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[Groundhog Day] Punxsutawney Phil emerged on Groundhog Day 2026. Six more weeks of winter are on the way. Rewatch the moment.

[The Plot Thickens] UK politician Peter Mandelson under scrutiny over alleged leaks to Jeffrey Epstein. Link

[Bankrupt] Roomba, the first domestic robot company, is bankrupt because of so many competitors. The EC and the FTC blocked the acquisition by Amazon in a particularly painful way, in that they dragged out the acquisition for 18 months, which is almost a death blow to any company to be held in limbo.  Link

[Dumb Idea] In Duffel, Belgium, on Jan. 2, police were conducting a sobriety checkpoint when a car crept up to the officers. The driver seemed unusually short and young, which follows because he was, in fact, the 12-year-old son of the front-seat passenger, his dad. “I had drunk too much and so I entrusted the car to my son to drive home,” Dad told the police. Mom and two siblings were in the back seat. The boy was fined for driving without a license; Dad was charged with entrusting the car to someone not fit to drive it. After the traffic stop, Mom drove the rest of the way home.

[Correction] The Missouri compromise was 1820, not 1920. (Editor: oops) Link

Bad Monkey returns to Long Beach Drive on Big Pine Key to shoot exterior shots for the next series.

[“Old map”] The map would have been better if we could read it. I’m sure it is interesting because of all the changes since it was printed.

[New Food Upside-down Pyramid] “Real” Americans should eat food that clogs their arteries. That’s the bottom line of the new “food pyramid” released last week by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which is based on his crackpot MAHA ideas about diet. To be fair, the new version “has some good advice.” But the new pyramid also advises us to bulk up on protein by consuming a lot more beef, eggs, and full-fat dairy products, with little mention of beans and legumes. Decades of research have shown a clear link between saturated fat consumption and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Kennedy also urges us to coat our pans with butter or beef tallow even though it is “supercharged with saturated fat.” Clearly, our health secretary cares far more about playing to the base than the biological integrity of his constituents.

[Frozen Iguanas] Have cold-stunned iguanas in your yard? Bring them to us, FWC says. When it gets this cold iguanas, which are accustomed to hot weather, become cold-stunned. They’re not dead, but they go into a state of torpor in which they lose muscle control. They look dead or frozen, often falling onto the ground from trees. Link

[The wreck of the Lawrence N. McKenzie] New Jersey beachgoers could be forgiven for mistaking a pile of recently spotted debris for washed up driftwood, but the staff at Island Beach State Park say the find is much more notable. According to park officials, erosion caused by weeks of high winds and intense surf has revealed a portion of a nearly 140-year-old shipwreck. On March 21, 1890, a ship named the Lawrence N. McKenzie was nearing the end of an over 1,600 mile journey. The 98-foot-long schooner’s eight crewmembers expected to soon reach New York City with a cargo full of oranges, but they never reached their destination. Link

[Fog] Last week before the cold there was fog. you can see the thin layer of fog on one of the undeveloped lanes. That’s something you seldom see down here.

[Naval Attack on Iran 1975] On 14 April, the American guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine while transiting international waters as part of Operation Earnest Will, the 1987–88 effort to protect reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers from Iranian attacks during the Iran–Iraq War. The explosion pierced the hull and broke the keel of the Samuel B. Roberts, which nearly sank but was saved by its crew with no loss of life. After the serial numbers of mines recovered in the area were found to match those of mines seized on an Iranian barge the previous September, U.S. military officials planned a retaliatory operation. On 18 April, the attack destroyed, damaged, or sank two Iranian oil platforms, three warships, several armed boats, and two fighter jets. Two U.S. Marine aviators died when their helicopter crashed into the Gulf. The attack pressured Iran to agree to a ceasefire with Iraq later that summer, ending the eight-year Iran-Iraq War. Link

[Protection of Religious Expression in Public Schools] (HJR 583), and is sponsored by Reps. Chase Tramont, R- Port Orange, and Berny Jacques, R-Seminole. For instance, it would allow students to wear clothing, accessories and jewelry that display a religious message. And they could organize prayer groups and religious clubs to the same extent that students can organize secular activities and groups. Link

[Apples and Oranges] If you compare Apple with Windows, you’ll find Windows 11 is incredibly customizable. With Apple, you’re stuck with what they offer. Just a few tweaks are allowed; almost no customization is possible for the simple user. An expert Windows user can even go into the html code and change it. Apple doesn’t have code, just 01010101 and users can never change that.

