[ By Steve in Animals & Habitats & Geography & Travel & Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Tashirojima, the “Island of Cats”, is located in Ishinomaki Bay just east of the city of Sendai, Japan. The island’s many semi-domesticated cats vastly outnumber the island’s aging human population, who depend on the cats to control rodents (and attract tourists) and have constructed a number of cat-shaped buildings as a homage to their feline friends.
A Purr-fect Paradise
(images via: NGiley)
Tashirojima (田代島) is a 3.14 sq km (7.9 sq mi) island in northeastern Japan located 20 km (12.4 miles) east of the port city of Ishinomaki. The island sits just west of the Oshika Peninsula and travelers from afar wishing to visit usually fly into Sendai, the largest city in Miyage prefecture. If you’re starting in Tokyo expect the journey to take about 4 hours.
(images via: Tashiro-Hamaya and Tofugu)
There is no airfield on the island so visitors arrive via a ferry (above) out of Ishinomaki – the trip takes roughly 40 minutes. Don’t expect a large welcoming committee when you get there, however… at least, not of the human persuasion. There are only 73 people living on Tashirojima, almost all of them over the age of 65. The island’s population has dropped by 90% over the past 50 years. The cats though, they’re doing just fine thank you.
(images via: Pets Adviser, The Age, Sparkle and Amusing Planet)
Tashirojima has long been known as “The Island of Cats”. Domestic kitties were first brought to the island many centuries ago when Tashirojima’s main agricultural activity was silkworm farming. Since mice would prey on both the silkworms and their precious cocoons, the farmers imported cats to act as a natural form of pest control and encouraged the cats to, well, feel right at home.
Cat Fish Hunters
(images via: Tashiro-Hamaya, Med-India and Tra News)
Times change, and by the late 19th century improvements in fishing nets allowed Tashirojima’s residents to pursue more lucrative activities offshore. Though the silk industry declined, the island’s cat population did not – people had gotten used to having cats around and the latter continued their mousing activities in and around the island’s docks, boathouses and storage sheds. Here’s a short video of Tashirojima’s cats doing their thing:
Tashirojima’s rich offshore fishing grounds attracted fisherman from other locations. Often these off-island fisherman would stay at inns on Tashirojima and the local cats would come around, begging for scraps. A form of folk wisdom soon established itself concerning the cats: it was believed that studying the behavior of the cats would help determine upcoming weather and fishing conditions.
(images via: Tofugu)
An apocryphal story concerns the cats of Tashirojima: “One day, when the fishermen were collecting rocks to use with the fixed-nets, a stray rock fell and killed one of the cats. The fishermen, feeling sorry for the loss of the cat, buried it and enshrined it at this location on the island.”
(images via: Amusing Planet and Tofugu)
A small building (above) was constructed on the site and people would leave small cat-related talismans there in order to encourage the benevolence of both the living cats and the spirits of their ancestors.
(images via: NGiley and Tofugu)
“The cats here have always been something like a lucky charm for us who bring good catch,” said local fisherman Tsuneo Endo. “We enshrine them because they are important to us.”
The Local Cathouses
(images via: Tofugu and Travelpod)
Japan’s many small and isolated communities often try to raise their profile by actively promoting anything that might distinguish them as being something special – and worthy of a visit. Tashirojima is no different, and the island is studded with inns and outbuildings boasting a cacophony of cat-like detailing.
(image via: Tofugu)
This is the country that gave the world Hello Kitty after all… you’d better believe there are people ready, willing and able to make the long and complicated trip to Tashirojima just to spend a night in a building shaped like a cat. Just don’t bring Fido along, for obvious reasons.
Animal Magnetism?
(images via: Tashiro-Hamaya)
“You may think this place is so peaceful,” says Yutaka Hama, “but if there’s a fire, there is nobody who can help put it out.” The 49-year-old Hama heads a group seeking to promote travel and tourism to Tashirojima – and maybe more.
(images via: Tashiro-Hamaya and Dance Like No One’s Watching)
“I want young people to come,” explains Hama, “there are folks here who would teach them fishing.” Hama, who moved to Tashirojima a few years ago and now operates an inn on the island, may hold out prospects of employment as a lure to visitors but it’s the island’s cats who seem to be a far bigger draw.
(images via: Eigapedia and Rahen Z)
Tashirojima’s cats made a sudden leap to pop-culture prominence several years ago when a TV documentary on the cats of Tashirojima focused on one particular cat: Jack the Lop Ear, a black & white tom with a drooping left ear. There’s also Nyanko The Movie and its sequels, which feature the cats of Tashirojima. To paraphrase Field Of Dreams, “If you film it, they will come.”
Saved By A Whisker
(images via: A Hosoda and Inedit)
The magnitude-9 earthquake which struck northeastern Japan on March 11th, 2011, shifted the entire Oshika Peninsula and its associated islands 5.3m (17 ft) towards the epicenter and lowered it by 1.2m (3.9 ft). The tsunami which followed was as high as 10m – the image above shows the waves about to inundate Ajishima (網地島). Tashirojima is a rugged island, however, whose highest peak rises to 96.2 meters (315 feet) above sea level. The two main villages on the island are Oodomari and Nitoda (home to most of the cats), with latter situated on high ground.
(images via: The Daily Tail and Love Meow)
The NASA satellite image above left, taken shortly after the tsunami hit, shows Tashirojima above water and reports from the Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support (JEARS) indicate all of the islands residents (cats AND humans) survived the disaster.
(images via: Mainichi Daily News, Catster and Buzzfeed)
It was not until the morning of March 22nd that Japanese ASDF helicopters were able to land on Tashirojima, bringing much-need emergency supplies. 800 kilo-liters of gasoline and kerosene, food for 100 meals, and satellite phones were delivered but the situation on the island still remains precarious. JEARS has set up a Facebook page to keep concerned netizens advised on the situation on Tashirojima.
(image via: Discovery)
Massive earthquakes and nightmarish tsunamis are no strangers to Japan’s northeastern coast – they have happened before and will happen again, if history is any guide. The cats of Tashirojima are survivors, however, and it’s good to know that once again they have landed on their feet.
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Our Fiend The Atom: INES Rates The Worst Nuclear Accidents
[ By Steve in Energy & Fuel, History & Trivia, Science & Research. ]
Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, joins a listing of 9 major nuclear accidents rated on the IAEA’s International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) as the worst the world has seen… so far.
Mihama Nuclear Power Plant, Japan, 2004 (INES 1)
(image via: Ayumu Kawazoe)
The INES scale introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is logarithmic, with each increasing level representing an accident approximately ten times more severe than the previous level – similar to the Richter scale used to judge the magnitude of earthquakes. Therefore our listing of the World’s Worst Nuclear Accidents begins with the August 9, 2004 steam explosion at Japan’s Mihama Nuclear Power Plant, given an INES rating of 1.
(images via: NY Times, SMH and China Daily)
The Mihama Nuclear Power Plant is located in Japan’s Fukui prefecture about 320 km (about 200 miles) west of Tokyo. The plant, which was commissioned in 1976, was the site of several small nuclear-related accidents in 1991 and 2003. On August 9 of 2004, a water pipe in a turbine building adjoining the Mihama 3 reactor burst suddenly as workers prepared to conduct a routine safety inspection. Though no radiation was released, the steam explosion killed 5 plant workers and injured dozens of others. Mihama’s notoriety increased in 2006 when 2 plant workers were injured in an on-site fire.
Davis-Besse Reactor, USA, 2002 (INES 3)
(images via: WKSU, Scientific American and NRC)
The Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, located about 10 miles (16km) north of Oak Harbor, Ohio, was commissioned in July of 1978 and is scheduled for final shutdown in April of 2017.
(image via: Ohio Citizen Action)
The plant has racked up a number of safety problems over its lifetime, including being struck by an F2 tornado in 1998, but the worst of those occurred in March of 2002 when a serious corrosion issue forced the plant to close for roughly 2 years.
During maintenance, plant workers discovered a 6-inch deep corrosion hole in the top of the carbon steel reactor vessel. Only 3/8” of steel cladding remained to prevent a catastrophic pressure explosion and subsequent loss of coolant. If nearby control rod mechanisms would have been damaged in the explosion, shutting down the reactor and avoiding a core meltdown would have been difficult to say the least.
National Reactor Testing Station, USA, 1961 (INES 4)
(images via: U.S. Militaria Forum and The ’60s At 50)
One of the earliest major nuclear power plant accidents occurred on January 3, 1961 when a steam explosion and meltdown killed 3 workers at Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One (SL-1). The reactor, located at the National Reactor Testing Station roughly 40 miles (60km) west of Idaho Falls, Idaho, was of a now-discontinued design that featured a single large, central control rod.
(images via: Wikivisual, U.S. DOE and Wikipedia)
A maintenance procedure that involved withdrawing the control rod about 4 inches (10cm) somehow went horribly wrong: the rod was lifted 26 inches (65cm) and the nuclear pile went critical. Three plant workers were killed in the resulting explosion and radiation release; one man was found impaled to the reactor building’s ceiling by one of the reactor’s shield plugs. About 1,100 Curies of nuclear fission products were released into the surrounding environment but any damage was mitigated by the station’s remote location in the Idaho desert. In the image above at top, you can see the damaged reactor core being lifted out of the containment building by a heavily shielded crane.
