"This is for your 11th birthday. It's what you wanted," was written on the outside of an Atlanta-bound Priority Mail box in a Minneapolis post office. It caught postal workers' attention when it started moving on its own and making loud panting sounds. They got permission to open the box and found... a four-month old poodle-schnauzer mix puppy who was very, very happy to be free. The woman who mailed the box was charged with animal cruelty, then went back to the post office to try to get a refund for the $22 in postage she paid.

The woman has not explained to authorities why she mailed the dog, how she thought it would reach its destination, or whether she realized she would be traumatizing the recipient with a dead puppy in a box. A Minneapolis police officer told the Star-Tribune:

If you don't identify [a package] so that it can be handled properly, it goes into the cargo hold of an airplane. It gets 40 below in those cargo planes that get up 40,000 feet. And there was no food or water. Puppies can't go for long periods without food or water.

The Priority Mail would have arrived in at least two days, but the dog had zero chance of survival: the box's air holes had been taped over.

The woman has not stated whether she wants the puppy back or not. He is in the custody of local animal control, and will go up for adoption if the woman who mailed him loses her appeal of the animal cruelty charges, or doesn't want him back.

If not for postal clerks, puppy would have been DOA [Star-Tribune] (Thanks, Bettina!)

Thanks for at least putting your bird in a cage. Second, that’s sweet that your bird helps you pick out beer. Finally, can I please join in whatever it is you got going on that involves beer, flashlights, and a bird because it has to be awesome. Missouri

Get ready for another awesome Symphony of Science video! Yes, that’s right, more auto-tuned scientists with cool music and video. (See previous videos: A Glorious Dawn, Our Place in the Cosmos, and We Are All Connected.) In this installment, it’s primarily David Attenborough and Carl Sagan, though about two-thirds of the way in, Jane Goodall makes a splendid appearance. Goodall is an awesome speaker — if you ever have a chance to see her in person, please do so. I saw her at the United Nations in the early 90’s, and she was awesome.

Check out the YouTube page for HD options. Keep in mind that some of the video is sourced from YouTube itself, so it’s not always super-pristine. Check out the Symphony of Science website for MP3 downloads, lyrics, and more info.

This Blog Rules has posted incredible photos of animals inside the womb from the National Geographic documentary “Extraordinary Animals In The Womb”. via i09 This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Email, Twitter & Facebook.

Popular Science is reporting that a piece of bread, dropped by a passing bird, has managed to damage the Large Hadron Collider.

The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine.

If this really is the work of time-traveling Higgs boson particles, however, they're demonstrating a lot of creativity, but not a lot of competence. The Bird Incident won't delay the reactivation of the facility, which is still scheduled for later this month.

Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down the Large Hadron Collider (Really), Popular Science. You should follow the link just to see their illustration "according to eyewitness accounts". Via stevesilberman.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but some baby animals aren’t conventionally cute. At any Hallmark gift shop there are hundreds of cards with images of cute puppies, but not many with wrinkly aardvarks. All baby creatures have a certain charm though. Some, like the hippo perhaps, lose a little of it as they grow to full-size, but others, like the panda, can look forward to a whole lifetime of cuteness. Of course this is all just in the eyes of us humans, who tend to anthropomorphize all baby animals and think of them in terms of human babies. But its hard to resist.These guys are just so darn cute!

Baby Aardvarks

(image via: zooborns) Well he may not be conventionally handsome but this wrinkly baby aardvark is seriously sweet. The aardvark’s name derives from the Afrikaans word “earth pig.” In Africa magicians make a charm from the heart, skin, forehead, and nails of the aardvark, which they then pound together with the root of a certain tree. Wrapped in a piece of skin and worn on the chest the charm is said to give the owner the ability to pass through walls or roofs at night. It is used by burglars and those seeking to visit young girls without their parents’ permission. Very handy unless you happen to be an aardvark. Baby Francois Langur

(image via: boston) Look at those lovely big eyes. That’s a characteristic we seem to like in baby animals, perhaps because it reminds us of human babies. This little fellow is quite rare and one of the lutung species of monkey from China and Vietnam. There are believed to be less than 500 left in Vietnam and 1,400-1,650 in China, with only about 60 langurs in captivity in North American zoos. This particular 5 day old charmer is called Elke, from Taronga Zoo’s Wildlife Hospital in Sydney, where her keepers have decided to hand-raise the monkey after she was rejected by her mother. Baby Gorillas

(image via: boston) One of the things humans warm to in animals is evidence of the mother-child bond and this can be seen very strongly with gorillas. Not surprising since their DNS is 98-99% identical to humans and they are our next closest relative after two chimpanzee species. They are the largest of the living primates and, despite their fearsome appearance, predominantly herbivorous . They live in the forests of Central Africa. The baby gorilla in the picture is Kiburi from Duisburg zoo in Germany and, like all adorable babies, she needs lots of sleep.
Baby Hedgehogs 


