CAROLINA NATURALLY

Sunday, November 22, 2009

When to repair and when to replace

Save money by knowing which common household items are better repaired than replaced.

Follow the 50% rule

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Protect your credit during the holidays

These seven tips can help prevent credit headaches during the busy shopping season.

Online security warning signs

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Fastest-growing jobs with high pay

These professions are expanding rapidly, and some don't require a college degree.

One pays $87,900 per year

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Santa's Fine, But Mrs. Claus Can't Go To NC Parade

Santa Claus is fine at a North Carolina Christmas parade.
But Mrs. Claus has to stay away.

Santa's Fine, But Mrs. Claus Can't Go To NC Parade

Rare Charles Darwin book found on toilet bookshelf

British scientist Charles Robert Darwin, founder of the theory for the evolution of life.

An auction house says it is selling a rare first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" found in a family's guest lavatory in southern England.

Rare Charles Darwin book found on toilet bookshelf

Good Question

Why is it ...

that the folks debating health care on the hill ... all have health insurance and access to doctors?

Dark galaxy crashing into the Milky Way

A cloud of hydrogen crashing into our galaxy now appears be a galaxy itself, packed with dark matter – many more may be out there.

Dark galaxy crashing into the Milky Way

Java Man

A televisual representation of Homo erectus

Palaeo-celebrity

A journey to the Java home of an ancient alpha male

The reality of Black Friday 'doorbusters'

Shoppers might be disappointed to know the truth behind those enticing bargains.

What the fine print reveals

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Angry Ireland urges World Cup replay after handball controversy

Angry Ireland called on FIFA Thursday to allow its World Cup playoff with France to be replayed, as a dispute over Thierry Henry's blatant handball threatened to become a diplomatic row.

Angry Ireland urges World Cup replay after handball controversy

Some people are crazy

A man arrested in Oslo, Norway, for driving without a license defended himself by declaring that he is the son of God and does not have to abide by the country's motor vehicle laws.

Some people

Moonshine Festival Takes Over

Moonshine was once an illegal liquor in the United States.
One legal distiller of moonshine in North Carolina helped to put on the event for all to experience the once forbidden drink.

Moonshine Festival Takes Over Madison Streets

Forty-six years ago today

The Day Camelot Faded Into the Mists

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

None today, thank you.

Daily Almanac

Today is Sunday, Nov. 22, the 326th day of 2009.

There are 39 days left in the year.

Today In History November 22

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Geneva, Geneve, Switzerland
Cairo, Al Qahirah, Egypt
Rijeka, Primorsko-Goranska, Croatioa
Apeldoorn, Gelderland, Netherlands
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Bursa, Bursa, Turkey
Vilnius, Vilniaus Aspritis, Lithuania
Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
Stockholm, Stockholms Lan, Sweden

as well as Colombia, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and the United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Don't expect your schedule to stick to any sort of itinerary.
Your daily routine will keep you quite busy, no doubt about that, but you'll also be dealing with pleasant and unexpected last-minute situations.
Instead of getting flustered and letting it ruin your day, enjoy the break in your routine.
You'll end up meeting someone wonderful, someone you would have never met otherwise.

Kewl

Saturday, November 21, 2009

A time bomb awaits

The border between The Republic of the Congo and Rwanda has had a lot of nasty things happen over the years.
Well, it seems it will continue into the future, too.
There's this lake, called Lake Kivu, part of the freshwater lake system bordering Rwanda and The Republic of Congo.
This lake has a 'problem', in that it appears it could actually explode.

According to Science Daily:

Scientists can't say for sure if the volatile mixture at the bottom of the lake will remain still for another 1,000 years or someday explode without warning. In a region prone to volcanic and seismic activity, the fragility of Lake Kivu is a serious matter. Compounding the precarious situation is the presence of approximately 2 million people, many of them refugees, living along the north end of the lake.

Vodacek likens the contained pressure in the lake to a bottle of carbonated soda or champagne. "In the lake, you have the carbon dioxide on the bottom and 300 meters of water on top of that, which is the cap," he says. "That's the pressure that holds it. The gas is dissolved in water."

When the cap is removed, bubbles form and rise to the surface. More bubbles form and create a column that drags the water and the gas up to the surface in a chain reaction

The question is, and what's really unknown, is how explosive is that?", Vodacek says.