Jaslovské Bohunice, Czechoslovakia, 1977 (INES 4)
(image via: Kyberia)
Talk about accidents waiting to happen. At the Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant in Jaslovské Bohunice, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), all the ingredients for a nuclear disaster were already in place by 1977 when A1, the plant’s oldest reactor, overheated and nearly caused a large-scale environmental disaster. Where to begin? Let’s see… the model KS-150 reactor was of a unique and unproven design from the Soviet Union which was built in Czechoslovakia. Not a good start, and then it gets worse.
(images via: EnergyWeb and IAEA)
Construction of A1 began in 1958 and took an amazing 16 years! The untested design of the KS-150 reactor soon revealed numerous flaws that led to over 30 unplanned shutdowns in the first few years of operation. Two workers were killed by a gas leak in early 1976. Just over a year later a botched fuel changing procedure compounded by human error – workers forgot to remove silica gel packs from the new fuel rods – resulted in a core cooling emergency. It’s expected that ongoing efforts to decontaminate and fully decommission the A1 reactor won’t be completed until sometime in 2033.
Tomsk-7 Reprocessing Complex, USSR, 1993 (INES 4)
(images via: Jishi Xooob and Girasole Online)
The Siberian Group of Chemical Enterprises is a group of factories and nuclear power plants located in the Russian city of Seversk. Formerly a Soviet “secret city”, Seversk was until 1992 known as Tomsk-7, which is actually a post office box number. Though former Russian president Boris Yeltsin relaxed some of the restrictions on Seversk (including its name), to this day non-residents are not allowed to visit the city.
The Tomsk-7 Reprocessing Complex was one of the “enterprises” at Seversk, and on April 6, 1993, the facility achieved some very unwanted fame. Workers were cleaning out an underground tank at the Tomsk-7 Plutonium Reprocessing Plant using highly volatile Nitric Acid. The acid reacted with residual liquid inside the tank – liquid that contained traces of plutonium. An explosion then occurred which blew a reinforced concrete lid off the top of the tank, punched holes in the building’s roof, short- circuited the plant’s electrical systems and started a fire. Last and not least, the explosion released of a large cloud of radioactive gas into the surrounding environment.
Tokaimura Uranium Processing Facility, Japan, 1999 (INES 4)
(image via: LiveInternet)
Human error compounded by rash business decisions led to the so-called Tokaimura Criticality Accident, which took place on September 30, 1999, at Japan’s Tokaimura Uranium Processing Facility in Japan’s Ibaraki prefecture north of Tokyo. The facility, formerly operated by JCO Ltd., processed and purified Uranium fuel used by Japan’s many nuclear power plants.
(images via: BBC and SOS: El Planeta te Necesita)
The accident was caused by poorly trained workers at the Tokaimura plant taking shortcuts in the refining procedure. Under pressure to complete their duties on time, the workers skipped several steps in the process. Uranium Oxide powder and Nitric Acid were mixed in 10-liter buckets instead of several dedicated tanks, and ended up dumping 7 times the recommended amount of Uranium/Acid mixture to a precipitation tank. The mixture reached critical mass and a chain reaction lasting 20 hours then ensued. Two of the plant workers died from radiation exposure and dozens of others were exposed to above-normal levels of radiation.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japan, 2011 (INES 4+)
(images via: InventorSpot, LA Times and 2Space)
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, located 170 miles or 270 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world with 6 nuclear reactors supplying power to the Tokyo megalopolis and the Japanese electric power grid. In the immediate aftermath of the devastating 9.0 magnitude Sendai Earthquake on March 11, 2011, power outages caused the reactor coolant pumps to stop. Backup diesel generators had been stored in a low-lying area and were damaged by the quake-related tsunami.
(images via: Edmonton Journal and SOS: El Planeta te Necesita)
By the time a working generator could be set up inside the building housing reactor #1, the core had begun to overheat and hydrogen gas built up to dangerous levels inside the containment building. A spark from the generator likely caused a hydrogen explosion that blew the roof off the containment building. The next day a similar, more powerful explosion occurred the next day in the building containing reactor #3, on March 14 yet another explosion shattered the containment building of reactor #2, and inside reactor #4′s containment building stored fuel may be on fire after water in a storage pool boiled off.
Here is a video of the first explosion:
福島第一原発 爆発の瞬間 Explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant, via Studiomu00
(image via: PopSci)
Though the INES has given the ongoing critical situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant a provisory rating of 4, France’s ASN nuclear safety authority has suggested the rating should actually be much higher. “Level 4 is a serious level,” commented ASN President Andre-Claude Lacoste, speaking at a news conference on March 14, 2011, but “We feel that we are at least at level 5 or even at level 6.”
Three Mile Island, USA, 1979 (INES 5)
(images via: EOEarth, How Stuff Works and Reason)
On March 28, 1979, coolant pumps in reactor TMI-2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, failed and a pressure-relief valve failed to close. Control room staff began to hear alarms and see warning lights. Unfortunately, faulty design of the sensors caused plant operators to miss and/or misread signs that the reactor core was first overheating, then actually melting.
(image via: Timemapped)
By the time the situation was brought under control, half the reactor core had melted and approximately 20 tons of molten uranium was slowly solidifying at the bottom of the reactor’s containment vessel. Venting of steam and gas from inside the containment building allowed significant amounts of radioactive material to escape into the atmosphere and surrounding environment.
(images via: OCRegister, From The Vault Radio, Sodahead and Pennlive)
The Three Mile Island accident caused no deaths or injuries to plant workers or residents of nearby communities but it still is rated as the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history. Extensive – some say sensationalistic – news coverage of the event, comparisons to the plot of the film The China Syndrome (released just 12 days before the accident), and a memorable sketch on Saturday Night Live all contributed to the incident’s prominent place in late 20th century pop culture. It’s no, er, accident that not a single new nuclear power plant has been built in the United States since.
Kyshtym Disaster, USSR, 1957 (INES 6)
(images via: Crashstuff, Wikipedia and Bellona)
In the Soviet Union’s frantic race to catch up with the USA in the post-war, Cold War nuclear arms race, corners were cut and mistakes were made. By far the largest of the latter occurred in September of 1957 at the Mayak nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the closed city of Ozyorsk, formerly (before 1994) known as Chelyabinsk-40. A cluster of reactors at the site produced Plutonium for Soviet nuclear weapons and, as a by-product, nuclear waste. LOTS of nuclear waste. The waste was stored in underground steel cisterns set in concrete and cooled by an unreliable cooling system.
(image via: Bellona)
In the fall of 1957, the cooling system around a vessel containing up to 80 tons of solid nuclear waste failed. Radioactivity quickly heated the waste to the point where the container exploded, sending its 160-ton concrete lid into the air along with a massive cloud of very dirty fallout. Approximately 10,000 people were evacuated from the affected region and about 270,000 in total were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. At least 200 deaths from cancer can be directly attributed to the accident and around 30 town names vanished from Soviet maps.
(images via: Bellona and Narod)
Though the full extent of the Kyshtym Disaster was not revealed by the USSR until 1990, the CIA was aware of the incident yet decided not to reveal any information as it might reflect negatively on the American nuclear power industry. Meanwhile in Kyshtym, the vast East-Ural Nature Reserve (also known as the East-Ural Radioactive Trace) remains heavily contaminated by radioactive Caesium-137 and Strontium-90 over a roughly 300 square mile (800 sq km) area.
Chernobyl Disaster, USSR, 1986 (INES 7)
(image via: Stuck In Customs)
As bad as the Kyshtym Disaster was, the Chernobyl Disaster was worse: 4 times worse, if dispersed radioactivity is the measuring stick. To date, the steam explosion and reactor meltdown of Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is the only nuclear accident to rate a 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
(images via: Scrape TV, Stockani News and Stormchaser)
The disaster began on April 26, 1986, when technicians at Reactor 4 were conducting an experimental power-down procedure. Human error led to a series of unexpected power surges that explosively burst the reactor’s containment vessel, starting a fire that impelled clouds of radioactive fission products and fallout into the open air. The cloud would eventually drift over large areas of eastern, western and northern Europe forcing over 335,000 people to be evacuated from a Zone of Alienation. Though only 53 deaths resulted directly from the accident, many thousands of other suffered (and still suffer) debilitating, chronic illness.
(image via: Funny Old Planet)
These days the area around Chernobyl exhibits a strange dichotomy: the abandoned towns of Chernobyl and Pripyat slowly decay while wildlife in the surrounding woods and forests is booming now that the human presence has been removed. Reports of lynxes and even bears, which have not been seen in centuries, prove the eminent resilience of nature and life’s ability to adapt and adjust to even the most hostile of conditions.
(images via: Maison Bisson, Pumachassures and Funny Old Planet)
Chernobyl is the poster child for nuclear accidents, with atomic power protesters warning of “another Chernobyl” as often as anti-war advocates advising against “another Vietnam”. As for the apocalyptically named Zone of Alienation, Ukrainian authorities are finding it difficult to keep self-styled “stalkers” from conducting expeditions into the area aimed at fun and profit. Word to those contemplating such an adventure: what you can’t see, CAN hurt you!
Radiation In Your Nation?
(image via: Market Watch)
Though the Chernobyl Disaster is the only INES-rated Level 7 incident on record, there’s no guarantee that another, even worse nuclear disaster will occur someday. Natural disasters, human errors and aging components are, unfortunately, facts of life (and death) for the nuclear industry. With nearly 500 nuclear power plants around the world in operation and under construction, the question isn’t IF another atomic accident will happen, but WHEN.
