The Daily Drift

Now, that's funny ...!

 

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Today in History

1190		Frederick Barbarossa drowns in a river while leading an army of the Third Crusade.
1692		Bridget Bishop is hanged in Salem, Mass., for witchcraft.
1776		The Continental Congress appoints a committee to write a Declaration of Independence.
1801		Tripoli declares war on the U.S. for refusing to pay tribute.
1854		The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, holds its first graduation.
1861		Dorothea Dix is appointed superintendent of female nurses for the Union army.
1864		At the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads in Mississippi, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats the numerically superior Union troops.
1898		U.S. Marines land in Cuba.
1905		Japan and Russia agree to peace talks brokered by President Theodore Roosevelt.
1909		An SOS signal is transmitted for the first time in an emergency when the Cunard liner SS Slavonia is wrecked off the Azores.
1916		Mecca, under control of the Turks, falls to the Arabs during the Great Arab Revolt.
1920		The Republican convention in Chicago endorses woman suffrage.
1924		The Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti is kidnapped and assassinated by Fascists in Rome.
1925		Tennessee adopts a new biology text book denying the theory of evolution.
1940		The Norwegian army capitulates to the Germans.
1942		Germany razes the town of Lidice, Czechoslovakia and kills more than 1,300 citizens in retribution of the murder of Reinhard Heydrich.
1943		The Allies begin bombing Germany around the clock.
1944		The U.S. VII and V corps, advancing from Normandy’s beaches, link up and begin moving inland.
1948		The news that the sound barrier has been broken is finally released to the public by the U.S. Air Force. Chuck Yeager, piloting the rocket airplane X-1, exceeded the speed of sound on October 14, 1947.
1963		Buddhist monk Ngo Quang Duc dies by self immolation in Saigon to protest persecution by the Diem government.
1970		A 15-man group of special forces troops begin training for Operation Kingpin, a POW rescue mission in North Vietnam.
1985		The Israeli army pulls out of Lebanon after 1,099 days of occupation.
1999		Serb forces begin their withdrawl from Kosovo after signing an agreement with the NATO powers.

26 Fast Food Lunches That are Far Healthier Than Most

Roasted Turkey and Avocado BLT on Sourdough 
510 calories
37 g protein
19 g fat (3.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
60 g carbohydrates (6 g fiber, 3 g sugar)
960 mg sodium
Regardless of what one's general opinion is of fast food, there are times in which it makes sense. Perhaps we're traveling long distance by car and are pressed for time, without other healthy options in our possession. Maybe we have very limited time between local errands by car, or we have mere minutes to grab much-needed sustenance between work stints. Whatever the circumstances, many of us, even if we take a dim view of fast food, sparingly choose that option in less-than-perfect scenarios.


Artisan Grilled Chicken Sandwich360 calories
32 g protein
6 g fat (1.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
930 mg sodium
43 g carbohydrates (3 g fiber, 11 g sugars)
This article examines fast food nutrition values in order to suggest 26 healthy options. In this context, they have designated an item healthy if it meets certain predetermined nutritional values. Those requirements are stated as follows:

• Low in calories: For lunch, that means about 500 calories or less.
• Protein, to help you build muscles: Each of these meals has at least 10 grams of protein (ideally more!).
• Low in sodium (or at least not HIGH in sodium): We aimed for less than 1,000 milligrams of sodium per meal (which is high already, yes). Unfortunately some of the options are a bit higher than that — for anyone with high blood pressure, these are definitely not ideal.
• Low in sugar (or at least not HIGH in sugar): Each of these meals has less than 20 grams of sugar.
• No trans fat: Trans fats are related to heart disease, so each of these meals comes with 0 grams trans fat.

Obviously, if you're ordering a sugary drink or extra-large side of fatty, salty carbs with these items, the notion of your meal as "heatlhy" has just left the building. So self-restraint is called for in terms of ordering the items without additions that are costly, both to your health and wallet.
Check out their selections, and if you have any additional suggestions for fast food items that are healthier than most, please let us know about them in the comments.

