The Daily Drift

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Today in History

1396		The last great christian crusade, led jointly by John the Fearless of Nevers and King Sigismund of Hungary, ends in disaster at the hands of Sultan Bajazet I’s Ottoman army at Nicopolis.
1598		In Sweden, King Sigismund is defeated at Stangebro by his Uncle Charles.
1775		British troops capture Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, when he and a handful of Americans try to invade Canada.
1789		Congress proposes 12 new amendments to the Constitution.
1804		The 12th Amendment is ratified, changing the procedure of choosing the president and vice-president.
1846		American General Zachary Taylor’s forces capture Monterey, Mexico.
1909		The first National Aeronautic Show opens at Madison Square Garden.
1915		An allied offensive is launched in France against the German Army.
1918		Brazil declares war on Austria.
1937		German Chancellor Adolf Hitler meets with Italian Premier Benito Mussolini in Munich.
1938		President Franklin Roosevelt urges negotiations between Hitler and Czech President Benes over the Sudetenland.
1942		The War Labor Board orders equal pay for women in the United States.
1943		The Red Army retakes Smolensk from the Germans who are retreating to the Dnieper River in the Soviet Union.
1959		President Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Khrushchev begin Camp David talks.
1974		Scientists warn that continued use of aerosol sprays will cause ozone depletion, which will lead to an increased risk of skin cancer and global weather changes.
1981		Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court Justice, is sworn in.
1983		Maze Prison escape, County Antrim, Northern Ireland; 38 IRA prisoners escape in the largest prison breakout in British history; known among Irish republicans as the Great Escape.
1992		NASA launches Mars Observer probe; it failed 11 months later.
1996		Ireland’s last Magdalene laundry closes; begun as asylums to rehabilitate "fallen women," they increasingly took on prison-like qualities.
2008		China launches Shenzhou 7 spacecraft; crew performs China’s first extra-vehicular activity (EVA).
2009		US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy jointly accuse Iran of building a secrecy nuclear enrichment facility.

Editorial Comment

It has been a week around here.
The first really cool day  began with a record low temperature and another day set the record for the high temperature for that day - the only thing we didn't have was any form of precipitation.
Just an average early "Fall" week around these parts.
Speaking of pleasant things ...
The local football team is 2-0.
We got our Hockey season tickets for the year.
The great-grandkids are growing up ... the grandkids have grown up.
Friends are clamoring for our annual autumn gourmet cooking to begin in earnest.

Thank you for reading Carolina Naturally!

Be Happy and Have Fun

Non Sequitur

Giant sausage gifted to town

A rather large sausage was gifted to a town in Southland, New Zealand, on Friday.
Tuatapere, which claims to be the country's "sausage capital", was the winner of a ZM Radio contest that asked its listeners which small town should get a monument.
Announcer Carl Fletcher said the decision was made to head down to the deep south and unveil a "sausage-on-a-fork" to celebrate the famous famous Tuatapere Sausages. The 3m-long sausage traveled from Auckland and arrived in Tuatapere on Thursday evening.
During the unveiling of the giant sausage, several flavors of sausages were cooked and given out free to the Tuatapere public. Aaron Challis, who owns the local supermarket, said the giant sausage was exciting for the community. "It's really great to be here, the locals can't believe it. Any sort of positive happenings for small towns is important."

Slab City, 'The Last Free Place in America,' May Shut Down

Slab City, 'The Last Free Place in America,' May Shut Down

California's 'Slab City,' an unincorporated, ungoverned, isolated piece of land in the desert, has been home for years to people living in a kind of squatter's paradise. Today it's at risk of being sold by the the Golden State, which owns the land.

An introduction to "ransomware"

Excerpts from an article at Wired:

Ransomware is malware that locks your keyboard or computer to prevent you from accessing your data until you pay a ransom, usually demanded in Bitcoin. The digital extortion racket is not new—it’s been around since about 2005, but attackers have greatly improved on the scheme with the development of ransom cryptware, which encrypts your files using a private key that only the attacker possesses, instead of simply locking your keyboard or computer. And these days ransomware doesn’t just affect desktop machines or laptops; it also targets mobile phones...
Symantec has estimated, conservatively, that at least $5 million is extorted from ransomware victims each year. But forking over funds to pay the ransom doesn’t guarantee attackers will be true to their word and victims will be able to access their data again. In many cases, Symantec notes, this doesn’t occur....
One ransomware attack known as Reveton that is directed at US victims produces a pop-up message saying your machine has been involved in child porn activity or some other crime and has been locked by the FBI or Justice Department. Unless you pay a fine—in Bitcoin, of course, and sent to an address the attackers control—the government won’t restore access to your system...
CryptoWall can not only encrypt files on the victim’s computer but also any external or shared drives that connect to the computer. And the shakedown demand can range anywhere from $200 to $5,000...
TorrentLocker harvests email addresses from a victim’s mail client to spam itself to other victims. Fox-IT calculated at one point that TorrentLocker had amassed some 2.6 million email addresses in this manner.
Protecting against ransomware can be difficult since attackers actively alter their programs to defeat anti-virus detection. However, antivirus is still one of the best methods to protect yourself against known ransomware in the wild. It might not be possible to completely eliminate your risk of becoming a victim of ransomware, but you can lessen the pain of being a victim by doing regular backups of your data and storing it on a device that isn’t online.

