The Daily Drift

The horror within ...

Carolina Naturally is read in 194 countries around the world daily.
 

How to drive a woman insane ... !




Today is National Chocolates Day 

 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Bismarck, Laguna Woods, Poplar Bluff, Harwood Heights, Vincennes, Red Oak, Azusa and West Roxbury, United States

Lima, Peru

Santiago, Chile

Mississauga, Montreal, Ottawa, Britannia, Thunder Bay, Kenora, Chatham, Sioux Lookout and Guelph, Canada

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Obizaba, Mexico

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Portmore, Jamaica

Europe

Bern, Switzerland

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ankara, Turkey

Warsaw and Szczecin, Poland

Frankfurt Am Main, Rostock, Nuremberg, Berlin and Aalen, Germany

Paris, Mont-Saint-Aignan and Cerny, France

Ivera, Ravenna, Rome, Padova and Milan, Italy

Madrid, Zeanuri, Cadiz and Teo, Spain

Moscow, Chelyabinsk and Ryazin, Russia

London and Rugby, England

Oslo, Norway

Kista, Sweden

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Luttans'k and Zhovti Vody, Ukraine

Dublin, Ireland

Iasi, Romania

Skanderborg, Denmark

Groningen, Netherlands

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Brussels, Belgium

Vrilissia, Greece

Riga, Latvia

Helsinki, Finland

Elbasan, Albania

Asia

Delhi, New Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Shillong, Jamshedpur, Thiruvananthapuram and Vishakhapatam, India

Islamabad, Pakistan

Riyadh and Al Khubar, Saudi Arabia

Kathmandu, Nepal

Ahvaz, Esfahan and Drumiyeh, Iran

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Serpong, Indonesia

Beirut, Lebanon

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Doha, Qatar

Africa

Cairo, Egypt

Cape Town, South Africa

Tangier, Morocco

Pacific

Surrey Hills, Sydney, Melbourne and Sunshine, Australia

Today in History

312		Constantine the Great defeats Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius at the Mulvian Bridge.
969		After a prolonged siege, the Byzantines end 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch.
1216		Henry III of England is crowned.
1628		After a fifteen-month siege, the Huguenot town of La Rochelle surrenders to royal forces.
1636		Harvard College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, is founded in Cambridge, Mass.
1768		Germans and Acadians join French Creoles in their armed revolt against the Spanish governor of New Orleans.
1793		Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin, a machine which cleans the tight-clinging seeds from short-staple cotton easily and effectively–a job which was previously done by hand.
1863		In a rare night attack, Confederates under Gen. James Longstreet attack a Federal force near Chattanooga, Tennessee, hoping to cut their supply line, the "cracker line." They fail.
1886		The Statue of Liberty, originally named Liberty Enlightening the World, is dedicated at Liberty Island, N. Y., formerly Bedloe's Island, by President Grover Cleveland
1901		Race riots sparked by Booker T. Washington's visit to the White House kill 34.
1904		The St. Louis police try a new investigation method: fingerprints.
1914		The German cruiser Emden, disguised as a British ship, steams into Penang Harbor near Malaya and sinks the Russian light cruiser Zhemchug.
1914		George Eastman announces the invention of the color photographic process.
1919		Over President Wilson's veto, Congress passes the National Prohibition Act, or Volstead Act, named after its promoter, Congressman Andrew J. Volstead. It provides enforcement guidelines for the Prohibition Amendment.
1927		Pan American Airways launches the first scheduled international flight.
1940		Italy invades Greece, launching six divisions on four fronts from occupied Albania.
1944		The first B-29 Superfortress bomber mission flies from the airfields in the Mariana Islands in a strike against the Japanese base at Truk.
1960		In a note to the OAS (Organization of American States), the United States charges that Cuba has been receiving substantial quantities of arms and numbers of military technicians" from the Soviet bloc.
1962		Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders Soviet missiles removed from Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1965		Construction completed on St. Louis Arch; at 630 feet (192m), it is the world's tallest arch.
1971		Britain launches the satellite Prospero into orbit, using a Black Arrow carrier rocket; this is the first and so far (2013) only British satellite launched by a British rocket.
1982		The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party wins election, giving Spain its first Socialist government since the death of right-wing President Francisco Franco.
2005		Libby "Scooter" Lewis, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, resigns after being indicted for "outing" CIA agent Valerie Plame.
2007		Argentina elects its first woman president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Non Sequitur

