The Daily Drift

True, all too true ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 205 countries around the world daily.   

  
True ... !

Today is - There is no particular celebration today

You want the unvarnished truth?

Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told

We would like to welcome our newest readers in the nation of:

Saint Lucia

Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Argentina - Brazil - Canada - Chile - Colombia - Dominican Republic - Nicaragua - Peru - Puerto Rico  United States - Uruguay
Europe
Bosnia/Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Cyprus - Denmark - England - France - Germany - Ireland - Italy 
Latvia - Netherlands - Poland - Russia - Scotland - Serbia - Slovenia - Spain - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Bangladesh - Burma - China - Hong Kong - India - Indonesia - Korea - Malaysia - Mauritius - Oman  Pakistan - Palestine - Saudi Arabia - Singapore - Sri Lanka - Thailand
Africa
Morocco - Nigeria
The Pacific
Australia - Philippines

Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

904		Arabs capture Thessalonica.
1703		English novelist Daniel Defoe is made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and cult with his satire The Shortest Way With Dissenters.
1760		Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, drives the French army back to the Rhine River.
1790		The U.S. Patent Office opens.
1882		Belle and Sam Starr are charged with horse stealing in the Indian territory.
1875		Former president Andrew Johnson dies at the age of 66.
1891		Great Britain declares territories in Southern Africa up to the Congo to be within their sphere of influence.
1904		The Trans-Siberian railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia’s Pacific coast, is completed.
1917		The third Battle of Ypres commences as the British attack the German lines.
1932		Adolf Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis) doubles its strength in legislative elections.
1944		The Soviet army takes Kovno, the capital of Lithuania.
1962		Federation of Malaysia formally proposed.
1971		Apollo 15 astronauts take a drive on the moon in their land rover.
1987		An F4 tornado in Edmonton, Alberta kills 27 and causes $330 million in damages; the day is remembered as "Black Friday."
1988		Bridge collapse at Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal in Butterworth, Malaysia, kills 32 and injures more than 1,600.
1990		Bosnia-Hercegovina declares independence from Yugoslavia.
1991		US and USSR sign a long-range nuclear weapons reduction pact.
1999		NASA purposely crashes its Discovery Program’s Lunar Prospector into the moon, ending the agency’s mission to detect frozen water on Earth’s moon.
2006		Fidel Castro temporarily hands over power to his brother Raul Castro.
2007		The British Army’s longest continual operation, Operation Banner (1969-2007), ends as British troops withdraw from Northern Ireland.

Helen Mirren's Clever Approach to Packing for a Trip

As a famous actress in high demand, Helen Mirren travels a lot. She has a neat travel tip that is not only practical, but also generous. Mirren doesn't pack any clothes except for underwear. After she flies into the airport of her destination city, she hires a taxi to take her to a thrift shop. There she buys the clothes that she needs. On her way back to the airport, she donates those clothes back to the shop. The Sunday Express quotes her:

I love a good charity shop, especially when I'm travelling. When I'm going to cold places, I take nothing - just underwear. On my way from the airport, I ask the driver to take me to a good charity shop, and I buy boots, socks, trousers, jumpers, sweaters, hats and scarves - usually for £30. . . On the way back to the airport, I have it all in a big bag and drop it off at another charity shop.

How To Politely End A Conversation At A Party

Sometimes it’s hard to politely remove yourself from a conversation at a party, and the last thing you want to do is make things awkward since you’re going to be stuck in a social situation with the person for a while.
So how do you move on without coming off like a total jerk? Chris Colin, author of What To Talk About: On A Plane, at a Cocktail Party, in a Tiny Elevator with Your Boss’s Boss shares his bold but effective approach to finishing a conversation at a party:

"Whether you’re having a lovely conversation or a crappy one, I think that the way to get out of either is identical," he says. "My approach is to look them in the eye with a big smile and say, 'It’s been so nice talking with you.' And then you just do a hard pivot and you walk away."
...
If you are hereby emboldened to try Colin's approach, note that the technique needs to be deployed with appropriate warmth and congeniality.
"What has to go with it is being a nice and decent person," says Colin. "When you say ‘It’s been nice talking to you,’ you should probably mean it, and you should communicate that with your eyes and your smile and all that stuff. If you do that, then I think it’s okay."

It’s just nice enough to keep you in a stranger’s good graces and assertive enough that it’ll even work on the Clingers and the Close Talkers.

