It’s a mad, mad world –really!

The convenience beverage market got jumbled recently when, first, Oregon-based Union Wine Co. announced in November that it would soon sell its Underwood pinot gris and pinot noir in 12-ounce cans and, second, the London department store Selfridges unveiled a champagne vending machine for New Year's celebrations. (You could get a bottle of Moet for the equivalent of $29.) 

The Pets Deli in the Grunewald neighborhood of Berlin offers servings for the equivalent of about $4 to $6, either take-out or arranged in metal bowls on Pets Deli's floor. Said owner David Spanier, lauding his upscale, healthful treats, "Junk food is bad for animals." 

Around Tokyo, "idle boredom is an impossible option," wrote Vice.com in December, as a reporter described a resort just out of town where one could swim in a pool of green tea, coffee, sake or (the most popular treat) wine. "A giant bottle of merlot" spilled into a pond the size of a minivan, he wrote (while braving the Yunessun resort's warnings not to drink from the pool). --Though both-sex nudity is tolerated in Japan's hot springs spas, Yunessun discourages it. 

Hey, looking for a new line of work? A team of Czech Republic researchers reported that dogs, dealing with a nature's call, spontaneously align their body axis with the Earth's magnetic field. To reach that conclusion, the researchers said they observed 70 dogs of 37 breeds during defecation (1,893 observations) and urination (5,582) over a two-year period. 

Somalia's coastal pirates, having peaked in 2009 in boat captures, may now be laying low only because of the familiar business problem of "inventory management." A November analysis by Quartz (qz.com) showed the pirates with such a surplus of hijacked vessels (still with earnings potential) that they would likely wind those down before taking to the seas again. 

Today’s Reflection: 

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

-George Washington


Live Long and Prosper…