Coffee and Provocation

No More Deforestation?

More than 100 world leaders have promised to end and reverse deforestation by 2030, in the COP26 climate summit's first major deal.  Maybe.  Skeptics note that a previous deal, in 2014, failed to slow deforestation at all.

The Ammunition Shortfall

The free-market has delivered consolidation, bankruptcy, monopolies owned by faceless holding companies, hoarding, and supply chain disruptions.  Almost all the ammo in America is made by the Olin Corporation or Vista Outdoor -- private equity firms that don't care about anything but the bottom line, and shortages help inflate that line.

Stealing Farmland from Black Farmers

Thousands of black farmers were cheated out of their land and systematically denied loans by the federal Farm Service Agency (FSA, part of the USDA) purely on racial grounds. The result: between 1910 and 1997 black farmers lost 90 percent of their property while white farmers lost only 2 percent in the same period.

If it Flies, It's a Bird
The official bird of the year in New Zealand is a bat. The long-tailed bat beat out all the feathered frontrunners with a commanding lead and the largest number of votes ever cast.

Man-Splaining Award

The 2021 Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their work identifying the molecular and chemical basis for the ancient use of chili peppers to combat chronic pain -- an ancient women’s folk medicine.

Sharks Are Older Than Trees

Sharks have been around for about 400 million years, whereas the first tree showed up about 350 million years ago. Sharks are also one of the only animals that have survived four of the five great extinctions.

From Slave Ship to Harvard

Yarrow Mamout, an educated Muslim from Guinea, was brought to Maryland on the slave ship Elijah and gained his freedom forty-four years later, eventually owning a a house and lot in Georgetown, as well as bank stock and several businesses.

No Contest Death Race

Covid took only two years to kill as many people as AIDS has in forty. 

The First Law to Fight Health Care Fraud 

In 1241 the Edict of Salerno created a legal separation between physicians and apothecaries so that physicians could no longer prescribe medicines that they themselves prepared and sold. The Edict also fixed prices to prevent overcharging the sick.

The Egg Equation
Mathematicians have worked out an equation that can perfectly describe each and every bird egg.