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, August 11, 2012

The Daily Drift


By, gosh, I think she's got it!

Some of our readers today have been in:
Chisinau, Moldova
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Kuantan, Malaysia
Johannesburg, South Africa
Jakarta, Indonesia
Cebu City, Philippines
Cape Town, South Africa
Belgrade, Serbia
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Las Pinas, Philippines
Najran, Saudi Arabia
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

And across the USA in cities such as:
Culpeper, Villanova and Wildomar

 Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

991 Danes under Olaf Tryggvason kill Ealdorman Brihtnoth and defeat the Saxons at Maldon.
1492 Rodrigo Borgia is elected to the papacy as Pope Alexander VI.
1792 A revolutionary commune is formed in Paris, France.
1856 A band of rampaging settlers in California kill four Yokut Indians. The settlers had heard unproven rumors of Yokut atrocities.
1862 President Abraham Lincoln appoints Union General Henry Halleck to the position of general in chief of the Union Army.
1904 German General Lothar von Trotha defeats the Hereros tribe near Waterberg, South Africa.
1906 In France, Eugene Lauste receives the first patent for a talking film.
1908 Britain's King Edward VII meets with Kaiser Wilhelm II to protest the growth of the German navy.
1912 Moroccan Sultan Mulai Hafid abdicates his throne in the face of internal dissent.
1916 The Russia army takes Stanislau, Poland, from the Germans.
1929 Babe Ruth hits his 500th major league home run against the Cleveland Indians.
1941 Soviet bombers raid Berlin but cause little damage.
1942 The German submarine U-73 attacks a Malta-bound British convoy and sinks HMS Eagle, one of the world's first aircraft carriers.
1944 German troops abandon Florence, Italy, as Allied troops close in on the historic city.
1965 A small clash between the California Highway Patrol and two black youths sets off six days of rioting in the Watts area of Los Angeles.
1972 The last U.S. ground forces withdraw from Vietnam.

Carolina Naturally readers are a loyal bunch


Some of our loyal Philippine readers?
Even with the country flooded our readers in the Philippines make it by CN daily.
In fact our readership passed the 300,000 mark for the year today with 300,995 readers enjoying CN so far this year and with a 5 month hiatus to start off the year with we think we're doing pretty darn good.

Reader's Comments

What I do not undеrstand is in truth hοw уou're now not really much more widely read than you might be right now. You are so intelligent.

It's an remarkable website for all the online visitors.

I wish to saу that this site is аwesome. The contents are a masterwork.

You've performed a magnificent job in this site!

I am еxtremеly impгеssed wіth your writing ability аs well as with the struсture to yοur weblog.

Keep uρ the nice quality writіng, іt's uncommon to see a great weblog like this one nowadays.

Hеllo! Would you mіnd if Ӏ share yοur blog with my myspacе grouρ? There's a lot of folks that I think would really enjoy your content.

It's veгу well written; Ӏ lоvе what yоu've got to say.

Right here is the perfect site for everyone who wishes to understand this topic. You understand so much its tough to argue with you. You certainly put a brand new spin on a topic which has been written about for ages.

Great stuff, just great!

Thanκs for sharing youг thoughts.

Wow, marѵelous blog layout! How long haνе уou ever bеen blogging ? Yоu make blogging look eаsy.
Your web sіtе is excеllеnt!

Hello there, I just found your web site and found that it is really informative.

The Dope on the Olympics

1913 Athletes Doped on Coca-Cola

In Kansas in 1913 a few athletes were being caffeine tested using, of all things, Coca-cola syrup. More

Crazy Tape On Olympians: Does it Work?

Athletes and physical trainers swear by the stretchy tape, but the evidence is fuzzy. Read more
Olympics Tape

A Brief History of Olympic Defectors

defectionSo far at the London Olympics, seven athletes from Cameroon went missing, and three from Sudan have requested asylum. The Olympics have been the scene of political defectors, asylum-seekers, and others who don't want to go home ever since 1948, when the president of the International Gymnastics Federation took the opportunity to avoid returning to Czechoslovakia.
Marie Provaznikova, a Czech who was President of the International Gymnastics Federation, was the first person to defect from the Olympics. Czechoslovakia had recently become a satellite of the Soviet Union, and Provaznikova knew her country wouldn’t be the same. She darted to the United States, where she later taught gymnastics. Provaznikova lived in the U.S. until 1991, dying at age 101.
Read the stories of defectors from many different Olympiads here.

