Media

Horkers: The War Walruses of Skyrim

Like many many other people, I’ve been playing Skyrim lately. I got my copy for Christmas, so I haven’t played through the game too far, but I am looking forward to (well, not really, until I level up some more) running into a Horker! As you can see above, the Horker is a sort of walrus-beast and exists in the world of Skyrim as a wild random encounter. The Skyrim Wiki explains..

Horkers are passive-aggressive creatures usually found near water, particularly the ocean and cold areas. They are often encountered in groups and are highly social…

As in real life – Horkers are valuable for their meat and tusks. More information about their in-game stats is available here: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Horker

Update: I ran into my first Horkers last night. They must have recognized me a a friend of the walrus, for they did not attack, and I left them alone.

Fus-Ro-Dah!

Walrus Pic of the Day: I’ll be up here, guys….

PHOTO: DANIEL BELTRA

Check out this photo! I found this on Twitter in a news article, and then Dan Ritzman (@lastcurlew) a campaign manager with the Sierra Club, sent me a larger version of the photo! Here’s what Dan has to say about the picture:

This happens fairly often when a few walrus gather on a melting ice chunk. The ice melts out underneath but the weight of the walrus keeps it submerged then when a bunch of the walrus swim off leaving one on the now lighter iceberg floats up suspending one walrus high in the air…

Thanks Dan!

Note: Longtime readers may remember another picture of this type posted here (http://www.worldwidewalrusweb.com/2011/04/21/walrus-pic-of-the-day-3/ ).

Nice piece of walrus clip art

If you’ve even done an image search for walrus art, you know there are MILLIONS of images out there. However, it can be tricky to find a piece of artwork that’s not a cartoon. That’s why this one caught my eye. It’s from Arthur’s Clip Art.

Here’s the link to the full size image (it’s a GIF and quite large).

Walrein, I choose you!

Many of you will recognize this image immediately. Yes, it’s Walrein, an ice and water-type Pokemon from the Pokemon Blue/Red series. For players, Walrein evolves from Seleo at level 44. If you’ve ever played Pokemon and used this guy – you’ll know that the Ice Ball attack is a powerful advantage in play.

I’m too old to have played Pokemon the first time around, but my now 11 year old son is a Pokemon master – he even made it to the finals in the regional video game tournament one year. Since he plays pretty much all available versions of Pokemon so much, I have played through Pokemon Blue and “Wally” the Walrein was part of my finishing team!

I enjoy the behavioral and habitat information that Walrein has in his bio:

Walrein live in large groups near the shore with their pre-evolved forms. These groups are always led by the largest male Walrein who acts as the beachmaster. Fighting for dominance among males can get pretty fierce, and many are the male Walrein who bear scars from challenging the beachmaster and losing.

Here’s more information about Walrein on the Bulbapedia, a community-driven Pokemon encyclopedia wiki.
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Walrein_(Pok%C3%A9mon)

 

 

 

 

 

Freehand Profit: Super Cool Street Art Walrus G.A.S. Mask

This killer image comes from the blog of “Freehand Profit” an LA-based street art creator.

Freehand Profit is a Los Angeles based artist who earned his name as a graffiti artist in DC and Northern Virginia. In 2005 he graduated Corcoran College of Art & Design with a BA in Fine Arts. Since then he’s rooted himself in LA’s Hip-Hop scene and has been working to forget what he learned in art school and make work without the pretentiousness that all too often accompanies “good” art.

Currently Freehand Profit is exploring the iconographic nature of masks through his MASK365 project…

This walrus mask is part of the MASK 365 project – G.A.S. stands for Guerrilla Art Squadron, and there’s a section on FP’s blog with the full series of mask images at this link: http://freehandprofit.wordpress.com/category/guerrilla-art-squadron/  (Check out the excellent Star Wars inspired G.A.S. Mask illustrations while you’re there).

You can find this walrus mask image at: http://freehandprofit.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/the-time-has-come-my-little-friends-to-talk-of-other-things/

Judging by my previous posts about this genre, the walrus is somewhat popular for street artists.
I love this image. Great cyber-punk illustration. I like this guy’s work.

Visit Freehand Profit’s blog, the Hip Hop Nerd.
Follow Freehand Profit on Twitter.

Walrus Pic of the Day: Smooshi wins Movember!

Movember is a charity event that involves growing mustaches for charity. Walrus trainer, Wipeout Canada champion and friend of the World Wide Walrus Web Phil Demers posted this picture of Smooshi on Twitter. Smooshi wins!

Follow Phil on Twitter: @walruswhisperer

More info about Smooshi and Phil is here.

Walrus Heads on The Arctic Club, Seattle Washington

My son and I spent the day Saturday in Seattle, hanging out with my younger brother and his wife. Of course, the true walrus lover probably already knows where to find the walrus heads in the above picture. Yes, these are the sculptural head ringing the third floor of the Arctic Club building, downtown on Third and Cherry streets. Wikipedia tells us this:

The Arctic Building is a nine story building in Seattle, Washington located at the Northeast corner of Third Avenue and Cherry Street. The building was built for the Arctic Club in 1916 and was occupied by them from construction until the club’s dissolution in 1971. It is entirely faced with cream white terra cotta with submarine blue and orange-brown accents. It is particularly noted for the terra cotta walrus-heads lining the third floor of the building.

Here’s the link to the full Wikipedia entry.

The Arctic Club building is on the national register of historic places, and if you want the full info about this interesting structure, check out the Arctic Club page at the National Park Service’s Site, here. The Arctic Club was founded by veterans of the Klondike gold rush and members were those with Klondike or Alaskan connections. The building itself though is much older, and was once a theater. According to the blog I’m linking to in the next paragraph, the tusks on the walrus sculptures may have once been actual ivory, although this may be an urban legend.

And to keep things honest, I didn’t take this picture today – I stole it from the excellent and very interesting “Stories in Stone” Blog by David B. Williams, here’s a link to the scene of my crime, and the full blog post is worth reading. http://stories-in-stone.blogspot.com/2010/10/lions-and-tigers-and-walruses-oh-my.html

I love these types of decorative accents you find in city architecture. Next time you spend a day in Seattle, go on a walrus hunt!

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