... that Boris Karloff played the guitar - he wasn't just Frankenstein's 'Monster' you know.
And hers a bit of historical trivia for you: Boris sang the original theme song to the 1966 cartoon version of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Xmas.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Body Scanner Tech Finds Man Hidden in Roman Art
Cave Art Reveals Ancient View of Cosmos
Some of the oldest art in the United States maps humanity's place in the cosmos, as aligned with an ancient religion.
Random Celebrity Photos
Betty Grable
Although known for her 'legs' by many a service man (on all sides) during WW2, Betty was much more.
An 11,000-Year-Old Settlement Found Under Baltic Sea
A collection of well preserved artifacts left by nomads is discovered near Sweden.
Most Ancient Port, Hieroglyphic Papyri Found
An 4,500-year-old harbor is discovered, along with ancient diaries and artifacts, on the Red Sea Coast.
The Oklahoma City sonic boom tests
The Oklahoma City sonic boom tests, also known as Operation Bongo II, refer to a controversial experiment in which 1,253 sonic booms were carried out over Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
over a period of six months in 1964. The experiment, which ran from
February 3 through July 29, 1964, inclusive, intended to quantify the
effects of transcontinental supersonic transport (SST) aircraft on a city. The program was managed by the Federal Aviation Administration, which enlisted the aid of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Air Force. Public opinion measurement was subcontracted to the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) of the University of Chicago.
It was not the first experiment, as tests had been done at Wallops Island, Virginia, in 1958 and 1960, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, in 1960 and 1961, and in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1961 and 1962. However, none of these tests examined sociological and economic factors in any detail. The Oklahoma City experiments were vastly larger in scope, seeking to measure the boom's effect on structures and public attitude, and to develop standards for boom prediction and insurance data.
Oklahoma City was chosen, as the region's population was perceived to be relatively tolerant for such an experiment. The city had an economic dependency on the FAA's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center and Tinker Air Force Base, both of which were based there.
Oklahomans initially took the tests in stride. This was chalked up to the booms being predictable and coming at specific times. An FAA-hired camera crew, filming a group of construction workers, were surprised to find that the booms signalled their lunch break.
However, in the first 14 weeks, 147 windows in the city's two tallest buildings, the First National Bank and Liberty National Bank, were broken. By late spring, organized civic groups were already springing into action, but were rebuffed by city politicians, who asked them to show legislators their support. An attempt to lodge an injunction against the tests was denied by district court Judge Stephen Chandler, who said that the plaintiffs could not establish that they suffered any mental or physical harm and that the tests were a vital national need. A restraining order was then sought, which brought a pause to the tests on May 13 until it was decided that the court had exceeded its authority.
Pressure mounted from within. The federal Bureau of the Budget lambasted the FAA about poor experiment design, while complaints flooded into Oklahoma Senator A. S. "Mike" Monroney's office. Finally, East Coast newspapers began to pick up the issue, turning on the national spotlight. On June 6 the Saturday Review published an article titled The Era of Supersonic Morality, which criticized the manner in which the FAA had targeted a city without consulting local government. By July, the Washington Post reported on the turmoil at the local and state level in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City council members were finally beginning to respond to citizen complaints and put pressure on Washington.
The pressure put a premature end to the tests. On July 30, the tests were over. An Oklahoma City Times headline reported: "Silence is deafening!" Zhivko D. Angeluscheff, a prominent hearing specialist serving with the National Academy of Science, recalled: "I was witness to the fact that men were executing their brethren during six long months ... with their thunder, the sonic boom, they were punishing all living creatures on earth."
However, with the city population at 500,000, that 3% figure represented 15,000 upset individuals. At least 15,452 complaints and 4,901 claims were lodged against the U.S. government, most for cracked glass and plaster. The FAA rejected 94% of all the claims it received, fueling a rising tide of anger that soared even after the experiment's conclusion. By 1965, Senator Monroney had grown extremely upset over hundreds of letters from his constituents complaining about the FAA's "cavalier manner" of dismissing claims, and began demanding frequent reports from the agency. As late as May 1966, the FAA was still attempting to respond to all of Monroney's inquiries. The SST program lost all support from Monroney, who had initially been a key supporter.
The Oklahoma City experiments were partly to blame for weakening the FAA's authority in sonic boom issues. After the tests, President Lyndon B. Johnson's presidential advisory committee transferred matters of policy from the FAA to the National Academy of Science. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall complained that the NAS did not include one environmental preservationist, and pointed out that although the Oklahoma City tests were stacked in favor of the SST, they were still extremely negative. Indeed by 1966, national grassroots campaigns against sonic booms were beginning to affect public policy.
The FAA's poor handling of claims and its payout of only $123,000 led to a class action lawsuit against the U.S. government. On March 8, 1969, the government lost its appeal. The negative publicity associated with the tests partially influenced the 1971 cancellation of the Boeing 2707 project and led to the United States' complete withdrawal from SST design.
It was not the first experiment, as tests had been done at Wallops Island, Virginia, in 1958 and 1960, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, in 1960 and 1961, and in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1961 and 1962. However, none of these tests examined sociological and economic factors in any detail. The Oklahoma City experiments were vastly larger in scope, seeking to measure the boom's effect on structures and public attitude, and to develop standards for boom prediction and insurance data.
