The Best Hot Dogs

Actually Taste-Tested

The staff of the New York Times taste-tested ten hot dogs, most of which are available at your local grocery store. The ten were all-beef franks, so they will cost a little more than average, but you should get some idea of what you're looking for from their descriptions, in case you're hosting a picnic for the Fourth of July.

First, the hot dogs would be cooked on a gas grill until well browned.
Next, each would be tasted plain to evaluate the intrinsic qualities of the hot dog: seasoning, beefiness, snap, texture.
Last, each would be eaten in a bun with the judge’s preordained condiments — the same for each dog, to keep the flavor profile consistent.
This important final step would allow us to assess the melding of meat and bread, sweetness and spice, salt and juice that makes up a perfect hot dog. The bun should hug the hot dog closely; there should be enough juice in the hot dog to keep the whole package together; condiments should complement the hot dog, not overwhelm it.  

If you ask my opinion, any hot dog is great when it's cooked on a grill outdoors in summertime, served with mustard and some potato salad (or even just chips) while you eat outside. I guess that's why they didn't ask me to be a judge. Read the results of the taste-test here.

Best Foods to Keep Your Skin Looking Youthful and Healthy

5 Best Foods to Keep Your Skin Looking Youthful and Healthy—and the 5 Worst

Mind-blowing Banana Facts Mind-blowing Banana Facts

You may think you know a lot about bananas because you've eaten them all your life. Even if you do, you'll learn more in a list chock-full of banana facts, all with links for further reading. Did you know…

8. The so-called "banana tree" is not a tree at all. In fact, it is the world's largest herb.
9. Walmart sells more bananas than any other item.
10. Banana fibers can be used to purify water.

That's just a small taste of the bananas …I mean, banana facts. Check out all 29 banana facts in a list that's just plain bananas at Buzzfeed.

Opioid Deaths Are This Generation's AIDS Crisis

Why Opioid Deaths Are This Generation's AIDS Crisis

What Do the Grenfell Tower Fire and Hurricane Katrina Have in Common?

What Do the Grenfell Tower Fire and Hurricane Katrina Have in Common? Disaster Capitalism

US Supreme Court throws out rulings barring religious school subsidies

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a lower court ruling prohibiting the use of public funds to pay for children to attend private religious schools, a day after it issued a major ruling narrowing the separation of cult and state.
The justices ordered the lower court in Colorado to reconsider the legality of school “voucher” programs in light of Monday’s ruling that churches and other religious entities cannot be categorically denied public money even in states whose constitutions explicitly ban such funding.
In that case, the justices sided with a Missouri cult that objected when the state denied it access to public funds for a playground improvement project.
The justices on Tuesday also threw out a lower court ruling in a similar case in New Mexico over a program that lends textbooks to schools, both public and private.

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This is Bad, Very, Very Bad

For Young Muslim-Americans Like Nabra Hassanen, IHOP Served as a Rare Safe Space

For Young Muslim-Americans Like Nabra Hassanen, IHOP Served as a Rare Safe Space

Florida man beaten by angry mob and shamed online after trying to help lost 2-year-old find her family

Florida man beaten by angry mob and shamed online after trying to help lost 2-year-old find her family

A good Samaritan in Lakeland, Florida who tried to help a lost two-year-old girl locate her family was beaten by a group of men who mistook him for a kidnapper.

Texas police chief creates new position for himself after ‘resigning’ over racist rant

Texas police chief creates new position for himself after ‘resigning’ over racist rant

Carmen Ponder was arrested and spent the night in jail after the altercation.

Putin Has Higher World Approval Rating Than Dumbass Trump

This will certainty upset the Dumbass, right?

The World's Confidence in the United States Has Plummeted Since Dumbass Trump Stole Office

The World's Confidence in the United States Has Plummeted Since Dumbass Trump Stole Office

Dumbass Trump Junta Makes Key Decision That Threatens Water Supply of Millions

Dumbass Trump Junta Makes Key Decision That Threatens Water Supply of Millions 

Link Dump

Future medicines in the movies

Jolly Roger – Battling scam telephone calls

The science behind Arizona’s record-setting heat wave

America’s Least Convincing Cell Phone Tower Trees 

Cops describe 35 damn near the perfect crimes

Amazon Prime tests try-before-you-buy option for clothes

Tourist Learns Why You Shouldn’t Take A Selfie With A Shark

10 science-backed hacks to stay cool

Navy sailor could have saved himself, chose to save his ‘kids’ or die trying

Stolen toe returned with an apology letter

When the Beast of Gévaudan Terrorized France

At the point where belief in supernatural forest monsters overlapped the new era of newspaper distribution lies the story of the Beast of Gévaudan. Beginning in 1764, the people of the French region of Gévaudan suffered 100 deaths and nearly 300 injuries attributed to a unknown beast. The country was entranced by the press accounts of the attacks, and eyewitness descriptions from those who survived. 