The TL;DR seems to be in the last sentence - it may be cheaper to throw out and replace your computer than to pay the ransom.

Silence the Hate

Bagpipe playing kid silences anti-gay preacher in the ‘most Scottish way possible’

Some Counties In Texas Actually Are Denying Birthright Citizenship

Some Counties In Texas Actually Are Denying Birthright Citizenship

If You’re Deported From The U.S., You’re Likely To Be Abused On The Way Out

If You’re Deported From The U.S., You’re Likely To Be Abused On The Way Out

Husband Of Racist Cop-Defending Mayor Arrested On 30 Counts Indecent Exposure

The victims say he’s been exposing himself at the coffee shop drive thru twice a week, for at least two years. So why wasn’t he arrested until now, I wonder?

Read more 

The Supreme Court Might Make The Hobby Lobby Decision Even Worse

Hobby Lobby Part II just got a first class ticket to the Supreme Court.

11 Conspiracy Theories That Proved True

As crazy as it sounds, sometimes the tin-foil hat crowd turns out to be right.

Police Post Phone Numbers Of Drug Company CEOs

Police Post Phone Numbers Of Drug Company CEOs

Colorado man who murdered his wife claims marijuana candy drove him insane

Colorado man who murdered his wife claims marijuana candy drove him insane

Richard Kirk allegedly shot his wife while she was on the phone with 911. He had eaten pot candy before the killing and is now pleading insanity.

Texas man busted for falsely accusing #BlackLivesMatter supporters of vandalizing his truck

Texas man busted for falsely accusing #BlackLivesMatter supporters of vandalizing his truck

Police charged 45-year-old Scott Lattin with making a false report after arresting him at his home in Whitney.

Man caught with pants down after breaking into bar, drinking Sambuca and defecating himself

A Florida man was found passed out in a bar after reports say he broke in, drank some alcohol, and defecated himself. Robert Predmore, 61, was arrested on Tuesday by Collier deputies.

According to reports, when deputies arrived at Joey D’s restaurant in East Naples they found Predmore passed out and unresponsive lying down on the floor of the outside bar. Deputies said they could smell a strong odor or alcohol coming from his breath and noticed that he had also severely defecated himself.
While deputies canvassed the restaurant they also noticed the bar had been ransacked with several alcohol bottles tampered with and the cash register on the ground and damaged. Deputies say Predmore was caught with his pants down, adding that his soiled pants matched the crime scene.
They also found a large pile of feces next to an empty bottle of Sambuca. Deputies said they found a backpack belong to Predmore that contained several prescription pill bottles and also a clear plastic baggy with marijuana inside. Predmore was transported to Naples Community Hospital due to his high level of intoxication. He was later arrested on charges of burglary, criminal mischief, and possession of marijuana.
There's a news video here.

Quick Hits

Alabama Supreme Court defies Constitution by voiding lesbian couple's adoption agreement

Mother of 'Boston Baby Doe' and her boyfriend accused in child's murder

Obama nominates first openly gay service secretary to lead Army

Calif. man gets life in prison for throwing 4-year-old daughter off a cliff

FBI warns of increased attacks on women's healthcare facilities

Mexican prison officials jailed over spectacular 'El Chapo' escape

US auto workers get first raise in a decade

'We got him!': Suspect arrested in Arizona freeway shootings

Archaeologists Unearth Civil War Refuge for Escaped Slaves

Hampton, Virginia, was once the site of Fort Monroe, a Union base during the Civil War. At the beginning of the war, three Virginia slaves went to the fort to request asylum. However, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a federal law, still obligated all U.S. citizens to report suspected fugitive slaves. What to do?

General Benjamin Butler, Fort Monroe’s commander and a former lawyer, was sympathetic to the men’s plight. He came up with a clever circumvention to the law by declaring the escaped slaves “contraband” that might be used to support the rebel cause, effectively creating a path to asylum.
Word soon spread, and Fort Monroe received hundreds of slaves seeking protection under the new contraband policy. Thousands ultimately settled in nearby fields and burned-out Hampton homes as white residents fled and Confederate forces, fearing a Union takeover, torched the town. The site buried beneath the now-demolished apartment complex is believed part of what came to be known as the Grand Contraband Camp.

