A Good One

Giant prehistoric egg seized at Italian airport

An Italian man was caught trying to send a giant prehistoric egg worth more than €90,000 to the United States, Italian customs officials said on Thursday.

Authorities at Bergamo Airport in the country's northeast discovered the egg, which measured 50 centimeters in length and 75 centimeter in diameter, in a parcel destined for Los Angeles.
The egg is thought to be from a so-called "bird elephant", or "Aepyornis Maximus", an emu-like creature weighing half a tonne. The bird lived on the island of Madagascar during the Pleistocene era, which ended 12,000 years ago.
The sender said that his wife was Madagascan, and he had received the egg as a wedding gift. "You can find eggs like this everywhere (in Madagascar) for a few euros. My wife collects them, her family has a few of them," he said. The man could face a jail sentence and €5,000 fine for trying to export a cultural item without permission.

Police officers helped rescue skunk with head stuck in dog toy

When a skunk got into a sticky situation on Monday, two police officers from Plover, Wisconsin, went to the rescue. Combined, Officer Nate Shulfer and Officer Andrew Hopfensperger have worked in law enforcement for more than 10 years.

Slowest Chase Scene Ever

(YouTube link)

You’d be a little peeved if someone interrupted you while making sweet love. It’s the same with the giant tortoises on Assumption Island. National Geographic expedition leader Paul Rose is in the Seychelles right now. When he goes to see what’s making that sound, it breaks the romance of the moment, so to speak. The angry tortoise leaps into action to chase the intruder away. I guess he told Rose what's what, and good riddance! When he’s finally driven the interloper out of his territory, he returns to his lovely lady. He should be there in, oh, about an hour.

Piranha Feeding Frenzy

YouTube Link

Piranhas in a Brazilian river are frenzied as they voraciously devour food being tossed to them by the locals. These people had better be careful not to lose their footing!

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Cute Overload ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 202 countries around the world daily.   

    
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Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Muriae, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil

Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec, Canada

Lo Prado, Chile

Bogota, Colombia

Ecatepec and Mexico City, Mexico

Catano and San Juan,  Puerto Rico

Europe

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Glavinista, Sofia and Varna, Bulgaria

London and Loughton, England

Rouen and Velizy-Villacoublay, France

Hamburg and Russelheim, Germany

Athens and Peristerion, Greece

Genova, Milan, Palermo, Ravenna and Rome, Italy

Riga, Latvia

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Doetinchem, Netherlands

Oslo, Norway

Grodzisk, Poland

Lagos and Lisbon, Portugal

Bucharest, Romania

Saratov, Russia

Bratislava, Slovakia

Madrid, Pinar de Chamartin, Tres Cantos and Valencia, Spain

Horlinka and Vinnytsya, Ukraine

Asia

Jinan, Taiyuan, China

Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Bokaro, Calicut, Chetput, Delhi, New Delhi, Rajkot and Vadodara, India

Jagirsidosermo, Indonesia

beaufort, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Seremban, Malaysia

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Taipei, Taiwan

Bangkok, Thailand

Africa

Djibouti, Djibouti

Cape Town, South Africa

The Pacific

Heidelberg and Surry Hills, Australia

Makati and Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1657		France and England form an alliance against Spain.
1743		Handel's Messiah is performed for the first time in London.
1775		American revolutionary hero Patrick Henry, while addressing the House of Burgesses, declares "give me liberty, or give me death!"
1791		Etta Palm, a Dutch champion of woman's rights, sets up a group of women's clubs called the Confederation of the Friends of Truth.
1848		Hungary proclaims its independence of Austria.
1857		Elisha Otis installs the first modern passenger elevator in a public building, at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway in New York City.
1858		Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia patents the cable street car, which runs on overhead cables.
1862		Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson faces his only defeat at the Battle of Kernstown, Va
1880		John Stevens of Neenah, Wis., patents the grain crushing mill. This mill allows flour production to increase by 70 percent.
1901		A group of U.S. Army soldier led by Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston capture Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of the Philippine Insurrection of 1899.
1903		The Wright brothers obtain an airplane patent.
1909		British Lt. Ernest Shackleton finds the magnetic South Pole.
1909		Theodore Roosevelt begins an African safari sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
1917		Austrian Emperor Charles I makes a peace proposal to French President Poincare.
1920		Great Britain denounces the United States because of its delay in joining the League of Nations.
1921		Arthur G. Hamilton sets a new parachute record, safely jumping 24,400 feet.
1927		Captain Hawthorne Gray sets a new balloon record soaring to 28,510 feet.
1933		The Reichstag gives Adolf Hitler the power to rule by decree.
1942		The Japanese occupy the Anadaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.
1951		U.S. paratroopers descend from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea.
1956		Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic, although it is still within the British Commonwealth.
1967		Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. calls the Vietnam War the biggest obstacle to the civil rights movement.
1970		Mafia boss Carlo Gambino is arrested for plotting to steal $3 million.
1972		The United States calls a halt to the peace talks on Vietnam being held in Paris.
1981		U.S. Supreme Court upholds a law making statutory rape a crime for men but not women.

