Bernie Mack, Kathy Jones, Rebekah Black, and Jody Dean

If it came out of Jody’s mouth, we’re frantically trying to add it here! We’re updating this page constantly throughout the morning, so refresh often!

We have a few things going on this morning…

State Fair money, a squatch, and bomb on the bus hoax in…Notes from the News!

Defibrillator hacking…yeah, its a thing now.

Granny wants to cage fight, a 15-year-old skeleton, and a Klingon wedding in…They Walk Among Us!

Redskins fans are mad at Joe Gibbs.

Mike Evans has all the Hollywood scoop!

Greatest Guitar Licks of the 80′s!!!

Why is your office is making you sleepy?

Texas finally opens an 85 MPH highway!!! Woohoo!!!

Mack Brown criticizes the Longhorn Network.

Mom cures her son with a poop transplant.

Underwater pumpkin carving, sexy Big Bird, and a fake kidnapping to get out of work in…They Walk Among Us!

How to replace Big Tex!

Michelle Obama says she prefers the President commando!

Couple caught “in the moment” at a restaurant.

Mmmmmmm, pumpkin burgers!!!

Find the best haunted houses with Haunt World!

A beluga whale has learned to mimic humans.

We have had our expert listen to the tape with great care and we can exclusively reveal just what it was that Noc said to the world.

“Get me out of this ####ing tank! It stinks of fish-piss!”

 
NOC lived in aquarium in San Diego, California, and puzzled scientists and employees who regularly heard human-like utterances coming from his pool.

 
An acoustic analysis showed the rhythm was similar to human speech, and marine biologists said it would have required extraordinary effort to mimic those sounds.

 
The noises were first traced to NOC when a diver in his tank swam to the surface, after he thought he heard colleagues telling him to do so.

 
It was soon discovered the noises were actually coming from the whale.

 
Other staff members started hearing the sounds near his enclosure, which they thought were two people have a conversation in the distance.

 
In order to project the noises, the whale would have had to modify his vocal mechanics by applying varying pressure in his nasal tract.

 
The frequency recorded was several octaves lower than typical whale sounds.

 
NOC died five years ago, but had made human-like sounds for around four years until he reached sexual maturity.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-23/scientist-report-whale-mimicking-human-voice/4328316

Screen shot from io9.com. OK, I know “chatterboxishness” isn’t a word, but this whale song’s capture of “human speak” sounds awfully close to it what it would be if it were. Pretty neato.

What’s Going On

The vapid shitshow that is the US presidential debates concludes with the third installment of the series this evening. Mittens and Obeezy will be squaring off on foreign policy in another piece of political theater.

Why It Matters

It doesn’t. Both of these jerks are going to fuck over the rest of the world, it just boils down to a matter of style. Mittens will be high-fiving Wall Street over our backs as they spit roast us, and Obama will be whispering sweet nothings about hope and change into our ears as he slides in his (presumably) gigantic black dick. If you’re interested in something that’s actually worth watching, Democracy Now! will be airing the debate and pausing after each question to allow responses from the Green Party and Justice Party candidates who have been barred from participating. Check it out here.

What’s Going On

Whales can talk. Well, almost. A captive beluga was recently observed spontaneously mimicking the pattern and duration of human speech. Dolphins have previously been trained to imitate human voices, but researchers are claiming this is the first time an animal has done so on its own. Beluga’s are known as “canaries of the sea” for their high-pitched singing, but the whale in question was found to lower its vocalizations by several octaves to produce sounds that are, “remarkably close to human speech”. If you don’t believe me (and you shouldn’t, the very notion of a talking whale is preposterous) listen for yourself here.

Why It Matters

It doesn’t. That aquatic shitcunt was probably just trying to ask for another delicious smelt.

