The Daily Drift

Yep ...!

 

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Cuteness Overload ... !

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Today in History

753 BC - Romulus and Remus found Rome (traditional date).
43 BC - Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Antony fails to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly after.
1509 - Henry VIII crowned King of England
1689 - William III & Mary Stuart proclaimed king & queen of England
1785 - Russian tsarina Catharina II ends noble privileges
1789 - John Adams sworn in as 1st US VP (9 days before Washington)
1794 - NYC formally declares coast of Ellis Island publically owned, so they can build forts to protect NYC from British
1836 - Battle of San Jacinto, in which Texas wins independence from Mexico
1855 - 1st train crosses Miss River's 1st bridge, Rock Is Ill-Davenport Ia
1878 - NY installs 1st firehouse pole

1995 - FBI arrested Timothy McVeigh & charge him with Oklahoma City bombing

It’s not just a white dude thing ...

Atheists are moral, loving and multicultural.

It’s not just a white dude thing — and 9 other myths religious people have about atheists, debunked

Scythe Versus Weedwhacker

For thousands of years people have been mowing their overgrown fields and reclaiming the land with a little help from their trusty scythe. The scythe made reaping, mowing and cropping plants a breeze, and it was so stupidly simple to use that anybody capable of swinging a scythe could help out with the yardwork.
Along came the string trimmer, also known as the brushcutter, weedwhacker or weed eater, which failed to fully surpass the scythe in terms of functionality and gave us a new set of problems we didn't have with the scythe.

(YouTube Link)

This footage from the 2010 South West Annual Scythe Festival proves three things- weedwhackers suck at whackin' weeds, a British Scythe Champion earns his title the hard way, and we should go back to using scythes because they look way cooler and they're way more efficient!

Ziggy

Hosting Bacteria

Tribe Found to Host Amazing Array of Bacteria

The world's record for bodily bacterial diversity has just been shattered by a remote living tribe of healthy villagers who might be better prepared to fight off infections than we are.

Weather News

2015 Hottest Year to Date, Could Top 2014 Record

So far, 2015 has been the warmest year on record, going back more than 100 years.

Could Warm West, Cold East Be the New Normal?

Climate scientists are wondering why the U.S. has been locked in a 'warm West, cold East' pattern.

Apollo 13

When (Part of) Apollo 13 Reached the Moon

Even though Apollo 13 never landed on the moon, the upper stage of it's Saturn V rocket did.

45 Years Later: Apollo 13 Life Lessons

If every failure offers a learning opportunity, what can Apollo 13 teach us?

Suspected would-be thief cut free from charity clothes bin after becoming trapped inside

A man suspected of trying to steal clothes had to be freed by firefighters after becoming trapped in a charity bin at St Stephen's Shopping Center in Hull. A member of the public alerted security at the shopping center when they heard banging coming from the bin at about 4.30am on Friday morning.

Because of the way the bins close, they were unable to reach in and get the man out themselves. In the end, emergency services had to free the suspect from the British Heart Foundation recycling bin using a disc grinder. Police also attended and an arrest was made. Shopping center manager Jim Harris said: "It would appear some individual who was trying to steal clothes out of the bin had fallen in.
"These things have got a closing mechanism which only opens one way – he couldn't get out and we couldn't get him out. We had to call the fire brigade and they to grind the corner off and cut him out." The clothes bin is in the shopping center's car park and is owned by the British Heart Foundation. The fire service confirmed officers attended shortly after 5am.

A spokeswoman for Humberside Police said: "A man was arrested after being found allegedly removing clothing from a charity bin in Hull. Officers attended after receiving a call and found a man inside the recycling bin. Humberside Fire and Rescue Service was called to assist in helping the man out of the bin and the 33-year-old man was then arrested on suspicion of theft."

Iconic Themes

Girls and Cars

Man surprised and his sister hospitalized after 3ft-long snake found dangling from oven

A man from Halliwell in Bolton, Greater Manchester, found a 3ft-long snake dangling from his oven on Wednesday evening. David Atherton, 65, had left his oven on to preheat, and was opening it to put on some food, when he saw the reptile hanging at its side. As he watched, the black and white snake, now identified as a banded California king, fell onto the floor and curled up. Mr Atherton said: “When I pulled down the oven door this black and white thing was hanging down from the side of it.

“It was about an inch thick and at first I thought it was part of a packet, but then I realized it was a snake. There is a small gap between the oven and the fitted cupboards, which must be what it came through. You could not make it up. It is not something that happens every day.” Mr Atherton put the snake in a plastic food recycling box, and when police arrived it was moved to an empty bin for safekeeping.
RSPCA officers later retrieved the snake and the escapee has found a temporary home with Atherton conservationist and reptile enthusiast Crocodile Joe. Mr Atherton’s sister Margaret Meadows, who is in her seventies, has a huge phobia of snakes and suffers from heart problems. While she did not see the snake, after hearing about what happened she became distressed and was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital, where she remains in a stable condition.

Mr Atherton added: “Her phobia is so bad she cannot even look at a snake on TV, let alone see one in real life. I would not like to hazard a guess as to what would have happened if she had been the one to open the oven and see it. It could have been much worse. Nobody is saying Margaret is in hospital as a direct result of what happened, it is not what put her in hospital, but obviously it hasn’t helped either.” Crocodile Joe, who said that banded California king snakes can grow up to 6ft in length and as thick as a broom handle, said the Halliwell escapee was a “beautiful” specimen.”

Man fined for putting rats in wife's attic

A court has heard how a man whose wife took action to evict him from their home in Dumfries, Scotland, retaliated by putting rats in the attic. Lee Thompson, 42, bought the animals at a pet shop knowing his wife had a phobia about them. He admitted behaving in a manner likely to cause fear or alarm at the house in May last year.

