The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of  
Carolina Naturally

Oops ...! 

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 210 countries around the world daily.   

   
Universal Appeal ... !

Today is - There is no particular celebration today

 You want the unvarnished truth?

Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Antigua - Argentina - Aruba - Bahamas - Barbados - Belize - Bolivia - Brazil - Canada - Chile  Colombia - Costa Rica - Dominican Republic- Ecuador - El Salvador - French Guiana - Guatemala Haiti - Honduras - Jamaica - Mexico - Nicaragua - Paraguay - Peru - Puerto Rico
Sint Eustatius and Saba - Sint Maartin - Trinidad and Tobago - Turks and Caicos - United States  Uruguay - Venezuela - Virgin Islands
Europe
Albania - Armenia - Austria - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia  Cyprus -  Czech Republic - Denmark - England - Estonia - Finland - France - Georgia - Germany Greece -  Hungary - Iceland - Ireland - Isle of Mann - Italy - Jersey - Latvia - Lithuania - Macedonia  Malta - Moldova - Monaco - Montenegro - Netherlands - Northern Ireland - Norway - Poland Portugal - Romania - Russia - San Marino - Scotland - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden  Switzerland - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Afghanistan - Azerbaijan - Bangladesh - Brunei - Burma - Cambodia - China - Hong Kong - India  Indonesia  Iran - Iraq - Israel - Japan - Jordan - Kazakhstan - Korea -  Lebanon - Malaysia - Mauritius
Mongolia - Nepal - Oman - Pakistan - Palestine - Saudi Arabia - Singapore - Sri Lanka - Taiwan Thailand - Tibet - United Arab Emirates - Uzbekistan - Vietnam - Yemen
Africa
Algeria - Chad - Congo - Egypt - Ethiopia - Ivory Coast - Ghana - Kenya - Libya - Madagascar  Morocco - Mozambique - Nigeria - South Africa - Sudan - Tunisia - Zambia - Zimbabwe
The Pacific
Australia - French Polynesia - Guam - Marshall Islands - New Zealand - Papua New Guinea Philippines

Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1782		The British sign a preliminary agreement in Paris, recognizing American independence.
1838		Mexico declares war on France.
1861		The British Parliament sends to Queen Victoria an ultimatum for the United States, demanding the release of two Confederate diplomats who were seized on the British ship Trent.
1864		The Union wins the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.
1900		The French government denounces British actions in South Africa, declaring sympathy for the Boers.
1900		Oscar Wilde dies in a Paris hotel room after saying of the room’s wallpaper: “One of us had to go.”
1906		President Theodore Roosevelt publicly denounces segregation of Japanese schoolchildren in San Francisco.
1919		Women cast votes for the first time in French legislative elections.
1935		Non-belief in Nazism is proclaimed grounds for divorce in Germany.
1945		Russian forces take Danzig in Poland and invade Austria.
1948		The Soviet Union complete the division of Berlin, installing the government in the Soviet sector.
1950		President Harry Truman declares that the United States will use the A-bomb to get peace in Korea.
1956		The United States offers emergency oil to Europe to counter the Arab ban.
1961		The Soviet Union vetoes a UN seat for Kuwait, pleasing Iraq.
1974		India and Pakistan decide to end a 10-year trade ban.
1974		Pioneer II sends photos back to NASA as it nears Jupiter.
1979		Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope in 1,000 years to attend an Orthodox mass.
1981		Representatives of the US and USSR meet in Geneva, Switzerland, to begin negotiations on reducing the number of intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe.
1982		Thriller, Michael Jackson’s second solo album, released; the album, produced by Quincy Jones, became the best-selling album in history.
1993		US President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (better known as the Brady Bill) into law.
1994		MS Achille Lauro, a ship with long history of problems including a 1985 terrorist hijacking, catches fire off the coast of Somalia.
1995		Operation Desert Storm officially comes to an end.
1998		Exxon and Mobil oil companies agree to a $73.7 billion merge, creating the world’s largest company, Exxon-Mobil.
2004		On the game show Jeopardy! contestant Ken Jennings loses after 74 consecutive victories. It is the longest winning streak in game-show history, earning him a total of over $3 million.
2005		John Sentamu becomes Archbishop of York, making him the Church of England’s first black archbishop.

Xmas Movies and TV Show Schedule 2016

As we slide into the Xmas season, there are tons of Xmas movies, TV specials, and marathons coming to a television near you. With so many channels to keep up with, it helps that Den of Geek has published a running list of holiday programming for us. Keep this one bookmarked for the next month or so, because they'll be updating it as new information comes in. But meanwhile, you can mark your calendar with your favorites.

11 Twisted Facts About 'The Far Side'

Gary Larson entertained us with his surreal sense of humor in the newspaper comic The Far Side from 1980 to 1995. Although the last comic ran over twenty years ago, Larson's loony ideas have become part of the real world in many ways. The Far Side gave us useful new English words, like Anatidaephobia and Thagomizer.

