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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, July 4, 2017

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of
Carolina Naturally
Despite the wingnuts she still stands ...!
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 210 countries around the world daily. 
  
Independence Day ... !
Today is - The Fourth of July 

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Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told
Now, that's an idea ...!

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Today in History

1712
12 slaves are executed for starting an uprising in New York that killed nine whites.
1776
The amended Declaration of Independence, prepared by Thomas Jefferson, is approved and signed by John Hancock–President of the Continental Congress–and Charles Thomson, Congress secretary. The state of New York abstains from signing.
1817
Construction begins on the Erie Canal, to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
1826
Two of America’s founding fathers–Thomas Jefferson and John Adams–die.
1831
The fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, dies at the age of 73.
1845
Henry David Thoreau begins his 26-month stay at Walden Pond.
1855
Walt Whitman publishes the first edition of Leaves of Grass at his own expense.
1861
Union and Confederate forces skirmish at Harpers Ferry.
1862
Charles Dodgson first tells the story of Alice’s adventures down the rabbit hole during a picnic along the Thames.
1863
The Confederate town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant.
1881
Billy the Kid is shot dead in New Mexico.
1894
After seizing power, Judge Stanford B. Dole declares Hawaii a republic.
1895
The poem America the Beautiful is first published.
1901
William H. Taft becomes the American governor of the Philippines.
1910
Race riots break out all over the United States after African American Jack Johnson knocks out Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match.
1931
Novelist James Joyce and Nora Barnacle are married in London after being together for 26 years.
1934
Boxer Joe Louis wins his first professional fight.
1946
The United States grants the Philippine Islands their independence.
1960
The 50-star flag makes its debut in Philadelphia.
1976
An Israeli raid at Entebbe airport in Uganda rescues 105 hostages.

Editorial Comment

Celebrating the Fourth of July with a big BBQ for family and friends today.
All the fun and food you can handle and choice of a pool or lake to swim in ... of course if you want to swim in your original bathing sit the pool would be the better choice  not as crowded.

We would like to thank the ladies in the office for keeping up with the daily posting here at Carolina Naturally for the past ten days while we trooped around our old stomping grounds in France, England and Scotland ... they did not miss a beat (even when we added a stop in Canada on the return trip at the last minute to see old friends there). They are not required to help out but all do (as well as former employees and interns have) because they enjoy it. We are great leaders and allow them to surf the net at work - sometimes it is actually required for a project - for what interests them. That is one reason we have such diverse topics here at Carolina Naturally. The office benefits immensely from this ... they get ALL their work done and more

We also would like to recognize our past blog helpers who are now doing what they love (and still contribute here now and again).
2 professional artists,
1 professional mom (the stay at home kind),
1 MBA,
2 PhD (1 Biologist, 1 Anthropologist),
1 Professional Baseball Player


Officials warn about accessing new island off Cape Hatteras

So many people have been rescued from a new island off North Carolina’s Outer Banks that officials have issued warnings about accessing it.
The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Virginia, reports Cape Hatteras National Seashore and emergency officials are urging visitors to use kayaks or paddle boards to reach the island off Cape Point instead of swimming or wading to the island, which formed in recent months.
An abundance of shells is attracting people to the island despite the strong currents and the presence of sharks and stingrays.
The assistant chief of the Hatteras Island Rescue Squad says rescuers recently picked up five people while bystanders with kayaks have saved others. Bob Helle warns that while it might be easy to cross at low tide, it's more difficult to return at high tide.

Vintage Japanese Young Person's Guide To Sex From The '60s


It's hard to tell whether the Japanese have a more enlightened view of human sexuality or if they're just so crass that standard sexual intercourse is beneath their fetish-driven interests.But everyone will agree young people in Japan are better off learning about sex from a scientific book rather than some tentacle porn manga, even if the book is a bit outdated.
The Young Person's Guide To Sex is a primer for teens who know they want to have sex but know nothing else about the act, including how to court a potential partner.The book starts off innocently enough with lessons on hand holding and ways to become comfortable with each other physically then it gets down to the nuts and bolts of sex, including positions.
But the whole thing comes off a bit too PG to actually teach teens anything about sex, since they use a drawing mannequin instead of a man for the position charts and teach clockwise belly button swirling as a sex technique. Counter-clockwise maybe, but clockwise? Come on...

You’ll Never Believe What Women Are Doing To Their Nipples

Rihanna attends the CFDA Awards

5 diseases marijuana can cure

Recreational marijuana, which was legalized in Washington, D.C. and decriminalized in February 2015 in Alaska has been deemed to be less dangerous as compared to both tobacco and alcohol, according to several scientists.
Scientists have argued over the years about the safety of cannabis in comparison to alcohol, however in a report published in January 2015 in Scientific Reports, researchers measured the potential harm caused by each of these drugs in a more quantitative manner, by comparing a lethal dose with how much of the substance is typically consumed socially.

