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cetaceanCetaceaany member of an entirely aquatic group of mammals commonly known as whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The ancient Greeks recognized that cetaceans breathe air, give birth to live young, produce milk, and have hair—all features of mammals. Because of their body form, however, cetaceans were commonly grouped with the fishes. Cetaceans are entirely carnivorous, although members of the order Sirenia (manatees, dugongs, and Steller’s sea cow) were once referred to as the “herbivorous Cetacea.” In the past cetaceans were important resources (see whaling). By the end of the 20th century, cetaceans’ economic importance was due almost solely to whale watching, a tourist activity and major source of income for certain coastal regions of many countries.
Form and function
General features
Body surface

The hair covering that is common to mammals is drastically reduced in cetaceans, likely because hair is a poor insulator when wet and increases drag during swimming. Hairs on cetaceans are restricted to the head, with isolated follicles occurring on the lower jaw and the snout. These are thought to be remnants of sensory whiskers (vibrissae). External pigmentation is important to many animals as a basis for individual recognition and species recognition. Hair defines the colour pattern of most mammals, but, because cetaceans have very little hair, the outer layer of skin (epidermis) produces their markings, most commonly in shades of black and white. The appearance of some cetaceans is affected by various organisms living on or in the skin. Examples include yellow algae that colour the lower body surface of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) and the variety of whitish organisms living on bodies of gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) and right whales (family Balaenidae).

Locomotor adaptations

The most noticeable adaptation of cetaceans to life in the water is their locomotive system. Because cetaceans descended from mammals that moved their limbs in a vertical plane rather than in a horizontal plane, they use vertical strokes when they swim, instead of horizontal strokes like a crocodile or fish. Cetaceans evolved from four-legged (quadruped) terrestrial animals, for which limbs played a primary role in movements, into virtually limbless aquatic creatures living in an environment where the back muscles are more important. Forelimbs are still present but are reduced to finlike flippers having shortened arm bones and no individual fingers. The hind limbs are lost entirely; only vestigial elements sometimes remain internally. Pelvic remnants occur in all cetacea but the dwarf and pygmy sperm whales. Flippers help to steer, while the back muscles, which are very large, drive the tail to propel the animal. Cetaceans have developed horizontal flukes that increase the propulsion area driven by the back muscles. Like fish, almost all cetaceans possess a dorsal fin that serves as a keel. The dorsal fin and flukes are composed of connective tissue, not bone. Other connective tissue, such as external ears, has been lost, and the male genitalia have moved internally.

Normally, cetaceans breathe while moving through the water and spend only a short time at the surface, where they exhale in an explosive ventilation called a blow. The blow is expelled forcibly and can be compared to a cough. Cetaceans use up to 80 percent of their lung volume in a single breath, in contrast to humans, who use only 20 percent. The blow is visible because of water condensation and mucous particles; blows of blue whales are frequently more than 6 metres (20 feet) high. When a terrestrial mammal loses consciousness, it breathes reflexively, but breathing is not a reflex in cetaceans. Thus, when a cetacean loses consciousness, it does not breathe and quickly dies. For this reason, veterinarians had to perfect respirators before dolphins could be successfully anesthetized.

Circulation and thermoregulation

Cetaceans, like all mammals, have a four-chambered heart with paired ventricles and auricles. The pattern of circulation is similar to that of other mammals, with the exception of a series of well-developed reservoirs for oxygenated blood called the rete mirabile, for "marvelous network." These provide bypasses that enable cetaceans to isolate skeletal muscle circulation during diving while using the oxygen stored in the remaining blood to maintain the heart and brain—the two organs that depend on a constant supply of oxygen to survive.

Water conducts heat much more rapidly than air and is colder than the mammalian body temperature of about 37 °C (98.6 °F). Cetacean evolution has countered this problem in three ways: reducing external appendages that lose heat, developing an insulating layer of blubber, and developing countercurrent circulation to minimize heat loss. The reduction of various appendages as mentioned above also facilitates locomotion in water.

In whales, a layer of the skin (dermis) has evolved into a blanket of blubber, which is extremely rich in fats and oils and therefore conducts heat poorly. This blanket covers the entire body and is up to 30 cm (12 inches) thick in large whales, making up a significant portion of the animal’s weight. The oil yield of blubber from a blue whale, for example, was up to 50 tons.

The most important mechanism in cetacean thermoregulation is the development of countercurrent blood exchange, an adaptation that allows the animal to either conserve or dissipate heat as needed. Blood that drains from the surface of the skin has been cooled by close contact with the external environment, and it can return to the cetacean’s heart via two different routes. If it returns by the peripheral route, the blood courses back to the heart through superficial veins, where it continues to lose heat and arrives at the heart cool. This dumps the animal’s excess heat to the environment. Such heat shedding is particularly important to large whales because of their enormous surface area-to-volume ratio. If, however, the body temperature of the whale is already cool, the oxygen-depleted venous blood can instead return to the heart through vessels that are wrapped around arteries carrying warm blood to the periphery of the animal. Along this route the venous blood is warmed by the arterial blood and arrives at the heart warm. The arterial blood, having transferred its heat into the venous blood rather than the environment, arrives precooled at the surface of the skin.

Feeding adaptations

Before cetaceans evolved aquatic adaptations, they had a fully differentiated set of teeth (heterodont dentition), including incisors, canines, premolars, and molars. As the animals became more adapted to aquatic locomotion and lost the ability to manipulate food with their forelimbs, they started grabbing their food and swallowing it whole. In toothed whales (suborder Odontoceti), heterodont dentition declined and was replaced with a homodont dentition in which every tooth is a simple cone. The number of teeth varies among toothed whales, from two in the beaked whales (family Ziphiidae) to 242 in the La Plata river dolphin (Pontoporia blainvillei), to allow efficient capture of prey. Baleen whales (suborder Mysticeti), on the other hand, have lost all teeth in both jaws and instead have two rows of baleen plates in their upper jaws only. This apparatus enables baleen whales to consume vast quantities of small prey in a single mouthful.

In general, whales have relatively large mouths. The mouth of one adult bowhead, or Greenland right whale (Balaena mysticetus), measures five metres long and three metres wide and is the biggest oral cavity on record. The stomach in cetaceans is composed of four compartments: forestomach, main stomach, connecting chambers, and pyloric stomach. The forestomach is actually a dilation of the esophagus and is lined with simple epithelium (layers of flattened cells). It acts merely as a holding chamber and therefore is not a true stomach. The main stomach, lined with active gastric epithelium, is the first true digestive compartment, and it is followed by the small connecting chambers and the pyloric stomach. From there, food enters the small intestine through the pyloric sphincter and the duodenal ampulla. Most cetaceans do not have a cecum or appendix, and in most there is no anatomic difference between the small and the large intestine.

The senses

The sensory system of any animal can be divided into somesthetic senses—those relating to the whole body—and special senses associated with particular organs such as the eyes and ears. Somesthetic senses are broken down into exteroceptive (initiated by stimuli outside the body), proprioceptive (initiated within the body, determining the orientation of body parts relative to one another and the orientation of the body in space), and visceral (usually from internal organs and usually painful). Cetaceans, as far as is known, are subject to the familiar exteroceptive sensations. For example, captive and stranded animals respond to stimuli of touch, pain, and heat. Because precise assessment of the other somesthetic modalities (proprioceptive and visceral) is difficult, scientists have simply assumed their presence.

The special senses respond to stimuli registered by specialized organs or tissues. One way to quantify the presence of a special sense in an animal is to consider the organs involved.

The sense of smell can be defined as those sensations carried from nose to brain by the olfactory nerve. Toothed whales have lost the olfactory nerve, so by definition they are incapable of smelling. On the other hand, they do use "quasi-olfaction" (see below). Baleen whales have retained this nerve and have a reduced area for olfaction in the nasal passage, but this sense is active only while the animal is breathing at the surface.

Captive dolphins (family Delphinidae) commonly exercise food taste discrimination that is comparable to the human ability, in spite of the fact that the presence of taste buds in cetaceans has not been demonstrated. Regardless, dolphins have been shown to be sensitive to the standard four qualities of taste: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. It has been established that the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) has a highly effective sense, called quasi-olfaction, operating through pits in the back of the tongue. This sense permits dolphins to experience what would be classified as smell, but quasi-olfaction does not involve the nasal passages.

Cetaceans have well-developed eyes and good vision. The popular notion that whales have reduced vision is probably based on the relative size of their eyes, but this assumption is functionally incorrect. Vision in both the water and the air has been experimentally evaluated in captive dolphins and found to be excellent. They have binocular vision over at least part of the visual field but are largely insensitive to colour. In one genus of river dolphin (Platanista of the muddy Ganges and Indus rivers), the eyes are reduced to organs that can detect only the difference between light and dark. The external opening for the eye is a slit only 2–3 cm (about an inch) long.

Whales and dolphins have long been known to possess an acute sense of hearing. When approaching whales, whalers muffled their oars to prevent the animals from hearing them. Research done with captive animals in the 1950s quantitatively demonstrated that dolphins both produce and are sensitive to sounds into the ultrasonic range. Dolphins and porpoises were found to have the ability to derive information about their environment by listening to echoes of sounds that they have produced (echolocation). The amount of information obtained by an echolocating dolphin is similar to that obtained with the eyes of a sighted human.

The sound sensitivity of dolphins falls off near the bottom of the human acoustic spectrum (40–50 hertz), but this is the beginning of the range used by the large baleen whales. Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and blue whales have been recorded producing subsonic sounds around 10 hertz and are capable of producing extremely loud noises at those frequencies. The strength of these vocalizations enabled one blue whale to be followed by fixed hydrophone arrays on the ocean bottom for 43 days over a course of 2,700 km (1,700 miles).