Grilled Chicken Cool Wrap
340 calories
36 g protein
13 g fat (5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
900 mg sodium
30 g carbohydrates (15 g fiber, 3 g sugar)

Guitarist Plays The Beatles During His Brain Surgery

(Video Link)

Anthony Kulkamp Dias, a bank worker and professional guitarist in Brazil, underwent brain surgery. The doctors wanted him to stay awake during it, so Dias played his guitar and sang. The Daily Telegraph (auto-start video) reports that one doctor enjoyed a song so much that he asked for an encore:

“The doctors asked me to repeat one of the country songs so I even had an encore,” Mr Kulkamp told Brazilian news website G1.

As the doctors worked on this brain, Dias felt the effects on this body and performance:

“I played six songs at certain times,” he said. “My right hand was a bit weaker because that was the side that they were operating on. So I stopped and rested. I was interspersing songs and talking with them.”

In the video above, Dias is playing "Yesterday" by Paul McCartney.

Toy CT Scanner for a Hospital Waiting Room

This is really clever! Children can be frightened of the lengthy and uncomfortable process of a CT scan. That's why some hospitals have toy versions in waiting rooms. These can help kids get used to the experience. This particular model by the design firm Creative Arts comes with 3 plush toys. When the child sends a stuffed animal through the scanner, the screen displays cartoon images of the internal organs.

Lucky escape for cashpoint users after manhole explosion

A mother and her two children narrowly avoided being killed after a manhole exploded as they stood just feet away. The woman was with her young son and daughter and had been using a cashpoint outside the Abington Supermarket in Northampton when the explosion occurred. The petrified family then ran for their lives as the manhole cover shot into the air and clattered to the ground nearby. The force of the blast also ripped part of the newsagent’s shop sign down, which narrowly avoided colliding with the head of the young boy.

Emergency services were called to the scene and the mother was treated by paramedics but nobody was seriously injured. Sela Rajesh Kumar, 28, who has run the newsagents for 12 years, said his family thought a bomb had gone off outside their shop. He said: “My brothers were working at the time when they heard this almighty bang that shook the foundations of the shop. “They thought a bomb had gone off. It was very frightening. When we looked at the footage we could not believe how lucky the family were.
“They came in later that day and I showed them the footage. They left the shop a different color than they came in. They were okay though, quite shaken but just glad to be alive. They were very lucky, they were literally just a few feet away and could have been a very different outcome if they were standing a couple of yards to their left. Nothing has ever happened like this before. It was very scary.” A spokesman for Northamptonshire Fire Service said the cause of the explosion was an electrical fault in an underground box.

Video has no sound.

YouTube link.

An East Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman added: “An ambulance attended to treat a woman who had been walking in the area with two children when the cover flew into the air, but there were no serious injuries.” A spokesman for Western Power said: “We have conducted it in stages so as to minimize disruption as much as possible, but we apologize to residents for any inconvenience caused.” The sound of the explosion was heard by residents in Northampton town center – almost two miles away.

Would You Put a $300,000 Glass Sculpture on the Hood of Your Car?

In the 1920s and ‘30s, French glassmaker René Claude Lalique produced 30 different designs of pressed-glass hood ornaments, also known as mascots. Since they were made of glass, they are quite rare.

Once upon a time, the wealthy strapped such trophies to the radiator caps of their Bentleys, Bugattis, Citröens, Packards, and Mercedes—the McLarens of their day. But even back then, when a new Lalique mascot cost around $50 versus the $50,000-$300,000-plus they can command today, most of Lalique’s well-heeled customers only brought their glass treasures out for special occasions, like a Concours d’Elegance car show. One simply did not run errands—or send one’s servants to do so—with such fragile works of art mounted to the hood of one’s car. Lalique knew this, which is why he licensed Breves Galleries of London to fashion metal mounts for his mascots, so that his clear, gray, milky-blue, topaz, green, or orange-yellow menagerie could be tastefully displayed inside the manor where their owners were almost certainly born.

How rare are they? It’s very hard to determine, because the Lalique production records are nowhere to be found, so we don’t know how many of each design were made. But the prices of existing Lalique mascots gives us an indication that they are indeed precious. Read about Lalique’s glass hood ornaments at Collectors Weekly.

Lady left feeling embarrassed after mistaking flight of steps for entrance to car park

An embarrassed motorist could do nothing but wait for a tow truck after attempting to drive her vehicle down a pedestrian stairway. The incident happened at around 10.30am on Friday outside the Tai Ping Supermarket in Albany, Auckland, New Zealand.

