The Daily Drift

Welcome the to Weekend Expanded Edition of  Carolina Naturally.

Enough Said ...!

 

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Happiness  ... !

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Today in History

1306		King Wenceslas of Poland is murdered.
1570		Charles IX of France signs the Treaty of St. Germain, ending the third war of religion and giving religious freedom to the Huguenots.
1636		The invading armies of Spain, Austria and Bavaria are stopped at the village of St.-Jean-de-Losne, only 50 miles from France.
1648		Ibrahim, the sultan of Istanbul, is thrown into prison, then assassinated.
1786		Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michael-Gabriel Baccard become the first men to climb Mont Blanc in France.
1844		Brigham Young is chosen to head the mormon cult, succeeding Joseph Smith.
1863		Confederate President Jefferson Davis refuses General Robert E. Lee’s resignation.
1876		Thomas Edison patents the mimeograph.
1899		The first household refrigerating machine is patented.
1925		The first national congress of the Ku Klux Klan opens.
1937		The Japanese Army occupies Beijing.
1940		The German Luftwaffe attacks Great Britain for the first time, begining the Battle of Britain.
1942		U.S. Marines capture the Japanese airstrip on Guadalcanal.
1944		U.S. forces complete the capture of the Marianas Islands.
1945		The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
1950		U.S. troops repel the first North Korean attempt to overrun them at the battle of Naktong Bulge, which continued for 10 days.
1963		England’s "Great Train Robbery;" 2.6 million pounds ($7.3 million) is stolen
1974		President Richard Nixon resigns from the presidency as a result of the Watergate scandal.
1978		Pioneer-Venus 2 launched to probe the atmosphere of Venus.
1979		Iraq’s president Saddam Hussein executes 22 political opponents.
1983		Brigadier General Efrain Rios Montt is deposed as president of Guatemala in the country’s second military coup in 17 months.
1988		Angola, Cuba and South Africa sign cease-fire treaty in the border war that began in 1966.
1989		NASA Space Shuttle Columbia begins its eighth flight, NASA’s 30th shuttle mission.
1990		Iraq annexes the state of Kuwait as its 19th province, six days after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait.
2000		Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley raised to surface, 136 years after it sank following its successful attack on USS Housatonic in the outer harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
2007		An EF2 tornado hits Brooklyn, New York, the first in that borough since 1889.
2008		Georgia invades South Ossetia, touching off a five-day war between Georgia and Russia.

Jon Stewart’s Final Message To Fox: ‘Adios, Motherfuckers’

This is why we love and will miss Jon Stewart.
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The neuroscience of meditation — and the virtues of just shutting up

In theory, having more real-time data about our bodies means we can better mold them according to our will. But in practice, it may not be working out that way.

Just shut up

Harvard Researchers Link Spicy Food to Lower Risk of Death

Break out the chile peppers! 

A Harvard study finds that daily consumers of spicy food have a 14% lower risk of death.
The study, which is published in the August 4th edition of the journal BMJ, also finds that consumers of spicy food have a lower chance of dying from heart disease, cancer and respiratory diseases.
Researchers followed nearly 500,000 registrants of the China Kadoore Biobank for seven years, tracking their eating habits and mortality rate. Among the nearly 20,000 deaths reported during the study, fewer came from regular consumers of spicy food.
Fresh and dried chili peppers were among the most commonly consumed spices by study participants. Previous research has suggested that capsaicin, a compound found in some peppers, could reduce obesity, inflammation and cancer rates, although researchers have not yet definitively linked the compound to lower mortality rates.
Your chile-infused tequila, however, might not be quite as beneficial: researchers indicate that alcohol consumers had a slightly higher mortality rate than their sober counterparts.
"The findings are highly novel," remarked study co-lead author Lu Qi. "To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first reporting a link between spicy food intake and mortality."

Click here for more information from Harvard

Australia walks away from Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal talks

The world’s biggest regional trade deal – Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – is still within reach despite Australia walking away empty-handed from the latest talks, the federal government says.

The trade minister, Andrew Robb, confirmed that a conclusion was not be reached on the $200bn deal during the latest round of negotiations in Hawaii.
“Australia had made some excellent progress but unfortunately some difficult issues were not resolved,” he said on Saturday.
Robb has laid the blame for the failure to come to an agreement with the “big four” economies of the US, Canada, Japan and Mexico. “The sad thing is, 98% is concluded,” he said.
“While we didn’t quite get there, we are definitely on the cusp.”
Concerns around automotives, data protection of biologics, dairy and sugar remain sticking points, but they are not impossible to resolve, Robb said.
“From my reading, the issues are not intractable and there remains a real determination to conclude the TPP among all parties.”
Farmers were disappointed by the outcome but said it was important to get a good deal. National Farmers Federation deputy chief Tony Mahar told Sky News: “We really hope that we can get a successful agreement for farmers within the next few months.”
Robb faces a tussle at home over the deal, with Nationals MPs demanding a decent deal for sugar farmers. Half a dozen federal Nationals indicated they would cross the floor when the agreement comes before the parliament if only a token result is achieved.
The US allows sugar imports based on a quota system, with Australian cane farmers now allowed to send about 100,000 tonnes there a year. The farmers would like to raise this to more than 500,000 tonnes but the Americans are holding out.
The agreement involves 12 nations including the US, New Zealand, Japan and Canada, and covers about 40% of the global economy. Talks are expected to resume in November.
Failure to seal the agreement will be a setback for the US president, Barack Obama, given the trade pact’s stance as the economic arm of the administration’s pivot to Asia and an opportunity to balance out China’s influence in the region.
The talks, which drew about 650 negotiators, 150 journalists and hundreds of stakeholders to the Hawaiian island of Maui, had been billed as the last chance to get a deal in time to pass the US Congress this year, before 2016 presidential elections muddy the waters.
The deal seeks to meld bilateral questions of market access for exports with one-size-fits-all standards on issues ranging from workers’ rights to environmental protection and dispute settlement between governments and foreign investors.
Negotiators from the 12 TPP members had worked through the night and officials said great strides were made in many contentious areas.

