Welcome to ...

The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Saturday, May 5, 2012

The Daily Drift

As a surpirse for our loyal readers we are publishing CN a day earlier than we anticipated as we were able to retrive our computer earlier in the day then we thought we were going to be able to.

After five long months of fits and false starts we ARE back. It turns out that due to the blood disorder that causes the Mrs., blood to remain as thick as jello and the subsequent need to keep the building hotter then normal (the disorder causes her to remain pernamently chilled just as 'thin' blood does) our computer literally did meltdown or at least the capacitors on the motherboard did. The problem has been sloved and repaired. We also added an additional fan to the computer and an airconditioning unit to the main computer room to keep the computer cool.

Today's readers have been in:

Istanbul, Turkey
Vienna, Austria
Nyon, Switzerland
Luqa, Malta
Suva, Fiji
Rijeka, Croatia
Timisoara, Romania
Povarska Bystrica, Slovakia
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Medan, Indonesia
Brussels, Belgium
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Cork, Ireland
Dublin, Ireland
Panama City, Panama
Groningen, Netherlands
Seremban, Malaysia
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Limerick, Ireland
Kuching, Malaysia
Tallinn, Estonia
Zurich, Switzerland
Singapore, Singapore
Muar, Malaysia
Alor Setar, Malaysia
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Warsaw, Poland
Belgrade, Serbia
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Did you know ...

 ... 6 kinds of pills big pharma tries to get you hooked on for life

Blond-haired Melanesians explained


The variation of human phenotypes has given rise to a number of anthropological puzzles, including the "European" features of some Mandan native Americans, and the red-haired mummies of China.  One such apparent anomaly - blond hair in South Pacific islanders - now appears to have been adequately explained by a single gene mutation rather than by prehistoric cultural diffusion.
Pay a visit to Melanesia's Solomon Islands, 1800 kilometers northeast of Australia, and you'll notice a striking contrast: about 10% of the dark-skinned islanders sport bright blond afros... Human hair color is a trait usually governed by many genes, but study author Sean Myles, a geneticist at Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro, Canada, suspected things might be simpler in the Solomon Islands because he saw almost no variation in shades of blond hair. "It looked pretty obvious to me that it was a real binary trait. You either had blond hair or you didn't," says Myles...

They compared the entire genetic makeup of 43 blond and 42 dark-haired islanders. The two groups, they found, had different versions of a crucial gene, one that coded for a protein involved in pigmentation... The researchers did not find the mutation in DNA samples of 941 individuals from 52 other populations around the world, including European countries. "It's a great example of convergent evolution, where the same outcome is brought about by completely different means," says Myles...

The results, says Myles, help deconstruct a Eurocentric view of the world in thinking about where blond hair comes from.

Sunbeams Caught On Camera

Incredible Crepuscular Rays 

Sunbeams are everywhere - yet when they are caught on camera they are often unwanted additions to a photograph. They cut swathes through the picture, chopping off heads and obscuring detail in a burst of light. However, when they are deliberately captured the results can be nothing short of magical.

Biggest Full Moon Of 2012 Occurs This Week


Skywatchers take note: The biggest full moon of the year is due to arrive this weekend. The moon will officially become full Saturday, May 5. And because this month's full moon coincides with the moon's perigee - its closest approach to Earth - it will also be the year's biggest.

The moon will swing in 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) from our planet, offering skywatchers a spectacular view of an extra-big, extra-bright moon, nicknamed a supermoon.

Eight Lesser Known Crowded Islands From Around The World

When you think of islands, wide, pristine beaches and uninhabited jungles typically come to mind. These 8 lesser-known islands probably used to be like that once - but today, they have developed into entire towns. Islanders often have problems due to congestion in these settlements, and tourists from time to time come to enjoy the special charm of crowded islands.

