- The showdown because man and seal is turning nasty in New
Hampshire and wildlife experts are concerned. A series of violent encounters between humans and seal pups last week in
the town of Rye have raised the level of drama on local beaches. In one incident,
an animal was injured and in the second incident, a seal pup was killed. Those
skirmishes have led wildlife officials to warn beachgoers to stay away from
seals on area beaches because any contact with them could endanger the animals.
One incident was caught on video and the video was posted online. It shows an
unidentified man nudging a seal pup toward the ocean in Rye. Experts who have
viewed the video have deemed it a potential instructional video for what not to
do when encountering a seal pup. Nursing pups commonly rest on the beach while
their mothers fish offshore, but that isn't an open invitation for an animal
lover who sees the lounging pup to swim on over for a closer look. "The
most important thing is to let the seal stay on the beach and monitor it for 24
hours and make sure that there's still some maternal investment
happening," said Katie Pugliares, senior biologist for the New England
Aquarium. "They're dependent on their moms for about four weeks, and this
is prime pupping season." As poorly as the man in the video handled his
seal pup encounter, a woman who had a similar experience the following day
reacted in even more inappropriate fashion. Seeing a pup separated from its
mother, this fool removed it from the beach and took it to the Seacoast Science
Center. That pup was later taken to a rehabilitation center at the University
of New England, where it is recovering. After the two incidents, volunteers
from the aquarium posted signs warning people to leave the pups alone, but
officials say those signs are often ignored…….
- The world is littered with guys who were once THE hot
prospect for a Major League Baseball franchise but for any number of reasons, never
made it to the majors. Maybe injuries sidetracked their career, perhaps a younger,
more talented player came along and took their chance or maybe they were just
overrated to begin with. Either that or they couldn’t control themselves at
some seedy strip club, got booted from the establishment and began a downward
spiral that ultimately ended their baseball career. Tampa Bay Rays prospect Josh
Sale is well on his way to being that guy and he took another big step toward
trashing his troubled career on Wednesday when the Rays suspended him for
conduct detrimental to the organization. Sale, the team’s 2010 first-round
pick, was banned after boasting on Facebook about acting unruly at a strip
club.” Acting a fool at a strip club is nothing new and Sale isn’t the first
athlete to be evicted from the Frisky Kitty or Gentleman’s Choice after having
a drink or five too many, getting belligerent and fighting a losing battle with
a 325-pound bald dude in a tight black T-shirt and shades, but bragging about
it on Facebook takes the stupidity to a new low. “Threw 50 cents at a stripper
tonight. First time. Got kicked out and she got so (mad) thought she was gonna
cry. Your a stripper. Be thankful," Sale posted. Just sit back and marvel
at the class oozing from those words. Apparently Sale was out of $1 bills and
rather than just enjoy the show, he elected to reach into his pocket and start
chucking nickels and dimes at the women on stage. The “Your are stripper. Be
thankful” blast is especially respectful and exactly the sort of statement one
would expect from a player who just finished serving a 50-game suspension after
testing positive for methamphetamine and an amphetamine. Rather than appreciate
being able to play again for the first time since last season, Sale elected to
go full-on ass hat. That might fly if he had progressed higher than Class A ball
and hit better than .238 with 14
homers and 59 RBIs in 134 games over two seasons in the Tampa Bay organization…….
- At long last, the mystery of the origin of massive invisible regions
that make the moon's gravity uneven has been unraveled. NASA's Gravity Recovery
and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission has solved this riddle and because of
its findings, spacecraft on missions to other celestial bodies can navigate
with greater precision in the future. As part of a research mission, GRAIL's
twin spacecraft studied the internal structure and composition of the moon in
unprecedented detail for nine months. By identifying the locations of large,
dense regions called mass concentrations, or mascons, with their strong gravitational
pull, the spacecraft were able to provide insights on these space phenomena. Mascons
reside beneath the lunar surface and cannot be seen by normal optical cameras,
but
GRAIL scientists found them by combining gravity data from GRAIL with
sophisticated computer models of large asteroid impacts and known detail about
the geologic evolution of the impact craters.
