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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.


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Daily Drift

 True dat ..!
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 200 countries around the world daily.   

African Elephant ... !
Today is  - Elephant Day
 
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Africa
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The Pacific
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Today in History

1099 At the Battle of Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, route an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem, which had already fallen to the Crusaders.
1687 At the Battle of Mohacs, Hungary, Charles of Lorraine defeats the Turks.
1762 The British capture Cuba from Spain after a two month siege.
1791 Black slaves on the island of Santo Domingo rise up against their white masters.
1812 British commander the Duke of Wellington occupies Madrid, Spain, forcing out Joseph Bonaparte.
1863 Confederate raider William Quantrill leads a massacre of 150 men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas.
1864 After a week of heavy raiding, the Confederate cruiser Tallahassee claims six Union ships captured.
1896 Gold is discovered near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. After word reaches the United States in June of 1897, thousands of Americans head to the Klondike to seek their fortunes.
1898 The Spanish American War officially ends after three months and 22 days of hostilities.
1908 Henry Ford's first Model T rolls off the assembly line.
1922 The home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. is dedicated as a memorial.
1935 President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Bill.
1941 French Marshal Henri Philippe Petain announces full French collaboration with Nazi Germany.
1961 The erection of the Berlin Wall begins, preventing access between East and West Germany.
1969 American installations at Quan-Loi, Vietnam, come under Viet Cong attack.
1972 As U.S. troops leave Vietnam, B-52's make their largest strike of the war.
1977 Steven Biko, leader of the black consciousness movement in South Africa, is arrested.
1977 Space shuttle Enterprise makes its first free flight and landing.
1978 Tel al-Zaatar massacre at Palestinian refuge camp during Lebanese Civil War.
1979 Massive book burnings by press censors begin in Iran.
1981 Computer giant IBM introduces its first personal computer.
1985 Highest in-flight death toll as 520 die when  Japan Airlines Flight 123  crashes into Mount Takamagahara.
1992 The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is concluded between the United States, Canada and Mexico, creating the world's wealthiest trade bloc.
2000 Russian Navy submarine K-141 Kursk explodes and sinks with all hands during military exercises in the Barents Sea.
2005 An LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) sniper mortally wounds Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, at the minister's home.
2012 Summer Olympics come to a close in London.

Non Sequitur

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How Many Countries Are Currently at War?

While some conflicts tend to lead the headlines on a daily basis, other countries are at also at war, in more places than might be imagined.

Which Six Countries Hold Half The World's Population?

As of this month, the world's population is now 7.2 billion, according to the United Nations. Also according to the U.N., half of the people around the globe (3.6 billion) live in just a half-dozen countries.
China has the world's largest population (1.4 billion), followed by India (1.3 billion). The next most-populous nations - the United States, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan - combined have less than 1 billion people.

Weight Loss and Happiness


Losing weight won’t make you happy

Weight loss significantly improves physical health but effects on mental […]

Diabetics Live Longer


Study shows type 2 diabetics can live longer than people without the disease

A commonly prescribed diabetes drug could offer surprising health benefits […]

‘Knockout Game’ Attacker Asked Man If He Had A Gun Before Punching

‘Knockout Game’ Attacker Asked Man If He Had A Gun Before Punching
A teenager playing “knockout game” punched a man in the face after he made certain that the victim was not carrying a gun, a Florida man told police.
According to a witness who saw the attack unfold, a teenager approached a man who was walking alone on Neptune Beach on July 31, the Florida Times-Union reported Friday.
According to the victim, the teen, who was with three accomplices, asked him if he had a “glock.”
While Glock is a weapons manufacturer, the term “glock” is also used generically to describe any type of handgun.
After the man said that he did not have a weapon, the teen punched him in the face.
Instances of the “knockout game” have been widely reported in cities across the country over the last several years. Carried out most often by teenagers — usually in groups — the goal of the so-called game is to knock a target unconscious. Several people have died during the attacks.
Fearing that outcome, the victim pulled out a folding knife that he was carrying and pretended it was a gun, according to the Florida Times-Union.
The attackers fled down the beach but were soon apprehended. The victim identified his attacker, who turned out to be 15-years old.

