The Daily Drift

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Today is - World Tourism Day

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Today in History

1669		The island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea falls to the Ottoman Turks after a 21-year siege.
1791		Jews in France are granted French citizenship.
1864		Confederate guerrilla Bloody Bill Anderson and his henchmen, including a teenage Jesse James, massacre 20 unarmed Union soldiers at Centralia, Missouri. The event becomes known as the Centralia Massacre.
1869		Wild Bill Hickok, sheriff of Hays City, Kan., shoots down Samuel Strawhim, a drunken teamster causing trouble.
1916		Constance of Greece declares war on Bulgaria.
1918		President Woodrow Wilson opens his fourth Liberty Loan campaign to support men and machines for World War I.
1920		Eight Chicago White Sox players are charged with fixing the 1919 World Series.
1939		Germany occupies Warsaw as Poland falls to Germany and the Soviet Union.
1942		Australian forces defeat the Japanese on New Guinea in the South Pacific.
1944		Thousands of British troops are killed as German forces rebuff their massive effort to capture the Arnhem Bridge across the Rhine River in Holland.
1950		U.S. Army and Marine troops liberate Seoul, South Korea.
1956		The U.S. Air Force Bell X-2, the world’s fastest and highest-flying plane, crashes, killing the test pilot.
1964		The Warren Commission, investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, issues its report, stating its conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole gunman.
1979		US Congress approves Department of Education as the 13th agency in the US Cabinet.
1983		Sukhumi massacre: Abkhaz separatist forces and their allies commit widespread atrocities against the civilian population in the USSR state of Georgia.
1996		The Taliban capture Afghanistan’s capital city, Kabul.
2003		European Space Agency launches SMART-1 satellite to orbit the moon.
2007		NASA launches Dawn probe to explore and study the two larges objects of the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres.
2008		Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese to walk in space; he was part of the Shenzhou 7 crew.

The time it takes to be a woman

It takes a woman 24 days, 7 hours and 40 minutes to be a woman.

Compare that with 9 days, 5 hours, and 27 minutes for a man.

The time it takes to be a woman

How Your Dentist Can Save Your Heart

How Your Dentist Can Save Your Heart

Consider this reason #862 why you shouldn’t blow off your cleaning

9 Things You Need to Know About Your Appendix

9 Things You Need to Know About Your Appendix

Like the fact that poop (yes, poop) causes appendix issues.

How evolution might change us 100,000 years from now

All life on earth is constantly evolving: the process doesn't stop.
As living things, humans are still evolving. Since we became Homo sapiens, has evolution changed us in any way?
Actually, yes.

How evolution might change us 100,000 years from now

First phase of mock 'Mars 160' mission begins in Utah

The first half of a 160-day "Mars 160" mission, involving seven people from six different countries, kicked off in Utah on Saturday.
The simulated mission — comprised of two 80-day phases, one each in a Utah desert and the Canadian Arctic — aims to advance humanity’s knowledge of how to explore the surface of Mars.

First phase of mock 'Mars 160' mission begins in Utah

What the List of Most Banned Books Says About Our Society’s Fears

by Sarah Begley

 

Censors are increasingly focusing on books that represent diverse points of view

For as long as humans have printed books, censors have argued over their content and tried to limit some books’ distribution. But the reasons for challenging literature change over time, and as Banned Book Week begins on Sept. 25, it’s clear that public discomfort with particular ideas has evolved rapidly even in the last 20 years.
When the American Library Association started keeping a database of challenged books in the early ’90s, the reasons cited were fairly straightforward, according to James LaRue, director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. “‘Don’t like the language,’ or ‘There’s too much sex’—they’d tend to fall into those two categories,” he says. Some books are still challenged for those reasons—Fifty Shades of Grey is a common example. But there’s been a shift toward seeking to ban books “focused on issues of diversity—things that are by or about people of color, or LGBT, or disabilities, or religious and cultural minorities,” LaRue says. “It seems like that shift is very clear.”
The ALA’s list of the 10 most challenged books in 2015 bears this out: it includes I Am Jazz and Beyond Magenta, about young transgender people; Fun Home and Two Boys Kissing, which deal with homosexuality; Habibi and Nasreen’s Secret School, which feature Muslim characters; and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, which was cited for “atheism.” In contrast, the top 10 most-challenged books of 2001 were more straightforwardly banned for strong language, sexual content and drugs, like The Chocolate War and Go Ask Alice.
The shift seems to be linked to demographic changes in the country—and the political fear-mongering that can accompany those changes, LaRue says. “There’s a sense that a previous majority of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants are kind of moving into a minority, and there’s this lashing out to say, ‘Can we just please make things the way that they used to be?’” LaRue says. “We don’t get many challenges by diverse people,” he adds. In recent years, book challenges have peaked while religious liberty bills were in the news, he says.
Here’s a look at how things have changed in the past 15 years:
Most-challenged books of 2001:

1. Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling
   Reasons: anti-family, occult/Satanism, religious viewpoint, violence
2. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
   Reasons: offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group, violence
3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit
5. Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene
   Reasons: offensive language, racism, sexually explicit
6. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
   Reasons: offensive language, unsuited to age group
7. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
   Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
   Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit
9. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
   Reason: offensive language
10. Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
    Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Most-challenged books of 2015:

1. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
2. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
   Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).
3. I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
   Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.
4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
   Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”).
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
   Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
6. The Holy Bible
   Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
7. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
   Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).
8. Habibi, by Craig Thompson
   Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
   Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.
10. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
    Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).

But the recent backlash challenges have not been limited to conservatives: the Bible is on the top 10 list for 2015, in part because of concerns about why a book that argues for the murder of homosexuals (as in Leviticus) would be in a public library. Opposition like this comes from “people that are just questioning in a larger sense what is the appropriate role of religion in our society,” LaRue says.
Over time, some books lose their opponents—the Harry Potter series, for instance, were the most-challenged books from 2000 to 2009, but have since fallen off the top 10 list. “There was a period there where Harry Potter was [considered] a Satanist and a cult, and people were doing book cuttings and book burnings,” LaRue says. “And now if you read people that are kind of on the right side of the religious spectrum, their kids love the Harry Potter books, so sometimes the things that we’re convinced are signs that the end is nigh are completely normalized in five years.”
The ALA usually learns that a book has been challenged either from librarians at schools or public or academic libraries calling in incidents, or from reports in local newspapers. In recent years there’s actually been a decline in reports—the ALA recorded 311 challenges in 2014 and only 275 in 2015. On the surface, that may seem like a good thing—but it probably indicates that fewer people are speaking up when a book is removed, meaning more banning is going on under the radar, LaRue says. “We have reason to believe that where censorship starts to succeed, there’s less reporting about it,” LaRue says. “So we can say it’s hard for us to know, we know that challenges are under-reported, but we don’t know by how much.” It doesn’t help that school librarians are frequently the victims of school layoffs, meaning there are fewer professionals “trained to use this language of intellectual freedom.”
Still, one thing hasn’t changed since the dawn of censorship: having your book banned is very, very good for an author’s sales. “If what you’re trying to do is stop this book from getting into the hands of a minor,” LaRue says, “the surest way to [fail] is to declare it forbidden.”

Our Country Is Beset by Problems

Chomsky: Our Country Is Beset by Problems -- Do You Have the Patience of Decades It Takes Activists to Fix Them?

Black protesters chase David Duke from anti-Confederate statue protest

Black protesters chase KKK leader David Duke from anti-Confederate statue protest

Debunking the Wingnuts' Favorite Abortion Propaganda Techniques

Debunking the Wingnuts' Favorite Abortion Propaganda Techniques

Naked man arrested after allegedly throwing 4-month-old baby over 8-foot-tall fence

A Florida man is accused of tossing a 4-month-old baby over a fence and into brush on the other side. The baby was found on Thursday evening in Longwood with minor injuries. Richard Harris, 31, is accused of aggravated child abuse. A caller to 911 said she saw Harris in her apartment parking lot. "I can, like, see him. And he's completely naked, and I can't see the baby, but he's, like, screaming," the caller told a 911 dispatcher.
The caller said one minute the man had on pants, carrying a crying baby, and the next thing she knew, no clothes, and no infant. "He hasn't said where the baby is, has he?" the dispatcher told the caller. "No," the caller replied. Across the street, a clue was found in the yard of Michele Reaves. She told police there were pants in her yard. "We heard him screaming," Reaves said. The baby was on the opposite side of Reaves' 8-foot-tall fence.
"I've never seen an officer clear a fence as quick as he did. I don't know how he did it, but he was over the fence, had the baby and was back over the fence with the baby," Reaves said. "The baby had actually been thrown over the fence by the suspect," said Corporal. Ryan Short of the Longwood Police Department. The baby was rushed to the hospital for medical care and is expected to make a full recovery. Reaves has seen Harris and the baby before and said she had never seen anything odd.
"Who does that? No one just does that," Reaves said. Police and Reaves suggested that Harris may have been under the influence of something that made him act strangely. Harris’s attorney argued the case should not be aggravated child abuse because the baby wasn’t badly hurt. The judge said Harris, who trembled and sobbed in court, will be held without bond while that's sorted out. Police said Harris resisted arrest and yelled random things. Harris said after a trip to the hospital, he doesn’t remember anything at all.

