CAROLINA NATURALLY: Jan 12, 2017

Thursday, January 12, 2017

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of
Carolina Naturally

Today also happens to be Kiss A Ginger Day

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Steaming Hot ... !

Today is - National Hot Tea Day

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Today in History

1872		Russian Grand Duke Alexis goes on a gala buffalo hunting expedition with Gen. Phil Sheridan and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.
1879		The British-Zulu War begins. British troops — under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus — invade Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.
1908		A wireless message is sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
1913		Kiel and Wilhelmshaven become submarine bases in Germany.
1915		The U.S. Congress establishes Rocky Mountain National Park.
1926		U.S. coal talks break down, leaving both sides bitter as the strike drags on into its fifth month.
1927		U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg claims that Mexican rebel Plutarco Calles is aiding communist plot in Nicaragua.
1932		Oliver Wendell Holmes retires from the Supreme Court at age 90.
1938		Austria recognizes the Franco government in Spain.
1940		Soviet bombers raid cities in Finland.
1943		Soviet forces raise the siege of Leningrad.
1952		The Viet Minh cut the supply lines to the French forces in Hoa Binh, Vietnam.
1962		The United States resumes aid to the Laotian regime.
1973		Yassar Arafat is re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
1982		Peking protests the sale of U.S. planes to Taiwan.
1991		The U.S. Congress gives the green light to military action against Iraq in the Persian Gulf Crisis.
1998		Nineteen European nations agree to prohibit human cloning.
2010		An earthquake in Haiti kills an estimated 316,000 people.

Why Do Canadians Say 'Eh'?

The Canadian linguistic quirk of putting "eh" at the end of a sentence is an example of a tag, which is a word or phrase appended to a sentence. In Mandarin, any statement appended with "ma" turns that statement into a question. In English, the tag "isn't it?" provokes a response of agreement or disagreement. As a tag, "eh" is more universal and flexible. It can be used for just about anything.

There are a few major ways a Canadian could use “eh.” The first is while stating an opinion: “It’s a nice day, eh?” Another would be as an exclamation tag, which is added to a sentence in order to indicate surprise: “What a game, eh?” Or you could use it for a request or command: “Put it over here, eh?” And then there’s the odd example of using it within a criticism: “You really messed that one up, eh?”
Jack Chambers, a linguist at the University of Toronto, writes that these “ehs” are all of a piece. “All of these uses have one pragmatic purpose in common: they all show politeness,” he wrote in a 2014 paper. Using “eh” to end the statement of an opinion or an explanation is a way for the speaker to express solidarity with the listener. It’s not exactly asking for reassurance or confirmation, but it’s not far off: the speaker is basically saying, hey, we’re on the same page here, we agree on this.
Even in the use of “eh” as a criticism or a command, the word seeks to find common ground. If I say “you’re an idiot, eh?”, what I’m saying is, you’re an idiot, but you should also think you’re an idiot, and our understanding of you as an idiot finds us on common ground.

The tag "eh" is also used to give orders and to tell stories. Read about these and the general usage of "eh" among Canadians at Atlas Obscura.

Byzantine skeleton yields 800-year-old genomes from a fatal infection

Eight hundred years ago, in a hardscrabble farming community on the outskirts of what was once one of the fabled cities of the ancient world, Troy, a 30-year-old woman was laid to rest in a … Read more

"Metropolis" at 90: The Enduring Legacy of a Pop Modernist Dystopia

Fritz Lang produced a huge 153-minute budget-busting science fiction saga in Berlin in 1927. After Metropolis' first showing, it was chopped down to 92 minutes, then to 80, then it wasn't shown for decades. When it was resurrected, it was subtitled, colorized, a soundtrack added, and even Lang wouldn't have recognized it. But he didn't like the movie, anyway. Or at least that's what he said.

Lang wasn’t alone back in 1927 when the film was first released. Critics applauded the striking visuals and the ambitious technical achievement, but lambasted the trite melodrama and cheap platitudes. In a vicious New York Times review, H.G. Wells attacked the picture’s anti-progress, anti-technology message, accused it of ripping off several earlier works (including his own), and called it, “Quite the silliest film.” It was also attacked as a bunch of simpleminded and heavy-handed pro-communist propaganda, while at the same time and ironically enough it was hailed by the Nazis for portraying the overthrow of the Bourgeoisie.

Ninety years later, Metropolis is hailed as a work of art, a product of its time, yet ahead of its time. Read the story of how Metropolis was produced, and what happened in the year since, at Den of Geek.

Dutch trains now all powered by wind energy

13 Countries You Might be Surprised to Know Speak English

If you want to travel the world but don't speak other languages (and hey, no one can speak them all, right?) it's often helpful to travel to places where the locals have a good handle on your language. If you're reading this, I'm assuming you speak English and good news -so do the countries in this great Thrillist article. Not every person in these countries actually speaks English, but each of them have a large enough English population and enough friendly folks that you should be able to get by.