Man accused of stealing bicycle had own bike stolen on day he was due to appear in court

A father-of-one caught pushing a stolen bicycle past a Dublin garda station had his own bike taken on the morning he was due in court in a moment of "poetic justice", a judge said. Declan Martin had been cycling his own bike while pushing the stolen one despite suffering from reduced lung capacity, when he caught the attention of a garda. Dublin District Court heard he had not stolen the bicycle but accepted it as "collateral on a loan" and was taking it home when he was caught.
He locked his own bike up before his court case but someone else stole that. Judge Conal Gibbons gave him an eight-month suspended sentence. Martin, 41, pleaded guilty to handling stolen property on April 1. Garda Niall Kenny told the court he was leaving Pearse Street Garda Station when he saw the accused cycling one bicycle while pushing the other alongside him. The garda stopped him because he was curious as to where he was going and was "not satisfied he was the owner" of the second bike.
When questioned, Martin told the garda that he had paid €40 for the bicycle, which was worth €1,000. On checking, it was established that the bike had been stolen a week earlier, where it had been locked up. Martin had given a loan of €40 to a man and took the bike as "collateral". "He accepts it was very reckless," his lawyer said. The accused had been in a fire around four years ago and was left suffering from pleurisy and emphysema.
Judge Gibbons said it was a wonder Martin had been able to cycle anything, let alone two bikes at once. "It is nigh on impossible to protect a pushbike in Dublin," he remarked. "It's a shocking state of affairs that you can't leave a bike by the side of the road in Dublin. You have to wrap it up in chains and even a bike that was secured in this way was still stolen by somebody and delivered to the accused." "My own one was stolen this morning," the accused said. The judge replied: "You have often heard of the expression poetic justice. There is a touch of poetic justice in this." He suspended Martin's sentence for a year.

Ziggy

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9 Ridiculously Awesome Amsterdam Houseboats That You Can Actually Stay In

As the old saying goes, if the house is a rockin', it's probably because you're staying in one of these houseboats and there's a slight eddy in the water. But that doesn't mean you have to go without all the luxuries of land. Here are nine Amsterdam houseboats that blow everything else out of the water.

28 Breathtaking Photos Of Lighthouses That Have Stood The Test Of Time

The lighthouse is a near-universal symbol of safety and guidance that has helped mariners find their way home since ancient times. Although they are gradually outliving their usefulness, they are still epic monuments to human ingenuity and to their own resilience.
Most lighthouses currently still standing are marvels of practical architecture and engineering, brushing off the worst that the seas have to offer. While their guiding beacons may soon cease to sweep across the coastal night sky, we can still appreciate how beautiful and epic these wonderful buildings look.

Archaeology News

The skeletal fragment is about 8,000 years old and may have once belonged to an infant or a small child.
Some have nicknamed the ancient skeleton Noah, since the man had survived a great flood that may have later inspired the Biblical story.
A 6,500-year-old skeleton was found in the basement of the Penn Museum. See photos.
Some ancient road hazards are unearthed at Romano-British settlementm outside of Exeter, U.K.
Although the mausoleum had been plundered, archaeologists found that it still contained more than 10,000 artifacts.

Daily Comic Relief

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Red Tide

The biggest red tide bloom seen in Florida in nearly a decade already has killed thousands of fish, and may pose a public health threat.

Training an army to save the African elephant from illegal poachers

After a 22-month pregnancy, an African elephant calf is nearly inseparable from its mother. If the calf is a female, …