Supermarket worker TK Ng said the woman was unhurt, and seemed more embarrassed than anything else, after missing the car park entrance a few meters away. "She's mistaken the stairs for the entrance. She was a bit shocked but then she just went shopping inside and then laughed about it later. She couldn't do anything but wait for the tow truck."
There was no significant damage to the vehicle, except the bumper. Mr Ng, who spoke to the driver, said she told him she had spent the early morning at a swimming pool and had dropped in to get some groceries. "She said after swimming she was a bit tired and I guess she just missed the [entrance sign]. I think she must've been rushing in for the specials," he laughed.

"But she was okay and that's the main thing." The woman's husband arrived a short time later and he stayed behind to wait for a tow truck while his wife went home. However, when the first tow truck arrived, it could not remove the vehicle as the back wheels were not on the ground. A second tow truck arrived and also failed to help, before another truck arrived to finally remove the car at around 4pm.

Petrol thief caught on camera hot-footing it away

Stealing fuel from a vehicle didn't go to plan when a thief set their feet on fire and hot-footed it from the suspected crime scene in Western Australia.

Busselton police senior sergeant Steve Principe said the incident happened at 9pm on Thursday night when a vehicle parked outside a house in West Busselton was targeted.
"Later in the evening the same vehicle was set on fire and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services were called," Senior Sergeant Principe said.

LiveLeak link.

He said when the police arrived at the scene a neighbor provided video footage of a person running away from the scene with their shoes on fire.

Man claims he danced on top of police vehicle to save children from vampires

Christian Radecki, 44, of Cape Coral, Florida, was arrested on April 7 after he was caught on surveillance video bumping his car into the back of a Lee County Sheriff's Office marked patrol vehicle. He then began dancing on the patrol vehicle's roof while music blared from his car.

Initially he danced to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl", ending after Supertramp's "Goodbye Stranger". He then broke the windscreen wipers and took an American Flag from the neighbor's yard. Redecki, a convicted sexual offender, was arrested for Disturbing the Peace and Criminal Mischief after the neighbors called the police.
According to a Cape Coral Police report, Radecki said it all began when a "woman with fangs" came to his door, threatening that a human sacrifice was about to occur involving vampires. "Therefore, Radecki made the conscious decision to get the Sheriff of Nottingham to help him stop the slaughter of small children," the report states.

YouTube link.

Radecki told officers that he had not taken any recreational drugs or alcohol, has not been diagnosed with any mental health conditions, nor did he take any prescribed medication. Radecki was taken to Cape Coral Hospital for medical clearance, then transferred to the Lee County Justice Center in apparent good health.

Stormtrooper arrested for loitering too close to school

Students in Lynn, Massachusetts, were surprised by a man dressed as a Stormtrooper outside their school on Wednesday, and the man is now facing charges. A man dressed up in an elaborate Star Wars Stormtrooper costume, complete with a black toy laser gun, appeared on the sidewalk outside the Brickett Elementary School moments before the school was about to release.

"I honestly opened my screen window, stuck my head out the window, and I was just like, 'wow,'" Jami Kelly, a concerned parent. With no clue who the man was or whether the gun was real, the principal delayed dismissal until police arrived on the scene, unmasked the masked crusader, arrested him, and placed him in a police cruiser.
George Cross, 40, of Lynn, was arraigned on charges of disturbing a school in addition to violating a city ordinance of loitering within 1,000 feet of a school. "I bought a costume, I was walking through the neighborhood showing friends, and then all that," said Cross as he left the courthouse.

YouTube link.

"We just can't have things like that taking place in front of the school," said Lt. Rick Donnelly of the Lynn Police Department. Police were not amused by Cross' costume caper, and neither were parents - especially, they said, in this day and age. "What if it was just like a thing saying, 'oh it was for the kids,' but actually it was, like, something bad was going to happen, you never know," said Tanya Dietz.

98-year-old Chalkboard Drawings Discovered in Oklahoma School

Sometime in 1917, probably in November, Emerson High School in Oklahoma City got new chalkboards. Apparently they installed them right overtop the old chalkboards, which were only discovered this past week as chalkboards are now being replaced with whiteboards. The older chalkboards still had lessons drawn on them, untouched since that time!

“The penmanship blows me away, because you don’t see a lot of that anymore,” Emerson High School Principal Sherry Kishore told the Oklahoman. “Some of the handwriting in some of these rooms is beautiful.”

