A Seahorse Inspects a Diver’s Watch Jun 27, 2012 In this remarkable capture, a seahorse checks out a diver’s watch (and own reflection) underwater. Given the clarity of the clouds in the reflection, this was likely taken quite close to the surface. - Seahorse is the title given to forty-seven species of marine fish in the genus Hippocampus - They are mainly found in shallow tropical and temperate waters throughout the world, and prefer to live in sheltered areas such as seagrass beds, estuaries, coral reefs, or mangroves - Seahorses range in size from 0.6 to 14 inches (1.5 – 35.56 cm). [Source: Wikipedia]
Captain Dave's Survival Center and Preparedness Resource How deep is the ocean, how high am I? Photos by Hengki Koentjoro How deep is the ocean, how high am I. via : Ghost Room External Stimuli : Hengki Koentjoro, Flickr Stream, Chet Baker Themes : Photography Nodes : cool jazz, gelatinous, Hengki Koentjoro, jellyfish, ocean, underwater Clean up your act! by Nanette Blanchard Issue #100 I used to get a headache just inhaling the chemical fumes while walking through the cleaning product aisle of the store. I started using less toxic products from the health food store, but they were so expensive. So I started to make my homemade cleaning products, and the surprising end result is that I clean the house more often. Making nontoxic laundry detergent and dishwashing liquid saves money and helps the environment. My homemade dishwashing liquid seems to do a better job with greasy dishes and is easier on my hands. Before you begin making your own homemade cleansers, start collecting a variety of containers. You probably already know that ketchup will clean copper cookware (leave on a thin film for about 20 minutes) and that a half-vinegar and half-distilled-water mixture is good for shining your windows. Lavender laundry detergent 1/3 to ½ cup liquid lavender Castile soap ½ cup washing soda ( I use Arm & Hammer Washing Soda) ½ cup borax (I use 20 Mule Team Borax)
Puffer Fish Creates Ocean Floor ‘Crop Circles’ Right around this time last year, news broke about the discovery of an amazing little puffer fish capable of creating elaborately designed ‘crop circles’ at the bottom of the ocean as part of an elaborate mating ritual. The behavior was first documented by a photographer named Yoji Ookata who later returned with a film crew from the Japanese nature show NHK which later aired an episode about the fish. Even as articles bounced around the web it was still difficult to imagine how a tiny fish could create such a large design in the sand, even when staring directly at photographic evidence. Finally, video has emerged that shows just how the little guy delicately traverses the sand in a rotating criss-cross pattern to create a sort of subaquatic spirograph. The textured sand sculpture not only attracts mates but also serves as protection when the fish pair and lays eggs.
Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace Where there's water, life is possible. True, it may be very difficult and very hard to live, depending, but anyone who's driven, hiked, or camped in the American South West will have noticed that cities and ranches crop up where there's surface water or where there's been a well dug. Within the state of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado, there are deserts, mesas, mountains, and forests where normally people never or rarely visit; not-so-secret places where there's water, access to a road within a day's hike, and where a fairly rugged individual may hide while remaining basically healthy, marginally well fed, and reasonably sane. In this section I'll look at two such environments, neither of which I would recommend, but one of which I'd suggest is a reasonable way to live in basic health while either on the run, hiding out from the law, old girl friends, the draft for an illegal war, putative wives and such. Where exactly? How I Would Do It Some Other Areas
Portuguese Man o' War "Gosh" you might say, "that's one weird looking jellyfish". Well, you'd be partly right. Certainly it looks rather odd but it isn't a jellyfish, it isn't even one animal. They are all either a kind of polyp, which are like really small sea anemones, or medusae, similar to tiny jellyfish, but here they are all connected to each other and are unable to survive on their own. It gets its name from the shape of its sail which resembles that of 16th century warships like man of wars and caravels. The body beneath the pneumatophore is dominated by the feeding polyps which each have a single tentacle dangling beneath them. They start to reel their load up toward our third organism, the gastrozooids. The final organism are the medusae used for reproduction, the gonozooids, which are hermaphrodite - each have both the male and female parts. Did I say groups? I don't want to get all 'existential crisis' on you but seriously, what do you see when you look in the mirror? Ha!
The Fantastic Four ? 4 Essential Wild Edible Plants that May Just Save Your Life | Tactical Intelligence Did you realize that knowing just 4 wild edible plants could one day save your life? If there were any four categories of plants that I would recommend all people to know how to use and identify it would be these: Grass, Oak, Pine, and Cattail. For the knowledgeable survivor, knowing just these four plants can make the difference between life and death if stranded in the wilds – for each one is an excellent food source which can sustain you until help arrives. Throughout this week and part of the next, I’ll be going into details on how you can prepare and eat these plants. Grass Surprising to many is the fact that you can eat grass. The young shoots up to 6 inches tall can be eaten raw and the starchy base (usually white and at the bottom when you pluck it) can be eaten as a trail nibble. The best part of the grass plant to eat are the seed heads, which can be gathered to make millet for breads or filler for soups & stews. Oak Pine “You can eat pine?!” Cattail Conclusion
Pacific Leaping Blenny According to a new paper published in the journal Animal Behaviour, the Pacific leaping blenny (Alticus arnoldorum) – a unique fish that lives on land and can leap large distances – uses camouflage to avoid attacks by predators such as birds, lizards and crabs. A Pacific leaping blenny at Taga’chang, Guam. Image credit: © Georgina Cooke, via Australian Museum. The Pacific leaping blenny is a 4 to 8-cm-long tropical fish found in reefs in Samoa and the Marianas, Society, and Cook Islands, in the western and southern Pacific Ocean. Pacific leaping blennies move quickly over complex rocky surfaces using a unique tail-twisting behavior combined with expanded pectoral and tail fins that let them cling to almost any firm surface. Australian biologists from the University of New South Wales studied Pacific leaping blennies in their natural habitat on the tropical island of Guam. “They were virtually identical in each case. Bibliographic information: Courtney L.