What’s Going On

Eighty-four year old Jack Hallman, a gay atheist (or “gatheist”) from B.C., will bequeath $700 to Omar Khadr to be used towards his education. Omar Khadr was the Canadian child soldier that the US picked up in Afghanistan, tortured the living shit out of in Guantanamo bay for a decade, and then shipped to Canada to serve out 8 more years in prison. Despite the fact that as a muslim Khadr likely has a raging hate-on for both faggots and infidels, Hallman sympathized with Khadr’s plight and will leave him some cash to pursue his expressed wish to train in the  medical field.

Why It Matters

It doesn’t. $700? Does Mr.Hallman have any idea how much tuition costs these days? And why leave it in his will? Fork over the cash now you old faggot.

What’s Going On

Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller is in Canada talking trade with the Dark Lord, his Majesty Stephen Harper. Tomorrow, the pair will travel to Toronto to deliver remarks at a Canada-Jamaica reception.

Why It Matters

It doesn’t. When was the last time you heard anyone talk about Jamaica outside the context of an all-inclusive vacation? But Jamaica has impressed me as of late. Whilst Harper is bending over backwards to pack as many royal dicks into his mouth as possible, Jamaica is gearing up to tell the Queen, “do fuck off”. Unlike Harper who is slapping the name “Royal” all over our armed forces and hanging pictures of the queen on every available inch of wall space, those Jamaicans are preparing to ditch the Queen for an elected head of state.

What’s Going On

This kitten:

Why It Matters

If I have to explain to you why this kitten matters you’re clearly derping the wrong blog.

Reblogged from A Dolphin Activist:

Beluga at Atlanta aquarium. (Photo: Greg Hume)

Approval would end an import hiatus of nearly two decades that is rooted in misgivings about removing intelligent and social marine mammals from their native waters and their families.

Complicating matters, the federal government’s decision will be based not on bioethics but on the language of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which recognizes a benefit in winning the hearts and minds of paying customers who become attached to animals like the beluga, a white hued whale with a distinctive facially expression.

Thirty-one beluga whales are now on display in the United States. Worldwide, a few hundred are thought to be in captivity.

At least four of the nation’s largest marine parks, including the Georgia Aquarium, invite visitors to don wet suits and pet or be nuzzled by the animals for $140 to $250. The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago offers couples, for $450, a romantic wading experience that can culminate in a marriage proposal with Champagne, strawberries and the beluga as a chaperon. The other parks include the Shedd in Chicago, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut and the Sea World parks in San Antonio, San Diego and Orlando, Florida.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to hold a public hearing on the import proposal on Friday in Silver Spring, Md. A decision by its fisheries service is expected early next year.

On reaching its decision, the agency will rely mainly on provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act that authorize such imports for public display unless the animal was pregnant or nursing when captured, was taken inhumanely or was part of a population that was depleted or endangered. The law also requires, among other things, that the display of the animal serve an educational purpose.

The 18 whales were netted in forays in 2006, 2010 and 2011 in the Sea of Okhotsk off the Siberian coast from a robust population of 4,000 that plies those waters and is not viewed as endangered. (A population in Cook Inlet in Alaska is listed as endangered under federal law, however.) The 18 belugas are being housed at a research institution in the Black Sea town of Anapa, Russia.

Marine institutions claim they need a strong captive population for research to help safeguard the beluga as its Arctic habitat is transformed by a changing climate.

Critics say there is no demonstrable scientific purpose. That it is simply about keeping people entertained.

Belugas are intensely social mammals with complex and lengthy migrations. They use many different habitats in different times of the year, and they are acoustic communicators. There is no way even the best captive situation has even the slightest approximation to that.

The bottom line with the capture of any wild animal is that it breaks up family groups. A concrete pool will never be the open ocean.

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Source: New York Times

A Beluga Whale at the Georgia Aquarium

Ric O’Barry of The Dolphin Project has made a call to action for beluga whales, the white dolphins:

The Georgia Aquarium is proposing to import EIGHTEEN wild belugas, caught in the wild in Russia, to distribute to the three SeaWorld parks (Florida, California and Texas), Shedd Aquarium and Mystic Aquarium.

