We have a huge smorgasbord selection for the last Friday in May, so without further ado… This freaky looking creature is a hot air balloon commissioned by the city of Canberra to celebrate its centennial anniversary as the capital of Australia. The city is known for its hot air ballons so it was only natural to use a balloon as a way to celebrate. However, instead of your typical hot air balloon with a “Happy Birthday” greeting they chose artist Patricia Piccinini to create what she calles the Skywhale. The animal is touring Austalia and yes, those are mammary fins.
[via WIRED]
For some people, being in the hobby for 10 years is a long time, so when we’re able to hear interesting tales from true marine aquaria pioneers, you know you’re in for a treat. Ron Shimek shared a fascinating tale about a worm that was “etched indelibly” in his memory. For those of us who have seen large worms in their tank, we know the shock these creatures can bring. Well Shimek has us beat with this story of a worm he collected in Alaska, named Prince Marvin Of Nemertinea, measuring in close to 50-feet-long! Make sure you go and read the entire fascinating story.
[via Reef to Rainforest]
There are so many cool things on Kickstarter but this one caught our eyes and got our creative juices flowing. The Monkey Light Pro uses four LED bars attached inside your bike wheel. As you pedel away, the system rotates and by the power of Persistence Of Vision an image is created in lights its 256 full color LEDs. The Monkey Light Pro has sensors to track its speed, heads-up position and rotation direction allowing the system to create stable, full-wheel images from 10 to 40 mph. There are some cool images preloaded but we can imagine adding a few fish into the system. Retail price is around $900 for the pair. That may be a high price but that’s what you have to pay for this much ‘awesome’.
[via Kickstarter]
And now, something completely different. We all know how hard it is to be owners of aquatic pets and when they misbehave, we have to be creative in our punishment. This Statshot from The Onion shows the top ways American’s discipline their pets.
[via The Onion]
Here is an interesting video of a diver interacting with Whale Sharks off the coast of Isla Mujeres in Mexico. Although these are humongous sharks, they are peaceful filter feeders — albeit intimidating peaceful filter feeders.
Researchers at Stanford have used the flying fish as the muse for this jumping glider. This glider can jump and glide over a greater distance than an equivalent jumping robot. Using a carbon fiber spring to take off, the jumpglider has a pivoting wing that stays out of the way during ascent, but which locks into place to glide farther on the way down.
[via GizMag]
