The Daily Drift

Welcome the to Monday Edition of  Carolina Naturally.

All Hail Franken-Food ...!

 

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

  
Smithsonian Castle  ... !

Today is - Smithsonian 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
Argentina - Brazil - Canada - Colombia - Mexico - Peru - Puerto Rico - United States
Europe
Austria - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia/Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Cypress - Denmark -  England - Estonia  Finland - France - Georgia - Germany - Greece - Iceland - Ireland - Italy - Latvia - Macedonia - Malta  Moldova - Netherlands - Norway - Poland - Portugal - Russia - Scotland - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia  Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Bahrain - Bangladesh - Cambodia - China - India - Indonesia - Iran - Iraq - Japan - Korea - Kuwait
Laos - Malaysia - Mauritius - Mongolia - Nepal - Oman - Pakistan - Saudi Arabia - Taiwan - Thailand  Tibet - United Arab Emirates - Uzbekistan - Vietnam - Yemen
Africa
Congo - Egypt - Kenya - Morocco - Nigeria - South Africa - Tunisia - Uganda
The Pacific
Australia - Fiji - Guam - Philippines

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

Today in History

955		Otto organizes his nobles and defeats the invading Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in Germany.
1539		King Francis of France declares that all official documents are to be written in French, not Latin.
1557		French troops are defeated by Emmanuel Philibert’s Spanish army at St. Quentin, France.
1582		Russia ends its 25-year war with Poland.
1628		The Swedish warship Vasa capsizes and sinks in Stockholm harbor on her maiden voyage.
1779		Louis XVI of France frees the last remaining serfs on royal land.
1831		William Driver of Salem, Massachusetts, is the first to use the term "Old Glory" in connection with the American flag, when he gives that name to a large flag aboard his ship, the Charles Daggett.
1846		The Smithsonian Institution is established in Washington through the bequest of James Smithson.
1864		Confederate Commander John Bell Hood sends his cavalry north of Atlanta to cut off Union General William Sherman’s supply lines.
1911		The House of Lords in Great Britain gives up its veto power, making the House of Commons the more powerful House.
1913		The Treaty of Bucharest ends the Second Balkan War.
1941		Great Britain and the Soviet Union promise aid to Turkey if it is attacked by the AxisPowers.
1949		National Military Establishment renamed Department of Defense.
1950		President Harry S. Truman calls the National Guard to active duty to fight in the Korean War.
1954		English jockey Sir Gordon Richards retires with a world-record total of 4,870 victories, later broken by Johnny Longden of the United States. Richards was the first jockey ever to be knighted.
1954		The groundbreaking ceremony for the St. Lawrence Seaway is held at Massena, New York.
1960		NASA launches Discoverer 13 satellite; it would become the first object ever recovered from orbit.
1970		Rocker Jim Morrison tried in Miami on "lewd & lascivious behavior." Although convicted and sentenced to jail, he was free on bond while his case was being appealed when he died in Paris, July 3, 1971.
1975		David Frost purchases the exclusive rights to interview Richard Nixon.
1977		US and Panama sign Panama Canal Zone accord, guaranteeing Panama would have control of the canal after 1999.
1994		The last British troops leave Hong Kong. After 153 years of British rule, the island is returned to China.
2003		For the first time ever, temperatures exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit when thermometers hit 101.3 F (38.5 Celsius)  at Kent.
2006		All toiletries are banned from commercial airplanes after Scotland Yard disrupts a a major terrorist plot involving liquid explosives. After a few weeks, the toiletries ban was modified.

