4.3B-Year-Old 'Diamonds' Aren't Exactly Diamonds

Back in 2007, a team of researchers said they'd found 4.3-billion-year-old diamonds inside zircon crystals taken from Australia's Jack Hills. But those researchers had used a grinding paste made of synthetic diamonds to polish the zircons in preparation for lab tests ... and now a different team of scientists has discovered the so-called "diamonds" are actually just fragments of that polishing grit that got pushed into tiny cracks, LiveSciencereports. The first team of researchers agrees with the conclusion, but insists there might still be ancient diamonds deeper inside the zircon; the second team of researchers—and some other experts—say that's extremely unlikely.

Daily Comic Relief

One of the last known photos of the Formosan Clouded Leopard is a picture of a vest

 

It's a nice-looking vest, but it does make a rather strong point about humans' role in animal extinctions. The Formosan Clouded Leopard was one of the animals declared extinct in 2013.

10 Animals That Went Extinct in 2013

We get excited about new species discovered every year, but at the same time, there are those that we've given up hope of ever seeing again -alive. Researchers have searched for the Formosan Clouded Leopard in Taiwan for years, but what they found was this photograph of one that had been made into a vest. A living leopard has not been seen in thirty years.

We did just about everything we could to eliminate this animal; we destroyed their habitat, killed them for their skins, and got rid of the other animals they normally ate. They didn't have a chance.

And there are nine other species now on the extinct list that you can read about at Living Alongside Wildlife.

Dogs prefer to defecate and urinate along a north-south axis

Let's start the new year with something in trivial knowledge department.  Here's the introduction and results from an abstract published in Frontiers in Zoology:

Several mammalian species spontaneously align their body axis with respect to the Earth's magnetic field (MF) lines in diverse behavioral contexts. Magnetic alignment is a suitable paradigm to scan for the occurrence of magnetosensitivity across animal taxa with the heuristic potential to contribute to the understanding of the mechanism of magnetoreception and identify further functions of magnetosensation apart from navigation. With this in mind we searched for signs of magnetic alignment in dogs. We measured the direction of the body axis in 70 dogs of 37 breeds during defecation (1,893 observations) and urination (5,582 observations) over a two-year period. After complete sampling, we sorted the data according to the geomagnetic conditions prevailing during the respective sampling periods. Relative declination and intensity changes of the MF during the respective dog walks were calculated from daily magnetograms. Directional preferences of dogs under different MF conditions were analyzed and tested by means of circular statistics.

Dogs preferred to excrete with the body being aligned along the North-south axis under calm MF conditions. This directional behavior was abolished under Unstable MF. The best predictor of the behavioral switch was the rate of change in declination, i.e., polar orientation of the MF. 

Conclusions here.

An Intimate Look at Tigers

An Intimate Look at Tigers

Photographer Steve Winter has traveled to India, Sumatra, Myanmar and Thailand to photograph one of the most endangered big cats in the world.

The Kermode Bear

Spirit Bear Of British Columbia

This is a remarkable sub-species of the North American Black Bear. It is the Kermode Bearr - also known as the spirit bear. Living along the shorelines and central interior of British Columbia on the west coast of Canada, around 10% of Kermode bears have white or creamy coats.

Pronounced kerr-MOH-dee, the lighter Kermode bears are not albinos. They appear much brighter than most of the population because of recessive alleles.

What's the largest terrestrial arthropod in the world up to?

 The coconut crab can live for 120 years, likes to steal silverware, and eats kittens. 

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Friends, right  ...

Carolina Naturally is read in 194 countries around the world daily.
 

Dig in  ... !

