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In the black depths of the frigid Arctic Ocean, scientists on a 2005 expedition found a splash of color: The brilliant, blood-red Crossota norvegica jellyfish (pictured). The creature was spotted by a remotely operated vehicle 8,530 feet (2,600 meters) underwater during a two-month National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expedition to the Canada Basin, the deepest and least explored part of the Arctic waters. Though C. norvegica is not a new species, several new deep-sea animals were discovered during the expedition--some of which were announced in recent research papers in 2009.

Sorry, kids—scientists have not discovered the first known bubblegum-blowing sea creature. But they have found the only known corals to eat adult jellyfish, a new study says. Opening wide--yes, that's a mouth--a mushroom coral ingests a roughly 4-and-a-half-inch-wide (12-centimeter) moon jellyfish (pictured) in the Red Sea in March 2009. And this coral wasn't alone. The study, led by scientists from Israel's Bar-Ilan University and Tel Aviv University, witnessed other corals dining on the jellyfish. Marine ecologist Jennifer Smith, who wasn't part of the study, agreed the find was unique, though she's "not entirely surprised." Mushroom corals, which have soft bodies,...

KOKONOGI, Japan – A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass. The fishermen leaned into the nets, grunting and grumbling as they tossed the translucent jellyfish back into the bay, giants weighing up to 200 kilograms (450 pounds), marine invaders that are putting the men's livelihoods at risk. The venom of the Nomura, the world's largest jellyfish, a creature up to 2 meters (6 feet) in...

A 10-ton fishing boat has been sunk by gigantic jellyfish off eastern Japan. -snip- The crew of the fishing boat was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The local Coast Guard office reported that the weather was clear and the sea was calm at the time of the accident.

BBC LATEST: Headline Only US President Obama Says He Will Not Rush "Solemn Decision" To Commit Troops To Afghanistan

Jellyfish tossing helps land Madeira Beach man in jail By Brant James, Times Staff Writer Posted: Sep 08, 2009 02:27 PM MADEIRA BEACH — A 41-year-old man who witnesses said had been drinking since 9 a.m. was arrested Monday afternoon after authorities say he created a disturbance by pretending to drown and throw jellyfish on teenagers. Keith Edward Marriott, of 100 154th Ave. in Madeira Beach, faces charges of disorderly intoxication and carrying a concealed weapon after a pocketknife was found in his shorts, Pinellas County sheriff's deputies said. Marriott repeatedly submerged himself and floated to the surface, "causing concern...

Eat your heart out, Godzilla. A massive menace from the sea seems poised to invade Japan anew this summer, experts predict. In 2005 Japanese waters were inundated with swarms of Nomura's jellyfish--like the pair seen above cruising off the coast of Fukui Prefecture in November 2007. The giants clogged fishing nets and poisoned potential catches with their toxic stings, costing coastal fishers billions of yen. Scientists have since been racing to unlock the mysteries of this giant jellyfish species in an attempt to forecast invasions and prevent damages. This June researchers at Hiroshima University made some of the first surveys...

Giant jellyfish descend on the Sea of Japan, causing untold devastation to coastal villages and leaving a trail of destruction and human misery behind. Sounds like a great sci-fi flick. But it's not. It's real and it's a nightmare for Japanese fishermen. The massive sea creatures, called Nomura's jellyfish, can grow 6 feet in diameter and weigh more than 450 pounds. Scientists think they originate in the Yellow Sea and in Chinese waters. For the third year since 2005, ocean currents are transporting them into the Sea of Japan. Monty Williams, a marine biologist at Alabama's Dauphin Island Sea Lab,...

A 4ft jellyfish - one of the biggest to be found in Britain - washed up on a popular beauty spot on the coast of north Devon. Experts say the 4ft (1.21m) Rootmouth Jellyfish - nicknamed the Dustbin lid or Sea Mushroom - can cause a painful rash on human skin if in contact with tentacles. The jellyfish was caught on camera by photographer Peter Stapleton who is keeping the exact location secret to avoid panic. "A woman came up to me and said there was a huge jellyfish over on the other side of the beach," he said. "It...

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.

Look on the bright side—this luminous new jellyfish species doesn't sting. Jellyfish expert Lisa Gershwin caught the unnamed species in early March while swimming near a jetty off the Australian island of Tasmania with a "phototank"—a small aquarium that makes it easy to photograph sea life. The jellyfish does not emit its own light, as bioluminescent creatures do. Rather, its rainbow glow emanates from light reflecting off the creature's cilia, small hairlike projections that beat simultaneously to move te jellyfish through the water.

