I guess this means we can stop trying to clone them, right?

[The Sun]

“While wobbegongs eating sharks has been recorded before from stomach contents, this is the first time it has been photographed in action.”

[NewScientist]

I don’t even know where to begin with this one, so lets just start with the opening paragraph:

“A New Zealand repair man is on his way to Antarctica after a renegade Norwegian yachtsman set sail unaware he was still on board.”

Apparently, a marine mechanic was still working on the 52 ft Nilaya in Auckland when Jarle Andhøy and crew hurriedly cast off  to avoid being served deportation papers. Andhøy, who has declared himself a “Viking“, and crew and bound for the Ross Sea without a permit and in defiance of both the New Zealand and Norwegian governments.

Mr Andhoy told the Norwegian public broadcasting service NRK that the presence on board of the unnamed New Zealander was not part of his plan, but was the result of “a hectic departure” from Auckland last week.

He said it was “a somewhat tricky situation” because the man did not have a passport or papers with him.

But Mr Andhoy insisted: “Everything is on schedule and the atmosphere is good on board.

“We are well prepared for what may befall us.”

In case you missed the subtle inference  - the mechanic is along for the ride. Returning him seems to not even be a consideration on the table.  At this point you may well be wondering what are they doing that is so important. Approximately a year ago, Andhøy lost another vessel, the Berserk, on another Antarctic exploration where three men died and he is attempting to locate the wreckage. New Zealand is “furious” because last year they coordinated the entire search and rescue operation and they do not want a repeat this year. Andhøy has an answer for that as well:

The broadcaster reported him as saying that the Nilaya was not carrying a locator beacon so it would not put rescue services at risk.

So, lets recap this if we can – A rogue Norwegian adventurer accidentally kidnaps an New Zealand mechanic on an unpermitted Antarctic expedition in search of his last sunken ship without the use of a rescue beacon. Somehow I do not think that this is the end of this story.

[The Telegraph]

If you don’t scare the children how will they learn?

[Yahoo! News]

Shipwreck hunters have located an unusual object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea and will be heading out in May to find out what it really is.

Sonar readings show that the mysterious object is about 60 meters across, or, about the size of a jumbo jet. And it’s not alone. Nearby on the sea floor is another, smaller object with a similar shape. Even more fascinating, both objects have “drag marks” behind them on the sea floor, stretching back more than 400 feet.

“Could this be the Star Wars Millenium Falcon, a plug to an inner world or a marine version of Stonehenge?” asks CNN’s Brooke Bowman:

[Yahoo! News]

Oregon is home to what is believed to the be the first and only Bigfoot trap in existence. Built in 1974 with a Forest Service special use permit , it was constantly baited with carcasses but it only ever caught bears before being closed down in 1980.

Sadly, they only caught bears and no Bigfoot was ever found in the trap. In 1980 the Forest Service permanently bolted open the welded steel door due to safety hazards. Since then, the Forest Service has made some repairs to it now that it’s become a popular hiking destination.

[Bigfoot Evidence]

“Mutants. Since the discovery of their existence they have been regarded with fear, suspicion, often hatred. Across the planet, debate rages. Are mutants the next link in the evolutionary chain or simply a new species of humanity fighting for their share of the world? Either way it is a historical fact: Sharing the world has never been humanity’s defining attribute.”   – Professor X

Due to an interesting quirk with trade tariffs, Marvel found itself having to take the stance that the X-Men and other mutants are not human. Toys that are imported into the United States are taxed higher (12% versus 6.8%) if the toys are classified as “dolls” – which are toys that represent humans. In order to save some money, Marvel found itself arguing the position that toys like Wolverine are “representing animals or other non-human creatures (for example, robots and monsters).”

“While fictional characters in the Marvel Universe — the heroes at least — typically argue a position that says mutants and humans are not really different, and should be afforded the same rights, in the real world the company’s position is somewhat contrary.

In the non-fictional world, our world, Marvel is taking the position that mutants are not humans at all. But this isn’t an ideological or a moral stance. Instead, it is a financial one. Toys manufactured in other countries and imported into the US are subject to taxes, but those taxes are lower if the toys represent non-human characters.”

