My Coffee Beans Came From Where?

This is a civet.

According to the New York Times, this cat-like monkey-ish thing is a real coffee snob.  The folks at Starbucks have nothing on this furry guy.  Civets seek out and eat only the very best of the best coffee cherries in their Indonesian and Philippine habitats.

And then for whatever insane reason, Indonesians and Filipinos collect the partially digested coffee beans that the civets excrete in their dung so as to bring the world a great new high end beverage.

This has to be pretty close to the most revolting thing I've ever heard.

One Step Forward, One Step Back

That's one small step for health care, one giant leap backward for U.S. energy policy.

In the wake of last week's relative victory for health care reform, President Obama decided today to shift the big fast car from fourth gear directly into reverse by ending the ban on drilling for oil along the Atlantic coast.

I see this as the same kind of mistake that the U.S. Mint has made each time it has tried to introduce a $1 coin into general circulation.  Why do you suppose we still use dollar bills far more than dollar coins?  It's because the Mint refuses to actually REPLACE the bills with the coins.  If you want to introduce a new form of currency to supplant an old one, you have to take the old one out of circulation.

Information Alone Does Not Make One Smart

I remember how excited I was to have my very own library card when I was a kid.  I could pick out whatever books I wanted, take them home, and enjoy them at my leisure.  As I got older, that card allowed me to do research for homework topics and get study aids for exams.

Admittedly, as an adult, I don't use my library card much anymore, preferring to look up information on the Internet, usually starting with a Google search.

Nicolas Carr asked the question, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" in the July/August 2008 edition of The Atlantic.  True, Google is certainly changing the way people look for information.  But is this means of searching for information, and the ways in which it has changed how we approach a problem that needs solving, made us stupid?  Well...