Silly Seals

"So I says to him, I says, 'My lips are SEALED!'"
"That's a good one, dude. Really good."

Birds of a Feather

It's not really news, I guess, but I just love the photos of some of the winners and runners-up from the the poultry club's 2011 national show in England. "The poultry club was founded 1877," The Guardian writes, "being established to safeguard the interests of all pure and traditional breeds of poultry chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys." I think it was also established to record the bond between some people and their feathered doubles. Take a look at the photos! You'll be surprised how many of the owners resemble their birds!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/gallery/2011/nov/21/1#/?picture=382080112&index=1

Water Bear, Faucet Face

Only the "water bear" part of the title of this posting is scientifically accurate (well, Paramacrobiotus craterlaki is the true scientific name for this microbial creature). But, really, instead of an actual FACE, which the rest of us larger creatures have, this microbial wonder has, er, a faucet. This creature is only one of a "marine treasure trove" of creatures that are now being studied by scholars at the University of British Columbia (yay, Canada!). "These tiny marine wonders offer a chance to exploit a vast pool of material that could be used to create innovative medicines, industrial solvents, chemical treatments and other processes, scientists say. Researchers have already created new enzymes for treating sewage and chemicals for making soaps from material they have found in ocean organisms," they say. We live in a world of wonders -- many of which we can't even see.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/10/marine-treasure-trove-medicine

Waits at the window, Wearing a face that . . . is an owl's?

Eleanor Rigby has met her match. Meet Gandalf. He would like to meet you, too, but he's a bit shy. You see, he is afraid of flying in open spaces; thus, he spends most of his time watching the world from his very own aviary in a brick shed inside Knowsley Safari Park near Liverpool.