The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, this means you ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 200 countries around the world daily.   

 
True that ... !

Today is  - World Kindness Day
 

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

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

San Jose, Costa Rica

Longueuil, Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec, Ettrick and Beauharnois, Canada

Rio De Janeiro and Londrina, Brazil

Luquillo, Puerto Rico

Medellin, Colombia

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Managua, Nicaragua

Europe

Prague, Habry and Karlin, Czech Republic

Kista and Stockholm, Sweden

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Novosibirsk, Ryazan and Moscow, Russia

Ravenna, Milan, Treviso, Naples and Cagliari, Italy

Laval, Le Petit-Quevilly, Velizy-Villacoublay, Paris, Villeurbanne, Salon-De-Provence and Lyon, France

Vienna and Linz, Austria

Mikolayiv, Ukraine

Kongnens Lyngby, Denmark

Widdern and Nuremberg, Germany

Budapest, Hungary

Athens, Greece

Madrid, L'Olleria and Eixample, Spain

Lancaster, Chichester, London and Sheffield, England

Poznan and Sokolka, Poland

Sofia, Bulgaria

Riga, Latvia

Brussels, Belgium

Groningen, Netherlands

Arendal, Norway

Lisbon and Covilha, Portugal

Asia

Riyadh and At Tubi, Saudi Arabia

New Delhi, Patna, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Dehra Dun, Jodhpur, Jamshedpur, Gaya, Brahmapur, Mumbai and Jaipur, India

Mulyorejo, Pontianak, Bekasi and Jakarta, Indonesia

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Dhaka and Chittagong, Bangladesh

Colombo, Kandy, Sri Lanka

Bayan Lepas, Sungai Petani, Ampang and George Town, Malaysia

Singapore, Singapore

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Tehran, Iran

Africa

Temara, Morocco

Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Lusaka, Zambia

The Pacific

Sydney and Homebush, Australia

Lae, Papua New Guinea

Today in History

1474		In the Swiss-Burgundian Wars, Swiss infantry shatters the army of Charles the Bold at Hericourt near Belfort, countering his march to Lorraine.
1835		Texans officially proclaim independence from Mexico, and calls itself the Lone Star Republic, after its flag, until its admission to the Union in 1845.
1851		The London-to-Paris telegraph begins operation.
1860		South Carolina's legislature calls a special convention to discuss secession from the Union.
1862		Lewis Carroll writes in his diary, "Began writing the fairy-tale of Alice–I hope to finish it by Christmas."
1878		New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace offers amnesty to many participants of the Lincoln County War, but not to gunfighter Billy the Kid.
1897		The first metal dirigible is flown from Tempelhof Field in Berlin.
1907		Paul Corno achieves the first helicopter flight.
1914		The brassiere, invented by Caresse Crosby, is patented.
1927		New York's Holland Tunnel officially opens for traffic.
1940		U.S. Supreme Court rules in Hansberry v. Lee that African Americans cannot be barred from white neighborhoods.
1941		A German U-boat, the U-81 torpedoes Great Britain's premier aircraft carrier, the HMS Ark Royal. The ship sinks the next day.
1942		Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower flies to Algeria to conclude an agreement with French Admiral Jean Darlan..
1945		Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France.
1952		Harvard's Paul Zoll becomes the first man to use electric shock to treat cardiac arrest.
1956		The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously strikes down two Alabama laws requiring racial segregation on public buses.
1969		Anti-war protesters stage a symbolic "March Against Death" in Washington, DC.
1970		A powerful tropical cyclone strikes the Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), causing an estimated half-million deaths in a single night; the Bhola cyclone is regarded as the worst natural disaster of the 20th century.
1982		The Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated in Washington, DC.
1985		Some 23,000 people die when the Nevado del Ruiz erupts, melting a glacier and causing a massive mudslide that buries Armero, Columbia.
1989		Compact of Free Association: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau—places US troops wrested from Japanese control in WWII—become sovereign nations, associated states of the United States.
1989		Hans-Adam II becomes Prince of Liechtenstein (1989– ) upon the death of his father, Franz Joseph II.
2000		Articles of impeachment passed against Philippine President Joseph Estrada.
2001		US Pretender the shrub signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to planned or actual terrorist acts against the US.

