Japanese catch giant squid!

The story's been in all the newspapers but Fox News seems to have the best pictures of the Giant Squid that was caught by the Japanese.::>

TOKYO — A Japanese research team has succeeded in filming a giant squid live — possibly for the first time — and says the elusive creatures may be more plentiful than previously believed, a researcher said Friday.

The research team, led by Tsunemi Kubodera, videotaped the giant squid at the surface as they captured it off the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo earlier this month.

The squid, which measured about 24 feet long, died while it was being caught.

"We believe this is the first time anyone has successfully filmed a giant squid that was alive," said Kubodera, a researcher with Japan's National Science Museum. "Now that we know where to find them, we think we can be more successful at studying them in the future."

Giant squid, formally called Architeuthis, are the world's largest invertebrates.

Because they live in the depths of the ocean, they have long been wrapped in mystery and embellished in the folklore of sea monsters, appearing in ancient Greek myths or attacking the submarine in Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."


The captured squid was caught using a smaller type of squid as bait, and was pulled into a research vessel "after putting up quite a fight," Kubodera said.

"It took two people to pull it in, and they lost it once, which might have caused the injuries that killed it," he said.

The squid, a female, was not fully grown and was relatively small by giant squid standards. The longest one on record is 60 feet, he said.

Kubodera and his team had been conducting expeditions in the area for about three years before they succeeded in making their first contact two years ago.

Last year, the team succeeded in taking a series of still photos of one of the animals in its natural habitat — also believed to have been a first.

Until the team's successes, most scientific study of the creatures had to rely on partial specimens that had washed ashore dead or dying or had been found in the digestive systems of whales or very large sharks.

Kubodera said whales led his team to the squid. By finding an area where whales fed, he believed he could find the animals. He also said that, judging by the number of whales that feed on them, there may be many more giant squid than previously thought.

"Sperm whales need from 500 to 1,000 kilograms (1,100-2,200 pounds) of food every day," he said. "There are believed to be 200,000 or so of them, and that would suggest there are quite a few squid for them to be feeding on. I don't think they are in danger of extinction at all."

Click on my blog title to go to the fox news site with the pictures.

NFL Network???? Yeah Right

The Vikings lost to the Packers 9-7 tonight ... and a large part of the state didn't even watch.... NOT because they didn't want to (well, ok.. some of us decided to do better things)... but.. because MANY of us do not get the NFL Network on our cable systems.

Instead of going some place and watching the game, I went to the high school hockey game in town and had a much better time than I would have watching Brad Childress' offense do nothing all game. Tarvaris Jackson will be a good quarterback when he's had a full preseason to learn the NFL game. Hopefully Brad Childress will put in more plays suitable for moving the ball forward next year since he'll have a much more athletic quarterback than Brad Johnson.

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Merry Christmas, even the BAD get a gift

Since it is that time of the year.. I'm going to share my favorite Christmas card, that I found online 2 years ago and sent a couple people:



I think this is great anyway... I took some paper that was a little thicker and printed if off as a Christmas Card!

Green Christmas?

Ya know what really is starting to suck? There's no snow! This is Northern Minnesota.. there is supposed to be SNOW on the ground during Christmas time! Sheesh

'Older Posts"

I just happened to notice, if you look to the right BELOW this post or other posts.. there's a link that says 'Older posts' where you can click it and it brings you back one post. The new template etc has some good to it after all.. (definitely lots of randomness today/tonight.)

Tarvaris Jackson hopefully playing Thursday

Even though the game is on the NFL Network and a lot of us won't get to WATCH the game against the Packers.. Hopefully Tarvaris Jackson gets to start against them instead of Brad Johnson. Johnson is old and slow, while Jackson has speed and agility that Johnson's never had!

OK, Changes finished I think

I've decided to change the blog to where there's the last post made is the one you see. We'll see how it goes like this for a while and what kind of feedback or comments I get about it.

The college women's hockey blog, I'll keep the old way for now. It's easy to go back and see what you've missed.. just click on the left where it says Blog Archive and choose the month you want!

Working on changing some blog stuff

I'm editing some shit just to see how it looks etc.. trying to figure out how to put the GOOGLE ADSENSE ads after each post in the beta templates right now.

George Karl tells off Isiah Thomas

I missed this when it happened, but Fox News has a great article up about the Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks brawl:

NEW YORK — Denver Nuggets coach George Karl used a mouthful of expletives to describe Isiah Thomas Monday after the NBA failed to penalize the New York Knicks coach for his part in the court brawl that erupted between the two teams.

