International Cephalopod Awareness Days 2010

LO AND WOE, for I have been negligent!  We are in the midst of a holiday, perhaps the most important of holidays.  No, not that Columbus' Day foolishness, but the INTERNATIONAL CEPHALOPOD AWARENESS DAYS. The Cephalopodiatrist, TONMO, The Cephalopodcast and others are repping proudly and head-footly, I am doing my best to boost their signal. 

I'll be here.  Waiting.  

Photo by Mike Bartick.

So what are the International Cephalopod Awareness Days?  Directly citing the Cephalopodiatrist (brilliant name, btw), they are:

• Thursday, October 8 - Octopus Day, for all the eight-armed species
• Friday, October 9 - Nautilus Night, a time for all the lesser-known extant and extinct cephalopods
• Saturday, October 10 - Squid Day/Cuttlefish Day, or Squidurday, covering the tentacular species

According this list, my specialties would then be today and tomorrow, owing to my infinite love of the cuttlefish and fascination for all things weird, obscure and cephalopodic.  I've even written a past entry on ammonites that I can submit as a humble offering for today.  Or I guess I could use the one on argonauts, surely they count as semi-obscure cephalopods?

Now I must decide the method in which I should celebrate these most grand of creatures.  I thinking possibly commemorative baked goods.  If I was crafty in a material direction, I would consider making a head-mounted squid.  This is completely unrelated but amazing.

Even Chun-Li has a squid hat.  

Perhaps I should write about the ghosts of Cephalopods Past, those Paleozoic wonders whose remaining impressions of hard bits we can only gawk at in simultaneous sadness that they are no longer with us/happiness that we are not their prey.

Perhaps I should do a tribute to the cephalopod in fiction.  Why does the image of dread Cthulhu stick with us so stubbornly, far more than any other of Lovecraft's creations?

DECISIONS AND PRODUCTS TO COME LATER.  IN THE MEANTIME, MEDITATE ON ALL CEPHALOPODS, GREAT AND SMALL.  ALSO, FEEL FREE TO THROW MONEY IN THE GENERAL DIRECTION OF OCEAN BLOGGERS UNITED FOR EDUCATION

GET OUT YOUR POCKETBOOKS

It's that time of year again on a couple counts!

A) You'll soon be getting a new post only three months after the last one entitled "B is for BATOIDS".  I know you are literally oozing with excitement so you should probably go get a mop and take care of that, it'll stain the carpet.

A spotted eagle ray, who is indeed a batoid.

B) It's time for the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge 2010! www.donorschoose.org is one of my favorite educational charities, especially since I used to work in an elementary school and: 

i) they are poor, educational funding the U.S. is a trainwreck 

ii) I made it one of my duties to "transmit the joy of science to students"  in addition to being a literacy tutor.

I was more successful than I expected, possibly because I have zero shame and behave like an eight-year-old when it comes to things that I am excited about.  I probably made a bunch of adults uncomfortable too but maybe they should learn to not be joyless husks every once in a while. 

Anyway, not a lot of noise has been made yet and I am currently waiting to throw my lot in with the ocean science people.  PZ Myers and his lot already have their widget up, I'm just biding my time.

I'm also feeling the drive to do some sort of ocean-related top ten list.  One would suggest that it would be natural for me to do one on cephalopods, but that's so been done.  Of course, since it is the month of Halloween, I could do another "You call these horrors of the deep? Here are REAL horrors of the deep and btw the nature is amoral therefore this is not an excuse to kill sharks in the style of the Mexican Navy."  Because you KNOW all people are going to do this month is post pictures of anglerfish despite that the average anglerfish is about as terrifying/provides as much physical resistance as a bowl of pudding.

 

Arch-nemeses.