The Daily Drift

Yeah, it's like that ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 199 countries around the world daily.   

 Taffy ... !

Today is  - National Taffy Day

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

Some of our reader today have been in:

The Americas

Paupack, Zeeland, Pollock, Bratenahl, Poquoson, Lents, Boise, Sylva and Friona, United States

Calgary, Saint John's, Sherwood, Mississauga, L'ancienne-Lorette and Lake Louise, Canada

Luquillo, Puerto Rico

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Colegiales, Argentina

Medellin, Colombia

Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Mexico City, Mexico

Europe

Teixoso, Porto and Lisbon, Portugal

Reykjavik, Iceland

Eixample, Palma, Santa Cruze De Tenerife, Madrid and Algeciras, Spain

Bucharest, Romania

Rouen, Toulouse and Lyon, France

Calgiari, Treviso, Ivrea, Rome, Milan and Venice, Italy

Vladivostok, Ryazan and Moscow, Russia

Dublin, Ireland

Arendal, Norway

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Amsterdam and Amersfoort, Netherlands

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Minsk, Belarus

Maribor, Slovenia

Nuremberg and Dresden, Germany

Waltham and Pool, England

Vienna, Austria

Asia

Pita Kotte, Sri Lanka

Tehran, Shiraz and Mashhad, Iran

Carthage, Tunisia

New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Balotra, Pune, Konnagar, Jodhpur, Hyderabad, Shillong, Calicut, Bikaner, Mumbai and Goa, India

La Dagotiere, Mauritius

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Doha, Qatar

Medan and Jakarta, Indonesia

Muscat, Oman

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Africa 

Nairobi, Kenya

Durban, South Africa

The Pacific

Sydney, Poona and Melbourne, Australia

Today in History

1430		Burgundians capture Joan of Arc and sell her to the English.
1533		Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
1618		The Thirty Years War begins.
1701		Captain William Kidd, the Scottish pirate, is hanged on the banks of the Thames.
1785		Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals.
1788		South Carolina becomes the eighth state to ratify U.S. Constitution.
1861		Pro-Union and pro-Confederate forces clash in western Virginia.
1862		Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson takes Front Royal, Virginia.
1864		Union General Ulysses Grant attempts to outflank Confederate Robert E. Lee in the Battle of North Anna, Virginia.
1900		Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney becomes the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, thirty-seven years after the Battle of Fort Wagner.
1901		American forces capture Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo.
1915		Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1934		Gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed by Texas Rangers.
1945		Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide after being captured by Allied forces.
1949		The Federal Republic of West Germany is proclaimed.
1960		Israel announces the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

Non Sequitur

Metal-Eating Plant Discovered, and It's Already at Risk

Metal-Eating Plant Discovered, and It's Already at Risk

A recently discovered, yet already endangered, plant devours nickel and could help reduce pollution.

Snubbing lion hunters could preserve the endangered animals

Snubbing lion hunters could preserve the endangered animals

For hundreds of years young men from some ethnic groups […]

Primates and patience

Primates and patience

A chimpanzee will wait more than two minutes to eat […]

New Bone Grown from Monkey's Own Skin Cells

New Bone Grown from Monkey's Own Skin Cells

The US study is the first time such a development has been shown in an animal that is similar to humans.

Humans, pets have same types of MRSA infections

Humans, pets have same types of MRSA infections

A shared population of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria circulates […]

Man’s best friend shares similar ‘albino’ gene

Man’s best friend shares similar ‘albino’ gene

Michigan State University researchers have identified a genetic mutation in […

Helping Honey Bees’ Health

Helping Honey Bees’ Health

You’ve probably heard that the honey bees in this country […]

Dopamine Turns Worker Ants into Warrior Queens

Dopamine Turns Worker Ants into Warrior Queens

The ritualized fighting behavior of one ant species is linked […]

New insect species named after Shakira and Jimmy Fallon

New insect species named after Shakira and Jimmy Fallon

Some Ecuadorian tribes were famous for making mummified shrunken heads […]

'Vicious' New Praying Mantis Discovered in Rwanda

by Elizabeth Howell

The female wingless "bush tiger mantis" (Dystacta tigrifrutex) from Nyungwe National Park in …

On a cool and rainy night in a dense, mountainous forest in Rwanda, insect-surveying scientists discovered a new species of praying mantis, one whose wingless females are "vicious hunters" that prowl for prey as if they were marauding tigers.