Magnetic sensitivity

Much interest has been shown in various animals’ ability to sense the Earth’s magnetic field. It has been demonstrated that birds and fish use magnetoreception in migration, and theories to explain why cetaceans beach themselves in mass strandings (see below) have included magnetic detection. Although magnetite has been found in some skulls of the common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), it has not been found in other specimens of the same species, and no conclusive data indicate its biological use.

Natural history
Life history
Distribution and migration

Cetaceans are distributed in all the world’s oceans from the far polar reaches to the Equator. They concentrate in areas of increased biological productivity, such as upwellings where there is an abundant supply of food. Some species are coastal, and some are pelagic, dwelling farther offshore. The centres of the ocean basins appear not to have any concentrations of whales or dolphins. Some small cetaceans are distributed in major river systems, particularly river dolphins of the family Platanistidae. Members of this family are found in the Amazon, Orinoco, La Plata, Yangtze, Ganges, and Indus rivers and surrounding drainage waters. Members of other families, particularly the Delphinidae and Phocoenidae, spend part of their time in fresh water.

As a rule, large whales have north and south seasonal migrations, spending summers in high latitudes near the poles, where there is an abundant food supply, and moving toward the Equator in the fall to breed. Some populations of these species, however, reside in one locality all year. One of the greatest migrations is undertaken by the California population of the gray whale, which summers in the Bering and Chukchi seas of the Arctic and winters in lagoons off the coast of Baja California—a journey of 5,000 km (about 3,000 miles) each way.

Migratory whales usually do not cross the Equator, and that has led to the development of genetically separate populations in the north and south ocean basins. However, one humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was photographically identified near the Antarctic Peninsula and was later sighted on the coast of Colombia, having covered at least 8,334 km in both the South Atlantic and North Atlantic ocean basins. Some sperm whales (Physeter catodon) sexually segregate on their migrations, with larger and older males going much farther in a polar direction during the summer.

All cetaceans are carnivores and do not consume plants or algae as food. The large baleen whales eat schooling organisms that range in length from minute drifting mollusks, copepods (1 cm or less), krill (1–5 cm), and small fish and squid up to about 40 cm. All these are consumed by whales in vast quantities with each concentrated mouthful. Certain smaller baleen whales, such as the minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), also pursue individual fish up to 1 metre long. Toothed whales, which range in length from about 1 metre for the finless porpoise (Neophocoena phocaenoides) to 20 metres for the sperm whale, eat an enormous variety of prey ranging from small shrimp, fish, and squid to bluefin tuna (3 metres long) and giant squid.

Cetaceans void their solid digestive waste products as pastelike feces, enabling the retention of intestinal water. Liquids are excreted in the urine. Biologists do not entirely understand the function of ambergris, which seems to be a normal digestive secretion of the sperm whale.

Cetacean breeding is seasonal, usually in the winter, and females normally calve once every two years. As mammals, they reproduce by internal fertilization. The testes and penis of the male are internal, but the penis is capable of being extended and introduced to the female during mating. After the female’s egg has been fertilized, she carries the fetus for about a year, although some toothed whales have gestations of up to 18 months. Cetaceans give birth tail first, opposite of most terrestrial mammals. The mothers produce extremely rich milk for their young—50 percent fat is common. The mammary glands are paired and located at the lower abdomen, just forward of the anal-genital slits. One calf is born (multiple fetuses have been found, but never live twins), which is weaned at six months to a year but continues to grow rapidly until 5 to 10 years of age. The largest whale, the blue whale, is born with a length of about 7.3 metres and a weight of about 3 tons; it grows an average of 0.3 metre per week and gains weight at a rate of 90 kg (nearly 200 pounds) per day.

Age and growth

Sexual maturity occurs at an age of about 6–10 years and is defined in cetaceans as the age at which the females start ovulating and are capable of becoming pregnant. Generally, male cetaceans reach a slightly greater size than females, but there are many exceptions; female baleen whales and some of the beaked whales, river dolphins, and porpoises tend to be slightly larger than males of their species. Male sperm whales, on the other hand, are on average 50 percent larger than females. Physical maturity is defined specifically in cetaceans as the point when all of the vertebrae stop growing, which occurs at an age of about 8–25 years. Historical estimates of whale longevity are limited because of difficulty measuring age in older whales. Modern techniques have determined some fin whales to be 100 years old, some humpbacks 96, and some blue whales 90. But the longest-lived cetacean by far is the bowhead, a right whale that can survive for more than 200 years.

Counting animals that can be spread over a wide areas of the world’s oceans and are visible for only a few seconds while they breathe is extremely difficult and expensive. The largest populations existed in the oceans around Antarctica, where harsh and remote conditions make biological research difficult and infrequent. The abundance of cetaceans is thus hard to estimate accurately, but whale populations have varied over the years, depending largely upon human activities.

Biologists estimate that there were 228,000 blue whales and 548,000 fin whales in the world’s oceans when modern whaling began in the early 20th century. At the beginning of the 21st century, there were an estimated 14,000 blue whales and 120,000 fin whales left. California gray whales were thought to number 20,000 in 1847, then were hunted until they were thought to be extinct in the 1920s. Since then the species has recovered under protective legislation, and its population has been estimated to be more than 26,000.

The Until the early 21st century, the only cetacean population to be completely exterminated was the Atlantic gray whale, which was gone in the early 1700s. However, several ; however, the baiji, or Chinese river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer), a species restricted to the Yangtze River, was widely believed to be extinct. In addition, some smaller cetacean species with limited distributions—such as the Gulf of California porpoise (Phocoena sinus), the Yangtze River dolphin (Lipotes vexilliferIndus susu (Platanista gangetica minor), and the Indus and Ganges susu (Platanista minor and P. g. gangetica)—are —could be in immediate danger of becoming extinct. Furthermore, many other cetacean species, such as the gray whale and the northern right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), continue to be menaced by ship collisions, pollution, entanglement in commercial fishing equipment, and illegal hunting.

Diseases and parasitism

Cetaceans can suffer from many of the same diseases and parasites that afflict humans and other mammals: cancer, arthritis, pneumonia, lungworms, tapeworms, and roundworms, to name just a few. In the 1980s various dolphin species experienced epidemics of a morbillivirus, a disease similar to distemper and measles.

Of the parasites and commensal organisms, some are also found on fish and marine turtles, and others are specific to cetaceans. Commensal barnacles are most visible on humpbacks and gray whales, although they occur to a lesser extent on many other baleen and toothed whales. Xenobalanus globicipitis, a unique type of small pseudo-stalked barnacle, occurs on the appendages of cetaceans, including the common bottlenose dolphin. Stalked barnacles can also occur on exposed teeth and can be particularly striking on the tusks of beaked whales.

Different types of commensal or parasitic crustaceans inhabit whales. There is a small commensal copepod, Balaenophilus, that eats the algae on the baleen of some rorqual species. A specific family of amphipods (Cyamidae) called whale lice routinely infest right, humpback, and gray whales and also occur opportunistically on most species of baleen and toothed whales, particularly around wounds. They appear to eat sloughed skin. Another crustacean is clearly parasitic and is a member of the caligoid copepod genus Pennella. It is commonly about 2–10 cm long and lives with its body buried in the blubber or skin of cetaceans and fishes.

Small (4–7 cm) circular scars left in the skin of whales, dolphins, and fish were a mystery during the early 20th century. Explorers reported that the scars were created by an unknown organism that they called the “DWB” or “demon whale biter,” which cleanly removed hemispheric chunks of blubber as though extracting them with a razor-sharp scoop. The creature responsible was finally identified in the 1950s as a grazing predator, the cookie-cutter, or cigar, shark (genus Isistius).

As described in the section General features, cetaceans swim by using vertical tail movements that drive the horizontal flukes up and down, powered by the long epaxial and hypaxial muscles that lie along the spine. The tail flexes through a point between the dorsal fin and the anus, while the thorax and abdomen are relatively inflexible. The body itself acts like a spring to propel the animal through the water with minimal energy.

Much was written about the speeds of cetaceans in the mid-20th century. It seemed that cetaceans could exceed the speed at which turbulence would make locomotion energetically very expensive. However, the swimming-speed figures were estimates that turned out to be very high. Further investigation found that, regardless of size, the cruising speed of most cetaceans is about 2 metres per second (about 7 km, or 4 miles, per hour). A combination of biomechanical and hydrodynamic factors make this an efficient speed at which to travel. Maximum speeds, however, vary greatly between species.

Common dolphins (genus Delphinus) have been observed keeping pace with boats for a considerable period of time at 36 km/hr (kilometres per hour). Researchers trained Pacific bottlenose dolphins (genus Tursiops) to swim in an open-water environment, thus removing the spatial limitations of a pool while conserving experimental controls. They found that the dolphins could sprint at 29.9 km/hr for 7.5 seconds and could maintain speed at 21.9 km/hr for 50 seconds. When dolphins ride a bow wave, they coast at the speed of the ship while expending very little energy (see below). Fin and blue whales can swim fast enough that a boat must travel in excess of 30 km/hr to catch up to them, and they can maintain speeds of 33–37 km/hr for periods of up to 10–15 minutes. Sonar records indicate that fin whales can sprint at 48 km/hr. Right, humpback, and gray whales, however, can seldom swim faster than 9 km/hr. Sperm whales can cruise at 7.5 km/hr and swim up to 36 km/hr in spurts. The fastest cetacean appears to be the sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis), recorded moving at speeds up to 65 km/hr along the ocean surface.

