Cats
grrlscientist | April 24, 2008tags: Waterbill Mystery, humor, behavior, streaming video
Jennifer and Jim kept getting huge water bills. They knew beyond a doubt that the bills weren't representative of actual usage, and no matter how they tried to conserve, the high bills continued. Although they could see nothing wrong, they had everything checked for leaks or problems: first the water meter, then outdoor pipes, indoor pipes, underground pipes, faucets, toilets, washer, ice maker machine, etc. One day, Jim was sick and stayed home in bed, but kept hearing water running downstairs. He finally tore himself from his sick…
laelaps | April 23, 2008A female cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) photographed last year at the National Zoo in Washington D.C.
laelaps | April 22, 2008Here are some pictures my wife took of the three kittens presently staying in the apartment with us, although all of them will soon be off to the adoption center to try and find good homes;
Elice (she likes to sleep in that box).EmmaMishuAll three together.
laelaps | April 19, 2008No angry creationists gathered outside my door with torches & pitchforks last night, and I presume that the first-night impact of Expelled (at least in my area) was not as great as the producers of the film might have hoped. We won't know for sure, though, until the box office results are in on Monday.
The above was written in a tongue-in-cheek manner, of course, and I really don't care about Ben Stein's creationist diatribe today. This morning I stopped by the local library book sale where I picked up a copy of Richard Leakey's Origins, the pop-paleo junk food Tyrannosaur, and (a book…
laelaps | April 14, 2008
As for the the little furballs around here, Little Foot has gone back to the adoption center. Beatrice is now with us, although she seems to be suffering from spring allergies. We'll probably have some kittens in the rotation soon, though, as the summer-long wave of kittens starts not too long after the weather warms up. Chase and Charlotte went to the vet last Friday, but despite Chase evacuating his bowels in his crate along the way everything was fine.
laelaps | April 9, 2008One of Charles R. Knight's paintings of Smilodon fatalis, this one menacing a giant sloth stuck in tar (off panel).There are few fossil mammals that are as impressive as the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis, but despite it's fearsome dentition some recent reports have suggested it was more of a pussycat when it came to bite strength. This seems to be counter-intuitive; how could such a fearsome-looking animal be associated with the term "weak"? Incredulity aside, it has become apparent that the bite of Smilodon wasn't as strong as that of some other carnivores (extinct and extant), yet it…
laelaps | March 25, 2008As some of you know, I take in an extra cat that needs a foster home from time to time, rotating them out as they are adopted or go to the pet store so people can see them. Here's a quick run-down of how the cats my wife and I have fostered (each in turn) have been doing;
Beatrice: Bea was the first cat my wife and I took in last year, and she still hasn't found a home. She's been back and forth to a few places, but it's been difficult finding her a home. She's happy here for now, although she'll probably go back to the adoption center soon in the hopes that someone will find her charming.…
sporte | March 16, 2008Conflicts between predators like cougars and coyotes and human companions like pets and small children are becoming more common as people move into areas that used to be wildlife habitat.
The Seattle Times has a great story this morning about biologists in Washington who are studying cougars to learn if cougars and people can coexist. The biologists think most of the trouble might be caused by teenage male cougars who move in to the territory when the older, smarter males get killed.
There's also a cool videoabout tracking and catching a cougar named Jane.
laelaps | March 11, 2008You know documentaries have fallen into a sorry state of existence when their primary draw is the destruction of expensive objects just to fill up a few minutes (or even seconds) or airtime. I haven't seen the whole documentary, but the first installment of the BBC's The Truth About Killer Dinosaurs thought it would be fun to crunch up a car;
Of course, that clip is essentially a rip-off of a scene from the second Jurassic Park film, The Lost World;
The worst representations of the "destructive documentary," however, can be found in the Discovery Channel's "Animal Face Off" series. In…
grrlscientist | March 7, 2008tags: Meet Hugo: Cat of One Thousand Faces, humor, silliness, streaming video
Watch Hugo transform himself with his amazing disguises! [1:28].
Okay, it's true that he tries to eat some of them, too.