Great White Shark

[Cameron]

I think the Great White has to be the hands down scariest creature on the Earth. A prehistoric killing machine! Of course, I did see a video once of a Killer Whale owning(as in ripping to pieces) a Great White but when I think of a KW I think of Shamu..more huggable than scary.

 

What is more scary than GWS? Could you imagine being in the ocean and having one of those things swim near you?

 

And the GWS's from prehitoric times(Megalodon?) was like 10 times bigger! There was a 100 ft long GWS swimming in the oceans millions of years ago! Damn, this planet has had some wild shit.

[Cameron]

Also, does it blow anyone elses mind that Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for like hundreds of millions of years before humans even existed? The Megalodon's tooth is like the size of a human's arm!? We are just a recent addition to the story of planet earth and think we are so great. Dinosaurs owned this planet for hundreds of millions of years we don't even know what humans were doing over 10,000 years ago!

 

There are some serious gaps to fill. Maybe it's just that the earth is so old it's hard to conceptualize it.

[Trunk]

Damn, this planet has had some wild shit.

I ended up buying The Blue Planet series on dvd. Its all current-life-in&around-the-oceans. Amazing, astounding, incredible. Have watched it over and over.

[Yoda]

We watch those things all the time. Our goal is to eventually own all of them. It gives you the 'bigger picture' of life.... we have all the BBC Dinosaur movies (Chased by dinosaurs goes step by step through the baddest sea creatures ever) the blue planet, and "the future is wild" a dvd set where scientists speculate on the direction of future evolution. This isn't as hard as you think--we have so much past evolution to study, that it's pretty easy to guess how it'll go down.

 

The one assumption that they make is that every few hundred million years a meteor wipes the slate clean and earth starts all over, except for the very smallest of animals, and sea creatures fare better than land creatures. So they guess that humans will be wiped out on the next big impact. I'm not so sure that we are so easy to get rid of. Given our survival, we would probably control and guide the evolution of the larger species esp the big land based predators.

 

In the race to crawl out of the sea and take over the land, the octopuses and the squids are most likely to do the best and take to the trees like the primates and eventually evolve intelligence, sperm retention, and become taoist immortals like us.

 

-Yoda

[TwoTrees]

Great... you are rooting for mindflayers and illithidmen?

In advanced cases, Beholders?

 

in D&D this is bad, bad news

 

an exerpt from an old article via wizards of the coast.com:

 

The Flow of Fresh Brains

 

Mind flayers, otherwise known as illithids, are horrific creatures that originated in the far future. Faced with the imminent demise of their kind, they fled to the past with their elder brain leaders, plus certain ferocious and twisted creatures that inhabited their homeworld, as well as numerous spacefaring ships called nautiloids. Upon arrival, they took refuge in the darkest corners of various worlds and began to build their empire anew by enslaving the native humanoid races. Since then, the illithids have manipulated events in both overt and subtle ways to assure the eventual evolution of their own species.

 

Most of the illithids sought refuge beneath the surfaces of their new worlds, establishing colonies that thrived and grew strong where the light of the sun could not penetrate. However, a large number of them avoided inhabited areas altogether and made their homes among the stars instead. Several elder brains and their illithid followers settled on small moons or large asteroids, where they could plot out their future without interference from the native creatures of the inhabited worlds. But while this solution helped to ensure the safety of the illithid masters, it also distanced the settlements from their primary food source: the brains of sentient creatures. The vast majority of the illithids in such stellar settlements addressed this issue by using their plane shift ability to capture sentient creatures for food. As luck would have it, however, a few settlements were established on stellar bodies that happened to be rich in valuable minerals. The residents of these colonies quickly discovered that mining those substances and trading them for living slaves presented considerably less personal risk than any other method of acquiring food. Deals were made, and avenues were opened for slave trade with the inhabited worlds.

 

 

or see it here:

 

 

you can get a pic of them on here, but basically, they are squid/octopus types.

