Re-post from BBC: Bionic Feet for Amputee Cat

I got such a kick out of the video, I thought I’d share:

Original link here

A cat that had its back feet severed by a combine harvester has been given two prosthetic limbs in a pioneering operation by a UK vet.

The new feet are custom-made implants that “peg” the ankle to the foot. They are bioengineered to mimic the way deer antler bone grows through the skin.

The operation – a world first – was carried out by Noel Fitzpatrick, a veterinary surgeon based in Surrey.

His work is explored in a BBC documentary called The Bionic Vet.

The cat, named Oscar, was referred to Mr Fitzpatrick by his local vet in Jersey, following the accident last October. Oscar was struck by the combine harvester whilst dozing in the sun.

The prosthetic pegs, called intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics (Itaps) were developed by a team from University College London led by Professor Gordon Blunn, who is head of UCL’s Centre for Biomedical Engineering.

Professor Blunn and his team have worked in partnership with Mr Fitzpatrick to develop these weight-bearing implants, combining engineering mechanics with biology.

Mr Fitzpatrick explained: “The real revolution with Oscar is [that] we have put a piece of metal and a flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone.”

“We have managed to get the bone and skin to grow into the implant and we have developed an ‘exoprosthesis’ that allows this implant to work as a see-saw on the bottom of an animal’s limbs to give him effectively normal gait.”

Professor Blunn told BBC News the idea was initially developed for patients with amputations who have a “stump socket”.

“This means they fix their artifical limb with a sock, which fits over the stump. In a lot of cases this is sucessful, but you [often] get rubbing and pressure sores.”

The Itap technology is being tested in humans and has already been used to create a prosthetic for a woman who lost her arm in the July 2005 London bombings.

“The intriguing thing with Oscar was that he had two implants – one in each back leg, and in quite an unusual site,” Professor Blunn told BBC News.

He said that the success of this operation showed the potential of the technology.

“Noel has some brilliant ideas,” he added. “And we’re continuing to work closely with him to develop new technologies.”

The Bionic Vet is on BBC 1 at 2245 BST on Wednesday

Frogs shake it like a polaroid picture…

In yet another late-night bout of animal voyeurism, male red-eyed tree frogs have been discovered to shake their rumps when entering into a show of dominance with another male.

read a National geographic release about the strange behavior here.

An excerpt:

No, they’re not shivering. And no, they’re not getting shocked. These red-eyed tree frogs in Panama have been recorded shaking their behinds to send a message.

This shaking, known as tremulation, is a form of communication between male tree frogs.

The males are tremulating to establish which is the dominant male. They’re claiming territory for their ‘calling area’ where they spend the night calling for a female mate.

Sometimes, the shaking leads to wrestling among males… and maybe even more shaking, until the loser retreats.

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On the other hand, my aimless poking around on the interwebs has led to my discovery of other frog related items including videos of the Surinam toad whose offspring are born out of pockets in the toad’s back. it’s sort of distressing to watch:

And also that Germany and Denmark suffered a strange bout of exploding toads in 2005. Who knew?

Brandon Flowers from the “Killers” goes Solo, Pulls Jenny Lewis into the Mix

I love it when my favorite musicians collaberate!

Check out this news bit posted recently on Spin.com:

Brandon Flowers has finally spoken about the mysterious Flamingo, his debut solo album.

The Killers frontman — who unveiled the project in April via a website that post that offered only the album title and the promise that it was “coming soon” — gave his first interview about the fall release, dishing on his decision to go solo and revealing one of his collaborators: Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis.

“Jenny’s helped me out on a couple of songs, and we also got to duet on a song called ‘Hard Enough,’ which turned out great,” Flowers told NME [via ONTD].”She’s always popped into my mind whenever I think about getting a female vocalist involved because she’s a fellow child of Las Vegas, too. A lot of people don’t realize that, but she was actually born there, in the same hospital as [Killers drummer] Ronnie Vannucci Jr, only a few weeks apart!”

Flowers also recruited three top notch producers for Flamingo: Daniel Lanois (U2, Brian Eno, Neil Young), Stuart Price (The Killers, Madonna, Kylie Minogue), and Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen), who produced three songs.

The 28-year-old singer — who confirmed another new song title, “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” — added that many of Flamingo‘s tracks were originally intended for a Killers album. But while the quartet takes a break, Flowers wasn’t ready to slow down.

“To be honest, I personally would prefer it if this was a Killers record,” he said. “I certainly never sat around dreaming of going out on my own, but singing songs and writing songs, it’s kind of what I do, you know? And I just don’t want to stop right now.”

But the Killers certainly aren’t done for good. In fact, Flowers sees Flamingo “as something that will only make the Killers stronger.” “I feel like I’m getting something out of my system with this album, but I want the next Killers album to be a wonderful collaboration between four guys who are ready to make the best record that they possibly can.”

New Ray Lamontagne

So Ray (Everybody loves Ray, they really do!) has a new album coming out in August. Here’s a quick taste:

Apparently it takes two for some badassery

For the record,the first dictionary entry for badassery in  the urban dictionary is:

Engaging in seemingly impossible activities and achieving success in a manner that renders all onlookers completely awestruck.

“Did you see that badassery? He just took down a whole battalion with nothing but his hands!”

(However, it should be noted, the urban dictionary is basically an open source slang dictionary, which while it’s an interesting source of colloquialisms, doesn’t mean they have to be known to anyone except the person who wrote the entry)

Anyway, on to my main point. Apparently two is the magic number for creating some rock magic, a la the White Stripes or even the sugary garage pop Ting Tings. While they’ve been around for some time, the Black Keys seem to be gaining some stronger momentum as of late. It can’t hurt that they just released the stellar new album “Brothers” in May of this year.

The sound tends to be simple and lo-fi, but reeks of old soul reminiscent of screaming jay hawkins and other greats. These boys evidently have a good sense of humor as well as evidenced in some of their videos. Check out a few below and prepare to be hooked…

buy badassery mugs, tshirts and magnets Engaging in seemingly impossible activities and achieving success in a manner that renders all onlookers completely awestruck. Did you see that badassery? He just took down a whole battalion with nothing but his hands!