Coffee and Provocation

The Continuing Crisis
Farmers are switching from tobacco to chick peas for hummus.

It Was Not Tony Soprano, Honest
A 22-year old hiker was apparently killed by a black bear in New Jersey near West Milford.

Can Rats Run a Hedge Fund?
Michael Marcovici’s Rat Trader describes the training of laboratory rats to trade in foreign exchange and commodity futures markets. Marcovici says the rats “outperformed some of the world’s leading human fund managers.” The rats were trained to press a red or green button to give buy or sell signals, after listening to ticker tape movements represented as sounds. If they called the market right they were fed, if they called it wrong they got a small electric shock. Male and female rats performed equally well. The second generation of rattraders, cross-bred from the best performers in the first generation, appeared to have even better performance, although this is a preliminary result.

Solar as Ubiquitous as Cell Phones?
The Washington Post notes that:  "In the 1980s, leading consultants were skeptical about cellular phones. McKinsey & Company noted that the handsets were heavy, batteries didn’t last long, coverage was patchy, and the cost per minute was exorbitant. It predicted that in 20 years the total market size would be about 900,000 units, and advised AT&T to pull out. McKinsey was wrong, of course. There were more than 100 million cellular phones in use 2000; there are billions now. Costs have fallen so far that even the poor — all over world — can afford a cellular phone. The experts are saying the same about solar energy now. They note that after decades of development, solar power hardly supplies 1 percent of the world’s energy needs. They say that solar is inefficient, too expensive to install, and unreliable, and will fail without government subsidies. They too are wrong. Solar will be as ubiquitous as cellular phones are. Futurist Ray Kurzweil notes that solar power has been doubling every two years for the past 30 years — as costs have been dropping. He says solar energy is only six doublings — or less than 14 years — away from meeting 100 percent of today’s energy needs. Energy usage will keep increasing, so this is a moving target. But, by Kurzweil’s estimates, inexpensive renewable sources will provide more energy than the world needs in less than 20 years. Even then, we will be using only one part in 10,000 of the sunlight that falls on the Earth.

Win Turbines vs. Cats
One kills about 300,000 birds a year, the other about 3,000,000,000.  Guess which one we feed?

Stupid on a Stick
An astonishing 64 percent of Americans cannot name the three branches of government.

Flatter Than Kansas?
Kansas is not flatter than a pancake.  In fact, Kansas is not even the flattest state. Six other states are flatter, including Florida. Illinois, North Dakota, Louisiana, Minnesota, Delaware,

Smarter Mice?
We can make smarter mice by putting a single human gene in their brain.  Should we be doing this?

Basement Man Cave
For Walter Mitty who wishes he had a cabin in the Maine woods.

Coffee and Provocation

Cat Shit is Killing Marine Mammals:

A six-year study published  by the National Institute of Health in 2011 found that that monitored marine mammals in the Pacific Northwest. in the Pacific Northwest more than 5,000 dead marine mammals (dolphins, porpoises, sea otters, seals, sea lions and three species of whale) had been  observed with encephalitis (brain swelling) long associated with Toxoplasma gondii, a single-celled parasite common to cats and possums, neither of which are native that part of the country.

 

Rats May Have Killed Easter Island:

Easter Island may not have been denuded by human overpopulation, but by rat overpopulation.

 

Pennsylvania Bounty On Coyotes?
Pennsylvania may soon offer a bounty for coyotes.   Virginia already has one.

 

Segregation By Costume:
During the filming of Planet of the Apes moves in 1967 and 1969, the actors instinctively self-segregated by costume, with the chimpanzees eating with the other chimpanzees, the gorillas eating with the other gorillas, the orangutans eating with the other orangutans, and the humans off eating by themselves.

 

America Powered by Russian Bombs?
For the last two decades, Russia's old nuclear bombs have been providing the U.S. with 10% of its energy needs.

New Species Found by Teddy Roosevelt!
Scientists say they have discovered a new species of Tapir.  Tapirus kabomani is known from several specimens obtained by local hunters.  A partial skull and skin collected by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 (and today residing in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History in New York) belongs to this species.

 

The Money Is Blowing in the Wind:

Warren Buffet has just bought a billion dollars worth of wind turbines, moving his stake in wind power to $1.9 billion.

