I’ll be with you in a moment…

from Adam magazine (July 1976)

(Via Randsom Signal Annex, via ERROR888, via Pulp International)

Once again, the various trials and tribulations of life have, of late, consumed my time/brain/blogging energy. I hope to get back to at lest a semi-regular blogging schedule very soon.

Thank you for bearing with me. Your patience will be rewarded.

The squid never stood a chance…

This amazing animation showing how Physeter macrocephalus uses echolocation to hunt, is from the Whales Tahora exhibit now at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The Sperm Whale starts out hunting boring old fish, but don’t worry, he meets an delicious Architeuthis by the end of the clip!

(Via rhamphotheca)

“Squid Attack” belt buckle by FluffyCo

This was a birthday present this year from my wife. I don’t typically wear belt buckles but, clearly, I need to start…at least on special occasions. As soon as my thumb heals enough to allow me to operate a belt again, I’ll be taking it for a spin.

Ryn picked this up at Light Years, a small local chain that specializes in jewelry and quirky gifts, but you can buy it directly from FluffyCo.

“Squid Attack” is described thusly…

Resin-coated digital print, set in a antiqued nickel tone round-cornered metal buckle. Standard sized to fit most belt leathers. Made with Neves in Oklahoma City. About 3 x 2”. $24

T-shirt Tuesday: Hot Molluscs in Love

Here are three delightful t-shirt designs by Hannah Moore via Kickstarter.com. They are named, respectively, “Secret Snail,” “Forbidden Love,” and “Inky Hearts.”

I would love to give you a link so you could buy them all right now, but there’s a catch—in order for these shirts to become a purchasable reality, a target funding goal needs to be met…and you can help make this happen!

The goal is to get at least $600 pledged by 2:59 am EDT on Monday, August 16. This amount covers the expense of getting a minimum order of each design printed and shipped. If that goal is met, all those that pledged will be rewarded for their generosity. Want a shirt? Pledge at least $20. Want all three shirts? Pledge $50. Basically, the more you give, the more cool stuff you get in return!

To back this project, click here.

To learn more about Kickstarter and how this all works, click here.

For more of Hannah’s art, visit Curious Zoology.

Flickr Friday: “The Mighty Age-Old Quarrel”

Giant squid, originally uploaded by Max Sparber.

Max says, “An occasional hobby of mine is converting two-dimensional illustrations into 3D graphics. These can be seen using the traditional red/cyan glasses.”

Avatar, eat your heart out!

“Desert Island” by xkcd

xkcd.com

T-shirt Tuesday: “The Squid vs. The Whale” from Threadless®

design by Brandon Ancone

I have been eager to feature this particular Threadless design since I restarted ISK last year, but I was holding off on the hope that they would eventually reprint it…and now they have! Most squid v. whale scenes usually leave little doubt that the whale is going to end up with a stomach full of delicious ika sashimi, but I have a definite feeling that whale sushi is on the menu tonight!

“The Squid vs. The Whale” is $18 (on White American Apparel tee) and is, at the time of this writing, still available in all men’s and women’s sizes.

Buy it now from Threadless!

Incidentally, I first heard about this shirt on the old Squid.us blog. All cephalopod aficionados everywhere were waving their tentacles with joy on January 12 when it rose again from the murky depths. Welcome back Squid.us!

Cephalopodmas Ornaments #4 and #5

My plans for a week of short Christmas ornament posts got waylaid by a time destroying combination of illness, work, weather, and social commitments. So here are the two that were intended for Thursday and Friday…

This Santopus (or should that be Cephaloclaus?) ornament sports a biologically inaccurate toothy grin (and eye brows), but I’m willing to go easy on it because its arms all twist and curl in different directions. And I think that’s neat.

This one is probably my favorite of the bunch—a Sperm Whale and and a Giant Squid (and some echinoderms) on a wreath of seaweed. The ornament came from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. It is particularly appropriate because the museum’s logo was inspired by one of the oldest specimens in their collection: a complete skeleton of Physeter macrocephalus.

Flickr Friday: Here there be monsters

, originally uploaded by Divine Harvester.

I’m not what the story behind this is, but I like it!

Update: The photographer says that he spotted this sign in the Old Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, WA.

Caught on Film! Sperm Whale snacks on Giant Squid

We interrupt Halloween Week to bring you this exciting news bulletin:

Sperm Whales have finally been photographed feeding on Giant Squids!

It has long been known that the Giant Squid was on the menu of Physeter macrocephalus, the Sperm Whale, but the legendary encounter has never been captured on film. Before the first specimens of Architeuthis were described by science, whalers would find their remains among the stomach contents of harvested Sperm Whales, and those whales would sometimes bear enormous sucker scars. There were even reports from sailors who claim to have witnessed the two leviathans locked in mortal combat, and the image of squid vs. whale has become iconic.

Underwater photographer Tony Wu photographed a pod of six whales—five adults and a calf—in the waters off Japan’s Ogasawara Islands (the same area where scientists filmed a living Giant Squid for the first time back in 2005). Dr Mark Norman speculates that the adults were in the process of teaching the young whale how to dive and hunt for food. Recovered nearby was one of the squid’s 3.5 meter long tentacles.

See these amazing photos at The Daily Mail Online.