The Daily Drift

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Today in History

1072		Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger take Palermo in Sicily.
1645		The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, is beheaded on Tower Hill, accused of acting as an enemy of the British Parliament.
1724		King Philip V shocks all of Europe when he abdicates his throne in favor of his eldest son, Louis.
1811		An uprising of over 400 slaves is put down in New Orleans. Sixty-six blacks are killed and their heads are strung up along the roads of the city.
1847		General Stephen Kearny and Commodore Robert Stockton retake Los Angeles in the last California battle of the Mexican War.
1861		Florida secedes from the Union.
1863		London’s Underground begins operations.
1870		John D. Rockefeller and his brother William establish the Standard Oil Company of Ohio.
1899		Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo renounces the Treaty of Paris, which annexed the Philippines to the United States.
1901		The Automobile Club of America installs signs on major highways.
1903		Argentina bans the importation of American beef because of sanitation problems.
1911		Two German cruisers, the Emden and the Nurnberg, suppress a native revolt on island of Ponape in the Caroline Islands in the Pacific when they fire on the island and land troops.
1912		The world’s first flying-boat airplane, designed by Glenn Curtiss, makes its maiden flight at Hammondsport.
1917		Germany is rebuked as the Entente officially rejects a proposal for peace talks and demands the return of occupied territories from Germany.
1918		In Washington, the House of Representatives passes legislation for women’s suffrage.
1920		The Treaty of Versailles goes into effect.
1923		The United States withdraws its last troops from Germany.
1940		German planes attack 12 ships off the British coast; sinking 3 ships and killing 35 people.
1941		The Soviets and Germany agree on the East European borders and the exchange of industrial equipment.
1946		Chiang Kai-shek and the Yenan Communist forces halt fighting in China.
1964		Panama breaks ties with the U.S. and demands a revision of the canal treaty.
1984		The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations for the first time in 117 years.
1985		Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes President of Nicaragua, vowing to continue the country’s transformation to a socialist state with close ties to the USSR and Cuba.
2007		A general strike begins in Guinea; eventually, it will lead to the resignation of the country’s president, Lansana Conte.

Shostakovich's Symphony Played by a Starving Orchestra

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his seventh symphony during World War II, inspired by the Siege of Leningrad. In the middle of that siege, Leningrad conductor Karl Eliasberg recalled the remaining musicians of the city to rehearse it. Only 15 showed up, and they were suffering from starvation.

The first rehearsal broke up after just 15 minutes, as the small band of survivors had so little energy.
"That orchestra was consisting of players who were victims of bombings and hunger and starvation and they were barely able to hold their instruments to play," says Soviet-born conductor Semyon Bychkov.
One trumpeter offered Eliasberg a profound apology after failing to produce a single note.

But reinforcements from the military were summoned, and the cobbled-together orchestra practiced six days a week. However, they were so weak that they only managed to play all the way through the entire symphony once before the public performance on August 9, 1942. The story of how that concert came together for the debilitated citizens of the besieged city is told at BBC magazine.     
You can hear a recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.7, also known as the Leningrad Symphony, played by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in 1953.

Meditation and Brain Matter

Meditation Literally Alters Your Brain Matter

Do we have free will?

The brain-computer duel: Do we have free will?

The background to this new set of experiments lies in the debate regarding conscious will and determinism in human decision-making, which has attracted researchers, psychologists, philosophers and the general public, and which has been ongoing since at least the...

Study of jazz pianists finds ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ music evoke different neural patterns

Study of jazz pianists finds ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ music evoke different neural patterns

The workings of neural circuits associated with creativity are significantly altered when artists are actively attempting to express emotions, according to a new brain-scanning study of jazz pianists. Over the past decade, a collection of neuroimaging studies has...

Ending the Vicious Cycle of Wealth and Power

Robert Reich on Ending the Vicious Cycle of Wealth and Power

China's economic slowdown triggers global stocks slump

China's economic slowdown triggers global stocks slump

Rocker Sebastian Bach hilariously trolls gun nuts on Twitter

Rocker Sebastian Bach hilariously trolls gun nuts on Twitter: ‘Go fuck yourself — this argument is insane’

Rocker Sebastian Bach tangled with gun-loving wingnuts on Twitter after he expressed support for President Barack Obama’s executive action on expanded background checks for firearms purchases.

