Yet another sign of human superiority swirls down the drain: “In a revelation that destroys yet another cherished notion of human uniqueness, wild chimpanzees have been seen living in caves and hunting bushbabies with spears. It is the first time an animal has been seen using a tool to hunt a vertebrate. Many chimpanzees trim twigs to use for ant-dipping and termite-fishing. But a population of savannah chimps (Pan troglodytes verus) living in the Fongoli area of south-east Senegal have been seen making spears from strong sticks that they sharpen with their teeth.”

Friday Ark #127 is boarding and will continue doing so throughout the weekend, so visit often for all the great animal posts and photos.

John Scalzi talks about income from writing.  For my close friends, this is a topic I’ve covered many times in relation to my own novelist endeavors.  I think John covers it well and reiterates with details what I’ve been saying in generalities for some time: writing books can be lucrative, but it takes some time for that to become a reality.  For instance, his first book, Old Man’s War, was written in 2003.  He didn’t start making respectable income from it until 2006 when the royalties and foreign market shares started rolling in.  Assuming I can write and publish at least one book per year, I suspect it will take three to five years before that income is enough to fully support me.  And that’s making a lot of assumptions.

You have to go see this!  One of Annie’s cats has learned on his own to use the toilet.  He picked it up by watching everyone else, I suppose.  The funny thing is this: He also learned there was some purpose to the toilet paper after the business at hand had been tended to, so you get to see precisely what that means.  And apparently he’s prone to unrolling most of the paper before attacking it in a feline frenzy.  She’s not sure yet whether the decreased litter costs offset the increased toilet paper costs.  Still, the photos are hysterical!