Osama b Laden drank Coke

According to a report today, two couriers who worked for OBL, purchased provisions on a regular basis.

Apparently, OBL liked name brands. One of these was Coke. Another was P...i.

Other brands that OBL liked include Nestle Milk.


source of this info is here.

UGA Has Another Newspaper Article to Like

There have been several reports that the late April 2011 operation to kill Bin Laden included one dog.

As in the image, most people assume it was a German Shepard but, of course as the operation has many secret components, it could have been a bulldog with a bone its mouth saying "WASSSZ UP".

One news article here.

Another here.

Another here.

Per the articles, the DOD employs about 2700 dogs, up from about 1700 before 9-11.

In the operation, per the articles, a SEAL rappelled down from a helicopter with a dog strapped to his chest.

Gator exploited for Nefarious Activity


A man in East Hemet California (about 90 miles east of downtown Los Angeles) was using a Florida alligator to guard his marijuana supply. The man was dispensing the marijuana in an unlicensed medical treatment.

The gator weighed only 55 pounds but, heh, he was a gator and who is going to risk that (image is from the news article).

After the arrest (of the man), the gator was relocated to an undisclosed location in San Bernadino County. Personal possession of alligators in California is illegal but authorities acknowledge that a number of homes have them because of, well, the panache.


G sent me this article.

Are American Bears Different?

A blogger named Erica Grieder has done an analysis of English vs American 'literary' bears.

Her conclusion was,

" American bears are, for the most part, more assertive and autonomous than English bears."

Greider knows more about English bears than I do and she knows somethings about American bears (e.g., Yogi Bear).

However, she is apparently not familiar with several other bears, notably, our Graduation Bear, Coke Bear and Hard Rock Bear (in the image, Hard Rock Bear is showing off his certificate which identifies him as special Atlanta Hard Rock Bear number 910).

That's too bad because if she had, her "American Bears are more assertive" thesis would be stronger. As for the autonomous aspect, that wouldn't play out so well. Coke bear and Hard Rock bear depend on their corporation for identity.

As for Graduation Bear, well lets just say he has had some issues in the past.




Here is Erica Greider's analysis and also an image she used (his name is Corduroy Bear apparently).

Here is the Volokh Conspiracy post that discusses Erica's analysis and contains a number of unbearable puns.

Coke Buys the Rest of Honest Tea

Today the Coca Cola corporation purchased those shares of Honest Tea that they didn't already own.

Before the purchase, Coke Bear consulted briefly with Graduation.

Grad liked the name Honest Tea since the product says they have twice the taste but half the calories of "... those super sweet drinks with fewer than 50 calories per serving."

but they don't say what "those" are and the 50 calories is only if you drink a bit less than half a 16 ounce bottle.



Article on Coke purchase here.
Honest tea Product info faqs here.

Mr. Pumpkin goes to Atlanta

G took Mr. Pumpkin to Atlanta (Feb 28-Mar 2).

Mr. Pumpkin is a legacy of 396 Wimbledon. He came to our family sometime between 1998 and about 2008 during a 'cleaning' but had been in the Lindsey house for several decades before that.

KBL didn't recognize him when G showed her.

This annoyed Mr. Pumpkin, who complained to KBL's Reindeer about it and also the fact that he (Mr. Pumpkin) is the only stuffed animal who isn't referenced in the first blessing of the Grace after meals (this is because the blessing refers to 'all creatures that God created' and Mr. Pumpkin is something of a hybrid between a creature and a fantasy).

UGA gets a trip to Baltimore

G was taking the bar exam in Baltimore on Feb 22-23.

He stayed at a motel near the Convention Center (where the exam was administered).

UGA went with him because UGA espouses constant vigilance (whether he practises that or not is another thing) and G needed some vigilance to make sure he was at the exam on time (G also had the motel give him a wake up call and took two alarm clocks - so not all the pressure was on UGA).
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Coke raises dividend

Following a few days after their successful post merger quarter, Coca Cola announced they were raising the dividends.