 

The U.K. Kennel Club is a Basket Case:

The Kennel Club in Britain proves, once again, that they are a thoroughly corrupt group of incompetents.  The "Accredited Breeder' Scheme" is all scheme and almost no inspection. 

 

Anti-Bacterial Soap Is Not:

The FDA admits that anti-bacterial soap is bullshit and nonsense.  "There currently is no evidence that over-the-counter (OTC) antibacterial soap products are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water... Moreover, antibacterial soap products contain chemical ingredients, such as triclosan and triclocarban, which may carry unnecessary risks given that their benefits are unproven."

 

Interfere With Legal Hunters and Go to Jail:

We Jail Interfere with legal hunting in the U.S., and you may end up going to jail.

 

link

 

Coffee and Provocation

 

Adam Had'em

Ogden Nash's poem about fleas was correct, but not exhaustive. Fleas are much older than Adam. In an article in Nature entitled Super-sized fleas adapted to feed off dinosaurs, we are told that fossils of Jurassic-era fleas have been found in China.  Believe it or not, these fleas were four to eight inches long!

 

Humans are Complete Mongrels

Humans are complete mongrels, and the greatness of humans is that we always have been.  Archaeologists found 28 hominid skeletons in a "pit of bones" at Sima de los Huesos, an archaeological site in the Atapuerca mountains of Spain.  A genetic analysis of the skeletons, originally identified as Homo heidelbergensis but looking very Neanderthal-like, found traces of Denisovan DNA, a Neanderthal cousin that lived around 40,000 years ago in east Asia.

 

Don’t Feed Dogs Foie Gras at Christmas:

Another helpful tip from the French veterinary trades.

 

Osama Bin Laden, the Great Man of Peace:

This rather jaw-dropping profile of Osama Bin Laden was printed twenty years, in The Independent in the U.K.

 

Workfare for Alcoholics:

Amsterdam is paying alcoholics to pick up trash.  They get a couple of beers to start, have to work to get lunch (and more beer) and then they get half a packet of tobacco, rolling papers, and 10 Euros.  My Republican friend says "Interesting. Socialist Govs. seen to be getting into the biz endeavors that used to be the providence of organized crime: Prostitution, gambling, alcohol, and loan sharking."  Of course, my reply was: "Or simply paying people very low and exploitative wages, which is very much a GOP thing to do." So, perfect policy!  Though, I have to say, I never knew organized crime paid people to pick up litter!

 

Rick Bragg on Boys and Coon Dogs:

A nice little story from the great Rick Bragg about boys, coon dogs, and the brutal life of southern dogs left on a chain, too often to die. "This was as far from a gentleman’s hunt as I guess a fellow could get." If you have not read this book by Bragg, you should. The first 90 pages are about as fine a piece of writing as can be done.

 

Will Oklahoma Get a New Religious Monument on State Grounds?

They passed a law to allow a Christian statue so, predictably, they are now getting a monument to Satan.  Finally the right monument on state house grounds!

 

New Age Pikeys:

Back to horses, for some apparently, but also with solar cells and Facebook, coupled to a fashion sense, and perhaps some mind-expanding substances.  Hello New Age Travelers.  Or, as we used to call them:  Hippies.

 

First Democratically Elected President of the U.S.?

Was it Warren Harding or U.S. Grant?  Certainly not George Washington!

Coffee and Provocation

Clipnosis is True for Cats, Terriers, and Fox
"Clipnosis," or "pinch-induced behavioral inhibition," (PIBI) is when a small animal is gently scruffed by the back of the neck and lifted. What happens next is fairly universal:  an animal that ceases to flail and that remains calm. As Tony Buffington, a professor of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at Ohio State University notes in an article in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, PIBI is neither a fear nor pain response. The cats' pupils do not dilate – a physiological response seen in fearful animals– and their heart rates do not increase. Nor does their breathing quicken. The cats also remain responsive, so it is not "tonic immobility" of any kind.  Buffington and colleagues conclude that PIBI is likely to have evolved to make it easy for mother cats to carry their kittens -- no doubt why the response is common in other meso-predators whose mothers carry them around in a similar manner.

Zeuterin Has Made it to the New York Times
Zeuterin is a mix of zinc gluconate and arginine that is injected directly into a dog’s testicles, killing the sperm and shutting down the vas deferens. The results are permanent, and the process takes only a few hours, poses little risk compared with surgery, and works in 99.6 percent of dogs.  Zeuterin may be FDA-approved by the end of the year.  This blog first reported on Zeuterin as a new hope for Pit Bulls about 16 months ago, and again earlier this year.