Editorial Comment

As our regular readers know we started this blog as something to do while we worked on the farm we had just purchased back in 2005. It became something to do as we spent the next eight years in the hospital as the Mrs., became ill, was finally diagnosed and stabilized.
Having retired from a thriving Psychology practice to run the farm in retirement was the plan, but as they say ... the best laid plans ....

With the Mrs'., stabilization came the opportunity to re-enter the corporate world and it was taken - boredom with retirement, (even though there was no time between the hospital, farm and all the other activities we enjoy), was the main decision maker there. (Not that the salary was a deterrent either, we make more than we did in our practice with even less work and as you may know Psychologists make a pretty good living and do not work hard while doing it.)

In doing so time constraints grew tighter - although sleep has been the enemy for a lifetime one still has to have it sometime - so it was decided to curtail the blogging as of April 1, 2015. Something we would be announcing about now.

However, Blogger's recent foray into insanity (which they soon realized and reversed themselves on) the time table for our sister blogs was moved up to March 1, 2015. The result was no loss of readership for any of the blogs. In fact there is an increasing readership for the new blog introduced on March 1, 2015.

Today we are announcing that this blog will curtail its posts beginning tomorrow. Don't fret dear readers it will only be curtailed to the number of posts found on the new blog - 20 in lieu of the current 30. (You would be amazed at the amount of time it takes for those 10 posts.) Content and theme shall remain the same, only a slight decrease in volume.

Also, as you know we recently disallowed comments to be published on any of our blogs without the editor's approval due to trolls seeking to divert and pervert them. This has resulted in a wholesale exodus of the trolls for greener pastures - except for a few really stupid ones who always seem to be too stupid to realize they have lost at everything.

We are taking a page from Ms, Judd's book and these trolls shall soon be visited by the authorities to explain their option of a fine and jail or jail and a fine to them for their trolling activities.
Non-troll comments are being archived and could be published at any time. Troll comments are being collected and forwarded to the authorities for prosecution.

On a happy note - Spring is here. Time for some of those other activities mentioned above ... Gardening, Yard Work, DIY Projects, Day Trips, etc. As well as the work needed to run a farm.

Tilling for the planting is going to be a fun time because we have an old 'homemade' tiller made by grandpa before WW2 - he took a small riding tractor engine that still worked while the rest of the tractor was only good for salvage and converted it into a walk-behind tiller ... which means we have a self propelled tiller that you have to run behind to keep it upright and it helps if you can bench-press at least 200lbs (if you can't before you use the tiller you will after you use it).

Living on the lake (the farm is across the road from the lake while our home is on the lake front) has its advantages and its disadvantages one of which is with the warmer days comes an onslaught of nonresidents crowding onto the lake and creating an extremely hazardous environment. There have already been four collisions off the end of our pier and Spring only began this past Friday at 6:45PM. We hope this is not an indicator as to the 'lake season' this year, if so it it going to be a LOOOOOOONG one indeed.

Thank you for reading Carolina Naturally and her sister blogs.
Have Fun and Enjoy!

White people are "expats." Others are "immigrants."

From The Guardian:

What is an expat? And who is an expat? According to Wikipedia, “an expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex (‘out of’) and patria (‘country, fatherland’)”.

Defined that way, you should expect that any person going to work outside of his or her country for a period of time would be an expat, regardless of his skin colour or country. But that is not the case in reality; expat is a term reserved exclusively for western white people going to work abroad...

The Wall Street Journal, the leading financial information magazine in the world, has a blog dedicated to the life of expats and recently they featured a story ‘Who is an expat, anyway?’. Here are the main conclusions: “Some arrivals are described as expats; others as immigrants; and some simply as migrants. It depends on social class, country of origin and economic status. It’s strange to hear some people in Hong Kong described as expats, but not others. Anyone with roots in a western country is considered an expat … Filipino domestic helpers are just guests, even if they’ve been here for decades. Mandarin-speaking mainland Chinese are rarely regarded as expats … It’s a double standard woven into official policy.” 

