CAROLINA NATURALLY: Mar 1, 2015

Sunday, March 1, 2015

The Daily Drift

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A couple of pigs on the grass ... !

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Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hamilton, Bermuda

Londrina, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil

Montreal, Quebec, Saint John's and Toronto, Canada

Santiago, Chile

Bogota, Colombia

Willemstad, Curacao

Mexico City, Mexico

Boaco and Managua, Nicaragua

Guayanbo and Luquillo, Puerto Rico

Europe

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Burgas, Glavinitsa and Sofia, Bulgaria

Rijeka, Croatia

Bermondsey, Gosport, Lancaster and London, England

Laval, Rouen and Velizy-Villacoublay, France

Eschborn, Hamburg and Karlsruhe, Germany

Athens and Marousi, Greece

Saint Peter Port, Guernsey

Dublin and Waterford, Ireland

Cagliari, Giavera del Montello, Milan and Palermo, Italy

Riga, Latvia

Podgorica, Montenegro

Oslo, Norway

Gdynia, Stalowa Wola and Warsaw, Poland

Lisbon, Portugal

Ryazan and Vladivostok, Russia

Bratislava and Presov, Slovakia

Canillas de Acietuna, Spain

Dnipropetrovsk, Kiev and Odessa, Ukraine

Asia

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Bangalore, Calicut, Coimbatore, Gaya, Husainabad, Jahanabad, Mumbai, New Delhi, Noida, Patna, Pune, Raipur and Shillong, India

Jakarta, Kebon, Medan, Pacarkeling and Semarang, Indonesia

Esfahan and Tehran, Iran

Amman, Jordan

Seoul, Korea

Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Sandakan and Victoria, Malaysia

Sannaa, Yemen

Africa

Rabat, Morocco

Benoni, Cape Town, Durban, East London and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Kampala, Uganda

The Pacific

Strathfield and Sydney, Australia

Christchurch, New Zealand

1642 York, Maine becomes the first incorporated American city.
1692 Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are arrested for the supposed practice of witchcraft in Salem, Mass.
1776 French minister Charles Gravier advises his Spanish counterpart to support the American rebels against the English.
1780 Pennsylvania becomes the first U.S. state to abolish slavery.
1803 Ohio becomes the 17th state to join the Union.
1808 In France, Napoleon creates an imperial nobility.
1815 Napoleon lands at Cannes, France, returning from exile on Elba, with a force of 1,500 men and marches on Paris.
1871 German troops enter Paris, France, during the Franco-Prussian War.
1875 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which is invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1883.
1912 Albert Berry completes the first in-flight parachute jump, from a Benoist plane over Kinlock Field in St. Louis, Missouri.
1915 The Allies announce their aim to cut off all German supplies and assure the safety of the neutrals.
1919 The Korean coalition proclaims their independence from Japan.
1921 The Allies reject a $7.5 billion reparations offer in London. German delegations decides to quit all talks.
1932 The Lindbergh baby is kidnapped from the Lindbergh home near Princeton, New Jersey.
1935 Germany officially establishes the Luftwaffe.
1941 Bulgaria joins the Axis as the Nazis occupy Sofia.
1942 Japanese troops land on Java in the Pacific.
1943 The British RAF conducts strategic bombing raids on all European railway lines.
1960 1,000 Black students pray and sing the national anthem on the steps of the old Confederate Capitol in Montgomery, Ala.
1968 Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara is replaced by Clark Clifford.
1969 Mickey Mantle announces his retirement from baseball.
1974 A grand jury indicts seven of President Nixon's aides for the conspiracy on Watergate.
1985 The Pentagon accepts the theory that an atomic war would block the sun, causing a "nuclear winter."
1992 Bosnian Serbs begin sniping in Sarajevo, after Croats and Moslems vote for Bosnian independence.

