Chipmunk Punk

Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 06, 2017 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Music, Cartoons, 1980s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults

Controlling Turtle Motion with Human Thought

Researchers in Korea are developing a technology that will allow humans to control turtles through thought alone. This is achieved without having to implant any device inside the turtle's brain. Nor does it involve telekinetic powers.

It takes advantage of the fact that a turtle will reliably walk towards a white light, because of their instinctive escape behavior. So the turtle wears a "stimulation device" that blocks its view except in a specific direction that can be remotedly adjusted by a human wearing a "brain-computer interface." The interface can pick up simple thought commands: left, right, or idle. It then transmits the command to the turtle stimulation device, which adjusts its position, and the turtle walks in the desired direction.

The researchers note that their system "could have military applications such as reconnaissance and surveillance," and also "this system could be used in unconventional applications such as immersive virtual reality systems that give the user a sense of oneness with the controlled animal, as if it were their surrogate agent."

More info: Science Daily

Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 01, 2017 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Science, Experiments

Follies of the Madmen #309

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 31, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Business, Advertising, Products, Fashion, Nature, 1970s

Ex-millionaire Lives With Pigs

Original story here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Mar 20, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Eccentrics, Money, 1960s

Blinky the Friendly Hen

April 27, 1978: Artist Jeffrey Vallance bought a frozen chicken (a Foster Farms fryer) at a supermarket and then buried it at the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery, following a brief memorial service. He also installed a grave marker for the frozen bird, naming it "Blinky the Friendly Hen." He came to think of Blinky's grave as being like the grave of the Unknown Chicken, representing "all the millions of chickens who are slaughtered and sold as food."

According to kcet.org, "Ten years later, he would have the body exhumed so an autopsy could be performed by UCLA's head of pathology. The tenth anniversary exhibit on the life of Blinky, at the Rosamund Felsen Gallery in Los Angeles, featured a 'shroud of Blinky,' and a recreation of the cemetery's viewing room, with a rubber chicken lying in state. Blinky was later reburied at the cemetery."

It seems that there were also an event to mark the 30th anniversary of Blinky's funeral. The 40th anniversary is coming up next year, so perhaps there'll be another event in Blinky's honor.

Vallance also wrote a book commemmorating Blinky.

More info: Black Acrylic blog

Bridgewater Courier-News - Nov 3, 1983

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 03, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Art, Death, 1970s

Chicken Shaming

I hadn't realized that chickens were capable of deviant behavior of this kind. I mean, an entire mouse? Chickens eat mice?

More at Chicken Hugs.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 01, 2017 - Comments (7)
Category: Animals, Farming

Live Burros By Mail!

I want these at the Spencer's Gifts location in my local mall!

From THE ELKS MAGAZINE for October 1954.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 24, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Retailing, 1950s

Chicken’s Symphony

Not bad, for a chicken.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 11, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Farming, Music

Alice White and Bunnies

I am not sure why 1930s actress Alice White was made to pose with bunnies so often, but she certainly looked fetching with them.


Source of third foto.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 12, 2017 - Comments (7)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Movies, Publicity Stunts, 1930s

Perky the Duck

It seems like 2016 was a year marked by an unusually high number of celebrity deaths. And among those who passed away was Perky, the duck who wouldn't die, who did, in fact, finally kick the bucket.

Perky was a one-pound, female, ring-neck duck who gained international fame in January 2007 after she survived being shot three times by a hunter, retrieved by a dog, and then stored in the hunter's refrigerator for two days.

By chance, the hunter's wife happened to open the refrigerator (she reportedly rarely looked in it because it was the spare fridge her husband used to store game), at which point Perky lifted her head to say hello. The wife took compassion on Perky and rushed her to a vet.

That wasn't the end of Perky's brush with death. During the surgery to repair the gunshot damage Perky stopped breathing, but the surgeon was able to revive her.

Once she had regained her health, Perky was given a home at the Tallahassee Museum, where she lived for nine years before dying of old age in May 2016.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 03, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Death, Obituaries