Editorial Comment

We're still working on the mainframe and hope to have it up and running shortly. Thank you for you're patience.

Editorial Comment

Well, the crash of the mainframe is still under repair and the updates to Carolina Naturally have been non-existant for nearly a month ... sorry about that.
Having to repair both the mainframe and the backup and recover the data has taken longer than we thought but to the loyal readers who have been checking in do not despair we will be back better than ever.

Editorial Comment

Sorry for the lack of postings here at Carolina Naturally over the last few days. We have had a meltdown in the hardware of the mainframe used to post to this had her sister blog.
The tweeks to the format and transition to new sources is going on behind the scenes even as the computer gurus work to reslove the hardware issue and you or dear readers will like the results.
Again sorry for the lack of postings and we hope the issues are resloved soon and we shall be back better than before.

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:

Moving from point A to point B will be very pleasant for you today -- motion and travel are looking good now.
Even if you just take a walk around the block, you will find plenty of fascinating sights and sounds along the way.
Art and music will also bring you a lot of joy today.
Instead of watching television or wandering around on the internet, put one of your favorite CDs in the stereo and give it a listen while you cook, clean, or do some other type of meditative activity.

 Some of our readers today have been in:
Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Preston, Victoria, Australia
Rio De Janiero, Rio De Janiero, Brazil
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Moscow, Moskva, Russia
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Crawley, England, United Kingdom
Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Basauri, Pais Vasco, Spain
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Manila, Manila, Philippines
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Ashdod, Hamerkaz, Israel
Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, Australia
Delhi. Delhi, India
Munich, Bayern, Germany
Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
Georgetown, Demerara-Mahaica, Guyana
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
San Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador
Cork, Cork, Ireland
Candiac, Quebec, Canada
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Vienna, Wien, Austria
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
London, England, United Kingdom
Tallinn, Harjumma, Estonia
Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia
Cairo, Al Qaihra, Egypt
Kuwai, Al Kuwayt, Kuwait
As, Askershus, Norway
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

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 Cottonwood, Kingstree, Southern Pines, West Palm Beach and more!

Today is:

Today is Saturday, December 3, the 337th day of 2011.

There are 28 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

Ear Muff Day.

  

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Non Sequitur

President Obama's Weekly Address

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
December 3, 2011

This week, we learned that our economy added another 140,000 private sector jobs in November. Despite some strong headwinds this year, America’s economy has now created private sector jobs for the past 21 months in a row – almost three million new jobs in all, more than half a million of them in the past four months alone.
We need to keep this growth going and strengthen it. That’s why we’ve been fighting to pass a series of jobs bills through Congress – bills that independent economists say will create more jobs and grow the economy even faster. Because now is the time to step on the gas, not slam on the brakes.
Unfortunately, too many Republicans in Congress don’t seem to share that same sense of urgency. Over the last few months, they’ve said “no” to most of these jobs bills. “No” to putting teachers and firefighters back to work. “No” to putting construction workers back on the job. And this week, they actually said “no” to cutting taxes for middle-class families.
You see, last year, both parties came together to cut payroll taxes for the typical middle-class family by about $1,000. But that tax cut is set to expire at the end of this month. If that happens, that same family will see its taxes go up by $1,000. We can’t let that happen. In fact, I think we should cut taxes on working families and small business owners even more.
And we’re going to keep pushing Congress to make this happen. They shouldn’t go home for the holidays until they get this done. And if you agree with me, I could use your help.
We’ve set up a simple tax cut calculator on WhiteHouse.gov so that you can see exactly what the stakes are for your family. Try it out. Then let your members of Congress know where you stand.
Tell them not to vote to raise taxes on working Americans during the holidays. Tell them to put country before party. Put money back in the pockets of working Americans. Pass these tax cuts.
We’re all in this together. The more Americans succeed, the more America succeeds. And if we remember that and do what it takes to keep this economy growing and opportunity rising, then I’m confident that we’ll come out of this stronger than before.

