The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
The week ahead is full of unknowns, but there are several sure things that you can depend on.
Use these known events as tent poles for your planning -- if you take the time to put together a thorough schedule today, you will be rewarded with more free time than you know what to do with (although you'll find something to do, won't you)?
Things in a close friend or partner's life are changing, and they might affect your relationship.
Stay flexible.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Perth, Western Australia, Australia
London, England, United Kingdom
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Delhi, Delhi, India
Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
Hamburg, Hamburg, germany
Jakarta, Jakarta Raya, Indonesia
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Geneva, Geneve, Switzerland
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
Kiev, Kyyiv, Ukraine

as well as Slovakia, Malta, 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, Maldives, 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, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland

and in cities across the United States such as Mililani, Kailua, Honolulu, Waipahu and more.

Today is:

Today is Wednesday, April 27, the 118th day of 2011.

There are 237 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:

Babe Ruth Day
and
Morse Code Day.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Rising Appalachia

New stuff from Rising Appalachia

Non Sequitur

Historic Jazz, Nobody Will Hear It

An interesting article about the sorry state of copyright laws: A Trove of Historic Jazz Recordings has Found a Home in Harlem, But You Can’t Hear Them.William Savory was a pioneering audio engineer who recorded jazz legends in the 1930s.

During his lifetime, William Savory kept these recordings largely to himself. He refused to reveal how many recordings he had and what performances they contained. He let only a very few of his recordings be heard by a small number of acquaintances. Over time, the Savory collection became a tantalizing enigma to jazz connoisseurs who yearned for access to its treasures.
The mystery ended last summer. Six years after Savory passed away, his collection was acquired by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. And jazz experts were stunned. The extent and quality of the Savory collection was beyond anything they had imagined.
“I figured there was maybe 50 to 100 unreleased recordings,” says Loren Schoenberg, the museum’s executive director. “I expected to see one box. Instead, I saw dozens of boxes. The Savory collection comprised about a thousand discs of the greatest performers of all time. And all of this was unknown music. It was immediately clear this was a treasure trove.”

It would be nice to make these recordings available, but it will probably never happen.

“The potential copyright liability that could attach to redistribution of these recordings is so large—and, more importantly, so uncertain—that there may never be a public distribution of the recordings,” wrote David G. Post, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, on the Volokh Conspiracy blog. “Tracking down all the parties who may have a copyright interest in these performances, and therefore an entitlement to royalty payments (or to enjoining their distribution), is a monumental—and quite possibly an impossible—task.”

Awesome Pictures

Mississippi legends totally own the westboro baptist assholes

The scum of the Westboro cult planned to go whore themselves for publicity at soldiers funeral in Mississippi.

But the locals totally fucked their plans.

They did show up, a few showed up a couple of days early.

A couple of days before, one of them ran his mouth at a Brandon gas station and got his ass waxed. Police were called and the beaten man could not give much of a description of who beat him. When they canvassed the station and spoke to the large crowd that had gathered around, no one seemed to remember anything about what had happened.

Rankin County handled this thing perfectly. There were many things that were put into place that most will never know about and at great expense to the county. Most of the morons never made it out of their hotel parking lot. It seems that certain Rankin county pickup trucks were parked directly behind any car that had Kansas plates in the hotel parking lot and the drivers mysteriously disappeared until after the funeral was over.

Police were called but their wrecker service was running behind and it was going to be a few hours before they could tow the trucks so the Kansas plated cars could get out. A few made it to the funeral but were ushered away to be questioned about a crime they might have possibly been involved in. Turns out, after a few hours of questioning, that they were not involved and they were allowed to go on about their business.

Rankin County residents deserves a hand in how they handled this situation.

Talk about Righteous!

Moammar Gadhafi's grip on western Libya slipping

Moammar Gadhafi has suffered military setbacks in recent days in western Libya, a sign that his grip may be slipping in the very region he needs to cling to power.

Full Story

'Dragon Lady' of Vietnam dies

Fiery 'Dragon Lady' of Vietnam War dies

The glamorous Madame Nhu emerged as one of the war's most vivid — and controversial — figures.

