{ Tim Flach | more photos | interview }

A shark killed an American tourist surfing in western Mexico, police said on Tuesday, the second fatal attack along North America’s Pacific coast in four days.

A shark bit 24-year-old San Francisco resident Adrian Ruiz in the leg on Monday, opening a 15-inch (38-cm) wound. (…) “He was rushed in a bystander’s vehicle to the military naval hospital, where he died soon after from blood loss,” the statement said.

On Friday, a 66-year-old man was attacked and killed by a shark in the ocean near San Diego in the United States, the first person to die in a shark encounter off Southern California in nearly 50 years.

Fatal shark attacks in Mexico are also uncommon. The last one was in the Caribbean in 1997, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File. No one has been killed by a shark on Mexico’s Pacific coast in over 30 years.

Attacks on the Atlantic coast are more frequent, especially in Florida, which has about 25 to 30 a year. Last year, the only fatal shark attack in the world was in New Caledonia, in the southwest Pacific

{ Reuters }

{ Animal House Monkey Peeler }

{ Things mag }

{ Tiffany Bozic, Jellyfish, 2005 | pencil }

{ Will Steacy, Front Lawn, St. Bernard Parish, LA, 2005 }

{ Ana Borquez, Deer hideout }

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related { As soon as darkness has set in,
this blood finding agent will help you find the trail of the wounded animal }

Six-month-old male deer, 70 pounds, hanging in a 12-foot-high crotch of a maple tree
in Delaware county, New York, near the Pennsylvania border, 2002.

Hunter Gerald Inman, a stockbroker from West Nyack, NY, was at first disoriented by the sight of a deer hanging in the middle of all the white trees in front of him. Upon closer inspection, Mr. Inman estimated the deer was hanging between two branches about twelve feet or more off the ground. (…) The animal was killed by an arrow, which did go through the heart and lungs. So, it was a very good shot, whoever shot the animal made a really good shot, so that deer was dead very quickly. (…) So, there isn’t any mystery about how the deer died. It died from an arrow wound. How it got up in the tree is another story and I think Ward Stone and myself believe that somebody put it, some human, put it up there. We’re reasonably sure of that. (…) The only thing I can think of is a hoax, to play a trick. But you’d think that if someone was going to play a trick, they would have done this near a road or hunting cabin or some place where they knew it was going to be seen. But this was a place in the middle of nowhere.

{ Continue reading }

In 2003, Baltimore Gas & Electric (Canada) received a call from a customer saying: “My power is out. When you come to fix it be sure to bring a truck with a tall enough bucket to remove the deer”.

The customer service rep prudently trying to gather helpful information to help diagnose the problem asked, “What deer”? The customer replied ” There is a deer on top of one of the electric poles on Wilkes Rd about 1/2 mile west of Perimeter Rd”.

The customer service rep tried desperately to pull herself together and not laugh in front of the customer and replied, “We will dispatch someone right away to investigate the power outage. Thank you for the call”.

Upon completion of the call, the customer service rep proceeded to share the funny story with her coworkers in the office and they all had a good laugh. Until the serviceman who repaired the problem stopped by the customer service office the following day with the pictures [right]. Sure enough, the poor deer had been hit by a train and landed on top of distribution feeder pole. (…)

The issue of whether the deer was really launched atop the pole when it was struck by a train is less certain. The Canadian National Railways (CNR) maintained they received no report from any of their engineers about a train’s hitting a deer in the Headingley area, and whether a deer’s torso could have been struck with enough force to launch it 25 feet up in the air yet remain mostly undamaged (save for missing portions of its back legs) has been the subject of much debate. The general consensus was that the feat was rather improbable but technically possible, but some people speculated that the deer was indeed hit and killed by a passing train, but it was then somehow deliberately set atop the pole by local pranksters.

{ Snopes | Continue reading }

Why do whales beach themselves?

Whales are the largest marine mammals in the world — the smallest species weigh in at several tons. When whales beach themselves, they can die simply from the crushing weight of their own bodies or from overheating due to their blubber, which is needed for insulation in cold ocean waters.

Strandings are of several types, said Susan Parks, a research associate in the Environmental Acoustics program in the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State. Individual strandings often are caused by isolated incidents such as sickness, injury or old age. Said Parks, “Entanglement in fishing gear is one of the leading causes of mortality for marine mammals, many of which wash up on shore dead or injured.” The tide carries these whales into shallow water, depositing them on the beach.

Then there are multiple-species strandings, explained Parks. “This occurs when different species of marine mammals beach themselves at the same time and place, suggesting that they all died from the same cause,” she said.

Scientists have been researching possible causes of this phenomenon. One explanation involves the whale “pod” social structure. For instance, whales that travel in pods use a “strength in numbers” survival strategy, but this can backfire when the dominant whale runs aground. According to Parks, “The rest of the pod may follow a disoriented or sick whale onto shore.” Another theory is that pods may venture too close to the beach when hunting prey or evading predators and become trapped by low tides.

{ Physorg | Continue reading }

Germany-based Festo company developed two robotic jellyfish, AquaJelly and AirJelly.

AquaJelly is an artificial autonomous jellyfish with an electric drive and an intelligent, adaptive mechanical system. AquaJelly consists of a translucent hemisphere and eight tentacles used for propulsion.

Rather than swimming through water like the AquaJelly, AirJelly glides through the air with the aid of its central electric drive and an intelligent, adaptive mechanical system. The remote-controlled AirJelly is kept in the air by its helium-filled ballonet. The AirJelly’s only energy source are two lithium-ion-polymer batteries, to which the central electric drive is attached.

{ ZDNet | Continue reading | NewScientist }

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{ matarij | Digg.com }

new york craigslist > brooklyn > men seeking women
KERMIT SEEKS PIGGY
Date: 2008-04-19, 2:26PM EDT

(…)

Some time ago, I found an original full head rubber Miss Piggy mask, circa 1977, complete with a full head of long blond hair. I am looking for a tall, sexy BBW, preferably over 300 pounds, to wear this mask to bed. She should also be open to playing with plastic wrap and liquid latex. Blonde is best, I suppose, but not necessary. Who knows – for the right woman I might just get a green rubber suit and a Kermit mask.

Cassowaries are very large flightless birds native to the tropical forests of New Guinea and northeastern Australia.

The 2004 edition of the Guinness World Records lists the cassowary as the world’s most dangerous bird. Normally cassowaries are very shy but when disturbed can lash out dangerously with their powerful legs. During World War II American and Australian troops stationed in New Guinea were warned to steer clear of the birds. They are capable of inflicting fatal injuries to an adult human. Usually, attacks are the result of provocation. Wounded or cornered birds are particularly dangerous. Cassowaries, deftly using their surroundings to conceal their movements, have been known to out-flank organized groups of human predators. Cassowaries are considered to be one of the most dangerous animals to keep in zoos, based on the frequency and severity of injuries incurred by zookeepers.

{ Wikipedia | Continue reading }

photo { Boju | via odditycentral }