Everybody Loves Cephalopods, a.k.a. Preaching To The Choir
January 31, 2011
If you are reading this blog, you already know that cephalopods are awesome…and why they are awesome. (And that is why YOU are awesome!) However, it is always nice when someone, such as BoingBoing contributor Maggie Koerth-Baker, expertly summarizes the amazing features of our squishy friends. This pithy video is the short version of “Those Fabulous Octopus Brains,” a 30 min presentation she gave last August for a University of New Mexico IGERT symposium.
If you want to see the original full-length presentation, you can find it here.
Via Laughing Squid and BoingBoing.
I know I’ve let this blog languish a bit recently, and I thank you for sticking with me. Over the past few months I have collected literally hundreds of links to cool examples of cephalopod art, photography, and miscellaneous awesomeness. Over the next week or so, I plan to flood your RSS reader with a veritable swarm of new posts (although I guess “shoal” might be a more biologically apt term). I also haven’t forgotten about the Architeuthis Across America project…I just need to get my house in order first.
Wednesday Comics: Aquaman vs. BP
June 16, 2010
(via BoingBoing, via The Aquaman Shrine)
There’s nary a cephalopod to be seen on this remixed cover of Aquaman #45 (June, 1969), but when I saw this online yesterday, I figured it was high time to break my silence on the Gulf Oil Spill. Not that I have much to add to the public discourse on the worst environmental disaster in American history..the magnitude of this catastrophe (58 days and counting) is almost too much for words. Of course there are some…words like, mind-boggling, brain-numbing, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking…
What can one unemployed nerd thousands of miles away do but watch in horror day after day as the environment and wildlife of the Gulf Coast (not to mention the livelihoods of everyone who depends on that environment for their very subsistence) slowly get consumed by a relentless, creeping tide of oil. All the while, the leaking riser 5,000 feet down continues to spew out clouds of black death with no end in sight. As Andrew at Southern Fried Science said, “American marine conservation will be divided into ‘before the spill’ and ‘after the spill’ for the next century.”
For the insight and analysis of real marine scientists, you should to go to Deep-Sea News. Dr. M and crew deliver the most comprehensive and thoughtful coverage of the spill you’re likely to find anywhere online. Southern Fried Science also has a page dedicated (and continuously updated) to reliable sources of information pertaining to the crisis.
Would you like to learn how to speak to an octopus?
June 3, 2010
(via BoingBoing)
If you are going to join a parody religion, it might as well be one that reveres cephalopods!
Cthulhu Week: BoingBoing LOVES Cthulhu
August 20, 2009
Cthulhu clearly holds a special place in the hearts of the editors at BoingBoing.net…Cory Doctorow in particular. Here is a selection of Cory’s recent(ish) posts featuring everyone’s favorite Great Old One:
Cthapitol T-shirt by Fo’ Paw Productions.
Hand-knit Cthulhu ski mask
Leather Cthulhu mask by Ukranian artist Bob Basset.
Cthulhu cake!
tentacle installations by FilthyLuker
August 1, 2009
tragic bus
octo street
b-movie in the sun
octopied building
mutate britain
bad day at the office
octo
Business Squid!
June 25, 2009
Mr. Caissy from Accounting, originally uploaded by Bekathwia.
Sighted on BoingBoing.
If you happen to be one of the three people on the planet not familiar with boingboing.net, it is your one-stop-shop for all that is wonderful on the web–things both relevant and irrelevant. Squids obviously fall into that category. I’ve previously posted a news story from BoingBoing here, and below is a mere smattering of other squid-related posts.
Giant squid cake
Giant squid sex: violent, tangled, and deeply weird
Edible squid postcards
Giant Squid found off California coast
June 27, 2008
From the Santa Cruz Sentinel via BoingBoing
Remains of a rare giant squid turned up off the coast of Santa Cruz, California yesterday. According to researchers from the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation, this specimen was probably 25 feet long and weighed hundreds of pounds when alive. Only one giant squid has ever been caught on video alive.
From the Santa Cruz Sentinel:
A flock of gulls feeding on the carcass alerted the crew to the remains. Their first thought, said crew members, was that the animal was a seal but after motoring closer to it they recognized the chewed-up squid…
(Giant squid expert and Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History curator Eric) Hochberg said there’s likely several squid along the California coast, but because the animal swims at depths of thousands of feet, it’s almost never seen and difficult to study…
“The animal is just so big and so rare … it’s very easy for people to get a little nervous about what it is, and the stories go from there,” Hochberg said.
