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A gargantuan spiderweb hangs across the steep dirt road. It shimmers, translucent in the sunlight, slack lines nearly imperceptible. As I duck the web and trudge further up the road's corkscrew turn, the thick brush, thistle, weeds and poison oak part, revealing an ancient looking stone bench on the shoulder above the road. Finally. More than a year after I first searched for it, I have found the mysterious, nearly forgotten memorial to legendary California novelist Frank Norris in this far corner of the Santa Cruz Mountains. A simple cross and a crooked, barren flag holder crown the semicircular, mission-style...

Trident gun fishing is only for the bold; we follow one young hunter on the path to catch the smartest prey in the seaMy friend Danai keeps all her fishing supplies in one corner of her beach house. There are things like flippers, snorkels, and masks; a buoy that you wear around your waist to alert incoming boats that you’re in the water; and...a trident gun? “What do you do with that?” I asked her. It was probably a stupid question, but was the gun even real? Was this some kind of staple for every Greek beach house, like the...

5 women claim they were sexually assaulted by Donald Trump A deluge of sexual-misconduct allegations hit Donald Trump on Wednesday as five women came forward with claims that he groped, kissed or leered at them. The accusations came just days after the Republican candidate denied at Sunday’s presidential debate that he had ever groped anyone inappropriately. Two women told The New York Times that Trump abused them. “He was like an octopus,” Jessica Leeds said. “His hands were everywhere.”

Something strange is happening to the oceans. As coral reefs wither and fisheries collapse, octopuses are multiplying like mad... cephalopods—squids, octopuses, cuttlefish—are booming, and scientists don’t know why. An analysis published today in Current Biology indicates that numerous species across the world’s oceans have increased in numbers since the 1950s. “The consistency was the biggest surprise,” said lead study author Zoë Doubleday of the University of Adelaide. “Cephalopods are notoriously variable, and population abundance can fluctuate wildly, both within and among species.”

A new lawsuit accuses Goya Foods Inc of cheating consumers by selling canned octopus products that actually contain cheaper, lower quality jumbo squid. "Independent DNA testing" confirmed that the largest Hispanic-owned U.S. food company made the switch, according to a complaint filed late Wednesday in the federal court in San Jose, California. The lawsuit seeks at least $5 million of damages. Goya, based in Jersey City, New Jersey, did not immediately respond on Thursday to requests for comment. The plaintiff Luis Diego Zapata Fonseca, of Salinas, California, sued on behalf of purchasers nationwide and in California of Goya canned octopus...

The 2-year-old boy brought to a Wichita hospital Tuesday night with a small octopus stuck in his throat has shown significant improvement, police said Thursday. He has been upgraded to good condition and so far doesn’t show signs of long-term injury caused by oxygen deprivation to the brain, Wichita police Lt. James Espinoza said. “There will be some more tests today” to assess the toddler’s responses, he said. The boy’s 21-year-old mother told investigators she returned home from work Tuesday night to find her 36-year-old boyfriend performing CPR on her son, police have said. The child was not breathing when...

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A giant male octopus caught on cell phone video scaling his glass display tank at the Seattle Aquarium and reaching several tentacles over its open top has sparked Internet speculation that the massive mollusk was trying to mount an escape bid. But aquarium officials say the octopus, named Ink, was not attempting a jailbreak in the video, which has gone viral on the Internet, but simply learning to embrace his new home with all eight arms. "It was not an escape attempt," aquarium spokesman Tim Kuniholm said of the video, in which Ink inched his way...

Who knew an octopus could do this?

of Americans are standing at the ready to throw A&E to the curb. We’re hearing thousands have dumped the channel from their TV packages, unliked their Facebook pages, removed their apps and taken back product purchases. But voting with the wallet may not be that easy. Turns out Nancy Dubuc, CEO of A&E Networks, is in charge of quite a web. Nancy Dubuc is President and Chief Executive Officer of A+E Networks, encompassing A&E®, Lifetime®, HISTORY®, LMN®, bio.®, H2™, HISTORY en Español™, Crime & Investigation Network®, Military HISTORY®, LRW™ channels, as well as A&E IndieFilms®, A+E Networks International®, A+E Networks...

