The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of Carolina Naturally.

True that ...! 

 

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Today is - The Iditarod

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Today in History

1624		Class-based legislation is passed in the colony of Virginia, exempting the upper class from punishment by whipping.
1766		Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.
1793		Austrian troops crush the French and recapture Liege.
1821		James Monroe becomes the first president to be inaugurated on March 5, only because the 4th was a Sunday.
1905		Russians begin to retreat from Mukden in Manchuria, China.
1912		The Italians become the first to use dirigibles for military purposes, using them for reconnaissance flights behind Turkish lines west of Tripoli.
1918		The Soviets move the capital of Russia from Petrograd to Moscow.
1928		Hitler‘s National Socialists win the majority vote in Bavaria.
1933		Newly inaugurated President Franklin D. Roosevelt halts the trading of gold and declares a bank holiday.
1933		Hitler and Nationalist allies win the Reichstag majority. It will be the last free election in Germany until after World War II.
1943		In desperation due to war losses, fifteen and sixteen year olds are called up for military service in the German army.
1946		In Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill tells a crowd that “an iron curtain has descended on the Continent [of Europe].”
1956		The U.S. Supreme Court affirms the ban on segregation in public schools in Brown vs. Board of Education.
1969		Gustav Heinemann is elected West German President.
1976		Britain gives up on the Ulster talks and decides to retain rule in Northern Ireland indefinitely.
1984		The U.S. Supreme Court rules that cities have the right to display the Nativity scene as part of their Xmas display.

Toy Boat Launched Off Coast Of South Carolina Ends Up In Wales

Kids and adults alike have grand ideas about where a toy boat will go when they set it afloat in at the beach, but most toy ships simply aren't cut out for a sea voyage and end up either dashed against the rocks or sunk.
So when the fourth grade class from St. Andrew's School of Math and Science set the "Carolina Dreamer" free off the coast of South Carolina they had no idea how far it would float before sinking.

But that little toy boat proved it was made of the right stuff and somehow survived a 4000 mile trip to Wales, where it was discovered by a mom and her son who were walking along the beach.

"We were looking across the waves when it literally sailed right to us," Helen Hinks told the BBC."It was magical."

The class was able to track most of the ship's epic eight month voyage with an onboard GPS tracker, and now they're waiting to see if it will survive the return trip home.

Read A Toy Boat Launched By School Kids In South Carolina Ended Up In Wales here

Zika Shown to Trigger Severe Neurological Disorder

Zika Shown to Trigger Severe Neurological Disorder

Blood tests have proven that the mosquito-borne virus was the culprit in an outbreak in French Polynesia of Guillain-Barre syndrome.

How We Speak Without Using Words

 Body Language: How We Speak Without Using Words

Before we evolved ways to express ourselves out loud, nature figured out other ways for us to communicate. To this day, we can say a lot without even speaking. And sometimes we don't even realize it.

Robert Reich’s sobering message for wealthy elites ...

Robert Reich’s sobering message for wealthy elites: You’ll soon be poor if you keep screwing over workers

The pent-up angers and frustrations of millions of Americans who are working harder than ever yet getting nowhere, and who feel more economically insecure than ever, have finally erupted.

The Best and Worst States for Women in America

The Best and Worst States for Women in America, From Wages to Life Expectancy 

The Wingnuts' Newest Rape Philosopher

Meet the Wingnuts' Newest Rape Philosopher

Nigerian government saves £8m a month from payroll by removing 23,846 non-existent workers

The Nigerian government has removed nearly 24,000 workers from its payroll after an audit revealed they did not exist, the Finance Ministry has said. The move has enabled a monthly saving of around 2.29 billion naira (£8m, $11.53m).

The audit is part of an anti-corruption campaign by President Muhammadu Buhari, who took power last year. Corruption and mismanagement have long been a challenge to Nigeria's growth, and the government has promised to cut costs.
The audit started in December used biometric data and a bank verification number to identify holders of bank accounts into which salaries were being paid. This process allowed the identification of some workers who were receiving a salary that did not correspond to the names linked to the bank accounts.
It also revealed that some employees were receiving salaries from multiple sources. Some 23,846 non-existent workers were removed from the payroll, an adviser to the finance minister said. Periodic checks and electronic audit techniques will be periodically carried out to prevent new frauds, the ministry added.

