Cephalopod Links Number 4.5

At National Geographic, you can check out some footage and a story about the successful attachment of a critter cam to a Humboldt squid.  I'll have to get ahold of their television show somehow, seeing as I don't have TV, and it was last Friday, anyways.

Although it's an old piece, I want to point out this article on the expansion of the Humboldt squid's range.  It's a very interesting topic, and one that is still (as far as I know) ripe for investigation and theorizing.

PZ Meyers points out a video claiming (among other things fallacies) that the fossil record of coleoid cephalopod ancestors provides evidence against "macroevolution".  Of course, the alternative, and so presumably correct, theory is "Intelligent Design".  Wow.

Folks in Delaware can head down to the Delaware Seashore State Park and dissect a squid for $8, among other great activities.  Now that's good use of public facilities!

Departing from cephalopod-related links for a moment, Virginia Heffernan has written this piece over at the New York Times that's gotten science bloggers in a tizzy, and which I can't help but feel a wee bit offended by.  While most of the article is spent blasting ScienceBlogs in particular (which I find catty and off-topic much of the time, too,) she has a few cracks at science blogging in general, including this gem:

          "...science blogging, apparently, is a form of redundant
          and effortfully incendiary rhetoric that draws bad-faith
          moral authority from the word “science” and from
          occasional invocations of “peer-reviewed” thises and
          thats."

Please, stop me the next time I start throwing around "incendiary rhetoric"on Cephalove.

Check out this cool video of giant octopus kites.

And then this one of S. latimanus in an agonistic encounter, complete with some great changes in coloration.

Circus of the Spineless #53, that virtual periodical on all things invertebrate, is up at The Birder's Lounge.  Make sure to check it out for an interesting assortment of writing on all sorts of spineless wonders.

I'll be back later in the week with some more cephalopod photographers, and a few science-y posts.  I'm thinking about tackling the "cephalopod consciousness" issue, although it will take a bit of work to get ahold of the literature, read it, and then work out where I stand.  Nonetheless, I'll see what I can get up here.

Thanks for reading!

Links: 3rd Edition

It's time for some links!  I'm working on some posts about cephalopod statocysts (to continue my coverage of sensory systems,) but in the mean time, here's what's going on (cephalopod-wise, mostly) on the web.  There are some really funny news items this week.

An article at Deep Sea News makes the argument that Paul the octopus is actually psychic; at least as far as we can tell by current statistical standards.

Speaking of our friend Paul, he has officially reached internet stardom:  Parry Gripp has written a song about him.

Another brand-spanking-new article from the same site addresses the possibility that pharmaceutical waste can alter marine ecosystems.

I recently lam-blasted the way popular media talks about the Humboldt squid.  Over at Thoughtomics, this article exposes another sciency media frenzy for what it is: crap.

A burglar in Reno, Nevada decided to mess with his victims in a very creative way:  by microwaving a squid.  Seriously.

A new Syfy channel original movie, Sharktopus, gives us a vivid picture of what life would be like if half-shark, half-octopod monsters roamed the sea.  And I though Lifetime movies were bad...

Apparently, email spammers are trying to sell people squid now.  Does this mean that Viagra and pornography are no longer profitable?  Let's hope that this ushers in a new, more creative era of spam marketing.

North Korea has started leasing squid fishing rights to China.  The arrangement brings income to North Korea and supplies the strapped squid market in China.  I find fishery management interesting, if only because it's so critical to ocean ecology.

Finally, this UK man is charged for possessing squid pornography (and child pornography, but that's not interesting enough for a tabloid headline.)  It's apparently a criminal offense in the UK to have photos of somebody having sex with a dead squid.  My favorite line of this story: "Prosecuters amended the charge when it was admitted it could have been an octopus in the picture."  Oh, it was an octopus?  That's a different story.

I wish I could make this stuff up.

Kissing an octopus and other diversions

In Washington, a Pacific Giant Octopus is released into the wild with a kiss!  I don't know that I'd kiss a cephalopod, but the picture of science center directer Patrick Mus doing it is pretty darling.

The German branch of PETA released a statement demanding that Paul the (psychic) octopus be released into the wild, claiming that octopuses are "capable of complex thought processes, they have short- and long-term memories, use tools, learn by observation, show different personalities and are particularly sensitive to pain."  I'd argue that their first point is highly dependent on the definitions of "complex" and "thought processes", their second point says little about the intellectual capacity of an animal, their third point is contentious even among those who care, being supported by a very few examples, their fourth point is based on one study that (as far as I know) has not been replicated, their fifth point is only supported by anecdotal evidence (and "personality" is a very loosely defined term,) and their last point (again, as far as I know,) has never been specifically investigated.  Nonetheless, it makes good news.

In the town of Whyalla (where our heroes from the last link post were arrested for stealing cuttlefish,) cuttlefish are an important tourist trap, as well as possibly being a special, isolated genetic pool.  If I were in Australia, I'd go see them.

In the most exciting recent news story (in my opinion, at least,) a deep sea squid's penis is seen in action.  Really.  No, I'm not joking.  Just click it.

Partially in response to the whole Pepsi-blog incident at Science Blogs (which seems to have mostly resolved pretty quickly,) Adam Bly, CEO of SEED Media Group has started a new blog, Science is Culture.  In response to the fiasco, I've updated my blogroll to link to the new locations of those who left Science Blogs.

I've also updated my format and added some new folks to the blogroll.  I'm working on a few posts at the moment (including a cephalopod reading list with reviews,) so stay tuned!

Cephalopod Links

First things first: a few recent cephalopods in popular news media:

Paul, the German octopus, successfully predicted yet another World Cup match.  An aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany had its animals place their bets on World Cup matches as a promotion, and the world discovered that Paul is the luckiest octopus to ever live.

In Australia, three men are arrested for stealing cuttlefish from a protected area of ocean.  The town police consider selling the catch as food - failing this, they will bury it.  I couldn't make this up.

In Oregon, researchers try to recruit fishermen to help them understand Humboldt squid population dynamics off the Oregon coast.

And some topical blog posts:

Marine Biologist William Gilley updates us on the progress of an expedition to study Humboldt squid in the Gulf of California.

A recipe for char-grilled baby octopus salad at Food Stories (this makes me sad, oh so sad, but I had to post it for the weirdness.)

Richard Ross gets very excited about a pair of Metasepia pfefferi getting it on (with video!)  I have to say, of all the animal mating rituals one could watch, cuttlefish are pretty easy on the eyes.  In all seriousness, though, culturing cephalopods is notoriously difficult, so this is probably a huge deal.

The Carnival of Evolution #25 is out at Culturing Science - take a moment learn about empathy in crows and all the other amazing things that the evolutionarily-minded blogosphere finds fit to write about.  You'll be glad you did.