The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of Carolina Naturally.

Our nineteenth Xmas Tree of the month ...!

 

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Today in History

1154		Henry II is crowned king of England.
1562		The French Wars of Religion between the Huguenots and the Catholics begins with the Battle of Dreux.
1793		French troops recapture Toulon from the British.
1862		Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest begins tearing up the railroads in Union generals Grant and Rosecrans rear, causing considerable delays in the movement of Union supplies.
1900		The French Parliament votes amnesty for everyone involved in the Dreyfus Affair.
1909		American socialist women denounce suffrage as a movement of the middle class.
1941		Japanese land on Hong Kong and clash with British troops.
1941		Adolf Hitler assumes the position of commander in chief of the German army.
1942		The British advance 40 miles into Burma in a drive to oust the Japanese from the colony.
1944		During the Battle of the Bulge, American troops begin pulling back from the twin Belgian cities of Krinkelt and Rocherath in front of the advancing German Army.
1945		Congress confirms Eleanor Roosevelt as U.S. delegate to the United Nations.
1950		The North Atlantic Council names General Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme commander of Western European defense forces.
1959		Reputed to be the last civil war veteran, Walter Williams, dies at 117 in Houston.
1974		Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as vice president of the United states after a House of Representatives vote.
1982		Four bombs explode at South Africa’s only nuclear power station in Johannesburg.
1984		British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang sign an agreement that committed Britain to return Hong Kong to China in 1997 in return for terms guaranteeing a 50-year extension of its capitalist system. Hong Kong was leased by China to Great Britain in 1898 for 99 years.
1998		President Bill Clinton is impeached. The House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton was the second president in American history to be impeached.
2001		The highest barometric pressure ever recorded (1085.6 hPa, 32.06 inHg) occurs at Tosontsengel, Khovsgol, Mongolia.
2001		Rioting begins in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the country’s economic crisis.
2012		Park Geun-hye elected President of South Korea, the nation’s first female chief executive.

Non Sequitur

Hackers Trace Islamic State Accounts to British Government

One has to wonder how a group like ISIL has so many shiny toys.

Read full story

Running a Country Shortens Life

Running a Country Shortens Life

Everybody wants to rule the world, but it comes at a cost: your health.

Black Sam’s Club CEO Calls For More Diversity, Enraged White People Go BALLISTIC

Wingnuts are FURIOUS that a “racist” black female CEO promoted diversity in hiring — and they are willing to be total racists to prove it!

Read full story

Seattle becomes first US city to pass law allowing Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize

Seattle becomes first US city to pass law allowing Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize

Bill Cosby sues women who accused him of rape for defamation

Bill Cosby sues women who accused him of rape for defamation

Judge blocks Ohio lawmakers from taking action against Planned Parenthood

Judge blocks Ohio lawmakers from taking action against Planned Parenthood

Half of America Is in or Damn Near Close to Living in Poverty

Half of America Is in or Damn Near Close to Living in Poverty

12-year-old girl charged after being stopped for speeding

A 12-year-old girl has been caught driving at 122 kilometers an hour (75mph) in the north of Tasmania, Australia, police have alleged. Officers said the girl was intercepted at Perth on Saturday night with two passengers aged 21 and 16. Sergeant Phil Summers, of Deloraine Police, said the incident could have ended in tragedy. "Why a 12-year-old is driving, one can only guess, but it's just terrible," he said. "Not only could she kill herself and everyone else in the car but other road users.
"We are, I suppose, outraged really that people would let a child in the car." The girl has been charged and granted bail for false name and driving offenses, police said. "That vehicle was intercepted and the driver gave some details that didn't seem right to the police officer," Sergeant Summers said.
"When [the officer] intercepted the vehicle she gave details that indicated she was 16, he then took her to town and found out she was in fact 12. This is a terrible example of a flagrant disregard for safety not only of the driver, but all other road users."

Ziggy

The mystery of a bright green pond in Farmington has been solved

The mystery of a bright green pond in Farmington, Utah, has been solved. The Environmental Protection Agency had closed off Farmington Pond aa there was a concern over toxic chemicals. They're saying someone dumped a 5 gallon bucket of non-toxic dye.

Charging for Air

A restaurant in eastern China has been caught charging customers an "air cleaning fee" on top of their food bills.

