The Daily Drift

Ain't That The Truth  ...

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 196 countries around the world daily.   

 A yearling ... !

Today is - International Beaver Day

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The Americas

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Europe

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The Pacific

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Today in History

1652		The Dutch establish a settlement at Cape Town, South Africa.
1712		A slave revolt breaks out in New York City.
1798		The territory of Mississippi is organized.
1862		General Ulysses S. Grant defeats Confederates at Battle of Shiloh, Tenn.
1914		The British House of Commons passes the Irish Home Rule Bill.
1922		U.S. Secretary of Interior leases the Teapot Dome naval oil reserves in Wyoming.
1933		President Franklin Roosevelt signs legislation ending Prohibition in the United States.
1943		British and American armies link up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa, forming a solid line against the German army.
1945		The Japanese battleship Yamato, the world's largest battleship, is sunk during the battle for Okinawa.
1963		Yugoslavia proclaims itself a Socialist republic.
1971		President Nixon pledges a withdrawal of 100,000 more men from Vietnam by December.
1980		The United States breaks relations with Iran.
1983		Specialist Story Musgrave and Don Peterson make first Space Shuttle spacewalk.
1990		John Poindexter is found guilty in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Non Sequitur

The Fastest Growing Religion In America Is Wicca

The truth wins – What is the fastest growing religion in the United States?  If you said christianity, you would be way off.  In fact, the most recent numbers show that christianity is in a serious state of decline in America.  If you said islam, you are much closer to a correct answer - islam is the fastest growing major religion in the United States.  But there is a faith that is growing even faster than islam.  It is called Wicca, and it is currently growing at an astounding pace.

Wicca emerged as a faith in the middle of the 20th century, but the origins of many Wiccan practices actually go back for thousands of years, and some researchers believe that certain aspects of Wicca can actually be traced all the way back to ancient Babylon.  According toWikipedia, Wicca “is a modern pagan, witchcraft religion”.  It has been estimated that the number of Americans that are Wiccans is doubling every 30 months, and at this point there are more than 200,000 registered witches and approximately 8 million unregistered practitioners of Wicca.  And it is important to remember that Wicca is just one form of witchcraft.  There are many other forms of witchcraft that are also experiencing tremendous growth.

This is a trend that didn’t just start a few years ago.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, Wicca experienced an average annual growth rate of 143 percent in the United States between 1990 and 2001…

The American Religious Identification Survey gives Wicca an average annual growth of 143% for the period 1990 to 2001 (from 8,000 to 134,000 – U.S. data / similar for Canada & Australia).  According to The Statesman Anne Elizabeth Wynn claims “The two most recent American Religious Identification Surveys declare Wicca, one form of paganism, as the fastest growing spiritual identification in America“.

A press release from Witch School also claims that Wicca is the fastest growing religion in America, and that organization projects that Wicca will soon become the third largest religion in the United States after only Christianity and Islam…

Wicca is America’s Fastest Growing religion, and it is anticipated by some christian religious experts that it will become the third largest religion in the United States early in the 21st century, behind only Christianity and Islam.

Witch School claims that it has trained more than 200,000 students by itself so far.  And of course Witch School is just one of thousands of prominent occult websites on the Internet.

A christian post article from a few years ago claimed that the number of Wiccans in America is doubling every 30 months…

“Wicca is the fastest-growing religion in America, set to be the third largest religion by 2012,” claims Marla Alupoaicei, who co-wrote the recently released book “Generation Hex” with fellow christian author Dillon Burroughs.
“The numbers of adherents are doubling every 30 months,” she says.
Furthermore, every major city in the United States has networks of Wiccans, adds Burroughs.
“Certain parts of the country, such as the Pacific Northwest, the mountain states (New Mexico and Colorado) and areas near Salem, Mass., are the strongest in the U.S.,” he says. “However, I live in Tennessee and have found pockets of Wiccans in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia to interview. I didn’t have to travel far or even outside of the so-called bible belt to find Wiccans.”

Are you starting to get the picture?

There is a huge fascination with the occult in the United States right now.  We can see this on television, in our movies and in popular novels.

But this is not just happening in America.  According to the Guardian, there is also an explosion of interest in witchcraft going on in the UK…

When Ryan Murphy, the creator of American Horror Story, announced that the third season of the American TV series would focus on witches, he was riding the crest of a wave. Not since the 1990s – the era of Buffy’s geek goddess, Willow Rosenberg, and a scowling Fairuza Balk in The Craft – have witches been so much in demand.

