The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of  
Carolina Naturally

Today also happens to be National Motorcycle Ride Day ...! 

 

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Today in History

876		Charles the Bald is defeated at the Battle of Andernach.
1690		Belgrade is retaken by the Turks.
1840		King William I of Holland abdicates.
1855		Arrow, a ship flying the British flag, is boarded by Chinese who arrest the crew, thus beginning the Second Chinese War.
1862		The Union is victorious at the Battle of Perryville, the largest Civil War combat to take place in Kentucky.
1871		The Great Chicago Fire begins in southwest Chicago, possibly in a barn owned by Patrick and Katherine O’Leary. Fanned by strong southwesterly winds, the flames rage for more than 24 hours, eventually leveling three and a half square miles and wiping out one-third of the city. Approximately 250 people are killed in the fire; 98,500 people are left homeless; 17,450 buildings are destroyed.
1897		Journalist Charles Henry Dow, founder of the Wall Street Journal, begins charting trends of stocks and bonds.
1900		Maximilian Harden is sentenced to six months in prison for publishing an article critical of the German Kaiser.
1906		Karl Ludwig Nessler first demonstrates a machine in London that puts permanent waves in hair. The client wears a dozen brass curlers, each wearing two pounds, for the six-hour process.
1912		First Balkan War begins as Montenegro declares war against the Ottoman Empire.
1918		US Army corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132 in the Argonne Forest; he is promoted to sergeant and awarded the US Medal of Honor and the French Croix de Guerre.
1919		The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives pass the Volstead Prohibition Enforcement Bill.
1921		First live radio broadcast of a football game takes place; Harold W. Arlin is the announcer when KDKA of Pittsburgh broadcasts live from Forbes Field as the University of Pittsburgh beats West Virginia University 21–13.
1922		Lillian Gatlin becomes the first woman pilot to fly across the United States.
1932		The Indian Air Force is established.
1939		Nazi Germany annexes Western Poland.
1956		Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitches the first perfect game in the World Series history against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1967		Guerrilla Che Guevara is captured in Bolivia.
1968		U.S. forces in Vietnam launch Operation SEALORDS (South East Asia Lake, Ocean, River and Delta Strategy), an attack on communist supply lines and base areas in and around the Mekong Delta.
1969		The “Days of Rage” begin in Chicago; the Weathermen faction of the Students for a Democratic Society initiate 3 days of violent antiwar protests.
1973		In the Yom Kippur War an Israeli armored brigade makes an unsuccessful attack on Egyptian positions on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal.
1978		Ken Warby of Australia sets the world water speed record, 317.60 mph, at Blowering Dam in Australia; no other human has yet (2013) exceeded 300 mph on water and survived.
1982		The musical Cats begins a run of nearly 18 years on Broadway.
1991		Croatia votes to sever its ties with Yugoslavia.
2001		The shrub establishes the Office of Homeland Security.

Michelle Obama Makes The White House Garden Permanent, So Racists Called Her A ‘Gorilla’

Michelle Obama Makes The White House Garden Permanent, So Racists Called Her A ‘Gorilla’

The absolute hatred wingnuts have for First Lady Michelle Obama knows no bounds.

Collective Unconscious Is Creating Creepy Clowns

Crazy: The Collective Unconscious Is Creating Creepy Clowns

Girls with ADHD

An ADHD diagnosis puts girls at much higher risk for other mental health problems

Girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are at higher risk than girls without ADHD for multiple mental disorders that often lead to cascading problems such as abusive relationships, teenage pregnancies, poor grades and drug abuse, UCLA psychologists report...

Police appeal for information about mysterious panty planter

A sustained campaign involving underwear being placed beneath a tree outside a house in the east of Melbourne, Australia, has left police and the homeowner baffled. The resident of Surrey Hills has told law enforcement that knickers of various styles and sizes have been appearing in her front yard since 2014.
At least five times, the woman has found a pair of undies carefully laid out in the same spot at the base of a tree trunk. On the sixth occasion, a black lacy number was put inside the woman's letterbox. While mystery surrounds the origin of the multiplying smalls, police are unsure if an offense has even been committed.
If there is a crime to investigate, Senior Sergeant Mark Standish from Boroondara police said it could possibly be deemed offensive behavior. "It's very strange. We get people pinching underwear, but ... I haven't seen anything like this," he said. The victim has told police that she doesn't have any enemies or people with grudges against her.
Senior Sergeant Mark Standish said that while the case may seem bizarre, this kind of behavior can develop into more serious offending. "We're appealing for anyone who recognizes their underwear to come forward," he said. "We'll get to the bottom of it." Anyone with information is asked to contact Boroondara police station.