Diners at the eatery in Zhangjiagang city, Jiangsu Province, were charged one yuan (10p, $0.15) each to cover the cost of purifying the air inside.
Cities in the region have been enveloped in thick smog in recent weeks, with visibility of less than 100m in the worst-hit areas. The restaurant's owners recently purchased an air filtration system to improve the dining experience, and covered the cost by passing it on to customers without prior warning.
But after complaints from angry patrons, the local government intervened to stop the practice, telling the owners that it constituted an illegal charge. A city official said that it wasn't the diners' choice to breathe filtered air, so it could not be sold as a commodity.

We're Going to Have to Start Sucking Pollution Out of the Air to Save the Climate

Why We're Going to Have to Start Sucking Pollution Out of the Air to Save the Climate

Trees and Climate Change

How Trees Try to Cope With Climate Change

Warming temperatures and drought are making it tougher to survive.

Neon & Lightning

What Causes Upside-Down Lightning?

Electricity can travel from ground-to-cloud, too -- and the effects can be damaging.

Neon Travels Deep Below Earth's Surface and Back

They might not combine with other elements, but noble gases are always on the move.

Spinning Arsenic

Arsenic From Chile Copper Mines Reaches Antarctica

Traces of the toxic element are floating across the ocean and getting into the ice. 

Earth May Spin Faster as Glaciers Melt

Melting ice triggered by global warming may make Earth whirl faster than before.

Some protostars shoot out water

This report from National Geographic dates back to 2011, but I just heard about it this week on a podcast of NSTAAF.   I think it's worth sharing just for the jaw-dropping numbers.

Seven hundred and fifty light-years from Earth, a young, sunlike star has been found with jets that blast epic quantities of water into interstellar space, shooting out droplets that move faster than a speeding bullet.
The discovery suggests that protostars may be seeding the universe with water. These stellar embryos shoot jets of material from their north and south poles as their growth is fed by infalling dust that circles the bodies in vast disks.
"If we picture these jets as giant hoses and the water droplets as bullets, the amount shooting out equals a hundred million times the water flowing through the Amazon River every second," said Lars Kristensen, a postdoctoral astronomer at Leiden University in the Netherlands...
After tracing the paths of these atoms, the team concluded that water forms on the star, where temperatures are a few thousand degrees Celsius. But once the droplets enter the outward-spewing jets of gas, 180,000-degree-Fahrenheit (100,000-degree-Celsius) temperatures blast the water back into gaseous form.
Once the hot gases hit the much cooler surrounding material—at about 5,000 times the distance from the sun to Earth—they decelerate, creating a shock front where the gases cool down rapidly, condense, and reform as water, Kristensen said.

Believe It Or Not

Yogurt & Happiness

Is Yogurt the Secret to Happiness? 

The Science of Tears

The Science of Tears

What's in a tear? It depends why it was shed.

Helping others dampens the effects of everyday stress

Helping others dampens the effects of everyday stress

Providing help to friends, acquaintances, and even strangers can mitigate the impact of daily stressors on our emotions and our mental health, according to new research published inClinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science....

The Scary Thing Stress Does To Your Brain

"Our study provides strong evidence that perceived stress increases the likelihood that an older person will develop a MCI," Dr. Richard Lipton, senior author of the study.

Kindness, Charitable Behavior Influenced by Amygdala

Kindness, Charitable Behavior Influenced by Amygdala

The amygdala, a small structure at the front end of the brain’s temporal lobe, has long been associated with negative behaviors generally, and specifically with fear. But new research from Michael Platt, the James S. Riepe University Professor in the psychology,...

Humans Evolved To Get Better Sleep In Less Time

Humans Evolved To Get Better Sleep In Less Time

Insomniacs take heart: Humans get by on significantly less sleep than our closest animal relatives. The secret, according to a new study, is that our sleep is more efficient. Researchers from Duke University scoured the scientific literature and compiled a database of...

Chitchat and small talk could serve an evolutionary need to bond with others

Chitchat and small talk could serve an evolutionary need to bond with others

We think of chitchat and small talk as the things people say to pass the time or kill an awkward silence. New research suggests, however, that these idle conversations could be a social-bonding tool passed down from primates. Princeton University researchers report in...

Spaniel-Size Triceratops Cousin Walked on Hind Legs

Spaniel-Size Triceratops Cousin Walked on Hind Legs

The find reveals that Late Jurassic horned dinosaurs were much more diverse than previously thought.

Algae Toxin Causing Alzheimer's-Like Condition in Sea Lions

Algae Toxin Causing Alzheimer's-Like Condition in Sea Lions

Brain scans of stranded marine mammals reveals they were suffering from an Alzheimer’s-like condition caused by toxic algal blooms.

Animal Pictures