In the young-adult section of bookshops, shelves that recently groaned under the weight of tales of tormented vampires and lovelorn werewolves, are now stuffed with stories of witchcraft and magic, from Ruth Warburton’s much-praised Winter Trilogyto Jessica Spotswood’s Cahill Witch Chronicles. Lower down the age range, last month the most recent in Jill Murphy‘s long-running Worst Witch series was published, while among the predictions for this Xmas’s bestselling toys are theBratz spinoff, House of Witchez. For adults, next year will mark the climax of Deborah Harkness’s All Souls Trilogy, centring on the relationship between a vampire and a feisty American witch.

And right now is one of the most important times of the year for Wiccans.  According to Raiders News Network, the Wiccan year begins just after Samhain…

According to the Celtic Almanac, the Wiccan year begins following Samhain. The seasonal scenario that follows is reminiscent of the earth goddess and dying-god cults of ancient civilizations.

* Yule is on December 20 and celebrates the goddess giving birth to the Sun god.

* The next season is Imbolc and marks the recovery of the goddess after giving birth to the god.

* The Spring Equinox (Ostara) marks the first day of Spring. The goddess awakes as the days grow longer and the light overtakes the darkness. The goddess fills the earth with fertility.

* Beltane celebrates the transformation of the boy god into manhood. He is filled with lust for the goddess and lies with her in the grass. The earth becomes pregnant with her vitality. Crops begin to grow. Flowers bloom.

* Litha (midsummer) arrives as the powers of nature escalate. The Earth Mother is filled with fertility. Wiccans practice numerous kinds of magic during this season.

* The next season is Lughnasadh, the time of the first harvest. The Wiccan god begins to lose his strength as the Sun rises higher each day. The nights grow longer. The god begins to die.
* Mabon is the completion of the harvest. The Wiccan god suffers death, draws back into darkness, and waits to be reborn at Yule.

Wiccans were celebrating this holiday (Samhain) long before anyone else started celebrating it.  This year Americans will spend about 6 billion dollars on Samhain celebrations, but most of them have absolutely no idea that many “Halloween traditions” can be traced directly back to ancient Wiccan practices.  The following is from a recent Business Insider article…

Black cats, spiders, and bats are all Samhain symbols because of their spooky history and ties to Wiccans. All three were thought to be the familiars of witches in the middle ages, and are often associated with bad luck.
Bats are even further connected to "Halloween" by the ancient Samhain ritual of building a bonfire, which drove away insects and attracted bats.

Walmart Admits: 'Our Profits' Depend on 'Their Poverty'

Critics cite irony of annual report filing: 'This is a company that everywhere it goes it creates poverty'

by Lauren McCauley

 

A Penn State study found that in counties where Wal-Mart opens a store, poverty rates are negatively impacted.

Although a notorious recipient of "corporate welfare," Walmart has now admitted that their massive profits also depend on the funding of food stamps and other public assistance programs.
In their annual report, filed with the Security and Exchange Commission last week, the retail giant lists factors that could potentially harm future profitability. Listed among items such as "economic conditions" and "consumer confidence," the company writes that changes in taxpayer-funded public assistance programs are also a major threat to their bottom line.
The company writes:

Our business operations are subject to numerous risks, factors and uncertainties, domestically and internationally, which are outside our control ... These factors include ... changes in the amount of payments made under the Supplement[al] Nutrition Assistance Plan and other public assistance plans, changes in the eligibility requirements of public assistance plans ...

Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, is notorious for paying poverty wages and coaching employees to take advantage of social programs. In many states, Walmart employees are the largest group of Medicaid recipients.
However, this report is the first public acknowledgement of the chain's reliance on the funding of these programs to sustain a profit.
According to Stacy Mitchell, senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the irony of their admission is that Walmart "is the company that has done, perhaps, more than any other corporation to push people into poverty."
Citing a Penn State study, Mitchell told Common Dreams that research has proven that "when Walmart opens a store, poverty rates are negatively impacted" and that the more stores that have opened in a particular county, the worse it is. "This is a company that everywhere it goes it creates poverty."
In addition to their own worker's low wages, Mitchell explains that Walmart, because of their enormous size and market power, have "held down wages for the whole sector."
As a retailer that specifically targets a low-income demographic, Mitchell adds that the "insidious genius" of their business model is that "they have so squeezed American workers [...] many feel that their only choice is to shop at Walmart."
The International Business Times reports:

Prior to the earnings report, Walmart Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley said the company didn't anticipate how much the end to such programs as the unemployment benefits extension would affect it. Specifically, reductions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that went into effect on Nov. 1, the first day of the company’s fourth quarter, pose a potential concern. The cuts led to a between $1 and $36 reduction in SNAP benefits per household, or up to $460 a year. Congress is debating reinstating the extension to the program and making the benefits retroactive to Nov. 1, something Walmart would clearly consider beneficial to its growth.

