Walking Downtown I passed a sweet looking, artistic, metal fenced patio. This space, on the corner of Scott and Pennington, belongs to Café Poca Cosa and is shaping up nicely. I spoke with Chef Suzana Davila and she is expecting it to be finished and ready for al fresco dining shortly after the New Year. She said that it still needs some electrical work, unique light fixtures that she special ordered to still come in and her personal touches to make it perfect for her guests. I'm hoping some heaters as well for January outdoor dining.

The Arizona Republic's Dennis Wagner examines how state wildlife officials colluded with private biologists to capture Macho B, the last known jaguar in the United States. The big cat had to be euthanized after he was collared:

Although Game and Fish officials claimed Macho B’s capture was accidental, McCain actually set the snare along a favored trail and baited it with scat from a female jaguar in heat. Then he flew to Europe to visit his girlfriend, leaving Smith and another Game and Fish employee to check the traps.

Macho B was caught on Feb. 18, 2009. Smith promptly shared the news with Ron Thompson, the Game and Fish administrator overseeing carnivores, who fired an e-mail to McCain in Spain, announcing: “Thorry did it!”

As word spread, congratulatory messages contained a hint of conspiracy. McCain received one e-mail from a co-worker who wrote, “And just think, he was an ‘incidental’ take. The hell with politics.”

The answer: “Yes, it was incidental, and you know that. Right? I had nothing to do with this right? And neither did Ron.”

Thompson then issued a warning about indiscreet messages: “Emil, be aware that we cannot use the government email to communicate with you. Sky Island (Alliance) is calling it a conspiracy, and for the first time they are right!”

No, really. They've made sure of it.

• motherjones.com

Those clever folks over at Mother Jones have ensured, with this bot filled with alarmist climate buzzwords, that they'll be scaring MoJo readers long into the future, so long as the species that takes hold of the planet after our demise gains the ability to read English.

Head that way, give it a click. It'll give you something to panic about (if you're a hyper-liberal) or rant about (if you're uber-conservative) this evening.

The Slaughterhouse haunted house seems to find new ways to make some money outside of the actual Halloween season all the time, whether that's a celebrity ghost tour (still no idea what that means) or the occasional concert, but their newest off-season event might be the most inventive: the opportunity to shoot pretend zombies with pretend guns. The ominous titled Apocalypse: A Zombie Kill Experience is running on the 16th, 21st, 22nd and 29th and is your chance to bring your video-game fantasies to life. The Slaughterhouse gives you an Airsoft (think paintball without the paint) gun, some amount of training, then you run through a building shooting zombies. I have no idea how this will work or how they plan on preventing someone from losing an eye in the process, but there you go.

Tickets are apparently limited (although I guess tickets generally are) and available on the Slaughterhouse website.

If you're among those good, kind, literary folks that are still interested in reading books in both paper and electronic formats, the good folks at the Pima County Public Library have a treat for you. They've put together a list of the best books published this year, sourcing 32 separate lists that's sure to stir something within the hearts of Southern Arizona's book loving community.

If you're interested in checking out the list of lists, head over to the Pima County Public Library Ravenous Readers blog. Hopefully, if Black Friday didn't knock out your holiday shopping, these will be able to help you pare down your gift lists.

[h/t: @bookmans]

Great news out of South Carolina, as a poll shows that comedian and host of Comedy Central's "Colbert Report," Stephen Colbert, is the most popular choice among voters to replace retiring Senator Jim DeMint.

According to a list of potential appointees given to poll participants by Public Policy Polling, Colbert was the most popular choice to replace DeMint of the names given, earning the preference of 20% of those polled, five points greater than his nearest "opponent." In a Colbert-less field, former First Lady of South Carolina Jenny Sanford (the ex-wife of disgraced Governor Mark Sanford) is the top pick, with 17% support. The decision falls on Governor Nikki Haley, who has a disapproval rating hovering just under 50% and needs to find some way to pull people onto her side.

From Public Policy Polling's analysis:

It's Democrats and independents- those voters Haley most needs to improve her standing with- who are pining for a Colbert appointment. Among Democrats 32% say they'd like Colbert to be picked with Jenny Sanford at 19% and no one else in double digits. With crucial independent voters Colbert has a 15 point lead for the appointment, getting 28% to 13% for Tim Scott, 12% for Jenny Sanford, and 10% for Trey Gowdy with no one else in double digits.

...

“Nikki Haley could score some points with the Democrats and independent voters she’s struggling with by appointing Stephen Colbert to the US Senate,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But if she goes down a more traditional path voters’ top choice is Tim Scott.”

