CAROLINA NATURALLY: Jul 3, 2010

Saturday, July 3, 2010

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Put the phone down -- you don't need emergency psychological care, and you're not going to give anyone the impression that you do just because they spot a tear in your eye for the first time.
It's okay -- whether it's nostalgia (a likely cause) or frustration, you have every right to let your feelings show.
Just because you have the right, that doesn't mean you're comfortable with it -- but at least try it out.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada

Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Montpellier, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

Steyr, Oberosterreich, Austria

Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Florence, Toscana, Italy

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

London, England, United Kingdom

Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, Australia

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan

Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

Vitoria, Pais Vasco, Spain

Oldenbirg, Niedersachsen, Germany

New Delhi, Delhi, India

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Cairo, Al Qahirah, Egypt

Rio De Janeiro, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Quebec, Quebec, Canada

Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico

Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany

Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Monchengladbach, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

as well as Scotland, Norway, Poland, Afghanistan, and the United States in such cities as East Longmeadow, Red Bluff, Largo, Henniker and more

Today is Saturday, July 3, the 184th day of 2010.

There are 181 days left in the year.

Today In History July 3

Today's unusual holidays or celebration are:

Compliment Your Mirror Day

and

Stay Out Of The Sun Day

The month of July is:

Blueberries Month

National Grilling Month

National Ice Cream Month

National Hot Dog Month

and

National Share A Sunset With Your Lover Month

President Obama's Weekly Address

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Weekly Address
Washington, DC

This week, I spent some time in Racine, Wisconsin, talking with folks who are doing their best to cope with the aftermath of a brutal recession.
And while I was there, a young woman asked me a question I hear all the time: “What are we doing as a nation to bring jobs back to this country?”
Well, on Friday, we learned that after 22 straight months of job loss, our economy has now created jobs in the private sector for 6 months in a row. That’s a positive sign. But the truth is, the recession from which we’re emerging has left us in a hole that’s about 8 million jobs deep. And as I’ve said from the day I took office, it’s going to take months, even years, to dig our way out – and it’s going to require an all-hands-on-deck effort.
In the short term, we’re fighting to speed up this recovery and keep the economy growing by all means possible. That means extending unemployment insurance for workers who lost their job. That means getting small businesses the loans they need to keep their doors open and hire new workers. And that means sending relief to states so they don’t have to lay off thousands of teachers and firefighters and police officers.
Still, at a time when millions of Americans feel a deep sense of urgency in their own lives, Republican leaders in Washington just don’t get it. While a majority of Senators support taking these steps to help the American people, some are playing the same old Washington games and using their power to hold this relief hostage – a move that only ends up holding back our recovery. It doesn’t make sense.
But I promised those folks in Wisconsin – and I promise all of you – that we won’t back down. We’re going to keep fighting to advance our recovery. And we’re going to keep competing aggressively to make sure the jobs and industries of the future are taking root right here in America.
That’s one of the reasons why we’re accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy and doubling our use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power – steps that have the potential to create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America.
In fact, today, I’m announcing that the Department of Energy is awarding nearly $2 billion in conditional commitments to two solar companies.
The first is Abengoa Solar, a company that has agreed to build one of the largest solar plants in the world right here in the United States. After years of watching companies build things and create jobs overseas, it’s good news that we’ve attracted a company to our shores to build a plant and create jobs right here in America. In the short term, construction will create approximately 1,600 jobs in Arizona. What’s more, over 70 percent of the components and products used in construction will be manufactured in the USA, boosting jobs and communities in states up and down the supply chain. Once completed, this plant will be the first large-scale solar plant in the U.S. to actually store the energy it generates for later use – even at night. And it will generate enough clean, renewable energy to power 70,000 homes.
The second company is Abound Solar Manufacturing, which will manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs. A Colorado plant is already underway, and an Indiana plant will be built in what’s now an empty Chrysler factory. When fully operational, these plants will produce millions of state-of-the-art solar panels each year.
These are just two of the many clean energy investments in the Recovery Act. Already, I’ve seen the payoff from these investments. I’ve seen once-shuttered factories humming with new workers who are building solar panels and wind turbines; rolling up their sleeves to help America win the race for the clean energy economy.
So that’s some of what we’re doing. But the truth is, steps like these won’t replace all the jobs we’ve lost overnight. I know folks are struggling. I know this Fourth of July weekend finds many Americans wishing things were a bit easier right now. I do too.
But what this weekend reminds us, more than any other, is that we are a nation that has always risen to the challenges before it. We are a nation that, 234 years ago, declared our independence from one of the greatest empires the world had ever known. We are a nation that mustered a sense of common purpose to overcome Depression and fear itself. We are a nation that embraced a call to greatness and saved the world from tyranny. That is who we are – a nation that turns times of trial into times of triumph – and I know America will write our own destiny once more.
I wish every American a safe and happy Fourth of July. And to all our troops serving in harm’s way, I want you to know you have the support of a grateful nation and a proud Commander-in-Chief. Thank you, God Bless You, and God Bless the United States of America.

