CAROLINA NATURALLY

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Your focus is currently on one-to-one relationships, and it will stay there for the next few days -- much to your lucky sweetheart's delight.
You'll enjoy this time with them for obvious reasons, but be careful that you don't let a disagreement over something petty or irrelevant come between you.
That goes for everything from which wine to order to which candidate to vote for.
Concentrate on what you've got in common.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Kuala Lumpr, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Beziers, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
Sorel, Quebec, Canada
Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
London, England, United Kingdom
Bristol, England, United Kingdom
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
Lille, Nord-Pas-De-Calais, France
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Bilbao, Pais Vasco, Spain
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Napoli, Campania, Italy
Delhi, Delhi, India
Vasteras, Vastmanlands Lan, Sweden

as well as Malta, Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland and in cities across the United States such as North Royalton, Latrobe, Inman, Phoenix and more.

Today is:

Today is Tuesday, January 18, the 18th day of 2011.

There are 347 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

Thesaurus Day.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Welcome New Readers

We would like to welcome our newest readers from Madagascar.

Newest Country

Madagascar

Random Celebrity Photo

Tina Louise

The reason anybody watched Gilligan's Island.

Buzz over China state dinner

Questions swirl around China state dinner

The White House looks to make up for past snubs and gaffes with an opulent black-tie affair.

Secretive preparations

Also:

Paris 26 Gigapixels Picture

Dive into the 26 billion pixels of the world's largest image with incredible detail if you zoom in.

See Paris like never before!

Twenty Untranslatable Words from Around the World

7. Tartle

Scottish – The act of hesitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.

20 Untranslatable Words from Around the World

Auction block for historic scotch

Some people brag about serving scotch whiskey that's 15 years old. But three bottles of Mackinlay's scotch flown to Scotland by private jet Monday date back to the late 19th Century.

Full Story

Threat of California 'superstorm'

Threat of California 'superstorm' on the rise

Scientists warn the state could face a disaster up to five times worse than a major earthquake.

'Atmospheric river'

Also:

The Oronteus Fineus map of an "ice-free Antarctica"

Reading of what some would term "fringe archaeology" articles and books - material that advocates viewpoints not in line with mainstream historical archaeology and history: Vikings in America (the Kensington Runestone), ancient astronauts (the Chariots of the Gods, the Nazca lines), lost continents, "unexplainable" artifacts, Zheng He's voyages to the Americas can be quite interesting ...

Occasionally one encounters references to an "ice-free Antarctica" and maps depicting it, including one at Ancient Destructions -

In 1959, however, in the Library of Congress, Hapgood noticed a presumably authentic map that instantly wiped out his doubts: a map of what was almost certainly Antarctica, done in 1531 by the French cartographer Oronce Fine, also known as Oronteus Finaeus... Admittedly it is too close to the tip of South America, and it is incorrectly oriented, yet the proportions seem similar, the coastal mountains, found in the 1957 geophysical study are in roughly the right places and so are many bays and rivers. Furthermore, the shape of South America itself seems right, and the close resemblance between a modern, scientifically exact map of the Ross Sea and Finaeus' unnamed gulf is striking.

What is different, however, is that the Oronteus Finaeus map does not seem to show the great shelves of ice that, today, surround the continent, nor the great glaciers that fringe the coastal regions. Instead there seem to be estuaries and inlets, suggesting great rivers... It also suggested to Hapgood that since the Antarctic was certainly ice-bound in 1531 - when Oronteus Finaeus made his map - Finaeus must have had access to very ancient maps indeed: maps made when Antarctica was largely free of the mile-thick ice cap that buries it today, and presumably has covered it for millennia.

The map above, is a quite striking for a document from the early 1500s. It took a bit of searching, but here is a well-written (and extensively illustrated) site that addresses these questions from a "mainstream" point-of-view.

Some of the land depicted to the south of South America may be Antarctica, but the map also conflates that land mass with Tierra do Fuego itself and, more significantly, the continent of Australia (see the screencap above).

So much for an ice-free Australia within recorded human history. But the Kensington Runesone and Zheng He's voyages are still intriguing possibilities ...

Awesome Pictures

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lf2zs9T7zA1qzt15co1_500.jpg

Artificial Reefs

In May of 2009, the missile-tracking ship General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was hauled out in the Gulf of Mexico. Planted explosives blew holes in the ship’s hull, and she sank to the bottom in just a couple of minutes. You can see the process in a time-lapse video. Deliberately sinking a ship sounds like an environmental crime on the surface, but the Vandenberg was carefully prepared: ten tons of asbestos and over 800,000 feet of electrical wiring was removed before she was sunk. The sinking was part of an environmental program to create artificial reefs where sea life -from coral and plankton to game fish- can live and reproduce.

The Vandenberg is certainly not the first ship to be deliberately sunk to create an artificial reef. The waters off the Florida Keys have become the grave site of the Coast Guard cutters Duane and Bibb and the U.S. Navy landing ship Spiegel Grove, and on the sandy bottom 20 or so miles out to sea from Pensacola lies an entire aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Oriskany—the largest ship in the world intentionally sunk as an artificial reef. Dozens of World War II cargo vessels known as Liberty ships have been submerged, or to use the proper jargon, deployed, all along the Gulf, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts.

National Geographic tells us the history of artificial reef programs and how they are used to encourage marine life to flourish.

Full Story

Ten Recycled Ship Houses

image credit

Old ships are far too beautiful and far too useful to send them to the junkyard. In fact, recycled ships can make for some stunning homes! Ships can be floating houses and houses sometimes can be ships. But, if you mix the two and recycle ships into houses, you can expect some unusual and beautiful results.

City considers putting DUI mug shots on Facebook

Police in a city ranked top in the state for alcohol-related traffic fatalities might soon be trying a new tactic to keep drunken drivers off the road: Electronic shaming on Facebook.

Full Story

It's a Blond World

Returning home from work, a blond was shocked to find her house ransacked and burglarized. She telephoned the police at once and reported the crime. The police dispatcher broadcast the call on the radio, and a K-9 unit, patrolling nearby, was the first to respond.

As the K-9 officer approached the house with his dog on a leash, the blond ran out on the porch, shuddered at the sight of the cop and his dog, then sat down on the steps.

Putting her face in her hands, she moaned, 'I come home to find all my possessions stolen. I call the police for help, and what do they do? They send me a BLIND policeman!'