Stuff below the fold

Guess whose guarding the stash?

Reality copying fiction?

On the other hand, Trenton seemed to cope pretty well with the real thing:

The four-foot-long beast, likely a pet disposed of by a former owner, eluded capture for three weeks, and instead of striking fear into the hearts of Trentonians (who in Janet’s books don’t even flinch at the sound of gunshots), it proved to be a tourist attraction. Local families made daily trips to the park and waited patiently with their cameras and camcorders hoping to catch a glimpse of the alligator.
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Narcissitic Hippies turned into narcissitic yuppies, and now:

"Are you over 50 and enjoying life? Then you may well be a mappie."

"The acronym stands for Mature, Affluent, Pioneering People and has been coined to describe a growing social group of active, fun-loving fifty- and sixty-somethings."

yes "it's all about ME ME ME".

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Hepatitis A contaminated communion hosts? Someone didn't wash their hands or did someone deliberately contaminate it?
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Paranoia attack: Will Obamacare stop private physician owned hospitals from being opened? And will the infiltration of liberal groups into the Catholic health system (or what father Z calls the "magesterium of nuns") lead to Catholic hospitals morphing into secular hospitals that cooperate with the "culture of death" philosophy?

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Dangerous food in Japan. Most folks know about the Fugu fish, but the real danger is...sticky rice buns.
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And in between the bad news about the environment, Mother Jones does admit that there is some good news, and suggests that this be pointed out once in awhile so folks don't get too discouraged:

• South Korea, almost denuded after the Korean War, now boasts forest cover across more than 63 percent of the country.
• In Namibia, wildlife populations are increasing.
• South Africa has completed a major expansion of Kruger National Park.
• Iraqi engineers have reflooded the Tigris–Euphrates marshes.
• Pioneering legislation has slowed species loss around the world, including the Bird Directive of the EU, the Habitats Directive of the EU, and the US Endangered Species Act of 1973.
• In Australia, large-scale land clearing has been halted and most of the rainforest in the country is now contained within World Heritage sites.
• The largest marine protected area in the world was recently enacted by one of the poorest nations on Earth, Kiribati.
• The Antarctic Treaty has conserved more than 14 percent of our global land area—18 million square kilometers/6.5 million square miles—for longer than 50 years.