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Snow Foolin’: Completely Insane Pics of Japanese Snowfall
[ By Delana in Geography & Travel, Nature & Ecosystems, News & Politics. ]
The winter of 2010-2011 brought an epic, historic amount of snow to the East coast of the United States. Many residents of the affected areas have never seen so much snow at one time, and many cities were completely unprepared to deal with the aftermath – despite having plenty of advance notice – as evidenced by the above image of New York City. But as bad as the East coasters have it, this snow is nothing compared to the mountains of powder Japan is buried beneath.
These unaltered photographs give an idea of the type of major snow accumulation in Honshu, Japan each winter. The pictures show the main road through the Japanese Alps which is closed all winter long due to the massive amounts of snow covering it.
Every spring the road is uncovered by snowplows which are tasked with the incredible job of clearing an average of 56 feet of snow.
(all images via: Gizmodo)
The huge piles of snow would be daunting even to the most experienced cold climate dweller. Luckily for New York and the rest of the East coast, the snow here hasn’t quite accumulated to the height of a five-story building just yet. But if it does, maybe Japan can give us some pointers on dealing with the snowmageddon.
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Animal Gigantism: 13 Real-Life Godzillas
[ By Steph in Animals & Habitats, History & Trivia, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
While they might not be terrorizing, fire-breathing monsters the size of skyscrapers, gigantic animals in the vein of Godzilla really do exist. So why are some creatures so huge compared to similar species? It’s a phenomenon known as “insular gigantism”, and usually occurs on islands or deep under the sea. These 13 examples have evolved to unusually, sometimes frighteningly large proportions – especially compared to their equally mis-sized dwarf counterparts (more on that next week.)
Madagascar Hissing Cockroach
(image via: scragz)
Most of us scream at the sight of a single normal-sized cockroach, but imagine if you woke up to find one of these babies crawling across your body. The Madagascar Hissing Cockroach is only found in its namesake nation, an island that is an ideal place for gigantism, dwarfism and other ecological anomalies to occur. They can reach up to 3 inches long, and the males have scary-looking horns.
Giant Isopod
(images via: Driftline, Marki’s Block and ScienceBlogs)
Thought the hissing cockroach was impressive? It would take a teeming pile of them to make up one nightmarish giant isopod, a bug-like crustacean from the dark depths of the sea that can reach over a foot in length. Far larger than almost any other shellfish, the giant isopod has creepy claws, huge eyes and a pair of antennae.
Haast’s Eagle
(image via: eku.edu)
With a wingspan measuring as large as 8.5 feet, if Haast’s Eagle were any larger, it wouldn’t have been able to fly. A fierce predator from New Zealand, Haast’s Eagle fed on 300-pound (now-extinct, also gigantic) flightless birds called moa and scientists now believe that the legends of it killing and eating men could very well be true. It died out about 500 years ago, probably due to human hunting and habitat encroachment.
Japanese Spider Crab
(images via: wikimedia commons)
Imagine scuba diving in the beautiful waters off Japan, marveling over some pretty fish, when suddenly you feel a presence behind you and turn around to face a movie monster from hell. The Japanese Spider Crab is is the biggest arthropod in the world with an impressive leg span that reaches up to 12.5 feet. While adults can be found as deep as 2,000 feet below the surface, it’s not unusual for them to come into much more shallow waters.
Elephant Bird
(image via: wikipedia, bone clones)
The Elephant Bird truly lived up to its name, standing an astonishing 10 feet tall and weighing up to 880 pounds. Formerly found on the island of Madagascar, this species has been extinct since at least the 17th century. It’s not known exactly what killed them, but archaeologists have found pieces of their egg shells in the remnants of human fires. At three feet long, one egg could have fed an entire family.
Saint Helena Earwig
(image via: rogue taxidermy)
As if earwigs weren’t disgusting enough, with their wiggly bodies and those threatening-looking pinchers on their rear ends, the Saint Helena Earwig takes them well past “ick” into “Oh-God-why” territory. They’re only found on the isolated island of Saint Helena, located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America.
Seven-Arm Octopus
(image via: wikipedia)
What make the Seven-Arm Octopus unusual is not just the fact that, with its specially modified “arm” used in egg fertilization kept coiled under its eye, it looks more like a septopus. Rather, this sea creature is the largest known octopus in the world at up to 12 feet in total length – or at least, some scientists say it is. Others believe there may be even larger octopi in the sea.
Minorcan Giant Lagomorph
(image via: spiegel.de)
No, this photo above is not a Minorcan Giant Lagomorph (but it is a real 3-foot, 22-lb rabbit bred to feed poor North Koreans – no kidding). However, we don’t have any images of the extinct Minorcan rabbit, because it died out way back in dino days. Fossils discovered on the island indicate that these plus-size critters were no cute fuzzy bunnies, outweighing the rabbit above by up to 28 pounds.
Galapagos Giant Tortoise
(image via: sly 06 & michael r. perry)
The ultimate symbol for the Galapagos Islands, these tortoises aren’t just incredibly large at up to 660 pounds and 4 feet long – they also live far longer than the average human with a lifespan of 100-150 years. They were just recently removed from the endangered species list after many years of conservation efforts, and are among the most famous gigantic species in the world.
Giant Squid
(images via: wikipedia)
The star of many a myth since ancient times, the Giant Squid was technically a cryptid until the late 19th century when a 35-foot specimen washed ashore in Newfoundland. In 2004, a specimen called “Archie” was captured and sent to the Natural History Museum in London to be studied and preserved. A video of a live adult in the wild was finally filmed in 2004, with the 26-foot male stuck on a lure for five hours until it finally broke free, leaving an 18-foot tentacle behind.
East Timor Giant Rat
(image via: post chronicle)
The largest rat known to have existed on earth was discovered just days ago in cave excavations on the island of East Timor in Southeast Asia. Extinct for at least 1,000 to 2,000 years, the biggest specimen weighed 13.2 pounds, making it larger than many domesticated cats. Other giant rats still exist today, but top out around 4.4 pounds.
Giant Weta
(image via: kiwi mikex)
In prehistoric times, humans had it rough indeed, especially when so many bugs were as large as the Giant Weta, which is still found creeping people out in New Zealand. Despite what their size may seem to indicate, these 4-inch-long insects are passive, gentle creatures. One captive female reached 2.5 ounces in weight, giving Giant Weta the reputation as some of the heaviest insects on the planet.
Komodo Dragon
(image via: national geographic)
Like Giant Squid, Komodo Dragons were long thought to be mythological. It just didn’t seem possible that insanely oversized lizards still roamed at least one small island, long after the extinction of dinosaurs. But this 9.8-foot, 150-pound monitor is real indeed and is known to be quite dangerous and have attacked humans on quite a few occasions.
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Grand Paws: 10 Of The World’s Longest Lived Animals
[ By Steve in Animals & Habitats, History & Trivia, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Aging may be a natural life process but for our animal friends, it’s more often a curse: predators pick out the slow, weak and old for an easier kill. As pampered pets and protected in zoos, however, animals have a much greater chance of reaching ages simply not possible in the wild. These 10 “grand paws” lead the senior circuit with the most golden years.
Oldest Rabbit – 18+ Years
(images via: Gomestic, LooneyTunes and Talking Squid)
According to the House Rabbit Society, rabbits kept indoors may expect to live from 6 to 8 years and rabbits kept outdoors in hutches typically enjoy shorter lifespans, probably due to environmental factors. Though there are a number of notable rabbits who have lived upwards of 14 years, the longest-lived rabbit so far recorded was a wild rabbit caught on August 6th, 1964, in Tasmania, Australia. Subsequently named Flopsy and kept as a pet, the rabbit lived a further 18 years and 10.75 months making his/her actual age at passing on very close to 19 years.
(images via: Boston.com, Readers Digest and World Records Academy)
The Guinness Book of Records has handed out framed certificates for the “Oldest Living Rabbit” from time to time; an odd practice considering the length of the so-called record would change by the day until the rabbit died – at which point it would no longer be a Living Rabbit. Examples include, from above left going clockwise: 14-year-old George, 15- to 16-year old Heather, and 16-year-old Hazel.
Oldest Spider – 28 Years
(images via: American Tarantula Society, I, Trudge and My Interests)
Insects are among the shortest-lived of all creatures, some only surviving a day or so after achieving their adult stage. Spiders aren’t insects but as Arthropods they share many traits with them. Surprisingly, brief lifespans aren’t one of them – a fact that will dismay many who can’t abide the hairy little (or not so little) beasties.
(images via: Kayotic Exotic, Children’s Lit and Emails From Crazy People)
Most people would imagine the average spider would live for a few weeks, couple of months at most… but 28 years?? That does appear to be the case, and the ancient arachnid in question is (or was) a female tarantula captured in Mexico in 1935. Perhaps the spider’s diet – it was a “bird-eating spider” – made the difference. If you can catch & chow down on birds, you can certainly hold off the Grim Reaper for a while.
Oldest Dog – 29 Years
(images via: Oh My News and Houndbound)
The oldest documented dog recorded was Bluey, an Australian Cattle Dog who was born in June of 1910 and died on November 14th, 1939. Bluey could have lived longer but as he was suffering from an undisclosed chronic ailment his owners thought it best that he be put to sleep. Most ACDs live 12 to 15 years and are known for their hard work on farms and ranches. Bluey’s age at death was 29 years, 5 months – the equivalent age of a human being would be about 206!
(images via: DogGuide.net and Inquisitr)
It seems astonishing that in the past 70 years not a single dog has surpassed ol’ Bluey’s longevity record. A few have come close, however, including 29-year-old Bella (top), Chanel (above left, 21 years and 114 days) and Otto (20 years and 334 days, above right).
