Coffee and Provocation

Jerry Seinfeld on Canine Leadership:
"Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them's making a poop, the other one's carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge?"

Terrierman Bob Clough Has Gone to Earth:
Bob was the author of Down to Earth Jack Russells.  A nice and very genuine Welshman with tattooed arms and a ready story, he was profiled in Terriermen & Terriers and went all over the world judging the dogs and digging on them too.

Choosing and Raising a Small Farm Dog:
Heather Houlahan put together an excellent presentation for the Mother Earth News fair.  Check it out!

Predictable:
Sponsor of guns-in-bars bill arrested for DUI with gun.

Almost as Predictable:
From The New York Times comes this little bit of suck:  "Soon, much sooner than you realize, your speeding tickets will be issued electronically to your cell phone from a drone hovering somewhere over the interstate."  Question:  what caliber rifle do you need to shoot down a traffic drone?

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire:
A nice TED lecture on how often people lie. and the "tells" when they do.

Best Con of the Week:
If you liked Spinal Tap, you will like this real estate story!

Old Black Death vs New Black Death?
Scientists have spent a lot of time and money extracting and sequencing the DNA from 13th Century plague victims, and what they've found is that the old Black Death is pretty much exactly like what we have now:  "The genome recovered from the East Smithfield victims is remarkably similar to that of the present-day bacterium.... The bacterium’s genome consists of a single chromosome, about 4.6 million DNA units long, and three small rings of DNA called plasmids. In the 660 years since the Black Death struck, only 97 of these DNA units have changed and only a dozen of these changes occur in genes and therefore would affect the organism’s physical properties."  So why is the Black Death not a big deal now?  The article does not say, but I will:  antibiotics and the near-absence of black rats due to the rise of brown rats.

Jim Morrison Fishing:
With picture goodness.

It's Not Cheap, But I Am Sure the Government Will Buy It:
 A nice humorous video from 1977.

The Rule for Blogging:
Someone has decided that the rule for blogging is to write 1,000 words a day.  A good idea, but if you are a blogger and you are still living in your parent's house, maybe you should quit blogging and get a real job?  Just saying...
. .