Lemme just check that all of your brains work the same way mine does

[xiphias]

So, we've got this story.

To summarize the important points: researchers in a remote rain forest in Indonesia have found new plants and animals, including a new subspecies of rat which, in the photo, is actually pretty adorable, and which is five times the size of a normal rat.

Okay.

Did all of your brains go exactly the same place mine did? Indonesia, and giant rat?

Now, to be fair, this was found in Papua, which is pretty much the other side of Indonesia from Sumatra, but still. . .

It was a rat unknown to science!

Comments

[ckd]

...of Unusual Size!

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Yup. That's what I thought of.

[sezurei.livejournal.com]

Me too. :D

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

No, mine did not.

My brain said: "SQUEE I WANT ONE FOR A PET"

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I want a pair of them! :)

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

My brain actually went to Princess Bride...oh my god! They found Rodents of Unusual Size!!!

*giggles*

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Okay, where I went was to "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire:"

---

Holmes had read carefully a note which the last post had brought him. Then, with the dry chuckle which was his nearest approach to a laugh, he tossed it over to me.

"For a mixture of the modern and the mediaeval, of the practical and of the wildly fanciful, I think this is surely the limit," said he. "What do you make of it, Watson?"

I read as follows:

46, OLD JEWRY,
Nov. 19th.

Re Vampires

SIR:
Our client, Mr. Robert Ferguson, of Ferguson and Muirhead, tea brokers, of Mincing Lane, has made some inquiry from us in a communication of even date concerning vampires. As our firm specializes entirely upon the assessment of machinery the matter hardly comes within our purview, and we have therefore recommended Mr. Ferguson to call upon you and lay the matter before you. We have not forgotten your successful action in the case of Matilda Briggs.

We are, sir,
Faithfully yours,
MORRISON, MORRISON, AND DODD.
per E. J. C.

"Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson," said Holmes in a reminiscent voice. "It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared."

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Consensus around here was, rather, the reflection of the above account, by one Hemlock Stones, the Great Defective...

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

hahahahaha!!! right ON!

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

This was on 60 Minutes this weekend. In addition to the rat, they found a tiny possum who was even more adorable than the rat, and had no fear of humans at all. Then there was a black sickle-billed bird of paradise who does his mating dance only between 5:30 and 5:45 AM. It's a really strange sight. The video of the full segment is here.

Warning: There are a couple of insects shown, so if they bother you, stop looking after the bower bird does its dance until you hear them talking about walking through the mud, then again right after the red honey-suckle-looking flower, for about 10 seconds.

The first time I tried to watch it, the audio was terrible. You may need to turn off your sound, let it stream through once, then run it a second time. It's worth it to see some birds and animals never before filmed. (The good stuff doesn't start until about 3 minutes, 55 seconds into the video.)

[delerium69.livejournal.com]

My brain also went directly to "The Princess Bride" because alas, I have not read (or watched) "The Sussex Vampire," and did not see the connection, but Neil Gaiman did.

[marquisedea.livejournal.com]

Rodents of unusual size? I don't believe they exist.

[neonnurse.livejournal.com]

Mine went to Sumatra. I was kind of proud of myself for getting that close in my geographic memory, since that's probably my worst topic of general knowledge.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

Isn't that really Rattus newyorkius?

;)

Very cool!!!!

N.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Oh, far from it: "The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Check the story here.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen a NYC rat? They are far from typical! :)

Yes, I read the article. However, as a native NYer, I could not resist the joke. Also, having seen some truly huge rats in my time in Central Park! None as big as the Sumatran Giant Rat however, who seems to be the same size as my cat!

N.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

As another child of New York, that's what I thought too.

Also, that thing is TERRIFYING. It looks like the Revenge of the Muppets, just about to be unleashed on all humanity.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

There's no reason it couldn't be the Giant Rat of Sumatra and a Rodent of Unusual Size.

It just requires the addition of Sherlock Holmes to the Fireswamp.

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

Eee! Squeezable!

Papua is part of Melanesia though, and there may be Giant Stowaway Vipers Of Retribution.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

R.U.S.'S..... and yes, I did think of the tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra and other stories the world is not yet ready for...

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

My brain went to The Princess Bride first, but only because I processed the "giant rat" part before I processed the "Indonesia" part. Once I processed the whole thing I went to Holmes just as you did.