When chimps encounter food they really like, they emit high grunts. When it’s something below their standards, out come the low grunts. This is the Michelin guide for other chimps within earshot.

I seem to have eaten at many tables with this kind of communication.

Yes, the Gundam character.

Daisuke Enomoto will be the fourth space tourist, and expects to have fun doing so. He says he will wear a costume similar to the one worn by Char Aznable of anime fame.

Well, he is paying $20 million. He can wear whatever he wants, right? He could go as Faye Valentine, and no one would blink.

This may start an interesting dress code for future tourists. Oh, the places you’ll go. The trappings you’ll wear.

Thanks to Jeff for the anime info.

A maintenance company in Austin, Texas got the job, and made sure to hire local workers. At first, they could only spend 30 minutes at a time in the stadium.

Conditions inside were beyond belief, especially the bathrooms.

I missed this when it came out last year. The choice of name was questioned by the Houston Press, and management fielded the queries and sarcasm with remarkable poise.

My companion couldn’t finish his pie - these are very generous slices.

Lots of birthdays in the fall around here. And no, I didn’t finish.

In order to cross a body of water, an armadillo trudges across the bottom if it’s shallow. Otherwise, it fills up its intestines and stomach with air, and then floats across. It takes some time to release this air afterward.

Right away, I have respect for this creature.

So why do so many armadillos wind up as roadkill? The answer may surprise you. An armadillo can’t see very well, and a dangerous object such as a car can be right on one before it is aware. Add to that the animal’s inclination to jump straight up in the air when startled, and you get the picture.

Some elephants in captivity have been seen to pick up a stick and make doodle-like marks. Their human friends encourage this behavior, and with art supplies and a suitable surface, elephants turn out works for sale.

Strapping a helmet web cam on a tarantula, a scorpion, a sheep, an armadillo, and a buffalo yields a perspective most of us have never seen.

I heartily recommend the armadillo, and in the plant category, the dizzying worldview of a tumbleweed. Quicktime required.

Not a bad year for tomatoes.

As part of the Party Animals project to promote tourism, 200 elephants and donkeys were embellished and exhibited throughout DC. Including this strikingly handsome elephant.

Animal experts feel that although an elephant may appear to be domesticated and do the bidding of humans, it remains a wild creature. When news stories feature accounts of ‘rogue’ elephants with violent behavior, they are missing the point.

This article explains the concept of ‘musth’, a natural period in a bull elephant’s life.

The patient had a faulty heart valve. The doctor knew the pig valve could solve the problem, but the patient was also a very religious man. Could there be a meeting of minds?

The most virulent strain, which has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003.

Scientists have discovered that locusts sense bodies of water using their ability to detect polarized light. Locusts avoid flying over water because they would have neither a food supply nor a place to rest.

In order to discourage the locusts from flying over agricultural lands, scientists may use reflective surfaces to deceive the insects into thinking that the land below is water.