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Category: Cephalopods
Posted on: July 29, 2010 11:27 AM, by PZ Myers
Earlier this summer, I mentioned the Oregon Octocam, which featured an octopus named Deriq.
Deriq has died. It's a sad fact that most cephalopods are very short lived.
"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly, Deriq."
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Comments
Posted by: Tulse
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July 29, 2010 11:40 AM
Clearly someone needs to start a breeding program to improve octopus lifespan.
And intelligence.
And then mate them with sharks.
Posted by: daveau
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July 29, 2010 11:45 AM
Now Deriq is burning brightly on the stove in a saute pan, with butter and garlic.
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
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July 29, 2010 11:48 AM
*lowers the Jolly Roger at the Pharyngula Saloon to half mast*
Posted by: Greg Laden
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July 29, 2010 11:49 AM
He or she was a good octopus.
Posted by: KennyG
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July 29, 2010 12:01 PM
This made me hungry for sushi.
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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July 29, 2010 12:04 PM
So many limbs, so few years in which to use them...
Glen Davidson
Posted by: Vicki, Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief
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July 29, 2010 12:15 PM
That is sad. He was a fine octopus, and I enjoyed watching him.
I expect they will have another octopus soon: the normal way they do it there is that fishermen give them octopodes, they keep one for a while, then let him go and accept another.
Posted by: dr-rieux
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July 29, 2010 12:16 PM
Holy crap--Deriq was a replicant?Well, then, he may have done... questionable things, but nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let him into heaven for.
Posted by: Ray Moscow
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July 29, 2010 12:17 PM
Deriq didn't squeeze his creator's head off, did he? Because that would be sad indeed.
Posted by: Sabre
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July 29, 2010 12:32 PM
Blade Runner
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler
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July 29, 2010 12:32 PM
... you have burned so very, very brightly, Deriq.
Wow, a bioluminescent octopus? Coolness incarnate!
Posted by: Rich Wilson
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July 29, 2010 12:59 PM
That's clearly not true. I first met 'Armstrong' at Pacific Undersea Gardens in Victoria BC in 1972. He was still alive and well the last time I was there in 2001, and according to their website, he's STILL there giving daily shows!I also know a Sheltie who has been living on a farm for 30 years...
Posted by: GravityIsJustATheory
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July 29, 2010 1:31 PM
In otehr octopus-related news:
President Ahmadinejad condemns Paul the Psychic Octopus:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/7912418/Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-attacks-Octopus-Paul.html
Posted by: A. Nuran
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July 29, 2010 1:45 PM
#13, I think this is the ultimate comment on Paul.
Posted by: mikerattlesnake
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July 29, 2010 2:13 PM
@13
It's always funny to me how the extremely religious always take ridiculous things more seriously than anyone else.
When I was teaching middle school, I was lamenting to one of the teachers that so few parents had standards as far as the media their kids could consume and that most of them played really age-inappropriate video games. She nodded vigorously in agreement and then said the dumbest thing I have ever heard:
"yeah, it's terrible that they are allowed to play world of warcraft and learn witchcraft and the occult."
I stared blankly for about five seconds of awkward silence and then said:
"I meant... like... grand theft auto. Witchcraft isn't... real. That doesn't happen in the real world."
I just could not fathom her thought process, nor could I come off as anything other than condescending. Oh well, when you're in your thirties and you still think like a child (and not a particularly bright one at that) I suppose you come up against condescension pretty often.
Posted by: Caine, ghetto féministe
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July 29, 2010 2:26 PM
Aaw, goodbye, Deriq. Seeing him on the octocam was exciting and joyful.
Posted by: johnlil#0a224
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July 29, 2010 2:29 PM
It's a shame that, let's see, four of us couldn't have been there to hold his hands in his final hours.
But if catholics can ear Jebus, I see no reason we cannot celebrate his life with a calamari feast. I recently had a revelation that single-malt scotch is his blood, in case I'm invited.
Posted by: johnlil#0a224
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July 29, 2010 2:31 PM
"Eat," not "ear." Stupid oversized fingers.
Posted by: Draken
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July 29, 2010 2:48 PM
I'm sure he'll feel at home with our Noodly Master.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
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July 29, 2010 3:46 PM
Shall we beat the drum slowly, shall we play the fife lowly?
Shall the rifles fire o'er him as we lower Deriq down?
Shall the bugles play "The Last Post" in chorus?
Shall the pipes play "The Flowers Of The Forest"?
(With apologies to Eric Bogle)
Posted by: Arancaytar
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July 29, 2010 5:22 PM
Like @jennifurret said: Nobody who claims that boobs cause natural disasters has room to talk about anyone else's superstitions. =D
Posted by: Franklin Percival
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July 29, 2010 5:36 PM
Not a drum, not a sound, not a funeral note, as his corpse on the ramparts we curried. (with apologies to Tennyson(?) and various parodists.
Takes me back to having a light-bulb moment the other day when I read PZM's explanation for the biologically simple-minded such as self, about ourselves not being ourselves, but the result of various relationships between all sorts of selves.
So glad that "dog eats dog", or "god taes dog", has deeper meanings than I had hitherto supposed.
Posted by: the night watchman
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July 29, 2010 6:28 PM
Allegedly, these were Deriq's last words:
"I've seen things you chordates wouldn't believe. Lampreys in frenzy on the dorsal of a whale shark. I watch sun-beams glitter in the dark near the Mariana Trench. All these moments will be lost in time, like ink in a jet of water expelled from a contractile mantle, aimed via a muscular siphon... Time to die."
And then he released an angelfish he'd been holding, whence it swam up toward the sky, symbolizing Deriq's soul's ascension to Octoheaven.
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
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July 29, 2010 6:36 PM
*watches as the lilac berets of the Pullet Patrol™ give Deriq an eight cyberpistol salute*
Posted by: NiVeKeR14
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July 29, 2010 6:39 PM
This. This. A thousand times this. Congrats, you made me literally laugh out loud.
Posted by: lucky_luc
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July 29, 2010 6:58 PM
I had the octocam set up at my work computer for all-day Deriq-watching. I was wondering what happened to the feed :(
Posted by: Simiankolya
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July 29, 2010 7:06 PM
What a fortuitous coincidence - I was in Newport just the day before (July 24th) and saw Deriq at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. How sad.
Posted by: otrame
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July 29, 2010 7:07 PM
This for a life that brought pleasure to so many.
Posted by: kokoluvsallball
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July 29, 2010 9:56 PM
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die.
Posted by: pjzen
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July 30, 2010 2:15 AM
That is sad. After trying for weeks to see him on Octocam I finally got my first glimpse on July 22.
Posted by: and7barton
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July 30, 2010 7:52 AM
We all got the sentimenticles
About the owner of those tentacle
And his feats of prestigitals
And the ultimate in flexibilitals.
Such a shame the animal hospitals
Couldn't cure his incipient mortalicals
Though they worked with skilled methodicals,
And used the latest technicals.
Posted by: and7barton
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July 30, 2010 7:59 AM
Let's try again shall we ? -
This time typing more carefully-
We all got the sentimenticles
About the owner of those tentacles
And his feats of prestigitals
And the ultimate in flexibilitals.
Such a shame the animal hospitals
Couldn't cure his incipient mortalicals
Though they worked with skilled methodicals,
And used the latest technicals.
Sodding computer keyboard.
Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
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July 30, 2010 6:16 PM
It's somewhat annoying that when trying to google the references in this thread, Pharyngula comes out as the first or second hit in most cases.
A moment, please.
We need to hire a get-up like this for the service.
Also, why does this make me cry?