Little things that make me happy

The sun is finally shining in Vancouver!

I'm not a sun worshipper by any stretch of the imagination; I burn really quickly, and find temperatures over 30C quite unpleasant (in the city, at least). But June-uary was too much even for me - I think we got more sunshine during the Olympics - and really, I shouldn't have to wear jeans, boots, and a sweater on Canada Day. But this week has been all capris, sandals, and t-shirts, and people are in a noticeably better mood!

So here are some other little things that make me happy!

• Eating outside
• Coming home on hot days to a pot of ice-cold, uber-strong peppermint tea that's been brewing in the fridge all day
• Watching world cup games live, knowing that my friends and family all over the world are watching the exact same thing at the exact same time
• Calling my Dad during world cup games so we can slag off the players together
• Stripey socks
• Red sandals (not with socks)
  
• Chocolate brown trousers / capris with a white top (presence of socks depends on length of trousers)
• "Let's do X!!!1!1!!" followed by "Let's not, but say we did"
• Finding Saba lying on her back in a doorway with her back legs splayed and front paws tucked neatly under her chin, patiently waiting for the next passing hoomin to give her a belly rub
• Seeing Google's paw poking through the gap under the bedroom door in the morning, patiently waiting for us to pass her just-out-of-reach toys back
• Geeky teens with waaaaay more confidence than I ever had when I was a geeky teen
• Being Auntie Cath (and then coming home to a peaceful house afterwards)
• Finding out that the monkey hand puppet I bought Lilah on the day she was born is her absolute favourite toy
• My nephews chanting "under the bus! under the bus!" when tattled on by a sibling or cousin
• Plucking my eyebrows (hence the "freakishness" tag - I don't think this is normal)
• Re-runs of Friends
• Finding out that my husband is even geekier than I am*

What about you?


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*He's planning to buy me an iPhone 4G when it goes on sale in Canada, as a (very) belated birthday present, and then take my 3G for himself. I heard a squeal of excitement the other day as he was browsing the app store, and found out that he's been coveting a particular, very expensive (many hundreds of dollars) kind of calculator for years, and that there's an iPhone app for "only" $15 that has almost all of the special functions he needs from the calculator.

Primate Party Time!

It's been a while since the last Primate Party, but then I saw a photo of a bathing monkey on a colleague's desk* and remembered an anecdote from a couple of years ago.

In between my postdoc and industry job, Mr E Man and I went on a week-long camping trip around the interior of BC. It rained every day (but never all day), so we did less hiking than we'd anticipated, and spent our time relaxing in various hot springs instead.

On one such occasion, Mr E Man came swimming over to me with a lovely happy smile on his face. Looking all wistful and romantic, he began to speak.

"I was just looking at you over here", he said, "all wreathed in steam and gazing out over the misty mountains. And I thought to myself,"

(I braced myself for the compliment of the year),

"She looks like one of those red-faced Japanese monkeys".

After hitting him and laughing together for a while, we were joined by some elderly Dutch tourists. Looking at them, wreathed in steam and gazing out over the misty mountains, I saw exactly what he meant.

Photo credit

*I think it was an ad for a Taq polymerase.

Bonus Friday Primate Party

I wasn't going to do one today, but I saw this at MissPrism's place and I just had to post it. It might just have made my day (unless I get any news from my 9 month+1 day pregnant friend later!)



This is much safer for work than yesterday's effort, as long as no-one minds music...

Edited at 10:18 am - sod the monkeys, my good friend Sally has had a wee boy! Welcome to the world baby Jack, future England rugby captain!

Now that made my day.

Thursday's Primate Valentine Party

In honour of Valentine's Day, this week's Primate Party is a day early.



That lovely image was from the fine folks at http://icanhascheezburger.com/, which always makes me smile...

New Scientist's Short Sharp Science blog is also getting in on the action, with posts about gorilla lovin' and a different kind of Valentine's Day card - for people who want to anonymously alert former partners to go to an STD clinic. Lovely. (I really have lowered the tone today, haven't I?)

I hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day, in whatever way you choose to spend it! Hubby and I are going to a hockey game. Since it's my birthday on the 16th, we've decided to skip the restaurant reservation and flowers panic of Feb 14th and celebrate our two anniversaries instead. The wedding was in August and our first date was in January, so it splits the year up very nicely indeed.

Friday's Primate Party

A good news Friday today!

The Cao Vit Gibbon, which lives along the China-Vietnam border, is the rarest ape in the world. But a recent survey found double the expected number of the animals (around 100, which isn't great, but is better than 50). It also seems that the gibbons' range is expanding, which is critically important to their survival.


King (and Queen) of the swingers

The conservation efforts have been spearheaded by Fauna and Flora International, who said:

"When we realised the gibbon was rare enough to demand urgent action, we immediately began protection measures, even though we lacked the results from an exhaustive census. We didn't want the Cao Vit gibbon to go the way of the Yangtze river dolphin, which was declared extinct last year."

Nice work!

(Story and photo from the Torygraph)

Also this week, National Geographic reports that a 5 year search finally paid off with the discovery of a new species of monkey in the Amazon. The species, known as the Ayres uakari, is already vulnerable. The discoverer, Jean-Phillipe Boubli from the University of Auckland, says:

"We're going to have to create a park or reserve, because [its habitat is] not a protected area."

King of Hide and Seek

Let's hope it works out as well as it did for the gibbons.

p.s. I have a post about the evolution of the avian flu virus in vaccinated populations on my Nature Network blog this week. I also recommend this post on Brian Clegg's blog for anyone who likes geeky science jokes.

p.p.s. Mine was the featured blog on Nature's main website for the last couple of days. It's gone now, but I took screenshots of my 15 minutes of fame!

Friday's Primate Party

Last week's party featured two similar stories that stirred up some very different (and slightly ambivalent) feelings. Luckily, things are much more black and white today (there's enough grey outside my window to be getting on with this morning).

Rescuing monkeys from a laboratory where they were kept separately in terrible conditions and never saw daylight, rehabilitating them, and releasing them into a more natural environment in family groups is A Good Thing*.


The green, green grass of home
Photo from sanctuary's website.

Dressing a monkey up as a cowboy and getting him to ride a dog in a rodeo is A Bad Thing. Even if he is called Whiplash, which is admittedly quite cute.

That was easy!

*The use of primates in research? Damnit, there's that ambivalence again.

Friday's Primate Party

While past Friday's Primate Parties have included the occasional scientific article, I tend to find most of my stories via Google Alerts. This approach does bring up some good stuff, as well as an awful lot of quotes from athletes who want to get the monkey off their backs. For example, this week I'd already decided to mention SpongeBob, the Bolivian spider monkey who just can't get a date (but he's so cute!) and some Chinese escape artists who are now living free on the zoo's grounds.

Must... find... my square pants before my big date...

But future parties might be a bit geekier now that I've discovered this resource at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's National Primate Research Center. It's a veritable treasure trove of bloggable delights - they must have a much better search system than me.

The Mid West is also home to this online primate behaviour course that I'd love to take, but don't have the time or money for. Sigh. Maybe one day. There's still time for me to be the next David Attenborough, right?

By the way, I've just switched to using Firefox (yes, I know, I'm kinda behind the curve here) and I'm loving the spell-check-as-you-type feature. I'm an excellent speller but a sloppy typist, especially in the morning, so it's saving me a lot of backtracking!

Friday's Primate Party

ROFL. Good one, dude.

I do hope that last week's casualty was honoured like this anonymous monkey in India. (It seems cruel to stop the other monkeys from taking the body away though).

On a much lighter note, the BBC reports that orangs show an involuntary behaviour that resembles contagious laughter.

Dr Marina Davila Ross from the University of Portsmouth commented,

"What is clear now is the building blocks of positive emotional contagion and empathy that refer to rapid involuntary facial mimicry in humans evolved prior to humankind."

I've definitely seen dogs laugh before, but apparently they were thinking more along the lines of an ancestral primate rather than an ancestral mammal.

