Doctor Doolittle

H/T Laura the Crazy Mama

Monkey tricks

The Bolivian squirrel monkeys love snatching sunglasses from visitors. The London Zoo in London decided they had to be weaned from this naughty habit. They smeared bitter apple on sunglasses and left them lying about for the Bolivian squirrel monkey to find. These monkeys dislike anything that has a sour taste.

The Bolivian squirrel monkey is only 10 1/2 to 12 1/2 inches long with a 15 to 16 1/2 inch tail. Its tail is longer than its head and body but it is very slim. The tip however is bushy and black. Thismonkey's face is small and white with a large forehead. Its head crown is dark and it has a black nose tip and muzzle.

Bolivian squirrel monkeys live in groups called troops. Their troops average 40 to 50 members and may reach up to 200. The troops of squirrel monkeys are the largest and most active of the monkeys that inhabit the Americas. They are noisy, twittering and clucking. The large troops have smaller peer groups.

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Actor Emilio Estevez Hard at Work on Latest Production — Wine Making

(Your California) Malibu, Calif. — Organically grown Pinot Noir vines surround the Malibu home of Hollywood celebrity Emilio Estevez.  Planted back in 2004 as an experimental project to save water, the vines are now producing the grapes for Casa Dumetz Estate Bottled Pinot Noir. When Estevez purchased the property, the home was dominated by a water-thirsty lawn, so he came up with a unique plan to replace it with something more drought-friendly and productive. "I started getting these ridiculously high water bills," Estevez told the Your California Radio Show.  "So I had this crazy idea to dig up the lawn and plant a vineyard." He says crazy idea, because most of his family and friends told him it was such.  But now, it's Estevez who is literally enjoying the fruits of his labor.  He said his water bill dropped substantially to about $70 a month, and the property is growing a useful product—something the lawn wasn't providing. The vineyard has also given the Hollywood star a new focus. "It's important to have outside interests and hobbies," Estevez said regarding his career in the film industry. And now that hobby is becoming a full-blown passion for wine making. He has expanded the operation beyond his acre or so of grapes in Malibu to include Viognier and Syrah grapes grown at Tierra Alta Vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley Area.  With the addition of the Santa Barbara County product, Casa Dumetz is now making about 650 cases a year. Estevez especially likes the Viognier, calling it the star of the Casa Dumetz line. "Sonja has just been nailing the Viognier for the last couple of years," he said referring to his partner Sonja Magdevski. LISTEN TO THE FULL RADIO INTERVIEW: His respect for the wine industry shows in his marketing approach.  While many stars choose to use their famous names as a way to bring recognition to their projects, you won't find any current photos of Estevez, nor any clear references to him on the winery's website or bottle labels. There is however a picture on the site of Estevez as a young boy, at his grandfather's vineyard in Spain—something lost on visitors who don't know any better.  And, he chose to sign the site's About section as "Don Emilio", rather than use his full name. "There's a lot of people that will buy something just based on a celebrity endorsement or a celebrity name on a product," Estevez said. "But, we wanted the wine and the product to speak for itself." You can currently find Casa Dumetz wines at a number of locations around Southern California and the Central Coast.  The winery does not operate a tasting room at the moment, but Estevez said they are hoping to put one together.  He expects it to be somewhere along the growing Malibu wine trail within the next couple of years. MORE INFO: Casa Dumetz - Malibu Tierra Alta Vineyards - Santa Ynez PHOTO CREDITS: Top - Casa Dumetz - Pinot Grapes Middle - Tierra Alta Vineyard Bottom - Emilio Estevez with father Martin Sheen during production of his film The Way - David Alexanian Link

Boy, you are one big baby!

Lu Hao, the three-year-old who weighs a staggering 132lbs - and he's still growing

At 132lbs, Lu Hao is already five times the size of a normal child his age.

The three-year-old toddler from China eats a staggering THREE bowls of rice when he sits down for a family meal.

When Lu Hao was born he weighed just 2.6kg (5.7 lbs), however, from the time he was three months old he began to gain weight rapidly.

Obese: Lu Hao has managed to put on 10kg (22 lbs) in the past year 

'His appetite is so good that for a meal he can eat three big bowls of rice, even larger than I and his mother,' said Hao's father Lu Yuncheng.

Since Hao was one-year-old his parents have tried to keep a careful eye on his diet.
However, Hao's mother Chen Yuan comments: 'We have to let him be as if we don't feed him he will cry non-stop'...