Individuals may have had some success defending themselves, but official hunters had none. In February 1765, the d’Ennevals, a father-son hunter duo from Normandy, announced they would travel to Gévaudan to eliminate the beast. Jean-Charles, the father, boasted he’d already killed 1,200 wolves, relevant information assuming the predator was, in fact, a wolf. But no one was sure of that. “It is much bigger than a wolf,” wrote Lafont in an early report. “It has a snout somewhat like a calf’s and very long hair, which would seem to indicate a hyena.”
Duhamel described the animal as even more fantastical. In his words, it had a “breast as wide as a horse,” “a body as long as a leopard’s,” and fur that’s that was “red with a black stripe.” Duhamel concluded, “You will undoubtedly think, like I do, that this is a monster [hybrid], the father of which is a lion. What its mother was remains to be seen.”
Other witnesses claimed the beast had supernatural abilities. “It could walk on its hind feet and its hide could repel bullets and it had fire in its eyes and it came back from the dead more than once and had amazing leaping ability,” Smith says.

While the animal could have been a lion or other escaped exotic creature, many modern-day researchers believe the Beast of Gévaudan was an particularly large wolf, or wolves. After the newspaper accounts died down, the beast attacks continued until 1767, although normal wolf encounters remained. Read the saga of Beast of Gévaudan at Smithsonian.

New Study Finds Cats Most Likely Domesticated Themselves

Cats are truly amazing creatures, and since humans have never been able to fully tame those tiny tigers it's not all that surprising to hear a new study has found cats pretty much domesticated themselves.
But this discovery does seem to indicate that cats like humans as much as we like them, a secret the Feline Illuminati would kill to keep under wraps.
Casey Smith reported about the findings in National Geographic:

The earlier ancestors of today’s domestic cats spread from southwest Asia and into Europe as early as 4400 B.C. The cats likely started hanging around farming communities in the Fertile Crescent about 8,000 years ago, where they settled into a mutually beneficial relationship as humans’ rodent patrol.
Mice and rats were attracted to crops and other agricultural byproducts being produced by human civilizations. Cats likely followed the rodent populations and, in turn, frequently approached the human settlements.
“This is probably how the first encounter between humans and cats occurred,” says study coauthor Claudio Ottoni of the University of Leuven. “It’s not that humans took some cats and put them inside cages,” he says. Instead, people more or less allowed cats to domesticate themselves.
A second lineage, consisting of African cats that dominated Egypt, spread into the Mediterranean and most of the Old World beginning around 1500 B.C. This Egyptian cat probably had behaviors that made it attractive to humans, such as sociability and tameness.
The results suggest that prehistoric human populations probably began carrying their cats along ancient land and sea trade routes to control rodents.

Why Chimpanzees Are So Strong

Great apes include gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, chimpanzees, and humans. While chimpanzees are the smallest, humans are the weakest. Chimps are much stronger than humans, even accounting for physical condition, meaning they are stronger than our top athletes.

Pound-for-pound, chimpanzees are 1.5 times stronger than humans at pulling and jumping tasks, according to new research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This strength is not the result of the chimpanzee’s physical form, its range of motion, or a newly-discovered dedication to bench presses and deadlifts, but instead, the product of how the fibers in chimp muscles are distributed. Because chimpanzees are our closest-living primate relative, these findings are offering new insights into human evolution—and why’re we’re such weaklings.

See, the human world never really had a chance against Caesar and his followers. Read more about this research at Gizmodo.