The writing also gives us a glimpse into the teaching methods used in the early part of the 20th century. See all nine pictures at The Washington Post.

Robot Teacher at Work in China

This is Xiao Mei, a teacher at Jiujiang University in southwestern China. Although you may not be able to tell from the photo, she's not human. She's a robot built by researchers at that school, allegedly after only a month of work. According to China News, she can deliver a lecture, use PowerPoint, and interact with students. I can't find a listing for her at Rate My Professors.

Zoo hopes to reunite sock with owner after it was eaten by curious emu

A stray green sock dropped at Wellington Zoo in New Zealand became a snack for Georgia the emu. The zoo is hoping to reunite the sock with its owner, if they still want it after what it's been through, that is. A visitor to the zoo alerted staff the sock had been picked up and eaten by Georgia who had mistaken it for food.

Veterinary science manager Dr Lisa Argilla says socks don't normally feature in the diet of emus, with its nutritional value minimal at best. "Emus generally eat a variety of plants and insects, and play an important role in seed dispersal – but a sock is pretty unusual," she says. "Like many animals, emus are curious birds and will explore new items in their environment. Unfortunately, sometimes this includes things which are unhealthy for them to eat.
"It shows how important it is to make sure we keep belongings with us, clean up after ourselves and leave natural environments as we find them." The zoo's vet team took scans of Georgia and found the sock in part of her digestive tract, and while it wasn't causing any problems for food getting through, they took action to ensure it was removed before it made it to her intestines. Leaving it to pass through the bird could have caused a blockage, Dr Argilla said.
An endoscopy was performed on Georgia to remove the sock, which involved using a gastroscope with a camera specifically designed to examine the gastrointestinal tract. The camera allowed the vets to see the sock and use forceps to get the sock out of her stomach. The procedure was a success, with Georgia not needing any further treatment and getting right back to her normal self. "Her appetite is just as keen as usual," Dr Argilla added.

Police held dog identity parade so bite victim could point out her four-legged assailant

Police in Aberystwyth, Wales, held a canine identity parade to enable a teenager to pick out a collie which attacked her, a court has heard. Dog owner Edward Andrew Davies was fined £400 and ordered to pay £200 compensation, after he pleaded guilty to being in charge of a dog which caused an injury while dangerously out of control. Davies, 47, appeared before Ceredigion magistrates on Wednesday.

The court heard that the 17-year-old victim was walking past Davies’ property on October 1 last year, when she heard barking, and a black and white border collie and a smaller dog rushed out of a property. The larger dog bit her on the leg, causing her a sharp pain, and she limped home before attending Bronglais Hospital for treatment. She was given a course of antibiotics, and her leg became swollen and bruised. Ellie Morgan, prosecuting, told the court that the dogs had previously been seen coming out of their property to chase vehicles and bite at tyres.
She added that the incident had left the victim fearful of walking her usual route home. Miss Morgan said: “She spoke to the police and was involved with a dog identity parade to identify the dog which caused her injury. She was able to point out the larger of the two dogs.” The court heard that Davies, of Aberystwyth, was fully cooperative with police, and border collie Nell, a rescue dog and her companion, collie-cross Rex, had attended obedience training and had never shown signs of aggression.
His 13-acre smallholding was fenced, but there were gaps were the dogs could escape. David Hinton Jones, defending, said Nell had lived with Davies’ family for five years, and he was not aware of any problems involving his dogs leading up to this incident. He added that Nell had been taken to a rescue centre to be re-homed, and was no longer owned by his client. Magistrates imposed an order prohibiting Davies’ dogs from being out of control and requiring him to secure his property. Davies was ordered to pay a total of £725 in fines, compensation and court costs.

Prized koi carp stolen then barbecued and eaten

A prized Japanese koi was stolen, then barbecued and eaten by thieves just a few meters from its lake at a pedigree fish farm, the site's manager has said.

