That page was emailed to me by Gaijin Biker.
I'm not clicking on anything with the phrase "fecal face" in its URL.
Yeah, fecalface just covers the SF art scene. Nothing porny about it.
"She enjoyed eating king crab on a daily basis. Her fur is soft. I love her and she loves wide open."
Man, there is something about guys working hard-ass jobs who like small animals. (See also this, via Waxy.)
"Some sort of sea sponge type thing has decided to be his hat."
Hilarious.
I feel sorry for that old, barnacled crab. WHY, MR CRABS, WHY?
When nowhere is beautiful and still in America, all the better
s/b
When nowhere is beautiful and still in America, and crawling with factory ships, all the better.
Holy shit: So I know someone who knows lots about marine life, and she IDed sponge-hat: "it looks like this parasite (i think it's a fungus) that moves from the crab's digestive system after it's swallowed as a spore, expanding into the body cavity and consuming internal organs until it starts spilling out between joint. the thing is that it's like the corniferus spore (that's the ant one, right?) -- the crab stays alive but a zombie, just eating like crazy and wandering around until it dies. it doesn't mate or even regenerate after the infection."
She meant the corniceps fungus. Terrifying stuff.
I see myself as the corniceps fungus of Unfogged.
Actually, I think it's cordyceps and I've been saying the wrong word for a while. Better link. Totally terrifying.
Then it would be the Sacculina parasite, whose story forms sort of the backbone of Carl Zimmer's fascinating book Parasite Rex. Wikipedia tells me that the section of the book about this parasite was largely taken from a Discover magazine article which is also fascinating.
It's a sort of barnacle, not a fungus - an actual animal. Zimmer's book makes a big deal out of how it was used as the archetypal example of a parasite by some social theorists, who described it as having devolved into this destructive and unproductive form from its former existence as a free-living animal -- that being an analogy to the parasitic members of society, either the poor in a welfare state, or the rich who leech off of rents and capitalist exploitation and grow fat and stupid.
I see myself as the corniceps fungus of Unfogged.
Interesting, because if I remember correctly one of the effects is that the crab loses all interest in sex and maybe even its genitals fall off.
That's an even better video. The short half-minute section in which the camera pans around insect bodies grown over with fungi is some of my favorite video of all time.
What's up with the one with the horse head?
Also, there's some similarly interesting photos here.
Those are some very cool photos. OTOH my cousin used to crab in Alaska and some of the stories were way short of romantic. Going up in the rigging in the middle of the night in a storm to beat the ice off with a baseball bat so that the boat won't get top-heavy enough to capsize is not my idea of fun.
What's up with the one with the horse head?
Art!
Crabbing in Alaska is supposedly the most dangerous single job in the US, for the reason DaveL gives. It's often or usually done in the wintertime.
A guy I knew quit his crabbing job because the other crew members were always looking at him in an unfriendly way and muttering things in Aleut. He thought that they were eventually going to throw him overboard in order to keep his share of the pay.
Another guy was killed at age 70 by a 300 lb. halibut. He wanted to die on the job and he did.
"a red gilled scorpion cobra viper sculpin"
aka bad ass.
Cool. The guy even managed to post his guantanamo mug shot.
OT - I know Ogged is always saying he hates NYC but there are some things even he would like: Rachael Wacholder's coming.
