The Daily Drift

Yeah, What the Fuck Happened ...?!

Carolina Naturally is read in 194 countries around the world daily.
 

Any Questions ...?!

Today is - The United States Marine Corps' Birthday

 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Port-Au-Prince, Haiti

Byward Market, Toronto, Sioux Lookout, Mississauga, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Saint John's, Winnipeg and Blainville, Canada

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Santiago, Chile

Mexico City, Mexico

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Olathe, Yelm, Erlanger, Livonia, Dekalb, Sparta, Norfolk, Durham, Felton and Cheyenne, United States

Lima, Peru

Montevideo, Uruguay

Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Europe

Belgrade Serbia

Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Meria, Georgia

Cerny and Rouen, France

Milan, Rome, Pistoia, Riposto and Terlizzi, Italy

Chelyabinsk, Russia

Rothe Erde, Berlin, Muenchen and Betzenhausen, Germany

Basauri, Madrid and Teo, Spain

Porto, Covilha and Funchal, Portugal

Reykjavik, Iceland

Groningen and Leiden, Netherlands

Dublin, Ireland

Karlskoga, Kista and Jonkoping,  Sweden

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Greetland, Penrith, andSheffield, England

Ankara and Sisli, Turkey

Zurich, Switzerland

Minsk, Belarus

Warsaw, Poland

Charleroi, Belgium

Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

Athens, Greece

Riga, Latvia

Zhovti Vody and Donets'k, Ukraine

Vilnius, Lithuania

Sofia, Bulgaria

Asia

Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Bangalore, Kakinada, Delhi, New Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Chandigarh, Gurgaon and Bhubaneshwar,  India

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Kuala Lumpur, Butterworth, Mulyorejo and Klang, Malaysia

Seoul, Korea

Male, Maldives

Amman, Jordan

Guangzhou, China

Ad Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Ramat Gan, Israel

Jakarta, Indonesia

Africa

Cairo, Egypt

Pacific

Homebush, Sydney and Surry Hills, Australia

Quezon City, Philippines

Today in History

1493		Christopher Columbus discovers Antigua during his second expedition.
1556		The Englishman Richard Chancellor is drowned off Aberdeenshire on his return from a second voyage to Russia.
1647		All Dutch-held areas of New York are returned to English control by the treaty of Westminster.
1775		U.S. Marine Corps founded.
1782		In the last battle of the American Revolution, George Rogers Clark attacks Indians and Loyalists at Chillicothe, in Ohio Territory.
1871		Henry M. Stanley finds Dr. Livingstone at Ujiji near Unyanyembe in Africa.
1879		Little Bighorn participant Major Marcus Reno is caught window-peeping at the daughter of his commanding officer—an offense for which he will be courtmartialed.
1911		President Taft ends a 15,000-mile, 57-day speaking tour.
1911		The Imperial government of China retakes Nanking.
1917		Forty-one US suffragettes are arrested protesting outside the White House.
1938		Fascist Italy enacts anti-Semitic legislation.
1941		Churchill promises to join the U.S. "within the hour" in the event of war with Japan.
1942		Admiral Jean Darlan orders French forces in North Africa to cease resistance to the Anglo-American forces.
1952		U.S. Supreme Court upholds the decision barring segregation on interstate railways.
1961		Andrew Hatcher is named associate press secretary to President John F. Kennedy.
1962		Eleanor Roosevelt is buried, she had died three days earlier.
1964		Australia begins a draft to fulfill its commitment in Vietnam.
1969		The PBS children's program Sesame Street debuts.
1971		Two women are tarred and feathered in Belfast for dating British soldiers, while in Londonderry, Northern Ireland a Catholic girl is also tarred and feathered for her intention of marrying a British soldier.
1972		Hijackers divert a jet to Detroit, demanding $10 million and ten parachutes.
1975		The iron ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald breaks in half and sinks at the eastern end of Lake Superior–all 29 crew members perish.
1986		President Ronald Reagan refuses to reveal details of the Iran arms sale.
1989		German citizens begin tearing down the Berlin Wall.
1997		WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a merger, the largest in US history up to that time.
2008		NASA declares the Phoenix mission concluded after losing communications with the lander, five months after it began its exploration on the surface of Mars.
2009		North Korean and South Korean ships skirmish off Daecheon Island.

Non Sequitur

Why Do You Snore?

Why Do You Snore?

Snoring is no joke. If you're thinking the worst it does is keep your girlfriend or boyfriend awake, you're dead wrong. Trace explains why we snore and what long-term, chronic snoring does to the body.

Did you know ...