Origins of the Conflict Between India and Pakistan

Origins of the Conflict Between India and Pakistan

Tensions have been set to high between India and Pakistan for what seems like forever. How did the two countries end up at such constant odds with each other? Tara explains.

The Truth Be Told

Did you know ...

About the cop charged with stealing nude photographs from a woman's phone

About These 5 cities that will be uninhabitable thanks to climate change - and 5 that are ready

These 7 things the middle class can't afford anymore

And get ready for NASA landing on a comet

About the network news silence on climate change in last week's election

About America's 10 most hated banks

That we're working so hard in this country it's actually killing people

That cloud computing is a trap

Why a Bomb Cyclone Means Frigid Weather for the US

Why a Bomb Cyclone Means Frigid Weather for the US

As the central and eastern U.S. are hit with an unseasonably early blast of frigid weather, we're struggling to comprehend more mysterious meteorological lingo.

Robot Gliders See How Antarctic Ice Melts From Below

Robot Gliders See How Antarctic Ice Melts From Below

Scientists suspect Antarctica's shrinking glaciers are melting from the bottom up, and a fleet of robot ocean gliders may help explain why. 

Corporate Environmental Screwing

"A Raleigh County [West Virginia] man pleaded guilty  to repeatedly faking compliant water quality standards for coal companies, in a case that raises questions about the self-reporting system state and federal regulators use as a central tool to judge if the mining industry is following pollution limits."

Apparently self-reporting of compliance with environmental standards is unreliable?

The Family Mausoleum in a Walmart Parking Lot

In 1820, James M. Crowley moved to what is now DeKalb County, Georgia. He bought 500 acres of land before dying in 1828. His family buried him on a hillside on his own property. His descendants would later join him in what became the family cemetery.
The cemetery is still there at the insistence of the family, though it is now surrounded on all sides by a Walmart parking lot. Atlas Obscura describes his unusual mausoleum:

As time passed, the Crowley estate was slowly parceled off with the remaining portion remaining in the possession of a family relation or descendant of James Crowley. Finally in the 1960s a huge portion of the land was sold to make way for the new Avondale Mall. The only problem was that this included the hilltop family plot. However the builders agreed to leave the graves untouched and the mall construction got underway. As the ground was flattened to a straight grade to make room for a parking lot, the construction ended up shaving down around 12 feet of land, leaving the bodies at the top of the hill high and dry. However, good as their word, the Crowley Mausoleum was constructed which surrounded the burial site, essentially leaving the bodies interred on the roof. The building holds 13 graves on its flagstone covered roof. 11 of them are buried in unmarked stone box graves and two of them have headstones. From the ground, the mausoleum shows little indication of its true nature.

You can see more pictures of the graveyard at the International Black Sheep Society of Geneaologists.

The First Marathon Sticker

When the Athenians smashed the Persian army at Marathon, Pheidippides ran from the field of battle to Athens to inform the people there of the joyous news. According to the legend, he died immediately afterward—but not before slapping a 26.2 sticker on the back of his chariot. Modern marathon runners have kept this tradition to honor him.

Why ‘I’m so happy I could cry’ makes sense

Why ‘I’m so happy I could cry’ makes sense

The phrase “tears of joy” never made much sense to Yale psychologist Oriana Aragon. But after conducting a series of studies of such seemingly incongruous expressions, she now understands better […]

Why Do We Scratch When It Makes an Itch Worse?

Why Do We Scratch When It Makes an Itch Worse?

Ever scratch something so hard you make it bleed? Why on Earth would we persist with that type of behavior? Tara explains why the brain lets us get away with it.

