Friday, September 25, 2015
Archaeologists Unearth Civil War Refuge for Escaped Slaves
Hampton, Virginia, was once the site of Fort Monroe, a Union base during the Civil War. At the beginning of the war, three Virginia slaves went to the fort to request asylum. However, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a federal law, still obligated all U.S. citizens to report suspected fugitive slaves. What to do?
General Benjamin Butler, Fort Monroe’s commander and a former lawyer, was sympathetic to the men’s plight. He came up with a clever circumvention to the law by declaring the escaped slaves “contraband” that might be used to support the rebel cause, effectively creating a path to asylum.Skip ahead some years, and the land where the Grand Contraband Camp stood was developed into part of the city of Hampton. An apartment complex there was torn down in 2012, giving the city an opportunity to excavate the area. All sorts of relics from the Civil War refugee community have been recovered. Read the story of the Grand Contraband Camp and other camps like it at mental_floss.
Word soon spread, and Fort Monroe received hundreds of slaves seeking protection under the new contraband policy. Thousands ultimately settled in nearby fields and burned-out Hampton homes as white residents fled and Confederate forces, fearing a Union takeover, torched the town. The site buried beneath the now-demolished apartment complex is believed part of what came to be known as the Grand Contraband Camp.
5,000-Year-Old Throne
Blue Diamonds
Categorized as a fancy vivid blue diamond, the Blue Moon is
the largest cushion-shaped stone in that category to ever appear at
auction.
Dirty Water
A warmer, wetter climate could also boost pollution from cities and farms draining into rivers, lakes and streams.
The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
Dino-Chick
A chicken embryo with a dinosaur-like snout instead of a beak has been developed by scientists
by Melissa Hogenboom
Sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid
is believed to have crashed into Earth. The impact wiped out huge
numbers of species, including almost all of the dinosaurs.One group of dinosaurs managed to survive the disaster. Today, we know them as birds.
Read more at The BBC
Chimps Like Movies Starring People in Ape Suits
Chimps seem to enjoy -- and remember -- a good thriller,
especially when at least one of its stars is dressed like an ape.
Sharks Found Living in an Undersea Volcano
Two species of shark were found living in the caldera of the
active, underwater Kavachi volcano in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.
The find begs three questions. Why? How? And, for extra emphasis, WHY
are SHARKS in a volcano?!
Loyal dog stood guard by trapped friend for a week
A loyal dog stood guard by its trapped friend for a week until the pair were found.
Tillie, a setter, and Phoebe, a basset hound, had been missing for a week when Vashon Island Pet Protectors in Washington state posted a desperate plea on Facebook last weekend in
a last ditch effort to help find the two much-loved pets.
VIPP received a phone call earlier this week from someone who said for
the last few days a "reddish" dog had come up to their property and then
dashed back into a nearby ravine.
Acting on this slim lead, volunteers arrived at the property hoping that the reddish dog was indeed Tillie.
After a brief search of the nearby ravine, they heard a slight bark when they called out "Tillie".
What the volunteers found a few minutes later was something truly moving.
Tillie was standing guard on the edge of a concrete tank where she had
been looking out for Phoebe, who - because of her short legs - had been
unable to get out of the hole for the past week.
VIPP described the find on their Facebook page: "So with a needle in the haystack hope we made our way into the ravine and after a bit of searching, finally heard that sweet sound we have been waiting for all week. A small one-woof response when we called out “Tillie.” A few minutes later we found her laying beside an old cistern with her head resting on the concrete wall.
"Heart sinking … we knew that meant Phoebe was inside the cistern and
every breath was held and every doggie prayer offered that the peek over
the rim would somehow find her safe.
And gratefully… this time we have a happy ending with dear Phoebe found
perched on some concrete rubble that held her out of the water.
For nearly a week Tillie stayed by her side with the exception of the
few minutes of each day when she went for help."
Both dogs were cold and hungry but are doing well.
Amy Carey with VIPP said that the remarkable discovery shows how
unbreakable pack-bonds are in dogs and that it's a good reminder for
owners never to give up searching for missing pets.
VIPP described the find on their Facebook page: "So with a needle in the haystack hope we made our way into the ravine and after a bit of searching, finally heard that sweet sound we have been waiting for all week. A small one-woof response when we called out “Tillie.” A few minutes later we found her laying beside an old cistern with her head resting on the concrete wall.