Loch Ness monster ordered to leave Wisconsin river

The Loch Ness monster is on vacation in Wisconsin - and state officials want the legendary lady to leave.Department of Natural Resources spokesman Dan Baumann says a sculpture of Nessie is illegally obstructing the Chippewa River in Eau Claire and must be removed by the person who placed it there.The sculpture's creator remains a mystery, although ...
 More

The Secret Restroom



There’s an entire website about the “Secret Restroom” located to the side of Carnation Plaza at Disneyland. It’s not so much a secret anymore, but it is a fully-accessible one-holer tucked away as to not be noticeable. It’s also cleaned every half-hour. From the FAQs:
Why is the Secret Restroom better than other Disneyland restrooms? For a variety of reasons. For example, it is the only restroom in the entire park that is entirely handicapped accessible, full of cutting-edge technology, and against park policy for discussion by any cast member.
When was the location of the Secret Restroom first publicly revealed? Although Disneyland goes out of its way to avoid publicizing the Hidden Restroom, a photograph of it (seen at right) was printed in a “Disneyland Secrets” article in the Orange County Register in 1986.
The site has full pages dedicated to every amenity and fixture of the restroom here.

Scenes from a Cactus Shop in Japan



Kohei Oda’s specialty shop is the place to go when you’re in great need of a cactus in Hiroshima. Write that down just in case you should ever find yourself in that situation. In the meantime, look at the unusual and often monstrous-looking cacti that he’s collected for customers.

Awesome Pictures


Due to Technical Difficulties ...

... we here at Carolina Naturally are publishing several old pieces to clear out the inbox.

They follow below.

Low-caste Indian boy 'killed over high-caste man's name'



A low-caste Dalit boy has been killed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh for sharing a name with a man of a higher caste, police say. They said Neeraj Kumar's father Ram Sumer had been asked to change the names of two sons as they were the same as those of Jawahar Chaudhary's sons. The body of Neeraj, 14, was found on 23 November in a field. Two friends of the Chaudhary family have been arrested.

Mr Chaudhary denies the involvement of his family in the murder. He says the family is being framed by police. Dalits, formerly known as "untouchables", are at the bottom of the Hindu caste system in India. Although caste discrimination is illegal, biases remain in many areas.


The latest incident took place in Radhaupur village in Basti district. Both Ram Sumer and Jawahar Chaudhary have sons named Neeraj and Dheeraj and that has long been an issue between the two families, Sub-inspector Praveen Kumar said. Mr Chaudhary, who belongs to a higher caste, had given several warnings to Mr Sumer to change the names of his boys.

On 22 November, Neeraj left home after dinner to watch television at a friend's house. His body was found the next day. Police said he was strangled. Mr Chaudhary's sons - Neeraj and Dheeraj - are missing, but police have arrested two friends of the family who they say had a role in the murder.

Random Pictures


Robber gave man his wallet back after he started to cry



A man was robbed while he walked up the stairs of his apartment building in San Francisco's Telegraph Hill neighbourhood on Thursday night, but when the victim started to cry, the suspect decided to give him his wallet back, police said.

The thief wasn't totally good-hearted though-he kept the cash that was inside the wallet, as well as the man's cellphone. The robbery was reported at about 10:30 p.m. in the 1500 block of Grant Avenue, according to police.


The 29-year-old victim was walking up the stairs of the building when a suspect approached from behind and demanded his belongings, police said. The victim complied, handing over his cellphone and wallet.

He then burst into tears, leading the suspect to give him his wallet back while keeping the cash, according to police. The suspect, a man in his mid to late 30s, then fled and had not been found. The victim was not injured in the robbery.

Man who tried to hold up a bank that closed 17 years ago is jailed



A German man who tried to hold up a bank that closed 17 years ago has been jailed for seven years. The regional court in the western city of Osnabrueck said the defendant, identified only as 57-year-old Siegfried K., arrived at the bank branch, now equipped only with cash machines, with a toy gun in May.

He seized a female "hostage" in the lobby of the building to demand a 10,000-euro ($13,483) ransom from bank employees. "This plan failed however due to the fact that the building has not held a bank for more than a decade but rather a physiotherapy practice," the court said in a statement. The bank had moved out 17 years ago.


"After the defendant recognised the situation, he changed his plan and demanded a passer-by withdraw money from the cash machine," the court said. "She withdrew 400 euros and the defendant made off with the cash in a car he had stolen."

He later abandoned the vehicle but left the plastic pistol, covered with his fingerprints, between the seats. The court said Siegfried K. had confessed to the robbery and judges handed down a seven-year sentence on Tuesday due to 22 previous convictions over the last 40 years.

