The Daily Drift

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Carolina Naturally

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Today in History

216 BC		Hannibal Barca wins his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannae. After avidly studying the tactics of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus eventually bested his Carthaginian adversary.
47 BC		Caesar defeats Pharnaces at Zela in Syria and declares, “veni, vidi, vici,” (I came, I saw, I conquered).
1552		The treaty of Passau gives religious freedom to Protestants living in Germany.
1553		An invading French army is destroyed at the Battle of Marciano in Italy by an imperial army.
1589		During France’s religious war, a fanatical monk stabs King Henry II to death.
1776		The Continental Congress, having decided unanimously to make the Declaration of Independence, affixes the signatures of the other delegates to the document.
1790		The first US census begins enumerating the population.
1802		Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed “Consul for Life” by the French Senate after a plebiscite from the French people.
1819		The first parachute jump from a balloon is made by Charles Guille in New York City.
1832		Troops under General Henry Atkinson massacre Sauk Indian men, women and children who are followers of Black Hawk at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin. Black Hawk himself finally surrenders three weeks later, bringing the Black Hawk War to an end.
1847		William A. Leidesdorff launches the first steam boat in San Francisco Bay.
1862		Union General John Pope captures Orange Court House, Virginia.
1862		The Army Ambulance Corps is established by Maj. Gen. George McClellan.
1876		Wild Bill Hickok is shot while playing poker.
1914		Germany invades Luxembourg.
1918		A British force lands in Archangel, Russia, to support White Russian opposition to the Bolsheviks.
1923		Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes president upon the death of Warren G. Harding.
1934		German President Paul von Hindenburg dies and Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor.
1943		Lt. John F. Kennedy, towing an injured sailor, swims to a small island in the Solomon Islands. The night before, his boat, PT-109, had been split in half by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri.
1950		The U.S. First Provisional Marine Brigade arrives in Korea from the United States.
1964		U.S. destroyer Maddox is reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats.
1965		Newsman Morley Safer films the destruction of a Vietnamese village by U.S. Marines.
1990		Iraqi forces invade neighboring Kuwait.
1997		Author William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), considered the godfather of the “Beat Generation” in American literature, dies at age 83.

Gas Station Offers Free Gas to People in Bikinis and High Heels

Would you like to refill your tank for free? At this gas station in Samara, Russia, customers could get gas for free, provided that they pumped it while wearing bikinis and high heeled shoes. The tabloid Daily Star reports that the venture was very successful, leading to cars queuing up for the duration of the 3-hour event.

Was this offer sexist? Keep in mind that the gas station said this was available to people, not just women. Men could take advantage of the opportunity. And they did so.

It's So Hot in New York That Poop Is Bursting into Flame

How hot is it? It's fiery poop hot. Officers with the state's Department of Environmental Conservation found that piles of horse manure in a barn in Throop, New York have been spontaneously catching fire. The AP reports:

The responding officer learned that the owners of a horse stable had been storing the manure in large piles that frequently spontaneously combusted in the excessive heat and dry conditions.
DEC officials say a shift in the prevailing winds carried the odor of burning manure into the neighbors' windows.
It took three local fire departments two hours to douse the burning manure.

How Olympic Sprinter Stella Walsh Nearly Lost Her Medals Because of Her Autopsy

Stella Walsh grew up in the early 20th century caught between two worlds: that of her Polish birthplace and her American upbringing. She was a talented athlete, but could not compete for the USA team in the Olympics because she wasn’t yet a citizen. She won medals in track for Poland in 1932 and 1936, and kept up her dream of competing as an American. That never happened. But the real shocker came when Walsh was murdered.

In December 1980, Walsh was in a Cleveland parking lot when she was approached by two men with a gun. When they tried to grab her purse, the 69-year-old Walsh fought back. The gun fired, hitting her in the chest. When local TV stations reported Walsh’s death, they also reported information that the coroner’s office had leaked about her preliminary autopsy report: Stella Walsh—who was considered one of the greatest female athletes of all time—had male genitalia.
One of Cleveland’s local TV stations, WKYC Channel 3, sued the county coroner’s office to compel them to release Walsh’s official autopsy report. Her family and supporters protested, not wanting the salacious results to be made public, but within days, national newspapers like The Washington Post were speculating about her gender identity with headlines like "Heroine or Hero?". A judge sided with Channel 3, and the coroner, Samuel Gerber, released Walsh’s autopsy report on January 23, 1981.

Read the story of Stella Walsh’s life, her athletic career, and the fallout from her death at mental_floss.

Thieves stole two walls from barn

Claude Villeneuve, from the Saguenay region of Quebec, Canada, was surprised to discover that someone had stolen two of his barn's walls on Wednesday. "I started to, like, laugh," Villeneuve said. "But my wife, she said 'We've had two walls stolen. That can't be.'"

The planks of wooden barns have become a hot commodity in the antique and craft markets. Design magazines and websites are replete with suggestions about how to put reclaimed wood to good use, from headboards to tables to backsplash.
Barn wood can sell for as much as $11 per square foot in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area. "Barn wood is really trendy," said Caroline Leclerc, owner of Rose Bon Bon, an interior design store in the Saguenay. "It really adds life to decorations. But it's very difficult to find barn wood." Villeneuve estimates the thieves made off with about $2,000 worth of wood.
He said he's been approached several times by prospective buyers interested in the planks that used to compose the sides his barn. He had always rebuffed them, given that his farm still makes use of the barn to store hay. But now Villeneuve is considering taking down what remains of the barn to salvage the wood. "At least they left me one wall," he said, laughing.

