CAROLINA NATURALLY: Feb 9, 2016

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of Carolina Naturally.

Today is Mardi gras ..!

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Celebrate the Year of the Monkey ... !

Today is - National Pizza Day

and International Pancake Day

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Today in History

1567		Lord Darnley, the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in his sick-bed in a house in Edinburgh when the house blows up.
1799		The USS Constellation captures the French frigate Insurgente off the West Indies.
1825		The House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams, sixth U.S. President.
1861		Jefferson F. Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.
1864		Union General George Armstrong Custer marries Elizabeth Bacon in their hometown of Monroe, Mich.
1904		Japanese troops land near Seoul, Korea, after disabling two Russian cruisers.
1909		France agrees to recognize German economic interests in Morocco in exchange for political supremacy.
1916		Conscription begins in Great Britain as the Military Service Act becomes effective.
1922		The U.S. Congress establishes the World War Foreign Debt Commission.
1942		Chiang Kai-shek meets with Sir Stafford Cripps, the British viceroy in India.
1943		The Red Army takes back Kursk 15 months after it fell to the Germans.
1946		Stalin announces the new five-year plan for the Soviet Union, calling for production boosts of 50 percent.
1951		Actress Greta Garbo gets U.S. citizenship.
1953		The French destroy six Viet Minh war factories hidden in the jungles of Vietnam.
1964		The U.S. embassy in Moscow is stoned by Chinese and Vietnamese students.
1978		Canada expels 11 Soviets in spying case.
1994		Nelson Mandela becomes the first black president of South Africa.

"My Log Cabin 1985"

Behold paradise on Earth.

Flickr member andolent shares the story of this retreat that he built by himself and lived in for 8 years:

I lived here for about eight years, and owned it for about fifteen years after I built it in 1976 with local fieldstone and oak logs I cut, peeled and notched on the site, working alone with hand tools. It had no plumbing, I carried water from a nearby spring, and I heated it in winter with about half a cord of wood a week which I cut and burned in the open fireplace. Eventually I moved into Asheville and had to sell it, but it was a large part of my life, and I miss it more with each passing year.

I don't blame him.

Man Builds a Bit of Narnia in the Woods for His Girlfriend to Discover

In The Lion, The Witch, And the Wardrobe, Lucy Pevensie steps through the magic wardrobe to discover the secret world of Narnia. She finds a single lamp-post standing in the snow-covered forest, lighting the way for travelers.
Redditor Gen4200 and his girlfriend own a nice slice of forest that reminds them of Narnia, which is among her favorite stories. So at night, he secretly hauled a lamp-post out into the woods, fixed it into the ground, and provided electrical power with discreetly hidden solar cells. When she discovers it, she'll be ready to go on many adventures.

You can see more photos of the project here.

The Annual Gathering of Twins in Twinsburg, Ohio

What's it like to be a twin? The New Yorker went to Twin Days, an annual convention of twins in the appropriately named Ohio town of Twinsburg. There, one half of a twin set described how their mother tended to group them together, no matter what:

You know, if I want mustard on my sandwich, my mom assumed she did, or vice versa . . . but if she got in trouble at school, then I always got in trouble.

(Video Link)

The History of Japan

15 Facts about Coffee

(YouTube link)

Coffee is the nectar of life. Or at least, the nectar of the morning. And it’s not too bad after dinner, either. You already drink it; now learn some facts about your coffee. Like how people used to eat the beans instead of drinking an infusion. Yuck. Nick Greene (see the extra “e,” no relation to John Green) guest hosts the mental_floss List Show.

The Origins Of Fifteen Strange Southern Dish Names

Southern food is known for being extremely filling, utterly delicious and often strangely named, with some of the names making a delicious dish actually sound disgusting.

The World's Longest-Running Experiment

We thought the Pitch Drop experiments took a long time, but a botany experiment at Michigan State University started in 1879, and is scheduled to continue until the year 2100! Dr. William James Beal wanted to find out how long weed seeds can lay dormant and still germinate. So he buried 20 bottles of seeds in a secret location. Each bottle contains 50 seeds each of 23 different plant species. The original idea was to dig up a bottle every five years and plant the seeds to see how many would germinate. But along the way, the time between each bottle was extended -twice- so now a bottle is dug up only every 20 years. Dr. Frank Telewski and Dr. Jan Zeevaart last dug one up in 2000.

