TresSugar

Go Batty For This Bat Fact or Bat Myth Quiz!

PetSugar — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 12:00:32 PDT

Tricky creatures to figure out due to all the myths and relative difficulty to spot in the wild, can you find the bat facts inside the bat fiction? These flying foxes were rescued and wrapped up - the babes don't look that scary now, do they? Test yourself and start this quiz 'cause it's bat-tastic!

Take the Quiz

Who Knew? Bat Oral Sex Might Have an Evolutionary Benefit

TresSugar — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:30:00 PDT

Just in time for Halloween mania: some stats on bats. This isn't about how they've come to be part of Halloween iconography, but rather about their sex habits. It turns out, bats give head, too!

Scientists have long known that animals engage in nonprocreative sex acts like oral sex. (Just look up the sex acts Bonobo chimps engage in and your sex life may look vanilla in comparison.) But they're trying to figure out if the fruit bats that are performing oral sex on each other might not also have sex for longer periods of time, which may have an evolutionary benefit.

Bats performing oral sex could be trying to increase the chances that sperm will fertilize the egg or attempting to kill bacteria on the penis, and in effect, keep both bat partners from getting STDs. Wow. I think that's enough of bat sex ed for today!

Friday Feel Good: Baby Bat Rescue Center

TresSugar — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:30:00 PDT

Jenny McClain has her hands full at her bat rescue center in Northern Queensland, Australia. It's paralysis tick season, and as mother bats get bitten, they are too ill to take care of their babies. That's where Jenny and her staff of baby bat lovin' volunteers come in.

Ultimately, what's good for these little bats (including one named Wilson!) is good for the ecosystem; bats help to pollinate fruit trees and plants. In addition to the ridiculously cute sight of baby bats sucking on pacifiers, rolled up in pink and blue blankets and lined up in a basket, I shed a little tear watching mom bat and Wilson being separated so that both could get medical care and TLC. Sigh - so cute!

Bat and Cat Cookies Two Ways - Beginner and Expert

YumSugar — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:00:26 PDT

While I may not want a bat in my coffee, I do love to celebrate Halloween with festive cookies. Bat and cat cookies are the quintessential Halloween dessert. If you're looking for something fast and simple, or you don't have Halloween cookie cutters on hand, try the first recipe, which simply calls for store-bought sugar cookie dough. If you're in the mood to make something from scratch, these dark, luscious cocoa bat and cat cookies will do the trick (or treat!). To get baking,

Beginner Bat and Cat Cookies
From Pillsbury

Ingredients

1 roll (16.5 oz) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 container (1 lb) vanilla creamy ready-to-spread frosting
Orange gel food coloring
Black string licorice
32 green miniature candy-coated semisweet chocolate baking bits
1 tube (0.68 oz) black decorating gel
24 miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Make and cool cookies as directed.
Remove 1/2 cup of frosting; tint remaining frosting with orange gel food color. Frost 8 cookies with white frosting. Frost 8 cookies with orange frosting. Place remaining orange frosting in food-storage plastic bag, and cut small hole in 1 corner.
For bats, use white-frosted cookies. Place 1-inch spiral of string licorice in center of each cookie for body. Pipe wings on sides of body with orange frosting. For eyes, attach 2 green baking bits onto body of each with frosting; squeeze a dot of black decorating gel in middle of each eye. Place 2 miniature chocolate chips on each for ears.
For cats, use orange-frosted cookies. Unroll and separate string licorice; place pieces of string licorice on cookies to look like ears and whiskers. Attach 2 green baking bits to each for eyes and 1 miniature chocolate chip for nose.

Makes 16 cookies.

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Expert Bat and Cat Cookies
From Martha Stewart

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled) plus more for rolling and cutting out dough
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
Small candies or sprinkles, for decorating (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in egg. On low speed, mix in flour mixture. Divide dough in half, and form into 2 disks, each about 3/4 inch thick. Wrap disks in plastic; chill until firm, at least 45 minutes and up to 2 days.
On a lightly floured sheet of waxed paper, using a floured rolling pin, roll dough 1/4 inch thick. (If dough becomes too soft to work with, refrigerate for a few minutes.)
Using 2- to 3-inch Halloween cookie cutters, cut out shapes, dipping cutters in flour as necessary to prevent sticking; place on a baking sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart.
Bake until surface is dry to the touch, 10 to 15 minutes (if decorating, press candies into dough halfway through baking). Cool cookies 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheet; transfer to a rack to cool completely. Serve, or store in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Makes 40 to 50 cookies.

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A Fabby Halloween: Bat Ears

FabSugar — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:00:22 PDT

It's a sign. I'm trying to decide on my pup Annabelle's Halloween costume, and after a weekend of pet store perusing, we're leaning toward these adorable bat wings. Since my little Frenchie is black, the black bat wings looked so simple and chic. Then, today I find these Giles & Brother Tiny Bat Studs ($78). Done and done. If you've decided to go costume-free this Halloween, can I beg you to be a wee festive and indulge in these or some other spooky jewels?

Woman's Coffee Goes Batty

YumSugar — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:00:00 PDT

In Cedar Rapids, IA, one woman got her Halloween trick several weeks early when she found a bat in her coffee.

The woman reported a bat in her house but wasn't too concerned about it. She then turned on her automatic coffeemaker before bedtime and enjoyed her coffee the next morning. When she cleaned out her coffee machine that night, she discovered the dead bat in the coffee filter. The bat was sent to a laboratory to be tested, where researchers determined its brain was too cooked by the hot water for them to determine whether it was rabid. The woman is currently undergoing treatment for possible rabies.

