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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.


Thursday, October 27, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of  
Carolina Naturally
The trend begins November 8th ...! 
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 210 countries around the world daily.   
  
What a Crank ... !
Today is - Cranky Co-Workers Day

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Today in History

97
To placate the Praetorians of Germany, Nerva of Rome adopts Trajan, the Spanish-born governor of lower Germany.
1553
Michael Servetus, who discovered the pulmonary circulation of the blood, is burned for heresy in Switzerland.
1612
A Polish army that invaded Russia capitulates to Prince Dmitri Pojarski and his Cossacks.
1791
President George Washington transmits to Congress the results of the first US census, exclusive of South Carolina which had not yet submitted its findings.
1806
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte enters Berlin.
1809
President James Madison orders the annexation of the western part of West Florida. Settlers there had rebelled against Spanish authority.
1862
A Confederate force is routed at the Battle of Georgia Landing, near Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana.
1870
The French fortress of Metz surrenders to the Prussian Army.
1873
Farmer Joseph F. Glidden applies for a patent on barbed wire. Glidden eventually received five patents and is generally considered to be the inventor of barbed wire.
1891
D. B. Downing, inventor, is awarded a patent for the street letter (mail) box.
1904
The New York subway officially opens running from the Brooklyn Bridge uptown to Broadway at 145th Street.
1907
The first trial in the Eulenburg Affair ends in Germany.
1917
20,000 women march in a suffrage parade in New York. As the largest state and the first on the East Coast to do so, New York has an important effect on the movement to grant all women the vote in all elections.
1922
In Italy, liberal Luigi Facta’s cabinet resigns after threats from Mussolini that “either the government will be given to us or we will seize it by marching on Rome.” Mussolini calls for a general mobilization of all Fascists.
1927
Fox Movie-tone news, the first sound news film, is released.
1941
In a broadcast to the nation on Navy Day, President Franklin Roosevelt declares: “America has been attacked, the shooting has started.” He does not ask for full-scale war yet, realizing that many Americans are not yet ready for such a step.
1954
Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the US Air Force.
1962
An American U-2 reconnaissance plane is shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Cuba, killing the pilot, Maj. Rudolf Anderson, the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1962
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev offers to remove Soviet missile bases in Cuba if the U.S. removes its missile bases in Turkey.
1964
 The political career of  Reagan is launched when he delivers a speech on behalf of wingnut pretender candidate Barry Goldwater.
1971
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.
1986
The London Stock Exchange rules change as Britain suddenly deregulates financial markets, an event called the Big Bang.
1988
Reagan decides to tear down a new US Embassy in Moscow because Soviet listening devices were built into the structure.
1997
Stock markets crash around the world over fears of a global economic meltdown.

25 Halloween Life Hacks


Everywhere you look on the ‘net, there are tips for making your Halloween celebrations easier or even more fun. As he does sometimes, John Green takes some of those ideas and tests them to see if they really work the way they are supposed to. He doesn’t take a lot of care, so your results may vary, but you get the idea. My contribution: use a large rubber glove, cut the glove off with scissors, including each finger. But his result is funnier, in the Halloween episode of the mental_floss List Show.
PS: I have never found a better way to carve a pumpkin than by using a hole-boring drill bit and a sawzall. Done in two minutes.

The Strange Tale of an X-Rated Haunting

In the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Cambridge-based parapsychologist AD Cornell conducted a set of experiments designed to study how seeing a ghost affects people. Cornell believed in ghosts, but that was tangential to the experiments. The first experiment had Cornell himself dressing as a ghost with a sheet pulled over his head, appearing and disappearing behind mounds in a cow pasture, while his assistants observed passers-by. The second experiment was in an urban cemetery. He even had assistants standing around ready to respond in case of emergency.
Such precautions proved unnecessary. Between pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists, Cornell estimated that approximately 142 people would have been able to witness the apparition, but only four gave clear indications of having seen it. Under questioning, it emerged that none of them believed they had witnessed anything remotely paranormal. The first person described the apparition as “a man dressed as a woman, who surely must be mad” another assumed that it was “an art student walking about in a blanket”. Two witnesses, when questioned together, did realise that the Experimental Apparition was probably intended to simulate a paranormal event, but went on to note that the effect was spoiled because “we could see his legs and feet and knew it was a man dressed in some white garment”.
Did Cornell give up because he obviously did not make a good ghost? No, he conducted the third experiment in a movie theater showing an X-rated film. He figured people would pay more attention there, especially if he stepped right in front of the screen (and also there would be no children to be traumatized). You can guess how that stunt turned out. Nevertheless, Cornell published his findings, which indirectly led to new experiments by other, more rational scientists to study human attention and perception. Read about Cornell’s ghostly shenanigans at BBC Future.  