(image via: darkroastedblend) The little guy looks like an upside-down hairbrush and he will only get more prickly as he grows older. Hedgehogs are native to Europe, Asia and Africa but not North America or Australia. The species hasn’t changed much for the last 15 million years but the name ‘hedgehog’ came into use more recently , around 1450. It was derived from the English ‘hegge’ (hedge) and ‘hogge’ (pig) because I suppose of their pig-like snout and the fact they were often found in hedgerows. Makes sense. Hedgehogs feature in many children’s stories and perhaps for that reason are generally regarded with affection as benign creatures. Baby Pandas

(image via: zooborns) Pandas are born cute and stay cute all their lives. They’re the clowns of the animal world, delighting people in zoos with their antics and appearing like great big funny stuffed toys. This just shows that looks can be deceptive. It was recently reported that a zoo-goer who decided to give one of these cuddly creatures a hug had their arm ripped off in the process. Pandas are very definitely wild animals, however sweet they may look. They are extremely valuable wild animals too, since they are an endangered species and are highly prized by the worlds zoos. Domestic Cats

(image via: thundafunda) Although they’re not rare or exotic, kittens are common favorites amongst the ‘adorable baby animals’ . The huge eyes, oversized pointy ears and playful nature all combine to put them near the top of every child’s wish list when it comes to pets. People have had a love affair going on with cats for at least the last 9,500 years. They were revered as gods in ancient Egypt and a study in 2007 found that the lines of descent of all house cats probably run back to as few as five self-domesticating African wildcats around 8,000BC. So it looks like cats originally just decided to move in with us because they felt like it and they’ve been our house-guests ever since. Typical of cats. Baby Hippopotamus

(image via: photographyfineart) I suppose a hippo isn’t the first thing you think of in connection with ‘adorable babies’ but they are irresistibly cute. They look so precious trotting along beside their huge mothers and when you see them in the water, where buoyancy counteracts their weight, they’re like chubby little ballet dancers. Baby hippos grow up into the third-largest land mammal by weight (1.5–3.5 tons), behind the white rhino and the elephant, but despite their bulk and short legs they can easily outrun a human. Hippos have been clocked at 18 mph (29 km/h) over short distances, which is pretty impressive. They have a combination of speed and bulk that seems not unlike sumo-wrestlers. They are also one of the most aggressive creatures in the world, often regarded as the most ferocious animal in Africa so if you’re ever tempted to pet a baby hippo, watch out for mom. Baby Meerkats

(image via: zooborns) A meerkat is a small mammal, a bit like a mongoose, from the Kalahari desert of South Africa. They live in groups called a ‘mob’ or a ‘clan’ with about 20 members. Meerkats forage in these groups with one “sentry” on guard watching for predators while the others search for food. Sentry duty is usually about an hour long. Baby meerkats do not start foraging for food until they are about 1 month old, and do so by following an older member of the group who acts as the pup’s tutor. If you watch video of meercats one of their most striking characteristics is their habit of standing up on their hind legs so they can see further over the desert. Baby Rhinoceros

(image via: zooborns) Cute as baby rhinos undoubtedly are, you wouldn’t want to take one home because when they grow up they weigh well over a ton. They look like creatures from the prehistoric past, with their thick hides and huge horns, but generally they are peaceful herbivores. Unfortunately they are often killed for their horn which some mistakenly think is an aphrodisiac. The collective name for a group of rhinos is a ‘crash’ which, given their lumbering bulk and generally poor eye-sight, seems particularly apt. Human Babies

(image via: theonion) Its not really possible to leave the subject of ‘adorable baby animals’ without including a mention of human babies. People jokingly say that nature makes them appealing so their parents don’t murder them when the sleepless nights and smelly diapers become too much. Certainly babies have the facial proportions that studies say we humans find attractive and its probably not an accident from an evolutionary perspective because even after a lengthy nine months of pregnancy, and unlike many species who can look after themselves fairly quickly, human offspring require care and attention for a long time. Ask the mother of any teenager and she’ll tell you it can be a very long time indeed. However there’s no denying, babies are adorable. Its just as well.

Micro-aerial vehicles, or MAVs as they're called in the elusive underground, are far from new, but a team from NC State University is hoping to advance the field with an all new critter. The Robo-Bat is a remote controlled creature that relies on a super elastic shape-memory metal alloy for the joints, which is said to provide a full range of motion while enabling it to "always return to its original position -- a function performed by many tiny bones, cartilage and tendons in real bats." The crew is also utilizing other "smart materials" in the muscular system, giving it the ability to react in real time to environmental changes such as sudden wind gusts. Ideally, this bionic chiropteran would be used to chivvy those who dare step foot on Franklin Street or inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, but in less malicious situations, it could help well-meaning scientists get the bottom of that whole "aerodynamics" thing.Filed under: RobotsNC State gurus build remote control bats, freak out Dukies and Tar Holes originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Mother Nature is not usually kind. There are creatures, usually tiny creatures, that will take over a member of another species. They will invade their host’s bodies, their brains, and even their will. They turn their much-larger victims into zombies! 1. Zombie Snails -Induced Vulnerability