In The Woods

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l2vjrtOocN1qzcd3bo1_500.jpg

Since the next post deals with real life 'fairy tale' castles, why not start off with the young maiden in the woods motif?!

Planet Earth

Planet Earth

Storybook castles come to life

Construction of this chateau began with workmen using only 13th-century tools and materials.

More examples

Also:

Why Americans call it 'soccer'

Brits who deride us for misnaming the sport might be surprised to learn where the U.S. term came from.

Backstory

Also:

Why soccer star's move to U.S. is bad news

Frenchman Thierry Henry's arrival in New York will be heralded as a step forward for U.S. soccer.

One writer disagrees

Also:

World Cup Soccer

Special beverage fueling soccer team

Members of Paraguay's World Cup squad bring a unique drink with them wherever they go.

How it helps

Also:

World Cup player's nightmare game

Brazil's Felipe Melo scores a goal for the other team, but the blunders don't stop there.

World Cup favorite flops

Also:

Touching gesture to tough-luck player

The Japanese player whose missed kick cost his team a World Cup game has an unlikely honor in store.

Details

Also:

Mandela's message to heartbroken player

The former South African president reaches out to Ghana's Asamoah Gyan after his stunning miss.

Star in tears

Also:

Crazy ending to World Cup game

Uruguay advances after a defender makes a huge — and illegal — save in the final seconds.

See the play

Also:

Mom comes to aid of world's best player

Neither doctors nor wonder drugs fixed an ailing Lionel Messi on the eve of a World Cup showdown.

Smelly cure

Also:

Mick Jagger's World Cup jinx continues

The rock star hurts another team's chances by simply showing up to its game, a writer jokes.

Fans not happy

Also:

Ironic slip in Declaration of Independence

Thomas Jefferson used a word England might have liked in an early draft of the document.

'Spine-tingling' find

Also:

http://www.retakingamerica.com/files/declaration_independence_02.jpg

Tution Suit

Grad sues dad to cover student debt

Dana Soderberg sued her father for $47,000 after he reneged on a promise to pay her tuition.

How the judge ruled

Also:

Police search for mischievous leprechaun

Boulder Police are looking for a Leprechaun who caused mischief and mayhem in a King Soopers parking lot.

They received calls from people about a man dressed as a leprechaun outside the store at 30th St. and Arapahoe Ave. at about 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

Boulder Police Sgt. Fred Gerhardt said they responded because the caller said the leprechaun was jumping in and out from between cars, pretending to shoot at people with his fingers. The report also said on top of that, he may have made obscene gestures with his fingers.

"I think that's why they called us," Gerhardt says. "He was acting bizarre." But officers didn't find anyone matching the suspect's description. Boulder Police had not ever received a complaint about a leprechaun before this,Gerhardt said.

Vote for America's Best Restroom

It’s time once again to cast your vote for America’s Best Restroom!

