Subtle in the woods

First seen here. Not exactly seen, but you know what I mean. First not seen there.

This reminds me of an Ambrose Bierce story, but it's much more pleasant than the thing in the story.

Monorail dog

While looking for LOLcats for the preceding post, I came across this:



which reminds me of someone.

Animals that live without oxygen

"It's life, but not as we know it, Jim!"

"O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!"
"There are more things in Heaven and earth …"

Deep under the Mediterranean Sea small animals have been discovered that live their entire lives without oxygen and surrounded by 'poisonous' sulphides. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology report the existence of multicellular organisms (new members of the group Loricifera), showing that they are alive, metabolically active, and apparently reproducing in spite of a complete absence of oxygen.

Rand Simberg says, "Pretty cool. What does this say about prospects for extraterrestrial life?"

Could these be survivors from the Archaean, before photosynthesizing plants gave Earth its oxygen-rich atmosphere? (Not likely, but considering the next paragraph …)

This month's Analog has a related story, "At Last the Sun" by Richard Foss. It must have been written before this discovery was announced.

Update: Author Richard Foss has stopped by to comment that he did indeed write the story months before the discovery was announced. It's a good 'un, so go ye forth and buy that Analog.

Rich people, big houses, no smiles

Unhappy hipsters.

And their somewhat happier pets.

Related: Look at this hipster.

Porpoise bubbles, hippo, zebra

Althouse has had the critter posts, lately.

How to create and play with a bubble ring under water. Porpoises, what can't they do? Build a fire, for one thing. But this is amazing.

And another of those Althouse posts in which she tests the possibilities of concision, I'll quote the whole thing:

How does a hippopotamus get its teeth cleaned? Zebra.

That last sounds like a "No soap, radio" joke.

Cuttle, cuttle, little fishy

Perhaps Cthulhu should be depicted as looking more like a cuttlefish than like a squid. Thanks to Freeman Hunt, who linked this video in a comment at Althouse.

Singer killed by coyotes while hiking

Taylor Mitchell, 19, was attacked by two coyotes and fatally wounded while hiking in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia.

News video here.

Bats drinking

On the fly.

More here. From Jerry Pournelle's mail.

Birds song

Five more-or-less parallel lines, with black dots on them. Looks a little like sheet music. That's what Jarbas Agnelli thought, and he did something about it. Click the pic. Thanks to Randy at Ambiance.

Apes laughing

They do, and they do it in different languages.

Can't embed the "tickling the gorilla" video here, so you'll have to go over to National Geographic to see it. Along with sound samples of other apes laughing: bonobos, chimps, orangs, you get the idea.

Here earlier: Rats laughing.

San Diego squid attack!

I'd like to do that headline UK Sun style, really big, in red:

Squid Attack!

Like that.

Jumbo squid spook divers off San Diego

Jumbo Squid Menace San Diego Shores

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. The squids are coming, the squids are coming!

Science news

In a piece of original research which took place on the evening of June 29, 2009, a serving of ice cream (mixed chocolate and vanilla) was eaten by your correspondent. Following this, a puppy was allowed to lick the cup. This step shows that when a larger creature is done with some food, a smaller one may still be able to get some good out of what is left. (A more commonly encountered proof is provided by ants at picnics, ubique.) When the puppy was done, the cup appeared to be pretty well cleaned up. It then was replaced on the patio table, and ignored for a while. When next it was looked into, a lightning bug had continued the scavenging of leftovers. This demonstrates that the principle of leftovers, above, can apply more than once to the same dessert. (Leftovers are recursive.) It also demonstrates that at least one lightning bug likes ice cream. Your correspondent suggests that lightning bugs are not commonly thought of as being fond of ice cream because they rarely have the opportunity to feast on a very thin film of it which in turn is on a hard surface, which saves their tiny feet from the possibility or indeed likelihood of sinking into the ice cream substrate.

Preliminary conclusion: Multi-specific mutualism. Humans benefit from puppies; puppies benefit from humans; lightning bugs benefit from puppies; humans benefit from lightning bugs. Ice cream is a constant, or fudge factor, in the system of relations. Did someone say fudge?

Thus it is shown that some of the best things in the world, to wit, puppies, lightning bugs and ice cream, have a closer, one might say more intimate relationship, than previously believed. And now, when I think of ice cream, I will think of lightning bugs, and vice versa. Not forgetting the puppy. Who could forget the puppy? Not I.



