The Daily Drift

What a long strange trip it's been ...

Carolina Naturally is read in 195 countries around the world daily.
  
 That Cat and his Hat ... !

Today is - Dr. Seuss Day

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

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Ottawa, Templeton, Pikangikum, Britannia, Stoney Creek, Vancouver, Thunder Bay, Lansing, Scarborough, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Waterloo, Guelph, Joliette, Sioux Lookout, Surrey, saint John's and Westmount, Canada

Buenos Aires and Villa Maria, Argentina

Patos, Brazil

Panama, Panama

La Paz, Bolivia

Tijuana, Mexico

Santiago, Chile

Corozal, Puerto Rico

Havana, Cuba

Caracas, Venezuela

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Zelienople, Fort Huachuca, Pheonix, Sycamore and Sebring, United States

Europe

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Dijon and Rouen, France

Entroncamento, Lisbon and Costa De Caparica, Portugal

Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece

Dublin, Limerick, Ireland

Ivrea, Rome and Conversano, Italy

Copenhagen, Kongens Lyingby and Tranbjerg, Denmark

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Madrid, Santa Cruz De Tenerife and L'Olleria, Spain

Kista and Sundbyberg, Sweden

Ostrava, Czech Republic

Ryazan, Novosibirsk, Moscow, Vladivostok and Saint Petersburg, Russia

Ruse, Bulgaria

Zhovti Vody, Kiev, L'viv and Yalta, Ukraine

Sempeter Pri Gorici, Slovenia

Nowy Targ, Olsztyn and Zabrze, Poland

London and Sheffield, England

Stravaner, Norway

Tirana, Albania

Nokia, Finland

Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey

Aalen, Germany

Heviz, Hungary

Mosta, Malta

Yerevan, Armenia

Valea Danului, Romania

Zagreb, Croatia

Asia 

Baku, Azerbaijan

Bangkok and Bang Rak, Thailand

Patna, Shillong, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Jodhpur, Delhi and Kolkata, India

La Dagotiere and Port Louis, Mauritius

Riyadh, Jeddah and Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Puching, Kuala Lumpur and Seri Kembangan, Malaysia

Denpasar, Besuki, Jakarta, Medan, Bualu and Serpong, Indonesia

Colombo and Kandy, Sri Lanka

Karaj, Iran

Islamabad and Karachi, Pakistan

Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi, Vietnam

Singapore and Pulau Ujong, Singapore

Kuwait, Kuwait

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Africa 

Randburg, Berea, Johannesburg, Sandton, Cape Town and Pretoria, South Africa

Cairo and Al Jizah, Egypt

Kampala, Uganda

Lagos, Nigeria

Rabat, Morocco

Tunis, Tunisia

Pacific

Makati, Quezon City, Calumpit and Niugan, Philippines

Port-Vila, Vanatu

Surrey Hills, Homebush and Heidelberg, Australia

Today in History

1776		Americans begin shelling British troops in Boston.
1781		Maryland ratifies the Articles of Confederation. She is the last state to sign.
1797		The Directory of Great Britain authorizes vessels of war to board and seize neutral vessels, particularly if the ships are American.
1815		To put an end to robberies by the Barbary pirates, the United States declares war on Algiers.
1836		Texas declares independence from Mexico on Sam Houston's 43rd birthday.
1853		The Territory of Washington is organized.
1865		President Abraham Lincoln rejects Confederate General Robert E. Lee's plea for peace talks, demanding unconditional surrender.
1867		The first Reconstruction Act is passed by Congress.
1877		Rutherford B. Hayes is declared president by one vote the day before the inauguration.
1889		Congress passes the Indian Appropriations Bill, proclaiming unassigned lands in the public domain; the first step toward the famous Oklahoma Land Rush.
1896		Bone Mizell, the famed cowboy of Florida, is sentenced to two years of hard labor in the state pen for cattle rustling. He would only serve a small portion of the sentence.
1901		Congress passes the Platt amendment, which limits Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops.
1908		An international conference on arms reduction opens in London.
1908		Gabriel Lippman introduces the new three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.
1917		Congress passes the Jones Act making Puerto Rico a territory of the United States and makes the inhabitants U.S. citizens.
1923		In Italy, Mussolini admits that women have a right to vote, but declares that the time is not right.
1930		Novelist D.H. Lawrence dies of tuberculosis in a sanitarium in Vence, France, at the age of 45.
1943		The center of Berlin is bombed by the RAF. Some 900 tons of bombs are dropped in a half hour.
1945		MacArthur raises the U.S. flag on Corregidor in the Philippines.
1946		Ho Chi Minh is elected president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
1951		The U.S. Navy launches the K-1, the first modern submarine designed to hunt enemy submarines.
1955		Claudette Colvin refuses to give up her seat in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks' famous arrest for the same offense.
1956		France grants independence to Morocco.
1965		More than 150 U.S. and South Vietnamese planes bomb two bases in North Vietnam in the first of the "Rolling Thunder" raids.
1968		The siege of Khe Sanh ends in Vietnam, the U.S. Marines stationed there are still in control of the mountain top.
1973		Federal forces surround Wounded Knee, South Dakota, which is occupied by members of the militant American Indian Movement who are holding at least 10 hostages.
1974		A grand jury in Washington, D.C. concludes that President Nixon was indeed involved in the Watergate cover-up.
1978		Czech pilot Vladimir Remek becomes the first non-Russian, non-American in space.
1981		The United States plans to send 20 more advisors and $25 million in military aid to El Salvador.

