Last week, a sperm whale was spotted in the Mediterranean Sea, a mile and a half off Herzliya Marina, just north of Tel Aviv. After a couple hours of observation by researchers from the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center, they came to the conclusion that this was not a sperm whale, it was a gray whale, a species that doesn't exist in the Mediterranean! There have been no gray whales observed in the Atlantic Ocean since the 18th century. All gray whales live in the Pacific. Except this one. Some scientists think the retreat of ice in the Arctic led the confused whale into the Atlantic.
In other words, a summering gray whale north of Alaska, swimming eastward along the Alaska coast, may have been able to take advantage of ice-free conditions to continue swimming eastward, all the way through the Canadian Archipelago and west of Greenland, (or, perhaps more likely, westward, above Russia and Europe, via the Northeast Passage) until instinct instructed it to turn south and ultimately hang a left.
Paul Dateh sings his own harmonies and accompanies himself on the violin. This performance is a medley of recent Top 40 hits from Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Rhihanna, and Usher. -via I Am Bored
Isabella Rossellini has a new video series called Seduce Me, in which she acts out the bizarre mating rituals of different animal species. Besides the cuttlefish shown, there are videos for bedbugs, salmon, snakes, and duck mating. Warning: adult themes. Link-Thanks, Jelena!
Attention baseball fans! Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss is a bit different from what you are used to, but there's a prize involved just for looking. In the quiz, Gar Ryness, the Batting Stance Guy, imitates the batting stances of some famous players. You select which player from a field of six for each video presented. I didn't even try, since I knew I would fail miserably. Let us know how you fared! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/55223
My, how Russell has grown! This fellow attended the SoCal Cosplay Gathering at Craig Regional Park in Fullerton, California. OC Weekly has a slideshow of participants, with a distinct preponderance of Japanese anime characters. Link -Thanks, Vickie!
Lucky found himself 90 feet up in a tree in Hartsville, South Carolina and was so frightened he didn't come down for six weeks! In fact, he would still be up there if it weren't for a brave tree climber. The fire department, a utility company, and a tree service had tried several times to bring the cat down, but didn't have equipment tall enough to reach him. Lucky’s owner, Richard Nall, was relieved to have his cat back.
“He was alert, his eyes were wide open, ( he was) skinny as a rail, very dehydrated, and probably was in his last few days,“ Nall said of Lucky’s condition after he was freed from the tree.
Family friend Debbie Wilkes immediately transported Lucky to his veterinarian in Bishopville.
“He was running a temperature and they immediately put him on antibiotics, started IV fluids and gave him vitamin shots and offered him a can of food and he ate it all up,“ Wilkes said.
The cat lost nearly half his body weight, but is expected to recover. Link -via Arbroath
What could you do in Minneapolis in 1969 if you couldn't afford (or couldn't find) marijuana? Smoke catnip, of course! Marijuana was $10 to $20 an ounce (gasp!), but catnip cost only about 30 cents an ounce.
“We couldn’t keep catnip on the shelf for a while,” said Richard Andersen, owner of four Twin Cities pet centers. “Lots of kids were buying a dozen or two dozen packages at a time. I knew something was abnormal. The cat population couldn’t have increased as much as the sales of catnip. Large-quantity sales have diminished, but they are still going on.”
The manager of a Downtown Minneapolis department store pet shop concurred. “We questioned some of the youthful big buyers of catnip and they admitted they were smoking it,” he said.
Another pet store owner said, “I refuse to sell large quantities of catnip to young people. I know they want to smoke it and I don’t think it’s right.”
Whether catnip smoking ever had any hallucinogenic effect on the user at all is debatable, but the fad didn't last long. http://blogs2.startribune.com/blogs/oldnews/archives/191 -via TYWKIWDBI
Do as you're told, especially in an action movie! It's a line you hear in every movie, which sounds much sillier when they are strung together. Some NSFW language. -via The Litter Box
An anonymous amateur herpetologist sent this picture of her tattoo to Carl Zimmer, who collects science tattoos. The snake is Henry, a North Brazilian Boa constrictor. A tattoo artist inked Henry on the woman's leg freehand over a 14 month period! Link
The following is an article from the bookUncle John's Bathroom Reader Wonderful World of Odd.
If you thought Gilligan's Island or Alf were goofy ideas for TV shows (which they were), you should see the stuff that doesn't make it onto the air. Someone actually filmed pilot episodes of the following shows.
Baffled! (1973)
A race-car driver (Leonard Nimoy) gets injured in a crash and suddenly begins receiving visions of murders that haven't occurred yet. He solves the crimes before they happen with the help of a female student of psychic phenomena. Clone Master (1978) A government scientist (Art Hindle) makes a bunch of clones of himself (all played by Art Hindle)then sends them out into the world to fight crime and catch evildoers. Each episode would have focused on a different clone's adventures. The Tribe (1974) Set 40,000 years ago at the end of the Ice Age, this series chronicled a Cro-Magnon family's struggle to survive harsh living conditions and skirmishes with a rival tribe of primitive Neanderthals.
The Mysterious Two (1979)
A man must stop two popular televangelists...because they are actually evil aliens who are brainwashing humanity in order to take over the planet.
Judge Dee (1974) Lots of shows in the 1970s were about sensitive people traveling around, generously helping others with their personal problems for free (Kung Fu and The Incredible Hulk are two examples). In Judge Dee, a judge wanders his rural district helping people and resolving disputes. The twist: Judge Dee is set in 7th-century China. It's not to be confused with High Risk, in which six former circus performers hit the road and help people solve their problems...for money.
