geekosystem

Researchers at Michigan State University have confirmed that a two-headed bull shark discovered in 2011 is, in fact, exactly what it appears to be -- one shark with two heads, and not a pair of conjoined twin sharks. I mean, I guess I thought we could tell that just by looking at how freaky it is, but hey, good to know, right?

Because of Jaws and plenty of real-life attacks, we're afraid of sharks. We should be; they're top predators, they've got sharp teeth, and they can smell you from miles away. But we as a species don't really wish them any harm, except for the ones that come after us -- and really, a good punch to the face or a friendly neighborhood dolphin could do the trick. So it's sad to learn of one dying because of something stupid people did. Specifically, a white-tipped shark died after being placed in an above-ground tank for a Kmart commercial in California.

A charity organizer in Wales has been fired -- or as our Glen Tickle might put it, "sacked" --  from his job with the Pant and Dowlais Boys and Girls Club after video surfaced of him wrestling a shark away from two children while he was on sick leave. That would seem reasonable, except that Paul Marshallsea was on leave for work-induced stress, a condition for which hanging out on the beach for a while is regularly prescribed, even if wrestling a shark while you're there is, one assumes, generally not recommended.

There's no reason to be afraid. Sharks don't have lasers on their heads yet (that we've found), but we're getting closer and closer to discovering Dr. Evil's dream fish. Granted, you have to dive pretty deep to find the velvet belly lanternshark that uses lightsaber-like spines to warn off predators. Then again, we feel that the last half of that sentence makes the first half totally worth it. The shark's glowing spines are just half the story, though -- hit the jump and find out what else they can do.

Fifteen people were injured last week when a 33-ton aquarium exploded in the middle of a Shanghai shopping center. The injuries sustained are reported mainly as cuts from the shattered glass, and not from, as one would suspect, sharks. The aquarium was installed two years ago, and had been a popular attraction at the mall until it exploded, spilling fish, turtles, and sharks into the shopping center. That tends to drive down foot traffic.

There's no shortage of impressive photos of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy, as we showed you earlier. Of course, a steady supply of real photos isn't going to stop some people from passing along faked ones, whether to get their jollies or just because they don't know any better. Here are some of the most famous fakes of Hurricane Sandy so far -- some of which may even seem familiar.

You can note the awesome title pun later, but for now, this bench is a shark that looks like it has been living underground at this Bangkok mall, gaining sustenance from unsuspecting mall-going bench-sitters. Another picture of why you should never trust a bench, below.

Australian Daily Telegraphy fishing columnist Al McGlashan recently came across a 13-foot giant squid. Amazing, of course, because seeing the things at a large size was once a rarer than rare site. However, when McGlashan moved in to investigate what seemed to be the carcass of a giant squid, he found that a shark was eating it. In summary, a fisherman found a giant squid, a rare sight, but -- what're the odds -- a blue shark was eating it. Lucky for all of us, there's video of the shark having a giant squid lunch below the break.

The last time we saw Wicked Lasers, the makers of high-end and ridiculous lighting and laser-pointing devices, they were making an iPad explode with a flashlight. This time, they took their antics under the sea, and attached a S3 Krypton green laser to a lemon shark. For science, or something.

Taken by researchers from the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, this is supposedly the first-ever picture of a shark eating another shark. The shark doing the eating may not look exactly like a shark, but it is, don't worry; it's a tasselled wobbegong shark, which happens to look like that. It's a type of carpet shark, which if you know your Discovery Channel, would know that they hang out on the bottom of the ocean and pretend to be the ground until dinner swims by. Normally, they eat smaller things, but they have the ability to dislocate their jaw and eat larger things, which is the brown-banded bamboo shark getting gobbled up above.

Penny Palfrey has set a new world record for a solo unassisted swim, killing two endangered sharks in the process. The 48-year-old spent 40 hours and 41 minutes in the open water swimming the 67.25 miles between Little Cayman and Grand Cayman. During her swim, Palfrey crossed paths with four sharks, the crew following her by boat dispatched three of them by killing them with a machete. Two of the sharks that were killed were Oceanic whitetips, a species listed on the ICUN list as critically endangered in the Northwest and Western Central Atlantic areas.

The Oceanic whitetip shark's populations have dropped by as much as 99% in some areas of the ocean because it is popular with fishermen and is also sought after for its fins. It is also often caught during commercial fishing operations for other species. The Oceanic whitetip is known for being aggressive and unpredictable, and may have posed a threat to Palfrey while she was in the water. However, these sharks can be driven off by other means and the advice typically given to swimmers if they encounter one is to get out of the water, not kill it. Although, that's not really advice a marathon swimmer going for a record is going to heed now is it?

No, we're not talking about something from Axe Cop. Or Dr. McNinja. This is an honest-to-god RC airplane that looks like a shark. We can just see a gaggle of them chasing Adam West across a theme park. Also in our nightmares. We see them in our nightmares. (via Neatorama.)

Feeling horribly behind on your Shark Week TV viewing? Well, this handy mini-guide will get you caught up in a jiffy. NSFW if yours is the kind of workplace that is totally cool with your reading Shark Week-themed infographics, but not at all OK if a cartoon shark briefly uses mild swear words.

No, we're not talking about a Syfy Channel exclusive movie. National Geographic has posted footage taken from a zoo aquarium tank where keepers decided to introduce some Spiny Dogfish Sharks. According to the narrator, they were hoping that their sharks, despite their omni-carnivorous diets, wouldn't decided to make a meal of their Giant Pacific Octopus.

And then shark corpses kept showing up at the bottom of the tank. Understandably eager to know what was killing their animals, the keepers set up some cameras, and the footage they captured is below.