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Bizarre blue blobs have washed up en masse on beaches across South California—but they aren't jellyfish or Portuguese Man O' War as one might expect. Photographs of the strange gathering were uploaded to social media by Point Reyes National Seashore, which stated that these creatures are actually Velella velella, also known as By-the-Wind Sailors. This was also backed up by Rita F. T. Pires, a research assistant at the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere. "The species usually forms large agglomerations when beached, as pictured, so it seems it could be the case," she told Newsweek. Velella velella are hydroid...

during what looked like a standard search and rescue mission, they were met by a strange twist of fate. The crew of the submarine very soon found encountered a situation where they were the ones in need of saving. Having incorrectly estimated the amount of fuel needed for the mission, when they arrived at the spot where Conestoga was presumed to be, the submarine had run out of usable fuel. Since its electric motors lacked enough battery power to transport them back to base, they were stranded some 100 nautical miles from Hawaii, caught in a desperate situation. To make...

Antifa Man O’ War Sails Into Houston 5 Comments Posted by Earl of Taint on September 2, 2017 Of course they have a Navy. The proud vessel pictured below is the Flagship of their vast nautical fleet.  Apparently, our recent coverage of ongoing Nazi activity has alerted them to the the presence of their arch-enemies (ie; pretty much anyone) in Houston and they have sent a rapid attack force to, in the words of their press release: “…Defend All Communities Of Colors from the hateful, oppressive and perversely privileged ACT of rich white people playing like they’re Helping Victims Solely Out...

Starshot: Concept and Execution by Paul Gilster on April 22, 2016 Because I get irritable when I don't get my walking in every day, I made sure when I arrived in Palo Alto to cram as much as I could into the day before Breakthrough Discuss began. That meant heading out from the hotel just after noon and putting in about five miles. Palo Alto is a very walkable place and I found myself ambling up and down shady streets past gardens bright with spring flowers. We had superb weather for the entire conference, but naturally when things got going,...

With the announcement of the indefinite suspension of nuclear refueling of the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the White House has signaled a new shift in naval technology - away from costly and potentially hazardous fossil fuels, towards non-toxic and environmentally stable wind power. Not letting Republican obstructionism of the budget process go to waste, President Obama's national defense team is putting together a plan to retrofit US warship with 'tried-and-true' sails, taking advantage of free, naturally occurring wind rather than diesel and nuclear fuels that put crews at constant risk of causing an ecological disaster.

Intelligent life surely exists on some of the planets beyond our solar system. But we’ve scarcely begun to look for it. With NASA dithering and corporate titans more interested in space tourism, a serious exploration of the stars is limited more by a lack of vision than of technology. But a few scientists think they can use the sun’s light to cheaply propel an unmanned craft deep into the interstellar ether. Their vision may be quixotic, and their first attempt failed. But what will it mean for our solipsistic species if they succeed next time?

Companies are manufacturing kites the size of football fields that can be deployed with a flexible cable from the bows of huge vessels. Rising nearly 1,000 feet above sea level, they catch winds that are up to 50 percent stronger than at the surface and help pull the behemoths along. The kites are a throwback to a simpler era when ships relied solely on wind. But these days they also address the very new-age worry of climate change. Proponents say kites, which let captains throttle back their ship's diesel engines, will help slash fuel consumption by as much as 50...

WASHINGTON - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed a North Coast wilderness bill that swiftly cleared a Senate committee Wednesday, and proponents said they hope the legislation has the momentum to be enacted into law. The legislation sponsored by California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats, and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, in the House, would designate more than 300,000 acres of federal lands as protected wilderness. "This bill protects the natural beauty that is at the heart of California's identity," Boxer said of the measure. --snip-- Last year, the legislation was approved by the Senate but died in...

TEHRAN (MNA) -- During the latest season of excavations of the northern gate of Takht-e Suleiman, an ancient Zoroastrian fire temple located in northwestern Iran, the stamps of two seals were discovered which indicate that objects entered Takht-e Suleiman from other regions with special tags attached to them which seem to be advertisements. They signify that an early form of advertising was being practiced during the Sassanid era (224-642 C.E.), Yusef Moradi, the head of the excavation team, said on Friday. “The team began its excavations in early August and found the stamps of two seals at the upper levels...

Secrets of an ancient Persian armada sunk off the coast of Greece 2500 years ago are being dredged up by modern archaeologists. A team from Greece, Canada and the United States has just completed a second expedition to retrieve artefacts from 300 ships of the Persian King Darius that were wrecked in a storm off the Mt Athos Peninsula, northern Greece, in 492BC or 493BC. Aucklanders will be among the first to hear the results today when three of the expedition leaders present their findings in a free public lecture at Auckland University. In two trips so far, last October...