It's not uncommon for fishermen to catch 30 to 100 pound white sturgeon in British Columbia's Fraser River. But this one, caught on a rod and reel, weighed about 1,100 pounds and was more than 12 feet long. It may be over a hundred years old:

It could also be 35 years older than the angler, Michael Snell, 65, of Salisbury, England. Snell, who was fishing with his wife, Margaret, called the catch a fish of a lifetime.

"It is the most excitement I've ever had with a fish," said Snell, who took 1 1/2 hours to eventually land the fish along the shoreline. "It all happened so quickly. When we picked her head up out of the water, it was almost three-feet wide. I never knew a fish could be that large."

By comparison, the world-record swordfish is 1,182 pounds. The world record for a white sturgeon? It is 468 pounds taken in Benicia, Calif., according to the 2012 International Game Fish Association book of World Record Game Fishes.

The Snells and their professional guide took photos of the fish, tagged it and released it back into the river.

News Story and Video -via Neo-Neocon | Photo: Great River Fishing Adventures

Wolfram & Hart is a demonic law firm on the TV show Angel. Angel, the vampire cursed with a soul, battles it for four seasons until, in a stunning move, the firm offers him leadership of is Los Angeles branch office.

Angel, it's worth noting, is not a lawyer. But he's in charge of a law firm. Is this legal? According to attorney James Daily, it probably is, but it's bad practice:

It’s possible that Angel could be paid an ordinary salary (profit-sharing with non-lawyers is another no-no under 5.4(a)) and not have an ownership stake in the firm. That would take care of subsection (1). And it’s possible that procedures could be put in place such that he would not have the right to direct or control the professional judgment of Wolfram & Hart’s lawyers. For example, his role could be limited to managing marketing, non-lawyer human resources, information technology, investments by the firm, etc, with no control over how the firm handles cases. That could possibly take care of (3). But (2) is a killer. It strictly forbids a non-lawyer from being a corporate director or officer (in a professional corporation) or having a similar position (in a non-corporation). The CEO is such a position.

But, all is not lost. These are only the model rules. What matters is California’s own rules. And as it turns out, California doesn’t have an equivalent of Model Rule 5.4(d). There is California Rule 1-310, which states that “A member shall not form a partnership with a person who is not a lawyer if any of the activities of that partnership consist of the practice of law.” But Angel isn’t forming a partnership with the lawyers of Wolfram & Hart. ”A partnership generally involves a joint ownership and can be evidenced by firm name, declarations of coownership, or sharing of profits.” Los Angeles County Bar Association Ethics Opinion No. 518 (citing Crawford v. State Bar, 54 Cal. 2d 659, 667 (1960)). As long as Angel does not share profits with the firm (i.e. is paid a fixed salary) or have any ownership interest in it, then it doesn’t appear to be a partnership.[...]

True to form, Wolfram & Hart seems to be on slightly ethically shaky but technically legal grounds. Although I don’t think this arrangement would work in many other states, it’s possible that it would work in California. If I were Wolfram & Hart I would probably ask the State Bar of California for an advisory opinion before I hired Angel, though.

Link | Photo: Warner Bros.

There's only one copy of The Art of War on reserve at the library. Which student will survive the training and the competition for that copy? In this outstanding orientation film, the librarians at Texas A&M University retell the story of The Hunger Games.

Video Link -via Library Journal

Do you have an unruly monkey? Lisa Whiteaker, a professional pet monkey trainer, can come to your rescue:

Whiteaker, 48, has been a monkey trainer since 1992, and her specialty is privately owned pets. She rehabilitates monkeys adopted by people with no primate experience—customers who, in her words, “saw The Hangover Part II and thought, ‘I want a monkey too!’” By her own estimate, she’s “fixed” 6,700 monkeys so far in her 20-year career, not just in the U.S.: She’s traveled from South Africa to Mexico to Panama to the United Kingdom, and she Skypes with hundreds of troubled monkeys and their owners every week. But getting an appointment to see her isn’t easy. “I’m completely booked until March or April of 2013,” she says.

 Link -via Glenn Reynolds | Photo: donjd2

American Jewelry and Loan in the famous Detroit pawn shop where the reality TV show Hardcore Pawn is shot. According to its flamboyant owner Les Gold, people travel enormous distances to visit it and possibly appear on the hit show. One customer took even more extreme measures. He tried to sell his counterfeit money and the machine that he used to make it:

So Gold didn’t bat an eyelash when Smith showed up and wanted to sell him his counterfeit money and machine. He wanted to be on the show. Smith told Gold he would bring his counterfeiting equipment to the store. A short time later the Secret Service showed up at American Jewelry and Loan. They had been tracing Smith's activities since he had been passing his fake bills.