About religious rights, taxes and corporatism - whose rights are they?

About McDonald's scam on America

CDC: we've reached the end of anti-biotics

And release the Kraken!!

No Nothings

The repugicans are even stupider than imagined, disenfranchise own voters

The repugicans are even stupider than imagined, disenfranchise their own voters

Texas repugicans are disenfranchising their strongest demographics.

Consider this bit of nonsense in Texas, thanks to the state's new stringent voted ID laws:

Tarrant County [Texas] Elections Administrator Steve Raborn said Saturday that people who might find themselves in a similar situation should cast a provisional ballot and obtain identification needed to “cure” it within six days. […]

Raborn's office reached out to people who might have expired driver licenses, such as those who live in nursing homes, to let them know that the license can be expired by no more than two months to be a valid photo ID for voting. […]

90-year-old Jim Wright, the former speaker of the House, was prevented from voting because of this requirement, one which disproportionately affects seniors with lapsed IDs.

Australian farmer has pragmatic response to frost ruining his crop

A farmer in Goulburn, New South Wales, has used a slasher and some artistic flair to show his response to recent frost damage in the state's south. Frost ruined about 150 hectares of Oscar Bell's best canola, but he hasn't let it upset him. Instead, he's written the words 'shit happens' into what's left in the paddock. He says it's sometimes the best attitude to have when facing major challenges on the land.

"I have been known to write things when slashing," he laughed. "And after the crop was frosted we were lucky enough to be in a position where we could feed-it-off to our stock. We were slashing some paths for them so they could get in there and yeah, I was sitting on the tractor and thought I'd have a bit of fun towards the end."

Oscar told his father, Geoff, who flies an ultra light plane, that the paddock needed to be 'checked' from the air. Geoff, who's also a keen photographer, flew over to discover the incredible literary sight. "The whole paddock basically had interesting squiggles in it because there's no method to where the sheep go, so Oscar followed suit," he said.

"But suddenly I could see these words appearing and there it was. His deep-felt sentiments. It was an excellent way to express it really. Then it was a matter of reaching for the camera and getting it on record. I've got to say actually, Oscar's handwriting, I find hard to read, but this was magnificent! He didn't use GPS or any electronics, it was purely from the head. So I'm very impressed."

Ziggy

Gun magazine editor forced to resign after running pro-reform column

Jim Bequette, the editor of Guns and Ammo, resigned yesterday after publishing a mildly pro-regulation column. Forced out, Bequeete now begs for forgiveness after his unprecedented attack on freedom.

The offending column, by veteran gun writer Dick Metcalf, was published in the magazine's current December issue, under the headline “Let’s Talk Limits”. He wrote: "Way too many gun owners still seem to believe that any regulation of the right to keep and bear arms is an infringement. The fact is, all constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be."
... The criticism amplified displeasure that had built up in gun enthusiast websites for a week. "Anyone who says 'I believe in the Second Amendment but...' does not believe in the Second Amendment," read a typical post at thetruthaboutguns. "They are not friends, they are not frenemies, they are enemies of The People of the Gun."

The increasing cultishness is a dark sign.

A 13-year-old boy suspended from school for refusing to remove his Vera Bradley handbag

A 13-year-old Kansas eighth-grader says he was suspended from school on Wednesday because he refused to take off his Vera Bradley handbag. His furious mother says it is discrimination because girls are allowed to have handbags with no repercussions. "I don't think everyone should be treated differently," Skylar Davis says. "Everyone should have the same privileges."

Skylar is a student at Anderson County Senior-Junior School. He said he has been carrying the colorful fabric Vera Bradley bag over his shoulder for some time with no issues. "It expresses myself and I think everyone else can wear it, so I wear it as well," Skylar said. He was summoned to Assistant Principal Don Hillard's office after he wouldn't take it off.  "I went to the office and I refused to take it off, and they suspended me," the teen explained.

School personnel then called his mother, Leslie Willis, to come get her son. "I was a little furious, and I called the school [and spoke to Hillard] to re-verify the story, and yeah, he refused to take off his Vera Bradley bag, nothing more to do it," Willis said. She said she reviewed the student handbook but did not see a mention to bags or purses. She questions the suspension and the timing.

"Skylar has been going to school since August with that same Vera Bradley bag on, hasn't taken it off. What is the problem?" she asked. She said she supports her son and his choices. She said if he wants to carry a Vera Bradley handbag or any other type of bag that he should be able to do so without being punished. Willis said she was told that the suspension wouldn't be lifted until Skylar stops wearing the bag, which he says he won't do. Anderson County School District officials did not comment.

