The latest couple to hit the bluegrass scene has spent some time sniffing around for musical recognition.

In fact, it's more likely they've been sniffing around for bones and treats. But Mrs. Molly and her husband, Smoke, have hit the big time with their latest video, "Dogs Play Bluegrass."

The video has been viewed more than 130,000 times since it was uploaded near the end of March.

[ Related: Police bark like dogs to scare suspects into surrendering ]

The calm-looking dogs wear ball caps and plaid shirts as they appear to pluck away at "Dueling Banjos." Spoiler alert: those aren't dog paws, they're human hands! By golly, these dogs aren't playing the banjo at all.

They're good sports, nonetheless, as the real banjo players pluck away, hidden behind them. Musician Cameron Owens of The Honey Chasers created the video, according to the description.

It's a follow up to a previous video of Mrs. Molly playing the mandolin, posted earlier in March. Excuse me, she was Ms. Molly then,

Read More »from Banjo-playing dogs are rousing good sports

The world has a new balancing act, Nik Wallenda, but to book him for a performance we might have to search a few local green bins.

A YouTube user has uploaded a video of a raccoon tightrope walking on utility wires, suspended above houses as it shimmies across a gap between two poles.

The raccoon, called "very clever" by the video's narrator, stays stable by placing its front paws on the upper wire and standing on its back paws.

[ Related: Soori the meerkat is sleepy and adorable ]

The video has been seen nearly 81,000 times since it was uploaded on April 5.

There must have been a tempting barbecue on the other side of that set of wires.

The user who uploaded the video posted that it was filmed in Toronto. Fitting, that this four-legged performer would make an appearance in a city where raccoons are often considered a plague upon lawns, not to mention the organic waste disposal system that leads them head first into everyone's kitchen scraps.

Toronto Star columnist Bob Hepburn recently

Read More »from Tightrope-walking raccoon travels through Toronto neighbourhood

Two passengers traveling with their four-year-old and eight-year-old children were so incensed by the in-flight entertainment choice that they started an argument with the crew.Tyler Perry may be happy to learn that his portrayal of Alex Cross in the eponymous 2012 thriller was so convincing that it managed to divert a United Airlines flight from Denver to Baltimore.

As QMI Agency notes, two passengers traveling with their four-year-old and eight-year-old children were so incensed by the in-flight entertainment choice that they started an argument with the crew. That argument ended up with the pilot exiting the cabin to calm the embers of parental rage and the flight subsequently making an emergency landing in Chicago for “security reasons.”

And yes, FBI agents were called in, because, you know, serious threat to national security.

[ Related: Arizona-bound dog ends up on flight to Ireland ]

Back on the plane, the parents had complained of the violent and “sexually explicit” nature of the film that had been playing on the fold-down screens at the front of the cabin, arguing that their children’s eyes needed to be shielded from such debauchery.

They demanded

Read More »from Flight diverted after family starts argument with crew over in-flight movie

It's tough being a toddler. Dad is always imposing dreadful rules, like no dragging snow shovels into the house and no eating candy from restaurant floors.

One fussy baby now has a platform to air his many grievances, in a sense, except it's mostly a platform on which his weary dad can document the daily problem of trying to understand the many and baffling reasons his son is crying.

[ Related: 2-year-old bandit picks sister’s bedroom lock, steals stuffed animals ]

The blog Reasons My Son Is Crying consists entirely of this baby's crying documented in pictures and witty captions, apparently posted by his father.

A selection of the reasons that compel the little man to well up:

http://reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com/image/47450036420

We put this pillow behind his head so he didn’t hurt himself on the window frame.

http://reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com/image/47413587189

I wouldn’t let him drink bath water.

http://reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com/image/47373448579

I wouldn’t let him

Read More »from Laughs, criticism for dad using Tumblr to document ‘Reasons My Son Is Crying’

Like taking lunch from a fifth-grader.

The line doesn't quite have the same ring as taking candy from a baby but the staff of a food service company at a middle school Attleboro, Massachusetts learned last week that it will still get you fired.

About two dozen students at Coelho Middle School lined up for lunch last Tuesday and carried their food trays to the checkout. But they weren't allowed to eat that food, according to the Associated Press.

[ Related: UK school bans triangular flapjacks after food fight ]

Staff told at least some of the students to throw their meal into the garbage, school staff told the news wire. The private lunch company chose the strange punishment because these students' parents owed money on their prepaid lunch accounts, according to wcvb.com.

Whitsons Culinary Group fired four employees for denying the kids lunch, according to the Associated Press. The school's principal, Andy Boles, told Fox 25 the lunch workers weren't trying to "upset" or "humiliate"

Read More »from Cafeteria workers punish kids who owed lunch money by dumping meals

Beware, humans, there is a robot living in the United States that could threaten our very existence.

Well, at least, it can out-walk you on a treadmill and test the heck out of safety equipment. The company Boston Dynamics uploaded last week a video of its robot designed to test safety clothing, named Petman, and it's already been viewed more than a million times, with the obligatory comments declaring its realistic human movements the beginning of the robot uprising.

[ Related: Cookie separator, drawing Lego machine show how robots can do anything ]

In this video, Petman tests a gas mask and clothing designed for protection against chemicals, according to the description. It says the robot's 'skin' has sensors to detect if any chemicals bleed through the clothing. Petman walks, bends its knees and twists its torso to simulate movement. Petman also sweats.

In an earlier video of the robot, uploaded to the Boston Dynamics website, Petman does push-ups and lifts its arms. A staff member

Read More »from Petman the robot can do push-ups, looks like a human

The Oregon Zoo shared a video this week showing otter parenting skills. It seems tough to be a baby otter.

Baby river otters need swimming lessons, much like humans, says the narrator of the video posted on Apr. 3. They also need tough-loving moms willing to do what it takes to keep their little ones thriving out in the world.

In the case of Molalla, the baby river otter, that means mom has to drag him through the water and pull him repeatedly under the surface to teach him how to dive.

She's like the swimming teacher who pushes kids into the pool while they're staring into the water, working up the nerve to jump.

"This might look a little brutal to us. It's kind of scary to watch," Becca VanBeek, the zoo's otter keeper, says in the video. "But it's natural for them."

VanBeek says Molalla only weighed about the same as a handful of jelly beans when he was born but he's grown to weigh about two kilograms. The nine-week-old pup hangs like a limp sausage while mom drags him around.

Read More »from Mom uses tough-love for baby otter’s swimming lessons

Have you ever stayed at a fancy hotel and thought to yourself, “This hotel is great, but what it could really use is a formal procession of mallard ducks marching up a tiny staircase into a lobby fountain?”

Of course you have. Who doesn’t think this literally every single time they stay at a hotel?

The problem is that most proprietors don’t act on this service-industry essential.

Except for the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tenn. They get it.

Every day for the past 80 years, five lucky ducks exit their $100,000 hotel penthouse at 11 a.m. and make their way down to the Peabody lobby in their private elevator.

[ Related: Paris employs sheep, ewes to mow city lawns ]

As Oddity Central notes, that’s when the real show begins. Once those elevator doors open, the ducks – four hens and one drake – line up on a red carpet behind their trainer, a person appropriately named the Duckmaster.

As the opening strains of John Philip Souza’s King Cotton March start to play, the well-trained birds begin

Read More »from Ducks make their home in $100,000 hotel penthouse