Bad News, Good News:
The bad news is that the Department of Homeland Security and ICE are purchasing 450 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point bullets.  Far be it from me to ask who they intend to shoot with them!  The good news is that the bullets, made by Federal Cartridge Company, are so defective that the U.S, Government is suing for fraud.

Hacking the War to End All Wars:
During the height of the Cold War, the US military put such an emphasis on a rapid response to an attack on American soil, that to minimize any foreseeable delay in launching a nuclear missile, they intentionally set the launch codes at every silo in the US to 8 zeroes.

Breakfast for 12 Very Quickly:
I tried this the other day, and it works like new money. Think little quiches.

Delivery and Trade Bikes:
I have an interest in delivery bikes. For any other kinky boots out there, there is this small web site.

Sheep Killers:
Though coyote kill a lot of sheep, fox very rarely do. The number one killer of sheep is this bastard, and it does most of its work in the Spring.

Caged Hens Worry Less:
Life is short and red in tooth and claw, and don't think hens don't know it.  A recent study done at the University of Bristol found that caged hens have fewer injuries, lower mortality, lower stress levels and generally less time spent pecking at each other.  Does that mean hens in a really well-fenced (electricity!) and dog-guarded hen house might not be even happier? No, but most free range chickens don't actually get that kind of protection, which is why predator-induced mortality is so high on so many truly "free range" farms.

 

Coffee and Provocation

  

A 500 Year Old Clam?

A living clam collected from Iceland in 2006 has been ring- and carbon-dated to over 500 years old, making it the oldest living animal ever found.

420,000 Gallons of Horse Urine a Day:

Over at the PaleoFuture blog, we find this sentence: "New York City at the turn of the 20th century was a pretty pungent place. Piles of garbage, millions of people cooking food, and about 2.5 million pounds of horse manure emptied into the streets per day will do that to a city. And don't forget the 420,000 gallons of horse urine flowing through the streets each week. But some forward-thinking New Yorkers had an idea to clean up the city: establish a citywide central vacuum system."

 

Sprinkle Caffeine on Your Eggs?

Yes, caffeine now comes out of shaker so you can caffeinate anything you want, including your morning eggs!

 

Stopping Pandemics with Social Media: 

When epidemiology hits Facebook and Twitter, good things could happen very quickly.  A stitch in time saves nine.

Rescue Animals as Fundraising Brands

In a world where children are dying for food, clean water, shelter and a bar of soap, the animal rescue world has decided to fight over the "branding" of animal names for fundraising purposes.  Stop giving for "celebrity" animals, and this crap will stop.

 

Going Broke From Getting Fat?

Chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, among people younger than 65 drives two-thirds of medical spending. About 85 percent of medical costs are spent on people younger than 65. Price increases -- not increases in demand -- account for 91% of cost increases. The biggest-spending disease with the fastest growth rate was hyperlipidemia — high cholesterol and triglycerides — for which spending grew by 14.4 percent annually. Personal out-of-pocket spending on insurance premiums and co-payments have declined from 23% to 11%.

 

Coffee and Provocation

Bespoke Falconry: 
Neiman Marcus is now selling bespoke falconry furniture as a Christmas gift. "Gazing upon your portable case and matching custom trunk, you marvel at the 20-karat gold-plated perch, hand-carved stands, leather perch scale, and hand-sewn glove, anklet, and exotic-skin hoods by Ken Hooke, the world's preeminent falconry hood maker. The setup comes with with matching Chatwin chairs, foldout table by Richard Wrightman, "the foremost designer of bespoke campaign" and "a handmade backgammon board from Alexandra Llewellyn." You get to pour yourself a drink from lead crystal decanters, and cut your cigars with a "matching cigar cutter by David Linley". All yours for $150,000.

The Most Crowded Spot in America:
Hart Island, just off from New York City, has been a Civil War prison camp, a mental asylum, a workhouse for the poor, and even a missile base, but it's current function is as potter's field, where around 900,000 people are buried.  The bodies are laid in mass graves by inmates from nearby Riker's Island. One third of the dead are infants, some are homeless, and others are unclaimed bodies from the city morgue

The Cut and Run Cowards at Guns & Ammo Magazine:
Apparently Guns & Ammo magazine is run by cut and run cowards who are so terrified of extremist gun-lunatics that they even give a nod to safety and common sense.
 

