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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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Religious ideas have sprung from the same need as all the other achievements of culture: from the necessity for defending itself against the crushing supremacy of nature.

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More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!

OMG <drool>

Category: Cephalopods • Weirdness
Posted on: December 4, 2009 9:58 PM, by PZ Myers

Be still my heart…Isabelli Rossellini dressed up as a squid demonstrating their mating ritual.

This is much more convincing than the God Equation.

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Comments

Posted by: eddie | December 4, 2009 10:14 PM

yeeeaaaaawwww!!!!!

Posted by: or-mabinogi | December 4, 2009 10:16 PM

Sanctuary on Syfy (not the best show on TV, not even the best channel on TV) right now has an abnormal cephalopod. Not sure yet why they claim it's abnormal, but it is amusing.

Posted by: H.H. | December 4, 2009 10:17 PM

The message of the video seems to be "don't eat squid because they are threatened due to overfishing." But is that true? I thought squid numbers were actually feared to go through the roof due to global warming. So what's the real story?

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | December 4, 2009 10:19 PM

Do the anti-porn folks on the other thread have a problem with this?

Posted by: Rorschach | December 4, 2009 10:23 PM

Thank you PZ, Isabella Rossellini saying "if I was a squid I would squirt blue ink out of my anus" made my day.

Posted by: Carlie | December 4, 2009 10:23 PM

The entire Green Porno series is teh awesome. Glad to see she's still making new ones.

Posted by: Seraphiel | December 4, 2009 10:29 PM

She is all kinds of fantastic.

Posted by: SC, OM | December 4, 2009 10:31 PM

squiva

Posted by: atomjack | December 4, 2009 10:33 PM

Gotta laugh- my middle son was in an oriental market the other day and he saw a squid tentacle about 3 feet long for sale (cheap!) and considered buying it, but didn't. I told him next time, bring one home and I'll specially sharpen a knife for slicing it and making breaded calamari. WE own cthulhu, not the other way around. Man, I love being a primate at the top of the food chain...until I die, and when the bacteria finish their job- as best they can, when I'm pickled and being used for medical training. During which I will NOT be conscious, thank you very much.

#10

Posted by: MadScientist | December 4, 2009 11:13 PM

"Isabella" I presume - "Isabelli" would be the plural - but hey, if someone cloned her I'll take a copy. Better still, has anyone cloned her mom?

#11

Posted by: MadScientist | December 4, 2009 11:24 PM

@HH: Pretty much all sea animals of direct benefit to humans (i.e. food) are threatened by overfishing. Squid eat fish (and other squid), so as we decimate fish populations the squid will decline - which exacerbates the problem for the squid since we eat 'em as well as starve them. Numerous other animals which people wouldn't consider as beneficial (dolphins, sharks) are also threatened. Ironically, organisms we'd rather not have around (such as species of phytoplankton which produce nasty toxins) are encouraged by nutrients which humans allow to leach into the oceans, for example, sewage pumped out of ships' bilges - well it's nutrient for the plankton even though I wouldn't put it on my menu. "Aquaculture" appears to do the least environmental damage (but it does do damage); however, I doubt that there are sufficient resources for aquaculture to significantly reduce the stress on natural marine systems.

#12

Posted by: Cuttlefish, OM | December 4, 2009 11:25 PM

Isabella Rossellini may have lost her appetite for squid...
But Cuttlefish has not lost his appetite for Isabella Rossellini.

The warm embrace of ~~twenty~~ eighteen arms
And Isabella's human charms
Are pure delight for Cuttlefish,
Although, of course, I'd make a wish
That she'd remove her squid disguise
Just her, beneath the sunny skies
No costume, just herself and me
As happy as two fish could be!

#13

Posted by: The Science Pundit | December 4, 2009 11:26 PM

Funny, I didn't lose my appetite for calamari.

#14

Posted by: Marcus Ranum | December 4, 2009 11:26 PM

My girl both knows her evo/devo better, and is better looking. I'm just sayin'... Rosellini's marketing department is doing well with these but if you listen to her NPR spots she's horribly ignorant and it shows (it's not a language barrier)

I sentence all of you to watch something by David Attenborough (say, the "private life of plants" for wasting your time on Rosellini's stuff.

#15

Posted by: Marcus Ranum | December 4, 2009 11:36 PM

PS - those tits can be found between Sg and Sm on the periodic table. They're yummy case mods, tho.

#16

Posted by: SteveL | December 4, 2009 11:43 PM

according to wikipedia squid fishing is sustainable because they're caught after they mate just before they'd die anyway

#17

Posted by: Kevin (NYC) | December 5, 2009 12:12 AM

heh heh... PZ you must have made a mess...

20.. er no 18!

we won't have to worry about marine life when the oceans go acidic...

#18

Posted by: REX | December 5, 2009 12:41 AM

Hey! Wait a minute! Didn't you say that you didn't watch pron? OMG! WTF? Now the fundies will say " of course he is a godless porn watcher!"

Methinks you have damaged your credibility irreparably!

#19

Posted by: eyesoars | December 5, 2009 1:09 AM

Squid pie story.

http://skippyslist.com/2007/07/09/cephalopod-surprise/

#20

Posted by: Josh, Official SpokesGay | December 5, 2009 1:26 AM

Oh, Cuttlefish, I just love you.

Isabella Rossellini has such an amazing voice and delivery. I can't get enough of her pronunciation.

