Quadrantid will light up the sky coming from the northern area of the sky, between a somewhat obscure constellation and the handle of the Big Dipper. Considered one of the most intense of this year’s meteor showers, but also the shortest.

A clear sky is always preferred for this type of nature’s showcase. In Northern America, “viewing should be great over most of the country,” according to Weather Channel meteorologist Mark Ressler.

“It is possible that the East may get a more intense shower because it will go through the most densest part of the debris stream first. But that doesn’t mean the West won’t see anything.”

Meteor Shower Tonight: Quadrantid one night only affair : quality content from The Daily Inquirer

A band composed of villagers and croc experts from Western Palawan were formed to catch the beast. It took three weeks before the reptile was finally caught. It destroyed traps several times before yielding to steel cables. About a hundred men hauled the croc from a creek in Bunawan, then a crane lifted the monstrous catch into a truck.

“We were nervous but it’s our duty to deal with a threat to the villagers,” Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde of Bunawan told AP through telephone. “When I finally stood before it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

The crocodile then was placed in a fenced cage in an area where the town plans to build an ecotourism park for species found in a vast marshland in Agusan, an impoverished region about 515 miles southeast of Manila Elorde said.

“It will be the biggest star of the park,” the Mayor said. He continued saying the villagers were happy to turn the crocodile “from a threat into an asset”.

Giant Killer Crocodile snared in the Philippines : quality content from The Daily Inquirer

In Crimean City of Yalta, visitors of Skazka zoo are amazed at the sight of a two-headed snake. A cream-colored Albino Californian King snake had two independent heads in one body. Both heads had pink eyes and a forked tongue. One head seems to be weaker than the other.

The mutant reptile have doubled the visitors in Shazka.

“Many enter the zoo feeling horrified and leave delighted,” says zoo worker Ruslan Yakovenko.

Zoo owner Oleg Zubkov doesn’t display his pet all the time. Tourists and visitors will get to see reptile only until mid-September, the closing of the tourist season in Crimea.

Two-headed snake seen in Ukraine zoo : quality content from The Daily Inquirer

A cruise down Adelaide can get pretty adventurous and jaw-dropping upon witnessing a 5.5 meter crocodile leaping straight out of the water, going after a slab-of-meat bait tied on a long pole. Is this a treat for the tourists, or for the croc?

“It’s not natural for a crocodile to follow a boat, but if they know they are going to get an easy feed, then they become quite accustomed to it,” says Craig Adams, a reptile expert who runs Snake and Spider Safety Awareness For Employees (SSSAFE).

“It’s only the large crocs which have the confidence to track down a large vessel carrying humans or come up to a boat. We’re training them to come up and get their food. The danger is the crocs become comfortable around boats,” Adams added.

So what if a 5.5m, 2600-pounder expect a small boat to launch them their meal?  Can crocs get aggressive and topple down the boat for a full board meal?

Okay, you’re in a small boat with your son or dad, fishing. Reeling in the fish, you didn’t notice a croc’s already zeroed in your catch. You stand up, and as soon as the fish hits the air, Godzilla leaps after your fish…and arm.

Scary.

Giant Crocodile leaping caught on camera : quality content from The Daily Inquirer

Call it a fearless display of affection for the dangerous and wild beast? I would agree with Northwest Regional Manager Ron Velarde when he said: “This is an extraordinary example of stupid and irresponsible behavior from people. Because of their reckless action, the sow and cubs now know that people mean food. This dramatically increases the likelihood  that these bears will get into trouble in the future and have to be put down.”

The ferocity of bear attacks has been well documented over the years. In 2010, 25 year-old Justin Young barely escaped with his life when a bear mauled him at his father’s construction site in Vail. Young received a black eye, cuts and bruises. Earlier this week in Montana, a Grizzly killed one and injured two at the Yellowstone National Park.

Honey-glazed cheeseburger anyone? Sound yummy to me!

Stop feeding black bears with Burger King : quality content from The Daily Inquirer

So what’s the formula to making an ugly mutt? The past 7 winners are bald Chinese Cresteds which are either purebred or mixed with a Chihuahua, a mongrel between toybreeds.

Chinese Cresteds did not come from China, but originated from Africa. These are toy dogs come in both “hairless” and “powder puff” varieties. These are two distinct, but both hairless and powder puff can be born on the same litter. The hairless variety is hairless except for its feet, head and tail. The powder puff has a long soft coat.

The Crypt-keeper look-a-like is a blind Chinese Crested beaut from Santa Barbara, California, has won the world’s ugliest dog contest three times in a row in 2003 through 2005. Sam died in November of 2005.

Sam is the World’s Ugliest Dog : quality content from The Daily Inquirer

Google celebrated the 50 years of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s (and mankind’s first) space flight today with a cool animated Google Doodle of Yuri Gagarin with the Vostok 1 blasting off to space.

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey into space and orbit Earth. Gagarin returned home a hero and later became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, which was later named after him.

Here’s a video of Vostok 1′s launch:

After his space flight, Gagarin served a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and spent 7 years working on designs for a reusable spacecraft. Soviet officials tried to keep Gagarin from flying again, being worried of losing their hero in an accident.

Gagarin died during a routine training flight on 27 March 1968 while flying a MiG-15 near the town of Kirzhach.

Google celebrates Yuri Gagarin’s space flight 50th anniversary with a Google Doodle! : quality content from The Daily Inquirer

Image by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

This beautiful image of the planet Mercury was taken by the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft on March 18, 2011 (UTC) during it’s orbit around the Solar Systems innermost planet.

The MESSENGER is the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury and used the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) to take the image.

First Mercury Orbit Picture : quality content from The Daily Inquirer

The best time to view the Leonid meteor shower will be after 5:15 a.m EST.

You could use the NASA’s Fluximator tool to check the Leonid meteor shower peak in your area. Just enter your area or time zone and it will compute the best meteor shower viewing time for you.

The Leonids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to stream from that point in the sky.

The Leonid meteor shower is an annual event that returns every mid-November. The shower is caused by material left behind the comet Tempel-Tuttle when it passes near Earth’s orbit during its regular trip through the solar system.

Photo courtesy of NASA

Leonid Meteor Shower November 2010 : quality content from The Daily Inquirer

Aliens spaceships, high-tech pre-halloween costumes or not, whatever the city people saw shining in sky has scared them enough to dial emergency calls to 911.

The NYPD and the FAA fielded numerous phone calls Wednesday afternoon from freaked out New Yorkers who reported they saw UFOs hovering over Manhattan, the New York Post reported.

“Some people saw something described as yellow with blue lights surrounding it,” FAA spokesman Jim Peters tells the Post. “Every once in a while you get phone calls from people who see something they can’t explain.”

Another witness claims the shiny objects were just balloons floating away from the celebration on Broadway in Times Square of the 100th anniversary of Madrid’s Gran Via Avenue.

Beat this, a creepy excerpt from retired US Air Force officer Stanley A. Fulham. “On Oct. 13, the world would be witness to “a massive UFO display over the world’s principal cities.”

*hums to the theme of Twilight Zone

Manhattan UFO sightings alerts New Yorkers : quality content from The Daily Inquirer