Speaking of which, kudos to the BBC for the following:

"an ancient primate ancestral to both humans and modern apes".

There is much confusion amongst our creationist friends over whether we are or ain't descended from no monkeys. The question of "if evolution is true, how come there are still monkeys?" still raises its ugly head on a regular basis (who the hell is teaching these people biology?). So it's good to see a mass media outlet specify the nature of this relationship.

BBC, you are forgiven for your recent transgressions. I still love you.

Friday's Primate Non-Party

Oh no!

Some sad news to end the year. The cheeky little chappy featured in my first proper Friday Primate Party has died in quarantine, just before he was due to be rehoused.

Another excellent reason not to smuggle wildlife, no matter how cute they are.

Hopefully we can start 2008 with a cheerful monkey story. But if any more of my featured primates die, the Friday parties might have to come to a close...

Friday's Primate Christmas Birthday Party

I wanted to write a Primate Party post that would sum up all that is good about the holiday season. Instead, I found a story about a tourist who has filed a formal complaint against an Indian monkey that stole his reading glasses.

Dude, these things happen. Bah Humbug to you and your insurance company.


But all is not lost! Female Science Professor blogged about Christmas time birthdays (CTBs) yesterday, and lo and behold, two stories today about British zoo primates with CTBs of their own!

First, a rare Colombian black spider monkey was born in Colchester.





And second, a baby gorilla celebrated his first birthday in Bristol (make sure you check out the video - he looks sooo adorable clinging to Mum's leg as she walks around!)





Happy birthday, baby primates! Happy birthday, Female Science Professor and anyone else with a CTB! And a happy Winterval to all the primates out there, whatever species you happen to belong to!

Friday's Primate Party

Two related stories from India today.

Our first monkey has adopted a kitten, and everything is peachy... so far!

I can has monkeh milk?

Our second primate buddy adopted a puppy, which went down well, and then tried to adopt someone's child, which did not. He's now been removed to a zoo, where he will hopefully have the opportunity to look after all the other orphans.

Funnily enough, both articles mention the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. I can't help but wonder whether monkeys who display the aggressive side of their nature, as well as their caring side, are considered to be incarnations of this deity.

I added some links to my blogroll today - go check 'em out!

Friday's Primate Party

How did you get so heavy, boy?

We had monkey-spit coffee at last week's party. This week: would you like some macaque milk with that?

A study published in this week's Current Biology looked at the quality of the milk produced by first-time macaque mothers. Male monkey babies received milk with a higher fat content than did female babies, who were presumably conforming to peer pressure to be skinny.

Actually, the sole author (there's a rarity) hypothesises that this discrepancy is the best reproductive strategy for the mother. While daughters will inherit their mother's social status, the status and therefore the reproductive success of males depends on their size and weight. So producing a happy, fat little monkey boy increases the chances that the monkey momma will pass on her genes to lots and lots of cute little monkey grandchildren.

The study didn't mention how the sex of the baby influences the quality of the milk - I wonder whether this is determined during pregnancy, or afterwards? Hormones, pheromones, the alleged male sense of entitlement? Who knows?

Friday's Primate Party

Dude, I am so totally wired right now








D'you want some monkey spit with that latte?

Hey, it's better than cat poo.

Yup, following on from the success of gourmet civet cat dropping coffee, coffee growers in Taiwan are now collecting the beans that the local monkeys spit out after eating the surrounding berry. Apparently the beans "yield a sweeter coffee with a vanilla-like scent", and it's less work for the farmers too.

It sounds like a win-win situation - there's an incentive for the farmers to maintain the monkeys' habitat, and their coffee commands higher prices. And it is definitely better than cat poo.

p.s. I was going to cover this story, but I'll hold off until there's photo or video evidence.

Photo credit

Friday's Primate Party

What's more fun than a barrel full of monkeys?

A whole truck full of monkeys!

Unless you run into it on the highway of course. Luckily no-one was hurt in the accident near Columbus, Ohio.

I spent 3 months in Columbus one summer and nothing this interesting happened the whole time I was there.