Skip ahead some years, and the land where the Grand Contraband Camp stood was developed into part of the city of Hampton. An apartment complex there was torn down in 2012, giving the city an opportunity to excavate the area. All sorts of relics from the Civil War refugee community have been recovered. Read the story of the Grand Contraband Camp and other camps like it at mental_floss.

5,000-Year-Old Throne

5,000-Year-Old Throne Found in Turkey

The find in Turkey suggests the site was a non-religious site that hosted a state system.

Blue Diamonds

Bluest Diamond Ridiculously Pricey

Categorized as a fancy vivid blue diamond, the Blue Moon is the largest cushion-shaped stone in that category to ever appear at auction.

August Breaks Heat Records Worldwide

August Breaks Heat Records Worldwide

Much of August's warmth was driven by the world's water.

Dirty Water

Dirty Waters Could Get Even Dirtier With Warming

A warmer, wetter climate could also boost pollution from cities and farms draining into rivers, lakes and streams.

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

This is the best idea for a new contest we’ve seen in a long time. The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards is accepting entries only until October first, so if you have a great -and funny- wildlife snapshot, grab it and enter! It has to be an unmanipulated photo you've taken, but it doesn't have to be from the past year. The winner will receive a photo safari in Tanzania and a Nikon camera.

Even if you don’t enter, you’ll want to browse through the submitted photographs. Since there are a lot of them, you might want to start with The Telegraph’s favorites here and here. 

Dino-Chick

A chicken embryo with a dinosaur-like snout instead of a beak has been developed by scientists

by Melissa Hogenboom

Sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid is believed to have crashed into Earth. The impact wiped out huge numbers of species, including almost all of the dinosaurs.
One group of dinosaurs managed to survive the disaster. Today, we know them as birds.
Read more at The BBC

Chimps Like Movies Starring People in Ape Suits

Chimps Like Movies Starring People in Ape Suits

Chimps seem to enjoy -- and remember -- a good thriller, especially when at least one of its stars is dressed like an ape.

Sharks Found Living in an Undersea Volcano

Sharks Found Living in an Undersea Volcano

Two species of shark were found living in the caldera of the active, underwater Kavachi volcano in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The find begs three questions. Why? How? And, for extra emphasis, WHY are SHARKS in a volcano?!

Loyal dog stood guard by trapped friend for a week

A loyal dog stood guard by its trapped friend for a week until the pair were found. Tillie, a setter, and Phoebe, a basset hound, had been missing for a week when Vashon Island Pet Protectors in Washington state posted a desperate plea on Facebook last weekend in a last ditch effort to help find the two much-loved pets. VIPP received a phone call earlier this week from someone who said for the last few days a "reddish" dog had come up to their property and then dashed back into a nearby ravine.

Acting on this slim lead, volunteers arrived at the property hoping that the reddish dog was indeed Tillie. After a brief search of the nearby ravine, they heard a slight bark when they called out "Tillie". What the volunteers found a few minutes later was something truly moving. Tillie was standing guard on the edge of a concrete tank where she had been looking out for Phoebe, who - because of her short legs - had been unable to get out of the hole for the past week.
VIPP described the find on their Facebook page: "So with a needle in the haystack hope we made our way into the ravine and after a bit of searching, finally heard that sweet sound we have been waiting for all week. A small one-woof response when we called out “Tillie.” A few minutes later we found her laying beside an old cistern with her head resting on the concrete wall.
"Heart sinking … we knew that meant Phoebe was inside the cistern and every breath was held and every doggie prayer offered that the peek over the rim would somehow find her safe. And gratefully… this time we have a happy ending with dear Phoebe found perched on some concrete rubble that held her out of the water. For nearly a week Tillie stayed by her side with the exception of the few minutes of each day when she went for help." Both dogs were cold and hungry but are doing well. Amy Carey with VIPP said that the remarkable discovery shows how unbreakable pack-bonds are in dogs and that it's a good reminder for owners never to give up searching for missing pets.

Asthmatic sea otter is learning to use inhaler

A wheezy sea otter in Seattle has been diagnosed with asthma and is receiving a breathing boost from an inhaler. The Seattle Aquarium in Washington said the sea otter Mishka started having trouble breathing when wildfires moved closer to the aquarium.

A veterinarian diagnosed Mishka with asthma after determining she was struggling to breathe by listening to her chest and taking her blood work. Now Mishka is learning to use an inhaler and responding well.
One-year-old Mishka is the first sea otter to have asthma, the aquarium has said, and is receiving the same medication given to humans. Aquarium biologist Sara Perry is using food to train Mishka to push her nose on the inhaler and then take a breath.

YouTube link.

"We try to make it as fun as possible," she said. Mishka, who has been at the aquarium since January, is reportedly responding well. Washington sea otters became extinct in 1910 due to hunting and did not return to the state until the late 1960s when some otters were moved in from Alaska.

Animal Pictures