It is a pretty high payout ratio with, by my analysis, about 60% of net incoming going into dividends. Of course that may be do to the fact that Warren Buffet, who holds 200,000,000 shares, is a big fan of dividends.


This article discusses the dividend.

Merger Went Well

Last week, Coca Cola announced that the first quarter after full intergration after the Coke company bought the bottling company was a big success.

Net income was up about 65% (to about $5.7B), revenue was up about 40% (to about $10.5B). Product sales was up about 6% (only 5% if you don't count the Dr. Pepper that came with the bottling company).

Coke Bear is very, very pleased with himself.


NYTimes article on the successful quarter is here.

A Wily Coyote Experience

We are doing a refinancing. A financial fact checker from Chase Mortgage called us. She needed some basic information from Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo wouldn't talk to her. Wells Fargo wouldn't even agree to a three way call with her, us and them. So we had Chase call Wells Fargo then mute themselves while we asked Wells Fargo the questions. One of the questions was "what is your name?" which was put to the Wells Fargo person answering the other questions.

She said, "Rebecca H." I asked if her last name was spelled 'Ache' but she said that it was the letter 'H'. I said that given that I've told her my name and my address and my social security number to get the basic financial information of 'account balance', that this seemed a little one sided. Rebecca H. responded that it was company policy. We hung up.

The Chase fact checker called and told me they had all the info and that she (the fact checker) had enjoyed the conversation. I told her that what we had done was similar to those contraptions that wily coyote built expect for the giant spring and the rocket and the fact checker said she loved the metaphor.

Another Alligator Movie

I watched this movie with Gate.

There were many men and women eaten whole and 1980s entertainers/actresses Debbie Gibson (plays an animal rights activist who frees captive snakes) and Tiffany (who plays a park ranger).

Debbie calls Tiffany a 'gator feeding b..ch' which starts a fight between the two. The fight takes place at an outdoor buffet and lots of different food gets thrown around. Then they make up and help stop the animals.

At one point as the giant gators and pythons get to Miami, the women see a shopping area being destroyed by the giants. One says, "well, I've always hated that mall".

Tiffany is eaten by a gator in one bite. The giant gators and pythons are destroyed by explosives. Debbie falls out of a helicopter into a swamp and is eaten by a dying gator. A park is dedicated to their memory.

Another Intervention

Only a few days after the alcohol abuse intervention, a drug intervention was held by Grad's friends.

They pretty much said the same thing as at the alcohol intervention.

However, they brought in a new friend, Hard Rock bear who commented that instead of hard drugs, you could enjoy Hard Rock and, then he started going on and on about how unique he was.

Anyway, Grad seems to have been laying off the prescription drugs but that might be because he used them all and the pharmacy won't send any more

Time for an Intervention

Grad's friends wanted to help him so they had an intervention.

Gate said, "Your drinking alcohol really hurts me because its not near a swamp."

UGA said, "I'm sad because you aren't being vigilant when you are drunk."

Coke Bear said, "It hurts me that you use only alcohol and not my company's products."

New Year starts Early

Grad, Gate, UGA and Coke got together for a new year's party.

It started early.

They partied long and hard (and didn't use many of Coke Bear's company products). Grad partied the longest and the hardest.

The next morning Grad was, well, let's just say in bad shape.

Grad Dealing with Guilt Again

Graduation Bear is still dealing with some guilt from his 'consultancy' with the hedge fund or else he has a problem again.

The pills are pretty strong given his (Grad's) weight. Sometime he actually doesn't want to be recognized. This all probably comes from the letter he received from Brandeis. They had investigated him further after the June 3 commencement speech and said they wouldn't be inviting him back.

Wile E. Coyote's Identity Crisis

Poor Wile. He had an identity crisis the other day. It is shown at this video

Eventually, he resolved it by becoming an evangelical Christian.

