Buzzfeed has a video of our favorite Japanese Scottish Fold trying out different faces, from a mouse to a cat to a man! Link

(vimeo link)

A short film by The People’s Republic of Animation. The musical instrument featured is a Katzenklavier (previously at Neatorama). -via Metafilter

This is part of Neatorama’s “A Day Without Cats Counter Protest” inspired by A Day Without Cats on the Internet.

Charles Darwin was a lifelong fan of flowers, but was unable to figure out how they evolved. There were fossils of flowering plants going back 66-100 million years, which didn’t help much because flowers evolved much earlier. Recently, however, scientists are turning to DNA analysis of contemporary plants to decode where they came from. They are also finding older fossils than ever before, as far back as 136 million years ago. Paleobotanist James A. Doyle says the fossil record is the only thing that will bring together the many theories of flower evolution.

If you could travel back to 130 million years ago, you might not be impressed with the earliest flowers. “They didn’t look like they were going anywhere,” Dr. Doyle said.

Those early flowers were small and rare, living in the shadows of far more successful nonflowering plants. It took many millions of years for flowers to hit their stride. Around 120 million years ago, a new branch of flowers evolved that came to dominate many forests and explode in diversity. That lineage includes 99 percent of all species of flowering plants on Earth today, ranging from magnolias to dandelions to pumpkins. That explosion in diversity also produced the burst of flower fossils that so puzzled Darwin.

Genetic research is providing answers to how plants can switch on genes that control how different plants parts grow, and to use sexual reproduction to increase genetic diversity. Link

The BBC’s natural history unit sent an expedition to Mount Bosavi, a volcano in Papua New Guinea. Scientists on the team identified 40 new species of wildlife which have called the crater home since its last eruption 200,000 years ago. These include the 3-pound Bosavi Woolly Rat which can grow up to 32 inches long! They also found colorful new birds, beetles, spiders, marsupials, and frogs, such as the Litoria sauroni pictured.

The habitat in the area is currently regarded as pristine, but less than 20 miles to the south of Mount Bosavi extensive logging operations are happening.

The mountain acts like an island in the vast sea of jungle, trapping different species on it.

Link

(image credit: BBC)

A few days ago, you read about Clonehenges, art installations that are made to resemble the original Stonehenge. You might not realize that Stonehenge is far from the only ancient stone circle in the UK, and there are some in Europe and North America as well. WebEcoist looks at 13 of these circles, including the pictured Avebury Stone Circle in England, which is bigger and older than Stonehenge! Link

Sherwood Forest Golf Course in Transylvania County, North Carolina offers a memorable golf experience every Tuesday. You can rent a llama to be your caddy! A llama from Fairway Friends Llama Farm will carry two sets of clubs for $40. This is a sure way to get kids interested in playing golf. http://www.llamacaddy.com/golf/ -via the Presurfer

(YouTube link)

The Tama Zoo in Tokyo has unveiled their new snow leopard cub named Yukichi. The male cub was born on July 2nd. He is the fourth cub born to his mother Yuki and the first for his father Valdemar. And he's adorable! http://www.examiner.com/x-10430-Japan-Travel-Examiner~y2009m9d4-Baby-snow-leopard-cub-on-display-at-Tama-Zoo-in-Tokyo

The announcement in the Times of London told the world that Kate Pong had given birth to quintuplets named Beyonce, Tyra, Bobbi, Barrack and Earl. The small item prompted Robert Littlejohn of The Daily Mail to speculate on the mother’s marital status. But it turns out that Kate Pong is a chocolate Labrador! Kate’s owner, Fiona Wallace of Newport, Shropshire said a friend had placed the birth announcement but didn’t bother to mention that Kate is a dog.

“We have a lot of friends in the business all over the country and lots of people read about her on the website.

They keep logging on and it’s just snowballed from there.

“So many people were asking about her and the pups that we decided to put it in the Times so everyone around the country would know.”

Link to story. Link to website.

Architects from the University of Stuttgart in Germany constructed a treehouse with a difference. The nine meter tall structure is made from living trees! Some of the hundreds of White Willow trees are planted in the ground; others are in containers. They are all expected to grow together into one giant plant. The experimental tower will be open to the public beginning September 19th. Link -via Unique Daily

Roxy Freeman never went to school until she was 22 and decided to go to college. She found the lifestyle that went with her studies to quite a challenge, and very different from the Gypsy life in which she was raised.

Instead of going to school, my siblings and I, like many children from travelling families, were taught about the arts, music and dance. Our education was learning about wildlife and nature, how to cook and how to survive. I didn't know my times tables but I could milk a goat and ride a horse. I could identify ink caps, puff balls and field mushrooms and knew where to find wild watercress and sorrel. By the age of eight or nine I could light a fire, cook dinner for a family of 10 and knew how to bake bread on an open fire.

Freeman is now studying journalism. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: Tam Carrigan)

It all makes perfect sense now. I don’t know the original source for this image. If I find who did it, I’ll celebrate by calculating the area of a blackberry pie. -via Digg

When a baby wants to come into the world, he/she doesn’t care if the mother is ready. If her due date is still some time away, the mother may be anywhere. There are also cases where circumstances get in the way, as in the case of Rosita Cheindza.

It sounds like the birth story of an ancient goddess, but it's true. Ms Cheindza was near term in 2000 when flood waters raged through her town in Mozambique. She climbed a tree to escape the crocodile-infested waters and stayed there for four days with nothing to drink or eat. Finally on the fourth day, her baby came. Soon after, helicopters arrived to winch the mother and the baby, Rosita, to safety.

And that’s only the first of ten strange birthplace stories. Link -via Unique Daily

Don’t worry about the guy perched on the fourth-story ledge of a building in Vienna. People stop and wonder, but he won’t jump. That’s just art. With a small A. The building houses investment and real estate offices, and the man is made of plastic. The art installation is scheduled to stay up for a year.

The artist, Austrian Ronald Kodritsch, says the piece -- called "Reason to Believe" -- is not necessarily about suicide.

"It's not interesting whether he will jump or not. It's all about having a different perspective on things and about what might cross his mind," Kodritsch told Reuters. "Hyperrealism is boring!"

Link

(image credit: Reuters/Heinz-Peter Bader)

What better for a Labor Day cookout than a steak in the shapes of the USA? Philadelphia artist Dominic Episcopo took photographs of states that look good enough to grill. Link -via the Presurfer

German arachnologist Peter Jaeger has discovered 200 species of spiders in the past decade. Now he has named one of his finds after singer David Bowie. The new species, a large yellow spider in Malaysia, is called Heteropoda davidbowie. Jaeger said he named the spider to draw attention to the discovery, and to the endangered status of many spiders.

"It is working against time," he said. "We are also quickly losing genetic resources that have evolved over more than 300 million years."

Bowie had a 1972 album entitled The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. His 1987 tour was named the Glass Spider Tour. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/09/06/bowie-spider.html -via Digg

(image credit: Senckenberg Forschungsinstitute/Naturmuseen)