CAROLINA NATURALLY: Jul 30, 2015

Thursday, July 30, 2015

The Daily Drift

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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

April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse react to the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling (Screenshot/MLive)

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

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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.

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

Elderly man visited in nursing home by pony

89-year-old Karl Holmen was sad that he was too unwell to visit the new foal born to his granddaughter’s Susan’s horse, but Susan devised a plan to cheer him up. That plan took the shape of Bolla, a 15-year-old mini Shetland pony, who is just 85cms tall.

It may not have been possible to take the mother and newborn horse to visit her grandfather in Stavern nursing home in southern Norway. But Susan knew that Bolla was used to visiting Karl in his sitting room when he still lived at home. So she investigated the possibility of taking Bolla in to to see her grandfather.

“It was actually a very simple process. I asked a girl who worked at the nursing home if she could help me arrange it, and after a few days it was done,” said Susan. She says that her grandfather was very happy when Bolla came to visit. “He thought it was great. And so did the others at the nursing home.
"They thought it was very special to have a horse to visit,” says Susan, who, after taking the pony to see her grandfather, took a tour with Bolla to see the other patients at the nursing home. “She is calm around people, so it went very well,” Susan said. One of the managers of the home, Inger Johanne Stensland, said that the visit was a huge success. “This was a very big event, both for us employees and residents. It was great fun. Bolla is definitely welcome back."

Mystery raccoon fell from Austrian apartment block

Council workers in Vienna, Austria, made an unusual discovery when they found an injured raccoon in the city’s central Landstrasse district, in front of an apartment building. They believe he fell out of one of the apartment windows, or from a balcony. The young male was wearing a harness and had a bad cut on his chin.

Council workers took him to the animal shelter in Vösendorf, where his wound was stitched up. He was also given painkillers and antibiotics and is being kept under observation for a few days, as it’s not known how high his fall was. Volunteers at the shelter said that he appeared well nourished and that they believe he was kept as a pet.

Animals such as raccoons, which are native to North America, are allowed to be kept as pets in Vienna as long as the owner has registered them with the city's veterinary department and fulfilled certain legal requirements. These include having a minimum enclosure space of 40 square meters across and three square meters high. The rules also recommend keeping a pair of raccoons, as the mammals usually live in groups in the wild.
"Raccoons are not cuddly toys and like most other wild animals are not really suitable pets to be kept in apartments,” said Marion Wenny from the Vienna Tierschutzverein animal protection group. Tierschutzverein president Madeleine Petrovic said that for her keeping wild animals on pets bordered on cruelty and added that it was unlikely that the raccoon had been kept in a suitable enclosure, otherwise it would not have fallen out of a window. So far, the raccoon’s owner has not come forward. The animal does not have a microchip and nobody from the apartment block has admitted to being his owner.