Parents Get Bright Red Tattoos to Match Their Daughter's Birthmark

Honey-Rae Phillips of Grimsby, Lincolnshire, UK, was born with a string of bright birthmarks stretching from her right foot up her leg and that side of her body. People noticed. Strangers made comments.
Her parents, Adam and Tanya, initially covered up the birthmarks. But then they changed directions. Honey-Rae's birthmarks were not unsightly disfigurements. So they let her wear shorts and other clothes that expose her birthmarks.
And then Adam and Tanya went even further, taking the radical step of having Honey-Rae's birthmark pattern tattooed over their own bodies. The Daily Mail quotes Tanya:

'From the moment she was born, we told Honey-Rae she was beautiful and constantly covered her in kisses.'

She added: 'Some people will says it odd and think what we’ve done is quite extreme, but in our eyes all we have done is ensure Honey-Rae never feels different. Mummy and Daddy now have the same permanent markings as she does.'
The couple already had tattoos on their legs, but none as extreme as the imitation birthmarks.
Now they have had the procedure done, Honey-Rae couldn't be happier - and even points at the tattoos and yells 'match!'.

McDonald's Faces Investigations And Lawsuits Across The World

Labor unions in Europe and Brazil are asking their governments to help put a stop to McDonald's hamburgling of worker wages and government tax revenues.

As McDonald's struggles to weather years of labor unrest and increasing government scrutiny of its treatment of workers in America, its international operations are now coming under similar pressures that could ultimately force the company to revamp its relationship with workers around the world.
The threats to the company take two very different forms and come from separate continents. Unions asked European tax officials to investigate McDonald's on Wednesday over its alleged exploitation of a tax shelter in Luxembourg. And in Brazil on Tuesday, another group of unions filed a suit over alleged worker abuses including wage theft and poor working conditions.
The company's alleged misdeeds in Brazil have a very human face. The suit alleges "unwholesome and unsanitary working conditions, time-clock fraud and failure to pay mandatory unemployment and retirement insurance…below legal or contractual minimum wages, forced double-shift work without breaks, forced workers to take in-restaurant lunch breaks with employer-supplied food and failed to make mandatory severance payments," according to Reuters.
Some of those violations hint at how much more robust worker protections are in Brazil than in America, but others - timecard manipulation and wage theft in particular - echo key complaints from U.S. frycooks and burger-slingers. The suit purports to show that Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. - or Golden Arches Holdings, in English - has been conducting such abuses for 30 years. If the suit succeeds, the company could be barred from opening new stores in Brazil until it proves it has ended the abuses, and Arcos Dorados could be fined nearly a third of its total profits.

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What To Know Before You Go

An infographic from the Australia based flight comparison website CheapFlights.com.au. It's all about strange laws from around the world. Learn all about crazy laws in places like Singapore, Thailand, Russia and Fiji to name a few.

First Images Of The World's Largest Airplane

The first glimpse of Paul Allen's crazy space venture: The largest airplane in history, a 385-foot (117-meter) wingspan beast designed to carry and launch a giant rocket to space, with a combined weigh of 1,200,000 pounds (540,000 kg).

Mind Blowing… These Unbelievable Facts Will DESTROY Your Understanding Of Time

Time has always perplexed the human race. We’ve tried to define it, track it, and measure it since the emergence of civilization. However, facts like these listed here show us how distorted our perception of time can be and how much we still need to learn about the fourth dimension.

15. When Warner Brothers formed, the Ottoman Empire was still alive.

Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania in 1903. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire spanned from 1299 to 1923, when Turkey became an independent nation.

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Check back tomorrow for #16

Numbers 1-14 are on It Is What It Is

Photographer Captures Frozen "Slurpee Waves" on Nantucket

Photographer Jonathan Nimerfroh has been documenting these nearly frozen waves washing ashore on Nantucket island, Massachusetts, approximately 30 miles south of Cape Cod. One publication, Stay Wild magazine, dubbed the fascinating photos "Slurpee waves."
See Jonathan Nimerfroh's photographs of this icy phenomenon on his Twitter and Instagram accounts, and on his website. Nimerfroh's photos are absolute eye candy, particularly for fans of nature and landscape photography.

The 18 Most Beautiful Swimming Holes in the World

This is the Bimmah Sinkhole, a natural swimming pool in Oman. As the name suggests, it’s formed by the erosion and collapse of a level of limestone in the Hawiyam Najm Park.