Breathing and diving

Cetaceans surface periodically to breathe, and the intervals between breaths vary depending on what the animal is doing. Intervals may range from about 20 seconds for dolphins that are actively swimming to 5–10 minutes for a resting blue whale. A common breathing pattern in large whales is to breathe every 20 seconds for 8–10 breaths and then dive for about 10–15 minutes. Most whales stay in the upper 100 metres of water. Deep-diving whales—such as the sperm whale, which has been recorded diving to depths of 1 km—may stay down for an hour. The longest recorded dive is that of a harpooned bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) that dived for two hours, surfaced, and then dived again. Patterns of locomotion and breathing are very important to whale watchers identifying whales at a distance, as different species show different blow heights and shapes. Right whales, for instance, have an unequal inclination to their two nasal passages, so their blows appear in pairs. Humpbacks and gray whales have blows that appear low and wide (bushy), and sperm whales have a bushy blow that is angled to the left and forward.

Leaping and wave riding

Small cetaceans “porpoise” when they are swimming rapidly; that is, they rise out of the water in a low leap that keeps the head clear of the water for breathing. Spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) frequently leap out of the water while spinning on their long axis, hence their common name. Trained porpoises and dolphins can leap straight up as high as six metres. Leaping is very rare in large whales, but some rorquals (genus Balaenoptera) have been photographed jumping clear of the water.

Many small cetaceans play around moving boats, where they bow-ride, taking advantage of their ability to bodysurf and essentially enjoying the free ride in the bow wave created by the vessel. They also practice this behaviour around large whales that are swimming fast enough to produce a bow wave.

Social behaviour

All cetaceans are social to some extent. The minimum group of mother and calf is commonly expanded to a nuclear family or a group of closely related individuals. A group of cetaceans that normally feed and travel together is called by various names: school, herd, pod, or gam. It is often difficult to define or measure, as its members can be spread over kilometres of ocean but still be in contact with one another. Sometimes these schools coalesce into even bigger groups of more than 1,000. Groups of whales can persist for many years, and studies of coastal dolphins have shown long-term association of dolphins with their mothers. Groups (particularly of small toothed whales) frequently associate with other cetacean species. For example, associations between pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins have been observed, as have associations between common dolphins and fin whales.

Play is a common behaviour, especially among young animals. Play allows individuals to practice and perfect behaviour patterns, such as aggression, that will be socially useful later in life; a significant portion of play is sexually oriented. Captive dolphins have also been observed playing with fish, birds, and turtles.

Many cetaceans exhibit epimeletic behaviour, in which healthy animals take care of another animal that has become temporarily incapacitated. This is evident when a wounded or sick whale is supported by others or in cases when a dolphin (usually the mother) pushes a dead calf around.

Cetaceans show fright by fleeing from a situation or by bunching up and "milling." The former response has been utilized by fishermen, who drive a whale or school of dolphins into a situation where they can kill it. Milling has been seen in dolphin schools driven into an enclosure or caught in a net; the animals move in a circle or eddying mass, and at the height of this reaction they stop swimming, sink, and die.

Aggression and defense

Aggression is common among cetaceans and is seen in normal herd behaviour and feeding. One form of aggression helps to establish social hierarchy: the dominant animal nips the less-dominant animal, which produces the tooth scars seen on every adult in the dolphin family (Delphinidae). Mating behaviour also involves biting, as one of the ways males compete for females is by biting and raking the teeth over another male. Adult male beaked whales (family Ziphiidae) have very densely ossified rostra (beaks) used as weapons in combat for females. Another more dangerous means of aggression is head butting. Cetaceans can ram their heads into other individuals and kill them. This has been seen in captivity and in aggressive behaviours toward other species such as sharks and accounts for many of the broken ribs and vertebrae seen in stranded animals.

Normally, aggression is associated with members of the same species or as a defense response to predation from other species. Although cetaceans can defend themselves by utilizing the behaviours of intraspecific aggression (biting, ramming, and butting), the primary weapon that cetaceans have for self-defense is the tail. Cornered whales slash sideways with their flukes and can incapacitate a bigger whale or a boat. Head butting as a form of defense was immortalized in the 1820 sinking of the whaling ship Essex by a sperm whale.

Courtship and mating

Sexual behaviour starts early in cetaceans. Young dolphins engage in exploratory sexual behaviour involving their mothers and other members of the school. Self-stimulation is common in both sexes. Male cetaceans perhaps use their penises as a manipulation organ in much the same way that people use their hands. This exploratory behaviour gradually becomes courtship and mating behaviour.

Courtship involves physical and acoustic displays, such as the elaborate songs of male humpbacks, and leads to contact with the flippers and other parts of the body. Successful courtship culminates in mating. Copulation is relatively brief in cetaceans. It can be secretive, or it can be boisterous as in the mating displays of right and gray whales, when a number of males attempt to mate with a single female.

Cetaceans hunt as individuals or in schools. When hunting in schools, dolphins or whales herd their prey in order to concentrate a large volume before eating. Hunting alone is preferred where prey is more scattered.

Before they swallow their food, toothed whales disable it; biologists think that some can stun their prey by emitting a high-energy burst of sound. Normally, cetaceans eat animals that can be swallowed intact, as their teeth are shaped for holding, not chewing. If, however, the prey is too large to swallow in one bite, it is ripped into chunks. Killer whales (Orca orcinus) have been seen to grab seals and shake them in the air so hard that the bodies come apart.

Baleen whales also herd their prey like toothed whales, but they engulf it in either of two feeding methods: gulp or skim. In gulp feeding, the whale opens its mouth to take in a huge mouthful of water, closes its mouth, strains the water out through the baleen apparatus along the sides of the mouth, and swallows its prey. Gulp feeding is common in rorquals, which have ventral grooves that stretch to enlarge the oral cavity. One of the rorquals, the sei whale, as well as the nonrorqual baleen whales (right, bowhead, pygmy right, and gray), skim-feed by locating a concentration of zooplankton prey and swimming through it with the mouth open. Skimming may last up to several minutes until the whales close their mouths to swallow what they have filtered from the water.

Breathing is a conscious activity in cetaceans; they must consciously breathe, or they will drown. Therefore, they cannot enter into what humans understand as unconscious sleep; instead, they have periods of little activity but not total inactivity. Studies of dolphins have revealed that they shut down half of their brain during sleep. The other half of the brain stays awake to signal when to rise to the surface to breathe and to watch for predators and obstacles. Large whales appear to surface-sleep. Floating horizontally just below the water’s surface, they move their flukes periodically to rise above the water for a breath.

Although several cetaceans are easily trained and much has been theorized about the possible intelligence of whales and dolphins, little is known for certain. Some researchers equate brain size with intelligence, reasoning that cetaceans should have the capacity for intelligence because they have relatively large brains. The human brain averages about 1.2 kg, the bottlenose dolphin brain about 1.8 kg. The largest cetacean brain recorded was a sperm whale’s, weighing 9.2 kg. However, cetaceans may use their increased brain weight for processing acoustic information. In any event, it seems unproductive to compare species with which it is difficult even to communicate until a definition of nonhuman intelligence has been refined.

Stranding is a phenomenon that has long fascinated people, and there is fossil evidence of mass strandings from before humans evolved. Many stranded cetaceans are found already dead, and it is not known if they were alive and conscious when they stranded themselves. When a whale or dolphin dies offshore, it usually sinks; if the water is shallow enough to permit decomposition gases to form, it will float ashore, so some stranding represents normal mortality. If infection or some other factor interferes with a cetacean’s ability to navigate, it could come ashore while still alive—though most cetaceans have difficulty out of water and usually die. These cases are known (alive or dead) as single strandings. Sometimes up to several hundred toothed whales swim ashore, and this phenomenon is known as a mass stranding.

There are no records of the mass stranding of baleen whales; all such events have involved only toothed whales that normally live offshore and may not be familiar with physical borders. Perhaps not realizing that the ocean has a bottom and sides, they may somehow enter shallow water and find themselves unable to deal with the strange environment. Because they are also members of extremely social species and may be kept together by group ties, they may have even greater difficulty extricating themselves. In any case, biologists are beginning to realize that cetaceans are behaviorally complex enough that a simple blanket explanation of mass stranding is not likely to be valid. Biologists have tried to attribute mass stranding to a number of causes:

1. Something wrong with the leader of a group2. Epidemic disease 3. Getting lost in pursuit of prey4. Parasitic infestation that affects the hearing5. Following migratory routes laid down by remote ancestors6. Magnetic anomalies that lead the school astray7. Behavioral reversion to a period when cetacean ancestors were terrestrial and land was a haven8. Fright reaction to predators9. Failure of echolocation signals to work properly in shallow water10. Overpopulation11. Suicide
Sound production and communication

All cetaceans produce sound, some more extensively than others, and they primarily use the larynx for this purpose. At one time it was argued that the cetacean larynx was incapable of generating sound because it does not have vocal cords. However, vocal cords are restricted mainly to primates; dogs and cats, for example, have vocal folds, and both baleen and toothed whales possess structures that modify sound. Baleen whales have laryngeal pouches, and toothed whales have accessory air sacs and fat bodies in their noses. In addition, toothed whales can generate high-frequency sounds in their nasal passages.