Random Celebrity Photos

Brigitte Bardot

Photos of Pompeii, Then and Now

Zena Kamash of Royal Holloway, University of London, examined nineteenth- and early twentieth-century lantern slides of Pompeii taken by tourists, and compared them to modern-day photographs posted by travelers on the Internet. She found that the images are remarkably similar—they contain few people, despite the crowds that are drawn to the ancient city, even in the age of the selfie. “I think we have a very powerful imagined idea of what an ancient city should be like, which is a romantic empty ruin that stands in mute testament to the past. This is the view that has come down to us from the earliest drawings of archaeological sites and through the quiet, empty photos that we find in the lantern slide collection,” Kamash said in a press release. “In the case of Pompeii, I think this is particularly strong because we all know the tragic story of its destruction and devastation by Vesuvius erupting in A.D. 79—the silent plaster casts of the bodies trying to flee seem to really capture people’s imagination and bring home to visitors the emptiness, death and loss suffered by the city all that time ago,” she concluded. To read in-depth about work at one of Pompeii's most iconic buildings, see "Saving the Villa of the Mysteries."

Divers Find 300 Year Old Sunken Pirate Ship in Mississippi River Near St. Louis

by Greg Henderson

A group of amateur divers this weekend discovered a sunken pirate ship in the Mississippi river south of St. Louis.
The discovery was made Saturday near Oakville, Missouri after a group of divers, searching for lost river boat artifacts, came across the large ship.
“We have found parts of smaller river boats before. At first we thought it was just another one of those,” Jake Turner, one of the divers, tells us. “We quickly noticed that this was no ordinary boat, instead it became clear that this was an old sailing ship.”
The ship they discovered was the Negrito, captained by legendary Pacific pirate Black Eye Dan. According to legend the Negrito went vanished in 1708 and is believed to have sunk somewhere in the south Pacific. Various treasure hunters searched for several years for the missing ship with no luck.
Aboard the ship the divers found a large number of gold and jade artifacts, along with over 100 barrels of honey infused moonshine, which is likely the reason the pirates sailed to the area originally.
The divers say they will keep any treasure and artifacts, but will donate the ship itself to the city of St. Louis to be used as a museum. The boat will be on display under the Gateway Arch, inside the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, where a permanent exhibit will be constructed.
“We are thrilled to add the ship to the memorial,” St Louis visitor’s bureau president Nat Hudson tells us. “We did receive several request from the ancestors of the ship to return it to south-east Asia. We figured however it was in everyone’s best interest to drag it out for the world to see while we make a few bucks charging admission. We will respect the families by giving them free admission and a 25% discount off all merchandise though.”
Hudson says a temporary exhibit for the ship will officially open in April. The St. Louis visitor’s bureau will hold a contest between now and the opening for people to come up with the best conspiracy theory about how the ship reached St. Louis. Best entries will be shared on all major international news organizations.

Outrage over restaurant sign featuring bull with extra-large genitalia

A new sign at Barista’s Restaurant in Hurricane, Utah, featuring a bull’s extra-large male anatomy, is sparking outrage within the community. The sign, which was erected last Saturday across the street from Hurricane High School, is prompting fierce backlash from angry residents who are calling the sign offensive and inappropriate, saying the depiction of the bull’s genitalia is blatantly overdone.

“It looks terrible,” Hurricane City resident Denise Mackelprang said. “I could see the bull, but not the details of the sex. It’s R-rated to me, especially with young school kids seeing it and talking about it.” Several residents said they think the bull would look good if it were anatomically correct and the dimensions and proportions were appropriate throughout – more bull and less genitalia. “The giant bull is awesome,” Hurricane City resident Angel Janell said.

“The giant, weird testicles and penis are not even anatomically correct … that is my issue.” Barista’s Restaurant owner Stephen Ward said the real issue Hurricane City residents are having is with him and not the sign. “If I put Pinocchio up there, its nose would be too big,” Ward said. “It’s me. It’s me. It’s not the bull. It’s not the restaurant. They don’t like me. But you know what, where does it say in the world, in the Constitution, that they can prevent me having the right to do legal commerce in the United States?
“That is my dog-given right.” Ward said he went through all the proper steps to have the sign approved by Hurricane City before having the sign installed. Hurricane City Planning Director Toni Foran confirmed the sign was approved by the city before it went up. “We saw a depiction on a piece of paper probably about 3 inches tall that, you know, may not have had exactly the same proportions,” Foran said. Many Hurricane residents are now planning to attend the next Hurricane City Council meeting to express their concerns about the sign.

Underground Emergency

In one of the world's biggest caves, a scientist gets in over her head.