A few days later we had a visit from some of the J- Witnesses.

Today, I got some Old Spice Cologne for all the stuffed animals (including Wile E. and the Road Runner who are gifts from Beth).

Gate Liked Scenes in This Movie

Tonight was the Syfy movie Dinocroc vs Supergator.

This was the PREMIERE of this made of TV movie.

Dinocroc was a 2004 movie.

In Dinocroc vs Supergator, one of the actors is David Carradine (of Kung Fu TV and other fame). In the movie Dinocroc frequently walks on two legs, supergator on 4 but both run about as fast as a speeding car. At the end, the two fight and it seems as if Dinocroc wins (Gate didn't like this).

Supergator was a 2007 movie.

Graduation Bear, Commencement Speaker

Graduation Bear put on some extra clothes and went to Brandeis to give a special Commencement Address to the graduates getting their degree in Communications.

He mentioned that they should enjoy the post graduation parties and mentioned that he has his own consulting practice now. However, he was a bit sketchy on how this came about.

It was something like, "... and then after graduation, I got a job with a prestigious financial firm and, yadda, yadda, I now get fees for consulting."

Gator Used to Sell Skin Cream

Yes, Alligators are photogenic.

So much so that one company uses gator images to sell a skin cream. Apparently, it keeps the skin moist and keeps out UV rays.

But it doesn't give you alligator powers or they would have said that too.

The youtube version of the advertisement is here.

Mixed News for the Coke Bear Family

The Image is from the February 2010 storm.

The Coke Bear family got ambiguous news today. The Coke Corporation announced a 19% increase in profit (09 1st quarter to 10 1st quarter). However, this was less than analysts expected.

Sales by volume of carbonated beverages were down, sales by volume of uncarbonated beverages were up because of sales overseas.

The article from Yahoo financial is here. Below is an excerpt:

Worldwide case volume rose 3 percent, with international case volume growing faster at 5 percent. The company has been courting international drinkers as their economies improve by pitching its drinks as an affordable luxury. In North America, shoppers cut back on such purchases in the recession.

Eurasia and Africa led international growth, with volume up 11 percent. India's volume grew 29 percent and Turkey's 18 percent.

Elsewhere, Brazil's volume gained 12 percent. The flagship Coca-Cola brand posted double-digit growth in Russia, Egypt, Brazil, India, Vietnam and the Philippines.

About three-fourths of Coca-Cola's revenue came from outside North America in the quarter. North America is the world's biggest soft drink market, but it has been weak as people shift to juices and teas.

Total case volume -- including soft drinks and juices -- fell 2 percent in the quarter. But soft drink volume declined 1 percent, less steep than previous quarters. The company credited its marketing campaigns for the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics.

Sales of uncarbonated drinks such as water, juices and teas fell 2 percent in North America. People have been switching to those drinks because of health concerns, but the company noted people are cutting back on these purchases because of the recession.

Uncarbonated drinks grew 8 percent worldwide, driven by a 12 percent increase outside North America.

Gate Savors the Weather Outside

Alligator doesn't like cold and snow and in the image he is pondering the deep snow of February 2010 (from the relative warmth of our Florida room- which is typically 10 to 20 Degrees warmer than the outside in the winter).

Of course not all creatures can be inside. Specifically in Florida there was apparently a big decrease in the python population. As much as 50% of the pythons died because of cold weather in Florida.

He is the word from the AP, through the WTOP.com site,

No pythons caught during Fla. hunting season

April 16, 2010 - 1:35pm

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - An unseasonably cold winter in Florida may have taken care of what python hunters could not.

Not a single python has been caught since the state started allowing hunters with special permits to track them on state-managed lands around the Everglades. The season started March 8 and ends Saturday.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says cold weather is believed to have killed up to 50 percent of the pythons....

(Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.).