Super Saturday

'Tis the Season:

 Bree Olson Trashes Homeless People

Homeless people in Indiana are feeling the wrath of Charlie Sheen's former goddess Bree Olsen -- who's BEGGING her community to stop giving money to beggars.

Olsen ignited a firestorm on Twitter earlier today when she posted a photo of a beggar -- and wrote, "STOP giving then money Fort Wayne! The more you give them money this place is gonna start looking like Skid Row."

She added, "Fort Wayne has PLENTY of room in the shelters and almost every church has food shelter and placement. No excuse for him or the others here."

Olsen -- a former porn star -- was bombarded with insults from people who don't see things her way. One person wrote, "Some people are more comfortable asking for help than sucking di*k for money."

Teacher tells 2nd-graders there's no Santa

When the 7-year-olds told her they knew about the North Pole because of its white-bearded inhabitant, she reportedly responded that Santa did not exist and that Christmas presents were bought by their parents.

Teacher reportedly tells 2nd-graders there's no Santa

The teacher is wrong.
And here's why:

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

The original Sun piece:

 

New School Policy Forbids Teachers From Failing Students Caught Cheating

Caught cheating? In my days, that's an automatic fail.
But not anymore, at least not in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada! Teachers there are forbidden to fail a student caught cheating:

The school board had defended the policy change, on grounds that cheating students could still be disciplined — including a suspension from school — and that a failing grade did not resolve whether the student had actually learned an assignment.
But critics said the policy helped coddle students, and gave a signal that cheating does not have serious consequences.

Full Story

One of the earliest known examples of math homework

It's stuff like this that makes me love archaeology. Turns out, we can trace the concept of math homework back to at least 2300 B.C.E., in ancient Mesopotamia.
In the early 20th century, German researchers found several clay tablets at the site of Šuruppak. (Today, that's basically the Iraqi city of Tell Fara.) Some of the tablets appear to be the remains of math instruction, including two different tablets that are working the same story problem.

A loose translation of the problem is: A granary. Each man receives 7 sila of grain. How many men? That is, the tablets concern a highly artificial problem and certainly present a mathematical exercise and not an archival document. The tablets give the statement of the problem and its answer (164571 men - expressed in the sexagesimal system S since we are counting men - with 3 sila left over). However, one of the tablets gives an incorrect solution. When analyzing these tablets, Marvin Powell commented famously that it was, "written by a bungler who did not know the front from the back of his tablet, did not know the difference between standard numerical notation and area notation, and succeeded in making half a dozen writing errors in as many lines."

That comes from a site set up by Duncan Mellville, a math professor at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. He's actually got a whole collection of essays on Mesopotamian mathematics. I am certain, that by posting this, I've just ruined somebody's productivity for, like, a week.


Editor's Note:The image is not THE cuneiform tablet in question.

Nerd Music

House of the Rising Sun

(YouTube link)

From YouTube member bd594, the same geek who brought us “Bohemian Rhapsody” by The Gadget Orchestra (presented below) a couple of years ago, we now have the classic “House of the Rising Sun” played by various vintage electronic gadgets. The instruments:

a. HP Scanjet 3P, Adaptec SCSI card and a computer powered by Ubuntu v9.10 OS as the Vocals. (hey, the scanner is old)
b. Atari 800XL with an EiCO Oscilloscope as the Organ
c. Texas instrument Ti-99/4A with a Tektronix Oscilloscope as the Guitar
d. Hard-drive powered by a PiC16F84A microcontroller as the bass drum and cymbal

  (YouTube link)

Can you get any geekier than Bohemian Rhapsody played by an orchestra of vintage gadgets? I think not. From the YouTube page:

Please note no effects or sampling was used. What you see is what you hear (does that even make sense?)
Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound
Texas Instruments TI-99/4a as lead guitar
8 Inch Floppy Disk as Bass
3.5 inch Harddrive as the gong
HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals. Please note I had to record the HP scanner 4 seperate times for each voice. I tried to buy 4 HP scanners but for some reason sellers on E-Bay expect you to pay $80-$100, I got mine for $30.

