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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of Carolina Naturally.
Those that need this message won't get it ...!
 
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Today in History

1523
In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli publishes his 67 Articles, the first manifesto of the Zurich Reformation which attacks the authority of the Pope.
1783
William Pitt becomes the youngest Prime Minister of England at age 24.
1847
New Mexico Governor Charles Bent is slain by Pueblo Indians in Taos.
1861
Georgia secedes from the Union.
1902
The magazine “L’Auto” announces the new Tour de France.
1915
The first German air raids on Great Britain inflict minor casualties.
1923
The French announce the invention of a new gun that has a firing range of 56 miles.
1931
The Wickersham Committee issues a report asking for revisions in the dry law, but no repeal.
1937
Howard Hughes flies from Los Angeles to New York in seven hours and 22 minutes.
1937
In the Soviet Union, the People’s Commissars Council is formed under Molotov.
1945
The Red Army captures Lodz, Krakow, and Tarnow.
1947
The French open a drive on Hue, Indochina.
1949
The Chiang Government moves the capital of China to Canton.
1950
Communist Chinese leader Mao recognizes the Republic of Vietnam.
1968
Cambodia charges that the United States and South Vietnam have crossed the border and killed three Cambodians.
1981
The United States and Iran sign an accord on a hostage release in Algiers.
1983
The new catholic code expands women’s rights in the cult.

‘Welcome to America’

Mehreen Faruqi (Official photo)
Mehreen Faruqi was dragged in for fingerprinting and interrogation at Los Angeles International Airport.

Bundy-Supporting California Man Arrested For Explosives After Threatening Cops

Bundy-Supporting California Man Arrested For Explosives After Threatening Cops

The Nightly Show Has A Field Day With Oregon Militia Group Receiving Sex Toys

The Nightly Show Has A Field Day With Oregon Militia Group Receiving Sex Toys

Myth of the Middle Class

Planned Parenthood Slaps Wingnut Smear Merchants With Federal Lawsuit

Planned Parenthood Slaps Right Wing Smear Merchants With Federal Lawsuit
It's about time they punched back at these jerks.

Forensics of modern child abuse shed light on past cultures

Forensics of modern child abuse shed light on past cultures
Forensics of modern child abuse shed light on past cultures
Biological anthropologists look at skeletal remains of past cultures to gain insight into how earlier peoples lived, and forensic anthropologists work with modern-day law enforcement to decipher skeletal evidence and solve crimes. Forensic experts at North Carolina...

Life Resembles Tetris More Than Chess

Games are often used as metaphors for life. Chess is often used as a metaphor, although usually for war, which is more accurate in some ways than in others. Tor Bair beccame intimately aware of chess as a metaphor at an early age, and other games came only later.
From the age of seven, I played chess constantly and competitively. I played in school, online, at national competitions. Chess taught me patience, perseverance, critical thinking — crucial skills for tackling life’s hard problems and difficult situations.
Chess wired me to think causally at a young age. Move your knight here; you’ll trap his bishop. Capture that pawn; you’ll weaken his right side. Every correct move led me closer to a checkmate; every false step brought me closer to defeat.
Chess also introduced the idea of the “other”. Black versus white. Our school versus theirs. And every game was zero sum — there was only ever one point to score, either to be shared or taken in its entirety. No way to grow the pie.
The problem is that chess is logical, and can be as simple or as difficult as your opponent is. Life isn’t logical or simple, even though it can take a lifetime to master, as they say about chess. Bair decided that life is more like Tetris than chess, and requires a completely different set of skills, strategy, and philosophy. Of course, playing and winning are two different things. He lays out four ways Tetris is a metaphor for our lives, and it all makes perfect sense.

