After a fox killed its 13 siblings, Gladys the chicken was sure to grow up lonely ... except that she found an unlikely friend: Snowy the cat!

Alone and in need of a friend, Gladys was brought into the farmhouse by her owners to keep her safe. And it was here her beautiful friendship with Snowy began.

Now the two pals are inseparable at the farm in Middleton, near Leiston in Suffolk, and Snowy even puts her paw around the chicken to comfort her.

Owner Jane Etheridge says one of her bantam hens hatched 14 chicks - including Gladys - but after just two days a fox attack left just three of the chicks alive and a pile of feathers. Two of the chicks later died but Gladys survived and was brought into the farmhouse where she was fed breadcrumbs to build her strength.

It was here Gladys was befriended by 10-year-old Snowy, and the cat would even wash the fragile bird as well as affectionately rub up against her.

Link

The Old Farmers Almanac used its time-honored (216 years old!) and complex calculations to predict the weather and came up with this stunning prediction: forget global warming, we're in for global cooling!

"We at the Almanac are among those who believe that sunspot cycles and their effects on oceans correlate with climate changes," writes meteorologist and climatologist Joseph D'Aleo. "Studying these and other factor suggests that cold, not warm, climate may be our future."

It remains to be seen, said Editor-in-Chief Jud Hale, whether the human impact on global temperatures will cancel out or override any cooling trend.

"We say that if human beings were not contributing to global warming, it would become real cold in the next 50 years," Hale said.

Link

(Photo: Jim Cole/AP)

Ever been stuck in traffic? Who hasn't? But if you live in Los Angeles, you're well familiar with being stuck in the parking lots that sometimes - and just sometimes - act like highways.

GOOD Magazine calculated that Los Angelenos spend 72 hours of their lives each year stuck in traffic (What? Just 72 hours? That's a gross underestimation). That's enough to read Tolstoy's War and Peace (estimated 65 hours, 24 minutes) or watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy almost 5x, or sitting through Wagner's Ring cycle 6.5x.

http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/012/trans012delays.html - via kottke

Oh, how I love the cutting edge technology of yore. In the 1930s, a scheme was proposed to identify hit-and-run drives by means of identification discs discharged by their cars as they speed away from the scene of the accident:

Suggested recently by a New Jersey lawyer, this scheme of bringing reckless drivers to justice makes use of a special device on the bumper which ejects small metal disks bearing the car’s license number and name of the driver, so that to learn the name of the culprit the victim needs only pick up a disk. Operation of the device will be automatic whenever a victim is struck.

From the Modern Mechanics Aug 1931 issue at Modern Mechanix blog: Link

Psst! Want Sicilian villas with a spectacular view of the Mediterranean? They're yours for just one euro - as long as you restore the homes, which were abandoned after an earthquake 40 years ago:

In the picturesque hilltop town of Salemi in western Sicily, the mayor is selling old stone villas in the historic town center for one euro (approximately $1.41) apiece. The catch? These villas were damaged in the 1968 earthquake, and have stood unoccupied and deteriorating for the past 40 years. Sound appealing? Once you buy the villa, you must restore it in two years in a way that respects its original character and in accordance with the architectural standards established by the town council; you must also hire local builders, architects, decorators, and plumbers to do the work, reports Times Online, "since the aim of the scheme is to help the local economy."

Link - Thanks Marilyn! | Photo: Praecepitum [Flickr]

Previously on Neatorama: Foreclosed Home For Sale For Just $1

I don't know what to make of this. Jake Hostetter of Urlesque blog (a clever name, if you think about it) found a series of YouTube video clips of people dancing inside of giant balloons!

Or if that's not strange enough, how about blowing balloons while being inside of one?

Link [embedded YouTube clips]

After reading our post about the shipbreaking yard in India, Neatorama reader Stephen Douge went looking on Google Earth and found an unlikely customer: an aircraft carrier! Thanks Stephen!

Talk about living like a slob! Landlord Chris Dowling found out - the hard way - that a tenant in his property didn't believe in throwing out the garbage:

DIRTY tenant turned his home into a rubbish tip by cramming it with more than 1000 burger and Kentucky Fried Chicken cartons. Landlord Chris Dowling couldn't believe his eyes, or nose, when confronted with the squalor the man had left behind.

The mountain of burger cartons, bags and other rubbish in the living room of the £100,000 flat was so huge that Chris struggled to force his way through it. More McDonald's and KFC cartons were piled high around the bed.

And when Chris made it to the bathroom, he found that the tenant had left a giant heap of cigarette ends on the sink. Chris, 57, said: "In 15 years of running properties I've never come across anything like this - and we see all sorts. "The tenant had also been smoking without opening windows and there were nicotine stains dripping from the walls. "It smelled like a giant ashtray. I can't imagine how anyone can live like that."

