Miscellany

Here is a grab bag of a post. Take what you like!

Find out more about eel pouts. Very interesting stuff. Believe me, you'll want to attend the next festival near you. Thanks for the link, you good folks at the Sons of Norway.

Or, if you were hoping to be grossed out, read this article about a boy who got more than he bargained for when he went in to get his ear ache examined. Here's a hint: it's spider-iffic. Thanks for the link, Denita.

And last but not least, here is a video that shows what happens when a giant centipede meets up with a monster tarantula. Don't click the video if you don't want to watch one arthropod get the better of another. As I watched it, I wondered who Jade would root for ...

Feathers and Hair

Phlimm sent me a couple of beauties. This first one comes from the good peeps over at Zooillogix. Check out neocrinus decorus - better known as the sea lily or feather star. "See feather star crawl. See feather star come for your soul. Crawl feather star, crawl." That's the latest in a children's book series I am working on.

Photos from Zooillogix.








This last one is known as a hairy crab or the teddy-bear crab. Not only is this crab 'hairy', but it's also poisonous. Wow, talk about a crustacean that's got nothing to offer (not even teddy-bear hugs!), unless you are in the market for surliness.

Photo source: Labrador Park

One Chunk at a Time

This one threw the zoo staff in Patok, Albania for a loop. They had themselves a wolf they wanted to feed, so they threw a donkey in for food. But the wolf would not partake. Instead, the two 'have become attached to each other' and have been cohabiting for days now.

I don't know that the wolf is so much attached to the donkey as he is afraid of it (look at its face!). I imagine the wolf would have been happy to eat the donkey had the zoo keepers fed it to him one chunk at a time.

Thanks for the link, Alma!

Photo source: Yahoo!

Grubby Kids

Thought y'all could use a pair of glistening caterpillar shots. If there is one thing I'm happy about, it's that we humans don't go through a larval phase in our early childhood. Parenting is hard enough with kids being adorable. If they looked like this?

Photo source: Ben Francis













Photo source: Knuttz.net

Harry and Fuzzy

Sharla and Steven are two pet owners who know exactly what this blog is about. They love their hairless guinea piggies - named Harry and Fuzzy - and are proud to share them here, with you.

So say hello to these two new residents of Ugly Overload. You will never meet another pirate / cowboy combo quite like them.

Thanks for the photos, Sharla and Steven.

BTW, these two hail from Hawaii. Is there some sort of hairless gene running rampant over there? Between these critters and the kohona cats, I'm beginning to see a disturbing trend.

Peek-a-bo Hairdo

If I were wandering the wilds of Africa and I spotted a hairdo like this peeking at me from behind a rock, I'd clap my pith helmet back on my head, hike up my khaki shorts, and flee in the opposite direction.

Photo source: Knuttz.net

Diving Mantis

Here's a bonus for you. In a beautiful fusion of two of my more recent posts, Linda (you know her as 'bats') presents you with this.

Given what I have learned of mantids recently, I wouldn't put this kind of stunt past them.

Thanks for the photo, Linda. You've got some mad 'shop skills.

Kosher Pig?

I thought I had pretty well tapped out the swine family in terms of species covered, but how wrong I was. Anne emailed me this photo to let me know about the babirusa.

This endangered pig kin is native to Sulawesi and other islands around Indonesia. An interesting note on this beast is that there was some debate as to whether it was a pig, and whether it could be considered kosher or not. You see, the babirusa is split-hoofed, with a three-chambered stomach and was thought to be a ruminant. But, alas, it was eventually determined no to be a ruminant, and therefore not kosher. So close!

Thanks for the photo, Anne.