After a 22-month pregnancy, an African elephant calf is nearly inseparable from its mother. If the calf is a female, it may stay with her for life. (CLICK FOR SLIDESHOW on Africa's poaching problem)
When it comes to wildlife preservation, the first thing people often think of are sad television commercials featuring a ballad from a folk singer that is uncannily good at choking viewers up.
But for anti-poaching activist and forestry expert Rory Young, his passion for saving the African elephant from deadly poachers involves a detailed field manual and arming local teams with firearms to combat what he calls, “well-armed, ruthless and experienced gangs of poachers.
Young says it's possible that if the poachers aren't contained, they could effectively wipe out the African elephant population by 2020.
“A large percentage of rangers across Africa have rudimentary training at best,” Young said in an interview with Yahoo News. “The majority of countries do not have a comprehensive anti-poaching doctrine, standard operating procedures, or training systems.”
But at the same time, Young said more and more individuals are being forced into duty to combat the recent rise in poaching.
Young is part of an organization called Chengeta Wildlife that is raising money to train these wildlife protection teams. Although many African countries have worked to create sanctuaries for their elephant populations, illegal poaching has surged in recent years. And at the same time, most of these nations do not have the resources to combat the poachers, who are often trained and heavily armed former soldiers being paid large sums of money to slaughter the elephants for their ivory tusks.
To counter the shortage of resources, Young and Chengeta have published a field manual that explains the poaching problem and offers a step-by-step solution to combating it.
“We have developed a structured and comprehensive ‘doctrine’ and have recently written ‘A field Manual for Anti-Poaching Activities,’" Young said. “This small book is the first of its kind and outlines the doctrine and shows how the poaching processes work and explains the strategies, processes, skills and techniques necessary combat poaching and deter it.”
Less than 100 years ago, there were an estimated 3 to 5 million African elephants. After massive poaching and land development threatened extinction, there is now ample evidence showing that in areas where the elephants are protected, the numbers are recovering.
But in China, there is still a huge demand for the ivory taken from elephant tusks, even though the trade was banned back in 1989. Worse yet, the vast majority of ivory taken from the dead elephants is used for essentially worthless trinkets and other small items like chopsticks.
A team of American designers recently created an original graphic to help Young’s organization raise money. “The True Cost of Ivory Trinkets” was created by Robin Richards, Joe Chernov, and Leslie Bradshaw to highlight the cruel ways poachers kill the elephants, including poisoning their water supply and hacking off the tusks while the elephants are still alive, leaving them to slowly bleed to death.
An infographic created to show the true costs of illegal elephant poaching (Chengeta)
An infographic created to show the true costs of illegal elephant poaching
Bradshaw said the team was moved to assist Young after a graphic about shark killings that they created in 2013 quickly shot to the top of Reddit and other social media sites. A study released this week showed that the demand for shark fins in China had dropped by more than 50 percent since an awareness campaign was launched there.
“There is way too much complaining and hurling of insults at China,” Young said.
“Most of the people there do not really understand the brutality and the devastation caused for the ivory to end up as a letter opener or chopstick. I believe that the Asian youth if shown exactly what is happening would not accept it.”
Young said that by the end of 2014 he will have trained more than 150 team members on anti-poaching procedures. But he says there is an estimated need for 50,000 individuals at all levels, from top-level bureaucracy to armed men in the jungle to fully contain the illegal poaching trade.
“Both the African elephant and the more endangered Forest elephant can both be saved and their numbers increased again, but only if we move immediately and decisively,” he said.

Woman saved pet bearded dragon with CPR

A woman from Salem, Oregon, saved her 3-year-old pet bearded dragon by performing CPR after finding him blue and floating unconscious in his pool on Tuesday.
Sherrie Dolezal, 62, performed chest compressions on the lizard, hung him upside down to clear water from his mouth and blew air into his mouth. Soon, he opened his eyes and started to move.
Dolezal, who calls herself a reptile rescuer, keeps nearly two dozen other lizards at her home. The one she saved with CPR is named Del Sol.

Dolezal said she put Del Sol in his pool but had forgotten to put rocks in it so he could climb out. She'd been having a crazy day with errands and pet care, and when she returned to find Del Sol, she said she thought he was dead but tried CPR anyway.

Police capture cat-eating python

Police in Port St. Lucie, Florida, responded to reports of an extremely large snake that people believe has been feasting on neighborhood cats on Friday morning.
Sgt. John Holman arrived on the scene and found a dead cat in an empty lot. Holman waded into waist-high brush and spotted an approximately 12-foot, 120-pound Burmese python. "Once I saw the size of it, I called for a few more officers," Holman said. "I'm not going to do that by myself."
Denise Keel said she's not surprised that police found the python next door to her home. "I wondered what happened to all the little animals," Keel said. "Some of the neighbors had a couple of snakes that they kept in one of those aquarium things, and they've moved."

Holman recognized that the python is one of the snakes that has been banned in Florida. Holman has identified a third party who currently has a license and is permitted with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to house the snake.

Peacocks In Flight

It's Quite The Sight
You may have been lucky enough to have encountered a peacock or two in your time. Yet few people have seen one take to the air - and many assume that the three species are flightless.
Although the sheer mass of feathers precludes any avian marathon, peacocks can and do take flight, normally to get to their chosen spot for the evening. It may be a roof or a tree, but somewhere safe from most predators.

Animal Pictures