Non Sequitur

Spend The Night In The World's Deepest Hotel Room

For those brave enough to delve into the abyss of the Earth, there is a hotel suite in Sweden that is not like any other on Earth. Located 155 meters deep into the ground, in a former silver mine, this is the deepest hotel experience in the world, offering an unmatched level of excitement and mystery.

The Sala Silver Mine is located in the Swedish town of Sala and while it was a mine for centuries, today - for $660 a night - it offers another experience to daring travelers.

The Rossendale Fairies

Skeptics Swarm Over Alleged 'Fairy' Photos

by David Moye 

A British professor is getting a swarm of attention for a series of photos depicting tiny creatures that he suggests look like fairies.
John Hyatt, who lectures on art research at Manchester Metropolitan University, took the photos around Lancashire, UK. The collection, entitled "Rossendale Fairies," is on display at the Whitaker Museum in Rossendale.
In an email to The Huffington Post, Hyatt said that he spotted the tiny creatures after taking pictures at dusk.
"I was just taking sunset through the trees and when I enlarged the photographs later in the studio, I saw these figures," he wrote. "They are not doctored apart from I increased the size of a detailed section of a larger photograph along with the DPI to stop them being just large pixels -- normal size enhancement techniques."

He said that the creatures in his photos don't look like normal insects.

“It was a bit of a shock when I blew them up, I did a double take," he told the Manchester Evening News. “I went out afterwards and took pictures of flies and gnats and they just don’t look the same."
Hyatt's photos have skeptics buzzing around him like flies. In fact, flies are what the photos actually show, according to one insect expert.
Entomologist Erica McLaughlin writes in the British Natural History Museum's NaturePlus blog that the creatures that Hyatt photographed are most likely a small species of fly known as the "midge."
"These tiny midges form mating swarms where the males will ‘dance’ around trying to attract the opposite sex," she writes. They have delicate wings and long legs which dangle down."
Hyatt isn't worried about skeptics:

“People can decide for themselves what they are. The message to people is to approach them with an open mind," he said, according to the Mirror. “I think it’s one of those situations where you need to believe to see. A lot of people who have seen them say they have brought a little bit of magic into their lives and there’s not enough of that around.”

However, Hyatt's opinion on the subject was enough to convince former FBI special agent Ben Hansen -- the former host and lead investigator of paranormal claims on the Syfy Channel series, "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" -- that Hyatt is fully aware that his photos don't really show fairies.
"The majority of his quotes are redirecting the conversation away from the facts of the case and instead, toward a discussion on belief and magic," Hansen told HuffPost by email. "His motive? He clearly does what you would expect for an art and design director to do... bring 'magic into their lives' by appreciating the beauty of life that 'grows everywhere,' which in turn 'can make people believe.'"
Hansen is also skeptical that Hyatt had no clue he was photographing "fairies" until he developed the photos.
"The foliage is all blurred together for that artsy look that really crushes the background. He says he didn't see the fairies until later, but aside from the motion blur, they look quite in focus," Hansen said. "It would be quite coincidental that the fairies all happened to emerge in front of the camera at the precise distance they would be in focus."
The title of the show, "Rossendale Fairies," appears to be a direct reference to the Cottingley Fairies, a famous hoax involving fairies that occurred in 1917.
In that case, two girls, Elsie Wright, 16, and Frances Griffiths, 10, pasted drawings of fairies onto cardboard and took pictures of themselves with the mythical creatures. Although it sounds endearingly low-tech, the photos managed to convince luminaries like Sherlock Holmes' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that the fairies were real, according to the Daily Mail.
The author wasn't alone. In fact, the Cottingly Fairies created enough doubt that some believers were genuinely shocked when Griffiths admitted they were a hoax in 1983.

Considering Doyle was duped by a hoax, it may seem ironic that Hyatt quotes him to defend the validity of his paranormal pics to HuffPost.

"In [Doyle's] 1922 book, 'The Coming of the Fairies,' he said, 'We see objects within the limits which make up our color spectrum, with infinite vibrations, unused by us, on either side of them If we could conceive a race of beings which were constructed in material which threw out shorter or longer vibrations, they would be invisible unless we could tune ourselves up or tone them down… there is nothing scientifically impossible, so far as I can see, in some people seeing that which is invisible to others.'"