Oldest Cat – 38 Years
(images via: World Records Academy, China Daily, Denbighshire Free Press and The Daily Mews)
Cats and dogs are equal, you say? Not when it comes to age – cats do seem to have an advantage in that department. Maybe it’s their more relaxed (in general) character, perhaps its the way they handle the domestic lifestyle, who can really say? What we CAN say is that cats can live well into their 30s and unconfirmed reports have them lasting into their 40s. Guess that’s where the term “cougar” came from. Above are a selection of “old cats” – from left and moving clockwise: Mischief (27), Tizzie (36), Jess (25), and Spike (31)
(images via: Catster, Magic Tails and Cat Diaries)
According to the 2007 edition of the Guinness Book of Records, the reigning longevity champion of cat-dom was Creme Puff, a female tabby born on August 3rd, 1967 and who died on August 6th, 2005) aged 38 years and 3 days. Though an abundance of long-lived cats are regularly reported from the UK, Creme Puff lived with her owner, Jake Perry & family, in Austin, Texas, USA.
Oldest Goldfish – 43 years
(images via: ShutterStock, Fizzics Education and Awakened To Change)
Who can live longer, a polar bear (oldest age = 42) or a goldfish? Wrong, it’s the goldfish… well, as long as they don’t come into contact. Reports of goldfish living into their 40s are surprisingly commonplace, with many of them spending their whole lives with the same family whose child won them at a fair or festival. Owners who would like to prolong the lives of their goldfish as long as possible would do well to provide them with a larger aquarium than the stereotypical Goldfish Bowl and feed them a variety of foods – not those smelly fish flakes.
(images via: PetGoldfish.net, Paper Castle Press and Free Republic)
You might think its unfair and a little ironic that as we enter our golden years, our hair turns silver. Well, misery loves company: it happens to goldfish too, though it’s their scales that turn silver. Take “Tish”, for example a Comet Goldfish who, according to the BBC, “died at the age of 43 peacefully in his bowl.” Tish joined the Hand family of Yorkshire, England, in 1956 when then 7-year-old Peter Hand won him at a local fun fair.
Oldest Horse – 62 Years
(images via: Daily Mail UK and Simply Marvelous)
Horses, at least those lucky enough to be pampered and put out to stud, can live for many decades. Must be the whole “stud” thing. Most horses live 20 to 25 years, which seems a long time considering most thoroughbreds who run in major races like the Kentucky Derby are just 3 years old.
(image via: 1st Art Gallery)
The verifiably oldest horse was Old Billy, born in 1760 and living an astonishing 62 years. As Old Billy had a tough early life as a barge horse towing cargo boats along England’s many inland canals, his exceptional longevity is all the more surprising.
Oldest Bird – 77 Years
(images via: Outlaw Journalism, PWAM and Ebooks@Adelaide)
Birds can live upwards of 60 years, with some species (parrots, vultures, albatrosses and eagles – no “bald” remarks, if you please) possibly exceeding the century mark. A longevity listing posted by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County (Illinois) had a Turkey Buzzard on top, at 118 years – though no corroborating information was included. Long lifespans in birds should not be too surprising, as they are closely related to long-lived reptiles such as turtles and tortoises.
(images via: Brookfield Zoo and Jokulhlaup)
Cookie, a Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo who has resided at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo since 1933 when he was a one-year-old fledgling, is today recognized as the world’s longest living bird – he’s 77. Cookie is considered to be “semi-retired” as public appearances stress him out. He was also diagnosed with for osteoarthritis and osteoporosis in 2007, ailments that may be the result of his being fed only seeds for the first 40 years of his life. Most Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos live from 40 to 60 years in captivity so Cookie is flying well into uncharted territory.
Oldest Elephant – 86 Years
(images via: Elephants.com, James Tung and Andrew Howat)
They say an elephant never forgets, which is really saying something in the case of those pachyderms whose ages, if not surpassing their weight, most certainly are higher than their shoe size. Elephants are generally credited with being the longest-lived land mammal, humans aside, with the most common figure given being 70. One side of the ongoing tragedy of elephant poaching is that the oldest animals – often those with the largest and longest tusks – are the ones most frequently targeted and killed. The oldest elephant on record was 86-year-old Lín Wàng (1917 – February 26, 2003). This well-documented elephant served both Chiang Kai Shek and the Imperial Japanese Army before arriving in Taiwan after the communist takeover of China.
(image via: Metro UK)
A candidate for the world’s oldest living elephant is Vatsala (above), a female Indian elephant estimated by her keepers at India’s Panna Tiger Reserve to be in her early 90s. When Vatsala arrived at the sanctuary in 1971 she had already lost her teeth, an indication that she was probably more than 50 years old.
Oldest Koi – 226 years
(images via: On The Borderland, Echigo and Newz Is Newz)
Beating out elephants, cats, dogs, birds horses and more for anything is an accomplishment, outliving them all is almost unbelievable! Yet it’s been done, and by a fish no less. Not just any fish either – you might guess a shark, sturgeon or giant catfish and you’d be wrong. Nope, it’s a koi. These relatives of the aforementioned goldfish are mainly known for populating Japanese temple fishponds and one such denizen, named Hanako, managed to live an amazing 226 years (1751 to July 17th, 1977).
(image via: Koi360)
Scientists have incontrovertible evidence for Hanako’s extreme age. Much like trees, fish exhibit growth rings on their scales. Careful inspection of Hanako’s scales after her demise confirmed temple record-keeping was accurate – this otherwise unremarkable fish (shown above, in 1966) had managed to survive 226 years of history, geology and climatology. In the year of Hanako’s hatching, President James Madison was born, the town of Georgetown, Maryland was founded, and the elemental metal Nickel was discovered and described.
Oldest Tortoise – 255 Years
(images via: Arkive, aVida and Ashton Nichols)
Among the most famous long-lived animals are the Giant Tortoises of the Galapagos Islands, the Seychelles, Java and Flores islands in Indonesia, and other islands. These sluggish but majestic creatures were once common on continental landmasses; it’s only on islands mainly free of mammals that they have managed to survive to this day.
(images via: BBC and New York Times)
The current record holder for Oldest Giant Tortoise is Adwaita, a 550 lb (250 kg) male Aldabra giant tortoise who was presented as a gift to Lord Clive (1725-1774). British seafarers had previously captured Adwaita and 3 other tortoises in the Seychelles islands near Madagascar. Estimated to have been born circa 1750, Adwaita lived at the Alipore Zoological Gardens in Kolkata, India, from 1875 to the time of his death on March 23rd, 2006. Subsequent radiocarbon dating of Adwaita’s shell confirmed an age of approximately 255 years.
(image via: Cheezburger.com)
“Treat the elderly with respect”… this age-old (sorry) admonition works for animals as well as for people. As modern medicine boosts the numbers of seniors of ALL species, the records quoted in this post will surely be broken sooner or later, and that’s a good thing. I SAID, THAT’S A GOOD THING!
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Buzz Killers: 10 Of The World’s Biggest, Baddest Bugs
[ By Steve in 7 Wonders Series, Animals & Habitats, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Bugs… though most are small, even tiny, the ancient order of Arthropods boasts over a million species and includes more than half the world’s living organisms. With such variety and diversity, insects, spiders, and their exoskeletoned ilk push the envelope on a number of fronts including size, so put away that fly-swatter – you definitely do not want to make these guys mad!
Ancient Giant Bugs
(image via: Mahjoob.com)
The history of life on Earth is a long and complex story with changing geologic, climactic and environmental conditions continually shuffling the genetic deck. Mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and insects have all produced giants in the past, so it’s worth looking at some of prehistory’s largest insects to put their modern descendants into perspective.
(images via: Animal Pictures Archive, Eobasileus and Club Des Monstres)
The most notorious of these ancient giant insects lived during the Carboniferous period approximately 300 million years ago; the most well-known examples are the giant dragonfly Meganeura (above) and the giant centipede Arthropleura.
(images via: Fotoarchiv and Discovering Fossils)
Meganeura had a 2.5-ft (0.75 meter) wide wingspan and scientists speculate it ate other flying and crawling insects; even some of the smaller early amphibians that were just beginning to colonize dry land. Arthropleura, on the other hand (or maybe, the other foot) stretched up to 8.5 feet (2.6 meters) long and may have eaten both plants and small animals.
(image via: The Nonist)
The all-time champ when it comes to huge proto-insects was Jaekelopterus rhenaniae, a Eurypterid sea scorpion that lived from 460 to 255 million years ago. It likely dined on our primitive marine ancestors – and pretty much anything else it encountered. Growing up to 8 feet (2.4 meters) long, Jaekelopterus rhenaniae was the largest Arthropod to have ever evolved. At least, so we hope.
Goliath Beetle
(images via: Animal Planet, Woodmoor Beer and Buy.com)
Deep in the jungles of darkest Africa one may find the biggest, bulkiest, heaviest insect on Earth: the Goliath Beetle. Male Goliathus’ can grow up to 4.3 inches (110 mm) long and their larvae can weigh up to 3.5 ounces or 100 grams: a true mega-maggot! Hobbyists have raised Goliath Beetles in captivity by feeding the newly hatched larvae dog or cat food.
(image via: Yun10)
Goliath Beetles are members of the Scarab Beetle family and it’s likely they were known to the ancient Egyptians. They can also fly using a single pair of clear membranous wings normally protected under their hinged shells. The sound of a Goliath Beetle in flight has been likened to that of a small helicopter.