What happens in Vegas

What happens in Vegas: Nevada puts pot on the menu for fun-seekers
Nevada, the only state where both gambling and prostitution are legal, is adding recreational marijuana to its list of sanctioned indulgences for adults, with sales kicking off at more than dozen shops beginning on Saturday.…

Opioids ...


Things You Learn While Fixing People's Computers ...

... According To A Geek Squad Member
When you hand over your computer to a technician, like those identified as part of the "Geek Squad", you have no idea what sort of person that computer tech really is or what they're going to do with your computer.But, according to the anonymous Geek Squad member Cracked spoke to for their article, you needn't worry about the Squad stealing your vital information- because most of them don't have a clue how to plumb your hard drive for info.
In fact, even though they know what they're doing on paper they don't know what they're doing when they agree to repair your unit- so they look to Google for answers.
They do know all about how filthy laptops are underneath the case, and they know how to sell you on replacement parts and peripherals to help "prevent future problems" because many Geek Squad members are actually salespeople disguised as techs.

Moments In History When War Looked Like A Cartoon

Wartime means brainstorming new ideas for technology to defeat the enemy. Some ideas caught on; others didn't, and both types of innovations could appear rather silly in retrospect. But hey, if something looks stupid and works, then it isn't stupid. Like the tandem bike with no wheels the Germans used through two world wars.
During World War I, the German army outfitted its troops with "pedal-operated" generators, i.e. bicycles with a bigger dynamo instead of tires. On these tandem bicycles, two German soldiers would sit together intimately, pedaling for power and going nowhere -- like the least romantic French holiday ever. When stumbling upon these bicycle frames, British soldiers marveled at them like it was some weird alien tech. As one officer's letter read: "It is exactly like a tandem bicycle without its wheels. I am not sure if it ever was a bicycle." Leave it to the Germans to create military equipment that can also induce philosophical crises.
The bicycle was a generator that produced enough electricity to run radio communications, so therefore not as dumb as it looked. Other wartime technical experiments in this list were not so successful, like the flaming wheel of death known as the Great Panjandrum. See a video of the formerly classified Great Panjandrum tests and more in a list at Cracked.

Linkage

Tainting the Beautiful Game

How Asian Match-Fixers Are Infiltrating European Football
by Rafael Buschmann and Tim Röhn
Asian investors are buying into European football clubs, bringing money, new players and hope along with them. But some are engaged in match-fixing, manipulating games and earning millions off crooked bets. They have already infiltrated a number of teams. by Rafael Buschmann and Tim Röhn more...

U.S. rejects travel visa for Afghan teenage girl robotics team

Go to the profile of Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani
by Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani


“We want to show the world we can do it, we just need a chance.”
The United States denied travel visas for six teenage girls from Afghanistan looking to attend an international robotics competition in Washington, D.C this month.
The all-girl team from Herat, a city in western Afghanistan, applied for a one-week travel visa to attend the FIRST Global Challenge in mid-July. To interview for their visas, they had to travel about 500 miles to the U.S. embassy in Kabul. They made that trek a second time after their first application was rejected, but they were rejected yet again.
Roya Mahboob, who founded the Citadel software company in Afghanistan and organized the team of girls, told Forbes that when the team heard their visa applications were rejected again, they cried all day.
“It’s a very important message for our people,” she said. “Robotics is very, very new in Afghanistan.”
The girls are still working on their ball-sorting robot and will send it to the competition, which they will watch over Skype.
Fatemah, a 14-year-old team member, told Forbes that she likes working with robots and creating something new. “We want to show the world we can do it, we just need a chance,” she said, speaking through a Persian translator.
FIRST Global President and former Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA) told Forbes he’s saddened that the “extraordinarily brave young women” won’t be able to attend.
Mahboob is organizing a team of Afghani American girls to operate the robot at the competition in the team’s stead.
It’s not clear why the team of girls were unable to obtain a one-week travel visa. The organization stressed that they worked very closely with the State Department in seeking to get visas for teams from all countries attending the competition, and said it was a fair process.
As Forbes first reported, it’s hard for Afghan nationals to obtain visas to the United States. State Department records reveal that in April 2017, only 32 Afghan nationals received the B1/B2 business travel visas that the girls also applied for. For comparison, 1,492 nationals of neighboring Pakistan received that visa in the same month.
The team has already faced a series of other hurdles, including obtaining the parts needed for their robot to begin with. The team had to wait for months for customs to clear the raw materials, due to concerns over the Islamic State’s use of robots, and they received their equipment just three weeks ago. Graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania have been assisting them in their project.
They are set to compete against 163 other teams July 16. Teams from other countries received visas, including teams from Iran, Iraq, and Sudan — all of whom are targeted in the latest version of Dumbass Trump’s Muslim ban. The only other team whose visas were rejected thus far was Gambia, according to FIRST Global. The organization estimates that 95 percent of the teams competing have already received their visas, and they’re hoping to increase that number to 98 percent by next week. This is the first year the competition is international.
U.S. foreign policy towards Afghanistan has been a mess under the Dumbass Trump junta, and over 250 people have been killed in mass attacks in the country since April. That month, the United States dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb, nicknamed the “Mother of All Bombs,” in Nangarhar, in the east of the country. Also, the United States has been bombing Afghanistan for the last 16 years, or in other words, for the girls’ entire lives.

