The Daily Drift

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Carolina Naturally

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Today in History

1521		Hernan Cortes captures the city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico, and sets it on fire.
1630		Emperor Ferdinand II dismisses Albert Eusebius von Wallenstein, his most capable general.
1680		War starts when the Spanish are expelled from Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Indians under Chief Pope.
1704		The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Austria defeat the French Army at the Battle of Blenheim.
1787		The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia.
1862		Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats a Union army under Thomas Crittenden at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
1881		The first African-American nursing school opens at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
1889		The first coin-operated telephone is patented by William Gray.
1892		The first issue of the Afro American newspaper is published in Baltimore, Maryland.
1898		Manila, the capital of the Philippines, falls to the U.S. Army.
1910		British nurse Florence Nightingale, famous for her care of British soldiers during the Crimean War, dies.
1932		Adolf Hitler refuses to serve as Franz Von Papen’s vice chancellor.
1948		During the Berlin Airlift, the weather over Berlin becomes so stormy that American planes have their most difficult day landing supplies. They deem it ‘Black Friday.’
1961		Construction begins on Berlin Wall during the night.
1963		A 17 year-old Buddhist monk burns himself to death in Saigon, South Vietnam.
1978		Bomb attack in Beirut during Second Lebanese Civil War kills more than 150 people.
1989		The wreckage of a plane that carried U.S. congressman Mickey Leland and others on a humanitarian mission is found on a mountain side in Ethiopia; there are no survivors.
1993		US Court of Appeals rules Congress must save all emails.

Federal Court Strikes Down North Carolina’s Racist Gerrymandering Law

Federal Court Strikes Down North Carolina’s Racist Gerrymandering Law

In another blow to voter and racial suppression, a federal court just stuck down North Carolina’s racially designated gerrymandering ploy just weeks...

NJ lesbians must first have sex with men before receiving insured fertility treatment

NJ lesbians must first have sex with men before receiving insured fertility treatment

A pair of lesbian couples in New Jersey are suing state officials over a law they said discriminates against same-sex partnerships concerning insurance coverage for fertility treatments.

The Accidental Origin of the Hit Song “American Woman”

The Canadian band The Guess Who almost got drafted and sent to Vietnam because they were going south to play in Texas. They managed to escape, but missed their gig in Texas. That’s just the setup for the story of how “American Woman” was written.  

(YouTube link)

It’s not often a song is put together in front of an audience, and it’s even rarer that such a song goes on to be a hit. Randy Bachmann tells us about how “American Woman” came about, in a video from Great Big Story.

The Knights Of Olde Were Actually Huge Jerks

The knights of olde have been heavily romanticized over the years thanks to literature and pop culture, but despite what your favorite fictional stories say knights were big ol' jerks.
I mean, what kind of hero would pillage, rape and slaughter their serf's livestock without moral objection or fear of punishment? A medieval knight, that's who!

Many medieval knights had nothing better to do than hang out on their plot of land all day, since they only worked about 40 days a year, and when those alpha male rich kids in plate mail armor got bored blood would flow.

But battle was rarely a deadly affair for medieval knights, because common blooded foot soldiers could be punished for killing a knight since they were worth more when held for ransom.

Read 10 Reasons Medieval Knights Were Actually Huge Jerks here

Ancient DNA in lake mud sheds light on the mystery of how humans first reached America

Ancient DNA in lake mud sheds light on the mystery of how humans first reached America  

Driver eventually rescued after being trapped in car on pedestrian walkway for over 12 hours

A man has been rescued from his car after it became wedged in a pedestrian-only walkway to a pier in the Republic of Ireland. The car got stuck at Dunquin in County Kerry. It is believed the man got stuck on Tuesday night and spent more than 12 hours in the car until a ferry crew came across him on Wednesday morning.
He was helped from the car by police before it was removed at about 12:00pm. The pier is used for transporting people to and from the Blasket Islands, off the County Kerry coast. Sibéal Ní Lubhaing, of Blasket Island Ferries, said staff had "never seen anyone drive that far down" the narrow and windy path. "We were actually in awe of him, because there are couple of very sharp turns that you'd think a car could not navigate," she said.
"There's also huge signs saying 'don't drive' going down to the pier." She said it appeared the man was in shock when staff eventually found him. "We're not sure, but it seems like he was there from about ten o'clock on Tuesday," she said. "After he got stuck, he didn't ring anyone for help although he had a mobile phone. When the crews found him, he was reluctant to leave the car. I think the shock hit him and he wanted to stay in the vehicle.
"But, when he saw the police uniforms, he seemed more reassured and we were able to get him out through the boot. It was fairly innocent, everyone makes mistakes. Because it's our busy season there was a lot of people here this morning who saw what happened. But, the main thing now is that he's safe. We're happy he's okay." Irish police confirmed that they attended the scene and helped the motorist.

Housing official in Silicon Valley pens scathing resignation because she can’t afford to live there

Housing official in Silicon Valley pens scathing resignation because she can’t afford to live there

“After many years of trying to make it work in Palo Alto, my husband and I cannot see a way to stay in Palo Alto and raise a family here,” wrote Kate Vershov Downing.

