CAROLINA NATURALLY

Sunday, September 16, 2012

The Daily Drift

They're all the same!

Some of our readers today have been in:

Islamabad, Pakistan

Poznan, Poland

Singapore, Singapore

Kulim, Malaysia

Bangkok, Thailand

Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Ljubljana, Slovenia

London, England

Lagos, Nigeria

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Johannesburg, South Africa

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Abu Gurayb, Iraq

Kuching, Malaysia

Moscow, Russia

Cape Town, South Africa

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Klang, Malaysia

Osijek, Croatia

Centurion, South Africa

Belize City, Belize

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Istanbul, Turkey

Shah Alam, Malaysia

Tallinn, Estonia

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Warsaw, Poland

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

1620		The Pilgrims sail from England on the Mayflower.
1668		King John Casimer V of Poland abdicates the throne.
1747		The French capture Bergen-op-Zoom, consolidating their occupation of Austrian Flanders in the Netherlands.
1789		Jean-Paul Marat sets up a new newspaper in France, L'Ami du Peuple.
1810		A revolution for independence breaks out in Mexico.
1864		Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest leads 4,500 men out of Verona, Miss. to harass Union outposts in northern Alabama and Tennessee.
1889		Robert Younger, in Minnesota's Stillwater Penitentiary for life, dies of tuberculosis. Brothers Cole and Bob remain in the prison.
1893		Some 50,000 "Sooners" claim land in the Cherokee Strip during the first day of the Oklahoma land rush.
1908		General Motors files papers of incorporation.
1920		Thirty people are killed in a terrorist bombing in New York's Wall Street financial district.
1934		Anti-Nazi Lutherans stage protest in Munich.
1940		Congress passes the Selective Service Act, which calls for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
1942		The Japanese base at Kiska in the Aleutian Islands is raided by American bombers.
1945		Japan surrenders Hong Kong to Britain.
1950		The U.S. 8th Army breaks out of the Pusan Perimeter in South Korea and begins heading north to meet MacArthur's troops heading south from Inchon.
1972		South Vietnamese troops recapture Quang Tri province in South Vietnam from the North Vietnamese Army.
1974		Limited amnesty is offered to Vietnam-era draft resisters who would now swear allegiance to the United States and perform two years of public service.
1975		Administrators for Rhodes Scholarships announce the decision to begin offering fellowships to women.

The NFL "no-huddle" offense creates problems - for TV

The no-huddle offense has created plenty of problems for defenses, initially at the collegiate level and now in the NFL. But as the WSJ reports, the tactic is also creating problems for television broadcasters:

Last week, 14% of NFL plays were run without a huddle, an increase of 56% from last season and 100% from five seasons ago. As you might imagine, these up-tempo drives can put a fair bit of pressure on the TV production crew...

Veteran broadcaster Marv Albert, who now calls NFL games for CBS, explained that the problem starts from the first play. If the team starts no-huddle on the first drive, the broadcast doesn't even have time to show the team's lineups. "And once you look down for an anecdote you're dead," Albert said. He added that when a team like New England is playing, he lives by a simple rule: "Don't talk about anything other than the play at hand, or you are going to miss snaps."...

During a Patriots game last fall against the Dallas Cowboys, the Patriots ran their offense so quickly that at one point in the third quarter, 10 plays went by without a replay. "When you're calling a Patriots game you cannot rest," Albert said.

Brian Billick, a former Ravens coach who is an analyst for Fox, said it's often nearly impossible to get even the shortest opinion across: "It's tight enough as it is, you only have 10-15 seconds to make a point and now you don't even have that."

More at The Wall Street Journal.

Exercise May Protect Against Future Emotional Stress

Moderate exercise may help people cope with anxiety and stress for an extended period of time post-workout, according to a ...

Random Celebrity Photo

Democratic Senators holding the lead in Ohio & Florida

The repugicans were hoping to be a lot closer in both states though for now, they have their work cut out for them. The Virginia battle is much harder to call and may remain that way until election day. NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll:

In Virginia, Kaine and Allen are deadlocked at 46 percent apiece with likely voters.

In Ohio, incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown leads repugican State Treasurer Josh Mandel 49 percent to 42 percent.

And in Florida, two-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, leads repugican Rep. Connie Mack 51 percent to 37 percent. Twelve percent of Florida voters said they were undecided about the race.

Cult's slavery and lynching sign encourages people to vote

A sign urging people to vote is sparking a lot of conversation in Indianapolis. The sign sits in front of Greater St. Mark Missionary Baptist Clut. The sign reads on top, “Vote,” but it’s the imagery that has people talking. One side of the sign shows slaves in chains, with the wording beneath it “Lest we forget.”

