The Daily Drift

Cute Overload ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 202 countries around the world daily.   

    
Go on and admit it - You want one ... !

Today is  - National Puppy Day

You want the unvarnished truth?

Don't forget to visit:The Truth Be Told

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Muriae, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil

Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec, Canada

Lo Prado, Chile

Bogota, Colombia

Ecatepec and Mexico City, Mexico

Catano and San Juan,  Puerto Rico

Europe

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Glavinista, Sofia and Varna, Bulgaria

London and Loughton, England

Rouen and Velizy-Villacoublay, France

Hamburg and Russelheim, Germany

Athens and Peristerion, Greece

Genova, Milan, Palermo, Ravenna and Rome, Italy

Riga, Latvia

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Doetinchem, Netherlands

Oslo, Norway

Grodzisk, Poland

Lagos and Lisbon, Portugal

Bucharest, Romania

Saratov, Russia

Bratislava, Slovakia

Madrid, Pinar de Chamartin, Tres Cantos and Valencia, Spain

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Asia

Jinan, Taiyuan, China

Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Bokaro, Calicut, Chetput, Delhi, New Delhi, Rajkot and Vadodara, India

Jagirsidosermo, Indonesia

beaufort, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Seremban, Malaysia

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Taipei, Taiwan

Bangkok, Thailand

Africa

Djibouti, Djibouti

Cape Town, South Africa

The Pacific

Heidelberg and Surry Hills, Australia

Makati and Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1657		France and England form an alliance against Spain.
1743		Handel's Messiah is performed for the first time in London.
1775		American revolutionary hero Patrick Henry, while addressing the House of Burgesses, declares "give me liberty, or give me death!"
1791		Etta Palm, a Dutch champion of woman's rights, sets up a group of women's clubs called the Confederation of the Friends of Truth.
1848		Hungary proclaims its independence of Austria.
1857		Elisha Otis installs the first modern passenger elevator in a public building, at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway in New York City.
1858		Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia patents the cable street car, which runs on overhead cables.
1862		Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson faces his only defeat at the Battle of Kernstown, Va
1880		John Stevens of Neenah, Wis., patents the grain crushing mill. This mill allows flour production to increase by 70 percent.
1901		A group of U.S. Army soldier led by Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston capture Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of the Philippine Insurrection of 1899.
1903		The Wright brothers obtain an airplane patent.
1909		British Lt. Ernest Shackleton finds the magnetic South Pole.
1909		Theodore Roosevelt begins an African safari sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
1917		Austrian Emperor Charles I makes a peace proposal to French President Poincare.
1920		Great Britain denounces the United States because of its delay in joining the League of Nations.
1921		Arthur G. Hamilton sets a new parachute record, safely jumping 24,400 feet.
1927		Captain Hawthorne Gray sets a new balloon record soaring to 28,510 feet.
1933		The Reichstag gives Adolf Hitler the power to rule by decree.
1942		The Japanese occupy the Anadaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.
1951		U.S. paratroopers descend from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea.
1956		Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic, although it is still within the British Commonwealth.
1967		Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. calls the Vietnam War the biggest obstacle to the civil rights movement.
1970		Mafia boss Carlo Gambino is arrested for plotting to steal $3 million.
1972		The United States calls a halt to the peace talks on Vietnam being held in Paris.
1981		U.S. Supreme Court upholds a law making statutory rape a crime for men but not women.

Editorial Comment

As our regular readers know we started this blog as something to do while we worked on the farm we had just purchased back in 2005. It became something to do as we spent the next eight years in the hospital as the Mrs., became ill, was finally diagnosed and stabilized.
Having retired from a thriving Psychology practice to run the farm in retirement was the plan, but as they say ... the best laid plans ....

With the Mrs'., stabilization came the opportunity to re-enter the corporate world and it was taken - boredom with retirement, (even though there was no time between the hospital, farm and all the other activities we enjoy), was the main decision maker there. (Not that the salary was a deterrent either, we make more than we did in our practice with even less work and as you may know Psychologists make a pretty good living and do not work hard while doing it.)

In doing so time constraints grew tighter - although sleep has been the enemy for a lifetime one still has to have it sometime - so it was decided to curtail the blogging as of April 1, 2015. Something we would be announcing about now.