World's Best Place to Be a Woman

by Beth Greenfield

 

Iceland? Don't mind if I do
While the United States endlessly debates the notion of women having it all, Iceland has simply made it a reality. That’s the conclusion, at least, of the annual Global Gender Gap Report, released by the World Economic Forum this week. Iceland tops the list of 136 countries ranked in terms of gender equality for the fifth year in a row — followed by fellow Nordic countries Finland, Norway, and Sweden — and a big part of the reason is the attainable work-life balance that exists there. Unlike in the United States, which came in at No. 23.
“These [Nordic] economies have made it possible for parents to combine work and family, resulting in high female employment, more shared participation in childcare, more equitable distribution of labor at home, better work-life balance for both women and men and in some cases a boost to declining fertility rates,” the near-400-page report notes. “Policies in some of these countries include mandatory paternal leave in combination with maternity leave, generous federally mandated parental leave benefits provided by a combination of social insurance funds and employers, tax incentives, and post-maternity re-entry programs.”
Add to that dreaminess the fact that all Nordic countries achieved a near-100-percent literacy rate for both sexes decades ago — and that there are top-down approaches to promoting women’s leadership (including a law in Norway requiring publicly listed companies to have at least 40 percent of each sex on their boards) — and you may just want to pack some warm sweaters and hop a flight to the land of Björk and skyr.
The report, issued annually since 2006, measures a range of issues to determine its rankings: health, education, workforce participation, political involvement, and global competitiveness. And it’s a good reminder that gender parity is just about not only equal rights, but also efficiency.
“Many countries have closed the gender gap in education, for example, but gender-based barriers to employment minimize their returns on that investment; their highly educated women aren't working,” notes Foreign Policy. “The highest ranking countries in the index have figured out how to maximize returns on their investment in women, and are consequently more economically competitive, have higher incomes, and higher rates of development.”
Rounding out the ranking's top 10 are the Philippines, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland and Nicaragua.
Meanwhile, the United States is behind Cuba, Canada, and the African country of Burundi. That’s partly because of not being able to close wage gaps and participation gaps when it comes to senior and leadership positions, as well as a lack of laws mandating maternity leave, although the United States has, thank goodness, “fully closed its gender gap in education and health,” the report notes.
America has some serious work to do for women—and not only according to this particular ranking. Earlier this year, the annual Save the World’s Mothers report ranked 176 countries based on five indicators of a mother’s well-being: the risk of maternal mortality, mortality rate of children under 5, educational status, economic status and political participation. The Nordic countries swept here, as well, followed by Spain, Belgium, and Germany. The United States came in at a barely respectable No. 30 due to poor scores in mortality rates (both child and mother), as well as political status, as compared with other highly developed nations.
Earlier this year, the Economist created a “glass-ceiling index,” in honor of International Women’s Day, which judged 26 countries based on data including wage gaps, male-female ratios and leadership positions. New Zealand topped that list, followed by Norway and Sweden, while the United States slid in at No. 12, just behind France.
It’s incredibly important to remember and be grateful that we’re not living in Chad, Pakistan or Yemen, which came in dead last in the Global Gender Gap Report, or in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which ranked last in the Save the World’s Mothers list. But still, icy climates are suddenly looking better and better…

Did you know ...

That the Kansas supreme court suspends ex-attorney general over abortion investigations

That Medicare had a messy roll out, too

That a study shows musicians think more accurately than the rest of us

That wingnuts live not on a bubble, but in a hall of mirrors

The truth be told

Texas's "texting judge" resigns, admitting she texted instructions to prosecutors

Third generation Texas judge Elizabeth E. Coker has resigned just ahead of being investigated for misconduct; she admits that she texted instructions to prosecutors in order to help them convict the defendants whose cases she heard. She also is accused of other indiscretions, including meeting with jurors and attempting to influence them to convict defendants. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct suggests that she lied to them as well, perjuring herself. She's out of a job, but apparently will face no criminal or civil sanctions for her crimes; nor will the victims whose trials she perverted be freed.

