Achilles Tang

For the Yahoo link. Movie-Star Whale Keiko Dies in Norway Sat Dec 13, 7:55 AM ET By DOUG MELLGREN, Associated Press Writer OSLO, Norway - Keiko, the killer whale who gained fame starring in the "Free Willy" movies, has died in a Norwegian bay that he made his home after a 10-year campaign failed to coax him back to the open seas. Keiko, who was about 26 years old, died Friday after suddenly contracting pneumonia in the Taknes fjord in Norway. Caretaker Dane Richards told The Associated Press that the illness struck the 25-foot mammal fairly quickly as Keiko appeared lethargic and lost his appetite. "We checked his respiration rate and it was a little irregular ... he wasn't doing too well," Richards said. "Early in the evening, he passed away." In the wild, orcas can live an average of 35 years. Keiko was believed born in 1977 or 1978 off Iceland. The drive to free Keiko, who was captured near Iceland in 1979 and sold to the marine park industry, began in 1993 after he was found ailing in a Mexico City aquarium. He was rehabilitated at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, then airlifted to Iceland in 1998. His handlers prepared him for the wild, teaching him to catch live fish in an operation that cost about $500,000 a month. That same amount paid for a year of care in Norway, according to the Free Willy Foundation in San Francisco. Keiko, which means "Lucky One" in Japanese, was released from Iceland in July 2002 with hopes that he would return to the wild. But he swam straight for Norway on a 870-mile trek that seemed to be a search for human companionship. The 6 ton whale delighted Norwegians when he first turned up near the village of Halsa in late August or early September of 2002. He allowed fans to pet and play with him, even crawl on his back, becoming such an attraction that animal protection authorities imposed a ban on approaching him. But his choice of Norway, the only country that hunts whales for profit, was a shock to many fans, who feared that whalers would go after him. Orcas are protected in Norway, which only hunts minke whales, and authorities assured the world he was safe. Lars Olav Lilleboe, of the township of Halsa, said it was a sad day for the town of 1,750 people, a mix of rolling farmland and small mountains, some 250 miles northwest of the capital, Oslo. "He is one of the biggest things to ever happen to Halsa," said Lilleboe. "There is no doubt that he has been a tourist attraction." Nick Braden, a spokesman of the Humane Society of the United States, said veterinarians gave Keiko antibiotics after he showed signs of lethargy, but it wasn't apparent how sick he was. "They really do die quickly and there was nothing we could do," he said. Braden said "it's a really sad moment for us, but we do believe we gave him a chance to be in the wild." David Phillips, executive director of the San Francisco-based Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, said Keiko's plight changed public perception of whether a whale could be returned to the wild. "We took the hardest candidate and took him from near death in Mexico to swimming with wild whales in Norway," he said. "Keiko proved a lot of naysayers wrong and that this can work and that is a very powerful thing." Back in Oregon, where he had spent 32-months at the Coast Aquarium, more than 2.5 million people visited him. Mark Collson, an aquarium board member, said Keiko had a way with people. "I once I had a friend describe him as a 4,000-pound golden retriever," Collson said. "He was like the family dog; he wanted to be next to you." In the end, Phillips said, Keiko's lure is likely to prove beneficial because "there was something about Keiko that wherever he went — Mexico, Oregon, Iceland — he captured the world's attention." Phillips said that caretakers would have to make burial arrangements with Norway's government. "My preference would be to bury him on land ... If you bury him on land we could still recover his skeleton and that might have some value in a museum or something, but that is still being worked out," he said. Meanwhile, Keiko's remains were covered with a tarp in the water of Taknes Bay, a clear, calm pocket of coastal water deep enough that it doesn't freeze in winter. Keepers had fed him there, but he was free to roam, and often did at night. He was equipped with a VHF tracking device that let his four handlers pinpoint his location provided he stayed within a range of about five miles. Keiko's stardom came from the three "Free Willy" films, in which a young boy befriends a captive killer whale and persuades him to jump over a sea park wall to freedom. In November, Keiko was led to his new home at Taknes Bay, still in Halsa but — handlers hoped — farther from the crowds. ___ On the Net: Keiko: http://www.aquarium.org/keiko/index.htm

You can't put a DSB in your middle section as the baffles mean that water has to flow thru the sandbed... so whether you put coral chips or #0 sand, they will end up trapping detritus and because well oxygenated water's gonna be flowing thru, it cannot become a denitrification zone. You have to let water flow OVER a DSB and NOT thru it for it to work... anyway.... DSBs/refugiums should be sized equal or bigger to the surface area of the tank for them to have significant results... but mini DSB/refugiums are better than nothing.

It's extremely scary to see that! A good reason to get expensive aragonite sand from good brands... then again... maybe not... if you're willing to spend time to remove the metal bits. Someone should feedback to the main supplier about this issue.

BEDROOM???