Fifteen bottles in, the clear winner is Verbascum blattaria, or moth mullein, a splay-flowered weed common throughout the United States. Verbascum has popped up consistently in every bottle, and “of the 50 seeds of that particular plant, 23 of them germinated” in 2000, says Telewski, a “phenomenal” result. Distant second place goes to Malva rotundifolia, a round-leafed mallow nicknamed “cheeses” after its wedgelike seeds. Only one of those seeds sprouted in 2000.

Dr. Telewski was a graduate student when the 1980 bottle was retrieved. He is now looking forward to being there in 2020 for the next one. Read the story of the continuing seed experiment at Atlas Obscura.

Two Men Catch on Video the Moment They Are Nearly Struck by Lightning

YouTube Link

Meanwhile in Australia, where people with charming accents are about to be killed by All of The Things, a storm is blowing in. In this NSFW-clip-due-to-profanities-shouted-by-two-nearly-lighting-struck dudes, Nick and Daniel are at Sydney's Oyster Bay. They've just spent the majority of ten minutes deciding not to take their boat out because they could "feel the static" of the impending electrical storm. Just then, they get confirmation of their decision by one Mother Nature. Learn more and see additional video at Yahoo 7 News Australia.

Passenger Catches Fire and Is Sucked From Plane at 14,000 Feet

by Billie Cohen

An explosion ripped a hole through the fuselage of Daallo Airlines Flight D3159 just minutes after takeoff.

It’s like something out of a horror movie: A passenger caught fire and was sucked out of a hole in the side of an airplane at 14,000 feet.

Hassan Mohamed Nur, a survivor on that Daallo Airlines Flight D3159 from Mogadishu to Djibouti, told the Daily Mail: “I saw the passenger, a man in his early 60s, get sucked out of the plane. There was a huge bang. A big hole appeared in the side of the jet and the elderly passenger disappeared through it. One minute he was sat in his seat; the next he was gone. He’d been sucked out of the plane. People were screaming. We all thought we were going to die.”

Nur also reported that the man caught fire before he was sucked from his seat, and eerily, the burned body of an elderly man was found in Balad, 18 miles from Mogadishu. It’s uncertain whether this was the same man.

The Airbus 321 took off from Mogadishu airport on its way to Djibouti, and within five minutes, a blast ripped a hole in the fuselage measuring 6 feet by 3 feet. Officials do not yet know the cause of the explosion, though the aircraft’s pilot was quoted as saying, “I think it was a bomb. Luckily, the flight controls were not damaged so I could return and land at the airport.”

A passenger reported that an elderly man was torn from his seat and sucked out the hole in the side of the aircraft.

Apart from the elderly man who fell from the plane, only one other passenger was injured — a Finnish man who is reported to be in stable condition.

Seventy-four passengers we on board, including Awale Kullane, Somalia’s deputy ambassador to the U.N. He said on Facebook that he “heard a loud noise and couldn’t see anything but smoke for a few seconds.” He also posted a video — taken minutes after the explosion, as passengers sat terrified, some with oxygen masks on — but it has since been removed from his page.

Somalia is dealing with an insurgency by the Somali Islamic extremist group al-Shabaab, which has been responsible for many deadly attacks over the years.

Cult tells 84-year-old woman she can’t be buried next to husband because she missed brainwashing sessions

Cult tells 84-year-old woman she can’t be buried next to husband because she missed brainwashing sessions

"Since you have ignored our efforts to reach you, and have failed to return to your lord jesus in the Demonic Rite to receive from him the curse of his lies ... you have self-excluded."

Beezow Doo-doo Zopittybop-bop-bop arrested for assaulting a police officer

A man with an unusual name has been accused of assaulting an Evergreen State College police officer and a Thurston County deputy. Beezow Doo-doo Zopittybop-bop-bop, 34, appeared in Thurston County Superior Court in Washington State on Monday on charges of first-degree assault (two counts), third-degree assault, third-degree malicious mischief and malicious harassment. Bail was set at $50,000 with an arraignment set for Feb. 16. Prosecutor Mark Thompson said he was unable to verify the suspect’s legal name and deferred to his original name, Jeffrey Drew Wilschke.

