MailChimp Blog

Contest: Living With Monkeys

An anonymous user sent me this article about a "Big Brother" style contest in China, where participants have to live with monkeys for 6 days to win about $1500. I'd actually watch that.

This looks promising:

"Any Chinese from 18 to 60 years old, in good psychological condition with wild animal protection and survival knowledge may participate."

Robot Chimpanzee Heads!

It's really nice when a MailChimp customer stops by with free gifts. Especially when that free gift is a radio-controlled, animatronic robo-chimpanzee head with advanced artificial intelligence (that means it screams at you when you walk past it). If you call up tech support, and you hear screaming in the background, that's the chimp-head. Here's more information, in case you want one too. Thanks to Jared from IceDesignGroup!

Kangaroos and Chimps!

We recently celebrated MailChimp's 5th birthday, and the launch of our new agency time-tracking product, PunchyTime. The folks at Blade Creative Branding sent us this nice birthday e-card with chimps, kangaroos, beer, and boxing gloves. I like how one of the chimps is blinking, too. Thanks guys! You're the first, so look for a kooky monkey-related gift in the mail real soon.

India tries to chase monkeys from trains

New Delhi has a monkey problem. They've got too many monkeys on their subway trains. I know what you're thinking. "Wha?!? You can never have too many monkeys!" But the New Delhi subway system thinks they've got too many,  so they've employed a Langur monkey to scare them all away ("We shall fight monkeys with monkeys!").

Apparently, the average monkey is extremely scared of Langur monkeys. Why, we have no idea. Their nickname is the "leaf monkey." They're not even carnivorous. That's like humans being scared of "tree huggers" or "vegetarians."

Take a look at the Langur (from Animal Planet). They're not scary at all! However, according to Animal Planet, they "appear to have pointed hairdos and beer-bellies." Maybe the other monkeys aren't running away in fear. Maybe they're just moving to a better neighborhood?

Scientists Claim New Monkey Species Found

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/18/ap/tech/mainD8HMGK301.shtml

"As soon as I saw the monkey with its golden-yellow hair and the white tiara on its head, I knew it was a new species," Pontes said.

Baby Golden Monkey

Time for a break from all the email marketing, email server, technical gobbledy-gook.

Here's a picture of a Golden Monkey with a strawberry in her mouth, holding her 1-month old baby Aaawww.

Update on Whiplash The cowboy monkey

Great Googley Moogley! Just found out that Whiplash the Cowboy monkey (that adorable little Capuchin monkey that rides on Ben, the border collie) not only performs in rodeos, but is also a spokesmonkey for Taco Johns. Be sure to click the "Whiplash Runs!" graphic. The best scene is at the very end (in front of the sunset).

CareerBuilder's Monk-e-mail

Great idea for a monkey-viral campaign: Our good friend Lance sent us a link to CareerBuilder's monk-e-mail page. It's the best thing ever created for the Internet. Ever.

You get to choose a chimp, dress him up, pick a voice, then make him say anything you want. Then, you can email it to your friends. See that picture to the right? That's MailChimp on a Friday night. Check out the bling, and the robocop glasses. That's what he buys with the money he makes sending HTML email (and he's proud of it). FemailChimps love that stuff. Click here, and he'll talk to you...

Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey

We've all wanted to dress a monkey up in a cowboy suit, and make him ride on a dog's back. But so few of us ever get to do it. Plus, those little cowboy hats are so hard to find.  Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey is what happens when you follow your dreams, people.

Monkeys Smarter than Children

NYT essay on a scientific experiment pitting kids against chimps. Yep, you know the chimps won. Thanks to Steve for sending it along.