(Video Link)

Visitors can swim and relax in the cool blue waters that are almost transparent.
This is one of 18 astonishingly lovely natural swimming spots rounded up by When on Earth. Have you visited any of them?

26 Real Places That Look Like They've Been Taken Out Of Fairy Tales

If you love fairy tales and have a serious case of wanderlust, this bucket list was made for you.

The Largest Cave in the World, complete with its own River, Jungle and Climate

People have been crawling around the cavernous mountains of Asia for centuries, but remarkably, the largest cave in the world remained hidden from discovery deep in the forests of Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam until 1991.

Last year, a metal detectorist discovered a sword from the Viking Age in a field in central Norway. Archaeologists from the Museum of Natural History and Archaeology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology excavated the site, and found a grave dating to about A.D. 950 that contained the remains of a Viking and his shield, in addition to the inscribed, high-quality sword. Hidden inside the shield boss they found a leather purse that contained several Islamic coins. Norwegian Vikings arrived in Spain in the 800s, where they may have come in contact with Islamic culture, or perhaps the coins were obtained through trade. “We have not managed to find out who owned the sword, but we know that he was a well-traveled man,” archaeologist Ingrid Ystgaard told NRK, as reported by ThorNews. The shield boss also bears combat scars. “The shield boss has a clear cut mark by an ax or a sword. If he died in combat, we do not know,” added Ystgaard. To read about the earliest Norse raids, see "The First Vikings."

13,300 year old spear made of woolly rhinoceros horn found on Arctic island

Discovery means Paleolithic man penetrated hundreds of kilometers further north than previously understood.

The spear tip, almost 90cm in length and seemingly still sharp enough to kill. Picture: The Siberian Times

Studies on the intriguing rhino spear are still ongoing but this remarkable find - seen as having considerable archeological significance - was shown to Vladimir Putin on his recent visit to Yakutsk, capital of the Sakha Republic.

Ancient Mortuary That Boiled, De-fleshed Corpses Unearthed

by Christopher Klein

Archaeologists working near Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca have unearthed evidence of an ancient mortuary complex that ritually processed human remains by boiling, de-fleshing and cleaning corpses and converting them into more portable bones that could be carried away by the nomadic people who once lived in the Andes Mountains.

Remains found at the Khonkho Wankane site.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, trade caravans and llama drovers crisscrossed the foothills of the Andes Mountains near the southern shores of Lake Titicaca in present-day Bolivia. Among the sporadic outposts frequented by the nomads was the religious and political center of Khonkho Wankane, and a new study published in the current issue of the journal Antiquity reveals that the itinerant populations who frequented the settlement between 200 B.C. and A.D. 500 once brought their dead in tow so that the corpses could be ritually processed into more portable pieces for burial elsewhere.
The article, written by Franklin & Marshall College archaeology professor Scott C. Smith and colleague Maribel Pérez Arias of the University of Pittsburgh, details their unexpected find at Khonkho Wankane. The archaeologists unearthed the remnants of a circular, stone-and-adobe structure in the center of the settlement along with 972 human bones from at least 25 individuals strewn across the floor. Outside of the intact bones of one hand and one foot, the majority of the human remains they discovered were scattered teeth and small bones, mostly from the hands and feet. Examinations determined that the majority of the bones came from adults older than 25 years of age. A thin layer of white plaster covered the remains, and most showed evidence of having been painted with red pigment. The archaeologists found ceramic pots and four tools sculpted from llama bones that were also coated by the same white plaster.
X-ray fluorescence tests performed on 27 blocks of a white, chalky material found at the site revealed that they were principally composed of calcium oxide—quicklime—produced by heating limestone at extremely high temperatures. When exposed to air, quicklime is converted into a white calcium carbonate plaster similar to that found coated on the bones at Khonkho Wankane.

The Khonkho Wankane complex.

