'll have the body of a god in no time! Of course, it'll be the body of an Egyptian god, so you may have the head of a jackal.

The Neanderthal Diet
No, this isn’t a different name for the Paleo Diet. Rather, it’s based on the dietary habits of the hominid that competed with our ancestors. There’s only one rule: Followers of the Neanderthal Diet should eat followers of the Paleo Diet. There's no evidence that Neanderthals ate our Homo sapiens ancestors, but that seems like just the kind of information all those big-money scientists would want to keep out of the mainstream media. Don’t let the “experts” win! EAT THEM!

NYC Food Crisis

The Atlantic explains how close New York City is to a food crisis, if supplies from outside the city are disrupted by natural or manmade events: "New Yorkers rely chiefly on food from across the country, or the other side of the world. And to complicate matters, in recent decades the big companies that run these systems... keep much smaller inventories than in years past, sized to meet immediate demand under stable conditions—a strategy known as "just-in-time."

Pastafarian services advertised at German town limits

"In Germany, churches promote the times of their masses on signs at the town entrances. Now, for the first time, the 'Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster' in Templin/Germany was allowed to put sign there as well: 'Fridays, 10am: Noodle mass'."

Das Wort zum Freitag - Gottesdiensthinweisschild "Nudelmesse"

Random Photos

'Fuck It, I Quit' Reporter Under Campaign Finance Investigation

A campaign-finance investigation is moving forward against an Alaska television reporter who quit her job on-air and vowed to work toward legalizing marijuana.
The Alaska Public Offices Commission wants to know whether Charlo Greene used crowdsourcing funds to advocate for a ballot initiative to legalize recreational pot use. Greene challenged the commission's request for documents.
The commission on Wednesday rejected her objection to a subpoena, the Alaska Dispatch News reported. That gives the agency the authority to continue the investigation to determine whether money that was spent would trigger reporting requirements.
Greene, whose legal name is Charlene Egbe, said the order should be worrisome to those who take a stand on any issue. "If you publish your personal stance on any issue, then this government agency believes they have the authority to ask for emails, bank-account information, all of your records," she said. "That's scary."
The commission is unfairly targeting her, she added.
During a live newscast in September, she revealed herself to be the owner of a medical marijuana business and quit her job with a four-letter tirade. Soon after quitting, she launched an IndieGoGo online fundraising campaign to continue her fight for marijuana legalization. The effort raised more than $8,400.
The commission notes that she hasn't been found in violation of the law. "But without a reasonable investigation, no determination can be reached," the commission wrote in a three-page order.
Greene said the campaign should not be subject to reporting requirements because it was fundraising for her organization, the Alaska Cannabis Club, not for passing Ballot Measure 2. The agency cited examples where they believed her campaign was advocating for the initiative.
Alaska and Oregon this month joined Washington and Colorado as states approving legal pot.

Salvadoran woman wanted for gang slayings deported

Federal authorities in Dallas have deported 25-year-old woman to her native El Salvador, where faces charges alleging that she participated in gang-related slayings there, federal officials said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials flew Margarita Del Carmen Orellana Rivas to El Salvador this week. She was wanted there on suspicion of aggravated murder charges and had warrants accusing her of solicitation or conspiracy in other slayings, according to an ICE statement.

Agency officials described Orellana Rivas as an associate of the violent Salvadoran street gang MS-13.

"By removing criminal aliens to their countries of origin, ICE also removes the threat they pose to public safety in local U.S. Communities," said Simona L. Flores, field office director of the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in Dallas.

"At the same time, these removals ensure that aliens who commit crimes abroad do not use the United States as a safe haven from justice in their home countries," Flores said.

Orellana Rivas was detained shortly after entering Texas on Aug. 15 at Hidalgo from Mexico, where U.S. Border Patrol agents determined she was a gang member with an outstanding warrant.

She helped MS-13 members with the deaths of at least three people, including a woman who was lured with her baby to a meeting, then was beaten and strangled to death after serving as a witness in a case against fellow gang members, according to the ICE statement. Her baby was not harmed, the ICE statement said.

On Oct. 21, a federal immigration judge in Dallas ordered Rivas' deportation, and Orellana Rivas waived her right to appeal the decision.

Historical Photos

Bonnie Parker (The 'Bonnie' in Bonnie and Clyde)

Vincent Van Gogh murdered?

Was Vincent Van Gogh murdered?  "And, anyway, what kind of a person, no matter how unbalanced, tries to kill himself with a shot to the midsection? And then, rather than finish himself off with a second shot, staggers a mile back to his room in agonizing pain from a bullet in his belly?"

Gender Tanks

During WWI, tanks were designated "male" or "female."  The latter had machine guns.

House Lights

The first house in the United States to have electric lights was in Appleton, Wisconsin.  The homeowner operated a mill and set up a hydroelectric plant for the house.

The Britannic, 1914

The Britannic, a massive British steamer and sister ship to the Titanic, launches from Belfast Harbor in 1914. The Britannic sunk two years later after encountering a German mine field in the Mediterranean sea.

Blue Volcano

This spot in east Java Island, Indonesia is called Ijen vulcan's crater and is one of only two locations in the world in which blue flames emit from volcanos. The other location is in Iceland. Liquid sulfur becomes alight and produces the "cool," blue fire, which is visible only at night. See a video of the crater below. -Via Science Dump

YouTube Link

Fresh Water

The earth has vast resources of fresh water - underneath the oceans. "The volume of this water resource is a hundred times greater than the amount we've extracted from the Earth's sub-surface in the past century since 1900."

Therapy Animals

Some medical facilities in the U.S. are now permitting patients to be visited by their pets. "In the end, officials decided that the benefits — comfort and reduced stress for patients — were more substantial than the risks. 

Sahara Wildlife Collapse

The Sahara desert is experiencing a "catastrophic collapse of its wildlife." "Of 14 species historically found in the Sahara, four are now extinct, and the rest are heading that way.... the region has lost the Bubal hartebeest (which is entirely extinct), the scimitar horned ornyx (extinct in the wild), the African wild dog and the African lion, while the dama gazelle, addax, leopard and the Saharan cheetah have been eliminated from 90 percent or more of their range."

Animal Pictures