Previously, Walmart has joined forces with Big Food labels such as Coca Cola and Kelloggs to lobby the United States Department of Agriculture and Congress against any measures that would restrict SNAP use to healthy food choices. According to an earlier study by Michele Simon at Eat Drink Politics, in just one year, nine Walmart Supercenters in Massachusetts received more than $33 million in SNAP revenues.

The Cap'n's Stare

Aye, Cap'n: Cereal Boxes That Stare Increase Sales

Shoppers are more likely to purchase a cereal that makes eye contact, find researchers at Cornell's Food and Brand Lab.

13 Awesome Ways To Use Hot Sauce

1. Add a splash to your favorite ice cream recipe.

Spicy, sweet, creamy, intense. Best paired with vanilla, chocolate, or peach.

2. Try it over fruit salad.

Such an awesome flavor punch.

3. Casually douse your sandwiches.

4. Add it to some chocolate mole sauce with chicken.

Chocolate + chili = heaven.

5. How about a refreshing spicy lemonade?

Hot sauce + lemonade + salt. Add lychees for an extra flavor punch. Also tastes great as a sorbet.

6. Apply liberally to popcorn.

7. Swirl it into soup!

Recommended pairing: butternut squash soup.

8. Whip it up with heavy cream.

Intense whipped cream. Perfect with cornbread or savory pancakes.

9. Sprinkle over raw oysters.

Adds a nice acidity, heat, AND kills a small amount of bacteria.

10. Add a spoonful to pickling or brining solutions.

11. Stir with honey and smother over chicken and waffles.

12. Add a dash to caramel and drizzle over your dessert of choice.

The BEST way to top off a meal.

13. Mix it in with other condiments!

Spicy mayo. Spicy ketchup. Spicy ranch. Spicy BBQ sauce. Spicy marinara. The goodness never ends.

Corner kick delayed by Betty Boop

Marseille’s Mathieu Valbuena was held up while taking a corner in Saturday's French Ligue 1 match against Sochaux by a Betty Boop doll.

In the 51st minute with Marseille down 1-0, as Valbuena was positioning the ball for the kick, the Betty Boop doll appeared from nowhere.

YouTube link.

Silver Nanoparticles

Silver Nanoparticles May Harm Humans and Wildlife 

Unhealthy reactions in human intestinal cells and aquatic algae have been documented after exposure to silver nanoparticles.

Random Celebrity Photos

Gene Tierney in Sundown (1941)

7 Inconsequentially Cool Things From Movies That Took Way Too Long To Film

Some filmmakers will go the extra mile -or an extra year- the make their movie perfect. Sometimes it’s because they did not realize how difficult or time-consuming an effect would be, and once some time is spent, it doesn’t seem right to abandon the process (the law of diminishing returns). For others, it was part of their vision, and had to be just right. Some of these budget-busting effects ended up being fairly inconsequential to the finished movie. For example, the drop of blood in The Incredible Hulk was an important plot point, but the effect took way too long to get right. Was it worth it?

For some reason though, the company behind that shot, Image Engine, spent upwards of a year tweaking that scene to get it just right. Now I'm no expert on making movies, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that if Image engine had spent the budget and time that, that scene ended up consuming on something else, like maybe the Hulk kicking Abomination in the sack, the audience would have appreciated it more than an artistic shot of a drop of blood in freefall.

The other effects in this list all have a story behind them as well. Read about them all at Dorkly.

Make Your Own Beautiful Fire Pit Swing Set

What's the coolest thing about this swing set? It's not that it's by a slow-moving creek, it's not even that it has a great fire pit in the middle. The best thing about this design is that you can build it yourself.

Goods Home Design has photos and a materials list to give you the basics and the comments section on their post provides even more tricks and tips to complete this simple project in no time. There are even a few mod ideas to make it even prettier.
Read more about the set up over at Homes and Hues: Build It And They Will Rock: The Swings of Your Dreams

Watch This RC Car Go 188 MPH

Video Link
RC racing enthusiast Nic Case built a radio-controlled car that can reach 188.87 miles per hour. It's called the Bullet--and it certainly moves like one! Watch the video to see it break a record.

