Crocodile

"Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin appeared to tempt fate every day of his life, yet his death was met with near-universal shock from legions of bloggers around the world. Perhaps it was Irwin's exuberant nature, or his aura of invincibility, or perhaps it was the manner in which he died - from a stingray's barb and not a crocodile's bite - but nobody saw this one coming. News sites in Australia, as well as around the world, reported extensive spikes in traffic in the hours after Irwin's death Monday.

Belle took front and center stage as the leading lady in this week's episode, "The Crocodile," which saw an absence of Emma, Regina and Snow. We were also introduced to the most anticipated character of the season: Captain Hook.  You put syrup on this ... Belle has a realistic dream about her on-the-rocks boyfriend Rumpelstiltskin, who transforms into his weird creature alter ego and tries to kill Grumpy. She wakes up and spies on Rumpel who is practicing magic, which on this show can now be defined as purple haze.

TOKYO -- Rain doesn't deter Mari, 3, and Erika, 6, from their hunt on a Monday afternoon in a small Tokyo park. They are looking for crocodile. And they are not alone.Five boys ages 11 and 12, flushed from a 40-minute bike ride begun immediately after school, arrive with binoculars as the two Ayokolbi sisters wobble away.On a nice day, says Tomotaka Ikebe, a security guard, up to 10,000 others have joined in the search, and twice Mr. Ikebe has performed rescues -- but only because the same intoxicated man dove into the football-field-sized pond where the crocodile- or alligator-like reptile (no one is sure which)

"If Mitt Romney can be pushed around, intimidated, coerced, co-opted by a conservative radio talk show host in Middle America, then how is he going to stand up to the Chinese? How is he going to stand up to Putin?" So asked Bryan Fischer, a radio host with the American Family Association, after claiming credit for Richard Grenell's scalp. Mr. Grenell is the openly gay former foreign policy spokesman for the Romney campaign. Before that, he worked for Ambassador John Bolton at the United Nations, easily the most revered diplomatic official among the base of the Republican Party since Jeane Kirkpatrick.

The tragic death of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, from a stingray's defensive attack, underscores a problem with many wildlife films and television programs: They send the wrong message about wildlife, people and the relationships between them. Mr. Irwin's fate reminded me of the gruesome deaths three years ago of amateur filmmaker Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, who were consumed by grizzly bears in Alaska's Katmai National Park. Mr. Treadwell's death quickly gained notoriety and horrified the public, and was the subject of the 2005 documentary Grizzly Man. But it was no surprise to those of us who knew him; for years he had treated bears as pets, singing to and even touching them.

JERUSALEM -- The Sea of Galilee, on whose banks loaves and fishes multiplied and disciples were recruited, is gaining a legend of considerably lesser import.Some people say a crocodile lives there.The first report came a few weeks ago from a woman visiting her sister on a kibbutz. Since then, several more people said they saw a reptile in the sea.The accounts have prompted daily searches by rangers and volunteers and have provided grist for picnic-table talk for the thousands of vacationers who flock to the Galilee in the summer.

Very fine silt that filled a dead dinosaur's skull millions of years ago is shedding new light on the behavior of the Allosaurus, suggesting it acted more like a crocodile than like a bird, scientists announced yesterday.By using modern CT scan equipment to see inside the fossil material, Scott Rogers, a molecular neurologist at the University of Utah, determined the brain's size and shape. He can also see where blood vessels entered and exited the brain, the complete inner ear and a few other parts of the brain's structure.

The troublesome thing about hot-air balloons is they fly best in cool air.This is why, in the pre-dawn gloom of a midsummer morning in South Africa, we were looking for a rugby field in the Crocodile River Valley, an hour's drive from Johannesburg.Through the grayness we could just make out the white rugby posts. As we got within goal-scoring range, we saw the wicker basket that would carry us aloft. At first glimpse, it looked disconcertingly fragile, an oversized shopping basket, but closer inspection revealed the steel hawsers and bars that reinforced it.Since balloons first flew in the 18th century, no one has improved on wickerwork for the strength, flexibility and lightness it offers.

Dee Murray, 45, the bass player in Elton John's original rock 'n' roll band, died Wednesday after suffering a stroke Sunday in Nashville, Tenn. He performed with Elton John throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. He played on the hit songs "Crocodile Rock," "Daniel," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" and others.

