Pet Monologues

The attached video is of dolphins playing with silver colored rings which they have the ability to make under water to play with. It isn’t known how they learn this, or if it’s an inbred ability. As if by magic the dolphin does a quick flip of its head and a silver ring appears in front of its pointed beak.

The ring is a solid, donut shaped bubble about 2-ft across, yet it doesn’t rise to the surface of the water! It stands upright in the water like a magic doorway to an unseen dimension. The dolphin then pulls a small silver donut from the larger one. Looking at the twisting ring for one last time a bite is taken from it, causing the small ring to collapse into a thousands of tiny bubbles which head upward towards the water’s surface. After a few moments the dolphin creates another ring to play with. There also seems to be a separate mechanism for producing small rings, which a dolphin can accomplish by a quick flip of its head.

An explanation of how dolphins make these silver rings is that they are ‘air-core vortex rings’. Read the rest of this entry »

September 21 — Mark the following Puruvian holiday on your calendar.

by john kass
Americans are busy hissing and scratching each other’s eyes out over presidential politics. But there is one thing we can agree on—sending a few thousand U.S. troops into Peru to occupy the nation and stop Peruvians from eating all their cats.

This villainous cat-munching takes place in the fall, when otherwise gentle and kindly Peruvians gather in the village of La Quebrada, just south of Lima, to gorge on felines. They eat fried cat and stewed cat and poached cat. Also, cats prepared with various savory local spices, such as Grilled Cat with Huacatay, the pungent and tasty Peruvian black mint.

Americans have proved we’ll accept almost anything if packaged and marketed properly. We’ve recently accepted socialism just to make Wall Street happy before an election. But if there’s one thing we won’t abide, it’s a nation of cat-eaters.

The terrible Peruvian cat-eating spree has a name: La Festival Gastronomico del Gato. Or for those of you who don’t speak Spanish—the Gastronomic Festival of the Cat. Read the rest of this entry »

havakuk levison / Reuters 2002

Altering genetics brings killer karma into play

by John Kass, Chicago Tribune

Before I explain how the Chicken Kama Sutra got me fired from my dad’s butcher shop when I was a 6th grader—I foolishly posed the cold fryers in X-rated combos on the butcher blocks—you need to know how this memory was hatched:

With a horrifying news photo of a live, smooth-skinned rooster without feathers, part of a genetic experiment to develop chickens that will stay cool in their hot coops. Now, I can’t grill a chicken without retching.

“For Dinner: Genetically Altered ‘Superchicken’ ” said the headline of the wire story.

“We hope to provide a rigorous, risk-based regulatory path for [genetic] developers to follow, to help the public health and the health of animals,” said a pin-head bureaucrat from the Food and Drug Administration, thinking he could save the world from a “12 Monkeys” scenario if a superchicken escapes from the lab, along with the spider-goats and the salmon-pigs. Read the rest of this entry »

Saudi Arabia. Bans dogs and cats.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — To keep the sexes apart in the state capital, a pet ban is in effect. As every single man knows: Walking a dog in the park equals sure babe magnet. Saudi Arabia’s Islamic religious police, in their zeal to keep the sexes apart, want to make sure the technique doesn’t catch on here. Read the rest of this entry »

HELLO. S.E.X. Chirp. Mature post!

The birds are certainly chirping in our hood these past few weeks. Maybe it is just Spring in the air. Maybe it’s just romance. Let’s fall in love.

Sex and single bird.

Written by researchers around the world, highlights new discoveries in the sciences and what they mean for your outlook.

hawks do it

macaws do it

peacocks do it

ostriches do it

flamingos do it

A parakeet does it

THE BIG IDEA: Every summer, male songbirds called lark buntings shed their dull winter plumage and fly north from Mexico and Texas to build ground nests on the short-grass prairie of the Pawnee National Grassland, northeast of Denver. By the time female birds arrive two weeks later, the males are brightly adorned, often with glossy black feathers and white wing patches that flash as they zoom skyward and float back to the ground, singing all the while. These fancy traits and aerial displays may ward off other males, and they also send a come-hither signal to females. Scientists have always assumed that female birds, looking for good fathers, consistently choose males that exhibit the same exaggerated sexual traits. But my research shows that their preferences change from year to year. Sometimes females even select partners that look completely different from the previous season’s mates. Read the rest of this entry »

This is #1 in a series of nature photography. The images are winners in the prestigious 2007 Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards.