Belugas are the wonderful white dolphins that inhabit the Arctic Ocean.  They are also called the “sea canary” for their high-pitched whistles underwater, part of their communication and sonar.  Like all such dolphins, they live in close family groups.

Russia is becoming a bigger and bigger exporter of wild cetaceans as countries around the world shut down the blood dolphin$ trade.  Belugas are chased by boats and netted, ripping them from their freedom and their families, the two most important things in their lives.

Georgian Aquarium claims the imports are “for public display to enhance the North American beluga breeding cooperative by increasing the population base of captive belugas to a self‐sustaining level and to promote conservation and education.”

But there is no reason to breed belugas in captivity except to put more on display.  And the education and conservation benefits of displays of these and other dolphins in public are nonexistent.

This is a rip-off of the public trust by aquariums seeking income from rare species to populate their small tanks.

PLEASE HELP OPPOSE THE BELUGA WHALES IMPORTS!

The US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is responsible for issuing the permits to import and hold any cetacean in aquariums in the United States.  Your voice is needed to help save these eighteen beleaguered belugas.Deadline for Comments is October 29th, 2012″.(Read the entire article here) You can submit you comments to NOAA here. The article written by Ric O’Barry includes NOAA-NMFS addresses,phone numbers, and all the reasons why dolphins do not belong in captivity.

A Captive Beluga

Join The Dolphin Project with Ric O’Barry Here.

Join Champions for Cetaceans and our friends at Save The Blood Dolphins on Facebook for current dolphin issues and news everyday.

The Georgia Aquarium is one of the biggest and best aquariums in the world. It was easy to put it high on our bucket list of “Must Go” places. We would like to start by saying a big “Thank You” to Jessica for being so cool with us. We always appreciate it when people open their doors and show us everything we wanna see. Now the highlights and details of the Georgia Aquarium.

Parking: Use the parking garage connected to the aquarium. It’s $10 for all day parking pass. We initially had some confusion on where and when to pay the parking fee. Here is the scoop on that subject: Pay when returning to your car at the kiosk near the elevators. Make sure to grab the receipt which you will use to raise the gates at the exit. Do not be cheap and use nearby parking lots offering $5, your car is much safer in the garage.

Hours: Sunday through Friday: 10am-5pm Saturday 9am-6pm Allow for 2-3 hrs to explore all that Georgia Aquarium has to offer.

Cost: General Admission Adult $29.95 Child $23.95. The experience for the child is “off the charts”, leaving long-lasting memories and making the admission price well worth it overall.

Our pictures and videos from the Georgia Aquarium centered around four permanent exhibits. We will give an overview of each exhibit. We decided to skip the Dolphin Tales because we heard it was geared more toward children. We also decided to pass on Georgia Explorer, we had been to a few aquariums in the prior months that feature local habitat similar to Georgia Explorer exhibit.

The Ocean Voyager Exhibit has to be the pride and joy of the Georgia Aquarium. It was a jaw dropper for us when we entered the exhibit and stood in front of the enormous viewing window for a long time just gazing into the blue hue. It is easily the largest tank in North America holding 6.3 million gallons of salt water, with four whale sharks and four manta rays . They are the only manta rays in an aquarium in the United States. An added bonus is the 100 foot underwater tunnel through the massive tank bringing you up and close to the giant groupers.

Nick standing in front of Ocean Voyager. Nick stands 5’11″ The Ocean Voyager viewing window measure 23 feet high by 61 feet wide

Here is a tip: Have your camera ready when entering with a child, the expression on their face is priceless and needs to be captured.

Video:

The River Scout was pretty interesting to walk through compared to the other exhibits. The exhibit carries an outdoor theme throughout the entire exhibit. River Scout features animals that can be found across the world. Some of our favorite animals in the exhibit: Asian small-clawed otters (sleeping) and red piranhas.

