This was shot at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan.The main tank called the 'Kuroshio Sea' holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world's second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.
CARING CARNIVOROUS
Paul Nicklen describes his most amazing experience as a National Geographic photographer - coming face-to-face with one of the arctic's most vicious predators.
IT TAKES GUTS TO BE TEN
I know who gets my vote for man of 2009. Will Phillips.
Phillips is ten years old and hopes to be a lawyer in the future. He’s a smart boy, skipping grades and such, and is comfortable talking about Teddy Roosevelt. He recently decided not to stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance when it was recited in his Arkansas elementary school. Why? Because there is a chasm between the words and the rhetoric, especially when gays and lesbians are involved.
“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be a lawyer,” Phillips said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”
He didn’t come to the decision compulsively. He asked his parents, who have many gay friends, if it was against the law not to stand for the pledge. When he got the legal, and parental, okay, in early October he stayed seated as his class stood up. The teacher, a substitute, and Phillips didn’t see eye to eye on this type of civil disobedience and eventually the young Henry David Thoreau was sent to the principal’s office.
So a ten year old boy has decided it’s time to show little solidarity with gays and lesbians. Typically some of his peers are giving him grief, but Phillips notes many of his classmates have no problem with what he’s doing. And at least for now, he’s not standing up until gays and lesbians are treated as full, and equal, citizens.
Ten years old. What a wonder.
CHAMPIONSHIP MOUSTACHE
Click to EnlargeContestant J.S. Chounan shows his moustache to the crowd after winning the annual "longest moustache" competition at the Pushkar Mela on Friday, Oct. 30, 2009. According to locals his moustache is a combined total of 11 feet (3.35 meters) long and took 18 years to grow. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
Pushkar Mela (or Pushkar Fair) is an annual five-day camel and livestock fair, held in the town of Pushkar in the state of Rajasthan, India, where over 25,000 camels are traded each year. The fair draws thousands of tourists, camels, camel traders, racers, locals and Hindu faithful who come to bathe in the sanctified Lake Pushkar - until the final day, Kartik Poornima, a Hindu holy day celebrated on the full moon day of the month of Kartik.
MOTHER NATURE'S CLEVERNESS
BocasResearchStation sez, "This video shows an octopus cleverly trying to camouflage itself amongst seaweed in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Hiding is the primary defense mechanism for these creatures, and this little guy is making use of branches of algae to try to get by unseen."
RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY WINS AGAIN
The Catholics & Mormans succeeded yesterday in taking away marriage rights in Maine. It makes me feel like a 2nd class citizen!
If you think this won't affect you because you're straight, watch out. They did it here with all their money and now they are already collecting signatures to put a divorce ban on the ballot in California. WAKE UP!
TRACK OF NASA'S SPIRIT
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Spirit Embedded in Soft Soil on Mars as Engineers Devise Methods to 'Free Spirit'
This view from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the terrain surrounding the location called "Troy," where Spirit became embedded in soft soil during the spring of 2009. The hundreds of images combined into this view were taken beginning on the 1,906th Martian day (or sol) of Spirit's mission on Mars (May 14, 2009) and ending on Sol 1943 (June 20, 2009).
Near the center of the image, in the distance, lies Husband Hill, where Spirit recorded views from the summit in 2005. For scale, the parallel tracks are about 1 meter (39 inches) apart. The track on the right is more evident because Spirit was driving backwards, dragging its right-front wheel, which no longer rotates.
The bright soil in the center foreground is soft material in which Spirit became embedded after the wheels on that side cut through a darker top layer. The composition of different layers in the soil at the site became the subject of intense investigation by tools on Spirit's robotic arm.
In recent weeks, Engineers have been using test rovers on Earth to prepare for extracting the sand-trapped Spirit rover. While amnesia-like symptoms in recent days might delay the start of planned drives by Spirit geared towards extricating it, the Mars Exploration Rover team remains hopeful. "If they are intermittent and infrequent, they are a nuisance that would set us back a day or two when they occur. If the condition becomes persistent or frequent, we will need to go to an alternate strategy that avoids depending on flash memory, " said Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In these amnesia events, Spirit fails to record data from the day's activities onto the type of computer memory -- non-volatile "flash" memory -- that can retain the data when the rover powers down for its energy-conserving periods of "sleep."
Spirit has worked on Mars for more than 69 months in what was originally planned as a three-months.
1957 " IPOD " BUT IT'S NOT APPLE
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America’s Most Powerful Portable Hi-Fi!
As much a part of school as ivy on the wall, this portable majors inperformance. Its 8-watt amplifier outpowers many hi-fi consoles. And to this great amplifier, Admiral has matched an 8-inch woofer and 3½-inch tweeter speaker system . . . separate bass, treble and loudness controls . . . 4-speed Admiral built-in record changer . . . all-wood, acoustically correct cabinet, handsomely covered in durable Texol. $119.95.
TWIN TOWERS 1900
Click to EnlargeCirca 1900. "New York from East River." At right we see the dual domes of the 26-story Park Row building, at 391 feet the world's tallest office tower at the turn of the century. Detroit Publishing Co.
FIVE TIMES LARGER THAN THE TITANTIC
Click to EnlargeThe world's largest cruise ship cleared a crucial obstacle Sunday, lowering its smokestacks to squeeze under a bridge in Denmark. The Oasis of the Seas — which rises about 20 stories high — passed below the Great Belt Fixed Link with a slim margin as it left the Baltic Sea on its maiden voyage to Florida. Operators said that even after lowering its telescopic smokestacks the giant ship had less than a 2-foot gap.Hundreds of people gathered on beaches at both ends of the bridge, waiting for hours to watch the brightly lit behemoth sail by shortly after midnight.
Company officials are banking that its novelty will help guarantee its success. Five times larger than the Titanic, the $1.5 billion ship has seven neighborhoods, an ice rink, a small golf course and a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater. It has 2,700 cabins and can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members.
Accommodations include loft cabins, with floor-to-ceiling windows, and 1,600-square-foot luxury suites with balconies overlooking the sea or promenades.The liner also has four swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, and a youth zone with theme parks and nurseries for children.
Oasis of the Sea, nearly 40 percent larger than the industry's next-biggest ship, was conceived years before the economic downturn caused desperate cruise lines to slash prices to fill vacant berths.
The enormous ship features various "neighborhoods" — parks, squares and arenas with special themes. One of them will be a tropical environment, including palm trees and vines among the total 12,000 plants on board. They will be planted after the ship arrives in Fort Lauderdale.
In the stern, a 750-seat outdoor theater — modeled on an ancient Greek amphitheater — doubles as a swimming pool by day and an ocean front theater by night. The pool has a diving tower with spring boards and two 33-foot (10-meter) high-dive platforms. An indoor theater seats 1,300 guests.
One of the "neighborhoods," named Central Park, features a square with boutiques, restaurants and bars, including a bar that moves up and down three decks, allowing customers to get on and off at different levels.
Once home, the $1.5 billion floating extravaganza will have more, if less visible, obstacles to duck: a sagging U.S. economy, questions about the consumer appetite for luxury cruises and criticism that such sailing behemoths are damaging to the environment and diminish the experience of traveling.
It is due to make its U.S. debut on Nov. 20 at its home port, Port Everglades in Florida.
By JAN M. OLSEN, Associated Press
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