Bada Boom - Greatest Show on Earth Right Now

The greatest show on the planet right now is in Indonesia and Mt. Sinabung which is spewing forth white hot lava and massive plumes of hot volcanic debris.

For volcano watchers worldwide (Frank and Jenny) Indonesia is known for especially "primeval" volcanic events.

RT Flights from San Francisco will set you back about $1200 USD. The last time this old gal went Pleistocene was back in the late 1600's. Should be an interesting couple of weeks.

Larval Critters - The Ocean's "Itchy" Feeling

If you do not pay attention to Stumble Upon then you're only using a small fraction of your brain power. Seriously, since we started Stumbling a year ago we now know more than most about absolutely everything.

Take that Mesa punks.

We also know a great ocean based website when we see one and this week found a unique site that features oceanic critters we most like to eat when they are too small to eat.

Case in point this critter here - known as the Slipper Lobster (ate more than a few of these in Australia) it's larval stage looks like cut crystal and the website it is found on hosts a veritable treasure trove of deep sea critters only surfers and the occasional long distance swimmer ever encounter.

Think of this site as plankton porn for the whale shark set. Kudos to the folks over at Image Quest Marine.

Best Undersea Critter Ever!

If it were not for the Internet critters like these would remain in some lab, in a bottle somewhere, or in some obscure journal on a dusty back shelf.

Fortunately we live in a more enlightened age.

What you are looking at is Macropinna microstoma, brought to you by our all time favorite underwater website/news archive Underwater Times - the grandaddy of all online underwater sites. Kudos and double kudos to Jeff Dudas for this story.

Macropinna is currently being studied at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute by researchers Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler (another reason to live in California) using ROV's in the deep waters just offshore of Central California. This unlikely looking critter can be found at depths of 2,000 to 2,600 feet.