White American alligator in River Scout Exhibit

Video:

The Cold Water Quest has a lot of stars in the exhibit The beluga whales (4 of them) are constantly swimming by the viewing window entertaining the crowd. They definitely acknowledge and know when people are watching them. The southern sea otters are huge compare to some other otters I have seen in the past from other aquariums. The otters were play wrestle with each other like siblings in their childhood years. In the penguin area, I convinced Nick to crawl through a tunnel to reach an up-close viewing area. The penguins were very active, swimming and waddling around their surrounding.

Nick trying to get a close up of the penguins in the Cold Water Quest exhibit

Video:

We have to agree with Georgia Aquarium’s statement “Tropical Diver is a living art exhibit”. The Pacific Barrier Reef filled with so many moving colors making it rough on the eyes to select just one fish. We never saw a garden eel before and it was helpful that one of the volunteers was present to tell us more info about the eel.

Video:

Our Closing Thoughts

Shawn: Great aquarium, really appreciate the high theme level for each exhibit. It works well in setting the overall mood for the exhibit. I could easily sit for more than a half hour in the Ocean Voyager and watch the whale sharks.

Georgia aquarium is a “Must Visit” if you have children. The kids in the area are lucky to be able to go on field trips to the aquarium and see the behind the scene workings. My childhood field trip consisted of trips to Johnstown Flood Museum which barely reached exciting on fun score.

Nick: The aquarium was amazing. If you have not been to Georgia Aquarium, you need to plan a trip ASAP. Going behind the scenes with Jessica was awesome. She was very hospitable, and knowledgeable about everything going on at the aquarium. She showed us some great stuff behind the scenes. I loved the penguins and the otters. I have always wanted to own a little penguin. I have to agree with Shawn that the Ocean Voyager was my favorite part. Sitting there looking at Voyager tank is like having a seat down on the bottom of the ocean looking out. Awesome view. Next time I wanna get in the tank! This place is definitely on my top 10 places. Can’t wait to go back. I give this place 10/10

We have more pictures on our Wanna See It All Facebook Page

I’m working with a Nikon P80 (which is NOT an SLR, unfortunately), hoping to have the opportunity to shoot with one soon! I dont let my equipment be a burden though, its only an extension to my creativity.

Please enjoy.

I sure did!

Last night was the season four premiere of the FOX hit show turned mediocre musical dramedy hour, GLEE.  This fall we pick up with (most of) the New Directions in their respective cities, which is really just code for the kids still at McKinley and Rachel Berry in NYC…  Much like every other year, Will Schuester is looking for more kids to fill the glee club seats and does so by holding auditions.  However, this year Will didn’t have to creep in the boy’s locker room shower, Rachel took care of that one for him at NYADA (more on that later).  We were introduced to Marley, daughter of the beluga whale lunch lady, who shares quite a few qualities with Rachel Berry.  She’s talented, ambitious, and has an affinity for sweaters at inappropriate times of the year (ladies, it’s September, even in New York and Ohio its still pretty damn hot).  We also meet Jake (Just Jake) who performs well at the glee auditions, but throws a toddlers and tiaras meets WWF temper tantrum when Will cuts his song short for time reasons.  Turns out, he’s Noah Puckerman’s half-brother that Noah has never met.  SCANDALOUS!

Apparently popularity and actually winning something made all of the glee kids huge divas (NO!  THIS CAN’T BE!).  Tina, Brittany, Blaine and now Unique (totally called that one, didn’t I?) are fighting over who gets to be the “New Rachel” (OH MY GOD, THAT’S THE NAME OF THE EPISODE!) and they decide to figure it out by having a sing-off to “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepson…  Seems like Glee was just looking for a reason to include a top 40 song that everyone knows.

