The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Your bosses probably seem difficult now, but that may not be exactly so.
Weirdly, the one person who seems to be giving you the worst of it is most likely an angel in disguise.
Before you just let fly with whatever you feel like saying or doing, take time to think things through.
You don't want to alienate someone that influential, right?

Today is:

Today is Sunday, July 18, the 199th day of 2010.

There are 166 days left in the year.

Today In History July 18

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

National Ice Cream Day

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Tiny house transforms man's life

Tiny house transforms man's life

Jay Shafer went from 4,000 square feet to just 89 — and his downsized utility bill isn't the only perk.  

See inside 

Also: 

• He's not the only one
• Reusables save money
• More tiny house designs

Un-paving Rural America "Back To The Stone Age"

Dusty road.

Image credit:ModelAColumbus.com

Until the 1950's, gravel roads were the norm outside the core developed zones of American towns and cities. Guess what? Gravel roads are back in vogue. Tax revenues are so far down and asphalt prices rising so far that State and local governments can no longer afford to repair and repave. So they are un-paving, which means changes to the modern lifestyle. Forget texting and coffee drinking on a gravel road. Gravel roads are forbidding to sleek low riders, road bikes, and convertibles.
Wall Street Journal has covered the new trend in the story: Roads to Ruin: Towns Rip Up the Pavement .

Article continues: Trend Watch: Un-paving Rural America "Back To The Stone Age"

Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me

 

Linda Ronstadt

Unknown waitress's overnight music hit

Unknown waitress's overnight music hit

With no record company behind it, the Christina Perri song "Jar of Hearts" shoots up the charts.  

Lucky break 

Also: 

• More on Christina Perri
• Taylor/King tour a smash
• New Devo performance

Wanna 'Cup-O-Joe'?

The man who inspired 'cup of joe'

The phrase was coined after a U.S. Cabinet member issued an order a century ago.

People provide details 

Also: 

• He was also a publisher
• Unhealthiest coffee drinks
• The good side to coffee

Ten Most Scary And Weird Tourist Attractions In The World

There are some wicked places in the world. 

Places from which normal tourists hastily run away.

Here is a list of some of the weirdest and scariest tourist attractions in the world.

Mona Lisa secrets cracked

Mona Lisa secrets cracked

X-ray technology shows how Leonardo da Vinci achieved a mystifying quality in his paintings.  

 Layers thinner than hair 

Also: 

• More on the Mona Lisa
• New Caravaggio painting?
• Looted art at Colosseum

Dilbert

Dozens Arrested in Medicare Fraud Totaling $251 Million

Federal authorities said Friday that they had arrested dozens of suspects in five states on charges of defrauding Medicare of a total of $251 million.

Full Story

U.S. Authorities Shut Down WordPress Host With 73,000 Blogs

This isn't good.

Anger Awareness

Anger Awareness: How to Deal

We all have those days in which anger can get the best of us. 

What we won't admit, however, is when this anger becomes a problem in our daily lives.

68% of Americans say political class doesn't care about what they think

Only 68%?

The frustration that voters are expressing in 2010 goes much deeper than specific policies. At a more fundamental level, voters just don’t believe politicians are interested in the opinions of ordinary Americans.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 68% believe the nation’s Political Class doesn’t “care what most Americans think.” Only 15% believe the Political Class is interested in the views of those they are supposed to serve. Another 17% are not sure.

Skepticism about the Political Class interest in voters is found across just about all demographic and partisan groups. However, self-identified liberals are evenly divided on the question. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of conservatives and 64% of moderates reject the notion that the Political Class cares.

Adults over 40 are more skeptical than younger adults about the Political Class. But even among voters under 30, nearly half (47%) don’t think the Political Class cares what most Americans think. Only 18% of these younger voters think the Political Class does care, while 35% are not sure.

Gulf fishermen furious over oil claims

Gulf fishermen furious over oil claims

Following a controversial ruling, some workers argue that it's pointless to help BP clean up the spill.  