The competition includes the Grand Prize and winners in 15 categories. More than 17,000 entries were submitted from photographers from 26 countries around the world to document the beauty, variety, and importance of Earth’s wildlife and wild places.

About Windland Smith Rice

This exhibition has been named in memory of Windland Smith Rice for her unyielding support of emerging photographers worldwide. Windland’s love for nature and photography was second only to her love for people and her legacy will fuel the passion of these artists for generations to come.

2008
The categories for the 2008 Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards: Read the rest of this entry »

Can this be done? Anyone?

citikitty

Are you sick of cleaning out litter boxes or wanting to show off fluffy’s party manners? Anyone feel this is a little too much information for the cat?

We are reminded that Robert DeNiro trained Jinxey. Until we know more, we are just the messenger here.

The above information assumes a new product and the following is the old fashioned way which may assume a therapist. Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: wonderful timing on this from our brilliant contributor Robbay. When I saw the cartoon I told him the pros and cons of this TV writer’s strike thing and what it is doing to me. Thanks Robbay!

created by A side of cartoons please

My grandmother is ill and cannot care for her aging Yorkshire terrier.

Editor’s note: This is a letter to Cary Tennis, advice columnist, Salon Magazine

Dear Cary,

I am stressed and wrestling with an ethical dilemma: Would it be right to put down the 11-year-old dog of my grandmother, who has middle-onset Alzheimer’s disease?

It’s the eve of Thanksgiving and my grandparents are both here, with this dog, a tiny, whiny Yorkshire terrier who has learned to beg constantly. It’s not her fault; my grandmother forgets that she has just fed her, hears her whine (oh the sound of that whine!) and gives her another largish helping of steak or chicken or cookies, or whatever anyone happens to be eating at the time. As a result, the dog is overweight, out of shape (she will not walk more than five feet before stopping and dragging her feet), largely incontinent (I just wiped up hot dog pee 10 minutes ago), and the most annoying creature on the planet. I mean, I don’t have kids yet (I’m 24), but if this were my kid I would send it straight to boarding school.

Unfortunately, though, this dog is the center of my grandmother’s small and dimming world, along with my grandfather, who is in fine mental condition but has some cardiac problems — I think she likes to feel that the dog needs her and isn’t judging her for mental lapses (not that the rest of the family is, I think we’re doing a good job of stimulating and caring for her). My mom asked her once whether she would be more upset if she (her daughter) died or if the dog died, and she indicated that the death of the dog would make her more upset. Read the rest of this entry »

Older than us?

George Mackenzie Dunnet was a well-known Scottish ornithologist who passed away in 1995, aged 67. The photograph that accompanies his obituary shows a timeworn face, mostly bald head and grey locks clinging to temples. However, his sense of fun survives—literally.

Throughout his life George studied fulmars on Eynhallow in the Orkney Islands.He had his picture taken in 1951 holding a ringed fulmar when he was a young man and, by great coincidence, had it taken again 30 years later with the same bird. Personal vanity was brushed aside in his admiration for the fulmar’s unchanged looks.

Meanwhile, the bird lives on. It is a sobering thought that, when ringed, it was already a mature breeding adult making its true age a mystery.

Unlike humans, birds do not go grey or develop wrinkles. If their outward appearance does not change, how can we tell their age? In most cases ringing provides data on lifespan and longevity. Natural clues to the precise age of a bird are few and only serve to chart survival into adulthood—not beyond. Small birds replace distinctive juvenile plumage with that of an adult within months of being born. After this, their looks do not alter. Larger birds take several years to reach maturity during which time they grow progressively more adult-like feathers. Brown juvenile gannets acquire white plumage resembling their parents’ through a series of moults over a five-year period. Read the rest of this entry »