Bomb in a Squid
In China hat man eine Bombe in einem Tintenfisch gefunden. Das ist die Rache für Calamari, die Verspeisung lebender Kopffüßler und Paul the psychic Octopus.
The squid, which was itself more than three feet-long, was caught in the shallow waters off Guangdong province, China, and taken to the fish market in Jiaoling county. […] “Perhaps he thought the bomb was his favourite food and gulped it down. He certainly had a big belly when he was caught,” he added.
The bomb weighed around three pounds and was shaped like an aubergine. Local police suggested it might have been dropped by a fighter jet but did not date it. Mr Huang said the police had arrived promptly after he called an emergency number and that they had taken it away and performed a controlled explosion.
Live bomb found in squid (via Reddit, Bild via Shutterstock)
Kraken Corkscrew
Ein Tentakel-Korkenzieher. Kann man jedesmal beim Korken rausziehen „Release the Kraken!“ in der Tonlage von Liam Neeson schreien, ergibt auch irgendwie Sinn, glaub’ ich. Gibt’s hier für 25$. (via Nerdalicious)
3D-printed Octopus-Submarine
Vimeo Direktoctopus, via Laughing Squid
Sean Charlesworth hat ein Nautilus-inspiriertes Octopus-U-Boot mit Lichtern und ein paar beweglichen Teilen auf ‘nem 3D-Drucker ausgegeben, auf Make erzählt er ein bisschen was dazu. Awesome!
Octopus Glas Pipe
Loud Actions verkaufen auf Etsy tolle Pfeiffen, der Knaller sind aber diese Octopus Pipes. (via Laughing Squid)
Woman gets pregnant with Baby-Squid from eating Calamari
Eine Dame in Korea hat in ihrem Mund 12 Babykraken geboren, nachdem sie eine Portion Calamari gegessen hat. Die Originalquelle ist die Daily Mail, das Paper im National Center for Biotechnology Information gibt es allerdings wirklich und hat ‘nen tollen Namen: Penetration of the oral mucosa by parasite-like sperm bags of squid: a case report in a Korean woman. Jetzt hab’ ich Hunger (tatsächlich).
A 63-year-old woman became ‘pregnant’ with 12 baby squid after eating calamari, according to a claim in a bio-tech report. The real-life ‘octo-mum’, from South Korea, was eating a portion of cooked whole squid when she felt a sharp pain in her mouth. The bizarre claim has been made in a scientific paper from the National Center for Biotechnology Information in Bethesda, Maryland. The lady told doctors that she could feel something in her mouth which they described as ‘bug-like organisms’.
When examined, the doctors found ‘baby cephalopods’ attached to her mouth. These are small pods, covered in a cement-like material to make them stick. Inside the pods is an ‘ejaculatory apparatus’ and sperm – with the apparatus expelling the sperm quite forcefully. After the victim of the ‘attack’ was hospitalised, doctors removed the baby cephalopods from her gums, tongue and cheek. It was only then that the pods were formally identified as ‘squid spermatophores.’ The Center’s paper says: ‘She did not swallow the portion, but spat it out immediately.
Woman, 63, ‘becomes PREGNANT in the mouth’ with baby squid after eating calamari (via Arbroath)
Octopus eating a Bird
Ich hatte keine Ahnung, dass Octopi sich auch mal ‘ne Möwe oder andere Vögel fangen: “In less than one minute the gull was drowned, fully submerged and appeared to partially ingested with only its wings still visible.” Auch toll der letzte Satz: “To commemorate witnessing and photographing this amazing event, Ginger, Ken and Lou went out for a calamari lunch.”
Und wo wir schon dabei sind: Hatte ich neulich gesehen, aber keine Lust auf Spinnen gehabt: Giant Spider eating a Snake.
Inside the Mind of the Octopus
Orion Magazine hat einen superfaszinierenden Artikel über Octopi und ihr Gehirn. Darin steht nicht viel neues, was regelmäßige NC-Leser nicht schon wissen würden (3/5 ihres Gehirns befindet sich in ihren Armen, sie können die Farbe wechseln und sich an Leute erinnern und wenn sie jemanden nicht leiden können, machen sie die nass, et cetera), bis auf: Wissenschaftler haben herausgefunden, wie Octopusse (wahrscheinlich) ihre Camo-Funktion benutzen. Ihre Hautzellen weisen Gen-Sequenzen auf, die man sonst nur auf der Retina im Auge findet. Mit anderen Worten: Die Viecher sehen mit ihrer Haut! Whoa!
“Meeting an octopus,” writes Godfrey-Smith, “is like meeting an intelligent alien.” Their intelligence sometimes even involves changing colors and shapes. One video online shows a mimic octopus alternately morphing into a flatfish, several sea snakes, and a lionfish by changing color, altering the texture of its skin, and shifting the position of its body. Another video shows an octopus materializing from a clump of algae. Its skin exactly matches the algae from which it seems to bloom—until it swims away.
For its color palette, the octopus uses three layers of three different types of cells near the skin’s surface. The deepest layer passively reflects background light. The topmost may contain the colors yellow, red, brown, and black. The middle layer shows an array of glittering blues, greens, and golds. But how does an octopus decide what animal to mimic, what colors to turn? Scientists have no idea, especially given that octopuses are likely colorblind.
But new evidence suggests a breathtaking possibility. Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and University of Washington researchers found that the skin of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis, a color-changing cousin of octopuses, contains gene sequences usually expressed only in the light-sensing retina of the eye. In other words, cephalopods—octopuses, cuttlefish, and squid—may be able to see with their skin.