s Homemade Soap Recipe by Robert Wayne Atkins Grandpappy's Homemade Soap Recipe Copyright © 2007,2008 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E. All rights reserved and all rights protected under international copyright law. Click Here for a Microsoft WORD printer friendly copy of this article. Introduction During hard times sooner or later everyone runs out of soap. To make soap you only need three things: rainwater,cold ashes from any hardwood fire, andanimal fat from almost any type of animal, such as a cow, pig, goat, sheep, bear, beaver, raccoon, opossum, groundhog, etc. Soap is not difficult to make and it does not require any special equipment. Soap is a "perfect consumer product" for the following five reasons: Soap is a legal product.Everyone everywhere uses soap.Soap is completely used up in a short period of time.When people run out of soap they want to buy more.Soap is relatively low in price so almost everyone can afford it. There are three major differences between homemade soap and commercial quality soap: Basic Soap Making Equipment
Elysia chlorotica Distribution[edit] Elysia chlorotica can be found along the east coast of the United States, including the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida (east Florida and west Florida) and Texas. They can also be found as far north as Nova Scotia, Canada.[1] Ecology[edit] This species is most commonly found in salt marshes, tidal marshes, pools and shallow creeks, at depths of 0 m to 0.5 m.[1] Description[edit] Feeding[edit] The incorporation of chloroplasts within the cells of Elysia chlorotica allows the slug to capture energy directly from light, as most plants do, through the process known as photosynthesis. Life cycle[edit] Cleavage[edit] Gastrulation[edit] Elysia chlorotica gastrulation is by epiboly: the ectoderm spreads to envelope the mesoderm and endoderm.[3][broken citation] Larval stage[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit]
Fire Piston: A Never Fail Way To Build A Fire In The Wilderness Fire Piston: a simple and effective way to start a campfire without matches when stranded in the forest. A wilderness survival tool that may save your life. You are lost in the woods. It is getting cold and dark. You should seek any available wild foods around you, such as wild leeks and fiddlehead ferns (both in the springtime,) milkweed (year 'round) and Cossack asparagus (cattails.) You can make some sort of hand-tool like a primitive stone hand-axe for cutting vines to make a shelter or bust apart a rotted log in search of grubs. But what about building a campfire? Assuming that you do not have a reliable fire-starter, here is a simple and very effective tool that one should carry on their person for camping, hiking or hunting expeditions called a Fire Piston. A Fire Piston is a small wooden device which consists of two pieces. If the matches accidentally get moist they won't work, or might not work at all (try lighting a fire with matches in a light drizzle or in a heavy damp fog.)
Microscopic Sea Creatures By Daily Mail Reporter Updated: 16:31 GMT, 30 September 2010 Bobbing away in the dark depths of the ocean, these tiny creatures display a unique beauty that few get to truly appreciate. And the latest publication by a scientist who studies these microscopic animals is set to become an unlikely bestseller - all thanks to the beauty of plankton. His coffee table book about the amazing life forms that live unseen in the oceans has dozens of remarkable photographs taken through a microscope. Amazing life forms: Dr Richard Kirby's passion for plankton has led to a set of marvellous pictures which feature in his book Ocean Drifters, a secret world beneath the waves like these tiny Jellyfish Hidden beauty: Stunning images of a Horseshoe worm (left) and a Moon Jellyfish The book also points out that without the miniature creatures we would have no fish, oil, gas or clouds, and the sea would lose its distinctive smell. Tiny creatures: Images of Sea Angels (left) and Acantharea
How to Preserve Food by Robert Wayne Atkins How to Preserve Food for Future Consumption Using Three Simple Old Fashioned Methods Copyright © May 7, 2010 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E. All Rights Reserved. Click Here for a Microsoft WORD printer friendly copy of this article. Basic Food Safety Precautions Wash your hands thoroughly before handling any type of food. The Three Traditional Food Preservation Methods There are three simple ways to preserve food using traditional old fashioned procedures that do not require any special chemicals, or salt, or equipment: In the ground. In the Ground (Appropriate for Carrots and Radishes in the Fall) Leave the vegetables in the original ground where they grew during the summer. This technique works well with carrots and radishes. Mulch the ground above the vegetables with a thick layer of straw. However, if the weather has not yet turned cold and you leave radishes in the ground then they will go to seed. In a Root Cellar (Appropriate for Some Vegetables and Some Fruits) Carrots: Cut off the crown.