Deep inside the mountain, we hear the sound of a river. The four of us—all researchers who study caves—are exploring Quankou Dong, or Big Spring Cave, in a remote, mountainous part of China, just south of Chengdu.
The “big spring” is a river that runs through a passageway from one end of the enormous cave to the other. Along the way, it churns into class 4 rapids. Hours earlier, we’d entered through a dry passage. Now, it’s full of water, rising fast.
The cave’s entrance is stunning: 100 feet wide, 300 feet high. Once inside, you pass through Cloud Ladder Hall, a 16-acre room so high it has its own weather system. One of the largest cave chambers in the world, it rises more than 1200 feet, though its roof is typically hidden by clouds.
We first went inside Quankou Dong in 2008, after it’d been discovered the year before, and we had been back several times. On one occasion, I slipped on a rock, fell in, and got tossed around in the rapids! It wasn’t funny at the time—class 4 rapids are very difficult to maneuver and can be incredibly dangerous—but my colleagues and I laugh about it now.
This year, we’re undertaking an epic 24-hour exploration. Since you can’t rent a car in Tongzi, we pay a driver 300 yuan to drop us off and then pick us up the following day. We’re wearing kneepads, wind-resistant PVC suits, and helmets equipped with powerful caving lights. Our packs are full of climbing equipment. Around 2 p.m., we arrive at the mouth of the cave.

Neatorama has more

Underground Bicycle Parking Systems In Japan

Too many bicycles and not enough space in Japan - so what do they do? They dig wells in the ground and build robotic systems to store your two wheelers underground - safe from harsh weather and naughty thieves.

YouTube link

The Stories Behind 40 Famous Company Names

Did you know that the athletic shoe brand ASICS is an acronym? The acronym stands for "Anima Sana In Corpore Sano," which means “Healthy soul in a healthy body” in Latin. The article linked below provides brief stories/explanations behind forty brand names. Some you may have heard; others, such as the ASICS acronym, you may not have. At least I didn't know it, and I'm wearing a pair of ASICS as I write this. See how many brand names that you know the story behind here. 

Basketball player proud of name and newspaper delighted to use it as many times as possible

The Medicine Hat News, a newspaper in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, have gleefully published a story about Medicine Hat College Rattlers men’s basketball player Guilherme Carabagiale Fuck, who hails from Brazil, but is of German heritage.

The Medicine Hat News were asked by Medicine Hat College sports and recreation staff to use his first and middle names prior to the season, but will use his proper last name going forward, starting with this story.

And use it they have. Although in their excitement they've spelt his middle name wrong. Twice.

515 Students Expelled for Cheating in One City

Over 500 students were expelled from high school in Patna, Bihar, India, over a two day period for cheating on their class ten board exams. The results of the tests determine high school graduation and are often also used for college admission. A photograph taken during one exam session showed friends and family members outside the windows, ready to pass notes to test-takers. Education minister PK Shahi says it is impossible to conduct fair exam without the cooperation of parents.

He appealed to parents to not indulge in such practices but said reports of cheating in exams were common in all parts of the country, not just Bihar, adding that chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and police chief PK Thakur had been asked to further tighten arrangements.

Around 1.43 million students are appearing for the class 10 state board examinations this year at 1,217 centres, many of which are allotted a large number of students without commensurate infrastructure to accommodate them. The school-leaving examinations are marked by violence and wide-spread use of unfair means that include parents and friends writing answers for examinees, often guarded by armed men.

In addition to the expulsions, seven parents were arrested for helping their children cheat on the test.

Sneezing women head slapper sought by police

A man who has been slapping women on the head in Carlisle, after they sneeze, is being sought by police.

Cumbria Police said that an 82-year old woman reported that she was slapped after she had sneezed at 11.30am on Tuesday.
The suspect is a man believed to be in his late 50s, and was wearing a tweed jacket.
It is reported that a similar incident happened on Monday, but the victim has not yet been traced by police. Anyone that may have witnessed the incident or has any further information is asked to contact Cumbria Police.

Mother and Son Arrested in $1000,000 Toothbrush Heist

A mother and son from Apopka, Florida, are the suspected ringleaders of an unusual theft scheme.

Police say Clint Curtiss, 44, and Mary Curtiss, 64, led a group they say is responsible for stealing more than $100,000 worth of toothbrushes in the past year. The thefts happened at Publix, Walmart, Walgreens and CVS stores throughout Central Florida
Police say the ringleaders stole electronic toothbrushes worth more than $100 and would then visit other stores to buy replacement heads. They then altered receipts to make it appear they had also bought the toothbrushes. Employees would process the return and give the Curtisses their money back.
But investigators believe the toothbrush theft operation may be much larger, and the thefts started in 2011. Clint and Mary Curtiss both face charges of racketeering and conspiracy to engage in racketeering. They were arrested on Tuesday and remain in the Orange County Jail.