Popping balloons prompted massive police response and university campus lockdown

The sound of popping balloons had dozens of police officers descending on Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, on Sunday evening.

The popping sounds led to erroneous reports of a shooter on campus. A possible emergency situation was reported at around 6:30pm, with the campus placed on lockdown while campus security and Ottawa police investigated.
The false alarm was traced to the Tory building, near the center of the campus, where students had reportedly popped about 80 balloons, sending some other students into a panic and triggering the emergency call.
Students at the library, across the courtyard from the Tory building, were told to stay inside until the situation was cleared. Emergency responders quickly determined the source of the false alarm, and the lockdown was lifted within 20 minutes.

Man stopped while driving pink Power Wheels Cadillac arrested for credit card abuse

A man was recently pulled over while cruising around Shepherd in San Jacinto County, Texas, in a pink Power Wheels Cadillac Escalade. Deputy Nathan Deweese arrested the driver, David Schumaker, on Feb. 25, but not for his choice of vehicles. Instead he was arrested on a charge of credit card abuse.

After being dispatched to Shepherd to investigate the wrongdoing, Deweese reportedly found Schumaker driving around the neighborhood in a pink Power Wheels. Some local residents claimed to have seen Schumaker using the undersized toy car as his personal transportation.
“We’ve gotten calls on the guy driving around,” said SJCSO Lt. David Lawrenz. According to Lawrenz, Schumaker was seen driving the toy car in Shepherd close to McClain’s Food Market. Schumaker is alleged to have stolen a credit card from a woman in the area who knows him personally.
“The lady saw him go across the street,” said Lawrenz. “She got an alert on her phone [regarding her card being used].” At the time of his arrest, Schumaker reportedly was looking for a new battery for his toy car. The toy car has since gone into another individual’s possession. “It was released to a family member. It wasn’t towed,” said Lawrenz.

O'Reilly Loses Kids

Fox’s O’Reilly loses custody of teen children after New York appeals court ruling

"Viewing the totality of the circumstances, there is a sound and substantial basis for the Supreme Court's determination that it is in the best interests of the children for the mother to be awarded primary residential custody," the court stated.

Samantha Bee slams anti-Girl Scout archbishop who wasn’t ‘sure’ child molestation was a crime

Samantha Bee slams anti-Girl Scout archbishop who wasn’t ‘sure’ child molestation was a crime

Catholic priest snorts cocaine in room full of Nazi memorabilia

Catholic priest snorts cocaine in room full of Nazi memorabilia

Duke University VP hits parking attendant with his Porsche

Duke Univ. VP hits parking attendant with his Porsche — then allegedly calls her ‘dumb stupid nigger’

Shelvia Underwood was working before a Duke football game for McLaurin Parking and Transportation when Executive Vice President Tallman Trask struck her with his car.

Texas man arrested for shooting at campaign HQ of black woman running for sheriff

‘Fuck the niggers!’: Texas man arrested for shooting at campaign HQ of black woman running for sheriff

“Anytime something like that happens with innocent people around you’re concerned for them,” Stephens said.

Knife-wielding men scream ‘Heil Hitler’ as they attack Hispanic teens, family at Los Angeles playground

Knife-wielding men scream ‘Heil Hitler’ as they attack Hispanic teens, family at Los Angeles playground

Three white supremacists were arrested on Sunday after attacking multiple Hispanic men and women at a public park.

Airbnb Renters Find Decomposing Corpse in Garden

When a group of friends in France got together to have a party, they decided to rent a house to make the experience even more enjoyable. They consulted Airbnb and found the nice looking, three-story home in Palaiseau, pictured at left. Just a ten minute drive south of Paris, with seven bedrooms, a swimming pool, and backing up to a wooded area, it seemed ideal.
Yet when it came time to party, the renters were horrified to find a woman's badly decomposed body half buried in the garden area near the woods. In its shallow grave, the body was in a near fetal position, face down and covered with logs and branches. The local prosecutor's office said that homicide is suspected.
The friends who rented the place called off their party on Saturday and were questioned by the police the following day.

See additional pictures and read more on this story at the Washington Post.

Just a couple of things ...