Dang, Your 2-Year-Old Is Mean

Nothing sweetens victory quite like revenge. Seeing people suffer, especially after they’ve wronged us, can evoke a joy as exhilarating as it is twisted. Just ask the Bride in Kill Bill, Lorena Bobbitt, Hamlet — or the nearest toddler.
Don’t be fooled by the chubby cheeks and snuggly blankie. 
Researchers from the University of Haifa in Israel have found that children as young as 2 years old find joy in others’ misfortunes.
Leave it to the Germans to bestow a complicated name on a complicated feeling. And schadenfreude is showing up earlier in life than previously thought. The study, published in PLOS ONE last July, bolsters the theory that the feeling developed early in our evolutionary history as a response to unfairness, possibly contributing to the evolution of cooperation, a key element in helping our species thrive.
Even dogs and capuchin monkeys have been shown to experience schadenfreude. So University of Haifa professor of psychology Simone Shamay-Tsoory made the obvious leap and began to investigate small children. A 2013 study had uncovered evidence of schadenfreude in kids as young as 4. But Shamay-Tsoory’s team — alums of the day care of hard knocks? — wondered whether children start grooving on others’ suffering at an even earlier age.
Kids in the unequal scenario ran, jumped and clapped their hands when the water spilled mid-storytime.
So they recruited 35 groups, each consisting of a mother, her child — ranging from 2 to 3 years old — and her child’s friend. The researchers then assigned each group to one of two scenarios. In the “equal” situation, the mother encouraged the kids to play with each other, ignored them for two minutes and spent two more minutes reading a book to herself. She then knocked over a glass of water on the book. But in the “unequal” scenario, she plopped her child’s friend on her lap and read the book aloud to him or her before spilling water on it.
Kids in the unequal scenario ran, jumped and clapped their hands when the water spilled mid-storytime. But the equal scenario didn’t trigger such a gleeful reaction, meaning schadenfreude likely evolved as a response to unfairness. The ability of even small children to experience schadenfreude “means it’s very basic and not something that society and culture affect,” Shamay-Tsoory said.
To be sure, the study didn’t account for gender differences in emotion. Plus, “anything like this, you want to be replicated” to ensure it’s not just a fluke, says Richard Smith, a professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky. Next up, Shamay-Tsoory wants to use imaging techniques to examine the brain’s response to schadenfreude.
And while a 2-year-old clapping and jumping up and down at another’s suffering might seem disturbing, Shamay-Tsoory assures us that schadenfreude fades in intensity with age. “It’s a normal and healthy part of development,” she says. Go, kids, go!

Genes may contribute to making some nations happier than others

Genes may contribute to making some nations happier than others
Genes may contribute to making some nations happier than others
The citizens of nations which rate themselves happiest display a specific genetic feature: their DNA is more likely to contain a specific allele involved in sensory pleasure and pain reduction, say Michael Minkov of the Varna University of Management (formerly...

32 Facts about Body Language


We spend a lot of psychic energy trying to figure out how to put inflection, accent, and expression into out text communication. It’s a little easier in phone conversations, but when we are face-to-face, we get the nuances of meaning easier because of body language. That includes facial expressions, too. Adrienne tells us a lot of stuff about body language in the latest episode of the mental_floss List Show, while she gestures with her hands to help us understand.

Vintage Pictures Of Women Playing Musical Instruments In The 1800s

Vintage photos showing women in Victorian Era playing many kinds of musical instruments.

The Best Caribbean Restaurant in Brooklyn Is Literally a Hole in the Wall

There are no signs or doors. You don't get a menu or a place to sit.
The mysterious proprietor known only as "Papa" has occupied the old newstand for several years. Knock at the right time--he has no posted hours--and he'll give you the best Caribbean food, such as this:
People in the know use Papa to get their fix of curry goat and chicken. Scott Heins of Gothamist visited and learned more about the secretive source of top-end Caribbean cuisine:
"Six or ten?" Papa asks each customer—his dishes of curry goat, marinated chicken, oxtail, and sauteed fish comes in only two prices, and are sized to match. Rice, beans, and chopped vegetables accompany each, and everything arrives piping hot in a styrofoam container. Your dining options are, of course, limited, but then the benches of Brower Park are only a 5 minute stroll away. […]
Despite a total lack of advertising and promotion in a neighborhood brimming with West Indian eateries, the chicken cavern has managed to keep its simple and tasty operation running. Papa opens the window when his morning prep work is finished, and closes up shop when the day's stock runs out.

Western diets damage gut microbiota over generations

Western diets damage gut microbiota over generations -- in ways hard to reverse

Conquering the Artic

New evidence shows ancient people conquered the Arctic thousands of years earlier than thought

What Are Gravitational Waves And Why Do They Matter?

Physicists have been buzzing about the possibility that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory experiment finally discovered gravitational waves. The observatory has been searching for these cosmic ripples for over a decade.
Scientists may be excited, but talk of gravitational waves leaves most people scratching their heads. What are these cosmic vibrations, and why are they making waves in the scientific community?

Much like white light, spacetime is also composed of a certain rainbow

Much like white light, spacetime is also composed of a certain rainbowMuch like white light, spacetime is also composed of a certain rainbow
When white light is passed through a prism, the rainbow on the other side reveals a rich palette of colors. Theorists from the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw have shown that in models of the Universe using any of the quantum theories of gravity there must...

Sunshine vitamin linked to improved fertility in wild animals

Sunshine vitamin linked to improved fertility in wild animals
Sunshine vitamin linked to improved fertility in wild animals
High levels of vitamin D are linked to improved fertility and reproductive success, a study of wild sheep has found. The study, carried out on a remote Hebridean island, adds to growing evidence that vitamin D – known as the sunshine vitamin – is...

Animal Pictures