Scribal Terror

Patty O'Toad

Enjoying a swarm of flying ants on the Patty-O.

An ocean full of rays

 
Link

Hooray for hydrogen sulfide

MSNBC reports:

A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds. The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out. The new research found that cells lining mice’s blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents’ blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is “no doubt” produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.

How to charm a worm

Via Arbroath

Something that is cuter when it grows up

An echidna. Via the Cellar

You know you've had a bad day

 

When your lunch starts to eat you. Ananova reports:

Firefighters in Nantou town, Taiwan, caught [this] 35cm snake and put it into a mouse cage for safe-keeping.

"We then found it a mouse for lunch," a spokesman for the team told Apple Daily.

But the firefighters were stunned to see how aggressive the mouse became once it saw the predator in the cage.

"It attacked the snake continuously, biting and scratching it," the spokesman added.

After a vicious 30 minute battle, the snake was dead and the mouse was left with hardly a scratch.

Fish filmed five miles down

Doing the Wave

Flamingos!

Lots of flamingos.

Tsunami debris

Geology Times reports:

A line of massive boulders on the western shore of Tonga may be evidence of the most powerful volcano-triggered tsunami found to date. Up to 9 meters (30 feet) high and weighing up to 1.6 million kilograms (3.5 million pounds), the seven coral boulders are located 100 to 400 meters (300 to 1,300 feet) from the coast. The house-sized boulders were likely flung ashore by a wave rivaling the 1883 Krakatau tsunami, which is estimated to have towered 35 meters (115 feet) high.

The boulders are believed to have been tossed onto Tonga "within the past few thousand years."