Hallstat, Austria

Winter, summer, spring or fall -- it's always beautiful.

"The largest animals ever to live on Earth"

Blue whales are returning to Alaska in search of food and could be re-establishing an old migration route several decades after they were nearly wiped out by commercial whalers, scientists say.



The endangered whales, possibly the largest animals ever to live on Earth, have yet to recover from the worldwide slaughter that eliminated 99 percent of their number, according to the American Cetacean Society. The hunting peaked in 1931 with more than 29,000 animals killed in one season.



The animals used to cruise from Mexico and Southern California to Alaska, but they had mostly vanished from Alaskan waters.



But several sightings of California whales in recent years off the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia suggest that the massive animals are expanding north again in search of tiny shrimp-like krill to eat, scientists contend in a recent article published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.



Blue whales can grow up to 100 feet long and typically eat 4 tons of krill a day during the summer.

"Astronomers report seeing supermassive black hole swallowing star"

For the first time, astronomers say they've borne witness to a supermassive black hole consuming a star.



Two papers released Wednesday by the journal Nature describe powerful blasts of radiation whose brightness and behavior can be explained only by a sun-sized star being torn apart by the gravitational forces of a black hole at the center of its galaxy, the authors say.



Scientists believe they have seen the aftermath of such stellar violence before, in the form of fading glows emanating from distant galaxies, in whose centers supermassive black holes usually reside. But they had never caught one in the act.



"This was the first time we saw one of these big black holes going from quiet and silent to very loud and noisy, producing a lot of light and radiation," said Davide Lazzati, an astrophysicist at North Carolina State University who was not involved in the study.



Shown above is an artist’s rendering of a burst of radiation released as a supermassive black hole consumes a star.



(Aurore Simonnet / Sonoma State University / August 25, 2011)

"Ground Zero"

Previously the site where the world famous World Trade Centres stood, this construction site provides fascinating viewing. A great place to reflect on the events of September 11, especially the museum across the road from Ground Zero. Eventually this site will contain more incredible architecture (pictures), with a memorial to those who lost their lives on that tragic day.

Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.



Sue Fondrie



Oshkosh, WI



The winner of the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is Sue Fondrie, an associate professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh who works groan-inducing wordplay into her teaching and administrative duties whenever possible. Out of school, she introduces two members of the next generation to the mysteries of Star Trek, Star Wars, and--of course--the art of the bad pun.



Prof. Fondrie is the 29th grand prize winner of the contest that that began at San Jose State University in 1982. The contest challenges entrants to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels takes its name from the Victorian novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who began his “Paul Clifford” with “It was a dark and stormy night.”



At 26 words, Prof. Fondrie’s submission is the shortest grand prize winner in Contest history, proving that bad writing need not be prolix, or even very wordy.



Runner-Up:



As I stood among the ransacked ruin that had been my home, surveying the aftermath of the senseless horrors and atrocities that had been perpetrated on my family and everything I hold dear, I swore to myself that no matter where I had to go, no matter what I had to do or endure, I would find the man who did this . . . and when I did, when I did, oh, there would be words.



Rodney Reed

Ooltewah, TN

"Rugby is a sport where you get to know people intimately"

"What really happened ???"

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and surface vessels allegedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances.



Popular culture has attributed these disappearances to the paranormal or activity by extraterrestrial beings.[1] Documented evidence indicates that a significant percentage of the incidents were inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have stated that the number and nature of disappearances in the region is similar to that in any other area of ocean