A Few Facts You May Not Know About Lucille Ball

by Eddie Deezen

Who doesn't love Lucy? We can all argue about favorite movies and best actors and finest directors, but when almost anyone is asked "Who is the funniest lady in the history of television?" the answer is pretty much unanimous.
Lucy was a brilliant comedienne, and her classic TV series I Love Lucy has undoubtedly been seen by more people, around the world, than any show in history. Okay, let's take a look at the legendary redhead (one of John Belushi's supreme idols, by the way) the one and only Lucille Ball…
* She used to work as a soda jerk (jerk-ess?). She was fired because she kept forgetting to put bananas in banana splits.
* Lucy was born a brunette. She later was a blond model. It wasn't until she was pushing 30 that Lucy first dyed her hair the world-famous red color. She became a redhead to appear in the 1943 movie Du Barry Was a Lady.
* She modeled under the name Dianne Belmont (after the Belmont racetrack.) She usually modeled heavy fur coats because she was so excessively thin as a young girl.
* Lucy had no eyebrows. For her first movie role in Roman Scandals (1933) she shaved her eyebrows off. (She played a slave girl.) They never grew back.
* Her favorite movie role was in The Big Street (1942). Lucy was extremely proud of her performance and she never forgave ASCAP for not nominating her for a Best Actress Academy Award.
* Lucy was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis early in her modeling career. It took her two full years to re-learn how to walk.
* The first time she met future husband Desi Arnaz, Lucy had a black eye and a torn dress. She had been filming a fight scene in the movie Dance, Girl, Dance (1940). Lucy later put on her own clothes and make-up and saw Desi again.
Desi, who at first did not find her attractive, immediately changed his mind. “That's a big hunk o' woman,” he said.
* Lucy was terrified of birds. Because birds were her main phobia, Lucy refused to stay in any hotel room that had pictures of birds or had birds on the wallpaper. No birds or pictures of birds were ever allowed in her home.
* She was superstitious about using the letters "A" and “R.” Lucy considered them good luck.
* In I Love Lucy she played "Lucy Ricardo.” In The Lucy Show she played "Lucy Carmichael.” In Here's Lucy she played "Lucy Carter.” In Life with Lucy she played "Lucy Barker.”
To her, her career was not hugely successful until she became "Lucy Arnaz" after marrying Desi Arnaz.
* Lucy once panhandled for a penny. As a young girl in New York, she once reached in her pocket and found four cents- one cent shy of subway fare. She panhandled on the street for the penny, until a strange man saw her and offered her ten dollars. (The man was implying he wanted "favors" in return for the money.)
“Look mister,” said Lucy, "All I want is one penny!"
* She was the first woman to ever own her own film studio. As in every actress's (or actor's) dream, she bought RKO studios, a studio that had rejected and fired her earlier in her career.
* Lucy did I Love Lucy to keep her marriage together. Lucy wanted to do the series so she would be able to keep her eye on her "wandering" husband, Desi Arnaz, who had an eye for the ladies.
Henry Fonda was in love with her. According to Fonda's daughter, Jane, her dad fell "deeply in love" with Lucy during the filming of their movie Yours, Mine and Ours (1968). The two were "very close,” recalled Jane (in a Barbara Walters interview).
* She sent Carol Burnett flowers on her birthday. Lucy passed away on April 26, 1989. That day, Carol Burnett received the flowers Lucy had sent her for her birthday.

Brain Carbs

Paleo diet: Big brains needed carbs

Understanding how and why we evolved such large brains is one of the most puzzling issues in the study of human evolution. It is widely accepted that brain size increase […]

This is a "Stockbridge damper"

A Stockbridge damper is a tuned mass damper used to suppress wind-induced vibrations on slender structures such as overhead power lines and long cantilevered signs. The dumbbell-shaped device consists of two masses at the ends of a short length of cable or flexible rod, which is clamped at its middle to the main cable. The damper is designed to dissipate the energy of oscillations in the main cable to an acceptable level. Its distinctive shape gives it the nickname "dog-bone damper".

NYC Cabbie Fined $25K For Locking Door Against Black Executive And Daughters

Cynthia Jordan and her two daughters were on their way to Jordan’s brother-in-law’s birthday party and, after a train ride from Long Island,...

NYC Cabbie Fined $25K For Locking Door Against Black Executive And Daughters

New conspiracy theories

A recent Reddit thread presented some "new" theories:

That the government started the whole tin-foil hat idea because tin foil hats actually amplify, not block, signals.

Michael Jordan did not "retire" from basketball to play baseball for a couple of years. He was suspended by the commissioner for gambling on the sport, but they mutually agreed to not announce it because he was the game's biggest star, and it didn't do either of them any good to expose him.

Those funny "What is your Star Wars name?" type games on Facebook are used to collect your private information, especially answers to your security questions (mom's maiden name, childhood pet, etc...)

New Coke was a maneuver by Coca Cola to reinvigorate their sales by introducing a subpar product and then reintroducing "Coke Classic" to inspire nostalgia. Or it was a clever method to hide the switch from sugar to corn syrup.

That PETA is run by someone in the meat industry to paint animal rights activists as crazy people. They release massive campaigns over ridiculous topics to draw attention away from real issues and make real activists less credible.

Lost cosmonauts. The Russians lost men in space. Gagarin was just the first to return.

That laundry detergent companies put the line over where it needs to be so you'll run out faster.

Magic Johnson never had AIDS. He was paid by the government and insurance companies to say he had aids since he was the height of invincibility and admiration of youngsters at the time

Hitler and the Old West

Hitler's Obsession with the Old West

It's hard to imagine Adolf Hitler being a "fan" of something, but he was obsessed by the American Old West, and one writer in particular. Trace explains.

Irresponsible Police Suggest Florida Killings Linked to Witches

Irresponsible Police Suggest Florida Killings Linked to Witches

A triple murder last month has fueled speculation about a witchcraft-related 'ritual killing,' but that seems unlikely.

Pumpkin Spice Peeps

It’s a combination -or abomination- that had to happen sooner or later. People go nuts about anything with pumpkin spice flavor in the fall, and Peeps are more popular than ever. Now those two things are together at last. Float that marshmallow in your hot cocoa!

The sweet little marshmallow blobs will land just in time for the ever-earlier start of pumpkin spice madness season on August 31st, but only at Target or from the Peeps online store. In other words, you'll be slurping PSLs and munching on pumpkin spice Peeps in no time. No pumpkin spice is safe.