Missing Athletes: Seeking New Home?

The boxers, a soccer player and a swimmer from Cameroon haven't been seen since last Monday. More

Random Celebrity Photo

mama’s boy.

And I Quote

Did you know ...

That a repugican operative follows the wrong guy

Here are 11 highlights lowlights from a creationist science textbook

Who could have predicted something like the violence of the shooting by the wingnut whack-job at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin? Who indeed?

A night in topless bar becomes an embarrassment for Oregon repugican legislators

 camhanna.JPG
House Co-Speaker Bruce Hanna, r-Roseburg, and former house repugican leader Kevin Cameron, r-Salem, (in background) vacationed in Palm Springs just ahead of the February session. SALEM -- With Republicans still reeling from the sex scandal involving Rep. Matt Wingard and a young female staffer, former house repugican leader Kevin Cameron confirmed he abruptly stepped down last month, in part, because of a retaliatory threat that the public would find out about the night he and other repugican lawmakers -- including Wingard -- spent at a California topless bar.

"I am not proud personally about what I did at that point in time," Cameron, r-Salem, said this week.

In January, Cameron, House Co-Speaker Bruce Hanna and five other repugican House members took a three-day golfing vacation to Palm Springs, where they also visited a bar featuring topless dancers.

No state or campaign money was spent on the trip. But the embarrassing details are surfacing just as repugicans are trying to win majority control of the House, or at least maintain the 30-30 tie that granted them equal power to Democrats in the past two years.

Wingard's decision to remove his name from the November ballot after a 20-year-old staffer accused him of an unwanted sexual relationship has sparked an attempt to recall the party's Washington County chairwoman because she sided with the young woman. It has also focused a spotlight on an all-male leadership team that has been criticized for its exclusivity.

It all started earlier this year when Samantha Berrier accused Wingard, a Wilsonville repugican, of giving her alcohol when she was not yet 21 and pressuring her to have a sexual relationship with him. Wingard has denied giving her alcohol and says the two had a short, but consensual relationship while she worked for him in 2009.

When Cameron abruptly resigned as House repugican leader on July 18, the repugican press release said Cameron stepped down for "personal reasons." But he said this week that pressures on his family and business coupled with the Wingard situation and the threat that someone would go public about the topless bar became too stressful.

This week Cameron and other lawmakers who went to Palm Springs just ahead of the Legislature's February session described the trip in nearly identical language: "a personal vacation with friends."

In addition to Hanna and Cameron, the entourage included repugican whip Tim Freeman, r-Roseburg; Rep. Vic Gilliam, r-Silverton; Rep. Matt Wand, r-Troutdale; and Rep. Patrick Sheehan, r-Clackamas.

Both Sheehan and Wand are freshman lawmakers and Democrats have targeted their seats on the list of those they might be able to win in November.

Wingard would not comment when asked if he was in Palm Springs, but others who attended say he was there.

The group stayed at a home Gilliam owns with his wife. Property records indicate it's a circa 1930s, four-bedroom, four-bath home in old Palm Springs valued at about $1 million.

No one will say whose idea it was to stop at the topless bar when the group was on the way home from dinner one night.

Some whined that the whole thing is personal and nobody's business.

"Asking me a question like that would be like me asking you what you wore as swimwear or not on your last vacation and how that affected your ability to do your job," said Hanna, who also admitted he went to the bar and that it was a mistake.

 A few months after the trip, about mid-May, those same leaders were notified of the reports concerning Wingard and his former aide.

Rachel Lucas, chairwoman of the Washington County repugicans, says Berrier "poured her heart out to her." Lucas and her husband, Dan, reported what they knew in a May 14 email to Cameron.

He followed up the next day with a phone call. The allegations did not become public until June 13, when Willamette Week broke the story.

Now some local repugican party members are circulating a recall petition that accuses Lucas of "attacking" Wingard and putting repugicans' 30-30 tie in the House in jeopardy. Wingard says he is the innocent victim of a political vendetta. Lucas denies that she was out to take away his seat.

"We didn't want to be part of a conspiracy of silence," she said regarding Berrier.

After the news broke, Wingard stepped down as deputy leader on June 14. The next week Wingard announced he would not seek re-election.

Cameron says he was roundly criticized for taking too long to act and for not doing enough. He says others criticized him for overreacting to the allegations.

In the end, the responsibility fell on the repugican leader's shoulders.