Today is - National Buffet Day
 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Santiago, Chile

Pikangikum, Thunder Bay, Templeton, Ottawa, Montreal, Chatham, Aurora, Saint John's, Britannia and Sioux Lookout, Canada

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Tipitapa and Managua, Nicaragua

The Bottom, Sint Eustatius and Saba

Caracas, Venezuela

Mishawaka, Manassas, Secaucus, Seneca, Alief, Euless, Florissant and Sunol, United States

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Europe 

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Dnepropetrovsk, Zhovti Vody and Kharkiv, Ukraine

Zagreb, Croatia

Ivrea, Rome and Ravenna, Italy

Salon-De-Provence, Paris, Lyon and Rouen, France

Dublin, Ireland

Teo, Basauri and Madrid, Spain

Komarom and Budapest, Hungary

Sarajevo and Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Korsor, Denmark

Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Warsaw, Elblag and Krakow, Poland

Oslo, Norway

Zurich, Switzerland

London, England

Lisbon, Portugal

Lucenec and Bratislava, Slovakia

Stockholm, Sweden

Prague and Vinince Sumice, Czech Republic

Bucharest, Romania

Tirana, Albania

Nicosia, Cyprus

Dainava, Lithuania

Chisinau, Moldova

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Vladivostok, Russia

Asia

Bandung, Jakarta, Jagirsidosermo and Medan, Indonesia

Beirut, Lebanon

Calicut, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Jodhpur, Ranchi, New Delhi, Pune, Delhi, Cochin and Aurangabad,  India

Port Louis, Mauritius

Petah Tikva, Israel

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuwait, Kuwait

Kabul, Afghanistan

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Beijing and Guangzhou, China

Mueang Nonthaburi and Bangkok, Thailand

Africa 

Cairo, Alexandria and Al Jizah, Egypt

Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg, South Africa

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Tripoli, Libya

Luangwa, Zambia

Algiers, Algeria

Pacific

Surrey Hills, Homebush and Perth, Australia

Mandaluyong City and Baguio, Philippines

Today in History

1492		Catholic forces under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella take the town of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain.
1758		The French begin bombardment of Madras, India.
1839		Photography pioneer Louis Daguerre takes the first photograph of the moon.
1861		The USS Brooklyn is readied at Norfolk to aid Fort Sumter.
1863		In the second day of hard fighting at Stone's River, near Murfreesboro, Tenn., Union troops defeat the Confederates.
1903		President Theodore Roosevelt closes a post office in Indianola, Mississippi, for refusing to hire a Black postmistress.
1904		U.S. Marines are sent to Santo Domingo to aid the government against rebel forces.
1905		After a six-month siege, Russians surrender Port Arthur to the Japanese.
1918		Russian Bolsheviks threaten to re-enter the war unless Germany returns occupied territory.
1932		Japanese forces in Manchuria set up a puppet government known as Manchukuo.
1936		In Berlin, Nazi officials claim that their treatment of Jews is not the business of the League of Nations.
1942		In the Philippines, the city of Manila and the U.S. Naval base at Cavite fall to Japanese forces.
1943		The Allies capture Buna in New Guinea.
1963		In Vietnam, the Viet Cong down five U.S. helicopters in the Mekong Delta. 30 Americans are reported dead.
1966		American G.I.s move into the Mekong Delta for the first time.
1973		The United States admits the accidental bombing of a Hanoi hospital.
1980		President Jimmy Carter asks the U.S. Senate to delay the arms treaty ratification in response to Soviet action in Afghanistan.

Non Sequitur

Did you know ...

Happy new year!  The universe could collapse at any moment

These 5 resolutions you should never make

These science and environmental highlights of 2013

These 14 great movies of 2013

These capitalism and democracy: year-end lessons

These 9 things the media called "the war on men" this year

Also, these 9 incredibly important things that happened in 2013 that you probably aren't talking about

The best and worst of 2013 over at the moderate voice

The repugicans Pout Because Six Million People Have Received Health Coverage Since October

On New Year’s Eve, Health and Human Services released a statement detailing the amount of people who have gotten coverage under the ACA since enrollment began on October 1st. To the dismay of repugicans everywhere, the numbers were not only extremely encouraging, they were nearly astronomical. Marilyn Tavenner, Administrator for Medicare and Medicaid Services, posted the following statement to the HHS website:

