CAROLINA NATURALLY: Feb 3, 2016

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of Carolina Naturally.

Remembering ..!

Carolina Naturally is read in 205 countries around the world daily.

The Big Bopper, Buddy Holy and Ritchie Valens ... !

Today is - The Day The Music Died

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Today in History

1160		Emperor Frederick Barbarossa hurtles prisoners, including children, at the Italian city of Crema, forcing its surrender.
1238		The Mongols take over Vladimir, Russia.
1690		The first paper money in America is issued in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1783		Spain recognizes United States’ independence.
1904		Colombian troops clash with U.S. Marines in Panama.
1908		The U.S. Supreme Court rules that union-sponsored boycotts are illegal, and applies the Sherman Antitrust Act to labor as well as capital.
1912		New U.S. football rules are set: field shortened to 100 yds.; touchdown counts six points instead of five; four downs are allowed instead of three; and the kickoff is moved from midfield to the 40 yd. line.
1917		A German submarine sinks the U.S. liner Housatonic off coast of Sicily. The United States severs diplomatic relations with Germany.
1920		The Allies demand that 890 German military leaders stand trial for war crimes.
1927		President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission to regulate the airwaves.
1943		Finland begins talks with the Soviet Union.
1944		The United States shells the Japanese homeland for the first time at Kurile Islands.
1945		The Allies drop 3,000 tons of bombs on Berlin.
1945		The month-long Battle of Manila begins.
1954		Millions greet Queen Elizabeth in Sydney on her first royal trip to Australia.
1962		President John F. Kennedy bans all trade with Cuba.
1966		Soviet Luna 9 achieves soft landing on the moon.
1971		OPEC decides to set oil prices without consulting buyers.
1984		The Environmental Protection Agency orders a ban on the pesticide EDB for grain products.

Want to Expel Evil or Amplify Music in Your Home?

Try Horse Skulls under the Floor

Step right up and let me tell you about the latest all-purpose, cure-everything household tool: the horse skull.
Colm Moriarty is an Irish archaeologist. When he was a young boy, his aunt’s home was renovated. Moriarty remembers that the workmen found two horse skulls beneath the floor of the old house. The purpose of their presence was a mystery.
Now Moriarty has a good idea why they were there. He recently excavated two medieval houses near Dublin. He found horse skulls beneath the floor. Why are they there? Sonja Hukantaival, a doctoral student who is writing her dissertation on materials left in household foundations, thinks that the horse skulls served two purposes. The skulls were used in witchcraft to protect or inflict curses and their hollow chambers helped the acoustic qualities of the home. Matt Soniak writes at Atlas Obscura:

Like the horse shoes that some people keep in their homes, the horse skull was thought to bring luck and expel evil. A horse skull foundation deposit, Hukantaival explains, would have ensured fertility, health and a good crop, and guarded against sickness, death, fire and lightning. In the folklore of some countries, like Finland, horse skulls and other foundation deposits were also said to protect against witchcraft when placed at the borders of a house. They could also be used in an act of witchcraft instead of protection against it, Hukantaival says, a deposit secretly placed under someone else’s house would curse the building or steal luck from it.
The other explanation is that they were part of a macabre sound system. The cavities in the skulls amplify and echo ambient noise, and archaeologists think that in some places they were buried under floors to improve the sound when people danced, sang or played music. In the British Isles and southern Scandinavia, presumed “acoustic skulls” have been found in home and churches. In Scandinavia, they also often turn up under threshing barns, where, Hukantaival says, “it was considered important that the sound of threshing carried far.”

The Teen Who Trekked 1,800 Miles Through Canadian Wilderness Disguised as a Man

Western Canada during the 19th-century was a harsh place for Europeans. The Hudson's Bay Company sent workers out west to support the fur trade, but women were forbidden. Yet 15-year-old Isobel Gunn left her home in the Scottish Orkney Islands in 1806 dressed as male, and made her way across Canada, working as hard as any man. Why would she set out on such a backbreaking, dangerous life? For the usual reasons that women in history have lived as men: freedom, self-determination, respect, adventure, and money.

