Skulls in the Stars

The girlfriend sent me the link to the following I Can Haz Cheezeburger, which I post without further comment:

I just had to post about Eleanor, my semi-adopted stray cat.  When I arrived back late last night from my trip, she was waiting at the front door for me, wanting to be let in.  Of course, I let her in, and she took up her usual spot on my guest bed, purring madly.

The next morning, I went in to find her, and called out her name.  Usually she comes right away, but this time I heard a muffled ‘meow’, but no cat!  I peeked under the bed several times, but couldn’t spot her amongst the clutter.  I circled the bed several times, scratching my head, until I noticed the bulge underneath the comforter.  I lifted up the end carefully, and found…

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Via noob.us, I found an intriguing video which has been making the rounds. An elephant in Thailand named Hong has been taught to paint - really well. Watch the video, be astonished, then go below the fold to be brought back to Earth (a bit)…

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Just a quick note: a friend of mine pointed me to a very nice National Geographic article on animal intelligence, which can be read here.

The article discusses the well-known case of Alex the parrot, but also discusses other surprising species skills: border collies that have a 300-word vocabulary, and crows that can fashion tools. Well worth a read!

We live in a world that’s pretty crappy sometimes, and the current world political situation just makes things look even bleaker.  It’s so nice, then, to occasionally see a few stories that can warm your heart and make you feel good inside.  In that spirit, I briefly describe a couple of happy tales that I stumbled across on the ‘tubes’ this week…

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CNN has a video reporting that Lee County, SC may be suffering the return of its not-particularly-famous Lizard Man. First sighted in June 1988, a local teen was changing a tire on his car near Scape Ore Swamp when he was evidently attacked by a bipedal green lizard! Via Weird U.S.,

“I looked back and saw something running across the field towards me. It was about 25 yards away and I saw red eyes glowing. I ran into the car and as I locked it, the thing grabbed the door handle. I could see him from the neck down – the three big fingers, long black nails and green rough skin. It was strong and angry. I looked in my mirror and saw a blur of green running. I could see his toes and then he jumped on the roof of my car. I thought I heard a grunt and then I could see his fingers through the front windshield, where they curled around on the roof. I sped up and swerved to shake the creature off.”

The car roof was severely scratched up, and the rear-view mirror damaged, but otherwise no physical evidence was present. A number of other people reported seeing the lizard man, but by August ‘88 the sightings had died off. Well, he’s back!

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I’ve done a bit of catblogging before about my insane cat Zoe.  Another cat inspired me to adopt Zoe in the first place, and I thought I’d share that story, since it’s still ongoing!  After the fold, meet Eleanor!

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From CNN, we get news that a previously unknown species of palm tree has been “discovered” on Madagascar! I put “discovered” in quotation marks because, as CNN says,

The palm tree, which grows to 66 feet in height and has about 16-foot leaves, is only found in an extremely remote region in the northwest of the country, some four days by road from the capital. Local villagers have known about it for years although none had seen it in flower until last year.

The bizarre flowering ritual was first spotted by Frenchman Xavier Metz, who runs a cashew plantation nearby. After seeing it he notified Kew Gardens.

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Just a quick post; the girlfriend and I are heading back home today, but I thought I’d post a picture of the first cat I got to know: my Dad’s cat Cleopatra (’Cleo’ for short).  She’s a lovely dignified tabby that one of my Dad’s secretaries found as a stray.  She had too many cats already, so my Dad agreed to take her in.  It’s been a healthy and happy adoption: Cleo is about 18 years old now!  She probably doesn’t have too many more years in her, but she’s still as friendly as ever: she came and sat with the girlfriend and I as soon as we arrived.

And here I thought that this image was simply a nice photoshopped picture that somebody made for I Can Has Cheezburger! But, no, it turns out that scientists in South Korea have managed to make cloned cats that glow red when exposed to ultraviolet light! By using a virus to insert a genetic marker for generating fluorescent proteins, the researchers have made what will probably become the next big novelty pet craze. Worried about your cat attacking your ankles without warning? Flick on the black light, and see where she’s hiding! (Warning: You might find more than you bargained for…)

In all seriousness, this is an amazing accomplishment. Being able to insert functional genes into an animal means that better research can be done on a variety of genetic diseases, which means that better treatment options may soon become available for such diseases.