
Sepia apama
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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Faith is a cop-out. It is intellectual bankruptcy. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits.
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Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: October 17, 2008 5:59 AM, by PZ Myers
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Comments
Posted by: SEF | October 17, 2008 6:34 AM
"I can has fishburger?!"
Posted by: JohnnieCanuck, FCD | October 17, 2008 6:37 AM
Cuteoverload captions may attract nuffers. You have been warned. Nom.
Posted by: Kel | October 17, 2008 6:42 AM
Cephalopods creep me out. Very cool creatures, but a complete affront to God!
Posted by: bsk | October 17, 2008 6:46 AM
Just admit it, PZ. You're a closet 4chan /b/tard, aren't you?
Posted by: Jams | October 17, 2008 7:14 AM
Lawsuit against God thrown out over lack of address
link
Posted by: Joshu | October 17, 2008 7:18 AM
http://cgi.4chan.org/gif/src/1224226860273.gif
This seems rather appropriate. If only there were a cephalopod version!
Posted by: Kobra | October 17, 2008 7:21 AM
@6: 4chan links die fast.
Posted by: Richard Harris | October 17, 2008 7:33 AM
Jams @ # 5, Lawsuit against God thrown out over lack of address
This stinks. The law is trying to protect the big shit. Everyone knows its address - it's The Pearly Gates, Heaven.
Anyway, as the bugger is claimed to be omniscient, it therefore knows about the writ being served, so it should respond to it. Or at least instruct one of its agents to act on its behalf. I hope this legal action hasn't run its course.
Posted by: Shadow | October 17, 2008 7:36 AM
o hai!
you has a flavour!
Posted by: SoMG | October 17, 2008 7:51 AM
I hope everyone saw McCain on Letterman. If you didn't let's just say he had to use the lessons he learned in the Navy about how to behave while being berated by his superiors.
Dave sounded sad as he asked "Suppose you get incapacitated as presidents do and we get another 911. The best person to lead us through it is Sarah Palin?"
Also "You understand that someone can make the same case about your relationship with G. Gordon Liddy that your campaign is making about Ayers?"
Dave deserves an award. He should be the moderator at the next Presidential Debate.
Posted by: SoMG | October 17, 2008 7:53 AM
Jodie Foster for Prez 2016!
Posted by: Sili | October 17, 2008 8:36 AM
I used to know this biologist who had a penchant for whales. Sad story.
In the end he grew quite mad at the prospect of the critters dying out before long. So he went to an intensive researchproject - part biochem, part dark arts, I think.
After a coupla years he hit upon a solution (literally) that would allow his beloved cetaceans to live forever.
Only one snag. He needed the blood of a very rare bird to make his brew - Acridotheres cristatellus. Now this poor fella is endangered too, but my friend didn't care (he was quite the mammalist even before he went mad).
So in the middle of the darkest night he went to a zoo where they kept one the few remaining cristatelli. He got into the birdhouse without much trouble and to his great relief he managed to pick up the bird without a squeak. He stuffed it in a bag and went to leave.
Unfortunately the zoo's old male lion had escaped its enclosure that self same night and when he tried leaving the birdhouse the old cat had laid down to sleep right in front of the door.
Now, time was running out and he really wanted to leave fast before the nightwatch caught him, so he threw all caution to the wind and as carefully as possible tried to step over the cat without waking it.
BAM! The light came on everywhere and my poor (former) friend found himself surrounded by police brandishing guns. "Halt!" they cried, "You're under arrest for attempt to carry a myna over a staid lion for immortal porpoises!"
Posted by: gruggach | October 17, 2008 8:53 AM
One fish, two fish.
Cuttlefish, blue fish!
Posted by: Doug Little | October 17, 2008 8:55 AM
Hey PZ,
Check this nutbag out. He is running for the supreme court of Minnesota, you need to get the word out so he has no chance.
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/10/meet_the_candidate_minnesota_s.php#more
Posted by: s1do | October 17, 2008 9:07 AM
Nice shot! how many time they'll take to decide conquering the world? :P
Posted by: Darth Wader | October 17, 2008 9:24 AM
Who says cuttlefish don't have soles?
Posted by: The Perky Skeptic | October 17, 2008 9:27 AM
*squee!* Cuttlefish are the cutest, cutest things on the planet!!!!
Posted by: Ceph | October 17, 2008 9:42 AM
Mmmm. Me hungry.
Posted by: jenny | October 17, 2008 9:46 AM
What's species is the dinner?
Posted by: Tim | October 17, 2008 9:47 AM
Sushi, every expletive day, sushi.
Posted by: Jams | October 17, 2008 9:49 AM
"Anyway, as the bugger is claimed to be omniscient, it therefore knows about the writ being served, so it should respond to it." - Richard Harris
Hearsay testimony of God's omniscience isn't evidentiary. It still needs to be demonstrated that God is physically capable of receiving and understanding the notice. Has God received any other unaddressed notices?
Posted by: Darth Wader | October 17, 2008 9:54 AM
Well my mom's friend's sister's cousin was heal miraculously after being prayed for. So it sounds like he is getting the messages, he just not responding to the vast majority.
