The Human Brain In Comparison With Those Of Other Animals. The Diverse Yet Unified Pattern Of Nature

“I’m on Lord Howe Island, a tiny speck of land 300 miles off the east coast of Australia. Humans beings only got here a little over 200 years ago, and it seems the birds that nest here are still quite curious to see what’s going on.“ (Life of Birds 1998)

This is it. This is my favourite Attenborough moment.

Video: Ocean Ramsey Swims With A Whale Shark

See The Amazing Video Here!!

Found this on my social media… It’s time for Australians to respect sharks as sentient creatures that can contribute to GDP as shark tourism that does not include hooking, netting or sport and trophy fishing. The Bahamas has done this and together with Ocean Ramsey (pictured with great white shark) I have experienced first hand what it means to Bahamians to have their sharks bring valued income for local businesses whether they love, hate or remain fearful of sharks. The animals pictured in the catch and release photos that went viral are likely to have been killed soon after release by healthier sharks in the area. As sentient sharks for human-shark interaction, both sharks pictured could generate over $5 million for a charter operator. That does not include accommodation, dining, car hire and regional products and services for coastal communities that defy the existing JAWS affected paradigm and do as The Bahamas has done for tigers, hammerheads, bull sharks, Caribbean reefies, nurses and all shark species in their territorial waters. Be a champion for sharks and flag your disapproval of angling trips of this kind. If these guys really have what it takes to be heroes, have them join me and Ocean Ramsey for a photo with creatures acting naturally in their company in their element. Unfortunately we would need to do this in Hawaii, Mexico, Florida or The Bahamas for the fact that there is no place that I know of in Australia to do this in 2016.

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A video recording the exciting moment when a diver looking for Megalodon teeth, finds a massive, 6 ¼", fossil tooth off the coast of the Carolinas.

Be sure to follow MegalodonSwag on Tumblr for more great Megalodon related news, information, videos and more…

How do you disentangle a humpback whale?

Very, very carefully – and without getting in the water. The Hawaiian Islands Large Whale Entanglement Response Network has it down to a science.

Photo: J. Moore/NOAA Permit #15240

Each year, numerous whales and other marine animals become entangled in a variety of materials, such as fishing gear, rope and plastic bags. Entanglement can physically harm animals while also impairing their movement. An entangled animal can find it difficult or impossible to feed, and at times the entanglement can drown them.

That’s where the Hawaiian Islands Large Whale Entanglement Response Network comes in. These highly-trained professionals from Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, working closely with and under authority of NOAA Fisheries’ Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, know how to safely rescue creatures like humpback whales from entanglement.

Humpback whales can hold their breath for much longer and swim faster than a human can, and an entangled whale is often stressed or panicked. Trying to free a 40-ton whale that likely doesn’t realize rescuers are there to help can be dangerous for the animal and for humans. Rescuers never enter the water to free an entangled whale.

Instead, rescuers grab hold of the entangled lines using a grappling hook, then attach a series of buoys to the lines. This keeps the whale at the surface and slows it down enough for the disentanglement team, following the whale in a small inflatable boat, to gain access to the animal and the lines it’s tangled in. However, even with the buoys attached, the inflatable boat may still get towed behind the animal. Humpback whales are strong animals that can move rapidly through the water, so this can be quite dangerous. It is important that the disentanglement team be trained and prepared to respond to the whale’s movements.

As the whale grows tired, the rescuers work their way closer. Once they’re close enough, they use a custom-designed knife attached to a long pole to cut away the gear entangling the whale. These knives are specially designed to cut the rope but not the whale. Typically, after several passes, the whale is free!

Once the whale is untangled, the team uses the grappling hook once again to collect and remove the debris from the water so that other animals don’t become trapped in the future.

Photo: Ed Lyman/NOAA, under NOAA permit #15240

Entanglement is a problem around the globe, and sanctuary staff can only help a small percentage of entangled whales. Since 2002, Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary has received more than 100 confirmed reports of entangled humpbacks, representing at least 70 different animals — and more entanglements go unseen and unreported.

With that in mind, prevention is the ultimate objective: by reducing the amount of derelict fishing gear and other debris in the ocean and making actively fished gear more “whale safe,” we can reduce the number of whales and other animals that get entangled and hurt or killed.

Watch the Disentanglement Response Network in action:

GIFs via NOAA’s Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, under NOAA permits 932-1905, 15240 932-1489, and 932-1905-01/MA-009526-1, and Hawaii State Permit PMAL-2015-206.

The Okeanos Explorer has discovered a very cute octopus at a depth of 4,290 metres.

This is the deepest an octopus of this particular sub order of octopus has ever been seen. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration noted this is a completely unsubscribed species and perhaps not belonging to any specific genus. Highlighting how little we still know about the creatures in the depths of our oceans.

(Ocean Explorer)

The intricacies involved in launching a shuttle off the ground and successfully completing its mission is no doubt a meticulous task. Every move made during a launch is calculated and deliberate, nothing is left for chance.

On that note, having watched a couple of historic shuttle launches, this peculiar behavior caught my eye: the orbiter always faced the earth! ( The orbiter is the plane part of the shuttle)

Why do shuttles orient belly up ?

Protection against space debris

Upon entering the atmosphere, most space debris burn up. But out in space, without the protective blanket of our atmosphere, the space shuttle is exposed to all sizes and shapes of space debris ( also man-made ).

The space shuttle’s belly is designed to take up intense heat and pressure so that the shuttle doesn’t fall apart when it re-enters the atmosphere, and therefore best suited for taking hits from flying space junk

The Sun

Do you remember the heat-resistant space shuttle tiles that I posted about a couple of weeks back?

Putting the spacecraft with it’s bottom to the Sun it is these heat-resistant tiles on the bottom that are most exposed to the full power of the Sun.

This keeps the astronauts safer and cooler than they would be otherwise.

To maneuver

Wait, space shuttles maneuver in flight ? Yup ! For each mission the shuttle must be launched at a certain angle in order to accomplish the prescribed task.

Since the launch pad is fixed i.e you cannot change its angular orientation, the shuttle must perform the maneuver during the ascent in order to orient itself with the trajectory.

This maneuver is known as the Roll maneuver and is performed at a point about one minute or so after the launch.

The Atlantis performing a roll maneuver

Communication

Well, I think this thought might have already crossed your mind.

The belly down position assists in communication with the ground and allows instruments within the cargo bay to be pointed back towards Earth, which is required for many of the experiments carried within the bay.

Home, Sweet Home !

The reason why the shuttle’s cargo bay faces towards the earth has some psychological benefit as well.

The crew of the crew are given the spectacular views of our home planet glorifying the magnificence of its existence, rather than staring at the cold, dark void of space that lies afar.

7 types of fog you didn’t know had names

Fog comes in several distinct varieties that are influenced by nearby bodies of water, landscape features and other local factors. Here are some of the most impressive forms of it on the planet.

Microscopic tardigrades are also called water bears because of their tiny lil bear legs and tiny lil bear-like movements