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From the team that brought you Blackwater and the pre-9/11 counterterrorism program Able Danger comes “Jellyfish Intelligence.” That’s the name a group of former US intelligence officials and executives from the controversial security firm have chosen for a new private outfit that offers “predictive intelligence” for Fortune 500 corporations and senior-level executives and that aims to “protect human lives and their business interests throughout the world. The company blends traditional models of a strategic consulting firm with what it claims is an extensive network of human sources—people who, in an official context, would be called spies. Jellyfish employs a network...

A massive jellyfish called the black sea nettle has recently been spotted in San Diego Bay. The rare creature, whose scientific name is Chrysaora achlyos, is the largest invertebrate discovered in the twentieth century. This giant jellyfish, first recognized as a seperate species in 1997, has a bell measuring up to 1 m (3 ft) in size, with arms extending up to 6 m (20 ft) in length ... If you would like to learn more about jellyfish, then you may want to read this article entitled "A clever hunter for a creature with no brain" from answersingenesis.org, and listen...

Direct observations of these creatures from submersibles are very rare. It has been previously videoed by scientists off the Pacific coast of the US and by ROVs off Japan. However, this is the first time the giant jelly has been recorded in the Gulf of Mexico. The researchers reported four chance encounters with jellyfish between 2005 and 2009, during the routine underwater work the energy companies carried out on their underwater structures. The footage shows the reddish purple coloured jellyfish at depths ranging from 996m to 1747m. Trap prey The scientists observed the jellyfish attaching itself to the subsea equipment...

President Barack Obama dropped his threat to bypass the Senate and install nominees to their positions through recess appointments -- at least for now. Recess appointments can be made while the Senate is out of session and are a way for presidents to get around the need for a confirmation vote. The president said in a statement Thursday evening that he is encouraged by confirmation earlier in the day of 27 high-level nominees. On Tuesday, Obama threatened to make the recess appointments to get around senators who had placed "holds" on his nominees, which prevent, or at least delay, the...

The Senate confirmed a huge group of administration nominees on Thursday, following a tense exchange between President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). At a White House meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders on Tuesday, Obama warned that he would make recess appointments if the logjam over nominees wasn’t broken before the Senate left for the Presidents’ Day break. “Mitch, this is unprecedented,” the president said, gesturing forcefully on the Cabinet Room table, according to aides. “If you don’t move any, I’m going to do some [recess] appointments.” The 27 confirmations mean no recess appointments will be needed...

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...