Peeps will also be available in caramel apple and candy corn flavors as well as pumpkin spice. 

How A Painting Revealed The Truth About Watermelon Breeding

It’s often hard for food scientists to discover the truth about how fruits and vegetables used to look before we used breeding to turn them into heartier and more delicious produce.

But if you know where to look you can find out all kinds of things about the past, and when it came to discovering how much watermelons have changed since the Renaissance one professor looked to the world of fine art.

Horticulture professor James Nienhuis used a painting by Giovanni Stanchi as an example of what watermelons used to look like before we bred them to have the dense flesh and bright red color we look for today.
However, the "starring" we see in the watermelon's meat in the painting is something that still happens today due to sub-par growing conditions.
Here's more on how we've perfected the watermelon:

That fleshy interior is actually the watermelon's placenta, which holds the seeds. Before it was fully domesticated, that placenta lacked the high amounts of lycopene that give it the red color. Through hundreds of years of domestication, we've modified smaller watermelons with a white interior into the larger, lycopene-loaded versions we know today.
Of course, we haven't only changed the color of watermelon. Lately, we've also been experimenting with getting rid of the seeds — which Nienhuis reluctantly calls "the logical progression in domestication." Future generations will at least have photographs to understand what watermelons with seeds looked like. But to see the small, white watermelons of the past, they too will have to look at Renaissance art.

Blinding Hogweed

Blinding Hogweed Plant Found in Rural Michigan

A giant plant found in Michigan can cause blistering, scars and permanent blindness. 

When Plants Attack

When Plants Attack: Seriously Harmful Greenery

Gardeners pull weeds, but plants pull some nasty tricks of their own. Within many gardens and lawns lurk poisonous, painful and even deadly plants. 

Smiley Face Sunflower

Gooood morning, sunshine! Flipboard's super neat The Photo Desk profiled this smiley face sunflower as photographed by photographer Yuriko Nakao. Checkout many more of her awesome photos of a field of sunflowers in Tokyo, Japan, in full bloom over at Flipboard.

Watch the Moon Cross the Earth

(YouTube link)

Did you know we have a satellite orbiting a million miles from Earth? That’s beyond the orbit of the Moon. The image here was captured last month by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on the DSCOVR satellite. It shows the “dark side” of the moon that is not visible from Earth, although it is lit by the sun in the images.

EPIC maintains a constant view of the fully illuminated Earth as it rotates, providing scientific observations of ozone, vegetation, cloud height and aerosols in the atmosphere. Once EPIC begins regular observations next month, the camera will provide a series of Earth images allowing study of daily variations over the entire globe. About twice a year the camera will capture the moon and Earth together as the orbit of DSCOVR crosses the orbital plane of the moon.
These images were taken between 3:50 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. EDT on July 16, showing the moon moving over the Pacific Ocean near North America. The North Pole is in the upper left corner of the image, reflecting the orbital tilt of Earth from the vantage point of the spacecraft.
The far side of the moon was not seen until 1959 when the Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft returned the first images. Since then, several NASA missions have imaged the lunar far side in great detail. The same side of the moon always faces an earthbound observer because the moon is tidally locked to Earth. That means its orbital period is the same as its rotation around its axis.

Read more about the DSCOVR satellite and the images it takes at NASA.

Humane Behavior

"This woman comes to a local humane society and sits in front of the dog's cage and reads books to the dogs."

Discussed at Reddit.  Image original at imgur.

Greenland Mosquitoes

Greenland Mosquitoes Are on the Attack as Climate Warms

Greenlanders are seeing mosquitoes arrive earlier and stay later, in part due to climate change. 

Siwash

The Duck Who Fought with the Marines during World War II

Siwash, a duck, was the mascot of the First Battalion of the Tenth Marine Regiment and later the entire Second Marine Division during World War II. He went ashore with the Marines at the Battle of Tarawa in 1943. There he was cited by fellow Marines for fighting a Japanese-owned rooster. The January 17, 1944 issue of Life magazine quotes the citation:

For courageous action and wounds received on Tarawa, in the Gilbert Islands, November 1943. With utter disregard for his own personal safety, Siwash, upon reaching the beach, without hesitation engaged the enemy in fierce combat, namely, one rooster of Japanese ancestry, and though wounded on the head by repeated pecks, he soon routed the opposition. He refused medical aid until all wounded members of his section had been care of.

The article notes that Siwash was skilled at the Marine sport of drinking beer. After the war, he lived on a farm before working as a Marine recruiter during the Korean War. He died in 1954 in Chicago of a liver affliction.

Little Wallaby Loves His Teddy Bear

Twitter user Tim Beshara of Tasmania sends along this photo by Gillian Abbot, a wildlife caretaker. It shows Doodlebug, an orphaned wallaby. He doesn’t have his family anymore, so he hugs his teddy bear.

Animal Pictures