Coffee and Provocation

Bluegill's for Homeland Security?
In Washington, D.C., New York, and San Francisco, the United States Army uses bluegills as swimming "canaries in a coal mine" to detect attempts to poison the local water systems.

The High Cost of Invasive Species:
If we don't fight them at the border, we'll have to fight them closer to home.  Carp that is.  The latest analysis suggests it will cost $9.5 billion to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

An Audubon Bird Guide for $7.9 Million:
A copy of John James Audubon's The Birds of America, which has 435 hand-colored, life-size prints of nearly 500 bird species on pages measuring 39 by 26 inches, was recently sold for $7.9 million.   There are only 119 copies of the book left, and the last copy sold for $10 million before the economic downturn.

Promises, Promises:
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has promised, once again, to to allow a free vote on the repeal of the ­Hunting Act in Parliament, describing the existing ban as a “bizarre” law.  He keeps talking, but still no action.  Typical politician!

Terrierman for the Cure:
The pink ribbon folks at Susan G. Komen Foundation have sold out women and wrecked their own brand by moving to insult and defund a Planned Parenthood breast cancer-screening program. It's the Susan G. Komen Foundation's brand to wreck, of course. For those who want to "advance in a different direction" and stand up for the basic message of Planned Parenthood, however, here's a link to share; a  Field Guide to Contraceptives. Contraception is a cure for quite a lot of things that ail Mother Earth.

A Slave Writes a Letter That You Must Read:
Here's a must-read letter from former slave Jourdon Anderson to his old master   Read the whole thing.  Double dipped in awesome.  Jourdon Anderson was still living in Ohio at the time of the 1900 census as "Jordan Anderson".  At that time, Anderson and his wife Mandy were in their 70s and had been married for 52 years. Mandy had borne 11 children, six of whom were still living.  Anderson's death at the age of 79 was recorded in the Dayton Daily News on April 19, 1905.

Death Drones With Magic Bullets are Coming:
No one is talking about this yet, but they will.  You see, cheap invasive drones are soon going to be everywhere. There will be swarms of them (video) peeping in people's windows and flown by perverts, and swarms of them flown by cops who will use them to peek over fences to catch folks growing a little backyard reefer.  There will be thousands of them run by the County tax folks who will use them to look for tax delinquent cars in commercial parking lots, and there will be others hovering over our highways snapping pictures of speeding cars and sending the tickets (with photos) straight to our cell phones.  And then, there will be the war drones -- the little sniper drones that will fly around war-torn cities, hover at windows, and then fire self-guiding bullets (video) into people before zipping off as anonymous as a bumble bee.  All of this is very-near possible now!

Pour Gasoline On Them and Set Them on Fire:
Despite $41 billion in profits last year, Exxon pays a lower tax rate than you.

The Darwin Project on Wheels:
This is an amazing video of stupidity and bravery on wheels, with a dash of awesome American landscape on top.  Of course when it all comes apart (and you know it eventually will) your tax dollars will have to MedEvac this moron out and pay for his medical care as well.  So enjoy the video -- you're definitely going to be paying for it one way or another!
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