Saturday, January 28, 2006

You think you had a bad day at the office?

Video captures octopus attack on sub in B.C.
Last Updated Fri, 27 Jan 2006 13:40:23 EST
CBC News

Rare video footage shows a giant octopus attacking a small submarine off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Salmon researchers working on the Brooks Peninsula were shocked last November when an octopus attacked their expensive and sensitive equipment. ....

"It was only afterwards when I replayed the video and I thought, 'Oh, yeah, that's pretty neat.' But at the time, it was just scary."

I especially like this part:
"Old octopuses become what we call senescent, or senile, reaching the end of their life. And sometimes their actions are very inappropriate."
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15 comments:

  1. Charlie Martin9:13 AM, January 28, 2006

    Bless you. I was having such a tough time coming up with a punchline.

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  2. Syl9:40 AM, January 28, 2006

    skook

    LOL I agree.

    Kind of like a dog humping the dinner guest's leg. How inappropriate!

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  3. Syl9:46 AM, January 28, 2006

    We even attempt to civilize our animals. Problem is being 'civilized' doesn't remove the basic dynamics of reward and punishment. So when the left decided rewards are to be favored under all circumstances because punishment is 'so uncivilized' we're all in trouble.

    Like Mark suggesting we should reward Hamas for winning the election by giving them aid. No matter that they've disavowed the roadmap and desire to wipe Israel off the map, they should be rewarded anyway.

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  4. chuck10:15 AM, January 28, 2006

    Then there is this video that made the rounds last week, octopus eating shark. It looks a bit set up, though, or at least cut and edited.

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  5. chuck10:35 AM, January 28, 2006

    And not to neglect the decapodiformes, here are giant squid pictures. I'm waiting for some colossal squid video, it would make me feel like a boy again.

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  6. Charlie Martin11:10 AM, January 28, 2006

    I dunno, Skook, I find the description of a 100 lb octopus attacking a thousand-pound minisub as "inappropriate" as kind of nicely descriptive. Octopi are quite smart, in general, and usually pretty reticent -- this doesn't seem like either.

    Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

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  7. buddy larsen12:47 PM, January 28, 2006

    Gee, I hope this link works--I saved it sometime back, thinking if anyone ever showed any octopi interest, they'd like it. (snip)

    "Yet another Great Pacific Octopus of the Leisure-Suit Larry mold once tried to pull into his tank a BBC videographer who got her hand a bit too close, wrapping his tentacles up and down her arm as fast as she could unravel them. When she finally broke free, the octopus turned a bright red and doused her with repeated jets of water."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/magazine/22animal.html?_r=1&incamp=article_popular&pagewanted=print&oref=login&oref=login

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  8. buddy larsen12:52 PM, January 28, 2006

    The author, Charles Seibert, could make an interesting essay out of a mud puddle.

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  9. chuck3:04 PM, January 28, 2006

    Hey, thanks for the link, Buddy. I liked this bit about halfway in:

    Indeed, animals like dogs and cats point up what often appears to be a paradoxically prodigious "duh factor" behind this otherwise cutting-edge science. While scientists may tussle endlessly over the validity of applying the word personality to nonhumans, for people in the everyday world - especially those who spend any time around animals - the assertion that they have distinct personalities seems absurdly obvious.

    I recognize the human tendency to assign personalities and awareness to everything from rocks to cars, but when it comes to animal personalities I definitely feel that old duh coming on. I don't want to get into any arguments about the difference between temperament and personality, however.

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  10. buddy larsen4:05 PM, January 28, 2006

    I'd say 'personality' is the expression of 'temperament'. Begging question, 'if a temperament is alone in a forest, does it have a personality?'

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  11. Charlie Martin4:42 PM, January 28, 2006

    Is personality a property of the organism? Or of the observer?

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  12. buddy larsen6:05 PM, January 28, 2006

    Personality is definitely affected by the Heisenberg Principle. So, I guess it would be a behavior descriptor. Still doesn't answer the question, tho, does it?

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  13. Charlie Martin12:01 PM, January 29, 2006

    Peter --- Exactly.

    How about this: "Personality" is a Bayesian approximation of our predictions about the behavior of another.

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  14. buddy larsen1:12 PM, January 29, 2006

    That's good. How 'bout personality is to person as photograph is to object?
    (that way, you get the feedback loop in, as that least tangible of all tangibles, the photon stream)

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  15. buddy larsen3:27 PM, January 29, 2006

    The 'con', remember, is short for 'confidence'.

    You can still hear references to 'confidence men' in old 40s movies.

    Kinda dirty, turning what's best in people, against them.

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