Deep Intellect – Inside the mind of the octopus (via Reddit, Bild: Octopus dance – Octopus Vulgaris in Palma Aquarium von Morten Brekkevold)
Vintage Octopus-Illustrations
BibliOdyssey hat eine tolle Sammlung oller Cephalopoden-Illus von Adolf Naef vom Beginn des letzten Jahrhunderts. Der Mann hatte auch mit Ernst Haeckel zusammengearbeitet, dessen „Kunstformen der Natur“ ich hier vor Jahren mal hatte und die wahrscheinlich die bekannteste Sammlung alter Natur-Illustrationen ist.
Adolf Naef (1883-1949) was a Swiss zoologist and palaeontologist, famous for his work on cephalopods and systematics.
[He] studied at the University of Zurich, under the guidance of Arnold Lang, a former Professor of Jena University and close friend of Ernst Haeckel*. Naef visited and worked in Anton Dorn’s Zoological Station in Naples, Italy in 1908, studying the squid Loligo vulgaris, the subject of his dissertation.
Dancing Squid Bowl Dish in Hakodate
(Youtube Direktoctopus, via CynC)
Von Youtube: „A seafood bowl I ate in Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan. It had salmon roe and seaweed and some other things, with the highlight being the “dancing” squid on top. Dancing squid dishes seem to be at many restaurants in Hakodate, but this particular one may have been the only one with this bowl set. The place was located in the seafood restaurant arcade across the parking lot from Hakodate Station if anyone is interested.“
Und die Erklärung aus dem Comments: „When you pour soy sauce on it, the muscles contract in response to signals from neurons, which transmit signals around the body by means of a series of sequential influxes of sodium across the cell membrane into the neuron.“
Dokutrailer: The Life and Times of Paul, the psychic Octopus
Alexandre O. Philippe und Robert Muratore, die Macher der Doku „The People vs George Lucas“ (Trailer hier), haben eine neue Dokumentation angekündigt über jemanden, den Ihr kennt: Paul, the psychic Octopus.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PAUL THE PSYCHIC OCTOPUS tells the official and exclusive story of the world’s most beloved and scorned cephalopod, whose remarkable string of eight correct ‘predictions’ during the 2010 Soccer World Cup made him a worldwide superstar. Whether Paul is an honest-to-goodness 21st century oracle, or a tentacled sham, remains a hotly debated topic. What is certain, though, is that Paul’s unmatched string of correct predictions has affected us, made us dream, and impacted popular culture. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PAUL THE PSYCHIC OCTOPUS is a biopic of tentacular proportions–one that explores celebrity mania at its most outrageous, the science of probabilities, and the possibility of higher powers.
(Youtube Direktpaul, via Twitch)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Paul the Psychic Octopus, R.I.P.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vs Paul the psychic Octopus
Paul the psychic Octopus predicts a Geekwars-Winner
Octopus Interference
Pavel, the psychic Krakauer, predicts Germany victory over Spain!
Paul, the psychic Octopus, predicts… SPAIN!
Paul, the psychic Octopus, predicts Germany victory over Argentinia
Paul, the psychic Octopus, predicts Germany victory over England
Space and Time and Mathematics sez: „Deutschland wird Weltmeister“
Octopus Chair
Toller Stuhl von Maximo Riera , dem ein ziemlich detailierter Octopus hinten raushängt. Nimmt ein bisschen viel Platz weg, sieht aber super aus.
Plushy Sharktopus
Ein Sharktopus aus Plüsch von Suzannah Ashley, hier ihr Etsy-Shop. Und wer nicht weiß, was es damit auf sich hat, nach dem Klick der Trailer zu Roger Cormans „Sharktopus“. Lief im Herbst auf SyFy und ist natürlich völliger Trash. I’m lovin’ it!
Octopus Tentacle-Brains
So wie es aussieht, denken Octopusse nicht nur mit ihrem relativ großen Gehirn, sondern auch mit Neuronen in ihren Tentakeln. Tentacles are actually Brains! Als ob die Viecher nicht sowieso schon freaky genug wären, jetzt haben sie auch noch Denkapparate in den Armen. Whoa!
Octopuses have large nervous systems, centered around relatively large brains. But more than half of their 500 million neurons are found in the arms themselves, Godfrey-Smith said. This raises the question of whether the arms have something like minds of their own. Though the question is controversial, there is some observational evidence indicating that it could be so, he said. When an octopus is in an unfamiliar tank with food in the middle, some arms seem to crowd into the corner seeking safety while others seem to pull the animal toward the food, Godfrey-Smith explained, as if the creature is literally of two minds about the situation.
There may be other explanations for the observations. But whatever the answer, it seems likely that octopus intelligence is quite different from that of humans and, as researchers ponder the broader meaning of intelligence, may be as different as is likely to be encountered, short of finding it on other planets.
Thinking like an octopus (Danke Thorsten!)
Related: Inside the Minds of Animals
Paul the Psychic Octopus, R.I.P.
Paul, the Psychic Octopus, is no more. Er starb im Alter von nur zweieinhalb Jahren an Altersschwäche.
Staff at the aquarium center where he lived said his death was not entirely unexpected, since common octopuses generally only live a few years. Paul’s body is now in cold storage while the aquarium decides “how best to mark his passing.” “We may decide to give Paul his own small burial plot within our grounds and erect a modest permanent shrine,” said Stephan Porwell manager of the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre in Germany.