The other side of the sign shows the historical image of the lynching in Marion of two black men in the 1930’s. “It’s to let people know there's been a price paid for the privilege of voting. Often times people get complacent and don’t realize that people made a sacrifice, matter of fact, the ultimate sacrifice for such a privilege,” said Pastor Joy Thornton with Greater St. Mark Missionary Baptist Cult.

Pastor Thornton put the sign up himself, saying the historical images shouldn't be forgotten. “Regardless of who you vote for, you need to exercise your privilege, which is voting,” said Thornton.

YouTube link.

Joyce Hise works across the street, and says she doesn’t have a problem with the sign. “It was just kind of a little shocker, it made me stop to think. So many people don’t know, and they don’t realize this was part of our history, and it is a reason to vote,” said Hise. Others don't agree with the sign. Mary Bishop owns the seafood shop across the street. “It’s not a good example for him to have it like that,” Bishop said. “He meant well, but he went about it in the wrong way.”

The truth be told

Energy Conservation no longer on repugican platform

Why would conserving energy be dropped? Shouldn't that be a conservative principle? Once again, anything that the Democrats support has to be shut down by the repugicans. Just because. Bloomberg:

The repugican cabal platform for 2012 contains no mention of energy efficiency, leading some observers to conclude that the issue of energy conservation--long considered bipartisan—is becoming increasingly politicized.

The omission is “a little bit surprising” given support from previous repugican platforms and from repugican presidential nominee Mitt Romney himself during his time as governor of Massachusetts, said Andrew Goldberg, chief lobbyist for the American Institute of Architects, a group that supports energy-efficient buildings.

Conserving energy is good all around, including good for the wallets of average Americans. Why or how it has become politicized by the repugican cabal is hard to answer.

Is Coal an Attractive Option?

As a new park counteracts the impact of a surface coal mine, it's interesting to note that coal remains popular despite its disadvantages. More

Did you know ...

Joe Walsh is a misogynist asshole No, not the singer, the other one.

How the repugicans reinforce a campaign of lies

About these 10 bookstores that used to be something else

In the News

Cops: Man aimed gun at pregnant smoker

A Washington state man has been arrested on allegations that he pointed a handgun at a pregnant woman because she was smoking a cigarette.

Cat helps save man's life

They say cats have nine lives and in this case, a cat gave his owner a second chance at life.

2 found guilty of charges in Ohio teen's death

Two nurses have been found guilty of charges in the malnutrition death of a 14-year-old Ohio girl who had cerebral palsy and weighed 28 pounds when she died.

The Kalamazoo Promise

In 2005, Kalamazoo, Michigan, went from a somewhat below-average place to live to a powerful magnet of a city in just one day. Seven years later, the New York Times magazine looks at how the hope of higher education has transformed the town.

Back in November 2005, when this year’s graduates were in sixth grade, the superintendent of Kalamazoo’s public schools, Janice M. Brown, shocked the community by announcing that unnamed donors were pledging to pay the tuition at Michigan’s public colleges, universities and community colleges for every student who graduated from the district’s high schools. All of a sudden, students who had little hope of higher education saw college in their future. Called the Kalamazoo Promise, the program — blind to family income levels, to pupils’ grades and even to disciplinary and criminal records — would be the most inclusive, most generous scholarship program in America.

It would also mark the start of an important social experiment. From the very beginning, Brown, the only person in town who communicates directly with the Promise donors, has suggested that the program is supposed to do more than just pay college bills. It’s primarily meant to boost Kalamazoo’s economy. The few restrictions — among them, children must reside in the Kalamazoo public-school district and graduate from one of its high schools — seem designed to encourage families to stay and work in the region for a long time. The program tests how place-based development might work when education is the first investment.

Since The Promise was made, student test scores have gone up, the school district's enrollment increased by 2,000 students, $35 million has been granted in tuition money, and Kalamazoo is now a place to which families want to move. The program has also inspired other towns and school districts to compete by helping more students pay for college. More

A McDonalds in a Mansion

This is a McDonalds outlet in New Hyde Park, Long Island, New York. McDonalds didn't set out to make one of their restaurants this beautiful. The Georgian mansion called The Denton House is over 200 years old -or at least parts of it are. It's been passed around and used as everything from a restaurant to a funeral home.

By 1986, it was abandoned and on the verge of falling down.

McDonalds purchased the property with the intention of tearing it down and replacing it with a standard McDonald’s restaurant. Thank goodness for the citizens of the New Hyde Park, who worked to secure landmark status for the building in 1987.

McDonald’s had no choice but to restore the property and work within the parameters of the landmarks commission, which ultimately resulted in their most beautiful restaurant in America (if you know of a better example, please let me know).

You can read more about the history of the Denton House, and see lots of pictures, both historical and the gorgeous interior of the present McDonalds at Scouting New York here.