weird – Dark5.tv

Sharks Are Eating Asia’s Internet

Shark species in the region may be drawn to chow down on undersea cables, which send off electromagnetic waves that can act as shark bait.

If you live in Southeast Asia and can’t stream YouTube videos or access Facebook, sharks may be to blame.

The underwater trans-Pacific cable that provides Internet to most of Southeast Asia broke again yesterday, leaving millions with slow or spotty connectivity. The region faces an estimated repair time of up to a month.

The Asia-America Gateway (AAG), launched in 2009, is an enormous underwater cable line stretching 12,000 miles across the Pacific. It connects 10 points throughout the Pacific islands and Southeast Asia and provides vital connectivity to several countries between Malaysia and California.

But one branch of the $500 million AAG has been continually beset with problems. The segment of the cable that runs between Vietnam and Hong Kong has ruptured four times within the last six months—twice near Hong Kong and twice near Vietnam. The latest incident occurred yesterday, when the cable broke near the Vietnamese city of Ba Ria.

In addition to Vietnam, the outage effects the cable’s offshoot points further west, which means Internet users in Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia are also feeling the slow-down. Although these other countries rely on the cable, it is managed by one Vietnamese telecommunications company.

Investigators have not confirmed a reason for the latest rupture. One common explanation in these cases is that anchors from passing fishing trawlers snagged the cable and caused damage. Increasingly, however, cable watchers believe that the problem may be sharks.

Shark species in the region, these experts say, may be drawn to chow down on the cables, which send off electromagnetic waves that can act as sharkbait. One theory holds that sharks mistake the cables for the bioelectric fields surrounding schools of fish. Others suggest that perhaps sharks are merely overly curious.

To prevent sharks from chomping through fragile and expensive fiber-optic wires, Google, which has pledged to collaborate on a similar $300 million undersea cable to Japan, has started wrapping its cables in kevlar.

Eerie, 1970s ‘Crack’ Monster from Sesame Street

The “crack creatures,” as they are known, are spindly, skinny and spooky – a nightmare for any child worried about the potential of monsters under the bed.

If your childhood self watched Sesame Street in 1975, you may have a vague yet haunting memory of a character known as Master Crack, who emerged through your bedroom ceiling and transported you to an alternate crack world. You are not alone.

On December 31, 1975 this short animated segment followed a young woman as she interacted with the various shapes and creatures formed by the cracks on her walls. The “crack creatures,” as they are known, are spindly, skinny and all around spooky — a sure nightmare for any child worried about the potential of monsters under the bed.

For a while the clip circulated only as folklore, as grown internet users who were traumatized by the cartoon in their youth banded together to reminisce about the mysterious “crack creatures” and their frightening “Crack Master.” The short was rumored to be the work of animator Cosmo Anzilotti, though he reportedly has no memory of ever creating it.

Sea Ghost Breaks Record for Deepest Living Fish

A ghostly never-before-seen fish with wing-like fins has set a new depth record for fish. The previously-unknown snailfish was filmed 8143m under the sea.

A ghostly never-before-seen fish with wing-like fins has set a new depth record for fish. During a recent trip to the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest place on Earth, the previously-unknown snailfish was filmed several times floating along the dark sea floor, reaching a record low of 8143 metres below the surface (see video above).

The unusual fish, spotted on the expedition, which was led by Jeff Drazen andPatty Fryer of the University of Hawaii, has a different body shape from other known varieties of snailfish. It boasts broad, translucent fins, stringy appendages and an eel-like tail that allows it to glide smoothly.

Snailfish are known to thrive at extreme depths: another variety, Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis, previously held the undisputed record for deepest-living fish at 7703 metres. Handling the intense pressure of the deep sea is a challenge for most animals because it impedes muscles and nerves and bends proteins out of shape, disrupting the working of enzymes required for life.

In 1999, Paul Yancey from Whitman College in Washington, who was also on the recent trip, discovered that a chemical called trimethylamine oxide, or TMAO, which helps regulate the concentration of dissolved substances in cells,prevents proteins from warping in deep-living fish. Levels of TMAO were found to be higher in deeper-dwelling species and individuals. But there is a limit to the amount of the chemical that a cell can hold, which should also constrain how low fish can go.