Oklahoma City was chosen, as the region's population was perceived to be relatively tolerant for such an experiment. The city had an economic dependency on the FAA's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center and Tinker Air Force Base, both of which were based there.
The sonic booms
Starting on February 3, 1964, the first sonic booms began, eight booms per day that began at 7 a.m. and ended in the afternoon. The noise was limited to 1.0 to 1.5 pound-force per square foot (48 to 72 pascal) for the first twelve weeks, then increased to 1.5 to 2.0 psf (72 to 96 pascal) for the final fourteen weeks. This range was about equal to that expected from an SST. Though eight booms per day were harsh, the peak overpressures of 2.0 psf were supposedly an order of magnitude lower than that needed to shatter glass, and are considered marginally irritating according to published standards. The Air Force used F-104 and B-58 aircraft, with the occasional F-101 and F-106.Oklahomans initially took the tests in stride. This was chalked up to the booms being predictable and coming at specific times. An FAA-hired camera crew, filming a group of construction workers, were surprised to find that the booms signalled their lunch break.
However, in the first 14 weeks, 147 windows in the city's two tallest buildings, the First National Bank and Liberty National Bank, were broken. By late spring, organized civic groups were already springing into action, but were rebuffed by city politicians, who asked them to show legislators their support. An attempt to lodge an injunction against the tests was denied by district court Judge Stephen Chandler, who said that the plaintiffs could not establish that they suffered any mental or physical harm and that the tests were a vital national need. A restraining order was then sought, which brought a pause to the tests on May 13 until it was decided that the court had exceeded its authority.
Pressure mounted from within. The federal Bureau of the Budget lambasted the FAA about poor experiment design, while complaints flooded into Oklahoma Senator A. S. "Mike" Monroney's office. Finally, East Coast newspapers began to pick up the issue, turning on the national spotlight. On June 6 the Saturday Review published an article titled The Era of Supersonic Morality, which criticized the manner in which the FAA had targeted a city without consulting local government. By July, the Washington Post reported on the turmoil at the local and state level in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City council members were finally beginning to respond to citizen complaints and put pressure on Washington.
The pressure put a premature end to the tests. On July 30, the tests were over. An Oklahoma City Times headline reported: "Silence is deafening!" Zhivko D. Angeluscheff, a prominent hearing specialist serving with the National Academy of Science, recalled: "I was witness to the fact that men were executing their brethren during six long months ... with their thunder, the sonic boom, they were punishing all living creatures on earth."
The fallout
The results of the experiment, reported by NORC, were released beginning in February, 1965. The FAA was displeased by the overly academic style of the report, but stressed the positive findings, saying "the overwhelming majority felt they could learn to live with the numbers and kinds of booms experienced." Indeed, the NORC reported that 73% of subjects in the study said that they could live indefinitely with eight sonic booms per day, while 25% said that they couldn't. About 3% of the population telephoned, sued, or wrote protest letters, but Oklahoma City surgeons and hospitals filed no complaints.However, with the city population at 500,000, that 3% figure represented 15,000 upset individuals. At least 15,452 complaints and 4,901 claims were lodged against the U.S. government, most for cracked glass and plaster. The FAA rejected 94% of all the claims it received, fueling a rising tide of anger that soared even after the experiment's conclusion. By 1965, Senator Monroney had grown extremely upset over hundreds of letters from his constituents complaining about the FAA's "cavalier manner" of dismissing claims, and began demanding frequent reports from the agency. As late as May 1966, the FAA was still attempting to respond to all of Monroney's inquiries. The SST program lost all support from Monroney, who had initially been a key supporter.
The Oklahoma City experiments were partly to blame for weakening the FAA's authority in sonic boom issues. After the tests, President Lyndon B. Johnson's presidential advisory committee transferred matters of policy from the FAA to the National Academy of Science. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall complained that the NAS did not include one environmental preservationist, and pointed out that although the Oklahoma City tests were stacked in favor of the SST, they were still extremely negative. Indeed by 1966, national grassroots campaigns against sonic booms were beginning to affect public policy.
The FAA's poor handling of claims and its payout of only $123,000 led to a class action lawsuit against the U.S. government. On March 8, 1969, the government lost its appeal. The negative publicity associated with the tests partially influenced the 1971 cancellation of the Boeing 2707 project and led to the United States' complete withdrawal from SST design.
WWII Wreck Reveals Wartime Romance
Crewmen aboard a World War II bomber etched their lovers'
names on board. But that didn't save the plane from a grim fate.
A World War II wreck retrieved from the bottom of an Italian
lake has revealed a forgotten story of love during wartime.
Coming Tomorrow
Coming Tomorrow
- The 'Genghis Khan' of Brown Bears
- The Coolest Living Fossils
- Eagle Hunters
- Honeybees are NOT native to North America
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
The Daily Drift
It's Man-Made and Natural Wonders
Carolina Naturally is read in 196 countries around the world daily.
Get up and get out and Walk ... !