However, Blogger's recent foray into insanity (which they soon realized and reversed themselves on) the time table for our sister blogs was moved up to March 1, 2015. The result was no loss of readership for any of the blogs. In fact there is an increasing readership for the new blog introduced on March 1, 2015.

Today we are announcing that this blog will curtail its posts beginning tomorrow. Don't fret dear readers it will only be curtailed to the number of posts found on the new blog - 20 in lieu of the current 30. (You would be amazed at the amount of time it takes for those 10 posts.) Content and theme shall remain the same, only a slight decrease in volume.

Also, as you know we recently disallowed comments to be published on any of our blogs without the editor's approval due to trolls seeking to divert and pervert them. This has resulted in a wholesale exodus of the trolls for greener pastures - except for a few really stupid ones who always seem to be too stupid to realize they have lost at everything.

We are taking a page from Ms, Judd's book and these trolls shall soon be visited by the authorities to explain their option of a fine and jail or jail and a fine to them for their trolling activities.
Non-troll comments are being archived and could be published at any time. Troll comments are being collected and forwarded to the authorities for prosecution.

On a happy note - Spring is here. Time for some of those other activities mentioned above ... Gardening, Yard Work, DIY Projects, Day Trips, etc. As well as the work needed to run a farm.

Tilling for the planting is going to be a fun time because we have an old 'homemade' tiller made by grandpa before WW2 - he took a small riding tractor engine that still worked while the rest of the tractor was only good for salvage and converted it into a walk-behind tiller ... which means we have a self propelled tiller that you have to run behind to keep it upright and it helps if you can bench-press at least 200lbs (if you can't before you use the tiller you will after you use it).

Living on the lake (the farm is across the road from the lake while our home is on the lake front) has its advantages and its disadvantages one of which is with the warmer days comes an onslaught of nonresidents crowding onto the lake and creating an extremely hazardous environment. There have already been four collisions off the end of our pier and Spring only began this past Friday at 6:45PM. We hope this is not an indicator as to the 'lake season' this year, if so it it going to be a LOOOOOOONG one indeed.

Thank you for reading Carolina Naturally and her sister blogs.
Have Fun and Enjoy!

White people are "expats." Others are "immigrants."

From The Guardian:

What is an expat? And who is an expat? According to Wikipedia, “an expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex (‘out of’) and patria (‘country, fatherland’)”.

Defined that way, you should expect that any person going to work outside of his or her country for a period of time would be an expat, regardless of his skin colour or country. But that is not the case in reality; expat is a term reserved exclusively for western white people going to work abroad...

The Wall Street Journal, the leading financial information magazine in the world, has a blog dedicated to the life of expats and recently they featured a story ‘Who is an expat, anyway?’. Here are the main conclusions: “Some arrivals are described as expats; others as immigrants; and some simply as migrants. It depends on social class, country of origin and economic status. It’s strange to hear some people in Hong Kong described as expats, but not others. Anyone with roots in a western country is considered an expat … Filipino domestic helpers are just guests, even if they’ve been here for decades. Mandarin-speaking mainland Chinese are rarely regarded as expats … It’s a double standard woven into official policy.” 

Random Celebrity Photos

Brigitte Bardot

Photos of Pompeii, Then and Now

Zena Kamash of Royal Holloway, University of London, examined nineteenth- and early twentieth-century lantern slides of Pompeii taken by tourists, and compared them to modern-day photographs posted by travelers on the Internet. She found that the images are remarkably similar—they contain few people, despite the crowds that are drawn to the ancient city, even in the age of the selfie. “I think we have a very powerful imagined idea of what an ancient city should be like, which is a romantic empty ruin that stands in mute testament to the past. This is the view that has come down to us from the earliest drawings of archaeological sites and through the quiet, empty photos that we find in the lantern slide collection,” Kamash said in a press release. “In the case of Pompeii, I think this is particularly strong because we all know the tragic story of its destruction and devastation by Vesuvius erupting in A.D. 79—the silent plaster casts of the bodies trying to flee seem to really capture people’s imagination and bring home to visitors the emptiness, death and loss suffered by the city all that time ago,” she concluded. To read in-depth about work at one of Pompeii's most iconic buildings, see "Saving the Villa of the Mysteries."