"Heart sinking … we knew that meant Phoebe was inside the cistern and
every breath was held and every doggie prayer offered that the peek over
the rim would somehow find her safe.
And gratefully… this time we have a happy ending with dear Phoebe found
perched on some concrete rubble that held her out of the water.
For nearly a week Tillie stayed by her side with the exception of the
few minutes of each day when she went for help."
Both dogs were cold and hungry but are doing well.
Amy Carey with VIPP said that the remarkable discovery shows how
unbreakable pack-bonds are in dogs and that it's a good reminder for
owners never to give up searching for missing pets.
Asthmatic sea otter is learning to use inhaler
A wheezy sea otter in Seattle has been diagnosed with asthma and is
receiving a breathing boost from an inhaler.
The Seattle Aquarium in Washington said the sea otter Mishka started
having trouble breathing when wildfires moved closer to the aquarium.
A veterinarian diagnosed Mishka with asthma after determining she was
struggling to breathe by listening to her chest and taking her blood
work.
Now Mishka is learning to use an inhaler and responding well.
One-year-old Mishka is the first sea otter to have asthma, the aquarium has said, and is receiving the same medication given to humans. Aquarium biologist Sara Perry is using food to train Mishka to push her nose on the inhaler and then take a breath.
"We try to make it as fun as possible," she said.
Mishka, who has been at the aquarium since January, is reportedly
responding well.
Washington sea otters became extinct in 1910 due to hunting and did not
return to the state until the late 1960s when some otters were moved in
from Alaska.
One-year-old Mishka is the first sea otter to have asthma, the aquarium has said, and is receiving the same medication given to humans. Aquarium biologist Sara Perry is using food to train Mishka to push her nose on the inhaler and then take a breath.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
The Daily Drift
Welcome to the Thursday Edition of Carolina Naturally.
~ Francis O'Naill
Our latest comment:
Mutli-layer thought processing is evident on this blog.
Carolina Naturally is read in 205 countries around the world daily.
Extra Fries ... !
Today is - There is no particular celebration today
You want the unvarnished truth?
You want the unvarnished truth?
Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Argentina - Brazil - Canada - Chile - Guatemala - Guyana - Jamaica - Mexico - Nicaragua
Puerto Rico - United States
Europe
Albania
- Bosnia/Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Czrch Republic - England - Finland -
France - Georgia Germany - Hungary - Ireland - Italy - Netherlands -
Poland - Portugal - Romania - Russia
San Marino - Scotland - Slovenia - Spain - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Banglasdesh
- Burma - China - Hong Kong - India - Indonesia - Iran - Korea -
Lebanon - Malaysia Mauritius - Sri Lanka - Thailand
Africa
Algeria - Djibouti - Egypt - Madagascar - Morocco - Nigeria - South Africa - Sudan - Tunisia
The Pacific
Australia - New Zealand - PhilippinesToday in History
| 1788 | After having been dissolved, the French Parliament of Paris reassembles in triumph. | |
| 1789 | Congress passes the Judiciary Act of 1789, establishing a strong federal court system with the powers it needs to ensure the supremacy of the Constitution and federal law. The new Supreme Court will have a chief justice and five associate justices. | |
| 1842 | Branwell Bronte, the brother of the Bronte sisters and the model for Hindley Earnshaw in Emily’s novel Wuthering Heights, dies of tuberculosis. Emily and Anne die the same year. | |
| 1862 | President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus against anyone suspected of being a Southern sympathizer. | |
| 1904 | Sixty-two die and 120 are injured in head-on train collision in Tennessee. | |
| 1914 | In the Alsace-Lorraine area between France and Germany, the German Army captures St. Mihiel. | |
| 1915 | Bulgaria mobilizes troops on the Serbian border. | |
| 1929 | The first flight using only instruments is completed by U.S. Army pilot James Doolittle. | |
| 1930 | Noel Coward’s comedy Private Lives opens in London starring Gertrude Lawrence and Coward himself. | |
| 1947 | The World Women’s Party meets for the first time since World War II. | |
| 1956 | The first transatlantic telephone cable system begins operation. | |
| 1957 | President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect nine black students entering its newly integrated high school. | |
| 1960 | The Enterprise, the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, is launched. | |
| 1962 | The University of Mississippi agrees to admit James Meredith as the first black university student, sparking more rioting. | |