The Nature of Delayed Gratification:

Those who can delay gratification do better in life, and those who watch nature are more likely to delay gratification.

Those Who Live in Glass Houses:

How about a glass cabin on a budget for $500?  Very cool.

America Is Much Healthier Than You Know:

A few years back, Robert Ohsfeldt of Texas A&M and John Schneider of the University of Iowa asked the obvious question: what happens if you remove deaths from fatal injuries from the life expectancy tables? Among the 29 members of the OECD, the U.S. vaults from 19th place to first. Japan, on the same adjustment, drops from first to ninth.  Bottom line:  we are healthy as hell, but we are not risk averse.  We engage in stupid-risky behaviors.  In short, we are Americans, not Japanese.

American is Much Less Wealthy Than You Know:40 percent of all American workers (39.6 percent to be precise) make less than $20,000 a year.  According to data released this week, 49.7 million Americans are living in poverty.  The wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.

Butt Smellers:
Clever canines catch colon cancer cues contained in crap.

Deeply Flawed Social Security "Study":

A new study from the Urban Institute concludes that Social Security redistributes money from minorities to wealthier whites. Of course, the study is deeply flawed, as it looks at Social Security as a snapshot, and ignores a cohort analysis (the correct analysis), which would show the exact opposite.

Coffee and Provocation

 

Gun Owners Are More Racist?

Wow.  I did not see that coming!  (::cough, cough::)  "For each one-point increase in anti-black racism, the odds of having a gun in the home jumped 50 percent. And supporting policies that allow for concealed guns rose 28 percent."

 

Police State on Drugs:

Read this, and tell me how much the jury award should award.

 

Retired Police Dogs with Pensions and Medical Benefits?

As it should be.

 

Coffee Reduces Chance of Man Cancer
Four cups a day could reduce prostate cancer risks.  Drink 15 cups of coffee a day, and you can bend metal with thought alone!  Only ferrous metal however, not the other stuff.  Coffee is not crack.

 

Try a Hammer

In general, attempts by members of the general public to kill things with fire end in disaster.

 

You're So Vain:
You're so vain you think you are descended from monkeys.  In fact, you are descended from rats.

 

This is 58-minute Documentary on Poverty
You should probably watch it.

 

 

Coffee and Provocation

Number One With a Bullet
Coffee is the most popular psychoactive drug in the world, and the second largest internationally traded commodity, after oil.  The U.S. drinks about 25% of the world's coffee and about 90 percent of US adults consume some form of caffeine every day.

Clothes Made in America by Americans:
The L. C. King Manufacturing Company of Bristol, Tennessee has been in the clothes making business for 100 years. What's their secret?  Simple:  they make work clothes that fit the needs and wants of the rural South, from light canvas jackets that are worn into the fields in the morning and taken off as it gets hotter in the day, to jeans and overalls that are cut for regional preferences.  And guess what?  A Japanese designer took the Pointer Jacket made by King, fiddled with a bit, and then put it out as high fashion in Japan, where they were sold for $800 a pop.  For those who want the real deal at a better price, let me suggest a visit to this web site.  Buy American from people who make it in America using American labor.

A Wolf in Kentucky:
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources reports that a 73-pound animal that was shot as a coyote has been DNA-tested  as a wolf originating from the Great Lakes region.

Alberta is the Only Rat Free Spot in the World:
Rats have overrun the globe, with one exception: Alberta, Canada. The province has has waged a successful war on rats for 50 years. In Albert, owning pet rats is forbidden except for zoos and research institutions. The province maintains a 70-kilometer rat control zone along its eastern border which is staffed by eight professionals who poisoned, gas, or shoot any rats that are found in the No-Rat Land.

Drone the Forest:
Small drones with cameras and GPS mapping software are about to change what we know about forests, and how we map them. My bet is that we will see a sea of new species identifications once the drones are able to fly at night, sense hear, and take infrared pictures.  This will happen within 10 years.

Fifty Free Farmstead eBooks:
Because free is always a good price.

Discount Trick
Most grocery stores have rewards programs, but if you don't want to give out your personal information, or if you're at a store you don't usually shop in, just plug in "Jenny's number:" 867-5309 (you know, from the song). Most stores will already have this in their system and you'll get the club discounts without the club card.