[Tea Party in Boston] John Adams thought it was Bohea Tea that was dumped, but it was Young Hyson Tea that was dumped overboard at the Boston Tea Party. Young Hyson tea, also known as Lucky Dragon Tea and is a high-quality Chinese green tea made from young leaves that are thinly rolled into a twisted shape that unfurls when brewed. Boston’s Salutation Street in 1857, was a short, narrow lane, one end of which boasted the Salutation Tavern, the favorite drinking establishment of the local shipyard workers and where the Boston Tea Party had once been planned by Samuel Adams, Josiah Quincy Jr., Joseph Warren, Paul Revere, John Adams, James Otis, and the North End ship caulkers.

[Suckers] I saw an expose on phony charities and the one that stuck out to me was the little bald kid dying of cancer. The con men shot 3 different commercials with the kid in different states of dying to see which one would elicit the most donations. The kid didn’t have cancer, and his mother was paid $1000. How much money do these commercials generate? A lot because they keep paying for the commercials to show on tv.

Maury’s charts of ocean ‘rivers’ changed sailing forever. The navigator Matthew Fontaine Maury collected between 1842 and 1861 an extensive array of ship logs, enabling him to chart prevailing winds and sea currents, as well as their seasonal variations. While mariners were well aware of specific regional conditions, such as the Gulf Stream, Maury was the first to comprehensively tally oceanographic conditions at the global level. Link

[Middle Keys Republican Club] Meeting Wed. February 4th. You must be a registered Republican to attend. Marathon American Legion Post 154, MM 49, 4115 Overseas Hwy., Marathon, Florida Keys, Social Starts at 5:30PM, Meeting starts promptly at 6PM.

Excellent nature photos. More

[Muslim Day] Officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Florida came to Tallahassee Monday to speak with lawmakers about pending legislation during the annual “Muslim Day” at the Capitol but found conditions far different than in the past. That’s because in December, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order designating CAIR a “terrorist organization.” The group immediately denied the accusation and filed a federal lawsuit, asking the court to block the executive order and declare it unconstitutional. The case is set for oral arguments on CAIR Florida’s motion for injunctive relief on Feb. 27.

[French Skiing] The extreme sport of skijoring, where horses pull skiers at 40 mph. And why the eccentric sport will likely never return to the Olympics. Link

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[February Blood Drives] Donations drop with winter weather and demand doesn’t. To find a drive near you, click the link below. As a thank you to those who donate life saving blood, this month’s donor gift is an eGift Card plus a long-sleeved t-shirt. Thank you to those who donate life saving blood. Link

[King Cobras Take the Train in India] Earth’s largest venomous snakes are hitching rides to places they don’t belong. Not only are India’s trains pathetically filthy, but some travel with cobras! Link

[Apple Maps] I pulled up a map of Big Pine and thought it was lousy and didn’t know why until I clicked around and found it was an Apple map. I just compared Apple maps with Google maps. Apple maps are lousy and lack the detail of Google maps. I just don’t know why some people are fascinated with Apple. It has never been as good as Windows and now with Windows 11, it’s hard to compare. As a matter of fact, Steve Jobs was in the process of discontinuing the iMAC computer when he released the iPhone. The phenomena of the iPhone deservedly shot them to the top of the tech pile, but the iMac still lagged behind, even when using Windows’ Intel processors and other Microsoft parts. Awful computer. Apple users spread the falsehood that Apple could do things Microsoft couldn’t, like open Photoshop’s image editing software. That was a widely spread urban legend spread by Apple and its users with absolutely no basis in fact, merely to sell Apple products. The same trickery they were cited for last year when they got caught slowing down images and videos sent from Android phones to denigrate the competition in Apple users’ minds.

[“Old map”] I’m looking for a plot map from the 1970s the realtors used to show what acres had been sold and what acres were still available. I saw the map in the old A-frame realtor’s office at the light on US1 that is now a bank but used to be a real estate office. That plot map had low land just to the north of Osprey Lane designated “Alligator Slough” The slough runs from N. Pine channel NE across the island. That slough is the reason they located the culvert (humps in the road) on Key Deer Blvd and Watson Rd. They say there’s excess salt on the plants there. There isn’t excess salt there as I’ve checked for many years. It’s only slightly lower than the surrounding area and not lower enough to make a difference in water collection and flooding.

The current Coconut Telegraph was published on 2/3/25 at 9:13 am.

[House For Sale] Big Pine Key. 3 bedrooms. 2 full bathrooms. House on stilts over full concrete slab. Bay window in Kitchen plus a pantry. Stainless steel appliances. Plenty of kitchen cabinets and granite counter tops. Dining area/living room. Big front porch. Large, locked storage room downstairs. Covered parking for two vehicles. Central air conditioning plus heat. Back two bedrooms have additional mini-split A/Cs for custom cooling. Very bright and clean and in a quite neighborhood with only 3 houses on the street and no houses across from the house. Laundry area in hallway. $575,000.
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