Shrimp on a Treadmill

Yes my friends, even crustaceans need their excercise! The above YouTube video is of Sammy the Shrimp (named him myself), running on an underwater treadmill. As you can see he's definitely getting quite a workout on all his legs. According to an MSNBC.com article, the sea creature is being studied. The study is to determine the health of the shrimp, to see how diseases impact their performance. Basically

Shrimp dealing with an infection would be less active and might be limited in their ability to migrate, find food, and avoid being eaten, Scholnick said. "These studies will give us a better idea of how marine animals can perform in their native habitat when faced with increasing pathogens and immunological challenges."

Source: MSNBC.com

It's great to see scientists taking such an active interest in the health of our seafood, because I want them to make sure it's in tip-top shape for my Scampi dinner!

Rent your own Party Animal!

As I was flipping through my latest Maxim magazine (the one with Bond girl Olga Kurylenko on the cover, see above), I noticed something interesting, and of course it relates to party animal monkeys! This Maxim contains a Holiday gift guide with all sorts of cool, techie, and neato gifts to give. A company called Animal Actors Sweet Sunshine will now rent out live monkeys for your partys. The company currently works to train and handle animals for various gigs including movies like Dr. Doolittle 3, Walmart commercials, Ralph Lauren ads, and even training that dog Meaty which was on the MTV show Rob & Big!

Animal Actors primarily rents out the services of the most intelligent dogs, talented cats and horses, but amongst their exotic animals are Buffalo, Lions, Tigers, Bears and Oh my...chimps too! They were a major part of the CHIMPS ARE HUMAN TOO - BBC SPECIAL.

If you're interested in renting your own party animal or learning about how to train your current pet to make money in movies, tv, commercials and more, stop by Animal-actors.com.

And no, this crazy inflated party animal is not available for rent....yet!

2008 Election and the Barack Obama Afterparty!

Well this crazy monkey did his civic duty and exercised his right to vote on November 4, 2008. It was a fun process using the newer computerized voting system for the first time ever. It was quite easy and quick to make my votes too! No extra questions to vote on here, just three candidates to vote for and that was it. Even got my snazzy "I Voted" sticker with the American flag on it as you can see. Nice touch!



(We Love Ba-rack Obama, Ba-rack Obama!)

Now major congratulations go out to President-elect Barack Obama who makes history as the first ever African American to become our president. Obama has campaigned that the nation needs change and he is the man to bring it to us, so let's hope he has the magic fixes for our nation's problems!

There's been plenty of post-election celebration going on. As you may have heard, Obama has promised his two young daughters that puppy they've been wanting. The White House just isn't the same without a dog, but hey Barack, how about an inflated monkey?



There's a town in Japan called "Obama" and they were jubilant over Barack winning. The town had a huge celebration for its namesake's victory. There were Obama Girls hula dancers and musical acts, as well as dozens of supporters chanting "Obama! Obama! Obama!" O-B-A-M-A! The mayor of Obama Japan is planning to make Barack a special honorary citizen..pretty cool! Check out how Barack's victory was celebrated worldwide!


(Click above to watch ObamaGirl's music video!)

And don't forget the foxy Obama girl here in the US whose real name is Amber Lee Ettinger (pictured above in video). Amber was more than ecstatic over Barack's victory. She now wants an invite to the inauguration, or at least a thank you note from Barack. And hey why not, her YouTube video "I Got a Crush on Obama" had more than 10 million hits on YouTube. It gained notoriety and attention, possibly helping Barack's campaign a bit. It also was named biggest web video of 2007 by People magazine making her an internet phenom! Amber's definitely got a future career in politics...or music or something!!


(Beam me up Anderson Cooper!)

And speaking of music in the campaign, CNN had a cool new technology during their coverage last night. In true Star Wars or Star Trek futuristic fashion they beamed in people to the CNN studio as holograms. They even beamed in will.i.am, the rapper/producer behind "Yes We Can", a star-studded musical tribute to Obama. Mr. i.am was beamed in to speak with Anderson Cooper and deliver an important message to the Jedi Knights across the US. Check it out here!.

Once again, hip hip hooray for our new president-elect, Barack Obama, as his victory has seemed to uplift many spirits across our nation!!

Miss Meghan McCain has a Blog!

I'm really gonna miss seeing McCain (the one pictured)...The way it's looking for the 2008 Presidential election, Senator John McCain may lose by a landslide to Senator Barack Obama. It will be a sad day for McCain & Palin as they accept defeat, but an even sadder day for this monkey and plenty of others! You see McCain has a 20-something daughter named Meghan. She's not only an extremely-fine chiquita, but she also blogs about cool stuff!