Based on the presence of the quicklime and the absence of any long bones and intact skulls at the site, the archaeologists surmised that the circular structure they unearthed had been a mortuary complex that processed human remains. Similar to how leather producers remove hair and fats from hides in a process called “liming,” the mortuary workers at Khonkho Wankane disarticulated corpses brought to them by nomads and then boiled the pieces in large cooking pots filled with water mixed with quicklime, a caustic brew that would strip muscle tissue and fat from the bones before they were cleaned. Workers used the llama-bone tools to stir and manipulate the contents of the cooking vessels. The presence of the red pigment suggests that the ritual process included painting the bones after they were cleaned.
Four carved sandstone monoliths found at Khonkho Wankane offer further clues to the original use of the circular structure. The carvings on one stone pillar depict an individual appearing to move up the back of the monolith covered in flesh and then down with its ribs exposed and body partially defleshed.
Isotope analyses of the bones and teeth uncovered at Khonkho Wankane found they have signatures outside the range for the area near the southern shores of Lake Titicaca. According to the article, the finding indicates “that the individuals processed in this structure did not live near this region during dental enamel formation,” and it suggests that corpses were specifically brought to the settlement for processing.
Why would the ancient civilization that once lived high in the Andes build such a mortuary? One reason is that the dead were revered by the living and played an important role in the civilization. Secondly, in a highly mobile society, family members often passed away far from home, and rather than burying their ancestors where they died, relatives carried their bodies with them to more suitable burial grounds. Thus, the mortuary served as a way station that would convert heavy corpses into a more easy-to-carry collection of bones, ribs and skulls that could be taken for burial closer to home.
“The evidence suggests,” Smith and Pérez write, “that during a time of heightened movement and circulation, Khonkho Wankane was propelled to prominence in part because of a ritual process of preparing human remains for a mobile agropastoral population.”

The Horrible History Of The World's Most Notorious Mental Asylum

The word “bedlam” means chaos to modern ears, and that meaning came from the British asylum known as Bedlam, short for Bethlehem Royal Hospital. It was born in 1247 as a priory which soon began to take in the mentally ill. Over the next few centuries, the asylum changed hands, changed management, and even changed locations, but for most of that time was a chamber of horrors. The inmates received either no treatment or terrible treatment, and at times were put on display as freaks. The institution is still in use today, although conditions have changed. All Day has an illustrated timeline of the history of Bedlam over the past 750 years.

10 Exceptionally Clever Female Con Artists

You've heard of 'con men' - short for confidence men - but what about the con women of the world? Some deceitful dames used their wits and well-laced lies to achieve great wealth, fame, and even the advantages of the aristocracy.

Motorist jailed for attacking man with saw after crashing into model of Eiffel Tower

An angry motorist who attacked an innocent man with a saw after his car crashed into a metal model of the Eiffel Tower in Yorkshire has been jailed for four years. Paul Collins’ frenzied attack on Ian Milner came just a month before the complainant was due to get married and left him with various injuries including cuts to his head and right forearm, a fractured elbow and a laceration to his one of his fingers which required surgery to repair a damaged tendon. Prosecutor Dale Brook said Mr Milner, who did get married as planned, had to have a metal plate inserted in his damaged elbow and his injuries had affected his ability to work as a refuse collector.

Bradford Crown Court heard on Thursday how Mr Milner had been walking home in the early hours after celebrating his stag do at the Ripponden Conservative Club when he was suddenly “hit from behind”. One witness to the attack last July described how Mr Milner was “yelping” in pain as Colljns attacked him with the saw. Collins, 37, of Rishworth, West Yorkshire, later told his mother about the attack and he voluntarily handed himself in to the police the next day. He told his mother how he had been driving through Ripponden when the Honda Civic he was driving crashed into the model Eiffel Tower which had been moved into the road. The impact caused significant damage to the car and Collins said he could see a group of lads laughing and shouting at him.
Collins said he was too scared to stop at that point but after turning the car round he came back and when he saw a man on his own he attacked him because he was mad. Mr Brook said at the time of the attack the area was “strewn” with bicycles and other items such as the mock metal Eiffel Tower because of the Tour de France Grand Depart. He said the model tower was presenting an obstruction in the road, but he said there was no evidence whatsoever that Mr Milner had anything to do with it being moved. Collins pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and today his barrister Stephen Wood said if his client had been killed in the collision those responsible for moving the model tower would have been guilty of manslaughter.
Mr Wood said Collins was “sorely provoked” that night and his behavior had been utterly out of character. “In the heat of the moment the defendant genuinely believed the complainant was part of the group involved,” said Mr Wood. Mr Wood conceded that it had been a frenzied attack, but said it had happened very quickly. “What prompted him to offend in this way was this extraordinary unpredictable event,’’ suggested Mr Wood. Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC described the people who had moved the tower as “very irresponsible young men” and branded them a disgrace. The judge said Collins had been very angry about the incident, but he had then attacked a completely innocent and decent man. Judge Durham Hall said the complainant had been terrified by the “ revenge” attack and suffered very serious injuries. “Not surprisingly that young man was deeply traumatized and will continue to be so, I suspect, for many years,” added the judge.