The suspect said in court that he had legally changed his name to Beezow Doo-doo Zopittybop-bop-bop in 2011. Court documents said that an officer at The Evergreen State College responded to a report on Sunday afternoon that someone had torn down several fliers from the library entrance. The officer chased the suspect and eventually took him down to the ground, but the suspect thrashed around and tried to grab the officer’s gun. During the struggle, the suspect bit the officer’s ring finger several times and also tried to stab the officer with an ink pen. The officer was unable to control the suspect, who kept grabbing for his gun, and ended up stepping away.
The suspect retrieved a handcuff case, then swung it like a hammer, causing a laceration on the officer’s head. The officer punched the suspect in the jaw, but the strike didn’t faze him. The officer then used a taser twice, causing the suspect to fall to the ground on the second taser deployment. However, the suspect got up and fled on foot. A Thurston County Sheriff’s Office deputy saw the suspect running along Evergreen Parkway and chased him into a wooded area. At one point, the suspect threw a rock at the deputy. The deputy used his taser on the suspect, who broke the electrical lines and kept running. The suspect again threw rocks at the officer, striking him at least once. The deputy caught up to the suspect and struck him several times with a metal baton.
The deputy noted that the baton strikes didn’t have much of an effect on the suspect, who was able to grab a brick and throw it at the deputy before running off into the woods again. At this point, another deputy joined the pursuit and deployed a taser on the suspect. The suspect was eventually tackled, handcuffed and arrested. The Evergreen officer was transported to Providence St. Peter Hospital where he received a tetanus shot and four staples to close the laceration on his head. Zoppitybop-bop-bop also was transported to the hospital for a medical evaluation. It is unknown whether Zopittybop-bop-bop was under the influence of drugs at the time of his arrest Sunday. He has been listed as homeless, although the sheriff’s office confirmed he has a post office box registered in Olympia. In 2012, Zopittybop-bop-bop was arrested on marijuana and weapon charges in Wisconsin. He was also arrested in 2013 on drug charges in Iowa.

Woman used soiled pants as excuse for stealing groceries

Police say a Florida woman used reusable grocery bags to steal $199 worth of groceries from a Hernando Publix grocery store and then claimed she walked out of the store without paying because she had defected in her pants.

On Jan. 29, Publix workers saw Paula Jay Ernst, 51, from Land O’ Lakes, selecting items and putting them in her shopping cart at the Public. She then took the groceries from her shopping cart and put them into reusable Publix shopping bags, which she had brought with her, authorities said.
Hernando County Sheriff’s Office detectives say Wolf walked out of the store without paying for the groceries. The incident was recorded by surveillance cameras. Publix employees wrote down Wolf’s license plate number. She was then contacted at her home by telephone and agreed to return to the store.
After she was arrested, Wolf told deputies she did not mean to steal the items and walked out of the store because she had defecated in her pants, according to an arrest affidavit. Ernst was charged with shoplifting and booked into the Hernando County Jail.

Police found woman reportedly held against her will hiding under cannabis plant at friend's house

A search for a missing woman by police in Manjimup, Western Australia, on Sunday had an unexpected ending when she was found hiding under a thriving cannabis plant. The drama began when police were told by an ex-partner of the woman in her mid-40s that she was being "held against her will" at a nominated address. With concerns for her welfare, police arrived at the home and sought her whereabouts. "The male homeowner at first denied any knowledge of the woman's whereabouts other than she was 'in town', a Manjimup policeman said. The attending officers asked the homeowner whether they could look around and eventually took their search outside.
"The first I saw was a pair of socks sticking out from the bush and they don't usually go with a marijuana plant. It wasn't really well-thought through," said one of the officers who found her. "The woman was really worried we were going to take her back to her ex-partner, but we assured her we were only concerned for her welfare."
A second bush was growing alongside her hiding place and four others were allegedly found drying out. The Manjimup officers tweeted the good news of finding the woman safe and sound: "Police looking for a female after concerns for her welfare located her curled up under a cannabis plant hiding." The homeowner, who has known the woman for 17 years, was charged with several drug-related offenses. The woman is understood to have remained at the house, but has now moved indoors.

