Unicorns of the Sea

My new favourite animal: narwhals.

*posts first 2 pages of Google Image search results*

What an impressive sight.

Males have a spiral tusk that is actually the left incisor growing out of their top lip. What a gruesome idea! Supposedly 1/500 male would have dual tusks too. Tusks are believed to be for mating/ sexual attraction, or for communication. Sometimes their tusks hit each other like fencing (don't think dirty thoughts). The are a threatened species because they only feed on certain prey in the Arctic regions. They are hunted for subsistence - and sometimes their tusks - by Arctic natives. I believe the source is wiki - I googled all this 4 in the morning -_-

Aren't they such magical looking creatures? Reminds me of the beluga whales I've seen at Stanley Park's Aquarium, and of swordfish. Being shortlived in captivity certainly adds to their mystery. You don't hear or read about them much either.

Extra cute: a dad helps his son do a science fair project on narwhals!

Ok that's all for my own science fair report on narwhals. If only I can be this focused doing constructive things...

Rockatoo

I lol'ed -_-

Police shot 5lb puppy - "had no choice"

Police say the small dog had bit a jogger and they were trying to contain it, when it clamped down on an officer’s hand and would not let go. ...

“The officers, as badly as the officer was getting bitten, he had to do something to protect himself,” said Hartinger. “They first chose physical means, then a taser and when those two didn't work, he had no option but to shoot the dog."

Police say the dog bit the officer 17 times on one hand and nine times on the other.

The officer is expected to recover. >>

Is a 5lb puppy that difficult to control?!?! and you expect these police to defend citizens against 200lb thugs. Good luck!

Can't think of a clever title

Overheard on the TTC bus:

Dude 1: Look *points* we can check out that pet shop.
Dude 2: It's right next to a Chinese Restaurant!!
- Both laugh -



Obviously that Chinese man at table three.

Husky sings Gwen Stefani

#2: ("9_9)

Jump, ducklings, jump!

Even ducklings can melt a banker's heart. >>

What is this

Too weird.

I tried to find out more about this Pygmy Jerboa creature, but there are so many variations. They all look similar to my favourite kangaroo rat, only k.r. is cuter and p.j.s are more alien like.

A poem on Pygmy Jerboas:


Pygmy Jerboas are rodents
about the size of a penny,
which look surprisingly evil
and frankly quite scary.


"I'm gonna eat out your brain."

Its cousin the Long Eared Jerboa is sooooooooo much cuter.

My fav Kangaroo Rat, which I learned of from the Magic School Bus

Please take care of the environment, because there are so many creatures that depend on it!

"If all the insects on earth disappeared, within fifty years all life on earth would disappear. If all humans disappeared, within fifty years all species would flourish as never before." — Jonas Salk

Whack A Kitty!

I think le BF wants to whack them with a hammer to prevent further multiplication of the evil feline race.

Puppy?? Lion cub??? Bear cub?? Stuffed animal??? @_@

>>

I WANT

To do list.

Good ol' C&H >>

"They will smell like glitter, they will smell like cotton candy"

Giddyup, muthfucka. Revenge for this.

Fuck Yeah Puppies

I can't hear you!! Na na na na na

mammy halp pleez

umm..

go to http://fuckyeahpuppies.tumblr.com now!

Nature is Awesome

In the jungle... all the way to London

My aunt just came back from the jungle. Literally. Like, totally. Like, can't make this up- okay I'll stop.

Email in its original form, typos grammar mistakes and all. I can just imagine anyone texting while watching TV with a message like this:

HIHI, I am back from the jungle in North Bonero (Sabah). This 8 days we stayted with the forest rangers and walked through the trail. This is not open for tourists yet so we are the first group. (they used to just open for scientists, nature group, international Raleigh volunteer for some parts of the jungle). It called Imbak Canyon in the heart of Sabah.

each day we walked around 5-6 hours and overnight at a very basic camp. back to the nature and basic with no facilities. we took bath in the river, slept in a open tent with only the sound of insects and leeches. kayake down to the river, got lost in a jungle and walked from 10 hours until it got dark and arrived a camp found out no fuel for the generator (no electricity)...