Today is - National Walking Day
Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is
Some of our reader today have been in:
The Americas
Winnipeg,
Ottawa, Britannia, Joliette, Vancouver, Regina, Saint-Elzear, Edmonton,
Thunder Bay, Guelph, Prince Albert, Pikangikum, Sioux Lookout, Calgary,
Fort Nelson, Saint John's and Mississauga, Canada
Nantuckett, Des
Moines, Ocala, Joshua Tree, Bonita Springs, South San Gabriel, Sioux
Falls, Kailua, Puyallup and Eau Claire, United States
Villa Maria, Argentina
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Philipsburg, Sint Maartin
Bogota and Cali, Colombia
Montevideo, Uruguay
Porto Alegre, Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil
Managua, Nicaragua
Tijuana, Mexico
Caracas, Venezuela
Europe
Genoa, Ivrea, Rome, Naples, Ravenna and Milan, Italy
Cadiz, Barcelona, Badalona, Bilbao and Madrid, Spain
Vladivostok, Moscow, Chelyabinsk and Novgorod, Russia
Frankfurt Am Main, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Eschborn, Hamburg and Dusseldorf, Germany
Athens, Greece
London, Woking, Leeds, Liverpool and Leicester, England
Limerick, Dublin and Cork, Ireland
Mostar and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Lodz, Gdynia and Kielce, Poland
Vilnius, Lithuania
Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria
Mol and Brussels, Belgium
Bucharest and Slatina, Romania
Sevnica, Slovakia
Paris, Rouen and Nice, France
Ostrava, Czech Republic
Kista, Sweden
Kiev and Kharkiv, Ukraine
Deinum and Amsterdam, Netherlands
Bern, Switzerland
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Nokia, Finland
Riga, Latvia
Budapest, Hungary
Asia
Kolkata, Bangalore, Patna, Bikaner, Bhubaneshwar, New Delhi, Shillong, Coimbatore and Pune, India
Taizz and Al Hudaydah,Yemen
Denpasar, Jakarta, Banjar Gunungpande and Kebon, Indonesia
La Dagotiere and Port Louis, Mauritius
Doha, Qatar
Bayan Lepas, Kuala Lumpur, Sibu, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi, Vietnam
Guangzhou, China
Tehran, Iran
Colombo and Kandy, Sri Lanka
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Nagoya, Japan
Muscat, Oman
Africa
Calabar, Algeria
Cairo, Egypt
Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Berea and Cape Town, South Africa
The Pacific
Sydney, Australia
Today in History
| 1792 | The United States authorizes the minting of the $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins as well as the silver dollar, dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime. | |
| 1796 | Haitian revolt leader Toussaint L'Ouverture takes command of French forces at Santo Domingo. | |
| 1801 | The British navy defeats the Danish at the Battle of Copenhagen. | |
| 1865 | Confederate President Jefferson Davis flees Richmond, Virginia as Grant breaks Lee's line at Petersburg. | |
| 1910 | Karl Harris perfects the process for the artificial synthesis of rubber. | |
| 1914 | The U.S. Federal Reserve Board announces plans to divide the country into 12 districts. | |
| 1917 | President Woodrow Wilson presents a declaration of war against Germany to Congress. | |
| 1917 | Jeannette Pickering Rankin is sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. | |
| 1931 | Virne "Jackie" Mitchell becomes the first woman to play for an all-male pro baseball team. In an exhibition game against the New York Yankees, she strikes out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. | |
| 1932 | Charles Lindbergh pays over $50,000 ransom for his kidnapped son. | |
| 1944 | Soviet forces enter Romania, one of Germany's allied countries. | |
| 1958 | The National Advisory Council on Aeronautics is renamed NASA. | |
| 1963 | Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King begins the first non-violent campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. | |
| 1982 | Argentina invades the British-owned Falkland Islands. |
BP Refinery Leaks Oil Into Lake Michigan
Hey, it's only the environment after all ...
A BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana leaked an unknown amount of oil into Lake Michigan Monday afternoon, an incident that occurred less than two weeks after the U.S. lifted BP's ban on seeking new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
A BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana leaked an unknown amount of oil into Lake Michigan Monday afternoon, an incident that occurred less than two weeks after the U.S. lifted BP's ban on seeking new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
.
BP
says the spill, which has since been stopped and contained, was
caused by a "disruption in the refining process" at its
Whiting refinery in northwest Indiana. [...]CBS, citing unnamed sources, reports that between 10 and
12 barrels - around 500 gallons - spilled into the lake.
[...]
Lake
Michigan acts as the drinking water source for 7 million people in
the Chigago area alone, but EPA officials said on the call that the
drinking water wouldn't be affected by the spill.
... it's not like we don't have another one!
Wealth and climate change are increasing the cost of disaster cleanup
The Thousand Islands ...
The World's Smallest Sandcastles Are Built on Individual Grains of Sand
Now, Muniz is going in the opposite direction. He had explored art at the gargantuan scale and was ready to create it at the microscopic level. So he sketched sandcastles and sent them to Marcelo Coelho, a designer who is skilled in the artistic use of a focused ion beam. With special equipment, Coelho can etch lines 50 nanometers wide. That's about one thousandth of the width of a human hair.
You results are beautiful sandcastles on grains of sand. You can read more about the project and see more images at Colossal.
Angel Falls
You know you want to be ...
... deep in the forest away from 'civilization' just as much as we all do.
The Stairway to Heaven
What began as a rickety wood pathway to install
antenna cables over a cliff in 1942 has become a hiker’s enigma often
called the “Stairway to Heaven.”
We asked the Friends of Haiku Stairs (FHS) volunteer organization to get the inside scoop on the popular attraction:
What’s the current status and future of the Haiku Stairs?