A potentially "immortal" jellyfish species that can age backward—the Benjamin Button of the deep—is silently invading the world's oceans, swarm by swarm, a recent study says. Like the Brad Pitt movie character, the immortal jellyfish transforms from an adult back into a baby, but with an added bonus: Unlike Benjamin Button, the jellyfish can do it over and over again—though apparently only as an emergency measure.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is denouncing Republican attempts to link President-elect Barack Obama and disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Stockholm, Sweden (AHN) - Another trio of scientists were recognized by the Nobel Foundation for their discovery of the mystery behind the green glow of jellyfish. The past two days saw trios also being awarded the Nobel laureates for Medicine and Physics. For this finding, Osamu Shimomura of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and Roger Tsien of the University of California at San Diego will be awarded the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.

Earth's first animal was the ocean-drifting comb jelly, not the simple sponge, according to a new find that has shocked scientists who didn't imagine the earliest critter could be so complex... scientists analyzed massive volumes of genetic data to define the earliest splits at the base of the animal tree of life... The new study surprisingly found that the comb jelly was the first animal to diverge from the base of the tree, not the less complex sponge, which had previously been given the honor... Unlike sponges, comb jellies have connective tissues and a nervous system, and so are more...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.

Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman said at a Knesset plenary meeting on Monday, addressing Arab MKs, that "a new administration will be established and then we will take care of you." The statement came three days after Lieberman made another inflammatory statement directed at Arab MKs, shortly after an Israeli Arab terrorist gunned down students at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem on Thursday, killing eight people. Lieberman had said following the incident that the attack had been a result of incitement to violence propagated by Arab MKs. (edit) Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman. (Daniel Bar On/Jini) Lieberman...

Pink 450-Pound Blobs Clog Nets but Spur New Recipes; Pointing Fingers at China (OKI, Japan) -- Fisherman Ryoichi Yoshida pulled in his nets before dawn one morning, hoping for lots of yellowtail and mackerel. But the fish were overwhelmed by a heaving mass of living pink slime. The creatures, called Nomura jellyfish, can measure six feet across and weigh up to about 450 pounds. They have been drifting en masse to places like Oki, a small island 40 miles off the coast, bobbing beneath the surface of the water like pink mines. They rip holes in fishermen's nets, and they...

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (CNN) -- Israel is "ready now for a deal," said an Israeli official attending Tuesday's U.S.-brokered Mideast summit aimed at laying the groundwork for future peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have "very good chemistry," the official said, adding that he is hopeful a document "will be finalized before we leave Washington Wednesday night." -snip-

HEADLINE: Israel May OK Division of Jerusalem Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (AP Photo)Summary of Six Day war from BBC: After a period of relative peace in the Middle East(?), Palestinian guerrilla groups, supported by Egypt and Syria, started a series of attacks on the Israeli border in 1965. These were followed by Israeli reprisals and a gradual build-up of Arab military forces around Israel's border. The Second Arab-Israeli war that began on 5 June 1967 ended on 10 June and became known as the six-day war - it changed the face of the Middle East conflict. At the end...

One night while diving for lobster on the island of Mauritius, an Australian named Ian McCormick was stung on his forearm by what local Creole fishermen call "invisibles": extraordinarily poisonous but hard to see "five-box" jellyfish, in the nomenclature of the trade. Medics were called -- urgently. It was an emergency if ever there is an emergency. "Found in the waters off northern Australia, the box jellyfish Chironex fleckeri is not the only marine invertebrate to use venom, but it is the possessor of arguably the most lethal venom in the world," notes one expert. "In the past half...

Australian jellyfish that invaded the Gulf of Mexico seven years ago have made a "vigorous reappearance" this summer and threaten to devour native fish, scientists announced Friday. And in the Gulf, with plenty to eat, they grow to monster size. "In their native waters, they tend to be fist-sized," said Monty Graham of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. "Here in the Gulf, they can be a big as dinner plates.” The creatures can weigh up to 25 pounds. The Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza punctata, are not dangerous to humans. But scientists say the invasion could pose a threat to the...

