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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.


Sunday, September 6, 2015

The Daily Drift

Welcome to the Sunday Edition of  Carolina Naturally.
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Today in History

394 Theodosius becomes sole ruler of Italy after defeating Eugenius at the Battle of the River Frigidus.
1422 Sultan Murat II ends a vain siege of Constantinople.
1522 One of the five ships that set out in Ferdinand Magellan’s trip around the world makes it back to Spain. Only 15 of the original 265 men that set out survived. Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.
1688 Imperial troops defeat the Turks and take Belgrade, Serbia.
1793 French General Jean Houchard and his 40,000 men begin a three-day battle against an Anglo-Hanoveraian army at Hondschoote, southwest Belgium, in the wars of the French Revolution.
1847 Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves back into town, to Concord, Massachusetts.
1861 Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s forces capture Paducah, Kentucky from Confederate forces.
1870 The last British troops to serve in Austria are withdrawn.
1901 President William McKinley is shot while attending a reception at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, by 28-year-old anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley dies eight days later, the third American president assassinated.
1907 The luxury liner Lusitania leaves London for New York on her maiden voyage.
1918 The German Army begins a general retreat across the Aisne, with British troops in pursuit.
1936 Aviator Beryl Markham flies the first east-to-west solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1937 The Soviet Union accuses Italy of torpedoing two Russian ships in the Mediterranean.
1941 Germany announces that all Jews living in the country will have to begin wearing a Star of David.
1943 The United States asks the Chinese Nationals to join with the Communists to present a common front to the Japanese.
1953 The last American and Korean prisoners are exchanged in Operation Big Switch, the last official act of the Korean War.
1965 Indian troops invade Lahore; Pakistan paratroopers raid Punjab.
1972 The world learns an earlier announcement that all Israeli athletes taken hostage at the Munich Olympics had been rescued was erroneous; all had killed by their captors from the Black September terrorist group; all but 3 terrorists also died in shootout around midnight.
1976 A Soviet pilot lands his MIG-25 in Tokyo and asks for political asylum in the United States.
1976 Lieutenant Viktor Belenko, a Soviet air force pilot defects, flying a MiG-25 jet fighter to Japan and requesting political asylum in US.
1988 Lee Roy Young becomes the first African-American Texas Ranger in the force’s 165-year history.
1991 USSR officially recognizes independence for the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1991 Leningrad, second-largest city in the USSR, is changed to Saint Petersburg, which had been the city’s name prior to 1924.
1995 Baltimore Orioles’ Cal Ripken Jr. plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a 56-year MLB record held by Lou Gehrig; in 2007 fans voted this achievement the most memorable moment in MLB history.
1997 Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales: over 1 million people line London’s streets to honor her and 2.5 billion watched the event on TV.

‘Love has won’

William Smith and James Yates hug after obtaining marriage license (Twitter)
A gay couple obtained a marriage license Friday morning in Rowan County, where a county clerk’s refusal to follow the law has drawn international attention.

This Is What Happens To Your Body When You're Stressed

by Christine Schoenwald
stress
Take care of yourself!
I used to believe I had no stress in my life. I had very tight muscles in my shoulders and hardly ever felt relaxed, but I wasn't stressed. It took me a while to realize that I was tense because I was stressed out.
I had job stress (like everybody else), a commute, financial stresses, health stresses, so that when I became honest with myself. I realized that I was on stress-overload and I needed to make some changes, and fast.
That's the thing about stress — it can sneak up on you and do all kinds of damage without you catching on.
Recently, Time shared an infographic about stress. The first part is about how America handles stress:
In another article in Medical Daily, experts discuss how the human body is hardwired to react to stress, in order to protect itself from threats and aggressors. When the body thinks there's a threat, such as a barking dog on your morning walk to the subway, the hypothalamus (a small but important part of the brain) sets off an alarm system.
Hormones adrenaline (AKA acute stress response) and cortisol are then released into the blood stream. Adrenaline increases your heart rate and begins to use up energy supplies in the body, while cortisol increases sugar levels in the bloodstream at the same time, weakening the immune system.
What if this hormone battle was happening all the time in your body? Of course there'd be harmful effects.
The second part of the Time infographic explains what stress specifically does to our body.
Now is the time for self-care and managing the damaging effects of stress. Make a healthy diet and exercise a priority, and get enough sleep. Try adding in a walk daily, and practice breathing exercises to lower blood pressure and stimulate the nervous system, which helps calm the body and mind.
The best thing you can do is to take breaks. Do whatever you can to calm down, and relax. De-stressing is the key to feeling better and living longer.