Racist mob attacks Muslim women and children at Ramadan celebration in park

Muslim women and children fell victim to a “racist mob” while picnicking at a municipal park.

Dumbass Trump May 'Push Earth Over The Brink' Until It's '250 Degrees And Raining Acid'

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking warned recently that Dumbass Trump's dramatic shift away from science-based policies "could push the Earth over the brink."

Dumbass Trump campaign official is a ‘danger to the community’

Dumbass Trump’s top campaign official in the state of Kentucky is behind bars facing a long list of sex abuse charges against women and minor girls, who he reportedly coerced into performing sex acts against their will by using “money, drugs, housing, threats to call the probation office, and violent acts.”

Things American Wingnuts Must Stop Claiming As Persecution

by Shanna Babilonia
Many people globally are being persecuted for their religious beliefs and for their non-belief. They are being stripped of their property and personal rights, tortured, murdered and displaced from their own homeland, simply for not following the same spiritual principles as their fellow citizens. Whether you are a believer, or not, we can all agree that this is a reality that has left a horrid stain on humanity for thousands of years. It is the unfortunate and terrible trademark of our archaic ideas that have followed us into our modern world. No doubt, this problem has yet to see its end. In America, we are given the freedom to pursue our own religious philosophies (and our choice to free ourselves of religious ideology all-together); but the problem is that some American conservatives observe what’s happening to religious adherents in other nations and assign the same “experience” to their own life, when in reality – it’s not their experience at all. They claim to be the victims of persecution, when in reality, they have more in common with the discriminatory perpetrators. It’s easy to understand why this is happening – religions have been persecuting one another (and outsiders) for thousands of years because it is an embedded element of many religious traditions. But, can a dominant religion in a free nation claim persecution? Is it the same experience citizens of other (less free) nations are experiencing around the world?
Here are 11 things American conservatives must stop claiming as persecution:
1.) It’s not persecution when scientists agree on the origin of the universe and human life and those facts conflict with religious tales.
If something is true, it can be largely proven through the scientific process; and our ability to prove our hypothesis’ is advancing exponentially. The fact that most of our world’s scientists have reached a consensus on our planet’s beginnings and how human life has developed through time, is not a targeted attempt to persecute religious cohorts. It is a [human] attempt by those who are concerned with human advancement to learn about our world and share that information with humanity in order to propagate human and natural growth, advancement and improvement. Whether an individual chooses to believe in untested ideas, while simultaneously discarding proven ones, has nothing to do with persecution, but with the inability of an individual to mentally separate fact from fiction.
2.) It’s not persecution when a family member disagrees with traditional religious views and makes a different spiritual choice than their original teachings.
When a family member who has been trained to believe a specific set of religious instructions about life discovers philosophies that conflict with those experiences, they may choose to discard their first teachings and create new ideas that are more compatible with their own life direction. This is almost always not a choice that is made in order to spite or disobey family traditions; but rather, because it no longer fits into their world view. This is not persecution because the family member should be free to honestly choose what ideology is correct for their individual understanding. The persecution occurs when the family member who has chosen differently is cast aside and besmirched, simply for no longer carrying on the same religious notions as other family members.
3.) It’s not persecution when LGBT, women, racial groups (black, Latino, Indian, etc.) and other minorities fight for equal rights.
Offenders of discrimination often seek to justify their attempts to restrict the rights of other people based on their own religious ideas, and those of their religious text; even when those rights harm no one and enable people to enjoy a more harmonious life. They are not concerned with other people enjoying rights and freedoms, but whether they agree that those individuals and groups should have those rights according to their religion. Persecution does not occur because groups of people attempt to achieve rights and freedoms, it occurs when others attempt to restrict those rights based upon religious concepts. The victims are the groups who are denied their rights because of religious bias, not the group denying them.
4.) It’s not persecution when informed citizens are against theocratic rule.
Our past and modern history is full of examples of what can be expected for citizens of theocratic societies. Those informed citizens who have studied the events of our world, and our country are well aware of the oppression a theocratic government can cause for its people. When those citizens speak out against religion in government, they are not attempting to persecute religion; they are attempting to keep religious oppression from asserting itself and affecting their own life and that of their fellow Americans. Their interest lies in keeping America free for all, and they are informed enough to understand that a religiously governed country is harmful to that freedom. The persecution happens when religious followers support forcing their ideas on the entirety of a population, irrespective of the fact that millions of Americans do not agree with their spiritual concepts.
5.) It’s not persecution when educated people expose the fallacies in many of our world’s holy texts.
Many of our world’s major religious books were written hundreds and thousands of years ago in a time when our human understanding and concepts were in their infancy. When a person takes interest in exploring those texts and thinking critically about what is presented to them, it is easy to discover the innumerable inconsistencies in those books. When people who have taken the time and effort to educate themselves about religion share those findings with others, they are not doing so specifically to persecute believers. They are doing so in order to help others discover a truth that has been largely hidden from populations in order to perpetuate a specific belief structure. Even today, there are countries that still conceal information from their citizens in order to maintain religious control, especially in theocratic societies. Presenting the problems with commonly held beliefs written in ancient books is not persecution, it is information. It is a common human way of sharing ideas and partaking in human mental expansion.
6.) It’s not persecution when people leave religion in vast numbers as a direct result of critical thinking and education.
In a free society where information is readily available and shared, it is expected that the ideas and concepts of a people will eventually change and adapt to a new cultural environment. As Americans begin to become increasingly aware of the painful and violent atrocities that have plagued humanity over religious differences, the decision to leave religion is a favorable option for many Americans. This is not persecution, it is an individual and collective decision to move away from concepts that can be harmful to humanity and society and move towards more modern, positive and ethical ways of treating one another. It is the very thing that has already happened countless times in antiquity when our past religions were retired to the dustbin along with all our other historical mythologies. It is what happens when the world operates off of a set of ideas, until it reaches a point where the human mind expands enough to leave redundant belief structures in favor of philosophies that more critically and appropriately fit with our current world experience.
