CAROLINA NATURALLY: Apr 18, 2009

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Many Americans now Canadian—but don't know it

Cool! As long as I don't have to pay Canadian taxes, too!

Many Americans now Canadian—but don't know it

Thanks to a new law, hundreds of thousands of Americans are now Canadian citizens.

Horoscopes for wine?!

Wine-sellers in the UK are encouraging their customers to avoid drinking wine on certain days of the month on the grounds that the lunar cycle will alter the taste of the wine.

The idea that the taste of wine changes with the lunar calendar is gaining credibility among the UK's major retailers, who believe the day, and even hour, on which wine is drunk alters its taste. Tesco and its rival Marks & Spencer, which sell about a third of all wine drunk in Britain, now invite critics to taste their ranges only at times when the biodynamic calendar suggests they will show at their best.
Marks & Spencer has gone a step further and is advising customers to avoid disappointment from the best bottles by making sure not to open them on "root" days...
In other quarters, doubts remain. Waitrose's wine department has investigated the idea and cannot see a correlation. Many scientists have little time for biodynamic wine, pointing out that the movement's guru, Rudolf Steiner, claimed to have conceived the concept after consulting telepathically with spirits beyond the realm of the material world. Among his other works are claims that the human race is as old as the Earth and descended from creatures with jelly-like bodies, and a belief that men's passions seep into the Earth's interior, where they trigger earthquakes and volcanoes.

Wine tasting by moonlight

It's official - I have heard it ALL now. Horoscopes for wine?!

Thousands protest widening Turkish coup plot probe

People attend a rally at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the soldier-statesman who founded the secular Turkish republic, in Ankara.

Full Story

UFO Sightings in Washington State

The 'Foos' like the Pacific Northwest apparently ...

A new study finds Yakima has one of the highest UFO reporting rates per capita.

Popular Mechanics released the study, it shows by county the number of UFO sightings reported from 1947 to 2005.

Full Story

Bogus waiter tricks customers at 2 restaurants

Hoboken, New Jersey police say a man posing as a waiter collected $186 in cash from diners at two restaurants and walked out with the money in his pocket.

Full Story

Ever heard 1000 pipers along with the drums?
No?!
Then you've missed a wonderful thing.

The massed bands at the games today put on a great show that brought a tear to many an eye.
(Ok, some of the tears were from those who don't like music - but they don't count anyway).

Over 1,500 suicides in Chattisgarh

Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today.

From the Independent:

The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.

“The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago,” Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told Down To Earth magazine

“Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well.”

Mr Sahu lives in a district that recorded 206 farmer suicides last year. Police records for the district add that many deaths occur due to debt and economic distress.

In another village nearby, Beturam Sahu, who owned two acres of land was among those who committed suicide. His crop is yet to be harvested, but his son Lakhnu left to take up a job as a manual laborer.

1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India