Since the beginning of open enrollment, millions of Americans are gaining access to health coverage-many for the very first time—thanks to the Affordable Care Act.  The most recent data indicate that more than 2.1 million people have enrolled in a private health insurance plan through the Federal and State-based Marketplaces since October 1.
Both states and the federal government have seen a surge in enrollment in December.  Our HealthCare.gov enrollment nearly doubled in days before the January 1 coverage deadline compared to the first weeks of the month.  Nationwide, including state and federal marketplaces, December enrollment so far is nearly 6 times that of October and November combined.
We expect these numbers to continue to grow through the end of March when open enrollment ends.
Additionally, 3.9 million Americans learned they’re eligible for coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in October and November.  These numbers include new eligibility determinations and some Medicaid and CHIP renewals.
We are encouraged that over 6 million people have been enrolled in Marketplace or Medicaid coverage since October 1, and will work to give millions more Americans the peace of mind that comes with health security in the months ahead.

Earlier in the week, it was already revealed that 1.1 million people had enrolled in private insurance plans on the federal exchange. As the statement revealed, another million were able to use state exchanges to sign up for an insurance plan while nearly four million people found out that they were now eligible for Medicaid, meaning that as working poor, they now can receive good, free health care and be able to see a doctor on a regular basis. No more utilizing the emergency room as their primary caregiver.
With another three months left in the open enrollment period, it is likely that millions and millions of more Americans are going to get covered. With the federal website running smoothly and the news that millions of their fellow Americans have received either free health care or an affordable private insurance plan, even the skeptical out there will finally realize it is better to get good health coverage than avoid it because of political reasons. The sad reality for the repugican cabal is not only is the ACA here to stay, but it will now become something that they cannot demonize Democrats for, as too many people are, or will be, seeing the overwhelming positive benefits of it.

The tea party perspective

Dysfunctional repugican 'christians' Vow To Destroy the First Amendment

Two-hundred and twenty-two years after the First Amendment was ratified, there is a large segment of the population that cannot fathom the simple meaning of the First Amendment.…

 

