Coffee and Provocation

Pedigree Dogs Exposed is coming to Canada Monday, March 26, 10:00 pm on CBC News Network and Sunday April 1 at 8 pm ET on CBC News Network.

The world's largest wildlife park has been formed.  The unified park will sprawl over 170,000 square miles park in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, or KAZA, will be roughly the size of Sweden and allow a place for elephants, rhino and other large megafauna to survive and hopefully flourish.

Is birth control for mosquitoes a good idea?  The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District is talking about holding possible trials involving the release of genetically modified male mosquitoes into the delicate ecosystem of the Florida Keys. But even if we could get rid of mosquitoes, and even if no small amphibian life would miss them, would it be good for Mother Nature writ large, since mosquitoes are what actually keep people out of so many fragile tropical areas. 

Do We Still Need Publishers?  People will disagree, but if they're asking the question then the church bell is tolling.  In this analysis, this is my favorite line:  "Meanwhile, across the river, I have my adult publisher, Orion – and they also have problems with me. Relations between us have been strained ever since they published my Sherlock Holmes novel, The Mouse of Slick, with no fewer than 35 proof-reading errors. Their proof-reader tried to kill herself. She shot herself with a gnu."

The world's most expensive cup of coffee is from a bean that has been run through the asshole of a civet.  Not to be denied, a company is now selling the most expensive cup of tea which has been fertilized with Panda poo.  And yes, it's all hype -- panda poo does not improve the taste of tea.  Now a civet asshole, is another thing entirely...

For those who remember the instruction guide to cooking rats provided on this web site some years back, we now have the tale of the Chinese restaurant that specializes in mice, complete with a nice picture of the catches of the day.  Be sure to try the curried mouse bacon!

Are the Kennel Clubs and the breed clubs improving dogs?  Not generally. And not specifically.

Good News, Bad News in the Coffee Wars:  Big Print:  Coffee can help you lose as much weight as that hour at the gym.  Small print:  "[You] would need to consume a caffeine equivalent of about 50 cups [of coffee] per day, almost close to a lethal dose". Source.

If you dogs don't hump your leg, does that mean they don't love you?  While you ponder that question, consider why so many animals evolved to masturbate. 

If you want a dog, then don't get a puppy -- get a rescue dog.  If you won't consider an adult rescue dog, then you don't want a dog, you want a puppy, and you need a cat and probably deserve a goldfish.

The Franklin Tree is a living fossil, and has a strange history too.

If you don't read Thomas Friedman, you probably should.  Here's a starter article on capitalism's future.

The greatest brain to come out of the Clinton era is Robert Reich, the former Secretary of labor who gives this rock-solid assessment of election year moralizing by condom-fearing Republicans who want to invade your bedroom where there is actually no trouble, even as they give the big wink to all the lying, stealing and cheating going on in American board rooms.

Amazon just acquired Kiva Systems robotics for $775 million to automate its warehouses.  In the world of the future, the Chinese will not be able to compete with our robots.

Why the future may be better than you think.  A note of optimism.

When is Mammoth hunting season?  Mad scientists Researchers in Russia and South Korea are going to move forward with a plan to resurrect the Ice Age woolly mammoth by taking the nuclei of mammoth somatic cells (taken from a frozen mammoth) and implanting the nuclei into donor Indian elephant eggs which will be implanted in an elephant womb, where they will gestate for 22 months.

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