The ice cream gets melty, in between the human and puppy. That makes this observation a demonstration of trickle-down economics, and how, in practice, it benefits bipeds, quadrupeds, and hexapodia. In the next installment, the relationship between ice cream and fireworks. The lightning bug may have something to say about nocturnal illuminations.

(The second picture, on the right, gets a great deal bigger if clicked.)

Banksy's pet shop

British artist Banksy has opened up a pet shop in New York City. It's called the Greenwich Village Pet Shop and Charcoal Grill. Of course there's a website. A little coverage from the BBC. And a blog post.

Transparensea

We have not had a critter for a while. So:

Macropinna microstoma, the fish with the see-through head!


Thank goodness it's only about 3 to 4 inches long. More on its anatomy here and here. The things that look like its eyes are actually its nostrils; the greenish hemispheres are the lenses of its eyes.

The Latin name, well, a pinna is a feather, or wing, or external ear, and fish don't have any of those, maybe big fin; and tiny mouth.

Who does it look like? Peter Lorre? Wallace Shawn? I'm sure I've seen that face somewhere, though without the transparent braincase.

Althouse has video, and comments that plumb the depths of not safe for work or for anyone. So don't read those comments.

Another one for the squid fanciers

I know you're out there.


This thing is a Magnapinna. ("Big wing" in Latin.) It was photographed by a remotely-operated sub, a mile and a half below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. National Geographic has video, and more photos. Thanks to Glenn Reynolds.

One fish, red fish

In the light, this fish is a regular, though funny-looking, fish-colored fish. Raccoon eyes, pouty lips, veils, and all, still a fairly regular fish-looking critter.

But in the dark, look at that thing! Bright red and glowing.

Wildlife to watch for

Not just coyotes, now the fishers are coming back. This is the second article I've seen this year about fishers (or fisher cats, as some call them) in New England. A little Googling shows people talking about fishers in Stonington and Sterling, CT, and Wakefield, RI. If you see one, back off, as it may be rabid. Thanks to Glenn Reynolds.

Mouses

My mouse pointer froze up while typing the post about houses, so naturally the first thing I did after rebooting was to Google "frozen mouse" to see what people had to say about it. One suggestion: Windows key followed by Esc. I'll try it next time. [Update March 6: Well, that didn't work. I'll have to look for a different incantation.] Another: The Mouse Factory. "All our mice and rats are flash-frozen and vacuum packed reducing freezer burn, thus greatly extending their freezer life and preserving their vitamins and nutrients." Mmmm ... that's good to know.

Update April 5: Replaced that mouse with this one. [$10 at Wal-Mart.] It's been a couple of weeks now, and no more problems. (Crosses fingers.) Hardware, not software problem, apparently. Click "Ok" Okay!

Christopher Walken for President?

Charles at LGF links to "Perhaps the greatest music video ever made." Perhaps, indeed. (Did you spot the Dune reference?) The comment thread is one music video recommendation after another. In the course of which I find that Christopher Walken has a campaign website, Christopher Walken for President 2008. It seems like a pretty laid-back campaign. At the CafePress shop for campaign stuff, the T-shirt slogan is "This country needs more cowbell;" the bumper sticker slogan is, "If you want me to be President, I'll do it!" Another T-shirt actually seems to take a position on an issue, "No more zoos!" I for one would hate to see all those animals put out of work. It's not easy getting a job as a lion in the Bronx if you can't connect at the zoo.

Historical origin of LOLcats

Ape Lad reveals the hitherto little-known beginnings of the burgeoning LOLcats phenomenon.

Not many people know this, but my great grandfather Aloysius "Gorilla" Koford, was also a cartoonist (see the video evidence here). From 1912-1913 he produced a comic strip which was featured in 17 newspapers, including the Philadephia Star-Democrat, the Tampa Telegraph, and the Santa Fe Good-Newser. The strip was entitled "the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats" and featured the exploits of one Meowlin Q. Kitteh (a sort of cat hobo-raconteur) and his young hapless kitten friend, Pip. The strip did not last long due to a run-in my great-grandfather had with none other than William Randolph Hearst.
See, the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats was syndicated by one of Hearst's competitors, so “Big Willy” (as Hearst was known in his day) used the bully pulpit of his media empire to hound and mock the efforts of my great-grandfather. Hearst scribes insinuated Aloysius was an actual trained gorilla and purported to have evidence in the form of banana shipping statements.…

The archive includes proof of the epochal antiquity of the Cthulhu cult,

showing that Lovecraft was, indeed, more of a chronicler than a fabulist.

Thanks to BoingBoing.