Free Republic

It was the Thunderdome from "Mad Max" or the coliseum from "Spartacus," if either Max or Sparty were two, middle-aged American men playing a slow-motion car-crash of half-court basketball for charity and political one upsmanship. Conservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz triumphed over liberal ABC late-night host/comedian Jimmy Kimmel with a hard-won 11-9 victory in the first Blobfish Basketball Classic at Texas Southern University's Health and Physical Education Arena Saturday. The event, which turned out to be a Coachella festival of air balls, missed shots and footwork that would make a sloth look like Usain Bolt, was sparked by Twitter trash-talk...

The sofa shark had never been found in Scottish waters before - Scottish Shark Tagging Programme ====================================================================================================================== A species of shark that looks like a massive blobfish has been discovered off the coast of Scotland for the first time. The false catfish (also known as a sofa shark) was found by scientists conducting a deep sea survey with Marine Scotland. Pseudotrakias microdon live at depths of between 500m and 1,400m. For this reason, they are rarely encountered but have been caught in locations around the world, including the western Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. They normally swim close to the...

Don't let the blobfish's permanent, miserable scowl fool you: it's actually a pretty harmless creature. Endemic to the deep waters off of mainland Australia, the blobfish is comprised mainly of gelatinous flesh. Due to the low density of its flesh, the innocuous blobfish floats leisurely near the ocean floor, quietly gobbling down small crustaceans and other edible matter that floats into its mouth. According to NOAA, that's about all it can do -- it has very little muscle, so actively hunting prey is nearly impossible. The shocking little creature grows to be approximately a foot long. Because they live at...

These sad-looking creatures, which grow up to lengths of 12 inches, live at depths of 900m. They spend most of their time gently floating around waiting for food to pass in front of them, which sounds like quite a nice life to us! Because they live so far from the sea surface they're not often seen by humans. However, increasing levels of deep-sea fishing in Australia and Tasmania for crab and lobster mean that the sulky sea-dwellers are being dragged up with other catches in increasing numbers.

Federal fish fighters this week are preparing further assaults on the feared Asian carp, with nets, electrified fences, poison — whatever they can do to stop the terrifying beast from entering the Great Lakes. Yet as scary as the jumping Asian carp may be, there's something even scarier. The blobfish. As you can see from the accompanying photograph, the cunning blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is the most terrifying fish in the world.

<p>With its humanlike face, the blobfish is a creature of nightmares, and who knows what terrors it could bring upon us.</p> <p>Federal fish fighters this week are preparing further assaults on the feared Asian carp, with nets, electrified fences, poison — whatever they can do to stop the terrifying beast from entering the Great Lakes.</p>

Federal fish fighters this week are preparing further assaults on the feared Asian carp, with nets, electrified fences, poison — whatever they can do to stop the terrifying beast from entering the Great Lakes. Yet as scary as the jumping Asian carp may be, there's something even scarier. The blobfish. As you can see from the accompanying photograph, the cunning blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is the most terrifying fish in the world. And if you're not afraid of it yet, you should be, because there's always something lurking out there that can get you. Its hideously deformed body is quite boneless,...