End of Harvest Weekend Links

Barring unforeseen circumstances, we should finish harvest this afternoon.  I will try to summarize our harvest hijinks later today or tomorrow.  Before that, though, here are some interesting pieces for your weekend enjoyment:

Jose Canseco's Finger Fell off During a Poker Tournament - SBNation.  I don't care who you are, that headline is an attention-grabber.

Some Guy Scooped The Baseball Media On The Biggest MLB Contract Ever - Deadspin

The Weirdest Alcohol Laws in America - Gizmodo.  Indiana had some doozies back in the day, but didn't make the list.

Bottle Rocket - Texas Monthly.  How Lone Star became America's coolest beer for a period of time in those crazy Seventies.

This Little Piggy Bred a Superbug - Pacific Standard.  Jay Hormel and the history of feeding healthy livestock antibiotics.  See also, TED Talk on the Coming Antibiotic Crisis - Big Picture Agriculture

Are These Nicotine-Like Insecticides Killing Bees? - Modern Farmer

Lightning May Increase with Global Warming - Scientific American

All Dressed Up For Mars and Nowhere To Go - Matter.  A takedown of a really bad idea.

Satirist Onion Inc. Said to Hire Adviser For Sale - Bloomberg.  Say it ain't so. What value could an investment bank bring other than story material?

Germany doesn't understand it has a responsibility to the rest of Europe - Wonkblog 

U.S. Navy Deploys Its First Laser Weapon in Persian Gulf - Bloomberg.  See also, Pentagon Plans To Spend Billions Upgrading Nuclear Program - All Things Considered.  3 bases sharing one wrench?  Is The Onion writing this stuff?  Remember, every dollar spent on nuclear weapons since Nagasaki has been spent on weapons which have never been and God-willing, will never ever be used.  Seems like a worthwhile investment to nobody.

How Obama Endangered Us All With Stuxnet - Daily Beast.  Nothing like being a first mover in cyber warfare.  Give other bad actors the excuse that the U.S. and Israel do it.  Nothing bad will come of that.

Fracking Boom Spurs Demand for Sand and Clouds of Dust - Bloomberg

Why Men Love War - William Broyles Jr.  From long ago, but it showed up on naked capitalism links this week.

Cheese: Which Country Eats the Most? - Wall Street Journal.  Wow, the Journal made it through an entire piece detailing how much cheese Frenchmen consume without using the phrase, "cheese-eating surrender monkeys. (video here)"  Clearly, 2003 was a long time ago.