The Daily Drift

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Today in History

1571		At the Battle of Lepanto in the Mediterranean Sea, the christian galley fleet destroys the Turkish galley fleet.
1630		The town of Trimountaine in Massachusetts is renamed Boston. It became the state capital.
1701		England, Austria, and the Netherlands form an Alliance against France.
1778		Shawnee Indians attack and lay siege to Boonesborough, Kentucky.
1812		On the road to Moscow, Napoleon wins a costly victory over the Russians at Borodino.
1813		The earliest known printed reference to the United States by the nickname “Uncle Sam” occurs in the Troy Post.
1864		Union General Phil Sheridan’s troops skirmish with the Confederates under Jubal Early outside Winchester, Virginia.
1876		The James-Younger gang botches an attempt to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota.
1888		An incubator is used for the first time on a premature infant.
1892		The first heavyweight-title boxing match fought with gloves under Marquis of Queensbury rules ends when James J. Corbett knocks out John L. Sullivan in the 21st round.
1912		French aviator Roland Garros sets an altitude record of 13,200 feet.
1916		The U.S. Congress passes the Workman’s Compensation Act.
1940		Germany’s blitz against London begins during the Battle of Britain.
1942		The Red Army pushes back the German line northwest of Stalingrad.
1953		Nikita Krushchev elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1954		Integration of public schools begins in Washington D.C. and Maryland.
1965		Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio.
1970		Jockey Blll Shoemaker earns 6,033rd win, breaking Johnny Longden’s record for most lifetime wins; Shoemaker’s record would stand for 29 years.
1977		Panama and US sign Torrios-Carter Treaties to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
1978		Secret police agent Francesco Giullino assassinates Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London by firing a ricin pellet from a specially designed umbrella.
1979		ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, debuts.
1986		Desmond Tutu becomes first black leader of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of South Africa).
1988		Pilot and cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan to travel to outer space, returns to earth after 9 days aboard the Soviet space station Mir.
2004		Hurricane Ivan damages 90% of buildings on the island of Grenada; 39 die in the Category 5 storm.
2008		US Government assumes conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the country’s two largest mortgage financing companies, during the subprime mortgage crisis.

Washington state Supreme Court rules that charter schools are unconstitutional

Washington state Supreme Court rules that charter schools are unconstitutional

The ruling overturns the law voters narrowly approved in 2012 allowing publicly funded, but privately operated, schools.

The U.S. Department of Education Is Working On A Plan To Provide Student Debt Relief, Very Slowly

The U.S. Department of Education issued an update on student debt relief.

Why A Bank Was Allowed To Plunder Family Heirlooms That Escaped The Nazis

A family alleges their father's heirlooms survived the Nazis, but not Wells Fargo.

Privacy commissioner criticizes use of chicken farm to shred care home's confidential records

A chicken farm should not be used to dispose of sensitive health documents, the privacy and information commissioner of Saskatchewan in Canada says. The matter came up in a report recently issued by commissioner Ron Kruzeniski concerning the Spruce Manor Special Care Home in Dalmeny.

The privacy office had been investigating the home earlier in the year after some of the residents' health cards ended up in a recycling bin. In the course of that investigation, it found that in May, the home had signed a deal with an undisclosed chicken farm to destroy its confidential records.
In the agreement, the farm said it would "agree to accept full responsibility to maintain the security and confidentiality of all documents" received from Spruce Manor Special Care Home. That's "unacceptable," Kruzeniski said in his report, noting that the agreement does not specify how the chicken farm is to "maintain the security and confidentiality" of the personal health information it has received.
"I recommend that Spruce Manor Special Care Home no longer use [a] chicken farm to destroy records in spite of the former administrator asserting he had no problems/concerns with the use of the chicken farm," Kruzeniski said in the report. It's not clear if any sensitive documents ever went to the farm. An administrator at Spruce Manor indicated the farm wasn't involved in destroying records. The care home has ended its contract with the chicken farm and is looking for a certified company to do future document shredding.

