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A photographer caught video of a crab hitching a ride on the back of a giant pink meanie jellyfish off the Gulf Coast of Florida. Pat Clyne made the video of the underwater spectacle off the coast of Sanibel Island, WKMG-TV, Orlando, Fla., reported. The video shows the crab moving underwater on the pink meanie jellyfish, which have tentacles 100 feet long and are rarely seen in the Gulf of Mexico.

Diver catches giant crab   A giant crab with a shell 12in wide has been caught by an Aylesbury diver off the UK coast. The crustacean, weighing 17lb and with a claw span of 9in, was found by diver Paul Worsley during a recent diving trip in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Douglas Lanfear, who runs the dive boat Blue Turtle, said he was amazed at the size of the crab. He said: "It was truly a monster. It was the biggest crab I have ever seen in all my years and there were fishermen who have been working here for...

Stalin's last army: hordes of gigantic crabs on their way to invade Europe - By Julius Strauss in Kirkenes, Northern Norway Millions of giant Pacific crabs, whose ancestors were brought to Europe by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, are marching south along Norway's coast, devouring everything in their path.The monster crabs, which can weigh up to 25lb and have a claw-span of more than three feet, are proving so resilient that scientists fear they could end up as far south as Gibraltar. Energised by a mysterious population explosion a decade ago, whole armies of the crustaceans - known as the...

Environmentalists and fishermen in northern Norway are warning of a Russian invasion of alien crustaceans which are threatening to ruin the local sea fauna. They say the giant red king crab is spreading with alarming speed from Russian waters along the Norwegian coast, destroying everything in its wake. The crab has few natural enemies, and is considered to be an omnivore, digesting everything from cod larvae to other crabs. But it is also a sought-after delicacy. Lars Petter Oeye takes gourmet tourists on fjord crab safaris near the border with Russia, high up in Norway's Arctic north. Here, crabs are...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A crab species from China has been discovered in the Patapsco River, state authorities said Friday, prompting fears about the potentially invasive species' presence in the Chesapeake Bay. The crab, a mature male Chinese mitten crab, was collected at the mouth of the Patapsco several weeks ago by a commercial waterman using fishing crab pots. The species, scientific name Eriocheir sinensis, is considered a potentially invasive species, the state Department of Natural Resources said Friday. "This is the first confirmed recorded case for the Chesapeake Bay," Lynn Fegley, a DNR fisheries biologist said in a statement. "Only...

Sinister secret of snail's escape By Richard Black Environment Correspondent, BBC News website Right-handed flame box crabs find left-handedness hard to swallow Snails with left-handed shells can have a big advantage in life - predators may find it impossible to eat them. That is the conclusion of research just published in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters. Scientists from the US examined whelks and cone shells preyed on by the crab Calappa flammea. They found the crab is unable to open left-handed shells because it only has a tool for peeling them on its right claw; so it discards them....

With all the last-minute hustle and bustle leading up to the Big Day, it sometimes seems like just too much to have to plan Christmas Eve dinner, too. What we all want right now is something festive and seasonal, impressive but not too elaborate.

Link post: access the thread and get your Merry Christmas (Island) greeting using the link below -- and post any discussion and commentary there, of course. Geology Picture of the Week, December 19-25, 2004: Merry Christmas (Island)

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 January 28 The Crab Nebula from CFHT Credit & Copyright: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, J.-C. Cuillandre (CFHT), Coelum Explanation: This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher...

<p>IF YOU TOOK every failed, trendy educrat idea, packaged them in a school and put radical animal-rights activists in charge of it, you'd end up with something like the Humane Education Learning Community -- a K-6 charter school approved by Sacramento's San Juan Unified School District.</p>

DES MOINES, Iowa (Dow Jones/AP) - Darden Restaurants Inc. Wednesday said it had replaced the head of Red Lobster, its biggest chain, after an all-you-can-eat crab promotion went awry. Darden President and Chief Operating Officer Dick Rivera will succeed Edna Morris as president of Red Lobster. Morris, who had been in that job just 18 months, left to pursue other interests, the company said. Darden executives said Red Lobster management had badly miscalculated how many times customers would refill their plates after paying $20 for an "endless" crab entree. Meanwhile, crab prices were going up, sending the profit margin crashing....

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 September 14 The Crab Nebula from VLT Credit: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT, ESO Explanation: The Crab Nebula, filled with mysterious filaments, is the result of a star that was seen to explode in 1054 AD. This spectacular supernova explosion was recorded by Chinese and (quite probably) Anasazi Indian astronomers. The filaments are mysterious because they appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 September 4 Composite Crab Credit: J. Hester (ASU) et al., CXC, HST, NASA Explanation: The Crab Pulsar, a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second, lies at the center of this composite image of the inner region of the well-known Crab Nebula. The spectacular picture combines optical data (red) from the Hubble Space Telescope and x-ray images (blue) from the Chandra Observatory, also used in...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 April 3 Jupiter in the Hive Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel Explanation: If you can find planet Jupiter in tonight's sky, then you can also find M44, popularly known as the Beehive star cluster. In fact, with a pair of binoculars most casual skygazers should find it easy to zero in on this celestial scene. It should be easy because after sunset Jupiter presently rules the night...

KIRKENES, Norway -- A spiny "Red Army" of monster crabs is on the march west from the Russian Arctic and might end up menacing vacationers on beaches all the way to Portugal. An estimated 12 million king crabs, descendants of stock brought from the Pacific Ocean under a Stalin-era scheme, are scuttling into the Atlantic after a mystery crustacean population explosion off northern Russia. The crabs, originally an experimental food source for the barren northwest Soviet Union, have ravaged their way about 500 kilometers along Norway's Arctic coast in just 10 years. No one knows how far south the seabed...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 10 The Crab that Played with the Planet Credit & Copyright: Ron Wodaski, Newastro Remote Telescope at New Mexico Skies Explanation: Wandering through the constellation Taurus, Saturn made its closest approach to planet Earth last month, tilting its lovely rings toward appreciative skygazers while rising high in midnight skies. On January 4th and 5th, Saturn also crossed in front of the high and far-off Crab Nebula...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 September 20 The Crab Nebula Pulsar Shrugs Credit: J. Hester (ASU), CXC, HST, NOAO, NSF, NASA Explanation: How does a city-sized neutron star power the vast Crab Nebula? The expulsion of wisps of hot gas at high speeds appears to be at least part of the answer. Yesterday time-lapse movies taken from both the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope were released showing a wisp...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 14 The Crab Nebula from VLT Credit: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT, ESO Explanation: The Crab Nebula, filled with mysterious filaments, is the result of a star that was seen to explode in 1054 AD. This spectacular supernova explosion was recorded by Chinese and (quite probably) Anasazi Indian astronomers. The filaments are mysterious because they appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and...