Impatient people have lower credit scores

Is there a psychological reason why people default on their mortgages? A new study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people with bad credit scores …

Continue Reading 

Why Can’t a Woman Shop More like a Man?

Not surprisingly, the way men and women shop online mirrors very closely how they shop offline, according to Andrew Robertson, CEO at advertising agency BBDO.

The differences in how men and women shop online mirror very closely how they shop offline, says BBDO CEO Andrew …

Men tend to be very task-focused when they shop online, Robertson said. "They don't shop, they hunt," he said, adding that they tend to make purchases at night.

Women, however, tend to think of shopping as "a journey" and they are more likely to buy during their lunch breaks between noon and 1 p.m., he said.

The result: When it comes time to make a purchase, men shop online for an average of 10 minutes before they complete their purchase, while a woman may take about 14 minutes or so - or about 40 percent longer.

So why can't a woman shop more like a man? The answer is: she can. But that tends to occur when the pressure is on to make a speedy purchase. For example, on a day like Black Friday or Cyber Monday the gender gap narrows, according to Robertson.

He thinks retailers need to ...

Read More

Art News

Lost Rembrandt portrait revealed

An unfinished self-portrait by the Dutch master Rembrandt is discovered under another painting using advanced scientific techniques.

Olympic Pole Dancing

A push for Olympic Pole Dancing

There's new push to make a practice most commonly seen at nightclubs and some fitness gyms an Olympic sport.

Daily Comic Relief

Jobs number out and very disappointing

UE went "down," but job growth was far too slow 

ADP was predicting 206,000 new jobs but the official number today is a mere 120,000 though the unemployment rate did drop. That does show you how bogus some of the numbers are because the jobs increase was well below the "break even" number for the month (i.e., below the number need to make the unemployment rate drop). As we can see from the UK example, harsh austerity isn't the answer, but maintaining the status quo isn't the answer either.

We can't afford the same old, same old but that's what we're stuck with today.

Job creation remained weak in the U.S. during November, with just 120,000 new positions created, though the unemployment rate slid to 8.6 percent, a government report showed Friday.

The rate fell from the previous month's 9.0 percent, a move which in part reflected a drop in those looking for jobs. The participation rate dropped to 64 percent, from 64.2 percent in October, representing 315,000 fewer job-seekers.

The actual employment level increased by 278,000. The total amount of those without a job fell to 13.3 million.

Note from John: The Atlantic's Derek Thompson explains how the unemployment rate could drop when the number of new jobs added wasn't enough to decrease the unemployment rate. The quick answer: They use two different metrics to measure the unemployment rate and the number of new jobs added:

There are about 150 million people with jobs in the U.S., so it's impossible to measure every hiring and firing perfectly. The government relies on two imperfect surveys. To get the jobs-added figure, we count hirings and firings on payrolls. To get the unemployment rate and the employment/population rate, we conduct a survey of U.S. households.

The household survey says we added 300,000 jobs last month. The other survey says the private sector added only 140,000 jobs in November. Half of those jobs came from retail (it's shopping season) and health care (which is always growing). Meanwhile, the government lost 20,000 jobs. The result was a 120,000 net gain.

So the "unemployment rate" is based on the household survey, which says we added 300,000 jobs last month, more than the break-even point (which is, depending who you talk to, somewhere between 200k and 300k jobs added in one month) - thus the unemployment rate went down.

But the official "jobs added" figure is based on the number of hirings and firing on payrolls that month. And the number for last month was an anemic 120,000 new jobs added, not enough to decrease the unemployment rate.  So, the numbers are a bit bogus.

Did you know ...

Occupy vs. tea party: what their twitter networks reveal.

Elvis Costello says don't buy my records, buy Satchmo instead.

Does anyone really think more tax cuts will cause executives to create more jobs?

Have you ever wondered why they get away with it?

 

This is why Faux News, Lush Dimbulb and their ilk aren't behind bars where they should be - but they will commit a criminal offense soon enough (OK, so maybe not quite soon enough for decent people) and will be silenced doing hard time in prison.