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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, April 9, 2017

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of
Carolina Naturally
Well so much for the wingnuts' crackpot ideas ...!
 
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Today in History

193 In the Balkans, the distinguished soldier Septimius Severus is proclaimed emperor by the army in Illyricum.
715 Constantine ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
1241 In the Battle of Liegnitz, Mongol armies defeat Poles and Germans.
1454 The city states of Venice, Milan and Florence sign a peace agreement at Lodi, Italy.
1682 Robert La Salle claims lower Mississippi River and all lands that touch it for France.
1731 British Captain Robert Jenkins loses an ear to a band of Spanish brigands, starting a war between Britain and Spain: The War of Jenkins’ Ear.
1770 Captain James Cook discovers Botany Bay on the Australian continent.
1859 Realizing that France has encouraged the Piedmontese forces to mobilize for invading Italy, Austria begins mobilizing its army.
1865
General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrenders his beleaguered Confederate forces to General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, effectively bringing the Civil War to an end.
1900 British forces route Boers at Kroonstadt, South Africa.
1916 The German army launches its third offensive during the Battle of Verdun.
1917 The Battle of Arras begins as Canadian troops begin a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
1921 Russo-Polish conflict ends with signing of the Riga Treaty.
1940 Germany invades Norway and Denmark.
1942 In the Battle of Bataan, American and Filipino forces are overwhelmed by the Japanese Army.
1945 The Red Army is repulsed at the Seelow Heights on the outskirts of Berlin.
1950 Comedian Bob Hope makes his first television appearance.
1963 Winston Churchill becomes the first honorary U.S. citizen.
1966 The statue of Winston Churchill is dedicated at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.
1968 Murdered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., is buried.
1970 Paul McCartney announces the official break-up of the Beatles.

What Are The Differences Between Born Blind & Becoming Blind?

Tommy Edison routinely makes videos to answer questions about what it's like to be blind. Some things he doesn't know, because he hasn't experienced them, like vision. Christine Ha, on the other hand, went blind later in life. Here they discuss their experiences.
There's a big difference between the two. Once you know what sight is like, you can miss it terribly. But you can remember it, too. Also notice the difference in how they use their eyes. Edison keeps his shut just about all the time, while Ha is very aware of what she looks like on camera and what it means to follow someone's eye gaze, even when you know it's not working.

​Don't Believe These Baldness Myths

baldness myths
Don't Believe These Baldness Myths
​You might be losing hair, but not for the reasons you think

A Family Planning Miracle in Colorado

Lessons From Growing Up in the Spice Trade

Caitlin PenzeyMoog grew up in her grandparent's store, The Spice House. Her mother worked there, and so did she, eventually. Of course, this meant her childhood memories are particularly aromatic. 
This is where my grandparents would call my brother, sister, and me back when the rush of customers slowed, to read Gurdjieff out loud or mix cinnamon sugar while reciting the poem “Desiderata.” We’d do this while making a blend, which we’d stir in an enormous metal bowl exactly 111 times. My grandfather would make us pork chops on a George Foreman grill, seasoned with some unknowable pepper mix. The air was perpetually thick with the commingling of hundreds of spices, herbs, sugars, and salts, blending into a distinctive smell that lingered on your clothing and in your hair all day. It formed thick dust motes that floated in the sunlight coming through windows.
You’d think that spending a lot of time here would numb your olfactory senses, but the opposite was true. My nose learned to cut through the background smell to identify specific spices within the store—a good thing when replacing the apothecary jars with their correct lids, which is easily done when you can discern oregano from parsley and garlic from ginger.
From her lifetime of experience, PenzeyMoog offers us some simple advice about using spices, which is almost as interesting as her description of growing up in The Spice Shop.

Staying Up Late Might Be Tanking Your Mood

how-staying-up-late-tanks-mood
​How Staying Up Late Might Be Tanking Your Mood
​Plus, why you should be extra cautious if you also have type-2 diabetes

Being Wealthy in America Earns You 15 Extra Years of Life

​Uber Rider Banned Forever After Threatening to Accuse Driver of Rape

woman banned from uber for life
​Uber Rider Banned Forever After Threatening to Accuse Driver of Rape
​The transport company called her behavior “abusive” and “completely unacceptable”

The World Is Getting a Lot More Authoritarian

Stockman Begs For Taxpayers To Pay His Fancy Lawyers

The Market Decides! O’Reilly Has Got To Go

Alabama ‘family values’ governor and his lurid affair

Alabama ‘family values’ governor begs lawmakers not to release more lurid details of his affair

Best Reactions to Putin's 'Gay Clown' Ban

Climate Change Could Blow Up Your Electricity Bill

Rocks from 'baby earth'

Atmosphere Found Around Exoplanet

If there were any doubt that telescopes with the ability to see beyond our solar system would change everything, this is it. Planet GJ 1132b is 39 light years from earth, yet we are learning a lot about it. It is slightly larger than earth, and revolves around a small, relatively dim sun. Dr. John Southworth of Keele University explains the latest discovery about the planet.
Using a telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, the researchers were able to study the planet by watching how it blocked some of the light of its host star as it passed in front of it.
"It makes the star look a little bit fainter - and it's actually a very good way of finding transiting planets - it's how this one was found," said Dr Southworth.
But different molecules in a planet's atmosphere - if it has one - absorb light in different ways, allowing scientists to look for their chemical signatures when the world transits its star.
The observations of planet GJ 1132b suggest that it has a thick atmosphere containing either steam and/or methane.
"One possibility is that it is a 'water world' with an atmosphere of hot steam," said Dr Southworth.
While the atmosphere is this particular planet is unlikely to sustain life, the bigger takeaway is how its atmosphere was detected, and the possibility that many other planets of similar size and stars could also have an atmosphere. Read more about the discovery at BBC News.

10 New Cheetahs

Two cheetahs, a mother and daughter, gave birth to large litters in the same week at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, an adjunct of the National Zoo. One was a litter of five; the other cheetah gave birth to seven cubs, but the smallest two did not survive. The remaining ten cubs are doing just fine, and will spend the next 18 months in Virginia. After that, they'll go to other zoos or breeding programs.
The sound on this video begins about halfway through, but even then you'll have to listen closely to hear the tiny cubs hiss. Learn more about the National Zoo's cheetah breeding program at Smithsonian.

Animal Pictures