Divers Find 300 Year Old Sunken Pirate Ship in Mississippi River Near St. Louis

by Greg Henderson

A group of amateur divers this weekend discovered a sunken pirate ship in the Mississippi river south of St. Louis.
The discovery was made Saturday near Oakville, Missouri after a group of divers, searching for lost river boat artifacts, came across the large ship.
“We have found parts of smaller river boats before. At first we thought it was just another one of those,” Jake Turner, one of the divers, tells us. “We quickly noticed that this was no ordinary boat, instead it became clear that this was an old sailing ship.”
The ship they discovered was the Negrito, captained by legendary Pacific pirate Black Eye Dan. According to legend the Negrito went vanished in 1708 and is believed to have sunk somewhere in the south Pacific. Various treasure hunters searched for several years for the missing ship with no luck.
Aboard the ship the divers found a large number of gold and jade artifacts, along with over 100 barrels of honey infused moonshine, which is likely the reason the pirates sailed to the area originally.
The divers say they will keep any treasure and artifacts, but will donate the ship itself to the city of St. Louis to be used as a museum. The boat will be on display under the Gateway Arch, inside the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, where a permanent exhibit will be constructed.
“We are thrilled to add the ship to the memorial,” St Louis visitor’s bureau president Nat Hudson tells us. “We did receive several request from the ancestors of the ship to return it to south-east Asia. We figured however it was in everyone’s best interest to drag it out for the world to see while we make a few bucks charging admission. We will respect the families by giving them free admission and a 25% discount off all merchandise though.”
Hudson says a temporary exhibit for the ship will officially open in April. The St. Louis visitor’s bureau will hold a contest between now and the opening for people to come up with the best conspiracy theory about how the ship reached St. Louis. Best entries will be shared on all major international news organizations.

Outrage over restaurant sign featuring bull with extra-large genitalia

A new sign at Barista’s Restaurant in Hurricane, Utah, featuring a bull’s extra-large male anatomy, is sparking outrage within the community. The sign, which was erected last Saturday across the street from Hurricane High School, is prompting fierce backlash from angry residents who are calling the sign offensive and inappropriate, saying the depiction of the bull’s genitalia is blatantly overdone.

“It looks terrible,” Hurricane City resident Denise Mackelprang said. “I could see the bull, but not the details of the sex. It’s R-rated to me, especially with young school kids seeing it and talking about it.” Several residents said they think the bull would look good if it were anatomically correct and the dimensions and proportions were appropriate throughout – more bull and less genitalia. “The giant bull is awesome,” Hurricane City resident Angel Janell said.

“The giant, weird testicles and penis are not even anatomically correct … that is my issue.” Barista’s Restaurant owner Stephen Ward said the real issue Hurricane City residents are having is with him and not the sign. “If I put Pinocchio up there, its nose would be too big,” Ward said. “It’s me. It’s me. It’s not the bull. It’s not the restaurant. They don’t like me. But you know what, where does it say in the world, in the Constitution, that they can prevent me having the right to do legal commerce in the United States?
“That is my dog-given right.” Ward said he went through all the proper steps to have the sign approved by Hurricane City before having the sign installed. Hurricane City Planning Director Toni Foran confirmed the sign was approved by the city before it went up. “We saw a depiction on a piece of paper probably about 3 inches tall that, you know, may not have had exactly the same proportions,” Foran said. Many Hurricane residents are now planning to attend the next Hurricane City Council meeting to express their concerns about the sign.

Underground Emergency

In one of the world's biggest caves, a scientist gets in over her head.

Deep inside the mountain, we hear the sound of a river. The four of us—all researchers who study caves—are exploring Quankou Dong, or Big Spring Cave, in a remote, mountainous part of China, just south of Chengdu.
The “big spring” is a river that runs through a passageway from one end of the enormous cave to the other. Along the way, it churns into class 4 rapids. Hours earlier, we’d entered through a dry passage. Now, it’s full of water, rising fast.
The cave’s entrance is stunning: 100 feet wide, 300 feet high. Once inside, you pass through Cloud Ladder Hall, a 16-acre room so high it has its own weather system. One of the largest cave chambers in the world, it rises more than 1200 feet, though its roof is typically hidden by clouds.
We first went inside Quankou Dong in 2008, after it’d been discovered the year before, and we had been back several times. On one occasion, I slipped on a rock, fell in, and got tossed around in the rapids! It wasn’t funny at the time—class 4 rapids are very difficult to maneuver and can be incredibly dangerous—but my colleagues and I laugh about it now.
This year, we’re undertaking an epic 24-hour exploration. Since you can’t rent a car in Tongzi, we pay a driver 300 yuan to drop us off and then pick us up the following day. We’re wearing kneepads, wind-resistant PVC suits, and helmets equipped with powerful caving lights. Our packs are full of climbing equipment. Around 2 p.m., we arrive at the mouth of the cave.

