Whatnot At Work

Tiniest Horse

The world's smallest horse stands at 17 inches. Thumbelina is a dwarf of a miniature horse.

Bring Your Worms To Work

Bring your worms to work and bring compost home for your garden. California is starting a Zero Waste Initiative to reduce waste and encourage reuse and recycling. One of those efforts involves recycling food scraps using composting and vermicomposting (using worms to compost the food scraps).

Californians throw away more than 5 million tons of food scraps each year.  That’s 16 percent of all disposed materials going into landfills from businesses, residents, and institutions such as schools and prisons. Although green material collection programs have been implemented in many cities and counties, management of food scraps provides additional opportunities to help meet the State’s diversion goals as well as provide greater uses for this resource. A suggested order for food scrap management is to (1) prevent food waste, (2) feed people, (3) convert to animal feed and/or rendering, and (4) compost.

No Monkeys At The Table

A restaurant patron is no longer allowed to bring her pet macaque monkey (her assistance monkey) with her even though she claims she needs him to overcome her fear of social settings. The Americans with Disabilities Act allows monkeys in establishments if they perform a specific task for the owner, but so far overcoming social fear is not included.

Monkeys are generally permitted under the Americans with Disabilities Act if they perform certain tasks, as capuchin monkeys have been trained to fetch groceries from shelves for wheelchair-using patrons. However, animals that provide only emotional support fall into a gray area, according to a U.S. Justice Department spokesperson quoted by the Springfield News-Leader.

What Are Your Pets Up To When You're At Work

What do your pets do while you're away at work? A collection of funny photos of pets being their own boss while the boss is at work.

Imitating With A Purpose

Human and ape newborns learn by imitating the behavior of adults. Researchers have found that rhesus macaque monkeys learn this way too.

Since newborns cannot see their own faces, they rely on watching adults to learn facial expressions, and mimicry is thought to be crucial to the development of a mother-infant relationship.

Particular brain cells – called “mirror neurons” – fire in a human infant when it watches an adult expression and copies it. Similar mirror neurons "light up" when rhesus monkeys watch another animal perform an action and when they copy that action.

Police Dogs At Work

Video of French police dogs in training. Amazing and frightening how quickly these dogs can attack and subdue an armed gunman, jumping over vehicles along the way.

Dog Rides Pony

Freddie, the Flaxley Flier, hops on the neighbor's  shetland pony for a ride around the paddock.

"When he first saw Daisy he rushed across the yard and just jumped straight on her back," she said.

Freddie, who has been nicknamed the Flaxley Flier, is often to be seen riding round the 25-acre farm and Daisy, who stands at just 37 inches tall, provides the perfect taxi for her pal.

Monkey Kung Fu Fighting

Amazing video of a monkey practicing kung fu with a trainer.