Microcops (1989) Two microscopic cops from outer space come to Earth in pursuit of an equally tiny intergalactic criminal mastermind. To move around the planet, the tiny cops attach their tiny spaceship to people, dogs, and birds. Danger Team (1991) A ball of space goop crash-lands in a sculptor's studio. Naturally, he molds the goop into three figurines. The figurines come to life, but only the artist can see them. The artist and the goop men team up to go fight crime.
A little boy idolizes his policeman father and likes to secretly tail him when he goes out on drug busts and stakeouts at night. One night, the kid gets killed. Dad is distraught... until he meets his new crime-fighting partner-a fire-brething, 100-foot-tall robot dinosaur that's possessed by the spirit of his dead son.
Shangri-La Plaza (1990) A widow and her teenage daughter inherit a donut shop in a Los Angeles strip mall and flirt with the mechanic brothers who work next door. Sounds like normal TV far...except that all of the dialog was sung.
Tag Team (1991) Trying to cash in on the popularity of professional wrestling, this ppilot starred 1980s WWF stars "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Jesse "The Body" Ventura as the Lizard Brothers, professional wrestlers who quit the ring to become undercover cops.
Wurlitzer (1985) A man inherits a decaying diner and its antique Wurlitzer jukebox. The plot: In each episode, the man selects a song on the jukebox and is then transported back in time to the year that song came out. Why? To help people with their problems. In the pilot episode, he listens to a Jefferson Airplane song, goes to 1968 San Francisco, and helps a hippie quit drugs.
America 2100 (1979) Two stand-up comedians are accidently put into suspended animation. They awake at the dawn of the 22nd century to find the world run by a supercomputer with the voice and old jokes of fellow comedian Sid Caesar.
K-9000 (1991)
A Los Angeles cop volunteers for a futuristic experiment: His new partner is half robot, half dog. The two are able to communicate via the microchip implanted in the cop's brain.
Danny and the Mermaid (1978) Danny is an oceanography student failing all of his classes. Then he meets a mermaid who, along with her talking dolphin friend, helps Danny get better grades by escorting him all over the ocean and tutoring him on sea life.
Ethel is an Elephant (1980) A New York photographer fights with his landlord to keep his unusual pet in his apartment-an elephant (named Ethel) that was abandoned by the circus. Most of the comedy revolves around the unsuccessful attempts to hide Ethel behind furniture.
Mixed Nuts (1977) This pilot was one of the first shows to depict mentally ill people living in an insane asylum. A sensitive portrayal of forgotten people living on society's fringe? No, Mixed Nuts was actually a comedy.
Dad's a Dog (1989) To the embarrassment of his children, the only work a former TV star can get is on a sitcom (also called Dad's a Dog), where he performs the coice of a man who is magically transformed into a dog.
Heil, Honey I'm Home! (1990)
A parody of 1950s sitcoms like Leave It To Beaver, this British show was about Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun living peacefully in a suburban neighborhood until their lives are turned upside down by their new Jewish neighbors.
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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Wonderful World of Odd. This book focuses on the odd-side of life and features articles like the strangest TV shows never made, the creepiest insect on Earth, odd medical conditions, and many, many more.
What happened at Neatorama this past week? We had lots of links and videos, and some exclusive articles you don't want to miss. Oh yeah, and contests, too!
David Israel interviewed Ken Denmead from Geek Dad about raising geek kids and his new book entitled Geek Dad. Congratulations to Ian Worcester, Benjamin Szilagyi, and Lide Winburn, who won copies of the book!
From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, we brought you a crash course in Fire 101. I don't know about you, but I learned some new things about fire!
Over at mental_floss, Neatorama co-sponsored the How Did You Know? contest that ran over five days, presented many strange challenges, and gave away lots of prizes! Congratulations to winners Margaret Cunniff and Leah Alpert, who solved all the puzzles, and to everyone who won prizes!
The What Is It? game ran on Thursday. I will add the winners here when Alex announces them.
Wish List Wednesday returned this week. Congratulations to winners Nick Fabiani, Heather Kallinger, and Xakana! Be ready when the Wednesday Wish List comes around again by registering an account at the Neato Shop.
Alex announced the Upcoming Queue competition in which one submitter will win an iPad and two more will win $50 in Neato Shop merchandise! The contest will run through the end of May. So far, you guys are doing a wonderful job of spotting hot links on the internet before I have a chance to post them! I predict the key to winning will be persistence, as some competitors may give up or slow down long before the contest is over.
Dark Roasted Blend looks at Coney Island in its heyday, when parks and attractions were constantly opening and attempting to outdo everything that came before. See photographs and postcards from the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the New York neighborhood was nicknamed the City of Fire. Link
Meowmania is a simple webpage that meows. Keep clicking and see what happens to the pets in your home -or your office if you have pets in the office. Both times I pulled this up today, three cats and one dog came to my desk. That's 100% attendance! Link -via b3ta
Jeff Wysaski made pie charts to explain how much time wild animals devote to their daily activities. Besides the jellyfish, you can explore the charts of a lion, elephant, spider, and panda. Link-Thanks, Amanda!
Twelve-year-old Joshua Littman, who has Asperger's syndrome, interviewed his mother, Sarah. StoryCorps turned it into their first animated video. This will get you into the mood for Mothers Day. -via Buzzfeed
Update: Here's the original NPR story from 2006. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5285066
