CAROLINA NATURALLY: May 22, 2016

Sunday, May 22, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of Carolina Naturally.

'Nuff Said ...!

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Today in History

1246		Henry Raspe is elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.
1455		King Henry VI is taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.
1804		The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.
1856		U.S. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for Sumner’s earlier condemnation of slavery, which included an insult to Brooks’ cousin, Senator Andrew Butler.
1863		Union General Ulysses S. Grant‘s second attack on Vicksburg fails and a siege begins.
1868		The “Great Train Robbery” takes place as seven members of the Reno Gang make off with $98,000 in cash from a train’s safe in Indiana.
1872		The Amnesty Act restores civil rights to Southerners.
1882		The United States formally recognizes Korea.
1908		The Wright brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent.
1939		Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign a “Pact of Steel” forming the Axis powers.
1947		The Truman Doctrine brings aid to Turkey and Greece.
1967		The children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiers.
1972		Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka as its constitution is ratified.
1985		Baseball player Pete Rose passes Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.
1990		In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merge to become a single state.
1992		Johnny Carson’s final appearance on The Tonight Show on NBC, after 30 years as the program’s host.
2004		An EF4 tornado with a record-setting width of 2.5 miles wipes out Hallam, Nebraska, killing 1 person.
2004		Farenheit 9-11, directed by Michael Moore, becomes the first documentary ever to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
2010		Following a 200-year search for the tomb of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus his remains are reburied in Frombork Cathedral
2011		An EF5 tornado kills at least 158 people in Joplin, Missouri, the largest death toll from a tornado since record-keeping began in 1950.
2015		The Republic of Ireland, long known as a conservative, predominantly catholic country, becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum

Why a Pentecostal preacher gave up on jesus and became an atheist activist

Why a Pentecostal preacher gave up on jesus and became an atheist activist

Try to imagine: You’re a Pentecostal preacher in small-town Louisiana. Your public reputation, your connection with the people you love, indeed your own sense of self-worth, not to mention your livelihood, are hugely dependent on your passionate delusion in christ.

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He got smart ...

At Her College Graduation, This Woman Reunited with the Cop Who Saved Her Life

(Photos: Alan Chaniewski/Peter Getz)In 1998, a fire broke out in a house in Hartford, Connecticut. Inside was 5-year old Josibelk Aponte. Officer Peter Getz, a now-retired police detective, responded to the scene. A firefighter put the little girl in Getz arms.
Her heart had stopped.
Getz carried her away from the building and put her in the back of his patrol car. While his partner rushed them to the hospital, Officer Getz performed CPR on Josibelk.
The little girl survived and thrived. She just graduated from college and Getz was there to see her walk. The Hartford Courant reports:

About two years ago, Aponte contacted him out of the blue through Facebook.
"Every once in a while I get nostalgic and I want to know what happened," Aponte said. "So I did what everyone does: I Googled my name."
Her research turned up an article that identified Getz, and through some "Facebook stalking," she found him.
The two get together regularly, sometimes meeting for lunch. They talk about Getz's kids, his dog, how Aponte is doing in school.
Now, with a degree in accounting and a job at Walston & Ignagni in South Windsor, the conversations have turned to her plans for the future.
"To see the outcome, to see how successful she's been, makes my heart beat faster," Getz said.

Wingnut hack O’Keefe exposes his own ‘sting’ on George Soros group

Conservative activist James O'Keefe in December 2014 interview with Fox News. [YouTube]

BUSTED: Wingnut hack O’Keefe exposes his own ‘sting’ on George Soros group

"The Watergate burglars look good compared to these guys," said Open Society Foundations president Chris Stone. "These guys can't even figure out how to use an Internet browser, let alone conduct an undercover operation."

Maroon 5 cancels shows in North Carolina in protest at transgender bathroom law

Federally-funded transphobic 'christian' school demands to see birth certificates to ‘weed out’ kids

Federally-funded transphobic 'christian' school demands to see birth certificates to ‘weed out’ kids

The principal at St. John’s Lutheran School in Baraboo sent a letter to parents demanding they provide students’ birth certificates and sign an agreement that lists being LGBT as one of the “transgressions” a child can be expelled for.