Well, since you rejected a Ti/RR chiller so-called because of the heat produced, you probably will be hard pressed to find another alternative that is equally efficient vs the price you pay vs heat produced vs the noise. IMO, the more heat produced means that a good amount of heat is taken from the water, in my layman thinking. All chillers are hot. Putting a chiller in an enclosed cabinet with poor circulation, no matter what brand, means that your chiller will be working very hard because of the recycled hot air. If you have loads of money ie $4500... a Teco RA2000 would be ideal and even that is just 1hp.

Just love my new casing!

Underwater Photography: Optimizing your UW-Photos Very very good guide!

Not every shot works as well as the ones posted and I haven't got just one technique that works every time. I'm not qualified to give a tutorial on Photoshop but things I've had success with using Photoshop Elements 1.0 are: 1. Use the Enhance->Colour Cast. Initially I wouldn't use this tool as I thought it would be better to try and use less automated adjustments. However I've found there's nearly always something that should be white in pictures e.g. dead coral, stripes on fish. Click on these and you often get good results. You can always reset and try again if you don't like the result, also by clicking the preview checkbox on and off you can check the results against the original. 2. Create a New Adjustment Layer->Levels and adjust the levels of each colour in turn. I find it's best to leave the red to last and often find that you don't want to move the right hand slider right to the edge of the histogram as the the results often look unnatural. 3. Create a New Adjustment Layer->Hue/Saturation and reduce the saturation of the Cyan. This often removes the cyan cast you get on white objects. You can also try; using the sliders to change the range of colour desaturated; change the hue of cyans to be more blue; increase the saturation of reds and magentas. 4. Create a New Fill Layer->Solid Colour containing red/magenta. Set the layer mode to colour and play with the transparency until you get the colours you want. You will often need to use more than one of these steps 1 & 2, 2 & 3 or 4 & 3. With practise I find that using 1 & 2 gives me the best results. When you are ready to display your pictures or print them flatten the layers and use the Sharpen->Unsharp Mark tool to sharpen them up.

Yup... and its $1285 excl GST.

Oh cool!! Stacks!

Ikelite casing for Canon G2 powershot camera. Reasons for selling: departing with my Canon G2 camera. It has served me well... easy to use, like the see-thru body compared of aluminium housings. Tough and the O-ring has never failed me... very easy to see if any hair or sand grain is caught. Still in good condition. Original Price: $1285, I think w/o GST. Asking price: $888 Here are some photos that I have taken with it. Nudibranch (taken last week in Hin Daeng/Hin Muang). Long nose hawkfish!

Thanks Razo... but I will keep you in mind... coz your scanner is really for A4 docs!! Looking for small namecard scanners. Easy to carry around.

Man, you and Giesemann really 'bo gum'!!! I think you go and get local anti-uv plexiglass better... I think you can get from Dama Plastics. Check with Maxima... I think he has the exact code.

Hello guys, I am in urgent need for a namecard scanner. By any chance does anyone have one to T-loan me? Thanks! AT

A really expensive toy but probably worth every cent!

Got mine from Marinelife then.

Was considering a CB, but I guess my 4 peppermints have gotten to their work because I see about 80% of my aiptasias slowly disappearing.

One more to let go! Lelong lelong!

Good luck dude. I know how it feels. Was retrenched before so I know how it felt. In my case, it was the closure of the entire company due to work disaster.

Hit the macro button.

The AT KTP software does come with an optional ball-cutting module amongst other extreme programming options. I didn't get it because that will add an additional $10.15 to the total cost. Does this mean I am considered a cheapo? OOOPS!!! WHEW!!!! THANK GOODNESS I DIDN'T INSTALL THAT MODULE!!!!! I'll be ball-less right now. READ CAREFULLY you monkee... those keywords has to trigger the Extreme Sarcasm viral program first!

LOL!!!!! So sorry to hear that. So I guess what you really meet up with SRC people than you have to get yourself a new identity?

Hi guys, I just ordered this software package... looks good. ============================================== The AT Keep The Peace v1.0 software is currently in beta testing and will be available for final release soon. It is guaranteed to wipe out all traces of Cheapo Alert software (upgradeable) and has the option of suspending user access to the Shared Resource. In extreme cases, a total deletion of the user account can be executed with a few simple key strokes. Needless to say, the tracing program is able to monitor & report on any form of suspicious activity in its stealth mode, namely when the keywords 'free', 'lobang', 'give', 'give me', 'cheapo', 'freeloader', 'freebies' etc are detected to be used to incite the activation of Extreme Sarcasm viral programs. All versions of Extreme Sarcasm software, from v1.01 onwards, will also trigger a warning system before the Let's Flame the Bugger Trogan program can be activated and spread the Total Chaos virus. The AT Keep The Peace software works hand in hand with the Administrator Always Has To Deal With Shit firewall to deal with such eventualities. ================================================ What do you think?

Nope... no way to measure unless you put in a small volume of water ie. a cup, let it run and then measure the water temp. Diff pumps are designed differently... in terms of efficiency even if they have the same wattage. Needless to say, the clone copies from China, Taiwan are usually running a little hotter, or consume more electricity or are more noisy. But you pay for what you get.

That my friend, is aiptasia... a pest anemone with a powerful sting.