Hyatt's background is in art, but he doesn't believe that prevents his photos from providing a window to a world so far missed by scientists.
"I think it is entirely appropriate that the beauty of the artistic form enables people to open up to the possibilities of their world and to see it with fresh eyes. That is the goal of both the artist and the scientist," he wrote.

Shakespeare in Three Panels

May Gosling (@GoodTickleBrain on Twitter) is a librarian, cartoonist, and Shakespeare fan. She runs the webcomic Good Tickle-Brain, which is is mostly composed of Shakespearean humor. One section of her site is dedicated to condensing Shakespeare’s plays into three-panel comics, called Three-Panel Plays.

There are 38 Three Panel Plays so far, and also other comics about the Bard’s works, including some that humorously put Shakespeare’s characters into the modern world.

Fewer, better clothes

Wardrobe minimalism, personal minimalism, fashion minimalism—it represents concern at the amount of trash we generate and the money we waste, but also a continued fixation on defining ourselves through things. Europeans, writes Keila Tyner, have the balance right: "we should consider how all the cheap clothing we buy may be indirectly costing us much more than we realize."

Can homeschooling make you more tolerant?

A new study of students at a christian college found that the kids who had been homeschooled were more willing to extend basic civil liberties to their political/cultural opposites than those who had gone to public school. At The Conversation, scientist Robert Kunzman critiques this study and explains how it fits into the larger context of what we know about home schooling.

***

These findings are as highly suspect as they can get - any 'study' done at a 'christian' college is not worth the ink and paper they wasted on it. Those attending 'christian' colleges are THE LEAST likely to extend any civil liberties to anyone not of their same ilk, claiming otherwise is an outright lie and is not even bad science much less science.

The people who walk away from society

The Pacific Standard published profiles of people who have "opted out" — from hippie homesteaders to anti-government survivalists. 

Harvard discovers three of its library books are bound in human flesh

There's something undeniably creepy about big, expansive libraries. The hushed whispers, the almost artificial quiet, and the smell of dusty tomes combine to create a surreal experience. But when it comes to creepy libraries, Harvard University might take the cake... you see, three of its books are bound in human skin. A few years ago, three separate books were discovered in Harvard University's library that had particularly strange-looking leather covers. Upon further inspection, it was discovered that the smooth binding was actually human flesh... in one case, skin harvested from a man who was flayed alive. Yep, definitely the creepiest library ever. As it turns out, the practice of using human skin to bind books was actually pretty popular during the 17th century. It's referred to as Anthropodermic bibliopegy and proved pretty common when it came to anatomical textbooks. Medical professionals would often use the flesh of cadavers they'd dissected during their research. Waste not, want not, I suppose. Harvard's creepy books deal with Roman poetry, French philosophy,  and a treatise on medieval Spanish law for which the previously mentioned flayed skin was used. The book, Practicarum quaestionum circa leges regias… has a very interesting inscription inside, as The Harvard Crimson reports.

The book’s 794th and final page includes an inscription in purple cursive: ‘the bynding of this booke is all that remains of my dear friende Jonas Wright, who was flayed alive by the Wavuma on the Fourth Day of August, 1632. King Mbesa did give me the book, it being one of poore Jonas chiefe possessions, together with ample of his skin to bynd it. Requiescat in pace.’

According to Director of University Libraries Sidney Verba '53, there might even be more of the creepy flesh-books out there, but while it's possible to touch the three identified books in Harvard's rare book room, the librarians aren't exactly fond of all the attention they've received lately, for obvious reasons. In fact, they've made it a point not to actively seek any more macabre volumes. yourself, do us a favor - just don't read them out loud. We all know how that ends.

Screwed Priorities

In 31 States, Daycare Is More Expensive Than College

by Erika Eichelberger

Last month, Shanesha Taylor, a homeless single mom in Phoenix, Arizona, was arrested for allegedly leaving her two children in her car while she went to a job interview. Taylor's story, and her tearful mug shot, have attracted national attention and an outpouring of donations. Debate the morals, but one thing is clear: child care is expensive. As the Washington Post reported Wednesday, infant daycare costs more than in-state college tuition in about two-thirds of the nation.
.
In 31 states, parents have to shell out more annually for infant child care than for a year of tuition and fees at a mid-priced state college, according to a report released last fall by Child Care Aware America, a national organization of child-care resource agencies. In New York, daycare for young children costs $8,000 more than in-state college tuition.
[...]