"I made a phone call to Matt and said, 'If you don't step back from your candidacy, then I will have to publicly call for your resignation,'" Cameron said. "That did not go over well."

It was after Wingard had pulled his name from the ballot that Cameron said he heard talk in repugican circles that Wingard might go public about the men's' Palm Springs vacation.

"Matt never had any discussion with me directly about that," Cameron said. "There were rumors that he would do that."

Others who were on the trip said they'd also heard the rumors that Wingard had threatened to tell all. Freeman said he didn't believe it.

"The threat thing is not common. But it's not uncommon," Freeman said. "People get mad. People come back and say I shouldn't have gotten jacked up. ... I never thought it was credible."

Wingard declined to comment for this story.

In an earlier conversation, Wingard said he "wasn't interested" in talking about Palm Springs until The Oregonian reviewed the facts surrounding what occurred between him and Berrier and cleared his name.

"My concern is my personal reputation," he said.

Meanwhile, House repugicans are trying to put it all behind them.

Hanna says repugicans have had no trouble raising campaign funds and that his members have solid accomplishments to run on.

"No race has ever been easy," he said. "We still have a tremendous opportunity."

Good Question

Romney says his business experience and taxes are off-limits

Huh? Romney's business experience is the central component of his entire campaign. But now Romney wants Obama to promise that he won't run any ads criticizing Romney's business experience?
Sure, so long as Romney agrees that Obama's presidential experience is off limits too.

Someone is seriously hurting.  More from Politico:
Talking about candidates' personal finances is hardly novel, nor is it irrelevant — how candidates make their money, however much or how little they've earned over the years, is not only fair game but a legitimate line of inquiry. The question of tax returns is also not new (to that end, Romney has said he would also release his 2011 taxes, but has yet to do so, with less than three months to go in the race).

What is surprising is hearing a candidate say, essentially, "stop hitting me." As the folks at First Read note, this would seem to be something of a concession that the negatives are bothering the candidate, whom a round of new national polls shows running at a deficit that exceeds the margin of error. Some of the attacks have indeed gone rather far over the line (the ad that yokes a man's loss of his job due to Bain Capital to his wife's death was at minimum factually off and at most suggests a pretty ugly thing about the candidate).
The Obama campaign put together a nice video about a month ago of Romney making all sorts of personal attacks. And now he's asking President Obama to pledge not to make personal attack? Romney has spent months suggesting that the President is a socialist, among other things. And who can forget Romney's staffer, who still hasn't been fired, who said that Obama doesn't understand America's Anglo-Saxon heritage, presumably because he's black, and black people don't get "America" - at least not in Romney-land.
Off limits?! Ah, ...  No!

Trump continues birther rant (and can't even write proper English)


I only really posted this for the second tweet. Trump is wrong, it's "fewer people," not "less people." You'd think an Amurika-firster would at least hire a ghost-tweeter who speaks proper English.

Trump is referring to his appearance in this new pro-Obama ad.

The truth be told

'Son of Sam' Killer: Recent Massacres 'Senseless'

'Son of Sam' Says He's Sorry; decries violence, 'regrets' past
David Berkowitz, the notorious "Son of Sam" serial killer who terrified New York City in 1977, tells the New York Daily News from his prison cell that he regrets his violent past and says society needs to take the "glory out of guns."

Berkowitz, who shot 13 people in cold blood, killing six, in a 13-month shooting spree, spoke to Daily News writer Tanyanika Samuels in an exclusive interview.

"It's all senseless," says Berkowitz, who is serving six 25-years-to-life sentences at the maximum-security Sullivan County correctional facility in Upstate New York.

Now 59, Berkowitz no longer has his "devilish smirk" that riveted readers after his arrest in 1977.

He also says he rejects violence, lamenting the recent shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin.

"Society has to take the glory out of guns," he tells the newspaper. "Young people have no business carrying a gun. I would love to speak bluntly to those gangbanging teens and wanna-bes and tell them prison is nothing like what you think. If you're packing a gun, you're making a big mistake, and you'll regret it."

"I think it's a big tragedy when I see young men with their macho faces like they're cool when I know they are really scared to death," he says. "I know because I've been there."

Berkowitz says he doesn't like to talk about the "dark days" when his shootings were splashed on the front of New York tabloids.

"It's too painful," Berkowitz tells the paper. "I continue to pray for the victims of my crimes. I do wish them the best in life. But I'm sure the pain will never end for them. I regret that."

