The Daily Drift

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Carolina Naturally

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Today in History

1648		The “shoemakers of Boston”–the first labor organization in what would become the United States–is authorized by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1685		Edict of Nantes is lifted by Louis XIV. The edict, signed at Nantes, France, by King Henry IV in 1598, gave the Huguenots religious liberty, civil rights and security. By revoking the Edict of Nantes, Louis XIV abrogated their religious liberties.
1813		The Allies defeat Napoleon Bonaparte at Leipzig.
1867		The Alaska territory is formally transferred to the U.S. from Russian control.
1867		The rules for American football are formulated at a meeting in New York among delegates from Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton and Yale universities.
1883		The weather station at the top of Ben Nevis, Scotland, the highest mountain in Britain, is declared open. Weather stations were set up on the tops of mountains all over Europe and the Eastern United States in order to gather information for the new weather forecasts.
1910		M. Baudry is the first to fly a dirigible across the English Channel–from La Motte-Breil to Wormwood Scrubs.
1912		The First Balkan War breaks out between the members of the Balkan League–Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro–and the Ottoman Empire.
1918		Czechs seize Prague and renounce Hapsburg’s rule.
1919		Madrid opens a subway system.
1921		Russian Soviets grant Crimean independence.
1939		President Franklin D. Roosevelt bans war submarines from U.S. ports and waters.
1944		Lt. General Joseph Stilwell is recalled from China by president Franklin Roosevelt.
1950		The First Turkish Brigade arrives in Korea to assist the U.N. forces fighting there.
1967		A Russian unmanned spacecraft makes the first landing on the surface of Venus.
1968		US athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are suspended by US Olympic Committee for giving “black power” salute while receiving their medals at the Olympic Games in Mexico City.
2003		Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resigns in the wake of protests centered around Bolivia’s natural gas resources.
2007		Suicide attack on a motorcade in Karachi, Pakistan, kills at least 139 and wounds 450; the subject of the attack, Pakistan’s former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is not harmed.

Dolly Parton Straight-Up Tells off Her Homophobic Fans

Dolly Parton Straight-Up Tells off Her Homophobic Fans and It's the Best

Norway refuses to gift mountain summit to Finland

The Norwegian government has resisted public pressure to offer a mountain summit to neighboring Finland as part of its independence centenary celebrations. As a present to their Finnish neighbors, celebrating their independence since 1917, a group of Norwegians had proposed giving them the peak of the 1,361-metre (4,465-foot) high Mount Halti.
The gift would have been a way of correcting a geographical incongruity, as the Finnish border in the area is situated most of the way up the mountainside at an altitude of 1,324 meters. A Facebook campaign to hand over the immovable present garnered 17,000 signatures. But a legal roadbump brought the friendly scheme tumbling down, halting the Halti plan.
"This creative proposal has received a very positive response from the public," Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said in a letter received on Friday by the major of Kafjord, in northern Norway, who was a protagonist in the mountainous gift. "I welcome this and I see a clear sign that Norway and Finland have a close relationship," Solberg continued.
However, he added that "border adjustments between countries raises complex legal issues." In this case the problems were insurmountable. The lofty gift-giving idea ran up against Article 1 of the Norwegian constitution which stipulates that the kingdom of Norway is 'indivisible and inalienable'. "We will think of another worthy gift to celebrate the occasion of Finland centenary," Solberg added. Prior to its independence, the "Grand Duchy of Finland" was part of the Russian empire.

To curse is to be human

To curse is to be human -- but do we swear too much?

Journalist Amy Goodman May Be Charged with 'Participating in a Riot' for Covering North Dakota Pipeline Protest

Journalist Amy Goodman May Be Charged with 'Participating in a Riot' for Covering North Dakota Pipeline Protest

A Feminist Makeup Artist Reveals Why Women Are Afraid of Looking Overdone

A Feminist Makeup Artist Reveals Why Women Are Afraid of Looking Overdone

The Toilet Duty Dukes and Duchesses of England

We all know politics is a dirty business, and here we have an overly literal illustration of that concept. Once upon a time, before modern plumbing, just about everyone used an outhouse of some sort. Royalty was never seen making the walk to outdoor facilities, though, because they had the facilities brought to them. That, of course, involved servants. The “servants” who attended to the royal toilet activities were a different breed than most royal serfs.

