The Blog for Tooth Walking Sea-Horse Enthusiasts
OK, you know how people say you can find ANYTHING on the internet? I keep coming up with wacky web searches to find material for the blog and today we have the next installment – how to fold an origami walrus!
http://donyaquick.deviantart.com/art/Origami-Walrus-Instructions-128087160
Thanks to Donya Quick on DeviantArt.
I stumbled across this print on Twitter the other day – the artist is Scott D. Ferguson (@Sc0tticus). He draws a webcomic called “Nerf This“. I like his illustration style. I’m also beginning to think I’m the only one online that doesn’t currently draw a webcomic…
You can purchase the print at the nerf-this web store at this link. The perfect accessory for any drawing room, library, or old school wood-paneled smoking den festooned with hunting trophies.
So as I mentioned in the original post (Royce Cobblepot: Incredible Walrus “Furry†Costume) Royce himself commented on the blog at random prior to my posting about his costume. I asked if he’d be willing to do a short interview and talk about his costume and love of the walrus for our readers, and he agreed!
I wasn’t expecting more than an email response, and would have been very grateful for just that, but Royce greatly exceeded my expectations by creating an incredible interview video just for the site! Here it is:
Royce also provided some additional links in his original email response, including a link to his YouTube channel which is here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E7698DB86425895B
Thanks Royce! You’re officially a “friend of the blog!”
You have to check out this gallery of amazing underwater walrus photography by Goran Ehlme via the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/sci_nat_beasts_of_the_deep/html/1.stm
Here’s the link. This is amazing stuff. I’m going to do some research on Goran’s work, and I’ll post a followup.
I’ve started a Twitter account for the blog at: http://twitter.com/walrusweb
Mostly notifications of new posts and retweets of amusing or informative walrus-related Twitter updates. It’s Twitter, so of course Justin Bieber is already referenced in the stream. Come follow us, if you’re on Twitter.
The “Tweet Button” will eventually be added to posts here, but it’s not playing well with my WordPress theme, and I don’t have time to troubleshoot it right now, stay tuned.
“Tweet!” said the walrus.
As part of my ongoing quest to make you readers aware of walruses in popular culture, I give you Rotor the Walrus, a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon series. I became aware of Rotor by accident, I’m too old to have watched the Sonic cartoons and never played the games, but my young son has been very into Sonic for some time. One night when I had half an eye on the TV, I noticed Rotor! So here he is. Not as well known as other popular cartoon walruses (like Chumley, which is the most popular search term that brings viewers to this site). Rotor is the mechanical genius of Sonic’s team of “freedom fighters”. He is self-described as a nerd, and this quote appears on his fanclub site (linked below). “If I spend my time working on this, I don’t have to face other people”, which I suppose is a very walrusy sentiment.
Here’s a link to an info page about Rotor:
http://info.sonicretro.org/Rotor_Walrus
Here’s his wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_the_Walrus#Rotor
Rotor even has a fanclub site:
http://sonicsatam.com/thewalrusfanclub/
So I’m rooting around on Twitter and I discover a link to a place called the Walrus Restaurant! Clicking through, ’cause how could I not, I found a nicely done website for what looks to be a great place to eat and drink! They’re in Bismarck, North Dakota. Yeah, OK that rules out a lunchtime visit (I’m in Oregon). Actually, I’v never been to North Dakota but if I end up passing through you can bet that I’m going to grab a meal and a beer or two at the Walrus!
Menu, hours, etc are on their site which I like very much:
http://www.thewalrusrestaurant.com
I gotta get a t-shirt from this place. I love their logo. Judging form their Facebook page, this is a well-loved establishment with lots of great food and drink offerings. Makes me want to plan a road trip!
They are on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bismarck-ND/The-Walrus-Restaurant/168002072851
And Twitter:
http://twitter.com/TheWalrusBiz
I had seen the image that accompanies this blog post before, but a little searching turned up the story that goes along with it…
…suddenly right in front of our boat the water exploded up and an enormous whiskered face launched up out of the water. He was so close that he put a front flipper up against the kayak and I could smell his breath. Walrus are HUGE, and those tusks are not small either! He dipped back under the water and I thought he was going to come up from under us and try tip us over.
This is an old blog post, from 2005, but the picture gives a great idea of how large a walrus is compared to a low-riding sea kayak. This encounter must have been frightening indeed.
Here’s the link to the original post, at Travelblog.org:
Never Mind The Polar Bears, Beware of the Walrus!
Here’s a link to an amusingly-written, info and link-packed page by Grig “Punkie” Larson. Called, coincidentally, the World Wide Walrus! Mr Larson is a writer by trade, and the author of the (now out of print) Saga of the Punk Walrus (info page here). Anyway, I like this page. Mostly because it’s a fun read, and clearly a predecessor of this site, but not least because I’m old enough to miss the “old” World Wide Web and coming across still-existing old-school pages like this makes me smile.
Here is a link to a form letter to Congress, via Greenpeace, on behalf of the Pacific Walrus. You can customize the text of the letter, but the supplied text of the letter reads:
The Pacific walrus meets the criteria for listing under the Endangered Species Act and must be listed immediately if it’s to have a chance at survival and recovery.
An unprecedented number of walruses have hauled out on the North Slope of Alaska this summer because their sea ice habitat has retreated hundreds of miles away. Walruses that are forced to haul out on land have a harder time finding food and are more vulnerable to disturbances that could lead to stampeding and trampling mortalities.
The recently-released U.S. Geological Survey study shows a 40% chance that walrus will be on a pathway to extinction by the end of this century. As scary as those odds are, they are likely far too optimistic because the study relied on  modeling that underestimates greenhouse gas emissions, global warming and rates of Arctic sea-ice loss.
The report also dismissed as negligible the impacts from reduced food supply for the walrus. Sea-ice loss in the Bering Sea is already leading to declines in the walrus’s bottom-dwelling prey; ocean acidification is making Arctic waters increasingly corrosive and potentially lethal to the clams and mussels it eats. Still, the USGS determined that these threats have negligible influences on the walrus’s future. The study would have found a significantly worse outlook for  walruses if it had used more realistic assessments of these threats.The Pacific walrus needs the full protections of the Endangered Species Act to survive into the coming century. Please list the Pacific walrus under the Endangered Species Act, designate critical habitat, and design and implement a recovery plan as soon as possible.
Here is the link to the form/letter:
https://secure3.convio.net/gpeace/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=723
At the risk of being added to Greenpeace’s mailing lists – I will be filling out this form.