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Lose the Kardashians

I was flipping channels on the TV the other day and came across an episode of a "reality" show about the Kardashians. Other than being appalled at what has happened to Bruce Jenner's face, I wondered who the h-e-doubletoothpicks are these people? What exactly have they done to make them worthy of a TV show that is "reportedly" about their lives.

I say reality in quotes and reportedly in quotes because I've never believed for one minute that so-called "reality" TV is not manipulated and scripted.

Have these women who looked like they've had about $2 million worth of, uh, enhancement and plastic surgery done anything worthy or reflective of a life lived in Christ? Uh, not that I can detect. Are they great humanitarians? Do they clothe the homeless (well, given the ho outfits they usually wear they may be doing the homeless a favor there)

It looked like, in the brief clip I saw that this show is about a family of rich spoiled and selfish brats who don't work and think the world revolves around them.

How many of us think that life is real? How many people really live like that? Yet, those are the role models the media is giving us.

Reject them-don't keep up with them.

Hump Day Haiku

What are friends for?
Is it a limerick?
"Once was a girl named Cathy"
Nantucket? Bucket?

Educational standards
What would the week be
without a complaint 'bout school
please be recess time

Look behind you
Sick again with strep
must be a conspiracy
chem trails, Big Brother

The desert
Buried in jammies
He moved to Babylonia
King Tut. Funky Tut.

Not so cool hand
1st sacrament time?
failure to communicate
parish rates a "fail"

Monkeys Doubt Themselves Just Like Humans, Study Finds

Apparently humans aren't the only ones filled with self-doubt and uncertainty. A recent study found that certain monkeys question their own thinking as well.

Professor John David Smith and Michael Beran trained macaques, which are of the Old World group (native to Africa, Asia, and Europe), to play a computer game where if they got an answer right, they received a treat. A wrong answer meant no treat, but a brief pause before the next question. But there was a third option -- the question mark. By selecting the question mark, the screen skipped the present question, considered too hard, and moved on to the next.

The macaques responded in the exact same way as humans -- the monkeys chose to skip the tricky questions. (Unlike Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston who recently hit the evolution question head on when he stated, "I came from God, not from a monkey.") Meanwhile, Dr. Smith told the BBC, "Monkeys apparently appreciate when they are likely to make an error... They seem to know when they don't know..."

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What's Amentior About This?

Albrecht Durer's Virgin and Child with monkey I saw this print today and thought of someone.

Give Me a Head with Hair

A few days ago I saw a trailer for a film about the life of Justin Bieber. I admit I busted out laughing. The trailer was so pompous and made it seem like Bieber is some kind of legend and as much of a God's gift to humanity as Jesus Himself. Is Bieber even 15 for crying out loud?

For those of you over 25 or who don't have teen daughters, Bieber is that singer with the Beatles (or Dorthy Hamill depending upon the wind direction) hair cut.

One day he'll be doing reality shows with Danny Bonaduce and Leif Garrett.Hey, where is Shaun Cassidy these days or Rex Stewart? Is Tiger Beat still published?

Don't know any of the names I just listed above? They were all guys who were teen idols for about a year who had great hair!

I don't know for sure what kind of hair Jesus had,but, be assured He's the only guy worthy of continued Adoration.

Some Kind of Meat

I knew for all these years that there was a reason I always avoid eating at Taco Hell, er, Bell. Sure, you get cheap "Mexican" food but it's cheap because I've long defied anyone to tell me what that thimbleful of brown crumbles in the bottom of that desiccated taco shell really is.

It appears it's water, "binder and fillers" and I kid you not: "isolated oat product". Do Matthew McConaughey and Sam Elliot need to sue someone? Because apparently beef isn't for dinner, lunch or breakfast at Taco Hell.

Binder and fillers? What is that? Factory code language for cow testicles and Minnesotan for Spam?

Why are the oats so lonely? Isolated? What the heck does that mean? Grown in an urban farm away from the asphalt?

And Taco Bell has the cojones (hey, that's what it is!) to be righteously indignant over the lawsuit filed recently about the lack of actual beef in their meat? On what basis are they upset? Now they have to publicly admit it's crap? (hey, is that the filler?)

Don't think outside the bun, think about eating somewhere else. Here at Amentior we may indulge in foods that are loaded in fat and probably are not good for your cholesterol and heart but we like to think that when we eat poorly we eat quality unhealthy food!

Japan's 'convict' monkey stages daring cage break

AP - TOKYO – A marauding monkey that terrorized resort towns in central Japan last year by biting nearly 120 people has escaped captivity.

Officials in Mishima City said the monkey slipped out of the government-run nature park it had been kept at since its capture last October when a keeper was cleaning its cage.

