I freak out if a small gecko runs across the wall.

Credit: English Russia

Technorati Tags: Crocodiles

hmm… I guess the world really does spin on an axis

Larger version at:

http://www.astronomie.be/hambsch/namibia06/startrails1.htm

Feeling stressed? Just head on over to thecuteproject.com and stare at some fluffy animals! 

awwwwww

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Synchronized Fishies!

This little albino squirrel was spotted in Arkansas city. Albino squirrels are extremely rare with only 1 in 100,000 born. Life expectancy is short as well because they are easily spotted by predators. Hopefully, its squirrel skills are 1337 enough to survive for a long time.

 Louise Coldwell’s yard has been a regular hangout for the squirrel since it was born. Louise isn’t sure how old the squirrel is, just that it was a baby in the springtime and she believes it was born in one of her trees.

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Robinson, of Steuben, donated the lobster to the Mount Desert Oceanarium. Staff members say the odds or finding a half-and-half lobster are 1 in 50 million to 100 million. By comparison, the odds of finding a blue lobster are about 1 in a million.

edit: fixed some typos

Apartment Therapy is running a pet decor contest. and todays entry was the cat stairs.

The cats seem to be really enjoying themselves. I think it’s a great entry especially because it is both practical and aesthetic.

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NASA released this ultraviolet photo of our sun taken by the TRACE project.

Even on a normal day, our Sun is sizzling ball of seething hot gas. Unpredictably, regions of strong and tangled magnetic fields arise, causing sunspots and
bright active regions. The Sun’s surface bubbles as hot hydrogen gas streams along looping magnetic fields. These active regions channel gas along magnetic loops, usually falling back but sometimes escaping into the solar
corona or out into space as the solar wind. Pictured above is our Sun in three colors of ultraviolet light. Since only active regions emit significant amounts of energetic ultraviolet light, most of the Sun appears dark. The colorful portions glow spectacularly, pinpointing the Sun’s hottest and most
violent regions. Although the Sun is constantly changing, the rate of visible light it emits has been relatively stable over the past five billion years, allowing life to emerge on Earth.

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This Chimp does a great job of controlling Ms.Pac-man.

Did you know that pigeons can categorize images in photographs as quickly as humans can? Not much is known about animal intelligence because for hundreds/thousands of years humans arrogantly, and with out evidence, established that all animals are just stupid machines. Now, new evidence suggests that that belief can’t be further from the truth.

There is evidence that states that animals can think in abstract terms, they can apply abilities learned in previous attempts of solving problems, they have their own languages, and even a sense of humor.

Gentner found that whole clauses could be inserted into starling songs to create new and “grammatically correct” meanings. For humans, this would be like transforming the phrase “the bird sang” into “the bird the cat chased sang.”

Whales and dolphins appear to share similar abilities. And like some birds, dolphins appear to name themselves.

Some animals may even be “bilingual,” since birds appear to decipher the sophisticated vocalizations of ground squirrels.

“As humans, we suffer from cognitive myopia,” Gentner told Discovery News. “We understand things from our point of view. Animals are noteworthy and miraculous, not just because they share traits with us, but because they are special and impressive in their own right.”

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