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Today in History

1635		The French colony of Guadeloupe is established in the Caribbean.
1675		Frederick William of Brandenburg crushes the Swedes.
1709		Russians defeat the Swedes and Cossacks at the Battle of Poltava.
1776		Colonists repulse a British sea attack on Charleston, South Carolina.
1778		Mary “Molly Pitcher” Hays McCauley, wife of an American artilleryman, carries water to the soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth.
1839		Cinque and other Africans are kidnapped and sold into slavery in Cuba.
1862		Fighting continues between Union and Confederate forces during the Seven Days’ campaign.
1863		General George Meade replaces General Joseph Hooker three days before the Battle of Gettysburg.
1874		The Freedmen’s Bank, created to assist former slaves in the United States, closes. Customers of the bank lose $3 million.
1884		Congress declares Labor Day a legal holiday.
1902		Congress passes the Spooner bill, authorizing a canal to be built across the Isthmus of Panama.
1911		Samuel J. Battle becomes the first African-American policeman in New York City.
1914		Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated at Sarajevo, Serbia.
1919		Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles under protest.
1921		A coal strike in Britain is settled after three months.
1930		More than 1,000 communists are routed during an assault on the British consulate in London.
1938		Congress creates the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to insure construction loans.
1942		German troops launch an offensive to seize Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus and the city of Stalingrad.
1945		General Douglas MacArthur announces the end of Japanese resistance in the Philippines.
1949		The last U.S. combat troops are called home from Korea, leaving only 500 advisers.
1950		General Douglas MacArthur arrives in South Korea as Seoul falls to the North.
1954		French troops begin to pull out of Vietnam’s Tonkin province.
1964		Malcolm X founds the Organization for Afro-American Unity to seek independence for blacks in the Western Hemisphere.
1967		14 people are shot during race riots in Buffalo, New York.
1970		Muhammad Ali [Cassius Clay] stands before the Supreme Court regarding his refusal of induction into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
1971		The Supreme Court overturns the draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali.
1972		Nixon announces that no new draftees will be sent to Vietnam.
1976		The first women enter the U.S. Air Force Academy.

How companies harvest your web search info

In the summer of 2015, Alexandra Franco got a letter in the mail from a company she had never heard of called AcurianHealth. The letter, addressed to Franco personally, invited her to participate in a study of people with psoriasis, a condition that causes dry, itchy patches on the skin.
Franco did not have psoriasis. But the year before, she remembered, she had searched for information about it online, when a friend was dealing with the condition. And a few months prior to getting the letter, she had also turned to the internet with a question about a skin fungus. It was the sort of browsing anyone might do, on the assumption it was private and anonymous.
Now there was a letter, with her name and home address on it, targeting her as a potential skin-disease patient. Acurian is in the business of recruiting people to take part in clinical trials for drug companies. How had it identified her? She had done nothing that would publicly associate her with having a skin condition. The explanation is at Gizmodo.

Criminals Facing Wrath of a Nation After Lopping Off Norway's Beloved "Penis Rock"

Criminals Facing Wrath of a Nation After Lopping Off Norway's Beloved "Penis Rock"

The perpetrator could be looking at up to 6 years in jail after defacing a popular hiking destination.

Man Hospitalized After Inserting Sewing Needles Into His Penis

Man Hospitalized After Inserting Sewing Needles Into His Penis

Sounds painful

Underage Marriage in America

"...a search of available marriage license data by a group called Unchained at Last... turned up cases of 12-year-old girls married in Alaska, Louisiana and South Carolina, while other states simply had categories of “14 and younger.”.. Among the states with the highest rates of child marriages were Arkansas, Idaho and Kentucky. The number of child marriages has been falling, but every state in America still allows underage girls to marry..."

Woman Is Fighting For Her Right to Be Topless

She wants equality of the sexes on the beaches of Maryland

A woman wants the right to be topless on the beaches of Ocean City, Maryland this summer and is ready to fight for it.
The 29-year-old, who uses the pseudonym Chelsea Covington, feels that the state constitution allows her the right to bare her chest on the beach, just like it does for men. She has been topless on the beaches of her home state around 30 times since asking police in the beach town about the issue last summer.

