Llovely

This is just weird:

Portable Dipstick to Measure Caffeine

...llamas and camels... both called camelids by scientists, are among the few whose immune systems produce antibodies that are not destroyed by hot coffee. We did not look into who figured that out or why.

Anyway, the researchers injected proteins linked to caffeine into the five beasts to elicit an immune response. The animals produced antibodies in their blood that were reactive to caffeine. Then in the lab, these antibodies were found to accurately indicate the amount of caffeine in hot coffee and also cold cola.

More work needs to be done to move the technique from the lab, via caffeine dipsticks. But that's the goal.

I guess that means it won't be long before I can stop taking my llama out to coffee shops.

Speaking of llamas, and who wouldn't want to speak of llamas, as pack animals they are not very strong and as a result, today's llama farms only allow small children to ride them. This fact also played a crucial role in the history of pre-Columbian cultures in South America--see Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. However, some time ago, Marginal Revolution featured a photo of a carving that purportedly showed how an adult Incan/Andea would ride a llama, by distributing their weight along the animal's back:
By the way, I would not recommend riding the Dalai Lama in this fashion.