Will it be the toilets at Bryant Park in New York City, the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, or maybe the Santa Monica Pier in California?

Ten finalists are going for the title.

You can take a virtual tour of each convenience facility and rank your picks accordingly.

Pictured is last year’s winner, the The Shoji Tabuchi Theater in Branson, Missouri.

Vote Here

Going to California

Led Zeppelin (from the 1977 Destroyer Bootleg album- recorded in Cleveland)

Spent my days with a woman unkind,

Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine.

Made up my mind to make a new start,

Going to california with an aching in my heart.

Someone told me theres a girl out there

With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.

Took my chances on a big jet plane,

Never let them tell you that theyre all the same.

The sea was red and the sky was grey,

Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today.

The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake

As the children of the sun began to awake.

Seems that the wrath of the gods

Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow;

I think I might be sinking.

Throw me a line if I reach it in time

Ill meet you up there where the path

Runs straight and high.

To find a queen without a king;

They say she plays guitar and cries and sings.

La la la la

Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn

Tryin to find a woman whos never, never, never been born.

Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,

Telling myself its not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.

Scientific Minds Want To Know

Scientific Minds Want To Know

A downside to the recovering ozone layer

The atmosphere is definitely healing, but the resulting climate change may have an unwanted effect.

Danger to humans

Also:

Scientists peer inside a python

Scientists employ the latest imaging techniques to look inside a python that had just swallowed a rat whole.

Grandmothers link orcas to humans

Scientists discover a common trait in humans and whales that explains why both groups have grandmothers.

Ancient African lake fertilizes the Amazon

Dust blown from the Bodélé depression in Chad provides natural fertiliser for the Amazon and the Atlantic

'Leviathan' ate other whales

A monstrous ancient whale that fed on dolphins, sharks, seals and even other whales has been discovered in Peru.

Dubbed the "leviathan", the 17m beast was around the same size as a sperm whale, but was far more aggressive, British journal Nature reported.

The 12-million-year-old leviathan would have been able to feed on prey up to 8m long, according to Paris Natural History Museum director Christian de Muizon.

"It was a kind of a sea monster," he said.

Giant whale named for Moby Dick author

Full Story

Digging Starts On Buried Stone Circle That Is Ten Times Bigger Than Stonehenge

Archaeologists have begun a major dig to unearth the hidden mysteries of a buried ancient stone circle site that is ten times bigger than Stonehenge. The enormous 4,000 year old Marden Henge, in Wiltshire, is Britain's largest prehistoric structure stretching for 10.5 hectares.

English Heritage is carrying out a six-week dig hoping to reveal the secrets behind the giant henge which has baffled historians for centuries. Most of the Neolithic Marden Henge has been destroyed over the years due to farming and erosion but minor excavations estimate the site to between 2,000 and 2,400BC.

Fossils Push Back Dawn Of Life By 1.5 Billion Years

Up to now, conventional scientific wisdom held that the planet was populated only by single-celled microbes until the so-called Cambrian explosion, a major surge of biodiversity that began some 600 million years ago. Scientists have unveiled fossils from west Africa that push back the dawn of multicellular life on Earth by at least 1.5 billion years.

Just how complex the newly discovered organisms are is sure to be hotly debated. But there can be no doubt that the creatures unearthed from the hills of Gabon, visible to the naked eye, have upended standard evolutionary timelines.

After the Tsunami in 2004 some strange fish washed ashore:

(the video has German titles)

Ugaritic cracked in hours

The lost language of Ugaritic was last spoken 3,500 years ago.

It survives on just a few tablets, and linguists could only translate it with years of hard work and plenty of luck.

A computer deciphered it in hours.