The city published an emergency notice urging residents to lock their doors, though no new attacks have been reported.

The fugitive monkey, known as "Lucky," is a type of macaque that is one of the most common wild mammals in Japan. They are considered a nuisance in rural areas, where they damage crops and steal food.

Lucky has proved a tough catch in the past, avoiding citywide monkey hunts during its previous two month biting spree.

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Spider Monkey’s New Look

By ANTHONY DI FIORE

 

Anthony Di Fiore, a primate biologist at New York University, writes from Ecuador, where he is using GPS technology and camera traps to study the behavior of male spider monkeys.

Wednesday, Jan. 12
Success! After three days of following the spider monkeys waiting for a perfect opportunity to capture a male, we finally got our first chance. Now Poto, one of the oldest males in our main study group, is outfitted with a new high-tech collar that combines a traditional radio transmitter (which will help us find and follow him more regularly when we have a telemetry receiver with us in the forest) and a data-logging GPS unit (which uses satellites to pinpoint and record its location and will let us collect data on Poto’s ranging patterns, even when we are focusing on other individuals). These collars are one of the new tools we’re using to study male cooperation and competition among spider monkeys.

 

Using telemetry equipment from a canopy tower.

 

In most places where they have been studied, male spider monkeys move farther and faster each day than females do, and they typically use more of the group’s entire home range. By contrast, females spend most of their time in their own smaller “core” areas, which may overlap with those of other females.

Spider monkey biologists think there are several key reasons for males’ peripatetic habits. First, males wander over their own group’s range to regularly visit females and check out their reproductive status. (Are those females pregnant? Do they still have a dependent offspring? Or are they sexually receptive and maybe looking to mate?) Second, males cooperatively engage in defense of the group’s range (and the set of females that use it) by traveling together on long patrols of their territory boundaries. They also sometimes raid the territories of adjacent groups. During patrols and raids, when males from another group are encountered, a raucous and sometimes violent showdown usually occurs...

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Natalie Dee

DEA Recruits Lil Wayne To Use Up All Drugs In Mexico

Biden Criticized For Appearing In Hennessy Ads

Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks

Trump Says He Will Run for President

By Ronald Kessler

(NewsMax.com) Billionaire Donald Trump is telling friends he has decided he will definitely run for president as a Republican.

Trump will make the announcement when his NBC show "The Apprentice" finishes the season in the spring, he is confiding. He has been soliciting recommendations on political advisers, focusing initially on the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. Trump declined to comment.

In October, Trump said on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" and on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he was thinking about the possibility of running. In an interview from Scotland, where he has been building a golf course, Trump expanded on his comments to Newsmax, saying that "the world is laughing at us" and the United States is now “a punching bag for the world.”

It is “sad what’s happened to the country,” Trump said. “We’re no longer a respected nation, and we should be the most respected.”

According to a Newsmax/SurveyUSA poll conducted Nov. 3 and 4, in a head-to-head race between President Obama and Trump, the entrepreneur would get 47 percent of the vote, versus 53 percent for Obama.

Trump polled strongly among Republicans and conservatives. He got 50 percent of the votes of independents.

Understandably, many are skeptical that Trump would actually run. He has toyed with the idea before and is now at the pinnacle of his real estate career.

At his New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, his home and club in Palm Beach, he clearly was enjoying his celebrity, shmoozing with Regis Philbin and Rod Stewart in between dances with his stunning wife Melania.

But Trump has told friends he believes Obama is a "disaster." An advocate of a strong national security, he becomes livid when he talks about the decline of America compared with other countries like China.

“I look at the jobs numbers, and I see what’s going on in China, where it’s booming," Trump said on Fox News. "You know why it’s booming? Because they’re making all our products.They’re taking all our jobs. We are rebuilding China, and our country is going to hell.”

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Sumo Robot Wars are Fast Like Ninja

Ninja-Sumo-Robots? The future of humankind looks grim indeed.

In the western world, the word “sumo” paints a mental image of two tubby giants slapping each other silly until one of them either falls or is driven out of the ring. You’d think that this lack of speed would translate to the robot world, until you watch the video below:

Yes, it was over in seconds, and no, that footage wasn’t sped up. The robot participants of the 2010 All Japan Robot Sumo Finals, held December last year, are more like ninja than sumo. They're so fast you’d miss them if you blink. In fact, the match you just saw was completely autonomous (and real-time), as no human being would ever keep up with these super-sped-up machines.

Let’s hope they don’t decide to enter real sumo competitions, or those fat guys won’t know what hit them.

[source: FSI All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament via BotJunkie]

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