FHS: Climbing on the stairs is illegal without
consent from the owners — there are several, and they asked us not to
share all of their names. The Friends of Haiku Stairs have a working
agreement with all of the owners and are trying to obtain the newly
required $1 million insurance policy that one of the owners is requiring
us to have before we can even access them again, and that is only for
maintenance and not recreation.
There is a continued movement to demolish the stairs
altogether that is being fueled by people accessing them illegally. We
believe there’s a better solution: Open the stairs to allow people to
climb in safe conditions and that will alleviate the trespassing. To get
there, we need political will.
Is it safe to climb the stairs?
FHS: The stairs are safe to climb if conditions are
favorable, with caution, and in the daylight. People continue to access
them illegally through the neighborhoods; or worse, they try to access
them from the back side which is a treacherous, dangerous hike. The
result is a surge in emergency calls and a strain on efforts from police
and rescue teams.
A Minnesota Forest
Located in Minnesota (near the Canadian border), and shaped like Minnesota.
Screencap by BobInMinn taken from Google Maps and posted in Reddit, then explained at Minneapolis' City Pages:
Hello, I have been aware of this timber harvest shaped like the state of MN border for about 8 years. I was a forester in northern Minnesota for some time and I can tell you this. This is state forest land, managed by DNR Division of Forestry. The state employs foresters to design timber harvests to meet many objectives including ecological and economic ones. The forester who designed this timber sale is a veteran at his craft and created this boundary line without the use of gps, but with map and compass instead. The forest type is jack pine, which is an early successional species that colonizes sites after a major disturbance and needs full sun to thrive. This species occurs in fire dependent forests. Modern timber sales mimic the effect of fire in these landscapes. As such this large opening was created to encourage it's regeneration. Loggers are contractors of the landowners/ land managers, and as such do not have discretion as to the layout of the harvest or other design features. They perform the contract. This forester must have an artistic side.
The Sunken City of Baia
In its heyday, the Classical Roman city of Baia was the hedonist Las Vegas of the time, but now its remains are partying beneath the waves.
A prominent resort city for centuries, Baia catered to the recreational whims of the rich and powerful among the Roman elite. The city, which was located over natural volcanic vents, was famous for its healing medicinal hot springs which occurred all around the city and were quite easy to build spas over. Some of antiquity’s most powerful figures such as Nero, Cicero, and Caesar were known to have visited the city and a number of them actually built permanent vacation villas there.
Unfortunately the good times were not to last and the city was sacked by Saracens in the 8th century and by 1500, the remains of the formerly luxurious town were abandoned. After the city remains were emptied, the water level slowly rose due to the same volcanic vents that were once a draw to the area, and most of the ancient ruins were drowned under the shallow waters of the bay.
Today the ancient remains of Baia can be visited in one of the world’s few underwater archeological parks.
Plan a visit to The Sunken City of Baia on Atlas Obscura!
Derinkuyu
Turkey's Underground City That Once Housed 20,000 People
Derinkuyu dates back to the 7th century BC. The early inhabitants of the underground city built it to save themselves from invasions and war. Ingenuity presented them with an opportunity to build a livable area where they can go unnoticed and where they can protect their possessions.
Ten Amazing Underground Cottages
There are some astonishing examples of underground cottages
in the world. Here's a collection of the coolest looking underground
cottages from New Zealand, Switzerland, Worcestershire, Italy and from
other parts of the world.
Will the Yellowstone supervolcano erupt in our lifetime?
As with many things in nature, it helps to understand […]
Crystal Caves
An Ice Cave in Iceland
Rock of Aphrodite
Eight 'Painted' Hillsides
Here's our list of 8 of the most spectacular — and entirely natural — painted hillsides in the world.
Fire Opal
Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica; its water content may range from 3% to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6% and 10%. Because of its amorphous character it is classed as a mineraloid, unlike the other crystalline forms of silica which are classed as minerals. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock...
The internal structure of precious opal makes it diffract light; depending on the conditions in which it formed, it can take on many colors. Precious opal ranges from clear through white, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta, rose, pink, slate, olive, brown, and black. Of these hues, the reds against black are the most rare, whereas white and greens are the most common. It varies in optical density from opaque to semi-transparent...
The word opal is adapted from the Roman term opalus, but the origin of this word is a matter of debate. However, most modern references suggest it is adapted from the Sanskrit word úpala... the argument for the Sanskrit origin is strong. The term first appears in Roman references around 250 BC, at a time when the opal was valued above all other gems...
It was also said to confer the power of invisibility if wrapped in a fresh bay leaf and held in the hand. Following the publication of Sir Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein in 1829, however, opal acquired a less auspicious reputation. In Scott's novel, the Baroness of Arnheim wears an opal talisman with supernatural powers. When a drop of holy water falls on the talisman, the opal turns into a colorless stone and the Baroness dies soon thereafter. Due to the popularity of Scott's novel, people began to associate opals with bad luck and death. Within a year of the publishing of Scott's novel in April 1829, the sale of opals in Europe dropped by 50%, and remained low for the next twenty years or so.
National soil collection may unlock mysteries
A small army of researchers and university students lugging pick axes and shovels scattered across the country for three years to scoop samples into plastic bags from nearly 5,000 places. They marked the GPS coordinates, took photos and labeled each bag before mailing them back to the government's laboratory in Denver.