Gold filled them in on what Smith had told him and the agents found out Smith's counterfeiting claims had been captured on camera for the show. [...]

 As Gold says, “All because he wanted his five minutes of fame on TV."

Smith actually signed a waiver to be on the TV show.

Link -via Lowering the Bar | Photo: Images of Money

Before he became famous, British novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) worked as an architect. One of his more unpleasant projects was the relocation of an old graveyard to make way for the expansion of London. He arranged for the relocation of the bodies, but without their accompanying headstones. These he arranged in a circle around an ash tree in the St Pancras Churchyard. You can view more pictures of this tree, popularly known as the Hardy Tree, at the link.

Link | Photo: nicksarebi

We never see the mason's face. He moves smoothly from brick to brick, the trowel an extension of his body, his mind, his artist's soul. It's beautiful. But also tragic, as YouTube commenter Trumacron points out:

Just think of all the hard skilled hours that go to waste every time the Cool-aid Man shows up

Video Link -via Althouse

Nabisco's "Daily Twist" feature highlights great twists of fate over history. To mark the landing of the Curiosity space probe on Mars, it showed the rover moving over the surface of an open Oreo cookie.

Link -via NotCot

Here's your heartwarming story for the day: piranhas are plaguing the waterways near the Chinese city of Liuzhou. So the local government placed a bounty on them, offering 1,000 yuan--that's about $160 USD--for each captured piranha. Guess what happened next:

The local government of Liuzhou in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has ended its hunt for rogue piranha fish after offering a reward which attracted thousands of hopeful fishers to local rivers. The quest to capture the troublesome fish — whose presence in the river is unexplained — has become farcical, with online retailers offering to sell and deliver piranhas to the region for 12 yuan (US$1.80) apiece. [...]

Ads offering to sell piranhas proliferated meanwhile on Taobao, China's leading online trading platform, with one vendor offering express delivery of piranhas for US$1.80 per fish from Ningbo in the coastal province of Zhejiang — some 1,600 kilometers from Liuzhou, according to state broadcaster China National Radio.

Link -via Marginal Revolution | Photo (unrelated) via marcelometal

Think of it as a cheap replacement for the mechanical bull that your wife made you move to the garage after you got married:

From Korea, for those who like to ride the horse in front of TV and in home comfort of their own space. For all family member, this home mechanical equestrian system will meet for all the family need. It help device to fitness you up! And reach the health goal! Live longer for now! Be your Ace Power!!

Video Link -via Cynthia Yockey

The House of Plantagenet ruled England, among other lands, from 1154 through 1485.  In 1499, Edward Plantagenet was beheaded in the Tower of London, bringing his line to an end. The French city of Angers, the ancesteral home of the Planganets, is still peeved over the affair. It wants compensation from the current occupant of the English throne. Specifically, it wants Queen Elizabeth II's crown jewels:

 “As redress for the execution of Edward, Angers today demands that the Crown Jewels of England be transferred to Angers,” reads a petition posted on the city’s official website.

Recalling 25-year-old Edward’s “unfair and horrible death” at the hands of henchmen working for Henry VII, England’s first Tudor king, the city believes it is owed an apology and 513 years’ worth of compensation.

This would amount to billions in today’s currency, but Angers is prepared to accept the jewels to cover it all.

Link -via Lowering the Bar | Image: Executed Today

[YouTube Clip]

I take two weeks off and what happens? The amount of My Little Pony content on Neatorama drops to almost zero. For shame, guys.

In Skyfall, the next James Bond movie, Rainbow Dash is Bond, Princess Celestia is M and Twilight Sparkle is Q. Dash shall have her appletini shaken, not stirred.

- via Nerd Bastards

During the six Apollo moon landings, astronauts left American flags planted into the lunar soil. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has surveyed the moon for the past three years, has revealed that all but one of them are still standing:

The photos from Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter (LRO) show the flags are still casting shadows - except the one planted during the Apollo 11 mission.

This matches Buzz Aldrin's account of the flag being knocked over by engine exhaust as Apollo 11 lifted off. [...]

Prof Mark Robinson, the chief scientist for the spacecraft's camera instrument, LROC, said in a blog entry: "From the LROC images it is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites, except Apollo 11."

The Arizona State University scientist added: "The most convincing way to see that the flags are still there, is to view a time series of LROC images taken at different times of day, and watch the shadow circle the flag."

"Personally I was a bit surprised that the flags survived the harsh ultraviolet light and temperatures of the lunar surface, but they did. What they look like is another question (badly faded?)" 

At the link, you can see a satellite image of one of those flag shadows.

Link -via Glenn Reynolds | Photo: NASA