Flannery (1995 – 2009)

Rest in mayhem and catnip, Flannery.

Just waiting for the bus

If you haven’t seen My Neighbor Totoro, you should.

I’m not sure I’d consider these for reuse.

Yeah. That’s really bread. Carved into shoes. They’re supposedly wearable AND edible. Definitely inside shoes.

Order a pair at Da Da Da Studio.

This female rules.

I’m breaking my policy of not posting on the weekend for this bit of news.

Today, a racehorse earned her place in history.

Her name is Zenyatta.

Fourteen races.

Fourteen wins.

And the fourteenth was the most impressive.

Facing males for the first time, she was dead last of 12 for almost a mile. Even the racecaller thought she had no chance for victory.

With a quarter of a mile to run, she was second last and jockey Mike Smith steered her to the rail. She sped past five horses in the blink of an eye.

With an eighth of a mile to go, she was three paths off the rail, behind a wall of six horses and still gaining ground. Smith was trying to find a clear path to the wire.

With a sixteenth of a mile to run, she was in the middle of the track, even with with the leaders and gaining rapidly. Smith was riding as if his life depended on it.

A handful of yards from the wire, Zenyatta was in front and drawing away. She pricked her ears, looking for more horses to pass.

One of the all-time greats.

Sweet cheese, I love The Onion.

The headline and picture say it all: “New York Marathon Winner Tests Positive For Performance-Enhancing Horse“. The Onion rocks.

I like colorful swirls.

More beautiful stuff from the Hubble Space Telescope. This is part of the M83 galaxy. Baby stars and all kinds of beautiful, drifting stuff.

Read more about what’s going on here at Bad Astronomy.

I can just feel the love.

Truly giggleworthy.

It’s slip-sliding away.

Okay, this is just plain cool. Here we have a landslide that has been sliding for about 700 years. Recent research indicates that it’s moving about a centimeter a day and that the sliding might be aided by daily changes in atmospheric pressure.

Read more about the Slumgullion Earthflow and the effect of atmospheric pressure.