Camel Spiders
(image via: Alchemy Imageworks)
While insects today have been cut down to size, so to speak, there are still some large enough to put a healthy scare into other animals, not to mention us. Take the Camel Spider… take it AWAY, is what I really mean to say! Give our brave troops slogging through Iraqi deserts extra props for having to deal with these eight-legged freaks.
(images via: Jim Meads, Woosk.com and Rod Maher)
While many of the tales told about Camel Spiders are fabrications (such as, they sometimes can be seen running alongside Humvees, screaming all the while), these arachnids can grow up to 10 inches (25 cm) wide, run as fast as 10 mph (16 kph) and like to hide in dark, sheltered places… like sleeping bags.
(image via: CamelSpiders.net)
This famous photo of two Camel Spiders locked in mortal combat has made the rounds of the Internet but anything this creepy deserves another go-round. Note the spot-on desert camouflage coloring (troops and spiders) and their nasty-looking fangs (just the spiders). By the way, Camel Spiders are not found only in Iraq or the Middle East – try right next door in Mexico where they’re known as “matevenados”… in English, that means “deer killers.” Th-Th-Thumper, is th-that you??
Giant Water Bugs
(images via: LostSprings.com and GreenPacks)
Giant Water Bugs of the genus Lethocerus, also known as “Toe Biters” – lovely, huh? – grow up to 5 inches (12 cm) long and are the terrors of freshwater ponds, gorging themselves on other insects, crayfish, tadpoles and the odd unlucky fish. When they bite a potential meal (or perhaps, your toe), the bugs inject an enzyme that liquifies tissue making it easy for the bug to slurp up its meal.
(images via: Golden’s Blog and Adam Vandenberg)
Needless to say, a bite from a Giant Water Bug can be exceptionally painful and victims have been known to suffer permanent muscle damage. Toe Biter 1, ToeCutter 0.
(image via: What’s That Bug)
Most of us would be happy to avoid Giant Water Bugs altogether but that’s just impossible: they’re so darned tasty! I’m not speaking from personal experience (though my Mom tells me I ate a June Bug once when I was 2, and said it was “good”) but Giant Water Bugs are a delicacy in Thailand where they’re caught using black (UV) light floating traps. Very nice, but I’m sticking to the Pad Thai if that’s OK with you.
Japanese Giant Hornet
(images via: Homely Scientist, Scinema 04 and TerritorioScuola)
Japanese Giant Hornets, unlike tarantulas, are NOT mild-mannered and most definitely do not make great pets. Great pests is more like it. Let’s start with size: up to 1.6 inches (4 cm) long with a 2.5 inch (6 cm) wingspan. In Japanese they’re called Oo-Suzumebachi, or “Giant Sparrow Bee”… and unlike everything else in Japan, there’s nothing cute about them. They kill, on average, 40 people every year. That’s more than the total number of deaths attributed annually to ALL wild animals in Japan, put together.
(image via: Pretty Paisley)
The venom of Japanese Giant Hornets is considered to be “very potent”, and it’s injected through a wickedly curved stinger 1/4 inch (6.25 mm) long. The sting itself was reported by Masato Ono, an entomologist (and sting-ee) from Tamagawa University, to feel “like a hot nail being driven into his leg”. Oh, and it gets worse – an annoyed Japanese Giant Hornet will chase a perceived threat (read: YOU) for up to 3 miles and it can fly at speeds up to 25 mph (40 kph). Guess who wins that race. And… yes, there’s more… this fiendish uber-wasp disperses a pheromone that will draw other hornets from far and wide. It bee nice knowin’ ya!
(images via: Ugly Overload and Arthropoda)
Though we can’t blame Colony Collapse Disorder and the accompanying loss of millions of honeybees on the Japanese Giant Hornet, they should at least be brought in for questioning – not by me, of course.
Check out the following video in which about 30 giant hornets take on a hive filled with around 30,000 honeybees by going all Ozzy Osbourne on them. The result? More bee-heading than in an Al-Qaeda member’s wet dream:
30 Hornets vs. 30,000 Bees, via Silentrouge
Giant Weta
(images via: University of Stirling, Naturespic and 10 Daily Things)
The Giant Weta encompasses 11 varied species, growing to a length of 8 inches or 20 cm. They’re found only in New Zealand and its nearby islands where they took over the ecological niches normally filled by rodents such as mice. When rodents were introduced to New Zealand by human settlers, the Giant Weta went into rapid decline.
(image via: 10 Daily Things)
The Giant Weta’s genus name, Deinacrida, is Greek for “terrible grasshopper” and it’s a good choice as the spiky, spiny creature resembles some sort of radioactive mutated cricket from Hell. Even the native Maori were put off by the Giant Weta when they first encountered it, dubbing it “Weta Punga”, or “god of ugly things.” Yep, that’s one big ugly bugly.
(image via: Kiwi Mikex)
Giant Wetas are flightless and have struggled to survive after the introduction of non-native predators to the New Zealand archipelago. They are among the world’s heaviest insects with one specimen weighing in at a startling 2.5 ounces (70 grams). One wicked cricket… and we’re gonna need a bigger wicket.
Atlas Moth, Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing Butterfly
(images via: Butterfly Utopia and Pixdaus – Danif)
The Atlas Moth and the Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing butterfly are the largest of the moths and butterflies, each achieving wingspans of over a foot (30 cm). The Atlas Moth, found in southeast Asia, the Malay archipelago and on the Indian subcontinent has been cultivated commercially for the silk used by its caterpillars to weave their cocoons. Entire Atlas Moth cocoons have been made into women’s purses in Taiwan, where the women are obviously not at all squeamish.
(image via: Vai Passar)
The Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing butterfly was first discovered by European naturalists in 1906, when a collector in what today is Papua New Guinea brought one down using a shotgun. Females have rounded wings than males and wingspans can reach just over 12 inches (31 cm) with body lengths of 3.2 inches (8 cm).
(images via: USA Today and Arkive)
Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing butterflies emerge from their cocoons in the humid early morning hours, before the daytime’s hotter air can prematurely dry out their huge wings. Male butterflies are territorial and have been seen chasing away birds that inadvertently flew into their perceived domains.
Goliath Birdeater Spider
(images via: Cute and Weird, Bugman 123 and Reptile World Zoo)
Besides being a great band name, the Goliath Birdeater is one of the world’s largest spiders. These jungle-dwelling tarantulas have an 11 inch (25 cm) leg span which puts them on par with the smaller-bodied Giant Huntsman spider of Laos. The Goliath Birdeater comes out ahead when it comes to weight, with mature specimens topping out at over 6 ounces (170 grams). Oh, the name? The first researcher to describe them observed one eating a hummingbird. They have also been known to kill and eat mice, bats, lizards, and small poisonous snakes.
(image via: Cute and Weird)
As fearsome as they may appear, the Goliath Birdeater spider and other large tarantulas of the Amazon rainforest are not particularly aggressive – good thing! Even when they do bite humans and their fangs (which can be up to 1.5 inches or 3.8 cm long) pierce skin, they rarely inject venom and bites are relatively – relatively – painless. It’s not the fangs that are the main problem for people, it’s the hairs that irritated tarantulas shake off their bellies. Incredibly thin and wickedly barbed, these hairs can become lodged in one’s eyeballs and are nearly impossible to remove.
Tarantula Hawk Wasp
(images via: Hillside Photos, Birdfotos and Durango Nature Studies)
Another big bug with a seriously scary name, the Tarantula Hawk Wasp doesn’t live in some faraway jungle or exotic island… nope, it’s from New Mexico! In fact, the State of New Mexico adopted the Tarantula Hawk Wasp as their official state insect in 1989. If you happen to come across one, however, you’re officially advised to leave it alone! Though not considered to be aggressive, the Tarantula Hawk Wasp WILL sting you if pestered, and then… let’s just let Justin O. Schmidt, author of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, describe it: “Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath.” Officially the sting of the Tarantula Hawk Wasp rates 4 on the Schmidt scale – which only goes up to 4.
(image via: Hillside Photos)
Tarantula Hawk Wasps are among the world’s largest wasps, growing up to 2 inches (50 mm) long. Unlike most familiar black & yellow banded wasps, they have bluish-black bodies and bright orange or rust-colored wings. As you may have guessed, they prey on tarantulas and other large spiders of the south-western desert.
(image via: EmoFC.com)
A sting from the wasp doesn’t kill the spider; that would be too kind. Instead, the wasp drags the paralyzed spider – a significant feat of strength, by the way – back to its burrow and lays an egg on its body. The egg then hatches and immediately begins eating its still-living meal. One spider-roll to go!
Here’s a video of a Tarantula Hawk Wasp going stinger to fangs with a tarantula – be afraid, tarantula, be VERY afraid!
Tarantula Hawk Wasp Attacks Tarantula, via CreekerCouncil
Giant Walking Stick
(images via: MethodShop, Mongabay and Texas Agrilife)
Entomologists have described over 3,000 species of Stick Insects, and those of the genus Phobaeticus – the Giant Walking Stick – are the world’s longest insects by far. Not including extended legs, these amazing creatures measure as much as 13 inches (33 cm) from head to the tip of their abdomen. Though Stick Insects of all types are strictly herbivorous, some species secrete a substance that produces intense irritation in the eyes and mouths of predators (or overly curious humans). In some cases, victims have been afflicted with temporary blindness.