Inmate Offers to Donate Bone Marrow to Judge Who Helped Send Him to Prison

Superior Court Judge Carl Fox of Chapel Hill, North Carolina has blood cancer. He needs a bone marrow transplant. Thousands of people have volunteered. Unfortunately, so far, none has been a match.
One of those volunteers might surprise you. Charles Alston, 62, is an inmate in state prison. He's currently serving a 25-year sentence for armed robbery. When Judge Fox was a district attorney, he prosecuted Alston in the case that landed him in prison.
In a handwritten letter to the Judge Fox, Alston offered his bone marrow to his former adversary. WRAL reports:

Alston, 62, said he believes Fox, 61, may have saved his life by putting him in jail, so he wants to help save the judge’s life.
“I had a lot of hate for Mr. Fox because he sentenced me to so much time, but I come to cult a lot, I found dog. So, I thought maybe if I could do something for someone else, I'd do it,” Alston said.

Regulations prevent prisoners from donating bone marrow. But Judge Fox was nonetheless impressed by the gesture:

“I was very touched by it … totally surprised. I never thought Charles Alston would’ve written me and offered me the right hand of fellowship and offer to do something to save my life,” Fox said. “He had every reason to be angry with me, given where he is and the sentence he was given. It means even that much more he did that given the circumstances.”

Monkey dust man wearing a leopard print dress and red and black wig robbed bookmakers

A knife-wielding robber disguised as a woman escaped with £618 from a bookies. Serial offender Shane Crisp put on a leopard print dress and a red and black wig for the raid. The 42-year-old was high on monkey dust (Phencyclidine) when he demanded money from the cashier at a Coral's branch in the Weston Coyney suburb of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. But Crisp, from Meir, was recognized by staff because he is a regular customer. Now he has started a 40-month jail term. Crisp's barrister Jason Holt told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court: "He was known by name at the bookmakers'."

The court heard Crisp ordered staff to 'Give me the money' before escaping with the money. He was handed notes and coins from the till after threatening staff with the blade. He then demanded money from the safe and left the New Kingsway outlet with £618.08. But staff managed to identify Crisp to police after seeing through his disguise of a leopard print dress and a red and black wig. Now Crisp, who has 44 convictions for 154 offenses, has been jailed for three years and four months. The raid happened at 11am on June 24 when two staff were on duty.
Prosecutor Anthony Cartin said: "The defendant was wearing a black wig with red streaks in it and a leopard print dress. The staff concluded it was a man wearing a disguise. He approached the counter and demanded, 'Give me the money', while holding a knife. The manager was scared and opened the till and started placing the coin trays and notes on the counter. He took the money and demanded money from the safe. He was given the contents of that tin. He checked whether that was the safe. Satisfied it was everything in the store he left." The court heard Crisp, who had been a regular customer at the branch for years, was arrested a day later. Crisp pleaded guilty to robbery and possessing a bladed article.
Jason Holt, mitigating, said the defendant's disguise was ineffective but conceded it showed a degree of pre-planning. He said: "His life has been blighted by the use of class A drugs. This was a bookmakers' he was known to frequent. He was known by name. It was an offense he was never going to get away with. He had been using heroin and been given monkey dust. He had never used it before. It made him act in bizarre ways. As a result he committed this offense." Crisp has also been ordered to pay a £900 criminal court charge and a £120 surcharge. Jailing Crisp, Recorder Michael Burrows QC said: "You produced a large knife and demanded money. The staff were scared and shocked. The fact you wore a wig shows an element of planning."

Driver attempting a burnout crashed into police station

A failed burnout attempt in Canberra, Australia, led a man straight into the hands of the police.

ACT Policing posted CCTV footage of the crash to their Facebook page on Friday afternoon, under the headline "THE AWKWARD MOMENT WHEN YOU CRASH YOUR CAR INTO A POLICE STATION."
"At about 2.05pm this afternoon, the driver of a white Holden Commodore was attempting to turn the corner of Anthony Rolfe Avenue onto Gozzard Street in Gungahlin.

YouTube link LiveLeak link.

"He accelerated rapidly in an attempt to complete a burnout and lost control of his car and crashed into Gungahlin police station," the post said. However, they later removed the footage and the post. As police ran outside to assess the situation, the 19-year-old driver was quickly taken into custody. Nobody was harmed in the incident.

