The Daily Drift

Ain't that the shit ...!

 

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Today in History

1774		Britain passes the Coercive Act against rebellious Massachusetts.
1854		Britain and France declare war on Russia.
1864		A group of Copperheads attack Federal soldiers in Charleston, Illinois. Five are killed and twenty wounded.
1885		The Salvation Army is officially organized in the United States.
1908		Automobile owners lobby Congress in support of a bill that calls for vehicle licensing and federal registration.
1910		The first seaplane takes off from water at Martinques, France.
1917		The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is founded, Great Britain's first official service women.
1921		President Warren Harding names William Howard Taft as chief justice of the United States.
1930		Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara respectively.
1933		Nazis order a ban on all Jews in businesses, professions and schools.
1939		The Spanish Civil War ends as Madrid falls to Francisco Franco.
1941		The Italian fleet is routed by the British at the Battle of Battle of Cape Matapan
1941		English novelist Virginia Woolf throws herself into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex. Her body is never found.
1942		A British ship, the HMS Capbeltown, a Lend-Lease American destroyer, which was specifically rammed into a German occupied dry-dock in France, explodes, knocking the area out of action for the German battleship Tirpitz.
1945		Germany launches the last of its V-2 rockets against England.
1946		Juan Peron is elected President of Argentina. He will hold the office for six years.
1962		The U.S. Air Force announces research into the use of lasers to intercept missiles and satellites.
1969		Dwight D. Eisenhower dies at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C.
1979		A major accident occurs at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant
1986		The U.S. Senate passes $100 million aid package for the Nicaraguan contras.
1990		Jesse Owens receives the Congressional Gold Medal from President George Bush.
1999		An American Stealth F117 Nighthawk is shot down over northern Yugoslavia during NATO air strikes.

Workers Still Being Punished For Talking About Wages

by Jill Bond

Last week, according to Think Progress, T-Mobile was found guilty of violating national labor laws when it prohibited employees from talking about their wages amongst themselves. Employers don’t like this because then you’ll know when they’re screwing you over. T-Mobile violated the National Labor Relations Act, which protects employees’ right to share this information as part of collective bargaining efforts, unless you’re a supervisor.
Though T-Mobile was held accountable, many Americans aren’t aware that these protections apply to them in circumstances outside of collective bargaining. And of course, businesses aren’t going to fill you in on that.
According to a 2010 survey from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, around half of all employees are either discouraged from talking about wages with each other or outright told to keep their mouths shut or face consequences. And employers can do this because consequences for them are “quite limited,” according to Cynthia Estlund, a professor at New York University School of Law.
This is why women often don’t know what their male counterparts are making, which helps fuel the gender pay gap. The discrimination continues against women even though the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act restored women’s rights that had been stripped of them by the Roberts Supreme Court in 2007. The law still doesn’t go far enough.
There is a way we can fix this. In addition to the executive order that President Obama signed last year banning federal contractors from having salary secrecy policies, the Paycheck Fairness Act — which expands equal pay laws for women, prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for discussing their wages, and requires proof that gaps in wages are based on factors other than gender — is being reintroduced this week.
Though the bill would help close the gender pay gap and protect all employees, Republicans in Congress, including every female Senate Republican, have repeatedly blocked it. How they can say that having transparency and fairness is wages is a bad thing? Protections such as these should be in place across the board for all American workers.

The Unlikely Baroness

A 1917 newspaper headline called her “The Richest Negro Girl in the World.” Sarah Rector was born in 1904, a member of the Creek Nation in Oklahoma. Her family had been slaves of the Creek before all their slaves were freed and made citizens. In accordance with the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887, all of Sarah’s family members were given allotments of land in Oklahoma. Sarah’s father sold off his and some of his children’s allotments to pay taxes on the rest. Sarah’s allotment was small and rocky, no good for farming, so her father leased it to an oil company. You can guess what happened.

Sarah’s first oil well came in August 1913, producing 105,000 gallons of oil each day. In a time when a nickel bought an ice cream soda, she netted more than $300 a day ($7,000 in 2015 currency). Published drilling updates reported Sarah ended up with over 50 completed wells on her property and the area exceeded the famed Glenn Pool production.