10 Superhero Gadgets That Actually Exist

You always suspected that hi-tech engineers and inventors drew inspiration from science fiction, spy novels, and comic books. It’s true! There are more and more tech innovations that seem like magic, that can give us superpowers once only dreamed of in fiction. For example, consider the Myo Gesture Control Armband by Thalmic Labs.
Feel the power of the force flowing through your being with the Myo Gesture Control Armband. This device provides wireless technology that allows you to control movement of distant objects with a wave of your hand. You can remotely control electronic devices so they turn on and off, make drones fly through the air and much more.
This device is compatible with Windows, Mac, Ios and Android via wireless connection. It works by reading the electrical activity that is generated by your muscles so it appears that you are commanding electronic objects to obey your command.
Cool, huh? That’s just one of ten gadgets that can give you superpowers, or at least the  appearance of superpowers, at Money Inc.

How to Read The Secret Language of Starfleet Uniforms

If you want to celebrate Star Trek’s 50th anniversary with a Starfleet Halloween costume, go for it! But if you’re attending a party with die-hard Trek fans, you better be accurate. When Star Trek debuted in 1966, Gene Roddenberry color-coded Starfleet uniforms to indicate service divisions, and added gold braid to denote rank. However, he did not know how long the series would last and how many new iterations would follow. Besides, the production had a very skimpy budget. Starfleet uniforms evolved over the years as Star Trek went to movies and several more modern TV series. And some of the uniform innovations didn’t go over well.
The Star Trek movies that followed the cancellation of the original series, threw most of the original coloring schemes out the window for a cleaner look, which is surprisingly harder to read. In 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture (which takes place in the mid-2270s), the bright colors were done away with and replaced with white, grey, and beige uniforms.
Here, a person’s position could be determined by the color of the ring behind the Starfleet insignia on their breast. A white ring was used for command, orange and green were used for the science divisions, and red, gold, and grey were used for operations. Rank was now worn on either the sleeve and/or on a shoulder tab. Thankfully, these creamy jumpsuits didn’t last long.
By 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Starfleet (and the film’s production department) had adopted an even more standardized and militaristic look. Taking place around the late-2270s, the second film introduced a standard maroon color that was worn by all officers in jumpsuit and jacket styles.
As Star Trek movies and series proliferated, writers and producers tried to streamline the color-coding and ranks, but time-travel plots further complicated the overall fashion scheme. You can catch up and get an idea of how Starfleet uniforms work in a rundown at Atlas Obscura.

Toss eggs onto salads to increase Vitamin E absorption

Toss eggs onto salads to increase Vitamin E absorptionToss eggs onto salads to increase Vitamin E absorption
Adding whole eggs to a colorful salad boosts the amount of Vitamin E the body absorbs from the vegetables, according to research from Purdue University. "Vitamin E is the second-most under-consumed nutrient in the average American diet, which is problematic because...

Vitamin A Orange Maize Improves Night Vision

Vitamin A Orange Maize Improves Night VisionVitamin A Orange Maize Improves Night Vision
A new study has found that vitamin A-biofortified orange maize significantly improves visual functions in children. The study was conducted among school-aged children (4 to 8 years old) in rural Zambia. Children who ate orange maize showed improved night vision within...

Yes, money can buy happiness ...

Yes, money can buy happiness, but debt counts tooYes, money can buy happiness, but debt counts too
Yes, money can lead to happiness, but how much debt one has should also be considered in the money-happiness equation, according to a new a study from Purdue University.  "There has been a lot of research looking at whether and how income makes people happy in life,...

"Lügenpresse" explained

When a video of two Dumbass Trump sycophants shouting “Lügenpresse” (lying press) started to circulate Sunday, viewers from Germany soon noted its explosive nature. The defamatory word was most frequently used in Nazi Germany... Both the Nazi regime and the East German government made use of it, turning it into an anti-democracy slogan...
“Lügenpresse” was branded a taboo word in Germany in 2015 by an academic panel after anti-Islam movements, such as Pegida, started using it more frequently in the presence of journalists.
The term emerged way before the Nazis took over in Germany. For instance, the German Defense Ministry released a book titled “The Lügenpresse of Our Enemies” in 1918 during World War I... At that time, the word was used more descriptively. A decade later, it had turned into an explosive and stigmatizing propaganda slogan...
Text above from the Washington Post.  For a more complete history of the word, see the Wikipedia entry.