Full Story

Image of the Only Nuke Ever Detonated in Space

This is a recently-declassified US government photo of a hydrogen bomb detonating in space. The test, called Starfish Prime, set off the nuke 250 miles above the Earth’s surface. NPR explains that the US did so see if the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth had military uses:

The plan was to send rockets hundreds of miles up, higher than the Earth’s atmosphere, and then detonate nuclear weapons to see: a) If a bomb’s radiation would make it harder to see what was up there (like incoming Russian missiles!); b) If an explosion would do any damage to objects nearby; c) If the Van Allen belts would move a blast down the bands to an earthly target (Moscow! for example); and — most peculiar — d) if a man-made explosion might “alter” the natural shape of the belts.

Full Story

Livingstone Deciphered

Famed explorer's letter deciphered at last

Researchers can finally read David Livingstone's words of despair nearly 140 years after he wrote them.

Details

Also:

Saber-toothed Cats Wrestled Prey with Powerful Arms

Saber-toothed cats might be most famous for their oversized fangs, but scientists now find the feisty felines had another exceptional feature — powerful arms stronger than those of any cat alive today.

Commonly known as the "saber-toothed tiger," the extinct cat Smilodon fatalis roamed the Americas until roughly 10,000 years ago, preying on "megafauna" — large animals such as mammoths, bison, camels and mastodons.

Full Story

Interesting In General

Interesting In General

Transparent Animals

Rumor has it that Japanese scientists photographed the skeletons of small animals through their flesh and then dyed the results with vibrant colors. The result is a set of quite lovely pictures.

Full Story

In Matters Of Health

In Matters Of Health

Women's sleep trouble, weight gain linked

Starting in middle age, women who have sleep problems may add more pounds, researchers say.

How much extra

Also:

Weight-loss methods compared

Which is more important in a diet: The types of food you eat, or overall calorie intake?

Surprising answer

Also:

World's most affordable retirement haven

One expert calls out this beautiful colonial city in Latin America for its ultra-low cost of living.

$200 for rent

Also:

Things They Won't Tell You

Things They Won't Tell You

Things your vet won't tell you

If you think your dog or cat is just extra fluffy or big-boned, you may be ignoring a serious health issue.
10 tips
Also:

Culinary DeLites

Culinary DeLites

What to look for in a good watermelon

This low-calorie fruit's shell color and weight help you assess its ripeness.

How long should you refrigerate one?

Also:

What's Inside Worcestershire Sauce?

image

Though Worcestershire sauce was originally developed in India by the English, it takes its name from the fact that it was first bottled in Worcester, England, by two dispensing chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins. It's a thin, dark, rather piquant sauce used to season meats, gravies, soups and vegetable juices, and as a table condiment.

You may know about the garlic, onions, anchovies, and vinegar but what else is inside Worcestershire sauce?

Clog Your Arteries No Matter What State You Live In

Health.com tracked down an obscenely fatty restaurant meal in each of the 50 states. Some of the choices are eclectic and inspired, such as the pictured Quadruple Bypass Burger at the aptly named Heart Attack Grill near Phoenix.
Others are more phoned in, such as In-N-Out's Double Double, which is the selection from California. Has Health never heard of In-N-Out's 4x4?
Peruse the list and see what sort of heart attack-inducing dining experience is near you.
The 50 Fattiest Foods in the States [Health]

Bohemian Rhapsody

Queen

As The World Turns

As The World Turns

Mexico nabs gang leader in US consulate killing

A drug gang leader says he ordered the killing of a U.S. consulate worker because she gave visas to a rival gang in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, federal police said Friday.

Full story

21 Dead After Shootout Near Border in Mexico

Full story

A shootout near the U.S.-Mexico border between rival groups with ties to organized crime left 21 people dead Thursday, Mexican police officials said.

The State Of The Nation

The State Of The Nation

Immigrants moving to smaller U.S. towns

Bypassing big cities, many newcomers from abroad are settling in these areas instead.

Seeking jobs, cheap housing

Also:

Why Alleged Russia Spy Vicky Pelaez Was Granted Bail

Full story

The El Diario newspaper columnist accused of collaborating with a ring of Russian spies was granted bail in a Manhattan federal courthouse yesterday evening.