Non Sequitur

Salmon of Knowledge

Celtic Mythology:

The SALMON OF KNOWLEDGE swam from the profound depths of the sea and up the source-waters of the River Boyne. And so Finn Mac Cumhaill went on to learn poetry from Finegas, a poet that was living at the Boinn, for the poets thought it was always on the brink of water poetry was revealed to them. And he did not give him his own name, but he took the name of Deimne. Seven years, now, Finegas had stopped at the Boinn, watching the salmon, for it was in the prophecy that he would eat the salmon of knowledge that would come there, and that he would have all knowledge after. And when at the last the salmon of knowledge came, he brought it to where Finn was, and bade him to roast it, but he bade him not to eat any of it. And when Finn brought him the salmon after a while he said:
"Did you eat any of it at all, boy?"
"I did not," said Finn; "but I burned my thumb putting down a blister that rose on the skin, and after that, I put my thumb in my mouth."
"What is your name, boy?" said Finegas.
"Deimne," said he.
"It is not, but it is Finn your name is, and it is to you and not to myself the salmon was given in the prophecy."
With that he gave Finn the whole of the salmon, and from that time Finn had the knowledge that came from the nuts of the nine hazels of wisdom that grow beside the well that is below the sea.

Photos That Will Make You Want To Visit Yosemite National Park

It’s safe to say that Yosemite National Park is one of the most beautiful places to visit in the world, and it draws over 4 million visitors a year with its idyllic valleys, softly roaring waterfalls and gorgeous greenery.
Yosemite is one of those places where every picture you take is a classic, and when you show those pics off you get lots of oohs and aahs, and more than a few “I really want to go there” responses.
Take a look at these 45 incredible photos of Yosemite National Park and see if you can resist the call of El Capitan and the Yosemite Valley.

Household Wealth Still Down 14 Percent Since Recession

Household Wealth Still Down 14 Percent Since Recession

Household wealth for Americans still has not recovered from the […]

More proof that poor people can't be blamed for federal deficit

by Eric Byler  

If news entertainment programming was produced and disseminated by poor people, I wonder if it would be the rich who are blamed by most media consumers when it comes to our federal deficit. According to a new Senate Report, a Swiss bank called Credit Suisee has helped wealthy clients defraud the American people of billions of dollars over the course of many years, and, refuses to cooperate with Justice Department to bring the tax evaders to justice.
Danielle Douglas reports for The Washington Post:

"Swiss banking giant Credit ­Suisse helped wealthy Americans hide billions of dollars from U.S. tax collectors for several years and federal prosecutors have done little to hold violators accountable, according to a U.S. Senate subcommittee report due out Wednesday.

"The allegations were particularly stunning in the face of the budget cuts and deficits that the United States faces, lawmakers said. The report casts the Justice Department as a hapless enforcer that has dragged its feet in getting Credit Suisse to turn over the names of some 22,000 U.S. customers."

Man who found £2 in the street 40 years ago now makes half of the UK's organic museli

Alex Smith became involved in the squatting movement in the early 1970s. He moved to London to study architecture and was living in a building just off Tottenham Court Road. Being opposed to the philosophy of destroying existing Victorian properties and replacing them with modern blocks solely in the name of making money, he decided he had to live without it.

He didn't spend money for a year until, in 1975, he found two £1 notes in the street and decided to start a business with it. He began what's now Alara by selling fruit and veg that would otherwise have been thrown out. He and fellow squatters bought a sack of flour from a wholefoods wholesaler near the squat and started baking bread.

