CAROLINA NATURALLY: Apr 25, 2015

Saturday, April 25, 2015

The Daily Drift

Yeah, Right ...!

Carolina Naturally is read in 203 countries around the world daily.

Emperor ... !

Today is World Penguin 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
San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina
Maraba, Rio de Janeiro and Santos, Brazil
Chelsea, Henry Farm, Ottawa, Regina, Steinbach and Vancouver, Canada
Santiago, Chile
Bogota, Colombia
Mexico City and Tlalnepantla, Mexico
Boaco, Nicaragua
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Barquisimeto and Caracas, Venezuela
Europe
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Glavinitsa, Bulgaria
Horni Procernice, Pardubice and Prague, Czech Republic
Chester, Guilford, London, Loughton and Sholing, England
Boulogne-Billancourt, Cerny, Grenoble, Lyon, Paris, Roubaix and Rouen, France
Tbilisi, Georgia
Hurth and Sulzbach, Germany
Athens and Piraeus, Greece
Dublin, Ireland
Forli, Palermo and Ravenna, Italy
Riga and Ventspils, Latvia
Luqa, Malta
Amsterdam, Delft and Roosendaal, Netherlands
Katowice, Poland
Costa de Caparica and Funchal, Portugal
Bucharest, Romania
Ryazan, Russia
Kikinda, Serbia
Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, Spain
Gislovs Lage and Lulea, Sweden
Ankara, Turkey
Dnipropetrovsk, Kiev and Odessa, Ukraine
Asia
Ar Rifa, Bahrain
Tungi, Bangladesh
Mandalay, Burma
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Beijing, Chongquig, Guangzhou, Qinhuandao and Qujong, China
Bangalore, Calicut, Delhi, Noida, Powai, Shillong and Vadodara, India
Depok, Jakarta and Kalianget, Indonesia
Robat Karim, Iran
Petah Tikva and Tel Aviv, Israel
Seoul, Korea
Alor Setar, Ampang, Cheras, Johor Bahra, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur and Puchong, Malaysia
Singapore, Singapore
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Africa
Rabat, Morocco
Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria and Stellenbosch, South Africa
The Pacific
Homebush, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia
Makati and Quezon City, Philippines

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Today in History

1590 The Sultan of Morocco launches a successful attack to capture Timbuktu.
1644 The Ming Chongzhen emperor commits suicide by hanging himself.
1707 At the Battle of Almansa, Franco-Spanish forces defeat the Anglo-Portugese forces.
1719 Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe is published in London.
1792 The guillotine is first used to execute highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier.
1859 Work begins on the Suez Canal in Egypt.
1862 Admiral Farragut occupies New Orleans, Louisiana.
1864 After facing defeat in the Red River Campaign, Union General Nathaniel Bank returns to Alexandria, Louisiana.
1867 Tokyo is opened for foreign trade.
1882 French commander Henri Riviere seizes the citadel of Hanoi in Indochina.
1898 The United States declares war on Spain.
1915 Australian and New Zealand troops land at Gallipoli in Turkey.
1925 General Paul von Hindenburg takes office as president of Germany.
1926 In Iran, Reza Kahn is crowned Shah and chooses the name "Pehlevi."
1926 Puccini's opera Turandot premiers at La Scala in Milan with Arturo Toscanini conducting.
1938 A seeing eye dog is used for the first time.
1945 U.S. and Soviet forces meet at Torgau, Germany on Elbe River.
1951 After a three day fight against Chinese Communist Forces, the Gloucestershire Regiment is annihilated on "Gloucester Hill," in Korea.
1953 The magazine Nature publishes an article by biologists Francis Crick and James Watson, describing the "double helix" of DNA.
1956 Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" goes to number one on the charts.
1959 The St. Lawrence Seaway–linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes–opens to shipping.
1960 The first submerged circumnavigation of the Earth is completed by a Triton submarine.
1962 A U.S. Ranger spacecraft crash lands on the Moon.
1971 The country of Bangladesh is established.
1980 President Jimmy Carter tells the American people about the hostage rescue disaster in Iran.
1982 In accordance with the Camp David agreements, Israel completes a withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula.
1990 Violeta Barrios de Chamorro begins a six year term as Nicaragua's president.

102-Year-Old Woman Watches Footage of Herself Dancing For the First Time

Alice Barker watches herself dance in footage from 1943

Get out the tissues, this one is a tear(s of joy)-jerker.
In the 1930s and 40s, Alice Barker danced in a chorus line during the Harlem Renaissance. For her 102nd birthday, David Shuff got hold of the videos of her performing and showed them to her at her nursing home.
There's a first time for everything, and this is Alice's first time watching herself dance on film. The footage alone is 70+ years old!
Watch, she still wants to get up and dance:

She danced at clubs such as The Apollo, Cotton Club, and Zanzibar Club, with legends including Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Amazing.
Read the entire story over at Mashable, where you can find out how to send Ms. Barker some snail mail. I suggest you do.

Cotton Candy French Fries Exist

Therefore rejoice! Sticky’s Finger Joint, a 2-shop chicken fingers chain in New York City, offers this ingenious meal that combines the sweetness of cotton candy and the saltiness of fresh French fries. Special orders feature caramel sauce, Pop Rocks, and happiness. It’s everything that you could hope for in a nutritious meal.

