Follow-ups

Emu oil Follower Carrie Hoggan liked this post. Having lived in Chandler, Arizona, for 7 months, she went to the Ostrich Festival. "It was interesting," she says. "I tried a bite of the ostrich burger, it wasn't bad."
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More than a mishap The subject of this post is a horrific accident that occurred on the Tower of Power ride. Here are "5 Theme Park Rides that Pushed the Limits of Common Sense," compliments of Popular Mechanics.
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Rapid prototyping If this ultrasound is authentic, I'm sure the parents would love to take advantage of the new technology to make a 3D image of their unborn child giving a peace sign.
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Dissection paintings I found out about the 2nd painting in this post, "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Joan Deyman," by way of this painting with Indonesian comedian Butet Kartaredjasa - a spoof of Rembrandt's "The Night Watch."
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Frogs, deformed and fanciful This post includes a link to the smallest species of frog, newly discovered in Peru. Here is a photo of the smallest species of chameleon, which measures less than 1" in length. Also related to this post is an op-ed piece about chemicals in the environment called endocrine disruptors that cause deformities in the genitals of wildlife, including frogs.
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Believe It or Not! In this post I mention the death of Michael Jackson (1958-2009), which overshadowed the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Billy Mays. Here is an interesting article about eclipsed celebrity deaths.
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Durer While researching my post about Dali and Disney, I came across this great sculpture in Spain that Dali did in 1956. There is also a wonderful photograph of Dali and rhinoceros here.
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Elusive animals A farmer has spotted the first live specimen of an almiqui to be seen in 4 years. The mysterious creature, native to Cuba, eats worms.
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Memories of machines When my Mom and cousins got together a few years ago, they restaged the photo in which they were sitting on the running board of the "woodie" as children.
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Follow-ups Since the follow-up about speed-cooking, I have come across another unappetizing food preparation video. Watch the authentic preparation of giant African land snails - if you dare!
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Burial shoes As in a previous follow-up to this post, these are not actually burial shoes, but a pair of antique sneakers purchased at an estate sale.
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Chihuahuas in the weird news In this amusing story, a tiny chihuahua named "Little Berry" has come through unscathed after being accidentally stepped on by her buddy "Leroy" - a giant Clydesdale horse!
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Dolly the sheep Sheep have been in the news again. It was just reported that climate change is causing wild sheep in Scotland to shrink in size.
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Rossetti's menagerie This post on the blog Neatorama, "What 'Chu Know 'Bout Wombats?" is a true delight! Fantastic photos of these funny marsupials and some surprises, including the facts that their butts are made of cartilage and their poop is square.
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Frozen baby mammoth A Michigan couple were deepening a pond on their property when they uncovered the skeleton of a prehistoric mastodon. You can read about it here or watch a news report here - and this link describes the difference between a mammoth and a mastodon.
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Animals and lightning In a reversal of cows being killed, here are 2 stories of cows turning the tables. In one instance, a police officer was trampled by a herd of cows when he was walking his dog on the Sussex Downs, U.K. In another recent instance, a woman was walking her dog on the Pennine Way, also in the U.K., when she was charged and killed by cows.
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Giants Here is an article about Tanya Angus, 30, who has acromegaly and grew from 5' 11" (115 lbs.) to 6' 6" (480 lbs.) in the space of 10 years - and is still growing.
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Taxidermy art Artist Reid Peppard has created some unique jewelry that's not for everyone: necklaces, headbands, brooches, bowties, and hair combs featuring taxidermied animals and animal parts including pigeon wings, mice, and rat heads.
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Centenarians - and then some In another example of longevity, Larry Haubner of Fredericksburg, Virginia, has celebrated his 107th birthday.
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Shark attack capital Thanks to James Taylor for linking me to this article about Australian-born "human torso" Nick Vujicic, who learned to surf from one-armed surfer Bethany Hamilton.
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Snake handlers Recently in Oxford, Florida, 2-year-old Shaunia Hare was killed by the family's pet python, which escaped its cage and bit and asphyxiated her in her bed - apparently in a search for food. The parents may be charged with child endangerment.
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Corpse flower In an on-line poll, the corpse flower topped the list of the world's ugliest plants. Second on the list is the "stinky squid" (pictured). I think they're more interesting than ugly, but here is the slideshow to judge for yourself.
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Disturbing decapitations It was reported yesterday that a 30-year-old taxi driver in London committed suicide by driving full-speed into a pillar after tying a rope around his neck and a post, decapitating himself in front of other drivers and patrons of a nearby cafe.
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Gretchen Worden's portrait I get a kick out of the fact that Gretchen is holding an antique surgical instrument in her portrait. Here are some more scary surgical instruments from days gone by.
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Animal accidents Last week, flights at JFK International Airport were delayed 35 minutes as 78 diamondback terrapins crossed the runway. I'm glad they did not become snarge.

