Coffee and Provocation

Lucky Luciano with coffee in Italy, 1949

The Battle Against California Nutria
The Calif Dept of Wildlife is using dogs, cameras, and neutered captured nutrias to try to remove nutrias from a huge delta area east and southeast of San Francisco.

Sheep Sperm From the Nixon Era
From Modern Farmer come this story of frozen semen and rediscovering a breeding mistake: "The Tet Offensive began in the Vietnam War. Robert F. Kennedy is shot. On the plus side, Celine Dion is born. And Dr. Steven Salamon freezes some sperm samples from one of his sheep in liquid nitrogen. This year, researchers at the University of Sydney used those sperm samples to impregnate Merino sheep—50 years after the sperm samples were frozen. And, incredibly, the sperm showed just about the same level of viability as sperm frozen for only 12 months. A whopping 34 of 56 inseminated ewes gave birth to lambs from this half-century-old sperm."

Mexico Turns Guns on Poachers
Totoaba poachers (a type of drum fish) were recently shot by police in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez in an effort to stop the wholesale gillnetting which is killing off the Vaquita, a small porpoise which is considered the most endangered mammal on the planet.

Charlie Chaplin's Alarming Marriage
Charlie Chaplin married Oona O’Neill when she was only 18, and Charlie was 53.

The Most Endangered Animal In Your State
Here is a picture guide to the most endangered species in each state.

Guacamole Crisis?
America would run out of avocados in three weeks if Trump shuts down the U.S.-Mexico border.

Fools with Money or Money Laundering With Art?
A "recently discovered" Leonardo DaVinci paining entitled "Salvator Mundi" was sold for a record $450 million and now it's disappeared. Why?  The painting is almost certainly a fake and without a doubt almost every brush stroke seen today is the work of a very recent "restoration".  And the wild price?  One theory is that it's due to money laundering between Russians and Saudis. The buyer of the painting? None other than Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, aka "Mr. Bone Saw" who had Jamal Khashoggi murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi embassy in Turkey.

Why I Don't Eat Commercial Caught Fish
Over 1,000 mutilated dolphins have washed up on French coast.

The Crime Family of Jeanine Pirro
Jeanine Pirro's husband was sentenced to 29 months in a federal prison for 23 counts of filing false tax returns and hiding over $1 million in personal income between 1988 and 1997 when he was married to "Judge" Jeanine. "Judge" Pirro, of course, is no longer a judge, and was she never more than a county judge -- the type of person who adjudicates traffic tickets and zoning conflicts.

10,000 Christmas Trees in a Louisiana Swamp?
The federal government in action.

Humanizing Charles "Lucky" Luciano
The picture of "Lucky" Luciano teaching his Lakeland terrier a trick was part of a campaign to humanize Luciano so that the U.S. Government might let him back in after he was deported for being a mafia boss.

Lucky Luciano with terrier in Italy, 1949