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86 Comments
- Steelfox, on 10/12/2007, -3/+45"Author William Burroughs saw the octopus as a "highly emotional" creature, liable to change red with lust or pale green with fear."
Great, just what we need. Emo Octopus. Or should I say...Octopussies! - sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -1/+34A man walks into a bar with an octopus. He sits the octopus down on a stool and tells everyone in the bar that this is a very talented octopus, he can play any musical instrument in the world. He hears everyone in the crowd laughing at him, calling him an idiot, so he says that he'll wager $50 to anyone who has an instrument the octopus can't play.
A guy walks up to the bar with a guitar and sits it beside the octopus. The octopus picks up the guitar and starts playing better than Jimi Hendrix ever did. So the punter pays his $50, and retires, wounded.
Another guy walks up with a trumpet. The octopus plays the trumpet better than Dizzie Gillespie. So the punter pays his $50, and walks off, shaking his head in disbelief.
A Scotsman walks up to the bar with a set of bagpipes. He sits them down beside the octopus. The octopus fumbles with them for a while and sits them down with a confused look on his face.
"Ha!" the Scotsman says. "Ye cannae play it, can ye?"
The octopus looks the Scotsman in the eye and says, "Play it? I'm going to ***** it as soon as I can get its pajamas off"... - jazzman251, on 10/12/2007, -5/+35Go back to Slashdot...
- bbnkstr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29you
- tuxidomasx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24more legal protection for smarter animals.
wow.
so does that mean we can get rid of all the dumb people? - ardenr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22Better start hoping the Giant Squid doesn't stockpile you... They've only been photographed alive once, and I'm guessing they're damned smart. 13 metres long, and they have the largest eyes of any living creature...
Oh yeah, and their dick is 3 FEET LONG!!
Be scared. They're making their move soon. - bitcloud, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23Well I've given up on trying to find intelligence above sea level...
- ZenMojo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18This is absolutely true. Some octopi can actually change their texture, shape and body coloring to mimic other animals (I watched the same octopus turn from a bouncing sea horse to a scuttling flatfish to a frilly shrimp as it moved along), rocks, and even fake objects like cans and trash dropped in their environment.
They are incredibly clever, too. I was watching Animal Planet and there was this really depressed Octopus, so they figured out that by creating a little box made out of legos and hiding food in it, they could cheer the octopus up out of its boredom by giving it an activity to keep it occupied.
Most importantly, they are empathic to an extent. It's a little eerie but incredible. - cody50, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17they didn't call him Doctor Octopus for nothing.
- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12"Which brings on more questions. Since monkeys are so similar to humans, would humans get the same cannibal diseases by eating monkeys that we'd get from eating other humans?"
Where do you think aids came from? - robbiedo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I did alot of research into Octopi as a pet. Amazing little guys. The real drag is that they have very short lifespans. Shorter than a hamster. They rarely live longer than 2 years. I was stunned by that fact for such a highly intelligent animal, and decided I did not want to develop an emotional attachment to such a short lived animal.
- gwjc, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16Better start stockpiling frozen calamari
- billymachine, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13Fight! Fight! Fight!
- crashnburn275, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11So now we have to treat octopi (plural?) humanely? What are we going to throw out on the ice at hockey games?!?
- Murphious, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@ ardenr:
Sure, it may be three feet long but is it maneuverable like the elephants? They can use theirs like an arm.. - masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Agreed. Octopi are intelligent in ways that we do not fully understand as of yet. It's entirely possible that they're the most intelligent creature in the sea.
On a side note, the EU protects monkeys? Does that mean that I can't enjoy a nice, juicy monkey steak?
Which brings on more questions. Since monkeys are so similar to humans, would humans get the same cannibal diseases by eating monkeys that we'd get from eating other humans?
Hmm - bagboyrebel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6the article said that all cephalopods would be protected, and that includes squid.
- pcx99, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I don't think octopus' need any protection. Now sharks... that's another matter.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7004909622962894202 - eplawless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"octopuses and their cousins, the *squid* and cuttlefish"
- perfectlycrazy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I for one would like to see a video of the octopus using tools. That sounds cool.
Then after that we can teach the sign language. - merr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I just knew when I clicked on this story that someone else had already beaten me to this lame joke. =)
- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I did as well, the little bastard got off his leash and I never saw him again. Plus, all those weird lost pet signs I had to put up, I had to move out of town just to score a date after that.
