Coffee and Provocation

The Continuing Crisis
Parts of Lake Tahoe closed after chipmunks test positive for plague.

Special Forces Silent Hybrid Dirt Bike
An obviously good idea.

A 2,000 Year Old Plant?
Welwitschia is a two-leafed desert plant from Namibia and Angola with individuals known to live 1,000 to 2,000 years.

Formosan Clouded Leopard Sighted
The Formosan Clouded Leopard, once thought to be extinct on Taiwan, is apparently holding on in the thick forested wilderness of southern Taiwan.  And, for the record, it is not a distinct species or (apparently) even a subspecies of the Asian leopard.

With Human Population, Less is More
Demographer Ron Lee of the University of California, Berkeley has shown that GDP per person, and hence living standards, are highest when fertility falls just below replacement level (around 2.1 births per woman) – to 1.6 or even less.

Drier Longer Than the Dust Bowl 
Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir and a water source for 20 million people in Arizona, California and Nevada, is at just 35% of its capacity. That’s the lowest level since the reservoir was filled in 1935.