Cetacean sounds can be roughly divided into communication signals and echolocation signals. Communication does not necessarily imply language, and it can simply be one-way, as when one dolphin knows another is present because the second dolphin is vocalizing. Echolocation, which involves generating certain sounds and listening to the echoes of those sounds, has been recognized in toothed whales but not baleen whales. Toothed whales use extremely high frequencies, on the order of 150 kilohertz, for refining spatial resolution from their echoes. They are capable of “seeing” into and through most soft objects such as other dolphins, though the effectiveness of toothed whale echolocation drops off at distances greater than about 100 metres. To produce such high frequencies, toothed whales possess modified tissues associated with the blowhole on the right side of the head; the left side is not modified, and the result is skull asymmetry. This condition is extreme in sperm whales, which is not surprising, as most of the head is involved with sound production. The head of a 16-metre adult male sperm whale is about 6 metres long, 3 metres high, and 3 metres wide, a mass of tissue that can weigh about 20 tons. The bulk of it is occupied by the spermaceti organ and a fatty (adipose) cushion, both of which somehow function in the emission of sound for echolocation and were known by whalers as the “case” and the “junk,” respectively. The junk of the sperm whale is the fatty structure found in the forehead of other toothed whales and known by whalers as the “melon” because of its pale yellow colour and uniform consistency. Baleen whales generate sounds at frequencies that are audible to humans (sonic) or below that range (subsonic). Some of their vocalizations are very loud; biologists have recorded extremely low sounds (12.5–200 hertz) from a blue whale and have claimed they are the loudest sounds known from any animal. The songs that humpbacks use for courtship were brought to public awareness in 1971. Baleen whales (mysticetes) use calls like these for communication and possibly for low-frequency long-range echolocation in orientation and navigation. Their low-frequency sounds are powerful enough that mysticetes might be able to communicate across entire ocean basins.

Paleontology and classification

Cetaceans are distant descendants of a group of poorly defined mammals known as condylarths. There is debate as to whether the first cetaceans (archaeocetes) descended from an extinct group of large carnivores called mesonychids or from a group of hoofed herbivores (artiodactyls). The earliest archaeocetes were huge dolphinlike creatures 6 to 10 metres long. Basilosaurus (Zeuglodon) was an unusual genus that was up to 34 metres long, but it apparently gave rise to no descendant groups.

As the fossil record becomes more complete, the pattern will emerge as to which condylarth is ancestral to archaeocetes and which archaeocete is ancestral to living cetaceans. The first fossil cetacean is known from the Early Eocene Epoch (54.8 million to 49 million years ago) in Pakistan. It has recently become clear that archaeocetes rapidly diversified during the Eocene, and at least five now-extinct families are recognized. One subfamily of the Basilosauridae, the Dorudontinae, is thought to have given rise to both living suborders of cetaceans (baleen whales and toothed whales) sometime during the Late Oligocene Epoch, about 25 million years ago.

The first baleen whales had wide, flat skulls bordered by a reduced number of teeth in the archaeocete pattern. The roof of the mouth widened between these borders, and grooves for blood vessels supplying the emerging baleen are seen inside the tooth rows. By the Middle Miocene Epoch (16.4 million to 11.2 million years ago), there were several families of baleen whales, including the right whales and rorquals. The Miocene was the epoch during which modern ocean circulation began; regional areas of upwelling and increased productivity developed, setting the stage for the evolution of large whales with seasonal migratory distribution. At the same time, the modern toothed whales began to emerge, developing into nine families during this period; four of these have since become extinct. Sperm whales were among the first toothed whales and were present during the Middle Miocene as large and well-defined as they are now. From the fossil record it is evident that today’s cetacean biodiversity has decreased markedly since the Miocene.

Though there is some consensus among taxonomists that Cetacea should be treated as one order (as they are in this article), others believe they are actually two or three. This depends on the evaluation of the degree of shared ancestry, which remains controversial. It is possible that certain protocetids, or “pre-whales,” could have given rise to both modern groups of whales, which is why some authorities prefer a single order. However, the absence of intermediate fossils linking baleen whales with toothed forms supports the use of separate orders. Resolution of this problem awaits the discovery of relevant fossils.

Further disagreement occurs at many points below the ordinal level. Although there is no doubt that any recent cetacean is either toothed (suborder Odontoceti) or baleen (suborder Mysticeti), the relationships of many genera are in doubt. For example, the long-snouted dolphins are classified by some authorities as a separate family, Stenidae, rather than family Delphinidae. A similar situation exists for the porpoises (family Phocoenidae). At the species level there is uncertainty about the specific or subspecific status of many populations.

It must be borne in mind that all classifications are, to an extent, artificial. Over time one species merges with another, and some classification issues actually get more complex as the fossil record improves. Current cetacean classification is the result of an improving fossil record that reveals more taxa near the origins of the three established suborders (the archaeocetes, mysticetes, and odontocetes). It has become apparent that a major diversification was associated with each major adaptive branch, and species are currently being shuttled back and forth between the latest representatives of one family and the earliest representatives of its descendant family.

Although species relationships have historically been based on morphological (anatomic) characteristics, biologists have begun comparing DNA sequences of different cetaceans and thereby causing morphologists to reexamine their taxonomic data. Chromosome count (karyotype) can be quite variable between related mammals, but it is remarkably stable among cetaceans. All baleen whales and most toothed whales have 44 chromosomes, and sperm whales and beaked whales have 42. Techniques such as DNA sequencing have provided different ways of evaluating the relationships of species. Applications of these and older techniques should provide a clearer understanding of the evolutionary history of Cetacea.

Annotated taxonomy

The three cetacean suborders (two living, one fossil) recognized below share the same basic body plan but differ in their degree of specialization. Suborders and families are separated primarily on the basis of the following characteristics: tooth structure, number, and degree of differentiation; skull modifications, especially the position of the nostrils, degree of telescoping of the whole skull, modifications to the inner and middle ear, and extent of joining of the two halves of the jaw; and degree of modification of the pelvic girdle (archaeocetes only). The classification presented here is based on research by cetologists F.C. Fraser, R. Kellogg, and a number of other modern authorities. Groups marked with a dagger (†) are extinct and known only from fossils.

