Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Coffee and Provocation


Never Underestimate the Stupids of Pet Owners
They are now making, and apparently selling, "dog peanut butter" which is more expensive than normal peanut butter, even though dogs will readily lick their own butts and eat garbage and poop.

Best Witness Statement from a Dog
The best witness statement from a dog also comes with a cool picture.  I want a hat like that!

An Interesting Bit of Demographics
As a demographer, I read some pretty obscure but fascinating stuff on population.  For example, the recent study of 10,000 porn stars with details on their hair color, gender, height, weight, and length of career is pretty interesting, especially when you realize that online and amateur porn is available for free (I am told) and is killing the paid porn industry. This is a snapshot of a soon-to-be dead economy.

Dams are a Perversion that Leads to Shooting Sea Lions
Damns are a form of environmental perversion that leads to vast backups of migrating fish at "ladders" designed to take the fish around the dam.  Sea Lions, being very smart and large top end predators that are essentially lazy, have learned that such sites are easy pickings and so they camp at the base of some dams in large numbers, killing vast numbers of migrating salmon.  In order to end the death run for the salmon, the National Marine Fisheries Service plans to kill California sea lions at Bonneville Dam in Oregon.  Those killing were challenged by the Humane Society of the U.S., which has done and said nothing about Salmon and dams (or forest or land conservation, I should add).  Now a U.S. District Court judge in Oregon has dismissed the HSUS lawsuit.

Killer Drones are Coming
Also traffic drones, peeping tom drones, wildlife monitoring drones, and zoning enforcement drones,  Get a shotgun and a .22 long now, as nothing is going to be more fun than plinking drones.  Am I right, or am I right?   And watch this disturbing video about the micro-drones now being developed and flown inside an aviary at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio.  And, of course, drone piloting is the next hot field.

Scientists Take the Piss for Climate
It tuns out that dried out that because African Rock Hyrax form communities live in the same rock fissures for very long periods of time, and use the same place to pee every day, that studying their layers of urine can tell people a bit about climate change

Imagine Explaining This to Your Insurance Agent
Seriously, just imagine it.  If there was not video, they would never believe.

This is What Real Information on Wolves Looks Like
This is good stuff and an antidote to the nonsense on both sides.  Of course, the real solution is to stop subsidizing private profits made from public lands -- get sheep and cattle out of the forest and off BLM land entirely, or at least make private-profit grazers pay fair market rents (which are 3 to 5 times higher than they are now).
.

2 comments:

Kerry Cowman said...

Thanks for sharing the wolf article. I am shocked at how low BLM grazing fees are.

I got to wondering if wolves would decrease coyote densities and found this link.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070911111523.htm

If I were a western rancher, I might prefer the wolves to coyotes.

Regards,

RL Grossman
Slippery Rock

geonni banner said...

As to the "insurance video"... Someone should tell the hog that's Volvo - not vulva. Well maybe not. He seems to be more of a tailpipe man anyhow...