Hell's Angels, Atlantis chapter

My god, Underwater Times is filled with good stories today. For instance, there's the Scubadoo, an underwater motorcycle. Includes pictures!

Keeping your giant octopus busy

Aquarium workers have created an "octobox," a puzzle box to keep a playful giant squid busy. Apparently, the giant squid, "Titan", already can open jars and is generally very curious. No picture at the link, sorry.

Glow in the dark shark

Fishermen save 1 in a million albino shark. Although, albino may make you think this shark is pale. No sir, he's bright yellow and has been named Mango. There's a picture at the link.

SCUBA terrorists

Hamas troops used SCUBA gear to attack a Jewish settlement. Israeli troops killed them before they made it. Count on the New York Post for a sedate and learned headline: "Scuba scum slain."

Psychics beat the odds?

Researchers at the Scottish Society for Psychical Research say psychic mediums beat the odds in their survey. It's interesting, but sounds a little suspect to me. Here's how the survey was handled:

A total of 13 mediums took part in the SSPR study, carried out in Scotland and London. In each test the medium would sit in a different room from the participants and choose seat numbers they wanted to read from the audience. The audience, usually around 30 people, would enter a room out of sight of the medium and on their way in be given a random seat number. After the reading, adjudicators would distribute lists of what the mediums had seen and the audience had to tick which of the mediums’ statements applied to them.

That last bit sounds the most questionable. If I choose which one sounds like it applies to me, isn't that going to skew the results? I'm just thinking out loud here.
Also, they don't talk like scientists:

“I am aware that critics will say the tests were somehow rigged. But, rest assured, we could not have been more scientific in the way this was carried out. If anyone claims it is fixed or rigged, we would sue.”

The SSPR is an amateur group that is peer reviewed.

Also speaking at the Muncaster conference is Dr Hugh Pincott, who believes that one day society will look at the work of amateur investigators with the same respect given to the amateur astronomers of the 15th and 16th centuries who broke ground on discovering new planets and comets.
He said: “There is a large expansion of regional groups who are using their own time and money to carry out research and are making headway. Most academic seats are privately funded and so it really is gifted amateurs who are doing all the work.”

UFOs over Canada

Canada Prime Minister Paul Martin's plane had a close encounter with a UFO. But it looks like it was nothing more than a shooting star.
Martin and his entourage were cruising above Alberta when their Challenger jet came within an otherworldly whisker of a luminous object streaking through the night sky.
In a report to Edmonton air traffic controllers, the pilot of Martin's plane noted seeing a "very bright light falling" through the air, with smoke trailing, while the aircraft passed over Suffield, Alta., on Sun., March 21.
People aboard at least two other planes also saw the plummeting object, which was travelling "at a very fast rate of speed" from a high altitude, says the report.

ProfessorHex

There's a new blog out there called ProfessorHex. He says I set a "fine example" for him. Well, if you say so, professor. Here's hoping you surpass my humble works. It shouldn't be that hard. Professor Hex claims to be a "scholar of the strange and mysterious." I look forward to seeing where he goes with it.

Next film by Donnie Darko director

Richard Kelly, the writer and director of Donnie Darko, has written and is planning to direct a comedy-musical-science fiction-thriller. I have no idea what that means. Anyway, I love Darko, so I'm more than willing to give Kelly the benefit of the doubt. Although here's what is being said about a cast:
Seann William Scott is in negotiations to star in the project, set to begin shooting in July. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Lee, Janeane Garofalo, Tim Blake Nelson, Amy Poehler, Kevin Smith and Ali Larter are also in talks to join the cast, the trade paper reported.

More Neokaiju!

With just a short look on Google, I find there's a Web site for the Neokaiju project. I'm really into the design for "Steampunk," which looks like a combination of King Ghidorah and a pot bellied stove.
Super7 Magazine and STRANGEco present the Neo Kaiju Project, a new mini figure series combining Japanese monster toys with contemporary US artists and designers. Each artist has created one figure referencing a classic Japanese monster (ÒkaijuÓ) and one of their own choosing.
Super7, by the way, is the magazine of Japanese toy culture.