Simplicity is the state of being simple and usually relates to the burden which a thing puts on someone trying to explain or understand it; such as something easy to understand or explain is simple, as opposed to something complicated that is likely as difficult to explain as it is to understand. The Founding Fathers understood that the population of the country they founded was likely uneducated and ignorant leading them to make the First Amendment so easy to understand that a simpleton could grasp its meanings. Unfortunately, two-hundred and twenty-two years after the First Amendment was ratified, there is a large segment of the population that cannot fathom, much less acknowledge, the simple meaning of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that says government “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof” which does not mean enforcing religion by statute, state amendment, or law.
Devising and passing laws that have as their only basis the christian bible is not a new phenomenon, and for decades laws such as those banning sodomy were staples of every state in the Union’s legislatures despite they were laws “respecting an establishment of religion;” the christian religion. The U.S. Supreme Court finally overturned sodomy laws on the basis of the right to privacy, but the cowards on the High Court never had the fortitude to strike down the “law respecting an establishment of religion” on First Amendment grounds. Likely because there is an unspoken unconstitutional law that bans citing the First Amendment’s prohibition against religious edicts as federal or state laws that no court is willing to violate. Unfortunately, there have been other laws like those banning abortions, contraception, and same-sex marriage that were eventually ruled unconstitutional on grounds they violate citizens’ 14^th Amendment rights, but never on grounds they violated the First Amendment’s freedom from religious edicts disguised as state laws.
Late last week after a federal district court overturned Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage, and the 10th Circuit Appeals Court found, like the federal district court, that Utah’s biblical ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, Republicans announced they would spend about $2 million of taxpayer money to hire outside counsel to defend the amendment “respecting an establishment of religion.” State Senator John Valentine (r- mormon) said “We should be paying for the best and the brightest. This is a case that is not only a historic precedent, but it’s one that really goes to the core of what states’ rights is all about.” No, this is a case that goes to the core of what Mormons passing a “law respecting an establishment of religion” is all about despite the First Amendment which is exquisitely clear; it is a violation of Constitution that is, by the way, the law of the land.
The Utah Mormon case follows a trend among conservative christians attempting to pass several “laws respecting an establishment of religion” regarding same-sex marriage, fetal personhood, as well as contraception and abortion coverage in private healthcare plans. A cursory glance at, say, the personhood movement’s mission statement reveals it is driven solely by religion where it states; “Personhood USA desires to glorify jesus christ in a way that creates a culture of life so that all innocent human lives are protected by love and by law.” The National Organization for Marriage opposes same-sex marriage and civil unions calling them “a direct threat to religious liberties” and that “civil union statutes are used to sue professionals who run their practices behind biblical laws banning same-sex marriage and civil unions.” The Hobby Lobby case going before the Supreme Court is founded on the owner’s religious belief that he has the biblical right to withhold contraception from his employee’s private healthcare plans.
The Utah mormon’s case before the federal district court claimed same-sex marriage harmed opposite-sex marriages instead of having the courage to say same-sex marriage runs counter to the biblical amendment “respecting an establishment of religion.” Although the district and Circuit courts shot down the absurd argument gays marrying harmed opposite-sex marriages, a simpler ruling would have been the First Amendment bans Utah’s constitutional amendment “respecting an establishment of religion.” The courts cited the amendment’s violation of same-sex couples’ due process, equal protection, and anti-discrimination rights in the 14^th Amendment, but why complicate a very simple premise; the Constitution bans laws “respecting an establishment of religion.”
It does not matter if they are laws banning or restricting abortion care, contraception coverage, civil unions, or same-sex marriages, the simple fact is they all have as their basis the christian bible and regardless what evangelical extremists, mormon governors, or fundamentalist christians claim, the religious manual is not and never has been the law of the land or had any relevance to the United States Constitution. Still, courts have been loath to cite the obvious whether it was sodomy laws, bans on abortion, contraception coverage in prescription plans, or same-sex marriages; they were, and are, all biblical edicts masquerading as state laws “respecting an establishment of religion” and are patent violations of the U.S. Constitution.
If christians want to live their lives according to the bible and not use contraception, eschew abortion, or not marry a person of the same sex, they have that Constitutional right. If they claim as followers of christ (not that they are) their bible commands them to passionately hate people who use contraception, abortion services, or marry a person of the same sex, the Constitution protects their biblical right to hate. However, if they force the rest of the population to follow their biblical beliefs, either by employment contract or state laws, the Constitution strictly forbids it.
The Founding Fathers were very explicit and used a very simply-worded phrase forbidding christians, mormons, catholics and their repugican facilitators from enacting amendments or making “laws respecting the establishment of religion.” It is absolutely an abomination that no district court, Circuit Court, or Supreme Court has struck down or cited the unconstitutionality of state or federal laws because they were religious edicts straight out of the christian bible. The pathological dysfunction plaguing the justice system, repugicans, and various christian fascists is that they cannot comprehend a very, very simple truth. America is not a christian theocracy and the Founding Fathers made sure the bible is not the Constitution, and it is about dog-damned time the judicial system informs religious miscreants of the those very simple truths.