The flatworm Leucochloridium paradoxum infects two different animals in its lifetime, but only controls one of them. It lives its adult life inside birds and its eggs are spread by bird excretion. How does it get inside the birds? That’s the horror story. Amber snails eat the eggs, which hatch in the snail’s digestive tract. The larva changes into sporocysts (or broodsacs), which elongate and invade the snail’s tentacles atop its head. The broodsacs, filled with hundred of Leucochloridium paradoxum, pulsate and seek light. The snail is helpless to retract its tentacles, and has lost its ability to perceive light and therefore does not hide. The inflated tentacles looks and moves like worms, attracting birds that bite off the tentacles. The flatworms then develop into the adult stage inside the bird. The snail, however, is left to die -or to undergo the process again. 2. Zombie Crabs -Slave Governess

A barnacle named Sacculina wants to nest inside a crab. A female Sacculina will look for a place to enter the crab’s body. When it does, it will leave its shell behind, not needing it anymore as it has the crab! Inside, Sacculina sets up shop, growing tendrils through the crab’s body and slowly feeding on it. It castrates the crab (if male) and effectively turns the crab into a female nanny for its young. This makes the crab not only infertile but also uninterested in mating. The barnacle, on the other hand, bores a hole open in the crab’s shell big enough to let male Sacculina in to mate. The zombie crab treats the Sacculina eggs and larvae as its own, having lost the will to do anything but serve its parasite master. Image credit: Hans Hillewaert.

1. Zombie Caterpillars -Slave Bodyguard

Glyptapanteles is a wasp that lays its eggs in the body of a caterpillar. This is a three layered parasitic infection. The wasps engage the help of a virus, or more accurately a polydnavirus that has been genetically modified by the wasps, to disable the caterpillar’s immune system, allowing the wasp eggs to survive. The relationship between the wasps and the virus is mutually beneficial; only the caterpillars get the short end of the stick. The eggs hatch and feed on the caterpillar, but do not kill it. Instead, the caterpillar stops developing and spends the rest of its life protecting the wasp larva, even going as far as spinning its own cocoon around the wasp pupae. Watch a video of the entire process. When the adult wasp emerges from its cocoon, the zombie caterpillar finally tastes the sweet release of death. 4. Zombie Grasshoppers -Induced Suicide

The parasitic hairworm Spinochordodes tellinii is deadly to grasshoppers. Once eaten by a grasshopper or cricket, the larval worm produces proteins that affect the insect’s brain and nervous system. By the time the worm reaches adulthood, the insect is completely under its power. The zombie grasshopper commits suicide by jumping into water, where the worm will emerge and look for a mate. 5. Zombie Fish -Luring Its Killer

The parasitic worm Euhaplorchis californiensis infects three other species in a cycle, and alters the behavior of two of them. First, the eggs are consumed by horn snails. While living inside a snail, sometimes for several generations, Euhaplorchis inhibits the snail’s fertility. The parasite will eventually leave the snail and infect the gills of a killifish. The worms will surround the fish’s brain and cause it to swim near the surface and wiggle around. This makes the fish more likely to be eaten by a bird, which is what Euhaplorchis wanted in the first place. The digestive system of a bird is where the worm lays its eggs, which are excreted onto the beach where snails can reach them. 6. Zombie Ants -Serving the Impostors

Even butterflies can make other species into zombies! Maculina rebeli, a European butterfly, lay eggs that exude the scent of ant queens. Worker ants welcome them into their colony. The butterflies emerge as caterpillars which are fed by the ants. The ants treat them as their own young, or even better than ordinary ant larvae since they perceive the caterpillars to be queen ant larvae. Worker ants will even defend the caterpillars against their own queen! You may think of ants as zombies already, but they normally only serve their own species. 7. Zombie Fish Tongue -Artificial Organ

Cymothoa exigua is a small crustacean found off the coast of California. You don’t have to worry about it unless you are a spotted rose snapper. C. exigua invades the mouth of these fish and grabs onto the base of the tongue, pinching off the blood supply and drinking it. As the tongue atrophies, the fish begins to use the little isopod as a replacement tongue. Meanwhile, C. exigua lives its life inside the fish’s mouth, drinking blood and fish slime from the tongue’s stump. Other than the loss of its tongue, the fish suffers little from the experience, so the two can share a normal, if creepy, lifespan. 8. Zombie Cockroach -Commandeered Nursery

The Emerald Cockroach Wasp (Ampulex compressa) makes a slave out a much larger cockroach. The wasp will sting the roach twice, paralyzing its front legs and taking the escape reflex away from its brain. Then the wasp will chew off half of the roach’s antennae and uses what’s left to steer the roach to a prepared nest. The wasp lays an egg on the roach’s abdomen and leaves. The egg will hatch and feed off the roach, which still won’t try to escape. The wasp larvae keeps the docile roach alive long enough to build a cocoon inside the roach’s body and transform into an adult wasp. An adult female wasp can enslave and lays eggs on several dozen zombie roaches. Are there organisms that will have effects like this on human behavior? I believe there may be, but the voices in my head tell me they are a secret.