The cats at St. Petersburg's Museum

From abc.news: "The standard line about the Hermitage Museum on the banks of St. Petersburg's Neva River is that you can spend days wandering its rooms and only see a small fraction of the millions of masterpieces under its roof. But glance out the window next to that ancient Roman statue and you may see something as much a fixture of the museum, but not nearly as celebrated: cats.

Dozens of cats roam the grounds of the Hermitage, living in the museum's gardens and labyrinthian basement, cared for by a designated staff. They've lived here for centuries, first brought in by the imperial family to rid the Winter Palace of rats, and for the last 10 years cared for by the office of the director of the Hermitage.

"We joke that if [our director] permits us to have 50 cats, so we [technically] have 50 cats. But really we have around 60 cats," says Maria Khaltunin, the director's assistant and head of the cat program.
More...

Canine revenge

Water balloon bursting in slow motion

The calendar cats

From style.com: "Meet the new faces of 2011: Poncho, Ziggy, Shuvel Face. Those were some of the fancy felines on hand yesterday as United Bamboo shot its second annual cat calendar. Miniature versions of the line’s looks from Fall ‘10, Resort ‘11 and the upcoming Spring ‘11 collections hung on one wall of the United Bamboo studio, as half a dozen kitties stalked the space, clad in bow blouses and peacoats. “We have to remake all the patterns, obviously,” explained United Bamboo founder Miho Aoki, as she dodged the aptly named cat Bamboo. “But it’s OK, because our patternmaker has a cat, so she gets into it.” Read more

Frostie, the dancing cockatoo

Amazing friendship

Discussing politics with a goat

Balloons and Dyson Air Multiplier fans

Dolphins & bubble rings

Travelers commercial

Kittens & the treadmill - II

Spectacular Aurora Borealis

From Telegraph.co.uk: "A large solar storm has caused spectacular aurora displays across the Northern Hemisphere after blasting out of the Sun three days ago." (August 4)

See more pictures from Flickr gallery

ChimpDance

Don't ask me if this is real... I really don't know!

French know-how

Soccer girl

iPad magic show