Previously she volunteered for 3 months in Puerto Rico living in similar hut conditions, collecting sea turtle eggs, teaching local children English, living off yams, corn, and rice, getting attacked by leeches (right on her belly button!), having a fellow traveler pee next to the bunk beds, jumping down waterfalls... She also ventured straight up north during the huge snowstorm of 2007 to picturesque walkways of icy trees in New York and a blackout in our Toronto home.

I couldn't even decide on a place to go for grad trip. I have to consider:
1. I want the best bang for my buck
2. Who do I go with?
3. What do I want out of it?

My aunt had all those solved. She went with her boyfriend/life partner (? She just doesn't want to get married). He paid for everything. Because he's white and he works in Hong Kong... figures. (Why don't foreigners get paid higher in North America?! Why do Caucasians - dammit, I'll be politically incorrect - whites get paid higher everywhere?? They're not that much better!! They can't speak complex Asian languages!! Lai ji mm ji or gong meh ah, bak yun? Meanwhile, many Asians are multilingual. China's gonna own your ass, America. You're going bankrupt and all without healthcare. Even Canada's gonna own your ass!! We're "boring like mashed potatoes", we got healthcare and fucking poutine! Even our potato dishes own your ass!! I digress...). Then she went to England country side to visit the "in-laws" and experience strange western mom customs (de-core-d strawberries stored in a glass jar for her 40 y/o children to eat from?) The point of her travels is because she detests commercialism, materialism, etc., so she/they wanted to find a suitable city to call home. Basically, she got the who, what, and how covered, and where and when are unlimited because she doesn't need to work. What a life.

If I wasn't so mightily afraid of tiny critters crawling on me (just thinking of it makes me hunch my shoulders to protect my neck. I need a scarf now!!) I may have decided on a nature oriented journey. I don't mind sleeping on rocks and in tropical forests; just give me a second layer of skin that completely covers all crevices on my body. So basically, I want to operate like this car (via; which I think has two letters missing from its name - you can tell when you see how the hood opens).

Right now, I have a tentative plan for a Euro trip. I have a friend in the UK, and we can visit Scotland, France, and if budget allows, Portugal and Spain. This is before all budget concerns, time limits, and any planning. So it's not really a plan, but a dream. Although The Great Financer has approved of such a project, budget still needs approval. If it works, date of departure will be June 11th and must return by June 25th. That's all I know for now.

Wherever the dart lands...

Oh yes, I am graduating on June 28th (typing this from the computer lab at 1am...). Then will be going for a few days to New York with The Great Authority and Financer of all things. So I'll be going somewhere for sure. Except I have visioned my grad trip would involve backpacking and sleeping at train stations. I would if I weren't a 5'2 sedentary klutz with no means of self defence.

Some people asked why I'm not going to Europe with le BF. "Oh, it'll be so romantic!" Right now, that's a pretty repulsive idea. I don't want all the memories in my life, especially all travels, to involve him. Is that cruel?

PS. Any recommendations for must-go places in Europe? Cheap airlines, hostels, discounts?

Note: I've been to France & Italy as a 12 year old so I don' need to see the Eiffel Tower or Leaning tower of Pisa, etc. I am willing to sacrifice photo ops for an authentic European experience! I speak a basic, basic level of French.

Found

Someone had this saved on the school computer lab desktop: 
It sparkles like Edward! lol

I want either a mini bunny or baby hedghog. Or Kangaroo rat. They're so funny.

Triplets

I once knew a set of triplets named Amelia, Bedilia, and Cordelia.

They played quietly everyday by the window. Sometimes they spied on the neighbours and whispered made up stories about them.

One by one, they grew to be beautiful darlings.

Soon they moved away, and I heard another set of triplets were moving in. They were named Darcia, Elicia, and Felicia.