Why Time Speeds Up As You Get Older

Maximilian Keiner gives us an interactive tool to simulate the advance of time over our lifespan. Be thankful that he gave us a 100-year life, as this is a data visualization about relativity. You scroll down to follow your life year after year -don’t worry, it doesn’t have events in it- and see where you are. It feels as if you’ll never get out of childhood, but then before you even realize it, years have slipped away in the blink of an eye.

With only five months until Xmas Santa makes appearance in supermarket

Xmas came earlier than ever this year as Santa was spotted in July. Shoppers and confused children all stared in amazement as St Nick manned a table at the Asda supermarket in Radcliffe near Manchester.

Aided by a helper, the face of the festive season was there to tell customers about the store’s Xmas savings cards. And Tracey Snelling, 53, said she couldn’t believe it when she noticed Santa Claus ringing his bell in the aisles while doing her weekend shop on Friday afternoon.
Tracey said: “I was dumbstruck when I saw him and it seemed like everyone else was too. People were doing double takes. The store was very busy at the time and there were lots of children around, they all seemed very confused. Even a member of staff at the store said they were nonplussed as to what he was doing there. They said to me ‘you’ll be amazed by what you see in Asda’.”
Tracey says despite the surprise of seeing Xmas come so early in the year, there was a serious side to the visit. She said: “I would hate to be a parent with small children having to explain that, obviously kids are going to be thinking that they will be getting presents and getting excited thinking that Xmas is just around the corner.” They only have another 151 days to wait.

Accident left car leaning against home

A car left a road and ended up on its front bumper against a house on Friday morning.

No one was hurt in the accident along Francis Mine State Road in Smith Township, Pennsylvania.

The vehicle was left leaning against the home, which was not damaged.
Details on what caused the accident were not immediately available.

Toxins From Abandoned Uranium Mine Likely Cause Of Mysterious “Sleeping Sickness”

For three years people living near an abandoned uranium mine in Kazakhstan have been falling asleep suddenly, at work, school, even while driving, sometimes staying asleep for days.

Read more 

Feds seek life sentence for food exec who knowingly sold Salmonella-tainted peanut butter

Feds seek life sentence for food exec who knowingly sold Salmonella-tainted peanut butter

Prosecutors are seeking an unprecedented life sentence for a food company owner convicted last year of knowingly shipping Salmonella-contaminated peanut butter from his Georgia facility.

Armed police and helicopter searching for person with firearm found man with didgeridoos

Armed officers and a police helicopter where called out to a suspicious incident on the A331 in Surrey on Tuesday afternoon.
A caller alerted the police to the village of Tongham, off the Hog's Back near Guildford. Surrey Police received a report that the caller spotted a man on the bridge over the A31 carrying what he believed to be a firearm.

Fearing serious danger, the police sent armed officers to the scene and the police helicopter was deployed. After carrying out a search for the the man, the officers discovered that it was not as dangerous and they were first led to believe.
Officers at the scene who carried the search discovered that the caller was mistaken and instead of a firearm it was in fact two didgeridoos.

Native American Activist’s Body Found In Jail One Day After Sandra Bland

Another day, another suspicious death of an activist in jail, found just like Kindra Chapman — and one day after Sandra Bland’s death in a Texas...

Found In Jail One Day After Sandra Bland

Cleveland cop pepper sprays peaceful Movement for Black Lives protesters

Cleveland cop pepper sprays peaceful Movement for Black Lives protesters

In a message posted to the social medium Twitter on Sunday afternoon by rapper and activist Talib Kweli Greene, a police officer appears to pepper spray a group of protesters at a march to support the Movement for Black Lives (#M4BL).

Bad Cops

Policeman’s son on a ride-along attacks man filming his dad making an arrest

Pilot Invites Porn Star Into Cockpit For Champagne And Cigarettes Because ‘The Plane Flies Itself’

An airline captain flying from London to New York has just been sacked for an egregious violation of airline guidelines and otherwise grossly sexist behavior. Chloe...

Pilot Invites Porn Star Into Cockpit

Moron Compares Sex Ed To Letting Kids Play With Poisonous Snakes

We know that, according to the religio-wingnuts, sex is bad, bad, bad! Contraception is bad, too, because it lets people have more sex without making more...

This is why you never listen to religio-wingnuts - the stupidity will give you a headache

Grizzly Bear Pushes A Translucent Cube With Woman Inside

Many bears dream of a day when they’re able to shove a human being inside something roly-poly, like a barrel or a tire, so they can roll that screaming human around the woods and show it off to their ursine friends.
Sadly, most bears will never get to experience the joy of rolling a human, but the bear in this clip is luckier than most, and he’s definitely luckier than the poor person in the cube.