Others note that early 19th-century Orkney really only only gave three options to men: risk life and limb fishing in the dangerous North Sea for a pittance, sign up to fight against Napoleon’s army for a pittance, or join Hudson’s Bay Company, head to Canada, and earn a whopping £8 a year–far more than any of the men could earn at home.

As a woman, Isobel would never be able to earn as much as even the poorest male worker in Orkney. And she’d likely need that money–one side of her face was marred by smallpox scars, which would have ruined her marriage prospects. So why not dress as a man and try to earn some money for herself?

Gunn earned the respect of the men she traveled and worked with, but she was eventually found out. Read the story of Isobel Gunn at Atlas Obscura.

What the Blues Can Teach You About Life, Art and Everything In-Between

Recording artist and music professor Mike Errico delves into what "the blues" are. The term is culturally loaded, and yet traces it roots from all over. We know the term "Rhythm & Blues," but it was coined as a replacement for "race music," not as a definitive description of black music. The blues can also be heard in a cowboy’s harmonica, the tortured country songs of Patsy Cline, and in the Klezmer tunes of European Jews. To lay the foundation, Errico starts with the nuts-and-bolts of music by explaining notes and scales.

To me, blue notes exist in the cracks between these scale tones. To stretch the “house” metaphor, they are the notes that sulk under the staircase, sit on the roof all night, and compulsively check under the bed for monsters. You know these notes intuitively, not because you know the scales, necessarily, but because you’re human: You grew up in this house, and you know how it feels. These are the notes that give music an ache, an empathy, and the kind of grind that makes you scrunch up your face, draw up your shoulders and stretch your open hands skyward. I’m sure you know the feeling. If not, we may have to check your pulse.
How does that happen? Again, bringing it back to the scale tones, it happens by playing something that exists slightly outside the lines drawn by whatever scale you happen to be in. Warning: Being outside those lines does not mean that everything is blue and achy and humanly beautiful — some of it is God-awful, out of tune, and face-scrunching in the GAH, how long has this milk been in the fridge!? sense of the term.
Using our 12-tone approach, “blue notes” are most commonly a lowered third, fifth, or seventh. In some cases, they’re technically “wrong,” in that they don’t belong in a given scale, but even so, musicians know that any sound can work with any framework, if it’s handled right.

Handling that framework right takes not only talent, but authenticity. Ultimately, singing the blues is a very personal way of communicating. Read an excerpt of Errico’s class lecture on the blues (with examples) at Observer.

Ten Priceless Facts About "Antiques Roadshow"

If you don't care about precious objects from our past you'll see the Antiques Roadshow as dull and uninteresting, but those who enjoy hearing about how cool old stuff was made and why that stuff is so valuable today find every episode to be priceless. Many fans in the U.S. have been watching the show from the very beginning, because the American version began in 1997, but the UK version started the craze way back in 1979.

People line up by the hundreds when the Antiques Roadshow comes to town hoping their "valuable" stuff lands them a spot on the show, but only about 0.2 percent of the hopeful make it on the air. Those who have been lucky enough to land a spot have struck it rich more than a few times, but an Oklahoma man's 18th-century Chinese cups still top the list as highest appraisal ever, the cups worth around $1.5 million.

Read 10 Things You Didn't Know About "Antiques Roadshow" here

The DeLorean Is Going Back into Production

John DeLorean’s DMC-12 was in production from only 1981 through 1983. The Back to the Future film trilogy made it famous. Now, more than 30 years after the last DMC-12 rolled off the assembly line, it’s back. The DeLorean Motor Company, which has been rebuilding and restoring the old cars from its small facility in Humble, Texas will resume production.
Internally, the car will be different. To Marty McFly, it would look like something from the future. The Dallas Morning News describes it:

John Espey, vice president of DeLorean Motor, said the replicas will be substantially upgraded from the cars in the ‘80s – including the engine
The company is in discussions with a couple of manufacturers to use a modern, emissions-certified V-6 with “300 to 400 horsepower,” Espey said.
The cars will also get better brakes, upgraded interiors and amenities such as Bluetooth, navigation systems and heated seats.