The Rise And Fall Of Professional Bowling

There was a time when professional bowlers reigned supreme. In the golden era of the 1960s and 70s, they made twice as much money as NFL stars, signed million dollar contracts, and were heralded as international celebrities.

Today, the glitz and glamour has faded. Pro bowlers supplement their careers with second jobs, like delivering sod, or working at a call center. They share Motel 6 rooms on tour to save on travel expenses, and thrive on the less-than-exciting dime of beef jerky sponsorships. What exactly is it like to be a professional bowler today?

What It's Like to Be a Professional Line Sitter

If you want a really hot product--like the latest smartphone or high-end sneakers--then you may have to stand in line if you want to purchase it on the first day that it's released. Those lines can get really long. If you don't have time for that, then you can hire someone to stand in line for you.
Robert Samuel of New York City used to work for AT&T. He lost his job, so he created a new one. Tiffany Yannetta of Racked interviewed him about his work. How did Samuel get started in the line-sitting business? He explains how it all began by sitting in line for 19 hours for an iPhone:

I wanted to supplement my income because I used to sell iPhones, and this time I wasn't going to be able to sell them and make a big commission check. I live a few blocks from the Apple store on 14th Street, so I said, "Let me wait in line for somebody else and make them happy."
The guy that hired me cancelled and said he wasn't going to use me—he was just going to get it online but that he was still going to pay me. He paid me $100 and I resold the spot and made another $100, and then I called my friends and told them to come on down, because I just made $200 standing in one spot on a weekday afternoon.
They came down and took up spaces, but after a while they got tired and went upstairs to my house and hung out, and I ended up selling one of their spots. I also sold milk crates for $5 a piece that I had in my house. At this point, the line was getting long and people didn't want to stand, and some people didn't want to sit on cardboard on the floor, so my milk crates came in handy at $5 a pop. That's $325.

Samuel later expanded his business, which he calls SOLD: Same Old Line Dudes, Inc. He regularly employees 7 people as line sitters. He charges $25 for the first hour and $10 for every subsequent half hour.

Ziggy

The University of North Carolina "student-athlete" academic scandal

This week the U.S. is in the throes of its annual "March Madness" collegiate basketball mania, so it seems to be an appropriate time to provide some links about the recent scandal at the University of North Carolina.

Mary Willingham, a Learning Specialist teaching remedial skills at UNC's Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes, commented publicly on the abysmal educational skills of athletes enrolled at the school, most of whom had reading skills of grade-school children, some of them at a third-grade level and not having ever written a paragraph in their life.

The best video interview is this one from ESPN, for which I've been unable to find a embed code.  In it she reports her experience with literally illiterate college student-athletes who were unable to write.  They were enrolled in "paper classes" that didn't really exist (they just had to write a paper, not attend classes, and that help was given to them to write that paper).  The classes were typically in African-American Studies (AFAM).  She calls the situation a "scam," "a joke," that "everyone knew" and that the NCAA doesn't care about this.  The video is definitely worth a four-minute viewing.

Embedded at the top of this post is a screencap of a "final paper" she showed during the interview, one submitted by a student who received an A- for this work.

Here is a related video -

YouTube link.

- which includes the essence but lacks the punch of the ESPN interview linked above.

For the past three years, Ms. Willingham has been anonymously providing information about this academic fraud to the News and Observer in Raleigh, resulting in articles like this.

Until August, the university had resisted going back further than 2007 to investigate other potential academic problems in the department, so it’s difficult to assess exactly what was happening before then.

Difficult, that is, except in the case of Julius Peppers, whose transcript sat unnoticed on UNC’s website until this summer. Peppers had D’s or F’s in 11 of 30 classes, the transcript showed, and was barely eligible for football and basketball only because of a string of better grades in courses he took in the AFAM Department.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/30/2379206/unc-players-needed-academic-help.html#storylink=cpy

Bloomberg Businessweek has an extended discussion.

It's worth emphasizing that this criticism does not apply to all colleges and certainly not to all student athletes.  The problem arises because of the rise of big money in collegiate sports.

Fury after bus driver forced six-year-old girl to show her teeth

A bus driver in northern Sweden has incurred the wrath of a mother by forcing her daughter to show her teeth, after accusing the parent of lying about her child's age in order to ride the bus for free. The incident occurred in Sundsvall where they have a policy that children under the age of seven can go on the bus free of charge - if accompanied by an adult.