She told a local news outlet that in those instances, she never had any problem with sexual harassment.
"I have been sexually assaulted, physically grabbed and groped and things just like almost every woman has while being fully clothed," Chelsea said. "And it has never happened when I've been bare-chested."
But her bare-chested days are being threatened. Early this month the town debuted a new ordinance that made it clear that it would be against the law for a woman to go topless on the popular beach. Chelsea is now weighing her legal options against the city, contemplating moving forward with a lawsuit that would protect her right to appear topless on the sand.
She has retained a national civil rights attorney, Devon Jacob, who believes women have the right to appear topless in public. “Ms. Covington and I intend to end discrimination against females in Ocean City,” he told the outlet.
Chelsea, who does not identify as an exhibitionist, has come to realize that the issue of toplessness has a deep meaning for her.
“It’s not just about who can take a shirt off and who can’t. It’s about whether women are seen as equal human beings,” she says. “My thing has been normalization — doing normal things, just like a man would.”

Women Share How They Picked Up Another Woman For The First Time ​​

Ever since Kristen Stewart’s epic Saturday Night Live skit involving Totinos pizza rolls and some lady-on-lady action, we’ve been letting our ladyboners fly free.
Whether you’re (as Kristen puts it) “like, so gay, dude,” looking for a steamy threesome with your boo, or interested in taking a solo dip in the lady-pond, making a move on your girl crush can be scary as hell in real life.

5 Women Share How They Picked Up Another Woman For The First Time ​​

Get your flirt on.

Latest DeVos Worry

Latest DeVos Worry: Ignoring Anti-Discrimination Laws Protecting LGBTQ Students

The 10 Most Contaminated Foods in Your Fridge

The 10 Most Contaminated Foods in Your Fridge You Need to Trash Right Now—and Healthier Alternatives

Move to rename Harlem sparks outrage over erasing black history

New York City real estate companies’ attempts to rename a Harlem neighborhood “SoHa” have enraged long-time residents of the historically black enclave, who say the move erases the community’s rich cultural history.
The neighborhood served as home and inspiration to generations of leading African Americans, including activists W.E.B. Du Bois and Malcolm X, who dubbed it “Seventh Heaven,” and artists such as poet Langston Hughes, and singers Harry Belafonte and Ella Fitzgerald.
The appearance in real estate ads of the “SoHa” nickname, echoing the high-priced, largely white Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo in lower Manhattan, angered Harlem’s U.S. Congressman Adriano Espaillat, who vowed to introduce a House resolution to protect Harlem from being renamed.

Move to rename Harlem sparks outrage over erasing black history

***

This effort to halt the renaming of Harlem will fail - not for any reason you might think. The area will be renamed as any area is renamed by new people coming into it ... it may take years, decades or even centuries but the names places are called do change.
Whether or not it is an attempt to 'erase black history' we cannot say.
Remember the entirety of the area was once called New Amsterdam by the Dutch and was renamed New York and the indigenous peoples called it something else first.

As Recycling Declines and Centers Close, the Homeless Are Really Screwed

As Recycling Declines and Centers Close, the Homeless Are Really Screwed

Why Isn’t Big Pharma Paying for the Harm It Caused Like Big Tobacco?

Why Isn’t Big Pharma Paying for the Harm It Caused Like Big Tobacco?

Cached Nazi Artifacts

YouTube link.

From ABC News:

In a hidden room in a house near Argentina's capital, police believe they have found the biggest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country's history, including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas and even a macabre medical device used to measure head size.

Some 75 objects were found in a collector's home in Beccar, a suburb north of Buenos Aires, and authorities say they suspect they are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II...

The investigation that culminated in the discovery of the collection began when authorities found artworks of illicit origin in a gallery in north Buenos Aires.

Agents with the international police force Interpol began following the collector and with a judicial order raided the house on June 8. A large bookshelf caught their attention and behind it agents found a hidden passageway to a room filled with Nazi imagery...

The main hypothesis among investigators and member of Argentina's Jewish community is that they were brought to Argentina by a high-ranking Nazi or Nazis after World War II, when the South American country became a refuge for fleeing war criminals, including some of the best known.

Neo-Nazis in America

The Guardian explores the rise of neo-Nazis in modern America.  "Neo-Nazi activism in America has been undermined for decades by what both extremist leaders and hate group monitors describe as incredibly childish infighting."  The current political climate has changed that.

Social media giants step up joint fight against extremist content

Social media giants Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft said on Monday they were forming a global working group to combine their efforts to remove terrorist content from their platforms.
Responding to pressure from governments in Europe and the United States after a spate of militant attacks, the companies said they would share technical solutions for removing terrorist content, commission research to inform their counter-speech efforts and work more with counter-terrorism experts.