Something is very wrong here

The creeping threat of the Risk Perception Gap

Risk perception expert David Ropeik on why we fear the things we fear and the role of the media in making our perceptions of risk even more screwed up than they are naturally.

Corporate Subsidies

The Cheerleader Who Sued

Lacy T. passed her audition to become an Oakland Raiderette cheerleader a year ago. Professional cheerleaders have a lot of rules to maintain standards and uniformity. She was told what to wear and how to have her hair styled, and must be weighed periodically to make sure she doesn’t gain or lose more than four pounds.

Long before Lacy's boots ever hit the gridiron grass, "I was just hustling," she says. "Very early on, I was spending money like crazy." The salon visits, the makeup, the eyelashes, the tights were almost exclusively paid out of her own pocket. The finishing touch of the Raiderettes' onboarding process was a contract requiring Lacy to attend thrice-weekly practices, dozens of public appearances, photo shoots, fittings and nine-hour shifts at Raiders home games, all in return for a lump sum of $1,250 at the conclusion of the season. (A few days before she filed suit, the team increased her pay to $2,780.) All rights to Lacy's image were surrendered to the Raiders. With fines for everything from forgetting pompoms to gaining weight, the handbook warned that it was entirely possible to "find yourself with no salary at all at the end of the season."

Like hundreds of women who have cheered for the Raiders since 1961, Lacy signed the contract. Unlike the rest of them, she also showed it to a lawyer.

She filed a lawsuit against the Raiders for paying cheerleaders less than minimum wage, and for other infractions of the California labor code. Some argue that she signed a contract, and that’s it. Others say that employers must follow the law, regardless of whether a worker is willing to accept less. Lacy T. has received both support and criticism for her lawsuit. There’s a lot more to the story that you can read at ESPN.

German labor ministry bans after-hours email from managers to employees

The German labor ministry has banned managers from calling or emailing employees outside of working hours as a means of preventing "self-exploitation," wherein workers end up putting in hours while they're off the clock. This follows on from voluntary bans enacted by major German companies like Volkswagen and Deutsche Telekom. Managers can contact employees after hours only under "exceptional circumstances."

Ziggy

How To Cook Restaurant Quality Pasta

Want a noodle with your olive oil? Doghouse Dairies advises that if your pasta gets too cool, you can always warm it up with some boiled olive oil. This may remind you of a particular chain restaurant or two. Better to set some time aside to cook at home. Comic by the food critics at Doghouse Diaries.  

The "butter is good" study has some serious flaws

You may have heard that science proves saturated fat is good for you — or, at least, that it's not the devil. That claim is based on a meta-analysis, a study of studies that reviews a wide variety of research on a given subject. Meta-analyses are a great way to get a big-picture view of what science says about a subject and the results of one of these papers means a lot more than the results of a single study, on its own.
Trouble is, this particular meta-analysis has a lot of flaws, writes James McWilliams at the Pacific Standard. Chief among them: The authors left out a couple of key studies that came the opposite conclusion and they misrepresented the results of a third. That doesn't mean butter IS the devil. But it does mean that you should pause before declaring this particular paper the final word on what is and isn't healthy to eat.

How scary is Ebola?

Ebola is scary. (Hypothesis: The fewer syllables a disease has, the scarier it is at a gut/click-bait level. For example, plague compared to malaria.) And it's true that the recent outbreak of Ebola in Guinea is objectively unusual by virtue of how widespread it is throughout the country. Generally, Ebola is relatively easy to quarantine off and tends to get itself stuck in rural areas.
But Ebola is not a disease that travelers from Western countries should be particularly concerned about. Nor, for that matter, is it even a disease that people living in Guinea, and the other African countries where Ebola has popped up, should be particularly concerned about. Ebola is scary. But, relatively speaking, Ebola kills far fewer people and has far less of an impact on the lives of ordinary people than endemic diseases like tuberculosis, the aforementioned malaria, and any number of intestinal diseases that cause childhood diarrhea. The CBC has a nice story that focuses in on this perspective. You should read it.

A new virus identified in China

Mojiang paramyxovirus — found in rats infesting a copper mine where three workers died from severe pneumonia in 2012 — may or may not be dangerous to humans. It's related to Hendra, a virus that kills horses and humans and that is a major focus of research into zoonosis (aka, the process of diseases jumping from animals to humans).