'Financially dead' 

Also: 

• Battling the oil 'blob'
• Gulf pain to last years
• Map of the oil spill

Beyond the Gulf Oil Spill: Five Ongoing Ecological Disasters With No End In Sight

A burning oil spill in the Niger Delta.

Photo via City of Refuge Africa

Living some 6,000 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that the oil spill often seems like an abstraction to me. A big, big abstraction, but still. Pictures of oil-covered pelicans and other heart-tugging images occasionally appear in the Turkish press, but generally, people here -- like people anywhere -- are more concerned about domestic issues, of which we have plenty. And I know that when I was living in the United States, the Turkish mining disasters that so compel me now would have seemed equally remote.
That's why an article on "The World's Ongoing Ecological Disasters" -- some of which make the BP spill pale in comparison -- offered an especially striking reminder that there are ecosystems and people suffering outside the eye of the nightly news.

Article continues: Beyond the Gulf Oil Spill: Five Ongoing Ecological Disasters With No End In Sight

"Getting away from it all" at Yosemite

 

Just your average day with your average family getting away from the crowds: circa early 1960s.

Science Can Tell What You're Dreaming

In Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest movie Inception, characters can enter other people’s dreams – in reality, science isn’t that far behind:

In one experiment, for example, researchers wired up a sleeper and connected him to a robot that was programmed to act out the motions of the dreamer. For example, the robot used data about the dreamer’s eye position to know in which direction to look.
Brain waves can be studied and translated into actions – for example, brain imaging technology can tell whether a person is having a nightmare or dreaming about flying, Barrett said.

Full Story

Divers Find 200 Year Old Bottles of Champagne in Shipwreck

Divers exploring a shipwreck near the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea found bottles of what is thought to be the world’s oldest drinkable champagne. They probably date back to the 1780s and have an estimated value of $65,000 each:

They tasted the one bottle they’ve brought up so far before they even got back to shore.
Diving instructor Christian Ekstrom said the bottles are believed to be from the 1780s and likely were part of a cargo destined for Russia. The nationality of the sunken ship has not yet been determined.
“We brought up the bottle to be able to establish how old the wreck was,” he said. “We didn’t know it would be champagne. We thought it was wine or something.”
Ekstrom said the divers were overjoyed when they popped the cork on their boat after hauling the bubbly from a depth of 60 metres.
“It tasted fantastic. It was a very sweet champagne, with a tobacco taste and oak,” Ekstrom said.

The oldest known champagne currently on record is from 1825.

Full Story

10,000-year-old Atlatl Dart Found Near Yellowstone

For several years, shrinking icefields in arctic and mountain regions have been revealing rare artifacts that had been covered by snow and ice for millennia.  Most of these reports have come from Canada and Alaska, but recently Craig Lee, a Research Associate from the University of Colorado at Boulder discovered an atlatl dart near Yellowstone Park.

As glaciers and ice fields continue to melt at an unprecedented rate, increasingly older and significant artifacts — as well as plant material, animal carcasses and ancient feces — are being released from the ice that has gripped them for thousands of years, he said.
The dart Lee found was from a birch sapling and still has personal markings on it from the ancient hunter, according to Lee. When it was shot, the 3-foot-long dart had a projectile point on one end, and a cup or dimple on the other end that would have attached to a hook on the atlatl. The hunter used the atlatl, a throwing tool about two feet long, for leverage to achieve greater velocity.
Later this summer Lee and CU-Boulder student researchers will travel to Glacier National Park to work with the Salish, Kootenai and Blackfeet tribes and researchers from the University of Wyoming to recover and protect artifacts that may have recently melted out of similar locations.

Full Story

Mayan king's tomb discovered in Guatemala

Archeologists in Guatemala have discovered a Mayan king's tomb packed with a well-preserved hoard of carvings, ceramics and children's bones that cast fresh light on the vanished civilization.

Researchers uncovered the burial chamber in Guatemala's the jungle-covered Peten region in May, but the discovery has only just been made public.

The tomb is thought to date from 300 – 600AD and is located beneath the El Diablo pyramid in the city of El Zotz.

Full Story