The curse of Boing Boing


Oh, yes, I know whenever Boing Boing posts something with cephalopods in it — I get a tsunami of email telling me to post it right now. All right, since I’ll get no work done until this is purged…here’s an octopus killing a shark.

Comments

  1. maglione.k says

    Haven’t you posted this before? I won’t deign to watch the video, since I can’t stand National Geographic narrators, but I’ve seen it before, and it’s indeed awesome.

  2. palaeodave says

    It’s a cool video but best watched without sound. Nat Geo seem to think all their clips should come across like The Planet’s Funniest Animals.

  3. ursulamajor says

    I sent you something a few weeks ago (not from boingboing, but still stupid) after a beer or three. I’m blaming the beer.

    My beer apologizes.

  4. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlrxwvIYVFveTluy_X6iNqdcTo3SO-4jJQ says

    So does the shark die? I don’t want any spoilers before I watch this. :)

  5. PZ Myers says

    Yeah, I’ve posted various versions of the octopus vs. shark video a few times in the past. It goes in cycles…next year, a whole bunch of people will have forgotten it or discovered it anew, and I’ll get another flood of email.

    Weird thing: it’s always the same aquarium and the same octopus. Someday I’d like to see some independent observations of the same phenomenon.

  6. https://me.yahoo.com/a/AKp_B_gSkpRDRUl5yBtgnnB0OHZG#94c23 says

    So… how did the octopus do in the shark? Suffocation? Crushing?

    –Raynfala

  7. daveau says

    What kind of ineffective ruthless killing machine shark is that, anyway? Gives other ruthless killing machine sharks a bad name.

  8. Bueller_007 says

    Why do the idiot writers insist that he say “octopi”?

    It’s “octopuses”, for fuck’s sake.

  9. Enzyme says

    Ewwww. That’s horrible.

    Are all American documentary commentaries that imbecilic?

    *shudders*

  10. Standard Curve says

    The video I want to see is a giant Pacific octopus eating a National Geographic narrator, with all the narration performed by a shark.

  11. Dewkeeper says

    @ #13

    It’s octopi, you infidel!

    To mirror #11, did the lack of water going through its gills down the shark or was it some sort of damage caused by the octopus?

  12. PZ Myers says

    Almost certainly, what killed the shark is that after getting a good grip, the octopus would have torn into it with its very sharp beak.

  13. RijkswaanVijanD says

    This was posted before indeed. Too bad, was hoping for some refreshingly new kill

  14. RijkswaanVijanD says

    @18
    Sharks tend to become immobilized when turned upside down..
    I imagine it still lived a little while as the octopus feasted of it

  15. treehuggerish says

    Sounds like I was lucky to be at a place where sounds is a no go and without headphones :)

    This was my first view of this so I just found the octopus body language to be like.. hilarious. hidden stalking death… turns pro wrestler.

    I second the notion about seeing it eat a natgeo guy, that would be awesome! Or like.. a creationist :P

  16. Sili, The Unknown Virgin says

    What kind of ineffective ruthless killing machine shark is that, anyway? Gives other ruthless killing machine sharks a bad name.

    Well, some sadist removed the poor thing’s laser. That’s gotta hurt.

  17. axiology says

    Well, it’s just a dogfish, a pretty small shark. I remember growing up on the BC coast, catching these while fishing. My brother used to spear them, as well a Cod, wearing mask, snorkel and flippers with a homemade spear – a broompool fitted with a sharpened quarter inch steel rod with a hinged barb, and piece a surgical rubber tubing to propel it.

  18. Alan B says

    Not a fair match. In my book dogfish come a bit lower than a Great White!

    “Dogfish carcases kept showing up at the bottom of the tank.”

    And the aquarium people couldn’t work out what killed them until they threw in another dogfish… Like, the sharp beak and the tentacles are typical of a vegetarian or a filter-feeder?

    from Wiki “Spiny dogfish”:

    Once the most abundant shark species in the world, populations of Squalus acanthias have declined significantly. They are classified in the IUCN Red List of threatened species as Vulnerable globally and Critically Endangered in the Northeast Atlantic, meaning stocks around Europe have decreased by at least 95%. This is a direct result of overfishing* to supply northern Europe’s taste for Rock Salmon, Saumonette or Zeepaling.

    *Maybe. I have an alternative hypothesis:

    Idiot aquarium people + octopuses** = dogfish decline

    **octopus (plural) – Concise Oxford English Dictionary

  19. Alan B says

    Is this a new game, like Rock / Paper / Scissors?

    Shark eats razorfish but not octopus.
    Razorfish eats octopus but not shark.
    Octopus eats shark but not razorfish.

    I guess PZ would loose most of the time – he wouldn’t be able to stop going up “octopus”

  20. SteveM says

    re 18:
    It’s octopi, you infidel!

    Not a chance. that “us” on the end is Greek and not a suffix, it is the word “pus” for “feet”. the “-i” pluralization od “-us” is Latin.

    besides octopuses, octopodes is also an acceptable plural keeping in the Greek mode.

  21. Sili, The Unknown Virgin says

    Or perhaps not …
    [spoiler]

    Seeing as how the poor squid goes on to be killed.

  22. startlingmoniker says

    That’s funny– I thought the curse of BoingBoing was their heavy-handed agree-with-us-or-vanish comment policy.

  23. ursulamajor says

    There is no longer a game called Rock/Paper/Scissors. It is now called Rock/Paper/Scissors/Lizard/Spock.

    Bazinga!

  24. KOPD says

    According to this very reputable website *cough*, the plural of octopus is octopus’. When I see that I think “octopus prime” and then I picture a giant robotic octopus and think “Awesome!”

  25. John Morales says

    Yeech.

    That’s gotta be the most irritating narration I’ve ever had the misfortune to endure.

    It suggests nothing good about the demographic to which the program is targeted.

  26. Kirk says

    Dogfish carcases kept showing up at the bottom of the tank.

    The autopsies all concluded: death due to natural causes.

  27. Ted Zissou says

    I’ve been known to over-indulge in sharing English Russia posts (which boing boing sometimes hijacks). Since pirates fit in to the FSM thing, here is a video of Somali pirates on a Russian tanker. http://tinyurl.com/2vmgctx

    A bit of a OT stretch eh?

  28. curious tentacle says

    The commentary made me want to shoot myself in the face.

    The tentacle action got me pretty excited though.