Coffee and Provocation

The Oldest Selective Breeding of Dogs

How Artic sled dogs came to be. "A 35-person team, including a who’s who of experts in ancient DNA, has now uncovered a vivid and genetically detailed picture of the oldest known case of selective breeding, the creation of Arctic sled dogs at least 9,500 years ago. By that time, the researchers found, sled dogs already had mutations in genes involved in oxygen use and temperature sensitivity that set them apart from other dogs and wolves. And much of that genetic heritage survives in modern Greenland sled dogs."

The Hedge That Forged a Revolution in Opposition
India's old "customs hedge" was a dense and thickly planted barrier of thorns established in 1869 and expanded to 2,300 miles (3,701km) – the distance from London to Istanbul (then Constantinople). It was guarded by 12,000 British officers. It's purpose: to prevent smugglers from sneaking salt from coastal areas of India into British-controlled states, where salt was taxed heavily. Mahatma Ghandi's famous "salt march" was in opposition to this hedge, which no longer exists.

A Foul-mouthed Fowl
Musk Duck are a species of stiff-tail duck native to southern Australia and which can imitate sounds including human speech. One bird was recorded repeatedly saying "you bloody fool".

Lab-Grown Coffee to Save Tropical Forests?
Lab-grown coffee may soon sit next to lab-grown meat. Since coffee is the second most-traded commodity in the world, after oil, and since so many economies in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America depend on it for income, the possibilities for massive change -- good and bad -- are sobering. 

You Don't See This Job Description Everyday
William Dampier was a Pirate-scientist. Dampier's journals described flowers, geography, and rare animals and fish in between stories about looting ships and sacking villages. "In the pages of his notebook, Dampier expressed a great curiosity about the world—and a great keenness for eating basically any animal he came across." Dampier went on on to lead the first government-sponsored expedition of scientific discovery, to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe three times, and to make significant contributions to the field of hydrography with precise observations about ocean movements.

Salmon Fraud

Salmon sold in the US is beset by a wide variety of fraud from price fixing to false claims of sustainability to mislabeling of species and origin.  One example: about 50 percent of "wild caught salmon" is, in fact, farmed salmon. The fraud claim is most often made in restaurants, rather than stores.  One clue: wild salmon is seasonal, and harvest from late spring to early fall. If it's winter time, it's not wild salmon.

Rewilding the Elwha River

Ten years after the Elwha River dams were taken down, a transformation. From Orion Magazine: "Perhaps the most astonishing element of the Elwha restoration is how quickly ecosystem changes can be reversed. From sandbars stretching into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to changes in wildlife upstream, the whole watershed has responded more rapidly than expected."