Jellyfish with up to a dozen heads have been created in the laboratory by carefully monkeying with a few genes. The genetic experiments could shed light on how natural colonies of other multi-headed organisms first originated, including some that build coral reefs. Researchers targeted so-called Cnox genes, which help control how the bodies of jellyfish are laid out as their embryos develop. These genes are closely related to Hox genes, which play a similar role in humans. How they did it They experimented on the European hydromedusa (Eleutheria dichotoma), collected from the south of France. (In Greek mythology, the Hydra...

MADRID, Spain - What do tourists and jellyfish have in common? They both love warm water and proliferate along Spanish beaches in the summer. And that's bad news for Spain, the world's top tourist destination after France. On Friday, the government approved a plan to create an armada of recreational boaters to spot the stinging blobs and summon help. "The important thing is that anybody who comes to the beaches here in Spain should know that a serious plan is under way to keep this from being a problem," said Josep-Maria Gili, the biologist coordinating the project. Spain's Mediterranean waters...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that the release of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, held since June by Gaza militants, would lead to the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. "With Gilad Shalit's release and his return safe and sound to his family, the Israeli government will be willing to release many Palestinian prisoners, even those who have been sentenced to lengthy terms," Olmert said. The prime minister, speaking at the grave of Israel's first premier, David Ben-Gurion, in Sde Boker, said that he was extending his hand in peace to the Palestinians, and that he hoped...

Op-Ed Contributor LATE on a summer afternoon not long ago, the water at Lucy Vincent Beach on Martha’s Vineyard was warm, and the toxic jellyfish that had plagued bathers weeks earlier had floated out to sea. Body-surfing in on my last wave, I suddenly felt as if someone had whacked my leg with a lead pipe studded with nails. On the 1-to-10 pain scale we use with patients, I would have called it a 14. When I rubbed the area with my hand, my whole palm stung. Apparently those toxic jellyfish hadn’t all left. A crowd of passers-by gathered to...

Dairy giant Fonterra is distancing itself from Danish products caught up in widespread Muslim protests and trade boycotts after the publication of cartoons of Mohammed. Denmark was the first country to publish controversial caricatures of the Muslim prophet last September and the country has been hardest hit by the backlash. Fonterra is remaining tight-lipped about any impact the publication of the cartoons in New Zealand might have had on its business, but Middle East reports say that some emails and fliers wrongly list Fonterra products as coming from Denmark. Fonterra has published an ad in Middle East newspapers highlighting that...

The Prime Minister has spoken out about the Mohammad cartoon controversy, saying she does not think it is a freedom of the press issue. Helen Clark says the New Zealand press is free, and politicians do not dictate what it can and cannot print. She says it is a question of judgement. She does not think the publication of the cartoons does anything to bring communities together in New Zealand or around the world. Helen Clark says the New Zealand government's position is very strongly in favour of respecting all religions and working to bring communities together, not drive them...

Fonterra is worried about how the publication in New Zealand of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad will affect its business in the Middle East. Two newspapers in New Zealand - The Dominion Post in Wellington and the Christchurch Press - have printed the controversial cartoons. Some were also shown on New Zealand television on Friday night. The images have triggered outrage and protests across the Muslim world. Hundreds of people demonstrated in Pakistan on Thursday, chanting "Death to Denmark" and burning Danish and French flags. Palestinian gunmen briefly surrounded European Union offices in Gaza to demand an apology over the...

New Zealand diplomats in the Islamic world have been warned to take precautions against possible threats to staff and property following the publication here of controversial cartoons of Mohammed. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials have reacted "with concern" to the publication of the images, and were yesterday monitoring Muslim reaction for signs of retaliation against New Zealanders overseas or our trade interests. Yesterday The Dominion Post ran the 12 caricatures, originally published by a Danish newspaper in September. Dominion Post editor Tim Pankhurst said the publication was a test of Islamic tolerance. The Press ran two of the...

Scientists in Taiwan say they have bred three pigs that glow in the dark. They claim that while other researchers have bred partly fluorescent pigs, theirs are the only pigs in the world which are green through and through. The pigs are transgenic, created by adding genetic material from jellyfish into a normal pig embryo. The researchers hope the pigs will boost the island's stem cell research, as well as helping with the study of human disease. The researchers, from National Taiwan University's Department of Animal Science and Technology, say that although the pigs glow, they are otherwise no...

