Muschi, a small cat that formed an unlikely friendship with a half-ton bear called mouse
in Berlin Zoo, has been reunited with her companion after pining outside the bear’s cage for months
A quarter of known land animals and plants, more than a million species, will eventually die out because of the global warming that will take place over the next 50 years. International scientists from eight countries have warned that, based even on the most conservative estimates, rising temperatures will trigger a global mass extinction of unprecedented proportions — unless greenhouse gas emissions are drastically reduced
Bell Labs is now part of Lucent Technologies, and can be found at www.bell-labs.com, having apparently missed its chance to claim the belllabs.com domain, which now belongs to Bell Laboratories, the world leader in rodent control technology. So much for its reputation for anticipating future technologies
A rare feathered visitor to Britain survived a grueling 15-hour journey from Norway, only to be eaten by a birdwatcher’s cat on arrival
Malamutes are intelligent dogs, they just have no interest in doing what you want them to do.
I have a suspicion that Malamute may be Amish, the first thing she does with her toys is to snap the eyes off and rip the faces out. To avoid this, I was preparing the pods’ xmas presents earlier in the week by removing the faces from two small toy bunnies. Malamute was sitting patiently at my feet watching bunny surgery and occasionally having a gentle tug at an ear in the hope I wouldn’t notice and she could scarper off with it. Husky was content to watch the proceedings from the comfort of the lounge.
They got their presents on xmas morning and a hot pink bunny got tossed about the backyard for five minutes before Malamute realised she also had a food component to her gift.
Half an hour later, after trying to hide the remaining half of a well gnawed rawhide bone under me, behind the television and under Husky’s beanbag, Malamute finally scoffed it and settled in for a good game of remove Husky’s rawhide bone.
This morning she hit on a winning plan. She went hurtling into the backyard and stood at the side gate barking her head off. Husky went to investigate the barks that sounded very much like there’s a strange dog in the front yard. The moment Husky had joined her, Malamute bounded back inside and stole his bone.
Mission accomplished.
Meghan Stapleton, a Santa hat-clad reporter for the NBC television station KTUU in Anchorage found her way into the national spotlight while taping a scene with a young reindeer named Blitzen at the Santa Claus House in North Pole. Seems the reindeer took a dislike to tacky feel good stories and tackled the silly bint on camera
A new study will investigate results suggesting African rats could test saliva samples far faster than human technicians, allowing early treatment of tuberculosis
Malamutes and Huskies are watch dogs only so far as watching the burglar enter your house and take your goods goes. It’s a trait of both breeds.
Humans, on the other hand, are supposed to be more on the ball with the watching of things. It doesn’t exactly explain why people who lob up at my front door seem incapable of using the bell. I don’t have a door knocker or one of those electronic button thingies, I have a dirty great brass bell mounted at eye level beside the door. You can’t miss it. And yet I quite often find people standing there staring at it, perhaps they think it’s ornamental.
Yesterday I got the bell starers. They were distracted by the Husky, who sat at the door and looked adorable. He didn’t bother mentioning the visitors to me and I didn’t realise they were there until I heard them talking to Husky.
Oh, aren’t you adorable. You’re the cutest thing.
He just sat there, tail wagging and a big doggy grin, agreeing with them.
Curious as to who was talking to my Husky, I answered the door and, instead of spiel, I got asked if my Husky was a Malamute. So I got to use the line:
This isn’t a Malamute, that— enter Malamute hurtling in from the backyard —is a Malamute.
You make your fun where you can.
There’s a really annoying bird near my house that calls all day and night. I’ve been hearing it for years, but have only recently seen the culprit. It’s a Common Koel, a member of the cuckoo family, and it has a call that makes you want to throttle the bloody thing. Sure, it sounds cute when you hear it the first time, but the novelty wears pretty thin when you hear it all through the night for months on end.
When seen, the male Common Koel is easily identified by its entirely glossy black plumage, tinged with blue and green, and striking red eye. The female has glossed brown upperparts, heavily spotted with white, and a black crown. The underparts are generally buff-cream with numerous fine black bars. Young birds resemble the adult female, but have considerably more buff and a dark eye. The Common Koel is 39 to 46 cm in length, and is a member of the cuckoo family. Adults are rather shy and they are heard much more than seen. The male Common Koel advertises its presence by a loud ascending whistle
coo-eeorko-el, monotonously repeated; the call of the female is a repetitivewook-wook-wook. Males often call throughout the day and well into the night.
No shit. Little bastards.
I’ve probably seen the females before and mistaken them for Wattle Birds — which make far better neighbours.
Photo: common koel 1, originally uploaded by Jim Bendon
Recommendations from fellow sleep deprived Common Koel haters
- birdbegone recommends a bird of prey shaped windsock or kite
- gautch recommends hanging up old CDs
- TIRED AUSSIE recommends an automatic citrus spray
- Chook recommends hanging several aluminium foil mobiles
- Brad recommends playing audio of birds of prey, with the Wedge Tailed Eagle working well
- JEN recommends ear plugs
- TDH had success with playing audio of a Wedge Tailed Eagle call
- daniel recommends a strobe light on a timer
- Floyd had success with playing audio of a Wedge Tailed Eagle call
- Faith had success with playing audio of raptor calls
The US Navy has proposed the development of 28,000 acres within the endangered Red Wolf recovery area as the site for the new Super Hornet Outlying Landing Field and supporting buildings
The lovely Feòrag sent me an amusing story this morning. It seems that having obnoxiously plastered their flag everywhere, Americans are upset to note that Canadians have a flag too and that they are sporting it to avoid being mistaken for Americans.
