It's been a fantastic year, one which we can only thank you for.

Quite simply, our visits and hits have more than doubled over the last year, something we never would have imagined this early on in our existence.  From roughly 200 visits and 4,000 hits a day, to roughly 550 visits and 10,000 hits a day, we're continuing to reach a wider audience as time goes on.

Can we expect such an increase every year?  Unlikely, but then again, we didn't expect such an increase in 2003.  If readers continue to tell others about TA, then there's no telling what may ensue in 2004.

But whether we increase or decrease, our goal remains the same;  to bring accurate, informative and exciting science to our readers, letting science, and science only, be the authority.

Thank you for your part in making TrueAuthority.com a tremendous success.

Giant Squid Eat Each Other
by Jonathan Drake
S: New Zealand National News (10-3-03)

"Whether intentional or not, ingestion of an entire giant squid tentacle club does constitute cannibalism."

Just when you thought the giant squid couldn't get any stranger, it just did.  A researcher from Auckland's University of Technology has found the partially digested remains of the tentacle of another squid in the massive stomach of the ocean monster.

Subsequently, the evidence suggests that the endangered giant squid isn't necessarily contributing to its survival as a species.

Dr. O'Shea, a world-renowned authority on squid of Earth and Oceanic Sciences Research Institute, plans to publish the findings in the New Zealand Journal of Zoology.  He and his research team examined more than 100 giant squid, finding only one which turned out the grotesque clue.  But even though it's just one, the find strongly supports a cannibalistic lifestyle for the squid.

Truly, the discovery could be unsettling to squid lovers all over the world, though they be few.

Red-legged Frogs Found
by Vincent Rains
S: Calaveras Enterprise (11-03)

In Calaveras County, California, a small population of red-legged frogs has been found on a privately owned cattle ranch.  Amazingly, the rancher's children discovered the frogs while playing at a water hole on the ranch.

"When the first frog was discovered, we tried as a family to figure out what it was.  The kids narrowed it down to a couple of choices," said Norma, their mother.

According to Dr. Robert Stack Arnold of the Murphys-based Jumping Frog Research Institute, the children's finding is significant because it is the first documented sighting of a red-legged frog in Calaveras County since a reported find near Highway 49 back in 1969.

"It is my hope that we can make this news something very positive for the county, the family, and of course, the frog," said Calaveras County Supervisor Lucy Thein.

Interestingly, scientists and a number of historians consider the California red-legged frog to be the same frog on which Mark Twain's "Celebrated Frog of Calaveras County" is based.  The red-legged species was the largest native frog in the Angels Camp area at the time Twain heard the story at the Angels Hotel in 1865.

Haylie, one of the children, added, "It makes our ranch more special. The frogs are really cool."

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