The Daily Drift

The Fair's back in town ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 199 countries around the world daily.   

Wanna go swimmin' ... !

Today is - Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks A Voice Day

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Some of our reader today have been in:

The Americas

Sioux Lookout, Kitchener, L'ancienne-Lorette, Saint John's, Britannia, Joliette, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Montreal and Downsview, Canada

Arequipa and Lima, Peru

Reseda, Manning, Azusa, Itasca, Albion, Opelika, Landen and Slidell, United States

Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Luquillo and San Juan, Puerto Rico

Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Jalapa Enriquez and Mexico City, Mexico

Guatemala City, Guatemala

The Bottom, Sint Eustatius and Saba

Europe

Salon-De-Provence, Rouen and Magenta, France

Eschborn and Frankfurt Am Main, Germany

Genova, Ivrea and Padova, Italy

Tranbjerg, Denmark

Rostov-Na-Donu, Ryazan and Vladivostok, Russia

Maribor, Slovenia

Warsaw, Poland

Nivelles, Belgium

Southampton, London, Birmingham and Kent, England

Riga, Latvia

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mykolayiv, Ukraine

Arendal and Stavanger,  Norway

Castello De La Plana, L'Olleria, Algeciras, Madrid and Basauri, Spain

Reykjavik, Iceland

Lisbon and Teixoso, Portugal

Prague, Czech Republic

Bucharest, Romania

Espoo, Finland

Dublin, Ireland

Kista, Sweden

Asia

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Thiruvananthpuram and Shillong, India

Atyrau, Kazakhstan

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Ilam, Iran

Kuala Lumpur and Pasir Gudang Baru, Malaysia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Kathmandu, Nepal

Islamabad and Karachi, Pakistan

Kabul, Afghanistan

Al Harithah, Iraq

Hanoi, Vietnam

Seoul, Korea

Doha, Qatar

Africa 

Algiers, Algeria

The Pacific

Hagatna, Guam

Sydney and Brisbane, Australia

Today in History

1502		Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his final trip to New World.
1754		The first newspaper cartoon in America appears.
1813		U.S. troops under William Henry Harrison take Fort Meigs from British and Canadian troops.
1864		Union General John Sedgwick is shot and killed by a Confederate sharpshooter during fighting at Spotsylvania. His last words are: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist–"
1859		Threatened by the advancing French army, the Austrian army retreats across the River Sesia in Italy.
1915		German and French forces fight the Battle of Artois.
1926		Explorer Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett make the first flight over the North Pole.
1936		Fascist Italy captures the city of Addis Abba, Ethiopia and annexes the country.
1941		The German submarine U-110 is captured at sea along with its Enigma machine by the Royal Navy.
1946		King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy abdicates his throne and is replaced by Umberto.
1962		A laser beam is successfully bounced off the moon for the first time.
1974		The House Judiciary Committee begins formal hearings on Nixon impeachment.

Non Sequitur

Hippocrates' Legendary Tree 'Fingerprinted'

Hippocrates' Legendary Tree 'Fingerprinted'

Some 24 centuries after the ancient Greek father of medicine taught his students under an Oriental plane tree, scientists say they have the tree's genetic blueprint.

The plant with 1000 faces

There is a vine that is capable of contorting the size, shape, color, orientation, and vein patterns of its leaves to match nearby foliage. It's able to match not just one or two other species, but a whole host of them. Nobody has any clue how it knows what neighboring plants look like.

Monkey Math

Monkey Math and Other Number-Crunching Critters

Rhesus monkeys can perform advanced math, but what about other brainy members of the animal kingdom?

Tamarin Monkeys Stolen

Rare Tamarin Monkeys Stolen from Blackpool Zoo

Officers believe the squirrel-sized animals were specifically targeted in 'planned and pre-meditated crime.'

This Baby Deer Is the Size of a Hamster

The Java mouse deer (Tragulus javanicus) is among the smallest deer species in the world. Adults typically weigh between 2.2 and 4.1 pounds. Their natural habitat is the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia.
This baby Java mouse deer lives at the Bioparc Fuengirola, a zoo in Spain. When these photos were taken a few days ago, he weighed just 3.5 ounces.

Here he is with his mother, who was born at the zoo in 2007. They're 2 of 43 of their species currently in zoos in Europe. His father came from a French zoo last year.

Rodents Fear Men ...

Rodents Fear Men (Women, Not So Much)

Men, but not women, increase anxiety levels in mice and rats, research shows.

Lioness Surgery

Siena is a lioness at the Masai Mara National Reserve, which straddles the border of Kenya and Tanzania. She was gored by a buffalo, a wound that looks horrible but did not affect any of her major organs. Siena is raising three cubs, who would die if Siena succumbed to infection. Rangers called for a vet to be flown in.

The veterinarian Dr Njoroge from the Kenya Wildlife service’s landed at Musiara airstrip at lunchtime and Governors guides drove the medical team directly to where Siena was resting. Treatment started in the afternoon when she was darted. Moments later a sub-adult lioness promptly sauntered up to Siena who was still standing while the drug was taking effect and pulled the dart out of her with her teeth.
Siena was treated and stitched effectively which took approximately 1½ hours.