Beyond  Chinese Dog Food
If you have ordered lamb or mutton for hotpot in Shanghai over the last four years, you might have been served rat, fox or mink, China's Ministry of Public Security says.

Ostrich Egg Globe Oldest Showing New World
A globe dating from 1504, and made out of two Ostrich egg domes glued together, appears to be oldest in the world to show both the New World and the Old. North America is depicted as a group of scattered islands and the lone sentence above the coast of Southeast Asia, is “Hic Sunt Dracones,” or ‘Here be dragons’.  The ostrich egg globe appears to be the model used to cast a copper globe which was previously believed to the oldest globe showing any part of the New World, as the two globes are identical down to their smallest details, from the wave patterns on the ocean to the disproportionate size of continents, and even the typos match up.

Coffee and Provocation

 

 

Asian Carp Now in the Great Lakes Basin

Asian carp are now breeding in the Lake Erie Basin. A new study found four grass carp in Ohio’s Sandusky River and they are the result of natural reproduction.  Grass carp, by the way, were introduced as a "triploid" species -- a animal made sterile in the laboratory which supposedly could not breed in the wild, so it was going to be OK to put them in golf course ponds to eat algae and weeds.  Guess what?  Not all of the triploid carp got the message about being sterile, and some came out of the pressurized egg process fecund.  Whoops?  So no problem with that viral immuno-contraception thing.  I am sure that will end up being flawless

 

Not Making the Case Against Drone Strikes

The came all the way from Pakistan, but "drone strike survivors" who came to Washington found only five member of Congress could be bothered to show up.  One reason for that is the Pakistan and Al Queda are still the number one danger on earth and the number one terrorist group on earth, yet drone strikes have killed a remarkably few civilians.  It seems there are a LOT of survivors of drone strikes -- good people the drones did not hit.  The bad guys are generally dead.  Pakistan, which is outraged that we slam mostly very well-placed drones into terrorist camps they allow to operate in regions they cannot seem to control, notes that that 3 percent of 2,227 people killed in U.S. drone strikes since 2008 were civilians -- a total of 67civilans since 2008.  In the long history of warfare, I am not sure more really bad guys have been killed in so many separate incidents with so little civilian death as a result.  Can you imagine how many lives would have been saved if we had fought World Wars I and II, Korea, or Vietnam with drones? 

 

Best Bike Lock Ever?

It's a keyless U-bolt that opens when you approach it thanks to an encrypted phone-app.  And yes, the lock can be opened without the phone.  Added bonus:  the lock will tell you where your lock and bike are located in case you get to some serious drinking!  Not available yet, but there's a kickstarter campaign to fund it, and I think this one will happen.

 

How Do Your Get the Enemy to Give Up?

Play Britney Spears.  "As a tool against pirates, it is pretty effective."

 

50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel?

Survey says.. this is the list. The printing press is #1, followed by electricity, penicillin, the semiconductor, optical lenses, paper, internal combustion engine, vaccination, the internet, steam engine, nitrogen fixation from the air, sanitation systems, refrigeration, gunpowder, airplane, personal computer, compass, automobile, industrial steelmaking, birth control pill, nuclear fission, green revolution, sextant, telephone... and see the list for the rest.

 

Here Comes the Sun, But Walmart Wages Still Suck

Walmart has more solar capacity than 38 U.S. states, and twice as much as its nearest competitor... Costco.  Of course the thing that could save Big Bucks and Big Energy is simple weatherstripping and sealing leaky homes.  America could save $33 billion a year with low-tech and low-cost stuff to be found in the neighborhood.

 

Coffee and Provocation

This Gun-Wielding Idiot Got a Slap on the Wrist:

According to The Tribune-Review, Arcangelo "Angelo" Bianco, Jr. paid a total of $1,080 in fines, received six months probation, and performed 20 hours of community service for driving rapidly in reverse in the crowded parking lot of an Indiana, Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, pulling out a handgun, and then shooting the deer from his vehicle as the deer crossed a highway and fell into a residential backyard. Bianco, who did not even have a huning license, then loaded the deer into his pickup and drove away, and the whole thing was caught on security cameras.  Instead of going to jail  for 10 years and having his teeth knocked out like he should have, Bianco was accepted into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for first-time "non-violent" offenders, and was put on probation. He never faced charges for reckless endangerment, killing big game unlawfully, failing to have a hunting license, discharging a weapon across a highway, discharging a weapon in a safety zone, and using a motor vehicle to hunt illegally. Feel safer now?

