Coffee and Provocation

This Gun-Wielding Idiot Got a Slap on the Wrist:

According to The Tribune-Review, Arcangelo "Angelo" Bianco, Jr. paid a total of $1,080 in fines, received six months probation, and performed 20 hours of community service for driving rapidly in reverse in the crowded parking lot of an Indiana, Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, pulling out a handgun, and then shooting the deer from his vehicle as the deer crossed a highway and fell into a residential backyard. Bianco, who did not even have a huning license, then loaded the deer into his pickup and drove away, and the whole thing was caught on security cameras.  Instead of going to jail  for 10 years and having his teeth knocked out like he should have, Bianco was accepted into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for first-time "non-violent" offenders, and was put on probation. He never faced charges for reckless endangerment, killing big game unlawfully, failing to have a hunting license, discharging a weapon across a highway, discharging a weapon in a safety zone, and using a motor vehicle to hunt illegally. Feel safer now?

Hunting Improves Life for Australian Lizards
To flush out prey, the Martu people of Australia burn patches of grasslands. The regrowth accommodates a wider variety of wildlife, leading to more stable lizard populations.

Young Americans Very Commonly Get Arrested
The criminalization of discipline is ruining millions of lives and costing this country scores of billions a year in lost productivity as well as damaging lives for the duration. By age 23, between 25% and 41% of Americans have been arrested -- and the number is far higher for young men, especially minority men.  This data  excludes arrests for minor traffic violations.

Why we Need MBTA Prosecutions for Cat Colony Suppliers:
Workers at the Portsmouth Virginia Humane Society released some 300 feral cats into the wild and counted many of them as having been adopted in order to boost their statistics, state investigators said.  Three former employees at the said shelter bosses instructed them to release cats brought in by residents and city workers alike. The shelter, which serves as the Portsmouth animal pound, is supposed to neuter the animals and put them up for adoption.  State investigators fined the shelter $1,250 and the Humane Society fired the shelter's executive director, Jenn Austin.  It is unclear to me why the PVHS and Ms. Austin are not being prosecuted for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, since they caused a situation where thousands of illegal bird deaths a years were certain to occur.

A Tiny Wonder of a Book:
Looking for a book for a birder friend for Christmas?  How about Audubon's Birds Of America, Tiny Folio edition? This sparkling little hardcover copy displays all 435 of John James Audubon's hand-colored engravings, with an introduction by Roger Tory Peterson. This is a very good small-sized reproduction of the Baby Elephant Folio reproduced in a miniature, gem-like version, all for only $10 in a hardcover!
 
Melting Glaciers Give Up Clues of Production:
A melting glacier in Norway has revealed an ancient bow and arrow set tipped with slate.

The Death of a Thousand Movie Plots:
If you steal really famous and expensive art, you will find it is worthless, impossible to sell, and will get you arrested.

A Real Cure for Baldness?
A cure presupposes an illness,  but I think baldness is more of a feature.  That said, baldness could soon be banished after researchers discovered how to use a person’s own cells to grow new hair.
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