CAROLINA NATURALLY: Jun 13, 2010

Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Even you -- ordinarily so well-disciplined -- are occasionally allowed to have a totally frivolous, even extravagant day.
When the urge hits (complete with someone just charming and persuasive enough to talk you into letting yourself go), how can you possibly hope to resist?
You can't, of course -- and you shouldn't.
It's your turn to forget about practical things and have some fun.
Just this once?

Some of our readers today have been in:

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Perth, Western Australia, Australa

Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, Australia

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

Emmeloord, Flevoland, Netherlands

Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

London, England, United Kingdom

Woodstock, Ontario, Canada

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Oldenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany

Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela

as well as Israel, and the United States in such cities as Londonderry, Oxford, Palo Alto, Sylmar and more

Today is Sunday, June 13, the 164th day of 2010.

There are 201 days left in the year.

Today In History June 13

Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:

There aren't any, so why not make up one of your own?

News @ 11

Girl, 6, chases a butterfly—only to discover a rainbow.

World Cup Soccer

USA 1 - England 1

Winners and losers from USA-England

American goalie Tim Howard was spectacular, while English star Wayne Rooney had a day to forget.

Subplots

Also:

Colossal blunder by World Cup goalie

English goalkeeper Rob Green gives up a big goal to the United States in embarrassing fashion.

Who scored it

Also:

Network botches nation's biggest moment

Some English television viewers missed the only World Cup goal their team scored.

See what they saw instead

So sorry about that one, folks.

Also:

The Philosophy of Football

Soccer gets the Python treatment

B.C.

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Deaf jazz singer rises above disability

Listening to Mandy Harvey sing, you would never guess that her world went silent more than two years ago, altering the future she'd imagined. "I went to CSU for vocal music education," Harvey said. "And while I was there for the first month or so, I noticed that I was having trouble hearing my teachers." Even a long history of ear infections and surgeries would not foretell the personal tragedy that would follow.

"In a year's time I had gone from being slightly hard of hearing, as I have been all my life, to gone," Harvey said. That's when the depression set in. I locked myself in my dorm room for two weeks solid, and I didn't leave," Harvey said.

The deafness, caused by nerve damage, forced her to drop out of the music education program, and she eventually left school and her hopes of performing behind. That is, until she recorded a song at home for her boyfriend. "And my dad would listen to the recording, he's like that's it, that's it, you have it still," Harvey said. "And so it was like this eureka moment."

That's when Harvey reached out to Cynthia Vaughn, her vocal instructor during high school and college. "I e-mailed her and asked her if I could have a voice lesson again, and I think she might have thought I was crazy," Harvey said. Vaughn invited Harvey to tour her new studio, not knowing what to expect.

"I do know that she walked in the door with a stack of music and I thought 'oh lord, she thinks we're having a singing lesson'," Vaughn said. The pair sat down at the piano, and Vaughn played a five note descending scale, which Harvey sang, perfectly in tune. "I really almost fell off the piano bench," said Vaughn.

Unable to hear her own voice, Harvey now sings by the memory of notes, sight reading and sensation. "Well you get different vibrations, like the deeper ones hit in a different spot and they are thicker," Harvey said. "And then lighter ones you can feel up higher and they kind of tingle. I don't want to be famous, I want to be a person who gives people hope," Harvey said. She has already recorded one jazz CD, and plans to record three more by her 30th birthday, so she can share her music with her future children and grandchildren should she ever lose her ability to perform.

Mandy's website.

William Wallace Letter

http://www.thesocietyofwilliamwallace.com/Gallery/History%20Pics/SundayPostWallaceMay2008-(2).jpg

William Wallace letter to be probed

A letter thought to have been in the possession of William Wallace is to be investigated by a group of experts, it has been announced.

Non Sequitur

Biomass Worse Than Coal

photo via flickr

Massachusetts has a law mandating a portfolio of renewable energy, including energy derived from wind, solar, and biomass. But a new study says that replacing coal power with biomass will actually increase the amount of CO2 emitted, throwing a wrench in the state's plan and casting some doubt over the utility of using biomass on national scale and the inclusion of biomass titles in the energy bills now being negotiated in Congress.

Article continues: New Study: Biomass Worse Than Coal

Geezer Bandit strikes again

A bank robber known as the "geezer bandit" has struck again, but this time the FBI says he may have slipped up.

Geezer Bandit strikes again

New Comic

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/csbxu/2010/csbxu100612.gif

Oldest prehistoric pelican also had big beak

Huge old beak

Pelicans have sported big beaks for at least 30 million years, the discovery of an ancient pelican fossil reveals.

Full Story

Scientific Minds Want To Know

Scientific Minds Want To Know

New theory for how life formed on Earth

Scientists may have identified the first source of energy that allowed the creation of life.

Meteorite connection

Also:

Things to know ...

10 Traits of Highly Successful Men

Zorro and Darth Vader in legal battle

Darth Vader and Zorro have joined forces in a First Amendment battle with police and the Venetian Hotel-Casino on Las Vegas Strip. Brothers Jason and Sebastian Perez-Morciglio, who impersonate Zorro and Darth Vader on the Strip, say in a federal lawsuit that they were "kidnapped" by Venetian security officers, "strapped to a chair" and held in a small room for more than an hour in January before being kicked off the property.

They also say they were searched by metro police officers and handcuffed. Although the two men perform on the Strip for tips, they say they were just standing on the sidewalk in front of the Venetian when they were arrested, and that Sebastian wasn't wearing a costume, the lawsuit states.

The ACLU, which has joined the brothers in the legal battle, says the Venetian wrongly asserted that the public sidewalk was in fact private property.

"Certain sidewalks abutting the Strip and adjacent to certain Strip properties on which (the men perform) ... have been repeatedly declared by the federal courts to be a public forum and the First Amendment fully applies to all expressive activity on those sidewalks." Aside from damages, the ACLU seeks a declaration that the hotel's and metro's policies of regulating public sidewalks is unlawful.

Full story