A 3-foot-tall macaw named Chip is in a bit of trouble over a traffic stop. The bird, who starred in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, attacked a policeman in the course of his duties in Dover, England.

The officer arrested the woman on suspicion of driving while banned.

The attack came when he attempted to drive her car to the pound, with Chip loose inside.

The parrot, who has a 1.2m wingspan, perched on the steering wheel, pecking at the officer's fingers throughout the journey.

Chip was not arrested, but is being held by the RSPCA until his unnamed owner is released. Link -via Arbroath

You can buy tea that has been picked from the bush in China by monkeys! The idea is that the rare and delicious strain of wild tea grows on steep hillsides that humans cannot reach. From the product page:

Legend has it that monkeys were first used to collect tea ten centuries ago, because upon seeing it's master trying to reach some tea growing wild on a mountain face, the monkey climbed up the steep face and collected the tea growing there and brought it down to his master.

Monkey-picked tea is now harvested in only one small village in China. Link -via the Presurfer

This series of photographs by Howard Schatz won a second place prize in the Sports Stories category of the World Press Photo Contest. He took pictures of boxers before and after fights. It hurts just to look! Also be sure to check out other contest winners. Link -via J-Walk Blog

One of my favorite scientists Carl Zimmer has an extensive article in Time Magazine that looks at recent research on how your dog thinks.

Trying to plumb the canine mind is a favorite pastime of dog owners. "Everyone feels like an expert on their dog," says Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist at Barnard College and author of the new book Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know. But scientists had carried out few studies to test those beliefs--until now.


This fall, [Duke University anthropologist Brian] Hare is opening the Duke Canine Cognition Center, where he is going to test hundreds of dogs brought in by willing owners. Marc Hauser, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard University, recently opened his own such research lab and has 1,000 dogs lined up as subjects. Other facilities are operating in the U.S. and Europe.

What they’ve found out so far is that dogs can learn over 200 distinctive human words, but they may mean different things to a dog than to humans. And the intelligent, friendly, and obedient behavior we see in dogs evolved because those things are advantageous to the dog, even though we see them as advantageous to us. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: D.L. Anderson)

Alcoa High was leading Fulton High in last night’s football game in Knoxville, Tennessee when the game had to called due to the ground opening up and trying to swallow the players.

With Alcoa leading 20-7, a sinkhole opened up near the stands-side sideline at the 41-yard line on the west side of the still-drenched field with 6:33 left to play in the fourth quarter. The field was declared unplayable and play was suspended for the night. The remaining minutes of the game will be played at Alcoa High School's Goddard Field at 5 p.m. today. Admission is free.

http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20090911/SPORTS/309119959/-1/RSS10 -via Fark

(image credit: Mark A. Large/The Daily Times)

There were strange things showing up on the telescopic images at the Smithsonian’s Whipple Observatory in Arizona, but astronomers knew they weren’t UFOs. An unidentified perpetrator had been leaving dusty footprints on the telescope’s mirrors for a year, eventually marring five expensive mirrors. Over the summer, employees at the observatory set out traps and captured ringtail cats on three occasions. The ringtail cat {wiki} is the official state mammal of Arizona. They are related to raccoons. The captured animals were taken some distance away from the observatory and released.

“We’re considering making the ringtail cat the unofficial mascot of the MEarth project,” said project leader David Charbonneau. “With those big eyes, they’ve certainly got the night vision to be natural-born astronomers!”

The observatory now has a webcam, in case anyone wants to watch for more intruders. Link (with video) -via Metafilter

Shaun Usher of deputy dog has a new blog called Letters of Note which shares classic correspondence of all kinds. One that stands out is from a slave named Vilet Lester to a member of her former owner’s family, written in 1857. Here is an excerpt.

I am well and this is Injoying good hlth and has ever Since I Left Randolph. whend I left Randolf I went to Rockingham and Stad there five weaks and then I left there and went to Richmon virgina to be Sold and I Stade there three days and was bought by a man by the name of Groover and braught to Georgia and he kept me about Nine months and he being a trader Sold me to a man by the name of Rimes and he Sold me to a man by the name of Lester and he has owned me four years and Says that he will keep me til death Siperates us without Some of my old north Caroliner friends wants to buy me again. my Dear Mistress I cannot tell my fealings nor how bad I wish to See youand old Boss and Mss Rahol and Mother. I do not now which I want to See the worst Miss Rahol or mother I have thaugh that I wanted to See mother but never befour did I no what it was to want to See a parent and could not.

The post contains a transcript of the entire letter and a photograph of the handwriting. Link

MagazineArt is an extensive collection of magazine cover art from the 19th and 20th centuries, featuring hundreds of different publications. You could spend hours browsing the archives here! Shown is the January 1924 issue of Theatre Magazine. Link -via Metafilter

Archaeologists in Jerusalem have found a 2,000-year-old stone cup. The leader of the excavation team Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina says this kind of cup was common in Jewish households of the time, but this particular cup is different.

What sets the newfound cup apart is its inscription, which is still sharply etched but so far impossible to understand.Similar to intentionally enigmatic writing in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the cup's script appears to be a secret code, written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic, the two written languages used in Jerusalem at the time (see video of a village where the language of Jesus is still spoken).

"They wrote it intending it to be cryptic," Gibson said.

The inscription will eventually be posted online. Link

(image credit: S. Pfann/UHL)

Sarah, a cheetah at the Cincinnati Zoo, set a world record for the 100 meter dash today by covering the distance in 6.13 seconds. The event was held at Mast Farm, the zoo’s cheetah breeding facility. The race is a remote contest between Sarah and Zaza, a cheetah at Cheetah Outreach in South Africa. Zaza is expected to run her race later this month. To compare, the human world record is 9.58 seconds, held by Usain Bolt. Link to story. Link to Sarah’s blog. -via Metafilter

(vimeo link)

This picture of birds on wires by photographer Paulo Pinto looks like music notation. So Jarbas Agnelli naturally wanted to find out what that music sounded like.

Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn't the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.

-via Bits and Pieces

Phyllis Bacon of the London Borough of Croydon wasn’t even looking into the camera when she shot a photograph of her backyard in 2007. When she saw the picture, she couldn’t figure out what was flying around.

'I think it must be a fairy,' she said yesterday as she made the picture public for the first time.

'No one I've shown the photos to has come up with any plausible explanation as to what the figure is.' The photo reminds some of the Cottingley fairies, photographed in a West Yorkshire garden in 1917.

See the entire picture with the story. Link -via Unique Daily

Previously at Neatorama: The Cottingley Fairies in Five Hoaxes that Fooled the World.

Domestic cats normally come in solids, stripes, and patches (I have one of each). Some cats have been bred with spots, but the only naturally spotted house cat is the Egyptian Mau.

It is the only naturally spotted cat and has been used in the breeding programmes of other cat breeds, such as the British Shorthair, to provide the spotted gene the breeders require tointroduce the pattern to another breed.

This beautiful cat is part of the post “Fear Me, Love Me, Worship Me: A History of the Domestic Cat”. http://therealowner.com/cats/fear-me-love-me-worship-me-a-history-of-the-domestic-cat/ -Thanks, Roy Shechter!

(image credit: Flickr user Muffet)

If you are not thoroughly familiar with the history of cat videos on the internet, this collection of funny cats will get you up to speed. If you are, it will be a walk down memory lane. Either way, you’ll get a laugh on a day (supposedly) without cats! Link

(YouTube link)

All he really wants is a drink, but he was a distinctive way of getting it! -via Arbroath