Digitial Release of Bjork, Dirty Projectors Collaberation to Benefit Nat Geo’s Ocean Initiatives

Bjork and the Dirty Projectors (a band that’s garnered some buzz  last year with their release Bitter Orca) have re-released a recent collaborative effort of theirs in digital form, this time to benefit Nat Geo’s Ocean Initiatives.

The original work, dubbed Mount Wittenberg Orca, was originally composed and preformed to benefit the homeless and an AIDS advocacy group.It’s fitting however, that the songs are being re-released to provide further assistance to a slightly different cause. According to the nat-geo article on this recent news item, the work was actually inspired by the ocean:

“Together they wrote and performed a new suite of songs called “Mount Wittenberg Orca,” which was inspired by Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman sighting of a family of Orcas on the California coast, and features Björk singing the part of the mom whale.”

Purchase and download the EP here.

Shrimp Go Into the Light

A recent study in aquatic toxicology studied the effects of several well prescribed anti-depressants on the behavior of shrimp. One in particular, fluoxetine, better known as Prozac significantly altered the shrimp’s behavior, causing them to move towards rather than away from light right into the awaiting maws of predatory shrimp-eaters. In scientist speak, this movement towards or away from light stimulus is called “phototaxis” (on a complete aside, another more bizarre photo-response is the photic sneeze effect where bright light causes someone to automatically sneeze. I like the mental picture of a mass of little sneezing shrimp…).

These kinds of studies are gaining more import because of the types of chemicals ending up in aquatic systems. Much of what we put into our bodies is never completely absorbed and ends up in the sewer system which consequently often ends up in other water-based ecological systems (sewage is treated for things like excess nutrients but we couldn’t possibly screen for all the possible chemicals sewage may contain). So materials like caffeine, medications we take, etc. are now outside of our superficial human realm and in the larger natural environment, with detrimental if not even bizarre effects on wildlife including sex changes in fish.

To find out more, read the sciencedaily feature here.

So do YOU have a psychic octopus?

Paul the psychic octopus,currently residing at a German zoo, apparently has a thing for the footie. He’s correctly predicted wins and losses in the current soccer world cup. He is not consulting his magic eight-ball (although, he might be thrilled if someone were to offer one. Octopuses are notoriously smart and love new objects to check out.), but rather choosing mussels between two containers upon which the zoo staff has pasted the flags of teams playing in the cup. He’s drawn the ire of some who are blaming the cephlapod for the losses, but mind you it’s nary a stable person who gets mad at an octopus… Check out an article with more information including the fact Octopi have nine brains (they must be sitting in their tanks laughing at us).

Check him out in video form:

Nat Geo Repost: New Leviathan Whale Attacks

Illustration by C. Letenneur, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

Evoking the poster for the original summer blockbuster, a new species of killer sperm whale attacks a baleen whale in an illustration.

Dubbed Leviathan melvillei—an homage to Moby-Dick author Herman Melville—the recently unearthed fossil sea monster lived about 13 million years ago in waters atop what’s now a Peruvian desert, according to a study published by the journal Nature on Wednesday.

Living alongside the largest sharks ever known, the raptorial—meaning actively hunting—whale measured about 60 feet (18 meters) in length, about as big as a modern male sperm whale.

But whereas modern sperm whales feed primarily on squid, Leviathan’s large teeth—some of which measured more than a foot (36 centimeters) long—suggest the whale hunted more challenging prey, including perhaps its close whale relatives.

“It was probably a very powerful and frightening animal, so it fits well with the description Melville made of Moby-Dick,” said lead study author Olivier Lambert, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

(Related picture: “Whale Found in Egypt Desert.”)

—Ker Than

Published June 30, 2010