Tests found that two thirds of ham and cheese pizzas contained neither ham or cheese

Two thirds of ham and cheese pizzas tested by trading standards officers in Derbyshire failed to contain ham or cheese, it has been revealed. Derbyshire County Council says its officers visited 15 takeaways across the county between January and March to test ham and cheese pizzas for substitution and salt levels. Of the samples tested, eight were found to contain a mixture of cheese and cheese substitute rather than 100% cheese, five contained turkey ham instead of ham and one pizza contained salt higher than the recommended amount. The council’s trading standards team is also investigating a supplier who misled a business by claiming they were selling real cheese.
Further tests revealed it was a mixture of cheese and cheese substitute. It is now issuing reminders to food businesses warning them that they could face prosecution under the Food Safety Act if they do not describe food correctly or properly label it for sale. Councillor Dave Allen, cabinet member for health and communities, said: “It’s important that we keep consumers safe from any misleading or false information when it comes to what’s in their food.
“Our trading standards officers regularly take samples from food businesses and as well as having a duty to protect consumers from falsely described food they also have a duty to protect legitimate traders. Mislabeling food and ingredients can be very dangerous – especially for people with allergies to certain products – and we will not shy away from taking formal action against businesses that deliberately break the law.”

Simple Yet Genius Storage Ideas

Our pal DumpADay has got a neat post about 10 storage ideas that are so simple yet useful that they're borderline genius! Like using a paper towel holder to organize your ribbons:
Or using crown molding to organize high heels:
Now why didn't I think of this! Take a look at the rest over at DumpADay

Fox News Hack Is Suing Hasbro For Naming A Toy Hamster After Her

Some people would see having a toy named after them as a good thing, but one foxy Fox News hack wasn't very happy when she discovered a toy hamster with her unusual name.
Hack Harris Faulkner is suing Hasbro for giving a Littlest Pet Shop hamster her name and likeness, and while the likeness element of the lawsuit is up for debate it’s hard to deny Hasbro’s use of her far from normal name.
Harris is suing the toy company for 5 million dollars, claiming the toy stole her likeness via “complexion, the shape of its eyes, and the design of its eye makeup”.
She's probably just angry that the figure named after her is a sidekick and not the main character, no word yet on whether a human named Benson Detwyler plans to sue Hasbro as well.