Though always underfoot and often overlooked, dirt actually has a lot to tell. Scientists say information gleaned from it could help farmers grow better vegetables and build a better understanding of climate change. A researcher of forensic science said mud caked on a murder suspect's boots could reveal if he had traipsed through a crime scene or had been at home innocently gardening.
David Smith, who launched the U.S. Geological Survey project in 2001, said data about the dirt will feed research for a century, and he's sharing it with anyone who wants it. "The more eyes and brains that look at it, the better," Smith said.
The idea for the massive research project came in the late 1990s, when Smith was in charge of handing out the government's store of soil data — what little there was.
The archive held information collected in the 1960s and 1970s. It was spotty and based on outdated science. Just about every researcher returned with the same disappointment, saying: "There must be more."
Smith told them that, sadly, no, there wasn't.
So he took action. During the next several years, Smith and his fellow geologists refined a plan for collecting and documenting the makeup of the nation's soil.
Digging started in 2007 and wasn't done until 2010. They strategically sunk their shovels at a spot in every 600 square miles. At each locale they took three samples — starting at the surface and going no deeper than three feet.
Before retiring, U.S. Geological Survey geologist Jim Kilburn trained many of the 40 surveyors and went into the field himself several times for up to a month. He sent back hundreds of samples on the road from Nebraska down to Texas and from Kansas west to the California coast.
Only once was Kilburn told to go away. A rancher near Sacramento, Calif., had let government researchers onto his pastures before, where they found a rare clover and told him he could no longer graze cattle there.
"No matter what I told the guy, he wasn't going to let me on," Kilburn said. "He had good reason."
A student Kilburn supervised caused a panic by leaving behind a sticky note on her motel room mirror with the reminder, "Send anthrax." The element occurs naturally in soil throughout the country, but it also has sinister uses. A housekeeper thought the worst, sparking a series of calls with geological survey headquarters until the confusion was resolved.
The hard work paid off. In October, the geological survey published a snapshot of minerals and chemicals in the ground. No other work captures the same information on a national scale, said Smith, who estimated the project cost $10 million.
Researchers at universities, institutes and government agencies have just begun using the data.
Kang Xia, a professor of environmental chemistry at Virginia Tech, stumbled upon the soil survey by chance — and at exactly the right moment.
She had set out to study and map the levels of organic carbon and nitrogen in soil — both critical for growing healthy crops. But she couldn't find samples of dirt from across the country.
"I was scratching my head," she said. "What do I do about this?"
Not long after that, a graduate student mentioned his summer job on the geological survey crew collecting dirt samples.
Problem solved. Xia emailed Smith, who offered her thousands of soil samples and a decade's worth of research.
Jennifer Phelan at RTI Inc., a research institute in Raleigh, N.C., is using the dirt to study acid rain's harm to forests, starting in Pennsylvania.
Cornell University professor Johannes Lehmann is leading a group of graduate students sifting through soil data for evidence of black carbon, a byproduct of forest fires and industrial smokestacks. The research may increase understanding of global warming.
"Without this sampling effort, we couldn't do this type of research," Lehmann said.
Dirt under the fingernails of a murder victim could help detectives figure out if the body was dumped there but killed elsewhere, said Sarah Jantzi, whose 2013 doctoral dissertation at Florida International University in the field of forensic science drew upon the government work.
A government scientist for 38 years, Smith said those after him can use this soil analysis as a starting point for decades of research. His data is available to anyone who thinks it will advance his or her project.
"The opportunities for further research are almost limitless," he said.
A Psychedelic Plant You Can Legally Grow
Wormwood
Wormwood is a perennial herb with pale yellow flowers from which
absinthe is made. When in full bloom, the flowers can be dried and
consumed to be used as a pain reliever. Wormwood oil can be used as a
cardiac stimulant. Careful, now, wormwood as a whole is a poisonous
plant and should not be consumed in large quantities. Illegally,
wormwood is often smoked in tandem with cannabis to exaggerate the
effects of the high.
Coming Tomorrow
Coming Tomorrow
- Cave Art reveals an ancient view of the cosmos
- The last commercial sailing ship
- Bonnie and Clyde
- The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
The Daily Drift
It's a Political Circus
Carolina Naturally is read in 196 countries around the world daily.
Although known as April Fools Day the proper name is All Fools Day ... !
