Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Whales live 200 years?

Who knew? I thought sea turtles were the old men of the sea.

From this article:

BOSTON - A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago. Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.

"No other finding has been this precise," said John Bockstoce, an adjunct curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Calculating a whale's age can be difficult, and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses. It's rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts say the oldest were close to 200 years old.

Re: Re: The Nest Egg

I couldn't agree more with your review. After Hoover it really slides downhill.

And I think I agree about Holy Grail. I rarely laugh out loud at movies; I still laugh out loud when I watch HG.

The "burn the witch" scene for years puzzled me because I couldn't quite understand her last line as they knock the support out from under the scales ("Remooooove the s'pports!"). She says something like, "It's a fair cop." For the life of me I couldn't figure out what that meant. Michael and I did some poking around and came to the conclusion that it means "not a bad judgment."

HG script available here:

KNIGHTS:  [singing]
We're knights of the round table.
We dance when e'er we're able.
We do routines and chorus scenes
With footwork impeccable.
We dine well here in Camelot.
We eat ham and jam and spam a lot.

[dancing]
We're knights of the Round Table.
Our shows are formidable,
But many times we're given rhymes
That are quite unsingable.
We're opera mad in Camelot.
We sing from the diaphragm a lot.

[in dungeon]
PRISONER: [clap clap clap clap]
[in medieval hall]
KNIGHTS: [tap-dancing]
In war we're tough and able,
Quite indefatigable.
Between our quests we sequin vests and impersonate Clark Gable.
It's a busy life in Camelot.
MAN: I have to push the pram a lot.