Man who tried to buy 12-year-old boy's fish with fake marijuana charged with assault

A man from Chatham-Kent in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, has been charged with assault after allegedly trying to trade fake pot to a 12-year-old boy in exchange for a pet fish and hitting him when the deal fell through.

29-year-old James DeWolfe allegedly struck the boy in the head after trying to pass a bag of oregano off as a bag of marijuana. The boy did not require medical attention.
The boy went to DeWolfe's house on Saturday for a planned meeting where the boy was going to sell him a fish as well as collect money for a fish tank that DeWolfe had yet to pay for.
DeWolfe tried to pay with a bag of what he claimed to be weed, but the boy realised it was actually a bag of dried spices. The boy confronted DeWolfe and was struck in the head, according to a news release from Chatham-Kent police. DeWolfe will appear in court on Feb. 16.

Policeman Answers Routine Call, Falls in Love With Puppy

Marcus Montgomery is a police officer with the Fort Walton Beach, Florida police department. When a situation regarding a prior employee arose at the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), Montgomery went to the facility to make sure everything was in order. Montgomery told BuzzFeed,
“We spoke for about 20 minutes and I was wrapping up my investigation. One of the supervisors left, and while I was still speaking to the director of PAWS, the supervisor came back in with this little puppy in her hands. You could tell he’d been sleeping because his eyes were heavy and he was yawning constantly.”
Montgomery said he “immediately” asked to hold the puppy. He soon found out that the pup had just been plucked from a box on the other side of the building, and due to being all alone in the box, he had been crying.

When Montgomery heard that information it was, as they say, "all she wrote." The cop decided right then and there to take the pup home that night where he lives with his girlfriend and a pitbull rescue named Vader, who was long desirous of canine companionship.
Now? We have Vader and Kylo, as seen below. Living, loving and napping. Navigating the dark side together, as a pair of close pals are wont to do.

Learn about Vader's history and how his being a pitbull affected the early part of his life as a shelter animal, and see more criminally cute pictures of Vader and Kylo by visiting this link.

Baby Swordfish Fits on the Tip of a Finger

He's perhaps only an inch long. But in a year, he could be over 3 feet long! Juan C. Levesque, a graduate student and fisheries professional, says that the broadbill swordfish (Xiphias gladius) is called the "gladiator of the sea." In a 2014 article for the magazine Florida Sportsman, Levesque describes the life cycle of this fighting fish prized by fishermen:

On average, swordfish grow about 14 inches per year, but there are differences between the sexes. Female swordfish grow faster, live longer, and reach a larger size than male swordfish; almost every swordfish I weighed that was heavier than 200 pounds was a female. It has been reported that swordfish can top 14 feet and 1,400 pounds in weight, but these large fish are rare these days. In my 7 years collecting data on commercial fishing vessels, the largest swordfish I ever saw captured was around 500 pounds; it was caught near West Palm Beach, Florida.

The Weird Thing About Cat Legs

Who knew that a “crouching tiger” is not supposed to crouch? Huge tigers walk, crouch, and leap the same way house cats do, and pretty much all other cats of different sizes do. But that is a mystery to scientists, because it’s unique in the animal kingdom. It’s a matter of physics.

Today, cats span a huge range of sizes. The rusty-spotted cat of India and Sri Lanka weighs just one kilogram, while the mighty Siberian tiger is 300 times heavier. And yet, these animals are surprisingly similar. “It's famously said that a lion is just a scaled-up house cat,” says Anjali Goswami from University College London, who works with Hutchinson. “That's very weird.”
Their legs are especially odd. When animals get bigger, their posture changes. Their legs tend to straighten, becoming stiffer and more pillar-like to better support their weight. Not so with cats. When a lion strides across the savannah, it has essentially the same posture as the domesticated tabby that slinks over your lap. Lions, tigers, and leopards—oh my—are, as Hutchinson writes, the only large, crouching mammals.

How do those large cats do it? They don’t have larger muscles to compensate. Scientists have designed experiments to learn more about the physics of big cat legs, but they don’t have any results yet. Oh, it’s not for lack of trying, but another way big cats are like small cats is that they don’t want to cooperate with scientists or anyone. Read about the so-far futile efforts involved in getting cats to measure leg force at the Atlantic.

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