Today is - All Fools Day
Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is
Some of our reader today have been in:
The Americas
Weehawken,
Chttanooga, Yorba Linda, Shark River Hills, Fergus Falls, Atascocita,
San Luis Obispo, Wilmington, New York City and San Francisco, United
States
Delta, Surrey, Quebec, Regina, Guelph, Montreal, Thunder
Bay, Pikangikum, Saint-Elzear, Vancouver, Joliette, Edmonton, Winnipeg,
Mississauga, Prince Albert and Saint John's, Canada
Buenos Aires and Villa Maria, Argentina
Cali, Medellin and Armenia, Colombia
Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Palmeria, Curitiba and Porto Algere, Brazil
Managua, Nicaragua
Lima, Peru
Ecatepec, Mexico
Europe
Odessa, Zhovti Vody, Kiev, Yalta and Lviv, Ukraine
Saint Peter Port, Guernsey
Florence, Ivrea, Milan, Genoa, Naples, Rome and Palermo, Italy
Haarlem Netherlands
Budapest, Hungary
Lisbon, Covilha and Porto, Portugal
Ostrava, Czech Republic
Martin, Slovakia
Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Vladivostok, Kazan and Ryazan, Russia
L'Olleria, Basauri and Madrid, Spain
London and Cambridge, England
Tenja, Croatia
Riga, Latvia
Rouen, Paris, Lyon and Calais, France
Newport, Wales
Kista, Sweden
Dublin, Ireland
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Vilnius, Lithuania
Brussels, Belgium
Wroclaw, Poland
Reykjavik, Iceland
Asia
Tel Aviv, Israel
Jakarta, Jambi, Denpasar, Yogyakarta and Bojonegoro, Indonesia
La Dagotiere and Quarte Bornes, Mauritius
Patna, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi, Shillong, Bangalore, Mumbai, Jodhpur and New Delhi, India
Bangkok and Bang Khen, Thailand
Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi, Pakistan
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Hanoi, Vietnam
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Singapore, Singapore
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Rangoon, Burma
Kanghwa, Korea
Africa
Abuja, Nigeria
Algiers and Calabar, Algeria
Harare, Zimbabwe
Casablanca, Morocco
Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa
The Pacific
Mandaluyong City and Manila, Philippines
Sydney and Perth, Australia
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Today in History
| 1572 | The Sea Beggars under Guillaume de la Marck land in Holland and capture the small town of Briel. | |
| 1778 | Oliver Pollock, creates the dollar sign. | |
| 1863 | The first wartime conscription law goes into effect in the United States. | |
| 1865 | At the Battle of Five Forks, Gen. Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive. | |
| 1868 | The Hampton Institute is founded in Hampton, Va. | |
| 1905 | Berlin and Paris are linked by telephone. | |
| 1918 | England's Royal Air Force is formed. | |
| 1920 | Germany's Workers Party changes its name to the Nationalist Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazis). | |
| 1924 | Adolf Hitler sentenced to five years in prison for the "Beer Hall Putsch." | |
| 1928 | China's Chiang Kai-shek begins attacks on communists. | |
| 1929 | The yo-yo is introduced in the United States by Louie Marx. | |
| 1939 | The Spanish Civil War effectively ends with the official recognition of Franco's government. | |
| 1942 | The U.S. Navy begins a partial convoy system in the Atlantic. | |
| 1945 | U.S. forces launch invasion of Okinawa. | |
| 1946 | A miner's strike in the U.S. idles 400,000 workers. | |
| 1948 | The Berlin Airlift begins, relieving the surrounded city from the Soviet siege. | |
| 1951 | United Nations forces again move northward across the 38th Parallel in Korea. | |
| 1954 | The U.S. Air Force Academy is founded in Colorado. | |
| 1968 | The U.S. Army launches Operation Pegasus, the reopening of a land route to the besieged Khe Sanh Marine base. | |
| 1970 | The U.S. Army charges Captain Ernest Medina for his role in the My Lai massacre. | |
| 1982 | The United States transfers control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. |
Did you know ...
That most Wisconsin repugican senators who voted to restrict early voting have themselves voted early
That in spite of not bailing out the banks, Iceland is on the mend
That the tea partiers want to re-fight 1964
That Democrats need to welcome Democrats to the party
That the Kansas 'retaliation' bill would allow cops to arrest people who complain about cops
According to a former undercover drug officer: why white people don't get busted
That we must stop calling each other 'nazi!
That Amanda Marcotte doesn't want a baby
Here's 9 maps that should outrage southerners
That Toyota pays $1.2 billion for defective accelerator cover-up
That wildflower season in the Rockies is 35 days longer thanks to global warming
That a scrap dealer finds Faberge egg at a flea market
Endangered Mitch McConnell Loses His Third Endorsement In a Week
Mitch McConnell lost yet another important endorsement to his tea party challenger. It couldn't have come at a worse time.…
The Alison Grimes (D-KY) campaign isn’t about to let this one pass by, especially given Senator McConnell’s super bad week… er, month. The Secretary of State’s campaign put out a statement, “The endorsement loss could not have come at a worse time for the McConnell campaign. As noted this afternoon, his campaign “has sputtered worse than a beat-up jalopy” in recent weeks.”
I give you:
Phillip M. BaileyINBOX: #Lexington, Ky. tea party endorses MattBevin for U.S. Senate
Here’s a summation of his very bad week via the Grimes people:
Mitch McConnell celebrated the Duke Blue Devils in his new ad – an egregious, out-of-touch move in Kentucky during March Madness.I’ve been saying for a few weeks that it looks like someone is sabotaging McConnell’s campaign. Now the Daily Beast is asking if he is trying to lose. But Mitch McConnell has gotten quite rich in D.C. Why would he want to lose?
McConnell’s campaign then swapped out Duke footage for a current University of Kentucky basketball player in a potential violation of NCAA policy.
The University of Kentucky issued a cease and desist letter to the McConnell campaign – echoing the message Kentucky voters will send Mitch McConnell this November.
And perhaps worst of all, when asked by a Daily News reporter to clarify whether he’s a Louisville or a Duke fan, McConnell refused to say (0:45).
