The Daily Drift

 

Yeah, just like that!

Today's readers have been in:

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Vantaa, Finland

Zagreb, Croatia

Antwerp, Belgium

Cape Town, South Africa

Tbilisi, Georgia

Warsaw, Poland

Johannesburg, South Africa

Athens, Greece

Barisal, Bangladesh

Krakow, Poland

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Islamabad, Pakistan

Singapore, Singapore

Santiago, Chile

Taipei, Taiwan

Reykjavik, Iceland

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Sofia, Bulgaria

Bratislava, Slovakia

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Groningen, Netherlands

 Kuala Lumpur, malaysia

Zurich, Switzerland

Dublin, Ireland

Nyon, Switzerland

Cork, Ireland

Bern, Switzerland

Taoyuan, Taiwan

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Petah Tikva, Israel

Limerick, Ireland

Tallinn, Estonia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Ampang, Malaysia

Karachi, Pakistan

Amman, Jordan

Bangkok, Thailand

Today in History

1770		Marie Antoinette marries future King Louis XVI of France.
1863		At the Battle of Champion's Hill, Union General Ulysess S. Grant repulses the Confederates, driving them into Vicksburg.
1868		President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during Senate impeachment, by one vote, cast by Edmund G. Ross.
1879		The Treaty of Gandamak between Russia and England sets up the Afghan state.
1920		Joan of Arc is canonized in Rome.
1928		The first Academy Awards are held in Hollywood.
1943		A specially trained and equipped Royal Air Force squadron destroys two river dams in Germany.
1951		Chinese Communist Forces launch second step, fifth-phase offensive and gain up to 20 miles of territory.
1960		A Big Four summit in Paris collapses because of the American U-2 spy plane affair.
1963		After 22 Earth orbits, Gordon Cooper returns to Earth, ending the last mission of Project Mercury.

And I Quote

"If the election were held today, Obama would win the veteran vote by as much as seven points over Romney, higher than his margin in the general population."
     ~  Margot Roosevelt, w/ Reuters   

So, Obama is ahead with the military, women, Blacks, Democrats, Hispanics, old people, catholics and the poor.
 
Where is this "tied race" they keep telling us about?

The shrub guilty of war crimes

Guilty of War Crimes

Former United States pretender George W Bush and seven of his associates have been found guilty of war crimes.

But their deeds are likely to go unpunished as the Kuala Lumpur war crimes tribunal which found them guilty is a "tribunal of conscience" and does not have the power to impose any punishment.
The shrub, former US vice pretender Dick Cheney, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former deputy assistant attorney general John Choon Yoo, former assistant attorney general Jay Bybee, and former counsels Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and William Haynes II were convicted as war criminals on Friday.

The five-panel tribunal unanimously delivered a guilty verdict on charges relating to their involvement of knowing that prisoners of war were being tortured while held in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo bay.

They were charged and convicted for torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of the complainant war crime victims, Kuala Lumpur foundation to criminalize war said in a statement - More

TSA pats-down Henry Kissinger

To be fair to the TSA, sometimes they get it right.

Kissinger, who will be 89 this month, was spotted on Friday at LaGuardia airport in New York, getting routed to the pat-down line while going through security. Freelance reporter Matthew Cole recognized him — something the TSA agent checking identification did not.

After asking Kissinger his name as he passed through the scanner, the agent sent him to be searched. Kissinger was in a wheelchair, Cole tells us, not because he couldn’t walk, but because, Cole surmised, it was a long walk to the gate. In the search area, Kissinger was subjected to what Cole called “the full Monty” of the usual groping. “He stood with his suit jacket off, and he was wearing suspenders. They gave him the full pat-down. None of the agents seemed to know who he was,” he says.

Finally they caught someone dangerous. Next up, Jamie Dimon.

Female terrorists’ bios belie stereotypes

Much like their male counterparts, female terrorists are likely to be educated, employed and native residents of the country where [...]

Continue Reading

Ex-Mexican official pleads guilty to aiding cartel

A former Mexican law enforcement official pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in San Diego to aiding members of a violent Tijuana-based drug cartel in a case prosecutors said included helping traffickers get away with a double homicide in 2010.

 More

Newlywed, still in wedding dress, found stabbed to death in tub

The last time her family saw Estrella Carrera, she had just gotten married to the father of her youngest child.

They started getting worried the next day when the 26-year-old Carrera failed to pick up the child, a 2-year-old boy, and her 9-year-old daughter. On Sunday, a sister called police.

 More

Random Photos

 

Got your attention!

The Vatican turns on Girl Scouts

The catholic church is not investigating the Girl Scouts for their sinfully delicious cookies, but rather for the organization's ties to nonprofits such as Medicins Sans Frontiers and other groups that teach safe-sex education.

 More

Think you understand the difference between "inpatient" and "outpatient?" Think again.

