How Hippos, Birds And Swine Combine

This morning on the way to work I was getting onto the Metro and was handed a copy of the Washington Post's free tabloid paper, the Express. The odd juxtaposition on the front cover was striking.

As you can see, there's a big, vaguely-alarming headline that sounds like the world is about to end right next to a photo of the rear end of a hippopotamus. (Actually, the hippopotamus butt is even bigger news than a potential global pandemic, apparently, given that it takes up more space.)

But I'm one to talk! After covering flu earlier this week, I took a couple days "off" the beat to do a story on birds that boogie.

In other words, while my colleagues on the Science Desk were running around keeping track of stuff like the World Health Organization bumping us up one more alert level, I was sitting here in my cubicle watching a YouTube video of a sulphur-crested cockatoo named Snowball getting down to the Backstreet Boys.

This bird can really dance, and, I swear, that's important to science.

And I'll be back on the swine flu beat tomorrow.

By the way, if you have a Snowball-inspired dance, share it on YouTube and use the tag "NPR Snowball dance" so we can find it.

One more thing. Does Snowball have the Boogie Woogie Flu?