Eventually they squatted in a retail premises and turned it into a wholefoods shop. After being evicted from that shop and another, second premises within two years, in 1978, they leased a small shop just off the Euston Road. The shop continued to do very well, but the area was being redeveloped and Camden Council allocated their shop as the site office, so they struck a good deal with them to move to a bigger place in Bloomsbury.

YouTube link.

They wanted to produce really healthy food, and there were no cereals on the market that had no added sugar, salts or fats at that time, so they started making muesli. With more space in Bloomsbury, they were able to get a muesli mixing machine. It all expanded from that point on, until they had their own factory in King's Cross. Alara was the first cereal company in the world to be certified organic, and now the factory produces about half of all the organic muesli sold in the UK.

Thief believed to have been scared off by replica mummified body

A replica of a mummified body is believed to have scared off a thief who broke into a car’s boot. The thief stole a bag containing an iPad, but the car’s owner believe he was deterred from taking more pricey items when he lifted a lid to uncover an Iron Age ‘bog body’.

Dean Patton’s silver-colored Volkswagen Passat was broken into while it was parked in Liverpool on Sunday night, while he attended a function. Mr Patton, the founder of the Big Heritage Group in Bromborough, had the replica body in the boot of his car after showcasing it at the Museum of Liverpool on Sunday afternoon. Mr Patton said: “Although it is very disappointing that we had items stolen it brings a smile to my face that whoever committed the break in was clearly scared by what they found.

“It was a replica of an Iron Age bog body. We use it for museum and school workshop purposes. They had lifted a lid and they must have ran off. The image of the bog body would give whoever saw it nightmares because it looks like a dead person. There was a head there too. Whoever broke in must have thought that they had found part of Dexter’s kill list. They didn’t know, but underneath the bog body were items that were worth thousands of pounds. So the bog body has saved the day.” The body bog replica was created from a genuine body of an Iron Age man which was found in Cheshire in the 1980s.

Mr Patton added: “They took a replica of an Iron Age axe and some pewter bracelets were taken. They wouldn’t get much at scrap for the bracelets. They have been handmade to show what people would have worn by the Vikings. The real bracelets would have been silver, but these are made of pewter so they would be disappointed when they go to Cash Converters. Only a museum expert would know what they were.  There was some pottery there that was taken too – they were 2,500 years old. I hope whoever has them just doesn’t throw them away because they look like dog biscuits.”

Couple's crystal ball failed to predict it would set their bedroom on fire

A couple escaped with their lives from a house fire in north east London which was started by a crystal ball. Rays of sunlight were refracted through the glass ornament, causing a pair of bedroom curtains to set alight.

A man and a woman escaped uninjured from the property in Romford, after trying to put the blaze out themselves with a garden hose and some towels on Saturday afternoon. The man, who was asleep in the bedroom at the time the fire started, was woken by his fire alarm, which firefighters said saved his life.

Fire crews were called to the scene at about 3.50pm and had put out the blaze within an hour. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) said the accident would serve as a warning to those who keep glass items on window sills.

Mick Boyle, who investigated the incident for the brigade, said: "The blaze caused severe damage to the bedroom but thankfully no one was hurt. That smoke alarm saved his life – he could easily have slept through and been overcome by smoke. You can’t predict the future, but you can prevent this type of fire by keeping glass ornaments, mirrors, and bottles away from sunny window sills."

Woman run over by milk float from Father Ted settles High Court action

A widow who claimed she was knocked down by a man dressed as Father Dougal and injured by a milk float used in the cult television comedy show Father Ted has settled a High Court action for damages. Geraldine Naughton (59) of Inisgrove, Lahinch Road, Ennis, Co Clare, Ireland, claimed she was pinned under the float after it drove up against the curb of a roundabout and rolled over her left leg. According to court documents, the milk float was “driven or steered erratically” by a man dressed as the buffoon priest Fr Dougal McGuire during the Father Ted festival in Kilfenora, Co Clare on or about February 26th, 2008.

Ms Naughton claimed she fell after she was driven up against the curb of a makeshift roundabout by the milk float, whereupon the wheel of the float passed over her leg leaving her in “great pain”. When the float was removed her ankle and lower leg were swollen and extremely painful. She was taken to Ennis General Hospital where x-rays revealed a fracture to the tip of her left fibula and she was placed in plaster. She had to use crutches for eight weeks. She also sustained a laceration to the back of her left ankle. According to the plaintiff’s claim papers lodged with the High Court, Ms Naughton was “left with a scar that constitutes a cosmetic defect”. “This is a source of great embarrassment to the plaintiff as she is very conscious of the scar,” the document stated.