(image via: Qskan)
A smaller species known as the Indian or Laboratory Stick Insect (Carausius morosus) is a popular pet – and no opposite sex is required for breeding because they are both male and female, reproducing via parthenogenesis. Their geeky owners can only look on with envy.
Giant Isopod
(images via: Driftline, Marki’s Block and ScienceBlogs)
What happens to whales when they die and sink deep, deep down to the Stygian depths of the ocean floor, miles below the surface? The Giant Isopod knows… and waits patiently, because the bigger they are, the harder they fall, and a decomposing whale is a blubbery buffet that keeps on serving way past closing time.
(image via: Daily Mail UK)
Giant Isopods of the genus Bathynomus normally grow up to 14 inches (35 cm) in length, although one found clinging to a remote-controlled submarine operated by oil workers in the Gulf of Mexico last April (2010) measured an astonishing 30 inches (75 cm) long!
(image via: Qskan)
Here’s a video of some Giant Isopods (and their scavenging buddies) in action, pumped up with a Yakety Sax soundtrack c/o the awesome BennyHillifier:
Time-Lapse Video of Deep Sea Feeding Frenzy, via Lifeisadancer
Isopods are actually a type of crustacean but they’re included here because their close relatives, the common terrestrial woodlouse or pillbug, is one of the commonest bugs people see. As for the deep sea Giant Isopod, if you thought its whale-eating lifestyle was weird, consider that of another isopod: Cymothoa exigua, the tongue-eating louse.
(image via: WebEcoist)
This li’l feller finds its way into a fish’s mouth and after avoiding being swallowed, bites the fish’s tongue and begins drinking its blood. After a while, the fish’s tongue shrivels up from lack of blood flow but Cymothoa doesn’t want its host to die… so it firmly grips the tongue stub with its lower legs and begins to act as the fish’s tongue! Nature… and you thought it was all rainbows, blossoms and Bambi.
(image via: Little Black Star)
If real large insects aren’t frightening enough, fictional ones should tip the scales… as in the classic Japanese sci-fi movie monster Mothra, who would often subdue competing creatures with a shower of poisonous scales. Nice to know Hollywood Far East has put our primeval fear of big bugs to good use. Oh, and… goodnight, sleep tight, and don’t let the big bugs bite!
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Clearly Beautiful: 10 Amazing Transparent Animals
[ By Steve in Animals & Habitats, Nature & Ecosystems, Science & Research. ]
Being transparent (or nearly so) doesn’t mean animals have nothing to hide. On the contrary, their lack of pigmentation can help them elude predators who literally see right through them. Transparency also allows creatures to conserve precious resources, a benefit anyone can see.
Transparent Sea Cucumber
(images via: Wildfilms, MBARI, WHOI and Wild Singapore)
Slow moving, soft bodied bottom dwellers for the most part, Sea Cucumbers are an ancient lineage of sea creatures who have evolved a variety of ways to survive and thrive over hundreds of millions of years of evolution. For some Sea Cucumbers, being transparent allows them to fly under the radar, as it were, of predators in search of a quick & easy kill.
(image via: Discovery)
Lightly tinted in rosy pink, Enypniastes sea cucumbers live in the pitch-black ocean depths far below the 656-ft (200m) threshold where sunlight is unable to penetrate. The species was discovered in the northern Gulf of Mexico, 1.7 miles beneath the surface – before the current sub-sea oil spill occurred. Hope the li’l guy’s OK…
Transparent Butterfly
(images via: Weirdomatic, Tom29ger and TMurray74)
Butterflies of the species Greta Oto are commonly called clearwings or glasswings. It’s not that these butterflies have evolved transparent wings, more like they have dispensed with the growth of colored scales that normally cover the wings of butterflies and moths. Wash an average butterfly (well, imagine doing so) and you’ll end up with something that looks a lot like Greta Oto.
(image via: Beatriz Laynne)
Glasswing butterflies are found from Mexico through Panama and have wingspans of 2.2 to 2.4 inches (5.6 to 6.1 cm) in width. It is thought that their mostly transparent wings make these butterflies less visible when in flight.
Transparent Goldfish
(image via: Xinhuanet)
In late 2009, researchers at Mie University in Japan created a transparent goldfish by selectively breeding pale gold fish. The end result was a fish with translucent scales and skin through which many of the creature’s internal organs can be easily seen. “As this goldfish grows bigger, you can watch its whole life,” said Yutaka Tamaru, an associate professor at Mie University. That life could go on for some time as the non-gold goldfish are expected to live up to 20 years and grow to a length of 10 inches (25cm).
(image via: LikeCool)
Though the general public will undoubtedly be clamoring for transparent goldfish to stock their home aquariums, the real reason the Mie University researchers created the transparent goldfish was to reduce, even negate, the need for dissections in school biology classrooms. This should make countless queasy students very, very happy – not to mention countless fish.
Transparent-Headed Barreleye Fish
(images via: WebEcoist)
The Pacific Barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) was first described in 1939 but specimens of this unusual deep sea fish suffered damage when raised to the surface through low-pressure shallow surface waters. In 2009, researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) using remote-operated cameras were able to observe barreleyes in their element – 2,000 to 2,600 feet (600 to 800 meters) below sea level off the coast of central California. What they saw astonished them: the barreleye’s eyes rotate within a transparent, fluid-filled head shield.
(image via: GConnect)
Viewed head on, the barreleye’s face looks normal but what seem to be eyes are actually “nares” – the piscine equivalent of nostrils. The eyes are the vivid green structures located within the fish’s head, where they can be directed to look upwards while the fish remains horizontal.
Here is a video of the barreleye as first spied by MBARI’s seagoing ROV cameras:
”Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes”, via MBARIvideo
Transparent Cave Crayfish
(images via: Scubadiver Forums, Scuba with Ag and IderYusei)
Caves are some of the darkest places on the planet – even sophisticated light-gathering instruments are unable to register a single photon in the deepest, darkest caves. Under these conditions, creatures including fish, spiders, insects and crayfish have evolved into “troglobites”: animals so precisely adapted to living in darkness that they cannot survive outside cave environments. Under such conditions, neither eyes nor pigmentation are necessary.
(image via: John Agnew)
There are (at the latest count) 39 species of cave crayfish species in North America, some restricted to the isolated caves in which they evolved. Cave crayfish range from whitish albinos to nearly translucent in appearance. If their chitinous exoskeletons were as thin as skin they would certainly be considered to be transparent.
Transparent Squid
(images via: The Colossal Squid, NY Books and Animal Pictures Archive)
Squid of the family Cranchiidae number around 60 species and are commonly known as Glass Squids. Indeed, these robustly built but delicate looking cephalopods outwardly resemble hand blown glass bottles with the only pigmented part being the cigar-shaped liver. Glass squids come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, and include the Colossal Squid that can grow up to 9.8 feet (3m) long – not including the arms.
(image via: Scienceray)
Glass squid are near-invisible for the most part, but sometimes they want to be seen… at mating time, for instance. That’s when heretofore hidden chromophores blaze into action, bathing the squid in undulating waves of eerie bioluminescent light.
Transparent Jellyfish
(images via: National Geographic and Epedia)
Jellyfish can be found in all of the world’s oceans and, if the predictions of some scientists can be believed, are increasing in number as the oceans warm up. Jellyfish are often transparent to some degree, often appearing as thin films that serenely undulate amongst schools of fish who don’t see them… until it’s too late.
(image via: National Geographic)
Like glass squids and other deep sea marine animals, certain species of transparent jellyfish use bioluminescence to attract prey close enough for the jellyfish’s tentacles to shock them into submission. The Comb Jelly above displays pretty rainbow colors – fatal attraction indeed!
Transparent Flounder
(image via: National Geographic)
Many marine creatures employ transparent body tissues in their larval stages in order to help secrete themselves from bigger predators, and fish are no exception. The young flounder above enhances its translucence by virtue of having a flat, thin body plan.
(images via: Art.com and Moillusions)
Flat, tasty and transparent is no way to go through life, so as a young flounder grows it will turn to another way of disguising itself – camouflage. As for its pancake shape, it continues to provide an advantage by helping the flounder keep a low profile on flat, sandy seafloors (and, presumably, the floors of certain frat houses).
Transparent Salp
(images via: WHOI and Catchit)
Once dismissed as being a rather unsophisticated, primitive form of sea life, salps are now credited with being one of the most efficient carbon sequestering organisms on the planet. Scientists estimate as much as 1/3 of all human-created CO2 is being processed by salps, who constantly eat phytoplankton and expel compact fecal pellets rich in carbon that rapidly sink to the ocean floor.
(images via: Richard Herrmann and Supiri)
Salps are almost completely transparent, with only their constantly full stomachs breaking the pattern. Salps are normally solitary creatures but have been known to link together in elaborate chains as shown above.
Transparent Frog
(images via: Daily Mail UK)
In late 2007, a research team from the Institute for Amphibian Biology at Hiroshima University in Japan announced it had successfully created transparent frogs. According to Professor Masayuki Sumida of the IAB, “Transparent frogs will prove useful as laboratory animals because they make it easier and cheaper to observe the development and progress of cancer, the growth and aging of internal organs, and the effects of chemicals on organs.” All this without causing the frogs to, er, croak.
(image via: Fascinatingly)
Umm, not so fast, prof… have you seen the “glass frog” (above), native to the Venezuelan rainforest? Like the transparent frogs selectively bred in the lab from generations of pale-skinned Japanese Brown Frogs, the Glass Frog’s internal organs and eggs can be seen without too much trouble. Word to Professor Sumida: take the grant money and run!