Would-be robber knocked himself out with his own boomeranging brick

A man knocked himself out cold with a brick while trying to smash a car window. Gerry Brady, owner of the Pheasant pub in Drogheda, Co Louth, Ireland, discovered a man lying near his Mercedes E Coupe car after he finished work. “At first I didn’t know what had happened, this was about 1am and we were just finishing up and heading home I seen this guy lying flat on his back with blood pouring from him, so naturally enough my partner and I went over to help him.

“Initially I thought the poor bloke had been knocked down by a car, he was in such a bad way And then when I asked him what had happened he told me his mate had attacked him He tried to explain that he had been drinking with a friend and a row started and he was battered,” he said. Mr Brady became suspicious when the ‘accident victim’ was reluctant to have an ambulance or the gardaí involved. “I immediately told him I was ringing an ambulance and the guards as he needed to report it, but he didn’t seem to want the cops involved which made me suspicious.
“My partner then noticed the damage to her car, I had a look at the Merc and could see dents on it. We got the cops and they took him away after we showed them the CCTV.” Mr Brady said: “We have the whole thing on CCTV, and it’s quite hilarious. At first he throws a small stone at the windscreen without success; he tries again with the same stone and still nothing happens. At that stage he decides to have a go at my better half’s car which was parked close by and manages to break a window and gets inside before cleaning out the glove compartment.

YouTube link.

“But he is still determined to get into the Merc and walks down a lane at the side of the pub before returning with the concrete block. Now fair play to him he gives it a right go He takes a run-up and really lashes it at the windscreen, but unfortunately for him it rebounds and smashes him in the face, lifting him up into the air and laying him flat out. I’ll give him this - he was determined, he had three separate goes at it. He got some smack when the brick rebounded back into his gob,” said Mr Brady. A Garda spokesman confirmed the incident is under investigation.

Irish police issue appeal for help following theft of potatoes through roof of shop

Gardaí in Cavan, Ireland are appealing for help to catch burglars who stole bags of potatoes from a village shop.

The burglary happened sometime between last Thursday night and Friday morning in Drumcrow.

The thieves had broken in through the galvanized steel roof.
Other items taken included cash, cigarettes and 22 packets of Panadol.

Police search for missing house

A house is missing and deputies with the Klamath County sheriff's office in Oregon are looking for it.

Sheriff Frank Skrah made the announcement during a press conference. "We had a complete home stolen. This isn't a motor home, this isn't a mobile home and this is a 'home.'"
When asked if the home was already on wheels Skrah responded, "No, it was not, it was on the foundation you see it on now." The 1,200 square foot home from the Sprague River area was reported missing on Tuesday.

YouTube link.

Thankfully, the home was not occupied, and the absentee homeowner has been notified. Those with any information are asked to contact the Klamath County Sheriff's Office.

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Update: The house has been found half a mile away, amid some confusion.

YouTube link.

Police seek man who rode horse into railway station and threatened staff with riding crop

A CCTV image has been released in connection with an incident where a man rode a horse into Windsor and Eton Riverside Station in Berkshire and threatened station staff.

