US Coast Guard rescued man trying to run from Florida to Bermuda inside inflatable bubble

An Iranian exile has been rescued by the US Coast Guard after a failed attempt to float 1,033 miles from Florida to Bermuda in an inflatable bubble. Reza Baluchi was picked up about 70 nautical miles east of St Augustine suffering from fatigue and disorientation. Coastguards had warned Mr Baluchi on Wednesday of the dangers he faced making the proposed trip and suggested he give up.

He refused, but activated his locator beacon on Saturday when he became exhausted. Coast Guard spokeswoman Marilyn Fajardo said air crew were able to safely pick up Mr Baluchi and the bubble on Saturday morning. His inflatable hydro-pod bubble is made of 3mm-thick plastic which he propels forward by running inside like a hamster on a wheel.

Mr Baluchi planned to run in the bubble in the mornings, cool off in the sea while leashed to the floating sphere, and sleep in a hammock inside it at night. In addition to protein bars, he planned to catch and eat fish. Mr Baluchi's said he had planned to make the trip to raise money "for children in need" and "to inspire those that have lost hope for a better future".

YouTube link.

Mr Baluchi was granted asylum in the US in 2003 after being arrested in Iran for so-called pro-Western and anti-Islamic activities, including eating during the holy month of Ramadan. He has made headlines before with previous efforts to break long-distance running and cycling records, including a six-month journey in which he ran around the perimeter of the US to raise money for a children's hospital. He also endured a seven-year bike trip that he said brought him across 55 countries on six continents. His self-professed mission is to promote world peace and unity.

Wife rushing to assist husband following nasty car crash accidentally ran over and killed him

A man in Northern France who survived a nasty crash when his car overturned was accidentally killed after being run over by his wife who’d driven to the scene to help him. The 54-year-old man and his daughter were driving near the town of Carville just after 11pm when the father lost control of the vehicle at a sharp curve in the road.
The vehicle flipped and rolled over several times before coming to rest in a roadside ditch. The father and his 16-year-old daughter crawled out of the wreckage unharmed. The man then called his wife and asked her to come and pick them up.
But as she approached the crash site the woman lost control of her vehicle at the same sharp curve in the road. As her car rolled it hit and killed her husband. His 44-year-old wife and 16-year-old daughter were taken to hospital.

Thieves threw chainsaws at police car to escape arrest during high-speed pursuit

A high-speed police chase between two thieves and a police officer had the sergeant dodging chainsaws in the middle of Duluth, Georgia.

Duluth Police are working to enhance the video to get a better look at the faces of the two men caught on camera throwing stolen chainsaws at a police car. They were seen leaving Howard Brother's hardware at around 1:30am on Monday. An officer heard the store's alarm and investigated.
He chased after the minivan. They tossed three chainsaws and a weed-eater. The chase ended after about three minutes. The two men stopped and abandoned the vehicle. They then ran off in to the woods. Police found nine weed-eaters and two more chainsaws in the back of the van.

YouTube link. Original news video.

Some of it had been taken from a Tucker hardware store in addition to Howard Brother's Hardware. The van had been reported stolen a few days earlier in DeKalb County. The total cost of the merchandise stolen is almost $19,000. One of those chainsaws whacked the patrol car causing about $3,000 in damage.

Man arrested for shooting drone

A man in New Jersey was arrested after using a shotgun to shoot down his neighbor's drone. The neighbor was using the drone to take photographs of a nearby home undergoing renovations. Police arrested the man and charged him with “possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and criminal mischief.” Lawyers are trying to determine how to proceed, because without direct precedent for people shooting down flying camera robots, the future of drone laws may hinge on one annoyed New Jersey man with a shotgun.

Bizarre Historical Images You Won't Believe Actually Happened

Deluge Of Booze

That’s not a flood — it’s illegal booze being poured out a Detroit window during Prohibition (1920-1933). Detroit was the main center for smuggling liquor from Canada into the United States. When Michigan state police raided a Detroit restaurant suspected of serving liquor, they wound up arresting the Mayor, a Congressman and a local sheriff.

Twins and Diabetes

Study of identical twins reveals type 2 diabetes clues

By studying identical twins, researchers from Lund University in Sweden […]

Predicting Sleep Apnea

Tongue Fat and Size May Predict Sleep Apnea

Obesity is a risk factor for many health problems, but […]

The Secret History Of The Michelin Man

The aim of all advertising is first to create recognition for a brand, and then, ideally, affection and loyalty. This can be achieved in a multitude of ways, but one of the best examples can be found in a symbol that is now 116 years old: Bibendum, commonly referred to as the Michelin Man.