Roofer rescued from scaffolding after suffering from vertigo

A roofing contractor had to be rescued by fire crews after suffering an attack of vertigo.

The man was working on scaffolding outside the second story of a building.
Crew commander Phil Laws, from Greenbank fire station, said: “He was a young man who was contracted in to help a roofer. Once he got up he discovered that he had vertigo and found he could not get off the scaffolding. He was agitated and scared.”
Firefighters from Greenbank and Plymstock, along with a specialist rescue team from Camels Head, went up using a 10.5 meter ladder and put the man in a safety harness before leading him down to the ground. Mr Laws added: “He was fine, just a bit embarrassed.”

A Good One

A DEA Agent stopped at a ranch in Texas and talked to an old rancher. He told the rancher, "I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs." The rancher said, "okay, but don't go into that field over there...", as he pointed out the location. The DEA Agent verbally exploded and said, "look mister, I have the authority of the federal government with me!" Reaching into his rear back pocket, the arrogant officer removed his badge and proudly displayed it to the rancher. "See this badge?! This badge means I can go wherever I want... On any land! No questions asked, no answers given! Do you understand old man?!"

The rancher kindly nodded, apologized, and went about his chores. Moments later the rancher heard loud screams, he looked up and saw the DEA agent running for his life, being chased by the ranchers big Santa Gertrudis Bull...... With every step the bull was gaining ground on the officer, and it was likely that he'd sure enough get gored before he reached safety. The officer was clearly terrified. The old rancher threw down his tools, ran as fast as he could to the fence, and yelled at the top of his lungs......

"YOUR BADGE! SHOW HIM YOUR BADGE!"

Zebra Stripes Not for Camo

Zebra Stripes Not for Camo, But They Do Something Else

Zebra stripes turn out to have a surprising function.

Daily Comic Relief

Houston family calls 911 when dad has psychotic episode; now sued by the deputy who killed him

When Marlene Yazar's husband Kemal experienced a psychotic episode, she was so scared for her safety and the safety of her children that she called 911. A paramedic arrived on the scene, but fled after Kemal threw a bible at him. The paramedic called the police, and Harris County, TX Deputy Brady Pullen arrived on the scene. Ten minutes later, he and a colleague shot Kemal ten times, killing him. Then, he sued the Yazar family, naming Kemal's mother-in-law (who wasn't at home when the episode took place) because, according to him, the family were negligent in describing the threat the dead father, husband and breadwinner presented. Now, the family must not only mourn the passing of their dead loved one -- they have to defend themselves against a $100,000 lawsuit brought by the police officer who shot him dead

Couple forced into psychotherapy due to noisy Town Hall-owned peacock win €4,000 damages

A French couple left depressed insomniacs and forced into psychotherapy by the screeches and squawks of an extremely noisy city-owned peacock have won a €4,000 settlement from the city of Marseille.

The trouble started in the 10th arrondissement of Marseille when the local mayor was given a peacock as a gift in 2008. Soon after the bird began escaping from his pen and would find his way to a local couple’s home, where it would let out its ear-splitting squawks. The verbally assaulted couple in Marseille wrote letters to the Town Hall, demanding action against the noisy creature.

In response to the complaints the city even sent workers out to try and find the bird, but it was to no avail and the situation dragged on. In the meantime the racket let out by the peacock pushed the couple to the edge of sanity. In an earlier lawsuit they claimed to be suffering from various mental maladies like insomnia and depression due to the animal’s cacophony.
In January 2012 they won their suit against the city, but were awarded a mere €100 in damages. Outraged by the meager payout, the couple took their case to an appeals court, which recently ordered the city to pay €4,000. Much to everyone's relief, the city eventually caught up with the troublesome peacock and sent him to live on a farm far from Marseille.

Motorist demanding £2,500 compensation for stress and suffering after unfair parking ticket

A motorist is demanding thousands of pounds from a council for 'stress and suffering' - when he was given a ticket after parking for 14 minutes in a 15-minute free zone. Jonathan Dickson, who lives in Earby, Lancashire, parked in Bury, on July 4 last year, in an area which was described as having 15 minutes of free parking. However, Mr Dickson was unaware that to be eligible for the free parking, motorists must print out a ticket, and he was handed a £75 fine.

