28 February 2012

[Very] Personalized Wedding Cakes





Edited to add these Bichon groom and wedding cakes:

27 February 2012

Monkey Monday | Amazon Monkey Rescue


YouTube
Can you speak monkey? Well if you hang out with them long enough you’re bound to pick up a few words. After more than thirty years in the Amazon, Dr. Sara Bennett can talk some monkey, which, with a little encouragement on my part, she demonstrated for me one sweltering morning on Mocagua Island in the Colombian Amazon. One wooly monkey in particular also had a lot to say to Sara. I’m sure what he was saying was the same thing most of the monkeys on this island adjacent to Amacayacu National Park probably say to her, “Thank you. Thank you for saving us and for starting the rescue center that takes in orphaned and captive monkeys in this part of the Amazon.

Dr. Sara Bennett got a grant from National Geographic to study trees when she first went to the Amazon, but she soon fell in love with the creatures that live in the trees, and began working with local tribes helping them understand the importance of altering their hunting and fishing practices so they would be more sustainable. On Mocagua Island which is shared by four different tribes she got them to agree to stop the hunting of wooly monkeys which were in danger of being wiped out. It was here that she also helped establish Maikuchiga, a small non-profit that operates a rescue center for orphaned animals.

Most of the rescued animals are monkeys that were in either in captivity or were orphaned after hunters killed their mothers. Sara now uses the rescued monkeys as educational ambassadors. We talk about my visit to the monkeys this week on National Geographic Weekend. This video shows Sara and some of her rescued monkeys jumping in her arms and climbing on her head. It also shows some of the monkeys trying to help me with the filming.
Maybe Dr. Bennett can rescue the little monkey being "trained" to pose for pictures with tourists.

National Geographic via Primates in the News

24 February 2012

"Yahweh Or No Way" | Stephen Colbert Converts All Dead Mormons To Judaism


Video Cafe
It recently came to Stephen Colbert's attention that the Mormons have a habit of baptizing dead Jews; even though the Church claimed to stop this practice, Anne Frank was apparently baptized for the tenth time last week. So Colbert only had one sensible choice, retaliation-wise: to convert all the dead Mormons to Judaism.
Gawker

23 February 2012

Maryland Senate Passes Marriage Equality Bill

Equality Maryland Twitpic
By a vote of 25 to 22, the State Senate passed a marriage equality bill today, making Maryland the eighth state to recognize same-sex marriage.

Governor Martin O'Malley has promised to sign the bill into law.

22 February 2012

He-Gassen Scrolls | The Fart War

Click images to enlarge
Read the full scroll at Waseda University Library
[These images are] from an Edo period (1603 to 1868) Japanese scroll depicting what is called he-gassen or “farting competition.” The images show people happily expelling their gasses at cats, horses and even at each other. Apparently no one is safe from he-gassen. According to the website Naruhodo, “similar drawings were used to ridicule westerners towards the end of the Edo period, with images depicting the westerners blown away by Japanese farts.”
Dangerous Minds

Bisou Relaxing

I laughed out loud this evening when I looked up from working and saw Bisou stretched out, recovering from a hard day sunning herself on the deck.

13 February 2012

12 February 2012

Antarctica's 19-Mile Ice Crack

In mid-October 2011, NASA scientists working in Antarctica discovered a massive crack across the Pine Island Glacier, a major ice stream that drains the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Extending for 19 miles (30 kilometers), the crack was 260 feet (80 meters) wide and 195 feet (60 meters) deep. Eventually, the crack will extend all the way across the glacier, and calve a giant iceberg that will cover about 350 square miles (900 square kilometers).
The size of the expected iceberg will likely exceed the combined area of New York City's five boroughs.

Via TPM

10 February 2012

Seth Casteel | Photographs Of Dogs Underwater




Lifestyle pet photographer, Seth Casteel, captured these amazing images of dogs fetching their toys underwater.

Via Dangerous Minds

Bad Puns, Paganism, And The Smell Of Burning Felt | A Muppet Wicker Man



YouTube

With Kermit as Sergeant Howie and Miss Piggy as Willow. Just splendid.

Click here to read the comic, and do yourself a favor and watch the 1973 original film with Edward Woodward.

Via Neatorama

Edgar's New 'Do

Before


After

It's amazing how much hair comes off one 8-pound dog.

T.G.I.F. | Laurel And Hardy Happy Dance

YouTube

For tomB

02 February 2012

iGoogle Search | Why Does My ...


Bisou really, really wanted to snuggle and give kisses this morning, so I thought I'd find out why our doggies like to lick our faces. I got as far as "Why does my ..."