There's a news video here.

Hollywoodland

The Hollywood sign originally said “Hollywoodland” when it was installed in 1923. The last four letters were deleted when the sign was refurbished in 1949.

Workers painted street line over pile of leaves

A Memphis city road crew is under fire after appearing to be lazy.

Man who took meth pipe to court hearing for meth possession arrested for meth possession

A man who was going into the Cowlitz County Court to address a methamphetamine charge was arrested for taking a meth pipe with him.
The Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office reports that 51-year-old Steven Todd Campbell arrived at the courthouse in Longview, Washington, on Tuesday morning for a hearing on previous charges of meth possession.

As he was going through the security checkpoint, he placed a 3-inch clear glass pipe with brown residue on the tray to be scanned. He tried to cover the pipe with a piece of paper. A deputy noticed the pipe and arrested Campbell.

The residue on the pipe later tested positive for meth. Campbell was arrested on another charge of possession and lodged in the Cowlitz County Jail.

Would-be burglar arrested after getting stuck in chimney

Police have arrested two men on burglary charges after they found one of them stuck in the chimney of of a southwest Florida home they were attempting to rob.

Richard Tyler Brandon, 25, of Naples, faces two counts of burglary. Derek Alan Grenfell, 26, also of Naples, faces two counts of burglary accessory after the fact. Grenfell had approached deputies at a 7-Eleven to tell them his friend was stuck in a chimney.

Police found Brandon in the 18-foot chimney. He was shoeless, with one foot dangling into the fireplace of the unoccupied home. Firefighters were able to pull him back up the chimney with a harness attached to a ladder truck. It took about an hour-and-a-half to get him out.

YouTube link.

He didn't suffer any serious injuries, but the chimney did sustain some damage. "He probably didn't know much about chimneys because the damper prohibits anybody from getting in there," said Batallion Chief, Pete DiMaria with the City of Naples Fire Department.

Hart Island

New York's Mass Burial Ground

In its past, Hart Island in New York City has been a Civil War prison camp, a mental asylum, a workhouse for the poor, and even a missile base. But it's most prominent -and current- function is as potter's field, where the city buries its unclaimed dead. Around 900,000 people are interred on Hart Island, laid in mass graves by inmates from Riker's Island. The Department of Corrections runs the island, and it is forbidden to visitors except for a once-a-month trip to the shoreline, but even then the graves are off-limits. And no photography is allowed.

There are a few ways to end up on Hart Island. One third of its inhabitants are infants—some parents couldn’t afford a burial, others didn’t realize what a “city burial” meant when they checked it on the form. Many of the dead here were homeless, while others were simply unclaimed; if your body remains at the city morgue for more than two weeks, you, too, will be sent for burial by a team of prisoners on Hart Island. These practices have given rise to dozens of cases where parents and families aren’t notified in time to claim the body of their loved one. It can take months (even years) to determine whether your missing mom, dad, sibling, or child ended up at Hart.

Even if you do learn that a friend or loved one is buried at Hart, you won’t be able to find out exactly where.

A project led by artist Melinda Hunt, who wrote a book about Hart Island, seeks to give relatives of those buried there the right to visit the grave sites, which involves transferring control of the island from the DOC to the Parks Department. Read about Hart Island, its history and stories, and the efforts to open it to the public after 35 years, at Gizmodo.

Random Photos

Indians, Europeans Share 'Light-Skin' Mutation

Indians, Europeans Share 'Light-Skin' Mutation

A common gene variant that codes for lighter skin color in Europeans is also common in India, and the gene was positively selected for in North, but not South India.

Big History Project

Explore 13.7 billion years of shared history and consider the big questions about our Universe, our planet, life, and humanity. From the big bang to modern day to where we are going in the future, big history covers it all.
Big History is a story everyone should know. It's a universal, scientific origin story that is relevant to anyone and everyone.

Awesome Pictures

Astronmical News

Weird Ancient Black Hole Has Extra Suck

Something puzzling about a very rare class of distant quasars has been uncovered -- some appear to be sucking material inwards at relativistic speeds, whereas the vast majority of quasars do exactly the opposite.

Hubble Discovers Weird Six-Tailed 'Comet'

The Hubble space telescope sure has seen some strange things in deep space -- but this most recent find is possibly one of the strangest.

Cassini Snaps Breathtaking Photo of Saturn

Saturn and its dazzling rings glow in an amazing new portrait captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft high above the gas giant planet.

Daily Comic Relief

Pig-Like Beast Leads Way to Ancient Cave Drawings

Pig-Like Beast Leads Way to Ancient Cave Drawings

On the trail of pig-like creatures in Brazil, researchers discovered cave drawings showing armadillos, birds and reptiles.