“…the Commission investigated claims that Judge Coker allegedly engaged in other improper ex parte communications and meetings with Jones, other members or the Polk County District Attorney’s Office, the San Jacinto County District Attorney, and certain defense attorneys regarding various cases pending in her court; Judge Coker allegedly exhibited a bias in favor of certain attorneys and a prejudice against others in both her judicial rulings and her court appointments: and .Judge Coker allegedly met with jurors in an inappropriate manner, outside the presence of counsel, while the jurors were deliberating in one or more criminal trials;”
The agreement, signed by Coker on October 19, further suggests the Committee believes she committed additional indiscretions during the course of their highly publicized investigation.
“…the Commission also expressed concerns that Judge Coker discussed the Commission’s investigation and Judge Coker’s written responses to the investigation with a material witness prior to that witness’ testimony before the Commission in an apparent attempt to influence that witness, and that the judge may not have been candid and truthful in her testimony before the Commission when questioned about her contact with the witness;”

Texting Judge Not LOL– Coker is OUT!

Ex-NSA chief's "off the record" interview wasn't

Ex-NSA chief and current dumbass Michael Hayden gave "off the record" interviews, trashing the current administration, on a public train. His remarks were, accordingly, reported live on Twitter by a fellow traveler in a nearby seat. Hayden was a good sport, though, subsequently offering tweeter Tom Matzzie his own face-to-face interview. 

The truth hurts

Manchester cops trumpet seized "3D printed gun" - turns out to be parts for a 3D printer

Police in Manchester, UK made a huge show out of having seized a "3D printed gun." Then, it turned out that they'd just seized parts for a 3D printer. But it's still very scary, as Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood copsplains: it might have been a 3D printed gun, and they had "intelligence" about a 3D printed gun, and if we search the computers we stole, we might find plans for a 3D printed gun, and also, our botched, humiliating cockup "opens up a wider debate about the emerging threat these next generation of weapons might pose."
Thanks, Officer Hypothetical, for saving us from this dire threat!

"We need to be absolutely clear that at that this stage, we cannot categorically say we have recovered the component parts for a 3D gun.
What we have seized are items that need further forensic testing by national ballistics experts to establish whether they can be used in the construction of a genuine, viable firearm.
We will also be conducting a thorough analysis of computers we have recovered to establish any evidence of a blueprint on how to construct such a weapon.
Clearly the fact we have seized a 3D printer and have intelligence about the possible production of a weapon using this technology is of concern. It prudent we establish exactly what these parts can be used for and whether they pose any threat.
What this has also done is open up a wider debate about the emerging threat these next generation of weapons might pose.
The worrying thing is for me is that these printers can be used to make certain components of guns, while others can be legitimately ordered over the Internet without arousing suspicion. When put together, this could allow a person to construct a firearm in their own home.
Thanks to Challenger, which is the biggest ever multi-agency response to organized crime in Greater Manchester's history, we now have even greater resources to combat any emerging threats posed by organized criminal gangs, which may include the production of these weapons.Under Challenger we will a multi-agency action plan for every single organized crime group in Manchester and we will target these networks from every possible angle, hitting them where it hurts."

3D-printed 'gun parts' seized in UK raid may be spare parts for a printer (update)

Prince Charles denies likening kingship to prison

Prince Charles is doing the "taken out of context" dance after an anonymous aide compared his becoming King to "the prison shades" closing on his life.
'A Clarence House spokesman said: "This is not the Prince of Wales's view and should not be attributed to him as he did not say these words,' reported the BBC. '"The prince has dutifully supported the Queen all his life and his official duties and charitable work have always run in parallel."'
Prince Charles is like his father, except that his off-the-cuff remarks, instead of being shocking or offense, are merely prelude to another week of Prince Charles's stuttering, scoffing self-humiliation.