Man gets life sentence for woman's fatal scare

A man will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was found guilty in what prosecutors said was a case of scaring a 79-year-old North Carolina grandmother to death.

Man gets life sentence for woman's fatal scare

Crazier by the minute

It's time for the majority of Americans to wake up and be concerned about the way this loon thinks.

A billboard showing President Barack Obama wearing a turban has sparked a lot of attention at the suburban Denver used car dealership that put it up.

The sign, completed Friday by artist David Lee, shows a grinning, cartoonish Obama and bears the words "PRESIDENT or JIHAD?"

Underneath the president's image is a big yellow square with the phrase, "BIRTH CERTIFICATE, PROVE IT!"

Again, I ask when are we going to put these traitors in jail where they belong?!

Big Bang machine surprises scientists

Despite sustaining major damage last year, the particle collider is ready for high-speed action.

The experiment

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Monarch butterflies face new danger

Yet another problem is imperiling the butterflies' winter colonies in Mexico.

Trees being devoured

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Insider secrets to getting hired

9 insider secrets to getting hired

To get noticed, be sure your resumé answers this one crucial question.

Also, what your body language says

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Unusual method to boost productivity

An MIT scholar suggests a different way to get more done in less time.

Simple but not at all easy

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Seven housing markets on the upswing

While the national scene is still gloomy, these metro areas appear to be recovering.

Top city's 3.2 percent gain

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Shocking facts about movie popcorn

A revealing new study says movie popcorn is even worse for us than previously thought.

12 pats of butter

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Is torn money still worth something?

If a $50 bill is ripped in half, there are certain ways you can get new cash.

Read people's answers

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The single best day to buy a car

Shoppers have one shot to capitalize on the biggest deals of the year, analysts say.

Average discount of 7.5 percent

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Follow the 'Brazilian plan' for weight loss

Learn how to shed pounds by adopting the eating habits and cuisine of Brazil.

What to fill up on before meals

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Would you wrap your turkey in bacon?

Just when you thought the Thanksgiving meal couldn't get more decadent, check out the "bacon bird."

1.5 lbs of bacon

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Witch bottle from the 18th century

Images Front Picture Library Uk Dir 9 Fortean Times 4786 5

Above is an 18th century "witch bottle," used to fend off evil spirits.

Discovered at a construction site in the London borough of Greenwich, this example is particularly rare because it's still corked. Retired chemistry professor Dr. Alan Massey analyzed the bottle and its curious contents.

From Fortean Times:

(The bottle) contained 12 bent iron nails (one of which pierced a small leather heart), eight brass pins, 10 adult fingernail pairings (sic) (not from a manual worker, but a person "of some social standing"), a quantity of hair and urine with traces of nicotine, indicating it had come from a smoker. There were also traces of sulphur, then known as brimstone, and what is thought to be navel fluff. The brimstone recalled the passage in Revelation where the beast and the false prophet were "cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone".

"Discovery of witch bottle used to drive away evil spells"

Health Care passes Senate Roll Call

Voting yes were 58 Democrats, 2 independents.

Voting no were 0 Democrats and 39 Republicans.

Are we surprised?

Really Rare Rhinos Found by Dung-Sniffing Dogs

We all know dogs like to smell just about everything, including other animals' poo. Now scientists have figured out how to put the canines' odd pastimes to work to help sniff out the dung of endangered rhinos in Vietnam.

The collected dung will help scientists to figure out how many Javan rhinos, also called Rhinoceros sondaicus, remain in the wild. The rhinos were considered extinct on mainland Southeast Asia until hunters in Vietnam killed one in 1988. Now two remaining populations exist, with an estimated 10 individuals in the forests of Vietnam and between 28 and 56 such rhinos on the island of Java, Indonesia.

Full Story

Life requested for US suspect in Italy murder case

Prosecutors requested life sentences Saturday for an American student and her former Italian boyfriend accused of killing a young British woman in Italy.

U.S. murder suspect Amanda Knox

Do blind people hallucinate on LSD?

From Mind Hacks:

I’ve just found a remarkable 1963 study from the Archives of Ophthalmology in which 24 blind participants took LSD to see if they could experience visual hallucinations.

It turns out, they can, although this seems largely to be the case in blind people who had several years of sight to begin with, but who later lost their vision.

