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Carolina Naturally

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Today in History

1521		Ferdinand Magellan discovers Guam.
1820		The Missouri Compromise is enacted by Congress and signed by President James Monroe, providing for the admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave state, but prohibits slavery in the rest of the northern Louisiana Purchase territory.
1836		After fighting for 13 days, the Alamo falls.
1853		Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata premieres in Venice.
1857		The Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision holds that blacks cannot be citizens.
1860		While campaigning for the presidency, Lincoln makes a speech defending the right to strike.
1862		The USS Monitor left New York with a crew of 63, seven officers and 56 seamen.
1884		Over 100 suffragists, led by Susan B. Anthony, present President Chester A. Arthur with a demand that he voice support for female suffrage.
1888		Louisa May Alcott dies just hours after the burial of her father.
1899		Aspirin is patented following Felix Hoffman’s discoveries about the properties of acetylsalicylic acid.
1901		A would-be assassin tries to kill Wilhelm II of Germany in Bremen.
1914		German Prince Wilhelm de Wied is crowned as King of Albania.
1916		The Allies recapture Fort Douaumont in France during the Battle of Verdun.
1928		A Communist attack on Beijing results in 3,000 dead and 50,000 fleeing to Swatow.
1939		In Spain, Jose Miaja takes over Madrid government after a military coup and vows to seek “peace with honor.”
1943		British RAF fliers bomb Essen and the Krupp arms works in the Ruhr, Germany.
1945		Cologne, Germany, falls to General Courtney Hodges‘ First Army.
1947		Winston Churchill opposes the withdrawal of troops from India.
1948		During talks in Berlin, the Western powers agree to internationalize the Ruhr region.
1953		Upon Josef Stalin’s death, Georgi Malenkov is named Soviet premier.
1960		The Swiss grant women the right to vote in municipal elections.
1965		The United States announces that it will send 3,500 troops to Vietnam.
1967		President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his plan to establish a draft lottery.
1973		Nixon imposes price controls on oil and gas.
1975		Iran and Iraq announce that they have settled the border dispute.
1980		Islamic militants in Tehran say that they will turn over the American hostages to the Revolutionary Council.
1981		Reagan announces plans to cut 37,000 federal jobs.
1987		The British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes in the Channel off the coast of Belgium. At least 26 are dead.

How to Remove a Stripped Screw

Just about everyone has had to deal with a stripped screw at one point and depending on how bad it's stripped, the process can be pretty simple or infuriating. Fortunately, thanks to Instructables, now you can try five methods to deal with a stripped screw, which should make the process a lot less frustrating. A simple rubber band can help in most cases, but sometimes you need something a little more extreme. I've actually had to use the "cut a notch" method before and while cutting the notch can be a pain, the removal afterward can be world's easier.

So check out the full list of ideas on Instructables.

Storing data on DNA may not be practical, but it's possible

Storing data on DNA may not be practical, but it's possible—and it sure sounds cool

What can thought experiments teach us about how the brain works?

What can thought experiments teach us about how the brain works?

Spreadable Coffee

There's nothing better than a nice fresh hot cup of coffee in the morning. If you love coffee that much, you might want to try it on your toast! Or not. When people talk about coffee that's way too strong, they sometimes say it sticks to the roof of your mouth like peanut butter. That's the joke I thought of when I heard that spreadable coffee is now available in Japan.

According to Curazy, Snow Brand Milk is releasing a spreadable version of its coffee to mark the 55th anniversary of its release.
If you’ve ever had Snow Brand Milk’s Coffee, you’ll know it’s rather creamy and sweet, so it should make a good toast spread.

Ah, so it's from a milk company! The "spread" is probably mostly milk and sugar with some coffee in it for flavoring. That might not be bad at all, if you like that sort of thing.

It's Hard To Make Healthy Choices

When people who are dedicated to losing weight and getting in better shape are told they need to make healthy choices they try their hardest to put the fried fast foods aside in favor of fresh, low fat choices.But, as this Toonhole comic shows, it's super hard to make healthy choices when you're ordering from the drive thru, so you'll have to start walking in to grocery stores to buy healthier grub, plus exercise!

Everything Is a Lie

Everything Is a Lie: Your Sleep Tracker Is Ruining Your Sleeping Habits

​Is technology trying to kill us?

Sleeping too much is bad for your mental health

Why sleeping too much is bad for your mental health

Secret Countries You May Not Have Heard Of

The idea of a secret country is at once perplexing and terrifying, and makes people wonder who they're allied with and what they're trying to hide.

