Whale Fall (after life of a whale) from Sharon Shattuck on Vimeo.

thanks nas!

Benedetta Bonichi

too bad this makes smoking look so sexy...

Tremoctopus

On Monday, I had the pleasure of working with a famous Hawaiian octopus found in the bay last week. It was picked up in the bay by a local fisherman and was mistaken for an octopus-squid hybrid. However, it was actually a species of blanket octopus, or tremoctopus; a pelagic octopus that is usually found out in the open ocean. They are called blanket octopuses because of the bizarre cape like webbing between their back arms. The male of the species is very small and he detaches his hectocotylus (the arm he uses to deposit his sperm packets in the female) and it wiggles its way up into the female. They are pretty fascinating creatures. So when I found out that we had one in the bay, I called the fisherman and he brought it over to HIMB for me! Here is the octopus as a block of ice before I thawed it out and examined it more closely.



It was slow going getting that girl thawed, but it was quite soothing. Slowly pouring water over her body, gently pulling at skin, careful not to tear it, watching her limbs unfold. I needed to get samples for several people who wanted to do genetic testing and remove the beak for Dick Young. Here you can see the "blanket."





Also, my octopus cyanea laid eggs. So many more babies...

hypnotic

Hail to the V!

I can't begin to describe this video as well as they do on Coilhouse.

"I’m not sure how comfortable I am with a full minute of advertising that repeatedly references disembodied genitalia. “It” is the cradle of life, but isn’t “it” attached to someone? “It” is the center of civilization, but “it” isn’t the one throwing up its arms. But the strangest, most uncomfortable section is that last part, the longest part, the part where men are fighting for “it” — killing to possess “it”. That section is really weird because what I get from that section is that men have made war upon one another for your vagina. They have killed each other for your vagina. They have leveled cities and razed the land for your vagina."