Those blind from a very early age (younger than two years-old) did not report visual hallucinations, probably because they never had enough visual experience to shape a fully-functioning visual system when their brain was still developing.

Do blind people hallucinate on LSD?

US could ban caffeine-alcohol drinks within months

The US Food and Drug Administration has asked manufacturers of drinks that combine alcohol and caffeine to provide scientific evidence they are safe.

US could ban caffeine-alcohol drinks within months

Greenland ice loss behind a sixth of sea-level rise

The ice cap lost 1500 cubic kilometers of ice between 2000 and 2008, and the loss is speeding up.

Greenland ice loss behind a sixth of sea-level rise

Italian police arrest 2 linked to Mumbai attacks

Italian police on Saturday arrested a Pakistani father and son accused of helping fund and providing logistical support for last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, authorities said.

Full Story

Saturday Jam

Today's Saturday Jam Includes:

At The Hop

Danny and the Juniors

C'mon Everybody

Eddie Cochran

Oh, Boy

Buddy Holly and the Crickets

President Obama's Weekly Address

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, November 21, 2009

Hi. I’m recording this message from Seoul, South Korea, as I finish up my first presidential trip to Asia. As we emerge from the worst recession in generations, there is nothing more important than to do everything we can to get our economy moving again and put Americans back to work, and I will go anywhere to pursue that goal.

That’s one of the main reasons I took this trip. Asia is a region where we now buy more goods and do more trade with than any other place in the world – commerce that supports millions of jobs back home. It’s also a place where the risk of a nuclear arms race threatens our security, and where extremists plan attacks on America’s soil. And since this region includes some of the fastest-growing nations, there can be no solution to the challenge of climate change without the cooperation of the Asia Pacific.

With this in mind, I traveled to Asia to open a new era of American engagement. We made progress with China and Russia in sending a unified message to Iran and North Korea that they must live up to their international obligations and either forsake nuclear weapons or face the consequences. As the two largest consumers and producers of energy, we developed a host of new clean energy initiatives with China, and our two nations agreed to work toward a successful outcome at the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen – an outcome that leads to immediate action to reduce carbon pollution. And I spoke to young men and women at a town hall in Shanghai and across the internet about certain values that we in America believe are universal: the freedom of worship and speech; the right to access information and choose one’s own leaders.

But above all, I spoke with leaders in every nation I visited about what we can do to sustain this economic recovery and bring back jobs and prosperity for our people – a task I will continue to focus on relentlessly in the weeks and months ahead.

This recession has taught us that we can’t return to a situation where America’s economic growth is fueled by consumers who take on more and more debt. In order to keep growing, we need to spend less, save more, and get our federal deficit under control. We also need to place a greater emphasis on exports that we can build, produce, and sell to other nations – exports that can help create new jobs at home and raise living standards throughout the world.

For example, if we can increase our exports to Asia Pacific nations by just 5%, we can increase the number of American jobs supported by these exports by hundreds of thousands. This is already happening with businesses like American Superconductor Corporation, an energy technology startup based in Massachusetts that’s been providing wind power and smart grid systems to countries like China, Korea, and India. By doing so, it’s added more than 100 jobs over the last few years.

Increasing our exports is one way to create new jobs and new prosperity. But as we emerge from a recession that has left millions without work, we have an obligation to consider every additional, responsible step we can take to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country. That’s why I’ve announced that in the next few weeks, we’ll be holding a forum at the White House on jobs and economic growth. I want to hear from CEOs and small business owners, economists and financial experts, as well as representatives from labor unions and nonprofit groups, about what they think we can do to spur hiring and get this economy moving again.

It is important that we do not make any ill-considered decisions – even with the best of intentions – particularly at a time when our resources are so limited. But it is just as important that we are open to any demonstrably good idea to supplement the steps we’ve already taken to put America back to work. That’s what I hope to achieve in this forum.

Still, there is no forum or policy that can bring all the jobs we’ve lost overnight. I wish there were, because so many Americans – friends, neighbors, family members – are desperately looking for work. But even though it will take time, I can promise you this: we are moving in the right direction; that the steps we are taking are helping; and I will not let up until businesses start hiring again, unemployed Americans start working again, and we rebuild this economy stronger and more prosperous than it was before. That has been the focus of our efforts these past ten months – and it will continue to be our focus in the months and years to come.

Thanks.