It keeps the cobblies away.
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http://www.livescience.com/history/080519-hs-coffee.html
How Coffee Changed the World
By Heather Whipps, LiveScience's History Columnist
posted: 19 May 2008 12:35 pm ET

Heather Whipps is a freelance writer with an anthropology degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Red ripe coffee beans are sorted on a coffee plantation near Poas, Costa Rica in this file photo. (AP Photo/Kent Gilbert) Each
Monday, this column turns a page in history to explore the discoveries, events and people that continue to affect the history being
made today.

Did you hear the one about the goat, the monk and the Indian pilgrim?

There's no crass punchline to this story, just a punchy drink that is the world's second most important commodity, after oil.

Discovered more than 1,000 years ago by goats roaming the hills of Ethiopia, coffee today employs 500 million people, from the
workers toiling in the fields of Kenya to the teenage baristas at your neighborhood Starbucks.

In a world of more than 6 billion people, enjoying a good cup of joe is one of the few fixtures of everyday life common to cultures
on every continent.

Buzzed goats make important discovery

On May 20, 8:19 am, Sir Frederick fuzzysys.com> wrote:

The History and Evolution of Corn
by Steve Peters

Corn, known throughout most of the world as maize (Zea mays),
represents the most remarkable plant breeding achievement in the
history of agriculture. The modern manifestation of this ancient plant
bears little resemblance to its original ancestor, a wild grass from
southern Mexico called teosinte. This transformation from an
inconspicuous grass to a diverse, highly evolved and productive food
plant is a story of co-evolution and interdependence between humans
and maize that spans thousands of years and involves millions of
farmers.

An Unlikely Ancestor

Teosinte is a tall, drought-tolerant grass that produces, instead of a
cob, spikes close to the ground, filled with two rows of small,
triangular-shaped seeds within an enclosed husk. A hard shell around
each seed protects them once they fall to the ground.

(sipped coffee)

too much coffee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oe1ljgJ2eA&feature=related

On 20 May, 06:44, "turtoni" fastmail.net> wrote:

Coffee good....

On Mon, 19 May 2008 15:19:09 -0700, Sir Frederick wrote:

is tied to the politics of tea...

" .....During the eighteenth century, the market in Europe and America
for tea, a new drink in the West, expanded greatly. Additionally, there
was a continuing demand for Chinese silk and porcelain....

On May 19, 6:19 pm, Sir Frederick fuzzysys.com> wrote: