13 Wonderful and Strange Things

They are all different. Some are heartwarming, while others have you wondering.

Nevertheless, I hope these subjects enlighten you as much as they did me.

Migaloo’s Back in Our Waters

Click here for more images of Migaloo the White Whale.
This white whale was sighted near Yorkey’s Knob by a group of fishermen. They saw this albino giant near Pixie Reef, about 40 minutes from Yorkey Knob. Accompanying this white whale was two huge humpbacks. He was spotted on July 15, 2006, July 24, 2007, and July 22, 2008.

Frogs with Disease-Resistance Genes May Escape Extinction

Many amphibians die off around the world, but researchers at Lincoln University in New Zealand may have found certain genes that can help frog populations resist infection to save them from extinction.

New Bird Species

This bird was found on Stratton Mountain in Vermont, and caused quite a stir for scientists. The bird is thought to be a “hybrid of two species, the trush and the veery birds.”
A DNA testing will reveal if this new bird species is a result of climate change. Further reading for bird lovers can be found here.

Unicorn Lives in Italy

This one-year-old deer represents the fabled unicorn, a mythological animal, and was born in captivity. He is called, you guess it, “Unicorn”, for the single horn on his head, and the director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato believes he has a genetic defect, since his twin has two horns.

Giant Shrimp

A giant creature was caught in the Donetsk region of Western Ukraine, and scientists think that it could be related to the shrimp species. This creature can live in any watery area, including puddles, and is almost 20 centimeters long.

South American Stork

On July 31, 2008, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries showed these jabiru storks. They have a blocky, slightly upturned black beak, and the are shown along with wood storks, egrets, and ibis. These jabiru storks are rarely seen in the North, but are plentiful in South America.

New Manta Ray Species Discovered

Scientists discovered two new types of manta ray species. The more commonly known rays are smaller, and are more commonly seen near the coasts. The larger rays avoid human contact, and have a non-poisonous barb on their tail.
The manta rays can weigh over 4,400 pounds, and their wingspans can reach almost 25 feet.

Golden Retriever Nurses Tiger Cubs

This golden retriever adopted three tiger cubs at the Safari Zoological Park, when their tiger mother abandoned them. Isabella had just finished weaning her own puppies, and Tom Harvey, an owner at the park, put the tiger cubs in her care.
The Safari Zoological Park opened in 1989, and specializes in the care of endangered species.

Tiny Tree Shrew

These tiny pen-tailed tree shrews were discovered by researchers sipping fermented palm nectar, and “show no sign of intoxication.” These creatures live in the Malaysian rainforest, and the alcohol concentration that they drink for hours every night was recorded at 3.8 percent.

“Cat Angel”

This cat has two four-inch long wings, and he belongs to Granny Feng. The owner lovingly called him a “cat angel”, and complained that after being sexually harassed by many female cats in her area, her cat sprouted wings within a month.
Experts believe that this phenomenon is more likely caused by a gene mutation, and the cat can live a normal life.

Fish Pedicure

This is a new trend in spa pampering, where you can have these little carps nibble at the dead skin of your hands and feet. This fish pedicure is creating a buzz in the D.C. area, and so far 5000 people have taking part in this experiment.
These fish are called garra rufa, also known as doctor fish, and were first used in Turkey.

Rosy-Lipped Batfish

This is the quote directly from the National Geographic website. I thought you should read the comparison: “Like a marine Mick Jagger, a rosy-lipped batfish pouts near Costa Rica’s Cocos Island. Batfish are poor swimmers, preferring to use their strangely adapted pectoral fins like legs to crawl about the seafloor.”

Venus Comb Shell

This shell is called the Venus Comb, and it is one of the most exotic shells.
With so many wonderful and strange things around the world, these 13 items seem to speak for themselves.

Strange Things on the Moon

Several anomalous shapes and structures on the lunar surface have been photographed. What could they be?


