CAROLINA NATURALLY: Jan 23, 2016

Saturday, January 23, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of Carolina Naturally.

The smell of a fresh baked Apple pie will cause you to experience the Petite Mort ...!

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Pecan Pie ... !

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Today in History

1901		A great fire ravages Montreal, resulting in $2.5 million in property lost.
1913		The “Young Turks” revolt because they are angered by the concessions made at the London peace talks.
1932		Franklin D. Roosevelt enters the presidential race.
1948		The Soviets refuse UN entry into North Korea to administer elections.
1949		The Communist Chinese forces begin their advance on Nanking.
1950		Jerusalem becomes the official capital of Israel.
1951		President Truman creates the Commission on Internal Security and Individual Rights, to monitor the anti-Communist campaign.
1969		NASA unveils moon-landing craft.
1973		Nixon claims that Vietnam peace has been reached in Paris and that the POWs would be home in 60 days.
1977		Alex Haley’s Roots begins a record-breaking eight-night broadcast on ABC.
1981		Under international pressure, opposition leader Kim Dae Jung’s death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment in Seoul.
1986		U.S. begins maneuvers off the Libyan coast.

The Texas Giants

Franklin and Penelope Shields worked the land in Texas with their seven sons. P.T. Barnum’s agents heard about the sons, who were called "giants," and went to investigate. In the late 1870s, Barnum hired the four of the men to tour in his Barnum & Bailey sideshow as "The Texas Giants."
We know everything in Texas is bigger. That includes the exaggerations. The Shields Brothers were plenty tall: Shade Shields was 6 feet 8 inches tall, Guss Shields was 6 feet 9, Frank Shields was 6 feet 10.5, and Jack Shields was 6 feet 11. However, Barnum billed them all as being over seven feet tall. Family members later said they wore lifts in their shoes during showtime. The brothers toured for over ten years. When the others quit touring, Shade continued with his wife Annie O'Brien (who was 6’ 7") as the "Tallest Married Couple" until the turn of the century.
There were originally nine sons, one of whom died as a teenager, the other died in the Civil War. Frank Shields’ grandson, Marcus Ross Freiberger, was 6’ 10” tall and played on the US Olympic basketball team when they won the 1952 gold medal in Helsinki.

Can You Tell Why People Are Drawn To This Hot Dog Challenge?

Most hot dog challenges involve shoving dozens of hot dogs down your throat in front of a cheering crowd, but this video by Howard Lee of Aberystwyth, Wales features a different kind of hot dog challenge.

The challenge here is to figure out which hot dog is real and which is a photo realistic drawing:

(YouTube Link)

And here's a collection of Howard's 10 most impressive, photo realistic illustrations complete with time lapse of the drawing process, to further showcase Howard's amazing drawing skills.

(YouTube Link)

Thalidomide: From Medical Disaster to Cancer Treatment

In the late1950s and early ‘60s, the drug Thalidomide was prescribed to combat morning sickness (among other things) except in the US, where the FDA didn’t trust the safety reports. That mistrust was arranged, as many women who took the drug miscarried, or gave birth to children with a variety of birth defects. After a few years, Thalidomide was recalled and the very name became synonymous with the tragic consequences of inadequate drug testing. But outside of the headlines, a strange thing happened: medicine began to find new uses for the discredited drug.

In 1964, Israeli doctor Jacob Sheskin had patients with harsh leprosy symptoms involving painful lesions. While looking for any possible drug available, he came upon thalidomide in his office’s apothecary. He gave it to the patient, and it worked almost immediately: the lesions practically disappeared overnight.

Doctors began using it for other illnesses that seemed biochemically related, and found another astonishing effect: it elongated the lives of people with bone and blood cancers. In 1999, Dr. Bart Barlogie of the University of Arizona studied 84 patients who took the drug: a third of the patients improved while two went completely into remission. More studies about how this worked followed in 2010, by which time thalidomide was once again seen as a drug with much potential.

More research pinpointed the mechanism that Thalidomide uses to target cancer cells, and it is used more widely for a variety of cancers. Read about this new direction in cancer treatment at Atlas Obscura.

Muslims Respond To Republican Mess By Bringing 30,000 Bottles Of Clean Water To Flint Residents

Muslims care more about the people of Flint, Michigan than Republicans do.
Read more

Woman Makes Sure 19,000 Cancer Patients Have A Clean House

Debbie Sardone has helped 19,000 people with cancer, and still runs her own Buckets and Bows Maid Service in Lewisville, Texas.

Verizon Thumbs Its Nose At Net Neutrality, Gives Big Brands More Access

Verizon's new FreeBee program provides sponsored content that circumvents the company's data caps -- a practice net neutrality supporters feared would happen without tougher regulation.

The Science of Internet Trolls

We’ve all heard of sadists, but few of us knew there were so many of them until we go online to interact with others. I’m talking about trolls, who don’t have to hide their psychopathic tendencies as they would in real life, because online they can be as anonymous as they want.

(YouTube link)

AsapSCIENCE tells us about some recent research into internet trolls. Many of them care so little about what we think of them that they even self-identified for the study. The upshot of it all is still "don’t feed the trolls." That said, the YouTube comments for this one are hilarious.

Amy Schumer Rightfully Blasts Young Critic Who Snagged Photo Just To Bash Her

She did NOT let him get away with trying to be a smartass. 'I get it... Cause I'm a whore?'