Order Cetacea (whales, dolphins, and porpoises)81 species in 2 suborders. Aquatic mammals with forelimbs modified into flippers, hind limbs lacking; pelvic girdle vestigial and not attached to vertebral column; tail laterally flattened and extended into horizontal flukes, supported by fibrous connective tissue. External nares present as blowholes at top of head (except in sperm whales and archaeocetes); cranium telescoped variably, with elongated rostrum. 1 fossil suborder. Suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales)69 species in 6 families. Worldwide, marine, a few in fresh water. Teeth relatively uniform (homodont) and numerous (up to 300), occasionally reduced. Skull asymmetrical; nostrils on top of head (except in Physeteridae) with single external opening (blowhole). Mandibles fused anteriorly. Several pairs of ribs joining sternum, which is fused into a single bone only in the adult. 9 extinct families. Upper Eocene to Holocene.Family Delphinidae (dolphins and killer whales)32 species in 12 genera. Characteristics variable. Some neck vertebrae fused; dorsal fin and well-defined beak present or absent. None with expanded tooth crowns. Length 1.7 to about 9 metres. Worldwide, marine and fresh water. About 35 fossil genera, Lower Miocene to Holocene. Family Ziphiidae (beaked whales)21 species in 6 genera. Previously called Hyperoodontidae. Some neck vertebrae fused; functional teeth greatly reduced in number to 1 or 2 pairs in lower jaw (except for total 100 teeth in Tasmacetus); vestigial (nonfunctional) teeth not uncommon. Pair of longitudinal grooves in throat region. Dorsal fin slightly more than one-third of way back along body. Tail usually without middle notch. Flippers small. Worldwide, marine. Length to about 12 metres. About 14 fossil genera. Lower Miocene to Holocene. Family Phocoenidae (porpoises)6 species in 3 genera. Some neck vertebrae fused; well-defined beak absent; teeth with expanded spade-shaped crowns. Dorsal fin triangular, when present. Adult length in living species to about 2 metres. Virtually worldwide, marine, 1 species living in some rivers in China and Japan. 3 fossil genera. Upper Miocene to Holocene. Family Platanistidae (river dolphins)5 species in 4 genera. Snout long and slender; neck vertebrae all free. Flippers short and broad, sternum well developed. Adult length 1.5–2.5 metres. Found in the Ganges, Indus, and Brahmaputra rivers of India; the La Plata, Amazon, and Orinoco rivers of South America; and Tung-T’ing Lake and the adjacent Yangtze River of China. About 10 fossil genera. Lower Miocene to Holocene. Family Physeteridae (sperm whales)3 species in 2 genera. Some neck vertebrae fused; head disproportionately large, with bulbous, squared snout; mouth narrow and ventral; lower teeth total 40–52 in Physeter, 16–32 in Kogia; upper teeth vestigial, smaller, varying in number. Blowhole a single asymmetrical opening on the front left tip of the snout. Length to 19 metres (Physeter) and to 3.4 metres (Kogia) in Holocene genera. Tropical and temperate oceans, adult males to polar waters. 20 fossil genera. Lower Miocene to Holocene.Family Monodontidae (narwhal and beluga)2 species in 2 genera. Dorsal fin lacking. Neck vertebrae free. Flippers broad, rounded at tips. Teeth reduced to 8 or 10 in Delphinapterus (beluga); all teeth vestigial in Monodon (narwhal) except for 1 left tooth of male, which grows into a long, straight tusk extending in front of the animal. Length to about 5 metres. Arctic Ocean. Pleistocene to Holocene. †Family Agorophiidae1 genus. Lower Oligocene of North America. †Family SqualodontidaeAt least 12 genera. Upper Oligocene to Late Miocene. Europe, North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. †Family Squalodelphidae3 genera. Lower Miocene. Europe and South America. †Family Dalpiazinidae1 genus. Early Miocene. Europe. †Family Kentriodontidae11 genera. Upper Oligocene to Late Miocene. South America, Europe, Asia, and North America. †Family AlbireodontidaeUpper Miocene to Pliocene. North America. †Families Eurhinodelphidae, Hemisyntrachelidae, and AcrodelphidaeAbout 12 genera of Miocene toothed whales similar to today’s dolphins. All continents. Suborder Mysticeti (baleen whales)12 species in 4 families. Teeth lacking in adult, numerous but vestigial in embryo; baleen present. Lower jaw large, bowed outward, loosely united in front. Skull symmetrical; relatively well-developed nasal bones; blowholes are paired slits. Family Balaenopteridae (rorquals and humpback whale)8 species in 2 genera. Skull broader and less arched than in Balaenidae; baleen plates shorter, broader, less flexible; neck vertebrae not fused. Dorsal fin present; flippers narrow. Conspicuous longitudinal grooves on throat. Length 10 to perhaps 33.6 metres; blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the heaviest animal that has ever lived. Family occurs in all oceans and, at various times, from Equator to poles. 8 fossil genera. Upper Miocene to present. Family Eschrichtiidae (gray whale)1 species. Formerly Rhachianectidae. Head less than one-quarter of total length; neck vertebrae not fused. Dorsal fin lacking. Flippers with 4 internal digits. Length to about 15 metres. Found along both coasts of the North Pacific Ocean. Exterminated in the Atlantic Ocean in the 18th century. Pleistocene to Holocene.Family Balaenidae (right whales)4 species in 2 genera. Skull significantly arched; neck vertebrae fused; baleen long, narrow, flexible strips. Ventral grooves on throat lacking. Length 6–20 metres. Polar and subpolar oceans. 4 fossil genera. Lower Pliocene to present. Family Neobalaenidae (pygmy right whale)1 species. Skull slightly arched; neck vertebrae fused; lower jaw broad; baleen long and narrow; ventral grooves lacking; dorsal fin present; proximal portion of ribs extremely widened; lumbar vertebrae reduced to 2. Length 6 metres. Southern Hemisphere in temperate waters. †Family Aetiocetidae1 genus, possibly 2. Upper Oligocene. Toothed but with symmetrical skull and other typical mysticete features. North America. †Family Mammolodontidae1 genus. Upper Oligocene? Lower Miocene? Australia. †Family Kekenodontidae 2 genera. Upper Oligocene. Europe and New Zealand.†Family Patriocetidae4 genera. Upper Eocene to Upper Oligocene. Europe and North America. †Family Llanocetidae1 genus. Lower Oligocene or Upper Eocene. Antarctica. †Family Cetotheriidae (cetotheres)About 30 genera. Middle Oligocene to Lower Pliocene. North and South America and Europe. †Suborder Archaeoceti (archaeocetes, or zeuglodonts)At least 24 genera. Anterior and posterior teeth differentiated; total teeth not exceeding 44, the basic number in terrestrial placental mammals. Nostrils positioned toward the top of the head to varying degrees. Lower Eocene to Middle Miocene. †Family Pakicetidae 3 genera. Early Eocene. India and Pakistan. †Family Ambulocetidae2 genera. Early to Middle Eocene. Pakistan. †Family Remingtonicetidae4 genera. Middle Eocene. Pakistan. †Family Protocetidae9 genera. Early to Middle Eocene. Europe, Africa, and possibly North America. †Family Dorudontidae5 genera. Middle to Upper Eocene. Europe, Africa, and North America. †Family Basilosauridae1 genus. Middle to Upper Eocene. Europe, Africa, and North America.


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FitzGerald, George Francis  ( born Aug. 3, 1851 , Dublin—died  Dublin, Ire.—died Feb. 22, 1901 , Dublin )  physicist who first suggested a method of producing radio waves, thus helping to lay the basis of wireless telegraphy. He also developed a theory, now known as the Lorentz–FitzGerald Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction, which Einstein used in his own special theory of relativity.

FitzGerald became a tutor at Trinity College in Dublin in 1877 and professor of natural and experimental philosophy in 1881. From his studies of radiation he concluded that an oscillating electric current would produce electromagnetic waves. This finding was later verified experimentally by Heinrich R. Hertz of Germany and used in the development of wireless telegraphy.

Independently of Hendrik A. Lorentz of The the Netherlands, FitzGerald studied the results of the Michelson–Morley Michelson-Morley experiment (1887) and arrived at a similar conclusion. The experiment was an attempt to measure the Earth’s motion relative to the pervasive luminiferous ether postulated as the medium within which light waves were propagated. The attempt failed to detect any such motion. In 1892 FitzGerald suggested that a body when in motion , a body is shorter (along its line of motion) than when at rest and that such a shortening, or contraction, affects the instruments used in the experiment. Lorentz arrived at this idea independently in 1895 and developed it considerably. A collection of his work, The Scientific Writings of the Late George Francis FitzGerald, was published in 1902.

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Friday, 9 November 2012

The HEPATITIS D virus (HDV) is an RNA defective virus which has no independent existence,it requires HBV virus for replication and has got same mode of transmission.It can infect those with HBV and can also cause superinfection on chronic carriers for HBV

Infection is self limiting along with HBV. Simultaneous infection with HBV and HCV Leads on to rapid progressive Hepatitis leading on to cirrhosis
Mode of transmission is similar to HBV

HDV virus contain a single antigen to which body makes anti-HDV antibody, delta antigen appears in blood transiently, diagnosis depends on anti-HDV. Antibody usually disappears after 2 months
Super infection produce high titres of anti-HDV.

Effective management of hepatitis B effectively prevents hepatitis D

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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Back To Toontown

Let's go back to Tokyo Disneyland's Toontown and look at the rest of it's Halloween decorations. The gazebo/bandstand has two ghosts on it's wearing orange Mickey ears and another wearing an orange Donald Duck sailor cap. Note the umbrellas over the tables that are all changed just for the season.

Tokyo Disneyland places cast members dressed as witches in both Toontown and in Fantasyland. They pass out candy to park guests, but first you need to tell them "Trick or Treat."

To see more photos of Toontown at Halloween, see my two previous posts: Halloween In Toontown and More Halloween In Toontown.

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... But It Wasn't Always That Way! said...

I adore these tattered umbrellas - orange and black magic!! TRICK OR TREAT!


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MegaMan NT Warrior episode 7

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Count Zap stealing the DenTech Museum.

Game Off!, known as Midnight Duel! (真夜中の決闘！ Mayonaka no Kettō!?) in Japan, is the seventh (44th in the English dub) episode of the MegaMan NT Warrior anime. It originally aired on April 15, 2002 in Japan.

Count Zap breaks into the DenTech Museum, which has Level 7 security, with ElecMan by disabling the locks. Once the security systems activate, ElecMan jacks in and defeats the security NetNavis, allowing Count Zap to plunder a golden crown. This turns out to be the latest in a string of robberies committed by him using electricity to overwhelm the network. As Sal contemplates this, Count Zap breaks into a Level 8 security facility and apparently flies to evade the authorities.

Yai and her father.

Lan, Dex and Maylu arrive late to reserve a popular video game called Maximum Valor at Higsby's Chip Shop, apparently because Lan had 2 breakfasts. Maysa has a conversation with them about what they are doing and is furious that they are "waiting in line for a game that didn't even come out yet". He starts yelling at Higsby for making kids waste their time and tells him to get out when Ms. Mari arrive. Ms. Mari mildly scolds Maysa for making a ruckus, causing him to apologize. At this point Higsby and Maysa have both fallen for her and are arguing over who's at fault. Lan and co. try to get back in line but the line has grown twice as long. They try to get back in their original positions but Maysa keeps them form cutting to impress Ms. Mari. As they rush to the back of the line, Higsby states that they are sold out of coupons. Just as all seems lost, Yai pulls up and takes them to play the game before it is even released to the public since her dad owns the game's company, AyanoTech. Lan promises to take back everything bad he's ever said about her.

Lord Wily praises Count Zap on his success and hints that the robberies were practices for a main event. Count Zap reveals that he plans to steal "the smiles of children".

Sal is contemplating the robberies again when she bumps into Miyu. Miyu deduces from the other robberies that the next system to be robbed will have a security level of 9. Sal learns this and immediately rushes to stop Count Zap.

ElecMan stealing the game's data.

At Yai's house, they have dinner and a conversation with Yai's dad. He reveals that its the first time she's had friends over because she is secretly shy. Yai also convinces him to let them play Maximum Valor. As he shows them the game room, it is revealed to have a level 9 and 10 security. But they can only start playing after midnight. Count Zap floats in on a balloon planning to sabotage the game. At 10:30, Yai's dad concludes a meeting as Lan and co. stay wide awake to play. As midnight approaches, Count Zap sends out an electronic bug to jack in ElecMan into the main computer and crash everything. ElecMan defeats the security and causes everything to shut down. Count Zap appears on the screens to mock them but Lan vows revenge. COunt Zap proceeds to play a loud tune that causes Dex to light on fire. Lan jacks in MegaMan just as ElecMan reaches the game data and is stealing it. MegaMan is attacked by ElecMan. Lan uses Barrier but the force knocks him back. MegaMan retaliates by using AreaSteal and Sword to damage ElecMan, but Count Zap uses Lightning which heals ElecMan who then hits MegaMan with a lightning. ElecMan attacks again but MegaMan dodges and uses Sword again. Any damage he incurs is healed and ElecMan attacks again, knocking MegaMan down. Yai asks Zap why is he doing this and after hearing he wants to make children sad, Lan gives him heated words. MegaMan gets back up and uses Blaster to counter ElecMan's electricity attack followed by attacks with Sword but to no avail. ElecMan recovers from each attack and then catches MegaMan and is about to electrocute him when WoodMan intervenes and uses Wood Towers to block the rejuvenating electricity. Lan then gives MegaMan ElecSword. MegaMan charges at ElecMan who uses electricity. The ElecSword conducts it and neutralizes it which allows MegaMan to deal a finishing blow prompting ElecMan to log out.

