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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.


Friday, May 12, 2017

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of
Carolina Naturally
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Today in History

254 St. Stephen I begins his reign as catholic pope.
1588 King Henry III flees Paris after Henry of Guise triumphantly enters the city.
1641 The chief advisor to Charles I, Thomas Wentworth, is beheaded in the Tower of London
1780
The Continental Army surrenders Charleston, South Carolina, to British forces in its largest defeat of the Revolutionary War. 
1851 The Tule River War ends.
1863 With a victory at the Battle of Raymond, Mississippi, Union General Ulysses S. Grant closes in on Vicksburg.
1864 Union General Benjamin Butler attacks Drewry’s Bluff on the James River.
1865 The last land battle of the Civil war occurs at Palmito Ranch, Texas. It is a Confederate victory.
1881 Tunisia, in North Africa becomes a French protectorate.
1885 In the Battle of Batoche, French Canadians rebel against the Canadian government.
1926 The Airship Norge becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.
1932 The body of Charles Lindbergh’s baby is found.
1935 Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio by “Bill W.,” a stockbroker, and “Dr. Bob S.,” a heart surgeon.
1940 The Nazi conquest of France begins with the crossing Musee River.
1942 The Soviet Army launches its first major offensive of the war, taking Kharkov in the eastern Ukraine.
1943 Axis forces in North Africa surrender.
1949 The Berlin Blockade ends.
1969 Viet Cong sappers try unsuccessfully to overrun Landing Zone Snoopy in Vietnam.
1975 The U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez is seized by Cambodian forces.

How to Make Maple Syrup

Ivan Garland and his family run Garland Sugar Shack, a small maple syrup manufacturing business in Vars, Ontario. In this video, they show us how the syrup is collected, processed, and packaged.

The Best Diner In Each State

Unless you're too fancy to sit in a booth and chow down on a grilled cheese sandwich you know the deal with diners- they're often the comfiest and most affordable places to eat no matter which state you're in.
And as long as you don't order the Clams Casino they definitely beat most fast food joints by a mile for just a few bucks more, but more importantly they're a great starting point when exploring a new city.
Wanna try the famous Lunch Box Burger and get a slice of kitschy Americana while you're in Minneapolis? Visit the Band Box Diner, which dates back to 1939 and is the last of its kind.Looking for some down home cooking with a rich and decadent twist while you're in Winnemucca, Nevada? Head over to The Griddle (open since 1948) and treat yourself to their cream cheese-filled Pecan Crepes, which they top with bacon caramel sauce. *drool*
And if you're looking for local history in Salt Lake City, Utah then you've gotta go to Ruth's Diner, which was started by a cabaret singer named Ruth back in 1930.It's rumored that Ruth's used to be located across the street from a house of ill repute, and that Ruth used to feed the girls and listen to all the local gossip, making Ruth's a hub for travelers. I wonder how they felt about her Pulled Pork Benedict?

What's So Great About 350 Degrees?

For a long time, 350 degrees was the most common oven temperature in cook books. What was the thinking behind that?
The magic of cooking at 350 degrees isn’t magic at all, but chemistry. It is, for example, the level associated with the Maillard Reaction, the chemical process that gives so many foods a complex flavor profile—and an appealing golden-brown hue—when sugar and protein are heated together just so.
“Without Maillard chemistry we would not have a dark bread crust or golden brown turkey,” wrote the authors of a Royal Society of Chemistry book about the reaction, “our cakes and pastries would be pale and anemic, and we would lose the distinctive color of French onion soup.” The Maillard Reaction—which actually entails a series of reactions—isn’t all toasty goodness, however. It’s also responsible for making apples turn brown, which many people find unappetizing “despite negligible effect on flavor,” the authors write.
Well, it turns out that oven temperatures weren't nearly as precise before they had degrees on the dial, and it hardly mattered. They aren't even that precise now. Cooks from bygone eras pretty much learned what worked by experience. If your oven was hotter or cooler, you just adjusted your baking time. An article at the Atlantic tells us about how precise oven temperatures came about, and why recipe publishers chose the settings they did. I use 400 degrees more often these days, since I'm putting something frozen in the oven.

Are We All Related?

If you draw the usual family tree, you can potentially go back too far, where there are more people in your family tree than there were people on the planet at the time. Yeah, this family trees can't grow exponentially forever, and yes, some of our ancestor were related to each other. But that's no reason to panic.
The YouTube channel It's OK to Be Smart explain how human ancestry and DNA diversity really works.

When Science and the Occult Went Head-to-Head on a German Mountaintop

The stories of supernatural happenings in the Harz mountains of Germany, and in particular the highest peak called the Brocken, have been around forever. Harry Price found those beliefs ridiculous. The skeptic Price had studied the supernatural for some time, and even owned a book of old German spells and rituals, which got him invited to the Brocken in 1932 to create some magic.
Price’s attempt at a magical ritual atop the Brocken came about thanks in part to the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe famously had an interest in the occult, and visited the Brocken peak, hiking a path that is still memorialized as the Goethe Way. Inspired by the mysterious atmosphere of the Harz region, Goethe set portions of his most famous play, Faust, there, including the surreal walpurgisnacht scene where the devil Mephistopheles leads Faust around the Brocken, observing witches and even a gorgon. “Paganism died hard in the Harz country,” Price would later write.
In 1932, the region was celebrating the centennial anniversary of the Goethe’s death, and that's why Price went to the Brocken, along with fellow philosopher C.E.M. Joad, to perform a magic ritual that was supposed to change a goat into a boy. He had to take a fair maiden and a goat, too, along with a bunch of journalists and spectators. Read the story of that ritual and how it turned out at Atlas Obscura.

The American War Machine

If Washington Won’t Rein in Corporate Greed, Your State Might

More American Jews are reclaiming German citizenship in the age of Dumbass Trump

Vermont Becomes First State to Pass Legislation Legalizing All Pot Use

1 Year Per Gram

Mass Incarceration and the Achievement Gap

Big Pharma's Pollution Is Creating Deadly Superbugs While the World Looks the Other Way

A Swath of States Is Experiencing the Hottest Year to Date

Montana's glaciers are melting fast

30 Interesting Facts about the Ocean

If you're feeling hot, maybe you can take a dip into the ocean with us! John Green has a ton of interesting tidbits about the waters that cover most of our planet. Who was the first to cross the ocean in a hot air balloon? Who named the Pacific Ocean? How far south do Arctic icebergs get? Can we live under the water? Find out in the latest episode of the Mental Floss List Show.

New mystery space signal leaves scientists baffled

Pet dogs help kids feel less stressed

Pet dogs help kids feel less stressed, study findsPet dogs provide valuable social support for kids when they’re stressed, according to a study by researchers from the University of Florida, who were among the first to document stress-buffering effects of pets for children. … Read more

Animal Pictures