(YouTube Link)

This video was supposedly shot as a promo for the Japanese show Sekai No Hate Made ItteQ!, but beyond its use as a promo video it should also serve as a reminder to humans- don’t believe bears when they tell you there’s candy at the bottom of the cube!

Man jailed for running over nine ducklings with a lawnmower

A Florida man who intentionally slaughtered nine baby ducks by driving a lawnmower over them has pleaded guilty to felony animal-cruelty charges and will spend the next year in the Palm Beach County Jail. Circuit Court Judge Glenn Kelley on Thursday sentenced Jason Scott Falbo II, 24, of The Acreage to a combined three years of probation on these nine charges as well as a domestic battery charge from an incident a month before the killing of the ducks. The first of those years will be spent in the jail.

“They should have just thrown away the keys,” Boyd Jentzsch, the resident who called Palm Beach County Animal Care & Control about the slaying of the ducks, said on Saturday when told of Falbo’s sentence. “There is no justification for what he’s done,” Jentzsch added. Jentzsch called Animal Care & Control officers to his home in the Olympia community at about 2 pm on May 2, according to a probable-cause affidavit released by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. He told Officer Tania Quinones he was feeding a female Muscovy duck and her eleven ducklings outside his home. He went inside after he left food out for them near a tree with his wife, Larissa Gontchar, and their son.
“We have five to six families of ducks come here at least two or three times a day,” Jentzsch said. Gontchar joined Jentzsch at his door when they observed Falbo riding on a lawn mower. Falbo started to head towards the mother and her baby ducks when he then “ran directly over the ducklings and body parts were scattered all over the lawn,” the police report said. Gontchar and Jentzsch ran out to Falbo yelling at him to stop, but Falbo smiled, backed up his mower, and continued to kill more ducklings. Jentzsch got in front of the mower and asked Falbo what he was doing “They were in my path, so I just kept mowing,” the police report quoted Falbo as saying. “I thought he was going to run over my toes,” Jentzsch said.
“He wasn’t even cutting the grass. … He went right toward (the ducklings) and veered to the left.” The mother duck and her four remaining ducklings avoided the mower and headed to a nearby lake, but two ducklings later drowned from injuries. Falbo’s employer, Wayne Soini, from Reliable Lawn Care, told Quinones it was Falbo’s first day on the job. He also said Falbo was not mowing the lawn in the right path. But Jentzsch said it was Falbo’s first day driving the mower, not his first day on the job, and he had seen Falbo in their neighborhood once or twice before. “Just seeing the look on his face, it told me he was a very violent person inside,” Jentzsch said. Besides the probation and jail time, Falbo must also serve 10 hours of community service each month and have a mental health exam within 30 days after he is released from jail.

Couple locked puppy in apartment bathroom while they went on two-week vacation

A couple from London, Ontario, Canada, have pleaded guilty to four counts of animal cruelty after they left their puppy locked in a bathroom while they went on a two-week vacation. The Chihuahua mix was found after a superintendent heard cries coming from the couple's apartment.

The London Humane Society responded to the superintendent's complaints by obtaining a search warrant to enter the home on Jan. 6, 2015. The puppy was found with an empty water dish and fecal matter all over its body, said Judy Foster, executive director of the London Humane Society. Foster estimates the puppy had been there for about three or four days before it was rescued.
"It's staggering that this puppy was left alone," Foster said. "It's absolutely staggering. It was a nine-week-old puppy." Shelley Anderson and her family adopted the dog, newly-named Peanut, after she was found in January. Anderson said it was clear the puppy had been through a lot. "She's not very trusting," she said. "So we're hoping in time it'll come around."
Gabrielle Penney, 20, and Kyle O’Neill, 26, pleaded guilty to causing and permitting distress and failing to provide necessary care and appropriate sanitary conditions. The two were given six-months' probation and fined $400. They are also prohibited from owning or caring for an animal for 10 years. Anderson said her heart broke after seeing the condition the puppy was left in. "Now we know why she follows us around so much," she said. "She doesn't want to lose her mom and dad again."

Man claims to have found caterpillar with human face

Robert Palmer was giving his horse some water a few weeks back when he says he spotted a caterpillar with a human face looking back at him from the side of the trough. "My first thought was to crush it with my cane, then I thought, no, it looks so strange, I'm going to take a picture of it, " said Palmer, from Toutle, Washington. He has since been been asking experts about what type of caterpillar he’d seen.