Higsby talking about the N1 Grand Prix.

But Count Zap finished downloading the game and is about to escape with the data on his balloon. However Black Rose (Sal in disguise) throws roses which shred his jacket and pants prompting him to cover himself and drop his PET at the same time. WoodMan praises MegaMan's efforts and then logs out, bidding him farewell. The game data is then returned to the computer.

Lan and co. thank Sal in disguise who states that she's Black Rose, leaving them in awe and wondering who she is. Once out of Yai's building, Miyu wonders what took her so long. Sal insists the security was difficult to break through but Miyu states that she wanted to see if Lan could make beat WWW on his own. Sal leaves satisfied.

At Higsby's shop, the line is even longer so Lan and company are about to go back to Yai's house to play. They are accosted by Maysa who is angry they are waiting for another game. But Lan tricks Maysa into attacking Higsby by saying that Ms. Mari is talking to him. Once he realizes he's tricked, he chases Lan around. Higsby then reveals that the N1 Grand Prix will be starting soon, ending the episode.

Sal disguised as Black Rose.

  • Yai
  • Yai's father

Battle Chips

MegaMan using Blaster.

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Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Love Lounge: Susan Boyle has first boyfriend at age 53...so what?

I first saw the PEOPLE headline before I went to bed on Sunday night.

Susan Boyle Has Her First Boyfriend at Age 53.

Of course I had to click on it.

The Britain's Got Talent alum is seeing an American doctor she met while on tour. The two met while staying in the same hotel, and, although the relationship is still in its early stages, he's a "the perfect gentleman," Boyle says.

As you can probably imagine, I've been turning this story around in my head for the last few days. Mostly, because I can obviously identify with it. Our culture is so preoccupied with people reaching specific milestones by a certain point that anything out of the ordinary is sure to elicit a few gasps and quite a few "Ahhhs." These milestones, sure, are used as a way of categorizing and explaining the world because, really, who has time to deal with the social chaos that would ensue in their absence? It just makes sense and makes things a whole lot easier.

I can see that. Really, I can. But as someone who has walked in Boyle's unconventional-dating shoes, I can't help but cringe at the fact that this even made news in the first place. In fact, it stings quite a bit, actually. It's no secret that I've never had a boyfriend -- it's a fact I've never tried to hide. It may sound strange to some people, apparently, but it's something I've NEVER been ashamed of, either.
Why does Boyle have to be held up to the world as some sort of weird anomaly? The first sentence of the PEOPLE article even used the word finally, as if to say, "Wow, it's about time she has a boyfriend. What is wrong with her?" Her life must be complete now, right? I mean, how on Earth was she able to go some 53 years boyfriendless?

The. Horror. Of. It. All.

People grow and move at different paces in life, and my heart just sinks a bit when I see this sort of judgment pop up. Aren't we past this sort of old-fashioned thinking?? And when you think about it, just because it hasn't happened for me yet doesn't mean it's never going to. And it certainly doesn't make me weird or some sort of freak of nature. I look forward to that meeting that special guy someday. And guess what? I bet it's going to be as special as if it had happened when I was 14 or 15. I'll probably still be as giddy and as nervous as ever, but isn't that just part of the excitement? Some things do transcend age, I think.

Can you relate, friends? When have you felt unfairly judged or scrutinized? How did it make you feel? How did you react to the situation?

  1. I feel judged sometimes bc I'm almost 40 and never been married. I try to shrug it off and be strong, but it honestly gets to me :(
    Thanks for the heartfelt post :)

  2. Awww, thanks, Carrie!! Be proud of who you are!!

  3. Yeah I cringed at that article about Susan - good for her though.

    I'm married but no kids on the horizon - can you imagine? The horror! ;) (I love kids but a family history has prevented that for me and I'm ok with it).

    Live and let live I say.

  4. Yes, this bothers me too!!! I have a family member who is in her 40s and single. This person wants to be single, likes their life just the way it is and it upsets me to no end when people pass judgement and make insensitive remarks. And even if being single wasn't by choice, why is it anyone else's concern? Just because someone doesn't live their life the way you do, doesn't give you the right to make rude comments about it! Different lifestyles, beliefs, choices, et cetera should be celebrated! It's part of what makes the world a more interesting place to live in. There isn't a perfect little formula set of how our lives should be and how and when events, milestones, etc. should happen. The Susan Boyle article shouldn't be news at all, but since it is - why can't it just be something like, "We're glad to hear that Susan Boyle is happy," and just leave it at that? Adding the word "finally" in there is just BS!!!

  5. Wow, you just opened my eyes to the injustice in this. I hadn't seen it from your vantage point at all and I'm glad you pointed it out to me.

    I always thought Susan was soooo adorable. I loved her from the moment she came out on that stage! And then when I heard she had a mental breakdown after being thrust in the limelight a few years later, I was so, so bummed and hoped she was okay. I imagined that that overnight fame was likely hard to deal with.

    So anyway, my thoughts were focused on how happy I was for her to be dating someone. Thinking, that's probably fun!

    But your point is well made and I'm glad I heard it. You're right that it is a lot of focus on a societal norm. Good call on that. Thanks for opening my eyes!

  6. I'm in my 20s and I have never had a boyfriend. I see nothing wrong with it. I think that sometimes you need to fully mature, and learn to know yourself, before you share yourself with another.

  7. Oh sure, I've definitely been judged and know I will continue to be judged based on stereotypes about women, race, and academic backgrounds. We just have to keep proving we are more than just our profiles right?

    little luxury list formerly Chic 'n Cheap Living

  8. "we are more than just our profiles..." -- I LOVE this. Such a refreshing and positive way to look at the whole thing. And life in general. :)

  9. p.s. thanks for all these kind words. I'm glad this post resonated with so many of you! xoxo

  10. Preach. You are a whole, wonderful, beautiful woman (and so is Susan Boyle) who does not need a boyfriend (or girlfriend) to complete you or validate your existence. You have worth whether you are romantically involved or not. (Often, it is easier to recognize your value when you are not trying to meet someone else's expectations in a relationship.) Be strong and keep preaching it, sister!

Your lovely comments make my day so much sweeter! Thanks for stopping by and saying hello!

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San Francisco Bay Area, US

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Ottawa, Canada Area, CA

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Greater Detroit Area, US

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"STIEGL! STIEGL! STIEGL!" Top 5 Page for this destination Salzburg Favorite Tip by WrigleyTodd

Salzburg General: 225 reviews and 224 photos

Favorite thing: When in Salzburg, drink Stiegl and only Stiegl. It's the hometown brewed beer of choice and it's AWESOME! No aftertaste!

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 Welcome | Memories by Mark

Welcome to Memories by Mark, the Treasure Coast’s largest full time, all digital wedding studio and lab providing the most affordable wedding photography , videography , photo booth rentals and up lighting since 1985. We are well known in the wedding industry and have won several national and local awards for our services. Our clients have repeatedly nominated us as one the Best Wedding Photographer in the South Florida “A” list contest. Out of hundreds of photographers in the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast, we were voted #1 two years in a row! We have also been selected by the Knot magazine as a "Knot Best Pick" photographer.

At Memories by Mark, weddings are not a weekend sideline or hobby. We became #1 by following three simple ideas. Being Fun, Friendly, and Affordable. We are not the old school , pushy, obnoxious, prima donna photographers that you have seen at other weddings. It’s all about having a great time while you let us make a lifetime of affordable memories for your family. We own our own state of the art digital lab for complete creative control and offer discounted reprint services to our clients. We understand that today’s bride and groom are on a tight budget and we can offer a variety of solutions to make your wedding dollar go further. Please don't make the mistake of hiring an unknown photographer off of Craig's list or trying to save a dollar by using a family friend or relative to capture your memories. Your wedding photos cannot be replaced later on and there is no second chance to get it right. Since the economic downturn there are a lot of people who call themselves photographers but not a week goes by when we're not contacted by an upset bride who's photos were ruined or taken incorrectly by an unqualified, uninsured, unlicensed vendor. After 27 years as a photographer I can tell you than money spent on your wedding photography pays off in huge dividends in the future and with our rates you can afford quality photos and video that will last a lifetime.

Memories by Mark continues to be the leader in offering innovative products to the wedding industry and in addition to photography and videography, we also offer the popular photo booth rentals. This is the hottest trend in the wedding industry along with event up lighting. See the photo booth tab on our home page for more information along with a sample of our event up lighting. You can really add an impressive flare to your event by having us up light your reception venue with the color of your choice that accents your wedding theme. Call or email us today to see the Memories by Mark difference. Appointments are required so call us today!

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New Dates Added for Our Trivia Show!

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Next stop for The mental_floss Trivia Show: San Francisco! Come meet co-founders Will Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur (among others) and support a great cause.

San Francisco

When: June 18, 2014 (The bar opens at 6:30pm; show starts at 7:15.)

