The Daily Drift

Welcome to the Sunday Edition of  Carolina Naturally.

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Today in History

1244		Turks expel the crusaders under Frederick II from Jerusalem.
1305		Scottish patriot William Wallace is hanged, drawn, beheaded, and quartered in London.
1541		Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec on his third voyage to North America.
1711		A British attempt to invade Canada by sea fails.
1775		King George III of England refuses the American colonies’ offer of peace and declares them in open rebellion.
1821		After 11 years of war, Spain grants Mexican independence as a constitutional monarchy.
1863		Union batteries cease their first bombardment of Fort Sumter, leaving it a mass of rubble but still unconquered by the Northern besiegers.
1900		Booker T. Washington forms the National Negro Business League in Boston, Massachusetts.
1902		Fanny Farmer, among the first to emphasize the relationship of diet to health, opens her School of Cookery in Boston.
1914		The Emperor of Japan declares war on Germany.
1926		American film star Rudolph Valentino dies, causing world-wide hysteria and a number of suicides.
1927		Immigrant laborers Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for a robbery they did not commit. Fifty years later, in 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis establishes a memorial in the victims’ honor.
1939		Joseph Stalin and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin to invade Finland.
1942		German forces begin an assault on the major Soviet industrial city of Stalingrad.
1944		German SS engineers begin placing explosive charges around the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
1950		Up to 77,000 members of the U.S. Army Organized Reserve Corps are called involuntarily to active duty to fight the Korean War.
1952		Arab League security pact linking seven Arab States in a military, political and economic alliance goes into effect.
1954		First flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
1958		The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins: People’s Liberation Army bombards island of Quemoy during Chinese Civil War.
1961		Belgium sends troops to Rwanda-Urundi during bloody Tutsi-Hutu conflict.
1966		Lunar Orbiter 1 takes first photograph of Earth from the moon.
1975		Pathet Lao communists occupy Vientiane, Laos.
1977		Bryan Allen, piloting the Gossamer Condor, wins the Kremer prize for the first human-powered aircraft to fly a one-mile, figure-eight course.
1979		Iranian army opens offensive against Kurds.
1979		Bolshoi Ballet dancer Alexander Godunov defects in New York City.
1990		Armenia declares independence from USSR.
1990		East and West Germany announce they will unite on Oct 3.
1996		Osama bin Laden issues message entitled "A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places."
2006		Natascha Kampusch,  was abducted at the age of 10 in Austria, escapes from her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity.
2011		Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi is overthrown after National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the 2011 Libyan Civil War.
2011		A 5.8 earthquake centered at Mineral, Virginia, damages the Washington Monument, forcing the landmark to close for repairs.

Non Sequitur

Lab-grown brain ...

Lab-grown brain-in-a-dish as complete as 5-week old fetus*

Scientists at The Ohio State University have developed a nearly complete human brain in a dish that equals the brain maturity of a 5-week-old fetus. The brain organoid, engineered from […]

*And it is still larger and more functional than a wingnut's brain

Molecular scientists unexpectedly produce new type of glass

Molecular scientists unexpectedly produce new type of glass

When Prof. Juan de Pablo and his collaborators set about to explain unusual peaks in what should have been featureless optical data, they thought there was a problem in their […]

Happiness spreads ...

Happiness spreads but depression doesn’t

Having friends who suffer from depression doesn’t affect the mental health of others, according to research led by the University of Warwick. The academics found that having friends can help […]

Mourning Rituals & Etiquette

The Victorians’ Morbid Obsession with Death

In the Victorian Era, when the child mortality rate was high, death was a part of everyday life. That doesn’t mean it was easy, so certain rules and rituals grew into being to help the bereaved properly cope with the loss of a loved one. Following the social rules was easier than making decisions for someone going through the fog of mourning, but some of those Victorian customs seem particularly stifling today, such as the rules demanding black clothing for the family of the deceased. 

A black ribbon was even tied to their undergarments, and only after the first 12 months of the mourning period ended could they start to wear other colors – and even then, it was only violet, lavender or mauve. Widows wore mourning clothes for no less than two years, and children would occasionally be included in the traditions, though they would typically wear white.
With death coming so frequently, mourning clothes were in high demand. In 1841, Jay’s of Regent Street was one of the premiere suppliers of such garments, enjoying a booming business fueled in part by high mortality rates coupled with the belief that keeping mourning clothes after the mourning period had ended was bad luck.