New DMC-12s will be available starting in 2017 and be priced at less than $100,000.

Anti-abortion agitators indicted for Planned Parenthood videos won't get a new grand jury

Ohio cop accused of trying to rape woman escaping abusive boyfriend

Snyder gave state workers in Flint clean water a year before providing it to residents

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) talks to Poppy Harlow on Jan. 27, 2016. (CNN)

Revealed: Snyder gave state workers in Flint clean water a year before providing it to residents

A Jan. 7, 2015, notice from the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget, which oversees state office buildings, references a notice about a violation of drinking water standards that had recently been sent out by the city of Flint.

Missing the Cheese

They have everything but the cheese ...

McDonald's Mozzarella Cheese Sticks Only Missing the Cheese

Man accused of having a gun and suspicious bacon on neighbor's land

An Amherst County judge certified charges to a grand jury against a man from Madison Heights, Virginia, accused of wearing a camouflage mask on a neighbor’s property while carrying a gun and a suspicious bag of bacon. Evan Patrick Cater, 31, appeared in front of General District Court Judge Sam Eggleston on Tuesday.

Cater is charged with felony wearing a mask in public, misdemeanor trespassing, public intoxication and carrying a gun while intoxicated. An Amherst County grand jury is next scheduled to meet on Feb. 9. Deputies found Cater hiding behind a dog kennel on a neighbor’s property at around 10pm on Oct. 18 after the property owner heard his dogs barking and went to investigate. Deputies found Cater with a 9mm handgun and a bag of bacon covered in an unknown oily substance. Neighbor Bobby Wood, who testified at Cater’s hearing, said he first encountered a man who was face down behind the dog pen fence in his backyard after his dogs would not stop barking when he called to them. On the other side of the dog pen fence, Wood called to the man, who would not move after Wood yelled at him several times. Wood ran back to his home and called authorities. He returned to the area with two deputies, including S.S. Jackson, who also testified. The man, whom Jackson identified as Cater, had moved but was found face down with bacon and a 9mm gun.

Jackson said she smelled alcohol on Cater’s breath. When asked what he was doing, Cater responded he was just relaxing and wasn’t doing anything wrong, Jackson said. Wood testified his wife had previously reported Cater to authorities because Cater was shooting a firearm in his backyard. Jackson said she has previously talked with Cater after deputies were called to his residence after receiving reports from neighbors that Cater and his daughter were firing guns in the backyard. Cater recently spoke out at Amherst Board of Supervisors meetings against a no-shoot zone which encompasses his house.

Deaths of two teenagers attributed to new trend of drinking racing fuel mixed with Mountain Dew

Two teenagers in Robertson County, Tennessee, have died after drinking a liquid determined to be racing fuel mixed with Mountain Dew. Officials with Greenbrier Police said 16-year-old Logan Stephenson was found unresponsive at his Greenbrier home last week.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators have confirmed that a second teenager was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical and put on dialysis to try and treat the symptoms but died on Monday night. His name was not immediately released. "It makes me think this may be the tip of the iceberg and this practice is much more prevalent but we haven’t seen it to this degree where it caused death," says Dr. Donna Seger with the Tennessee Poison Center.

Foul play was not suspected in either incident. “Our hearts are heavy today as we have learned that a second young man has died from the incident last week,” said Robertson County Sheriff Bill Holt. “We ask that everyone continue to pray for both of these families as they go through this tragic time.” Police said two additional teenagers had to be hospitalized, and later admitted to drinking a combination of racing fuel and Mountain Dew.

YouTube link.