The Paid Sick Days Movement Is Already Paying Off.

New data shows the effort to pass paid sick leave laws is working.

Shouting man wearing Nixon mask found in tree

Police in Ohio, responding to a call of an argument on Thursday morning found the source to be a man in a mask, up a tree.

Mount Vernon Police reports indicate that police were dispatched on a call of two men arguing at 8:45am.
The caller said they could hear the argument but could not locate where it was coming from. Upon arrival, officers found a Mount Vernon man in a pine tree.
He was shouting and wearing a Richard M. Nixon mask. The 53-year-old man voluntarily came down out of the tree. No citations were issued in the incident.

Norway may build floating underwater traffic tunnels

Norway has hatched ambitious plans to install the world’s first floating underwater tunnels to help travelers easily cross the nation’s many fjords. At present, the only way to travel across the bodies of water involves taking a series of ferries – an inconvenient and time-consuming process. The “submerged floating bridges” would consist of large tubes suspended under 100 feet of water, and each one will be wide enough for two lanes of traffic...
Norway has so far committed $25 billion in funds to the project, which is expected to reach completion by 2035. How can they spend $25,000,000,000 on this?  Because they're not spending $25,000,000,000 projecting their military strength around the world.  They understand the importance of maintaining and improving infrastructure, and their nation's political structure is not controlled by the military-industrial complex.

YouTube link.

Utility Won’t Clear Up Toxic Coal Ash Pits Because It’s Too Expensive

Removing toxic coal ash from ponds would reduce potential groundwater contamination. But TVA says that's also more expensive and worse for the environment.

Judge to consider halting North Carolina's anti-transgender bathroom law

 Judge to consider halting North Carolina's anti-transgender bathroom law

'Constitutional Sheriffs'

'Constitutional Sheriffs': The Latest Extreme Wingnut Pox on Our Republic

A Georgia town is sending police to black residents’ homes to challenge their voting rights

A Georgia town is sending police to black residents’ homes to challenge their voting rights

“People just do not understand why a sheriff is coming to their house to bring them a subpoena, especially if they haven’t committed any crime.”

Afghan cleric arrested for marrying six-year-old girl who he called a 'religious offering'

Afghan cleric arrested for marrying six-year-old girl who he called a 'religious offering'

Trial by Touch

“Trial by Touch” was a peculiar method of determining guilt in a murder case that was used occasionally in colonial America, brought over from earlier trials in Europe. The accused murderer was charged to touch the corpse of the victim before witnesses.

It was widely believed in those days that "murdered blood cried for vengeance" just as the blood of Abel was said to have "cried up from the ground." This formed the rationale for a further belief that if a murderer touched the corpse of his victim, that corpse would either bleed or have the "blood come fresh upon it."

But the corpse didn’t have to bleed to indicate guilt. If it moved or bruised, that was good enough. Read more about Trial by Touch and an account of a woman who was hanged for murder because of it, at Weird Universe.

Drug lord's life of luxury behind bars revealed

Police in Paraguay raided a drug lord's prison cell, only to find he was living a life of luxury. In the three-room cell, they found a conference room, plasma screen television, library and kitchen.
The cell also had air conditioning, comfortable furniture, an en-suite bathroom and a DVD collection. The interior of the cell, which was occupied by Brazilian drug lord Jarvis Chimenes Pavao, has now been destroyed.
Police had learned Pavao was planning to escape by using explosives to blow a hole in the wall of the prison. Pavao was due to complete his sentence for money laundering next year, at the end of which he was likely to face extradition to Brazil. He has now been transferred to a special unit away from his luxury cell in Tacumbu prison, near the capital Asuncion.

YouTube link.

An investigation is now under way to see which officials had allowed Pavao to set up his life of luxury. Prisoners at Tacumbu said that anyone wanting to stay in the luxury unit had to pay Pavao a one-off fee of $5,000 (£3,778) and a weekly rent of $600. "He was the most loved man in this prison," one inmate, Antonio Gonzalez, said.

"Die Toteninsel"

Isle of the Dead ("Die Toteninsel")

Arnold Böcklin is best known for his five versions (painted in 1880-1886) of the Isle of the Dead, which partly evokes the English Cemetery, Florence, close to his studio and where his baby daughter Maria had been buried.

This is a "rain bomb"

The phenomenon is known in meteorology circles as the more sober “wet microburst.” They are supposed to happen rarely; conditions must be just right. A thunderstorm runs into a dry patch of air that sucks some moisture away. The air underneath the storm cloud cools, making it more dense than the air around it. The cooler air begins to drop into even warmer air and then accelerates. When the faucet really flips on, air can blast out of the sky at more than 115 miles per hour. It deflects off the ground and pushes winds outward, at or near tornado strength.  More details about this event in Phoenix at Bloomberg.

Parakeets are the new pigeons ...

Parakeets are the new pigeons – and they’re on course for global domination

Animal Pictures