She was not the only Freedman minor whose land produced oil, but other children were taken advantage of by court-assigned guardians who siphoned off profits. Sarah’s guardian was a white family friend, chosen by her parents, who fairly allocated funds to the family under the supervision of a judge who would not put up with fraud. The story of how Sarah Rector’s life changed from that day on is a fascinating one, told in detail at This Land magazine.

Mila Kunis has a confession ...

Man ordered to repaint house after officials ruled that the colour scheme wasn't Swedish enough

An man from southern Sweden has been ordered to repaint his home after local officials ruled the new color scheme for his home in Skänninge wasn't Swedish enough.

Bernth Uhno recently bought and repainted a house that had been empty since 1981.
He swapped the old, flaking yellow paintwork that the house had been covered in for decades, for a more vibrant shade of orange at the top of the building, which turns gradually lighter and more yellow towards the bottom.
However his taste proved too radical for local Councillors who argued his color scheme was too outlandish and ordered him to repaint it in a more suitable shade. "The color scheme is not Swedish," Anders Steen, a Center Party politician who is chair of the town's building committee said, adding that in Sweden people tended to stick to one color for their homes.

Driver found asleep in car in middle of motorway

Truck driver Mark Nicholas was on his regular overnight run from Sydney to Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, when he found a man sound asleep in his car in the middle of the M1 motorway in a 110km/h (70mph) zone. Mr Nicholas spotted the car just before the Gosford on-ramp at about 1.55am on Tuesday.

“I was halfway up the hill and at first thought the car was just going slowly. As I got closer I realised the car was stopped, so I quickly pulled in front of the vehicle on the shoulder,” said Mr Nicholas, who caught all the action on his dash-cam. After grabbing his torch, Mr Nicholas approached the car which had its engine still running and windscreen wipers on and tried to rouse the man from his impromptu snooze without luck.
“I checked to see the driver was breathing and had a pulse and called Triple-0 then tried to wake him up. But despite the noise, the windows being down and me pushing, prodding and yelling at the man for at least three minutes he was out for the count,” he said. When emergency services arrived at the scene, they eventually revived the man using pressure point techniques, according to Mr Nicholas. “It was then the man seemed to lash out a bit and, according to the paramedics, when he opened his eyes briefly his pupils were the size of dinner plates.

YouTube link.

“At one point they thought the driver was going to run out into the road and then he just then went straight back off to sleep,” he said. “Someone suggested the driver, who had his phone in his lap, may have been coming down off some drugs. I don’t know about that but what is strange is that he obviously had enough wits about him to put the car in neutral and put the handbrake on before nodding off,” Mr Nicholas said. Police said the man was subjected to a breath-test and the test came back clear. The car driver was arrested in order for police to take him to hospital to obtain a urine sample. He has been released without charge, pending the result of the test.

Woman convicted of shooting into McDonalds after discovering burger once again lacked bacon

Shaneka Monique Torres, 30, will spend at least two years in prison for felony use of a firearm, followed by a maximum of five years for shooting at an occupied building and illegally carrying a concealed weapon.
The Grand Rapids, Michigan jury deciding her case took just one hour to conclude that Torres was guilty of charges resulting from her shooting into a McDonald's after employees there failed--two times--to put bacon on her burger as requested.
From MLIVE.com's coverage:

Torres had been to the restaurant hours earlier where she ordered a bacon cheeseburger but it was delivered to her without bacon. McDonald's management offered her a free burger on her next visit.
Then the replacement burger also did not have bacon on it.
McDonald's drive-through cashier Essence Lake said as she was walking away to get the new burger, the glass behind her was shattered by a bullet. Lake said had she been standing at the window, the bullet would have struck her in the forehead.

After denying she was responsible for the shooting Torres admitted under police interrogation that she did shoot inside the restaurant.
"There was no reason," Torres said in the recording. "It was just dumb."

Woman caught trying to sneak into Turkey inside small suitcase

Turkish police detained two Georgians on the border between the two countries, after one hid herself inside a suitcase in order to be smuggled into Turkey.

