The Week in Whales! (Next Week: The Week in Wales!)
In the wake of The Daily Show and Colbert Report leaving the air, I understand many of you have turned to the CRACKED Blog as your primary source of current, gripping, relevant news. In order to punish that impulse, I present the following reports on what's been going on with whales lately.
And what have those mammoth maritime mammals been up to? Not getting killed by the Japanese, for one. Defecating in our oceans for two. But let's go back to the other story for now (For more on the whale poo issue, see my article in December's National Geographic Magazine entitled "Destination Defecation, Population: Poop").
Due to international pressures, the Japanese have agreed to forestall the planned killing of fifty endangered Humpback whales, but are going through with the slaughter of over a thousand other, more plentiful whales.
And believe it or not, the whales are NOT for scarfing; no, they have giant squid brains for that. The Japanese research institute backing the voyage claims the whales are "vital to [their] research [on making a whale-human hybrid capable of wading ashore U.S. beaches and devouring surfers and sunners by the maw-ful]."
So who's the hero here? The International Whale Council, which finally convinced Japan to leave the Humpbacks to their humpbacking. For the sake of our collective joy, I encourage all of you to imagine that the IWC is a governmental body whose members are whales. Other little-known government bodies dedicated to preserving our sea life?
In other whale-related news, recent fossil evidence suggests that the modern whale is not descended from the Hippo, as has been assumed, but rather from Indohyus, an extinct deer-like creature the size of a raccoon:
In other words, whales got faaaaaaat.









IWC actually stands for International Whaling Commission, not International Whale Council.
ReplyAssociated Krill and Plankton. Hmm, ASSKRAP sounds like a good society.
ReplyI'm going to tell a few of my friends about your site. I've learned a lot reading here. Thanks!
Reply•The Jellyfish Association for the Preservation of Shrimp = JAPS?
ReplyOh, Swaim, no!
Halo 2 for Windows Vista download...
Replyyes indeed......
I'm from Wales, and it's not only the Scottish we like, but the Irish too! But yeah, if you're English and you hang around Wales then you can expect someone with a damn near impenetrable accent to throw a petrol bomb through your window while shouting 'you fucking English poof'. And for my entire nation, I apologise
ReplyHAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! AND WAR... DAMN....EAGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyWell maybe he just didn't care because true love knows no bounds.
ReplyGlendoor42.
ReplyThere's an old story going around that a train was passing through some blank piece of countryside, when, quite visibly seen from the train windows, there was a man in a field rear-ending a sheep.
The fact that it was in broad daylight makes it seem the poor guy just couldn't control himself.
Well I would think that at some point a modifed tooth, that sticks out of your head and can be up to 3 meters long, would become a horn or at least a tusk.
ReplyIt's not a horn it's a MODIFIED TOOTH! How many times do we need to go over this?!
ReplyAlso, Jason, THANKS! That was my favorite part of the post.
I'm gonna have to say I wouldn't mind if the hunted those narwhal whales 'cause the freak the shit out of me. What's with the horn? Although I guess they could seem kinda WILFy to some.
ReplyI had just always heard that Scotsman and their sheep would pay to watch a giant whale-man fight Godzilla .What stories have you heard Ross?
ReplyYou know I'm kidding, right?
"For the sake of our collective joy, I encourage all of you to imagine that the IWC is a governmental body whose members are whales."
ReplyThis made me laugh so hard I actually woke my daugther up last night.
I'm a cityboy, but man I have heard some wierd stories.
ReplyEspecially if you take trains to the really far flung places.
Well you know what they say about Scotsman and their sheep.
ReplyI'm still orgasming over Animals.
ReplyNot literally.
God that sounded so wrong.
Uh-Ohs. I'll go download it presently.
ReplyRadio Kaos was good and the Wall was great, but the Final Cut is better than both.
ReplyMy only impression of anyone from Wales is Roger Water's Radio K.A.O.S., in which a crippled genius Welsh boy hacks into NORAD and destroys the earth. So, fuck the Welsh. Also, Radio K.A.O.S. is awesome; easily as good as The Wall. Go listen to it now.
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