CAROLINA NATURALLY

Friday, August 31, 2012

The Daily Drift

Life is Good!

Some of our readers today have been in:

Medan, Indonesia

Riga, Latvia

Kluang, Malaysia

Port-Of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

Cape Town, South Africa

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Lima, Peru

Athens, Greece

Subang Jaya, Malaysia

Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Kuching, Malaysia

Fermont, Canada

Panama City, Panama

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Vancouver, Canada

Manila, Philippines

Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

Islamabad, Pakistan

Erbil, Iraq

Kuantan, Malaysia

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Pereira, Colombia

Johannesburg, South Africa

Sampaloc, Philippines

Jakarta, Indonesia

Warsaw, Poland

Makati, Philippines

And let's not forget our readers from across the USA in places such as:

Belcamp, Kennesaw, Kenosha, Lodi, Midvale, Mineola, Nashua, Paoli, Voorhees and Wichita

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

1303		The War of Vespers in Sicily ends with an agreement between Charles of Valois, who invaded the country, and Frederick, the ruler of Sicily.
1521		Cortes captures the city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico, and sets it on fire.
1756		The British at Fort William Henry, New York, surrender to Louis Montcalm of France.
1802		Captain Merriwether Lewis leaves Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.
1864		At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan is nominated for president.
1919		The Communist Labor Party is founded in Chicago, with the motto, "Workers of the world unite!"
1928		Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera opens in Berlin.
1940		Joseph Avenol steps down as Secretary-General of the League of Nations.
1942		The British army under General Bernard Law Montgomery defeats Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Battle of Alam Halfa in Egypt.
1944		The British Eighth Army penetrates the German Gothic Line in Italy.
1949		Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attend the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1951		The 1st Marine Division begins its attack on Bloody Ridge in Korea. The four-day battle results in 2,700 Marine casualties.
1961		A concrete wall replaces the barbed wire fence that separates East and West Germany, it will be called the Berlin wall.
1994		The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announces a "complete cessation of military operations," opening the way to a political settlement in Ireland for the first time in a quarter of a century.

What Americans Do All Day

If you answered "work and sleep", you'd be mostly correct! Lam Thuy Vo of NPR's Planet Money has the graph:

View the post over at NPR to find out the detailed breakdown of "Leisure" and "Cooking, Cleaning, Etc." (I was surprised to find that "Being on the Computer/Internet" takes only 8 minutes, 24 seconds of the average American's day): More

Dust-obscured galaxies may be missing link

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer has identified about 1 000 extremely obscured objects over the sky.

Scientists have unveiled a new species in the cosmic zoo, a super-heated, dust-shrouded object called a “hot DOG,” which may represent a missing link in galaxy evolution.

'Vast reservoir' of methane locked beneath beneath Antarctic ice sheet

Scientists say as much as 4bn tons of the potent greenhouse gas could be released into the atmosphere if ice melts.

Half the West Antarctic ice sheet and a quarter of the East Antarctic sheet lie on pre-glacial sedimentary basins containing around 21,000bn tons of carbon, said the scientists.

The drought has caused a shortage of flattened, dried cow manure - or cow chips - for the Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw and Festival, which attracts about 300 throwers and 40,000 spectators to Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin.

Victoria Justice

Awesome Works Of Art In Unexpected Places

Art is everywhere around you. You just have to look a bit closer. Check out some of these amazing and surprising pieces of art around the world.

Ten Loud Places That Are Actually Nice and Quiet

Yell, Scotland

Yell is also one of the Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland. The name could have come from the Proto-Norse word Jela, meaning “white island.” Or it could be from the Old Norse word Gjall, which means “barren.” The island was under Viking rule for a long period, although it was populated back in the Neolithic era.

See the other 9 here.

Couple's Sunken Floor Turned Out to be a Medieval Well

Colin Steer has been wondering for almost 30 years why his sofa dipped at one corner of his living room. After he retired, he decided to tackle the problem as a home improvement project. That is when he discovered something very unusual:

Intrigued by the sunken floor, the retired civil servant has uncovered a 33ft medieval well in the house where he and wife Vanessa have lived for almost 25 years.
After three days of work Mr Steer, from Plymouth, Devon, stopped digging at 17ft and is now trying to date the unexpected find. Plans show the well dates back to the 16th century.

So far, he's discovered a medieval sword. Donna Bowater of The Telegraph has the story: here.

Pictures Of The Construction Of The Titanic

At the time when the Titanic was put down on paper and of course when the ship itself was built, the world thought that such a vessel, weighing in at 52,310 tons, couldn't float. But as time went on, and the ship eventually became sea ready, the world was in awe at the wondrous feat. The architects of the ship assured everyone that the ship was unsinkable. We all know what happened.

Have a look at these 36 vintage photographs that show the Titanic being built from the ground up. It's a thing of mammoth proportions, and you don't have to look long and hard to understand the scale of this breathtaking vessel.

