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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.


Monday, April 17, 2017

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of
Carolina Naturally
Today happens to be Mustang Day ...!
 
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Today in History

858
Benedict III ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
1492
Christopher Columbus signs a contract with Spain to find a western route to the Indies.
1524
Present-day New York Harbor is discovered by Giovanni da Verrazzano.
1535
Antonio Mendoza is appointed first viceroy of New Spain.
1758
Frances Williams, the first African-American to graduate from a college in the western hemisphere, publishes a collection of Latin poems.
1808
Bayonne Decree by Napoleon Bonaparte of France orders seizure of U.S. ships.
1824
Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54′ 40′.
1861
Virginia becomes the eighth state to secede from the Union.
1864
General Ulysses Grant bans the trading of prisoners.
1865
Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination.
1875
The game “snooker” is invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain.
1895
China and Japan sign peace treaty of Shimonoseki.
1929
Baseball player Babe Ruth and Claire Hodgson, a former member of the Ziegfeld Follies, get married.
1946
The last French troops leave Syria.
1947
Jackie Robinson bunts for his first major league hit.
1961
Some 1,400 Cuban exiles attack the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.
1964
Jerrie Mock becomes first woman to fly solo around the world.
1969
Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
1970
Apollo 13–originally scheduled to land on the moon–lands back safely on Earth after an accident.
1975
Khmer Rouge forces capture the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.
1983
In Warsaw, police rout 1,000 Solidarity supporters.

Tank You

As reported by Popular Mechanics:
A tank collector in the United Kingdom was in for a surprise when he and his mechanic opened one of his tank's diesel fuel tanks. Inside were gold bars totaling approximately $2.4 million dollars...
Mead found the tank, an ex-Iraqi Army Type 69, on sale on eBay and traded it for an Abbot self-propelled howitzer and a British Army truck...
The gold is thought to be Kuwaiti in origin—Iraqi forces engaged in widescale looting of the country after the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Remember General Smedley Butler's assertion that "War is a racket" well ...

Klek-Shops in Sofia

When the communist government of Bulgaria collapsed in 1990, businesses sprouted everywhere. In cities, there wasn't enough room for all of them, so the "klek-shop" was born. These stores display their wares on city streets, but if you want to buy something, you must squat down, as the actual stores are in the basements of the buildings! The goods are sold through low windows. DeviantART member sograph photographed the klek-shops of Sofia, the Bulgarian capital city. See the entire gallery here.

Did The Ballpoint Pen Kill Cursive Handwriting?

People, especially the younger generations, don't write in cursive anymore (cursive handwriting isn't even being taught in some schools). That much is known.
But what caused the decline in cursive handwriting? Is it the pervasive use of computer keyboard (and now smartphone's texting)? Or is it something else ... like the rise of the ballpoint pen:
Sassoon’s analysis of how we’re taught to hold pens makes a much stronger case for the role of the ballpoint in the decline of cursive. She explains that the type of pen grip taught in contemporary grade school is the same grip that’s been used for generations, long before everyone wrote with ballpoints. However, writing with ballpoints and other modern pens requires that they be placed at a greater, more upright angle to the paper—a position that’s generally uncomfortable with a traditional pen hold. Even before computer keyboards turned so many people into carpal-tunnel sufferers, the ballpoint pen was already straining hands and wrists.
Read more over at this article by Josh Giesbrecht at The Atlantic.

This One Group in Society Is Probably the Most Vulnerable to Climate Change

8 real-life crimes inspired by a movie

America's Manufactured Amnesia Puts Everyone in Peril

The Feisty Group That Exposed Wells Fargo’s Wrongdoing

Local Fox Affiliate Just Gave Fox 'News' A GIANT Middle Finger Over Their Biased News

Local Fox Affiliate Just Gave Fox 'News' A GIANT Middle Finger Over Their Biased News
This is AWESOME.

The Sexual Harassment At Fox As Reported By The Press Throughout The Years

White Supremacist Caught on Video Sucker-Punching Woman

A notorious white supremacist got caught on camera sucker-punching a woman in the melee that erupted on Saturday in Berkeley, CA between pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators.
Nathan Damigo of white nationalist group Identity Europa was identified by multiple witnesses as the man seen in a viral video lunging at an unsuspecting woman with dreadlocks and viciously punching her before she had a chance to react.

Wingnuts ADMIT They Incited Violence At Berkeley

Of course, when there’s violence in protests, we hear a lot of blame getting thrown around. However, the loudest cries of injustice always seem to come...

Lawyers for Dumbass Trump sycophant who attacked black woman blame Dumbass Trump for ‘urging’ him on

“Dumbass Trump kept saying ‘get them out, get them out’ and people in the crowd began pushing and shoving the protesters,” Bamberger said. “I was caught up in the frenzy."

5 of our solar system's most important moons

Jurassic Prank

When French prankster Rémi Gaillard goes on an Easter egg hunt, he's looking for nothing but the biggest, rarest eggs of all. In his latest caper, he comes running out from the bushes with a velociraptor egg -and the mother is following him!
The hapless runner that encounters the scene suffers a brain overload, and will probably never be the same again. Aren't you glad Gaillard doesn't live near you?

47 Common Foods and Plants That Are Toxic to Dogs

Bearded Dragon Sworn in as Police Officer

The Avondale, Arizona, Police Department announced the acquisition of their new drug-sniffing bearded dragon -on April Fools Day in 2016. The drug-sniffing part was a joke, but the bearded dragon is real. His name is Iroh, and he's been the police department's mascot since then.
“Iroh has turned out to be a valuable member of the Avondale Police family,” according to a Facebook post on Feb. 15. “His skill set is so extensive that we have cross trained him in many areas.”
This week, Iroh was promoted from mascot to police officer. Get the whole story of Iroh and the cops who love him at AZ Family.

Grand mal seizure in a snake


The snake is a Black Racer, photographed in Naples, Florida by the sister of reader Ron Rizzo, who forwarded it to us to share. During the first half of this brief video the snake exhibits only some purposeless writhing on the side of a road.  Then it launches into full-blown grand mal seizure activity, which according to the photographer was a pre-terminal event.
Any animal with a brain is susceptible to motor seizures, which are a manifestation of uncontrolled electrical activity in the neurons.  If I had to guess at an etiology, the roadside occurrence would suggest to me that the snake had previously incurred head trauma from a passing vehicle, which eventually led to cerebral edema or intracranial bleeding.  Alternatively it may have encountered a poison or a neurotoxic venom.  In any case, it's a interesting activity to observe.

Animal Pictures