Allan Joyce, who runs Tranquil Waters Aquatic Centre in High Ongar, Essex, said the carp's bones were found on a bed of coals on the site. "It's just a shocking and horrible thing to find. It's like losing a child, or a dog," Mr Joyce said. The ill-fated fish was worth between £200 and £300, he estimated.
It is not yet known who is responsible for the theft, but Mr Joyce said he had heard of other bodies of water in the area being targeted for similar reasons. "We're aware of local lakes and rivers being slowly depleted and we all know there are carp-eating fans out there. It is quite a delicacy in some other ethnic origins," Mr Joyce said.
He said CCTV was being installed to monitor security at the site's 19 lakes in the wake of the theft, which is believed to have taken place between 22 and 25 May. "We'd like to put a warning out to local residents to keep an eye on their own ponds," he said. A spokeswoman from Essex Police confirmed the incident had taken place and added: "The fish is believed to have been eaten."

Chopper the Biker Dog stripped of his therapy certification for wearing costume

Chopper the Biker Dog, a 5-year-old Boston terrier, lost his therapy dog certification for wearing his costume while visiting people at San Diego veteran’s hospitals, senior centers and schools, according his owner. Mark Shaffer, who has worked with therapy dogs for a decade, says Pet Partners, the certifying agency, had full knowledge that Chopper had been wearing his costume, a leather vest, biker goggles and a bandanna, for years.

“I’ve been doing this for 10 years and they’ve acknowledged that I do this,” he said. “As soon as Chopper rides into someone’s room on his motorcycle, the patients start to laugh and smile. Each therapy dog brings something different to the table and Chopper’s whole package provides the therapy.” Chopper was certified with Pet Partners, formerly The Delta Society, for five years and Shaffer’s previous dog, Bandit, was certified for five years as well.
Shaffer's reaction when he found out Chopper was decertified? "Disbelief," he said. "There was anger and there was a lot of hurt.” Pet Partners has a policy prohibiting costumes, citing safety for both the handlers and their pets and the patients they visit. “It’s not a problem for dogs to wear costumes around town, but in the context of a therapeutic visit it’s not appropriate,” Glen Miller, the national director of communications, said.

YouTube link.

Miller noted that Pet Partners has over 11,000 teams of handlers and pets across the country and it’s hard to monitor that everyone follows this rule. Shaffer was mailed a warning about a year ago about Chopper’s costume, Miller said. Pet Partners suspended Chopper on May 14, Shaffer said, adding that Chopper’s visits were always on his own time and not organized by Pet Partners. Shaffer said that he plans to get Chopper certified with another organization and continue to keep Chopper’s biker dog image. "It’s not a costume," Shaffer said. "It’s his persona."

Woman surprised to find bear cub behind the wheel of her truck

A mother bear, accompanied by her two cubs, broke into a woman's truck and vandalized it in Peguis First Nation, 180 kilometers north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Anita Sutherland woke up to the sound of her truck's horn honking at around 6:30am on Thursday.

At first, she thought someone was trying to steal her truck so she ran to her window, only to see a mother bear and cub climbing on the roof of the vehicle. She grabbed her phone. "I started taking pictures of them and recording them. And then, I noticed the movement inside my truck ... and the truck is honking and then I realized, 'Oh that's a bear in my truck,'" Sutherland said.
Sutherland said she is not exactly sure how the bear got into the vehicle but after the incident one of her door handles was broken, so she believes that the cub was able to use the handle to let itself in, although a window was also left ajar. "It was just really shocking to see a bear, well to have just a momma bear and a cub bear outside but to have one inside my truck. I just did not know what to think," Sutherland said.

YouTube link.

In the heat of the moment, Sutherland said her son told her to call 911 and she couldn't think clearly enough to remember the phone number to dial. Sutherland and her children were too frightened to go outside but a neighbor drove over in their own vehicle and leaned out the window to open the truck's door and let the cub out. "He just totally shredded two doors, the roof of my truck, pulled out some speakers. And he left some presents in the back seat," Sutherland added.
You can see Ms Sutherland's original Facebook video, complete with sweary language, here. There's a second video showing the neighbor opening the truck door to release the cub here.

German Shepherd Protects Lobster

I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. Come on, Squishy Come on, little Squishy.

Sami the German Shepherd has always been a maternal dog. She’s cuddled with babies, kittens, and even a snake before. But this time, she’s latched onto a lobster that was purchased for dinner! Watch her protect the crustacean from anyone who would harm it.

(YouTube link)

The alternate theory is that she’s protecting her dinner, but if that’s the case, why doesn’t she go ahead and eat it? Not long after this video was taken, the family got a new puppy, and Sami was very happy to be its mother.

Animal Pictures