Factory Farming Is Giving Rise to Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs

How Factory Farming Is Giving Rise to Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs

10 Ways Grocery Stores Rip You Off

10 Ways Grocery Stores Rip You Off

Chili's Restaurants Honcho Paid Under the Minimum Wage,

Chili's Restaurants Honcho Paid Under the Minimum Wage, Workers Allege in Suit

Judge spares prison for ‘entitled’ rapist who admitted attack on ‘fucking bitch’ who rejected him

Judge spares prison for ‘entitled’ rapist who admitted attack on ‘fucking bitch’ who rejected him

Austin James Wilkerson was convicted in May of sexually assaulting a helpless victim and unlawful sexual contact, which carried a possible 12-year prison term.

Remorseful burglar left apology letter and cash but victim won't receive money as it's evidence

An attempted burglary near Washington Park in Denver, Colorado, ended with the remorseful thief leaving an apology letter and cash. Dave Keating got a call telling him that someone threw a propane tank through his back door.
“Nothing was really stolen from the house, I think the alarm kind of scared them off,” said Keating of the case. A day later, he found an envelope containing $300 and an apology letter from the burglar. The letter said: “I'm so sorry. Was driving near your home when I felt a heart attack coming on.
"Didn't have any medication and thought if I could find some aspirin quickly, I would survive. The alarm freaked me out and I left but thankfully made it back to my car and was able to get care. Again I am so sorry (and embarrassed). Please find $300 enclosed for the damage and I hope you will forgive me."
Police were able to lift a fingerprint off the cash, but it didn’t lead to any hits in a national criminal database. The case is still considered an open investigation. As for the money, because it’s evidence, Keating will never get it back. Per the city’s evidence policy, it’ll eventually go into the city’s funds after a few years when the case is finally closed.

Florida woman charged after 6-year-old son beats newborn daughter to death

Florida woman charged after 6-year-old son beats newborn daughter to death

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the suspect, Kathleen Marie Steele, was “by all accounts unequipped” to be a mother.

How a volcano hid the acceleration of sea level rise

How a volcano hid the acceleration of sea level rise

The Volcanoes No One Has Ever Seen

As tectonic plates move away from each other, they pull the earth’s crust apart. When these fissures open, magma erupts into the ocean, forming new volcanoes. The magma builds up to form ridges in the middle of the ocean. Since they are so far away and so deep, we don’t know much about these volcanoes …yet. Isobel Yeo of the Helmholtz Institute for Ocean Research Kiel tells us about recent GEOMAR research that is revealing more about these volcanoes. 

Using a torpedo-like underwater autonomous robot, they were able to capture thousands of high-resolution photos of the seafloor, never seen in such detail before. The pictures, featured here, are of such high quality that the seafloor can now be surveyed in much the same way geologists do on land.
"These observations, combined with the spatial extents of the flows, mean we can work out how much lava erupted where and when," Yeo says.
The images reaffirm that the lava flows are relatively young. They also show that there are clear periods of inactivity, where no eruptions occurred for thousands of years.

Read about GEOMAR’s research and see more pictures from the North Kolbeinsey Ridge taken 2,297-6,562 feet under the sea at BBC Earth.

Manatee romance caused traffic congestion

A rare sight literally stopped traffic on the Courtney Campbell Causeway in Tampa Bay, Florida, on Tuesday afternoon.

There was a lot of splashing in the water just yards from the road and it drew dozens of people out of their cars to catch a glimpse of what is called a "manatee mating ball."

People stopped to watch for good reason because it is a very rare sight that you can only see every 3 to 5 years. For a female manatee, deciding between suitors can be difficult.

YouTube link.

There are at least seven male manatees competing for a single female's attention. The male's strategy is to push the female into shallow water in order to mate with her.

A Shark Nearly 400 Years Old

Greenland sharks are not seen often, because they live in the depths of the Arctic Ocean, but scientists know they can weigh over a ton and live rather long lives. How long? Recent research determined one was 335 years old, and another was 392 years old! Of course, there’s a margin for error, but if true, that means there may be Greenland sharks alive now that were around when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. But wait, how do they figure a shark’s age?

Fortunately, they had access to a good number of Greenland sharks; unfortunately, that’s because those sharks had been accidentally caught in fishing nets and scientists’ long lines between 2010 and 2013. All 28 female sharks used in the study had been fatally injured by the time they landed onboard—some by other sharks, and some by fishing equipment—and so all were euthanized. After the sharks’ deaths, researchers measured each shark and took tissue samples from the lenses of its eyes.
The scientists used radiocarbon dating on the samples to see if they could age the sharks. Once again, they had good data thanks to a bad situation—in this case, nuclear warfare. Scientists have known since the 1950s that nuclear bomb tests leave permanent molecular marks on sea creatures. Consequently, the appearance of bomb-related changes in an animal’s tissue can be seen as a sort of time stamp. But because these changes persist, even animals born after any given bomb can be marked by it if the animals they eat were alive during the test.

So it's a bit more complicated than cutting them open and counting the rings. Read more about Greenland sharks at mental_floss.

Animal Pictures