Coffee and Provocation

The political sniff test.

Pet Food Industry Lobbies to Kill More Dogs:
While dog food makers want you to think they care about shelter pets, be advised that their lobbyists are the same group of soulless brain-dead liars-for-hire we find in every industry.  An example:  the Pet Food Institute writes that they have expressed their "appreciation" to the West Virginia Senate Agricultural Committee for amending a bill to remove petfood tax provisions.  PFI note that "The bill would have added a petfood tax provisions to fund a spay and neuter assistance program with supplemental money from a fee increase on petfood retailers and distributors.  Now the money will come from the general budget and supplemental revenue is raised through an income tax refund checkoff."  In short, God forbid we have a dedicated tax on dog owners that actually help dogs!  Shame on the Pet Food Institute and their corporate funders for killing this dedicated tax.  When people wonder why subsidized spay and neuter programs have too little money (and they will have too little money), be sure to mention this Pet Food Institute lobbying campaign as one causal reason.  And let's remember what too little money for subsidized spay-neuter means:  more dead dogs, especially more dead Pit Bulls.

Idiots with Guns, In the Government:
The geniuses in the Department of Interior have put forth a plan to allow government workers to shoot selected barred owls so that their spotted owl cousins will thrive. Barred Owl and Spotted Owl territories overlap and the birds interbreed, as I have noted in the past. The problem is that well-intentioned environmentalists have elevated the "Northern Spotted Owl" as a species (it is not a species, but a sub-species) and suggested it is rare (it is not) and so when it was pointed out that Barred Owls are naturally out-competing and cross-breeding with Spotted Owls, the Department of Interior decided killing success was the way to go. I sure there is a political metaphor in the somewhere; have at it.

Idiots with Direct Mail Permits, Not In the Government:
The $37 million a year taxpayer subsidized direct mail mill known as PeTA killed more than 1,911 mostly healthy dogs and cat last year at its headquarters in Norfolk, VA, finding homes for only 24.  Since 1998, PeTA has killed over 28,000 mostly healthy animals at its Norfolk headquarters which, as I have noted in the past, is actually an illegal and unlicensed slaughter house and NOT a shelter.

Elk Return to Virginia:
Elk were once found throughout eastern North America, including Virginia, but were shot out by 1850.  Now, Elk are going to return, thanks to a transplant from Kentucky which, in turn, got its elk from Utah through the good work of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.  The Kentucky Elk herd now has more than 10,000 animals, and will be sending 75 to the Commonwealth.

Return of a 32,000 Year Old Plant:
Scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences have taken a small bit of 32,000 year old frozen flowering plant discovered 38 meters down in a frozen and and fossilized squirrel burrow in Siberia and coaxed it back to life and flower.

Darwin Down Under:
In Australia a poisonous invasive plant protects Australian lizards from poisonous invasive cane toads.  According to the March 2012 issue of American Naturalist, the toxins of cane toads and a plant called Mother-of-Millions are quite similar, and when native eastern blue-tongued skinks in Australia ate plants, they gained a resistance to the cane toad toxins.

Why No Starbucks In Two Biggest Coffee Drinking Countries?
Finland and Norway have the highest per-capita coffee consumption in the world, but until recently they had no Starbucks.  Why not? According  to NYU economics and business professor Stanley Zin, it's because the two countries have almost no dairy industry and also have some of the world's highest dairy tariffs. Combined, this causes the price of milk to be very high -- so high it makes the cost of most Starbucks lattes and cappuccino drinks prohibitively expensive.  In addition, because Norway and Finland have restrictive immigration policies and low birth rates, labor is expensive, while Starbucks has a very labor-intensive method of making coffee, further driving up prices.  Despite all this, Starbucks will be opening their first stores in the Helsinki and and Oslo's airport, catering to foreigners and air travelers.  If Starbucks would like to send an American of Norwegian heritage to the Oslo opening, I volunteer to write an excellent piece about the experience!

The Place to Be in January of 1913:
In January 1913 alone, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud, Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky (the latter two being regulars) were patrons of Cafe Central in Vienna.  A list of other famous coffee houses of the world can be found here.  Last summer I had coffee at Café de Flore and passed by Les Deux Magots, both in Paris.

Making Waves with Neanderthals:
Neanderthals were ancient mariners, crossing the Mediterranean to Crete and the Greek islands of Lefkada, Kefalonia and Zakynthos in boats some 100,000 years ago.

Herring Farts or Commie Bastards in Miniature Subs?
The Swedish scientists who identified  herring farts in Stockholm's harbor were awarded the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize in biology, sharing the prize with a team from Canada and Scotland who independently made a similar discovery about herring farts.  However, there is some controversy.  Sweden’s former Prime Minister, and current Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt  says the scientists are wrong and that the herring farts are not herring farts at all, but Russians sneaking around in miniature submarines.

Sick Twisted Idaho Is the Home of Bait Dogs for Wolves:
Idaho is one messed up state.  Not only is it home to a thriving population of Nazis (there is nothing "neo" about Nazis), but there is now a bill pending before the state legislature that would allow ranchers to use live bait, including dogs, to lure in wolves so they can be killed.  And who is in support of this?  None other than the Idaho Wool Growers Association.
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