| 1969 | The "Chicago Eight," charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot, go on trial for their part in the mayhem during the 1968 Democratic Party National Convention in the "Windy City." | |
| 1970 | The Soviet Luna 16 lands, completing the first unmanned round trip to the moon. | |
| 1979 | CompuServe (CIS) offers one of the first online services to consumers; it will dominate among Internet service providers for consumers through the mid-1990s. | |
| 1993 | Sihanouk is reinstalled as king of Cambodia. | |
| 1996 | Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty signed by representatives of 71 nations at the UN; at present, five key nations have signed but not ratified it and three others have not signed. | |
| 2005 | Hurricane Rita, the 4th-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, comes ashore in Texas causing extensive damage there and in Louisiana, which had devastated by Hurricane Katrina less than a month earlier. | |
| 2009 | LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) "sonic cannon," a non-lethal device that utilizes intense sound, is used in the United States for the first time, to disperse protestors at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Penn. |
Native American child sent home by Utah school for wearing traditional Mohawk hairstyle
Redditors Having More Photoshop Fun With Kim Jong-Un
Original image
Will
Redditors ever be done poking Photoshop fun at Kim Jong-Un? I don't
know about you, but I hope not. This time, the original image (above) is
of the North Korean dictator on the arms of some of his weeping
military devotees. Ready, set, Reddit, and we have:
Kim Jong-Hunk by TheBlazingPhoenix
Kim Jong-Onion by graphleek
The Long, Sweet Love Affair Between Cops and Doughnuts
Police officers have been associated with doughnuts so long that it’s become an easy cliche. Of course, that cliche is based on reality, and even cops occasionally have fun with the stereotype. There are plenty of practical reasons for law enforcement officers to hang out at doughnut shop and take advantage of the offerings, but the connection goes back further than you might think.
Stare harder into the hole, though, and the cop-doughnut relationship isn’t just a marriage of convenience—it’s deeper than that. In fact, we’ve officially stuffed the protecting-and-serving citizens of our country with sugary pastries since at least World War I, when the Salvation Army sent female volunteers to France to cook doughnuts and bring them to the front. The originator of this tradition, a young ensign named Helen Purviance, knelt before a potbelly stove to make the first batch in a frying pan. “There was also a prayer in my heart that somehow this home touch would do more for those who ate the doughnuts than satisfy a physical hunger,” she said later. For a while, U.S. soldiers were actually called “doughboys,” and though they may have originally gotten this nickname some other way, the millions of doughnuts certainly didn’t hurt.The history of doughnuts is entwined with the history of urban (and eventually, rural) police work. Altlas Obscura looks at the connection between police and doughnuts in depth.
We’re Lazy by Nature
A new study says we naturally take it easy.
by Theresa Fisher
Successful
startups — full-blown industries, even — have capitalized on our
predilection for moving our legs as little as possible, otherwise known
as laziness. Why walk across the street to pick up pad thai when you can
Seamless? Why hobble downstairs to hail a cab when you can Uber?While we should certainly hang our heads in shame (there’s a fleet of available taxis directly outside), our reticence to move those stumps of flesh and atrophied muscle we call legs may have some biological basis. A new study, published in the journal Cell, suggests that we continuously adjust our gaits as we walk to exert a minimum amount of energy, even when the payoff is nearly null.
Movement science novices, take note: A central, decades-old principle in the field says that “people prefer to move in energetically optimal ways” and, according to some modern theories, “will adjust their movements to continuously optimize energetic cost.” But, while previous studies have shown that people do in fact fine tune how they move so their bodies work more economically, the goal underlying the fine tuning isn’t so clear. It’s possible that our nervous systems prioritize a different goal, such as stability or accuracy, and that decreased energy output is merely a byproduct.
So, in the current study, researchers focused on what they saw as a likelier reflection of energy conservation: step frequency, a “fundamental characteristic of gait.” We all have natural gaits — you’ve got your shufflers and strutters; leaden-foot stompers and brisk-paced striders — and, absent some compelling reason, our bodies cling to those gaits.