Mr Dickson, who was visiting Bury for a potential job opportunity, was so incensed after being handed the ticket that he appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Adjudicators upheld Mr Dickson’s complaint, saying the council had no grounds to pursue Mr Dickson for payment. The tribunal’s judgement stated: “If a motorist wishes to benefit from the 15 minutes free parking permitted by the council, he or she cannot (or should not be required to) obtain a ‘Pay and Display Ticket’ because that requires payment.” The council then cancelled the ticket.
However, Mr Dickson is demanding £2,582.13 from the council for the time and money he spent on sending representations to Bury Council, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, as well as the 'grief, distress, stress and suffering caused by Bury Council.' Mr Dickson said: “I have yet to find someone who understands how you could get a ticket for not displaying a parking ticket, to get 15 minutes free parking. Their action has cost me quite a lot of expense in terms of time and money, and they haven’t even bothered to apologize. It has caused me months of sleepless nights. They have not even considered apologizing, and that really hurts.”
A council spokesman said: “Mr Dickson was issued with a penalty charge notice because he had not obtained a ticket when he parked his car. Even though, at the time, we allowed drivers to park for 15 minutes without charge, we still required them to obtain and display a ticket so that our enforcement officers would know how long a driver had been parked for. Mr Dickson lodged an appeal with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. The tribunal found in his favour, and therefore we cancelled the penalty charge notice and considered the matter closed. The tribunal did not award Mr Dickson any costs, and he has submitted no evidence to the council to support his compensation claim for stress or distress.”

Elderly woman threatened to kill neighbor over placement of plants while wielding a can opener

A dispute over the placement of plants on the edge of a pond in the Florida retirement community landed a 79-year-old woman in the county jail. The woman’s 82-year-old neighbor called police. to report that she had been threatened.

According to the victim, she and her neighbor at the Fleet Landing retirement community near Jacksonville were having a dispute over large potted bushes that had been removed from an area near a pond on the property. Suspecting the victim, the woman reportedly entered the house through an unlocked front door and threatened to kill the victim while holding a metal can opener.
The victim said she’d recently had shoulder surgery and couldn’t move the pots. Meanwhile, a Fleet Landing security manager arrived and told police that the bushes were removed by management. Contact was made with the suspect, who gave police the can opener, but said she didn’t remembering issuing any threats. She was arrested for burglary and assault.
While in custody, the woman said she’d told another neighbor that she was so mad, she’d have fired a “few rounds” from her shotgun if she still had it. The other neighbor said she didn’t want to become involved. However, she confirmed that the suspect made a similar comment to her. The can opener was placed into evidence.

Coming Tomorrow

Coming Tomorrow

• Moon Age Revealed
• World's Oldest Weather Report Could Revise Bronze Age Chronology
• Ancient Volcanic Explosions Shed Light On Mercury's Origins
• Can We Genetically Engineer Humans For Space?

And more ...

This jaguar is our Animal Picture, for today.

The Daily Drift

 Got to get one - that'll stop the spouse from making a horrendous din ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 197 countries around the world daily.   

Friends and neighbors and all the ships at sea ... !

Today is - International Amateur Radio Day

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our reader today have been in:

The Americas

Britannia, Pikangikum, Thunder Bay, Mississauga, Victoria, Montreal and Fort Nelson, Canada

Holdrege, Hickory and Helena, United States

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Lima, Peru

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Managua, Nicaragua

Europe

Magenta, Rouen, Saint-Maurice and Salon-De-Provence, France

Brussels, Belgium

Widdern, Muenchen and Dusseldorf, Germany

Kharkiv, Kiev and Zhovtivody, Ukraine

Mostar and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lodz, Gdynia, Warsaw and Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Poland

Vilnius, Lithuania

Madrid and Eixample, Spain

Lisbon and Covilha, Portugal

Tallinn, Estonia

Riga, Latvia

Ruse, Bulgaria

Stavanger, Norway

Bucharest, Romania

Ryazan and Moscow, Russia

Ivrea, Rome, Italy

Dublin, Ireland

Kista, Sweden

London, England

Istanbul, Turkey

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Belgrade, Serbia

Slagelse, Denamrk

Zurich, Switzerland

Athens, Greece

Reykjavik, Iceland

Asia

Delhi, Bangalore, Thiruvananthpuram, Jodhpur, New Delhi, Bikaner and Cuttack,  India

