Squid Essays - Squid, Megafauna, Giant Squid, Sea Monster, Tentacle

Squid Squid are wild and wonderful. They are believed to be remarkably intelligent because of their apparently complex communication system. They include the Vampire Squid, and the elusive and mysterious Giant Squid. I researched the Giant Squid which is the biggest animals in the sea. The giant squid lives in most of the world`s oceans and is among the biggest animals in the sea but it is rarely seen. It hunts smaller sea creatures but larger animals feed on it. It has inspired fantastic tales but the facts are even more fascinating than the ficiton. For over 2,000 years the giant squid has inspired fear, fascination, and fantastis stories. Encounters with this huge invertebrate have always been rare and distant. And only recently has there been scientific evidence to dispute the legends. Centuries ago, people invented explanations for what their astonished eyes saw. In 1500`s, when several large unfamiliar sea creatures were stranded in Norway, people decided they were ?gMermen?h. A merman is a giant squid. Until the 1880`s , the giant squid was thought to be a legend. But in 1888, a giant squid 57 feet long washed ashore on a New Zealand beach. It had tentacles 35 feet long, and its eyes were each larger than a dinner plate. (It is amazing!) One captured sperm whale regurgitated two 42 foot long tentacles in an aquarium, meaning the squid they came from was roughly 66 feet long, and weighed 85,000 pounds. Scientists do not know exactly where in the sea it lives, they have not been to study it alive. The giant squid can be up to 18m (59 ft), and their weight can be up to 900kg (1980lb,nearly 1ton). In addition, They were caught everywhere in the world, especially in the North of Atlantic. Scientists suspect giant squid live mostly at depth of 200 to 700, One of the giant squid found stranded on U.S. shores where in Washed ashore on Plum Island, Massachusetts, in 1980. It was the only third giant squid that they found stranded in U.S. shores. The total of specimen was 2.7m ( 9 ft) and the weight was 200 kg (440 lb).The giant squid eat mainly fishes and other squids, based on scientific analysis of the stomach contents of two giant specimens. Giant, menacing sea monsters have been written about for centuries. Sailors have told fantastic stories of being attacked by monsters with enormous flailing tentacles and huge, black menacing eyes . These stories probably originated from sightings of the largest marine invertebrate which is the giant squid. The giant squid have the ability to jet propel themselves through the water at 20 miles per hour, faster than most sailing ships of the past. As squid can also launch itself out of the water while moving at high speed , appearing to fly, which would be pretty unnerving to superstitious sailors on a whaling ship. In recently, a scientific expedition was launched to search the deepest oceans of the world for the elusive giant squid. Deep water manned and unmanned submarines will be used to try to find out more about the huge invertebrates. Perhaps there are still many things that we don?ft know about the squid, but the mystery of the sea monsters will soon be solved.

The U-2 Essays - Black Projects, Signals Intelligence, Free Essays

The U-2 Essays - Black Projects, Signals Intelligence, Free Essays The U-2 The U-2 CIA Air Force Reasons: Soviet air defense was aggressive April 8, 1950 USSR shot down a US Privateer over Baltic Autumn 1951 USSR downed a Twin-Engine Navy Neptune bomber June 13 1952 USSR allegedly downed a RB-29 Also scattered reports from Britain and Turkey After USSR backed N. Korea fear of USSR expansion grew Development: Civilian or Air Force? After many letters the decision for who to run development came from president Eisenhower who instructed that if a uniformed test pilot was captured in USSR in peacetime problems would arouse so a civilian team was called for development. Funding I would like to note that this segment in many reports was covered with black marker You try to read a sentence blacked out like this s and understand it. The Team James R. Killian, Jr. Director of Scientist - President of MIT His team of engineers worked no more that 50 feet from the assembly line. Problems were recognized and fixed in a few hours of draft productions. The Place Lockheed Martins Advanced Development facility in Burbank, CA AKA Skunk Works The Plane: The design called for a lightweight aircraft for ultrahigh flight. Tail The long tail was bolted to the body was only 3 bolts. This design was similar to a sailplane, which is also known for its lightweight. Wings The wing spar went through the fuselage. The panels were bolted to the side of the fuselage. (Sailplane) Amazingly the wings where integrated fuel tanks keeping almost all of the U-2s fuel. Nose and Landing Gear The nose was curved upwards to keep stabilized during wind gusts. (Sailplane) The landing was a complex set of bicycle like gears that weight 208 pounds but had the capability to withstand the touchdown of a 7-ton aircraft. Camera After developing 2 cameras each too large or too heavy a camera a camera was then developed using 3 mirrors and a prism to meet the size and weight requirements of the U-2 Spacesuits One of the first partially pressurized suits for high altitude flight was developed for specifically for the U-2. The cockpit kept a constant pressure 28,000 ft. This was at an outside pressure of a window cracking 70,000 feet or more. If the pressure suddenly decreased the suit would automatically inflate and administrate oxygen to the pilot. (Blood boils after 65,000ft) Fuel The CIA called on the vice president of Shell Oil Co. to make a low-volatility, low-vapor kerosene fuel. A fuel with the boiling point of 300F Security I wish I could fly like an eagle to the see fly like and eagle like my spirits carry me I want to fly. Right into the future I want to fly again. Over flights: First The first over flight of the U-2 was over Leningrad. Its target was to observe ship and submarines at bay. The Soviets caught glimpses of the U-2 but never accurately recognized the neither plane nor flight path. The USSR sent a letter to the White House describing the detection a Twin-Engine Navy Neptune bomber over USSR. The USSR was grossly wrong in the description of the U-2 and could not sustain the U-2 on radar for more than a few seconds. Nevertheless Eisenhower closed all over flights Renewal Eisenhower later renewed the U-2 program. But after taking pictures of Yerevan, USSR, The aircraft malfunctioned, and was forced to return to base. In another flight a pilot nick-named the Lemon Drop Kick was to fly over Bulgaria. The reason he was called that was because he always sucked on lemon hard candies during flight. But on that day the solider suiting him up put a L-pill in his pocket, unknowingly with the hard candies. L-pill being a suicide pill filled with potassium cyanide. He took off and started to eat his candy. He felt one of the pills had no flavor. Without biting into it he removed his faceplate and spit it out. The pilot was fine, but a thin glass coating away from death. More flights over the USSR west border were conducted with target cites and testing areas. Operation GRAND SLAM, the last over flight The flight was the first transit over the Soviet Union, all previous flight flew halfway in then turned around and retraced its flight. The flight would have been sooner, but the weather did not permit it. So CIA asked for more time. President Eisenhower demanded that no flights to be made after May 1,