This one goes out to all the carnivores, biologists, and butchers who read NOTCOT… i went by the opening at GR2 saturday night, and when i popped by the original Giant Robot store, i couldn’t help it but i totally had to buy two of these silly Gotochi Dissection Animals… See? I buy things sometimes not because i need or want them, but because i just really want to take a bunch of pictures to share with you. So after the jump you can see my full coffee table photoshoot of a tiny bull and tuna showing what i imagine to be the different edible anatomical portions of both - check out images of the packaging, and fun closeups of both… as well as all the other models GR has in store.

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After finding this brilliantly packaged National Geographic Kids: Fossil Regeneration Unit on Cherryflava ~ it launched into what became quite a crazy thread of research and random toy discoveries… but before i head there…

I’m glad the Cherryflava folks were ignorant enough to call these Sea Monkeys, because it launched a bit of debate between some of us, and we were quite sure that the Triops they were growing were far larger and of a very different species (more like mini horseshoe crabs?). They do however sell kits that are quite similar to the Sea Monkey process, but none nearly as cool looking as this direct mailer kit the agency FoxP2 (check out their site, it is awesome the way they approach branding) created for National Geographic Kids.

From here we dug up videos of Sea Monkeys and Triops… and every Triop kit out there… and then every crazy insta-pet kit from our childhoods as well as what else is new out there! (i.e. venus fly traps and praying mantis to frogs to butterflies to ant farms to gel antfarms and gel plant kits) See more images below to follow along…

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I stopped everything when i saw Swiss Miss’ post on Andrew Zuckerman’s latest book Creature. And then i clicked through to his site to see more page previews, only to find an incredibly gorgeous site… a peek inside the upcoming book… AND two amazing videos! The kind of amazing videos that you can watch 10 times over, and still need to see them again (screenshots below). Basically the photography of these animals on that clean white space is just breathtaking, and seeing video of him shooting it as well as the book being printed is just the ultimate tease. The book can be pre-ordered at Amazon, and is printed by Chronicle Books. *Swoon*

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Not sure about you, but with my sea loving dad and our frequent diving and fishing adventures…. David Doubilet was a household name… that apparently i’d forgotten lately until finding a link to his new site! For anyone out there who loves the ocean, or needs another reason to fall for/into it… look at these images. Best underwater photography EVER.

These are life becoming art… in Pikesville, Maryland… see NYTimes. The images are just priceless, truly capturing what i always wondered home on the range meets suburbia would function like. I will now count the buffalo jumping tennis nets when i can’t fall asleep at night.

UPDATE: thanks to jus, new pics on the NYTimes… and additional information that’s heart breaking…

But they gave their owner one headache too many. Gerald Berg, who raised the bison on his cattle farm in Stevenson, started his day by jumping on an all-terrain vehicle and chasing the escaped animals. Mr. Berg has been raising bison for about eight years, he said, but no more.By midday, as the last of the bison were being herded into the trailer, Mr. Berg had decided their fate.“It’s out of hand,” he said. “They’re going to the slaughterhouse, and they’re going to be buffalo burgers.”

Can you believe it? I wish we had the means to have people adopt them or something… or move them to some wide ranging space… poor things, NO WONDER THEY RAN AWAY!