1. Oklahoma continues to be rocked by earthquakes.  A recent one was magnitude 5.1 and felt as far away as Kansas City.  Historically (1978-2008) the state experienced two earthquakes per  year.  Since the institution of fracking for oil, the rate has increased to about 600X the baseline.

2. The instrumentation that measures gravitational waves has a precision that is truly mind-boggling: "Each detector looks like a giant L, made up of two tunnels, each 2.5 miles long. When a gravitational wave passes through, it stretches space along the direction of one tunnel and squishes space along the direction of the other. That stretching and squishing effectively changes the tunnels' lengths, and that change can be detected by lasers inside each one. The system is so sensitive it can see fluctuations as small as 1/10,000 the diameter of a proton."

Burglar alarm staircases

"Burglar alarm staircases" were not intentionally created as such.  The uneven risers have other explanations.

Mummified Sailor Found on Ghost Vessel

Mummified Sailor Found on Ghost Vessel

A mummified sailor has been found floating aboard a ghost yacht which could have drifted for years in the Pacific.

Archaeology News

Cave Art Hands Made by Reptile, Not Human

A close look at hand prints within a prehistoric rock shelter finds that they belonged to reptiles, and not to our species.

Wild Belts

Earth's Radiation Belts Change Wildly With Solar Storms

Satellites can short-out if they encounter a surge of radiation in Earth orbit and a new study of the Van Allen belts' shape could help better protect them from this highly-charged environment.

Spying the Universe's 'Dark Side'

Gravitational Waves: Spying the Universe's 'Dark Side'

Now the elusive ripples in spacetime have been found, scientists are planning for a rich future for using gravitational wave observatories to unmask the warped side of cosmos.

Paleontology News

Carnivorous Abelisaur Size Confirmed by Forgotten Fossil

A fossil stashed away in an Italian museum has given scientists a new appreciation for just how big a predatory, carnivorous dinosaur could get.

520-Million-Year-Old Nervous System Found

The crustacean-like animal lived long before the first dinosaurs emerged.

Man Didn't Know This Enormous, Nightmare Inducing Worm Was Living in His Fish Tank

A Gizmodo writer stumbled upon this video from 2012 that may have been "buried" at the time for a reason: that being, it's a horror show. YouTube user gurutek was in the process of breaking down his saltwater tank when he discovered the gigantic worm (which he calls a Eunice/bristle worm, though commenters at both Gizmodo and YouTube are arguing over the terminology) after two years of keeping the tank. If that story isn't bad enough, when he tried to grab the worm with tongs, a section of its tail snapped off and was still wriggling around.

YouTube Link

Such worms can, when small, hide in rocks or coral and go unnoticed, eventually growing to be quite large. They are nocturnal, so therefore are easy to miss.  Says gurutek,

"I was breaking down the tank (as I was moving it), hence it looking shoddy. That unice was in there 2 years before I noticed, and only noticed because I had whole coral colonies missing after a single evening. I first saw it after I spent a few nights sat up (after lights went out) for about 3 hours per night looking for the critter who was eating my corals. Even when I knew it was there, I only ever saw it 3 times within the space of a year. It hides in the rocks, and only comes out at night, impossible to catch without taking everything out the tank."

I used to keep a freshwater aquarium and had a plecostomus grow to a size that scared me. One night I had a nightmare about going on vacation and coming back to find horrifying, prehistoric looking creatures inhabiting my tank. I used to laugh at myself for having that dream. Now it's not so funny.

Behavioral Science News

Chimps Throw Stones at Trees in Mysterious New Behavior

Chimpanzees in West Africa have been filmed exhibiting a never-before-seen behavior.

Pet Quail

Man Incubates Supermarket Eggs, Now Has Cute Pet Quail

A Dutch man ends up with an adorable pet after having a bit of fun with his groceries.

Have You Ever Seen a Puppy with Braces?

Wesley is a 6-month-old golden retriever. He’s adorable! But Wesley’s teeth grew in splayed out so far that he couldn’t close his mouth properly. Wesley belongs to Molly Moore, who works for her Dad, a veterinarian who is a specialist in veterinary dentistry. He knew a round of braces would correct the malocclusion, so this happened.

Wesley will only need to wear the braces for a few weeks. Read the whole story, and see more cute pictures at Buzzfeed.

Animal Pictures