Hunting Improves Life for Australian Lizards
To flush out prey, the Martu people of Australia burn patches of grasslands. The regrowth accommodates a wider variety of wildlife, leading to more stable lizard populations.

Young Americans Very Commonly Get Arrested
The criminalization of discipline is ruining millions of lives and costing this country scores of billions a year in lost productivity as well as damaging lives for the duration. By age 23, between 25% and 41% of Americans have been arrested -- and the number is far higher for young men, especially minority men.  This data  excludes arrests for minor traffic violations.

Why we Need MBTA Prosecutions for Cat Colony Suppliers:
Workers at the Portsmouth Virginia Humane Society released some 300 feral cats into the wild and counted many of them as having been adopted in order to boost their statistics, state investigators said.  Three former employees at the said shelter bosses instructed them to release cats brought in by residents and city workers alike. The shelter, which serves as the Portsmouth animal pound, is supposed to neuter the animals and put them up for adoption.  State investigators fined the shelter $1,250 and the Humane Society fired the shelter's executive director, Jenn Austin.  It is unclear to me why the PVHS and Ms. Austin are not being prosecuted for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, since they caused a situation where thousands of illegal bird deaths a years were certain to occur.

A Tiny Wonder of a Book:
Looking for a book for a birder friend for Christmas?  How about Audubon's Birds Of America, Tiny Folio edition? This sparkling little hardcover copy displays all 435 of John James Audubon's hand-colored engravings, with an introduction by Roger Tory Peterson. This is a very good small-sized reproduction of the Baby Elephant Folio reproduced in a miniature, gem-like version, all for only $10 in a hardcover!
 
Melting Glaciers Give Up Clues of Production:
A melting glacier in Norway has revealed an ancient bow and arrow set tipped with slate.

The Death of a Thousand Movie Plots:
If you steal really famous and expensive art, you will find it is worthless, impossible to sell, and will get you arrested.

A Real Cure for Baldness?
A cure presupposes an illness,  but I think baldness is more of a feature.  That said, baldness could soon be banished after researchers discovered how to use a person’s own cells to grow new hair.
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Coffee and Provocation

The Kids Are Not Alright:

England is the only country in the developed world where the generation approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest adults, according to the first skills survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In a stark assessment of the success and failure of the 720-million-strong adult workforce across the wealthier economies, the economic thinktank warns that in England, adults aged 55 to 65 perform better than 16- to 24-year-olds at foundation levels of literacy and numeracy. Please note that survey did not include people from Scotland or Wales. I will let others decide if adding those numbers would improve things, or make them worse!  The OECD study also finds that a quarter of adults in England have the maths skills of a 10-year-old. About 8.5 million adults, 24.1% of the population, have such basic levels of numeracy that they can manage only one-step tasks in arithmetic, sorting numbers or reading graphs.

 

Lies About Lemmings:

Due to the antics of the Republican party of late, there has been a lot of talk about lemmings. Please note that in the real world, lemmings do not actually throw themselves off of cliffs into the sea in order to kill themselves. This is fiction perpetuated by a 1958 Disney documentary called White Wilderness, in which the filmmakers manually ran a pack of lemmings off a cliff for entertainment purposes. This lie-packed documentary went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.  Please discuss. 

 

Free Pulp!

How about 1,661 pulp novels as free ebooks?  Get your free pulp here!

 

A New Species or Just a Booger?

A U.S. biologist coming back from a primate research trip to Africa, discovered he had a tick up his nose. After carefully removing the little bugger, he had it sent off for identification and discovered it was a new species. The tick also suggests a new field of research:  how blood borne pathogens might migrates from apes to humans, and back again.

 

Rats With Mad Skills:

Can your dog do as many tricks as these rats?  Mine can't!

 

An Iron Age Cable Knit?!

Melting glaciers are telling us more and more about primitive man. A Norwegian glacier recently exposed a wool iron-age sweater woven in diamond twill.  After 1,700 years in the ice, it still looks to be in pretty good shape!