But their secret status typically just means the country is not yet officially recognized, and these young countries are eager to make a name for themselves.
The self-proclaimed country of Transnistria declared independence from Chisinau in 1990 and has decided to embrace that Communist country during the Cold War vibe- complete with statues of Lenin and hammer & sickle flags.Transnistria isn't closed off to visitors, but if you want to visit you'll have to take a bus across the border from Moldova, and their KGB style police force may be less than welcoming...
So maybe you should head to sunny Somaliland instead?
Somaliland is an island of calm in the middle of Somalia's ongoing civil war, and even though this northwestern part of Somalia declared independence back in 1991 the Republic of Somaliland has yet to be officially recognized.The young nation is currently considered the "No. 1 failed state according to the Fund for Peace’s Fragile States Index of 2016.", so Somaliland's future is uncertain at best despite 26 years of stability.

Read 10 Secret Countries You Probably Haven't Heard Of here

The Man Who Thought He Could Walk Into Soviet Russia

Newcomb Mott was a 27-year-old world traveler in 1965, accustomed to using his summers to learn about far-flung countries. That summer, he traveled to the Arctic town of Kirkenes, Norway. The border between Norway and the Soviet Union was temptingly near. Norwegians crossed the border to visit the small town of Boris Gleb to purchase vodka. Mott didn't have a visa to visit the USSR, but he figured the border guard might at least stamp his passport before he was turned away.

Mott was, as one U.S. ambassador would later describe him, “a kind of innocent abroad,” who had come to this isolated place, north of the Arctic Circle, on a whim. He had a confidence characteristic of young, educated, American white men in the 1960s—a feeling that everything would probably work out, because, the great majority of the time, everything did. But when Newcomb Mott illegally crossed the border into the USSR in 1965, aiming to collect a new stamp on his passport, everything did not go right for him.
Within a year of crossing the border, Newcomb Mott was dead, killed either by fellow prisoners or by government agents, although the Soviet government officially ruled his death a suicide. Under different circumstances, he might have been given a fine and set free after a few days or weeks. But borders are fraught places, where the rules can shift quickly and individual choices, the power of the state, and politics can turn small mistakes into tragedies.  

Read the story of Newcomb Mott at Atlas Obscura.

Jack Kerouac Discusses The Hippies On A Talk Show Back In 1968

There's a common misconception about the Beat Generation that persists to this day and makes Jack Kerouac roll around in his grave- Beatniks are the same as Hippies.Putting aside the obvious facts that Beats enjoy jazz, coffee and pills while Hippies like to drop acid, drink wine and listen to psychedelic rock there's another distinction- the Beats were voracious readers.
That's not to say Hippies didn't enjoy reading too, but the written word wasn't a backbone of the movement like it was for the Beats, and where Hippies were often spaced out Jack and the Beats generally just acted obtuse.

(YouTube Link)

This episode of Firing Line from 1968 features William F. Buckley, Jr. discussing the rise of the Hippies in the stuffiest way possible, while Jack Kerouac drunkenly rambles and provides comic relief.

You'll Never Think About Mass Media the Same Way Again

You'll Never Think About Mass Media the Same Way Again After Watching This Noam Chomsky Documentary

Our Twisted Relationship with the Truth

A Psychiatrist's Guide to Our Twisted Relationship with the Truth

Wingnut Bigot Shoots Man In Fit Of Anti-Immigrant Rage

‘Go Back To Your Own Country’: Wingnut Bigot Shoots Man In Fit Of Anti-Immigrant Rage

A 39-year-old Kent, Washington Sikh man was shot in the arm after being accosted by a white man who told him, “Go back to your own country!” then opened fire. 
How long before people in power realize that it’s wingnut bigots who are the REAL terrorist threat?

6 Ways to Fight Brain Rot in the Dumbass Trump Era

6 Ways to Fight Brain Rot in the Dumbass Trump Era

First and foremost - turn off Fox Spews, eh, we mean ... 'News'!

Has NASA discovered life on other planets?

Has NASA discovered life on other planets?

Trout Jumps Out Of Water And Turns Into Fishsicle

As spring starts to creep in and thaw the frost it's important to remember how good it feels to get out of the bitter cold and warm your bones again, because winter can be a killer.Just ask this poor trout how he feels about winter...oh wait, you can't, he's frickin' dead, frozen to the side of a bridge after taking a leap like a fishheaded fool.

Decorah fish hatchery biologist Brian Malaise discovered the unfortunate trout stuck to one of the hatchery's aluminum baffles while he was making his morning rounds.So how did it happen? Let's get all scientifical:

When objects of different temperatures come into contact, they want to achieve thermal equilibrium (the point at which one is no longer warmer than the other). It’s this heat transfer that led the trout straight to Davey Jones’ locker. The moment the surfaces came into contact, the metal robbed the fish it of its body heat. And because aluminum is so conductive – it’s one of the most conductive common metals – the transfer happened fast enough to freeze the fish’s water-coated skin to the baffle.

Do Crows Have Funerals?

Caitlin Doughty of the website Order of the Good Death talks about the link between crows and death. The behavior crows display when they encounter the death of one of their own is weird enough for it to be enshrined in mythology and superstition. So science stepped in to find out what was really going on.

(YouTube link)

Animal Pictures