The US Government Still Pays 2 Civil War Pensions

The American Civil War ended in 1865, but as of last September, the Department of Veterans Affairs still pays out two pensions from that conflict. Privacy rules prevent the release of the names or reasons for the pensions, but it's likely that the recipients are the disabled elderly children of veterans:

Department of Veteran Affairs spokesman Phil Budahn says the VA last checked in on the benefits recipients in the fall. Both were alive, but in poor health.
Budahn says it's likely that the children of the Civil War veterans, who have wished to remain anonymous, both had illnesses that prevented them from ever becoming self-sufficient..
Trevor Plante, a reference chief at the National Archives says it's also possible that the beneficiaries were young when their fathers died and had no living mothers to care for them, which would also qualify them for their fathers' pensions.

Stone Age Figurines Found Near Jerusalem

The intricately carved figures date to a time when humans began transitioning from hunting and gathering to farming. Read more

Men rob victim but make sure he has bus fare

Police say robbers who held up an Ohio man at gunpoint gave him back enough money for bus fare before running away.

Brits increasingly see politicians as out of touch

Welcome to the party! It's more surprising that anyone even sees the political class as in touch with the reality of the middle class or poor. Since the days of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, even the mainstream left has sold out to the wishes of the rich. Unemployment support? Freeloaders, cut it! Tax cuts for the rich that throw more costs onto the middle class? Sounds like a plan! We all know the routine.
It's been a winning plan at the polls for the mainstream "left" (which is now the right) and from a personal perspective, it's been financially rewarding for the likes of Clinton and Blair. Sucking up to the rich while giving a gentle pat on the head to the left is the model and until there's a firm rejection of this from voters, it will only get worse.

More on politicians not getting it via The Independent:

The stark finding emerged as George Osborne, the Chancellor, dismissed a call by Nick Clegg for the Government to bring in a temporary "wealth tax" on the rich to ensure the burden of a new round of spending cuts does not fall on the poor.

The Resolution Foundation think tank found that 43 per cent of adults agree that "most politicians" do not understand the financial pressures facing people like them. The figure is highest (50 per cent) among those on low and middle incomes, the so-called "squeezed middle" earning between £12,000 and £48,000 a year – a key electoral group including millions of floating voters. The view is also shared by 49 per cent of people on lower incomes and 48 per cent of those on higher incomes. It is highest (53 per cent) amongst people between the ages of 45 and 54.

A survey of 1,900 adults by Ipsos Mori for the think tank also found that 36 per cent feel "financially squeezed"; 27 per cent expect their financial position to get worse in the next year; 25 per cent plan to cut back their spending in that period and less than half (42 per cent) feel secure in their job.

Leopard rescued after becoming impaled on metal railings

A leopard which was struck on iron railings outside a factory in India battled for survival for nearly three hours before being rescued on Monday. Its condition is stable despite a deep injury on its thigh region.

The female big cat, aged around 4 years, seems to have got struck while jumping over a 7-ft compound of the BEML factory, some 12 kms away from Mysore city in Tamil Nadu. The incident came to light after security personnel alerted forest officials at around 7.30 am. ACF Durgegowda said that they rushed a rescue team to the spot soon after they were tipped off and rescued the animal with an hour.

The injured big cat was treated at a government Veterinary hospital on Dhavanthri road and later shifted to Bannerghatta Biological Park in Bangalore. The officer suspects that the leopard may have got struck during pre-dawn hours. Durgegowda says leopards generally don't move around during the day time and suspecting it may have got struck before day break.

YouTube link.

Animal husbandry and Veterinary service assistant director Dr S C Suresh, who treated the cat, said the female leopard had sustained an injury to its thigh and abdomen region. There was 3-inch deep wound in its right thigh region but luckily there was no serious internal injury and blood loss. Despite the injury, the cat was healthy and strong and they had to anesthetize it twice to operate. He said they sew up the wound using chromium catgut and hoped it would survive. Suresh said they have administered antibiotics, painkillers and tetanus.

Man sues after wearing braces for 11 years

He had worn braces for an incredible 11 years, having never seen his mouth without metal since the age of seven. When 18-year-old Devin Bost finally took them off you would think it would have been a time of celebration at the Portland, Oregon teenager's beautiful straight and white teeth. He had not seen his mouth without dental braces since aged seven. But Bost, now 22, is suing his orthodontist Brad Chvatal, accusing him of causing permanent injuries to his teeth, mouth and gums.

Bost wants $150,000 for pain and suffering plus $35,100 he has paid for corrective oral surgery and related expenses, his papers lodged in Multnomah County Circuit Court show. Dr John Buzzatto, president of the American Association of Orthodontists, said that children typically wear braces for one to three years. He described someone wearing braces for 11 years as "extremely unusual" and said "he could not think of an instance" where someone would need to do that.

He added that wearing braces for a long time posed problems for the wearer in keeping their teeth properly clean. He said people wearing braces for a prolonged period could risk decalcification of the teeth. Chvatal was unable to discuss the details of the case due to confidentiality rules but said that it was "very complicated." He said that he and Bost’s previous orthodontist had tried to give Bost "the best result we possibly could."

Bost’s lawyer, David Hollander, said his client simply did as his orthodontist instructed over the years. In 2008, Bost got an "urgent phone call" from Chvatal’s office saying that he needed to have his braces removed straight away, said the compliant. Chvatal’s website says: "Each time a patient's braces come off, we sing and have a party." Chvatal’s insurer, the American Association of Orthodontists Insurance Company, are carrying out an investigation.