A Living Cartoon Creature Found Walking on Sea Floor!
Watch it walk the ocean floor on its flimsy legs (pelvic fins), looking like a fluffy rabbit; sharks swim around, but won't touch it (too frigging cute?). So what, in the name of the global warming, is this thing?
There are plenty of frogfish varieties, and Teresa Zuberbühler has quite a collection that covers most of them. With her exclusive permission, here are the most fascinating ones (see the whole collection - 35 species! - here - from the miniscule in size to truly giant and bizarre)
This Giant frogfish - Antennarius commerson - resembles a weedy rock and blends very well with the coral sponge (if not for the eyes and mouth):
They easily change color, including some very bright hues (different species of frog and angler-fish are difficult to identify, in general) -
Some present an ugly inscrutable face, and some are... freckled - Antennarius coccineus (freckled frogfish):
Some of the are "fuzzy" (right), some of them are "hairy" (left) - Antennarius hispidus / Antennarius striatus -
Clown (warty) frog fishes - Antennarius maculatus - present the most peculiar faces to the world - full of gaudy ugliness and healthy disdain:
Pokemon-style Japanese cutie discovered! It frolics around and "walks" the floor just like any good-natured puppy:
It also comes in a hairy (more huggable?) version:
"Walking" is common with deep-sea fish. They need to preserve energy, and most of the food and nutrients are found on the ocean floor, so some monkfish, for example, don't even have a swim bladder - so they walk on their pelvic fins.
Want more weirdness? Try deep sea angler fish - perhaps the ugliest creature on the planet, with pretty disturbing mating habits. It's hard to go looking for a partner at these great depths... so why not carry him on your back (and actually fuse with him?)
"The male, in lieu of continually seeking the vast abyss for a female, has evolved into a permanent parasitic mate. When a young, free-swimming male angler encounters a female, he latches onto her with his sharp teeth. Over time, the male physically fuses with the female, connecting to her skin and bloodstream and losing his eyes and all his internal organs except the testes. A female will carry six or more males on her body." (source)
The male rides along and produces sperm, the female hunts for food - and does all the "walking". They literally become "one flesh". Oh my.
They can also swim using a sort of water jet; it's most obvious in the third pic, the sargasso frogfish. They "breathe" in with their mouths and instead of pushing it out of gill slits, it's jetted out of their "elbows". First hand experience, so no source (saw it in my local fish shop)
I didn't like that much the video with the challenged person trying to clean an automatic sliding door. For some reason the Internet is full of insensitive youngsters laughing their heads off at the old, the poor, the feeble. Thumbs down this time, though most the time this blogs has buckets of fun.
The library image is from a show called "Or Shalem, Jerusalem Lights the Night" - a group named Skertzò projected images on the "Tower of David" in Jerusalem.
see more info on that photo here: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/lighting_up_the_night.html
"It is said that there is one fatality per week" - Someone who actually did research (asking the local police station) found rather lower numbers, even if 3-12 per year is still a lot. http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/warning.html
I was there few years ago on that road in Transylvania. My second scariest ride ever (number one was also in Romania). I was there on biztrip and had to go across Romania from one corner to another. I decided to make it a little more enjoyable and visited Dracula's castle/ruins (Poienari). After that i stayed on that road in the mountains. On map it look like a nice ride across mountains. In reality I was scared to death.
I had some help for that feeling: heavy rain started, which started some mud avalanches (don't know the right English word for it) and flooding the road. As i got higher in the hill, cellphone lost signal, because there is no network... And as an added bonus - my fuel gauge was right at the bottom. On the way up i passed some locals riding horses and a few ghost(ish) villages. At one point there were PET bottles blocking the way, but i got through. Soon after that i understand that warning. After one sharp turn the road just ended. It was all covered in snow. Absolutely no chance to keep going, even on foot. To make it even more unpleasant, right there was an abandoned truck, partially covered in snow. Apparently some time ago he was stopped by the same snow, and could not go back, because the road was too narrow for a truck to turn over.
