sacred bird » animals

here birdy birdy

630 — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:26:13 +0000

snowball will do it to to queen or stevie nicks but prefers the backstreet boys. until recently, dancing was thought to be a human actively but snowball and other videos of dancing animals have convinced scientist that may not be true. said aniruddh patel, a neurobiologist, “I said, you know, this is much more than just a cute pet trick. This is potentially scientifically very important.” science or not, a dancing parrot is pretty amusing.

[npr]

white house security sucks

630 — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:45:48 +0000

white house press secretary robert gibbs confirmed there was indeed another gatecrasher at yesterday’s white house press conference. oh yeah, and those other gatecrashers got stopped by the secret service the other day near the white house.

[mediaite, los angeles times]

maybe obama will attend a workshop*

630 — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:19:46 +0000

participants are asked “to pull their empty pockets out to laugh at each other’s lack of cash, and to point and laugh at themselves.” in some neighborhoods that i know of, laughing at someone like that will get you killed but in the laughter clubs in zimbabwe, it’s considered a good thing. two women, shilpa shah and celina stockill, got the idea to conduct laughter workshops in zimbabwe in response to the economic situation which has gotten so bad the country no longer has its own currency. the workshops teach zimbabweans to aim for 10 minutes of hearty laugher a day. said stockhill of the benefits of laughter, “there are three benefits – emotional, physical and mental. We release stress by laughing, we activate our lymphatic system and it’s a very strong cardio work-out.”

*giggling is good
**since laughter is a good thing, i thought we could all use some. hope the jazz hands do it for you.

photo courtsey of phizphaz1

throw me a bone!

180 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:00:28 +0000

we’ve known for a long time that the sounds whales make actually have meaning. research from the journal of animal behavior says that dog growls actually communicate something to other dogs. according to the report “When a dog growls, the opponent is near, so he/she can hear clearly that the next few steps forward will not be greeted with a warm welcome. ”

how do they know this?

the researchers recorded the growls of 41 dogs and played the growls after placing a nice juicy bone in front of the dogs. as the dogs went to retrieve the bones, they played a mean growling recording and a playful growl and the dogs only jumped at the sound of the mean growling sound. researchers suspect that this means dogs are sensitive to the emotions of other dogs.

researchers think that there’s a lot more to learn about dogs and hope that this research will “lead to a greater appreciation of, and respect for, non-human animals in general.”

they should’ve at least made some signs

630 — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:01:52 +0000

a bunch of guys wanted some guns so rather than going out to buy them from some guy in an alley like the rest of us would, they started the yonkers society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. located in westchester county in new york state, the group was able to obtain guns and badges through the state law which provides them to humane society cruelty investigators. according to the group’s website, volunteers also received “firearms, aerosol subject restraint, asp baton and tactical handcuffing training” to enable them to be “responsible for patrol, emergency response, investigation, and enforcement of animal welfare laws at the federal, state and local levels.”

the attorney general office was tipped off to the do-nothing group by one of the members turned informant who got tired of infighting. guess there’s a lot to argue about when you’re part of a fake group that does nothing.

photo courtsey of peta2flickr

that’s why the lion is king

630 — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:07:53 +0000

top 5 wildlife attractions in nairobi, kenya are… elephants, leopards, rhinos, buffalo and lions. how much would the amboseli national park pay to ensure they retain the 20% the region currently makes from tourism? seems the answer is 4,000 zebras, 3,000 wildebeest and $1.4 million dollars.

the live zebras and wildebeest will be bought over to the park to feed the lions who have had a shortage of food since the recent drought killed off 80% of the herbivores. the lions, being animals that they are, have started killing off livestock and the villagers are non too happy.

i’ve been reading some of the comments attached to this story on cnn and it’s interesting. most seem to feel that zebras have been “food for lions, have been for thousands of years” and because there are only an estimated 2,000 lions remaining, they have no problems with the what the park plan to do. a very small group seem to think it’s disturbing that no one bothered to save the herbivores by providing water during the drought or that there’s something not quite right in interfering with the natural order of things by trekking in food for the lions. which camp do you fall in?

photo courtsey of sublimeshooter23

more revenue goes to china

180 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:08:30 +0000

as of july 2009, china owned 45% of u.s. debt and it looks like the chinese are beginning to call in their notes. starting tomorrow the chinese are recalling tai shan the cute panda bear that is the major attraction and more importantly the major source of revenue for the national zoo in our nation’s capital.

born nearly five years ago, tai shan is the only giant panda to survive in captivity beyond infancy. he’ll return to china via fedex freighter to participate in a breeding program for pandas (there are only about about 3 thousand giant pandas left in the world).

happy trails to you, tai shan. and here’s hoping people start to like rare birds or something–they have lots of those at the zoo.

photo courtesy of villian

even a monkey* can do it

630 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:03:21 +0000

make a film that is. the chimpcam project is a new documentary filmed entirely by the chimpanzees at the edinburgh zoo in scotland. primatologist betsy herrelko was interested in learning more about what chimps liked so she gave them a video screen which had the ability for them use a touchscreen to select what they wanted to see. once they got the hang of that, she then took it a step further by providing them with a “chipcam”, a camera place inside a enclosure to prevent breakage. the chimps carried around the “chimpcam” and voila, we’ve got a film.

and avatar cost half a billion dollars to make.

photo courtsey of jeska d

*before you all tell me, i know monkeys and chimpanzees are not the same animals but i personally perfer the term “even a monkey can do it”

what will NOT get you out of jury duty

630 — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:31:40 +0000

and you thought you had a hard time getting out of jury duty. check out sal esposito’s story.

sal’s from east boston and is scheduled for jury duty at the suffolk superior court on march 23. the only problem is, sal won’t be able to be impartial … or maybe he will be too impartial… because sal’s a cat. despite being of the feline persuasion, the appeal to have him excused from jury duty has been declined. so the next time you try to make up some lame excuse to get out of sitting in court for a few days, you can forget it. sal’s probably a cool cat but i’m thinking it’d be more entertaining if they got the keyboard cat instead.

presenting.. your favorites

630 — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:01:11 +0000

it’s been an awesome year at sb and before we jump into new year, we thought we’d take a look at your favorite stories from 2009. here are the top 5, in order by page count:

omg sharon, you’re … huge is the story of one man’s love … for his pumpkin.
not sure I want this to be true about rumors debates the age old question: daytime sacred bird (aka anderson cooper) or nighttime sacred bird? in my dream world, it would be both.
spring ’10 trends gives us some ideas on how can some of our favorite (anderson cooper and bill hemmer) and not so favorite (glenn beck and rush limbaugh) news men may stay on top of the men’s runway fashion trend. hint: there might be a little bling involved.
recycling is good gives us a peek into how some news anchors might be making (or saving) a few extra bucks.
more nascar coverage take us through a little adventure with some raccoons, glenn beck, sean hannity and bill hemmer.

photo courtsey of paul thurlby