People who volunteered for the study donned robotic exoskeletons. After getting strapped in, they hopped on treadmills and stepped as they normally would. Then, researchers increased resistance on the exoskeletons, so participants felt as though they were lugging around heavier bodies. Participants were randomly assigned to receive one of two levels of resistance.
Researchers kept pressure low enough to allow relatively normal walking, because, as they explained in the study, saddling participants with bone-crushing weight would have made it hard to tell if they changed their gaits to save energy or to minimize the pressure load.
At one point in the study, participants spent 15 minutes walking around. Researchers told them to explore their “novel energetic landscape” at higher and lower step frequencies, as well as match their steps to a variety of steady metronome beats. Then, after forced exploration ended, participants walked however they pleased, at which point, the study says, they quickly adapted to energy-conserving step frequencies. And these preferred frequencies differed from their stepping styles both pre-exoskeleton and after researchers increased resistance (to see how they stepped to accommodate heavier weight).
Basically, researchers made them step in every which way, and measured changes in frequency.
“Subjects achieved most of the cost savings immediately after the exploration period,” wrote researchers, “yet they continued to fine-tune their step frequency for vanishingly small energetic savings.”
So there you have it: We may be wired to be lazy, even when we’re hardly saving energy. But don’t blame your nervous system when your Seamless bill rivals your rent. All you need to do is start moving your legs, and your body will make your walk as effortless as possible.
Scientists discover that giraffes "hum" at night
"It could be passively produced – like snoring – or produced during a dream-like state – like humans talking or dogs barking in their sleep,” Stöger told New Scientist.
Stöger adds that the hum could also be how giraffes communicate with each other when it's too dark to see.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
The Daily Drift
Welcome to the Wednesday Edition of Carolina Naturally.
~ George Williams
Our latest comment:
Full of surprises.
Carolina Naturally is read in 205 countries around the world daily.
Celebrate the Harvest ... !
Today is - Mabon
You want the unvarnished truth?
You want the unvarnished truth?
Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Argentina - Brazil - Canada - Chile - Colombia - Guyana - Mexico - Nicaragua - Paraguay
Puerto Rico - United States - Venezuela
Europe
Albania - Bosnia/Herzegovina - Bulgaria - England - Finland - France - Germany - Hungary
Ireland
- Italy - Latvia - Netherlands - Poland - Portugal - Romania - Russia -
Scotland - Serbia Slovenia - Spain - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
China - Hong Kong - India - Indonesia - Korea - Malaysia - Mauritius - Saudi Arabia
Sri Lanka - Thailand
Africa
Algeria - Djibouti - Morocco - South Africa
The Pacific
Australia - New Zealand - PhilippinesToday in History
| 1553 | The Sadians defeat the last of their enemies and establish themselves as rulers of Morocco. | |
| 1561 | Philip II of Spain gives orders to halt colonizing efforts in Florida. | |
| 1577 | William of Orange makes his triumphant entry into Brussels, Belgium. | |
| 1667 | Slaves in Virginia are banned from obtaining their freedom by converting to christianity. | |
| 1739 | The Austrians sign the Treaty of Belgrade after having lost the city to the Turks. | |
| 1779 | The American navy under John Paul Jones, commanding from Bonhomme Richard, defeats and captures the British man-of-war Serapis. | |
| 1788 | Louis XVI of France declares the Parliament restored. | |
| 1795 | A national plebiscite approves the new French constitution, but so many voters sustain that the results are suspect. | |
| 1803 | British Major General Sir Arthur Wellesley defeats the Marathas at Assaye, India. | |
| 1805 | Lieutenant Zebulon Pike pays $2,000 to buy from the Sioux a 9-square-mile tract at the mouth of the Minnesota River that will be used to establish a military post, Fort Snelling. | |
| 1806 | The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrives back in St. Louis just over three years after its departure. | |
| 1864 | Confederate and Union forces clash at Mount Jackson, Front Royal and Woodstock in Virginia during the Valley campaign. | |
| 1911 | The Second International Aviation Meet opens in New York. | |
| 1912 | Mack Sennet’s first "Keystone Cop" film debuts, Cohen Collects a Debt. | |
| 1945 | The first American dies in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon to French forces. | |
| 1952 | Richard Nixon responds to charges of a secret slush fund during his ‘Checkers Speech.’ | |