I've heard some food scenarios that are even more disgusting, but this one tops the list of strange occurrences! Does this remind you of any bizarre food experiences that you've had?

Source

Too Lazy to Exercise? Pretend Bats Are Chasing You!

GiggleSugar — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:00:00 PDT

Hey, it makes more sense than the all-cabbage diet, starving yourself, or zombie aerobics!

Shaquille O'Neal's Mom Opens Up About Education, Sports, and Keeping Kids Motivated

Yahoo Shine — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:02:33 PDT

We're happy to present this article from one of our favorite sites, Yahoo! Shine:

When basketball star Shaquille O'Neal was still a kid, he knew that he had to get good grades before he could to play sports.

"In our home we had a rule: No pass, no play," his mother, Lucille O'Neal, told Yahoo! Shine in an interview. "If you didn't pass the grade, then you weren't allowed to play the extracurricular activity." That dedication to his studies is still strong: On May 5, the four-time world champion and 15-time All Star player earned his doctorate in education from Barry University in Miami. That's earned, mind you, not honorary. According to The Miami Herald, Shaq, 40, spent the past 4 1/2 years working toward a doctoral degree in organizational learning and leadership with a specialization in human resource development, studying before and after NBA games and between segments as a sports analyst on TV.

Keep reading to hear Lucille's advise for parents.

3 Awkward Scenarios and a Relatable Breakup Speech From This Week's Girls

Tara Block — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:35:00 PDT

From penis pics to sexual harassment to a deflowering disaster, there's a lot to talk about from last night's Girls episode "Hannah's Diary." The show mainly focuses on Marnie's boyfriend, Charlie, and his buddy reading Hannah's diary and finding out from it that Marnie isn't happy in the relationship. This results in a very-hurt Charlie and his friend singing excerpts from the diary at an open mic night, causing Marnie to be angry at Hannah - instead of the guys who violated their privacy - for writing her brutally honest thoughts on the couple. We'll have to wait 'till next week to find out the fate of Marnie and Charlie (and if Marnie hooks up with sexy artist Booth Jonathon). But what really got us talking today were the super awkward sex-related moments from the episode. Here are the three scenarios that had us cringing, including one that involves a breakup speech we can relate to:

The penis pic: The episode begins with Hannah's pseudo-boyfriend Adam sending her a photo of his penis, then following it up with a text that said, "SRY. That wasn't meant for you." Despite Marnie telling Hannah that she shouldn't respond when he basically is telling her he sends dick pics to other girls, Hannah sends him a photo of her boobs back. Eventually though, Hannah realizes she wants more from the arrangement than he does, and she gives him a great breakup speech that actually came from a real breakup email Lena Dunham wrote. She tells him, "I don't even want a boyfriend . . . I just want someone who wants to hang out all the time, and thinks I'm the best person in the world, and wants to have sex with only me." The breakup backfires, but we liked seeing Hannah sort-of stick up for herself for once.
A touchy boss: Hannah starts a new nameless job, and right off the bat her old, overweight boss turns an unwelcome back massage into a boob massage. After that incident and a butt pat, Hannah finds out from her fellow female co-workers that he does it to everyone. And they basically tell her to just let him sexually harass her since he's a good boss and a nice guy. Um, gross! From the way they "fixed" her eyebrows (see above picture), Hannah should know better than to take advice from her new office mates.
Deflowering gone awry: As the only virgin in the group, Shoshanna is feeling left out from the sexually active bunch, and she's desperate to remedy her situation. She has high hopes in the episode when she bumps into a cute guy from her past who asks her to dinner, but things go from awkward to disastrous during the date. First he tells her she can touch his penis, and she responds with "not until we've kissed." Then after he starts taking off her clothes in the bedroom she asks him if they can have sex. But before they do she tells him she's a virgin, and he tells her he doesn't do virgins because they bleed and get too attached. She counters with, "I so don't get attached when I bleed. You know, it's like amazing. I'm like totally not an attached bleeder." Poor Shoshanna - better luck next time!

What did you think of the episode?

Photo courtesy of HBO

5 Numbers to Program Into the Phone Before You Leave Home

SavvySugar — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:13:07 PDT

Even if you're traveling with a WiFi-enabled computer or smartphone, you'll save time with these numbers set up in the handset before you leave home. Remember time is money and it's all about being prepared for vacation state of mind!

Airline. No one wants to think about canceled flights or sleeping in the airport before leaving home but at the very least, program in the airline's 1-800-number in case you want to check for delays/gates before you arrive.
Local cab company. While this number may not be important off the bat (since airports usually have courtesy phones or taxi stands), I'd recommend either looking up a local cab's number before leaving home or, at the latest, programming it off the side of a cab at the airport.
Hotel front desk. It's always good to have the address of your destination, just in case the driver hasn't heard of it by name or so you can ask for directions if navigating yourself. Still, add in the local phone number, even if you booked online and then add your room's extension or direct line after you're settled in.
Bank/credit card hotlines. It can't hurt to enter the bank's number in your handset. These would still come in handy if you lose your wallet in your hometown, too.
Embassy or consulate. When leaving the country, it's important to know who to call (and where exactly to go) if you encounter a major problem like a lost or stolen passport. Add in the phone number and address - Better safe than sorry.