The Goblin Shark is a fascinating – not to mention slightly freaky-looking – creature, and this is a great video of one doing it’s thing, including some good footage of it’s signature protrusible jaw.

When it’s not being used – unsuccessfully – to fend off annoying divers, that jaw shoots out to grab small, fast moving prey that has been detected by the battery of bio-electrical sense organs in the elongated snout. It’s much more energy efficient than trying to move an entire 11’ shark at the same speed, and probably also helps to bring the jaws, which would otherwise be obstructed by the snout, into a useful biting position.

Hat-tip to Cephalopodcast for the video. (There’s also some interesting stuff about Megalodon (possibly the largest predator the Earth has ever seen) at that link, in case you missed it in the news recently.)

Last week xkcd had a strip paying homage to the Discovery Channel’s current(?) advert. Not having seen the advert, I didn’t really understand it. So, tonight I finally remembered to check out the advert on YouTube, and liked it enough to stick up here; it actually does do a good job of igniting my sense of wonder.

Plus any song that rhymes “arach-a-nids” with “giant squids” gets my vote.

This might just be the most awesome thing ever.

From YouTube; check out his other tracks.

Props to my friend Brian for the link.

Edit: OK, no, him doing Sweet Child of Mine is the most awesome thing ever.

Video on YouTube.

While we’re on the subject of those zany Bleimans, this is their video of the week, and my video of the … week _and a half_.

Viacom has issued a take-down-notice to a YouTube user for posting a clip of one of their TV shows that included footage from one of his other YouTube videos that they had used without his permission.

What? A big-media company stealing and being hypocritical? Say it ‘aint so!

Apparently, it is. From the horses mouth:

“So Viacom took a video that I had made for non-profit purposes and without trying to acquire my permission, used it in a for-profit broadcast. And then when I made a YouTube clip of what they did with my material, they charged me with copyright infringement and had YouTube pull the clip,” wrote Knight in a new blog posting. “Folks, this is, as we say down here in the south, ‘bass-ackwards.’”

Ars has the details.

Personally, I’d like to see Viacom screwed for this. Not because I think what they did (in using the video) was particularly evil, but to highlight the rank hypocrisy of the big-media companies, and to show how out-there their legal policies really are. Here’s what I’d do; look at all of the copyright infringement suits they’ve been involved in in the past ten years, and find the most outrageous case of claimed damages you can. Then look at the annual income of the defendant in that case, and figure out what you’d need to multiply that income by to get the damages claimed. Next multiply Viacom’s annual revenue by that same amount and apply that as a fine, with the funds going to settle any outstanding copyright violation cases, and offer financial aid to people who’ve been ruined by over-the-top MPAA/RIAA copyright cases.

Legal? No. Fair? Possibly not, but something has to be done to send a clear message to big-media that they do not own us.

In commemoration of DJ Dicky playing a Maiden song that isn’t Run to the Hills at the TUC tonight, I thought I’d share the joy. I give you Fear of the Dark:

Quick! Send the Darwinist Thought Police destroy all the Peanut-Butter factories, before someone figures out it disproves Evolution!.

From YouTube, and linked to from just about every site in the universe.

Actually, this makes me want to coin the term “Peanut Butter Creationist”, to refer to someone with just enough knowledge to spew some vaguely scientific-sounding drivel (you know, using the word experiment) in support of their obviously non-scientific beliefs.

This cracks me up.

From YouTube.

From YouTube.