April 5, 2011
No, that is not what Uncle John called the kids when they were teenagers (although Mrs. Uncle John did…), it’s a type of fish! A crazy type of fish:
My favorite part is at the end, when the victorious sarcastic fringehead has chased the loser away, and goes over to check out the loser’s shell. The narrator says the victor is just checking to make sure his shell is better, but you watch him: That fish is taking a dump in that shell, or my name’s Floyd Mayweather!
March 27, 2011
Update: The missing cobra has finally been found after six days. It was in the reptile house the whole time.
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Just a note to our New York City-based fans: If you’re planning on going for walk around the Bronx Park area tonight, be sure to bring your flute. And maybe one of those lidded baskets…
Peek-a-boo
The reptiles exhibit at a Bronx zoo was shut down after staff discovered a venomous Egyptian cobra escaped from its enclosure.
Upon learning the half-metre long adolescent serpent was missing from an off-exhibit enclosure Friday, officials immediately secured the area and began a search, said Mary Dixon, zoo spokeswoman, in a release.
If you happen to find this snake, please let us know!
[photo]
March 12, 2011
For your viewing please this fine Saturday, BRI fans, we give you the Appalachian Trail, condensed into one five-minute-long stop-motion video.
On a related note: Former BRI employee Rain the Wonder Mind will be leaving shortly to begin walking that trail – all the way from Georgia to Maine! Everyone at the BRI wishes you the most peaceful and enriching six months, Rain! Go get em! (And special wishes from your uncle!)
March 8, 2011
Ahem. The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting that the oldest known wild bird in the Northern Hemisphere (they have an oldest known wild bird? who knew?!) has had a chick. She’s at least 60 years old:
A Laysan albatross named Wisdom, is at least 60 years old and was spotted in February 2011 raising a chick at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Islands. The bird has sported and worn out 5 bird bands since she was first banded by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Chandler Robbins in 1956 as she incubated an egg. Robbins estimated Wisdom to be at least 5 years old then since this is the earliest age at which these birds breed, though they more typically breed at 8 or 9 after an involved courtship lasting several years. This means, of course, that Wisdom is more likely to be in her early sixties.
Funny you should ask: Yes we DO have a photo. (Click to enlarge. It will take some time, as it is a very high-res image—but worth the wait!)
A cool thing about images from the USGS and other government agencies: They’re public domain (unless otherwise noted)—because the American taxpayers “own” such agencies, as it were. And they’re often very, very good images like this one. Thank you USGS! And us!
More info on Wisdom the Laysan Albatross—including the fact that she’s likely flown more than 2 million miles in her life—here.
March 2, 2011
We’ve just notice that Boing Boing has a post up about the fantabulous animal known as the velvet worm, complete with a video by the unsurpassable Sir David Attenborough.
Behold the squirting power of the velvet worm:
It just so happens that we did a small piece on the velvet worm not too long ago, in Instant Genius: Fast Food For Thought—Bite-size morsels of essential (and not-so-essential) knowledge. We mention the squirting, but decided to focus on a different aspect of the velvet worm. An excerpt:
But this creature’s real oddity comes in regards to its mating habits. The male velvet worm ignores the fact that a female has a convenient opening through which sperm can be transferred, and instead deposits a “sperm packet” onto her back or side. The packet contains biochemicals that dissolve the female’s skin, allowing the sperm to penetrate her body and then search for her ovaries, where they will fertilize her eggs. (And in some velvet worm species, the males have specialized spikes on their heads, on which they can carry their sperm packets as they wander in search of females.)
We’ll leave you now, with that image in your head…
November 18, 2010
It’s becoming more common to call them orcas rather than killer whales, but it makes the title of this story so much more exciting:
But when a one-metre-tall fin popped out of the water and started heading towards him and other surfers, Mr Cunningham decided to head ashore. “I didn’t have anything to sit on and with most of my body under the water, it felt a bit freaky.” The other surfers had stayed at sea unfazed by the visitors.
After catching a wave Mr Cunningham had noticed the orcas had caught a wave behind him.
Wouldn’t that be swell? You’re cruising along on your surfboard just minding your own business when you turn around and see a couple of aquatic killing machines the size of a greyhound buses surfing toward you.
Good thing seawater’s already green…
I’ve got an email into the paper with the photos to see if we can publish them here. I will as soon as we know.
Update: I got permission from the Northern Advocate in the far north of New Zealand to publish the pics. They were taken by one of their reporters, Michael Cunningham. Thank, NA. (Click pics to enlarge.)
November 16, 2010
Call this a brave kitty all you like, but this is one dumb cat. A gator that size, that close, could have snapped her head off so quick it would make your head spin. (Pun intended.)
And: The CNN host reporting on this says, as the first alligator retreats into the water, “Cat got your tongue?” That makes no sense at all. Was she expecting the alligator to say something? Just because there’s a cat involved doesn’t mean that any idiom involving a cat automatically applies.
Fifteen-yard penalty for improper use of an idiom. Automatic loss of down.
P.S. Curiosity almost killed this cat! It sure isn’t a scaredy-cat!
September 20, 2010
We told you the story about the English woman who thought it was “funny” to dump a neighbor’s cat in a garbage can – where it was stuck for fifteen hours.
Waiter: We’ll have the just desserts, please. Thanks.
Extra: Some cat dumped a woman in a garbage bin in revenge! Watch!
September 8, 2010
The Aussies just say no to Puke My Fish Up:
Circus-goers in Australia hoping to see a woman swallow and then regurgitate a live fish will be disappointed, as authorities decided it was cruel to the fish.
Now just what the heck is going on in the world when a person can’t get the kids together, put ‘em in the station wagon, and take them down to the circus to watch a lady swallow a live fish and then throw it back up again, still alive? What kind of a world? Next we’ll hear you can’t throw kittens in trash bins! “It was fun,” for goodness sake!
Bahhhhhhhp.
Oh, excuse me, just had to put my golllllllld fish back in its tank.