Mitch McConnell has clearly lost touch with Kentuckians back home after 30 years in Washington. Despite several failed attempts, the McConnell team’s new Duke ad “just couldn’t get right”. This must be what Mitch McConnell meant when he proclaimed they would run a “presidential-level campaign.”
It’s looking more and more as if the repugican Senator felt so secure and entitled to the seat he’s held for 30 years that he is going to succumb to the fact that he is not the best candidate. He’s not in fighting condition. Natural selection, then, seems to have finally found McConnell wanting.
Mitch McConnell is seriously endangered in Kentucky. What looked like a series of gaffes and typical Tea Party primary grumbles is shaping up to spell the end for McConnell. After all, if he can’t even defeat Matt Bevin in a primary, how’s he going to face Alison Grimes, who has been beating him or even with him in the polls?
The repugicans' Bad Acting Can’t Hide The Racism Behind Their Obama Outrage
There is a recurring theme in repugican outrage over
President Obama's executive actions that centers on an African American
President doing the same thing a white president would …
A bad actor can mean an unruly, turbulent, or contentious individual
in one sense, or it can mean a person who badly interprets a dramatic
character in a production they perform in regardless it is film,
television, theatre, radio, or in front of cameras during a weekly news
conference. The incredibly bad performance on Wednesday was the second
in three months for Speaker of the House John Boehner who put on an
equally bad acting job of feigning righteous indignation for the press
last December. Boehner’s last
bad performance was his portrayal of an “outraged” House Speaker
complaining that teabaggers and conservative belief tanks were out of
line for objecting to the bi-partisan, bi-cameral budget agreement
between Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray.
Boehner’s amateurish thespian attempt on Wednesday was also typical repugican hypocrisy and double standard targeting President Obama for extending the deadline to sign up for the Affordable Care Act by a about two weeks. Boehner must have spent all of Tuesday night perfecting his phony outrage to convince the press that during his tenure in the House he had never witnessed a president take executive action to extend a deadline for Americans to sign up for health insurance. Boehner said, “Last night brought us yet another delay of Obamacare, another deadline made meaningless. What the hell is this, a joke?” No Speaker Boehner, it was not a joke, it is precisely the same thing you witnessed the shrub do in May 2006 when he took executive action to waive “penalty fees for very low-income seniors and people with disabilities to sign up late” for the new Medicare Part D prescription plan and allowed the “same impoverished beneficiaries to sign up for Medicare drug coverage until December 31.” President Obama’s action was not exactly like the shrub’s because the shrub extended the enrollment for Medicare Part D by a full seven months and not two weeks that President Obama extended sign-ups for the Affordable Care Act for people who were “already in line.”
It is the second time repugicans and their wingnut punditry feigned seething outrage over the Affordable Care Act’s online sign-ups they did not demonstrate when the shrub’s Medicare prescription plan rollout did not work as well as advertised. Last November when the ACA rollout was plagued with glitches and long wait times, repugicans went berserk and convened a hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee to investigate the crimes in the Affordable Care Act’s implementation. When the Medicare prescription plan’s rollout experienced difficulties, repugicans lined up to beseech Americans to be patient and not pre-judge the prescription plan based on a few technical problems. A bevy of repugicans made excuses for the technical issues such as “This is a huge undertaking and there are going to be glitches. Any time something is new, there is going to be some glitches; it is going to take a little adjustment.”
There is a recurring theme in repugican outrage over President Obama’s executive actions that centers on an African American President doing the same thing a white president did less than six years ago with no cries of presidential overreach, dictatorial tyranny, or overstepping his constitutional authority. For example, in late December the President signed an executive order titled “Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay” that mirrored the shrub’s order five years earlier titled “Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay.” Last May President Obama signed an executive order titled “Providing an Order of Succession within the Department of Agriculture” that the shrub called “Amending the Order of Succession Within the Department of Agriculture” and signed in January 2009 just days before leaving office. President Obama signed an order titled “Continuance of Certain Federal Advisory Committees” on September 20, 2013, and the shrub signed his “Continuance of Certain Federal Advisory Committees” on September 28, 2007. The list goes on and on and the overriding theme is that regardless the executive orders are nearly identical, repugicans react completely the opposite when a Black President takes executive action as when a white president who did the exact same thing while most repugicans feigning outrage were in Congress.
The repugicans have assailed President Obama throughout his tenure for doing the same thing the shrub did without criticism and in fact with great support. For example, over the past year repugicans and their punditry have attacked the education model called “common core” as a plot to control young Americans’ minds, but they heaped praise on the shrub’s “No Child Left Behind” that was a deliberate attempt to close public schools, destroy teacher unions, and usher in an era of for-profit Charter schools using a voucher privatization scam. When President Obama asked Congress to pass a stimulus package to save the economy after shrub repugicans and the financial sector crashed the economy in 2008, the repugican cabal was beside themselves with outrage even though they made impassioned pleas for the shrub’s stimulus well before they crashed the economy as necessary to keep the economy running smoothly despite they squandered a budget surplus on tax cuts for the rich. The repugicans nearly caused a credit default over raising the nation’s debt limit in 2011 because the President is Black, and yet they raised it without condition several times for white guy. In every case of this President doing the exact same thing the shrub did is the repugican’s phony outrage and reaction driven solely by President Obama’s race.