Follow-ups

Follow-ups Kent congratulated me on finding the speed-cooking video in my last set of follow-ups (see Autotomy). He writes, "I experienced tiny bits of that during several trips to Singapore. I had heard of the fried fish with mouth still moving, but hadn't seen it before. The Japanese decided to just skip the cooking part altogether for certain dishes. At a sushi bar in Tokyo, the chef netted a fish from a tank, laid it on a cutting board right in front of us and proceed to cut still squirming slices and drop them on to the rice balls on our plates....Quite memorable."
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Prosimians The researchers who studied the fossil featured in "The Link" - the documentary I mentioned in my May 25th post - make a convincing argument that it represents a species that split into prosimians (which include lemurs) and primates (which include humans).
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Rediscovery of ancient Egypt Many of David Roberts' paintings show ancient Egyptian temples being excavated from the sand. Here is a list of places being swallowed up by the ever-shifting sands.
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Cadaver dogs Cindy Economou was a member of the rescue team that responded to a 2-vehicle collision in Melbourne, Florida, in September 2008. Karl Lambert survived, but his leg had to be amputated to free him from the wreckage. Economou has since resigned from the fire department, apologized to Lambert, and been sentenced to 6 months of probation and community service for stealing the leg to train her cadaver dogs.
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Octopi at it again! Octopi at each of 23 branches of the Sea Life Centre attractions in Europe and the U.K. will be given Rubik's cubes and other toys to play with to see if they favor a particular tenticle. Visitors and staff will be asked to record their observations, which will be tallied.
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Crop circles The most recent crop circle to appear in Britain depicts a 600' jellyfish.
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Corpse flower A 14-year-old corpse flower in St. Louis, Missouri, is about to bloom for the 1st time in 8 years, so the greenhouse at the University of Missouri has opened its doors to the public!
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Hedgehogs In this unfortunate incident in Auckland, New Zealand, power lines fell and electrocuted 7 cows on a dairy farm. The last line of the report notes, "A hedgehog was also killed."
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Space chimp Megan noted that Friday, May 29th, was the 50th anniversary of monkeys in space.
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Facial reconstruction Thanks go to Megan again for pointing me to this article about paleoartist Viktor Deak, who puts a recognizable face on casts of the skulls of ancient hominids.
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Suitcases Millvina Dean, who I mentioned in this post, has died. She was the last Titanic survivor and was only 9 weeks old when the ship went down. Her father drowned, but she, her mother, and her brother were rescued.

Corpse flower

I have yet to see (or more importantly, to smell) a corpse flower! The proper name is titan arum or Amorphophallus titanium, but they are often given individual nicknames. When they bloom - which is rarely - they give off a strong scent of rotting flesh. My sister can testify to this, after bringing her kids to see "Waldo" in Seattle last summer. Other recent bloomers include 6' tall "Titania" in Berkeley, California, in November 2007 (pictured above) and an unnamed individual in Milwaukee in November 2008, which had a webcam focused on it. The dramatic Milwaukee story is told in a great time-lapse video and there are time-lapse photos of the corpse flower that bloomed in Washington, D.C., in 2005. I missed that and missed another bloomer at the Smithsonian in 2003, but I guess I shouldn't feel bad--read what happened to this patient botanist!