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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Thursday, June 12, 2014

The Daily Drift

Ain't that the truth ...!
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 200 countries around the world daily.   

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Today  is - Loving Day


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Today in History

1442 Alfonso V of Aragon is crowned King of Naples.
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte and his army invade Russia.
1849 The gas mask is patented by L. P. Haslett.
1862 Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart begins his ride around the Union Army outside of Richmond, Virginia.
1901 Cuba agrees to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment.
1918 The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurs in France.
1920 Republicans nominate Warren G. Harding for president and Calvin Coolidge for vice president.
1921 President Warren Harding urges every young man to attend military training camp.
1926 Brazil quits the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany.
1931 Gangster Al Capone and 68 of his henchmen are indicted for violating Prohibition laws.
1937 Eight of Stalin's generals are sentenced to death during purges in the Soviet Union.
1942 American bombers strike the oil refineries of Ploesti, Rumania for the first time.
1963 Black civil rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated by a gunman outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
1967 The Supreme Court rules that states cannot ban interracial marriages.
1972 At a hearing in front the of a U.S. House of Representatives committee, Air Force General John Lavalle defends his orders on engagement in Vietnam.
1977 David Berkowitz gets 25 years to life for the Son of Sam murders in New York.
1985 The U.S. House of Representatives approves $27 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.
1991 Mount Pinatubo in the Phillipines begins erupting for the first time in 600 years.

Non Sequitur

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How to Build a Solar Hot Dog Oven in a Pringles Can

You don't need a fire to have a good cookout. As long as it's at least 80ºF outside, you can cook a hot dog inside an empty can of Pringles potato chips. Instructables member Cat's Science Club shows you how.
The first step is to eat all of the Pringles. Some people might say that it's enough to just empty the can. But I say that any job worth doing is worth doing well. Eat all of the Pringles. Then cut a window into the can. Skewer a hot dog and place it inside. Glue a layer of plastic wrap over the window to trap the heat inside.
On a good day, you may get an internal temperature as high as 170ºF. Over time, that's enough to cook the hot dog to perfection.

Making Phoenix Hotter

So much heat is emitted by air conditioning units in Phoenix it actually raises the city's outdoor temperature at night. 

China Flattens Mountains

The Chines government is removing the tops of 700 mountains to create 155 square miles of free space to build cities.

Vermeer's paintings might be 350 year-old color photographs

Tim Jenison, a Texas-based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in the art world: 
How did Dutch master Johannes Vermeer manage to paint so photo-realistically 150 years before the invention of photography?
Boing Boing has more here.

3,300-year-old trousers found in China may be the world's oldest

Two pairs of 3,300-year-old trousers found in the western Xinjiang region may be the world’s oldest.
Archaeologists found the animal-fur menswear on the bodies of two mummies, identified as male shamans in their forties,in May. An international team is working to repair and preserve the two pairs of trousers – which are the oldest yet discovered with a clear resemblance to the modern trousers.
“They were almost of the same shape as today’s trousers,” Lu Enguo, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology in Xinjiang, said. Even older apparel resembling trousers have previously been discovered in the region, but they were made based on a more simple design and lacked a piece of fabric covering the crotch, Lu added.
Archaeologists believe nomads living in the area invented trousers for horse riding. The nomads “at first wore a kind of trousers that only had two legs,” said the institute’s deputy head Xu Dongliang. He added that “crotches were sewed on to the legs, and gradually other styles, such as bloomers, appeared”. Previously, the oldest trousers found with a crotch were just 2,800 years old.

Man injured after runaway elevator rose 30 floors in 15 seconds before crashing into roof of building

A man in the Chilean city of Providencia was seriously injured when an elevator  he was traveling in malfunctioned and sped upwards past 30 floors before crashing into the roof.
In a surveillance video, 31-year-old José Vergara Acevedo is seen entering the elevator on the first floor of the Bustamante Park building.
The elevator began to rise even before its doors had closed, and failed to respond when Mr Acevedo pushed the buttons on its control panel.

The elevator then ascended more than 30 floors in 15 seconds. After reaching the 31st floor, the elevator crashed into the building’s roof. Mr Acevedo suffered head and leg injuries, and was transferred to hospital after being freed by firefighters.

Man arrested after hitting brother across the face with marijuana plants

A Florida man was arrested on several charges, including domestic battery, after hitting his brother with some marijuana plants, according to Polk County Sheriff's Office. Investigators said deputies were called to the Lakeland home of brothers Rodney and Jackie Brown after reports of a domestic disturbance on Saturday evening.
According to deputies, Jackie Brown, 33, said he and his brother were arguing when Rodney Brown, 31, struck him with "a plant from the yard." Rodney Brown allowed deputies to search they property where they said they found 10 marijuana plants outside and drug paraphernalia inside.
According to deputies, Jackie Brown said during the argument his brother uprooted several cannabis plants and intentionally hit him in the face with them. Rodney Brown was booked into the Polk County jail on charges of domestic battery, cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana over 20 grams and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was later released on bond.

Twin sisters charged with DUI in separate incidents 23 hours and 57 minutes apart

Police in Stonington, Connecticut, arrested twin sisters within 24 hours over the weekend, both for driving under the influence and hitting something with their cars.
On Saturday at 1:49am, police said Kathleen S. Murphy, 25, of 140 Latimer Point Road, backed into another car in the parking lot of Hootie’s Good Times Cafe in Pawcatuck. She was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, unsafe backing, improper use of markers, driving without minimum insurance and failure to register a motor vehicle eligible for commercial registration. Then on Sunday at 1:46am, police arrested Hannah R. Murphy, 25, also of 140 Latimer Point Road after they say she struck a road sign near and left the scene. She was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, evading responsibility and failure to drive right. The sisters are slated to appear in New London Superior Court on June 17.
Police added that the car Kathleen Murphy hit early on Saturday was struck a short time later in the Hootie’s lot by a car driven by another alleged drunk driver. In that case Gerald M. Dunn, 56, of Pawcatuck was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and unsafe backing.