Long exile 

Also: 

• Test of Carter's magic
• Dalai Lama's successor
• Japan's royals visit victims

When Can A Lawyer Quit A Case?

In criminal matters, a lawyer is duty-bound to defend his client to the best of his ability. There are only a few specific scenarios in which it is considered OK to quit representing a defendant. For example, what if the defendant tells the lawyer that he plans to lie on the witness stand? Allowing perjury is unethical, but so is divulging your client’s secrets. Wouldn’t that be a good time to just quit?

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. As mentioned above, an attorney can’t withdraw in the middle of litigation without the judge’s permission, and it’s indisputably unethical for an advocate to directly inform the judge that his client is a liar. What usually happens in these cases is that the lawyer approaches the bench and asks to beg off the case for vague “ethical reasons.” The judge, knowing exactly what’s going on, typically denies the request, because the jury would smell a rat if the lawyer were to disappear right before the defendant took the stand. The judge, continuing the Kabuki-style exchange, informs the advocate that he has satisfied his ethical obligations and must continue. In some courts, the lawyer can protect his sense of ethics by simply putting the client on the stand and instructing him to “tell the jury his story,” rather than specifically prompting the lies.

Slate looks at various reasons why a lawyer can and should quit a case -or not here.

Legalizing Marijuana Could Reduce Its Energy Consumption 75%

photo: Stay Faded/Creative Commons

When we found out a couple week ago that the marijuana industry is responsible for 1% of all US electricity consumption, the first and perhaps obvious big question that popped to my mind was how would that figure change if pot was legalized? Surely the electricity bill is so high in part because of the necessity of indoor grow operations to avoid detection.
Well, as the infographic excerpted below shows, legalization of pot would indeed radically slash the energy footprint of the marijuana industry:

Article continues: Legalizing Marijuana Could Reduce Its Energy Consumption 75%

Top towns for school value

Best schools for your real estate buck

An analysis of 17,589 locales shows you don't need to live in a rich area to get a great education.  

Small town No. 1 

Also: 

• How to choose a college
• Youth unemployment poll
• More kids study Chinese

The truth be told

More repugican chicanery

Get ready for some good old fashioned big government voter suppression

The best fields to get a raise

The best fields to get a raise

Salaries have risen by more than 20 percent since 2007 in five industries.

Big wage boost for couriers 

Also: 

• Where pay has been lousy
• Top firms to work for
• Raiding retirement funds

Understanding Fed-speak

What to listen for when Bernanke talks

The Fed’s historic press conference may offer a hint about interest rates.  

One key word could move markets 

Also: 

• Bernanke in a bind
• Debt ceiling FAQs
• Geithner talks tough

The lady's new clothes

Man Owes Money for Working For the Government For No Money

Richard Ravitch was sworn in as New York’s liutenant governor in 2009, to fill a vacancy and help solve the city’s dire fiscal crisis. Ravitch, a wealthy businessman, was gracious enough to forgo the $151,500 annual salary.
And in an example that no good deed goes unpunished, he now owes money for working for no money:

While working on the memoir earlier this year, he received a letter from the state comptroller. It was not a thank you note for serving, much less without pay. It was a bill.
“The value of your personal use of a state provided vehicle and chauffeur services and taxable meals when traveling are fringe benefits reported as income on your Form W-2,” the letter began.
Those $9,455 in fringes were subject to $723.31 in Social Security and Medicare taxes, which the state paid on his behalf and was now seeking to collect …

What did Ravitch do?

“I paid it,” Mr. Ravitch said Monday, adding philosophically: “There was a certain asymmetrical irony about it, but I hope it helps the budget gap.”

Full Story

The truth be told (part Deux)

Shrinking budgets force shutdown of alien search

E.T. will have to call collect ...

Strapped government budgets may be affecting more than life on Earth.

Astronomers at the SETI Institute in Northern California say a steep drop in state and federal funds has forced the shutdown of a key program to search for extraterrestrial life.

Full Story

Cars costing $100 to fill up

Cars that cost $100 or more at the pump

With today’s gas prices, you could pay $127 to fill up one monster SUV.

Sedans that come close 

Also: 

• Obama and gas prices
• BMW's electric sedan
• Volt, Leaf crash scores