Ziggy

Man returned to burning house to rescue his beer

Officials are still investigating the cause of a house fire that broke out in Columbus, Georgia, on Thursday afternoon, but residents are blaming a newly installed water heater.

Builder who loved a joke buried with his boots

A builder who loved a joke was given a fitting send off, with a pair of work boots stuck on the bottom of his coffin to make it look as though his feet were hanging out.

Avid Stockport County supporter Jason Calvert, 40, from Cheadle Heath, suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage earlier this month.

He had no life insurance so his family were about to take a loan out to pay for his funeral.

But fellow County fans, Jason’s work colleagues and friends raised £3,500 in just two weeks to pay for the service which took place on Monday.

Bingo hall brawl leads to lifetime nationwide ban for six women

Police were called and six women given a lifetime nationwide ban after a mass fight broke out at Torquay Gala Bingo hall. The "vicious" brawl erupted between two groups of ladies who began arguing during a game. Shocked players watched in amazement as an argument between six women carried on during the game then exploded into violence. Witnesses described seeing somebody sent flying from a chair while another nursed a bloody nose.
A spokesman for Gala Bingo said: "We can confirm there was an incident at our club on October 17. Gala Bingo have a zero tolerance towards any violence in our clubs and the members involved will be barred from our clubs." One shocked player said after the bingo brawl: "It's not the sort of thing you expect to see at the bingo. It was vicious." An ambulance was also sent to the bingo hall in Temperance Street after reports the violent dispute had spilled into the foyer. A witness said: "There had been a disagreement in the foyer before we started playing.

"The game was interrupted by these two groups talking and arguing. The next thing I saw was one girl practically flying off her chair. I don't know if it was because somebody had punched her or she was going for somebody else. There was another woman who looked like she was having a panic attack. It was a big scuffle but we couldn't tell what it was all about or what was really happening. It carried on in the foyer and then the police were called." The woman, in her 20s, is thought to have suffered a bloody nose in the alleged altercation.

It is not known what caused the fight but police say it involved about six females. A police spokesman said: "The initial report was of a fight in the main part of the premises which staff were struggling to control. When police arrived it was clear there had been some sort of dispute but all the parties were dispersed." The ambulance service confirmed it had treated two women, one with facial injuries. Nobody required hospital treatment. Police said no arrests had been made but they were still investigating what had happened.

Random Photos

The Bookmobile

The Library On Wheels Of Yesteryear

Long before Amazon was bringing books to your doorstep, there was the Bookmobile. A travelling library often used to provide books to villages and city suburbs that had no library buildings, the bookmobile went from a simple horse-drawn cart in the 19th century to large customised vehicles that became part of American culture and reached their height of popularity in the mid-twentieth century.

Step Inside The Russian Spacesuit Factory

The town of Tomilino, 16 miles southeast of Moscow, is rather unassuming about its role in the history of space exploration. A snack kiosk and a shaky sign for a bus stop are about all there is to greet a visitor getting off the commuter train.

There is no statue of the world's first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, in his bright-orange spacesuit waving to earthlings after his successful landing. But that's a shame, because Tomilino is the home of the world's few workshops where space travelers can get their outfits.

What's The Origin Of The Word Dude?

Dude is an American English slang term for an individual. It typically applies to males, although the word can encompass all genders. Dude is an old term, recognized by multiple generations although potentially with slightly different meanings.

From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a person who dressed in an extremely fashion-forward manner or a citified person who was visiting a rural location but stuck out. In the 1960s, dude evolved to mean companion, a meaning that slipped into mainstream American slang in the 1970s. Current slang retains at least some use of all three of these common meanings.

How Did Ancient Greek Music Sound?

It is often forgotten that the writings at the root of Western literature - the epics of Homer, the love-poems of Sappho, the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides - were all, originally, music. Dating from around 750 to 400 BC, they were composed to be sung in whole or part to the accompaniment of the lyre, reed-pipes, and percussion instruments.

The music of ancient Greece, unheard for thousands of years, is being brought back to life by Armand D'Angour, a musician and tutor in classics at Oxford University.