Where: Biscuits & Blues

Proceeds: All proceeds benefit John and Hank Green’s P4A: Project for Awesome.

Cost: $10 (You get a great seat, a welcome drink on us, hors d’oeuvres, and a chance to win lots of prizes.)

Go buy your ticket now! Your name will be on the master list at the door that evening. (Note: 21 and over because of the whole being at a bar thing.)

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How to find your perfect Community Manager

I'm seeing a shift, the community management industry - it's leaving its puppy pen and has reached adolescence. Over the past few years, only a small number of companies have invested in their own social departments, choosing to outsource their community actives to agencies. Now, as brands and companies identify that full integration between Social and existing Comms teams is essential, they're putting out their feelers to find their Mr (or Ms) Right in Community Management. Just looking at the #cmgr hash tag on twitter you'll see there is an increasing need for in-house CMs.

For the past few months I've been leading the community effort over at The Social Practice, helping to build the team to support our clients requirements. As a result, I've met a lot of Community Managers, some excellent, and some down right awful. I currently work with a selection of CMs that have a wide variety of skill sets, and knowing the clients I work with, I partner these together with the right brands. It's not easy and I've been working in Community Management for years! So I thought it would be useful to outline some things you should be looking for to find the right Community Manager for you and your brand.

Do you like the way they communicate?
Resource is often stretched to manage multiple clients agency side so bringing your social in-house you'll now have someone fully committed to building and creating relationships for your brand. For this reason, it's important that who you choose has strong communication skills both on and offline. This means, they have to communicate on your level as you're essentially asking them to represent your brand both on and offline.

Can they create engaging content?
A huge part of your Community Managers role will be to generate and implement engaging content around your comms strategy. This not only means having an eye for a good picture, but also being able to craft an update in only 140 characters with a clear call to action inline with your social KPIs and objectives.

Do they know your brand?
Yes you want someone who lives, breathes and eats your brand… but you won't always get that. You will however find wonderfully prepared Community Managers who have done their research and really know your brand history, ethos and want to be passionate about your products.

The Top 5 Things Your Community Manager Needs:
- Passion and enthusiasm, not just of your brand but of community management and social activity online.
- Connections, or the ability to be versatile enough to make new ones easily within your sector.
- Ability to create good quality, relevant content under pressure.
- To be brave, confident and likeable.
- Have a solid understanding of behaviour on the social channels you'll be requiring them to work on.

I'd strong recommend that you set your CM a task to do in a set amount of time to test all of the above. Never underestimate the affect a little bit of stress can have on the out put of a CM.

Best of luck with your search!

Facebook Reply Functionality – A Guide for Brands

This was orginally posted on The Social Practice Blog 3/4/13

Facebook rolled out threaded commenting across all brand and subscription pages last week, and this is a working guide to best practices for both brands and agencies that manage Facebook pages. Rather than a Fan replying in a single list under a post, they can now also reply directly to another readers comment. We’ve summarised the change, the effect on pages and outlined some simple action points to help co-ordinate a successful approach.

Why and what:
Historically, the commenting functionality, particularly on popular brand pages, didn’t work well from a community perspective. It was confusing, hard to follow and resulted in “fly by night” fan postings, rather than genuine conversations. Facebook has tested threaded commenting since 2012, and it’s now available on all brand and subscriber pages. But before we lose you to go check your pages or chase up your social media agency for an update – this change is currently optional and you can still turn Replies on and off in your Permissions settings (phew!).

During the past week we’ve see Facebook fan behaviour change. Interaction between users is simpler and helps fans to engage with each other rather than just the brand. Where a passing comment previously would have been lost, now with support (engagement) from fellow Friends or Fans, it will appear directly under your original post, regardless of its time stamp – this is affected by both Likes and Comments. If you’re familiar with Reddit, you’ll understand the power this gives your fans and why it can’t be ignored.
Brands that rely on the platform for customer service are now able to easily respond to individual comments left on the wall post – it’s taking a while for users to get use to this and we’re currently seeing some fans engaging on threads rather than the main comment stream. However, customer service teams aren’t the only page admins enjoying the update, community managers who have been trying to engage their fans on a deeper level for years no longer have to deal with a vertical conversation. This is beautifully described by @poetagrafico over on Mashable “now it’s like a chain with links where the links are individual group discussions”.

Top Tips when making the change:
  1. Get a budget for a moderation tool. The current Facebook notification process is a logistical nightmare. A tool should be able to solve this. As Emoderation’s Tia Fisher highlighted this week, the current Facebook API does not support this change so if you are using an existing tool, don’t turn on your replies yet. The changeover isn’t obligatory until July so you’ve got lots of time to start your research, trial a few tools and retrain your staff to use them.
  2. Revisit your House Rules to include a guideline for behaviour towards other Facebook users on the page, as well as towards the brand. We’ve always taken the stand that your page is yours, so OWN IT! Don’t be afraid to ban or hide comments that break your rules. Your page’s fans are a representation of your brand, if someone visits your page and has a bad experience due to your badly behaved fans, that is a reflection of you. For example, last month Justin Bieber was held responsible for his fan’s manic and often aggressive behaviour on Twitter towards each other.  This instance further fuels the theory that the way your fans and consumers behave on a public platform has implications for your brand. Read this and deal with it.
  3. Clearly define the purpose and Call To Action on every post. Of course everything you post has a clear Call To Action and purpose, but if you are calling for conversational engagement from your fans manage the direction. Unfortunately, left to their own devices, the most engaged post (and therefore prolific) isn’t always the most popular or intelligent (see pt. 4).
  4. Be extra vigilant with your moderation and watch out for Trolls. Bringing the content that’s most engaging to people seems like a great idea until someone decides to post inflammatory or irrelevant messages for no other reason other than to provoke an emotional response from your fans. They may even abuse Facebook’s new ranking system to get their comments to appear most prolifically on the page by Liking and Commenting on their own comments.
In summary, get ready!
Have a clear timeline, of when you want all your documentation to be completed, as well as a date in mind for when you’ll have the resource and budget to manage the change over efficiently. Finally, look over your content strategy and double check that your direction is one step ahead of your fans.
A huge thank you to the fabulous #CMGR community over at e Mint for their comments and thoughts.

The Future Of Social Media

On Tuesday last week I went along to the morning session of the NEXT day at Digital Shoreditch, a two week long festival for digital creatives. Speaking was Greg Williams, Executive Editor at Wired, Ben Scott Robinson, Creative Director at We Love Mobile and Matthew Cooke, Founder of Unruly Media... to name a few. Below is a light round up of our possible future, both online and off, as predicted by these speakers. An emphasis on a seamless connections between the digital world and reality, and how new technology can enable this was the key focus for the talks.
Even with the rise of online and mobile advertising spend, TV advertising is still attracting a lot of business. It’s even forecasted for online/mobile advertising to match TV spend by 2014. What is also predicted, is the affect of “second screen” in TV campaigns will evolve their purpose into fueling customer conversation (bring on the Community Manager jobs!) If we look at the recent Prometeus film TV advert as an example and the subsequent Twitter TV advert response (see story #2), we can see evidence of this happening now with forward thinking agencies. Another example of this evolution and the affect online and mobile has on Television is the BBC's conversations during Social Media Week. I attended an event where they discussed the way that “second screen” affects news and current affairs and how they predict this will continue with Olympics. The BBC even toyed with the idea of have a twitter feed open on screen during the games - what would Grandma say?!
“Mobile is the saviour of TV advertising; it's a platform to get people engaging and to allow you to gauge success.”
Ben Scott Robinson, We Love Mobile
With the possibility of measuring engagement on both mobile and web, you can see the affect of advertising instantly - sshhh, don't tell advertisers, they'll ask for the ROI again. It's this and the decline of spend in print media which is foreseeable to continue in the upcoming years, that will result in management changing their business model to accommodate it.
It’s reported that a massive 80% of the world has access to a mobile phone (that’s more than the number of people with access to clean water!) – this not only changes the way we advertise but also has an affect on other industries such as retail and banking. The importance of a “mobile wallet” is increasingly evident in countries where access to a mobile phone is more common that people having a bank account. As voice use declines, mobile providers now concentrate on data. From mobile content to access to social networks - users want it all. Just looking at the range of businesses that rely on Facebook is huge – which begs us to ask if it has reached saturation? As well as, “beyond the walled gardens, beyond app stores, beyond the social networks, there is more waiting to happen”?

The affect of social media and the companies that have spawned from it.

Another take away from the day was the importance of reviews and recommendations when purchasing, and not only from our peers - 80% people research a product before they buy. This is further evidence of the importance of connecting the real world with digital to push through purchases as well as encouraging loyalty through rich engagement on digital platforms. Advances in technology from companies like Connecthings help can bridge the physical and digital worlds. From shopper’s reviews, to live bus updates and translations of signs for foreign visitors, the possibilities seem limitless using NFC to bring together contextual information for users with location based software. It was explained that all this engagement is data rich that can be used with a CMS platform that has the ability to manage both content and network, as well pull out key insights for the brands involved.
Finally, it was the importance of storytelling and the cognitive affects of narrative on human behavior that is predicted to change the face of brand advertising and PR in the next few years. In 140 characters, throughout the day millions of people across the globe share the stories from their lives on Twitter, with photos on Instagram and with video on YouTube. Like design, storytelling has become key for businesses to define their purpose and create a relationship with their customers. It can even affect how we interact and feel towards brands.  With new technology (tablets and smartphones) we now have the ability to share stories without the traditional gatekeepers, which not only give consumers a voice but gives brands the ability to humanise themselves. With this vast amount of content floating around the web it’s easy to say that content is cheap, however, finding meaning within that is not and it is what brands should strive for. As Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn founder once said, "data is the new oil."
Lazy take-aways
Couldn't be bothered to read all of this? Don't blame you! Here is a break down of the above...
·      NFC technology for the everyday person is now a reality, from information uploads to banking; soon we will be connected to everything wirelessly.
·      The “Second screen” affect on advertising - the integration of mobile when creating memorable campaigns and when to consider mobile or TV as that “second screen”.
·      With the increase of social media, storytelling has become an integral part of brand awareness – this will become increasingly important as social platform enable brand to become more “human”.