Random Celebrity Photos

Hedy Lamarr

Chinese boy missing for six days found in IKEA

A 12-year-old boy who went missing after being told off by his mother last Monday was found by police on Sunday afternoon in an IKEA store in Shanghai. Peng Yijian, who is said to have survived on supermarket free samples while missing, is now being treated in hospital.

Because Yijian’s very weak with hunger, he’s receiving an intravenous drip in hospital, his mother, surnamed Liu, said. His father, surnamed Peng, said his son has hung about in the city during the six-day period he was missing. When he felt hungry, he went to supermarkets and took some free food samples they offer, said Peng. The couple said they appreciated the help of local police, local media and kind-hearted residents in finding their son.
And they promised to ensure that they have better communications with Yijian in the future. After he was reported missing last Tuesday, police checked surveillance camera footage around his home from the previous day, said Sun Miao, a police officer in Xuhui District. In the footage, officers spotted him wandering around Shanghai South Railway Station. Then when they checked Tuesday’s video footage, police saw the boy at a nearby Carrefour outlet.
“We thought there might be other places he likes to visit, so we asked his mother. She gave us eight or nine names, including Caoxi Park, Nanfang Shopping Mall, In Center and IKEA,” Sun said. Officers were dispatched and the boy was spotted by a surveillance camera at the IKEA outlet on Caoxi Road - 3 kilometres from the Carrefour sighting. After a 40-minute hunt, during which exits were blocked, police found Yijian near an escalator on the ground floor. Liu said her son had run away before, but never for so long.

Ventriloquist challenging gagging order on his puppet

South African comedian and ventriloquist Conrad Koch has confirmed he will oppose Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr's interim protection order against him and his puppet. “My lawyers are busy with that,” Koch, popularly known through his puppet “Chester Missing”, said.

Hofmeyr last week secured a court order in the Randburg Magistrate's Court against Koch to prevent his puppet from harassing the singer on Twitter. The order prevents Koch from threatening, harassing, or making defamatory statements against Hofmeyr. He is also not allowed to tag him on social media websites like Twitter or mention him in television and radio interviews.
“My first court order against Conrad Koch (Chester Missing) succeeded and there are still four coming!” Hofmeyr said. Hofmeyr said that until Koch explained the “hate speech” in the Randburg Magistrate's Court on November 27, the ventriloquist was not allowed to contact him, his sponsors or his business partners directly or indirectly.
“He can prepare himself for the same legal action from my partners and other sponsors. Playing God is for gods, not for ventriloquists, old frog,” Hofmeyr said. Koch said it was “fundamentally” wrong to take legal action against a satirist. “It's absolutely crazy. Steve spits racist bile. If he gets challenged, he acts supercilious,” Koch said. “All I did was tweet. The price of his racism is coming back to him now.”

Man ordered to shave head for the next six months after giving ex-girlfriend criminal haircut

The “eye for an eye” law of reciprocity was put into play this week when a prosecutor in Chesterfield, Virginia, insisted that a man who snipped off eight to 12 inches of his former girlfriend’s hair must shave his own head for six months as punishment. The defendant, Melvin D. Hunt, 61, a former physical education coordinator for a private Chesterfield County school, agreed to the terms. He has until Dec. 1 to comply. “There are a lot of fellows that go around with no hair,” Hunt’s attorney, Bill Shields, explained. “It was part of the deal and my client will abide by it.”