Reacting to suspensions of three of his top players by the NBA league office, Karl referred to Thomas as being "... full of [expletive], he's a total [expletive] who should be held accountable for what his actions were."

The Nuggets allege Thomas called on one of his players to commit the flagrant foul which started the brawl at Madison Square Garden Saturday night.

NBA scoring leader Carmelo Anthony was suspended for 15 games and six other players were penalized as NBA commissioner David Stern came down hard on both teams for the fighting.

Nate Robinson and J.R. Smith each got 10 games, and four other players also were suspended. Stern fined each organization $500,000. But there was no separate penalty for Thomas, who had warned Anthony not to go into the lane before the mayhem started.

It was the NBA's scariest scene since the brawl between Pacers players and Pistons fans two years ago. The league is still recovering from that episode, and Stern made it clear the players must learn to control themselves.

"We're going to go after the players who aren't able to stop," he said during a conference call. "We have set up the goal of eliminating fighting from our game. We haven't eliminated it completely."

Anthony's suspension was the sixth longest in NBA history. Mardy Collins, whose hard foul on Smith sparked the fighting, was suspended six games and Knicks teammate Jared Jeffries will miss four. Also, the Knicks' Jerome James and Denver's Nene were both penalized one game for leaving the bench area during the chaos.

Ten players were ejected after the fight, which started with 1:15 left in Denver's 123-100 victory. The punishments were announced before both teams were to play Monday night — New York at home against Utah; Denver at home against Washington.

"I was very disappointed," Stern said. "Clearly, we're not getting through or players in certain circumstances just don't want to be restrained. I would suggest that those players will not have long careers in the NBA."

Stern was especially troubled by the fight between Robinson and Smith that spilled into the stands.

"My concern is actually for the safety of the players and the fans, and when things get out of hand you cannot predict or project where they're going to go," Stern said. "There were certain players who weren't going to allow themselves to be calmed."

There was speculation Thomas would be penalized for his comments to Anthony. Stern acknowledged hearing about it, but said he relied only on "definitive information" when handing out punishments.

But he was clearly annoyed by remarks from Thomas and the Knicks after the game that the problems were caused by the Nuggets still having four starters on the floor late in a blowout. And the fine showed he wants teams to be serious in helping him clean up the game.

"It's a more general message that I'm going to start holding our teams accountable," he said.

Collins prevented Smith from an easy basket by grabbing him by the neck and taking him to the floor. Smith rose and immediately started jawing with Collins, and Robinson jumped in to pull Smith away. Anthony shoved Robinson away, and Robinson and Smith then tumbled into the front row while fighting.

Just as things appeared to be calming down, Anthony threw a hard punch that floored Collins, and Jeffries sprinted from the baseline toward halfcourt in an effort to get at Anthony, but was tackled by a Denver player.

By the time security had finally contained Smith, they were nearly at the opposite end of the court from where the fighting started.

Before Stern talked, the Knicks held their morning shootaround, where Thomas didn't back away from the Knicks' postgame assertions that some of the problems were caused by Denver coach George Karl leaving his starters on the floor too long in a blowout.

"I can't speak for him, but he put his players in a tough position," Thomas said. "I think he put his players in a very bad position."

In Denver, Karl was irate with Thomas. Karl accused Thomas of a "premeditated" act, underscoring his disgust with the New York coach with expletives.

"It was directed by Isiah," he said during a shootaround. "I think his actions after the game were despicable. He made a bad situation worse. I'll swear on my children's life that I never thought about running up the score. I wanted to get a big win on the road."

"My team has had trouble holding leads at the end of games," he added. "I didn't want the score to get under 10 points because if it would've gotten under 10 points it would've had a negative feeling on my team."

Karl has bigger problems now. He'll be without Anthony until the Nuggets' game at Houston on Jan. 20, and Smith will be gone until Jan. 8. That duo combines for more than 48 points a game.

"It's going to be tough," said Nuggets center Marcus Camby, one of the five players ejected who wasn't suspended. "It's already tough being in the Western Conference, and missing guys like J.R. and Carmelo is going to make it even worse."

Anthony's conduct represents a big blow to the player, team and league. He starred as a captain on the U.S. team at the world championships this summer, and had been getting more marketing opportunities as one of the league's brightest young stars.

