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Carolina Naturally
Carolina Naturally
Carolina Naturally is read in 210 countries around the world daily.
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Saturday, March 4, 2017
The Daily Drift
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Today in History
| 1152 | Frederick Barbarossa is chosen as emperor and unites the two factions, which emerged in Germany after the death of Henry V. | |
| 1461 | Henry VI is deposed and the Duke of York is proclaimed King Edward IV. | |
| 1634 | Samuel Cole opens the first tavern in Boston, Massachusetts. | |
| 1766 | The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, the cause of bitter and violent opposition in the colonies | |
| 1789 | The first Congress of the United States meets in New York and declares that the Constitution is in effect. | |
| 1791 | Vermont is admitted as the 14th state. It is the first addition to the original 13 colonies. | |
| 1793 | George Washington is inaugurated as President for the second time. | |
| 1797 | Vice-President John Adams, elected President on December 7, to replace George Washington, is sworn in. | |
| 1801 | Thomas Jefferson becomes the first President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. | |
| 1813 | The Russians fighting against Napoleon reach Berlin. The French garrison evacuates the city without a fight. | |
| 1861 | The Confederate States of America adopt the “Stars and Bars” flag. | |
| 1877 | The Russian Imperial Ballet stages the first performance of “Swan Lake” in Moscow. | |
| 1901 | William McKinley is inaugurated president for the second time. Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated as vice president. | |
| 1904 | Russian troops begin to retreat toward the Manchurian border as 100,000 Japanese advance in Korea. | |
| 1908 | The New York board of education bans the act of whipping students in school. | |
| 1912 | The French council of war unanimously votes a mandatory three-year military service. | |
| 1914 | Doctor Fillatre of Paris, France successfully separates Siamese twins. | |
| 1921 | Warren G. Harding is sworn in as America’s 29th President. | |
| 1933 | Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to his first term as president in Washington, D.C. | |
| 1944 |  |
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| 1952 | North Korea accuses the United nations of using germ warfare. | |
| 1963 | Six people get the death sentence in Paris plotting to kill President Charles de Gaulle. | |
| 1970 | Fifty-seven people are killed as the French submarine Eurydice sinks in the Mediterranean Sea. | |
| 1975 | Queen Elizabeth II knights Charlie Chaplin. | |
| 1987 | Reagan takes full responsibility for the Iran-Contra affair in a national address. |
Your Fat Color Matters
New revelations about fat color percentages could change the way we treat diabetes and obesity
‘I want to die’
Eight-year-old Gizzell “Gizzy” Ford’s life
was so miserable, she wanted to die. Written in the pages of a rainbow
covered diary were heartbreaking tales of abuse at the hands of her
grandmother, who was found guilty today of her murder.
Teen Sleep and Crime Reduction
A new study finds an alarming new long-term consequence of sleep deprivation in teens
Predatory Plants
Hey, wait a minute… is that plant eating your gerbil?
FLESH-EATING FLORA Carnivorous plants developed a taste for flesh over 200 million years of evolution. Here’s how it happened: All over the world, in areas where the soil is low in nutrients (particularly swamps and marshes), some plants had to make up for the nutritional shortfall. So they developed the ability to capture and eat insects, fish, small reptiles, and even the occasional small mammal. Here are some of our favorites.
SNAP TRAPS
These plants have jawlike, hinged leaves that act like a trap. The leaves are lined with rows of fine trigger hairs that, when touched by an insect, cause the lobes of the leaf to close, capturing the prey inside. The two lobes then form a seal to create a temporary “stomach,” where the hapless bug is digested over a couple of weeks. When consumption is complete, the lobes reopen to set another trap. The leaves repeat this cycle three or four times and then become inactive as new leaves sprout and take over.
The
best known in the snap-trap category is the Venus flytrap, native to
the Carolinas in the United States. Another member of the family, the
waterwheel plant (named for its shape), lives in the waters of Europe,
Asia, Africa, and Australia. LOBSTER-POT TRAPS
These predatory plants have a complicated underground leaf chamber that, for microscopic organisms, is easy to enter but impossible to escape. The best example of this category is the corkscrew plant, which has a Y-shaped leaf filled with twisting corridors that lead to a final stomach-like chamber, where tiny protozoan creatures are digested.
PITFALL TRAPS
These grow in the rain forests of South America. The most prominent member of this group is the pitcher plant. Its leaves curl inward, like a piece of paper that’s been rolled into a cone. Insects (and in some cases rodents) climb into the pitcher’s “mouth” only to find they can’t get out. The walls inside are slippery, and the cavity is filled with a liquid that drowns and digests any critter unlucky enough to venture in.
FLYPAPERS
As their name suggests, these plants use sticky stuff— a gluelike substance known as mucilage— to trap their prey. The leaves of the plants are studded with fine glandular tentacles that secrete the mucilage. Once an insect comes into contact with the gumminess, there’s no escape. A trapped bug eventually dies from asphyxiation or the exhaustion of flailing around trying to free itself.
The
most widely distributed flypaper plant is the sundew, which includes
almost 200 species across every continent except Antarctica. Their
beautiful glistening leaves make them a favorite ornamental plant,
though they’re difficult to keep alive in a home garden— no matter how
many bugs you feed them. Another flypaper plant is the butterwort, which produces an antibacterial enzyme that prevents its captured prey from rotting during digestion. Hundreds of years ago, farmers in northern Europe started using this enzyme to heal sores and wounds on their cattle. Butterwort is also used in Norway to make tjukkmjølk, a thick curdled milk.
SUCTION TRAPS
These come in just one variety: the bladderwort. But more than 200 species of bladderwort grow in either water or wet soil and can survive almost anywhere fresh water can be found. The plants feature bladders that pump out liquid, which in turn creates a vacuum whereby prey, mainly insects, are sucked in through a sort of trapdoor on the bladder. (Larger species of bladderwort are big enough to capture and digest fish and tadpoles.) Scientists consider the suction trap one of the most sophisticated structures in the plant kingdom.
Gruesome Blood Sports Of Shakespearean England
Those sick shows were extremely popular in
England back in Shakespeare's day, and all manner of fearsome creatures
were forced to fight in a spectacle that seems revoltingly barbaric to
anyone who cares about animals.
They
called it "baiting", and the gruesome blood sport most commonly
involved bears and bulls battling other animals to the death in a
theater setting, one of the most popular nicknamed "Bear Gardens".Baiting
was so popular in the 16th and 17th century that Queen Elizabeth I and
other royals could be seen in the crowds, and even though it fell out of
popularity by the 1700s baiting wasn't banned in England until 1835.
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