Random Photos

A Preschool for Grown-Ups

When we were in preschool, we were in an enchanted paradise and we didn’t even know it. It was a simple, joyful life back then: finger painting, crayons, Play-Doh, crafts, storytime, snacktime, and naptime. You can experience it again at Preschool Mastermind, a preschool for adults in New York City. It’s a project founded by Michelle Joni, who is pictured above. ABC News reports:

"I realized all the implications of what we learn in preschool," said founder Michelle Joni, who said she went to school for childhood education and always wanted to be a preschool teacher. "People come here and get in touch with their inner child. It's magical."
"One person's here because they want to learn not to be so serious," she said. "Another's here to learn to be more confident." But some are there just to have fun. […]
Next week there's a field trip. Then the last week of class is "parent day" when the students bring two adults of their choice to class. One woman is actually bringing her parents.

"Womb raiders"

The Washington Post has a report this morning about women who perform "Caesarean kidnapping" or fetal abduction.

"Perhaps the most shocking element of Wednesday’s tragic events in Longmont, Colo., where a mother allegedly cut a baby from a 26-year-old pregnant woman, is that it wasn’t an isolated incident... It has roots in an earlier rash of kidnappings in the 1990s, when a string of baby snatchers descended upon North American hospitals and made off with infants. But as hospitals adapted to the troubling trend, installing more secure tracking measures, the phenomenon took a gruesome turn...
The women who do these sort of things aren’t insane, she said. Quite the contrary. They recognize a want — and act upon it.
There’s no shortage of examples... Porter counted 21 instances globally since 1987, saying the phenomenon is increasing. All of the “womb raiders,” as they’re sometimes called, are women."

More details at the Washington Post, for those who want them.

Breastfeeding and High IQ

Breastfeeding Leads to Higher IQ, Earnings Later

The likely mechanism underlying the beneficial effects is the presence of long-chain saturated fatty acids found in breast milk, which are essential for brain development.

Your Brain and Love

What Your Brain Does When You're in Love

The brain isn't an organ we typically think about when we consider love, right? It's all about the heart, isn't it? But not to researchers who trained fMRI scans on the brains of people in love.

Definitions

A Dry California and the World

How a California Run Dry Affects the World

California, the world's bread basket, is in the midst of a four-year drought - its worst in a scary-long time. What does it mean for the golden state, and could the same be in store for the rest of the U.S.?

Warm West - Wet East

Warm Spring Expected for West, Flooding in East

Spring in the United States looks to be a hangover of winter conditions, though the season is warming overall.

Iron rain fell on early Earth

Iron rain fell on early Earth, new Z machine data supports

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have helped untangle a long-standing mystery of astrophysics: why iron is found spattered throughout Earth’s mantle, the roughly 2,000-mile thick region between Earth’s […]

Record Low Winter Peak

Arctic Sea Ice Hits Record Low Winter Peak

Arctic sea ice has reached its annual winter peak, which was a record low for the satellite era.

Big Melt in Antarctica

Hidden Channels Could Cause Big Melt in Antarctica

Two valleys underneath Totten Glacier in East Antarctica may be letting in warm ocean water that is melting the glacier's ice shelf.

Dogs by the Hour

Dogs by the Hour: Japan Offers Pet Rental Service

In crowded Tokyo, you can rent a mutt for a few hours of wet noses and unconditional loving from man's best friend.

Fish Spill in China Leaves No Mess

A truck carrying 6,800 kilograms of live catfish spilled its load Tuesday when a door swung open in Guizhou province, China. Tons of fish covered the road in the Kaili Development Zone. But the incident did not end with a call to a hazmat crew, or people carrying fish home with them.

According to NetEase, firemen were dispatched to the scene and with local residents' help, the fish were eventually reloaded onto the truck.
The truck was ready to carry the fish to its destination after two hours of "rescue", which pretty much just involved spraying the road fish with water and plopping them into buckets.

There were no reports of any looted fish. But there are plenty of pictures.

Chimpanzees See the Outside after Being Caged for 30 Years

(Video Link)

In 2011, the Gut Aiderbichl animal rescue organization in Austria rescued several chimpanzees which had been caged in an indoor laboratory for up to 30 years. Some, having been born there, had never seen the outside world.
Gut Aiderbichl prepared an open air environment for the chimpanzees, then moved them to a cage adjoining it. When it was ready, they opened a door between the two. The curious chimpanzees began to explore a bright new world. It’s not the wilderness to which they can never return, but it is a better life. You can follow their progress here.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Go ahead Goof Off ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 202 countries around the world daily.   

