CAROLINA NATURALLY

Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
You're not a mind reader, but you do have a strong sense of what motivates people.
This helps you greatly today.
You'll be placed in some very interesting situations with strangers or people you don't know very well -- most will be entertaining, but a few could be frustrating or time consuming.
Therefore, if you can anticipate the actions of the people around you, you'll be one step ahead of everyone else -- and you'll end the day in leisure.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

Stavanger, Rogaland, Norway

Acca, Greater Acca, Ghana

Sittard, Limburg, Netherlands

Jakarta, Jakarta Raya, Indonesia

Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan

London, England, United Kingdom

Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

as well as Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland and in cities across the United States such as Tampa, Oakland, Surrey, Eau claire and more.

Today is:

Today is Thursday, December 30, the 364th day of 2010.

There are 1 day left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

There isn't one.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Trips to start your new year

Trips to start your new year off right

Kite surfing in the Turks and Caicos will help you re-discover the pleasures of play.

Where healthy eating is easy

Also:

Random Celebrity Photo

Ann Margaret

Astrology predictions for 2011

What's in store for you in 2011?

Find out what the stars have planned for your career and romantic relationships.

Predictions for every sign

Also:

Bizarre news events of 2010

The top 5 bizarre news events of 2010

Social media helped stories like a rogue flight attendant and a happy mine rescue go viral.

A soccer-crazed octopus

Also:

Real life 'Frogger' game injures man

From the "They walk among us" Department:

A man has been hospitalized after police in South Carolina say he was hit by an SUV while playing a real-life version of the video game "Frogger." Authorities said the 23-year-old man was taken to a hospital in Anderson after he was struck at around 9 p.m. Monday.

Full Story

Please note: this is in SOUTH Carolina - the land where the motto is 'Morons are us'

Pilot's joke

A C-130 freight airplane was lumbering along when a cocky F-16 pilot flashed by. The jet jockey decided to show off.
The fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, "Watch this!" -- and he promptly went into a barrel role, followed by a steep climb. He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. The F-16 pilot asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that.

The C-130 pilot said, "That was impressive. But watch this!"

The C-130 droned on for about 5 minutes and then the C-130 pilot came back on the radio and said, "What did you think of that?"

Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, "What the hell did you do?"

The C-130 pilot chuckled and said, "I stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back, went to the bathroom, then got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun."

When you're young and foolish, speed and flash may seem a good thing. When you get older and smarter, comfort and dull is not such a bad thing!

Odds and Sods

Yarn about psychic girlfriend named 2010's top lie

A Wisconsin man has earned bragging rights as the champion liar of 2010 with this line: "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met."David Milz, 49, told The Associated Press he came up with the one-liner over the summer when he was joking around with colleagues.

Gas Prices Predicted To Hit $5 A Gallon In 2012

Think gas prices are high now? Just wait. A former oil company president is predicting gas prices could reach $5 a gallon by 2012.

Nigeria's deal to drop Cheney bribery charges 'illegal'

Sounds like more deal-making could be ahead in Nigeria.

In a letter to Nigeria’s anti-corruption watchdog, Osuagwu Ugochukwu, a prominent lawyer in Abuja, said the withdrawal of charges against Cheney was a breach of the law.

“We know as a point of law that once a criminal charge has been filed in a competent court, issue of penalty of fine is for the courts to impose and not parties,” he wrote. “Hence, we are shocked to hear that EFCC imposed a fine on an accused person. We also know as a point of law that criminal matters cannot be settled out of court as in civil matters in Nigeria.”

“The outcome of the deal with Halliburton tends to suggest a smart way of making quick money while leaving the culprits unpunished,” an editorial in Nigeria’s Daily Sun argues. “This method invariably has its own drawbacks that could encourage similar criminal acts in future.”

The truth be told

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The Neuron

A colorized scanning EM of a nerve broken open to reveal the vesicles containing the neurotransmitters.

The Story Of The Maya

Recording The Mysteries

image credit

In the late 1560s Diego de Landa wrote of how Maya books, or codices, of 'ancient matters and sciences' had been burned because they contained 'superstition.' Just four codices survived, only one of which, the Grolier Codex, has remained in the Americas.

Maya codices consist of long strips of paper made from the bark of the fig tree, and are several feet long. Codices are folded in concertina fashion, much like a modern map, allowing much of the book to be viewed at any one time as required. The paper was prepared with a layer of limewash on which the scribe painted.

Greek things

Hades

Minotaur

The IceCube Observatory Beneath The Antarctic Ice

Deep beneath the ice of Antarctica, the world's strangest observatory has finally reached completion. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a gigantic telescope at the South Pole that is designed to detect elusive subatomic particles called neutrinos that travel through Earth at the speed of light.

Construction of the telescope ended last weekend although it has already been collecting data for several years. Very little is known about neutrinos, but they are believed to carry information about the birth of our galaxy and the mystery of black holes.

Take That

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And that ...

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Home buying can still pay off

Despite the slump, housing remains a good long-term investment if you choose carefully.

Cities with the best returns

Also:

Foreclosures up ... again

Just because the bankers are doing well doesn't mean the rest of the economy has moved forward.
The housing problem continues to look bad and looking ahead isn't much better.

Reuters:

The regulators said one reason for the increase in foreclosures is that banks have "exhausted" options for keeping many delinquent borrowers in their homes through programs such as loan modifications.

Newly initiated foreclosures increased to 382,000 in the third quarter, a 31.2 percent jump over the previous quarter and a 3.7 percent rise from a year ago, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said in their quarterly mortgage report.

The number of foreclosures in process increased to 1.2 million, a 4.5 percent increase from the second quarter and a 10.1 percent increase from a year ago, according to the regulators.