It was also claimed the plaintiff continues to suffer from pain if she partakes in any physical exercise and is unable to wear high heeled shoes. Ms Naughton sued for damages for personal injury, loss, inconvenience and expense caused or occasioned by the negligence on the part of the defendants or one of them, their servants or agents. According to the claim document, the plaintiff and seven others took part in a fundraising event organized by and for Down Syndrome Ireland Ltd, the first named defendant, which involved pushing a milk float from Ennistymon to Kilfenora in Co Clare, a distance of approximately 10kms.

“The said milk float was the same or a replica of the milk float which had featured in an episode of the television comedy program Father Ted , which particular episode was a parody of the action movie Speed, and accordingly the milk float would be recognized with fondness by aficionados and followers of the Father Ted program,” the claim document stated. There was no admission of liability by any of the parties involved. The terms of the settlement was not disclosed and the matter was struck out by Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill at the High Court sitting in Limerick.

Ziggy

Taste in Music

Making Food Tastier With Music

A new study finds that chocolate tastes better with jazz music and that hip hop doesn't help food at all.

Health Science

Cushing’s syndrome: A genetic basis for cortisol excess

An international team of researchers led by an endocrinologist at […]

Why dark chocolate is good for your heart

Dark chocolate lowers the augmentation index, a key vascular health […]

Cheese Chunks

Cheese Chunks Adorn Ancient Mummies

The 3,600-year-old cheese was discovered on perfectly preserved mummies buried in China's desert sand.

Hard Knock University

Gladiator School Discovery Reveals Hard Lives Of Ancient Warriors

Ancient Rome's gladiators lived and trained in fortress prisons, according to an international team of archaeologists who mapped a school for the famed fighters. Discovered at the site of Carnuntum outside Vienna, Austria, the gladiatorial school, or ludus gladiatorius, is the first one discovered outside the city of Rome.

Now hidden beneath a pasture, the gladiator school was entirely mapped with noninvasive earth-sensing technologies. The discovery Makes clear what sort of lives these famous ancient warriors led during the second century A.D. in the Roman Empire.

Ancient Gladiator School Discovered in Austria

An ancient Roman gladiator school has been discovered in Austria, complete with cell blocks, a training arena and a bath complex..

Ever feel like you're stuck?

Humans May Have Been Stuck on Bering Strait for 10,000 Years

The ancestors of Native Americans may have lived on and around the Bering Strait for about 10,000 years before streaming into the Americas.

The underwater spacesuit that's going to revolutionize ocean research

The Exosuit allows humans to move like scuba divers at depths that would make scuba wildly impractical. It's got all the benefits of a small submarine, but with more flexibility and freedom of movement.

Eartthquake Lightning

Mysterious 'Earthquake Lights' Might Be Explained

The mysterious flashes of lightning that sometimes precede or accompany a temblor, called earthquake lights, could be caused by the shifting of grains in the ground surrounding faults.

Earth Science

Need a water filter? Peel a tree branch

MIT group shows xylem tissue in sapwood can filter bacteria […]

Pine forest smell helps keep planet cool

Pine forests are especially magical places for atmospheric chemists. Coniferous […]

Astronomy Science

Closest, brightest supernova in decades is also a little weird

A bright supernova discovered only six weeks ago in a […]

Daily Comic Relief

Scientists Discover A New State Of Matter In Chicken Eyes

Scientists have discovered a system of matter unlike anything they've ever seen before, capable of being both crystal-like and a liquid.

The new matter is called 'disordered hyperuniformity' and it may drastically change the way we can design materials. The new matter is only found in chicken eyes.

'Street View' Polar Bears

Polar Bear Habitat Revealed in Google 'Street View' Photos

A Google Street View of the tundra helps scientists as well as armchair polar bear watchers.

The Executioner

Cuttlefish Hunting 

Cuttlefish are marine animals belonging to the class Cephalopoda, which also includes squid, octopi and nautiluses. 'Cuttle' is a reference to their unique internal shell, the cuttlebone. Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but mollusks.