Man accused of temporarily blinding helicopter pilot with hair growth laser comb

A Florida man accused of shining a hair growth laser comb into the cockpit of a Sheriff's Office helicopter early on Wednesday as the pilots were investigating a suspicious incident has been arrested. Mark Allen Geoghagan, 55, was charged with pointing a laser light at a driver or pilot and was taken to the Marion County Jail.

According to the Marion County Sheriff's Office, helicopter pilot, Sgt. Darren Bruner, and tactical flight officer, Sgt. John Rawls, were assisting deputies on the ground with a suspicious vehicle investigation when the helicopter was struck with a laser light three to four times. The laser temporarily blinded Bruner and briefly affected his night vision goggles.
Once Bruner regained his vision, he and Rawls assisted in directing deputies on the ground to an address in Silver Springs Shores. There, Geoghagan said the device was a Bosley Laser Comb he uses on his hair. Geoghagan told deputies he was experimenting in his backyard with the comb. He said he was surprised how far the laser went into the trees and that when he pointed it in the air, the helicopter flew by.
There was a yellow warning label on the handle of the comb that stated, "Laser Light. Avoid Direct Eye Exposure. Class 3R Laser Product." Deputy Nathan McLain talked with Geoghagan, who admitted that he pointed the light at the helicopter as it flew by, but said he did not want to hurt anyone. According to McLain, Geoghagan also told him: “Is there anything I can do for them? I’ll even cut their grass.” Geoghagan's bond was set at $2,000.

Man shot self in head while trying to show that gun wouldn't fire with safety catch on

The Navajo County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona is investigating an accidental self-inflicted shooting that occurred at at 8:48am on Wednesday. 23-year-old Christen Reece was airlifted to hospital with a gunshot wound to the head.

Chief Deputy James Molesa said that Reece, a Phoenix resident, was shooting with six others in the area south of Highway 277 outside Overgaard when he reportedly tried to show his handgun had a double safety and could not be fired. He reportedly placed the gun to his head to illustrate the weapon could not be fired and shot himself in the head.
His friends drove him to the fire department where paramedics began to treat him. He was then airlifted to Scottsdale Osborn Hospital and underwent surgery. Navajo County Chief Deputy Jim Molesa later said that all of the people involved were from the Phoenix area. They had been drinking the night before and continued until they all went target shooting.
Molesa noted alcohol-impaired judgment on everyone's part played a major role in Christen Reece deciding to put a loaded gun to his head and pulling the trigger to show that the safety would keep it from firing, which it did not. "Guns and alcohol don't mix," Molesa said. Reece is listed as being in a critical condition, he added.

Connecticut made it harder to get guns — and suicides fell significantly

In 1995, Connecticut established a "permit to purchase" law, which required a background check and eight hours of safety training for those seeking to buy a handgun.

Missouri used to have a law like that, too, but repealed it in 2007.

New research shows what happened afterward. Firearm suicide rates fell 15.4 percent in Connecticut — but rose 16.1 percent in Missouri. The study, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, only confirms what other papers have found: Making it harder to access guns correlates with fewer suicides.

Most gun deaths in the United States are suicides

There were 33,636 gun deaths in the United States in 2013. While homicides and mass shootings dominate the headlines, nearly two-thirds of those deaths — 21,175 — were suicides.

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Jindal's Cure for New Orleans Syphilis Outbreak: Defund Planned Parenthood

The Louisiana idiot and pretender candidate wants to defund Planned Parenthood, including his home state's two clinics—which don't even provide abortions.It is an article of delusion in the Republican pretender derby, even among the guys in the single-digit club, like Louisiana's ramblin' idiot Jindal, that it's time to defund Planned Parenthood. This is because they are all pretending to believe a bunch of phony videos, and it is also because it is in the area of lady-parts, and the ladies who have them, that the prion disease afflicting the cabal's brain is particularly acute.
As is relentlessly pointed out to these meatheads, PP does a lot more than give women a place to exercise their constitutional right to choose. A good example is what's happened in Louisiana since "Bobby" yanked the state's money away from the organization.

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White Supremacist Hate Group Targets North Carolina Police Chief

Fayetteville police chief Harold Medlock says he is not going to stand for KKK intimidation tactics. “When you start trying to intimidate people I take it seriously.”

Read more 

Shoe

“Firenado” Over Bourbon-filled Kentucky Pond

This happened in 2003, but the unlikely confluence of events and a video of it are something special. The Weather Channel has the footage.  