There is no doubt that, as we pointed out, Boehner was not amused that the President’s executive action giving prospective enrollees a little extra time to sign up for coverage in the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges “outsmarted Boehner again, and killed his next line of Obamacare attacks before they could get started.” However, when Boehner asked “what the hell is this” he knew exactly what it was and that white president did precisely the same thing with his Medicare prescription plan with full repugican support and praise. What this President did was not, as Boehner asserted, “a long-term pattern of this administration manipulating the laws for its own convenience,” presidential overreach, dictatorial tyranny, or abusing the powers granted him by the Constitution. It was the same thing repugicans have criticized and complained about for five straight years without respite and the same today as it was in January 2009 when repugicans first complained that Barack Obama is President while being Black. They cannot possibly claim otherwise with a straight face or phony outrage because in every sense of the words repugicans are consummate bad actors and rank racists.
Boehner’s amateurish thespian attempt on Wednesday was also typical repugican hypocrisy and double standard targeting President Obama for extending the deadline to sign up for the Affordable Care Act by a about two weeks. Boehner must have spent all of Tuesday night perfecting his phony outrage to convince the press that during his tenure in the House he had never witnessed a president take executive action to extend a deadline for Americans to sign up for health insurance. Boehner said, “Last night brought us yet another delay of Obamacare, another deadline made meaningless. What the hell is this, a joke?” No Speaker Boehner, it was not a joke, it is precisely the same thing you witnessed the shrub do in May 2006 when he took executive action to waive “penalty fees for very low-income seniors and people with disabilities to sign up late” for the new Medicare Part D prescription plan and allowed the “same impoverished beneficiaries to sign up for Medicare drug coverage until December 31.” President Obama’s action was not exactly like the shrub’s because the shrub extended the enrollment for Medicare Part D by a full seven months and not two weeks that President Obama extended sign-ups for the Affordable Care Act for people who were “already in line.”
It is the second time repugicans and their wingnut punditry feigned seething outrage over the Affordable Care Act’s online sign-ups they did not demonstrate when the shrub’s Medicare prescription plan rollout did not work as well as advertised. Last November when the ACA rollout was plagued with glitches and long wait times, repugicans went berserk and convened a hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee to investigate the crimes in the Affordable Care Act’s implementation. When the Medicare prescription plan’s rollout experienced difficulties, repugicans lined up to beseech Americans to be patient and not pre-judge the prescription plan based on a few technical problems. A bevy of repugicans made excuses for the technical issues such as “This is a huge undertaking and there are going to be glitches. Any time something is new, there is going to be some glitches; it is going to take a little adjustment.”
There is a recurring theme in repugican outrage over President Obama’s executive actions that centers on an African American President doing the same thing a white president did less than six years ago with no cries of presidential overreach, dictatorial tyranny, or overstepping his constitutional authority. For example, in late December the President signed an executive order titled “Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay” that mirrored the shrub’s order five years earlier titled “Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay.” Last May President Obama signed an executive order titled “Providing an Order of Succession within the Department of Agriculture” that the shrub called “Amending the Order of Succession Within the Department of Agriculture” and signed in January 2009 just days before leaving office. President Obama signed an order titled “Continuance of Certain Federal Advisory Committees” on September 20, 2013, and the shrub signed his “Continuance of Certain Federal Advisory Committees” on September 28, 2007. The list goes on and on and the overriding theme is that regardless the executive orders are nearly identical, repugicans react completely the opposite when a Black President takes executive action as when a white president who did the exact same thing while most repugicans feigning outrage were in Congress.
The repugicans have assailed President Obama throughout his tenure for doing the same thing the shrub did without criticism and in fact with great support. For example, over the past year repugicans and their punditry have attacked the education model called “common core” as a plot to control young Americans’ minds, but they heaped praise on the shrub’s “No Child Left Behind” that was a deliberate attempt to close public schools, destroy teacher unions, and usher in an era of for-profit Charter schools using a voucher privatization scam. When President Obama asked Congress to pass a stimulus package to save the economy after shrub repugicans and the financial sector crashed the economy in 2008, the repugican cabal was beside themselves with outrage even though they made impassioned pleas for the shrub’s stimulus well before they crashed the economy as necessary to keep the economy running smoothly despite they squandered a budget surplus on tax cuts for the rich. The repugicans nearly caused a credit default over raising the nation’s debt limit in 2011 because the President is Black, and yet they raised it without condition several times for white guy. In every case of this President doing the exact same thing the shrub did is the repugican’s phony outrage and reaction driven solely by President Obama’s race.
There is no doubt that, as we pointed out, Boehner was not amused that the President’s executive action giving prospective enrollees a little extra time to sign up for coverage in the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges “outsmarted Boehner again, and killed his next line of Obamacare attacks before they could get started.” However, when Boehner asked “what the hell is this” he knew exactly what it was and that white president did precisely the same thing with his Medicare prescription plan with full repugican support and praise. What this President did was not, as Boehner asserted, “a long-term pattern of this administration manipulating the laws for its own convenience,” presidential overreach, dictatorial tyranny, or abusing the powers granted him by the Constitution. It was the same thing repugicans have criticized and complained about for five straight years without respite and the same today as it was in January 2009 when repugicans first complained that Barack Obama is President while being Black. They cannot possibly claim otherwise with a straight face or phony outrage because in every sense of the words repugicans are consummate bad actors and rank racists.
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