7.) It’s not persecution when outsiders demand proof of religious claims.
At one point in our history, when religion claimed to know the absolute truth of life and our universe, it was accepted as fact. It was our only explanation before our consciousness matured enough for us to use our mental tools to evaluate our world more precisely and quantitatively. We no longer live in that time, and our advancements have proven that what we once believed about our world; was in fact, completely wrong in many ways. It is not persecution when religion continues to make extraordinary claims and defy everything we have learned to be the actual way our world functions and we ask for proof of those claims.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
~ Carl Sagan 
Although it’s true that we can’t prove that a divine creator who mysteriously delivered messages about life to ancient goat herders is not real; we also can’t prove that it is. But, we can prove when and how those texts came into existence, and often even who wrote them and what collective trends they share with other mythology and the commonly held beliefs of the time. To make a religious claim without the ability to prove the stories of man are true and not simply fables (like all our previous mythological gods and goddesses) is an open-door to criticism and skepticism, especially in today’s world where informed people can no longer be fooled into ignoring their own cognitive abilities to discern fact from fiction. It is not persecution to require those who make extraordinary claims to prove that their concepts are real and not human-conceived.
8.) It’s not persecution when non-believers disagree with religious versions of family values.
Many Americans view proper family functioning only through the ideas of one specific religious ideology and are unable to recognize or accept that their version of family values is not agreeable for many people. For those who are well-informed and researched on religion, many of the family “values” found in religious texts, are in fact, abhorrent to those who disagree with the archaic and unethical instructions on the treatment of women and children. To them, their concept of family values cannot possibly agree with that of a religion that dictates oppressive and harmful roles within a family. It is not persecution when those who disagree with religious family values refuse to have those values dictated to them, when internally, they can’t possibly accept those instructions. It is persecution when those who perceive their idea of “family values” to be the only acceptable concept attempt to force that concept on an entire society through legal processes.
9.) It’s not persecution when non-believers share their knowledge of the literary archetypes and ancient mythological beliefs and traditions that formed the basis of modern major religions.
We now have more information available to many more people on the planet, thanks largely to the internet. We can connect with people from across the globe, learn about cultures and explore our history in a way never available to the average human in times past. Since we are living in an age where we can quickly learn about our world, many of us have used this opportunity to discover the whole picture, rather than just the portion we were indoctrinated with as children. We have the resources to connect the historical dots of our human religious invention and understand how it all began – and how it brought us to where we are today. It is not persecution that those who have chosen to learn about their world and its history are sharing that information with others, and with less-informed groups. It is a natural progression that when information is available, it will be spread to others through conversation and debate. This is one way we humans reconcile old and new data and arrive at a conclusion that promulgates human progress.
10.) It’s not persecution when women’s rights supporters expose the outright misogyny of our world’s largest religions.
There is no denying that our world’s three largest religions all support texts that are full of misogyny and appalling treatment of women. It is not persecution when outsiders expose what is plainly written in these texts. It is an attempt by cognizant people to help others understand what they are supporting and expose the problems that are created for many women in the world as a direct result of the words written in those books. In some countries, women are treated so despairingly that it is an insult to humanity to believe that we as a species can treat one gender of our human race in such atrocious ways. Pointing out the reality of what is written in our holy texts and our social contempt for such deplorable human actions is not persecution, it is necessary in order to change the female human experience to a more positive and equal one.
11.) It’s not persecution when parents of other faiths (or no faith) disagree that specific religious prayers and teachings should be led by publicly paid staff members in public schools.
Our public schools are filled with a diversity of cultural, racial and religious backgrounds. In a classroom, it can be expected that many student may hold a majority belief, while there will still be some whose teachings differ vastly from that of their peers. In the past, it was acceptable for staff members to lead students in teachings and prayers that only catered to a specific religious idea, but it left those whose religious concepts were different in a unjustifiable situation – an authority figure in their life (who was not their parent) forcefully leading them in a way that conflicted with their currently held views. If this is allowed, where does it leave those students who do not adhere to that specific faith, or non-faith? Are they to be ostracized and singled-out for non-participation? The persecution is not the restriction of staff from proselytizing for a specific belief; it is the expectation that those students who don’t carry the same religious ideas of their teachers should be subjected to religious teachings, without their own consent, or that of their parents. For this reason, religion is allowed in school, but can’t be led by a publicly paid teacher. Students are still free to connect on a spiritual level with other like-minded students.
So, if these things are not persecution, what is?
Persecution occurs when those with specific religious beliefs use their ideology to justify labeling others as immoral and wicked, without consideration to facets of the individual’s personality and actions, other than their religious disagreement. It is the attempt to eliminate, or prevent others from enjoying the same rights and freedoms they enjoy and using religion as the basis for that discrimination. It is the use of religion as a means for oppressing others by forcing a specific ideology on children, tribes, communities and often an entire population through legal processes, violence and the threat of personal safety, loss of property and resources, citizenship or even life itself. It is the use of money, food, resources and governments as a tool to force religious ideas into society, without consideration to all parties involved, but only for the ideas of one specific group. It is when religious institutions and followers seek a measure of control that ultimately reduces other human beings to a position of inferiority based exclusively on religious belief, rather than the content of character.
Persecution, as defined, is the act of continually treating others in a cruel and harmful way. Sharing knowledge and information, attempting to exercise rights already provided to others, upholding freedoms for all citizens, not just for one group of religious adherents, is not persecution. It is how a humane, ethical and civilized society progresses for the benefit of all.