New Dinosaur That Predates Tyrannosaurus rex Found In Utah

Last Wednesday, paleontologists unveiled a new dinosaur discovered four years ago in southern Utah, USA, that proves giant tyrant dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex were around 10 million years earlier than previously believed.

A full skeletal replica of the carnivore - the equivalent of the great uncle of the T. rex - was on display at the Natural History Museum of Utah alongside a 3-D model of the head and a large painted mural of the dinosaur roaming a shoreline.

Fruitfly evolved pictures of ants on its wings

A recently discovered G tridens fruitfly that has evolved a to have images of detailed, ant-like insects on each wing, complete with six legs, a thorax, antennae and a tapered abdomen. The fly uses the images defensively, waving them back and forth when threatened to create the illusion of massing ants. Many G Tridens varieties bear elaborate wing markings, but this one, discovered in Oman, is very striking. I think more beasties should have van-art bestowed on them by the strange world of evolution.

Dr Howarth first saw G tridens on an oleander shrub in northern Oman. "I was looking at the stem of the leaves and I noticed that there were some insects crawling around. When I sort of honed in I started to notice what I thought was a couple of ants moving around."
At first she suspected an infestation on the fly's wings. "But it was so symmetrical that I thought, 'oh this is not possible'. When I got it under the microscope I realised that these were insects painted onto the wings."
In contrast to its wings and brilliant green eyes, the fly's body is a dull greenish grey - "almost cryptically coloured," says Dr Howarth - that blends into the leaves where it is found.
When threatened, the fly flashes its wings to give the appearance of ants walking back and forth. The predator gets confused and the fly zips off.

Fruit fly with the wings of beauty

Snake Massage

Would you enjoy the sensation of snakes crawling all over your body? Then get thee to Jakarta, where professional masseurs at the Bali Heritage Reflexology and Spa will lay pythons on you. The AFP reports:

"It is a very unique sensation," Tilukay, 31, told AFP, as the snakes slid over him during a recent session, adding the treatment "gives you an adrenaline rush".
Dressed only in a pair of shorts, he seemed completely relaxed as three reptiles named Jasmine, Muscle and Brown got to work on him.
They draped themselves over his neck, rolled around on his stomach and back and occasionally arched their necks and stuck out their forked tongues.

The snakes’ mouths are tied shut with tape for reasons the article does not explain. The entire experience lasts 90 minutes and costs about $43. But there’s more!

In one a staff member dressed in a gorilla suit performs a massage and in another, the customer sits in a bathtub of beer receiving a massage while enjoying a Lager.

Pythons are hard to find in my area, but I could probably locate some cottonmouths.

Workers find fallen tree that looks like a dog

Council workers clearing fallen trees from parks in Ipswich, Suffolk, have come across an unusual find.

They stumbled upon this fallen oak in Alexander Park and noticed that the root ball resembles a dog.

Elderly shepherdess shot dead after being mistaken for monkey

A Saudi Arabian man accidentally killed an elderly shepherdess after mistaking her for a monkey.

The 19-year-old man was on a hunting trip in a small village near the western Saudi town of Taif when he saw the woman breaking tree branches.

“He aimed his gun and shot. The bullet hit the woman in the chest. When the man came near her, he was shocked to find she is a woman,” a spokesman said.

“He rushed her to hospital but she died later. Police arrested the man, who told them he killed her by mistake, thinking she was a monkey damaging the tree.”

Endangered Sumatran tiger cubs pass their swimming test

Two Sumatran tiger cubs took a casual dip at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.for the first time on Wednesday and passed their swimming test with flying colours. The cubs - Bandar, a male, and Sukacita, a female - were born at the Zoo on August 5.

They have spent the past few months with their mother and under the care and supervision of the Zoo's animal keepers. In order to make their public debut on November 18, they first needed to pass a swimming test to ensure that they're ready.

“Tigers are one of the few species of cats that enjoy taking a dip in water,” Craig Saffoe, curator of Great Cats, said. “The moat exists for the safety of our visitors, but it could present an obstacle for young cats. Our job is to make sure that if the cubs venture into the moat, they know how and where to get out.

YouTube link.

“These cubs represent hope for their critically endangered species’ future, so we need to take every precaution to ensure their survival.” Both cubs passed the test. But what would have happened if they'd failed? "We probably would've tried again," Dr. Don Moore, Associate Director for Animal Care, said. "We haven't had a cat fail a swim test before."

Animal Pictures