Neo-Kaiju

STRANGEco is apparently creating a toy line called the Neo-Kaiju Project. They describe it thus: reinterpretations of Japanese monsters by Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Seonna Hong, Kathy Schorr and Todd Schorr.
There are a couple of pictures at the site. Most seem to have the general shape of classic monsters with cute, cartoony additions to them. Hard to describe, just go look at them.
(Link found at BoingBoing.)

Seeking the site of the Trojan War

The search for the city of Troy, made legendary in the tales of Homer, is detailed in this Telegraph article.

The reason the legend retains such a powerful grip on our imagination is clear to Dr Eric Cline of George Washington University, who has worked at Troy.
"The whole story of the Trojan War is a compelling one for the ages - it's love and war, it's greed, it's desire. You name it, it has elements that compel the human psyche, and have for millennia."
Dr Cline is interested in how archaeology can help us discover whether the legend is based on real historical events. "Is there a nugget, a kernel of truth at the base of this story around which everything else is wrapped?
"Is there some historical war which took place that Homer wrapped in layer after layer, so it became much more than just a single battle, a single conflict, much more than just a war? It became a story, an epic, a saga."

(Link found at Rogue Classicism.)

The Tragical History of Cerebus

There is a great long post at Long story; short pier about Dave Sim's comic "Cerebus" and its tragic nose dive. The writer absolutely captures what was right about Sim's work and where he went off his rocker. If you've ever read Cerebus, check this post out. (Link found thanks to David Fiore.)

Frankly, I think it's terrible

According to the Plain English Campaign, 'at the end of the day' is the most irritating cliche. It's pretty bad, but I can think of worse ones. I hate when people say "frankly," or "honestly" or "to be honest" before giving out information. Oh, so you haven't been honest before this?

Ugly weird fish

This site has pictures of weird fish from the Tasman Sea, including the vampire sex fish I mentioned a few days ago.

Mystery grave

One day at a cemetery, a new grave, dedicated to Lou and Blackie, suddenly appeared on what should have been an empty lot. Then a wooden cross turned up on it. It was supposed to be a vacant lot, so police decided to dig it up. They found nothing, just dirt. A mystery remains.

New dragonfish found

New deep sea species of dragonfish found.

As with all dragonfish, which live at depths ranging from about 600 to 3,000 feet, the new species has menacing teeth, and a mouth that can jut out to engulf prey as wide as it is. They also have small organs along their bellies that produce light, or bioluminescence, and that may serve as camouflage to make the fish blend in with faint sunlight from above, thus appearing invisible to potential predators below.

And here's a Google search for dragonfish images.

All about the Devil's Tower

Every wonder how the Devil's Tower (that squared off mountain everybody was obsessed with in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind") came to be? Read all about it at The Museum of Unnatural History. Apparently there is also a legend about lost gold hidden under the tower.

Star-shaped towers mystery

Martine "Frederique" Darragon is trying to find the solution to the mystery of towers in plain sight along the Himalayas. Apparently, none of the natives have any history for the star-shaped objects.

The mice of "Jugs"

Mad scientists grow human breasts on mice. They're doing this for cancer research, but I just can't get the thought of big-hootered mice out of my head now.
Unlike human breasts, however, the mice's growths sit flush to the chest. Humans are unusual in this respect, says Daniel Medina who studies breast cancer at Baylor College of Medicine at Houston, Texas: "In few other species are breasts pendulous."

Affordable funeral arrangements

A German artist wants his body fed to piranhas.
Karl Friedrich Lentze, 56, said he came up with the idea after reading about a Dutch man who wanted to be fed to snails.
Lentze, from Berlin, said he liked the idea but wanted something that would gobble him up a lot quicker.
Unfortunately for Karl, scientists say piranhas like living meat, they're not so big on cadavers.
The artist is however still hoping to hear from other zoos that may be more open to his proposal.
He said: "They could always poke my body with sticks to get me moving and get the fish interested."