Tag Archives: North Carolina

Food & Drink, Memories & History, Pleasures, Travel

Which is your favorite? Here are the styles of BBQ in the Carolinas FOX8 viewers prefer | myfox8.com

by: Dolan Reynolds, Posted: Sep 3, 2021 / 01:47 PM EDT / Updated: Sep 3, 2021 / 04:37 PM EDT

A plate with eastern North Carolina style pulled pork BBQ, mac and cheese, potato salad, and hushpuppies (Getty Images)

Which style of Carolina BBQ is the best?

It’s an endless debate among North Carolinians we’ve all had at some point whether we wanted to or not. You may have even gotten flashbacks to heated culinary arguments with friends or family members in the past just by reading the question.

We asked FOX8 viewers to tell us their favorite style of Carolina BBQ and maybe vent some of their strongest opinions in the process, and they certainly responded. Lexington-style came out on top with a little over 55 percent of the vote.

But Eastern-style still has its fair share of fans with around 36 percent of voters saying they prefer it.

Source: Which is your favorite? Here are the styles of BBQ in the Carolinas FOX8 viewers prefer | myfox8.com

Science & Health, Travel

Have vaccine, will travel: How a road trip served as a needed jolt from the blahs at home – The Washington Post

Travel

By Kate SilverMay 21, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. PDT

The author’s husband wanted to put his refurbished car to the test on a serpentine stretch of road called Tail of the Dragon, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. (Shutterstock)

In early April, when my husband, Neil, and I had both secured vaccine appointments, he suggested a road trip.

He had been fixing up a sporty old car — one of his many pandemic sanity projects — and wanted to put it to the test, driving it from our home in Chicago to a serpentine stretch of road called Tail of the Dragon, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, straddling the Tennessee and North Carolina state line.

At the same time, I had been thinking about how much I would love to see a couple of friends in North Carolina, a state I had never visited. And why not add places we had been meaning to explore to the list? Nashville, Louisville, and Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park rounded out the itinerary, and our first trip since December 2019 started coming together.

Source: Have vaccine, will travel: How a road trip served as a needed jolt from the blahs at home – The Washington Post

Science & Health

Why Ecologists Are Haunted by the Rapid Growth of Ghost Forests | Science | Smithsonian Magazine

A study in North Carolina of dying trees may represent a foreboding preview of what
may come to coastal ecosystems worldwide

By Jim Morrison, smithsonianmag.com, May 17, 2021

Google Earth image of a healthy forest on the lower right and a ghost forest full of dead trees on the left. (Emily Ury)

For years, Emily Ury traversed North Carolina’s coastal roads, studying patches of skeletal trees slain by rising seas that scientists call “ghost forests.”

Killed by intruding saltwater along the Atlantic Coast, they are previews of the dire fate other forests face worldwide.

Related Content Haunting ‘Ghost Forest’ Resurrected in New York City

Ury knew that ghost forests were expanding in the region, but only when she began looking down from above using Google Earth did she realize how extensive they were.

“I found so many dead forests,” says Ury, an ecologist at Duke University and co-author of a paper on the rapid deforestation of the North Carolina coast published last month in the journal Ecological Applications. “They were everywhere.”

Source: Why Ecologists Are Haunted by the Rapid Growth of Ghost Forests | Science | Smithsonian Magazine

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Memories & History, Politics, Travel

UNC eyes new names for 3 buildings tied to white supremacy | Charlotte Observer

The Associated Press, April 10, 2021 12:43 PM

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.

The University of North Carolina is eying new names for three buildings on its flagship Chapel Hill campus named for people with white supremacist and racist ties.The News & Observer reports that an advisory committee met Thursday to discuss potential names. The committee will select a list of names for the university’s chancellor to consider recommending to the board of trustees.

Source: UNC eyes new names for 3 buildings tied to white supremacy | Charlotte Observer

Love & Relationships, Memories & History, Science & Health, Travel

Carolina Raptor Center – Huntersville, North Carolina – Atlas Obscura

From golden eagles to peregrine falcons, this rehabilitation and education center is a haven for birds of prey. 

Queen Beatrice, the Eurasian Eagle Owl, with Trainer Colleen Roddick. Photo by William Krumpleman

Sponsored by Visit Lake Norman

In 1975, an injured broad-winged hawk found its way to Dr. Richard Brown, an ornithologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Along with several biology students, Brown helped the bird back to health and released it into the wild—it would be the first of many rehabilitations.

Over the years that followed, more and more birds were brought into the makeshift clinic in the basement of the university’s biology building.

In 1980, Brown and Deb Sue Griffin, one of his students, decided to make things more official. Together they founded Carolina Raptor Center, which has admitted some 20,000 birds over the last four decades.

Source: Carolina Raptor Center – Huntersville, North Carolina – Atlas Obscura

Food & Drink, Science & Health, Sports, Travel

NC’s Crustaceans, Shellfish Make A Big Splash | Coastal Review Online

Brown shrimp. Photo: NOAA
Brown shrimp. Photo: NOAA

Blue crab in defensive posture raising claws in defense of a perceived intruder. Photo: Robert Michelson


They might be relatively small — even jumbo shrimp — but shellfish and crustaceans are valuable fisheries in North Carolina, worth millions of dollars each year.

North Carolina is home to numerous species of crustaceans and shellfish, in many shapes, sizes and colors.  This is our first installment in an in-depth look at some of the more popular and interesting animals in this category that call coastal North Carolina home.

Crustaceans and shellfish do not put up a fight to catch them like most fish species. You do not need an expensive rod, reel or lures and most of them stay in the same location year-round and do not leave North Carolina waters.

Source: NC’s Crustaceans, Shellfish Make A Big Splash | Coastal Review Online