montereybayaquarium:

The Kraken

Lord Tennyson

Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous and secret cell
Unnumber’d and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the lumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

Happy Kraken Day everyone! We’re celebrating the fourth day of Cephalopod Awareness Days with some cirriously awesome footage of this miniature deep sea kraken from our colleagues at MBARI. While this cirrate octopus might not battle huge sea-worms in its sleep, it is pretty adept at sifting out small crustaceans and worms hidden in the soft sediment of the deep for snack time.

brutalmoose:

Feel the wind burn through my skin
The pain, the air is killing me
For years my limbs stretched to the sky
A nest for birds to sit and sing
But now my branches suffer
And my leaves don’t bear the glow
They did so long ago

One day I was full of life
My sap was rich and I was strong
From seed to tree I grew so tall
Through wind and rain I could not fall
But now my branches suffer
And my leaves don’t offer
Poetry to men of song

Trees like me weren’t meant to live
If all this world can give
Pollution and slow death
Oh Lord I lay me down
No life’s left to be found
There’s nothing left for me

Please, let him be soft. 

I know you made him 
     with gunmetal bones
     and wolf’s teeth.
I know you made him to be
     a warrior
     a soldier
     a hero.

But even gunmetal can warp
and even wolf’s teeth can dull
and I do not want to see him break
the way old and worn and overused things do.

I do not want to see him go up in flames
     the way all heroes end up martyrs.

I know that you will tell me 
that the world needs him.
The world needs his heart
     and his faith
     and his courage
     and his strength
     and his bones and his teeth and his blood and his voice and his–
The world needs anything he will give them.

Damn the world,
     and damn you too.
Damn anyone that ever asked anything of him,
     damn anyone that ever took anything from him,
           damn anyone that ever prayed to his name.
You know that he will give them everything
     until there is nothing left of him
         but the imprint of dust
              where his feet once trod.
You know that he will bear the world like Atlas
    until his shoulders collapse
         and his knees buckle
              and he is crushed by all he used to carry. 

Dear God, 
you have already made an Atlas.
You have already made an Achilles and an Icarus and a Hercules. 
You have already made a sacrificial lamb of your Son.
You have already made so many heroes,
and you can make another again. 
You can have your pick of heroes. 

So please, I beg you–
he is all that I have, 
and you have so many heroes
and the world has so many more. 
Let him be soft, 
and let him be mine.

Please, let him be happy ( j.p. )

(via oceank1ng)

Source: pencap

thiscrypticworld:

There’s a Man in the Woods

When I was in elementary school, the older kids started a rumor that quickly made recess a terrifying experience. I’ve been wanting to make this film just so I had a place to put some of the details of that rumor.

I animated this in flash, and did my backgrounds in photoshop. After Effects for compositing, and Protools for sound. 

(by Jacob Streilein)

(via nirdian)