The researchers have named the newfound praying mantis species — which was discovered in Nyungwe National Park — Dystacta tigrifrutex, or "bush tiger mantis."

"The new species is amazing, because the fairly small female prowls through the underbrush searching for prey, while the male flies appear to live higher in the vegetation," stated Riley Tedrow, a Case Western Reserve University evolutionary biology student who led the research.

Researchers found out about the species after a winged male was attracted to a light trap the scientists had set up to study the local insects. After fortuitously trapping a female from the leaf litter, the scientists got another lucky break: She laid an egg case (called an ootheca). This allowed the scientists to study the nymphs and adults in one three-week field session, which is a rarity in insect science for one field trip.

The researchers compared the new specimens with those found in museums and described in scientific papers; the scientists also looked at various measurements of the bush tiger mantis' bodies, such as color and length. Through these analyses, the researchers concluded the species belongs to the genus Dystacta; until now, this genus had consisted of just one species, D. alticeps, which is spread all over Africa.

One feature could have provided a big help in identifying the species, the male genitalia. This, however, was missing, as ants had gobbled up these vital parts while the male dried up in the Rwandan heat, the researchers noted.

The scientists also tracked down a dozen species that were previously not known to live in Rwanda, and urged that conservation authorities place the park under protection so as not to endanger the new finds. A follow-up expedition is planned in June to gauge the size of the bush tiger's habitat.

A study based on the research will be published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

The Frog That Turns Blue

The Moor Frog (native to Europe and Asia) is a small and rather unprepossessing amphibian. They grow up to seven centimeters in length and are a reddish-brown color. However, all that changes once a year between March and June. It is then that the male of the species turns blue.

Ziggy

The Maned Wolf

Despite being called a wolf and resembling a fox, the Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is not closely related to any other living canine and is the only member of the Chrysocyon genus. The Maned Wolf is on the IUCN red list of endangered species. Habitat destruction is the main threat to maned wolves. They have almost no natural enemies, but nevertheless are in great danger because they need wide, uninterrupted spaces. In addition, people kill the Maned Wolf for its body parts, believed to have magical properties.

Rare Pygmy Hippo Baby Born

How cute is this little zoo baby? Lani the Pygmy Hippopotamus was born on March 18, 2014 at Basel Zoo in Switzerland. At birth, the tiny hippo was the size of a rabbit, weighing in at just under 11.5 pounds.

The birth was a happy occasion for the staff at Basel Zoo, as it has been fourteen years since a baby of this species was born there, and it did not survive. Lani's mother Ashaki accompanies her when she is in the outdoor area of their enclosure. Lani is allowed to roam only on sunny days for now, as she needs to keep warm. Her keepers say she enjoys hiding in the bushes and snacking on Fennel and other plant leaves.

Pygmy hippopotamus are severely endangered. They typically live in the rainforests of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Until recently, these countries suffered from political unrest and instability; thus, few researchers and conservationists operate there. Basel Zoo donates 17,000 Swiss francs each year to support a conservation project in Sierra Leone.

Mysterious elephant having a paddle at Florida beach was probably there for a birthday party

An elephant spotted on North Redington Beach in Pinellas County, Florida, on Saturday was likely part of a beach birthday party.

Back in February, a woman asked the city commission to sign off on having the trained elephant to make an appearance at her 60th birthday party.
Commissioners approved that request.

YouTube link. Also here.

Beach goers had spotted the elephant having a paddle in the comfortable Gulf of Mexico waters.

Couple surprised to find eight-foot alligator having a dip in their pool

Sharon Bente heard a noise in her backyard in Bradenton, Florida, at about 4am on Thursday when she found an eight-foot alligator taking a dip in her pool.

"I saw something that is not usually in the pool along with the little floaty, and it turned out to be an alligator," she said. The gator had ripped through a screen of the enclosed patio, said Bente's husband, John.

"He was just swimming around in circles," he said. "He tried to get up here for awhile, [but] I think he was a little intimidated with everybody watching, too." A trapper later came and removed the reptile after the couple called the Sheriff's Office.

YouTube link.

"It was quite an evening," said John. "I'm sure there's other alligators. I'm sure I'm going to be sleeping with my - with at least one eye open for a while." The couple has since repaired the screen surrounding the pool, while the gator was taken to a farm in Arcadia.

Get a load of this ....

Take a look at this strange deep-water fish that washed up on shore.... in North Carolina!