CAROLINA NATURALLY: Jan 31, 2011

Monday, January 31, 2011

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Right now there are no insurmountable problems in your life.
Sure, there may be conflicts or challenges that make it tough for you to stay smiling all the time, but in reality, they aren't that bad.
Try to see the silver lining in all the clouds that have been hovering over your head lately -- if you try, you can do it.
Open yourself up to the idea that things happen for a reason ... and trust that you'll know what the reason is in good time.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

London, England, United Kingdom

Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Kingston, Kingston, Jamaica

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

Sheffield, England, United Kingdom

Bergen, Hordaland, Norway

Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, malaysia

Bilbao, Pais Vasco, Spain

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Torino, Piemonte, Italy

Bucharest, Bucuresti, Romania

Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

as well as Malta, Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Maldives, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland and in cities across the United States such as Walkerton, Lakewood, Fairfield, Charlotte and more.

Today is:

Today is Monday, January 31, the 31st day of 2011.

There are 334 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:

Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day
and
Inspire Your Heart With Art Day.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

World's newest country voted in

Landslide vote for world's newest country

Residents of Southern Sudan vote to secede, ending two decades of civil war.

When it could become official

Also:

Calls and Meetings

Egypt in crisis as Mubarak enters talks

Amid demands for his resignation, President Mubarak meets with military officials.

Protesters defy curfew

Also:

Egypt protest leader urges U.S. to act

Nobel winner and democracy advocate Mohamed Elbaradei says Obama must support the Egyptian people. 'A farce'

Also:

Active and Young

Internet activists subvert Egypt restrictions

Anonymous free speech advocates step in to help Egyptians communicate.

Messages sent via Morse code

Also:

Face of Mideast unrest: Young and jobless

At the core of the upheaval sweeping the region is a harsh and uneven economic reality facing its young.

Pushing back

Also:

Riots and Treasures

Tut Family Mummies Damaged in Egypt Riots?

Two mummies vandalized at the Egyptian museum might be those of King Tut's great-grandparents.

Read more

Egypt's Tombs, Temples Under Siege

Egyptian residents are banding together to protect their country's rich cultural heritage, but gangs of looters are targeting unguarded tombs.

Read more

Non Sequitur

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Sleazy repugican congressman wants records of everyone's FOIA requests

NYT:

Darrell Issa calls it a way to promote transparency: a request for the names of hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, business executives, journalists and others who have requested copies of federal government documents in recent years.

Mr. Issa, a California repugican and the new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, says he wants to make sure agencies respond in a timely fashion to Freedom of Information Act requests and do not delay them out of political considerations.

But his extraordinary request worries some civil libertarians. It “just seems sort of creepy that one person in the government could track who is looking into what and what kinds of questions they are asking,” said David Cuillier, a University of Arizona journalism professor and chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee at the Society of Professional Journalists. “It is an easy way to target people who he might think are up to no good.”

He's a repugican congressman and a known wingnut sleaze, there is no way he's not on a fishing expedition to use this records request as a backdoor method of spying on American citizens he doesn't like.

Daily Comic Relief

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Richest towns in America

The five richest small towns in America

They all have median home values over $2 million, and three are in one state.

Why the wealthy flock there

Also:

The Execution

Two prisoners, sentenced to die in the electric chair on the same day were led down to the room in which they would meet their maker.

The priest had given the last rites, the formal speech had been given by the warden, and a final prayer had been said among the participants. The warden, turning to the first man, solemnly asked, "Son, do you have a last request?"

To which the man replied, "Yes sir, I do. I love dance music. Could you please play "The Macarena" for me one last time?"

"Certainly," replied the warden.

He turned to the other man and asked, "Well, what about you, son? What is your final request?"

"Please," said the condemned man, "KILL ME FIRST."

Global Warming Uncovers Corpses Frozen in Time

Photo via Last Days of the Incas

Five hundred years ago, three Inca children were left to freeze high in the cold Argentinian Andes as a religious sacrifice. In time, their bodies mummified, having been swallowed in snow and entombed within the glacier, lost to time. But centuries later, in a warmer world, their perfectly-preserved corpses were discovered beneath the melting snow -- an increasingly common sight. Experts say that as glaciers continue to recede throughout the world, more of their long-guarded secrets will be revealed in the warm grip of a changing climate.

Article continues: Global Warming Uncovers Corpses Frozen in Time

The Global Impact of Protecting One Turkish Lake

Yeniçağa Lake. Photo: Yeniçağa Belediyesi (Municipality).