Suspicions of customs police were aroused by the behavior of a 25-year-old Georgian man who had entered Turkey via the Sarp Border Crossing.
The man was forced to open his luggage, and a 22-year-old Georgian woman was found inside, crouched silently in the fetal position.

YouTube link.

Both were briefly detained for illegally crossing the border, before being deported. The woman had reportedly attempted to smuggle herself into Turkey following a previous ban on her entry.

Link Dump

Revenge for not getting enough McNugget sauce

12 Worst Questions Ever Asked During A Job Interview

The worst name on the face of the planet

Horrible Things Guaranteed To Make You Say “NOPE!” 

A TED Talk – Monica Lewinsky: The price of shame

Every Country’s Most Popular Beer

‘Pretty Woman’ after 25 Years: Where are they now?

Oops! Presidential candidate Ted Cruz didn’t buy tedcruz.com

Better ‘Safe’ Than Sorry… (20 Pics)

10 Far Out Kid’s TV Shows From The 1970s

Moth lays eggs in news anchor’s ear during live broadcast

13 Final Photos Of Famous People Before Death

Then and Now Technology Ads –  What a change!

This River in a German City Is a Popular Surfing Destination

)Munich, a city in southern Germany, is a few hundred miles from the sea. But it’s a great place to go surfing. That’s because a fast-moving river offers ideal conditions for wave riding. The Eisbach, a 2-km channel of the Isar River, has been used by surfers since the 1970s. It’s been legal since only 2010, so the local surfers had to be discreet. They also have to use boards that are optimal for river surfing. A 2013 report from the BBC explained: 

Jon Ruppersberg, who repairs boards at the Santo Loco surf shop in central Munich, said river surfing requires a different type of board. “A long board is usually perfect for beginners, but because the river is so narrow, you have to start the next turn as soon as you finish the last.” Consequently, many of the boards on sale at Santo Loco are specially made by a manufacturer in Salzburg, Austria, designed to be short, relatively broad and durable. Some also have Kevlar edges to prevent damage from regularly crashing against the Eisbach’s stonewall banks.

(Video Link)

Earth's Greatest Vertical Drop

Mount Thor, Nunavut, Canada 

Mount Thor resides in beautiful Canada. The mountain sits on Nunavut's Baffin Island and is, hands down, the world's longest vertical drop. Mount Thor is a whopping almost 2,000 meters (that's a little under 5,000 feet) long vertically.
It's on a long line of the Baffin Mountains, making up a portion of the Arctic Cordillera Mountains. Officially known as Thor Peak, this mountain is the feat of the brave. Climbers come from all over to brace the chilly weather and hike up the jaw dropping granite of Mount Thor.

Ziggy

Driver used some of his cargo to stop stuck truck from overturning

On Tuesday morning at approximately 7:03am, Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Deputies received a call requesting assistance with a stranded eighteen wheeler truck on Interstate 49 in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.
Deputies were dispatched to assist with traffic. When officers arrived at the scene, they were astounded to find two elephants keeping the truck from overturning. Three elephants were being transported on the truck from New Orleans to a circus in Dallas, Texas. The truck became stuck after the driver pulled off the edge of the soft shoulder.

YouTube link.

Recent rains caused the ground off of the shoulder to be soft. A local wrecker service was contacted to assist in the removal of the truck. No citations were issued.

Angler surprised to reel in fish with attached huge crocodile

Angler Ben Stack from Cooktown in Queensland, Australia, thought the threadfin he caught had run under a log when he was no longer able to reel it in, during a recent Cape York fishing trip. “Us fishermen and women know that fish run for cover under snags all the time, so I began slowly winching in the heavy dead weight to the boat,’’ he says.
“My 60lb (27kg) leader surfaced and I leaned over the boat and grabbed the leader with both hands. Leaning over the side of the boat, hand over hand, I began pulling the leader in. But this stage, I was expecting to see a large branch or log come to the surface from under my boat. The water was a bit murky, so I was really hanging over the side to get a good look.
“What took place in the next few seconds felt like a lifetime.” He said he first saw a bit of silver, then its lure with the fish’s mouth wide open. “I lifted the leader some more and leaned over further to see what the fish was hooked up on,’’ he said. “It was at this moment, I realized I was staring eye to eye with a solid saltwater crocodile.
“We were no more than 20 inches (51cm) apart.” When fright kicked in, he said he released the leader and flew backwards into his boat. “I couldn’t believe what I had just experienced and I didn’t think anybody was going to believe me,’’ he said. He warned those fishing in creeks and rivers with crocodiles to be careful of crocodiles, as the predators may be hiding under boats.