Thompson, of Portling, near Dalbeattie, was fined £710 for the offense at Dumfries Sheriff Court. The court heard the couple had been married for 12 years but their relationship had broken down prior to the offense. Ann Thompson then took legal action to have him removed from the house and within hours he went to the pet shop and bought the two rats. When she returned with a friend to the house they found empty boxes from the pet shop with literature about caring for rats.
Fiscal depute Jennifer McGill said: "The wife has a deep-rooted phobia about rats, which he is well aware of." It was a few days later that the scuttling was heard from the attic and rat traps were put down in the loft. Ms McGill said: "The first night one of the rats was found dead in a trap and the following day the other was also discovered dead." Solicitor Carolyn Priestley said the relationship had now resumed and the couple were back living together and working things out.
She said Thompson, who had been going through a period of ill-health at the time, now realized it had been "a stupid thing to do". She added that the children of the family had been talking about rats as pets and this was partly why he bought them. Sheriff Kenneth Robb dismissed the suggestion they had been bought with the children in mind and told Thompson: "This was a nasty piece of behavior to get back at your wife."

Extinct Monkey Appears

Monkey Presumed Extinct Appears in Congo Forest

Until this year, scientists hadn't seen the Bouvier's red colobus monkey in the wild since the 1970s.

Wild chimpanzees look both ways before crossing roads

In a 29-month survey, researchers observed and recorded 20 instances of wild chimpanzees crossing a busy road in Sebitoli, in the northern part of Uganda's Kibale National Park. They watched 122 chimps cross the highway used by 90 vehicles an hour, many speeding at 70 to 100 kilometers an hour.

It's the first report on how chimpanzees behave crossing a very busy asphalt road, says Marie Cibot of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Chimps are exceptionally cautious when they cross the road. Ninety-two per cent of them looked right, left, or both ways before or during crossing, and 57 per cent ran across, showing that they knew the value of reaching the other side as quickly as possible.

YouTube link.

Alpha males led and organized 83 per cent of the road-crossing groups. This implies that they recognized the importance of extra vigilance during road crossings. There was also evidence that healthy and dominant chimps often made sure that stragglers or more vulnerable members of the group crossed safely. Some 86 per cent of the healthy chimps looked back or stopped when at least one vulnerable individual, such as an infant or injured chimp, trailed behind.
Cibot now hopes to work with the Ugandan authorities to test new safety measures. "We aim to test mitigation measures such as bridges, underpasses, reduced speed limits, speed-bumps and police patrols in the area," she says. "Road infrastructure is spreading throughout Africa to support regional development, industry and tourism, and studying chimpanzee adaptation facing roads represents a way to reduce the risk of collisions."

Random Photos

Remember the 1970s

Peculiar self-amputating vertical swimming sea creature found washed up on beach

An unusual self-amputating, vertical swimming, serpent-like marine specimen has washed up on Aramoana Spit at the entrance to Otago Harbour in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Department of Conservation service manager David Agnew said he was called by resident Don Gibbs, who discovered the 3m-long fish. He had never seen anything like it in his 20 years with DoC. University of Otago New Zealand Marine Studies Center manager Tessa Mills confirmed it was an "oarfish".
They have been known to grow up to 11m long. "They are usually found in deep water in tropical temperatures but I think they do come up to feed on the surface." She said it was unusual that it had been found washed up in a cold-water area. Marine studies program director Sally Carson said it was one of the most "bizarre rare fish".

She said the oarfish hangs vertically in deep water and is known to "self-amputate" by biting off its own tail. "Why it would do that I have no idea." Myths have surrounded the fish with people around the world mistaking it for a sea serpent - there has even been a suggestion the mythical Loch Ness Monster could be an oarfish.

Rare Sperm Whale Encounter With ROV

At 598 meters (1,962 ft) below the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, ROV Hercules encountered a magnificent sperm whale. The whale circled Hercules several times and gave the cameras the chance to capture some incredible footage of this beautiful creature. Encounters between sperm whales and ROVs are incredibly rare.

YouTube link

Four caged puppies strapped to roof of van rescued by police

Police officers in Akron, Ohio, pulled over a van on Interstate 76 on Friday after getting multiple calls of caged puppies strapped to the roof. Police rescued the four puppies halfway through a Mennonite family's 300-mile trip from Ashland County to Pennsylvania.

"They've been traveling a long way already and had a long way to go and they had no idea what they were doing was wrong," said Sergeant Kris Beitzel. "I did ask him why the dogs were not in the car and he said he had far more important things to put in the car and there wasn't room."

YouTube link.

Police did not arrest the family of six which included a couple with their four children less than six years old. Instead police gave them a warning and educated the family on the law. "I didn't see any injuries, I did notice all four would not leave each other," said Beitzel. "They were huddled together, they were scared.

YouTube link.

"They had urinated throughout the cage, when I tried to get them out they ran back in the cage. They were very scared and I imagine intimidated, having been on top of that van for that long. Now they did have a tarp that covered three sides of the cage, but they are still experiencing a lot of wind, a lot of noise." The three-month-old puppies were taken to Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital in Akron where they are cared for before being taken to Summit County Animal Shelter.

Bonnie the Recently Rescued Chihuahua Won't Eat Without Her New Pal Clyde

YouTube Link

Bonnie is a Chihuahua who was recently rescued and is thrilled to finally be part of a family. She's so happy hanging with her new pack that her human says she wouldn't dream of eating without canine brother Clyde. As soon as Bonnie's food is put down, her first order of business is to move her dish so that she can be next to Clyde before she digs in.

Animal Pictures