The original story of the little mermaid is that she must kill the prince in order to be human, and in the end, she loves him too much and kills herself instead.
The artwork is too great not to reblog.
Ok, ok - important expansion: she only has to kill the Prince because the deal was if he fell in love with her she could be human forever, and he didn’t. By which I mean, he was a good person and genuinely nice to her, but he didn’t fall in love. He fell in love with someone else, also perfectly nice - not the seawitch in disguise, fu Disney. The Mermaid is told she can only return to the sea now if she kills the Prince. She goes into the room where he and his lover lie sleeping and they look so beautiful and happy together that she can’t do it.
That’s why she kills herself. And because it was a noble act she returns to sea as foam.
One moral of the story was that women shouldn’t fundamentally change who they are for love of a man, and in theory Han Christian Anderson wrote it for a ballerina with whom he fell in love. She was marrying someone else who wouldn’t let her dance.
I want this painted on my wall.
(via cloudzbyty)
Sand Cat Debuts at Smithsonian’s National Zoo
A 7-year-old sand cat named Thor is the newest addition to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Small Mammal House exhibit. Thor will serve as an ambassador to his wild cousins and teach Zoo visitors and researchers about the behaviors of this secretive species. Native to Northern Africa, Southern Asia, and the Arabian Peninsula, sand cats are the only cats that live in true desert ecosystems. They are well-adapted to survive in the desert: their foot pads have fur; they get most of the water they need by consuming prey (small birds, rodents and some reptiles); and they are able to withstand very hot and cold temperatures by burrowing in the sand. Degradation of their desert habitats is the largest threat to sand cat populations. The IUCN lists this species as near threatened.
Photo Credit: Connor Mallon, Smithsonian’s National Zoo (via Flickr: Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Photostream)
the words.
Just finished watching ‘The Words’.
Something about it really moved me. It was sincere, sad, and eloquent at the same time. Thought provoking, and one of those stories that tell a tale that’s not necessary epic, but just a tiny snippet into a time and place during someone’s life (or in this case, multiple people’s lives), and ends with what happens in real life… life continuing on.
It’s reminiscent of ‘Atonement’, however that was something about that movie that really turned me off from it. But the idea of a mistake that tends to haunt someone (in particular, a writer) incessantly and how they try to find ways to intertwine Fiction and Realty, which according to The Words: “At some point, you have to choose between life and fiction. The two are very close, but they never actually touch.” (Dennis Quad in The Words).
For some of their films, Disney would film real actors so that the animators could watch them for reference.
(via cloudzbyty)
life does not get better than this.
A cat dressed like a shark on a roomba chasing a duck.
yes.
The internet NEEDED this today.
The important things in my life include my two rabbits, my boyfriend, reading, learning, pistachios, and potatos.
I want to learn something new everyday in any shape or form that life is willing to dispense it. And I don't want to have lived my life and had to think, "I could have done more."
