You still can't beat the homemade stuff! This odd show is from Awkward Spaceship. -Thanks, Aaron!
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
When people are hauled in by the police, they aren't at their best. Still, some mug shots are head and shoulders above the rest, and tell a story all by themselves. This guy only ranked #15, so you must see the others. Link
(Image source: The Smoking Gun)
The little monkey wearing a shearling coat that showed up at a Toronto IKEA last week is now a case for the courts. Toronto Animal Services lodged the monkey named Darwin at the Story Brook Farm Primate Sanctuary. Yasmin Nakhuda, who owns the monkey, wants him back.
…defendant Nakhuda, a real estate attorney by profession, filed a claim Thursday that states the authorities had no right to take the monkey. “The officer’s refusal to return Darwin was unlawful because the Code does not authorize the officer to keep an animal other than dogs and cats,” it reads. “The only penalty under the Code is a fine. Animal Services therefore unlawfully detained Darwin.”
The motion also states that, if Darwin cannot be returned, Nakhuda should be allowed “reasonable access on a schedule to be fixed by this court.”
Meanwhile, Story Book Farm seems to have undertaken a PR campaign in its efforts to keep Darwin. Read all about it at Death and Taxes, in a post that includes its own soundtrack. Link
(Image credit: Lisa Lin via Instagram)
Floyd Hayes' Christmas video greeting illustrates what the holiday is like for his company.
'Tis the season for agencies to send out holiday videos in a thinly veiled attempt to get new business. Here's my attempt.
May your holidays be a break from the perpetual grind of quiet desperation. -Thanks, Floyd!
Jared Diamond contrasts our modern methods of raising children with those used in more traditional societies, such as the villagers of New Guinea.
We are struck by the precocious development of social skills in their children. These are qualities that most of us admire, and would like to see in our own children, but we discourage development of those qualities by ranking and grading our children and constantly telling them what to do. The adolescent identity crises that plague American teenagers aren’t an issue for hunter-gatherer children. The Westerners who have lived with hunter-gatherers and other small-scale societies speculate that these admirable qualities develop because of the way in which their children are brought up: namely, with constant security and stimulation, as a result of the long nursing period, sleeping near parents for several years, far more social models available to children through allo-parenting, far more social stimulation through constant physical contact and proximity of caretakers, instant caretaker responses to a child’s crying, and the minimal amount of physical punishment.
But that's just the beginning. Children in traditional societies have more freedom to roam, multiple caregivers, and access to adult experiences that we consider not quite safe. Of course, not all those practices are transferable to a more modern society -after all, we have automobiles, which is the most dangerous thing for a child. But a generous excerpt from Diamond's book The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? is very much worth a read. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Focx Photography)
I find that cats usually make allowances for juveniles of any species. Try that in a couple more years, Junior, and see what happens! -via Daily Picks and Flicks
You're feeling like a movie, and since Christmas is only a week away, you may as well watch a holiday film. What to select? It's a much more complicated decision than it was a few decades ago, when the answer was "whatever's on TV or at the theater." A handy flowchart from Lemon.ly helps you make your choice! See an enlargeable version at the site. Link
Hello! Your quarry is behind you! This delightful picture was taken at the Kabardino-Balkaria reserve in Russia. Commenters believe this goat is either a Caucasian Tur or an Alpine ibex. Either way, it's a big goat! Link -via reddit
The infamous Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has announced their intention to demonstrate at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 27 young students and school staff members were killed Friday. The WBC has garnered plenty of publicity over the years for their tactics. Adrienne Crezo rounded up the stories of how people band together to counter-protest the WBC, from human shields to fundraisers to creative ridicule. Read about them at mental_floss. Link
(Image credit: The Laramie Project)
Not being a fashionista, I had never heard of a Rodarte Star Hair Pin until I saw this picture. Why pay $600 when you can make your own? KI at Hello Whimsy Blog has a tutorial that will lead you through the process. You can even customize the look with different shapes and colors. Link -via Buzzfeed
Poor kitty! Not only does he get a bath, but he's too fat to get out of the tub on his own. Help that cat out of the tub (though it may require two people) and get him on a treadmill! -via Arbroath
This little Pomerian helped out with a fundraiser for the University of Colorado radio station 1190. He got to be a guest DJ! Oh yes, there are more pictures. Link -via Metafilter
Vince Donovan has been a fan of The Lord of the Rings his entire life, and has a collection of Tolkien memorabilia to prove it. Now he has a proper house to display it! Donovan hired architect Peter Archer to design a Tolkien home with all the right touches.
The walls were set by a stonemason who dug up rocks from the site the house is built on. The timber arches supporting the roof were steamed and bent into a half-circle, then put into place with wooden pegs. The blacksmith made all the door and window hinges with medieval flourishes tapering to little spearponts.
"Everyone got it," said Archer. "They were asking qestions: can we do this, can we step it up to this level? Lot of things they were doing they didn't ask for money. It was amazing how they put their efforts into this project."
One of those craftsman is Matt Harris, a blacksmith in Maryland who made the single most distinctive feature of the cottage — a massive iron hinge that could support a round hobbit door, made of 200 pounds of mahogany, at a single point.
"This project was a lot of fun," said Harris, who is a longtime fan of The Hobbit. "Normally I'm contacted to build gates and railings that are normal — if you will. This work was more fanciful and kind of child-like in keeping with the books and movies."
We first reported on this home five years ago. See a gallery of full-size photographs of this beautiful home at NewsWorks. Link -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Emma Lee/for NewsWorks)
Twitter is starting to roll out the ability to download all your Tweets. What could possibly go wrong? The Joy of Tech knows. Link -via @LaughingSquid
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