See Ya In The Funny Papers

A natural dye obtained from lichens may combat Alzheimer’s disease

A red dye derived from lichens that has been used for centuries to color fabrics and food appears to reduce the abundance of small toxic protein aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease. The dye, a compound called orcein, and a related substance, called O4, b…

How To Help Earth and the Economy


Build jobs, save money, and do the planet good - easy ways to occupy 2012.
  Read more
a little green
North Brother Island is now abandoned, but it once was home to a hospital that housed Typhoid Mary

Daily Comic Relief



Walnut Industry May Crack Under Climate Pressure


Forestry researchers warn walnuts face tough times ahead.
Read more
Walnut Industry May Crack Under Climate Pressure

Hanging Gardens

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvj7acy8fy1qimeoro1_500.jpg

Memories..........Enjoy

'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'

'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.

'All the food was slow.'

'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called 'at home,'' I explained. !

'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer
serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if
I figured his system could have handled it :

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis , set foot on a golf
course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card.
In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The
card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.
Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we
never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds,
and only had one speed, (slow).

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 5.
It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.'
When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off,
swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still
the best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was 4. It was an old black Dodge.

I never had a telephone in my room.
The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line.
Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't
know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was. All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM every morning. On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies.
There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to
share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't
blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?



MEMORIES from a friend :

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and
he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a
stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.



How many do you remember?

- Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
- Ignition switches on the dashboard.
- Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
- Real ice boxes.
- Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
- Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
- Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.


Older Than Dirt Quiz :
Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about.
Ratings at the bottom.

1 Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with table side juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines on the telephone
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were
there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels [if you were fortunate])
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H green stamps
16 Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19. Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

Coal-Friendly Agency Turns Fossil Fuel Foe

An international agency makes an impassioned plea for renewable energy to help stop global warming.
Coal-Friendly Agency Turns Fossil Fuel Foe

Sierra Leone's Gola Rainforest becomes national park

A statement from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security says that the Gola Rainforest has been identified as a "Biodiversity hotspot" and is of global importance because of its rich variety of plants and animals.

Flesh-eating banana fears hit Mozambique



Rumours of flesh-eating bananas in Mozambique have sparked a plummet in the sale of the fruit, prompting the health minister Friday to reassure people of its safety. "From the work conducted by the Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Trade and Industry, it was concluded that there is no record of entry of any infected banana in the country," according to a joint statement.

An email and text message hoax warning people against eating bananas for the next three weeks went viral as people feared being infected by necrotising fasciitis, or skin-eating disease. The bacteria can destroy skin, fat and tissue covering the muscles.


The messages also advised people to see a doctor if they developed a fever after eating the killer fruit. Especially bananas from KwaZulu-Natal province in neighbouring South Africa carried the virus, according to the hoax.

Banana sales in the capital Maputo fell sharply despite the fact that Mozambique does not import bananas from its neighbour. In a separate statement South Africa's agriculture ministry denounced the messages as a hoax. It strongly advised against burning the skin around the supposed infection, as suggested in the message.

Vermont inmates hide pig in official police car decal

Inmates working at a Vermont correctional unit's print shop managed to sneak a prank image of a pig into a state police crest that is emblazoned on police cars, and 30 cruisers sported the design for the last year, officials said on Thursday.

The official crest depicts a spotted cow against a background of snowy mountains, but the inmates' version featured one of the cow's spots shaped like a pig in an apparent reference to the pejorative word for police, state police spokeswoman Stephanie Dasaro said.

"It dishonors the memory of those past and present members, especially for those who have lost their lives in the line of duty," Dasaro said.

Vermont contracts with correctional facilities employing prisoners to make some print products, including the cruiser decals. Police said someone who works at the print shop changed the emblem from the officially sanctioned design.

A police employee noticed the prank on Wednesday and reported it. Police said the 60 16-inch door decals would be removed as soon as it was practical.

The "source and timing" of the change to the design is under investigation, Dasaro said.

"While some may find humor in the decal modifications, the joke unfortunately comes at the expense of the taxpayers," Police Major Bill Sheets said in a statement.

Animal Pictures