Looking back, Berkowitz says those years were a time in his life when he was "lost," "tormented" and "confused" and that he was heavily into the occult.

"I have regrets more than words can say," he tells the reporter. "I have regrets about all the people I hurt, about what my life would have been like. I've missed out on a lot. But God has given me peace about my situation."
He hopes society takes the "glamor" out of guns 
David Berkowitz, who gunned down 13 people, killing six, 35 years ago, says he hopes society takes the "glamor" out of guns. In the wake of the Aurora, Colo. theater massacre and the mass shooting at a Wisconsin Sikh temple, Berkowitz is calling for an end to gun violence. "It's all senseless," Berkowitz told the New York Daily News from his jail cell in a maximum security facility in upstate New York.
 More

Gun nuts say the darnedest things

An American cop writes of a death-defying visit he and his wife recently paid to a public park in Canada.
I recently visited Calgary from Michigan. As a police officer for 20 years, it feels strange not to carry my off-duty hand-gun. Many would say I have no need to carry one in Canada.

Yet the police cannot protect everyone all the time. A man should be al-owed to protect himself if the need arises. The need arose in a theater in Aurora, Colo., as well as a college campus in Canada.

Recently, while out for a walk in Nose Hill Park, in broad daylight on a paved trail, two young men approached my wife and me. The men stepped in front of us, then said in a very aggressive tone: "Been to the Stampede yet?"

We ignored them. The two moved closer, repeating: "Hey, you been to the Stampede yet?"

I quickly moved between these two and my wife, replying, "Gentle-men, I have no need to talk with you, goodbye." They looked bewildered, and we then walked past them.
An American writer in Canada weighs in:
And so, Americans, unaware of just how sick their handgun mentality is, continue to fight like crazy to prevent any kind of handgun-control legislation from being implemented. A 9 mm handgun, purchased legally, was the weapon of choice in Oak Creek, Wis., on Sunday when six people were killed and three more wounded by a white supremacist at a Sikh temple. One might argue that if the worshipers had carried guns, they could have killed the guy first. But sitting in a temple armed to the teeth while listening to a sermon about brotherhood and peace is ridiculous.

“Many would say I have no need to carry (a handgun) in Canada,” Wawra wrote. “Yet I have a unique perspective based on years of police experience. The perspective (is that) the police cannot protect everyone all the time. A man should be allowed to protect himself if the need arises... My perspective proved true a few days ago for my wife and I.”

It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Wawra that the need didn’t arise in Calgary, and that if he’d been carrying a handgun, two people might now be dead because they asked him if he’d been to the Stampede.

As an American who is also a Canadian citizen, all I can say is, thank goodness I live in Canada.

Tourist spotted on security X-ray after falling asleep on airport conveyor belt

Rome's Fiumicino airport has defended its security procedures after a drunk Norwegian tourist fell asleep on a baggage belt and traveled 160 feet before being identified by an X-ray scanner. The 36-year-old, who has not been named, arrived at the international terminal of Italy's busiest airport at the end of last month with a backpack and a can of beer in his hand.

The man was due to check in for a flight to Oslo and when he found no one on duty at the airline desk he leapt across the counter and fell into a deep asleep on the baggage belt with his bag beside him. As the belt began to move the unsuspecting tourist reportedly traveled for 15 minutes through the secure baggage area in Terminal 3 before officials spotted his body curled up in a fetal position in an X-ray image on their monitors.


He slept through the whole episode and airport police had trouble waking him when they were called to the scene to investigate what had happened. A senior officer with Fiumicino airport police said the incident exposed no weaknesses in the terminal's security and it was not the first kind of incident involving 'drunks or people with psychological problems'. "There's usually an episode like this once a year and we are alert," the official said.

"In this case we were notified we sounded the alarm immediately and we took action." Another police officer said: "It's impossible to avoid a situation like this if there's no employee at the check-in desk." Concerned about the tourist's exposure to the powerful X-rays, police took him to a nearby hospital before reporting him to prosecutors at Civitavecchia for causing alarm at the airport. Inquiries are continuing.

Son rubbed dog feces in mother's face after being refused shot of vodka

A Florida man is accused of rubbing dog feces in his mother’s face over a vodka shot. It happened on Tuesday at around 4pm in Palmetto.


According to a report from the Palmetto Police Department, 22-year-old William Jenkins wanted a shot of vodka and his mother refused and he pushed her. She then asked him to clean up after their dog defecated on the porch while she cleaned the inside of the home. Jenkins came back inside and said he had cleaned up the mess.