Singing in an MRI

(YouTube link)

Normally, you have to stay absolutely still during an MRI, but in this research scan, scientists wanted to study the movements of the head and throat muscles during singing. The overall goal of the research is to see if singing in a group chorus can help people in retirement homes build stronger voices. To do this at all, a team of an electrical engineers developed a scanner that would record 100 frames a second -ten times the normal rate. Enjoy this volunteer singing an appropriate song, and then go to mental_floss to read about the research involved.

Agoraphobic Woman Leaves Home for Third Time in Ten Years, Falls Down Manhole

A woman suffering from agoraphobia who only left her house twice in ten years found that the third time out definitely wasn't the charm. The 57-year-old woman from Britain who, oddly enough, is named Janet Faal, left home as part of her therapy and fell down a manhole shortly afterward.
According to The Daily Mail, Faal left home in an attempt to help her friend move a pallet that was blocking her car. Once she moved the pallet, Faal plummeted down the open manhole, leaving her with two black eyes and a broken leg. She then waited an hour for paramedics to rescue her from the dark, cramped cavity. Faal said,

"I took a step over – never in my life did I think there was a hole underneath, I thought it had just fallen over. The next thing I remember is the pain. It was awful. I fell and smashed my face on the pallet, and I was in the hole with blood all over me and I couldn’t move."

Read more on this story at The Daily Mail.

The Highest Rated Film Set In Each State

While an overwhelming number of movies are set in California because it's just easier for Hollywood studios to say they're filming where they're already located, there are still plenty of movies set outside the Golden State. If you've ever wondered what the highest-rated movie set in your state happens to be, you're in luck because this map does an excellent job visualizing this information.
As someone in the state of California, I am happy and a bit surprised to learn that of all the films set here, Pulp Fiction is the highest rated. So how about you guys, are you happy about your state film?

The Toblerone Line

A Fortification in Switzerland

Nazi Germany coveted the prosperous nation of Switzerland and made plans to invade it. But Operation Tannenbaum remained forever a hypothetical exercise and the Swiss were largely spared from the ravages of World War II.
This was in part because the Swiss made thoughtful and thorough plans to defend their nation to the death. Though the Axis powers surrounded Switzerland for almost 5 tears, a German conquest of that nation would be costly--ultimately too costly for Hitler to risk.
Some of the fortifications that the Swiss built to defend their borders include a 10 kilometer stretch of concrete anti-tank barriers near Lake Geneva. These pillars are called "Dragon's Teeth," but people have since come to refer to the remains of this defensive line as the Toblerone Line. That's because they closely resemble Toblerone, the famous Swiss chocolate candy.

There Have Been 134 Arrests At A Single High School This School Year

Research shows that removing students from school and introducing them to the criminal justice system makes them more likely to perform poorly and engage in delinquent behavior in the future.

It's Fracking Problem

It's been a big week for human-induced earthquakes.

Five Vintage Appliances That Could Have Killed You

A number of older adults reminisce about "back in the day," when kids went outside for hours getting real exercise instead of smart phone finger workouts. Yet there were definitely some drawbacks to those halcyon days. One little peccadillo of the times was a hazardous substance or ten used in manufacturing.
In this case, we're talking asbestos. Even the tiniest specks of asbestos cause a cancer called mesothelioma, and the blow dryers of old were full of the fibrous mineral. Popular manufacturers of hairdryers such as General Electric and Conair advertised the force of air that conveniently and quickly dried the hair of their customers. It also had the unadvertised bonus of asbestos particles continually being blown in their faces. Though a recall was issued in 1979, it was unsuccessful for the most part. Only an estimated three million of 18 million blowdryers were recovered.Read about other vintage appliances that could have done people in here.

Sewer Surprises

'Fatberg' and Other Shocking Sewer Surprises

Not everything that goes down the drain gets flushed away; you'd be surprised what can come floating back up.

Egyptian Hangover Cure

Papyrus Reveals Ancient Egyptian Hangover Cure

The key ingredient listed to treat the hangover wasn't exactly known for its medical properties.

Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great ... Grandpa had Tentacles

Furore

The Little Italian Beach Hidden in a Fjord

It’s so picturesque that I want to go there immediately! Furore, a village on Italy’s Amalfi coast, is known for its fjord, which is called the Fiordo. This gorge cuts straight into the rock, bringing a narrow strip of the sea to a lovely sandy beach. The town is hidden inside this rift, which is why Furore is sometimes called the “town that doesn’t exist.” There, at the beach, you can rest in the shade provided by the mountains or cool yourself in the blue water.
If you’re a bit more adventurous, then you can walk across the bridge that connects the two sides, then dive 98 feet from the bridge into the crystal clear water. It hosts an international diving competition. You can see more photos at Amusing Planet.

First Exoplanet Discovered ...

First Exoplanet Discovered by Reflected Visible Light

Astronomers have detected an exoplanet's visible-light spectrum directly for the first time ever, a milestone that could help bring many other alien worlds into clearer focus down the road.

Curiosity on Mars

Spacecraft Spots Curiosity on Mars, but Spies no Rover Tracks

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has spotted its roving buddy Curiosity on the Martian landscape, but the rover seems to be missing its tell-tale tracks in the red planet's dirt.

Loch Ness Monster Captured ...

... on Google Street View

See that spot on the water? Yes, now we have definitive, scientific proof that a giant swimming cryptid has indeed made her home in the deep water of Scotland’s Loch Ness.
Google placed a panoramic camera to a boat to map the lake and took underwater shots for Nessie, who usually travels submersed. You can explore them here. Google does a very thorough job of anything it attempts, so it was perhaps inevitable that it would spot Nessie herself (warning: auto-start video).