Social media giants step up joint fight against extremist content

US judge halts deportation of Iraqis nationwide

A federal judge halted late on Monday the deportation of all Iraqi nationals detained during immigration sweeps across the United States this month until at least July 10, expanding a stay he imposed last week.

US judge halts deportation of Iraqis nationwide in victory for the ACLU

Supreme Court Won’t Take Up R.J. Reynolds Age Discrimination Case

The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a ruling that concluded the nation’s chief age-discrimination law has a much narrower reach than widely assumed. The high court’s decision will make it harder for some people later in their work lives to prove they were victims of bias.
ProPublica previously reported how the case, Villarreal v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., could have a broad impact on the rights of older workers and the responsibilities of employers.
The decision was the latest in a string since the 1990s to shrink what counts as age discrimination. In Monday’s action, the justices declined to review the case from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which ruled 6-5 last year that when it comes to systemic bias, the 50-year-old Age Discrimination in Employment Act only applies to people who already have jobs, not those seeking them.

Supreme Court Won’t Take Up R.J. Reynolds Age Discrimination Case

The Supreme Court Just Put A HUGE Stake Through The Heart Of The First Amendment

This is why elections matter.

Continue Reading 

Supreme Court Smacks Down Religious Nuts

Supreme Court Smacks Down Religious Nuts, Makes Them Put Same-Sex Parents’ Names On Birth Certificates

This is BIG win in favor of equality.

Dumbass Trump’s Muslim Ban Gets The OK – At Least, Part Of It

Dumbass Trump’s Muslim Ban Gets The OK – At Least, Part Of It

There’s been development with Dumbass Trump’s Muslim ban and it’s not good. On Monday, the Supreme Court not only decided to hear the Dumbass Trump junta’s...

Court orders exhumation of Salvador Dali's remains

A Spanish court has ordered that the remains of Salvador Dali be exhumed after a woman who claims to be the daughter of the world-famous artist filed a paternity claim.
The Madrid court said Monday the exhumation aimed “to get samples of his remains to determine whether he is the biological father of a woman from Girona (in northeastern Spain) who filed a claim to be recognized as the daughter of the artist.”
“The DNA study of the painter’s corpse is necessary due to the lack of other biological or personal remains with which to perform the comparative study,” it added.
The court said the decision could be appealed.
A spokesman for the court said the woman who claims to be Dali’s daughter is called Pilar Abel, but refused to give any further details.

Court orders exhumation of Salvador Dali's remains in paternity claim 

Ohio cops shame negligent gun owners after a 6-year-old shoots an 8-year-old

Ohio cops shame negligent gun owners after a 6-year-old shoots an 8-year-old

An 8-year-old boy and 6-year-old boy were playing in a basement Thursday at a Columbus home when they found a loaded handgun, police said.

Cops Killing Blacks Has Come to Be Expected

Cops Killing Blacks Has Come to Be Expected

Florida cop makes up law to ticket black man for walking without identification

Florida cop makes up law to ticket black man for walking without identification

According to the Miami Herald, a police officer in Jacksonville, Florida incorrectly cited a law requiring identification for drivers when giving a ticket to a black man for jaywalking and for not having an ID on him, as shown in a viral video the man in question posted on social media.

Legalizing Marijuana Dramatically Reduces Traffic Stop Searches

Legalizing Marijuana Dramatically Reduces Traffic Stop Searches

TSA Is Requiring You to Pull Out Every Piece of Paper in Your Bags

Would You Believe It? TSA Is Requiring You to Pull Out Every Piece of Paper in Your Bags

Ohio Wingnut Wonders Whether City Can Stop Responding To Repeat Overdoses

Ohio Wingnut Wonders Whether City Can Stop Responding To Repeat Overdoses

There's a real regard for life right there.

Over 800 earthquakes recorded at Yellowstone volcano

Over 800 earthquakes have now been recorded at Yellowstone supervolcano over the last two weeks, with the ongoing swarm taking place on the western edge of the National Park.
But there is virtually no risk of the volcano erupting, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) currently lists the volcano alert level as normal and the aviation color, which lists the potential risk to flights, is at green.

Over 800 earthquakes recorded at Yellowstone volcano

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The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of
Carolina Naturally

True That ...!
 

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Workers ... !

Today is - Industrial Workers of the World Day 

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Yes!

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