Retired General Wants March on White House and Citizens Arrest of Obama

The repugican remedy for losing seems to be to refuse to accept defeat. Can't win an election? Revolt! Arrest the winner!…

 

When we last met retired Army general Paul E. Vallely, he was demanding that President Barack Obama be forced to resign because of imaginary crimes. These crimes, apparently, are daring to disagree with the path chosen for America by repugican leadership. A month later, Vallely is saying that Obama should be subject to citizen’s arrest and that the United States needs Egypt-like uprisings behind a “new George Washington.” He says 33 million Egyptians stood up and told their government “No” and he sees no reason we can’t do the same here.
Just as a thought…finding 33 million people as crazy as yourself might be a problem. Look how Klayman’s march on Washington turned out. Just sayin’. But don’t tell Vallely that. Methinks he thinks he is the “new George Washington” he says we need:

It’s fallen upon senior, retired military to take stands against the overreach and tyranny of a corrupt government. I think for people, they respect what the military has gone through. Senior military guys are very well educated, they’ve gone to the right schools, gone to combat for the most part, have had to manage enormous budgets, were involved in major financial decisions and are heavily steeped in foreign policy and national security.
No other group, no CEO that has that kind of background,” he said. “Obviously our politicians don’t have that background. They have legislation experience, not leadership experience.

And what about the fact that Barack Obama was legally elected according to the United States Constitution?
Vallely’s answer to that came in a podcast a few days ago, where he said our electoral processes “are known to be corrupt.” They must be, or Obama would not have been elected, he seems to be saying.
Since impeachment won’t just happen and “hope is not a strategy,” it is up to the American people, he says, to “stand up” to Washington:
“We need something … a no confidence vote,” he suggested. And perhaps legislation that could create a national recall process.
“We need to get off our derrieres, march at the state capitol, march in Washington. Make citizens arrests.”
What he is talking about is revolution, what he calls the “least palatable option”:

Harry Reid still controls the Senate, so like in Clinton’s day, forget about a finding of guilty,” he wrote. “Incidentally, if Obama was found guilty and removed from office, Joe Biden would step in, Valerie Jarrett still wields all the power, and likely we get more of the same.

I’m at a loss to known where in the Constitution such measures are permitted by a group of disgruntled, Islamophobic retired generals. Did I miss something? The argument here is that Obama has violated the Constitution. Shouldn’t Vallely and his fellow rebels, assuming their are the Constitution’s champions, be defending the Constitution rather than violating it?
Vallely says Americans have lost confidence in the Obama administration:

Clearly America has lost confidence and no longer trusts those in power at a most critical time in our history,” Vallely said. “It is true that not all who ply the halls of power fit under that broad brush, but most of them are guilty of many egregious acts and we say it is time to hold a vote of no confidence. It’s time for a ‘recall.’

The problem is that Congress is less popular than President Obama. If there is a lack of confidence it is in Congress. Should the least popular branch of government then enter a vote of no confidence in the more popular branch? Isn’t that…I don’t know…silly?
Look, at this point, the Black Death is more popular than the repugicans in Congress. To be blunt, where the confidence of the American people is concerned, they don’t have a pot to shit in. If there is to be a vote of no confidence in the administration, they are not the ones to give it.
And the American people? This summer, fully half of Americans felt repugicans weren’t doing enough to compromise with President Obama. That’s hardly the stuff of revolution. Vallely is up in arms about Obamacare but this fall, only 23 percent of Americans wanted to destroy Obamacare. According to Gallup, President Obama’s current job approval rating is 43 percent. Again, hardly the stuff of revolution. For the sake of comparison, the shrub was at 42 percent at the same point in his junta.
Congress, on the other hand, averaged 14 percent approval for 2013, “the lowest annual average in Gallup’s history.”
Vallely is placing all his hopes in the tea party, which, no surprise, is about as unpopular (22 percent approval in September) as Congress at this point:

I’m going back to the big kickoff in Myrtle Beach in January,” Vallely told WND. “I’m a big believer in the tea party as a movement. Many of us retired military leaders are all together. We need to demand the resignation of Obama, [Vice President Joe] Biden, [repugican House Speaker John] Boehner, [Senate Republican Leader Mitch] McConnell, [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi and [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid. The leadership of both parties needs to step down and new leaders step up.