BBC host stumps open carry gun nut agitator

BBC host stumps open carry gun nut agitator whose response to mass shootings is to arm ‘good guys’

Oregon 'militia' are not ‘thugs’ like black protesters because they fight ‘government gone wild’

Fox hack: Oregon 'militia' are not ‘thugs’ like black protesters because they fight ‘government gone wild’

Seriously?!

Fox hack mocks campus ‘rape hysteria’

Fox hack mocks campus ‘rape hysteria’: Women don’t give ‘repeated consent’ throughout sex

Man arrested for armed robbery after taking selfie with victim then sending her a copy

Maybe it was vanity. Maybe it was a taunt. Or maybe he was just trying to make life easier for the police. Whatever the case, police say, 18-year-old Victor Almanza-Martinez of Castroville, California, is in Monterey County Jail on charges of robbery and kidnapping.

Bail is set at $170,000. Police said Almanza-Martinez and two companions, wearing bandanas, approached four people sitting in their vehicle about 1am Wednesday at Lovers Point Park in Pacific Grove. They ordered the victims out at gunpoint, then moved them a short distance away and stole their property, police said.
That’s when Almanza-Martinez took a selfie with one of the victims, police said, a photograph he later sent to the female victim via text message. The photo wound up in the possession of investigators, who identified Almanza-Martinez despite the bandana. At 11:45am, detectives conducted a search of a property in Castroville, where they found Almanza-Martinez.
He was arrested without incident and booked on charges of armed robbery, kidnapping, possession of stolen property, violation of probation and gang enhancements. The other robbers remain at large. The victims’ car, a black 2013 Chrysler 200 with no license plates, is still missing.

A Chick-Fil-A Got Shut Down In NYC Over Flies In Food – Wingnuts Claim Religious Persecution

It seems that wingnuts would rather die from food poisoning than miss out on a chicken sandwich.

Read full story

Did The Palins Lie About When Bristol’s Baby Was Born To Cover Up The Truth?

There is some pretty compelling evidence that Bristol may not have been honest about some things…

Read full story

Monty Python’s John Cleese DESTROYS Anti-Science Wingnuts In One Elegant Tweet

Monty Python’s John Cleese DESTROYS Anti-Science Wingnuts In One Elegant Tweet

Wingnuts, especially in the United States, love to pretend that science is a religion — largely because it provides them with an excuse to push...

Researchers Plan to Build 3D Model of Temple Destroyed by ISIL

The Temple of Bel in Syria was an ancient structure built all the way back Mesopotamia. It managed to survive up until August of last year, when ISIS destroyed the building. Now as both a way to honor our history and as a method of resistance against the Islamic State, researchers from Harvard University, the University of Oxford, and Dubai’s Museum of the Future are working together to transform 2D images of the temple into a 3D model that will then be 3D printed and put on display in both London and New York. The replicas will be on display as part of UNESCO's World Heritage Week in April 2016 to remind people just how important the protection of our ancient structures is.

First European farmers are traced back to Anatolia

First European farmers are traced back to Anatolia

Human material from the Anatolian site Kumtepe was used in the study. The material was heavily degraded, but yielded enough DNA for the doctorate student Ayca Omrak to address questions concerning the demography connected to the spread of farming. She conducted her...

Lighting Natural Gas under a Frozen Lake

Rune Pettersen carefully walks over the frozen lake. He taps his knife on the ice to break the surface. Then he holds a lit match next to the hole. Boom!

(Video Link)

What's happening here? I'm not sure, but this 2014 article in Smithsonian describes a similar phenomenon at a frozen lake in Canada:

Methane bubbles form in bodies of water when dead organic matter (leaves and animals) falls into the water and sinks to the bottom, to the delight of bacteria waiting below. The bacteria munches on the matter and poops out methane, which turns to white floating blobs when it comes into contact with frozen water.

My favorite part of the video is when Pettersen uses the gas to brew coffee. This use of natural methane could be a useful survival skill.

Four New Elements Added to Periodic Table

Four New Elements Added to Periodic Table

Elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 have met criteria for discovery, making them the first elements to be added to the periodic table since 2011