via Defamer. Crocodile Hunter‘s eldest gives a speech.
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
:: 
Category Archives: Wildlife
mammoth sale!
Only three and a half months till my birthday, people!
You didn’t come through with the Golden Mermaid for Christmas even though it was at the top of my list, right under the pony, so here’s your chance to make up for it (Metro and Mistress Cowfish excepted; anyone who gives me a bobbing squid to celebrate the birth of Our Saviour gets serious cred around these parts).
Today from Wisconsin comes news that the woolly mammoth skeleton discovered there in 1996 may be for sale soon. One only hopes Grampa Clem here isn’t aware of the current market value of this particular example of the Insanely Cool Knicknacks genre.
And practically speaking, if you’ve seen my living room you’ll know that adding a mammoth skeleton to the mess won’t make a bit of difference, crowding-wise. I may die under piles of stuff from my shelves, but at least the rescue workers will have a great time digging out the body. “Hey Bob, look at THIS!” “That’s nothing Lisa, did you see she’s got three of THESE? And they’ve still got their scales!”
A 76-year-old Kenosha County man in whose cornfield the skeleton of a mammoth believed to be about 12,500 years old was dug up in 1994 is interested in selling it, and officials of the Milwaukee Public Museum are interested in it.
“I’m just looking for some funds for my grandkids’ college,” John Hebior said the possible sale of the skeleton now in 15 large wooden crates and four plastic tubs in the basement of his farmhouse five miles west of Somers.
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
whales 1: Japan 0
For those of you who are not familiar with the whole idea of whales, here it is:
They are very, very big.
And they are very, very strong, and they are absolutely impervious to the idea that human lives are sacrosanct.
So, should you care to, say, go scuba diving with whales and crawl on top of a mother and her calf, and she sees fit to connipt slightly, sending you and your buddy on an excruciating, nine-hour journey to the nearest hospital, where you mist up as you give media interviews about how beautiful and Oprah-like the experience was, and how eager you are to repeat it, don’t be surprised if, somewhere out in the depths, the traditional clicks and whistles of whalesong are enlivened with an occasional evil chuckle.
In related news, in possible payback for the ongoing Japanese whale hunt (for “research” purposes, remember, said research resulting in such scientifically advanced products as fast food whale burgers) a lost and apparently confused sperm whale which was being pestered by several boatloads of Japanese fishermen deliberately flipped over one of the boats, resulting in the death of a 58-year-old man. At the time, the man had been engaged in an attempt to direct the whale from the bay in which it had strayed to the open ocean. Japanprobe has two videos and the Reuters report.
Don’t mess with Moby Dick.
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
It’s SuperOctopus!
Stolen from Pharyngula.
Tremoctopus is obviously ready to step up and take the place of the now sadly-fallen Captain America. Now for a name…Doc Oc is taken. The Masked Mollusc? Too bad it’s not a Squid: Captain Calamari has a nice ring to it.
Thank you, I’ll be here all week. Have the veal…
This type of Tremoctopus, or blanket octopus, has a unique way of escaping from predators. When threatened, the octopus unfurls a giant sheet of webbing that trails behind like a cape. The webbing breaks apart rather easily when attacked — much like a lizard’s tail — and it gets wrapped around the predator’s face, giving the octopus a chance to flee.
You should see the migrating blanket Tree Octopodia in the Springtime. In years gone by the sky would be darkened with the herds moving North for the summer, gliding silently over the Cascadian rainforest as the grizzlies and pumas cowered below. A more majestic sight the world has never witnessed but, like the carrier pigeon, a precious jewel only too easily lost.
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
pic o’ the day: Pareledone turqueti
Betcha didn’t know there was an Antarctic Octopus, eh? But seriously, how could there not be, given the presence of the Underground Lake of Gigantic Albino Penguins and A Few Feral Shoggoths? You so should have seen this coming.
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
raincoaster 