Over at her blog, Meghan has talked about everything she can during her dad's exhausting campaigning. It's not just a bunch of political mumbo jumbo either or how cool college life can be. Her blog is full of pics from the various campaign stops, and even includes her songs of the day! The songs are from her personal iPod playlists for different events or experiences. Today's song is "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler. She plans to have a final election day playlist too.. Meghan's blog basically shows how she has a rockstar lifestyle now, as she even met the wife of one of the Ramones! I highly recommend you check her blog out if you want to keep up with this fine chiquita and all she's up to after the election!

See Meghan McCain's Blogette Playlists

See Meghan McCain's personal blog - McCainBlogette.com

(Note: Meghan please start campaigning for Maxim in 2008-09!)

Vote for the next Mayor of Rabbit Hash, KY!

Folks you may have thought that the whole McCain vs. Obama 2008 presidential election was the biggest vote in the country coming up, but it's not. You see the quaint town of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky has a very important vote coming up to determine its new mayor in 2008, with voting ending 6PM on Tuesday.

What makes the Rabbit Hash election extra-special is that it has barely any humans in the running, along with about 14 animal candidates. Yes you read it right, running for Mayor of Rabbit Hash are: a Bull Mastiff dog, a Miniature Donkey, a Boxer/Laborador mix, a Border Collie (Myspace), an Ibizan Hound, a Border Collie Mix, a Boxer, a Poodle, a Clumber Spaniela Chihuahua Mix, St Bernard Mix (Myspace page), a Springer Spaniel and a cat. I am not too sure what animals Paulette and Ruby are, perhaps they are humans too! With all that said, it's going to be an interesting race. Surprisingly, none of the humans are even close to winning this thing. Let's hear it for political-minded animals!

The reason for the election is the last mayor, Junior, a black lab elected in 2004, sadly passed away last Spring, so the historic burg of Rabbit Hash, KY is now leaderless...Currently, it's Toby the Springer Spaniel leading the way, owned by Chris Lustenberg. Toby's got 1,773 votes and his campaign slogan states: "Toby won't pussyfoot around. He's got a leg up on the competition." I wonder if they mean that literally! I personally think Higgins the Miniature Donkey has a solid chance to catch up! He's in 3rd with 1,298 votes and seems to know what he's doing...Plus the donkey has always been associated with politics! Also don't count out Lucy Lou who's in 2nd, as her slogan is "The Bitch You Can Count On". I think she will receive a lot of votes from the female canine population in Rabbit Hash.

Now to vote in this election you must donate some moolah. $1 gets you 1 vote, so the more you donate, the more votes you'll get! Come on folks campaigning isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination! If I were running I know the cost of my daily bananas alone would be quite pricey these days! The proceeds also benefit The Rabbit Hash Historical Society, which is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, so that means your paid for "vote" is tax deductible! (Please note: this crazy monkey is not affiliated with the Rabbit Hash Historical Society or this campaign, just a concerned US citizen!)

Their election will be held at the Central Barn on November 4th from 6AM to 6PM. Online voting is possible for all citizens, and can be done until 6PM on November 3rd. See link down below.

This election is a thing of great political beauty, as finally animals everywhere will be heard...And you never know, maybe this crazy monkey will go into politics one day too!

You can see all of the candidates, what they stand for, the votes so far and cast your own vote at the Official Voting page. See voting page with full list of candidates here!

Now This is the Spirit of 2008 Halloween Costumes!

Hello crazy Monkey fans!...Halloween has come and gone, just a day ago...Ghouls, ghosts, ghoblins and min-Barack Obamas paraded around neighborhoods in search of sweet treats or scary tricks! Now in the AM, while this monkey scanned some of the morning talk shows and news programs I was very disappointed to see a general lack of Halloween spirit. As we all know Halloween is supposedly a day for the chiquitas to dress up sexy and scandalous and for monkeys to dress up just plain goofy and ridiculous! As you can see in the photo above, NBC did just that on their Today Show. On the left we have news girl Natalie Morales as the sexy Princess Leia from Star Wars...and on the right side is Al Roker as a gigantic, goofy Gingerbread man. Look at the expressions on both Darth Vader and the little kid in the right hand corner's faces...Pure looks of WTF?! directed at Mr. Roker. He definitely rocked that costume!

Also congrats to Princess Leia for having a new baby!! Does this mean we will be in store for a new installment of Star Wars soon? Is that the next Jedi Knight she's holding??



See above, Amy Robach and Meredith Veira also were in true Halloween spirit. Amy was the sexy fair maiden Rapunzel and Meredith was the not-so-sexy Pinnochio. Ok so not all female chiquita's costumes can be sexy! With her nose that length, we have to wonder which news stories she lied to us about!



And let's not forget Matt Lauer, the other male anchor on Today. He dressed up Humpty Dumpty and actually fell of a wall on the air!



Regis & Kelly were Vice-presidential hopefuls Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Kelly's dead on for that one, just like Tina Fey of SNL!



And in this final photo above, a big blue monster showed up to take Regis' place as co-host of the show with smokin' hot Kelly Ripa! What a lucky big blue monster indeed!

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Haunted Halloween!