Motorized cooler driver faces drunk-driving charge

Police have charged a man with driving under the influence after he was caught allegedly riding a motorized cooler down the middle of the road in Perth, Australia.
Hillarys police were conducted patrols of the area when they spotted the man riding down the middle of West Coast Drive outside the Sorrento Surf Club on Friday night at around 8pm. The cooler contained alcohol at the time he was stopped by police.
22-year-old Michael Craft, from Sorrento, said he was on his way to a servce station and didn’t think riding the motorized cooler, which can only reach speeds up to 20km/h, on the busy road without any lights would be dangerous..
He reportedly told them he thought riding the motorized cooler would be safer than driving his car. He was charged with driving under the influence and will appear in court at a later date.

If you're unemployed, you're twice as likely to be depressed

"depressed woman covering her face by the hands over dark wall," Shutterstock.
A new Gallup poll says Americans who are unemployed are about twice as likely as Americans who have jobs to be depressed – 12.4% versus 6.4%, Gallup reports.
The longer a person has been out of work, the greater the chances that he or she will develop a clinical case of depression, according to data from a new Gallup poll. Among Americans who have been without a job for three to five weeks, 10% said they were depressed or were being treated for depression. That figure rose to 17% for those who have been out of work for six months to one year. Among people who have crossed the one-year mark, 19% were battling depression, the poll found.
More at the LA Times.rqtka4o3pue6ozx2zxtjuw

Battling Depression

A tiny molecule may help battle depression


Institute. This discovery may hold a key to improving treatment […]

Newborns: Dirt, Dander and Germs

Newborns exposed to dirt, dander and germs may have lower allergy and asthma risk  


Infants exposed to rodent and pet dander, roach allergens and […]

'Free Will' and Brain Noise

Does ‘free will’ stem from brain noise?
Our ability to make choices — and sometimes mistakes — […]

The Face of Violence?


Did violence shape our faces?


What contributed to the evolution of faces in the ape-like […]

Ancient pharaonic tomb unearthed in Egypt

The inner chambers of a more than 4,000 year old pharaonic tomb believed to belong to an important leader from the eleventh dynasty in the ancient city of Luxor was discovered by Spanish archeologists on June 9, 2014
The inner chambers of a more than 4,000 year old pharaonic tomb believed to belong to an important leader from the eleventh dynasty in the ancient city of Luxor was discovered by Spanish archeologists on June 9, 2014
Spanish archeologists have discovered a pharaonic tomb belonging to a leader from the 11th dynasty of Egypt in the city of Luxor, the antiquities ministry said on Monday.
The wide surface of the tomb showed it was that of "someone from the royal family or a high-ranking statesman," Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement.
The Spanish team was headed by Jose Galan, who said the tomb would provide new insights into the dynasty that ruled in Luxor, the capital of Ancient Egypt.
"This discovery confirms the presence of many tombs from the 11th dynasty in the Deraa Abu Naga region," said Galan.
One tomb dating back to the same period was discovered in the area five years ago. It contained a red sarcophagus, a well-preserved mummy, as well as arrows and arches that are now on display in Luxor's museum.
"The tomb may have been used as a mass grave given the high number of human remains" discovered in it, antiquities ministry official Ali al-Asfar said on Monday, referring to the newly discovered site.
But it was also used during the 17th dynasty as pottery tools and utensils from this period were discovered in the tomb, Asfar added.
Luxor, a city of some 500,000 people on the banks of the Nile in southern Egypt, is an open-air museum of intricate temples and pharaonic tombs.

Ziggy

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The Spotted Lake Of Osoyoos

A short ride northwest of the small Canadian town of Osoyoos there is a body of water which has come to be known in English as Spotted Lake.
It is believed to be the most mineralized lake on the planet with 365 'circles' - one for each day of the year - in a myriad of shapes, sizes and depths. It is an extraordinary natural phenomenon.

Marble Cathedral

It is considered the most beautiful cave network in the world, but you'll have a long journey to reach it. This spectacular Marble Cathedral, an intricate system of water-filled caverns, is set in the General Carrera lake in Chile's Patagonia - the second largest freshwater lake in South America. But to reach this remote place, located in the far southern tip of the country, visitors must fly from the capital Santiago, 800 miles to the next nearest large city, Coyhaique, and then drive on challenging dirt roads 200 miles south to the lake.

Volcanoes and Melting Glaciers

Volcanoes under the ice in Antarctica appear to contribute to the melting glaciers above. 

The Dark Side of the Moon

Dark side of the moon mystery solved
The Man in the Moon appeared when meteoroids struck the […]

'Virgin Earth'

Through the analysis of a previously unexplained ratio of isotopes, scientists have recovered a geological time capsule of sorts that they believe represents a very different Earth that existed some 4.5 billion years ago. 

Daily Comic Relief

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Regrets?

New research suggests the animals know when they've passed up what would have been a good deal.




The Vampire Deer

Do you see something a little strange about the deer in the picture above? If your eyes were immediately drawn to those rather vampiric fangs protruding from its mouth, then your next thought might have been that this must be some sort of freak of nature, an accident of birth.
That isn't how deers come, is it? For the Water Deer, otherwise and popularly known as the Vampire Deer the answer is in the affirmative.

Threatening new species

New species of ancient, chirping, giant pill-millipedes already threatened

An international team of researchers comprised of Thomas Wesener Museum, Koenig, […]

Promoting Friendliness

Friendship might be just a spritz away, as a new study describes a remarkable spray that promotes bonding between individuals.

Animal Pictures