 

Comment Trolls Kill Content:

Comment trolls kill content and research shows there is a very good reason to scrap them altogether or to moderate them severely.  Following up on that research, the Popular Science website has announced it will no longer allow readers to comment on new stories at all.  Goodbye trolls!

 

Another Not Extinct Species:

As I have noted in the past, most animal extinctions are due to rats and cats on islands, and about as many species are "rediscovered" every year as are pushed over the brink and into the abyss.  The latest rediscovery of a formally "extinct" species is the Pinnochio Lizard, a type of anole, rediscovered in the cloud forests of Ecuador.

 

A Dinosaur in Every Bucket:

Dinosaur feathers have finally been found preserved in amber that is about 78 million years old.

Coffee and Provocation

The Medal Given for Dog Piss:
A medal that was given to a Great Dane in World War II for pissing on an incendiary bomb, has been sold.

Less Lyme Disease in California:
There's less Lyme disease in California that elsewhere because Western Fence Lizards eat so many ticks.

Bad Meat Sails Through USDA Inspection:

A program set to roll out across the U.S. has repeatedly failed to stop contaminated meat at pilot plants.

 

50,000 Stray Dogs in Detroit:

Yes, there are feral dog packs in parts of America.

 

Face Time = Treat Time with iPooch:

iCPooch is an Internet enabled device that lets you video chat and deliver treats to your dog from anywhere in the world!  And yes, there's a Kickstarter campaign to fund it! 

Paranoia and Potatoes:
The East Germans once thought we were bombing them with bugs.

Petfinder Now Owned By Purina:
Petfinder.com, which was owned by Discovery, has been purchased by Purina.  This is a good thing -- more money from a dedicated player with a name brand.  Purina sees helping shelter dogs and encouraging working dogs as good ethics and good business.

Will Amazon Give You a Free Smart Phone?
This is coming soon enough -- a way to sell a new national newspaper (The Washington Post) and a way to put a dedicated store and advertising mechanism in your pocket.

I Blame Obama:
The birth rate for American teens fell to 29.4 births per 1,000 in 2012 — a six percent drop from 2011, alone. Data shows it fell for all ethnic groups.... A lot of the progress has been made in the last few years. The birth rate in 2007 was 41.5 births per 1,000 teenage girls — falling almost 30 percent in the last five years.

Processed Food Is What Made Man
Here's the two-million year history of processed food. It's what has made us so successful and so healthy.
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Coffee and Provocation

 

Successful New Vaccine for Biggest Killer in the World?
Malaria kills more people than any other disease in the modern era and has, in fact, killed more people than war in the developing world.  Now, Maryland researchers have discoverd a vaccine that works 80 percent of the time.  More trials are neeed, but this could is big.

Smear Peanut Butter on an iPad?

Go ahead; smear peanut butter on an iPad and call yourself a dog trainer. People have done less and claimed more.

 

A is for Archeology, and B is for Badger:

A badger has unearthed medieval graves in Germany.

 

The Lloyds Bank Turd:

If you only watch one video about the man behind the Lloyds Bank Turd, the most important ancient turd in the world, it should be this one: Bone: The Man Behind the Lloyds Bank Turd.

 

Facebook May Be One Reason You Are Unhappy:
A new study concludes that: "Facebook use predicts negative shifts on both of these variables over time. The more people used Facebook at one time point, the worse they felt the next time we text-messaged them; the more they used Facebook over two-weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time. Interacting with other people 'directly' did not predict these negative outcomes. They were also not moderated by the size of people's Facebook networks, their perceived supportiveness, motivation for using Facebook, gender, loneliness, self-esteem, or depression. On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection. Rather than enhancing well-being, however, these findings suggest that Facebook may undermine it."  Hat tip to Donald McCaig for this one!

Demi Moore May Not Be Crazy: 

Ashton Kutcher might have more lead in his keel than you would imagine. Of course, he would have to, right?

Great Moments in Litigation History:
Chubby Checker can sue Hewlett Packard over genital-measuring app, says judge.
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Coffee and Provocation

 

Provoking the Pit Bull:

It's all fun and games until the Pit Bull swallows.  It seems a 33-year-old man tried to “befriend” a pit bull by putting his face up to the dog and sticking his tongue out. The pit bull proceeded to bite off the man’s tongue and swallow it.  The man will live, if talk funny, but of course the Pit Bull will die, in part because it has bitten before.

