Free Republic

@stevebruskCNN : White House says Pres. Obama will honor the '72 Miami Dolphins on August 20th. Only undefeated team in NFL history never got an invitation. I guess there's nothing to do or going on...might as well do this.....sigh.

A dog may be man’s best friend, but dolphins can imitate human actions, and even how they solve problems. When a dolphin has one of its senses blocked, it can use other senses to mimic a human’s movements, according to a recent study. … The study, conducted at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, expands on previous studies looking at how dolphins are able to imitate other dolphins while blindfolded. To see if a change in sound would affect their imitation, researchers used humans instead of dolphins to make the movements in the water. Dr. Kelly Jaakkola, research...

Stephen Ross, the billionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins, is recruiting tax-and-spend puppet candidates to challenge fiscally conservative Florida Republican state legislators in the 2014 Republican primaries. The New York real estate investor’s actions are the latest in his campaign of personal destruction against fiscal conservatives who voted against massive taxpayer subsidies for Ross’ Sun Life Stadium. Ross, a real estate investor from Michigan who now lives in New York, owns 95 percent of the Miami Dolphins and Sun Life Stadium. Ross sought funding this year from Florida state and local taxpayers to cover much of the expenses for $350...

In a wonderful move for wildlife, India has become the fourth country (along with Costa Rica, Hungary and Chile) to ban captive dolphin and orca shows, a la those featured at “parks” such as Sea World. India has declared that cetaceans’ high level of intelligence grants them the status of “non-human persons,” which elevates the animals’ rights. The new law partly stems from the fact that cetaceans do not historically fare well in captivity. India’s Ministry of the Environment and Forests stated in the ban, “Confinement in captivity can seriously compromise the welfare and survival of all types of cetaceans...

Two trained dolphins surprise Navy specialists with their find: a Howell torpedo, state-of-the-art for its day in the late 19th century. It's only the second one known to exist.SAN DIEGO — In the ocean off Coronado, a Navy team has discovered a relic worthy of display in a military museum: a torpedo of the kind deployed in the late 19th century, considered a technological marvel in its day. But don't look for the primary discoverers to get a promotion or an invitation to meet the admirals at the Pentagon — although they might get an extra fish for dinner or...

The Miami Dolphins would consider building a brand new stadium in Palm Beach County, Fins CEO Mike Dee told reporters today. Dee, who’s still smarting from the team’s failure to get state dollars to renovate Sun Life Stadium, was asked directly about Palm Beach County — and said the team would consider moving north. “We’re open-minded to all long-term solutions,” Dee responded, according to The Miami Herald. “You can’t close the door on anything.

I received this in an email this AM from my friend Joe John at Combat Veterans for Congress.... It is really good and worth a watch! The Miami Dolphin cheerleaders sent the US Troops in Afghanistan a music video and they sent one back…imitating them almost to perfection. SO cool!! Plus the Soldiers light off a four point deuce mortar as a point of punctuation. Ya gotta love the American fighting man ! Soldiers win…hands down! CLICK BELOW:

No, it’s not a promo for the latest SyFy movie. There are claims circulating that three dolphins, trained to attack humans, have escaped from a Ukrainian military training facility armed with head-mounted guns and knives. Could this seemingly outrageous claim be true? Unfortunately, the U.S. media has nothing on a number of international publications that publish completely fabricated tales, often to score political points. And for its part, the Ukrainian government has denied the claim, calling it a “fabrication” and a “gross provocation.”

A wayward dolphin that meandered into a polluted urban canal, riveting onlookers as it splashed around in the filthy water and shook black gunk from its snout, died Friday evening, marine experts said. The deep-freeze weather hadn’t seemed to faze the dolphin as it swam in the Gowanus Canal, which runs 1.5 miles through a narrow industrial zone near some of Brooklyn’s wealthiest neighborhoods. … The filthy canal was named a Superfund site in 2010, meaning the government can force polluters to pay for its restoration. For more than a century before, coal yards, chemical factories and fuel refineries on...

Remarkable....Published on Jan 6, 2013 (949) 488-2828 or http://www.dolphinsafari.com for reservations and information. A huge pod of about 1,000 Common Dolphins stampeded off the coast of Dana Point, California, like a herd of wild horses. This has happened twice recently though it is very rare. The line of wild dolphins could be seen from miles away churning up the water and, to the delight of whale watching passengers and crew aboard Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari, the dolphins turned and stampeded directly over to the boat. Often this unusual behavior happens without warning and without any observable cause, as...