Stern took none of that into account when issuing his decision.

"We judged him on his actions on the court, period," Stern said. "And they deserved a harsh penalty."

FOX News' Denis King and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Somehow, I actually missed that this happened because I've had a busy week.

Superior 20 yr olds save man from drowning while ice fishing

Saturday's News Tribune had this great article about 2 Superior Wisconsin 20 yr olds saving a 65 yr old man from drowning:

Two Superior men stage risky rescue of fellow ice angler
Sam Cook Duluth News Tribune
Published Saturday, December 16, 2006
Aaron Mikulich and Norm Holt could hear the cries from out on the lake. The two men were heading out to go ice fishing on Crystal Lake near Iron River on Monday afternoon.

“Instantly, I knew what it was,” said Mikulich, who lives in Superior. “I looked over to where I’d seen a guy ice fishing earlier, and just saw his head sticking up. I heard, ‘Help! Help me!’ ”

The fisherman’s cries set in motion a daring thin-ice rescue by the two men, both 20. Mikulich and Holt were fishing for northern pike and crappies from the Mikulich family cabin on Crystal Lake. The rescue took place about 2 p.m., Mikulich said. Other than the victim, no other anglers were out.

The fisherman was Dennis Schumacher, 65, of Brule. An avid angler, Schumacher was out to fish for bluegills. He had drilled one hole and found 3½ inches of ice and another with 4 inches. But he wanted to be farther from shore and drilled another hole in 3 inches of ice.

“I heard some cracking, and I was down,” Schumacher said.

When Mikulich and Holt heard his cries, Holt grabbed an Otter plastic sled that he and Mikulich had been using and began running toward Schumacher. He was holding his arms across the ice to keep his head and shoulders out of the water. Mikulich ran for the cabin to get life jackets and a rope to throw Schumacher. All he could find were two dog leashes, which he clipped together to make a 25-foot length of line. As Mikulich went running back across the lake, he could see Holt running across the ice.

“Every step he was taking, I could see the ice, like, bouncing,” Mikulich said. “We cut back toward shore.”

Schumacher was about 70 yards from shore in about 15 feet of water, Mikulich said.

“We were worried,” he said. “The guy was screaming for help. Adrenaline took over. We knew what we had to do.”

Mikulich and Holt spread out on the ice and got as close as they dared — about 25 feet — to throw the line to Schumacher.

“The whole time this was going on, we could hear the ice creaking,” Mikulich said.

Both he and Holt weigh about170 pounds.

Meanwhile, Schumacher had other thoughts.

“All I was thinking of was, I haven’t filled out that damned living will,” Schumacher said.

Once Holt and Mikulich got close enough, they threw Schumacher the tethered dog leashes. Mikulich wrapped one end around his wrist to get a secure grip. Then they began pulling.

“We kept slipping,” Mikulich said. “There was no snow on the ice. I don’t know how, but somehow we caught an edge.”

They pulled Schumacher part way out of the hole, but the ice kept breaking under his weight. That happened two or three times, Schumacher said. Finally, the young men were able to get Schumacher out of the water and onto the ice, where he rolled onto his back. The two young men kept pulling and brought him nearer shore to safe ice.

Schumacher and his rescuers estimated he had been in the water for about 10 minutes. Schumacher was able to walk under his own power. Holt ran up the hill to start the man’s vehicle for him.

“He asked our names,” Mikulich recalled, “and said, ‘You just saved an old man’s life.’ ”

Schumacher went to a friend’s home nearby to warm up, then returned to thank Mikulich and Holt again. He said he never was extremely cold, although his chest felt “tingly” when he was in the water. Schumacher said he usually carries ice pegs — dowels with sharp points protruding — for just such a situation. But he couldn’t find them that day.

“This time I just wasn’t prepared,” he said.

Mikulich and Holt don’t consider themselves heroes. They simply reacted.

“You see someone fall in, what else are you going to do?” Holt said.

“I would hope anybody would do the same thing for me without thinking about it,” Mikulich said.

I had to post this great story on my blog

Saturday was a long day

Saturday was the one LONG road trip of the year as a 7th/8th grade basketball coach. It was a 3 hour bus ride up the north shore for the 7th and 8th grade games, then 3 hour ride back. It's not *THAT* bad a trip except that I have a 20 minute drive to GET to the school and the bus left at 7 am. That means.. getting up at just before 6 am. That may not seem early to some people, but normally I get up around 10 am ;)