Tag: Animals

Inspired by the legs and feet of a peregrine falcon, engineers at Stanford University’s Cutkosky Lab have developed a set of SNAG (“stereotyped nature-inspired aerial grasper”) robotic legs that can perch on different sized branches and grasp objects in a manner similar to the bird of prey.

Gaming: it’s more fun with a partner, even if that partner is a cat. And to encourage co-op feline gaming, Japanese gaming furniture manufacturer Bauhutte has created this Nyangaroo (nyan:’meow’, plus kangaroo) hoodie featuring a pouch for your cat to hang out in while you mash buttons and curse at the screen.

Do you know what my garden has been missing? More gnomes. A person can never have too many garden gnomes, despite what my wife says, and she says the 20+ I already have are enough. Enough!

Let’s face it: no respectable man cave is complete without a giant bear statue. And thank goodness purveyor of the entirely unnecessary Design Toscano is here to provide us with one. I can already imagine Papa Bear of the Three Little Bears demanding royalties for the use of his likeness.

Crocodiles: you can easily tell them apart from alligators based on whether you’ll see them later or after a while. Plus alligators have broad, flat heads with only their top teeth visible when their mouths are closed, and crocodiles have pointed snouts with all teeth visible all the time.

Do you have a beach-themed bedroom? Me neither, but I wish I did. And this XXL Sand Crab Floor Pillow handmade by Etsy shop BigStuffed would make the perfect addition. Just imagine that crab peering out from under the side of your bed, ready to grab your leg and pull you under.

I’d prefer that companies let people continue to work from home until we have an effective COVID-19 vaccine, but some people are having to go into their offices already. While I hope that people are following social distancing and mask rules, some people will always be scofflaws.

Despite what the Discovery channel, JAWS, and Sharknado might have us thinking, most sharks are pretty decent creatures, and aren’t in the ocean just to chomp off your legs. They’re also very useful creatures, providing a home for your sushi, fruit salads, coffee and tea.

Do you like chess? Do you like dead things? Today’s your lucky day. Etsy seller and TheCurious13 has combined lifelike deceased rodents with a classic game of strategy with their taxidermy mouse chess set. Every single chess piece is a dead mouse that has been lovingly dressed up and decorated to match the pieces from the game.

Shiba Inu dogs and marshmallows are two of the sweetest things on the planet, so it only makes sense that they’ve finally been merged together into a single thing. Thanks to the folks at Japanese retailer Felissimo, we now have adorable and squeezy treats made to look like adorable and squeezy dogs.

There’s something about art made with rudimentary low-polygon count forms that I find very appealing. I think it’s because it harkens back to early 1990s video games like Virtua Fighter and the original Tomb Raider. If you like the style as much as I do, then check out this awesome collection of papercraft art from Oxygami.

Despite it being a little trippy, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is still one of my favorite books from my childhood. As our young protagonist Max enters the world of the Wild Things, he encounters a variety of wondrous and scary looking beasts, yet manages to win them over and become their king.

These days, we use our mobile gadgets so much that we invariably need to carry a battery pack just to make sure we don’t run out of juice halfway through the day. There are thousands upon thousands of battery packs on the market, so how do you know which one to buy?

It’s not something we think about, but our pools can be a real danger to wildlife. The $30 FrogLog aims to help with this problem. It’s an inflatable escape ramp that attaches to the side of a swimming pool so that small animals that find their way into in the pool can get back out and not die.

Octopi are very intelligent creatures, and they want to be left alone. You try to get some footage of an octopus, and they will steal your camera because they don’t care about your silly YouTube channel. 

Check out this fun series of building block cat sculptures from Hong-Kong-based company JEKCA, who makes single-stud bricks which are similar to LEGO. They are purr-fect. These sculptures are fun for cat lovers. They are available as kits, and they come in various colors and positions.