Once a popular swimming spot, Yeniçağa Lake in the northwestern Turkish province of Bolu has become too polluted even to sustain the healthy fish populations once found there. But thanks to an international restoration effort, the lake is slowly recovering, to the benefit not just of the local environment, but the global fight against climate change.

Article continues: The Global Impact of Protecting One Turkish Lake

Is Mango Wood the New Bamboo?

Cluster of mango trees pre-harvest. Photo by Sapiens Solutions via Flickr

From bikes and floors to sheets and t-shirts, bamboo is well-known as a popular green choice because as a fast-growing grass, it's a renewable material. Hemp is also considered environmentally smart for a variety of products including its wood. Mango trees are also fast-growing and another sustainable source of timber -- once they stop bearing its sweet delicious fruit.

Article continues: Is Mango Wood the New Bamboo?

Holy Saguaro

The French naturalist and historian Leon Diguet made six scientific expeditions in Mexico between 1893 and 1913 ... this picture offers a spectacular example of a species of cacti: the Giant Cardon, about 8 meters high and about 10 tons.

Jodhpur

Why the population of the fortress city – the Blue City as it is universally known – took to painting their houses in various shades of blue is not completely certain. Yet most believe it is to do with the prevailing caste system in India.

Read the full story and see more photos at Kuriositas.

Elspeth Beard, Motorcycle Mama

A quarter of a century ago Elspeth Beard rode around the world on a used 1974 R 60/6 flat-twin that had 30,000 miles on it before the trip began. The twenty-four year old Elspeth began her journey in New York. She had several accidents, her things were stolen, and she got hepatitis and dysentery before her trip ended in London three years later . She lost 53 lbs on the trip and added 48,000 miles to her R60’s odometer. The bike is remarkably still in running order. Ms Beard is one of a very small number of women to have circled the globe on a motorcycle and was the first British woman to do so.

Full Story

City Calls In Chicken Chasers

The city of Lakeland, Florida is clucking mad over its feral chicken problem. Squeal Deal Animal Control has been called in to rescue the residents from the more than 600 free roaming chickens. The problem is chicken chasing is no easy task.

The chickens are pretty smart and fast so they are hard to catch, according to some of the chasers.
“The chickens, this is their woods,” chicken chaser Clayton Keene said. ”They go underneath houses and cars and in trees. They know where to escape from you.”

What happens to the chickens once they are caught?

Some will be donated to schools for agriculture projects and others may be donated to charity organizations so they can be used for food.

Full Story

Library Vending Machine

The Polk County Library system in Florida has introduced library vending machines. The machines are placed in areas where there is no local library. People can go to the machine, swipe their library card and check out a book.

The machines are similar to Red Box movie rental machines. One of the machines has DVDs in it, and the other has best selling books.

Full Story

Ziggy

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New laws to blame for dirty dishes

A growing number of consumers are reporting that their dishes are not getting clean in their dishwashers.
Recent state laws have limited the amount of phosphates that dishwasher soap manufactures can have in their soap. After 16 states adopted such laws, manufactures changed the formulas that they sell nationwide.
Dennis Griesing, of the American Cleaning Institute, explained how the phosphates help to clean dishes: “Phosphorus likes to bind to things. It’s a very sociable element. It would hold soil from plates and glasses in suspension in the water and prevent redeposition.”
Without the phosphates, dishes just aren’t getting clean.
Consumers are often reporting that their dishes are covered with a thin white film after washing. The film is generally a combination of magnesium, calcium and aluminum, the elements that make water ‘hard’. The film is very difficult to remove.
”Some are tossing out sets of dishes and replacing their dishwashers – only to find the gunk appear again in a few days, reported tbo.com.
Appliance repairmen are reporting an increase in calls related to dishwashers not getting dishes clean.
The news laws are intended to protect the environment. Phosphate is a fertilizer. With each load of dishes washed, phosphates would wash down the drain and eventually end up in lakes and oceans. It’s suspected that this leads to huge algae blooms, which are detrimental to sea life.
While dishwasher soaps appear less effective than they once were, other products are stepping up to the (dirty) plate. Consumer related forums often mention products such as Lemi Shine as a way to get dishes clean. Lemi Shine is used in an empty dishwasher first, to clean the washer. Afterwords it is used in the main dispenser, with regular dishwasher soap in the secondary dispenser, during each wash.

Full Story