 

There's Cash in Them There Pit Bull Stories!

The Humane Societies of New Jersey (AHS) is suing Garden State Veterinary Services in Northern New Jersey, as well as the City of Newark, to gain custody of an abused Pit Bull by the name of Patrick that was pulled from a Newark apartment building trash chute. AHS is claiming ownership of the dog because it was to their clinic that the no-name dog was rushed for emergency treatment. Once stabilized, the no-name dog was transferred to Garden State Veterinary Services who named the dog Patrick and made it a cause. AHS is now suing to have the dog they refer to as “trademark registration number 23699″ returned so that the dog can spend the rest of its life at the AHS Forked River Shelter.  Why the interest in this dog?  Well, direct mail of course!  AHS says in court documents,  that to “deprive AHS of its property interest in Patrick” would result in “significant losses” of “economic advantage” to AHS.  

 

No Habla Ingles?

The New Mexico Supreme Court has ruled that courts in that state cannot exclude jurors for not speaking English. Or to put it another way  新墨西哥州最高法院已经裁定，法院在这种状态下，不能排除陪审员不会说英语.  Or perhaps:  Το Νέο Μεξικό Ανώτατο Δικαστήριο αποφάνθηκε ότι το δικαστήριο του κράτους δεν μπορεί να αποκλείσει ενόρκων για να μην μιλάει Inglés.  Of course there are those who would say it this way: न्यू मैक्सिको के सुप्रीम कोर्ट के उस राज्य की अदालतों इन्ग्लेस नहीं बोल के लिए जूरी सदस्यों को अलग नहीं कर सकते हैं कि में फैसला दिया है..  Or, if you prefer:  Die New Mexico Hooggeregshof het beslis dat dit in staat howe kan nie uitsluit regters nie te praat nie Ingles.

 

Battery Test
This is an amazingly simple, no-tech way of testing the average battery.  Check it out.

 

China's One (Small) Dog Policy

Having let enforcement lapse in the past, China is now enforcing its one small dog policy, which is sending large number of larger dogs to their death.

Coffee and Provocation

Veterinarians Continue to Rip People Off:
I have written about it before here and here and here, but here's the latest version of the vaccine con you might hear the next time you go to the vet.

Dogs Can See Color:
Well, mostly.  Some of them, at least.  This is news to most of you.

Carrying the Terriers on a Bike?
The best bike for the job might be the xtracycle which makes long-tail carriers and panniers as well as special cargo bikes.  Check it out!

A Little Something for the Cats?
Why I have no tolerance for feral cats, I rather like true domestics (inside or out) and for those who have such cats here are a few great ideas for building your house around them.  Some cool stuff here!

Giant Tortoises Return to Pinzon Island:
After more than 100 years, Galápagos giant tortoises are returning to Pinzón Island in the Galápagos after conservationists cleared it of invasive rats.

Coffee Beans are Not Beans:
They are the pit of a fruit.

A $330,000 Hamburger that Tastes Like Crap:
It''s made from lab-grown meat made from cow cells.  An yes, meat without fat tastes like crap.

Comedians Getting Coffee in Cars:
Yes, there is a whole web site devoted to this.  Is America great, or what?  Here's Chris Rock getting coffee with Jerry Seinfeld in a 1966 Lamborghini.

Viagra Can Keep Cut Flowers Standing:
Viagra can keep flowers standing for a week longer than normal.

U.S. Army Says Get the Lead Out of Ammunition:
The U.S. Army announced this month that it has developed nonlead cartridges for rifles commonly used by soldiers in training and in the field. "The military is so pleased with the performance of its new nonlead cartridges that it developing the munitions for additional weapons. The switch to the new 'green' bullet in 2010 has eliminated nearly two thousand tons of lead from the waste stream, according to the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal.... While the cost of nonlead bullets is great than that of lead counterparts, military officials have noted that the cost of closing facilities or cleaning lead contamination makes the nonlead ammunition a less expensive option in the long-range."

NRA Declares War on Those Who Want to Get the Lead Out:
The National Rifle Association announced a new plan to target scientists, environmental groups, government regulators and individuals who favor banning the use of lead in gun ammunition.  Right.  See above, and we wish the NRA good luck in fighting the U.S. Army.

Damn Ninja Apes:
They're ruining the property values (with picture goodness).
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