THEY are called echizen kurage and they sound like monsters from the trashier reaches of Japanese science fiction. They are 6ft wide and weigh 450lb (200kg), with countless poisonous tentacles, they have drifted across the void to terrorise the people of Japan. Vast armadas of the slimy horrors have cut off the country’s food supply. As soon as one is killed more appear to take its place. Finally, the quarrelsome governments of the region are banding together to unite against the enemy. Echizen kurage is not an extraterrestrial invader, but a giant jellyfish that is devastating the livelihoods of fishermen...

THEY are called echizen kurage and they sound like monsters from the trashier reaches of Japanese science fiction. They are 6ft wide and weigh 450lb (200kg), with countless poisonous tentacles, they have drifted across the void to terrorise the people of Japan. Vast armadas of the slimy horrors have cut off the country’s food supply. As soon as one is killed more appear to take its place. Finally, the quarrelsome governments of the region are banding together to unite against the enemy. Echizen kurage is not an extraterrestrial invader, but a giant jellyfish that is devastating the livelihoods of...

House GOP leaders have decided to drop an Arctic oil drilling proposal from a budget bill.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A Swedish nuclear power plant shut down one of its three reactors Monday because of an abnormal accumulation of jellyfish in the cooling system. The Oskarshamn plant in southeastern Sweden uses water from the Baltic Sea in its cooling tanks. The water has been unusually rich in jellyfish in recent weeks, but the problem grew worse Monday morning, forcing officials to shut down the reactor. "When there are too many jellyfish in the cooling water, the flow is hindered and we have to clean it to keep the reactor going at full effect," plant spokesman Erik Mattsen...

Tragic water accidents happen quickly. The most common reason for aquatic mishaps is a lack of safety knowledge. Lifeguards recommend the following safety tips: • Learn to swim • Swim near a lifeguard • Never swim alone • Supervise children closely, even when lifeguards are present • Don't rely on flotation devices, such as rafts, you may lose them in the water • If caught in a rip current, swim sideways until free, don't swim against the current's pull • Alcohol and swimming don't mix • Protect your head, neck, and spine — don't dive into unfamiliar waters — feet...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The first deep sea red-light district - glowing appendages on a newly discovered jellyfish relative - appear to flash their come-hither message to lure prey. Jellyfish and other types of sea creatures are known to produce light, but this is the first deep ocean invertebrate known to use red fluorescent light, said Steven H. D. Haddock of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, Calif. Three of the animals were found by scientists using a remote controlled research vehicle at depths of between 5,200 feet and 7,500 feet off the coast of California. The discovery...

To: Bill Frist, US Senate. From: Mitch Berg, Schmuck Citizen and pissed-off former GOP contributor Re: Your Infinite Cretinism Senator Frist, Mitch Berg here. You probably don't know who I am; I'm a typical schmuck. I write a blog, and I try to pitch in on GOP activities around Minnesota. And on behalf of the entire GOP, I'm having a hard time walking right now - because you just boned your party up the a**. No, not just the party; not just the assembly of suits and climbers and hangers-on that no doubt surrounds you at work every day. No,...

CAIRNS, Australia, (AFP) - A strong cocktail of toxins from the potentially deadly irukandji jellyfish may hold a remedy for impotent men, according to an Australian researcher. James Cook University academic Lisa-Ann Gershwin said she believes a sting from an irukandji tentacle, which causes excruiating pain, anxiety, paralysis and a potentially fatal rise in blood pressure, also causes prolonged erections in male victims. "This is a bizarre extra symptom of irukandji syndrome in addition to the really dreadful life-threatening symptoms the syndrome gives," Gershwin said. At least two people are known to have died from irukandji stings and hundreds of...

Rush was just talking about the RNC Chairman who was interviewed in the Baltimore paper and he has said that the Republican party is no longer for limited government. Now the party will take a poll of what the people want and then will throw money at that special interest. Let's give this guy a poll!!!

The Arnold Schwarzenegger candidacy may become a classic contest for activists to decide whether they are Republicans or conservatives first. Republicans are urging everyone to jump on the bandwagon, to "wake up and smell the Arnie," to take the pragmatic step that will guarantee the ouster of incompetent Gov. Gray Davis. But what do conservatives gain for this leap of faith? This movie star’s campaign still is not presenting any concrete positions, conservative or liberal. He would like to be seen as a fiscal conservative, but Schwarzenegger has signed no anti-tax pledge nor offered any spending cuts or bureaucratic reforms....