Extreme Dog Grooming

“Animal photographer Ren Netherland from Florida, travels thousands of miles every year capturing these stunning transformations at ‘creative grooming’ shows around America.” Article on the Daily Mail

How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy

Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia?

Great article about parasite Toxoplasma gondii by Kathleen Mcauliffe on the Atlantic
link 

The Return of the Diving Horse

Diving horse at Atlantic City Steel Pier (source)

Dinah the diving horse and rider, circa 1955 (source)

Atlantic City’s Steel Pier is apparently preparing the return of its controversial horse diving act for the summer. 
“The owners of the steel pier say the new show will feature a horse and rider, diving off a 30 to 40 foot platform into a 12-foot pool” A brand new amphitheater is being built to host the shows as part of a $102 million dollar renovation of the pier. 

Diving Horse at Hanlan’s Point (source)

more on this curious practice:
Meet Lightning the diving horse Telegraph
William Frank Carver the inventor of the original show
Wild Hearts Can’t be Broken Disney film about Sonora Webster

Sea-Monkeys®

“Sea-Monkeys® are a unique species of brine shrimp, known by the scientific name of Artemia NYOS. We not only unlocked the most elusive secrets of their life cycle, we created new formulas to keep them alive under conditions found in the average home—an accomplishment never before achieved! Finally, after years of crossbreeding, we developed a hybrid. These amazing new hybrids grow larger and live longer than any “natural” variety of brine shrimp. Resulting from the most exquisitely sophisticated “aquaculture technology”, by true pioneers in this science, only the utmost resources of a leading marine biological research center working for a span of many years has made this project a complete success.”
Sea-Monkeys® website 

the Hermit Crab as a pet

Hermit Crabs are decapods which use the shells of snails and other animals to protect themselves. As they grow they seek bigger habitats, and will apparently use anything they can find. This makes them all the rage as pets, and opened up a market of novelty shells, ranging from painted SpongeBob SquarePants to one-off glass shells that reveal the animal’s body.