Earlier this year, along with Alan Jamieson from the University of Aberdeen, UK, Yancey calculated that the depth limit for fish, based on TMAO, should be about 8200 metres, which neatly matched real observations. And the new discovery gets even closer to the mark. “The new depth record for fish is still within the 8200 metres we predicted,” says Yancey.

5 Most Haunting Last Photos

Presenting mysterious, haunting and rare final photos from history. From the last photo ever taken of the Titanic to the eerie, tragic end of a scientist caught in a volcanic explosion.

Mysterious, haunting and rare final photos from history. From the last photo ever taken of the Titanic to the eerie, tragic end of a scientist caught in a volcanic explosion.
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Warning, text spoilers below…
Presenting genuine, strange last photographs from history, including the final picture of the Titanic afloat at sea, a haunting image from American history, the chilling last picture of the Scott Group before being lost forever in Antarctica, the final photo of Machu Picchu’s untouched past and the rare tragic last photograph of volcanologist Daniel Johnston prior to the explosion of Mount St. Helens.

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Music: “My Impending Doom” by Gracystudios

Intro: “The Machine Thinks”
Background audio copyright Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…

Trippy Spiral Hacks a Hummingbird’s Hover

A moving view, like a trippy morphing spiral, is enough to make a hummingbird unstable. Little is known about how birds use senses to control flight.

If a sipping hummingbird starts to wobble when near a flower, it’s probably not because its nectar has been spiked. A moving view, like a trippy morphing spiral, seems to be enough to make it lose its stability (see video above).

To investigate how Anna’s hummingbirds control their body position, Douglas Altshuler and his team at the University of British Columbia in Canada set up a hummingbird bar in front of a screen with moving patterns. The group found that even minimal background movement affected the birds’ hovering, causing them to wobble back and forth while feeding or to jam their bills in too far, depending on the direction of motion.

Given that the birds’ natural environment is full of moving elements, it is surprising how sensitive they are to movement in their visual field, says the team. Little is known about how birds use their senses to control flight.

The effect, however, doesn’t stop hummingbirds from being spectacular aerial acrobats: Anna’s hummingbirds can shake faster than any other vertebrate and dive at record-breaking speeds.

Man Unbelievably Survives Chainsaw Lodged 2 Inches in His Neck

Careful with that chainsaw. It might just end up in your neck.

Tree-trimmer James Valentine experienced this very problem on Monday – while 20 feet off the ground. Valentine was working in a tree in Ross Township, Pennsylvania when his chainsaw slipped and sawed two inches into his neck.

Careful with that chainsaw. It might just end up in your neck.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

So the race began shortly after the 2:30 p.m. accident, which involved efforts from three coworkers, seven paramedics, along with police officers and medical officials, all of them at the top of their game, officials said.

Mr. Valentine held the chainsaw in place with his right hand while hugging the trunk with his left arm to descend 5 feet in his rope harness with cleats on his shoes. Coworkers controlling the rope lowered him gently to sitting position on the ground. He leaned against one coworker, while another held the chainsaw steady. A third coworker worked to unbolt the blade from the heavy chainsaw motor without moving the blade.

Doctors at Allegehny General Hospital were able to successfully remove the blade which had fortunately not severed any major arteries.

Despite the terrible incident, Valentine has no plans to give up his tree trimming job any time soon as is anxious to get back to work.

If you lost a hand in the 19th century, you might have been lucky enough to get one of these…

Being a supervillian probably would have helped too.

According to the London Science Museum:

Being a supervillian probably would have helped too.

According to the London Science Museum:

Made from steel and brass, this prosthetic arm articulates in a number of ways. The elbow joint can be moved by releasing a spring, whereas the top joint of the wrist allows a degree of rotation and an up-and-down motion. The fingers can also curl up and straighten out. The leather upper arm piece is used to fix the prosthesis to the remaining upper arm. The rather sinister appearance of the hand suggests the wearer may have disguised it with a glove. Among the most common causes of amputation throughout the 1800s were injuries received as a result of warfare.