From an eye-opening op-ed column in the Chicago Tribune's Business section:

If you find yourself in a hospital for more than a few hours, make sure you find out if you have been admitted for inpatient care or if you are merely considered an outpatient under what is called "observation care."

If you haven't been admitted to the hospital, the costs you may have to pay out of pocket for medical services and drugs could be considerable. You could also be denied Medicare coverage for follow-up nursing care.

Patients getting emergency department services, observation services, outpatient surgery, lab tests or X-rays, but for whom the doctor hasn't written an order of admission, are considered outpatients even if they spend the night. Even if you stay in the hospital for a few days, don't assume you have been admitted. Ask about your status!

Why are hospitals doing this? In November 2010, the American Hospital Association warned that changes in policy by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services "are causing hospitals to place patients in observation status for more than 48 hours instead of admitting them."

The most unpleasant surprise for non-admitted patients is the cost of drugs. Susan Jaffe of Kaiser Health News recently documented examples of patients charged much more for common drugs than they would have paid at a local pharmacy. A patient in Boca Raton, Fla., for instance, was charged $71 for a blood pressure pill for which her neighborhood pharmacy charges 16 cents...

Naturally, an emergency patient isn't thinking about hospital status. However, being an inpatient can mean significant savings to you. So you should ask your doctor to see that you are admitted. In addition, do not hesitate to ask your insurer for assistance in appeals if you believe that the bill you received is incorrect.

More at the source, where there are several relevant links to Medicare resources.  If you or any of your family are likely to be admitted to a hospital, it may be financially very important to you to understand the difference between "observation care" and "admission." I think understanding the details isn't necessary - just knowing that sleeping overnight in the hospital doesn't necessarily mean you're an "inpatient."

This will be of interest only to readers in the United States.  Those of you from other countries probably don't have to worry about this kind of administrative bullshit.

JPMorgan "considering" taking back bonuses after unit loses $2bn

Why are they only considering and not actually doing? The problem on Wall Street has repeatedly been the failure to suffer any consequences from gambles that lose. Nobody on Wall Street ever had to pay back a penny of the bonus money they received for gambles that failed during the initial round of the crisis so what lesson was learned? None.
The banks lost and then gladly accepted lifestyle saving bailouts so they kept doing what they had been doing, knowing that there are never any negative consequences. Congress has too many chumps and politicians who are owned by Big Finance that find this acceptable, so the problem will keep repeating itself until someone steps in.

For Wall Street to truly reform, there have to be painful and serious consequences including clawbacks and perhaps prison terms. Somehow I'm not confident in either but would love to be surprised.

Bloomberg:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the biggest U.S. bank, will consider reclaiming incentive pay from employees including former Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew after her unit had a $2 billion trading loss, said two senior executives.

The lender can cancel stock awards or demand they be repaid if an employee “engages in conduct that causes material financial or reputational harm,” JPMorgan said in its annual proxy statement. The company will claw back pay if it’s appropriate, said one of the executives, who asked not to be identified because no decisions have been made.

Dimon & JPMorgan execs ignored warnings of risk

Of course they did. For starters, let's recognize that the insiders and experts who drooled over Dimon and thought he was a genius at risk were either drunk from his parties or complete idiots. His former chief investment officer who was supposed to be another risk expert was called a "trader at heart" which means she loved risk. Putting a "trader at heart" in charge of risk is asking for trouble and it's an obvious conflict of interest.

The problems that caused the $2 billion and counting loss at JPMorgan are the same as what tripped up other Wall Street banks. When your compensation plans reward high return and don't brutally punish high loss, your team is going to be playing with fire. When management goes along with the game for years - because they're also getting the mega-bonuses and living large - there will always be a problem. Always.

Now that it's coming out that JPMorgan was warned about risky trades since (at least) 2007, can we stop this nonsense of talking about Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan as risk experts? JPMorgan was more lucky than smart. More on the years or risky trading and bullying of risk managers at the NY Times:

In the years leading up to JPMorgan Chase’s $2 billion trading loss, risk managers and some senior investment bankers raised concerns that the bank was making increasingly large investments involving complex trades that were hard to understand, the New York Times reports.

But even as the size of the bets climbed steadily, these former employees say, their concerns about the dangers were ignored or dismissed.

An increased appetite for such trades had the approval of the upper echelons of the bank, including Jamie Dimon, the chief executive, current and former employees said.

Looks matter more than reputation when it comes to trusting people with our money

Our decisions to trust people with our money are based more on how they look then how they behave, according [...]