In a revelation this is shocking to absolutely no one at all, dictionary-makers Merriam-Webster have determined that the most looked-up words of the year happen to be "socialism" and "capitalism." Of course, those are the two words that were thrown about most by politicians on the campaign trail during the seemingly-interminable 2012 campaign season.

From the Atlantic Wire:

This year marks the first time a word duo has been chosen since Merriam-Webster began identifying the year's most looked-up words back in 2003. Sokolowski says, "Sometimes the words don't correlate to one specific story or a specific utterance by a newsmaker but instead are words that are part of the national conversation. That's true of socialism and capitalism, words that trended together, indicating that people were frequently looking up both words in order to compare the definitions." Socialism was looked up more frequently than was capitalism, "but since the trend pattern of capitalism so closely matches the moments when socialism was spiking, they form a natural pair [logically, lexically, and culturally]. Adding them together gives us a powerful example of how people actually use the dictionary," he says. "Every time that health care is in the news, socialism spikes," he adds. "Also, Mitt Romney used the phrase European-style socialism in his stump speech, keeping the word in the news for cycle after cycle."

Following capitalism and socialism, top 10 words of the year (in no particular order, according to Sokolowski) included democracy, globalization, marriage, bigot, meme, touche, schadenfreude, and professionalism. Biden's use of the word malarkey in his vice presidential debate with Paul Ryan didn't make the top 10, but lookups "represented the largest spike of a single word on the website by percentage, at 3,000 percent, in a single 24-hour period this year," writes Italie. Meme, too, spiked because of the debates (and politics and maybe also life in general), "pegged to political-related subjects that included Romney's Big Bird and binders remarks, social media shares of images pegged to Hillary Clinton texting, and Obama's 'horses and bayonets' debate rebuke of Romney in an exchange over the size of the Navy," she explains.

So the most researched words of the year have everything to do with this year's election season—and I can't get past the fact that so many people appear to have looked up the word "marriage" in order to determine it's actual definition. Silly Googlers! Why would you try to find someone on the internet to define marriage if seemingly no two people in this country can agree on its definition?

If you haven't eaten recently, it might be worth setting aside some time to read an amazingly assembled three part series (the third part runs tomorrow on the changing of federal dietary guidelines to promote the eating of more beef) in the Kansas City Star. The stories aren't shocking on an Upton Sinclair level, but the consolidation of the beef industry does have an ugly side, apparently, including issues with the tenderizing process, what happens to the manure, and worker safety:

But these automated plants have their own hazards, according to a computer analysis of workplace injuries by The Star.

Meat plant employees have died from falling into grinders and augers; asphyxiation; electrocution; and being kicked by semiconscious cows.

At the Tyson plant, 37-year-old Rodney Bridgett, a father of four young boys, was crushed to death March 14 by an elevated work platform he was repairing.

Federal officials in August cited Tyson for two “willful” workplace safety violations, and the company is facing fines of $104,000.

“It is unthinkable that an employer would allow workers in and around dangerous operations without ensuring that sufficient safeguards are in place,” said Charles E. Adkins, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Kansas City-based regional administrator.

Tyson officials said they were “saddened by the tragic death” of Bridgett and are working with OSHA to resolve agency concerns.

Here's some potentially good news for all those frequent fliers who can't put down their electronic devices during flights: the Federal Communications Commission has got your back.

From The Hill:

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to "enable greater use of tablets, e-readers, and other portable devices" during flights in a letter sent Thursday to Michael Huerta, the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.

...

"This review comes at a time of tremendous innovation, as mobile devices are increasingly interwoven in our daily lives," Genachowski writes. "They empower people to stay informed and connected with friends and family, and they enable both large and small businesses to be more productive and efficient, helping drive economic growth and boost U.S. competitiveness."

This comes as the FAA is reviewing its policies on allowing tablets and other wireless devices to be in use during flights. The FAA does note, however, that they will not be allowing "voice communication" during flights—so no cell phones, folks.

There's been no action taken on this recommendation from the FCC as of yet, so don't expect airlines to look too kindly upon your iPad use this holiday season—just listen to the attendants when they tell you to put away your oh-so-valuable hunk of metal and glass.

Free food! OK, now that I have your attention, Native Seed/Search is teaming up with some local chefs to explore the many flavors, and uses, of beans. Free samples of bean dishes crated by great folks such as Janos Wilder of Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails, Doug Levy of Feast, Rocco’s Little Chicago Pizzeria, and The Garden Kitchen will be there. Head on down to the NS/S Retail Store at 3061 N Campbell, Saturday Dec. 15. They will begin the freebies at 11:00 a.m., 'til the beans are gone, so don’t delay! Check it out here.