(video link)

First, lightning struck a Jim Beam storage facility. The resulting fire led to a bourbon spill, and 800,000 gallons of the whiskey spilled into a retention lake and burned. The storm wasn’t over, though, and a small tornado swept the flames up into a “firenado,” or a whirlwind of fire. It’s a rare occurrence,and even rarer to catch one on video. A spill of that much bourbon -well, that’s just tragic.

Natural Camouflage: How to Disappear in the Wilderness

First, strip naked. Then rub wet mud all over your body.
Well, not right now. This is all about how to use natural materials to disguise yourself from visual observation. Creek Stewart is a wilderness survival expert. In the past, he’s brought us 10 survival uses for a cell phone and a tampon. Now, at The Art of Manliness, he shows us how to disappear like Rambo did in First Blood Part 2.
You can read his full instructions here. The wet mud is a foundation. Apply loose debris, such as leaves and twigs, before it dries. Roll around on the ground, because that’s what you’re trying to look like. You’ll find this method makes you so invisible that even animals will unknowingly approach you. Stewart writes:

A few years back while giving natural camo a stab while hunting I actually had a squirrel run down the tree I was leaning against and eat a nut while sitting on my leg. I kid you not. I could tell he knew something wasn’t quite right but he had no idea he was sitting on a human! It was an amazing experience and that squirrel was delicious (just kidding, I didn’t kill him). And, yes, at that distance I could tell it was a “him.”

A Near-Fireproof Tree

Botanist Bernabe Moya and his brother, environmental engineer Jose Moya, are tree experts who were studying an experimental forest in Andilla, Spain. In 2012, a fire swept through and destroyed the 50,000-acre plot. That was a heartbreaker.

But amid the devastation, they saw a sign of hope: a stand of 946 Mediterranean cypress trees, each taller than a two story house, that formed a perfectly square patch of green in the scorched landscape.
Bernabe Moya and his brother Jose couldn’t believe their eyes. And when they told their colleagues about the strange phenomenon, they couldn’t believe it either.
“We will have to find out what really happened,” Raúl de la Calle of the Official Association of Technical Forest Engineers told the Madrid-based newspaper El Pais in 2012. “The cypress is not a very combustible species, but to the point that it doesn’t burn at all. … There is no such thing as a fireproof tree.”

It’s true that the Mediterranean cypress can be burned, but it isn’t easy to do. The Moya and other scientists identified several factors that contribute to the cypress’s ability to withstand forest fires. That led to the idea of growing the trees specifically to protect forests. By planting firebreaks, or carefully planned areas of cypress trees among a forest, fires might be contained to small areas instead of spreading wildly. There are pros and cons to the plan, as you can imagine. Read about the unique Mediterranean cypress at the Washington Post.

Hapless racing pigeon twice attacked by hawks saved from drowning in sea by paddle boarder

A racing pigeon twice attacked by hawks has been rescued from the sea by a paddle boarder. Tory Pigott was out with friends when she spotted the injured pigeon off Devon's south coast at Ladram Bay. The hapless bird had originally set off from Dorset a month before, but was found injured in Plymouth and nursed back to health and released again.

The pigeon was thought to have been attacked by a hawk. Racing pigeon enthusiast Terry Luscombe, from Plymouth, looked after the bird for three weeks and "got him back to fitness" before releasing him on Monday to return to Hertfordshire. Ms Pigott said: "We suddenly heard a flapping sound in the water and saw this pigeon desperately trying to crawl up the side of the rocks."
She jumped into the water to rescue the pigeon which was "completely sodden" and "distressed" with a cut to its neck. Ms Pigott then used the pigeon's identification number to trace the bird's owners, Ray Eccles and his son Brendan from Baldock, near Stevenage in Hertfordshire.
Brendan Eccles said the pigeon was released in a race from Blandford, Dorset, on 01 August and should have been home "in a few hours". He said the four-month-old pigeon could have become disoriented and headed in the wrong direction. Mr Luscombe said it appeared from the cut to the pigeon's neck he had been the victim of a second hawk attack that resulted in him landing in the water. Ray Eccles eventually sent a courier to collect the bird.
There's a news video here.

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