And this is the guy who says the world is laughing at us. Somehow, I don’t think Vallely is dampening that laughter, unless it’s glee that America might be willing to take itself down a notch, because that’s exactly what Vallely’s popular and highly unconstitutional revolution would accomplish.
Love America? Hardly. It’s all about hating Obama and hurting him at any cost, even the cost of our great nation and the Constitution, which, once shredded, can be replaced by the bible as the Founding Fathers originally intended.
This is the state of opposition party politics in America today. Lose? To tell with the Constitution. Overthrow the winner! Vallely says foreign countries are laughing at us? Hell, I’m laughing at us too.

No suspicion needed for laptop searches at border

A US Federal Court sided with the "DHS Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Impact Assessment of its electronics search policy, concluding that suspicionless searches do not violate the First or Fourth Amendments. The report said that a reasonable suspicion standard is inadvisable because it could lead to litigation and the forced divulgence of national security information, and would prevent border officers from acting on inchoate 'hunches,' a method that it says has sometimes proved fruitful," said the ACLU in a statement following the decision.
In other words, hunches, top secret secrets, and the fear of getting sued trump the Bill of Rights. I feel safer!

ACLU: Court Rules No Suspicion Needed for Laptop Searches at Border

Were you aware ...

Red Lobster Restaurants to Close

The shrub's recession killed them dead

R.I.P. Red Lobster. The seafood restaurant chain is reportedly closing up shop.

Its parent company Darden Restaurants announced Dec. 19 that Red Lobster locations will be shutting down for "a tax-free spin-off" or possibly be sell it off completely.
One thing is for sure, though: no more Red Lobster.

Though it's one of the biggest casual dining restaurant with a market value of $6.7 billion, its core chains -- Red Lobster being its first -- have had stagnant growth.

Red Lobster has 705 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, and had annual sales of about $2.6 billion in the company's 2013 fiscal year.

More

Parking meters and prisons: Top six privatization horror stories

Parking meters and prisons: Top six privatization horror stories

Parking meter reading "time expired."

Selling public resources to private companies for them to profit off of is a hot trend in cities and states-not all of them controlled by Republicans, either. Privatization deals affecting everything from parking meters to child welfare to public water systems are often negotiated in secret, carried out with little oversight, and subject to massive cost overruns and corruption.

The sordid story of Chicago's parking meters has to be a top entry in any "worst privatization stories" competition. Rick Perlstein laid out the ugly details in The Nation a couple months back:

Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2008 struck a deal with the investment consortium Chicago Parking Meters LLC, or CPM, that included Morgan Stanley, Allianz Capital Partners and, yes, the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi, to privatize our meters. The price of parking-and the intensity of enforcement-skyrocketed. The terms were negotiated in secret. City Council members got two days to study the billion-dollar, seventy-five-year contract before signing off on it. An early estimate from the Chicago inspector general was that the city had sold off its property for about half of what it was worth. Then an alderman said it was worth about four times what the city had been paid. Finally, in 2010, Forbes reported that in fact the city had been underpaid by a factor of ten.

[...]

Not only does CPM get the money its meters hoover up from the fine upstanding citizens of Chicago. It gets money even if the meters are not used. Each meter has been assigned a "fair market valuation." If the City takes what is called a "reserve power adverse action"-that can mean anything from removing a meter because it impedes traffic flow, shutting down a street for a block party or discouraging traffic from coming into the city during rush hour - "CPM has the right to trigger an immediate payment for the entire loss of the meter's fair market value over the entire life of the seventy-five-year agreement."

Shut down one meter that the market-valuation says makes twenty-two bucks a day, in other words, and the City of Chicago has to fork over a check for $351,000-six days a week ... fifty-two weeks in a year, times seventy-five-within thirty days. Very easily, Geoghegan points out, a single shut-down of parking in a chunk of the city-say, for something like a NATO summit Chicago hosted last year-"could be more than the original purchase price of the deal."
[...]