fauna

Check out this awesome beastie that showed up in our kitchen the other night. It was not too afraid of the camera, but definitely got irritated with the bright flash and close proximity. Once relocated to the lemon tree outside, however, everything was good.

OK, they must be working on The Matrix — there has been a sudden camel synchronicity.

First was this entry at the Orwell Diaries, “September 14, 1938, Marrakech”, which I read yesterday:

Saw a man carrying a hare, otherwise no wild quadrupeds at all. There are said to be literally none, except a few hares and jackals, in Fr. Morrocco°. A few camels in Sp. Morocco, but not common till south of Casablanca. In general a camel seems to stand about 18 hands high. All are extremely lean & have calloused patches on all joints.

Then this morning, one of the Flickr users I follow, La Route, happened to post this image of “A laid-back Dromedary for hire in Marrakech”, who looks to be in much better shape than the ones described by Orwell (click to see larger):

And as if that weren’t enough, here’s another item that showed up in my news reader this morning, “Keith Bellows: Celebrating the camel”, from a 2002 TED conference, just posted today:

Keith Bellows gleefully outlines the engineering marvels of the camel, a vital creature he calls “the SUV of the desert.” Though he couldn’t bring a live camel to TED, he gets his camera crew as close as humanly possible to a one-ton beast in full rut.

So I’m not sure what the universe is trying to tell me, but somehow camels are involved.

From the Press Enterprise Daily News Digest blog comes this story of wildlife on a field trip in the suburbs — “Bear cub takes tries out a Ventura hot tub before returning to the wild”.

The story caught my eye especially because of this hilarious moment:

Resident Stephen Schafer says he looked outside at about 3 a.m. and thought “there is a really big poodle in my backyard.”

Then he made a realization.

“Hey, that’s not a poodle.”

While this might seem an unlikely occurrence to the uninitiated, if we were to let our standard poodle Pharaoh go ungroomed for a while, he would definitely become more sheepdog like. Which, in the middle of the night, could definitely pass for a bear cub.

Here he is, groomed:

Check out the Standard Poodle group on Flickr for lots of other examples. :)

Via Serious Eats’ Required Eating comes a NY Times story on a London fish and chips shop that is trying to go fully sustainable. It’s a thoroughly difficult process.

Part of [Tom Aikens’] mission is “to broaden fish tastes outside of cod.” His fish and chips will be made from cod imported from countries where it is not overfished as well as from sustainable species like pollack, gunard, rays and sole. He said he hoped to “raise awareness” among the top chefs in London to help bring about self-imposed moratoriums on severely depleted stocks like North Sea cod or Mediterranean bluefin tuna. A portion of the cheapest fish and chips at Tom’s Place, ray for takeaway, will run about £10, or $20.

“A Favorite Meal, Now Offering a Side Order of Environmental Awareness”

Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
Number Two: Sea Bass.
Dr. Evil: [pause] Right.
Number Two: They’re mutated sea bass.
Dr. Evil: Are they ill tempered?
Number Two: Absolutely.
Dr. Evil: Oh well, that’s a start.

Undoubtedly to fight the deadly menace of Sharks with Frickin’ Laser Beams Attached To Their Heads, the fishing industry is countering with high-tech weapons of its own: Laser-Based Lures.

C. Douglas Nielsen (“Yes, I see Douglas Nielsen…”) writes in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Bruce Young is an inventor who believes the key to catching more fish is all about lighting up.

I could have guessed that there would be some “lighting up” involved with this story, but let’s continue. ;)

For the past 10 years, Young has been working on a way to put laser technology to work in a fishing lure, an idea that came about by accident.

It began when he pointed a laser sight at his fish tank full of African cichlids and peacock bass.

“Every fish in there chased and would bite that dot. I could get ‘em to bite rocks, and I could get ‘em to bite each other,” Young said. “Six months into it, I thought, ‘What if I put a hook on that dot?’ Ten years later I’m introducing the first laser lures in the world.

“Fish chase it. Cats chase it. Dogs chase it. I can’t tell you why, but they simply do. If it eats meat, it’s going to eat the laser light.”

Which gives me an idea for my next trip to the local steak house.