Little did I know, I was expecting more than three little buds!

I'm thinking of Garcia, Halina, and Julianna.

Link: Suber kuuuutteee edition!

"Imagine how adorable their adventures must be!"


I wonder if it's a super old granny dog + baby kitty?

Doggy in baby swing >> video

Moved it up: BFF4Eva >> video

Oh no! What to do what to do???



If you haven't, also see Matrix cat:

By 2040: Paris a desert, China uninhabitable.

More Apocalypse forecasting:

The earth, according to Gaia theory, would self-adjust to all the pollution and damage we have done. The Sahara desert would spread to central Europe, covering Paris, and China's industrialization would result in pollution that kills all its crops and plants. The Chinese would move on to mining in Africa to escape their inhabitable land; Americans would move to Canada, Russians to Siberia, polar bears would become grizzlies. England (being the land the theorist is from) would be the only country not affected by the growing desert as an island country but would suffer some flooding. All else is left to the survival of the fittest. Here's the original article:

We're all doomed! 40 years from global catastrophe - and there's NOTHING we can do about it, says climate change expert

Challenge ahead: Rising sea levels will threaten central London by 2040, says Lovelock

------------------------------


I personally believe that, as quoted by Stan Marshall in South Park, Creation is the why and Evolution is the how of life. I believe the chance of the Big Bang resulting in such complex organisms and intellectual beings (not just humans, but dolphins, pigs, primates, parrots) is too slight. Possibly there have been numerous Big Bangs in the universe but the one that resulted in us just happened to work, but the chance is too slight for me to believe. I would rather turn to a spiritual Force who started this and evolution took over, thus the 'scientific proofs' we observe. Creationists may contest the billions of years that scientific theory bring up as contradictory to the short history of the Bible, but like that popular joke: to God, a million years is just a second. And that's just my slight piece of thought.

Plus, my Australian social studies teacher predicted this in 2001. He taught me how to sneak up on kangaroos too.

Christian the Lion - the original Kimba/Simba

Lion shocked at reunion with owners:




I'm sure many of you have seen the Lion King, where a little lion cub runs away from home and returns with friends that his species don't usually befriend. Before that, there was the anime by a famous Japanese animator Osamu Tezuka about Kimba the White Lion, who tried to go home to Africa but ended up befriending humans in Europe. And somewhere in between was the true story of how an urban-raised lion cub bought by 2 British men from Harrod's (this was back in the 60's) named Christian was rehabilitated into the wild. This was the clip that got me digging and researching its book, documentary, and the film whose actor and animal trainer made it all happen.


Links:
This article tells us briefly of Christian's known life:Christian, the lion who lived in my London living room

At kimbawlion.com, you can read about how Disney probably copied The Lion King off Kimba the White Lion. (Simba? Kimba? What are the chances?) Click on "Lion King?" for screen to screen comparisons and "Christian the Lion" for how Kimba happened in real life.

Look up for more on "Christian the Lion", "Born Free Foundation"

Note:
I don't want to just throw a heartwarming clip out there without sharing what I learned. As one raised in the city, don't think you can get me to lay on the grass. I'm anxious around animals too. But, I'm all in support of nature and wildlife, while doing my part to harm the environment. Humans are the most invasive and destructive species of earth. We are selfish, short sighted, and an insult to our own intelligence. Life could be much simpler, but we've escalated to a point our abilities are only doing us more harm: industrialization, technological advances, materialism, politics, religion... I'm not here to argue what's wrong and what's right. If you are religious, you would know that nature is a part of creation. If you are political, you know all campaigns are scrambling to raise their green thumbs. All the excess we generate creates pollution, depletes natural resources, and end up in the dump anyway. I'm ashamed of all the electronics I keep plugged in out of laziness and all the non-biodegradable items I surrounded myself with. I hope it's not too late that the world is realizing we are digging ourselves into a dead end. Please be more environmentally conscious.