CAROLINA NATURALLY: Feb 11, 2017

Saturday, February 11, 2017

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of
Carolina Naturally

What were we doing ...!

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

Chording ... !

Today is - Get Out Your Guitar Day
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Today in History

660 BC		Traditional founding of Japan by Emperor Jimmu Tenno.
1531		Henry VIII is recognized as the supreme head of the Cult of England.
1805		Sixteen-year-old Sacajawea, the Shoshoni guide for Lewis & Clark, gives birth to a son, with Meriwether Lewis serving as midwife.
1809		Robert Fulton patents the steamboat.
1815		News of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, finally reaches the United States.
1858		14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, a French miller’s daughter, claims to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes.
1903		Congress passes the Expedition Act, giving antitrust cases priority in the courts.
1904		President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims strict neutrality for the United States in the Russo-Japanese War.
1910		Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Eleanor Alexander announce their wedding date–June 20, 1910.
1926		The Mexican government nationalizes all church property.
1936		The Reich arrests 150 Catholic youth leaders in Berlin.
1939		The Negrin government returns to Madrid, Spain.
1942		The German battleships Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen begin their famed channel dash from the French port of Brest. Their journey takes them through the English Channel on their way back to Germany.
1945		The meeting of President Franklin Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshal Joseph Stalin in Yalta, adjourns.
1951		U.N. forces push north across the 38th parallel for the second time in the Korean War.
1953		Walt Disney’s film Peter Pan premieres.
1954		A 75,000-watt light bulb is lit at the Rockefeller Center in New York, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Thomas Edison’s first light bulb.
1955		Nationalist Chinese complete the evacuation of the Tachen Islands.
1959		Iran turns down Soviet aid in favor of a U.S. proposal for aid.
1962		Poet and novelist Sylvia Plath commits suicide in London at age 30.
1964		Cambodian Prince Sihanouk blames the United States for a South Vietnamese air raid on a village in his country.
1965		President Lyndon Johnson orders air strikes against targets in North Vietnam, in retaliation for guerrilla attacks on the American military in South Vietnam.
1966		Vice President Hubert Humphrey begins a tour of Vietnam.
1974		Communist-led rebels shower artillery fire into a crowded area of Phnom Pehn, killing 139 and injuring 46 others.
1975		Mrs. Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman to lead the British Tory Party.
1990		South African political leader Nelson Mandela is released from prison in Paarl, South Africa, after serving more than 27 years of a life sentence.

Where Nature is Most Likely to Kill You

Sometimes it appears that Mother Nature is out to get us. California earthquakes, Louisiana floods, Oklahoma tornadoes, Florida hurricanes, Hawaiian volcanoes, oh my! But the deadliest places on earth, as far as natural disasters go, are not in the U.S. Where are they?

Often described as "the cruelest place on Earth", the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is the meeting point of three plates. It has possibly the most volcanic activity in the world.
The average annual temperature here is reportedly 34.4C, making it one of the hottest places on Earth. With low rainfall and a landscape dotted by volcanic ruptures, hydro-thermal fields and salt pans, you would be forgiven for thinking nobody could survive here. But the Afar people call this place home.

BBC Earth tells us about really scary places where you should beware ocean currents, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, and more.

The Lost Version of 'Dracula'

Author Valdimar Ásmundsson translated Bram Stoker's novel Dracula into Icelandic in 1900, when the novel was only three years old. He called it Makt Myrkranna, which means Powers of Darkness. It was little-known outside of Iceland, but has been re-translated into English and is now available as Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula. It is very different from the novel we know.

For context, Powers of Darkness, which has been published in English by the Overlook Press, spends over 75 percent of its length detailing Thomas Harker’s (not Jonathan) stay in Castle Dracula, which is devoid of two of the Count’s famed brides. Luckily, it is occasionally filled with secret half-ape vampire relatives who seem to worship demons while sacrificing half-nude young girls in the basement with “lascivious” glee.
If only Francis Ford Coppola had known about this 25 years ago, no?
In Powers, Dracula is a Darwinian strongman who admires socialists and anarchists, yet simultaneously wishes to rule them while ushering in a new world order through a secret international conspiracy teeming with Napoleonic undertones. Ásmundsson even unintentionally anticipated the elements that cinematic storytellers would gravitate to in the ensuing century: the suave continental villain who makes parlor room visits, and the erotic ecstasy he and his ilk tempt all in their path with. The shadowy unkempt cadaver of Stoker’s novel takes on a militaristic authoritarian sheen here that is both undercooked and fascinating.

So how did that happen? Was it embellished, a work of fan fiction, or did Ásmundsson use an earlier draft of Bram Stoker's Dracula? Read about the mysterious new publication and its history at Den of Geek.

Facebook Brags About Its New 'Clean Energy' Server Farm, but It Will Actually Increase Greenhouse Emissions

Facebook Brags About Its New 'Clean Energy' Server Farm, but It Will Actually Increase Greenhouse Emissions

Auto-Correct

ALAN’S TEXT:
Hi Fred, This is Alan next door. I have a confession to make.
I’ve been riddled with guilt these past few months and have been trying to get the courage to tell you to your face, but I am at least now telling you in text as I can’t live with myself a moment longer without you knowing.
The truth is I have been sharing your wife, day and night when you’re not around, in fact, probably more than you. I haven’t been able to get it at home recently, but that’s no excuse, I know. The temptation was just too much. I can no longer live with the guilt and I hope you will accept my sincerest apologies and forgive me. It won’t happen again. Please suggest a fee for usage and I’ll pay you.
Regards, Alan.
FRED’S RESPONSE:
Fred, feeling betrayed and furious, dropped his iPhone, grabbed his gun, burst through his neighbor’s front door and without saying a word shot Alan dead. He returned home where he poured himself a stiff drink, sat down on the sofa, picked up his phone and saw he had a second message from his neighbor:
ALAN’S SECOND MESSAGE:
Hi Fred, This is Alan next door again. Sorry about the typo on my last text.
I expect you figured it out anyway, and that you noticed that darned Auto-Correct changed ‘WiFi’ to ‘Wife.’
Technology, huh ? !
Regards, Alan

How I Escaped Being a Lunatic Fringe Wingnut Extremist

How I Escaped Being a Lunatic Fringe Wingnut Extremist

The Story Of A Painting That Fought Fascism

On 26 April 1937, Nazi German and Italian bombers attacked the Basque city of Guernica. Over the course of three hours, they destroyed three-quarters of the ancient town, killing and wounding hundreds.
The raid was 'unparalleled in military history,' according to reports at the time- and it inspired one of the most famous anti-war paintings in history.