Bird Flight

Engineer helps crack mystery of bird flight

It has taken more than a million fine samples of aerodynamic force and airflow combined to determine what makes a hummingbird’s wings so adept at hovering. The team led by […]

Extremely Rare Cow Quadruplets Born

The odds of the live birth of 4 calves in one pregnancy are 1 in 11.2 million. It’s extremely rare, but it happened to Dora Rumsey-Barling, the owner of these 4 calves in rural northeastern Texas. She’s named them Eeny, Meeny, Miny, and Moo. They’re three bulls and one heifer. It’s such a rare event that Rumsey-Barling will have DNA tests taken on all four calves to prove that they’re quadruplets.
The mother cow can’t nurse all four calves, so Moo is staying with her while the three other calves are spending time with other caretakers.

Changing Behavior

Color Changing Behavior

As a part of our monthly splurge ritual, my boyfriend and I had brunch at a fantastic South Indian restaurant.   Now, to give you a little backstory, I can (really, […]

Paleontologists Uncover “Super Salamander” Boneyard

by Brian Switek

Finding fossils takes a combination of skill on luck. You have to be looking in the right place and have some idea of how to distinguish those precious pieces of prehistoric life from all the rock surrounding it. But that’s not all. How the sun hits stone, where your eyes fall along the outcrop, and even where you stop to take a leak can make all the difference between finding something amazing and passing it by. And that’s just in the field. Museum collections hold petrified trails of bread crumbs, too, leading to forgotten places whose fossiliferous potential hasn’t been realized.
Sometime in the late 70s or early 80s, geology student Thomas Schröter was hiking through the red rocks of Algarve, Portugal when he spotted some fossil bone. They didn’t relate to the thesis he was working on, but he picked them up anyway. While not especially remarkable, the scraps nevertheless made the customary transition from field to museum collection and were later appraised as those of a metoposaur – salamander-like amphibians that could get up to 10 feet long and lived a lifestyle one of my professors once called “crocodiling before there were crocodiles.”
These enormous amphibians were, and are, anything but rare. They’re among the most common fossils found in the 237-201 million year old rock representing Late Triassic time, sometimes clustered together in dense bonebed where they died en masse. And as paleontologists Stephen Brusatte, Richard Butler, Octávio Mateus, and Sébastien Steyer found when they relocated the Algarve site in 2009 after reading a short description of the fragments plucked from the site, Schröter had discovered another such graveyard.

Paleontologists excavate the Algarve bonebed in Portugal.

There’s more in the Algarve bonebed than has yet been excavated and prepared. So far, however, Brusatte and colleagues have uncovered multiple skulls and bones from the chests of these aquatic ambush predators. And while these remains are similar to those of other Metoposaurus found elsewhere in Europe, they’re different enough to justify establishing a new species – Metoposaurus algarvensis.
What brought so many Metoposaurus together to die isn’t clear. At this point, the researchers write, it’s unknown whether they died in the place they were entombed or their remains were washed in from elsewhere. But seasonal droughts could have played a role.

Metoposaur sites around the Triassic world.

Algarve was much closer to the equator in the Triassic than today, scorched in dry seasons and doused by the return of the monsoons. Perhaps the unfortunate Metoposaurus were pushed together into an ever-shrinking water source, baked to death before rains returned to bury them.
Regardless of the reason for their death, though, the fossils are part of a metoposaur band that ran across the middle of Pangaea, the only outliers being a cluster in prehistoric India and Madagascar. Future finds will alter this picture to greater or lesser degrees, but it may be that metoposaurs thrived in hot, highly-seasonal environments where early dinosaurs stayed small and croc cousins ruled while different predators waited along the shores of higher-latitude habitats. The only way to find out more is to keep digging.

Animal Pictures