More than words

7.9-magnitude quake




news.ifeng.com/special/0512earthquake/photo/
and
Releasing a tidal wave of emotion and anger, hundreds of grieving parents and sympathizers gathered at a pile of rubble that was once the Juyuan Middle School on Tuesday to memorialize the nearly 1,000 teenagers who died when the building collapsed in the May 12 earthquake.

Killer whales in Trinidad

TS photo
Orca hits beach for seal meal

A dozen or more people in Trinidad Tuesday witnessed one of the world's rarest wildlife phenomena when an orca flushed a harbor seal onto Indian Beach in what may have been an attempt to teach its young to hunt.

It may be the first occurrence of its kind in the United States, researchers said.

Ruby Rollings from the Seascape Pier was alerted to the presence of the killer whales in Trinidad Bay just before lunch, and grabbed a pair of binoculars to watch. A large adult orca was swimming in the bay with a juvenile orca and two much smaller orcas, she said.

After observing for a while, Rollings said she watched as the larger whale rode a wave onto the beach and seized a harbor seal in its teeth.

”He bit it, then he slammed the seal against the sand,” Rollings said.

Rollings said the whale left the seal on the beach, then headed back into the bay, and eventually out to sea... Read the rest.

A rare occurrence, they're saying - similar sightings have been reported in British Columbia, although he said it's a rare occurrence. No experts he knows have witnessed an event like it in the United States...It's something few people will ever see in their lives. The only documented beach hunting by orcas is in Argentina's Patagonia and the Crozet Islands in the Indian Ocean... From the article - a link to Patagonian Orcas hunting seal pups

In the coffee shop this morning, Dennis said he's seen this once in Crescent City - said it happens so fast you are left asking yourself, did I just see that? But there was a half of a seal carcass left on the beach.

So, how often does it happen, and is it a case of 'if a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear, does it make a sound?' - Just because we don't see this, does that mean it doesn't happen?

Eureka resident may have found world's largest oyster

Well shucks.

After two years of searching, a local man plucked out of Humboldt Bay what he believes to be the world's largest oyster.

Richard Mesce, a retired navy pilot, asked James Gast, a retired Humboldt State University oceanography professor, to take the first official measurement Friday morning to start the application process to qualify for the Guinness World Records.

Measuring 13 inches long and about 6 inches wide, the oyster is longer than the current recorded largest oyster, which measured in at 12 inches and 5.5 inches wide.

”It was a challenge,” Mesce said. “It took a long time to find it.”

Mesce has been searching for an oyster of this magnitude since he accidentally came across a 10-inch oyster in the same area near the Samoa Bridge in 2006....

Since the oyster was covered by 8 inches of mud, Mesce guessed its age at about 80-years old. If the oyster really is the biggest, Mesce said Humboldt State University's Telonicher Marine Laboratory in Trinidad has agreed to keep the oyster in its aquarium and let it grow in a controlled environment.

”So, it'll stay the world's largest oyster,” he said. read the rest

He's going for The Guinness Book of World Records.

A Different perspective...

Greenspirit Dr. Patrick Moore has an interesting piece up - if you haven't visited Greenspirit before, the link is in the sidebar. It's a unique perspective on the environmental(ists) tactics.

HBN Exposed "Behind the Curtain: Healthy Building Network is the Same Old Greenpeace"
Who is HBN?

At a recent builder and architect conference in Boston, HBN representatives introduced themselves as members of “a coalition of architects, designers and healthcare professionals.”

But branding isn’t everything. Let’s look behind the curtain of HBN senior campaigners....

Down for service

Sidebar elements are temporarily missing because they were deleted when I tried a couple of new third party templates on for size. They'll all be back up soon, along with a new look. My mistake was I copied the blog's html, instead of downloading it, because I could have easily reverted had I done it right.

At any rate, the third party template seems to be working fine on another test site, giving me 3-columns in blogger. A couple of minor glitches - having to reload all the links and gadgets and page elements being one (but AT LEAST THEY CAN BE ADDED!) - the other is that in Safari, the edit pencil is missing on the main page, so I have to go in through the dashboard to edit.

Here's where I got 'em - the guy is good - lots to choose from INCLUDING a set of enhanced perfect matches to blogger templates.

Eh - I went back to two columns for now. Quickedit is a necessity.

Today is...

Frequent Flyer Day
Law Day
Lei Day
Loyalty Day
May Day
Mother Goose Day
New Home Owner's Day
Save the Rhino Day
School Principal's Day
Stepmothers Day