However, they were both released over the weekend. Vanderbilt toxicologists called the liquid, “DewShine,” which is similar to moon shine only much more potent. Racing fuel sells for about $7.50 a gallon. Police are concerned it could be a growing, deadly trend and are asking parents to be on high alert. The funeral for Stephenson was held on Tuesday morning at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Cult. The investigation remains ongoing.

Knowing all the angles

Moon was produced by a head-on collision between Earth and a forming planet

Moon was produced by a head-on collision between Earth and a forming planet

The moon was formed by a violent, head-on collision between the early Earth and a “planetary embryo” called Theia approximately 100 million years after the Earth formed, UCLA geochemists and colleagues report. Scientists had already known about this...

Is our Milky Way galaxy a zombie

Couple Find Strange Black "Walking" Fish In New Zealand Bay

People come across odd animals all the time, posting the photographic evidence online and sparking a wave of discussion about what the heck that animal in the pic actually is.
Most of the time these critters end up being nothing more than deformed or otherwise genetically defective, but sometimes their discovery is actually an important biological breakthrough.
A couple in New Zealand found a strange black fish while snorkeling in the Bay of Islands near Auckland, the fish seemingly "walking" along the ocean floor.

They caught the fish and sent it to researcher Andrew Stewart from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa so he could study it and tell them what they'd found.
Andrew came to the conclusion that the bizarre black fish is actually a rare variation of the striated frogfish, but Andrew was amazed by the fish's jet black coloration considering they're normally brightly colored and boldly striped.

(YouTube Link)

Now the black sheep of the frogfish world is part of the Te Papa collection, where they'll study it to discover whether the black coloration is an evolutionary adaptation or merely a mutation.

Staring coyotes attacking cars could be high on magic mushrooms

Reports are emerging from the town of Bolinas in Califorinia that at least two coyotes have been attacking cars along Highway 1 in an unusual manner. The coyotes have taken to staring at motorists as they drive through a twisting, turning section of road, before attacking their cars and then skulking off back into the wilderness. The coyotes run up to the cars, usually at night, forcing the drivers to stop as the animals then stare and sniff around the vehicles.

The encounters have been experienced by several motorists. “It’s a terrifying, yet beautiful thing to behold,” said on unnamed driver. Experts aren't sure what's causing the abnormal behavior, but the least probable of three possible scenarios is rabies. It seems that the attacks have been going on for a period of time longer than an animal infected with the virus could be expected to live. Lisa Bloch, director of marketing and communications for the Marin Humane Society, said that “If this is going on longer than a week or so, then it’s likely not rabies.
“And we don’t suspect rabies, just because it is pretty rare.” The attacks have been reportedly occurring for the past three weeks. A second possibility is that the coyotes have perhaps eaten fly agaric mushrooms (amanita muscaria) which have hallucinogenic properties. Bloch could not completely rule out the possibility that coyotes are having psychedelic experiences. Bloch, however, also suggested a more prosaic, third, possibility - that motorists have been feeding the coyotes from their cars. “One possibility is that the coyotes have been fed, and this is a real problem for us in Marin,” Bloch says.
“It’s possible that someone was feeding them and thinking that it’s cool, and magical and mystical to have a coyote eating out of their hand,” she explained. Animals start acting aggressively, Bloch says, once the food-proffering hand has been introduced. The Humane Society is working on the car-chasing, staring, coyote problem, Bloch says, and is asking for the public’s help. Anyone who has seen the staring coyotes should contact them. “We encourage people to report it right away if they see any kind of behaviors, any wildlife acting strangely, biting the tires of a car. We would go and check it out,” she says.

Bear cubs spotted playing on family's trampoline

A Florida family recently caught a couple of uninvited guests bouncing around on their trampoline.

A couple of black bear cubs spent some time on the trampoline in Jennifer and Paige Pacheco's backyard in Naples.
Jennifer and her daughter Paige could not believe their eyes as they watched the scene from their porch, so they immediately pulled out their phone. "Grab my phone and start videoing it because it was a sight to be seen." said Jennifer.