The Daily Drift

Well, imagine that  ...

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

General Lee  ... !

Today is - Robert E. Lee Day
 

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Today in History

1327		Edward II of England is deposed by his eldest son, Edward III.
1616		The French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrives to winter in a Huron Indian village after being wounded in a battle with Iroquois in New France.
1783		Britain signs a peace agreement with France and Spain, who allied against it in the American War of Independence.
1908		The Sullivan Ordinance bars women from smoking in public facilities in the United States.
1930		Charles Lindbergh arrives in New York, setting a cross country flying record of 14.75 hours.
1935		Belgium arrests some Nazi agitators who urge for a return to the Reich.
1941		Hitler meets with Mussolini and offers aid in Albania and Greece.
1942		Nazi officials meet in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to decide the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
1944		Allied forces in Italy begin unsuccessful operations to cross the Rapido River and seize Cassino.
1945		Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for his fourth term.
1945		The Allies sign a truce with the Hungarians.
1946		France's Charles DeGaulle hands in his resignation.
1952		British troops occupy Ismalia, Egypt.
1954		Over 22,000 anti-Communist prisoners are turned over to UN forces in Korea.
1977		President Jimmy Carter is sworn in and then surprises the nation as he walks from the U.S. Capitol to the White House.
1981		Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president at the same time 52 American hostages are released from their captors in Tehran, Iran.

Editorial Comment

We here at Carolina Naturally have been on a loopy schedule since prior to Xmas of last year and prior attempts to return to the posting schedule we were using before the year end holidays and the rampant new year illnesses that swept through the offices did not go quite as planned.
Now that all the holidays and  illnesses have passed - we thought we would try to return to the posting schedule that worked the best beginning with tomorrow's posts ... with the regular posting time of Midnight (EST) so that the days posts won't be 'split' over a half day either side of midnight as they are now.
Thanks for reading Carolina Naturally. See you around midnight.

Latvians formed human chain to transfer books to new library

Latvians on Saturday marked the start of Riga's tenure as one of two European capitals of culture with an emotional ceremony recalling the Baltic states' 1989 fight for independence from the Soviet Union.

Around 15,000 people braved freezing temperatures to form a 'chain of book lovers' stretching more than two kilometres (more than a mile) across the capital, deliberately echoing the Baltic Way when some two million protesters formed a human chain across Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

In Saturday's event, people in the chain passed along books from Riga's existing 150-year-old national library across the River Daugava to a new national library building due to open in August. Organiser Aiva Rozenberga said the event had deep symbolic significance for Latvians.

YouTube link.

"The people who stood in the Baltic Way remember that feeling of being shoulder to shoulder with complete strangers," she said. "The people taking part in the book chain who are prepared to stand here on a cold winter day are taking this seriously too - we are literally standing up for culture."

Did Ancient Peoples Bless Their Houses With Eggs?

Sardis, an ancient city in modern-day Turkey, has been the site of archeological expeditions since 1910 and is still churning out new finds today. But this past July archaeologists working at the site found something particularly unusual: 2,000-year-old eggs, likely meant to bless the house as part of a purification ritual.

The eggs were discovered in two pots, which date to between A.D. 54 and 68 and were found buried in the earthen floor of an early Roman house. One egg was smashed, the other whole, and both were filled with dirt. Amazingly, a team of conservators were able to excavate one eggshell intact, except for a small, already-existing hole in the side.

Thief tried to gift wrap table tennis table before stealing computers

Police in Toronto are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying a person responsible for a New Year’s Day breaking and entering.

Early on January 1st, a man kicked his way through the front door into a shop in Liberty Village.

After attempting to gift wrap table a table tennis table he made off with computer equipment, including several Mac laptops and a Microsoft tablet .

YouTube link.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

Man threw tantrum because his mother wouldn't return phone charger until he'd put away dishes

Police were called to a Murfreesboro, Tennessee residence on Sunday after a 23-year-old man became outraged when his mother refused to return his cell phone charger until he finished washing the dishes.

Although no one was seriously injured during the argument, the man did damage several items in the kitchen and scare his 41-year-old mother into calling authorities for help, according to a Murfreesboro Police Department incident report. “(The man) advised that he and his mother got into an argument about a phone charger and dishes in the sink,” Officer Stuart Ogg said in the report.

“(He) stated that he was wanting the charger for his phone but his mother would not give it to him until the dishes were put away.” When asked about the damage in the kitchen, the man “admitted to throwing a glass in the sink, breaking it, and also slamming the door of the dishwasher, causing minor damage,” Ogg said.

His mother confirmed his account, but she also pointed out that the man chased after her when she ran to her bedroom to hide until police got there. “(Her son) took a credit card and forced himself into the bedroom, pinning her behind the door,” Ogg said, adding the man then tried to leave the residence but was unable to start his car. Given the situation, police removed the man from the scene. He is now facing the possibility of a domestic assault charge.

The Incredible Underwater Art Of Competitve Aquascaping

Aquascaping is the craft of arranging aquatic plants, as well as rocks, stones, cavework, or driftwood, in an aesthetically pleasing manner within an aquarium. The world of aquascaping is just as difficult, expensive, and cutthroat as any other sport but requires expertise in many different fields to guarantee success.

Aquarium designers possess large amounts of expertise in biology, design, photography, and excel in the art of patience, as individual aquascapes can take months if not years to fully mature into a completed landscape.

You can see much more designs here.

Rabbit hidden in Nelson Mandela's ear

A rabbit has been hidden in right ear of the newly erected Nelson Mandela statue at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa. The sculptors of the nine metre bronze-plated statue, Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, secretly added the rabbit to the work.

The duo have said the rabbit was a “small trademark” of their work after the department of arts and culture did not allow them to engrave their signatures on bottom of the trouser leg of the statue. They said it also represented the tight deadline they were working under as rabbit in Afrikaans “haas” also means haste.

“The time factor was big and at times we had to work hard,” Prinsloo said, adding that the “small symbol” was hidden in the ear and it did not take anything away from the statue. “You need a long lens or binoculars to see it,” he said. “During the moulding process a lot of people had seen the statue up close and nobody noticed it.”

Department of arts and culture spokesman Mack Lewele said he was not aware of the addition to the statue and it would investigate the matter. “We can't comment until we have seen it with our own eyes,” Lewele said. He did not say whether the department would consider removing the rabbit.

People pay last respects to Bob the opossum

Bob the opossum was found with a spinal injury in 2011 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. That injury kept him from being able to be released back into the wild.

Since then Bob had been used to teach thousands of people about wildlife with Wild at Heart Rescue in Gulfport, Mississippi. Last year alone he took part in nearly 300 educational programmes.

Sadly Bob passed away a few months ago due to a neurological injury. Recently, a good Samaritan stepped up and donated funds so Bob could have a proper funeral and on Saturday a viewing was held at A Pet's Memory Funeral Home and Crematory in Gulfport.

Those who'd come in contact with Bob over the years paid their respects to the marsupial. Many say they fondly remember hand feeding him bananas.

There's a news video here.