Organisms
pharyngula | June 19, 2011My wife remembered, so she sent me a video that reminded her of all the things I've done as a parent: the egg tending, the fungus gnawing, the battling of the interlopers, the affectionate clashing of chelicerae. See, this is what fatherhood is all about.
In case that's not enough for you, National Geographic has a paternal gallery. None quite as adorable as me, but the cockroach does come close.
pharyngula | June 18, 2011I have to give credit where credit is due, and this isn't entirely an anti-cat post. I've had cats; I've had to clean up their puke and hairballs, I've had to change their litter boxes, I've found the secret places in the house where they go to pee, so I know what they're like. And I know the cat dream, and what they aspire to, so here, for all the cats out there, is a goal.
Dream on, kitties, dream on.
Although I promise, if ever I have an anesthetized cat on my hands, I won't be giving it electric shocks to make it excrete slimy stuff.
pharyngula | June 13, 2011PZ told his awful skunk story in his talk in Dublin — don't use this picture as an excuse to ask him to repeat it. It's disgusting.
pharyngula | June 11, 2011As before, I seek to explore the boundaries of this "caturday" phenomenon, and this time we turn to the rich and evocative world of fungi.
Can your mere cat do this?
No. It is a failure then. I wash my hands of their dry furriness and plunge them into the feculent, fecund ooze of the ripening fungus. It is erotic: smooth, moist, slippery with rising phallic stalks and soft plump mounds. No cat can compare.
No one would ever look at a pussy and think of sex.
pharyngula | June 9, 2011I don't know. I usually don't care for that kind of explicit gynecological porn that is all leering closeups, with the camera competing with the hectocotyl arm for a place in the mantle cavity, but this is pretty.
(via Haole in Hawaii's excellent dive series)
pharyngula | June 5, 2011It's the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group. "Occlupanid", in case you weren't familiar with the lingo, is the taxonomic term for bread ties, those little plastic clips used to close up plastic bread sacks. There is more than you ever wanted to know about bread ties at that link.
It's actually rather thought provoking: it's an entire classification scheme for a trivial industrial widget.
pharyngula | June 4, 2011Here's his latest.
Also remember, Aron Ra, DPR Jones, Lone Frank, and I will be on the Magic Sandwich Show tomorrow at 8pm GMT, live from Dublin. Tune in!
pharyngula | May 30, 2011Somehow, I just think that's what all the wildlife of Ireland wander about bellowing.
pharyngula | May 28, 2011"Caturday"? What is this "Caturday" frippery I see on various blogs today? It seems to consist entirely of photos and video clips of small furry predators in repose or at play, and it's not very interesting. Let us try something more stimulating.
Loom from Polynoid on Vimeo.
The "ooh"ing and "aah"ing and "how cute!"ing may now commence from the gallery. You may also choose to watch it in HD. Watch it multiple times — it's beautiful. My favorite part is when the spider enfolds her prey in her long elegant legs and injects it with enzymes that cause its organs to melt.
Don't talk to me about…
pharyngula | May 23, 2011The Visible Man. The Visible Dog. The Visible Head. The Visible Horse. The Visible Cow. The Visible V8 Engine. My favorite, The Visible Woman, which taught me that under their clothes, women were glassy smooth and transparent. I had all those model kits when I was a kid, but one thing I never had was The Visible Frog. Now I could collect the real thing, if I lived in the Congo.
(via National Geographic)
pharyngula | May 20, 2011You all follow Creature Cast, I presume, and have already seen the story of the strangler fig, but I'll just echo it here anyway.
pharyngula | May 17, 2011Oooh, the miracle of childbirth: watch a clutch of octopus eggs hatch.
O. vulgaris hatchlings hatching from Richard Ross on Vimeo.