A few states over, Rachel Berry is adjusting to life alone in New York City at one of the top (fictional) musical theater programs in the country.  Luckily for her, she’s got a boyfriend in the army who loves her.  Wait… WHAT?  I feel like I literally just had a whole discussion about how Rachel and Finn’s BREAK UP was one of the most poorly executed plot lines in all of Glee history, now the writers are telling me that they didn’t actually break up, it was just a “goodbye”?!  Rule number one of writing for television of film: “SHOW. don’t tell.”  The fact that the most poorly executed plot line in Glee history didn’t even achieve the result they were going for makes it even more poorly executed than I originally thought.  That aside, it seems like Rachel and Finn won’t be “together” much longer for a few reasons:

1. Apparently Finn and her haven’t spoken through any medium in over two months (honey, if he hasn’t made any contact for that long, he probably isn’t trying to) and,
2.   Yup, Rachel took care of the creeping on people in the shower to find out they’re talented singers this season (side note: do any colleges even have co-ed bathrooms anymore?).  And something tells me (besides the official news stories that confirm it) that Rachel Berry won’t be too concerned about her relationship with Finn Hudson for much longer…  Speaking of Finn, I find it strange that he didn’t appear at all in the episode considering he’s one of the original cast members and is still listed as a series regular, but I’m sure he’ll show up next week.

As far as Rachel’s college experience goes, she’s got Drunky McBoozetown (Kate Hudson) as a dance teacher who claims that she’s not only qualified to teach the class at this level, but can dance circles around all of her students (Ms. Berry included).  However, her demonstration through a mash up of “Americano/Dance Again” by Lady Gaga & J.Lo was mostly just her trying to look sexy while people danced around her and carried her around the room.  Rachel is miserable but doesn’t want to admit it to Kurt, the only person she seems to talk to from McKinley.

As for my favorite fashionista, Kurt is stuck in a rut.  He lurks around McKinley like a lost child and works at the Lima Bean the rest of the time.  So after some coaxing from Blaine (AND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SONG EVER – video at the top of the post), Kurt decides to move to New York now instead of waiting until he can reapply to NYADA later.  His dad drops him off at the airport like three hours later and tells him he will do great in the Big Apple, but he can always come home if he wants.  Damn, I wish my parents would take some pointers from Burt Hummel and help fund my move to NYC! (just kidding, Mom… I’m totally fine with working my ass off until I die)  The episode ends with Rachel sitting alone by some fountain (which I am inclined to assume was somewhere in Central Park, but I don’t feel like watching it again and figuring it out for sure) and spilling her guts about how unhappy she is to Kurt over the phone.  Lo and behold, HE’S STANDING BEHIND HER!  They do one of those adorable run hugs and its assumed that they’ll move into an apartment together and reenact all eight seasons of Will & Grace.

Important facts you need to know:

• Sue had her baby, she’s still as quick witted as ever.
• The new head cheerleader, Kitty, is like Santana(who better be a featured character in every future episode after this) and Quinn Fabray (the early years, who I am not upset was missing) all rolled into one tiny and terrifying package.  And she stole my “Tarantaula Legs” nickname for Joe Hart!
• Mike and Tina broke up over the summer (probably an afterthought on the writers’ part), which I guess is fitting since they got together over the summer as an afterthought on the writers’ part…

Admittedly, I went into this season with non-existent expectations.  Like, literally none.  That being said, this episode didn’t suck. It had good moments, but the writers have a GINORMOUS ALMOST NEVER ENDING HOLE to dig themselves out of, and if they could just get about halfway there, I might be okay.  And if they mess up Blaine and Kurt’s relationship too much, I’ll quit.

***

“You have magic in your throat, Marley” – Marley’s mother, the elephant lunch lady

NEW TO MY GLEECAPS?  Read the previous ones here!

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Visited Navy Pier and had lunch. Had fun with the camera through a wine glass. Kayley was sitting on the other end of the table. Then it was the Shedd Aquarium the next day for more fun. I <3 all things sea, so I was in heaven! My favorite was the Jellies exhibit. Having been stung by one when I was 13, I have a huge respect for them and their power. Please go to our Facebook page to see a few more photos!