    
Go on and admit it - You want to ... !

Today is  - International Goof Off Day

You want the unvarnished truth?

Don't forget to visit:The Truth Be Told

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil

Quebec, Canada

Lo Prado and Santiago, Chile

Bogota and Medellin, Colombia

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico

Catano, Puerto Rico

Port-of-Spain, Trinidad-Tobago

Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela

Europe

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Glavinitsa and Sofia, Bulgaria

Prague, Czech Republic

Frederiksberg, Denmark

Cannons Park and London, England

Tallinn, Estonia

Roubaix and Velizy-Villacoublay, France

Berlin, Hamburg, Muenchen and Nuremberg, Germany

Athens, Greece

Bari and Eboli, Italy

Riga, Latvia

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Makedonski Brod, Macedonia

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Grodzisk, Poland

Covilha and Lisbon, Portugal

Bolshoy Kamen, Saratov and Vladivostok, Russia

Bratislava, Slovakia

Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, Spain

Kista, Sweden

Izmir, Turkey

Asia

Rangoon, Burma

Taiyuan, China

Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Bokaro, Calicut, Delhi, Mumbai, New Delhi and Trichur, India

Seoul, Korea

Beirut, Lebanon

Beaufort, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Seremban, Malaysia

Muscat, Oman

Lat Phrao, Thailand

Africa

Djibouti, Djibouti

Windhoek, Namibia

Cape Town and Pretoria, South Africa

Lusaka, Zambia

The Pacific

Homebush and Sydney, Australia

Auckland, New Zealand

Makati, Philippines

Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1622		Indians attack a group of colonists in the James River area of Virginia, killing 350 residents.
1630		The first legislation prohibiting gambling is enacted in Boston.
1664		Charles II gives large tracks of land from west of the Connecticut River to the east of Delaware Bay in North America to his brother James, the Duke of York.
1719		Frederick William abolishes serfdom on crown property in Prussia.
1765		The Stamp Act is passed, the first direct British tax on the American colonists.
1775		British statesman Edmund Burke makes a speech in the House of Commons, urging the government to adopt a policy of reconciliation with America.
1790		Thomas Jefferson becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State.
1794		Congress passes laws prohibiting slave trade with foreign countries although slavery remains legal in the United States.
1834		Horace Greeley publishes New Yorker, a weekly literary and news magazine and forerunner of Harold Ross' more successful The New Yorker.
1901		Japan proclaims that it is determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.
1904		The first color photograph is published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.
1907		Russians troops complete the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.
1915		A German Zepplin makes a night raid on Paris railway stations.
1919		The first international airline service is inaugurated on a weekly schedule between Paris and Brussels.
1933		President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine.
1935		Persia is renamed Iran.
1946		First U.S. built rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere reaches a 50-mile height.
1948		The United States announces a land reform plan for Korea.
1954		The London gold market reopens for the first time since 1939.
1968		President Lyndon Johnson names General William Westmoreland as Army Chief of Staff.
1972		The U.S. Senate passes the Equal Rights Amendment. The amendment fails to achieve ratification.
1974		The Viet Cong propose a new truce with the United States and South Vietnam, which includes general elections.
1990		A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, finds Captain Hazelwood not guilty in the Valdez oil spill.

Geneticists Discover That Britons Still Live in Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms

In the early Fifth Century, the Romans left Britain permanently. This left the Britons vulnerable, so the Anglo-Saxon tribes invaded. The somewhat Romanized British peoples fought back, giving birth to the legend of King Arthur. But they were ultimately defeated and much of Great Britain fell under the rule of these Germanic nations.
Then, in 1066, the Normans came and gradually ended Anglo-Saxon independence. It’s been almost a millennium since William the Bastard landed on the beach near Hastings. But according to genetic researchers at Oxford University, many of the British peoples remained in place. They took DNA samples of 2,039 people whose grandparents were born within 80 kilometers of each other. When compared, the researchers found that genetic clusters form around the same general areas of the old Anglo-Saxon and Celtic kingdoms. Sarah Knapton writes for the Daily Telegraph: 

The most striking genetic split can be seen between people living in Cornwall and Devon, where the division lies exactly along the county border. It means that people living on either side of the River Tamar, which separates the two counties, have different DNA.
Similarly there is a large area in southern and central England with a shared genetic heritage which coincides with the boundaries of Anglo-Saxon England. Likewise, separate genetic groups can be found in areas of North and South Wales corresponding to the ancient kingdoms of Gwynedd and Dyfed.
In the North, specific groups were found in the North East, tallying with the area of Bernicia which was colonised by the Angles from Southern Denmark. And, intriguingly, a small genetic cluster was spotted in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which coincides with the former small kingdom of Elmet, one of the last strongholds of the ancient Britons.
Geneticist Professor Sir Walter Bodmer of Oxford University said: “What it shows is the extraordinary stability of the British population. Britain hasn’t changed much since 600AD.
“When we plotted the genetics on a map we got this fantastic parallel between areas and genetic similarity.