(image via: BugEyedMonster)
As we have seen, the vast majority of transparent creatures live in the sea – see-through butterflies, crayfish and frogs are much less common and the latter do not occur naturally. Will scientists pursue the lines of experimentation that brought about transparent goldfish and frogs to their logical conclusion? Time will tell… and some day we may end up questioning the old maxim, “beauty is only skin deep”.
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12 Odd and Outstanding Green Products & Ideas
[ By Steph in Art & Design, Technology & Gadgets. ]
If we’re going to solve the world’s problems, we’ve got to think creatively. But some green product & tech inventors get much more imaginative than the rest, dreaming up incredibly bizarre and unexpected solutions ranging from the practical to the utterly ridiculous. From rain barrels shaped like human anatomy to light switches armed with finger-pinching mouse trap mechanisms, these concepts take green to the extreme for better or worse.
Hair of the Dog: Pet Fur Sweaters
(images via: if it’s hip it’s here)
If you own a dog, you’ve probably already experienced the joy that is living with pet hair all over everything you own. So why not put down the lint roller and wear it proud? Some people take the love of their dogs to an extreme by having sweaters, vests and other clothing and accessories from all that excess dog hair. It’s certainly more humane than real fur, and puts a waste material to use.
Boat Powered by Human Fat
(image via: the daily mail)
It’s the fastest eco-boat on the planet, and looks like something that traveled here from the distant future. But where Earthrace really stands out from other water craft is its fuel source: human fat, gathered from the body of owner Pete Bethune and two volunteers. The 10 liters of fuel produced by the liposuction procedures helped the boat set a new world record by circumnavigating the globe in two months before it was sold to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and sunk by a Japanese whaling ship.
Brits Save the Planet with Big Butts
(image via: hemingway design)
We already knew the Brits were cheeky, but never realized they’d go so far as using big butts to collect rainwater. Strange as it may sound, it was only natural for a derriere-shaped rainwater container to eventually show up on the UK market – where rain barrels are referred to as ‘water butts’. The Butt Butt comes in three skin tones and has a spigot located just where you’d expect it to be.
The Soccket – Energy-Generating Soccer Ball
(image via: soccket)
It’s a portable energy generator. It’s an incentive to get together and exercise. It’s a soccer ball. What can’t it do? The Soccket is probably one of the most creative oddball green energy generators yet, but what makes it stand out is the fact that it’s so practical. The ball, which captures the energy created when it’s kicked, dribbled or thrown, is designed for use in resource-poor areas where connection to the grid is difficult or impossible.
Switch Me – Or Don’t, Unless You Enjoy Pain
(image via: design boom)
Think twice about whether you really want to turn on that light… because if you do, it’s going to sting. ‘Switch Me’ is a product concept designed by Josselin Zaigouche in a humorous attempt to help people change their wasteful habits.
Water Pebble Monitors Your Water Waste in the Shower
(image via: waterpebble)
It’s easy even for the most environmentally conscious among us to forget ourselves a little bit when we’re relaxing under a steady stream of hot, soothing water. But water tends to come gushing out of showerheads so fast, it’s easy to lose track of just how much we’ve used. If you had a Waterpebble, however, it would be as simple as looking down at the ground. This weird little gadget monitors the amount of water that reaches the drain as you’re showering and displays either a green, yellow or red light. But that’s not all it does – it’s a shower miser, automatically reducing your shower time every day.
Hydroponic Ferris Wheel Garden
(image via: omega garden)
For the low, low price of $2,000, you too can have a ferris wheel of fresh salad greens growing in your home. The ‘Volksgarden’ is a 76-inch wheel of black plastic on a metal frame that rotates around a central grow light, allowing you to grow up to 80 plants indoors while barely lifting a finger. It can even be set up to automatically water itself and turn the light on and off. Perhaps it’s a strange thing to have in a home, but it could play an interesting role in the urban food gardens of the future.
Machine Turns Office Paper into Toilet Paper
(image via: crunch gear)
Need to take a bathroom break at the office? On the way, you’d better gather up those TPS reports and turn them into TP. This machine takes used copier paper and recycles it into rolls of toilet paper right there in your office. Sounds great, right? The real challenge is finding a company willing to pay $95,000 up front for an endless supply of toilet paper.
Wind-Powered Knitting Machine
(image via: engadget)
Wind for the win! Even if you don’t knit (scratch that – especially if you don’t knit) you have to admit that this machine is utterly brilliant. Sure, the sight of a 20-foot self-producing scarf hanging from a machine attached to a balcony is a strange one, but the Wind Knitting Factory by Merel Karhof takes the tedium out of this task, putting the wind to work.
SunCat Solar Batteries
(image via: notes from knut)
Battery chargers prevent a lot of waste, but they still consume dirty energy. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just put batteries out in the sun? Well, if this design from Knut Karlsen ever goes to production, we’ll be able to do just that. SunCats are regular old batteries wrapped in flexible photovoltaic cells, wired using a conductive silver pen and some flat wires salvaged from a broken camera lens. The second version will have built-in capacitors to make the batteries more powerful.
Want to Charge Something? Get a Grip
(image via: ecofriend)
Are you sure you want to listen to that iPod, or use your phone? Because if you rely on this unusual gadget charger, it’s going to cost you. Half smart people-power and half deterrent, the wrist grip charger forces you to exercise whenever your gadgets need some juice.
Spray and Wash Gets a New Meaning
(image via: the design blog)
Would you wash your hands in a urinal? It may seem somewhat unsanitary at first glance, but this revolutionary design could save a massive amount of water in public restrooms. It simply places the hand-washing area directly above the drain of the urinal so that water from hand-washing effectively flushes it. Such a design would cut water usage in men’s rooms in half. Not bad for a design that’s really just a tweak of existing facilities, making it easier to implement.
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Warthog Anus, Goat Fetus and 11 More Gross Delicacies
[ By Steph in Animals & Habitats, Food & Health, Geography & Travel, History & Trivia. ]
Imaging breaking open an egg to reveal a partially-formed duck fetus and licking your lips with anticipation. Most of us can’t, but that just goes to show how wildly tastes can vary – and the fact that one man’s vomit-inducing nightmare is another’s tasty treat. And even when they don’t involve feces, rotting flesh or animal fetuses, some obscure delicacies are taboo because they’re just plain awful for the environment, threatening endangered species with extinction.
Hákarl – Rotten Shark
It smells like a neglected public men’s room and looks something like diced cheese, but the horrible truth of hakarl is much worse than these attributes imply. In Iceland, the putrefied flesh of a basking shark is traditionally served during a midwinter festival and associated with hardiness and strength. That might be due to the fact that you need an iron stomach to avoid gagging while eating it. But wait – it gets ever so much worse.
Kiviak – Seagull-Stuffed Seal
(image via: sfgate)
Recipe for one super-delicious traditional Christmas meal from Greenland: take one beheaded seal carcass and stuff it with a dead, de-feathered seagull. Bury it under the permafrost and allow the flavors of fermenting bird to mingle with those of the seal’s intestines for seven months. Dig it up, bite off the bird’s head, suck out all those pungent juices and have a very happy holiday.
Balut – Duck Fetus Boiled Alive
(images via: deep end dining)
What is it about balut – a hard-boiled duck egg with a fetus inside – that inspires people not just to consume it, but to do so with lip-smacking relish? Is it the broth/amniotic fluid? The shiny, vein-covered outer membrane, or perhaps the gnarly shape of the fetus itself, with its bones and beak somehow mysteriously maintaining a soft, egg-like texture? It’s hard to imagine, but this delicacy is a beloved street snack in the Phillipines.
Endangered Bushmeat
(image via: national geographic)
Most of us wouldn’t dream of putting endangered chimp on the barbie. But illegal types of bushmeat – wild animal meat such as monkey, ape, leopard and elephant – are a thriving underground trade in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Demand for the meat of such animals is considered the top immediate threat to the future of wildlife in many areas around the world and has already resulted in widespread local extinctions.
Warthog Anus
(image via: wikimedia commons)
What’s the grossest thing you could possibly eat on a trip to Namibia? Traveling celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain found out when he got up close and personal with a feast of warthog anus. It was prepared by gutting the warthog, pulling out the anus and a foot of intestine, squeezing out the feces and throwing the whole thing on some hot coals. Said Bourdain, “This is one time when well done is eminently desirable, but no, this Hershey highway is served al dente.”
Baby Mice Wine
(image via: junch)
Contrary to some portrayals in the West, not all Chinese people regularly consume things that we consider bizarre and disgusting. However, things like ‘Baby Mice Wine’ do exist. This Chinese health tonic consists of newborn mice, their tiny eyes still closed, drowned alive in a bottle of rice wine and allowed to ferment for a year.
Monkey Brains
(image via: blog.ratestogo.com)
It’s not just an urban myth or a scene out of Indiana Jones: some people really do eat raw monkey brains, though the oft-told story of scooping them out of a live monkey’s head is hard to verify. A traveler in Cambodia got a photo of brains for sale at a public market, and tales abound on the internet of gross monkey brain-eating experiences.
Casu Marzu – Maggoty Cheese
If a food inspires most of the population to moan, “Oh, God, why?” and is disgusting enough to actually be banned, perhaps it’s best left uneaten. But Sardinians aren’t keen on giving up their national treasure Casu Marzu – rotting, maggot-infested pecorino cheese. If that doesn’t sound bad enough on its own, consider this: wearing protective eyewear is recommended, because the “cheese fly” larvae that have been intentionally allowed to hatch inside the cheese can jump up to six inches right into your face. Tasty.