Evangelical Death Threats Against Planned Parenthood Are On The Rise

If history is any indication, law enforcement had better take the increase in death threats against abortion providers very seriously…
PP Burned
Throughout its history, despite being a so-called religion founded on jesus christ’s teaching to love all humanity, christianity has been responsible for millions of deaths and the threat of god-approved extinction of non-believers, the wrong kind of christians, and whichever group cult leaders targeted. There is biblical precedence for killing in dog’s name permeating the so-called “old testament,” but it is not featured in the “christian” new testament except during the “end times” when jesus christ kills off the segment of humanity that refuses to be his disciples. In the criminal justice system, dog would be guilty of criminal solicitation to commit murder for commanding, encouraging or requesting other people to engage in specific conduct (homicide) which would establish his complicity in its commission or attempted commission. According to the law, it is immaterial that the actor fails to communicate with the person he solicits to commit a crime if his conduct was designed to effect such a communication.
In 21st Century America, there is a tiny segment of the population that believes they are biblical dog’s surrogates, and since he is incapable of verbally commanding his followers to commit murder on his behalf, extremist evangelicals are doing his bidding and are guilty of criminal solicitation. And, they are soliciting for murder with veritable impunity because this is America and no human being, particularly a human associated with the government, dare investigate so-called pro-life advocates calling for the murders of Planned Parenthood personnel.
A little over a month ago after an anti-choice cabal released heavily-edited and contrived videos of a Planned Parenthood doctor discussing donations of fetal tissue for medical research after pregnancy terminations, a rash of “criminal solicitations” for murder began appearing all over the Internet. One specifically “ominous warning on Fox Nation” said, “I’ll pay ten large to whomever kills Dr. Deborah Nucatola. Anyone. Go for it.” The intended victim is the senior director of Planned Parenthood who was secretly filmed in one of the edited videos.
Another threat was lodged at the CEO, Cate Dyer, of the biomedicine company doing the medical research using fetal tissue. The threat said, “The CEO of StemExpress should be hung by the neck using piano wire and propped up on the lawn in front of the building with a note attached.” The solicitation of murder was accompanied with Dyer’s home address and a handsome offer of “ten grand to whomever beats me to her house.” The violent warning “that Dyer must die” ended the solicitation to kill an American citizen because of where she works. A legal complaint was filed in California district court by the National Abortion Federation (NAF), but since the criminal solicitation originated with rabid evangelicals, nothing can possibly happen because freedom of religion.
According to abortion rights advocates, the calls for murder represent a “very alarming spike in death threats and violent acts” against abortion providers, women’s health clinics, and any medical research company that criminal 'christians' believe are using fetal tissue. These are not just idle threats, or anti-choice fanatics’ free exercise of religion. Since the threats began rising, two Planned Parenthood clinics have reported arsons, anti-choice maniacs are showing up in large numbers outside of doctors’ homes, and blowhards on wingnut websites and online forums are making blatant calls for bombings of women’s health clinics across the nation for having the audacity to engage in a completely legal medical practice.
The death threats have risen to such a level that the president of NAF, Vicki Saporta, has asked the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigations to intervene. Saporta said, “In my 20 years at NAF, I have never seen such a volume, intensity and escalation of hate speech, threats and criminal activity, and we would like to prevent a serious violent act from occurring. We have enlisted law enforcement’s help.” As a person who receives regular threats of violence from fanatics in the religio-wingnut delusion, this author can attest that there is nothing law enforcement can or will do until the extremists follow through on their threats.
It is important to note that according to the law, there is never a valid reason for soliciting murder, but it is particularly true in the case of Planned Parenthood that has done nothing whatsoever illegal. This is especially true since the U.S. Congress passed a 1993 law that “explicitly allows” for the donation of fetal tissue for medical research after an elective pregnancy termination. In fact, there have been no less than five separate state investigations into Planned Parenthood’s practice of donating fetal tissue and they have turned up no evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever. But these are rabid evangelical anti-choicers and they contend that regardless the laws, Planned Parenthood is engaged in an illegal activity and they intend on inflicting the ultimate penalty because dog and jesus. Once again, since evangelicals clutch a bible to their bosom but never open or read a word of it, according to the dog of their bible, a fetus is not a “living being” until it exits the womb and breathes air on its own.
If history is any indication, law enforcement had better take the increase in death threats against abortion providers very seriously. There have been two abortion providers murdered at the behest of evangelical criminal solicitations including Dr. George Tiller who was shot in the head while attending his 'christian' cult, and Dr. Barnett Slepian who was shot and killed in his own home after returning from worshiping in his synagogue. Both men were murdered for performing legal medical procedures that evangelical anti-choice agitators claim are illegal and in answer to the persistent solicitations of murder that have reached a fevered pitch over the past month.
Although Republicans are not openly soliciting criminal activity against Planned Parenthood or abortion providers, they are as guilty as the fanatics calling for murder in dog’s name. Republicans need to be held accountable for the rash of threats, arson, and anti-choice maniacs harassing doctors at their homes. Republicans are well aware that abortion is legal, tissue donation is legal, and that the edited videos created and released by anti-choice agitators are phony. Still, they have incited the religious base to violent threats by claiming Planned Parenthood is committing criminal activity by donating fetal tissue for medical research with the woman’s consent and according to a law they passed in 1998.
Republicans have had a huge measure of electoral theft with their secret weapon the fetus, and they could not care less if their theocratic base solicits criminal activity and convinces religious maniacs to commit murder and firebomb Planned Parenthood and women’s healthcare clinics across America. That it is a religious movement calling for death and destruction in the name of dog is exactly what evangelicals and Republicans claim makes ISIL worthy of America’s military wrath. However, it is not only acceptable, but necessary when evangelical anti-choice agitators engage in the same practice and it is why Republicans and the religio-wingnuts are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, America’s 'christian' version of ISIL.

Homeschooling mom freaks out when Tennessee public school includes Islam in social studies lesson

Patty Kinkead and Stumpy the patriotic beaver -Facebook
The fact that a Tennessee mom pulled her son out of a local elementary school last year is not deterring her from leading a silent protest at middle school this year after learning that seventh-graders would be taught about Islam in a social studies class.

