Coffee and Provocation

• Dead Vultures and Rabid Dogs
  I have written in the past about the collapse of the White-backed Vulture population in India due to the use of veterinary pain killers in cattle.  Now, there has been a corresponding rise in the numbers of rabid wild dogs, which feed on the carrion that the vultures used to eat.  Vultures in Africa are now facing a similar decline caused by ingesting the same veterinary drugs.


• The High Price of Kleptocracy
  I have written in the past about hyper-inflation in Zimbabwe, and the fact that I have two 100 trillion dollar notes from Zimbabwe -- the largest denomination notes ever printed.  Now the Finance Minister of Zimbabwe has revealed that after paying public worker salaries last week, the government has just $217 left in the bank. This is a country with fertile land, gold, platinum, coal, iron, diamonds, and wildlife, but which has had a kleptocratic, syphilis-infected madman as its leader for more than 30 years.


• Possums in the Yard?
  I used to think possums were fairly benign creatures (provided you did not have horses), but my thinking may need a reassessment. It seems possums are the most common vector for fleas entering your yard.  I actually do not have a flea problem (never have had) in part because I wash the dogs every week, and in part because possums are dead on entrance from the dogs during the day, and from fox at night.


• Canada Put an Invasive Foreigner on Its Money
  A Canadian botanist says the maple leaf on the Canadian $20 bill is the wrong type; it's the economic useless and entirely foreign Norway maple, which is an invasive species, and not the economically useful and native sugar maple.

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