Stegosaurus is world-famous for its lime-sized brain and the quartet of nasty-looking spikes on its tail. A 1982 "Far Side" strip decided to have a little fun with the latter attribute. In that cartoon, we find an early human anachronistically lecturing his fellow cavemen about dinosaur-related hazards. Pointing at the rear end of a Stegosaurus diagram, he says “Now this end is called the thagomizer … after the late Thag Simmons.” Without meaning to, Larson’s strip plugged a gap in the scientific lexicon. Previously, nobody had ever given a name to the unique arrangement of tail spikes found on Stegosaurus and its relatives. But today, many paleontologists use the word “thagomizer” when describing this apparatus, even in scientific journals.

Read more wonderful stories about The Far Side at mental_floss.

California Phases Out Plastic Bags

In Huge Win for Oceans and Wildlife, California Phases Out Plastic Bags

You Should Be Having Romping Good Sex After 50

Why You Should Be Having Romping Good Sex After 50

7 Common Plants You Might Find in Your Backyard That Could Save You a Trip to the Pharmacy

7 Common Plants You Might Find in Your Backyard That Could Save You a Trip to the Pharmacy

6 Ways Your Diet Can Help Combat Post-Trump Stress Disorder

6 Ways Your Diet Can Help Combat Post-Trump Stress Disorder

Delta Bans 'Hillary Bi#ches' Passenger For Life

...And his fellow passengers suffering through his outburst get a refund.

Acute Financial Stress

We Have to Face the Major Problem of Acute Financial Stress

Will Workplace Safety Survive a Dumbass Trump junta?

Will Workplace Safety Survive a Dumbass Trump junta?

Low-Wage Workers Are Protesting in 340 Cities to Push for a Righteous $15 Wage

Low-Wage Workers Are Protesting in 340 Cities to Push for a Righteous $15 Wage

FAA Restricts Drones Flying Over Pipeline Protests

FAA Restricts Drones Flying Over Pipeline Protests

The FAA has imposed a 4-nautical mile Temporary Flight Restriction in airspace up to 3500 feet above sea level, over the Standing Rock Protest in North Dakota.

Concussion Grenades, Hypothermia & the Fight for Clean Water

Reports from Standing Rock: Concussion Grenades, Hypothermia & the Fight for Clean Water

Somali-American Teen Competes In Miss USA-Minnesota Pageant

Representation matters. And so does calling the bluff of pageant organizers.

Wife Of Putin Aide Performs Holocaust-Themed Skate Routine

Pro-tip: Don't do this. Judges score bad taste poorly.

Titan: A Place To Live?

We are now concentrating on sending people to Mars because we've already been to the moon, and Mars is pretty close compared to the other planets (and more pleasant than Venus). But Saturn's largest moon offers a much better environment for human colonization. Sure, there are drawbacks, but those could be worked around. Let's look at the good things about Titan.

It’s cold on Titan, at -180°C (-291°F), but thanks to its thick atmosphere, residents wouldn’t need pressure suits—just warm clothing and respirators. Housing could be made of plastic produced from the unlimited resources harvested on the surface, and could consist of domes inflated by warm oxygen and nitrogen. The ease of construction would allow huge indoor spaces.
Titanians (as we call them) wouldn’t have to spend all their time inside. The recreational opportunities on Titan are unique. For example, you could fly. The weak gravity—similar to the Moon’s—combined with the thick atmosphere would allow individuals to aviate with wings on their backs. If the wings fall off, no worry, landing will be easy. Terminal velocity on Titan is a tenth that found on the Earth.

But the biggest asset would be the tons of gas available for fuel. Yeah, it rains methane there. Read about Titan and its potential at Scientific American.

Gävle Goat Destroyed in Record Time

Every year since 1966, the people of Gävle, Sweden, have erected a giant straw goat to celebrate Xmas. This year was special, as it was the 50th anniversary edition of the goat. However, in many of those years, the goat became a victim of arson.

The goat is traditionally constructed in late November or early December, and from that point on, it’s just a waiting game to see when vandals will strike. Various protections have been put in place and tried out over the years including adding a perimeter fence, covering the goat in coating of flame retardant, employing security cameras, and having the goat personally guarded by volunteers. But no matter how the city tries to preserve the goat, it usually manages to get set on fire.

The completed 13-meter-tall goat was unveiled on Sunday afternoon. By 11 that night, it was in flames. The perpetrators struck while two security guards were in the restroom and a third was on the opposite side of the goat.
The Gävle goat didn't even make it an entire day. A movement is underway to get the goat rebuilt before Xmas.

Fascinating Facts About Ravens

Humans have always had an uneasy relationship with ravens, and for every civilization that thought of them as pure evil there was one who saw the raven as a powerful deity or nature spirit.

But despite what some bird haters will have you believe ravens don't want to watch the human world burn- they want to be a part of it.

(YouTube Link)

Ravens are one of the smartest animals on Earth, they can imitate human speech much like parrots, and scientists believe they communicate by using nonvocal signals and may even feel empathy for their fellow ravens.

Ravens also roam around in gangs during adolescence, love to trick other animals out of their food and roll around on ant hills, so perhaps their bad reputation isn't pure superstition after all.Read 10 Fascinating Facts About Ravens at mental_floss

Animal Pictures