Giant Stingray

A stingray weighing close to 900 pounds? This 6.6-ft.-wide giant stingray was caught, measured and released in Thailand this week, part of a National Geographic scientific expedition to search for giant fish. It may well be the largest known freshwater fish in the world.

.. more Megafishes

The Queen Victoria ocean liner arrives in Sydney

The massive new Queen Victoria caused a stir when she sailed into Sydney yesterday on her maiden voyage.

Main dimensions are:
Length Overall: 964.5 feet (294 m)
Beam: 106 feet (32.3 m)
Beam at Bridge Wings: 120 feet (36.6 m)
Draft: 26.2 feet (8.0 m)
Height keel to funnel: 205 feet (62.5 m)
Height above waterline: 179 feet (54.6 m)

According to GSC, Cloverfield, the new J.J Abrams monster movie, opens here in Malaysia this Thursday, 17 January 2008.

I can't wait to see this. Hopefully I can get some tickets for the first showing.

Here's what smh had to say:

" IT WAS the film without a name, and the poster with no words.

For months it had no title and a shroud of secrecy surrounded its cast and plotline, with only a few carefully leaked clues.

Now we know that Cloverfield, a horror film, has been the subject of an unusual internet marketing campaign that experts herald as the way of the future.

The lack of detail on early promos fermented the interest of people in their late teens and early 20s, whom film marketers targeted because they use the internet.

"This is a great example for marketing for the future," said Cate Smith, marketing director for Paramount Pictures in Australia.

"Usually you're given all the information up front about a film, but for the first time it has been very controlled by the producer, J.J. Abrams [the creator of Lost].

"For people who are interested in that type of film, they're obviously incredibly savvy about the worldwide web, all their information comes from online, they know about things before we do. It's been incredible running an unnamed campaign, with this response."

The first posters of the film contained an image of a headless Statue of Liberty and the release date in small print, with no details, not even the names of stars.

Since then, Australian users have logged on to 3000 different website forums about the film.

When the final trailer for Cloverfield was posted onto Australian YouTube late last year, the site was inundated with visitors. It has since been viewed by more than 500,000 people.

The success of Cloverfield's marketing campaign has emulated the phenomenal success of the shaky video images from The Blair Witch Project - an online marketing campaign that changed the nature of film promotions.

But back then everyone knew the name of the movie. This time around, the late naming of Cloverfield has come as a surprise to some fans, who were used to the film having no title.

"I certainly think that it having no name really started the conversations [among people]. It started them realising that this was a film like no other, or indeed a marketing campaign not like any other," said Lesley White, account director for Network Communications, who worked with Paramount Pictures on the web campaign.

"


Here's the trailer:

.. more info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloverfield

.. less info here:
http://www.cloverfieldmovie.com/

.. really useful info here:
http://cloverfieldclues.blogspot.com/



various viral websites:
http://www.1-18-08.com
http://www.slusho.com
http://www.tidowave.com/

;)

Monster rat found in 'lost world' jungle

Researchers in a remote jungle in Indonesia have discovered a giant rat - five times the size of a typical city rat - and a tiny possum that are apparently new to science.

Unearthing new species of mammals in the 21st century is very rare. The discoveries by a team of American and Indonesian scientists are being studied further to confirm their status.

The animals were found in the Foja mountains rainforest in eastern Papua province in a June expedition, said US-based Conservation International, which organised the trip along with the Indonesian Institute of Science.

"The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

"With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip."

The possum was described as "one of the world's smallest marsupials".

A 2006 expedition to the same stretch of jungle - dubbed by Conservation International as a "Lost World" because until then humans had rarely visited it - unearthed scores of exotic new species of palms, butterflies and palms.

Papua has some of the world's largest tracts of rainforest, but like elsewhere in Indonesia they are being ravaged by illegal logging.

Scientists said last year that the Foja area was not under immediate threat, largely because it was so remote.