The Joy of Cardboard

Cat in a Box Broc

Imagine life in a cardboard box -- but without the smell of urine and stale body odor of a bum's home, and with a whole lot more accoutrements. A Dutch ad agency works in an office where all the furniture is made of cardboard. People are encouraged to doodle but, presumably, asked to be very, very careful about spilt coffee. And if you're wondering how much joy they can get from the employees get from their surroundings, just ask your cat to explain the sublime pleasure of, say, hiding in a box, to say nothing of shredding those corrugated scratching posts.

Also in today's links: explaining chimp attacks, preventing terrorist attacks, attacking illicit duck love and more.

• It's a world gone mad. First octopuses breaking out of their aquariums, now this: a chimp not only lobbed stones at zoo visitors but, according to a new report, planned out the attacks, storing up these weapons and identifying projectiles in the materials forming his concrete enclosure. This is significant not just for zoo visitors, who probably don't like being hit by flying stones, but also as an indication that the chimp could anticipate a future mental state, which has been hard to show in animals.
• Chemicals, schmemicals. A 13th century fresco in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, were covered in cow's milk.
• Based on the theory that terrorists could use Google Maps to select targets, a California lawmaker has introduced a measure to restrict display of certain sites in mapping tools such as Google Maps and Google Earth. Heck, why not just eliminate all maps?
• Clearly this is just the scenario that keeps so many people in this country afraid of gay marriage. For blue ducks, the love affair between Ben and Jerry, who've left female pondmate Cherry out in the cold, could bring the rare species one step closer to extinction.