A newfound creature nicknamed "Dumbo" (pictured) may look like it's all ears--but the protrusions are actually fins that help propel the animal through the darkness 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) under the sea. Netted during a recent Census of Marine Life (CoML) expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, this Dumbo is among the thousands of deep-sea creatures the census has documented so far that live without ever knowing sunlight. Reaching six feet (two meters) in length and weighing 13 pounds (6 kilograms), the jumbo Dumbo is the largest of the octopus-like animals ever found.

BEAULIEU-SUR-MER, - A woman participating in an aquabike lesson in France said she was attacked by an octopus that immobilized her legs with its tentacles. The woman, whose name was not released, said she was aquabiking -- riding an exercise bike submerged in water -- in Beaulieu-sur-Mer when she felt something moving around her legs, The Local.fr reported Friday. The woman soon discovered an octopus had wrapped its tentacles around her legs, stopping her from pedaling. Experts said the octopus was likely attracted by the movement in the water.

One of the great things about being a nature lover is that your powers of observation seem to improve. While others are walking by, oblivious to the activities going on all around them, naturalists notice the creatures and the behaviors, especially if they are out of the ordinary.   The Ogden Point Breakwater is a popular spot with folks out for a weekend stroll. (Photo by Craig Spence, sourced online at Flickr.com) Such was the case on March 24, 2012, a sunny Saturday morning, when Ginger Morneau, her husband Ken, and brother Lou Baker were walking along the Ogden Point...

I've been here a year or two.The demands of the fundraisers have gone up and up.While I have no dispute of Jim's numbers as up front, they have gone governmental.Look closely at the budget. Decide for yourself.

Check out this video of an octopus literally crawling out of the water and dragging itself across dry land in pursuit of a meal. A family with a camera was lucky enough to be on the scene and captured the whole thing on video:

An octopus surprised visitors to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve recently when it rose from the water and onto dry land. YouTube video becoming big hit Author: , nperez@ksat.com Published On: A person can be heard saying, "He might come out of the water, and it's okay." The octopus slithered across land for about two-and-a-half minutes before returning to the water. You can see the video here.

It's not every day you meet a psychic octopus like the one that predicted eight World Cup wins in a row last summer, but that isn't stopping a German aquarium chain from trying. In honor of the Women's World Cup, which begins June 26 in Sinsheim, Germany, the Sea Life aquarium chain is looking for the next incarnation of Paul, the octopus who amazed the world by correctly predicting the results of Germany’s matches in the 2010 World Cup, according to TheLocal.de. Each of the country’s eight aquariums will have one of its octopuses predict the competition’s results by picking...

I have seen many articles since November 3 that make the point that this election was not a win for the Republican Party, but rather a win for the people. The voters dislike the Republican Party almost as much as they now dislike the Democrat Party. This was an election to stop the Soros-Obama socialist agenda and begin to restore American values and constitutional principals to the nation. Had the original 13 states been able to see where this federal government was headed, they would have never allowed it and the Constitution would have never been ratified. It is now...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)—Paul the Octopus, the tentacled tipster who fascinated soccer fans by predicting results at the World Cup, died Tuesday. Paul had reached the octopus old age of 2 1/2 years and died in his tank on Tuesday morning at the Sea Life aquarium in the western German city of Oberhausen, spokeswoman Ariane Vieregge said. Paul correctly tipped the outcome of all seven of Germany’s games. He made his predictions by opening the lid of one of two clear plastic boxes, each containing a mussel and bearing a team flag.The octopus seemed to be in good shape when he...

<p>Berlin, Germany (CNN) -- Paul the Octopus, who correctly predicted the outcome of games during this year's World Cup soccer tournament, has died.</p> <p>The cephalopod oracle died of natural causes, the aquarium where he lived said Tuesday. He was 2 and a half.</p>

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, says Paul the Octopus, the sea creature that correctly predicted the outcome of World Cup games, is a symbol of all that is wrong with the western world. He claims that the octopus is a symbol of decadence and decay among "his enemies".