 

Incredible Turquoise Ice

Siberian photographer Alexey Trofimov captured extraordinary scenes of sunshine and ice on Lake Baikal. The turquoise blue ice shimmers like gemstones. Massive Lake Baikal is the oldest and deepest lake on earth, and the ice that appears this way every March draws tourists from all around to see it.

These unique frozen formations are in fact called ice hummocks. The knolls are created in part by pressure that develops gradually and unevenly in the layer of ice that covers Lake Baikal in winter. The physical make-up and temperature of the ice sheet then also become imbalanced, and hence the hummocks form and rise above the frozen surface.

This is Siberia, so the ice will be there until May. See many more pictures of the Baikal ice hummocks at Scribol.

Nude Character Spotted In Kiddie Cartoon Show Causes An Uproar

Cartoons for kids are carefully edited and reviewed to make sure mature content doesn’t make it on the air, but sometimes the censors miss something inappropriate, causing a cartoon crapstorm to kick up on the interwebs.

Recently an episode of Nickelodeon’s Oggy and the Cockroaches aired containing a different kind of easter egg- this image of a topless cartoon character hanging on the wall in the background:

I went ahead and edited the image so as not to incur the wrath of any parental units, so if you want to see the unedited scene containing the nude you'll have to click here or the link below.
The episode was immediately pulled from circulation, and now some smutty Nicktoon animator has some 'splainin' to do!

People in History

 

 Dolores Erikson appeared on the cover of Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream And Other Delights LP in 1965.

68-Year-Old Woman Runs Across America

Long-distance runner Rosie Swale-Pope is a resident of Great Britain who is on a mission to raise awareness about cancer and to inspire people to live their lives to the fullest. She is currently making her way across America on her own two feet, running and pulling a trailer that serves as her shelter while on the road. The trailer, which she's nicknamed the Icebird, can weigh up to 300 pounds when fully stocked. Swale-Pope was prompted to begin her journey after she lost her husband to cancer. She explained,

“By the time my husband and I realized, it was too late to save him, and after he died in my arms, I felt if I stayed at home just crying and talking, who would listen to me? And I decided to run around the world.”

Swale-Pope has experience with journeys that require physical endurance. The physically fit 68-year-old has run 27 marathons and guesses that she’s run about 50,000 miles in total.

Read more and see additional pictures of this amazing lady here. 

Swiss Avalanche: Burial and Rescue

(YouTube link)

On January 30, James Mort, Daniel O’Sullivan, Andrew, and Leonard went skiing on a meter of new snow in the Alps on the Swiss/French border. Mort was in front when a avalanche buried him. The whole story is here.

As the snow piled higher and higher, It became darker and darker until I was surrounded by an eerie black silence, broken only by the sound of my slow breathing and racing heartbeat.
"Okay" I thought to myself;
"You’re dead."
I had a shovel and probe in my backpack and I was wearing a transceiver, however, the others were only carrying a shovel and probe. I was convinced that they would not find me in time. Unable to move I focused on slowing my breathing, relaxing and conserving oxygen. I felt bizarrely emotionless and wondered for a moment what death would be like. Then I remembered that I was reaching upwards with my left arm, ski pole still attached. I tried to wiggle my hand and I felt a ‘pop’ as the top 5cm of the pole broke the surface of the snow. Suddenly emotion flooded through me as I realised that Andrew, Dan and Leonard would be able to locate me under the snow if they saw the tip of the pole. However I still forced myself to remain calm as I sat in wait.

O’Sullivan was wearing a GoPro on his helmet and captured the action

Physicians in the Most Isolated Place on Earth

One doctor overwintering in Antarctica is responsible for the health of around 150 people, 2800 miles away from the nearest hospital, with no transportation available for months at a time. Combine that with the danger of freezing, and you have a rather stressful job. You may spend months treating sports injuries, respiratory illness, summer insomnia, and the rare case of frostbite, but there is always the possibility of a major emergency -and the patient could even be the doctor.

