Coffee and Provocation

 Dog Harnesses are Complete Crap for Canine Safety:

 A non-profit called the Center for Pet Safety (CPS) has done the first actual tests on dog  harnesses and says that they ALL failed, turning dog dummies into projectiles and even decapitating a few. “We tested them to the child safety restraint standard and we experienced a 100-percent failure rate to protect either the consumer or the dog,” said CPS founder and CEO Lindsey Wolko. Bottom line: When driving, crate your dogs in plastic (not wire) crates. There is no other safe substitute.

 

Racing Pigeons as China's Newest Conspicuous Consumption

China’s rich are now spending vast sums on racing pigeons.  Video.

 

Pigeon Birth Control?

In the pantheon of stupid, this one gets its own room -- pigeon birth control.  If you have 150 pigeons that you need to "control," you buy a "feeder kit" at a cost of $190, and then you spend $8.70 a day ($190 a month) on birth control bait and, after a year, you have half as many pigeons.  I am pretty sure Tom Lehrer would have found this hysterical.

 

Silver Makes Antibiotics More Effective

It turns out that a very old cure -- silver -- can make modern antibiotics 10 to 1,000 times more effective if used in very small doses (in high doses, silver can be a poison).

 

Improved American Coffee

In 1968, Vincent Marotta and Sam Glazer, two high school friends, decided to start a coffee delivery service. While recuperating from brain surgery in 1970, Marotta got an idea: make a self-contained coffee unit that would heat the water to 200ºF and drip it through coffee grounds once, not over and over again, as the "percolators" of the time did. Marotta and Glazer hired two ex-Westinghouse engineers to design the product, and Mr. Coffee was born.  Marotta hired boyhood hero, Joe DiMaggio, to be the company spokesman and within three years the company was making 40,000 Mr. Coffees a day, with annual sales approaching $150 million.

 

A Small Bit of Good News

There are 14,000 McDonald's and 11,000 Starbucks around the country, but there are 17,000 public libraries.  So score one for books, not that anyone actually reads the paper versions anymore. The good news is that while the paper book is going the way of the buggy whip, it will be a bit harder to replace the 35,000 museums, zoos, arboretums, historical societies, art galleries, and aquariums in this country.  Bottom line:  It's not ALL golden arches and green mermaids on paper cups.

 

The Perfect Pet for ALL

“Flat Pack Pets are for people who don't have time and space for a real animal in their lives. They’re made of 100% recycled cardboard so they can be left in your car on a really hot day, not fed for weeks on end, and they will never poop on the rug or wake you up early on a Sunday morning after a long night of drinking.  Perfect!

 

Cuckoos to the Congo 

Cuckoos in the highlands of Scotland are now being radio-tracked back to the Congo basin.

 

Miracles are Just a Failure of Imagination.

They are also a reminder that ignorance and mental illness always exist in various amounts and mixes.

.