[slashfilm]

Georgia-Bigfoot-body-in-a-freezer hoaxer and the “best Bigfoot tracker in the world”, Rick Dyer claims he received permission from the Canadian government to kill a Bigfoot and bring it back to America. Dyer says his team has permission to hunt for anything that has not been discovered yet in the Great White North. “In redneck terms, it’s basically saying we have permission to bring firearms into Canada to hunt for Bigfoot,” said Dyer.

I am 100% sure this will end well and won’t cause any problems at all.

[Bigfoot Evidence]

The world’s first hybrid shark was discovered off the coast of Australia containing both common and Australian black tip DNA, with up to 20% percent of the population sampled being hybrids. Scientist speculate that the hybridization increases the range that the sharks can survive and could be a result of changing sea temperatures.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

“It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

“This is evolution in action.”

[Yahoo! News]

Once again the town of Beebe, Arkansas is cleaning up dead blackbirds around New Years and the police are banning fireworks.

“It’s just got to be a pain in my career,” Beebe Police Chief Wayne Ballew said.

Prior to this New Year’s Eve, Ballew said he wouldn’t be surprised if people sit out on their front porches in case the winged creatures fall from the sky again.

“I guess we could have an annual blackbird watch,” he said with a laugh. “People can just bring their umbrellas, open them up and walk through the neighborhood and hope they don’t get hit.”

[ABC]

Rollerman has created a 31-wheeled suit of roller-blades, which he uses to go very, very fast. Click the play button to watch three minutes of insanity.

[Geekologie]

This one is going straight on my “Do Not Want” list. Apparently, back in the good old days of 1910, the Worthington Golf Ball Company produced golf balls with a radium-laced core. Known as the ”Ball of Mystery that never loses life or shape due to its inherent radioactive properties”, this bad boy was supposed to travel farther than the competition. Check out the original advertisement.

“I have not found any company literature that specifically states that the ball contained radium but an advertisement (see below) in the May 17, 1918 issue of the New York Tribune quotes “one of the greatest of American Golfers” as saying that the ball had “what is known as a radium center.”

An analysis by gamma spectroscopy clearly shows that it does indeed contain radium: approximately 150 Bq (4 nCi).”

[Oak Ridge Associated Universities via Improbable Research]

Two Dutch television-show hosts said they had their flesh cooked by a top chef and then dined on each other before a studio audience.

“Nothing is really that special when you’re talking about the taste of the meat,”  host Dennis Storm told ABCNews.com. “But it is weird to look into the eyes of a friend when you are chewing on his belly.”

Yeah, so. Dutch cannibalism on TV. Nothing I can add to this.

[ABC News]

The University of Oxford’s Internet Institute has analyzed Google search patterns and discovered that there are places in the United States where there are more people searching for zombies and satan than for Santa Claus.

“a few pockets including just outside the San Francisco Bay and Seattle and the cities Houston, Dallas and Austin in Texas have a lot of zombie angst. Hmmm…it might be the only things these places are in agreement on. But one of the more interesting clusters runs from Tampa to Orlando Florida….home of Disney World. Sort of makes sense in a way. Also of interest is a thin band of zombies stretched out along the Eastern seaboard, west of most of the major metropolitan areas.”

Check out the Satan cluster around Tampa Bay; I am going to have to start watching my neighbors a little more closely. You can download the data here and find your own patterns.

[Floating Sheep via Gizmodo]

This awesome wildlife rescue happened back in October, 2010 in Taku Inlet near Juneau, Alaska. Alaska Quest Charters was crossing the inlet when four deer approached the boat about a mile offshore.  The struggling animals were brought aboard where they recuperated. When they reached the opposite shore, three of the deer took off into the forest. The fourth had to be rolled off with a wheelbarrow, but after a couple hours was able to take off as well.

“About a mile offshore, Sharon, a birder, spotted something odd in the water coming towards the boat through her binoculars.  What she first thought were sea lions or shorebirds turned out to be four young Sitka black-tailed deer (a subspecies of mule deer).

Even though Sitka deer are known for their swimming ability and often cross large bodies of water between islands, these four where in obvious distress in the frigid water and whipping winds that had stirred up two to three foot swells in the inlet.  The biggest sign of that distress was the fact that the deer actually swam towards the boat and tried to board it, their fear of drowning overpowering their fear of people.

Unable to propel themselves out of the water in their exhaustion, they had to be hauled out onto the deck, where they collapsed.  There, the hypothermic deer slowly but calmly recovered.”

[Animal Planet]

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