Vimeo link

Monkey Steals Camera

(YouTube link)

One thing we’ve learned in the age of YouTube is that all god’s creatures want a camera of their own. This guy was at the Uluwatu Temple in Bali, and decided to set up his GoPro camera to record himself feeding the monkeys. The monkeys came, and along with the food, one took the camera! The guy chased the monkey down, which is where you hear a little NSFW language, but the recording stops when the monkey removes the battery!
A lady from the temple helped to get the camera back, by trading the monkey food for it. However, the monkey kept the battery. The lesson here is that, instead of taking a selfie, it may be better to keep a small camera attached to you. Only time will tell if a viral video is worth the cost of a stolen camera battery.

Family horrified when six-foot cobra popped its head out of their toilet

A family from a suburb north-east of Mumbai in India were left terrified after they discovered a 6-foot cobra in their toilet just minutes after one member had used it on Monday night. Snake rescuers rushed to the ground-floor residence of Vipul Desai in Nimbkar Society, Mulund Colony, at around 10pm and spent nearly two hours trying to catch the venomous reptile, which had crept up through sewer pipes. They eventually caught the cobra, but the sight of a snake repeatedly popping its head out of the toilet was enough to traumatize 48-year-old Desai's wife and their 17-year-old daughter.

"It's so scary - just the thought of a snake appearing out of nowhere when you are on the commode," said Desai. "Now every time we want to use the toilet, we will inadvertently think about this incident." Desai's 45-year-old wife, Shilpa, had just used the toilet on Monday night when she noticed that everything - the toiletries, buckets, water mugs - were out of place. Some of the items had fallen to the floor. She immediately called Desai and their daughter, Shrushti to the bathroom. "It was very strange. No one was in the house in the evening as we had gone to see a doctor. We had bolted all the rooms, including the bathroom," Desai said. He suddenly heard the sound of water being displaced in the toilet bowl and before he could inspect it, the 6-foot cobra stuck its head out, much to the family's horror.

Desai quickly shut the bathroom door and called his neighbour, Mohan Nadkarni, a wildlife enthusiast who has in the past rescued snakes. "I saw the snake and immediately realized that it was a cobra. It appeared agitated so I decided to call the experts. I am 65 and not that agile, so I didn't want to take a chance," said Nandkarni. Soon, a team from the Resquink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) arrived. "It was tricky as the cobra would pop its head out of the toilet bowl to breathe and then again hide inside the pipe," Nandkarni said. "Desai's wife and daughter were so terrified that they started crying." The rescuers went outside in the dark, opened the toilet's outlet and stuck pieces of cloth inside the pipe to prevent water from running into the sewer. The idea was to flood the toilet by keeping the flush on.

"Soon, the toilet bowl was filled to the brim and the snake had to come out. We caught it with a pair of tongs, but ensured that it was not injured during the process," said Pawan Sharma, a coordinator for RAWW. "We were worried it would escape from the outlet and hide inside another pipe, which would have caused a scare in the entire building." The reptile was freed in the forest. "Volunteers tried to calm us down by lying that it was a non- venomous snake," Shilpa said. "Though it was taken away, we couldn't sleep." While snakes are sometimes spotted in the area because of its proximity to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, they are rarely found inside residential buildings.

Joyriding dogs crashed truck into river

A pickup truck with two dogs at the wheel crashed into a river bed in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Tuesday.

The dogs, Roscoe and Luna, were inside their owner's truck at the top of a hill. In a matter of minutes, they were careering down Riverside Drive and into the Arkansas River river bed. "It's an expensive joyride," the dogs' owner, Scott said.

Scott said he left his dogs inside his truck for about 15 minutes while he went inside a home. "I got around to the front of the house where the truck was, and it's like not there," he said. "And I was like 'did I get towed?' and I just thought no it didn't." One of the dogs had put the car into gear and they took off.

YouTube link. Original news video.

"Approximately three blocks down a hill," Tulsa firefighter Clay Ayers said. The dogs missed drivers on Riverside Drive, runners on the trail and narrowly missed landing in the Arkansas River. "Two boys on skateboards seen the vehicle leave in front of the residence and they did try to catch up with it with no luck," said Ayers. Police decided to let Roscoe and Luna off scot-free.

Seven-legged lamb born in Inner Mongolia

A sheep surprised its owners by giving birth to a seven-legged lamb in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia.

Farmer Wang Jingfeng said that he was baffled when he helped the ewe delivered a baby with five forelegs and two hind legs.

The three extra legs are of various lengths, but the lamb has no problems with walking around. Despite the disability, the little lamb seems to be strong and healthy, its owner said.

YouTube link.

Wang also added that he will keep taking good care of the rare creature and won't slaughter it.

Animal Pictures