(via MBL)
Mar 01 2013
Friday Cephalopod: Skin
This post has no tag
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
DONORS CHOOSE CHALLENGE
About the Author
Freethought Blogs
- A Citizen of Earth
- A Million Gods
- Ace of Clades
- Alethian Worldview
- Almost Diamonds
- Ashley Miller
- Biodork
- Black Skeptics
- Blag Hag
- Brute Reason
- Butterflies and Wheels
- Comradde PhysioProffe
- Dispatches from the Culture Wars
- En Tequila Es Verdad
- Greta Christina's Blog
- Heteronormative Patriarchy for Men
- Lousy Canuck
- Mano Singham
- Maryam Namazie
- Near-Earth Object
- No Country for Women
- NonStampCollector
- Pharyngula
- Reasonable Doubts
- Richard Carrier Blogs
- Rock Beyond Belief
- Sincerely, Natalie Reed
- The Atheist Experience
- The Crommunist Manifesto
- The Digital Cuttlefish
- The Indelible Stamp
- The Zingularity
- This Week in Christian Nationalism
- Token Skeptic
- YEMMYnisting
- Zinnia Jones
PostsCommentsArchives
Recent Comments
- anthrosciguy on Best response to the Aquatic Ape nonsense yet
- ednaz on [Lounge #419]
- ChasCPeterson on Zoooom! He’s off again!
- surprisesaplenty on Zoooom! He’s off again!
- ChasCPeterson on Best response to the Aquatic Ape nonsense yet
FTB RecentFTB Active
FTB Recent
- Wolf: "Do You Thank The Lord?" by Cuttlefish
- Why “Thank God I survived” or “God knows best” is a terrible thing to say in the aftermath of a fatal disaster. by Yemisi Ilesanmi
- Zoooom! He's off again! by PZ Myers
- CFI's Michael De Dora by PZ Myers
- Hags of Lag - *Thunderfoot doesn't get Regressive Crap II - Electric Boogaloo by Avicenna
- In the lobby by Ophelia Benson
FTB Active
- I think we call that an own goal by PZ Myers
- Open thread on episode #814 by heicart
- More documenting the harassment by Ophelia Benson
- Leave Dan Brown Alone! by Ed Brayton
- Cis people: Help me get a sense of the landscape out there! by Zinnia
- We don't call this sexism, we call it, err... by Ally Fogg
Profile
Frequently Read Threads
Commenting Rules
The Desert Tortoises With Boltcutters Civility Pledge
[Introductions]: Meet the other commenters
The [Lounge]: a safe space; friendly chat; moderated
The [Thunderdome]: no-holds-barred unmoderated chaos

PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• MySpace
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)
•
![]()
Chris Clarke is a science and natural history writer, editor, and
environmental protection activist in Joshua Tree, California.
• Coyote Crossing
• my writing
at KCET
• Desert Biodiversity
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google
Plus
• Walking
With Zeke
• Walking
With Zeke (iBookstore)
Recent Comments
- anthrosciguy on Best response to the Aquatic Ape nonsense yet
- ednaz on [Lounge #419]
- ChasCPeterson on Zoooom! He’s off again!
- surprisesaplenty on Zoooom! He’s off again!
- ChasCPeterson on Best response to the Aquatic Ape nonsense yet
- rowanvt on [Lounge #419]
- klatu on So…that’s rape culture, all right
- Stacy on Women in Secularism is going strong
- caecily (a limbless vertebrate with non-existent feathers) on [Lounge #419]
- theignored on Zoooom! He’s off again!
- quidam on So…that’s rape culture, all right
- Stephanie Zvan on CFI’s Michael De Dora
- consciousness razor on A humanism relevant to humans
- PZ Myers on CFI’s Michael De Dora
- Infophile on Put down the cell phone!




11 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
Tigger_the_Wing, Ranged Throngs Termed A Nerd With Boltcutters
1 March 2013 at 7:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I would just love to have skin like that.
chigau (違う)
1 March 2013 at 8:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tigger
Me, too.
I like to trade my wrinkly, spotty, moley hide for shiny colours-on-demand.
Lofty
1 March 2013 at 8:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
And the lifespan to match? Natch, I’ll put up with the skin I have, it works well enough to keep the rain out. The beauty of being human is that you can wear any colour clothes you like, with flashing lights too if it turns you on…..marketing opportunity: ceph skin suits. ;-)
chigau (違う)
1 March 2013 at 9:02 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Live fast
Die young
Stay pretty
Tigger_the_Wing, Wants Cephalopod Skin
1 March 2013 at 10:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Lofty, I don’t believe that a short lifespan in cephalopods is due to the skin; but, even if it were? Yes, I’d exchange. A long life is only appealing just so long as one is resaonable fit and healthy, and without excessive pain. I’m going to carry on finding something worthwhile to do and to enjoy every day as long as I am able, but the thought that I may still have several decades in front of me fills me with horror.
Lofty
1 March 2013 at 11:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tigger_the_Wing, I am not the one to deny you the dream of cephalopod skin, if it cheers you up. As for the happiness and health of someone confined to a wheelchair, I can always look at my mother. She had a major stroke 9 years ago (at 68) and now lives in a medium care state in a christian nursing home, while remaining a staunch atheist. Yet despite her failing health she enjoys life (no more vacuuming!!!!) and cracks rude jokes with all the nursing home staff. So I hope you too can continue to enjoy life for what little pleasures it can bring you.
Peace. (and colourful clothes)
chigau (違う)
1 March 2013 at 11:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
gratuitous poetry link
When I am an old woman…
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/warning/
Tigger_the_Wing, Wants Cephalopod Skin
2 March 2013 at 5:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thank you, Lofty.
Lovely poem, chigau! The next time I wear purple I shall wear a red hat. =^_^=
I don’t mind using a wheelchair, mobility walker, walking sticks. They are tools that enables me to do more than I could without it. What I mind is the pain. It’s the pain that restricts me. So I rebel against the restrictions in every way I can.
I rebel by: turning my walking sticks into hobby-horses.
I rebel by: wearing bright and silly clothes, and dressing up as a pirate on Fridays.
I rebel by: decorating my wheelchair with cutlasses in the wheels, pirate stickers on the paintwork, a pirate flag on the back, pirate plushies on the handlebars and multicoloured LEDs on the frame.
I rebel by: going on a picnic dressed as a Pokémon trainer, with pink pigtails.
I rebel by: going to a cosplay ball, dressed as Davros (I turned my old wheelchair into his ‘dalek-skirt’ chair. I even shaved my head totally bald).
But sometimes, far too often, like today, my body rebels and refuses to carry my mind to the places it wants to go.
So my mind goes there by itself.
I cannot surf at Bondi Beach with the cephalopods, but I can surf the ‘net and connect with wonderful people.
I can read. I can talk to my grandchildren on Skype.
I am luckier than a cephalopod. But I’d still like to have skin like theirs.
=^_^=
thesandiseattle
2 March 2013 at 1:18 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Imagine: designer skin colors! Feeling blue, pop a pill and your skin is blue. Might be worth looking into for some bright young chemist.
Ichthyic
2 March 2013 at 3:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
considering we’ve been able to gene-splice bioluminescence and flourescence into mammals already, can’t imagine it will be too long before color-changing mice are a reality, and then… well why not?
I’ve often predicted the future will have people being able to custom design the superficial genetics for their own offspring.
kids with chromatophores doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to me, 50 years or so down the line.
thumper1990
4 March 2013 at 5:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
See up til now the biological adaptation I most wanted was a prehensile tail… I think that’s still top of the list, but bioluminescence is now second.