President of Crime Stoppers ousted after arrest for running large marijuana growing-operation

The president of a Crime Stoppers chapter in Ontario, Canada, was forced out of his position this week, after police charged him in connection with a large marijuana growing-operation.
Windsor and Essex County Crime Stoppers voted on Thursday, to remove Jon-Paul Fuller the day after Ontario Provincial Police raided greenhouses in Leamington, Ontario.
Police said they found more than 2,900 marijuana plants with an estimated value of $2.9 million, along with 41 kilograms of harvested marijuana worth about $180,000. “It’s difficult to accept, very shocking, but nonetheless we’re moving forward,” said Charlie Hotham, who preceded Fuller as president and was reinstated on Thursday.
“We don’t want to let one person take away from the good deeds that Crime Stoppers does,” he added. Hotham said the Crime Stoppers board is not involved in the day-to-day operation of the tip line, which allows people to offer information on crimes without contacting police. Fuller is charged with production of marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking. Another man also faces charges.

Student suspended after posting photo on social media of discolored water in school bathroom

Hazel Juco says when she saw discolored water coming from the sink at her school in Westland, Michigan, it concerned her. “I just took a picture of it. And then in my newspaper class I talked about it with them,” said Juco. The senior at John Glenn High School also posted the picture on Facebook and Twitter, voicing complaints. “I always hope that someone will see it and want to help us,” said Juco.
"Because our school obviously doesn’t have money.” A short time later, she was called down to the office. "They told me I was being suspended, OSS (Out of School Suspension). It is inappropriate use of electronics in the restroom,” said Juco. She said she felt she was singled out because she exposed a problem. “Every girl takes selfies in the bathroom and makes it their profile pictures,” said Juco. “No one has gotten in trouble.”
Wayne-Westand Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Michele Harmala says she looked into what was happening at the high school. She says she found out high school administrators made mistakes. They didn’t report the water issue to maintenance. Dr. Harmala made sure maintenance knew about it. “They sent a plumber out right away,” said Dr. Harmala. It turns out there is a pipe leading to that faucet that needs to be replaced. That is being done.

YouTube link.

Dr. Harmala says the rule against cell phones in bathrooms aims to prevent inappropriate pictures of people, not pictures of building issues. “The punishment is inappropriate. I am going to make sure the out of school suspension is expunged from the student’s record,” said Dr. Harmala. Dr. Harmala says this is a learning opportunity for students and staff. She wants students to know there is a building problem they feel is being ignored, they can report it to building maintenance or administration directly. It will give them a chance to address it sooner than if it is just put on social media.

20-year-old who faked £200,000 job at NASA and was honored for his achievements arrested

Police in Madhya Pradesh, India, arrested Ansar Khan, 20, on Friday for wrongly claiming that he was employed with United States' space agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA. A fake identity card, with US president Barack Obama's forged signatures, was also recovered from him.
Mr Khan, who has only studied up to class 12, claimed he was appointed to the space agency's 'Space and Food' program with an annual salary of Rs. 1.85 crore (£210,000, $270,000) and was set to start work later this month. He even invited the senior officials of Kamalpur administration for a felicitation program in his honor. However, this proved to be his undoing. Senior police officer Shashikant Shukla became suspicious of Mr Khan when the latter came to invite him with his 'identity card' around his neck.

Noticing president Barack Obama's signature on the card, Mr Shukla ordered his office to verify the young man's claims. During the investigation, not only was Mr Khan's fraud exposed, police also discovered that he had borrowed money from several people promising to pay back when he received his salary from NASA. According to the police, he had visited a local photo studio on August 14 where he had a fake NASA identity card printed complete with the space agency's logo and the signature of Barack Obama.
Believing Mr Khan's claims, his school and several local organizations organized functions to celebrate his achievements. At one time he was even honored in an event which had the local legislator in attendance. "Our SP got suspicious after seeing his (Ansar's) identity card and we started our investigation. The owner of the photo studio told us that Ansar kept on postponing his date of going to the US and did not even possess a passport. He had even taken money from people for going abroad," police officer BS Gaure said.

How many Wells Fargo employees were fired for NOT committing fraud?

How many Wells Fargo employees were fired for NOT committing fraud?

Jail house video busts Georgia cops Tasering compliant black man from behind

Jail house video busts Georgia cops Tasering compliant black man from behind

Fracking Caused Texas Quakes

CONFIRMED: Fracking Caused Texas Quakes

Everyone knew, but now it's confirmed. Fracking causes quakes in Texas.

Giant inflatable duck found freedom in stormy weather

A giant inflatable duck rolled around the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, on Saturday morning.
The duck had been on display at the Peter Vardy CarStore near Braehead shopping centre.

YouTube link. Original Facebook video.

However, strong winds which battered the city dislodged the inflatable and it ended up in the middle of a nearby road.

One shocked eyewitness said: "I couldn't believe it. It's not what you expect to see on your way to work in the morning."

Animal Pictures