dance, emu, dance!

speechless

doggy doo doo

im not really sure what to say about this. thanks ny times sports page.

koko speaks

koko is a gorilla who can "speak" using sign language! teresa and i watched koko: a talking gorilla, a documentary by barbet schroeder about 4-year old koko the gorilla and her communicative relationship with her trainer, penny patterson. koko was born in the san francisco zoo in the 70s and then taken to stanford to be part of an experiment to learn more about human-animal communication and primate capabilities.



the film has a great 70s nostalgic quality, a bit grainy with slightly scratchy sound. the whole thing is quite absurd- koko riding in the passenger seat driving around palo alto; koko preferring a red sweater to a yellow; koko being chastised for being "bad"; koko eating a sandwich; koko using a rudimentary apple computer. it will make you laugh, confused, skeptical, but most of all enthralled by sweet koko and her uncanny ability to speak! she's still alive....38 years old and can sign 1000 different words and understand even more of spoken english and american sign language. WOW! you go, koko! now does she really get it or is she just hungry??







images via barbet schroeder

am cams

don't you just love animal cams? err, i mean "animal-borne imaging."





mr. lee's cat cam!


national geographic's crittercam!


and the best, the san diego zoo's PANDA CAM!!!

RIP FISHY

in april 1993, i won a goldfish at a carnival in muncie, indiana. i tossed a ping pong ball into his bowl and he and a friend came with us back to chicago. his friend survived an astoundingly long time- about two years after the carnival. each year after that, we kind of expected fishy to meet the same watery fate....but to no avail! he was with us through our schooldays, bar and bat mitzvahs, divorce, first boyfriends and girlfriends and breakups, made it through my move to college, to germany, to san francisco, and i even got to see him while i was home for the holidays.

fishy passed away this past month at the ripe old age of 17. the world's oldest goldfish apparently lived to be 43, but in my world of childhood goldfish, fishy was the oldest and the best. goodbye, my friend! thank you for your devoted love and friendship to me and my whole family! we love you and miss you!