The operation is documented in photographs at Africa Geographic, but be aware that they are gory. The first one, showing Siena standing stoically with the fresh wound may be disturbing. The picture here is Siena after surgery.

Endangered Giraffe Species Gains New Baby

Endangered Giraffe Species Gains New Baby: Photos

Madrid Zoo welcomes the latest addition to the Rothschild giraffe club.

Top 10 Fastest Land Animals

Top 10 Fastest Land Animals

A look at the 10 fastest land animals reveals a new speedster in the number one spot.

Did you know ...

The Deadliest Animal In The World

An article by Bill Gates. What would you say is the most dangerous animal on Earth? Sharks? Snakes? Humans? Of course the answer depends on how you define dangerous. If you're judging by how many people are killed by an animal every year, then the answer isn't any of the above. It's mosquitoes. When it comes to killing humans, no other animal even comes close.
Mosquitoes carry devastating diseases. The worst is malaria, which kills more than 600,000 people every year; another 200 million cases incapacitate people for days at a time. It threatens half of the world's population and causes billions of dollars in lost productivity annually.

Crow Vs Raven

While crows and ravens may look similar, they are very different in their behavior, habitat and even have physical characteristics that clearly distinguish them from one another.

AM Radio Can Disorient Birds

AM Radio Can Disorient Birds

Don't get too attached to a favorite AM radio station -- a new study finds it could be harming songbirds.

This Is a Bird Nest Made of Coat Hangers

 

You've got to adapt to survive and the Jungle Crow is a survivor. Amusing Planet reports that many of these birds live in Fukuoka City, Japan. They're open minded about building materials. Some freely use coat hangers left outside:

In such a large city, there are few trees, so the natural materials that crows need to make their nests are scarce. As a result, the crows will often steal hangers from the people who live in apartments nearby, and carefully assemble them into intricate nests. The completed nests almost look like works of art.
Nests built from hangers were also discovered in other Japanese cities. In Fukuoka City, the Jungle Crow would often make nests atop power lines during the breeding season that could cause large blackouts due to short circuiting. The Kyushu Electric power company actually has "crow patrols" that search out and destroy hanger nests on their power grid.

You can see more photos of these nests at Amusing Planet.

Boobies Declining

Blue-Footed Boobies Declining in the Galapagos

The animal's numbers have dropped more than 50 percent in less than 20 years.

Ziggy

Albino Kingsnake Slithering Amok in Canary Islands

Albino Kingsnake Slithering Amok in Canary Islands

Invasive reptile threatening bird, mammal and lizard populations.

You Can See the Eyes of This Transparent Spider Move inside Its Skull

(Video Link)

YouTube user Wayne Maddison identifies this cutie as a yellow amycine jumping spider from Ecuador. I am unable to independently verify that claim, but never mind: look at its eyes! You can see right through its skull at the eyes movin' around!

This is a living creature ...

The creature is a single-cell organism (Nassula).
And it has all that is needed for life.  What is it that converts this combination of membranes and complex molecules into a "living" organism capable of eating and reproducing.

A Single Drop of Seawater, Magnified 25 Times

 

You know when you’re horsing around at the beach and accidentally swallow a nasty gulp of salt water? Well I hate to break it to you but that foul taste wasn’t just salt. Photographer David Littschwager captured this amazing shot of a single drop of seawater magnified 25 times to reveal an entire ecosystem of crab larva, diatoms, bacteria, fish eggs, zooplankton, and even worms. Read more about what you probably don’t want to know at Dive Shield.

Daily Comic Relief

Military-trained dolphins will not be killing Russians

Yes.
The US Navy keeps and trains dolphins.
No, they are not trained to murder.
No, they will not be deployed to Ukraine.

How much shark fin soup could you make from the largest shark that ever lived?

Scientist and shark enthusiast David Shiffman has done the calculations and he estimates that one extinct megalodon could yield 70,456 bowls of shark fin soup.

Secret to Surviving Extinction?

Secret to Surviving Extinction? Don't Be a Picky Eater

If you hope to avoid extinction, it pays not to be a finicky eater.

The Ten Most Bizarre Theories About Why The Dinosaurs Went Extinct

It’s one of the most enduring mysteries in the history of planet Earth, and because we still haven’t totally figured out what killed off the dinosaurs people love to come up with far out explanations of what exactly happened to them.
Some think meteor strikes wiped them out, others believe UFOs beamed them up and took them to another planet far across the galaxy, but these are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of strange theories, as you will discover in this collection of strange theories brought to you by io9.

Read on to discover The Ten Most Bizarre Theories About Why The Dinosaurs Went Extinct

Coming Tomorrow

Coming Tomorrow

• The Rise And Fall Of Circus Freak Shows
• Is Yoda's Advice Any Good?
• Dogs Lick Toads To Get High
• Bugs Are A Taste Sensation That's Sweeping The Nation

And more ...

This bear is our Animal Picture, for today.