At that point i was really really scared. No phone, almost no fuel, raining as hell... I turned back and driving crazy fast (just to get to the point where there is phone signal) headed back down. My luck - it was all the way down, which helped saving fuel. I managed to get back down to the city and went straight to the nearest petrol station.
This probably doesn't sound very scary, but then and there it really was :)
Here are some pics from that trip: http://picasaweb.google.lv/jybook/Hungarija#
Don't fall for the Nazi Autobahn propaganda myth. In fact, the democratic Reich had already built Autobahns and put them into operation before the Nazis gained power. Their propaganda effectively made people believe that the Fuehrer's order to build Autobahns created lots of jobs and helped struggling Germany to overcome unemployment, which is not true. First, the democratic Reich had already put up significant amounts of capital for exactly that purpose, second, the number of people working to build Autobahns was negleglible small number compared to the 6 million jobless Germans.
@jealousy : If you had looked for information before going on your, i quote, "second scariest ride ever" you would have known that part of that road is closed every year by the authorities until june or sometimes even july exactly because of the heavy snowing that is normal in wintertime there. For someone who gets scared of PET bottles and forgets to check the fuel before going on a trip, i can understand how that was scary, bu-hu-hu :)
I drove the road trough the transilvanian alps too ... It's not a bad road actually, it's especially spectacular. The road has quite some holes in them but nothing really crazy. We, too, got blocked eventually by the snow - but If you're ever driving by car from Bucharest to Sibiu, somewhere after may - really, take this road, it'll be the most beautiful you ever took
When I was a kid, the road to my paternal grandparents' home in Harlan County, Kentucky passed under a rock cut similar to the one in the second image. My sister and I always made sure to duck. :-)
I've been to Tajikistan, and the highway connecting the two major cities of that country (Dushanbe and Khudjand) is almost as scaring as the first road in this series. The road from Dushanbe to Khorog (a town in eastern Tajikistan) is even more scaring. Both roads are unpaved, and they go through mountain passes over 3,300 meters high. They are really spectacular! Please check these ones for your next series!
Talking about found treasures... check out this link about weird Argentinean lack of coins crisis. Looks like a treasure chest with pesos is worth its weight in gold... http://www.slate.com/id/2205635/
"When even the most insignificant purchase requires the same order of planning and precision as a long-range missile strike, you can hardly blame people for keeping a jar of monedas safe at home."
Yes, that creature is a baby two-toed sloth. If you notice the sign on the container, it says "Freckle y Velcro" "Y" is "and" in Spanish so I imagine there are two sloths in there and that's why it appears to have an extra limb. The other one is probably hidden behind it.
Good stuff as always. Extrasolar planets are incredibly fascinating. There is one (name and location escapes me at the moment) that is a "Super Earth" with nothing but water for a surface. But the pressure is such that the water molecules are tightly packed into a solid, similar to the "ice" within the ice giants Neptune and Uranus.
Titan would have been a good Saturn satellite to add to this list; being what Prof. Carolyn Porco calls "an analog of Earth." With its lakes of hydrocarbons and hazy atmosphere, you have rains and large bodies of paint thinner to enjoy on your Titanic vacation!
On propeller bikes, you should definitely watch "Kiki's Delivery Service" by Hayao Miyazaki (1989). Here is a screen-shot of the propeller-powered bicycle.
Fantastic! I like the propeller-driven bicycle that was 'seen on the London streets'! I want one!! I do wonder through what would happen if someone trotted out one of these now. Are the days of inventing wonderfully crazy things like this (almost) over or relegated only to shows and special events?
Oh, and Anonymous 1 . . . it's interesting! That means it fits the bill as far as i am concerned!
I just realized I want a car with a propeller on it. Epiphany. First it was the pro-atheist Catholic priest, now it's the propeller car. Stumble is so much better with like minds.
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They can also swim using a sort of water jet; it's most obvious in the third pic, the sargasso frogfish. They "breathe" in with their mouths and instead of pushing it out of gill slits, it's jetted out of their "elbows". First hand experience, so no source (saw it in my local fish shop)
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