During the session we saw quite a few case studies and but it was Bing’s particular use of storytelling in association with the launch of Jay Z’s autobiography ‘De Code’ which was highly impressive.
Anyway, it it was an interesting morning and I wish I could be more indulgent and attend more of these but... I have to work for a living.

Duke's Brew & Que, London

Duke's & Que is a pub. It's a pub disguised as a restaurant and don't let their drool worthy menu fool you as it has done with many. I went here for dinner and after sampling a few of their meaty morsels and their well selected cocktail menu I can confirm that this place is worth visiting.

I like ribs. The vegetarian in me still winces when I pick up that meaty hunk of flesh attached to a bone all covered in sticky barbecue sauce.

Last night, I indulged my inner caveman at Duke's Brew & Que with beef ribs, pulled pork sliders, mac and cheese, fried pickles and okra and some of their BBQ beans. I washed this down with a margarita (unfortunately not frozen) and my dining partner with some of their beer from their extensive menu.

Duke's & Que is also a brewery, although they only make a small amount at a time. They have a huge selection of beers and tequilas though as well as a solid cocktail menu with a couple of classics on it. The food is hit and miss. I'll be honest, we ordered well. I rarely go for dinner somewhere new without scoping out the reviews online to see what I should order.

I'm glad I did so here. The beef ribs were not only tender but huge in side. I'm glad of it too, the cocktails were strong and I needed something to sock up the tequila. The fried okra was a little dry and the mac and cheese was oozing oil (not always a good thing). Even saying that I still think that they know what they're doing when it comes to food. The ribs were perfectly cooked and the pulled pock juicy in a sweet white bun.

I'm a huge fan of condiments and along with the usual suspects there was a homemade BBQ sauce that was tangy and spicy along with a horseradish and mustard homemade mixture that made my eyes water. It's certainly worth trying if you're a fan of wasabi!

So this is a cool part of town, well to be honest, it on the edge of the cool part and that means you'll get a mix of hipsters, media mummies and daddies with their offspring and few lost locals from the council estate across the road.

This use to be a locals pub and you can tell that it has had a somewhat smooth transition into a dining boozer. I insist you go, and eat meat, and drink beer...

Duke's & Que | 33 Downham Road, London, N1 5AA
020 3006 0795

Critical Mass London

I ride around London on my bike and in my head I'm thinking, "Cycling, F*#k yeah!"

I'm better than other Londoners because most days (when my bike isn't being stolen or if its not snowing) I cycle everywhere I go. Unfortunately, the rest of London doesn't always agree. Yes Addison Lee, I'm talking about you...

For those of you who live under a rock, Critical Mass is a monthly event in London, where "there are probably as many aims as there are participants". For many of the people involved, it's about reclaiming the road and after a brush with one very aggressive driver who was using his car as a weapon on Newington Green a few weeks ago, I'm all for owning a bit of road.
This is me, and my pink bike...

Last Friday was the 18th anniversary of Critical Mass London and I decided that it was about time that I went down to see what it was all about. I arrived at about 6pm to a mish-mash of wheels and feet under the Waterloo Bridge. As it was so close to the London Mayoral Elections, it had been hijacked by some cycling politicians but to be honest that was all part and parcel of the fun.

Just so you know, after the big protest from the war that Tony Blair led us nicely into a law was created stating that you could not organise a protest or the like without permission. As a result you'll find little information about Critical Mass or it's organisers online. If you go down there though, everyone is super friend. As it was the 18th anniversary there was cake and beer and biscuits being handed around along with pink balloons and party hats. It was all rather festive.

Just after 7pm we set off, what started out as less than a hundred, turned into what seemed to be thousands of cyclists, scooter-folk, skate boarders and more. What was most suprising is that so many of them were normal folk, and I certainly overheard conversations about working freelance and a few people moaning about Tesco value range. These were regular Londoners who had decided to reclaim the road and it was bloody fabulous. While cycling along, all the traffic stops for you and finally you feel some power.

I'd recommend this for any cyclist in London. Even if you don't cycle much, there were Boris bikes there along with the rest of us. You'll also meet other lovely people and it's totally free - what more could you ask for?

What? Critical Mass London
When? Every Last Friday of the Month, meet 6.15pm, ride begins 6.45pm
Where?  Meet under Waterloo Bridge, outside National Theatre on South Bank
Who? YOU

Do you need a Community Manager?

I am a Community Manager... not a Pony.

A Community Manager is someone who represents your brand to the World. World, as in World Wide Web and World as they are a real person who will attend events and be a spokesperson for you. This person will have excellent communication skills, a fabulous bedside manner and will have (hand)bags of common sense. They'll be your voice on all social platforms, they'll write the content plan for your blog posts and email communications. They'll work closely with your customer service, PR and marketing teams - giving a voice to your audience within the company. They will be on the front-line when you have to communicate with the masses and will negotiate with key influencers. Their KPIs are the size of their audience and the volume of conversation generated around key messages. Their KPIs are also the overall feeling from the public towards the brand (ie. are you likeable). They are never off duty. The work that a CM does for your brand is for you and not them, they will reflect the praise and positive comments towards who they work for and not them directly.

A Social Media Manager is someone who manages your presence on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. They will generate content calendars and moderation guidelines inline with the greater overall social media strategy for the brand. This person will need to be up to date with all the latest platform developments and on hand to advise the brand when conversation in the digital space requires action from either CS or PR.  Their KPIs are provided but the Social Media Strategist who will define a goal for each platform for the brand.

A Social Media Strategist is someone who will look at your social media footprint, work with your sales/marketing team and create roads to common goals with can be implemented by the SMM.
They will have to be familiar with social media monitoring software and be able to analyse vast quantities of qualitative and quantitative data to generate a fully integrated plan of actions. They will also have the skill set to translate this information into an understandable plan for action for board members, account managers and clients.

As you can see, these are three very different roles. For every company, duties can vary depending on the brand, but the basics are all here. I often have to explain my role to people - most of the time it's recruiters trying to put me forward for a job that I'm quite often not interested in and most often not qualified for.

Social Media is important for any company that hopes to survive and grow in the next few years. If people aren't buying your biscuits I can damn well be sure their bitching about them on twitter and they'll tell you why. For service companies, using social media is key to understanding your users wants and needs. As for community, this is when you want to take your brand that step closer to your audience. This is where you want to create a kind of consumer that is a brand ambassador without handing over your hard earned cash. It takes time and you have to see it for the long term - it's not a quick fix. It can have many advantages but it is a brand by brand situation, speak to many people to find out what will suit you best.

PS. I am not a guru. If you call yourself a Social Media Guru you're a twat. If you are on the hunt for someone to help you with social media and you put Social Media Guru as the job title, you'll attract these twats. You'll also attract people who talk more that they do, yes they'll impress you with the latest SM news and the last article they read on Mashable but what have they actually done? The online digital industry is so new and continuously changing and evolving that calling yourself a Guru is pretty small minded. We're all learning... Even the experts!

Nail Wraps

I'm a little obsessed with nail art and on a recent trip to New York I got a decent haul from Sephora. Now some of you might remember that Sephora was once in the UK - it failed and left. My world is now a darker place.

The collection I purchase included what Sephora like to call Real Lacquer Strips, or to you and me Nail Wraps. This was my first attempt - I'm supper happy with them and I'm actually surprised at how easy they were to apply. Not only that, they were dry straight away and there is zero chance of smudging. As a result I tootled on down to boots and picked up some Nail Rock wraps. No they aren't as wonderful as the design I got from NYC but they'll hold me over until I can get a loving friend to send me some...


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Carl Froch believes Lucian Bute may have fought his last after handing out a ‘devastating beating’ which crowned him a three-time world champion.

Carl Froch fears ‘whupped’ Lucian Bute may quit boxing
Hit and kiss: Carl Froch and partner Rachael Cordingley (Picture: Action Images)

The 34-year-old Froch snatched Bute’s IBF super-middleweight title with a fifth-round stoppage in his native Nottingham on Saturday and is now contracted to travel to Canada, where Romanian Bute is based, to defend the belt in a rematch.

However, Froch said: ‘Personally I don’t think Bute will want the rematch. I looked into his eyes and after round three I saw something drain from him.

‘Something only a fighter can see. I don’t think he’s going to want to fight again, let alone fight me again.

‘He came here unbeaten and got absolutely, devastatingly beaten. That doesn’t happen often to top-level fighters.

‘That is a beating, the whupping of all whuppings. I’m not bragging. I don’t want to hurt anybody, I’m not proud of hurting people but that’s what I’m in the ring to do.

‘If the boot was on the other foot, you know what would happen.’

Froch’s over-riding ambition is still to become a unified champion and, in the process, avenge his two career defeats – against Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward.

He added: ‘Fighting like that, I’d beat anybody in my division. If I catch Ward on the chin with the shots I landed on Bute, it’s game over – simple as that.’