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Sibu, Bayan Lepas and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Guangzhou and Beijing, China

Al Hudaydah, Yemen

Pontianak, Yogyakarta and Jakarta, Indonesia

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

La Dagotiere, Mauritius

Mashhad, Iran

Tsu and Tokyo, Japan

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Africa 

Setif, Algeria

Al Jizah and Cairo, Egypt

Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa

The Pacific

Sydney, Australia

Today in History

310		St. Eusebius begins his reign as Catholic Pope.
1521		Martin Luther confronts the emperor Charles V, refusing to retract the views which led to his excommunication.
1676		Sudbury, Massachusetts is attacked by Indians.
1775		American revolutionaries Paul Revere and William Dawes ride though the towns of Massachusetts warning that "the British are coming."
1791		National Guardsmen prevent Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.
1818		A regiment of Indians and blacks is defeated at the Battle of Suwanna, in Florida, ending the first Seminole War.
1834		William Lamb becomes prime minister of England.
1838		The Wilkes' expedition to the South Pole sets sail.
1847		U.S. forces defeat Mexicans at Cerro Gordo in one of the bloodiest battle of the war.
1853		The first train in Asia begins running from Bombay to Tanna.
1861		Colonel Robert E. Lee turns down an offer to command the Union armies.
1885		The Sino-Japanese war ends.
1906		A massive earthquake hits San Francisco, measuring 8.25 on the Richter scale.
1923		Yankee Stadium opens with Babe Ruth hitting a three-run homer as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1.
1937		Leon Trotsky calls for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
1942		James H. Doolittle bombs Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
1943		Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor, is shot down by American P-38 fighters.
1946		The League of Nations dissolves.
1949		The Republic of Ireland withdraws from British Commonwealth.
1950		The first transatlantic jet passenger trip is completed.
1954		Colonel Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
1978		The U.S. Senate approves the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama.
1980		Zimbabwe's (Rhodesia) formal independence from Britain is proclaimed.
1983		A suicide bomber kills U.S. Marines at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.

Non Sequitur

Ferns are old ...

Ferns are old. Arising during the late Devonian period, some 360 million years ago, ferns once dominated the land. These ancient ferns were a bit different than the ferns we know today. It wasn't until roughly 145 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period, that many extant fern families started to appear. However, a recent fossil discovery shows that at least one fern we know and love today was hanging out with dinosaurs as far back as 180 million years ago!

A team of scientists in Sweden recently unearthed an exquisitely preserve fossil of a fern from some early Jurassic deposits. Usually the fossilization process does not preserve very fine details, especially not at the cellular level, but that is not the case for this fossil. Falling into volcanic hydrothermal brine, the fern quickly mineralized. The speed at which the tissues of the fern were replaced by minerals preserved details that scientists usually only dream about. Clearly visible in the fossilized stem are subcellular structures like nuclei and even chromosomes in various stages of cell division!

Using sophisticated microscopy techniques, the team was able to analyze the properties of the nuclei undergoing division. What they discovered is simply amazing. The number of chromosomes as well as other properties of the DNA matched a fern that is quite common in eastern North America and Asia today. This fossilized fern, as far as the team can tell, is a cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum)! Based on the fossil evidence, cinnamon ferns were not only around during the early Jurassic, they have remained virtually unchanged for 180 million years! Talk about a living fossil!

When an Elephant Falls on You

 

Redditor 12345123451234 (which is probably a throwaway account) posted this picture of a baby elephant who fell down while being petted. Although he probably weighs several hundred pounds, it doesn’t look like he made direct contact on the woman with the bulk of his weight. But his face tells a story! “Derp! I've fallen and I can't get up!”

