The Squid Zone

Do you know these people?

Perhaps these people are you?  If you know who they are, contact me through this site and let me know if they want the photo back?  It was found by my wife in a library book she bought at Value Village.  If they want the photo back, I'm happy to return it, but I need to know how.

-Squid

Happy New Year

I wish everyone a peaceful 2010.

This is the first year that the New Year's Squid wasn't written ages in advance :)  I almost forgot!!!!11!1!!!!one!!eleven!

But have no fear... here it is:

credit: Mark Norman, Cephalopods A World Guide

As always, you can click the picture to see the cuttlefish in their full glory.

The great squid migration...

People who don't follow me on Facebook don't know this, but the Squidette has been causing me to migrate from my smallest-room-in-the-house office to what used to be her office.  She has moved to the guest bedroom.  The guest bedroom will move to what was my old office after we do some renovations.

This has caused me to start rifling through ye olde pile of crap.  I've found a few interesting things so far:

• an old Blackberry alpha-numeric, bi-directional pager with email capability, vintage 1996 or so
• a phone message from March 1991 when I was a captain in the military
• a Usenet news propagation map for the local area,vintage March 1993 - before I became a hub, but when Gordo was a hub
• a book called "Beer Quest" that locates all the beer stores in Ontario... in 1993
• a $600 Rogers bill from 2000... WTF was I doing?
• no less than 5 winter hats so far

However, the most interesting thing harkens back to a time when there was still a bit of fun to be had in Ottawa at a reasonable price:

When I bought that, I lived within walking distance of the stadium.  $6 for an evening's entertainment on a Monday night.  Where can you get a deal like that now?

Too bad the city fucked it all up...

The octopus cometh... part whatever

I love finding this stuff on the web.  If you click on the picture you'll be shuffled off to Animal Planet.  Watch the video.

It's a vid of a diver breaking what I understand is the cardinal rule of diving: don't poke into holes with anything you can't afford to lose (like your hand, or your face).

It's interesting that the octopus goes for the mask.  Although attacks by large cephalopods are quite rare, a common theme is that they go for the mask and regulator.  I think that denotes a level of cunning that is rather scary.

On the 5th day of Christmas, the universe gave to Earth...

This is extremely cool:

You can read more technical details about this here at Bad Astronomy, so I will spare you the details.  It's a cool video, watch it in HD if you can.

The octopus cometh... yet again

Cthulhu's minions are coming, and now they have armour!

Something new in the world of cephalopods... Scientists have discovered Veined Octopuses (in the waters of Indonesia) using coconuts for protection:

The researchers noticed that the animals were frequently using their approximately 6-inch-long (15-centimeter-long) tentacles to carry coconut shells bigger than their roughly 3-inch-wide (8-centimeter-wide) bodies.

An octopus would dig up the two halves of a coconut shell, then use them as protective shielding when stopping in exposed areas or when resting in sediment. 

Visit the National Geographic site, read about it and watch the cool videos!

There is hope for them

A friend of mine sent me this story today.  I've kept his name out (he can identify himself if he's so inclined).  I thought it was a good thing to post because it shows that maybe there still are some youth out there with a bit of personal initiative and drive:

We often slag the young for being lazy -- but about 15 minutes ago the doorbell rang.  There, in the middle of the storm, was a kid that look about 12 with a simple, direct pitch,

"Excuse me sir, could I shovel your driveway for $10?"

He looked a bit disappointed when I explained that we contracted a company to do it, but I wanted to reward his interest in actually working for money, so I gave him $5 to do the walkway and taught him a bit about negotiation in the process. I don't think he timed his work, but I bet he got the sense that it was a pretty good hourly rate.

Then he headed off to the neighbour's with his shovel.

So there is hope for this generation...

That message struck home because I used to do that when I was a kid, and there was good money in it.  Around Ottawa, it's harder going because there's a lot more snow than there was in St. Catharines and thus many people have snow removal contracts.  But the kid is making an effort instead of sitting in front of a computer writing blog posts playing video games and that deserves praise.  Well done!

Bohemian Muppet Rhapsody

Not sure if I can really make an adequate comment about this, but I will say that it's pretty funny...

The answer to the question on everyone's mind...

Yes.

For those unaware, I spent the last week in the hospital.  I'm out now, so no worries.  According to some people I chatted with and some staff from other parts of the hospital, I was assigned to the "Floor of Hot Nurses".  Apparently, I had the generally recognized "hottest nurse in the hospital" attending me for a day.

I can't say I disagree with the general assessment of nurse hotness on the floor.

Play "Hallowe'en Squid"

I was checking in over at Squid a Day as I often do and today they had a link to Max Games.  Max Games writes little flash games for the internet, and the current game is Hallowe'en Squid!  Can you snare all the candy while avoiding the children?

[edit: I removed the game, the music was really annoying to load weeks after Hallowe'en]

Visit Max Games for your internet time-wasting needs :)