An octopus as a pet just plain sucks.
(Get it? Sucks? Ahhhh... time for me to go to bed...) - Suits, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5All I can think of is Japanese hentai tentacle porn. :s
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I had no idea that an Octopus was a thinking, feeling creature, no different really from you and me until I watched a video titled "The Octopus Show" from PBS's Nature, c2000.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/octopus/
One of the highlights is the mystery of the disappearing crabs. What follows is a minor spoiler, but also a great tease to watch this 60 minute flick: there is an aquatic lab, which has a couple of tanks, on tables, on opposite sides of this room. One tank has tasty crabs or other such octopus food and the other tank has hungry octopus. Too often, the workers would come to the lab in the morning to find the crab tank eerily filled with dead crab shell. So they decided to set up a video camera to surveill the lab at night. And boy, did they freak out when they saw what actually happened. The Octopus climbed out of the tank, onto the table and across to the other tank, hopped in and had a meal, and came back to it's tank when it was finished.
After seeing for myself what happened I will never underestimate the raw intellect of any of natures animals again, I'd be stupid too. Check it out for yourself. - diggdong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Octopus twists for shrimps
Roger Moore opens jar in Brighton
Jar trick: Octopuses are capable of feats of dexterity
An octopus in a German zoo has learned to open jars of shrimps by copying staff - and is now showing off her skills to visitors.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2796607.stm - sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Clearly you forgot about the undersea unexplained mass sponge migration.
- Shorties, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ Sockpuppets
I always thought that was all a cover up for One extremely lonely guy and his monkey... and his pet monkey. - ardenr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@Murphious - no it's not... it's more like a monkey's tail, as in PREHENSILE.
3 feet > 90cm by the way.
*****' scared yet?!? - Murphious, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Is that on youtube anywhere?
- bdrydyk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Because you asked, octopi is wrong, or at least not proper. The correct pluralization in octopuses.
See here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus
under terminology. - Korvaras, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Holy *****. The shark got it's ass kicked.
- gill1109, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2wow i'm going to get me some of the show's Desktop pictures - makes a change from all that harmony enhancing stuff..
- friedcalamari, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3What?
- nepawoods, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"But in British laboratories, cephalopods are regarded as a species so unsophisticated ..."
Uhm ... the cephalopods are not a species, they're a class. - dacheetah, on 10/12/2007, -8/+10*cough* Bush? *cough*
- Wingman007, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5@cwcheang:
Ok, for my first act of listening to you, I'm going to have to bury you for being off-topic. - nepawoods, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Video of octopus walking on two legs - quite amazing: http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/9999/walking.mpeg
- Murphious, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@bbnkstr:
That's got to be the only reply on digg that I've ever laughed at for a while... - Digg4all, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Octopodes creap me out. The whole detached penis/appendage thing that swims up in there after the male dies just doesn't seem right.
- gill1109, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2> They can experience suffering and are capable of complex thought
but still, WE are much more advanced - we can INFLICT suffering THROUGH our complex thought processes! (wars of religion and -isms like the so-called cold war). I don't think octopi inflict suffering for theological or philosophical reasons. - rickcarson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Please stay.
As the idiots migrate en masse to digg, Slashdot is almost becoming readable again. - UtopianComplex, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I feel uncomfortable choosing which animals to protect based on perceived intelligence. I know we can't protect all animals, but I just don't know if this qualification is just.
- cody50, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2yeah, lame I know. but just had to do it.
- matt1988, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2So because octopus and squid have a larger brain they get more rights? Does that mean I should have more rights than my retarded neighbor?
- ostracize, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1We always knew squids were intelligent. Haven't you ever played Red Alert 2?
- nepawoods, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"This is why I don't eat octopus. It's just cruel."
Cruel, but tasty, and it has a nice texture if you cook it right. - badken, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3This article would have been far more convincing if it had cited the "recent research". As a story by a political editor, though, I guess I'm hoping for too much there.
- ZenMojo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There is one. It just got dug down to -25.
- WeeklyGeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is why I don't eat octopus. It's just cruel. It would be like eating your dog or cat, if your dog or cat had 8 awesome tentacles.
- Phyltre, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1He raises a good point. I take it we can't eat protected animals? And if so, what's going to take its place at the local Chinese superbuffet with sections for calamari AND octopus?
I'm just not sure if I can handle this. -
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