Link - via Arbroath

We don't post a lot of political stuff on Neatorama - but I couldn't resist this one: Republican VP-nominee Sarah Palin is sparking a buying frenzy for ... wigs!

Since John McCain chose her last month as his running mate, Gov. Palin's personal style has sparked a buying frenzy. Many women are snapping up her choices of shoes and eyeglasses and blogging about which brand of lipstick she wears. Hairstylists and wig sellers report sudden demand for her trademark up-dos. Indeed, the brands behind Gov. Palin's fashion taste have gone into overdrive seeking to cash in on the association.

On Wednesday, WigSalon.com issued a news release boasting that it has wigs and hair pieces "that reflect the new looks made popular by Sarah Palin," along with style tips to "instantly" achieve the swept-back style.

Amongst other fashion windfall beneficiaries are the "Naughty Monkey" shoes and eyeglasses by Kazuo Kawasaki.

Link

Let's not have the comments degenerate into the usual mess, mmkay?

National Geographic News has a great video clip of robots that have eerily human facial expressions:

The research they've done into how the human body actually moves ... they've got servo-motors attached to where tendons would be in the human skulls ... they've got the muscles stimulated so they're pulling and moving to get beautifully articulated faces ...

Link - Thanks Marilyn!

Don't think too hard ... it can make you fat! A new study led by Angelo Tremblay of Laval University, Quebec, suggests that people tend to overeat after an onerous mental activity:

Jean-Philippe Chaput, the study's main author, said: "These fluctuations may be caused by the stress of intellectual work, or also reflect a biological adaptation during glucose combustion."

The body could be reacting to these fluctuations by spurring food intake in order to restore its glucose balance, the only fuel used by the brain.

Mr Chaput added: "Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, combined with the fact we are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialised countries.

"This is a factor that should not be ignored, considering that more and more people hold jobs of an intellectual nature."

Link

The Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, has just won the award for ... best bathroom in America. The hotel's bathroom is so good, that people actually take wedding photos in it!

The men’s restroom, located outside the Oak Bar on the hotel’s lower level, maintains the 5-star elegance of the hotel, which was designed in 1910 to symbolize Nashville’s emergence as a major Southern city. The Art Deco restroom, which was remodeled in 1930, features lime green and black leaded-glass tiles, lime green fixtures, an authentic terrazzo floor and a two-seat shoeshine station. Since that time, the restroom has been the setting for music videos, business and political negotiations, as well as, believe it or not, wedding photos.

http://www.bestrestroom.com/news_winner2008.html | More photos | The previous years' winners - via On Deadline

Wildlife researchers from the Zoological Society of London and the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation have captured on camera - for the first time - a true unicorn: an okapi in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Dr Noelle Kumpel, ZSL's Bushmeat and Forests Conservation Program Manager, said: "To have captured the first-ever photographs of such a charismatic creature is amazing, and particularly special for ZSL given that the species was originally described here over a century ago.

"Okapi are very shy and rare animals, which is why conventional surveys only tend to record droppings and other signs of their presence."

http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/british_team_capture_first_pictures_of_africa39s_39unicorn39_557472 | More photos at the Daily Mail

Previously on Neatorama: Zebra + Horse + Giraffe

Photo: Tobias Wheeler

Scientists at Cornell University have made the world's first synthetic tree. Or rather, the process by which trees "drink":

Known as "transpiration," the hydration process appears to require no biological energy. Scientists theorize that as evaporation occurs on the surface of a tree's leaves, the resulting drop in water pressure propels water from the earth and through their bodies. The same principle pulls oil through the wick of a candle.

Cornell University researchers modeled the water-transporting tissue, called "xylem," with fine networks of hydrogel-embedded capillaries. The hydrogel itself had nanometer-scale pores -- the same material is used in contact lenses -- that allowed water to evaporate, creating the necessary pressure differential.

The artificial tree proved capable of transporting water, raising the possibility of applying transpiration mechanisms to the heating systems of buildings or the cooling systems of computers.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/a-synthetic-tre.html

Forget those pricey and elitist pure-breds. Mutt lovers now have their own registry, the American Mutt-i-grees Club:

The American Mutt-i-grees Club — created by the Pet Savers Foundation, the developmental arm of the massive North Shore Animal League America in Port Washington, N.Y. — will give voice to the estimated 25 million owners of mixed-breed dogs, send mutt certificates to their pets and ultimately elevate the mixed-breed choice in the public consciousness, says J. John Stevenson, president of NSALA and managing director of the foundation.

"People are incredibly proud of their mixed breeds, and the time is ripe for there to be a way for them to communicate, share ideas and celebrate their choice," Stevenson says.

Links: USA Today article by Sharon L. Peters | Mutt-i-grees [self-starting video clip with audio]

(Photo: Norman Y. Lono / USA Today)