However, when the girl was getting on-board the bus with her mother the driver suspected she was overage. He asked how old she was and the mother replied that she was six before asking the daughter who gave the same age. After a dispute his asked the girl to open her mouth to show how many teeth she had. "The driver told Rebekah to open her mouth to show her teeth and Rebekah did. I didn't have time to react," mother Danissa Atterhagen said.

When the girl complied with the driver's request he told her mother she had too many teeth for a six-year-old. He added that she was also too tall for a child claiming to be six. Eventually, after a stand-off, the driver allowed the mother and daughter on-board but with a proviso that the next time they got on together Atterhagen junior wouldn't be considered to be a six-year old.

A furious Danissa Atterhagen has since got in contact with the bus company, Keolis, and demanded an apology. She added that the whole incident has upset her young daughter. "What made me angry and sad was the treatment of us. Okay, if the driver had done that to me but to my daughter ... afterwards she found it to be quite difficult. She can't really understand why she was forced to show her teeth," Atterhagen added. Public transport operator Keolis have yet to comment publicly on the incident.

Police look to reunite medieval leg irons with rightful owner

Police are looking to find the owner of some medieval-style leg irons found in a property in Essex.
The discovery occurred when officers were carrying out a search of the premises following two thefts of weapons and armor from the county's museums last month.

On March 13 a theft was carried out at the Maldon Combined Services Museum, and just two days later a similar incident occurred at Stansted Mountfitchet Castle. A 32-year-old man from Takeley was arrested and released on police bail until April 19 pending further inquiries.

Investigating Officer, Pc Red Leeson, said: "During a subsequent search of a residential property in north Essex, we recovered a pair of medieval-style leg irons. We are now looking to identify their rightful owner and reunite them with them.” Anyone who believes they are the rightful owner should contact investigating officers at Saffron Walden police station.

Random Photos

Organ Theft Death

Couple in Qatar Found Guilty in Organ Theft Death An American couple say they have been wrongly convicted of causing the death of their adopted daughter.

Family claim they are being terrorized by threatening messages from their cable box

An Indianapolis family claim they are being terrorized by a hacker who has taken control of their cable box. For more than a week, personal and harassing messages have been showing up on their TVs. Alana Meeks has no idea who’s behind it. “This stuff is uncanny. I haven’t heard anything like this in my life,” she said. “He says he’s a stalker.” Meeks said it started more than a week ago - “he” or someone has taken control of her AT&T cable box and typing messages on two of her TVs.

One said: ‘ISEEYOUHAHA’. Others threatened to hurt Alana’s 9-year-old granddaughter, Aniya. “He wants to do more than hurt her,” said Meeks. “He wants to have sex with her. Pervert.” An officer who stopped by saw it himself, according to a police report. Meeks even tried covering her windows in case someone was watching. It didn’t work. “If you want me, come get me,” she said. “You know where I’m at, but you can’t have my grand baby.” “It’s astonishing. It’s spooky because there aren’t a lot of ways you can get into someone’s cable box,” said Fred Cate, research director for  the Indiana University Center for Applied Cybersecurity.

“The most common ways would be using a remote control, an infrared device, but that’s line of sight. You usually have to be in the room or within a close distance and clear vision to the box you’re changing the channel on or doing the typing on.” Cate said an infrared repeater may be another theory. The device is used primarily by homeowners trying to hide their electronics or home theatre system from sight. The repeater essentially converts infrared light coming from a remote control to an electrical signal that can be easily distributed over electrical wiring to one or more components.

YouTube link.

“Whoever did this has had to have had physical access to the apartment (or the area outside the apartment window) at some time or another,” said Cate. “That access could have been as little as sticking an LED-like bulb through a ceiling or wall or in a light fixture. The LED-like bulb must have a power source; it has to be plugged in or have a connected battery pack somewhere nearby.” AT&T released a statement: “We take security seriously and we are working with the customer to determine the cause and remedy of the situation.” Meeks wants the hacker caught. “I want this [person] out of my life. I want [this person] to go to jail,” she said. “That’s where [this person] needs to be.”