"GRAIL data confirm that
lunar mascons were generated when large asteroids or comets impacted the
ancient moon, when its interior was much hotter than it is now," explained
Jay Melosh, a GRAIL co-investigator at Purdue University. The origins of lunar
mascons have remained unexplained since their discovery in 1968 by a team at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., although most astronomers
agree that they resulted from ancient impacts billions of years ago. Mascons
work based on their bull’s-eye pattern, which has a gravity surplus and s
surrounded by a ring with a gravity deficit. That pattern occurs as a natural
consequence of crater excavation, collapse and cooling following an impact.
Melted lunar material from the heat of a long-ago asteroid impact then spurts
an increase in density and gravitational pull at a mascon's bull’s-eye.
Understanding this should allow scientists to better understand the geologic
consequences of large impacts. NASA hopes this will lead to better
understanding of ancient Earth, including how plate tectonics got started and
what created the first ore deposits. It could also spur greater understanding
of lanetary geology well beyond that of Earth. The two GRAIL craft, GRAIL A and
GRAIL B, were originally launched in September 2011 and have since been renamed
Ebb and Flow……..
- Wine can be such an elitist beverage and the sight of
pompous wine lovers swirling a few ounces from a bottle made in 1924 before
spitting it out into another glass and raving about its full body and sweet
palate is enough to drive the average person to punch an upper-cruster in the
face repeatedly. Likewise, France has a reputation as something of an uppity,
rude nation. Combine the two and the term “French wine” doesn’t exactly scream,
“Fun for all!” Thursday’s wine auction by France's Elysee Palace may change that perception.
The palace auctioned off more than $325,000 of wine, with prices going as high
as $3,000 a bottle, but the lower-end offerings selling for a mere $20. The
big-ticket items were bottles of 1990 Petrus and other prime vintages, but
there were also cheaper wines to allow the Yellow Tail crowd to say they own
wine from the French Presidential palace. "The auction will permit anyone
who loves wine to bid," said Juan Carlos, an independent French wine
expert who is working with The Hotel Drouot on the sale, prior to the auction.
"We will have bottles for 15 to 20 euros." All together, 1,200 bottles
were auctioned off and there was plenty of buzz over the vintage bottles of
Bordeaux and Burgundy. Prices for bottles of the 1990 Petrus mostly sold for
$3,000 to $3,500 a bottle and the 1998 Meursault Premier Cru, 1975 Château
Lafite Rothschild and Champagne from Salon were well beyond the price range of
the average Frenchman. As to the question of why all of this wine was on the
auction block…the answer is simple. Proceeds of the sale will go to replenish
Elysee's 12,000-bottle cellar and buy new, younger wines from lesser known
French producers. Selling wine to buy more wine….spectacular logic. Many of the
bottles sold had only a few bottles left or an odd number so they can't be
served at a state dinner or other fancy function. A few haters have called the
wine auction a sign of French austerity blasted the Palace for selling some of
its liquid assets. Well-known French wine collector Michel-Jack Chasseuil wrote
a letter to President Francois Hollande complaining that the wines would go
"to the world's billionaires and we'll be sorry when we realize we have no
more.” Ah, but there is always more wine……..
- Glenn Close, despite her striking resemblance to him, is
rarely confused with Samuel L. Jackson. That could change in light of Close’s latest role,
which will see her play a character similar to the one Jackson portrays in “The
Avengers.” Close has become the latest high-profile actor to sign up for
Marvel's new superhero movie “Guardians Of The Galaxy.” The superhero
epic follows a team of world-savers, including "Star-Lord",
"Drax the Destroyer" and "Rocket Raccoon," who appeared in
a 2008 comic book series of the same name. Marvel is clearly hoping that the
massive commercial success it has enjoyed with Jackson’s Nick Fury character
and the “Avengers” franchise as a whole will translate to Close and the rest of
the “Guardians” gang. s. Close will reportedly appear in a
"leadership role" roughly equivalent to Fury and her character will
lead a rapidly growing Zoe Saldana,
Chris Pratt, Michael Rooker and John C. Reilly. James Gunn will direct and he is well-versed in the superhero world,
having directed “Super,” the 2010 superhero comedy starring Ellen Page
and Rainn Wilson. The timetable for “Guardians” is short, as it is to begin
shooting in June with a projected release date of Aug. 1, 2014. Close snagging
a prime role in the project is interesting because at the age of 66, she isn't
exactly the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of action heroes. She
did recently receive her fifth Oscar nomination for her most recent film role
as a 19th century cross-dressing butler in “Albert Nobbs,” so Close is still turning in quality
performance even though she’s now old enough to qualify for Social Security……
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