Hunt pleaded guilty on Thursday in Chesterfield General District Court to misdemeanor assault in a bizarre attack on his former girlfriend, who had agreed to meet Hunt on Sept. 12 in the parking lot of Elizabeth Davis Middle School, where she is employed as a physical education and health teacher. But the woman had no inkling of what was about to happen. After the couple talked in the parking lot and Hunt asked for a hug, the defendant pulled out a pair of scissors and snipped off the woman’s ponytail that trailed half way down her back. She didn’t realize what had happened until seeing her hair fall to the ground, police said. Hunt then threw her car keys into a locked, fenced area of the school lot and drove away.
A bag containing the woman’s hair was used as evidence in court as Chesterfield prosecutor Larry Hogan negotiated with Hunt’s attorney on what should be done. Hunt, who has since left his position with Riverside School, agreed to plead guilty and the judge sentenced him to a 12-month suspended jail term. Hogan also insisted that Hunt complete an anger management course in addition to the counseling he is already undergoing. But Hogan had one additional condition: “That the defendant shave his head and keep it that way for six months.” Hogan said Judge Thomas L. Vaughn felt uncomfortable requiring the defendant to shave his head because “obviously it’s a little bit out of ordinary” and he was uncertain how he would enforce it. So “the defendant agreed to undertake that condition on his own.”
He has until Dec. 1 to comply. “It’s akin to the cases where someone steals something from a store or damages or defaces somebody’s property, (and the court requires) they wear a sandwich board out in front and say, ‘Here I am, I did these things and I’m sorry,’ ” Hogan explained. Shields, Hunt’s attorney, said he didn’t consider the prosecution’s condition a “deal breaker,” so he accepted it. Hogan said the victim has maintained contact with Hunt, who told the judge “that he was still very much in love with her.” Shields said the victim wanted prosecutors to drop the charge against Hunt, “and her family was entirely in favor of that position.” But the school, the police and prosecutor’s office were pushing it, he said. Hogan said he plans to “make some contacts” later this year to ensure Hunt keeps his word about shaving his head. “I’ll check, and if he hasn’t done it yet, then I’ll have to decide what I want to do about that.”

10 Most Famous Gangsters In The World

Gangsters are a very real part of our history - in fact, they still shape many of our towns and cities today. In some cases, there's a lot of fact behind the fictional Dons. Many stories which fill our pages and screens are based on real-life events of people who roamed the streets of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Filled with murder, smuggled alcohol, power struggles and sharp minds, there's a sordid background to the gangsters whose names we recognize. Delve into the lives of some of the most powerful, successful and downright brutal gangsters the world has ever seen?

10 Things About America That Shock First-Time Visitors

Are you traveling to America soon and worried about what cultural adjustments to make so you can avoid awkward situations? Or maybe, you've been to the country already and you've noticed some things that you're not sure if it's a rare thing or something that is truly American.
And for the Americans, if you think there's something weird about these tourists then expect that they think the same way towards you! So what do these visitors in America find surprising? Here are 10 things about America that shock first-time visitors.

The First 'Selfie' Was Taken In 1839

In October or November 1839, one Robert Cornelius, then 30 years old, set up his camera at the back of his father's shop in Philadelphia, removed the lens cap, ran into the frame and sat stock still for five minutes before running back and replacing the lens cap. In so doing, he had created what is believed to be the first photographic self-portrait.

Robert Cornelius (1809-1893) was born in Philadelphia to Christian and Sarah Cornelius. Cornelius' father was a Dutch immigrant and had been a silversmith before opening a lamp manufacturing company. After leaving school, Robert worked for his father specializing in silver plating and metal polishing. He made a silver daguerrotype plate for the photographer Joseph Saxton; this sparked his interest in the very new field of photography.

Archaeology News

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have uncovered another "vampire grave" dating to the first half of the 13th century:

"The skeleton, thought to be of a man aged between 40 and 50, had a heavy piece of ploughshare – an iron rod, used in a plough – hammered through its chest. The left leg below the knee had also been removed and left beside the skeleton."

The BBC has a lengthy and well-written article on the history of lead intoxication in humans.

Deformutilation offers three galleries of photos of a Tibetan sky burial.   Part I focuses on the "body breakers" who chop up corpses: "Hatchets and cleavers are used to make precise cuts in the flesh, which is then carved into chunks of 'meat'. The internal organs are then cut into pieces, the bones are smashed  and then mixed with tsampa, roasted barley flour. This pulverized bone mixture is then scattered on the ground the birds descending to eat their meal..." Part II is here.  And Part III.  This donation of human flesh to the vultures is considered virtuous because it saves the lives of small animals that the vultures might otherwise capture for food."  I shouldn't need to warn you that the images are graphic.