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What Do the Richest People in America All Have in Common?

A look at the common traits of the richest Americans. .

There are 513 billionaires in America, according to Forbes, though only 400 of those make its annual list of the richest Americans. It's just one of the many signs that the rich just keep getting richer. In fact, the wealth of the top 400 richest Americans totaled an astounding $2.29 trillion last year, which is $270 billion higher than the year before. Meanwhile, the average member of that list has a net worth of $5.7 billion, which is $700 million more than the previous year. Suffice it to say, the richest Americans are better off than they have ever been.
Strangely familiar stories
Driving their staggering net worth is one undeniably common trait. They each own business assets that have become "compounding machines," as Warren Buffett likes to call them. Some of them started these businesses themselves, while others inherited or acquired their wealth creating businesses. What is clear from looking over the list is that no one on the list became a billionaire by being a salaried employee, unless of course that salary carried with it copious stock options giving them an outsized ownership stake in the business.

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Netflix Announces ALL Employees Can Take A Year Paid Leave To Raise A New Child

Netflix is giving an amazing perk to its employees: The gift of being able to watch their child grow up.

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Neil DeGrasse Tyson Has The Absolute Perfect Comeback For Racists Who Compare Black People To Monkeys

Look in the mirror before comparing black people to apes.

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Woman claims to have photographed fabled Lizard Man

A fabled swamp creature known as the Lizard Man, of Bishopville in Lee County, South Carolina, appears to have surfaced again on Sunday afternoon. Sarah, a Sumter woman who says she went to church with a friend on Sunday morning, stepped out of the sanctuary to see the Lizard Man running along the tree line.

So she took a picture with her phone. "My hand to God, I am not making this up," she said. "I'm so excited!" She says they were just a mile or so from Scape Ore Swamp, the area where most of the Lizard Man sightings over the last 30 years have been focused. The first sighting was in the summer of 1988.
Known as the Davis sighting for the witness Christopher Davis, the then-17-year-old Davis stopped on a road bordering the Scape Ore Swamp to change a flat tire at 2am. He heard noises, turned to see a 7-foot beast charging at him, so he ran for the safety of his car. The Lizard Man jumped on the roof as Davis tried to drive away. There were scratch marks on the roof and one of the side mirror had been damaged.
Since then the Lizard Man sightings have trailed off. One of the last alleged encounter with the Lizard Man came in 2011 when a Bishopville couple reported their car had been mauled overnight. There were teeth marks in in the metal and saliva coating several discarded parts. There have been plaster casts of the mythical beast's claw. There have been million-dollar rewards to capture the Lizard Man alive. But the creature has not been seen in more than a decade - until now.

Blame The FDA For Your Sunburn

Many people are furious with Jessica Alba, but they should really look to the FDA.

This Economist Just Solved Income Inequality In One Simple, Easy To Understand Facebook Post

It really could be this simple, and if imposed, corporations will be rushing to raise wages as fast as they can.

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Denver man charged with seven felonies for handing out ‘jury nullification’ fliers outside courthouse

Denver man charged with seven felonies for handing out ‘jury nullification’ fliers outside courthouse

A Denver man has been charged with multiple felonies after he was caught distributing fliers to educate potential jurors about the practice of “jury nullification.”

NC county commissioner storms out of meeting during muslim prayer

NC county commissioner storms out of meeting during muslim prayer: ‘I don’t need no Arab telling me what to do’

Liars Behind Planned Parenthood Videos Linked To Antiabortionist Terror Group

These ties really aren’t that surprising – just more sensationalism from a group that exists on extremist tactics.

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Florida neighborhood watchman shoots suspicious 16-year-old boy, neighbors say it’s ‘awesome’

Florida neighborhood watchman shoots suspicious 16-year-old boy, neighbors say it’s ‘awesome’

Investigators in Florida said this week that a Lake County neighborhood watch volunteer had a right to use deadly force after he shot a 16-year-old boy who he claimed was robbing a neighbor’s home.

For the second time this week, white man opens fire on Jade Helm training site in Mississippi

For the second time this week, white man opens fire on Jade Helm training site in Mississippi

A man matching the same description as yesterday’s shooter, white and driving a red or maroon pickup truck, opened fire around 8 a.m. Wednesday, the Clarion-Ledger reports.

Anti-‘Jade Helm 15' nuts arrested in North Carolina after hoarding weapons and making bombs

Anti-‘Jade Helm 15' nuts arrested in North Carolina after hoarding weapons and making bombs

Three idiots were arrested in Gaston County, North Carolina after amassing an arsenal and making their own bombs out of fear that the government was about to enact martial law.

Anti-Government Terrorists Arrested For Building Bombs, Won’t Be Called Terrorists

Will it be called what it is – terrorism?
Of course not.
They’re white.
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Alabama Cop Plotted To Murder Black Man, Hide Evidence — Still On Patrol Duty

Forget fired, why isn’t this guy in jail?
Oh, I know.
He’s a white cop, and his victim is a black man.
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