Father and son both arrested after coming to blows over thrown away Lego

A Florida man’s decision to throw out his 19-year-old son’s Lego collection triggered a domestic brawl that ended with both combatants behind bars.
Responding to a domestic violence call at a Port St. Lucie residence at 11pm on Wednesday, police encountered Nicholas Melice, Sr. and his son, Nicholas Jr.. The elder Melice, 46, had been arguing with his son, officers noted, “over Mr. Melice Sr. throwing out Mr. Melice Jr.’s Lego’s.”
The dispute, both Melices acknowledged, turned physical and included the exchange of shoves and punches. The men each suffered scratches during the fight. The younger Melice apparently discovered that his Lego had been thrown away upon returning to his family’s home from his current residence in Jupiter
“Both Mr. Melice and Mr. Melice Jr. advised they wished to pursue criminal charges,” reported an officer who added that he was unable to determine the scrape’s “primary aggressor.” The Melices were each booked into the county jail on Thursday morning for misdemeanor battery.

Backpage.com raided, CEO arrested for sex-trafficking

State agents raided the Dallas headquarters of adult classified ad portal Backpage and arrested Chief Executive Officer Carl Ferrer on Thursday following allegations that adult and child sex-trafficking victims had been forced into prostitution through escort ads posted on the site.

Ferrer, 55, was arrested on a California warrant after arriving at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport on a flight from Amsterdam.

"Making money off the backs of innocent human beings by allowing them to be exploited for modern-day slavery is not acceptable in Texas," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris said that Ferrer was arrested on felony charges of pimping a minor, pimping, and conspiracy to commit pimping. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond and will face an extradition hearing before he can be returned to California.

"Raking in millions of dollars from the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable victims is outrageous, despicable and illegal," said Harris, a Democrat who is running for the U.S. Senate in next month's election. "Backpage and its executives purposefully and unlawfully designed Backpage to be the world's top online brothel."

An attorney representing Backpage, Liz McDougall, did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages left by The Associated Press.

The site's controlling shareholders, Michael Lacey, 68, and James Larkin, 67, have been charged with conspiracy to commit pimping, Harris said in a statement. Neither of them has been taken into custody by late Thursday although warrants have been issued for their arrest. Under California's law, felony pimping is defined as making money off of prostitutes or soliciting customers for prostitution.

Lacey and Larkin are former owners of the Village Voice and the Phoenix New Times. An attorney who previously represented the two men, Michael Manning, did not immediately respond to a telephone message from The AP.

Backpage advertises a wide range of services, but the California arrest warrant alleges that internal business records obtained through a search warrant show that 99 percent its revenue came from its adult services section between January 2013 and March 2015. California officials said the site collects fees from users who use coded language and nearly nude photos to offer sex for money.

Worldwide revenue from sex ads topped $3.1 million in just one week last year, according to a court affidavit. It says Ferrer expanded Backpage's share of online sex marketing by creating affiliated sites including EvilEmpire.com and BigCity.com with related content.

The site operates in hundreds of cities worldwide, authorities said, including more than 30 in California. It collected $2.5 million per month just from California, or more than $51 million during the 29 months covered by the internal revenue reports.

Larkin and Lacey each received $10 million bonuses from the website in September 2014, according to the court filing. It says Backpage was created in 2004, but since 2014 has been owned by a Netherlands-based company that has Ferrer as its only named partner.

California authorities said the state's three-year investigation found many of the ads include victims of sex trafficking including children under the age of 18.

One of the advertisers, identified only as 15-year-old "E.S.," ''was forced into prostitution at the age of 13 by her pimp," according to an affidavit filed with the complaint. She used other online advertising services until they were shut down, the court filing says, when she turned to Backpage.

"I mean really, coming from someone my age, there is too much access, like it's too easy for people to get on it and post an ad," she told California Special Agent Brian Fichtner, according to his affidavit.

California officials said their investigation was prompted in part by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which reported 2,900 instances to California authorities since 2012 when suspected child sex trafficking occurred using Backpage.

The criminal complaint includes allegations that five minors, three of them including "E.S." under age 16, paid to post advertisements on Backpage.

The charges against Ferrer could bring him nearly 22 years in prison, while Larkin and Lacey face a maximum six years.