Those precious moments of alone time in the bathroom are priceless to many of us, and yet strangely enough, it was one of the few luxuries the King and Queen of England could not afford. Until as recently as the 20th century, the British monarchy appointed what was known as the “Groom of the Stool”, a courtier responsible for assisting them in the performance of “bodily functions of excretion and ablution”. And this wasn’t the role of any ordinary household servant. The appointment was offered to Dukes and Duchesses, Earls and Lords, Count and Viscounts– even future Prime Ministers of England, who willingly took a job that more or less entailed wiping the King’s bottom…

The reasons why are laid out at Messy Messy Chic, and may explain some of our more vulgar phrases that refer to ambitious employees and social climbers.

I Was Born Into the 1 Percent ...

I Was Born Into the 1 Percent—Here's Why I Gave Away My Trust Fund

Dylan Ratigan Is on a Mission

Dylan Ratigan Is on a Mission to Transform Communities With Healthy Food, Clean Energy and Jobs for Veterans

When Meth Was Medicine

Big Pharma Amphetamine Ads from the Days of Better Living Through Chemistry 

With Help From ALEC and Bayer, Monsanto Is Poised to Take Over the Global Food System

Link Dump

911 operator says “ain’t nobody got time for this”

How Bruce Springsteen’s music saved a little girl’s life

7 lies your funeral home director might tell you

Real-time animation of the sinking of the Titanic

2016 Comedy Wildlife Photography Finalists 

Diver Recounts His Encounter With a Great White Shark

The exact moment people realized they were dating an idiot

5 Bob Dylan Songs That Actually Changed the Course of History

Clumsy customer knocks over four TVs worth over £5000

20 Things You May Not Know About Left-Handed People

How to clean the inside of your computer monitor screen

20 Things You Might Not Know About ‘Blazing Saddles’

The Remarkable History Of The Humble Pencil

Woman refused service over ‘Police Lives Matter’ shirt

Getting around a No Pet Door rule in rented home 

Homes of the stars by Realtor.com

Learning From Dogs as They Sniff Out Their World

Mike Rowe – ‘You don’t have a duty to vote’

Creepy Clown Caught On Cam Trying To Break Into Home

A Drinking Game – Edward Fortyhands

Challenging the High-Priced Funeral Industry

Challenging the High-Priced Funeral Industry, More Americans Are Choosing Home Funerals and Death Midwives

The pathogens of Wells Fargo's corruption fester in every large corporation

The pathogens of Wells Fargo's corruption fester in every large corporation

Man who unwittingly drove daughter to bank she robbed thought she was attending job interview

A Florida man who unwittingly drove his daughter to a bank robbery told authorities he thought he was driving her to a job interview, according to a federal criminal complaint filed on Friday. Chelsea Wilson, 24, who was arrested in connection with the robbery in Fort Lauderdale is also believed to be responsible for three other recent bank robberies in Broward County. According to the complaint, Wilson, wearing black pants, a red wig, a hat and sunglasses, entered the TD Bank shortly before 4pm and handed the teller a handwritten note demanding money. "You have exactly one minute to give me all your $50 & $100 bills from both your drawers or I will shoot you! No dye packs, no alarms follow these instructions and no one will get hurt, act normal," the note read.
The FBI said Wilson got away with $300 in cash and walked through the parking lot. Surveillance video showed her get into the passenger side of a waiting black SUV. A wig-wearing woman also robbed a trio of Chase branches in Davie, Hollywood and Cooper City. According to the complaint, a citizen recognized Wilson as the woman from surveillance photographs of the robberies. FBI agents watching Wilson's Hollywood home saw a black Jeep Cherokee that resembled the vehicle spotted in the surveillance video.
The Jeep was registered to Wilson's father. When authorities spoke to Wilson's father in private, he told them that he had driven his daughter to a job interview and waited for her to return, the FBI said. When she returned with a large amount of cash, he thought it was advance payment for her job, the report said. Wilson admitted to robbing the TD Bank branch and the three other banks, saying she used the money to buy groceries, the FBI said. Wilson appeared in federal court on Friday morning in Fort Lauderdale to face bank robbery charges and will remain jailed at least until a detention hearing on Wednesday.