U.S. Troops in Afghanistan respond to a video made by the Miami Dolphin Cheerleaders of the "Call Me Maybe" video. It made me laugh and I had never heard the song before...enjoy and Happy New Year!

Three sailors assigned to the USS Maine and USS Wyoming became the first female unrestricted line officers to qualify in submarines on Dec. 5. Lt. j.g. Marquette Leveque, a native of Fort Collins, Colo., assigned to the Gold Crew of Wyoming, and Lt. j.g. Amber Cowan and Lt. j.g. Jennifer Noonan of Maine’s Blue Crew received their submarine “dolphins” during separate ceremonies at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga., and Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, Wash. In order to receive their dolphins, Leveque, Cowan and Noonan were required to qualify as Officer of the Deck and Engineering Officer of the Watch, perform...

Jillian Thomas’ father, Jamie Thomas, captured the Nov. 21 attack on video with images of his daughter’s face contorting with pain as the girl suffered three puncture wounds the size of dimesAn 8-year-old Atlanta girl and her family say they got the fright of their lives at SeaWorld Orlando last month when a dolphin lunged toward the girl and bit her hand. Jillian Thomas’ father, Jamie Thomas, captured the Nov. 21 attack on video with images of his daughter’s face contorting with pain as the girl suffered three puncture wounds the size of dimes, reports the Orlando Sentinel. The cuts...

NAVY DOLPHINS’ WORK WILL BE OUTSOURCED Robots to pick up animals’ tasks, like some detection of mines Like the factory worker and travel agent before them, some Navy dolphins trained to hunt down mines are scheduled to be replaced by computers in five years. However, the Navy’s marine mammals aren’t going away. Military-trained dolphins and sea lions will continue to be used for port security and retrieving objects from the sea floor — jobs they are still better at than machines. The Navy’s $28 million marine mammal program, headquartered in San Diego, uses 80 bottlenose dolphins and 40 California sea...

The sprinklers went off on the Sun Life field, dousing everybody with water. One side judge ran away like the sprinklers were full of hot lava, while some players seemed to enjoy cooling off in the Miami heat. Someone found the off switch a few seconds later, and play resumed.

U.S. Navy to ditch its dolphin and sea lions in favor of robots The U.S. Navy's Marine Mammal Program started back in the '60s, and the dolphins and sea lions in it help defend harbors, retrieve sunken equipment and, most dangerously, identify mines for deactivation. By 2017, the Navy wants robots to do all that, instead. The dolphins and sea lions the Navy uses really pull their weight: they're highly trained, and a team of veterinarians and handlers keep the animals primed and ready to be deployed anywhere in the world. The flip-side to that is that they're also expensive...

Ukraine Brings Back Naval Killer Dolphins The Ukrainan navy has restarted special training for dolphins and other animals for military duties including attacking enemy combat swimmers and detecting mines, a military source in the Ukrainian naval port of Sevastopol told RIA Novosti on Thursday. "Ten dolphins are now being trained for special tasks in the Ukrainian state oceanarium, and the Ukrainian military are regularly training the animals for detecting things on the seabed," the source said. Dolphins were trained at Sevastopol for the Soviet Navy as far back as 1973. They were trained to find military equipment such as sea...

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Chad Johnson was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence Saturday night after allegedly head-butting his wife in front of their house. Johnson was arrested after police arrived on the scene and found Evelyn Lozada with lacerations on her forehead. He told police the two of them had accidentally bumped heads. According to police, Lozada confronted her husband after finding a receipt for condoms, which started a "heated argument."

Wild bottlenose dolphins bond over their use of tools, with distinct cliques and classes forming over decades as a result of their skills, scientists have found. The communities, which have been compared with societies such as the Bullingdon Club in humans, mean the aquatic animals share their knowledge only with those in their own circle, passing it down the family line. The findings mean the traits of “inclusive inheritability” and culture are no longer considered exclusive to human beings. Observing wild dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, researchers from Georgetown University used hunting tools as a marker of dolphin societal habits....

The Peruvian government claims that nearly 900 dolphins died of natural causes between February and April of this year. A separate dolphin necropsy disagrees with this statement and lays the blame on bursts of high-pressure compressed air used to look for oil deposits beneath the ocean. The government’s report didn’t say what killed the dolphins or why so many died at one time. Blaming natural causes doesn’t specify any particular culprit. And it seems odd that 800 individuals all died at once, especially considering they were of different ages and species. It would be as if everyone at a shopping...