 

***edit*** oh yeah, almost forgot--I have no financial affiliation with therein link/website

[peter falk]

got all the david attenborough dvds there are to have in china at rockbottom prices and have wtched them all several times. by the time he got to the life of mammals he verged on the mystical. a deeply profound observation of nature and mankind. this man has become one of the sages of the age.

[turbo]

What is more scary than GWS? Could you imagine being in the ocean and having one of those things swim near you?

 

6839[/snapback]

Humans.

 

People scare the everliving shit outta me. Sharks are one of the most beautifal creature on or in the planet. Sleek, fast killing machines, nothing wasted, in fact if they stop swimming they drown. Has to keep going, keep eating, magnificent. Its consumption feeds other fish, some live on it, some feed on the scraps. The varieties of sharks are incredible. Did you know that a maco shark can do sprints of over 55 mph? Its teeth are curved inward, so once it gets a piece of its preys ass it hold it. Tiger sharks are nearly as stout as a GW and inhabit waters along the Gulf of Mexico. A friend of mine caught a 12 foot one a year ago. They have been caught sa big as 16 to 18 feet weighting 1500+ pounds. Bull sharks have been know to swim miles up fresh water rivers to hunt. Amazing creatures, pinacle of aquatic evolution. Beauty.

 

People on the other hand, and especially Asians, harvest shark fins for soup. They net hundreds of sharks bring them aboard their fishng vessels, cut off the dorsal fin, and throw the shark back in the water to die. It almoast makes me cry when I see video of it. Its like someone cutting off your arms and leaving you to die. People destroying natures most efficient and beautifal creature, that scares me more than the shark and it astounds me that so little has been done about it. Science has already noted the repercussions in the ecosystem. Ever wonder why every city that is expanding is having problems with deer? Its beacuse we killed all the large cats off years ago, same thing is happening with sharks.

 

well its late good luck all

[Cameron]

Yeah the taoist thing would be probably just leave nature alone to balance itself . But then probably alot of people think shark fin soup is tasty and then it becomes a business and human greed moves in and then it is probably not something people will stop.

 

Sort of like the oil companies from what I understand they figured out how to make cars run off of electricity or solar power but too much money is at stake to just stop the flow of all those billion dollar oil cartels.

 

Then you hear people say that none of it matters. Naure will just find another way to balance out.

 

Funny what you said I was watching george carlin on Bill Maher's show on HBO last night and he was saying that humans are like the disease of planet Earth we have caused more destruction and pain on this planet then any other creature.

 

This is pribably true but we have also probably caused the greatest joy and enlightenment for the planet also. Probably as long as there are some enlightened or atleast virtuous people to balance out the evil and greedy ones it will work out.

 

But we really desperately need better leadership on our planet the people that run countries don't even resemble what a leader is supposed to be to me.

[turbo]

Funny what you said I was watching george carlin on Bill Maher's show on HBO last night and he was saying that humans are like the disease of planet Earth we have caused more destruction and pain on this planet then any other creature.

 

6934[/snapback]

 

While its easy to compare people to disease, and it seems somewhat accurate. its is only superfically correct. People have the ability to make the world a better place. To improve it heal it, to cure the earth's and humaity's "disease". And thats no small task.

 

Saying that people are a disease keeps us from taking responsibilty for our actions or at least owning up to the fact that it is our concious decisions that have created what we percieve as the effects of disease.

 

More and more powerful hurricanes, polar ice caps receding to unprecedent levels, holes in the ozone larger than ever, widlife being destroyed for no substantial purpose, people acting from a desire to make a buck today without caring about tomorrow. Lack of social responsibility if you will. Its easy to call it a disease, but they are all decisions, we (the people of Earth) have chosen these things, continue to, and will only stop, it seems, when forced to do so. Mother Nature appears to be in the process of forcing us to stop.

 

Hold on, its going to be a turbulent ride!!

 

t