"I'm going to be 70 in November. And I've never seen a bug with a human face staring back at me," said Palmer. Palmer would like to know what kind of caterpillar he's looking at. He'd done all the research he can. "I've sent the picture to OMSI, the Portland Zoo, Fish & Wildlife, the Extension Service, The Master Gardeners. People either don't respond or don't know what kind it is. Some people aren't taking this very seriously." He says he tried to keep the bug alive, but it has since died.
He guarantees the validity of the photo, however, saying he even took the caterpillar into town to show the folks at his local grocery store. "I sent a picture to my grandson, he said 'nice Photoshop grandpa'. I said I can't even use my smart phone half the time, much less do some special computer effects. I had to have the girls at the Shell station send the picture to the local TV station. He knows I wouldn't lie about this," said Palmer. The staff at Drew's Shell in Toutle back him up.
Others who know Bob Palmer, who's lived in the area for nearly 50 years, say he's the real thing. "It's Bob, he wouldn't lie about anything. He's just really intrigued by what kind of caterpillar it is, and getting somebody to figure it out, that's why he's always talking about it," said Kay Hanke, "One woman told it looks like the devil," says Palmer, "I decided to stay away from her, if she's actually seen the devil. Haha."

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

True, all too true ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 204 countries around the world daily.   

  
So Good ... !

Today is - Nation Chili Dog Day

You want the unvarnished truth?

Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told

Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Brazil - Canada - Chile - Guatemala - Mexico - Nicaragua - Peru - Puerto Rico - United States - Uruguay
Europe
Bosnia/Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Cyprus - Czech Republic - England - France - Germany - Greece 
Iceland - Ireland - Italy - Montenegro - Netherlands - Norway - Russia - Scotland - Serbia - Slovakia  Slovenia - Spain - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Bahrain - Bangladesh - Burma - China - India - Indonesia - Laos - Malaysia - Mauritius -  Oman
Pakistan - Saudi Arabia - Singapore - Sri Lanka - Thailand - Taiwan
Africa
Morocco - Tunisia
The Pacific
Australia - New Zealand - Philippines

Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1619		The House of Burgesses convenes for the first time at Jamestown, Va.
1787		The French parliament refuses to approve a more equitable land tax.
1799		The French garrison at Mantua, Italy, surrenders to the Austrians.
1864		In an effort to penetrate the Confederate lines around Petersburg, Va. Union troops explode a mine underneath the Confederate trenches but fail to break through. The ensuing action is known as the Battle of the Crater.
1919		Federal troops are called out to put down Chicago race riots.
1938		George Eastman demonstrates his color motion picture process.
1940		A bombing lull ends the first phase of the Battle of Britain.
1960		Over 60,000 Buddhists march in protest against the Diem government in South Vietnam.
1965		President Lyndon Johnson signs the Medicare Bill into law.
1967		General William Westmoreland claims that he is winning the war in Vietnam, but needs more men.
1975		Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa disappears, last seen coming out of a restaurant in Bloomingfield Hills, Michigan.
1988		King Hussein dissolves Jordan’s Parliament, surrenders Jordan’s claims to the West Bank to the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
1990		Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent forces George Steinbrenner to resign as principal parter of the New York Yankees.
2003		The last of the uniquely shaped "old style" Volkswagen Beetles rolls off the assembly line in Mexico.
2012		Blackout in India as power grid failure leaves 300 million+ without power.

Detroit Satanic Temple Unveils Controversial Baphomet ‘Satan’ Statue

Oh, what a tangled web the Religious Freedom Restoration Act doth weave.
Read more 

That Time Michael Moore Paid For His Critic’s Medical Premiums Anonymously

Michael Moore once paid for his harshest critic’s medical premiums anonymously.
When the critic found out, he was less than thankful.

Read more 

Michigan is on the hook for $2 million in legal fees after fighting against gay marriage and losing

The state of Michigan lost big when it went up against same-sex marriage, to the tune of nearly $2 million.

Michigan is on the hook for $2 million

Texas Justice

Indian state puts limit on schoolbag weight

Maharashtra in west India has ruled that children must not carry to school a bag that exceeds more than 10% of their weight in a bid to prevent injury. Officials have warned that heavy satchels were tiring children and damaging their spines and joints.

Teachers are being asked to weigh students' bags at school but the state has not specified a punishment. Indian children are often under immense pressure to succeed, carrying extra study materials from class to class.
"We have found bags that weigh 20% to 30% [of the children's bodyweight] due to thick notebooks, textbooks, non-required stationery and even cosmetics," wrote Nand Kumar in the executive order.
Schools are being requested provide more storage space for books. "I am happy to know that now we will be carrying a lighter school bag," one student said. "Initially, after school, I had no energy to play or study; but now I will be happy walking home with a lighter bag."

