This was photographed on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Human beings are persona non grata in that neighborhood anymore, I suspect.
Actually, is there anywhere in the ocean we’d be liked? Except as a snack?
(via Spiegel)
There really were savage battles between man and giant squid in the 19th century. They all come off as a little bit one sided, though: some poor sick squid floundering on the surface is encountered by a passing ship, harpoons and gaff hooks are thrown, and if the dying beast manages to fling a tentacle across the deck, the brutes hack it off with axes.
We’re about to leave lovely Vancouver to return to Kent, Washington, so must leave you with something awful to chew on for a while. This is is a beautiful example of why creationists can be so stupid: spelling and grammar errors throughout, misrepresentations of the actual science, and non-stop idiocy. For instance, it is not true that squid, octopus, and cuttlefish have all been found in the Cambrian; the coleoids diverged from a common ancestor in the late Cambrian or early Ordovician. This does not mean that modern coleoids were present in the Cambrian. We’ve got a pretty good idea of what the cephalopod ancestor would have looked like.
It’s Saturday morning. That can’t possibly damage your brain any more than my late night of wild partying with Vancouver skeptics could have possibly done, it’s merely put us on an equal footing now.
Earlier this summer, I mentioned the Oregon Octocam, which featured an octopus named Deriq.
Deriq has died. It’s a sad fact that most cephalopods are very short lived.
“The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly, Deriq.”
I was so excited about this lead.
A famous Newfoundland sea monster will soon occupy a space normally reserved for Canada’s Queen.
I was even more excited when I saw a picture of the Newfie beast:
That’ll teach that dingleberry Charles — bypassed by a giant squid, soon to be ruler of all Britannia.
It was a major letdown to discover the details.
Glover’s Harbour’s giant roadside squid statue has been chosen to appear on a new Canadian stamp.
A fellow can still dream, though. Someone needs to drop a hint to Queen Elizabeth that a giant aquatic mollusc would do a better job on the throne than that dullard she birthed.