Men’s Roles in Scandinavian History Examined

Lisbeth Skogstrand of the University of Oslo has surveyed the artifacts found in 805 men’s graves in Norway and Denmark dating from the Early Nordic Bronze Age to the late Roman period. She found that in the Early Bronze Age, grooming articles such as razors, tweezers, and possible implements for manicures were highly valued. “We have found traces of beard hair and possibly eyebrows on the razors, so they probably removed hair from various parts of the body,” she told Science Nordic. Weapons such as spears, shields, and other iron weapons were considered important enough to bury with dead in the early Roman period, until A.D. 200  At this time, perhaps men were required to protect their belongings from rival communities. After A.D. 200, men’s grave goods resemble those of women—tools and decorative items representing other roles in society. “There were more ways of being a man than we thought,” she quipped. To read about artifacts being discovered in Norway's retreating glaciers, see ARCHAEOLOGY's "The Big Melt."

Undersea Ancestors

Tracing our ancestors at the bottom of the sea

A specialist group of European researchers are studying the remains […]

Ijen

The Volcanic Sulfur Mine Of Indonesia's East Java

The Indonesian province of East Java is the home to the Ijen Volcano. The volcano has an enormous, turquoise acid crater lake at the top of a two mile ascent.
Hundreds of people visit the site each day, but for most it is not to take in the bizarre spectacle of the dead lagoon: around the lake men and boys mine for sulfur which is then taken, carried on their backs, down the side of the volcano. For them, the Ijen volcano represents their livelihood: for visitors, however, it can seem like a vision from Dante or Bunyan.

18 Awe-Inspiring Aerial Images Of The World's Mega Mines

Mining has always been a polarizing topic. On one hand, it provides us with the essential materials we need to power our civilization forward; on the other hand, by-products from mining can lead to detrimental environmental effects.
Regardless on which side of the emotional spectrum your feeling lie, you can't help but feel awe when looking at the immense and profound changes that we as a species have made to our earth.

Hiker Stumbles Upon an Abyss in Portugal

Redditor RTWin80weeks was hiking along the beach outside of Lagos, Portugal when he came upon this amazing rock formation. It's a hole that goes deep into the earth--farther than he could see.

(Video Link)

Other redditors claim to have been there. Ski6666 made this video showing the other side, which empties into the ocean. -SSS- thinks that this spot is at Foral Ponda Da Peidade, an area known for its exceptional natural beauty.

The Kangaroo That Went Back To The Trees

When you hear the word kangaroo, what you may well imagine is the large marsupial bounding with immense speed across the Australian landscape - and you would not be wrong.
However, at one point the ancestors of one particular family of kangaroos did something strange. They returned to the trees whence they had come. This is the tree-kangaroo and they are the marsupial equivalent of monkeys.

Sea Horses

The Quirky Beauty of Sea Horses: Photos

With their distinctive, equine-like snouts and bright colors, you'd be hard pressed to find a more fascinating creature in the ocean than a sea horse.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Wingnuts - Always Wrong About Everything ...!

 

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Today in History

1571		In the last great clash of galleys, the Ottoman navy is defeated at Lepanto, Greece, by a christian naval coalition under the overall command of Spain's Don Juan de Austria.
1765		Delegates from nine of the American colonies meet in New York to discuss the Stamp Act Crisis and colonial response to it.
1849		Edgar Allan Poe, aged 40, dies a tragic death in Baltimore. Never able to overcome his drinking habits, he was found in a delirious condition outside a saloon that was used as a voting place.
1870		French Minister of the Interior Leon Gambetta escapes besieged Paris by balloon, reaching the French provisional government in Tours.
1913		In attempting to find ways to lower the cost of the automobile and make it more affordable to ordinary Americans, Henry Ford took note of the work of efficiency experts like Frederick Taylor, the "father of scientific management." The result was the assembly line that reduced the time it took to manufacture a car, from 12 hours to 93 minutes.
1944		Prisoner uprising at Birkenau concentration camp.
1949		Iva Toguri D'Aquino, better known as Tokyo Rose, is sentenced to 10 years in prison for treason.
1949		East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, is formed.
1957		A fire in the Windscale plutonium production reactor (later called Sellafield) north of Liverpool, England, spreads radioactive iodine and polonium through the countryside and into the Irish Sea. Livestock in the immediate area were destroyed, along with 500,000 gallons of milk. At least 30, and possibly as many as 1,000, cancer deaths were subsequently linked to the accident.
1976		Hua Guofeng, premier of the People's Republic of China, succeeds the late Mao Zedong as chairman of the Communist Party of China.
1985		Four Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) hijackers seize the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and demand the release of 50 Palestinians held by Israel.
1993		The Great Flood of 1993 on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers ends, the worst US flood since 1927.
1996		Faux News Channel begins lying.
2001		US invasion of Afghanistan in reaction to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 begins; it will become the longest war in US history.
2003		California voters remove Democratic governor Gray Davis from office in the state's first successful recall of a sitting governor (only the second successful recall of a governor in US history); a repugican candidate, bodybuilder/actor Arnold Schwarzenegger wins the election to replace Davis 17 days later.