Continue Reading

The 250th anniversary of the sandwich

This year is the 250th anniversary of the sandwich. According to the British Sandwich Association, John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, was playing cards when he requested meat between pieces of bread so he could easily eat without interrupting the game. From BBC News:

Foodsmith Sam Bompas said the Earl of Sandwich was eating with his fingers "when cutlery was de rigueur".
"Eating of record at the time was service á la française where all the food went on the table at the same time and there was an elaborate ritual of carving, aided by troops of servants," said Mr Bompas.
"What you have with the sandwich is the shock of informality. He was a daring man to eat in such a way coming from his social background."

"Sandwich celebrates 250th anniversary of the sandwich"

World's most expensive hot dog costs $1,501

The world's most expensive hot dog is made from premium beef and topped with lobster tail, saffron aioli and gold flakes.

 More

New Zealanders puzzled by mystery gifts from Paris

Police are investigating a series of mysterious packages sent from Paris to residents along New Zealand's remote west coast. At least four unexpected parcels were delivered to homes on the South Island in the last fortnight, all with Parisian post marks, police said. They contained cash – a €50 note (£40) was in one, a New Zealand $100 note (£48) in another – and a special hair-themed gift: in three cases a brand new hairdryer, in the other a set of hair clippers.

The parcels included handwritten notes, two of which had the words "thank you for being a true friend" scrawled in a mix of lower and upper case letters. There was no obvious link between the recipients, who were left baffled by the gifts, said police. Police said early on Monday the parcels "appeared to simply be a goodwill gesture", but by the afternoon they had begun to suspect more sinister motives.

In a press conference in Greymouth, police suggested the apparently random acts of long-distance kindness could in fact have been a dry run for a money-laundering or drug-trafficking operation. Senior Sergeant Allyson Ealam said New Zealand customs and Interpol had been engaged to help track down the sender of the packages. "We have already been told that the return addresses on each of the parcels exist and we are now checking the names of the senders," she said. Each package had a different return address, she added.

Experts had failed to find any concealed drugs in the parcels, while fingerprints had been taken from the packaging. It was unlikely to be an elaborate marketing stunt, she said. "They all did the right thing by contacting police about their surprise parcels. Maybe they have come from someone who won the lottery over there. Or it could be that it's a nice prank."

Jordan cave on CouchSurfing.com

Ghassab Al-Bedoul, 42, offers up his cave in Petra, Jordan, for visitors on CouchSurfing.com. It looks like a fantastic experience. In the four years he's been registered on the site, Al-Bedoul says he's hosted more than 1,000 people. 

From CNN:

The cave, which is no larger than 150 square feet, is uniquely modern. A row of solar-powered lights, a gift from a couch surfer, encircles the front of the cave entrance. When the sun sets past the Petra mountains, they are the only visible lights.
The outside of the cave is hard stone, but Al-Bedoul has done some decorating on the inside. The roof is painted black with stars circling the room. Candlelight glows just bright enough to see some of the traditional Jordanian paintings he's placed inside; not included in that collection is the large Bob Marley poster near the cave's entrance…
When asking Al-Bedoul for the washrooms, he points to the mountains, and says, "far away please."

"Couch surfing a cave in southern Jordan"

Valley of Balls

Mysterious spherical rocks in the semi-desert of western Kazakhstan

Close to the town of Shetpe in Western Kazakhstan lies the Valley of Balls – or Torysh, as it is known in Kazakh. It consists of numerous ball-like rock formations strewn across a wide range of steppe land. The balls range in size from tiny marble-like rocks to huge boulders the size of a car.

The phenomenon is poorly researched, but there could be a number of geological explanations from megaspherulites - crystalline balls formed in volcanic ash and then revealed by weathering - to cannonball concretions - a process where sediment accumulates around a harder core - to spherical weathering wherein the conditions are just right to erode rocks into spherical form. In this case due to the range of sizes the most likely explanation is that of spherulite formation.

Visible from the Valley is Sherkala (Lion Rock), a stunning 332m white and ochre chalk outcrop with numerous fissures along its rim and even more rock formations at its foot. Close by are also the scant ruins of the Silk Road town Kyzylkala.

More

Meet the New Hip Car: The Crown Vic

Ah, the Crown Vic. It's synonymous with the police car, grandpa's car .. and now, just as Ford has stopped production, the Crown Victoria is becoming a very hip car. Gale Holland of the Los Angeles Times explains:

Like a cockroach, however, the Crown Vic is resilient. It's already begun quietly colonizing civilian car culture, notably in Los Angeles County, where the number now in private hands — 38,000 — is second only to that in metropolitan New York, according to auto information company Edmunds.com.
This is confounding on multiple counts. The Crown Vic, the last of the roomy, rear-drive American sedans, is the ultimate grandma and grandpa car. Like the trucker cap before it, is irony its appeal?
The Crown Vic is dead. Long live the Crown Vic.
Perhaps the mystique of the Crown Vic can be summed up in this comment by a car forum commenter: "It just ... tickles me that there's a group about an ex-police vehicle modified for almost the exact opposite type of drivers and purposes."

More