Another Heroic Dog

Although it is a Labrador, UGA should be happy that one of his species is getting the animal version of Victoria Cross (its called the Dickin Award) for valor (in this case bomb sniffing). The dog's name is Treo and he is now retired from the job of bomb sniffing. Apparently this has gone on for some time. However, this dog was especially photogenic.

UGA might be unhappy however that no dog has gotten an award for interrogation.


Information from this article

According to this other article, recipients of the award in the past include 32 pigeons, three horses and a cat.

Dog Brings Home A Snake

From Australia comes news of a dog who brought home a snake.

Here is a quote from the news article,

"The champion obedience dog stunned his Victorian owners when he recently returned to them to proudly show off his latest find.

Locked firmly in his jaws and coiled around his snout was a long, live snake, believed to be a deadly copperhead.

"He's normally an excellent duck dog but he'll pick up absolutely anything and return it to us, hanging on to it until we say 'give'," Deborah Allen said."

The article is here.

Another Win for UGA

Another News Headline for UGA to Like

In Florida there was another pro dog story.

A fire that the owners think may have started when a cat knocked over a candle led to a dog barking that alerted the owners to the fire.

Dog saves family from fire that cat started

The article is from a TV station (an NBC affiliate) which took the image of the dog that appears at the top.
alerted the owners to a fire.

Gate Uses His Influence

Gate Uses His Influence at the US Dept of Interior

Gate once worked at the Fish and Wildlife Service. Lately he has been using his contacts there and his influence at the Office of Legal Counsel to get the Dept of Interior's policy changed.

"... Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently announced plans to ban the import or interstate transport of nine snakes that are not native to the United States: Burmese and three other types of pythons, boa constrictors and four different kinds of anaconda...."

This quote is from an editorial in the NYTimes endorsing the new policy (which Gate had something to do with also).

A Snack for an Alligator

The recent cold weather in Florida has had a number of effects on exotic fauna. Pythons and iguanas (such as the one on the left) have been dropping from trees paralyzed by the cold and numerous tropical fish have died. As stated by a spokewoman for Everglades National Park,

“A lot of these invasive exotics come from southern climates, and they won’t be able to withstand a cold spell for this long,” said Linda Friar, a spokeswoman for Everglades National Park. “And as they die off, the native species, the alligators and birds, are happily consuming them.”

I'm presuming the alligators first warmed up before the consumption.

The invasive exotics are discussed in the NYTimes article before the quote,

"....Then there are the cold-blooded invasive visitors from warmer climes — iguanas and pythons. Both started out as pets before reproducing into the thousands once set free by reckless owners and hurricanes. Now, scientists hope, many will have been killed off by the cold...."

The quote from the spokeswoman is from here.

"How do you not fall into the 'all God's Creatures' category?"

The other day we were doing the grace after meals and came to the part in the first benediction about how God provides food for all his creatures.

When Alligator or UGA is doing grace after meal with us they get very excited at this point and jump up and down. But that day we had the stuffed pumpkin farmer. It seemed to me that he didn't fit into this category because he is a composite of two things that do exist, pumpkins and farmers but the composite doesn't actually exist (except for the stuffed animal).

Mr. Pump is Getting Excited

Only two weeks until Halloween now. I have purchased enough candy for the visiting children (I did this in September during an OCD episode).

Our biggest change from last year is putting the electric light inside the pumpkin on a timer. I use the timer that was in the sukkah, having just taken down the sukkah.

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Gators Gets Some Press in Mark Trail

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Well, as it happens, I Usually Detest Mark Trail's comic. The artwork is primitive and the 'plots' are sophomoric.

It also is so pro-environmental as to make me vomit sometimes.

But, of course, if the comic is about alligators, well that's another story.

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Gate Reads About His 'Client'

Apparently Alligator's work preparing briefings for Judge Sotomayor was done well because on Aug 6, the full Senate confirmed her nomination to the Supreme Court.

Alligator gets most of his information from the on-line world but decided it was important to see how the Washington Post would cover this event.

He may have been secretly hoping they would mention his name in the story.