Backpage has been the subject of recent Senate hearings into its classified ads. Last month, the Supreme Court refused to block a Senate subpoena seeking information on how Backpage screens ads for possible sex trafficking.

U.S. Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, chairman and ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, issued a statement hailing the criminal charges resulting from what they called "the scourge of online sex trafficking."

They put the site's estimated annual revenues at more than $150 million, calling it "a market leader in commercial sex advertising."

McDonald's accused of ignoring rampant sexual harassment in its restaurants

When C.C. Monet began her job as a cook and cashier at a McDonald's in Flint, Michigan, she says she was nervous. "I was brand new, a little shy," she said in a call with the media on Wednesday.

Read more

9-month-old dead after horrific sexual assault

A nine-month-old West Virginia girl died after sustaining horrific injuries during a sexual assault at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend, authorities confirmed Wednesday.
Benjamin Taylor, 32, was charged with murder on Thursday morning, according to Jackson County Sheriff Tony Boggs. Taylor was initially charged with first-degree sexual assault and was being held on $2 million bail.
The child’s mother found the nine-month-old covered in blood in the basement of the apartment complex where the couple lived on Monday morning.
She had injuries consistent with a violent sexual assault, according to Boggs.
"I’d have to say more clear cut than usual, without going into graphic details due to some of the injuries and what the guys observed when they arrived on scene," Boggs said.
Family members told the West Virginia Metro News, the child, who is not Taylor's, was brain dead on Wednesday.
According to a criminal complaint, Taylor told authorities that he took the baby to the basement while he did laundry and had no recollection of how she sustained the horrific injuries, the AP reported.
Boggs said it's hard to understand how someone could do this to a child.
“Obviously this is not something we have encountered,” he said. “I don’t think the average or below average person can comprehend or even fathom this.”

7 Butch Women Talk About Being Discriminated Against in Women's Bathrooms

7 Butch Women Talk About Being Discriminated Against in Women's Bathrooms

South Carolina cops fatally shoot motorist

South Carolina cops fatally shoot motorist after dispute at Hurricane Matthew evacuation checkpoint

Ben and Jerry’s furious about police shootings

Ben and Jerry’s furious about police shootings: ‘All lives will not matter until black lives matter’

Ben and Jerry’s is typically known for tasty treats and social justice is weighing in on the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Tanzanian Rescue "Fortress" That Protects African Albinos From Human Hunters

Humans hunting humans sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it's a sad reality for many Africans born with albinism.
People in Tanzania and other parts of Africa believe an albino's body is either magically blessed or cursed, so they're barbarically dismembered or killed over their magical properties.
In fact, so many albinos have been killed or maimed in Tanzania the government had to come to their rescue by setting up special centers where they can live in peace.
The largest of the bunch is the Kabanga Refuge Center, a rescue "fortress"in Tanzania dedicated to saving the lives of young albinos who would otherwise be hunted down due to their congenital disorder.
Documentary photographer Ana Palacios visited the Kabanga Refuge Center between 2012 and 2016 to shoot these wonderful photos and share the plight of African albinos with the world.
Ana's photos contain a tinge of sadness, the light of hope and the warmth of knowing these kids are safe to live and play like any other kid, rather than being brutalized by the ignorant and superstitious.
Read Rescue 'Fortress' In Tanzania Protects Albinos From Human Hunters here

Hurricane Babies

The Hurricane Baby Thing? It’s Totally Real

If you’ve lived in Hurricane Alley long enough, you’ve heard about the phenomenon of “hurricane babies”—nine months after a big storm, there’s a spike in births. The hurricane baby thing? It’s totally real. There have been a number of studies that look at birth rates...

Harvesting Sunlight

Cheap polymers can harvest sunlight to split carbon dioxide into alcohol fuels

Chemists at The University of Texas at Arlington have been the first to demonstrate that an organic semiconductor polymer called polyaniline is a promising photocathode material for the conversion of carbon dioxide into alcohol fuels without the need for a...

Do Humans Have the Collective Will to Prevent Global Catastrophe?

Do Humans Have the Collective Will to Prevent Global Catastrophe?

It's not just the 'yuck factor' that puts people off eating insects

It's not just the 'yuck factor' that puts people off eating insects

The sea creatures of the Ediacara Biota

Cementing a theory about the sea creatures of the Ediacara Biota

Earth’s earliest community of complex sea creatures lived in a warm, slimy, planetary petri dish that nurtured a broad array of exotic species. Yet we likely wouldn’t know about it at all, scientists say, if not for a quirk in the chemistry of ancient oceans. A...

Animal Pictures