Neatorama has more

Underground Bicycle Parking Systems In Japan

Too many bicycles and not enough space in Japan - so what do they do? They dig wells in the ground and build robotic systems to store your two wheelers underground - safe from harsh weather and naughty thieves.

YouTube link

The Stories Behind 40 Famous Company Names

Did you know that the athletic shoe brand ASICS is an acronym? The acronym stands for "Anima Sana In Corpore Sano," which means “Healthy soul in a healthy body” in Latin. The article linked below provides brief stories/explanations behind forty brand names. Some you may have heard; others, such as the ASICS acronym, you may not have. At least I didn't know it, and I'm wearing a pair of ASICS as I write this. See how many brand names that you know the story behind here. 

Basketball player proud of name and newspaper delighted to use it as many times as possible

The Medicine Hat News, a newspaper in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, have gleefully published a story about Medicine Hat College Rattlers men’s basketball player Guilherme Carabagiale Fuck, who hails from Brazil, but is of German heritage.

The Medicine Hat News were asked by Medicine Hat College sports and recreation staff to use his first and middle names prior to the season, but will use his proper last name going forward, starting with this story.

And use it they have. Although in their excitement they've spelt his middle name wrong. Twice.

515 Students Expelled for Cheating in One City

Over 500 students were expelled from high school in Patna, Bihar, India, over a two day period for cheating on their class ten board exams. The results of the tests determine high school graduation and are often also used for college admission. A photograph taken during one exam session showed friends and family members outside the windows, ready to pass notes to test-takers. Education minister PK Shahi says it is impossible to conduct fair exam without the cooperation of parents.

He appealed to parents to not indulge in such practices but said reports of cheating in exams were common in all parts of the country, not just Bihar, adding that chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and police chief PK Thakur had been asked to further tighten arrangements.

Around 1.43 million students are appearing for the class 10 state board examinations this year at 1,217 centres, many of which are allotted a large number of students without commensurate infrastructure to accommodate them. The school-leaving examinations are marked by violence and wide-spread use of unfair means that include parents and friends writing answers for examinees, often guarded by armed men.

In addition to the expulsions, seven parents were arrested for helping their children cheat on the test.

Sneezing women head slapper sought by police

A man who has been slapping women on the head in Carlisle, after they sneeze, is being sought by police.

Cumbria Police said that an 82-year old woman reported that she was slapped after she had sneezed at 11.30am on Tuesday.
The suspect is a man believed to be in his late 50s, and was wearing a tweed jacket.
It is reported that a similar incident happened on Monday, but the victim has not yet been traced by police. Anyone that may have witnessed the incident or has any further information is asked to contact Cumbria Police.

Mother and Son Arrested in $1000,000 Toothbrush Heist

A mother and son from Apopka, Florida, are the suspected ringleaders of an unusual theft scheme.

Police say Clint Curtiss, 44, and Mary Curtiss, 64, led a group they say is responsible for stealing more than $100,000 worth of toothbrushes in the past year. The thefts happened at Publix, Walmart, Walgreens and CVS stores throughout Central Florida
Police say the ringleaders stole electronic toothbrushes worth more than $100 and would then visit other stores to buy replacement heads. They then altered receipts to make it appear they had also bought the toothbrushes. Employees would process the return and give the Curtisses their money back.
But investigators believe the toothbrush theft operation may be much larger, and the thefts started in 2011. Clint and Mary Curtiss both face charges of racketeering and conspiracy to engage in racketeering. They were arrested on Tuesday and remain in the Orange County Jail.