Canadians should be careful not to appear
boastfulto Americans, who are insecure because of the war in Iraq and admit they are annoyed by northerners showing off the red maple leaf on their luggage when they travel…
A country that wraps everything in the flag, to the point of condemning their own countrymen as unAmerican if they dare to suggest that slapping the American flag on a toilet seat cover may be just a tad tacky, dare to have a go at their neighbours for using a sticker on their luggage. You have the laugh at the double standards. Funnier still that it has taken them this long to notice the maple leaf on Canadian luggage.
Unfortunately Americans have a well-earned reputation as obnoxious tourists, even within their own country. They are loud and opinionated, and while sometimes they have every right to be, mostly they just embarrass themselves, those around them and generate some really bad karma that is likely to bite the next unfortunate American tourist who follows along in their wake.
At one point my cousin was conducting tour groups where you take a bunch of tourists on a 4WD type bus, bounce them through the bush and point out interesting things. She used to bring back stories of US tourists that always made me wonder why they travelled abroad and how they survived to adulthood.
One particular pair, we’ll call them George and Martha, highlighted the closemindedness that is a frequent complaint of the breed known as the ugly American. The object being pointed out was a Banksia, a tree with particularly large and hideous seed pods. Instead of listening to the tour guide, George loudly informed Martha, and the entire bus, that the tree had a tumour. No amount of explanation to the contrary was to be entertained. No doubt, George and Martha’s friends and family back home now believe the Australian bush is full of trees with tumours.
It’s travellers like the loud and ignorant George and Martha who have forced Canadians to arm themselves against pissed off tour guides and harrassed foreign citizens. Even the cannier US travellers will pretend to be Canadian when abroad to avoid being mistaken for the ill mannered morons who have sullied the name of their country with their appalling behaviour whilst overseas.
When you’re overseas, you’re not just on holiday, you’re also an ambassador for your country. If you behave like a complete wanker, the people you deal with are going to believe that your behaviour is an example of how you would behave at home and be very wary of dealing with your countrymen in the future. So don’t be surprised if your neighbours are just as embarrassed by your behaviour in public and take steps to be recognised as Canadians.
Pigeons are being used to transfer large amounts of data in a short amount of time. The pigeons have proven to be faster and more reliable than electronic means. However, while there is still the occasional packet loss, this is definitely a case of high bandwidth wireless networking
The rain has set in for the day, which is nice. The pods would disagree, well Malamute would, Husky loves the rain. He especially loves to run about in and share its wonderful wetness with his humans.
The thunder has been a constant since the early hours of the morning and Malamute has been a bit distressed and refused to settle. But her non-settling antics were nothing compared to what I got after her favourite human left for work.
Malamute stole favourite human’s slipper, buried herself under the covers and squished the slipper as far under me as possible. She then snuggled into me, using the slipper as a pillow. Most adorable. Until Husky spotted her co-opting his favourite human. One Springbok-like leap onto the bed and a bit of head gnawing later and I decided that it was time to get up.
I now have two canine shadows. Malamute is here beside me because she’s scared of the thunder and Husky is crammed under the desk, doing a fine job as a foot warmer, to make sure Malamute does steal my affections.
The pods are amusing.
A French hunter was shot by his dog after he left a loaded shotgun in the trunk of his car with two dogs and one of the animals accidentally stepped on the trigger
Create your own Picasso style portrait with Mr Picassohead — via The Green Man.
Play with the weirdness of dirtdirt.com’s Dreems. Clicking on any of the three panels swaps a body part, reloading swaps all body parts.
If you like photoshopping sundry bits of carcasses together, send it to the Uncommon Creatures gallery.
Behold the mighty Nohands Kitten in all his incarnations.
If you’ve ever enjoyed flattening your little brother’s carefully constructed tower of blocks, you’ll get a kick out of knocking down the bouncy pink teddy bears.
A new toy from Weebl, the guy who brought me Badger joy, the Monkey can go Anywhere.
Movies like 101 Dalmatians, Snow Dogs and Finding Nemo unwittingly persuade movie goers to buy pets based on their movie experience. For malamute rescuers, the trend is tragic. By the time an abandoned malamute reaches an animal shelter, it is more likely doomed to euthanasia because only half are retrainable
He’s a little greyer than he used to be, but other than that, Bear, who disappeared six years ago, is the same old dog Frank and Jeanie Flores knew and loved. The Flores family has no idea where the dog, a brindle-coloured lab and chow mix, has been or what he’s been up to the past six years
Hibernating bears have a unique ability to stop their bones from degenerating during long periods of inactivity, a finding that is stimulating the search for new treatments for osteoporosis
Amusing photos and commentary on repairing an injured Cthulhu. Which I’m sure will come in handy if my Cthulhu ever tangles with the dogs and meets the fate of the Big Bad Wolf.
The wolf puppet in question was damaged after a run in with a Malamute puppy. The manufacturer, while making excellent toys, was less than helpful in providing replacements for the custom made eyes and teeth that were damaged. He’s still in need of an eye surround, but I did find that you can make superior fangs yourself by felting wool into shape.
See Cthulhu and the Big Bad Wolf subjugate a Husky.
Note the nice set of fangs the Big Bad Wolf is sinking into the neck of the surprisingly patient and indifferent Husky.
Cthulhu reigns supreme after besting the mighty Husky in tentacular warfare.
Francisco and Sheila were ideal parents. They raised 25 babies, taught them good survival skills, and sent many of them off to live on their own. Francisco and Sheila were Mexican grey wolves, or lobos, pioneers in a US federal programme to restore the endangered Mexican grey wolf, the rarest and most genetically distinct subspecies of grey wolf in North America. Although captive themselves, Francisco and Sheila taught their pups such good wolf traits that many are thriving in the wild
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