Rare video of oarfish captured on Baja beach

Bizarre-looking sea creatures discovered swimming along Isla San Francisco shoreline by kayakers from Shedd Adventures and Un-Cruise Adventures

A living oarfish swimming on the shoreline of Isla San Francisco off Baja, Mexico

Eco tourists from Shedd Adventures and Un-Cruise Adventures were in Baja, Mexico, to snorkel, kayak, and view whales, dolphins, sea lions, manta rays, and other marine life. Viewing bizarre-looking sea creatures on the beach was not part of the itinerary.
Boy, were they in for a big surprise.
As the tourists prepared to go kayaking off Isla San Francisco, located north of La Paz, two rare oarfish measuring about 15 feet were spotted swimming along the shoreline, seemingly trying to beach themselves.
Usually when we hear about oarfish sightings, the long, slender, odd-looking fish are dead, such as the 18-foot monster discovered off Catalina Island, California, last fall and the 15-footer that washed ashore in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, two years ago.
But these two oarfish were very much alive. Un-Cruise Adventures captured the rare video, which was then posted by Shedd Aquarium. The underwater footage is especially compelling:

Seeing one oarfish swimming alive is rare enough, but seeing two?
“It was absolutely fascinating,” Tim Binder, a marine biologist who led the Shedd Adventures trip, told GrindTV Outdoor. “First, to be able to see one alive was just amazing, but the fact that two of them were there and we were able to observe them for several minutes was really quite a spectacular opportunity.
“To be in that moment of time in an inhabited place and have that happen, the odds have got to be pretty spectacular.”

Isla San Francisco, Mexico (circled)

The first-ever footage of a living oarfish in the wild was reportedly taken in deep waters in 2011 by scientists using a remotely operated vehicle, though there was a report of another deep-sea oarfish video from 2008.
While not an overall first, this video of two oarfish might be the first footage of living oarfish in near-shore waters.
“It’s very rare,” Binder said. “I don’t know of any records of people seeing two come ashore, although they’ve been reported in pairs. But I don’t know if anybody has seen them live like this.”
Oarfish are said to be able to reach 50-plus feet in length and inhabit depths of 1,500 to 3,000 feet. When the deep-water creatures venture into shallow water, as they did in this case, it usually means they are injured or dying.
Sure enough, these two oarfish wound up beaching themselves and dying, but not before giving a group of tourists a once-in-a-lifetime encounter that lasted 20 to 30 minutes, even though most were unaware of what they were looking at.
The naturalists, on the other hand, were definitely aware, and were very much blown away by the sighting.
“The thing’s such a beautiful animal, but such a strange creature at the same time,” Binder said.

 

Do Animals Have A Sense of Humor?

Do Animals Have A Sense of Humor?

We know that some animals, like dogs and apes, can laugh. Can an animal also have a sense of humor? Join Anthony as he discusses how Koko the Gorilla and some other animals show promising signs.

10 Surprising Facts About Animal Intelligence

10 Surprising Facts About Animal Intelligence

From an elephant that speaks Korean to goldfish that distinguish Bach from Stravinsky, the animal kingdom is full of non-human brainiacs.

Why These Cute Animals Are Illegal to Own

Why These Cute Animals Are Illegal to Own

Pets like ferrets and hedgehogs have been banned in certain states for decades. Why are they illegal to own, and why can't we own exotic pets like monkeys and lions? Trace explains how certain wild animals are cute, but would make terrible pets.

National Zoo's Panda Cub Is Stepping Out

National Zoo's Panda Cub Is Stepping Out

The National Zoo's 7-month-old panda cub, Bao Bao, makes her first trip outside with mother Mei Xiang.

Police officers held drowning bull's head above water for three hours

An elderly bull on the verge of drowning in a Palm River, Florida pond got a life-saving boost from police officers on Friday morning. Deputy Christina Ammons found the exhausted bull in the pond, stuck in the mud and its head sinking into the water. She jumped in and held its head up.

 

"I saw big nostrils going underwater and staying underwater with water blowing out," Ammons said. An animal lover herself, she didn't hesitate to jump into the retention pond to rescue the bull. "I stripped everything off that the sheriff's office really cares about," she joked. "And then I got in."

YouTube link.

For the next three hours, Ammons and her partners kept holding the bull's head above the water's surface as Hillsborough County Fire Rescue brought a truck with a winch and slowly attached the bull to several straps. Slowly but surely, the winch tugged the bull to safety.

YouTube link.

"I'm amazed that the deputy was able to hold his head up out of that water," said Charles Cochran, the bull's owner. "You're looking at several hundred pounds." Despite nearly drowning and the stress of the rescue, the bull seemed to be recovering well. After a couple of hours of resting on the grass, it managed to regain his feet and walk back to the other cattle grazing by the pond.

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