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a sphinyx from underneath sand dunes in California.

Archaeologists have found evidence of a human campgrounds at an elevation of 14,700 feet (4,480 meters) in the Peruvian Andes, dating to about 12,400 years B.P.

The "Giant Rock" in the Mojave Desert is quite interesting.

Random Photos

Hubble's Epic View of a Lumpy, Bubbly Nebula

Hubble's Epic View of a Lumpy, Bubbly Nebula

Welcome to the Oyster Nebula, a lumpy cloud of plasma with a pulsating pearl in its core.

Weird Asteroid has Identity Crisis, Grows a Tail

Weird Asteroid has Identity Crisis, Grows a Tail

Astronomers have discovered that a well-known asteroid has a bit of an identity crisis. 

Comet Sings a Mysterious Song to Rosetta

Comet Sings a Mysterious Song to Rosetta

As if to celebrate the landing of Philae on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the European Rosetta mission has detected a mysterious signal coming from the 2.5 mile-wide lump of ice and rock.

First-Time Comet Landing No Sure Bet

First-Time Comet Landing No Sure Bet

The comet's surface could be too hard for the spacecraft, Philae, to land, causing it to bounce back into space.

***
Update: The landing was successful

Police, fire and humane agents helped rescue dog that had been on house roof for three days

Mahoning County Deputy Dog Warden Dave Nelson said a dog that was rescued from the roof of a house in Youngstown, Ohio, is doing better. Police, fire and humane agents were called to the East Side on Saturday to get the dog off the roof of the house.

According to police, the resident, D’Andre Berger, had been staying at a friend’s house since earlier in the week when the home was broken into. Berger told police that he assumed the dog, a Rottweiler named Isis , either escaped during the break-in or was taken. What it had actually done, though, was climb through a hole in the roof.


There it remained until Saturday morning when a fireman climbed up and rescued the visibly thin dog. Nelson said his office received calls about the dog earlier in the week, but that every time one of his agents went to the house, it was not there. His agents left cards at the home to let the owner know they had stopped by, but no one from the house contacted the office.

YouTube link.

The dog is about 30 pounds underweight, Nelson said, but otherwise doing well. When her health improves, she will be eligible for adoption. Berger signed ownership of the dog over to the county. Up next for the owner, according to Nelson, is a citation for not having a dog license. Nelson said his office gets one to two of these types of cases each year.

Dogs with Arthritis May Respond to Natural Remedy

Dogs with Arthritis May Respond to Natural Remedy

A new diet based on medicinal plants and supplements, without side effects, shows promise in tests.

Genetic Changes Reveal How Cats Allow Us to 'Own' Them

Genetic Changes Reveal How Cats Allow Us to 'Own' Them

Researchers have found the roots of the special relationship between humans and cats. 

Woman says dead bat set her nature strip on fire

An electrocuted bat set alight the nature strip outside a woman’s home in Australia's Northern Territory - and it was only the actions of a quick-thinking neighbor that stopped the fire spreading to her house.
Brenda Johnston arrived at her Alawa home to find her usually green grass patch burnt to a crisp. The mystery was revealed when Ms Johnston looked up to see a bat had fried itself by touching two electricity lines in front of her home.
When one of the wings detached from the line, it appeared to drop a spark. Ms Johnston said her neighbor had heard a bang and came running out only to find the nature strip in flames. The quick-thinking neighbor hosed down the area.
The bat, which still remains by a claw and wing, caused the power to trip out for half an hour, Ms Johnston said. “I wish it had fallen down. I’m so paranoid it’s going to drop on my car on me and my kids while we’re walking. It’s just above my driveway.”

Animal Pictures