Elephant Parents Teach Baby to Paint

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:10:00 GMT

Elephants in a zoo near Tokyo are proving that artistic ability runs in the family. In this video, a mother and father elephant emulate the pleasure of artistic expression for their one-year-old baby. Reluctant at first to put brush to canvas, the elephant is soon making brush strokes with an impressionist's eye for color. Oh, the adaptable talent of the young.

Not everyone is wild about the elephant painting phenomenon, thinking it is cruelly forced upon the animals by some trainers as a way to attract crowds, and of course, money. Whether or not that's true, at least the elephants in this video are not forced to draw particular objects, but rather are given full creative license--followed by a refreshing hose down.

Photo: visopys.org

Baby-Crying Contest Held in Tokyo

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:00:00 GMT

I’m sure there are oodles of jokes just begging to be cracked about this story. I’m just a little too disturbed to think of them. Yesterday, at the Sensoji Temple in Tokyo, babies faced off in a popular annual contest involving amateur Sumo wrestlers. In case you’re unfamiliar with the sport of “Baby-Cry Sumo,” here’s how it works: parents turn over their infants to Sumo wrestlers, who make the babies cry by gently shaking them and scaring them with their giant stranger faces. The baby who cries the loudest is the champion! Would we expect anything less from the country that brought us vending machines selling live turtles and human breast milk? (Disclaimer: do NOT buy human breast milk from a vending machine in Japan—even if you happen to be eating warm chocolate chip cookies. Trust me on this one.)

The purpose of the contest is to pray that babies will grow up to be strong and healthy, since, according to a Japanese proverb, frequent crying in babies is a sign of good health. (And here I thought it was a sign of colic.)

I’m sure that, in addition to being HI-larious, this story has a lot to teach us about tolerance for other cultures. Perhaps, for instance, “Baby-Cry Sumo” is not so different from handing our youngsters off to a tubby stranger wearing a fake white beard and bright red bodysuit. The only difference is that we don’t want Santa to make the babies cry. We want him to promise them lots of consumer goods.

Then again, I’m still disturbed. How 'bout you?

Photos: Reuters

Strollerderby : tokyo

Elephant Parents Teach Baby to Paint

Baby-Crying Contest Held in Tokyo