Cobra Cocktails, a Mad Scientist and his Roadside Serpentarium

The old postcard shows a roadside attraction with a giant cobra looming overhead, enough to pique anyone's curiosity. This is the Miami Serpentarium, founded by Bill Haast, who not only handled snakes, but deliberately dosed himself with snake venom in order to build up an immunity.
Certainly the most uh, unique roadside attraction ever to have existed on the South Dixie Highway in Florida, the Serpentarium was half tourist attraction and half mad scientist’s lair; Bill Haast being the mad scientist. Attracting up to 50,000 visitors a year, Haast’s serpent spectacle extracted venom in front of paying customers 70 to 100 times a day, grabbing the snakes barehanded once released on a table in front of him and forcing them to eject venom into glass vials.
For years, Haast tried to prove that venom could treat multiple sclerosis, lupus, arthritis and Parkinson’s disease. He injected himself weekly with a cocktail from five snakes — cobras, cottonmouths, kraits, mambas and rattlers —homeopathy the Food and Drug Administration would never endorse.
Haast eventually suffered for his science. The roadside attraction was open from 1946 to 1984, but Haast continued his snake research for decades afterward. Read about Haast's life with snakes and his Serpentarium (and what happened to that giant cobra statue) at Messy Messy Chic.

Animal Pictures