Don’t try and tell me this is a fake holiday. Macy’s in New York is celebrating it! That’s the gold standard, man.
Watch out, Kwanzaa.
Say it isn’t so — Ouroboros has an article on cephalopod senescence.
Can you bear the beauty? It’s another week’s worth of random cephalopod imagery.
We can learn from nature:
Inspired by the sleek and efficient propulsion of squid, jellyfish and other cephalopods, a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher has designed a new generation of compact vortex generators that could make it easier for scientists to maneuver and dock underwater vehicles at low speeds and with greater precision.
In addition, the technology — seemingly inspired by the plots of two classic sci-fi films — may soon allow doctors to guide tiny capsules with jet thrusters through the human digestive tract, enabling them to diagnose disease and dispense medications.
(The two films, by the way, are Fantastic Voyage and Inner Space; I think only the former classifies as an SF classic.)
While the details are awfully thin, there are more pictures and movies online. Hint—don’t waste your time with the mpgs, they only show the titles; you’ll have to watch the ugly wmv files.
Isn’t she pretty? This is Promachoteuthis sloani, a new species of deep water squid trawled up out of the North Atlantic.
Many more photos of this creature are available online, and you can also download the paper describing it.
Another week, another collection of tentacular oddities from the mailbag. Keep sending ’em in!
Where can I find this “Nature Store”?
Another video: watch the octopus escape through a small hole in a box. Bones are such a nuisance, aren’t they?