It’s a hypochondriac’s worst nightmare: alone in the Antarctic, with the lone physician too ill to care for anyone else. Modern screenings have reduced that possibility, but the area has been home to a series of legendary crises.
Some countries require their doctors undergo an appendectomy to ward off the potential for appendicitis. If that seems excessive, consider the case of Leonid Rogozov, a Russian physician who diagnosed himself with a swollen appendix during a 1961 expedition. Trapped in the Austral winter with no flights in or out—the harsh weather can prevent aircraft from functioning properly—he deputized a few researchers to be his surgical assistants and cut out his own organ using only local anesthesia. He recovered in just two weeks.
In 1999, Jerri Nielsen discovered a lump in her breast. She performed a biopsy using only an ice cube to numb the area; upon discovering a cancerous growth, she had drugs air-dropped to her until she was able fly out for treatment.

Mental_floss talked to Dr. Dale Mole and Dr. Sean Roden about their stints as physicians at the bottom of the earth. Their experiences will give you new respect for those who volunteer for such duty. 

Robert Reich: Why Americans are screwed and Europeans are not

The U.S. economy is picking up steam but most Americans aren't feeling it. By contrast, most European economies are still in bad shape, but most Europeans are doing relatively well.What's behind this? Two big facts.
First, American corporations exert far more political influence in the United States than their counterparts exert in their own countries.
In fact, most Americans have no influence at all. That's the conclusion of Professors Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University, who analyzed 1,799 policy issues - and found that "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."
Instead, American lawmakers respond to the demands of wealthy individuals (typically corporate executives and Wall Street moguls) and of big corporations - those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns.
The second fact is most big American corporations have no particular allegiance to America. They don't want Americans to have better wages. Their only allegiance and responsibility to their shareholders - which often requires lower wages  to fuel larger profits and higher share prices.
When GM went public again in 2010, it boasted of making 43 percent of its cars in place where labor is less than $15 an hour, while in North America it could now pay "lower-tiered" wages and benefits for new employees.
American corporations shift their profits around the world wherever they pay the lowest taxes. Some are even morphing into foreign corporations.
As an Apple executive told The New York Times, "We don't have an obligation to solve America's problems."
I'm not blaming American corporations. They're in business to make profits and maximize their share prices, not to serve America.
But because of these two basic facts - their dominance on American politics, and their interest in share prices instead of the wellbeing of Americans - it's folly to count on them to create good American jobs or improve American competitiveness, or represent the interests of the United States in global commerce.
By contrast, big corporations headquartered in other rich nations are more responsible for the wellbeing of the people who live in those nations.
That's because labor unions there are typically stronger than they are here - able to exert pressure both at the company level and nationally.
VW's labor unions, for example, have a voice in governing the company, as they do in other big German corporations. Not long ago, VW even welcomed the UAW to its auto plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Tennessee's own politicians nixed it.)
Governments in other rich nations often devise laws through tri-partite bargains involving big corporations and organized labor. This process further binds their corporations to their nations.
Meanwhile, American corporations distribute a smaller share of their earnings to their workers than do European or Canadian-based corporations.
And top U.S. corporate executives make far more money than their counterparts in other wealthy countries.
The typical American worker puts in more hours than Canadians and Europeans, and gets little or no paid vacation or paid family leave. In Europe, the norm is five weeks paid vacation per year and more than three months paid family leave.
And because of the overwhelming clout of American firms on U.S. politics, Americans don't get nearly as good a deal from their governments as do Canadians and Europeans.
Governments there impose higher taxes on the wealthy and redistribute more of it to middle and lower income households. Most of their citizens receive essentially free health care and more generous unemployment benefits than do Americans.
So it shouldn't be surprising that even though U.S. economy is doing better, most Americans are not.
The U.S. middle class is no longer the world's richest. After considering taxes and transfer payments, middle-class incomes in Canada and much of Western Europe are higher than in U.S. The poor in Western Europe earn more than do poor Americans.
Finally, when at global negotiating tables - such as the secretive process devising the "Trans Pacific Partnership" trade deal - American corporations don't represent the interests of Americans. They represent the interests of their executives and shareholders, who are not only wealthier than most Americans but also reside all over the world.
Which is why the pending Partnership protects the intellectual property of American corporations - but not American workers' health, safety, or wages, and not the environment.
The Obama administration is casting the Partnership as way to contain Chinese influence in the Pacific region. The agents of America's interests in the area are assumed to be American corporations.
But that assumption is incorrect. American corporations aren't set up to represent America's interests in the Pacific region or anywhere else.
What's the answer to this basic conundrum? Either we lessen the dominance of big American corporations over American politics. Or we increase their allegiance and responsibility to America.
It has to be one or the other. Americans can't thrive within a political system run largely by big American corporations - organized to boost their share prices but not boost America.

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