That sounds quite expensive, but it was a way of showing how much you loved the deceased, and variance from the rules could make one a victim of scorn and gossip. Read more about the rituals and etiquette surrounding death in the Victoria Era at Urban Ghosts.

Police search for family of crying baby rescued from locked hotel safe

Police in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, are searching for the parents of a baby who was freed from a locked hotel safe by workers on Tuesday morning. According to police, the family is from Brooklyn, New York. They had rented three rooms at the Howard Johnson Hotel. It is unclear how the baby ended up locked in the safe.

The family had approached the hotel's cleaning staff in a panicked state at approximately 10am, saying their child was trapped in a safe in one of the three rooms. It took maintenance workers approximately 20 minutes to free the baby. Police say the baby was alert and crying at the time. It's believed the family had difficulty communicating with hotel staff. "They did have a language barrier," Det. Const. Amanda Sanders said.
"And there was an incident that happened inside with one of the safes." She added that the incident "may have been nothing more than a preventable accident" and investigators are hoping to verify that by speaking with the family. Police say they had left the hotel by the time investigators were called, approximately an hour after the baby was freed. Sanders said the gender of the baby is not known and it’s believed the child is under 12 months of age.

YouTube link.

Police have also alerted border patrol officers and local hospitals in their search for the family. The New Jersey license plate associated with the guests is B31EUB and is registered to a 2015 grey Ford van. Police say the van may have been a rental and is likely still in Canada. It is believed the family has not crossed the US - Canada border to return to Brooklyn. Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

The New Way Police Can Cheaply Track Cell Phones — Possibly Even Without A Warrant

But are they legal?

Thieves broke into shop to steal beer bottle caps leaving more than 1,000 opened bottles behind

Thieves broke into an off-license in Germany last weekend aiming to find bottle caps that would entitle them to a high-value prize in a contest – and left more than 1,000 bottles of beer they opened untasted.
Police in Mülheim, North Rhine-Westphalia say that the thieves headed directly for the part of the shop where pallets of beer from a brewery in neighboring Duisburg were being stored.
"Apparently, they opened well over 1,000 bottles just to get to the tokens attached to the bottle caps," an officer said. A spokesman for Trinkgut Schmidt KG said that the firm didn't want to comment on the incident until the police had finished their investigation.
The first responders found dozens of non-winning bottle caps strewn around the floor of the shop, but not a single empty bottle. Police are now appealing for witnesses who might have seen anything suspicious in the area.

Shoplifter caught after walking out of store with a PlayStation 4 in his pants

A loss prevention officer told police that he saw Christopher Caldwell, 36, in a Walmart Supercenter in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Caldwell, of West Palm Beach, is accused of sticking a PlayStation 4 in his pants. “Christopher then began concealing the accessories into his pants as well,” a police affidavit states.
He then left without paying and was stopped. The Sony PlayStation 4 is 2.09” x 10.83” x 12.01,” and weighs 6.17 pounds.

Caldwell was arrested on a felony grand theft charge in connection with the PlayStation 4. The style and size of Caldwell’s pants were not listed in the affidavit.

National Transgender Survey Could Be A Gamechanger

The U.S. Trans Survey will collect more information about the lives of transgender people than has ever been collected before.

Lying Anti-Choice Cabal Releases New Planned Parenthood Smear Video

The lying, deceitful, anti-choice Center for Medical Progress has released another video supposedly “proving” that Planned Parenthood cuts...

Wingnuts DROOLING

School Official: The Only Thing Women Know Is ‘Laying On Your Back With Your Legs In The Air Splayed’

Members of the Perry County District school board, located in Perryville, Missouri, voted 4-3 in favor of asking for fellow board member, Mark Gremaud’s...

The Only Thing Women Know Is ‘Laying On Your Back With Your Legs In The Air Splayed

Family Research Council VP: Female Navy SEALs ‘violate the laws of nature’ and should ‘expect consequences’

Family Research Council VP: Female Navy SEALs ‘violate the laws of nature’ and should ‘expect consequences’

A fake (ahem, excuse us, 'christian') pastor lashes out at ‘false reverend’ John Oliver for mocking predatory televangelists

A fake (ahem, excuse us, 'christian') pastor lashes out at ‘false reverend’ John Oliver for mocking predatory televangelists

Looks like Oliver struck a nerve. Last Wednesday, 'christian' minister Jennifer LeClaire said Oliver shouldn’t “mock what you don’t understand,” calling him a “false reverend.”