Bilingual Arizona news anchor responds perfectly to criticism about pronouncing Spanish words properly

Vanessa Ruiz (Screenshot/12News)
Bilingual Arizona news anchor responds perfectly to criticism about pronouncing Spanish words properly

Man Tries To Rob Female MMA Fighter, Instantly Regrets His Decision

There are very few ways to qualify someone before you mug them, but thieves often prefer to rob women because they're assumed to be easy targets, an assumption that is often proven to be wrong.
MMA fighter Monique Bastos was headed to the gym with a few friends when a stupid thief tried to steal her phone while riding by on a bike. However, Monique wasn't going to give up her phone without a fight, and the would-be thief ended up with nothing but a hard hitting life lesson.
As you can see in the video, the thief she has locked up in the dreaded "triangle" wished he was dead, and his punishment definitely fit his cowardly crime. Curious about what he's yelling as she chokes him out? Read a translation here

Woman smashed lamp over relative's head after he refused to take drugs with her

A woman from Panama City Beach, Florida, has been arrested for allegedly smashing a lamp over the head of a relative because he would not take illegal drugs with her.
Brittany Nichole Pierce, 19, was arrested on Monday at about 9:15pm on charges of aggravated battery, assault with intent to do violence and battery on an officer, the Panama City Beach Police Department reported.
According to arrest records, Pierce and the victim got into an argument after the victim declined to use drugs with her. She allegedly began breaking items in the victim’s home before allegedly striking the victim on the head with a lamp, leaving a laceration, police reported.
Pierce also allegedly threatened to shoot the victim and had a handgun nearby with one round in the chamber, PCBPD reported. As she was being taken into custody, Pierce allegedly spat in the face of an officer. The officer later had to stop the car en route to the jail because Pierce allegedly began slamming her head against the car’s window.

Man cut off his hand before crashing car

A man from Omaha, Nebraska, is being treated for non-life threatening injuries after cutting off his hand and crashing his vehicle into a bridge.
Police say Quentin Dunaway, 32, stabbed himself several times with a knife before leaving his home on Monday evening in a red Ford Fusion. Officers searched for Dunaway, but were not able to find him.
Local hospitals were alerted to be on the lookout for him if he were to seek medical care. At 7am on Tuesday morning, police were called back to the home after Dunaway had returned. After arriving back at the residence, he completely cut off one of his hands using a knife. He then fled from police again.

About 45 minutes later, police responded to a crash where a red Ford Fusion had crashed into a bridge. The driver of the vehicle was determined to be Dunaway and he was transported to Nebraska Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Dunaway's hand was recovered back at the residence.

Driving While Fresh

Dana Harris Jr. with Officer Brian Murphy approaching - (YouTube screencapture)
Driving while fresh: Black man pulled over by Rhode Island cop for air freshener dangling from mirror

Wikipedia Editors Uncover Extortion Scam And Extensive Cybercrime Syndicate

Gun Violence Spreading Like The Flu

Gun violence works as a social contagion, say experts explaining a rise in violent crime across many U.S. cities.

Ziggy

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Myths and Monsters: The Call of Cthulhu

H.P. Lovecraft keeps getting name-checked in pop culture. Here's why he matters.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft was having a bad summer. Like many newcomers to New York City, the aspiring writer from Rhode Island felt overwhelmed and out of place. He was unemployed, living in a mouse-infested one-room apartment in Brooklyn, and steadily losing weight on a paltry diet of cold canned beans and spaghetti. To make matters worse, his wife, for whom he’d moved to New York in the first place, had taken a job in another city and left him to fend for himself.
It was the first time Lovecraft had ever lived alone— and he was spectacularly homesick. Born in Providence in 1890, he viewed his hometown—with its scholarly atmosphere and dilapidated 18th-century mansions—as an essential piece of his identity. “Providence is me—I am Providence,” he wrote his aunt from his New York exile, inspiring the title of S. T. Joshi’s authoritative biography, I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft. The city suited Lovecraft—a self-taught antiquarian obsessed with the contrasts of New England—in ways that New York could not.
Lovecraft grew up with a neurotic and stifling mother, Susie, and two aunts. (His father had died, probably of syphilis, after a stint in a mental institution.) The family had little of the capital but all the prejudices associated with old New England pedigree, and Lovecraft was never trained for any gainful employment. Nervous illnesses kept him isolated at home for long stretches, during which he joined up with “amateur journalist” groups: organizations of unpaid pamphleteers who—with their in-fighting, trolling, and political ranting that no one would ever hear—would likely feel at home in online forums today.
It was at a convention for such writers in Boston in 1921 that Lovecraft met Sonia Haft Greene, an energetic and attractive Eastern European Jewish widow from New York City, seven years his senior. Lovecraft, still reeling from the death of his mother six weeks prior, was not exactly a catch. He had no income besides a dwindling family inheritance and occasional checks from editorial temp work. He had the frame of a scarecrow, a protruding lower jaw, and a squeaky voice. He was also averse to sex, which he blamed on having read a scientific book as a child. “The whole matter was reduced to prosaic mechanism,” he wrote later, “a mechanism which I rather despised.” Not to mention, he was a virulent racial purist, outwardly disgusted by immigrants, tending to become “livid with anger” when he encountered foreign workers. Neatorama has the rest.