Of course, not every country with a large English speaking population is on the list, I would add pretty much all of Scandinavia, as well as France and Switzerland and commenters on the article have plenty more places they would add. In fact, the comments section could be some of the most helpful information in the article. So read the whole thing here.

The Little-Known Patterns on British Streets

(YouTube link)

It appears that Tom Scott is back from Lake Constance and now he's on the streets of London. The streets themselves have a story that you may not know, unless you are blind. If you know what to look for, the texture underneath your feet can tell you a lot about where you are and how to get around. A totally neat system!

The Holy Grail of Fashion History

An embroidered altar cloth that has been in the possession of St. Faith's Cult in Bacton, Herefordshire, was recovered year ago because it closely resembles clothing worn by Queen Elizabeth I. The cloth is richly embroidered with flowers, and is woven with silver thread, which by law was restricted to royals. The organization Historic Royal Palaces researches and curates Britain's royal artifacts. Their fashion historian, Eleri Lynn, has determined that the cloth is most likely the only surviving fabric the 16th-century monarch actually wore as clothing.

She said: “When I saw it for the first time I knew immediately that it was something special. As I examined it, I felt as though I had found the Holy Grail, the Mona Lisa of fashion. None of Elizabeth I’s dresses are known to have survived, but everything we have learned since then points to it being worn by Elizabeth.”
The botanical pattern on the cloth bears a striking resemblance to that on a bodice worn by Elizabeth in the so-called Rainbow Portrait of 1602 and Ms Lynn believes it is “not inconceivable” that the skirt, which cannot be seen in the painting, is part of the same outfit.

Cult lore says the cloth was donated by Blanch Parry, the Queen's chief lady-in-waiting, 400 years ago. Queen Elizabeth was known to give her clothing away to servants and friends. The cloth will undergo a restoration and then be put on display to the public. Read more about the discovery at The Telegraph.

Cosplay

Is an Economic Oil Crash Around the Corner?

Is an Economic Oil Crash Around the Corner?

Selfish, Sociopath, Narcissist

Am I Selfish, a Sociopath, or a Narcissist?

Morocco bans production and sale of burqa

A Supplement Maker Tried to Silence This Harvard Doctor

A Supplement Maker Tried to Silence This Harvard Doctor—and Put Academic Freedom on Trial

Lunatic who gave dying son maple syrup instead of medicine hawking controversial supplement after jail

Lunatic who gave dying son maple syrup instead of medicine hawking controversial supplement after jail

A lunatic who spent four months in jail for treating his deathly ill son with natural remedies instead of medicine is back to pushing his family’s nutritional supplements — which they claim treats mental illness.

Horrified Muslim woman finds swastika and hate speech painted on her Ohio home

‘Fuck Arabs’: Horrified Muslim woman finds swastika and hate speech painted on her Ohio home

A Muslim woman who lives in Toledo, Ohio said this week that she was shocked to find Nazi hate speech scrawled on her home.

In Dumbass Trump’s AmeriKKKa ...

In Dumbass Trump’s AmeriKKKa: Jewish Centers Rattled With Bomb Threats

This is reprehensible.

How the Global Bird-Poop Trade Created a Traveling Mummy Craze

For about 200 years, global industry went crazy for guano. Explorers discovered islands in the ocean that were covered with a layer of dried seabird feces many feet thick. The material was valuable as fertilizer, and later for the production of gunpowder. Wars were even fought over the natural resource. Along the way, miners found that guano is also an excellent preservative for dead bodies, as some natural mummies were found buried in guano. These, of course, were taken for profit along with the guano. The most famous of these mummies was found in the 1850s with a plaque that said “Christopher Delano, 1721.”

Upon examination of Delano, British and French scientists determined that he was European and not African, and the amount of wear on his teeth suggested he was in his mid to late 30s when he died. His right shoulder is elevated and contracted, and his open mouth revealed “a death of agony” (though it's not unusual to see a gaping jaw on a mummy). His cause of death? Likely a spear wound to his right shoulder.
The writer of the 1854 pamphlet took liberties with the sparse facts available: “About 1721, the Island of Ichaboe had been the resort of nests of Pirates…. In all human probability, the most satisfactory conjecture that can be arrived at is that the unfortunate Christopher Delano was a Spaniard, joined in some piratical enterprises, and leagued with a gang of desperadoes, from one of whom, while visiting the Island of Ichaboe, he most probably received his death wound in some bacchanalism origies [sic] or sudden quarrel.”

The "pirate mummy" was quite profitable when taken on tour. Other guano importers took note and kept an eye out for bodies. Read about the guano mummies at mental_floss. Link contains image of Delano's corpse.