#21

Posted by: SC, OM | December 5, 2009 1:33 AM

Cuttlefish
Isabella
Beautiful

#22

Posted by: Chris | December 5, 2009 1:39 AM

Cuttlefish FTW

#23

Posted by: Colin Meier | December 5, 2009 1:59 AM

OT, but here's Ben Goldacre's take on facilitated communication.

#24

Posted by: Christopher Petroni | December 5, 2009 2:09 AM

I thought squid numbers were actually feared to go through the roof due to global warming. So what's the real story?

You're thinking of jellyfish. Cnidarians, not crustaceans.

#25

Posted by: Christopher Petroni | December 5, 2009 2:11 AM

At #25:

Holy crap, I meant "mollusks" not "crustaceans." Wrong phylum and different taxonomic levels. I'm going to lose my teaching credentials now, aren't I?

#26

Posted by: MadScientist | December 5, 2009 2:35 AM

@Colin Meier #23: Thanks for the link. I've called Laureys a charlatan on a number of occasions and said he should be investigated by his institution for unethical conduct and possibly even for scientific fraud. I like Goldacre's response of writing that he expects Laureys to publish soon and that he'll be waiting. As I've written elsewhere, I expect that Laurey's career in academia is at an end - any bets that he strikes off on his own like Andrew Wakefield? Now if only a real reporter will hound him as Brian Deer dogged Wakefield.

#27

Posted by: llewelly | December 5, 2009 2:37 AM

Calamari can be too fresh:
http://www.zestforbirds.co.za/skuasquid.html

#28

Posted by: luna1580 | December 5, 2009 2:56 AM

OT-

is there no

#29

Posted by: luna1580 | December 5, 2009 3:05 AM

oops-

is there no human inadequacy someone won't "leave up to GOD"?

like letting your kids starve to death?

sick.....

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1259894705182640.xml&coll=1

#30

Posted by: maureen brian | December 5, 2009 3:53 AM

PZ, what are you doing quoting John Henry Newman? And while the Catholics are try to turn him into a saint!

#31

Posted by: The Tim Channel | December 5, 2009 5:20 AM

Another case of religious idiocy:

http://thetimchannel.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/god-lets-children-starve/

Enjoy.

#32

Posted by: fcaccin | December 5, 2009 7:07 AM

MadScientist @10:
The plural would be "Isabelle". It's a feminine name.

#33

Posted by: Wes | December 5, 2009 8:24 AM

Wow. The elephant seal video has a really sad ending... :(

#34

Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | December 5, 2009 9:11 AM

...tsss...

Guys, you have a strange taste.

~:-|

#35

Posted by: Sheboyganite 137 | December 5, 2009 10:07 AM

OK, you should have warned us that in the middle of that, there is a terrifying act of violence against squids. Look away, children!

#36

Posted by: hznfrst | December 5, 2009 10:11 AM

This is just creepy - PZ's love for cephalopods has clouded his judgment, methinks.

#37

Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline. | December 5, 2009 10:12 AM

Well, excuuuuuuse me, David, but we don't all of us have the luxury of wallowing in orgies of pharyngulettes.

#38

Posted by: kiki | December 5, 2009 1:03 PM

#16

Quoting Wikipedia? Seriously?

#39

Posted by: Carlie | December 5, 2009 1:42 PM

Jeez, Marcus, it's just a fun way to get people interested in biology. Just sit back and enjoy it. At least she's trying to use her success and popularity for a good cause.

#40

Posted by: BABH | December 5, 2009 2:09 PM

Wow, PZ - from zero to snuff porn in ten posts!

#41

Posted by: Dr. Stabby, Boy Psychiatrist | December 5, 2009 2:43 PM

Carlie, I concur with your cry of overreaction. I think Mr. Ranum doth protest too much, since his own website is a splendidly self-promoting (if somewhat sober and impenetrable) paean to his own highly educated, cybercentric worldview.

I believe the evidence is overwhelming that though he's an expert in his field of cyber security, he finds it threatening that Ms. Rosselini's homespun sets and simplistic (if somewhat blue) tales of watery reproduction, may actually educate people. This may have triggered deep seated issues with her ability to communicate with the vast unwashed masses as they sit on their Barcaloungers™, shoveling pudgy handfulls of popcorn shrimp and Lipitor™ down their gullets.

Perhaps he fears that one or two might just change their eating habits, but for the wrong, ill-informed reasons. He may imagine these rubes, gazing down into greasy paperboard tubs at the remaining cold fragments of once crispy crustaceans, and reflecting on their own relationship to the fragile web of life on earth and its tenuous place in the cosmos.

That, or he's just jealous that she's comparatively uneducated, still insanely hot at 50, super-famous and can do vanity/charity projects like this without straining her bank account in the least.

Uh oh, my mom's home . . .

That will be one hundred dollars,
Dr. Stabby, Boy Psychiatrist

#42

Posted by: Carlie | December 5, 2009 6:08 PM

The check is in the mail, Dr. Stabby. :D

Personally, I'd be entranced watching her read a phone book.
Adding the biology in just makes it more fabulous.

#43

Posted by: parent | December 5, 2009 6:30 PM

MadScientist
Deer a real reporter? LOL shame on you.
http://www.viddler.com/explore/ziggy/videos/1/

#44

Posted by: Dan Warren | December 5, 2009 6:39 PM

All of the Green Porno shows are absolutely fantastic.