At about 3pm on Sunday, January 4, a man on horseback rode into the booking hall and headed towards the platforms. Detective Constable Rod Harbron, leading the investigation, said: “When challenged by a member of station staff, he racially abused them and threatened to assault them with a riding crop.”
The 32-year-old staff member called the police. British Transport Police has released the image in an attempt to identify a man they believe will be able to assist their investigation. DC Harbron added: “A busy railway station is no place for horses and rail operators have every right to refuse access to people with animals under the railway bylaws.
"The member of staff was just doing their job and racial abuse and threats will not be tolerated. Who is the man on the pony? If you recognize him, please get in touch.”

Dog and Tortoise Are Best Friends Forever

Dolly is a Pit Bull. Sheldon is a Sulcata Tortoise. Cynthia Jones and her husband Ray adopted both of them into their growing family, which includes 2 miniature donkeys, a miniature horse, and another dog.

(Video Link)

Dolly and Sheldon are great friends. They love to play chase. Dolly sometimes offers her ball to Sheldon, hoping that he will play with it. But, so far, Sheldon has expressed no interest. Come on, Sheldon, just kick it around a bit.

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Caravan incinerated after woman started fire underneath it in attempt to drive out snake

A flawed plan devised after a few "cold drinks" to drive a snake out of a caravan has not ended well at property in Australia's Northern Territory. A woman living in the caravan called snake catchers to the Berry Springs location on Wednesday afternoon to catch what she said was a large brown snake.

Police Duty Superintendent Del Jones said reptile wranglers were unable to corral the culprit. "The snake people attended and, unfortunately, they couldn't get the snake," Supt Jones said. The woman then took matters into her own hands, but not before some refreshment.
"She appears to have had a bit of a think about it and few cold drinks and decided that setting a fire under the caravan might be a way to get rid of this snake," Supt Jones said. "However, it just resulted in the caravan being incinerated." Fire crews and police from nearby Humpty Doo were called to the property around 8:30pm but by then the caravan, and the shed it was in, were well ablaze.

Supt Jones said there were no injuries from the fire. "The caravan was fairly well badly damaged and the caravan was actually in the shed, so there was damage to the wiring," she said. However, she could not confirm whether the woman's plan had been successful. "Well, we don't know what happened to the snake," Supt Jones said.

Baby squirrel apprehended after stowing away on flight

US Customs and Border Protection apprehended a stowaway baby squirrel on Wednesday after discovering the tiny critter on a flight from Costa Rica to Houston.

Airline employees spotted the squirrel after passengers departed the plane at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. “During the course of performing our mission, we may encounter unusual opportunities to aid in the capture of seemingly harmless animals that have hitchhiked into the country,” said Port Director Charles Perez.
“While there is a cute factor here, realistically, we understand that animals must be handled carefully.” An agency agriculture specialist boarded the plane and "caged the squirrel without incident" with assistance from an officer.
It remained unclear whether or not the squirrel had legal permission to enter the United States. Customs and Border Protection didn’t name the squirrel, which is apparently a minor and hasn’t been charged with any crime. Customs and Border Protection turned the squirrel over to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Your Chance to Drink with Owls

Japan has been a leader in animal cafes, including one where you can get up close and personal with owls. London has decided to up the ante with an owl tavern, although it will be temporary.

Annie the Owl and friends will be taking over a Soho bar from March 19 to 25, 8:30 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. Customers can enjoy two hours and two cocktails nestled amongst the nocturnal birds. There's just one catch—you have to be very lucky to get a spot. Right now, the tickets are being sold for £20, but you have to enter a lottery to earn some face-time with the owls. Winning the raffle only gives you one ticket, so you'll have to fly solo if your friends don't win as well.
Right now, owl cafes are all the rage in Japan, but (perhaps predictably) London kicked it up a notch by adding booze to the equation. On top of feathery friends and drinks, the bar also offers music, comedy, and an "electric atmosphere." The drinks will be mixed by some of London's top mixologists, and the birds will all be accompanied by professional falconers, so you know you'll be in good hands.

The birds will be well-chaperoned, and only people are allowed alcohol. Proceeds from the owl bar will go to The Barn Owl Centre, an organization dedicated to protecting owls. Get all the particulars for the upcoming owl cafe at mental_floss.