There's a lot we know about the moon. It's roughly one-sixth the size of the Earth; it's about 4.6 billion years old; it's approximately 238,000 miles distant from the Earth; it has no atmosphere and no water (except what was recently found to exist as ice in craters near the poles); it's covered with an incredibly fine gray powder. We've walked on the moon six times during the Apollo missions, and we've sent many more probes there to map it and study it.
But there's much we don't know about it, too. We're not sure where it came from. Some think it might be a broken-off chunk of Earth. Although there's evidence that the moon once had active volcanoes, we're not sure if it's still geologically active (the prevailing theory is that it is not).
The moon has its more controversial mysteries, too. Some think extraterrestrials have or once had bases there. Some think there's stuff on the moon -- other than the hardware, flags, and debris left there by the Apollo astronauts - that the government knows about, but is not telling us. Decades - even centuries - before we sent ships to the moon, observers with telescopes have claimed to see signs of intelligent life or design there. Indeed, there are many enigmatic photos that seem to show shapes and structures on the lunar surface that don't fit conventional explanations. Perhaps there are reasonable answers for them, but those answers are not easy to find.

Here's a look at some of those lunar anomalies:

The Shard. This one, in a photo snapped by the Lunar Orbiter, has been named "the shard" or "the tower," by Richard C. Hoagland, who comments on this photo at Richard Hoagland's Lunar Anomalies. Taken from a distance of about 250 miles, the strange structure (if that's what it is) would be enormous - seven miles high, by Hoagland's calculations. (The star-like shape above the tower is a camera registration mark.) It's difficult to believe that such a huge structure actually stands on the moon... so what are we seeing in this photo? Is it a plume of "smoke" from some lunar gaseous emission? Are we seeing the ejecta from a meteorite impact? What is it?

The Castle. This strange object, photographed during an Apollo mission, has been named "the castle" by Hoagland. It seems to have a definite structure, like the remnant wall of some ancient building. The bottom looks as if it has rows of support columns, above which is a high spire. Whatever it is, it's much brighter than the surrounding landscape. Is it just a trick of light and shadow? A photographic anomaly? Or is it all that remains of some rich Martian's get-away retreat?

The Ukert Crater. The Ukert crater, located near the center of the moon as it is viewed from the Earth, contains this amazing equilateral triangle. According to Luna: Arcologies on the Moon, each side of the triangle is 16 miles in length. And note the three bright objects around the perimeter of the crater - if they are joined by straight lines, they too would from an equilateral triangle. Is this evidence of intelligent design, or merely a fantastic coincidence?

Strange Reflection. This is one of my favorites because it comes directly from a famous photo from the second Apollo mission to land on the moon, Apollo 12. The photo is of astronaut Alan Bean and was taken by Pete Conrad as both stand on the lunar surface. You can see Conrad in the reflection in Bean's visor. You can also see some instrumentation in the foreground of the reflection. But what the heck is that thing hovering in the sky in the background, pointed out here as "artifact" by Luna: Astronauts Among the Ruins? You can even see the shadow it casts on the ground behind Conrad. It's been seen as everything from a UFO to a hanging light fixture by those who think the Apollo landings were faked. Yet this photo is really puzzling. We can usually find reasonable, or at least plausible, explanations for the other photos shown here and elsewhere, but this one is truly enigmatic. What about it NASA? What the heck is that thing?
As mentioned above, strange things have been seen on the moon for centuries -- usually flashes of light or color, or lights that appear to move across the lunar surface. These are known as transient lunar phenomena (TLP), and many of the reports, dating from 1540 to 1969, have been cataloged by NASA. But perhaps the best source for this kind of information is The Lunascan Project, an organized effort by amateur astronomers to record and document TLPs.
Such flashes of light and color could be attributed to meteor impacts or perhaps some kind of gaseous emissions, but harder to explain are the "fastwalkers" that have been videotaped by several amateur observers. This one, from the Lunascan Project, is a capture from a video taken by an amateur Japanese astronomer several years ago.The dark object (circled in the upper photo and pointed out in the close-up in the lower photo) moved from north to south some unknown distance above the lunar surface. What could account for this anomaly? A satellite orbiting the moon? (It would have to be enormous to show up like this.) A satellite orbiting the Earth that happened to cross the the observer's field of view as he or she was videotaping the moon? (Steve Davis at Lunascan puts this idea in doubt, too.) So what could the unexplained object be?
Yes, we've been to the moon, we have mapped it extensively, and we have brought back lots of rocks for study. But the moon still remains a great source of mystery and wonder.
ALL PHOTOS, EXCEPT WHERE NOTED, ARE NASA PHOTOS OR ENHANCEMENTS OF NASA PHOTOS.