Mom Burglarizes Cars At School, Claims She's Looking For ISIS

From the "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" Department:

Apparently, there's growing concern that the Islamist State of Iraq and Syria could attack the United States from within -- cops just don't believe that terrorists will start by hiding in cars on Mississippi school property.
That allegedly didn't stop Lisa Carol Roche from using ISIS as an alibi. The Hurley woman is accused of burglarizing cars in the parking lot of her children's school, then telling officers that she was "looking for ISIS terrorists," according to Gulf Live.
Roche, 41, was caught stealing sunglasses and other items from cars at East Central High School. She remained in Jackson County Adult Detention Center Friday.
She's been charged previously with careless driving, felony fraud and felony embezzlement. She faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted of commercial burglary.
Gawker points out that it's unclear whether she'll be questioned about her terrorist intel in court.

We Are Way Better Off Than We Were When the shrub Left Office As Jobless Rate Falls To 5.9%

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released September’s employment figures on Friday and it was almost entirely good news. The economy added 248,000 new jobs during the month and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9%. This is the lowest level the jobless rate has been since July 2008 and reiterates that President Obama has helped to resuscitate a moribund economy that was suffering through a horrific financial crisis when he took over. The BLS also revised jobs numbers upwards for the months of August and July, revealing that we actually added 61,000 more jobs than previously estimated during those two months.

The country is essentially at full employment now. Economists state that for a nation to be at full, healthy employment, the unemployment rate needs to be between 5.5% and 6.0%. These numbers helpfully point out that the country is indeed better off than it was when Barack Obama was first sworn in. When Obama took office in January 2009, the country was in the grips of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. That month, the unemployment rate stood at 7.8% and climbing. The next month, it rose to 8.3% and kept rising until it hit a peak of 10.0% in October 2009. However, President Obama’s stimulus package, along with other initiatives, helped create jobs and reverse the trend.

In 2014 alone, the unemployment rate has dropped by 1.3 percentage points and 1.9 million jobs have been added. Therefore, whenever you hear someone like  Ted Cruz (r-TX) claim that “Obamacare is the biggest job killer in this country,” as he has done numerous times, you know he is completely full of it. Seriously, since the full implementation of the law last year, the country has added well over 2 million jobs. If a law is a ‘job killer,’ shouldn’t it actually be killing jobs?

The labor force participation rate remained mostly unchanged at 62.7%. While wingnuts will claim that this number shows that there are a lot of people that are discouraged and just giving up on finding work, the majority of this is attributed to baby boomers retiring, students either going to school or remaining in school for post-graduate programs and two-parent households where one partner decides to stay at home to raise children. Is there a large number of long-term unemployed that need assistance? Certainly. Of course, you don’t see repugicans doing anything about providing additional unemployment insurance to these people.

Where improvement needs to be seen is in the median wage. Wages remained stagnant in September, as the median wage actually dropped one cent, down to $24.53 an hour. Now, raising the minimum wage, even modestly, would do quite a bit to push this number up and provide additional income to working class people. Once again, while this is an easy solution, repugcans have stood firm and refused to do anything about it. Therefore, we are stuck with a minimum wage that is not in line with today’s economic needs.

Still, these numbers do reflect that President Obama has made things better for Americans since first taking office. However, you wouldn’t know it based on all of the doom-and-gloom naysayers, many from his own party, that make it seem that Obama is set out to destroy America and its economy. The man inherited a total mess, and while there are still improvements that need to be made, and income inequality is a real issue in this country, this nation is exponentially better off than it was when the shrub vacated the White House. Democrats need to embrace the President and what he’s done for this nation during the midterms this year, instead of falling over themselves trying to create a distance between them and Obama.