There's a Breaking Bad-Themed Coffee Shop in Turkey

"Jessie, you asked me if I was in the meth business or the money business. Neither. I'm in the coffee business."
Yes, Walter and Jessie have now put their hard-won skills to use at a cafe in Istanbul. Inside and out, Walter's Coffee Roastery is decorated with images, symbols, and words from Breaking Bad.

The packaging, labels, and even the way the baristas prepare your order reflect that addictive television series.

It's not just coffee. Anyone can brew an ordinary pot of coffee. Respect the chemistry.

Gardener delighted as thief returns giant onion that was growing on top of telephone box

A mystery vegetable thief has been shamed into returning a gardener's giant onion. Gardener Phil McManamon, 51, was close to tears when his onion was stolen from outside his home as he grew it for the village pub giant vegetable contest. Green-fingered Phil posted pictures of his onion on Facebook and spread the word through his village to find the missing vegetable.

And his wife Linda was amazed when the thief knocked on their door - to hand over the prized onion. Phil said: "It was incredible. He said he found it outside and took it for safety. But then someone spotted it in his van and told him: You'd better take that back - half the village is looking for that onion." Phil had put the onion in its pot on the roof of a phone box across the road from his home in Hakin, near Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, to get more sunshine than his garden.
But he was horrified to return from a trip to the library last Friday to discover the onion and the pot had been pinched. Phil said it was his first year entering the giant onion competition - and he is keen to do his best. He said: "I have three or four onions I'm tying to bring on. But I have problems with my garden not getting enough sun. I've been moving the pots from the front garden to the back garden during the day to make the most of whatever sun we get.

"The phone box is right opposite my house and I could see the top gets a lot of sun. I'd put the onion there for maybe three days when it is calm and sunny. It seemed to have been okay and I was hoping it would do well." He was mystified when it disappeared while he was out at the library. Police were given a crime report by Phil, but the case of the missing onion has now been closed. Phil said: "I'm just glad it is back - I have no idea who took it because he didn't leave his name. But I'm glad he saw the light in the end."

Consternation over clown in Chicago cemetery

A woman had a close encounter with a nocturnal clown in a Chicago cemetery earlier this month. A person dressed in a clown suit, trespassing at historic Rosehill Cemetery in the dead of night.

Julia Graham says she was “freaked out” at the figure as it ran toward the main gate. She and her husband were driving by around 10pm. “When we get closer, we realize it’s a clown, which is super weird,” she says.
The first picture her husband snapped was of the clown scaling the 7-foot-tall gate at the Ravenswood Avenue entrance. That feat is no easy task, especially for someone wearing a clown suit. “I mean, this was somebody putting forth a lot of effort — and being really weird,” Graham says.

YouTube link.

The North Side cemetery was clearly closed and locked for the night. Officials don’t know what to make of it because other than the trespass there were no complaints of vandalism. It got weirder. When Julia and her husband hung around to get a better look, the clown was not deterred or afraid. He waved slowly at the couple. Chicago police say there have been no other clown sightings.

Indiana woman rents gun at indoor range before killing herself in front of employees

According to police, the unidentified woman entered Applied Ballistics Indoor Shooting Range in Lafayette where she rented the gun and then shot herself once in the head.

Indiana Suicide

High street gun alert caused by teenage girl carrying a tennis racket

A gun scare which saw a dozen armed police descend on a Worcestershire town was sparked by a girl carrying a tennis racket. A member of the public reported the girl wearing a pink T-shirt was carrying a gun through Droitwich.
The High Street was sealed off while a team of officers searched for the girl, thought to be a teenager. West Mercia Police said CCTV pictures have confirmed she was carrying a tennis racket. The force said it had been studying the footage since the incident.
Images suggest the girl, in her mid to late teens, was carrying a tennis racket and a set of tennis balls, police said. She has not been identified, a spokesperson said, but she matched the description provided by the member of the public who contacted them.
"This report was a genuine concern," the force said. "We would rather people were vigilant and we would like to thank the public for bringing the matter to our attention." It added it had "no concerns" over the way it responded to the report.

Quick Hits

'Lion' sighted on Milwaukee streets

Suspect who decapitated Phoenix woman cut off his own arm

California wildfire continues to grow outside of Sacramento

Gunman killed after causing mass panic and opening fire on busy Los Angeles strip

NASA considering using wind-powered robots to explore surface of Jupiter

Jon Stewart is selling his Daily Show suits on eBay