Chinese censor prosecuted for taking bribes to censor remarks companies and government officials disliked

Censorship invites abuse. In China, the widespread practice of Internet censorship means that lots of people are hand down censorship orders and lots more people naturally turn to censorship when something on the Internet bugs them. This week, Chinese authorities prosecuted an "Internet policeman" who took payments from companies in return for censoring unfavorable remarks about them on social media. He's accused of censoring more than 2,500 posts in return for over $300K in payments. He also collaborated with another official to censor critical remarks about government officials. It seems unlikely that Gu, the Internet policeman who was arrested, and Liu, his collaborator, were the only two censors-for-hire in the Chinese system.
Lest you think that this problem is uniquely Chinese, consider that when Wikileaks leaked the Great Firewall of Australia's blacklist, we learned that more the half the sites on the list didn't meet the censorship criteria. And when the Danish and Swedish blacklists were analyzed, it emerged that more than 98 percent of the sites blocked did not meet the official criteria for censorship. And in the UK, the national firewall once blocked all of Wikipedia.

China Prosecuted Internet Policeman In Paid Deletion Cases

Man led police on chase to jail in different county because the food is better there

An at-large parolee apparently had food on the brain as he sped away from police in Sacramento, California and drove straight to the Placer County Jail, where he stepped out of the car and surrendered.
When an officer asked the man why he drove all the way to that specific jail, which sits in Auburn - about 35 miles from Sacramento - the suspect answered that "the food is better here," according to the Placer County Sheriff's Department.

The man, 51-year-old Mark Royal, led officials on the chase starting at around 11:30pm on Tuesday, the Sheriff's Department said. The Sacramento Police Department asked Placer County deputies for assistance as Royal tore down Interstate 80 heading east. He finally pulled over and gave up at the jail, where he was arrested. After questioning Royal, officers put him in the back of their patrol car and drove him to the Sacramento County Jail.

Daily Comic Relief

Bagged Air

Pollution Pushes Chinese to Breathe Bagged Mountain Air

Last year it was canned air. This year, the lucky ones in China get to inhale pristine mountain air, from a bag.

The albinos of Tanzania are a "tribe of ghosts"

"Tribe of Ghosts" refers to Tanzanians unfortunate enough to be afflicted with albinism in a society rife with ignorance and prejudice.  Photojournalist Jacquelyn Martin documented their plight; some of her images were featured at the Mail Online:

The Kabanaga Protectorate Center in the town of Kabanaga in the north-west of the East African country, close to the Burundi border, caters to the nation's albinos, who are known as the 'tribe of ghosts', 'zeros' or 'the invisibles'. They have suffered appalling treatment at the hands of their own neighbours and are murdered for their body parts, which are believed to bring good fortune and cure all manner of ills...

Sometimes the parents are afraid of their children, sometimes they are forced to give up their beloved offspring because they fear the prejudices of the people in their own community...

In February attackers collecting body parts of albinos for witchcraft hacked off the hand of a seven-year-old boy, officials said. The boy, called Mwigulu Magessa, was ambushed by the men as he walked home with his friends in Tanzania. He survived but many such victims of ignorance are not so lucky. Just days earlier an albino mother of four had her arm chopped off by machete-wielding men and a month before that an albino child died in Tanzania's Tabora region after attackers hacked off his arm.'.. 

This photo shows one of the albinos in a shop in the village:

'There's a market close to the centre and the women went together in a group as a safety measure because it's harder to kidnap someone in a group,' says Jacquelyn. 'Angel was in a shop and the woman behind the counter couldn't look her in the eyes. 'She just took her money. That was something that struck me.' 

Jacquelyn Martin's website is here, and the Tribe of Ghosts photoset is here.

To help individuals living at the Center please contact Asante Mariamu, a non-profit that takes an individual approach to education on the issues facing people with albinism.

The Mystery Of Mont Blanc's Hidden Treasure

It's a plot line that wouldn't be out of place in a Tintin comic - a French mayor, an Alpine climber, a historian, a wealthy Jewish stone merchant from London, and their tenuous connections to a bag of lost jewels discovered on the peak of Mont Blanc.

Library patrons advised to use umbrellas to protect themselves from swooping hawks

Workers at Port Orange Regional Library, Florida, are stocking up on umbrellas for guests to use as protection against red-shouldered hawks.

A family of hawks live in a tree next to the building and there are at least two babies in the nest. The adult birds fly to the ground and attack people as they approach the library, according to library workers and guests.

The county is urging visitors to always use umbrellas as they walk to and from the library after several reports of the birds getting too close and injuring people. County officials have placed numerous signs outside the library warning people about the aggressive birds.

Florida Fish and Wildlife officials said the hawks are protected and in some cases officials will come out and remove the nests, but not in this case. County officials said the birds should be less aggressive in about three weeks, once the baby hawks are out of the nest.

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A trio of cats is our Animal Picture, for today.