His mother then went on to the porch and notice that it had not been cleaned up. She asked him again to clean it up, and Jenkins said he would not until he got a shot of vodka. Jenkins then reached down, picked up the defecation and rubbed it in his mother’s face.



She attempted to leave the home, when Jenkins grabbed her and pushed her to the floor. She got back up and left to a neighbor house and called police. When police arrived, Jenkins said he did not push her to the ground, but did rub the defecation on her face because she yelled at him. He was arrested and charged with Domestic Battery.

Wells Fargo Fires Father Of Dying Daughter To Take Away Her Health Insurance

According to a lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County, Wells Fargo fired a mortgage consultant just before his daughter, Mackenzie was scheduled to have cancer surgery. They then neglected to send Yovany Gonzalez, the plaintiff, his COBRA information. Mackenzie died a few months later.
From the Huffington Post:
Before Gonzalez was fired, Wells Fargo and United Health Care, the health insurer, asked Gonzalez’s wife “numerous questions” about Mackenzie’s treatment and made “several references … to the costs of her treatment,” the lawsuit states. Around that time, Gonzalez’s supervisor told Gonzalez that Wells Fargo was looking for reasons to get rid of him, according to the lawsuit.
“This was a loss of an innocent child’s life,” Jack Scarola, Gonzalez’s lawyer, told The Huffington Post. “There were [some] Wells Fargo employees who not only lacked compassion but seemed to have been motivated by entirely improper concerns about finances.”
Wells Fargo claimed that the firing of Gonzalez was for reasons unrelated to his health insurance. They claim that he had improperly filled out his time sheet.
When Gonzales lost his job, he also lost his family’s life insurance policy, meaning that there was no funeral coverage for his daughter.

Here’s a video from The Young Turks:
Currently, nearly 50 million people lack health insurance. Insurance companies can drop almost anyone for almost any reason. Had the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) been in effect when Mackenzie’s treatment was scheduled, she might be alive today. The law won’t go into full effect until 2014.

Diseases That Just Won't Quit

The plague, black death, gonorrhea and other diseases may seem like ancient history, but they still pose major health threats. Read more
Diseases That Just Won't Quit

Classics

1932 ALFA ROMEO.
1932 ALFA ROMEO.

A 1873 dime sells for $1.6 million


An anonymous bidder won the pristine coin, said Chris Napolitano, president of Stack's Bowers Galleries, which auctioned it during an American Numismatic Association convention.
More

Mass of volcanic rocks floating off New Zealand


A mass of small volcanic rocks nearly the size of Belgium has been discovered floating off the coast of New Zealand.
More

Random Photo

petiteamelie:thepinesaredancing:

Introducing Hypatia


She was a real person (here portrayed in a painting by Charles William Mitchell in 1885).  She was a world-famous mathematician and teacher of astronomy, and the last librarian of the Library of Alexandria.
"There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not infrequently appeared in public in the presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more."
So why did the painter depict her naked?  Because she was stripped by a mob before they murdered her during violent Christian-Jewish clashes in Alexandria in 415 CE (details at Wikipedia).

Daily Comic Relief


A Gun Designed to Fit inside a Coffin and Shoot Grave Robbers

grave torpedo
coffin torpedo 2
In the America of a century ago, grave robbing was a lucrative business. The deceased didn't seem to mind, but their living relatives did. So they often went to great lengths to secure the bodies, including the use of steel cages.
But the best defense is a strong offense, so the more serious graveyard keepers used guns and tripwires to shoot robbers. Among their options were coffin torpedoes:
In 1878, a number of "Coffin Torpedoes" hit the market. One design by Phil Clover of Columbus, Ohio was for an abbreviated shotgun that rested just inside the coffin lid. Once the lid was raised, the gun would fire directly into the face of the violator, discharging a number of 36-caliber lead balls.
Another inventor, Thomas N Howell, perfected two different "Grave Torpedoes." Each was more like a landmine than any firearm. Borrowing Civil War technology, Howell's device weighed 8-pounds and carried a charge of more than .75-pound of black powder ignited by a percussion cap. Buried atop the coffin with a protective plate above the torpedo, if disturbed the metal plate would help serve as a shape charge directed right at the would-be grave robber. An advertisement for the weapon declared that it would allow one to, "“sleep well sweet angel, let no fears of ghouls disturb thy rest, for above thy shrouded form lies a torpedo, ready to make minced meat of anyone who attempts to convey you to the pickling vat.”
In 1881 at least three men were killed when one such device ignited during a late night traipse through the cemeteries near Gann in Knox County, Ohio.

