cephalopods
pharyngula | November 20, 2006Oh! Respectful Insolence uncovers more woo-woo nonsense, a scheme called Global Orgasm that urges everyone to get it on on one particular day.
The intent is that the participants concentrate any thoughts during and after orgasm on peace. The combination of high-energy orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention may have a much greater effect than previous mass meditations and prayers.
The goal is to add so much concentrated and high-energy positive input into the energy field of the Earth that it will reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world.…
pharyngula | November 20, 2006This is just too obvious. Coturnix thinks he can get a link from me just by baiting a post with a nice picture of a cephalopod? Does he think I'm easy or something?
pharyngula | November 20, 2006Thinking about getting a pet? You should read Animal Reviews first, to see if it will fulfill your needs. For example, the review of the octopus suggests that I need one, right now.
Next, Octopi are what are known as Cephalopods, a science word meaning that they are constructed entirely out of squish, with no bones whatsoever. Sensational! Yet, unlike their clearly unmotivated cousins the clam and the spinach, they have managed to get themselves hold of tentacles. And not just two or three 'bitty' tentacles either, but eight great big ones sticking out of their drippy bodies, whipping out to…
pharyngula | November 18, 2006This has got to be a devious plot. My wife has been known to tell me to dress more formally (it's a polite way of pointing out that I'm a slob), and in particular, that I should wear…a tie… more often. Now a reader sends me a link to ties with cephalopods and brains on them, and it's the month before Cephalopodmas. This is horrible. I don't want to even be tempted by a tie.
pharyngula | November 17, 2006Look at this card a reader wrote me about. It's a sweet, cute, innocent card, perfect for Cephalopodmas.
On the other hand—O Great Old Ones, this is so horrid I shudder to mention it—another reader sent me an ad. An ad so ghastly, I won't put it on the front page here…you'll have to click through to see it. If you're squeamish or delicate of constitution, do not read the rest of this post. The War on Cephalopodmas is on.
Yikes! See the look of shock and pain in the poor octopus's eyes, as the drunk Scot loaded down with all the wet wool skewers him? Dewar's is definitely not the drink we'll…
pharyngula | November 17, 2006People send me pretty pictures all the time…they're almost always of molluscs, of course. I've put the latest below the fold.
Some pottery from a Sicilian shop window:
Some lovely art:
A doodle:
pharyngula | November 17, 2006A member of the family Cranchiidae
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | November 15, 2006
Japanese researchers prepare the first enlistee in the robot cephalopod legion. If we could only bring together robot cuttlefish and zombie cyborg squid, we could rule the world! Prepare to be subjugated, flimsy, limb-deficient hu-mans.
pharyngula | November 13, 2006Mark your calendars—Cephalopodmas is on the 22nd day of December, and you need to start rehearsing those Cephalopodmas carols.
I have to say, though, that the continuing neglect of this important holiday by the media is another sign of the War on Cephalopodmas. Don't believe me? Walk into your local Wal-Mart, and I promise you that the greeter won't say "Merry Cephalopodmas!" to you. You won't see any civic displays draped with tentacles. The school pageants won't be full of songs about squid. The smell of kelp won't be in the air, nor will you be hearing the mournful, melodious tones of the…
pharyngula | November 10, 2006Several people have brought this cartoon to my attention. I don't get it.
So Bush and Rummy are being rewarded for their incompetence by getting to hang out with the octopuses? Or does the cartoonist just hate cephalopods, and is illustrating their torment? (They do look kind of pissed).
pharyngula | November 10, 2006Now Shelley gets in the game with a friday cephalopod post—but I'm not going to complain. Let's have squid on every blog, every day!
Also, finding out that there is such a profession as octopus stylist is good news, just in case I ever have to switch professions.
pharyngula | November 10, 2006Abraliopsis
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | November 7, 2006Maybe with a little butter and garlic.
This article makes a troubling point: if cephalopods are so smart, shouldn't we feel some guilt about eating them?
I think I actually agree with some of the ethical issues raised, and probably should hesitate to kill and eat something like the octopus. However, it also commits the sin of lumping an extraordinarily diverse clade like the Cephalopoda into one poorly characterized gemisch. Yes, the Pacific octopus is a very clever beastie, but those schools of small, fast-breeding squid that get netted and chopped up for calamari? Not so much. The article…
pharyngula | November 3, 2006You may have noticed that it was Halloween earlier this week, and I've got a few pictures of the cutest little squid dressed up as humans and cadging candy from people. Cephalopods are so clever!
Who could resist hugging a cephalopod as cute as that? And then when you're in close, the arms wrap around you, the beak opens, and…
Look at that: octopus vs. shark. We know who wins that one. There's a whole photo series of this omnivorous beastie at the link.
And they say my Friday cephalopod series can't compete with Cute Overload...
This octopus has everyone fooled—they think he's a high school…
pharyngula | November 3, 2006Argonauta nodosa hatchling
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
pharyngula | October 29, 2006
Strange things are found in the sea, like this mysterious gelatinous blob bobbing about in the Norwegian fjords.
On Oct. 1 Rudolf and his brother Erling were diving when he spotted the unusual object.
"It was 50-70 centimeters (19.5-27.5 inches) in diameter and looked like a huge beach ball. It was transparent but had a kind of thick, red cord in the middle. It was a bit science-fiction," Svensen told newspaper Bergens Tidende's web site.
It's something cool: a large squid egg sac. Mmmmm…two-foot diameter ball of squid eggs.
pharyngula | October 29, 2006A reader sent me a link to a site I hesitate to reference, just because I know some people will be aghast at the exposed mammalian flesh and weird exploitation of women…but it's got tentacles everywhere, and molluscs, and even a few arthropods and a giant salamander. The title, Tentacles of Desire, and the list of organisms tells you what it's all about. If you're easily offended or squeamish about slime or freaked out by perverse fetishes, don't go there!
Otherwise, though, just consider it a celebration of biodiversity.
pharyngula | October 25, 2006For those who were as appalled at yesterday's anatomically bizarre comic book squid as I was, G. Tingey sent me a scan of a palate-cleansing, nicely done image from a Dan Dare comic book.
You can click on it to see the whole page (about 200K, though). That's a much better drawn squid. It seems to be another example of the poor beast presumed to be a man-eater, though.