Oldest Heart Attack

The oldest case of acute decompensated heart failure is found in 3,500-year-old mummified remains.

Three Trillion Trees

We're outnumbered -- that comes to 422 trees per human being. But their numbers are dwindling. 

'Grey Swan' Hurricanes

'Grey swan' hurricanes, those without precedent but that could be predicted, could be more likely with global warming.

2015 El Nino Strongest Since the 1950s

This year's El Niño is historically powerful, after unprecedented changes related to global warming, according to the World Meteorological Organization.


The Mystery of Devil's Kettle Falls

When water goes down a hole in the earth and doesn’t come out anywhere that anyone can find, where does it go? It’s a deep and dangerous hole that no one wants to climb down into. Surely there's some way to test that.
A few miles south of the U.S.-Canadian border, the Brule River flows through Minnesota’s Judge C. R. Magney State Park, where it drops 800 feet in an 8-mile span, creating several waterfalls. A mile and a half north of the shore of Lake Superior, a thick knuckle of rhyolite rock juts out, dividing the river dramatically at the crest of the falls. To the east, a traditional waterfall carves a downward path, but to the west, a geological conundrum awaits visitors. A giant pothole, the Devil’s Kettle, swallows half of the Brule and no one has any idea where it goes. The consensus is that there must be an exit point somewhere beneath Lake Superior, but over the years, researchers and the curious have poured dye, pingpong balls, even logs into the kettle, then watched the lake for any sign of them. So far, none has ever been found.
The name Devil’s Kettle implies that the water pours straight down to hell for Satan’s tea. You have to wonder why no one has thrown a waterproof GPS tracking device down there. After all, we tags marine animals with them all the time. Or maybe a GoPro on a long string. But it’s a great story, and the mystery may be solved one day. Meanwhile, you can read some of the untested theories at Mother Nature Network. 

Crossing guard dog 'fired' by school district

Patches the crossing guard dog is no longer allowed out at the crosswalk while his owner Brad Curtis is on duty. Following a news report last week, Jersey Shore Area School District officials told their employee he can no longer have Patches outside at the crosswalk while he's working. The school district wants people to know this decision was made not because of Patches, but because it keeps everyone around the crosswalk safe.
Almost every day, crossing guard Brad Curtis is out with his big red sign and orange safety vest on the corner of Allegheny Street in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. But parents also expect to see something else when they reach the intersection. "Patches is missing," said Jersey Shore resident Amy Wampler. "We didn't see him this morning and we wondered why, and now he's not here." "We see the dog every day, every single day for almost two years now," said another resident.

Curtis works for Jersey Shore Area School District. He usually took his 5-year-old Multipoo with him to work. Lyra Clark could see the dog from her shop. The pooch wore his own stop sign and safety vest. "People come by, even take pictures of him. Everybody likes him. He's a really nice dog." It seems almost everyone loves Patches, but school officials won't let the dog stay at the crosswalk because it's against school policy.

Jersey Shore Area School District officials say that employees who monitor the crosswalks didn't previously know about Patches. No one had ever reported the dog to the school. The school district's superintendent said: "We have clear policies in the school district regarding any type of animal during the work day. Yes, he is a cute, adorable pet. The bottom line: there are always unanticipated risks with an animal. Any known distraction needs to be removed." Curtis the crossing guard says he plans to continue his job without Patches. 

Green Slime

A thin layer of bright green slime at the bottom of an Antarctic lake is giving scientists a glimpse at life on Earth 2.4 billion years ago.

No Organs

Having no organs is no problem for at least one animal that digests food on the surface of its body.

Kestrel Mummy

The bird's remains show evidence of forced feeding, pointing scientists toward the possibility it was being bred. 

Antelope Deaths

Researchers are just now starting to find clues as to how more than half of Kazakhstan's herd died so rapidly. 

Bonding Seal

Amazing footage captures the heartwarming moment. 

Animal Pictures