The Office Building That is Half in Germany, Half in the Netherlands

Dutch German border Does your company have communication problems? Do some departments act like independent countries? That's nothing compared to the headquarters building of the computer security company Alunsa. It straddles the Dutch-German border:
On one side of the building, there's a German mailbox and a German policeman. On the other side, a Dutch mailbox and a Dutch policeman. [...]
The border is open enough that a single building can span it. No border guards, no checkpoints. But a letter sent from the German side of the building takes a week to get to the Dutch side.
A computer security company called Alunsa has offices on both sides of the building. On one side, Alunsa employees call German customers on German phones. On the other side, it's all Dutch. Raimond Potgens, the company's CEO, has two offices, one on either side of the border. He carries his laptop back and forth all day long.
At the link, you can see a photo of the borderline inside the building.

Link

The Fairytale Villages Of The Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands are an island group and archipelago under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark, situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Norway and Iceland.

This archipelago has 18 main islands, 123 villages and a population of 50,000 people. Villages of the Faroe Islands are like a fairytale - the houses are very colorful, grass roofed and located in beautiful natural surroundings.

The Secrets Of Sticky Feet Revealed

Sure-footed lizards and beetles keep their feet dry to secure their grip, according to scientists. Previous studies have attributed both species' remarkable 'sticking power' to microscopic hairs on their feet.

These hairs are attracted to surfaces by the forces between molecules, creating a strong footing. Two studies now suggest that the animals 'walk on air' to overcome wet surfaces, trapping bubbles between these tiny hairs.

Why Do People Believe in UFOs?

Science knowledge is not an inoculation against accepting pseudo-scientific gobbledygook. Read more
Why Do People Believe in UFOs?

Daily Astronomy Photo

The Milky Way over Monument Valley
Click image to view the big picture.

Lost Egyptian Pyramids Found?

An unusual grouping of mounds with intriguing features are located in Egypt using Google Earth satellite imagery.  
Lost Egyptian Pyramids Found?

The Perseid Meteor Shower

meteorThe annual Perseid Meteor Shower will occur Saturday night and Sunday morning. If you're in the right spot, away from light pollution, you can see up to 100 meteors an hour!
The Perseids have been observed for at least 2,000 years and are associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years. Each year in August, the Earth passes through a cloud of the comet's debris. These bits of ice and dust -- most over 1,000 years old -- burn up in the Earth's atmosphere to create one of the best meteor showers of the year. The Perseids can be seen all over the sky, but the best viewing opportunities will be across the northern hemisphere. Those with sharp eyes will see that the meteors radiate from the direction of the constellation Perseus.
NASA will be up all night, with a live chat led by astronomer Bill Cooke and his team from the Meteoroid Environment Office discussing the Perseids. And if you have to work inside or have too much cloud cover to see the meteor shower, they will have a live stream online. More

Awesome Pictures

living on the edge

North American freshwater fishes race to extinction


North American freshwater fishes are going extinct at an alarming rate compared with other species, according to an article in ...
Continue Reading

Mammoth donkey arrives at animal sanctuary

A Lincolnshire animal sanctuary has welcomed an extra large new arrival.


Miss Ellie, an 8ft (2.4m) American Mammoth Jackstock imported from the US in 2010, towers over other breeds at the Radcliffe Donkey Sanctuary near Sutton-on-Sea.

The super-sized animal was taken in by the center after its owners were no longer able to look after her.



Andrew Rae, from the sanctuary, said some visitors had asked if Miss Ellie was "a freak of nature".


The King of Herrings


You can find this fish swimming in waters that are 300 to 1000 feet deep in basically any ocean of the world.

The king usually remains in the deep waters and the rare times when it surfaces it usually dies. The fish can reach around 16 feet in length and you know that myth that says there are giant sea serpents? It is said that those rumors might have branched off the Kings.

Awesome Facts About Elephant Shrews!


Learn about the furry little African mammals that are elephant shrews. Amongst other things, they mate for life and try to scare off black mambas by stamping their feet! More

Animal Pictures

endilletante:

“The Life of the desert”. Our living world of nature. Ann and M. Suton. 1966.