Alabama’s only openly gay lawmaker drops a giant truth bomb on the transgender bathroom controversy

Alabama State Rep. Patricia Todd appears on MSNBC (Screen cap)

Alabama’s only openly gay lawmaker drops a giant truth bomb on the transgender bathroom controversy

With battles over the rights of transgender people to use public restrooms of their choice raging across the country, Alabama’s only openly gay lawmaker has penned a terrific op-ed that dispels a lot of the myths surrounding transgender people.

Florida cops pummel black man for walking into a store ...

Oklahoma's Fallin vetoes bill turning abortion procedures into a felony

Oklahoma's Fallin vetoes bill turning abortion procedures into a felony

Oklahoma’s moron Fallin on Friday vetoed a bill that called for prison terms of up the three years for doctors who performed abortions, saying the legislation “would not withstand a criminal constitutional legal challenge.”

'99 Percent Chance' 2016 Will Be Hottest Year

'99 Percent Chance' 2016 Will Be Hottest Year

With the streak of record-warm months continuing, 2016 is looking increasingly likely to become the hottest year on record.

The Trees of Literature

Atlas Obscura is highlighting trees all this week in what they call, appropriately, Tree Week. Among posts about living trees and historical trees, they also pay tribute to trees in fiction. It’s only natural, as literature has been dependent on trees for a thousand years. They bypassed the most obvious choices (The Giving Tree) and introduce us to some literary trees you might not have thought of, like the Tree of Heaven from the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

The so-called Tree of Heaven grows outside the window of Francie Nolan, a second-generation Irish-American girl coming of age in Brooklyn at the turn of the century. Just as Francie and her family struggle against the odds to make a life for themselves, the tree too manages to prosper without water, light, or care. Francie grows from a girl to young woman under the harsh conditions of tenement life, enduring poverty, assault, loneliness, and betrayal. Through it all, she maintains a deep and abiding inner strength. Like Francie, the tree that grows out of the cement in Brooklyn is tough, tenacious, and blossoming against all odds. It’s the kind of tree you root for.

Read about six other literary trees at Atlas Obscura.

Do Trees Sleep?

Do Trees Sleep?

Observations with laser scanners show that trees have a day-night rhythm too.

Paleontology News

New Horned Dinosaurs Had Spiked Neck Shields

The distinctive dinos were found in Utah and Montana, with each sporting spiked neck shields.

Transgendered Animals in Nature

With all the controversy around the transgendered bathroom issues, one thing that keeps coming up is the idea of whether or not it is "natural." In this matter, there really shouldn't be much argument. Aside from the fact that there are ample humans born intersexed, the idea that transexualism isn't prevelant in nature is wrong.
This TopTenz article discuses ten animals that demonstrate examples of transexualism, whether through animals acting like members of the other sex (like garter snakes) or actually changing gender (like clownfish). The fact is, transgenderism is entirely natural and common in nature.

Edible 6-Pack Rings Feed Marine Life Instead of Killing It

People throw away 6-pack rings. Then they get tangled around the bodies of turtles, fish, birds, and other animals. They can maim or strangle those helpless creatures.
The Saltwater Brewery of Delray Beach, Florida was founded by and for surfers, fishermen, and other people who love the sea. They wanted to make sure that their 6-packs of beer help rather than hurt marine life. So they worked with the ad agency We Believers to develop a 6-pack ring that is edible.
The 3d printed 6-pack rings are made of byproducts of the brewing process, including wheat and barley, that are biodegradable and edible by marine life. And if no one nibbles at it, it simply dissolves, freeing any creature trapped inside. Discover magazine reports:

The company 3-D printed a test batch of 500 holders in April, according to AdvertisingAge, and it plans to scale up production to meet its current output of 400,000 cans of beer a month. While the edible holders are more expensive to make, Saltwater Brewery wants set an example for other beer producers and encourage them to adopt the idea. They say if their edible holders become commonplace, they could potentially be as cheap as the regular plastic rings.