I reckon the monkeys were on their way to help clear up these Dutch bananas.

Photo credit

p.s. Scary Duck's condensed films are the funniest things on the internet. Ever. This has absolutely nothing to do with monkeys but I just wanted to share.

Friday's Primate Party

The bad news: one third of the world's primate species are critically endangered.

The good news: a new population of De Brazza's monkey (pictured) has been found in an unexpected area of Kenya, a country in which the species is rare.

The mixed news: the monkeys have colonised new habitats due to rapid climate change. Good news for this one species, but the wider effects are almost guaranteed to negatively impact other species and ecosystems.

Friday's Piggy Primate Party

Various blogs have picked up on the story about a man being killed by monkeys in India. (Hey guys, primates in the news are my thing. Mine.) So I'm going to tell a different Indian monkey story instead.


newindpress.com reports that a monkey is attacking a herd of piglets. Maybe not so unusual, except that until recently the monkey was in charge of the herd and apparently took excellent care of them. He guarded them from dogs, chaperoned them across roads - not quite a sheep-pig, but a pig-monkey.

So why has the shepherd (erm, pigherd?) started to attack his flock? Is he just living up to the stereotype of rebel Indian monkeys?

There's mileage in this story. He'll be on Oprah before we know it.

Friday's Primate Party

I shouldn't really call this a party, given the subject matter of the article in question, but for the sake of consistency...

AllAfrica.com reports that Mauritius is exporting macaque monkeys at $70 a head for research in the US, UK and Japan. The money is used to fund local conservation efforts.

As a scientist who loves primates, I have very mixed feelings about this story. I never did animal work myself, having managed to avoid projects that required it, but I fully understand the need for animal models in some kinds of research. Primates are unfortunately necessary in some areas, especially as models of human disease - even though they're not perfect, they're the best we have - and I sincerely hope that the importing countries only use these animals when there are no other options.

Another factor is that macaques are apparently seen as a nuisance in Mauritius, eating crops, killing endangered birds, and other monkey business. The captured monkeys are reportedly kept under good conditions.

Overall, it seems like a win-win situation for all involved - except the monkeys. And I still feel ambivalent. I have to admit that I'd naively assumed most Western research animals were captive-bred, and I think it's the capture of animals from the wild that bothers me here.

I'll close by repeating two words from above.

Necessary. Unfortunately.

Friday's Primate Party

What is it about monkeys and flying?

Here's a story from the Times of India:

"That India's airports desperately needs modernisation became evident when a monkey caused operations to be stalled for a few hours at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. A monkey was spotted by passengers and CISF officials at the international airports security hold area about 5 pm. Consequently, gates 10 and 11 were closed for a few hours. These gates are used for VIP movement due to their proximity to the VIP boarding gate. So bad was the situation that entry through these gates had been denied even to the VIPs, due to the monkey scare. It seems the monkey had apparently been frequenting the airport for a few weeks and made himself at home between the false and actual ceilings. The airport authorities of course claimed that they could not capture him since there was s a huge tangle of wires above the monkey's new duplex residence. It is not clear whether the airport authorities were able to catch the elusive monkey".

I think it sounds like excellent pre-flight entertainment. Get a breeding group in there, train them as drug sniffers or baggage handlers, whatever it takes to get more monkeys into airports.

Friday's Primate Party

I think I'll continue my week-old tradition of posting about primates on Fridays.

This week's cheeky chappy was a stowaway on a flight from Florida to New York. He escaped notice on his flight from Peru to Florida and during a subsequent stopover, but finally crawled out from under his owner's hat on the way to New York. Reminds me of a line from Friends - "hey, that monkey has a Ross on its ass".

As far as monkeys go, there are worse species to sit next to on a plane¹. Hell, I'd rather sit next to this cute little fella than some of the people I've endured on long flights.

1. Howler monkeys and any species that throws faeces² spring to mind

2. Hey, that rhymed! I'm a poet and I didn't realise it. Anyone wanna start a limerick? Or maybe a monkey rap?