Coffee and Provocation

New Year, New Laws
In China all ivory trading has been banned, while in California, recreational marijuana use is now legal, and individuals can now get previous marijuana-related convictions retroactively reduced, reclassified as lesser offenses, or dismissed altogether.

Werewolf-Approved Lunacy
2018 is the Chinese Year of the Dog and it kicked it all off with a 'wolf moon' that appeared to be 14% bigger and 30% brighter than a typical full moon.

The Mass Produced Tractor
The mass produced farm tractor is 100 years old. Though some may quibble over the exact start date, the 1918 John Deere Warterloo Boy burned 2 gallons of kerosene per acre, and could plow 8 to 12 acres per day.  It was named after the headquarters location of the company -- Waterloo, Iowa.

Stupid Is as Stupid Does
The parent company of Hooters restaurants announced it was going to manage its customer loyalty program on a blockchain and issue a cryptocurrency called Mobivity Merit. As a result, Hooters share prices jumped 50%.

A Beer Pipeline in Belgium
The Belgian brewery De Halve Maan built a pipeline to transports beer from its brewery in Bruges to a bottling plant located in an industrial park 3.2 kilometers away. The project was partly crowdfunded via a scheme which gave investors a specific amount of beer, per year, for the rest of their lives.

Ask to See Their NRA Retirement Communities
The Mozambique flag includes an AK-47 with a bayonet attached to its barrel.

The Continuing Crisis
In Maine, wardens warn that frigid temperatures could lead to burst beers for ice fishermen.

Condors Threatened by Fire
The recent California fires burned into Los Padres National Forest where 80 of the state’s 172 free-flying condors spend much of their time.