| 1954 | East German police arrest 400 citizens as U.S. spies. | |
| 1967 | Soviets sign a pact to send more aid to Hanoi. | |
| 1973 | Juan Peron is re-elected president of Argentina after being overthrown in 1955. | |
| 1983 | Gerrie Coetzee (Gerhardus Coetzee), boxer from South Africa; first boxer from the African continent to win a world heavyweight tittle (World Boxing Association). | |
| 1983 | Gulf Air Flight 771 from Karachi, Pakistan, to Abu Dhabi, UAE, bombed; all 117 aboard die. | |
| 1992 | Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonates 3,700-lb. bomb in Belfast, completely destroying the Northern Ireland forensic laboratory, injuring 20 people and damaging 700 houses. | |
| 2002 | The first public version of Mozilla Firefox browser released; originally called Phoenix 0.1 its name was changed due to trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies. | |
| 2004 | Hurricane Jeanne causes severe flooding in Haiti; over 1,000 reported dead. |
Woman fights to keep children away from husband and his restrictive House of Yahweh religious cult
Spanish Soccer Team Hires Syrian Refugee Who Was Tripped By Disgraced Reporter
Oktoberfest's Cathedrals
Artist Captures Places of Beer Worship
by Antje Blinda
Guilty of Selling Horse and calling it Zebra
A steakhouse in Watford, Hertfordshire, has been found guilty of
selling horse and venison meats as exotic zebra and wildebeest dishes.
Kunal Soni, 32, of Hemel Hempstead, was ordered to pay £3,860.78 costs
after pleading guilty to misinforming customers.
In April last year, two officers from Hertfordshire County Council’s
trading standards service attended The Steakhouse restaurant to carry
out a test purchase following a complaint about meat substitution at the
restaurant, which offers various exotic meats on the menu.
The officers, who were the only two customers in the restaurant, placed
their order with Mr Soni for one zebra and one wildebeest.
Only after the food had been served and the officers had identified
themselves did Mr Soni indicate that the chef had made a mistake.
In the kitchen, the officers noticed a ticket in relation to their order reading “1 venison, chips and salad; 1 horse, chips and salad” with
no reference to either zebra or wildebeest.
The meals were sent for analysis, which identified that the meat served
as zebra was in fact horse, and the meat served as wildebeest was, in
fact, red deer.
A month later, trading standards officers returned to the restaurant and
found that the freezer contained in excess of 22kg of what was labelled
as horse meat – more than any other type of meat.
Neither the
words “horse” nor “venison” appeared on the restaurant menu.
At St Albans Magistrates' Court on Monday, Mr Soni didn’t dispute that
offenses had been committed but argued that he was merely helping out at
the restaurant, having just sold the business to the chef and therefore
should only expect to have limited responsibility.
Magistrates were told Mr Soni had described himself as a manager on
three separate occasions to the local authorities, including the date of
the test purchase.
They said there had been an “obvious opportunity” to defer to the chef
during the officers' visit. The action Mr Soni had taken, a mere verbal
check of the order, was insufficient.
The court was advised that Mr Soni was now a man of very limited means and that his outgoings exceeded his income and he was given a 12-month conditional discharge for the offenses. Mr Soni can therefore be made subject to further punishment for this offense should he commit any further offense during the period of the discharge. Richard Thake, cabinet member for community protection at the county council, said: “The public must have confidence in the food that is put in front of them when eating out. There can be implications regarding traceability of the food, allergens and religious concerns in some cases. Passing off food as something that it is not puts other competing businesses at a disadvantage and undermines trust in the market.”
The court was advised that Mr Soni was now a man of very limited means and that his outgoings exceeded his income and he was given a 12-month conditional discharge for the offenses. Mr Soni can therefore be made subject to further punishment for this offense should he commit any further offense during the period of the discharge. Richard Thake, cabinet member for community protection at the county council, said: “The public must have confidence in the food that is put in front of them when eating out. There can be implications regarding traceability of the food, allergens and religious concerns in some cases. Passing off food as something that it is not puts other competing businesses at a disadvantage and undermines trust in the market.”
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