Pastor at ‘Passion for Truth’ cult sentenced to prison for swindling the elderly

Pastor at ‘Passion for Truth’ cult sentenced to prison for swindling the elderly

Jim Staley, 40, was sentenced Wednesday to 7 yeas in prison and ordered to repay elderly investors $3.3 million.

How Much Of California’s Drought Was Caused By Climate Change?

Scientists Now Have The Answer.

Scientists have linked the extreme drought to climate change before, but this is the first study to determine how much of the drought can be blamed on climate change.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Investigation Of A Widely-Used Pesticide Produced Some Stunning Results

Results from the first-ever nationwide survey of neonicotinoid prevalence in the environment found the controversial pesticide in half of all stream samples.

'Winged Monster'

'Winged Monster' Rock Art Finally Deciphered

People have long debated whether the red pictographs of Utah's Black Dragon Canyon are images of humans and animals, or a large winged monster.

'Modern' Hand Bone

Earliest 'Modern' Hand Bone Nearly 2 Million Years Old

A tiny bone from the little finger of a human ancestor in East Africa is the oldest 'modern' hand bone ever found.

Corpse Flower Blooms

Corpse Flower Blooms at Denver Botanic Gardens

Once bloomed, the flower emits a putrid aroma that assaults even the least sensitive of noses for nearly 10 hours. 

‘Fire Rainbow’

Picturesque ‘Fire Rainbow’ Appears Over South Carolina

A strange, rainbow-like cloud was painted across the sky over Isle of Palms, S.C., earlier this week.

Ghostly Particles

Ghostly Particles Detected Beneath Earth

Ghostly particles known as neutrinos are detected by physicists. The finding could reveal insights into what radioactive elements lie deep inside the Earth 

Astronomical News

Tiny Pebbles Built the Gas Giant Behemoths

Scientists have long puzzled over how gas planets like Jupiter and Saturn got to be so big -- now they think pebbles may be the answer.

The Moon is Surrounded by Neon, NASA Probe Reveals

Finally, we have proof of the moon's 'noble' heritage!

This Blue Whale Has Perfect Timing

(Video Link)

The scene could not have proceeded better even if it had been staged by a top Hollywood director. Reality exceeded fiction on a recent shooting for the BBC nature series Earth Unplugged.
The host, zoologist Mark Carwardine, complained about how hard it was to spot a blue whale. At that very moment, one surfaced near his boat and shot air out of its blowhole. You can skip to the 0:29 mark to watch the key moment.

Man put kitten in refrigerator after argument with wife about buying feminine products

A man from Miami, Florida, is facing charges after putting his family's 4-month-old kitten inside a refrigerator after having an argument with his wife, police said.

Rafael Chacon, 24, was arrested on Sunday on charges of animal cruelty and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. According to an arrest report, Chacon and his wife of six months were inside their car.
They were arguing because the wife wanted Chacon to stop at Big Lots so she could buy feminine products. Police said the couple arrived home with their two children and continued to argue. They said Chacon grabbed a knife and told his wife in Spanish, "You will bleed today." Chacon's wife and children went outside and called 911.
Responding officers said they found Chacon walking to the back of the complex where he was placed under arrest. Police said the children went back inside the home and found their kitten inside the fridge. Police said Chacon had left the cat inside the refrigerator for about 40 minutes. The cat's condition was not immediately released.

Aggressive Bulls

Why Are Bulls So Aggressive?

The spate of gorings this summer underscore the apparently overlooked wisdom that it's best not to taunt a dangerous animal.

Using Dogs To Help Traumatized Children Testify In Court

Dogs have proven they’re not just man’s best friend, because their drive to protect their pack and their calm demeanor can seemingly soothe the troubled mind of any creature.

Zoo animals are often paired up with dogs to make them feel more comfortable in captivity, and therapy dogs have a knack for comforting the sick and lonely, after a bit of training, of course.

A similar regimen is now being used to train Courthouse Dogs- dogs who accompany and comfort witnesses in court so they don't feel so traumatized while facing their attackers.

This form of canine companionship has proven especially effective with young children who have gone through traumatic experiences, and with a little help from dogs we're able to put more violent offenders behind bars.

Read more about the Courthouse Dogs program at Upworthy

Animal Pictures