Pussy Riot just released ‘Straight Outta Vagina’

Pussy Riot just released ‘Straight Outta Vagina’ — and it skewers megalomaniac males like Dumbass Trump

China Goes Punk

Beijing's Skinheads
While there are plenty of Left wing, anti-racist Skinheads out there anybody sporting the Skinhead look these days is assumed to be a violent, racist bastard.
But would we feel the same way if the Skinhead in question was a Chinese man?
This scenario may sound too ridiculous to be true, but it's becoming a bizarre reality in Beijing, where fans of punk are adopting the look and the attitude and going full Skin.
Friends Mr. Ma, Bangbang and (name withheld) are punk fans and Skinheads against racism, following in the footsteps of the SHARPS (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice).
They're also brand consultants who admit "most of the time their customers don't know what their Dr. Martens and Levi's represent".
Knowing how China is nowadays it's only a matter of time before this decidedly Western look catches on with blue collar Chinese punks seeking a look that makes a statement.

Urban Geography

Why We Live Where We Do
Cities are all cities, but they differ greatly in everything else. You know European cities are older, but you probably don’t know how much that affects everything else about them. One big difference is how densely populated they are.
Modern technology, particularly transportation, affected how cities grew. Wendover Productions tells us all kinds of interesting things about cities that you never thought about before.

Link Dump

Police smashed car window after wig on seat was mistaken for a child in danger

An unusual case of mistaken identity took place when a woman's wig was thought to be a child left in her car. Jasmine Turner, from Suffolk, Virginia, says she went out to the store on her work break when she got a call from police about an unresponsive child in her car.
"By the time I get from the Walmart back to my job, the police aren't there, but the window's busted out of my car and there's glass everywhere," says Turner. Except Turner doesn't have children. Turner says she left her wig on a pile of blankets in the backseat and that's what someone thought was a child.
But she says by the time she came back to her car, the police, and her window, were gone. "I really can't take my car anywhere because around Suffolk, anywhere as a matter of fact, you never know when somebody's just going to look in and be like, 'Oh, she has her window down, so I'm free to do whatever.'"
The police department say they notified Turner about the city's risk management division to get repairs for her car. "I just want my window fixed, and when I do get the window fixed, I need them to pay for me to either be in a rental or whatever the case is because I can't miss time off work," she says. "I have bills to pay."

Man dressed as a tree arrested for blocking traffic

A man dressed as a tree was arrested on Monday, accused of blocking traffic.
Asher Woodworth, 30, from Portland, Oregon has been charged with obstructing a public way.
Police say Woodworth stood in the middle of High Street covered in tree limbs. Officers gave him a warning at first, but Woodworth allegedly returned to the street. He was arrested a short time later.
Woodworth’s motivation, according to police was to "see how people would react to his performance," and "how he might impact people’s natural choreography." Woodworth has been freed on $60 bail.
There are videos here and here.

Pee problem is eroding the world's tallest cult

The ancient walls of Ulm Minster in the city of Ulm in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, are being eroded by human urine, its official stone masons have said. The acid and salts in the urine of those relieving themselves on the side of the cult are causing significant damage to the stone of the lower walls.
Despite the fine being doubled from €50 to €100 for those caught passing water on the famous landmark, the number of occurrences does not seem to have dropped. The cult is famous because it boasts the highest cult spire in the world at 530ft (161.53 meters)
It is also the fourth tallest structure in the world built before the 20th century. However, this important building is under threat unless more is done to protect it, according to its custodians. “I have observed it again for the last half year, and once more people are urinating on it,” said Ulm Minster’s head mason Michael Hilbert.
The “master mason” (Baumeister) believes that events such as a wine festival and Christmas market are the main causes, and that there needs to be more free public toilets to discourage people from relieving themselves outside. Construction on the cult began in 1377, but was not completed until 1890. Although renovation and preservation work is unending on the steeple, it is the foundations that are being threatened by a more unexpected menace.

How Disappearing Arctic Ice Could Lead to Global Climate Catastrophe

This Quiz Can Help You Find Your Perfect Dog

Dogs are incredible companions, but you need to find the right pet for you, because a person at work all day shouldn't have an overly attached dog, just like a super active person doesn't want a pooch that just wants to lay on the couch and cuddle all day.
That's why PawsLikeMe.com is such a cool site. It essentially works like an online dating profile, taking your personality and interests into account in order to match you to the perfect pup. While there have been plenty of quizzes like this online that suggest particular breeds for you to look into, this one actually links you to dogs that are actually available for adoption and that fit your personality and lifestyle.
I got a dog that was a 98% match and while I'm not really looking for a dog right now (my current pup is a handful already), she sure did look like a great match. So, have any of you found your soul dog today?

Animal Pictures