Under the sea? Me, thee, tea? You, two?

Hey! No octopus? Oh. Good!

Origami creatures

Cephalopod sighting at this site. I like the way there are two. In a moment, they might give each other a romantic caress of tentacles!

The above pictures clipped from here, where truly amazing origami is on display.

I can fold a crane, some flowers, and eve a balloon. But I am much in awe of origami artists who fold more elaborate shapes. Above pictures clipped from this site.

And another octopus. Clipped from here.

Vaucanson automatons

I recently read an interesting book called Edison's Eve which talks about the search for mechanical life. I was intrigued by the section on Vaucanson's flute player and duck. I wish there were more photos. But what can you expect from the 1730's?

Clipped from here and here, where there is also a fascinating text by M. Vaucanson about how it works.

Herbarium finds

Ok...these are just a few of the pages at the Linnaean Herbarium. What could be more exciting late one evening than leafing through the herbarium pages, and pausing to read words penned by Linnaeus himself, and other great botanists? Clipped from the Linnean Herbarium.

These are the real thing! Antonius Münchenberg plant collection. When you can see stuff like this, why spend time on pornography? Clipped from the Swedish Museum of Natural History website.

Squid in the news

Poor squid. They baited it to get its picture, and it lost a tentacle in the process. How awful.

More cephalopods!

Beautiful, aren't they? No. Not every post post (not even most) will be about cephalopods. These ones are made of glass by the father and son team Blaschka. They also made incredible jellyfish and other marine invertebrates, as well as thousands of flowers for Harvard's botanical garden. I want to own them!!!!

Octopus sex

Do you ever wonder how somebody came up with the idea of octopus/human sex? I think an octopus would be very cold to the touch. Not warm and cozy at all.