Normally what I would do here is get some information on some sort of terrifying animal, then try to form it into some sort of coherent string of words to share with everybody. Today is different. Today I have almost no information or statistics on what I am saying.

Just a few moments ago, I was looking at a list of non-bird animals that are able to fly, glide, or otherwise become airborne for an extended period of time. Everything was looking in order: ants that could maneuver and glide when they fell off trees, spiders that use web as parachutes to float along in the wind. Then I got to the next header which read ‘Moluscs’. Seems like a strange group to have a flying member, butd hey, they are a pretty diverse group that has everything from limpets to the octopus, maybe there is some strange offshoot species that catches wind as it falls or some nonsense like that. Then I saw it – Flying squid.

Now squid were scary enough when it was just a fast moving cephalopod with grasping tentacles and a powerful parrot-like beak. But now they can use jet propulsion to launch themselves into the air and travel distances up to 50 meters? “Bullshit!” was my initial response (that I probably shouldn’t have yelled out loud, being at work at the time). So I hit some wikipedia pages for flying squid, and while they did mention briefly that a form of squid jet propulsion does exist it didn’t say anything about lifting said squid out of the ocean, not to mention 50m. So I went to youtube and google images to see some visuals of this thing. Nothing. Not one credible image or video. I offer a bounty of $20 + a hug for a video of a squid flying by it’s own power, and a warning to watch yourself when near the ocean (maybe)

-Wolverox

Once upon a time, the Ghostbusters were told that they could choose the form their destruction would take and, unable to keep his mind blank, Ray thought up what should have been the tool of their demise in the form of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Now it is our turn to decide. We all know that eventually we will create robots that will turn on us in a murderous fashion. We just get the chance to choose what we’ll be looking at when we’re on the short end of the genocide stick. While I would personally choose something along the lines of “target shaped” it seems the general consensus between the technology firms is bears. Robot bears. (more…)

In today’s adventure we are traveling to the Mediterranean, a land with some of the oldest tales of terrifying sea monsters on the planet. Now we are told a new menace has arisen and warned in dire tones that it will soon be gunning for us. Join me as I take a look at ‘Marine Mucilage’ and explain why I don’t care.

So what happens in the warm still waters of the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas is organic matter (both living and not) falls from the surface and congregates near the floor. While this is happening, bacteria are doing their own thing and spitting out exopolymers (basically glue) to whatever piece of sea garbage they are attached to. Eventually, large chains are formed. Large chains that just happen to make a good spot for others critters to come hide out or look for food. Of course that just makes it a better place to hide or eat and we have ourselves a chain reaction.

Now that we have our blob of sea-garbage we can start looking at why people are flipping their lids. I have to admit after you have to start describing the length in miles of one of these things with 4 digits you begin to take notice. This thick mucus structure can also trap fish and cover their gills  until they suffocate and eventually dissolve into part of the blob themselves. What has scientists and the guys at national geographic up in arms though, is the ability for the mucilage to carry bacteria and viruses, the most notable of which being E(scherichia) Coli.

Which brings me to why I don’t care, or more specifically, why this thing fails at being a human killing terror machine. The first is that these things have been reported since the 1700′s and if there was a high rate of infection someone would have noticed earlier that hey, all these guys that have e coli went to the beach and swam in bio-garbage yesterday. Secondly, when will this conversation ever be necessary? “I know the beach is covered with this weird sick mucus, but I am going to swim anyway”    “Don’t do that, there is incredible microbial biodiversity in those, maybe even E Coli”    “oh, well I better not then”.

a link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091008-giant-sea-mucus-blobs.html

-Wolverox