Man covered in soot arrested following two suspected arson attack

A man covered in soot was arrested for arson in Knoxville, Tennessee, early on Saturday morning after a witness phoned in a tip. "At approximately 7:15am a witness contacted the Knoxville Fire Department and said he saw a man behind the Kwik Pantry Food Mart," Knoxville Police Department Sgt. Kyle Loveday said.
The witness also reported the same man, Rickey Lee Newman, 33, of South Knoxville, near another suspicious fire on Chapman Highway also on Saturday morning. That first fire was at the E-Z In & Out Liquor Store, across the street from the Kwik Pantry Food Mart. KPD officer G.T. George responded with KFD arson investigator Jeff Stooksbury at 7:30am.
"The witness observed smoke coming from the rear of the structure located," the police report stated. "Witness then saw the suspect walking from the rear of the structure to the front of the building. Witness then noticed flames coming from the building." The Knoxville Fire Department closed the road near the E-Z store to fight the fire which destroyed a structure at the back of the store.
The E-Z fire was extinguished by 7:30 a.m. The Kwik Pantry is near gas station pumps, but the fire set at store did not spread and caused no damage. Police arrested Newman near the Kwik Pantry "covered in soot," according to the report. Newman's record shows a first-offense driving under the influence charge in May, a simple possession/casual exchange drug charge in 2002, and several traffic offenses.

Feral Cats Get a Job

Sometimes you can combine two problems to make a solution. The NYC Feral Cat Initiative does a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program, but some feral cats can’t be returned because their territory turned into a dangerous construction site. Adult feral cats often cannot adjust to being pets, so adoption isn’t the answer. Meanwhile, the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan had a rodent problem, and extermination chemical weren’t doing the job. Maybe the rats have become immune. the solution was to send some of the feral cats to the Javits Center, where they took over pest control duties.

Although the cats are reportedly happy at the convention center, being fed in rotation by staff members who volunteer to bring in food, half a dozen of the felines that came from the FCI’s TNR program have found new adoptive homes during their stay at the Javits Center, including two kittens. The felines do their part to keep rodent populations in check, both by preying upon them and also by scaring them off with their scent. Convention center managers like this deal as well, because they can save money and avoid using dangerous pesticides on the property.

Sylvester, Alfreda, Mama Cat, and Ginger are living well, for feral cats. Read more about the program at Inhabitat.

RIP the only wild cow in Singapore

Singapore's favorite, and only, wild cow died this week. The Coney Island Cow lived for years on a small island north-eastern park. Its origins were as mysterious as its death was sad. Nameless and elusive, no-one really knows how the lonely bull wound up on Coney Island. "The animal may have wandered in. It was only noticed after dam crossings were built," said Singapore's National Parks Board (NParks), responsible for managing the city state's greenery.
"But as no-one has reported a lost cow, its presence on the island remains a mystery." The 133-hectare island was once owned by the Haw Par brothers, the wealthy entrepreneurs behind Tiger Balm who have left such a sizeable footprint on Singapore's modern history. They sold it in the 1950s to an Indian businessman who wanted to turn remodel it after the popular New York amusement destination.
But nothing materialized despite a name change, and the land was slated for government redevelopment. One year ago, the island became Singapore's newest national park, being opened up to tourists for hiking and cycling, on a short network of paths. It was then everyone became aware that the island already belonged to one magnificent beast: The Cow. With its solitary stoic presence, it quickly became a local legend among Singaporeans, most of whom live in the city or suburbs and have little interaction with livestock.
No trip to Coney Island was complete without trying to track down the cow, heeding the strict warning signs about not feeding it, provoking it or trying to photograph it. Sadly, his life came to an unlucky end this week, when he failed to wake up after a routine veterinary check-up. Officials said he had likely died of heart and lung complications while necessarily sedated. "The cow was a recognisable part of Coney Island Park and will be missed," said NParks.

Animal Pictures