Coffee and Provocation

Guns and coffee. What could go wrong?

Russia Started with Dog Head Transplants. Now Humans
An Italian surgeon has announced he’ll be attempting the world’s first human head transplant. A donor has been found in Russia. Russians were, in fact,the pioneers in animal head transplants with dogs back in the 1930s.

Dogs Versus Drones
This is how the war begins.

This is How to Commute to Work
Terrier-powered skateboard.

Spark Electric Vehicle Just $14,995
After tax rebates from the feds and the state, you can get a Chevrolet Spark electric vehicle for just $14,950 in some states (such as Maryland). If you want to lease, there's also a $139 per month "sign-and-drive" lease for a term of 39 months, with $0 due at lease signing, including security deposit but excluding tax, title, license and dealer fees. Since fuel savings is estimated to be about $83 per month compared to a gas vehicle doing 24 MPG highway, you are getting a new e-car for just $2 a day over the price of gas on your current car. Not bad!

China Abandons Coal
China's coal imports have been cut in half in the last year and the decline will continue as the country switches to conservation, nukes, solar, and wind.

The Push for Solar in India
Solar power is clearly the future for India where about 25% of the population has no access to electricity. They are going to start with the railroads and the military, but Prime Minister Modi has raised India’s solar ambitions from a 22 GW target in 2022 up to 100 GW, which would equal 25% of the country’s installed power capacity. Can they do it? We shall see!

Why the USA is in Debt
In the race to the basement, Kansas is in the lead, but the GOP is trying to push the rest of the country down the stairs for a beating as well. Under current law, only individual fortunes worth over $5.43 million can be taxed, an amount that doubles to $10.86 million for wealthy couples. There are only 4,700 such estates in the U.S. but the represents massive fortunes. A Republican proposal before Congress would eliminate all taxes on theses larger estates. The result: heirs and heiresses of America's largest fortunes will get a $269 billion tax break which they will use by smashing up Lamborghini's, snorting cocaine, detox, and divorce lawyers.

The American Lobbying Addiction
From Brookings: "Lobbying, in Drutman’s telling, is a habit-forming addiction for America’s corporations. Once a corporation takes up the Washington game, it rarely quits; indeed, the more it plays the more its lobbyists are likely to convince it of further opportunities worth pursuing." 

Nostalgia TV for Geezers
Ken Levine who wrote for Mash, Cheers, and many other TV shows (and some movies too), has a nice blog I subscribe to. He notes that the rise of nostalgia TV had a lot of promise but it mostly illuminates how bad old TV shows really were: "The old DANNY THOMAS SHOW used to make me laugh. Now, Danny Thomas’ character just comes off as a bombastic misogynistic asshole. How did grown-ups back in the day not see this at the time? I was a kid. I had an excuse.... The other depressing thing is the commercials. GIDGET, a show about fun loving teenagers who surf and hang out at the beach is now sponsored by Depends and drugs to prevent strokes. Where are the 'Pepsi: For Those Who Think Young'  commercials? With all the girls running around in bikinis at least advertise Viagra."

Groupers Starting to Dine on Lion Fish
Now it's a race between Lion Fish killing reefs and Groupers killing Lion Fish.  I would bet on the Lion Fish.

Oldest Tools in the World?
A set of 20 stone flakes and anvils, found off the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya, appear to have been crafted more than 3.3 million years ago — 500,000 years before our genus Homo, designating the first fully fledged humans, came into being.

Pissed Off and Loaded
An estimated 9 percent of adults in the U.S. have a history of impulsive, angry behavior and have access to guns, according to a study published this month in Behavioral Sciences and the Law. The study also found that an estimated 1.5 percent of adults report impulsive anger and carry firearms outside their homes.

Bristol Palin is Queen of the Grifters
Sarah Palin's daughter is Queen of the Grifters. She had been paid over $250,000 a year by the Candie Foundation as a representative for "abstinence" while she herself has gotten pregnant out of wedlock and shacked up with a revolving set of boyfriends. While paying Bristol Palin over  $250,000 a year, the Candie Foundation managed to burn through another $950,000 on additional "overhead," leaving just $35,000 of all donor sucker rube dollars to go to charitable causes.

New Monkey Species Identified by Testicles and Scrotum
No, we are not making this up.  It's the defining characteristic. "[Th]e white-cheeked macaque (Macaca leucogenys), was recently identified as a previously unknown species due its distinctive penis and scrotal coloration that distinguish it from other macaques residing in the same area."