Posted by: Another Primate | October 17, 2008 10:04 AM
Mmmmmm..... Tasty...
Posted by: AwesomeRobot | October 17, 2008 10:05 AM
That's why they call them cuddle-fish ^_^
Posted by: Paul Lundgren | October 17, 2008 10:31 AM
Sili, did anyone ever tell you that puns are only ever funny if they're not contrived?
Eats chutes and leaves.
Posted by: Tim | October 17, 2008 10:36 AM
You meant "Eats, shoots and leaves" didn't you?, A chute would be entirely too chewy.
Posted by: Glen Davidson | October 17, 2008 11:00 AM
That's a poor example to our children.
It's why evolution must be stopped.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: Cuttlefish, OM | October 17, 2008 11:16 AM
A small blue fish--it's all I wish;
A crunchy, chewy, tasty dish!
Each little bite is pure delight--
I'd nom nom nom all day and night!
Every day, the inky deep
Is where a cuttlefish may creep
That little fish? Today it's him--
Tomorrow, children as they swim!
Posted by: mandydax | October 17, 2008 11:33 AM
Oh my God! They ate Dora! You bastards!
Posted by: Qwerty | October 17, 2008 11:33 AM
I am sure that Bill Donohue of the Catholic League would approve of this picture. After all, it's Friday and the Cephalopod is eating fish.
Posted by: uncle noel | October 17, 2008 11:37 AM
You've got it all wrong: this is clearly a photo of a cuttlefish kissing its pet fish. They're very affectionate.
Posted by: Bob | October 17, 2008 11:40 AM
Thanks for these pics, P.Z...
The world is such a fucking amazing place...
(And my kid is now sleeping through the night! YAY!)
Posted by: Yossarian | October 17, 2008 11:53 AM
One of the best Friday cephalopods yet.
Posted by: Patricia | October 17, 2008 1:42 PM
That's down right naughty!
That feller is gazin' up the lady's skirt.
Thunderation! The goins' on that some biologists approve of.
Posted by: PeteC | October 17, 2008 1:45 PM
Does anyone else get just a tiny bit creeped out by scenes where the prey is a closer relative to you than the predator? I'm thinking of snakes eating mice, insect larvae eating fish, etc.
Posted by: Ichthyic | October 17, 2008 2:32 PM
What's species is the dinner?
can't tell for sure, but having worked on many of them, I'd say it's a damselfish.
probably a species of Chromis.
hard to tell scale. If that's a small cuttlefish, I'd say it's one of these guys:
http://www.nano-reef.com/fish/images/greenchromis1.jpg
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | October 17, 2008 3:03 PM
At first glance I thought it was labeled Sepia obama.
Then the fish could be Exsenator mccaini.
Posted by: jimellismusic | October 17, 2008 3:10 PM
Is the fish freshly caught by the cf or was it scavenged? Or if it is being fed, which of those two things would be true in the wild? (I have no explanation for my curiosity to know this. I think my brain is being run by little robots and for some reason they want to know and they are making me find out.)
I love this site.
Nothin' but luv
from
Jim and his little robots
Posted by: Ichthyic | October 17, 2008 3:20 PM
Is the fish freshly caught by the cf
judging by the color of the fish (still bright blue), I'd say it was a fresh capture.
cuttlefish are excellent hunters, btw.
Posted by: Kurt | October 17, 2008 3:29 PM
I guess the next step is for someone to waterproof a consecrated host and feed it to a Catholic Cephalopod...
Posted by: Ichthyic | October 17, 2008 3:35 PM
Catholic Cephalopod...
how could you tell?
do they have a chromataphore pattern that looks like a bishop's mitre?
OTOH, that might more likely mean they are a worshiper of Dagon, given the context.
Posted by: Michaela | October 17, 2008 4:14 PM
Cthulhufish!
Posted by: s1mplex | October 17, 2008 4:24 PM
PeteC:
How about those videos of a centipede eating a mouse!
Posted by: Darth Wader | October 17, 2008 4:38 PM
necrotizing fasciitis vs chimpanzee
I win
Posted by: jimellismusic | October 17, 2008 5:33 PM
My robots clank thank you.
jim
Posted by: tresmal | October 17, 2008 7:41 PM
Hurray! Cthulhu ate me first!
Posted by: Fernando Magyar | October 17, 2008 8:20 PM
Darth Wader @ 44,
Then you'll really love this one...
A Case of Mortal Necrotizing Fasciitis of the Trunk Resulting From a Centipede (Scolopendra moritans) Bite.
http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijem/vol2n2/centipede.xml
Posted by: Ragutis | October 17, 2008 10:02 PM
So, Cuttlefish, what's the going rate for your work? Is it scaled? A cardinalfish for a couplet? A hawkfish for a haiku? Basslet for a ballad? Snapper for a sonnet?
Posted by: Cuttlefish, OM | October 18, 2008 9:58 PM
I do love lobster...
You need some pentameter?
Make me an offer.
Posted by: Patricia | October 18, 2008 10:04 PM
Oh, that Cuttlefish! He's tricksy.