Here’s the first volley of cephalopod recognition posts I’ve received. Do send me more, and I’ll put them up later. Do me a favor and put “Cephalopod Awareness” in your subject line so I can sort them out more easily.

• The blog that kicked this all off, Cephalopodcast, has a vintage octopus wrestling video. I remember my dating days, too. It’s even from the Pacific Northwest, and that guy has a classic Seattle Scandihoovian accent.

• From Greta Christina, Peter the Pirate Squid!

• Somebody has found their way to the inner sanctum of the cephalopod lords, and returned with pictures. Yes, it’s true: cephalopod worship, for some reason, involves scantily clad women.

• Wait a minute…eating cephalopods? No scantily clad ladies for you, Rick.

• The Other 95% has a collection of squid links and a video of schooling squid.

• Peter Metrinko sends a poem:

  Today we sing a love ballade
  To the majestic cephalopod
  True, they may look quite odd
  But judge them not by their façade
  The eyes that grace their lovely bod
  Have photoreceptors like a rod
  More worth our passion than some jihad
  Waged for some fictitious god
  Today we cast a loving nod
  Towards the lovely cephalopod

• CrashOctopus tells us about cockeyed squid.

• See them in their natural environment! Here are some diving photos.

• Check out the trailer for “The Future is Wild”: land squid! I think the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus site already did this.

Remember, it’s International Cephalopod Awareness Day! Send me links to your articles that express your appreciation of our 10- and 8-armed friends, and I’ll periodically put them up right here on Pharyngula.

Deleted at the request of Brian Batson

Helicocranchia sp.

Figure from The Deep^{(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll)}, by Claire Nouvian.

Deep sea squid, unidentified species

Figure from The Deep^{(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll)}, by Claire Nouvian.

People, don’t do this to me. I’ve got all this work I’ve got to get done so that I’m free to go on a date this evening, and you keep sending me these distractions. Like, for instance, this link to a collection of Marine Invertebrate Video and Film Stock Footage. Cephalopods and nudibranchs and crustaceans and salps, all categorized (there’s even an invertebrate mating category! With 421 clips! It’s free porn!) and with thousands of high resolution videos. The previews are all free, but you can also license HD video of these beautiful action shots.

I will be disciplined, though. I’m closing the web page. I will get my writing done. I will put these links here though, so I can later return to “Brain coral spawning” and “Moray tears arms from octopus” and “Flamboyant cuttlefish feeding” and “Siphonophore With Extending Tenacles”.

Back to work.

Maybe there’s time for “Pelagic Tunicate In The Twilight Zone”?

No. Work. Get things done.

Oh, but I want…!

Sepioteuthis sepioidea

Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide ^{(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll)}, by Mark Norman.