Categories
Critters

iCephalopod V

More cephaloporn thanks to Mr. Moult, who is also the happy owner of the einsteinslock.com domain.

The site linked has some wonderful, though short, videos of Taningia danae, eight armed squid, captured recently by Tsunemi Kubodera. They demonstrate how amazingly quick and aggressive squid can be. When you consider how big the colossal was that was recently recovered, 39 feet long, almost 12 meters, makes you think twice about going for a dip, eh?

At least I didn’t invoke Gorton’s Law and equate colossal with tire sized calamari:

In the tradition of Internet adages, I’d like to add another. In any discussion of sea life, no matter how rare, strange or disgusting, some knucklehead will always ask how well it goes with lemon or butter. I am calling this Gorton’s Law.

In case you haven’t been around, like, forever, I wrote a four part story on giant squid, Nessie, legends, and cryptozoology back in 1997, which is when I started developing a fascination of all things in our Other World. In celebration of its ten year anniversary, a link to the first part, A Tale of Two Monsters: Legends.

I wonder if I’ll get my annual nasty email from Jan?

Categories
Weblogging

Links Feb 27

What an absolutely beautiful fish.

From Galactic InteractionsGravity as the curvature of spacetime— it’s such a simple, elegant, beautiful concept that it almost pains me to think that efforts to unify gravity with quantum mechanics may result in our learning that General Relativity is just the effective limit of a deeper theory (much as Newton’s gravity is an effective limit of GR).

(I hope to actually finish my copy of Kip Thorne’s “Gravitation” before I die. I may have to live a long time.)

The Head Lemur’s Ning–the Latest Sharecropping Network, Part 1 and Part 2Zing!

Via 3Quarks DailyMarvin Minsky writes on Love. As always, a unique perspective from one of the premier AI scientists.

RDF and microformats rumble: post here, then comment, with follow up and referee. Why does all technology have to break along adversarial lines in weblogging? Probably needs more women.

Speaking of…Dori SmithThis is about claims that I “simply don’t exist.” This is about claims Shelley doesn’t exist. This is about claims that people like Molly don’t exist — ’cause nobody, but nobody could know that we exist, talk to any of us for five minutes, and still say that. Being as we three are the shy and retiring type.

Oop! Oop! No more of that. This year’s Diversity Steeple Chase and companion, Wondering where are the broads is over. Stay tuned, next year: same time, different channel.

via onegoodmoveWhy I refuse to blog for Edwards“So, it’s not a problem that I’m an outspoken atheist?” I asked.

Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday. Let’s spend more time on congressional resolutions on Iraq that don’t do anything–and more billions in Iraq so kids like Deamonte can die.

It’s spring in California. Speaking of which, we’re expecting our first spring storm tonight or tomorrow, if it doesn’t float north of us.

Bill has loaded his first spring photo.

Come midnight, it will surely sound like spring.

To all my fellow Missourians: Be safe.