In honor of the passing of Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch, otherwise known as MCA, James Winters and family made this adorable video of little kids reenacting the music video for “Sabotage.”

While writing to direct your attention toward this multiplayer virtual piano, I left it up in a tab, and one of two things are happening: In some weird way, the group piano playing effort is going wonderfully and is some kind of ingenius experiment to show that if at least one person is trying in the middle of all the key-mashing, music can happen — or I’m going insane. For some reason, though, underneath all the key-mashing and those few, poor people actually trying to play traditional music, the multiplayer virtual piano is actually providing an interesting soundscape.

Google has already extended the range of their all-seeing Street View eyes to the Amazonian rainforest and the inside of buildings. That’s all well and good, but you might wonder how long the world will have to wait until they can get Street View below the ocean waves. The answer is September 2012, and it will be coming courtesy of the Catlin Seaview Survey of the Great Barrier Reef.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably sat at home wondering, aloud, “How, exactly, do swimming crabs — Portunus pelagicus — get it on?” Well, thankfully someone took it upon themselves to record a happy crab couple, and now we know for sure. Two surprises: It involves a lot of carrying and a lot of burying. Also, since these handsome critters are also known as the “blue manna crab,” one wonders if they’re the source of all mana potions everywhere. Video below the jump.

If you haven’t heard of xenophyophores, you’re probably in good company. First thought to be sea sponges, these ocean dwellers have been tossed around taxanomically for nearly a century until finally settling into their role as the world’s largest single-celled organism. A recent expedition to the Mariana Trench by National Geographic spotted the strange creatures some six miles under the ocean, the greatest depth at which xenophyophores have been found.

Though they come in different shapes and sizes, xenophyophores are widely distributed throughout the world and can live in truly brutal conditions. This is partly due to their ability to eat sediment and tolerate high levels of heavy metals like uranium. In addition to their weird single-celled status, these creatures also secrete a kind of organic cement and build their bodies out of whatever is lying around nearby. Amazingly, they can grow to pretty spectacular sizes. The ones recently found in the Mariana were about four inches wide, and they were not even the largest on record.

The video is blurry, but the science is amazing.

The first study to take a comprehensive look at fish aggression related to the size of the environment has revealed that most pet fish are probably really, really upset. The study found that cramped, boring conditions can make normally placid fish irritable, and sometimes aggressive to the point of attacking and killing their tankmates.

The study, led by Ronald Oldfield with Case Western Reserve University was published in a recent edition of Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. In it, Oldfield looked at the Midas cichlid in three different environments. The first, the fish’s natural home in a Nicaraguan lake; the second, a cunningly crafted artificial stream in a zoo; and third, the much smaller tanks used by pet owners.

Around five years ago, the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island Hotel opened up an undersea restaurant. Now, to celebrate the anniversary, the hotel turned the 12-seat restaurant into a private, limitedly available private bedroom for two. The bedroom is located 16 feet below sea level of the Indian Ocean and a coral reef surrounds the clear glass that comprises most of the bedroom. The fanciness wouldn’t be complete with room service — even if, you know, you’re sleeping in you rown private bubble under the sea and displacing an entire restaurant to do so — so of course, the restaurant offers a champagne dinner and breakfast in bed. Head on past the break to see more pictures of the bedroom and restaurant.

Not content with having conquered space, über-rich adventurer and businessman Sir Richard Branson has announced he will make five dives to the deepest parts of the Earth’s ocean. In order to accomplish such a feat, Branson will be using the specially designed DeepFlight Challenger submersible under the banner of Virgin Oceanic. Designed by Graham Hawkes, the carbon fiber DeepFlight Challenger will endure the pressure of over 1,000 atmospheres at depth. It will also utilize a unique wings that will allow the submarine to “fly” underwater.

A dive to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point in the ocean, was originally conceived by Bransons friend and fellow adventurer Steve Fossett, who died before he could attempt the dive. Now, Branson will be using these dives to promote the need for ocean science, as well as gathering data about the least explored areas of our planet. And they’re unexplored for a reason; the bottom of the Mariana Trench is 36,201 feet below sea level, nearly four times deeper than military submarines travel.

Look below for an impressive chart showing the planned dives of Vrigin Oceanic, and some shocking touchstones that this sub will surpass.

Earlier this month, Activision finally put Guitar Hero out of its misery, whether or not it was a misery caused by Activision themselves. The guys over at The Warp Zone decided to send the franchise off with a song parody farewell, seemingly tongue-in-cheek, and reminds us all that Rock Band was the better way to go. If you’re so inclined, The Warp Zone was generous enough to provide a free download of the song.

(The Warp Zone via Joystiq)

If venturing to Google today, one will find a Google Doodle comprised of portholes looking out at gently bobbing waves, celebrating the birthday of Jules Verne, author of noted works Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days. Pretty Doodle? Of course–but see that lever to the right of the ocean view? It’s manipulatable with a mouse, and allows one to waste away their work hours on a Google Doodle undersea voyage. Be sure not to let go of the lever, or else it’ll automatically revert back to the middle and you may not be attacked by the giant squid lurking in the Doodle’s depths.

UPDATE: If you’re on a newish MacBook and using Chrome as your browser, you can pick up your laptop and move it around, controlling the lever on the Doodle.

(via Google)