Lightning strikes a tree

lightning_strike

Connecting the Dots, Increasing Spots

6_cheetah_cubs

The staff at San Diego Zoo Global’s off-exhibit Cheetah Breeding Center has been seeing more spots than usual lately—cheetah Addison gave birth to six squirming, squalling cubs in November! This is the second litter for the eight-and-a-half-year-old. Her first four offspring dazzle Safari Park visitors at an exhibit in Okavango Outpost, and from the very beginning, Addison has proved to be an excellent mother. Not to mention prolific; six cubs is an above-average litter size for cheetahs.

6_cheetah_cubs2

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Swordfish

swordfish

In 2014, Marine biologist and Ph.D. Candidate Juan C. Levesque posted a comprehensive article in the Florida Sportsman about the fascinating lifecycle of the broadbill swordfish. Included with the article was an absolutely amazing closeup photo of a baby swordfish just a few millimeters long.

Born with a short snout and prickly scales, swordfish develop rapidly. Researchers in the Mediterranean Sea estimated the average growth rate of post-larvae/juvenile swordfish at somewhere between one-eighth and one-quarter of an inch per day, which is similar to postlarval growth rates reported for blue marlin and bluefin tuna. In the Pacific Ocean, the average size of a one-year-old swordfish is around 39 inches eye-to-fork length; most one-year-old swordfish are still immature—big babies, so to speak.

Coconuts

coconuts

Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentines Day

Reply to All

reply_to_all

RIP Gary Owens

Gary Owens (May 10, 1934 – February 12, 2015)

Gary Owens (May 10, 1934 – February 12, 2015)

Gary Owens (born Gary Bernard Altman) was an American disc jockey and voice actor. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offered deadpan recitations of total nonsense, which he frequently demonstrated as the announcer on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Owens was equally proficient in straight or silly assignments and was frequently heard on television, radio and in commercials.

He was best known, aside from being the announcer on Laugh-In, for providing the voice of the titular superhero on Space Ghost.

Owens provided the voices for:

Wikipedia Link

Happiness

happiness

Broncos

broncos

RIP Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple Black (April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014) in Curly Top (1935)

Shirley Temple was an American film and television actress, singer, dancer and public servant, most famous as a child star in the 1930s. As an adult, she entered politics and became a diplomat, serving as United States Ambassador to Ghana and later to Czechoslovakia, and as Chief of Protocol of the United States.

Temple began her film career in 1932 at the age of three. In 1934, she found international fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935 for her outstanding contribution as a juvenile performer to motion pictures during 1934, and film hits such as Curly Top and Heidi followed year after year during the mid-to-late 1930s. Licensed merchandise that capitalized on her wholesome image included dolls, dishes, and clothing. Her box office popularity waned as she reached adolescence, and she left the film industry in her teens. She appeared in a few films of varying quality in her mid-to-late teens, and retired completely from films in 1950 at the age of 22. She was the top box-office draw four years in a row (1935–38) in a Motion Picture Herald poll.

Temple returned to show business in 1958 with a two-season television anthology series of fairy tale adaptations. She made guest appearances on television shows in the early 1960s and filmed a sitcom pilot that was never released. She sat on the boards of corporations and organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte Foods, and the National Wildlife Federation. She began her diplomatic career in 1969, with an appointment to represent the United States at a session of the United Nations General Assembly. In 1988, she published her autobiography, Child Star.

Temple was the recipient of awards and honors including Kennedy Center Honors and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. She ranks 18th on the American Film Institute‘s list of the greatest female American screen legends of all time.

Thank you, Shirley for many evenings with my wife watching your works of art…

Wikipedia Link

Original Grumpy Cat

original

Aliens!

awiens

107.6

It’s generally assumed that when you reach retirement age, life starts to slow down. But not for mechanics David Anderson and Mathew Hine, who spent six months upgrading a 10 MPH mobility scooter into a record breaking dragster that officially hit a top speed of 107.6 MPH.

In case you can’t see the video, here it is in GIF format:

1076

Mojave Blues

LPWL

lpwl

Evolution of Robots in Movies and TV

https://youtu.be/Yod4lziPgno?list=PL15KbAxfKZE2DnUA9RNWn4IJQGR6VsBkF

Happy Groundhog Day!

Groundhog

In Remembrance – Space Shuttle Columbia & Crew

On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on its 28th mission; all seven crew members aboard perished.

Columbia Launch STS-107

Columbia launches on its final mission, STS-107.

Columbia STS-107 Crew

The crew of STS-107. L to R: Brown, Husband, Clark, Chawla, Anderson, McCool, Ramon.

Columbia STS-107 Mission Patch

Columbia STS-107 Mission Patch.

Wikipedia Link

RIP A. A. Milne

Alan Alexander Milne, also known as A. A. Milne, was a British author, best known for his books about the teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, and for various children’s poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.

A. A. Milne

Alan Alexander Milne (January 18, 1882 – January 31, 1956)

Wikipedia Link

RIP Arthur Rankin, Jr.

Arthur Gardner Rankin, Jr. (July 19, 1924 – January 30, 2014) was an American director, producer and writer, who mostly worked in animation. A part of Rankin/Bass Productions with his partner Jules Bass, he created stop-motion animation features such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the 1977 cartoon animation of The Hobbit. He is credited on over 1,000 television programs.

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