Bridget Fonda (above) plays a scientist who is in over her head trying to stop a huge killer crocodile in Lake Placid (9 p.m.-11 p.m., A&E).

Fashion should be fun, according to Alfred Wainwright. This North Baltimore resident buys clothes that don't just make him smile. He especially enjoys it when his outfit brings a smile to the faces of others. Age: 49 Residence: North Baltimore Job: Baltimore City Public Schools, Instructions Team Associate Self-described style: "Fun. It's positive." The look: Kuhlma Co. white button-down shirt. Brown-striped Pierre Cardin tie. Black, burgundy and beige Giorgio Armani houndstooth sports jacket.

The tragic death of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, from a stingray's defensive attack, underscores a problem with many wildlife films and television programs: They send the wrong message about wildlife, people and the relationships between them. Mr. Irwin's fate reminded me of the gruesome deaths three years ago of amateur filmmaker Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, who were consumed by grizzly bears in Alaska's Katmai National Park. Mr. Treadwell's death quickly gained notoriety and horrified the public, and was the subject of the 2005 documentary Grizzly Man. But it was no surprise to those of us who knew him; for years he had treated bears as pets, singing to and even touching them.

"Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin appeared to tempt fate every day of his life, yet his death was met with near-universal shock from legions of bloggers around the world. Perhaps it was Irwin's exuberant nature, or his aura of invincibility, or perhaps it was the manner in which he died - from a stingray's barb and not a crocodile's bite - but nobody saw this one coming. News sites in Australia, as well as around the world, reported extensive spikes in traffic in the hours after Irwin's death Monday.

When TV's popular naturalist and "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was fatally stung Monday by a stingray as he swam in the ocean of Queensland, Australia, it left many wondering just how common and dangerous these strangely beautiful creatures really are The Sun sought out Alan Henningsen, a research specialist at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. With rays gliding around the big boog beside him, we asked questions that millions around the world have been asking all week. Find out what we learned on Page 6D

LOS ANGELES -- Forget the car chases. Forget the shootouts. Forget the lions and bears running amok in the urban landscape. Los Angeles has a new marquee attraction: Reggie the alligator, a 7-foot-long public menace that was illegally set loose in a 53-acre city lake last fall. It was Day 308 as of yesterday in the hunt for Reggie, and the city has just about had enough with the elusive gator. Any day now, Reggie is expected to emerge from hibernation, and the Los Angeles City Council will then welcome its fourth gator wrangler in the quest to remove the reptilian scourge and put it in the zoo where a better home awaits.

Bridget Fonda (above) plays a scientist who is in over her head trying to stop a huge killer crocodile in Lake Placid (9 p.m.-11 p.m., A&E).

"Hey second graders, you have to get this book! 'Bill and Pete' by Tomie dePaola is about a crocodile and a bird. The bird helps the crocodile brush his teeth with a toothbrush. This book is so funny that you just have to get it."-- Tamara LovelistHampton Elementary"One of my favorite books is 'The True Story of the Three Little Pigs' by Jon Scieszka. The coolest thing about the book is that the wolf is telling his version of the story. It's funny. You should try it!"-- Sierra WattsCharles Carroll Elementary"I read 'Legend of the Laughing Gecko' by Bruce Hale.

When Paul Hogan first released " 'Crocodile' Dundee" in the United States four years ago, audiences told him it was "Capra-esque."The Australian actor didn't know whether that was a compliment or an insult."

A fierce prehistoric seagoing creature - an animal so bizarre it was dubbed "Godzilla" by scientists who found it - has been unearthed in a fossil-rich Argentine desert at the foot of the Andes. Between 12 and 15 feet long, with a bullet-shaped head like a meat-eating dinosaur, relatively few teeth, flippers instead of legs and a fishlike tail, it is considered a crocodyliform, the term for crocodiles and their extinct relatives. But the features of this animal, described online yesterday by the journal Science, are drastically different from other crocodyliforms, which had long, slender snouts and toothy jaws.

HONG KONG - After a seven-month hunt that drew international attention and involved experts from as far as Australia, authorities announced yesterday that they had captured the territory's most famous fugitive: a 4-foot-6-inch-long crocodile that became an instant celebrity after it was spotted last fall swimming in a polluted creek. Variously dubbed Gucci (a gallows humor reference to its possible future as a purse), Croc-Croc Chan (after the family that first sighted it) or simply the Yuen Long crocodile (after the creek in which it was spotted)