The Busy Modern Woman Does It All

Via RocketNews--
Terrifying people is a full time job, but the Ring's Samara / Sadako still finds time to inspire Hello Kitty, then throw out the first pitch at Tokyo Dome Stadium the TokyoDome:

Nudibranch Tuesday!

These little guys are so expressive in elegant closeup!



Many more exciting undersea videos await at the YouTube Channel of Japan's Enoshima Aquarium.

Cüte-sküdar'a Gider Iken: mülti-CÜTE-ral appeal

In the Turkish song "Kâtibim" (also called "Üsküdar'a Gider Iken," the opening lyric), a woman sings about a rainy day and her romance with a well-dressed clerk who looks handsome in his starched collar. 

Here's a movie version, complete with starched-collar clerk.



YouTube abounds with adorable kiddies acting out the parts of the lady and the clerk. Here's one:




Many other sets of lyrics, in many different languages, accompany this same melody.  There are several web pages discussing its ubiquity, and it was even the subject of a politically-tinged 2003 documentary film by Adela Peeva, titled "Whose is This Song?"

Read further:
http://riowang.blogspot.com/2009/10/whose-is-this-song.html
http://www.everybodys-song.net
http://reflections-of-a-nomad.blogspot.com/2010/05/when-going-to-uskudar-on-sacred-shabbat.html

While there aren't any Japanese lyrics for the song, these Japanese kidlets have cleverly reinterpreted the Turkish kids:  they are kawaii-sküdar'a gider iken!  (And look at how those two letters "i" practically make a "ü.")

Ostriches!

Winter would be better with more skiing ostriches.





The creator of this next video doesn't explain what this ostrich was doing in Iran. Escaping from something? Wikipedia confirms that ostrich is an African animal, although it does intriguingly allude to a now extinct Arabian Ostrich.



Equally, winter would be better with more dancing ostriches.