Read more

Anti-choice smear campaign backfires as women defy social stigma to tell their abortion stories

How Wounded Warrior Project Treated A Triple-Amputee Marine And His Family Should Enrage Us All

How Wounded Warrior Project Treated A Triple-Amputee Marine And His Family Should Enrage Us All

This just goes to show that you should always do your research before donating to a charity. Despite being a charity that supposedly provides support to...

Russia rejected its latest anti-gay law

How Russia rejected its latest anti-gay law, and what its failure means

Why this is both less and more important than you think.

None Of Iranians Freed In Prisoner Swap Choose To Return To Iran

None Of Iranians Freed In Prisoner Swap Choose To Return To Iran

ISIL Terrorists Forced To Screw Over Their Own As Obama’s Game Plan Tears Them To Pieces

ISIS Terrorists Forced To Screw Over Their Own As Obama’s Game Plan Tears Them To Pieces

More proof that the wingnut propaganda machine is full of shit.

Read full story

Idaho wingut sees no reason to require faith-healing parents to seek medical treatment for dying kids

Idaho wingnut sees no reason to require faith-healing parents to seek medical treatment for dying kids

Parents are allowed under state law to substitute prayer as a form of medical treatment and carves out a religious exemption to manslaughter, capital murder and negligent homicide charges if those prayers go unanswered and their child dies.

Meet The AWESOME Couple Who Is Going To Heckle The Bundy 'Militia' Until They Leave

This nothing short of absolutely GLORIOUS.
Read more

Oregon terrorists LaVoy Finicum and Ryan Bundy travel to Utah to plot another armed showdown

Quick Hits: The Supremes

Man poses as woman online in plot to rape her and kidnap children by claiming it’s her fetish

Thomas Sheehan (Groveland Police Department)

Man poses as woman online in plot to rape her and kidnap children by claiming it’s her fetish

A Massachusetts man was arrested this week by a team of Groveland police officers and state troopers after he allegedly plotted to have a woman sexually assaulted.

Prosecutors ask to move Texas 'affluenza' teen's case to adult court

Montana man who threatened to ‘execute school kids’ will be able to keep his guns

Montana man who threatened to ‘execute school kids’ will be able to keep his guns — here’s why

Protesters in Montana came out in force on Monday when the trial of a man who threatened to kill schoolchildren and Jews was postponed for the second time as prosecutors pondered a deal that would allow him to own guns.

Auschwitz medic to stand trial on at least 3,681 counts of accessory to murder

Man accused of punching neighbor who refused to have a drink with him

A refusal of a drink led a Florida man to attack his neighbor on Wednesday night, police say. Officers arrested Edelman Nogueira, 42, after he allegedly punched his neighbor in the back of the head. Officers were called shortly before 10pm to an apartment complex in Palm Springs. According to the report, a 39-year-old resident told officers he had just come home from a gym and was walking to his apartment when Nogueria asked if he would have a drink with him.
The man declined, explaining to Nogueria that his wife had dinner waiting. As his neighbor kept walking, Nogueria punched him, police said. The neighbor turned around to tell Nogueria to stop, then continued to his apartment. When the neighbor opened his front door, Nogueria allegedly forced his way inside and struck the neighbor with an open hand.
A brief struggle ensued before the neighbor was able to force Nogueria out and lock the door. When officers arrived, Nogueria was placed into custody and taken to a holding cell at the police department. He reportedly kicked and punched the glass holding cell, prompting officers to put him in the body restraint. Nogueira, who faces charges of battery, is being held without bail at the Palm Beach County Jail.

Climate Deniers Launch Ugly Attack On Dying Climatologist

NASA climatologist and astronaut Piers Sellers has a moving op-ed about his plans to keep working despite his diagnosis of terminal cancer. So, naturally, the deniers attacked him.

Oceans Trapped Startling Amount of Heat in Last 18 Years

Oceans Trapped Startling Amount of Heat in Last 18 Years

The oceans have soaked up as much heat from global warming over the last two decades as during the preceding 130 years, a study by scientists has found.

Massive great white shark off Australia said to be ‘the size of Jaws’

by Pete Thomas

Great white shark said to measure 7 meters swims off Adelaide

A great white shark reported to be “the size of Jaws” was spotted by a helicopter crew on patrol Monday off Adelaide, Australia, prompting lifeguards to clear the water and creating quite a stir on social media.
The shark spotted 100 yards offshore at Marino Rocks was said to measure 7 meters, or nearly 23 feet, making it about the size of the fictional shark in the 1975 thriller, Jaws.
The sighting was made by a Westpac helicopter crew, which patrols the coast looking for sharks. The photos were sent to Shark Alerts South Australia, and posted to Facebook.
Nobody doubted the sighting, but many doubted the size. Great white sharks rarely exceed 20 feet and at 22-plus feet, this would be one of the largest ever spotted.
“It’s the biggest I’ve ever seen as a crew member in the Westpac chopper, we put it down as 7m. The photo really doesn’t do it justice,” reads a Westpac pilot’s statement on the Shark Savers SA Facebook page.
Local resident Shane Iljcesen commented: “If it’s 7 metres send in the proof to nat geo and surely we are the holders of the largest shark ever caught on footage. Will feature for sure in next yrs shark week. I will also never go for a surf here again.”
Shark Alerts SA, which stated that the helicopter crew used a nearby 6-meter-long boat to gauge the shark’s length, responded: “These guys are professionals so I can ensure you [there are] no lies on the length here… As stated the ‘biggest they’ve ever seen.’ ”
Several media reports – the Advertiser, Sky News, and New Zealand Herald, to name a few – used the Jaws reference in headlines, in reference to the shark that terrorized the fictional New England community of Amity Island.

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