Shark Fin Soup
(image via: wikimedia commons)
After maggot cheese and monkey brains, shark fin soup may not sound so bad. But though it may not be physically disgusting, this Chinese delicacy is a huge strain on international shark populations – not to mention cruel. Once finned, shark bodies – which aren’t valued – are often dumped back into the ocean to die painfully. Over 64% of the world’s known shark species are considered threatened or vulnerable, and some species are nearly extinct. Worse yet, the shark fin doesn’t even add much flavor or nutritional value – it’s little more than a garnish.
Kopi Luwak – Cat Poop Coffee
(images via: wikipedia)
Cream, sugar or cat crap? In Indonesia, coffee beans that have been eaten and defecated by civet cats are in high demand for their supposedly superior flavor – in fact, it’s the most expensive coffee in the world at $100-$600 per pound. The benefit of a less-bitter taste comes from the effect that a civet cat’s digestive enzymes have on the beans, which pass whole through the cat’s system.
Whale Meat Sashimi
(image via: fuyuhiko)
Why are Japanese whalers so intent on killing these graceful creatures, despite international (and sometimes violent) opposition to the practice? The blubbery, bland, gamey-tasting meat may not be palatable to most Westerners, but many Japanese love it and demand is high despite the threats to endangered species. Not that it only happens in Japan – a Santa Monica, California restaurant was recently shut down for serving endangered whale meat to customers.
Kutti Pi – Goat Fetus
The pronunciation of this delicacy – “cutie pie” – may have applied to these animals if they had been born alive, but it’s hard to describe cooked fetuses as cute. Kutti Pi is an Anglo-Indian delicacy that’s only eaten on the rare occasion of a pregnant animal (usually goat) being slaughtered, and is considered to have medicinal value, especially for pregnant women.
Bull Penis
(image via: winejuice.blogspot.com)
In some parts of the world, bull penis is considered an aphrodisiac, but you don’t even have to travel to China to get some. California restaurant Pho Nguyen Hue serves it in a dish called “pho ngau pin xe lua.” LA Mag says “The name translates to “noodle soup cow testicles train,” and it delivers what it promises and more. The “more” is the meat from a cow penis, which is rubbery like a tendon and comes drifting in a savory beef bone broth.” Yeah, there’s a reason that package is priced $6.66.
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The Light Fantastic: Ten Incredible Lightning Displays
There are few sights and sounds more able to instill us with delicious, jellifying terror than a full-blooded lighting storm. There are 16 million across the globe every year. But how do they form and how do they work? To find out, we look at 10 different types of electrical discharge from the small-scale to the gut-wrenchingly huge – and maybe gain a new appreciation, tinged with fearful awe, of what happens when Mother Nature turns the lights on.
Cloud To Ground Lightning
(Image via: Warren Tyrer)
How do you make lightning? Easy. All you need is a couple of hundred cubic miles of air, a large space above it (40,000 vertical feet is a nice number), and a massively powered heat-engine – say, the Earth. Ready? Take your air and steadily heat it up. As it rises, it will cool and condense into droplets of water vapour in fluffy, opaque clumps. Congratulations – you are now the proud owner of a bouncing baby cumulonimbus.
(Image via: Richard Fisher)
Now for the science bit. For reasons that are by no means clear, some parts of the cloud shed electrons and other parts gain them – in other words your storm-cloud gains an electrical charge, the top becoming positive and the base negative. Where you have opposite charges, you have an electrical field between them. Excitement all round. But all this fun isn’t limited to the sky – thanks to the rules of electrostatic induction, the ground gains an equal and opposite charge to the nearest part of the cloud lying overhead. Now you have perfect conditions for a bridging spark of truly epic proportions.
(Image via: jfyffe)
Once the field is strong enough, the air ionizes into plasma, a far better conductor of electricity. This happens unevenly, forming “paths” of plasma through the storm that provide crooked lines of least resistance for lightning – these are known as step leaders. In a fraction of the blink of an eye, step leaders fan down through the cloud and out the bottom, branching downwards like the roots of a tree. As this truly wondrous high-speed footage shows, all it takes is for one of these faintly glowing channels to connect with the ground…and ZAP. You just made lightning. Safety announcement: since it is hotter than the surface of the Sun (a toasty 30,000 °C), be sure to take a few steps back – not that you have time, as a lightning bolt travels at 130,000 miles an hour.
Ground to Cloud Lightning
(Image via: zoutedrop)
Sometimes the ground will give lightning a helping hand – an upward-pointing thread of positively-charged plasma called a streamer. All objects on the ground will create their own streamers (including human bodies) which attempt to meet the downward-traveling step leaders halfway. When these streamers are of an unusual size, they become the dominating leaders and the resulting bolt of lightning will travel upwards. The taller the object, the more likely it is that one of its streamers will attract or emit a lightning bolt – which is why it is good practice to avoid trees in a storm.
Cloud to Cloud Lightning
(Image via: Thrutheeyes)
But why go as far as the ground? Clouds can earth themselves (for want of a better word) by firing bolts between their oppositely-charged regions, either as intracloud lightning or the much rarer intercloud variety (from one cloud to another).
(Images via: NOAA Photo Library / Wikimedia Commons and CrankyPK)
If you’re watching a thunderstorm, most of the light show is intracloud lightning. Aircraft pilots are particularly wary of intercloud bolts for one very good reason – they shoot across their flightpaths.
Anvil Lightning
(Image via: Louie Jerome / Wikimedia Commons)
It seems ludicrous to describe something moving at 36 miles a second as “crawling”, but that is what anvil lightning does – spreading horizontally across the sky, giving the eye just enough time to discern its movement.
(Image via: Yeeta)
A particularly dangerous variety of anvil lightning is the “bolt from the blue” – a strike that moves horizontally away and out from the cloud before curling back down to earth, sometimes appearing out of a blue sky. As it originates in the positively-charged upper regions of a cloud, this is a form of positive lightning – massively charged and extremely hazardous.
Ribbon Lightning
(Image via: Disaster Strikes)
Ribbon lightning is lighting that gets blown sideways by the wind. No, really. Remember, lightning follows the paths of ionized air particles – and if the wind is strong enough, these particles will scud sideways, parallel to the observer. Any further lightning bolts will also appear to have been blown by the wind.
(Image via: Weatherfriend)
What we regard as a discrete flash of lightning is usually a flurry of bolts in both directions – and ribbon lightning (looking for all the world like bad camerawork) is the result of the afterimage of displaced return strokes of lightning registering on the human eye or digital CCD.
Bead Lightning
(Image via: © 2009 Andy Nixon – www.andynix.za.net)
Weirder still (and rarely captured on film) is bead lightning, the result of the lightning trail cooling down and breaking up into a string of bright, often spherical sections, visible for anything up to a second. It is not known if this is a product of standard irregularities in the path of the lightning, or if some atmospheric factor is malforming the lightning itself.
Sprites, Jets and Elves
(Image via: Sprites And Jets)
If anything illustrates how little we understand electrical storms, it is what happens above the clouds. They have been anecdotally recorded for decades, but it was only in 1994 that cameras first captured proof of the existence of a bizarre, colorful family of electrical discharge. We have termed them jets, sprites and elves – and they have modern science somewhat flummoxed.
(Image via: Wikimedia Commons)
Red sprites (and yes, that is their actual color) appear to be intense directed explosions of high-energy electrons triggered by positive lightning or cosmic radiation. They burst upwards at relativistic speed, almost too quick for the naked eye, to a height of almost 100 km. And…that is about all we know, so far. If you can bear the accompanying music, watch them in action here.
Ball Lightning
(Image via: Anomalies Unlimited)
Some people argue there’s no such thing. Other people post their YouTube videos and stand by them to the bitter end. But whether it truly exists or not, ball lightning has polarized (sorry) popular imagination ever since the above photo by a Japanese student started circulating. Until it is definitively captured on film or reproduced in the lab, it remains a case for Mulder and Scully.
St. Elmo’s Fire
(Images via: Captain James Ashby and Martin Popek)
Thanks to the late great John Hughes, everyone has heard the name – but what exactly is it? For the answer, we go back to the effect of electrical charge upon the air in a thundercloud. When grounded objects start to accumulate charge, they ionize the surrounding air and turn it to plasma, accompanied by an eerie blue glow and a flicker of small-scale electrical discharges. Remember that plasma makes it much easier for lightning to strike? Then you’ll know why St Elmo’s Fire is a very bad thing to encounter on your travels – and why this video of a commercial flight passing near a thunderstorm is not for the faint-hearted.
Volcanic Lightning
(Image via: Thunderbolts)
Lastly we come to a manifestation of lightning where everything comes together and anything goes. When volcanoes erupt, they unleash lightning storms of staggering ferocity. Talking of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD (and the destruction of Pompeii), Pliny the Younger wrote: “behind us were frightening dark clouds, rent by lightning twisted and hurled, opening to reveal huge figures of flame.”
(Image via: geekologie)
The mechanics of volcanic lightning aren’t yet known – it seems likely that water vapour released from magma forms a localized, super-concentrated form of storm cloud, unleashing a terrifyingly accelerated bout of electrical activity. Whatever the underlying causes, it’s clear that while the best advice for avoiding standard lightning is to get somewhere safe and crouch in a ball, if it’s volcanic lightning- you get out of there fast. Some storms aren’t meant to be weathered by mere mortals.
Mike