Random Photos

A Preschool for Grown-Ups

When we were in preschool, we were in an enchanted paradise and we didn’t even know it. It was a simple, joyful life back then: finger painting, crayons, Play-Doh, crafts, storytime, snacktime, and naptime. You can experience it again at Preschool Mastermind, a preschool for adults in New York City. It’s a project founded by Michelle Joni, who is pictured above. ABC News reports:

"I realized all the implications of what we learn in preschool," said founder Michelle Joni, who said she went to school for childhood education and always wanted to be a preschool teacher. "People come here and get in touch with their inner child. It's magical."
"One person's here because they want to learn not to be so serious," she said. "Another's here to learn to be more confident." But some are there just to have fun. […]
Next week there's a field trip. Then the last week of class is "parent day" when the students bring two adults of their choice to class. One woman is actually bringing her parents.

"Womb raiders"

The Washington Post has a report this morning about women who perform "Caesarean kidnapping" or fetal abduction.

"Perhaps the most shocking element of Wednesday’s tragic events in Longmont, Colo., where a mother allegedly cut a baby from a 26-year-old pregnant woman, is that it wasn’t an isolated incident... It has roots in an earlier rash of kidnappings in the 1990s, when a string of baby snatchers descended upon North American hospitals and made off with infants. But as hospitals adapted to the troubling trend, installing more secure tracking measures, the phenomenon took a gruesome turn...
The women who do these sort of things aren’t insane, she said. Quite the contrary. They recognize a want — and act upon it.
There’s no shortage of examples... Porter counted 21 instances globally since 1987, saying the phenomenon is increasing. All of the “womb raiders,” as they’re sometimes called, are women."

More details at the Washington Post, for those who want them.

Breastfeeding and High IQ

Breastfeeding Leads to Higher IQ, Earnings Later

The likely mechanism underlying the beneficial effects is the presence of long-chain saturated fatty acids found in breast milk, which are essential for brain development.

Your Brain and Love

What Your Brain Does When You're in Love

The brain isn't an organ we typically think about when we consider love, right? It's all about the heart, isn't it? But not to researchers who trained fMRI scans on the brains of people in love.

Definitions

A Dry California and the World

How a California Run Dry Affects the World

California, the world's bread basket, is in the midst of a four-year drought - its worst in a scary-long time. What does it mean for the golden state, and could the same be in store for the rest of the U.S.?

Warm West - Wet East

Warm Spring Expected for West, Flooding in East

Spring in the United States looks to be a hangover of winter conditions, though the season is warming overall.

Iron rain fell on early Earth

Iron rain fell on early Earth, new Z machine data supports

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have helped untangle a long-standing mystery of astrophysics: why iron is found spattered throughout Earth’s mantle, the roughly 2,000-mile thick region between Earth’s […]

Record Low Winter Peak

Arctic Sea Ice Hits Record Low Winter Peak

Arctic sea ice has reached its annual winter peak, which was a record low for the satellite era.

Big Melt in Antarctica

Hidden Channels Could Cause Big Melt in Antarctica

Two valleys underneath Totten Glacier in East Antarctica may be letting in warm ocean water that is melting the glacier's ice shelf.

Dogs by the Hour

Dogs by the Hour: Japan Offers Pet Rental Service

In crowded Tokyo, you can rent a mutt for a few hours of wet noses and unconditional loving from man's best friend.

Fish Spill in China Leaves No Mess

A truck carrying 6,800 kilograms of live catfish spilled its load Tuesday when a door swung open in Guizhou province, China. Tons of fish covered the road in the Kaili Development Zone. But the incident did not end with a call to a hazmat crew, or people carrying fish home with them.

According to NetEase, firemen were dispatched to the scene and with local residents' help, the fish were eventually reloaded onto the truck.
The truck was ready to carry the fish to its destination after two hours of "rescue", which pretty much just involved spraying the road fish with water and plopping them into buckets.

There were no reports of any looted fish. But there are plenty of pictures.

Chimpanzees See the Outside after Being Caged for 30 Years

(Video Link)

In 2011, the Gut Aiderbichl animal rescue organization in Austria rescued several chimpanzees which had been caged in an indoor laboratory for up to 30 years. Some, having been born there, had never seen the outside world.
Gut Aiderbichl prepared an open air environment for the chimpanzees, then moved them to a cage adjoining it. When it was ready, they opened a door between the two. The curious chimpanzees began to explore a bright new world. It’s not the wilderness to which they can never return, but it is a better life. You can follow their progress here.

Animal Pictures