Mecha Whales Figure

Combining two of my fave things: Mecha & Marine Biology!! MechaWhales, created by Hauke Scheer's crazy animation series have had the three-dimensional makeover and is being released as Deep Fried Figure's first project. Whales on a rampage... WTF?!!

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Fernando Vicente Vanitas

Nice anatomical/vintage illustrations by Mr Vanitas...

See more HERE...

Goldfish Salvation Show

This is your very last chance to catch the best show (IMHO) of 2011.....Riusuke Fukahori manages to create astonishingly real 3D paintings of fish in containers. He uses a unique technique of layering clear resin and painting goldfish on these layers. (Check out the video to see what I mean!)

Artist Riusuke Fukahori's London debut exhibition "Goldfish Salvation" transforms ICN gallery into the world of goldfish. When struggling with artistic vision, Fukahori's pet goldfish became his inspiration and ever since his passion and lifelong theme. His unique style of painting uses acrylic on clear resin which is poured into containers, resulting in a three-dimensional appearance and lifelike vitality. This exhibition features twenty new painting works by this leading Japanese contemporary artist.

UK Money Trees

"In several wooded areas around the UK, passersby have been stopping for decades (if not centuries), meticulously hammering small denomination coins into trees. Most of the trees seem to be in and around Cumbria and Portmeirio."

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Fauna Fabula Site

Stumbled across this cool site the other day and I thought I'd share it. FaunaFabula is a site dedicated to showing and informing us of the strange and wonderful world of rare and crazy-looking animals...

Rosy Acorn Worm 

Axolotl 

Slipper Lobster 

 Long-Nosed Chimera

 Caracal

Man Replaces Thumb With Big Toe

This is James Byrne, it is hishands, James lost his left thumb in a carpentry accident. Doctors unsuccessfully tried to re-attach it, so they proposed an alternative: "Why don't we use your dominant left toe instead?" He said yes.

"Apparently, James' thumb was vital for his work, paver and plant operator, so the answer was easy for him. The operation was a success, although he still can't fully move the thumb naturally: "I can't bend it yet but I hope to be able to do so soon. It rotates and I can give it a good wiggle. I am so, so pleased that I had it done. It is just such a relief that I'll be able to get back to work soon." He would have to return to surgery to remove the wires that currently secure the bones in place, but otherwise everything seems perfectly fine." 'James will have to learn to re-balance, without his left great toe, on to the ball of his foot but he will be able to walk and jog normally. 'The thumb is the dominant digit. Without it, James would not be able to do the things that we take for granted, like holding a pen or opening a door.

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Leptocephalus Is An Eel Larva

This large size leptocephalus must be a species of Muraenidae (moray eels), and probably the larva of a long thin ribbon eel, which is metamorphosing, not feeding, and is entering shallow water to finish metamorphosis into a young eel. Leptocephali are the unusual transparent larvae of eels and their close relatives. Because they are transparent they are so hard to spot and are hardly ever sighted.....awesome!

oh.. and whilst we are on the topic of worm-like creatures in the sea...here is a close-up of the head of one of those worms that hangs out on the sea bed around those hydrothermal vents. Pretty lil thang!

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Paula Braconnot Anatomy Diagrams

Nice retro/contemporary anatomical art by Paula Braconnot...

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Fire Ants Form Waterproof Raft

A team of researchers at Georgia Tech has established that fire ants bind together to create a water-tight raft. This research could have application to the construction of man-made flotation devices.



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Skeletal Origami

Takayuki Hori creates beautiful origami (Oritsunagumono) with translucent material printed with animal skeletons.
"The material is then folded into the shape of the animal. The stark and eerily poignant origami prints reminds us that, much like the way the craft has been passed down from generation to generation, these animals that have accompanied us for thousands of years now face extinction."

   

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Teddy Bear Skulls

Stephanie Metz has made some cute & cuddly teddy skulls with felt. This is her blag, sorry, her artist statement about the project: "A pseudo-scientific study of the morphology of skulls: the form and structures that differentiate one breed from another and give a sense of the story of the individual. My approach is to research, document, present, and interpret evidence in a formal manner. My subject species is the teddy bear: a creature made by humans (and made ‘alive’ by imagination) whose morphological history is tied to social trends." Umm, ok, let's just say that they look "really cool" instead.

Thanks to Lloyda Valencia for the info!

The Tallest Treehouse In The World

So some crazy guy has gotten himself into the Guinness World record books by building the worlds tallest treehouse in Tennessee. In 1993, Horace Burgess claims that God told him to build and to keep building so that's what he has ended up doing! The house is supported by 6 oak tree pillars and is approximately 100 feet tall now...

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Bone Socks

Summer is approaching and I need some new shinwear to go with my shorts...

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Treehoppers Are Strange Creatures

Membracids, related to cicadas, are in the class Insecta, the order Hemiptera (“true bugs”) and the family Membracidae. Like aphids, which are also “true bugs,” adult and immature treehoppers feed on plant sap....but wtf is that on their heads??






According to Biologists, "the hollow globes & spines, probably deter predators. It would be hard to grab, much less chow down on, a beast with all those spines and excrescences. Note, though, that the ornament sports many bristles. If these are sensory bristles, and not just deterrents to predation or irritating spines, then the ornament may have an unknown tactile function."
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Iori Tomita Transparent Specimen Art

Iori Tomita uses a special technique where he turns the bodies of marine organisms translucent. He then injects dyes into their skeletons to produce these incredibly dramatic and educational biological specimens...






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AGA 2010 Aquascaping Contest

Here are the results from the AGA Aquascaping Awards 2010

1st Place-

432 Litre: Michael G.W. Wong, North Point Hong Kong

2nd Place:

400 Litre: Pasquale Buonpane, Piedimonte Matese CE Italy

3rd Place:

412 Litre: Kam Wong, North Point Hong Kong

other tanks to note:

648 Litre: Yu-Lin Chen, Hsinchu City, Taiwan

870 Litre: Chow Wai Sun, Hong Kong - China