Comments

  1. David Harmon says

    Because Otto here’s trying to appear irreducibly complex, or at least inedibly spiky? :-)

    Seriously, that looks like one heck of a threat display.

  4. Fernando Magyar says

    Otto? No way, that has to be Julia and she’s just trying to exit stage left out of the spotlight.

  6. says

    Chaos theory, cephalopods… it works for me. With one twitch of his Mandelbrotian tentacle this little guy sets in motion the natural events that eventually cause the freak hailstorm that wreaks havoc on the 2007 World Creationist Conference… An octopus beats his wings in China… er, nevermind. ;)

  7. Vance Maverick says

    These photos are really beautiful. (I hope you have permission from Norman and the publisher!)

  8. umilik says

    Why aren’t there any college or highschool sports teams named after cephalopods ? Instead of the boring and overused “tigers” “panthers” and other felids. Is it that you can’t have a msacot whose IQ exceeds that of the average creationist ?? Hmm

  9. trixie says

    I’m a bit cephalapod-ignorant. This may be a silly question, but I wonder which way is “up” to these critters? Tentacles down, head up? Tentacles behind, eyes up? Tentacles in front, eyes down? Anyone?

  10. thwaite says

    So a quick google search on “cephalopod mascot” returns this:

    Miskatonic University: A university in Arkham, which is in New England somewhere, according to H P Lovecraft’s geography. Their motto is, “A Small Sacrifice for Knowledge”, and their mascot is the Fighting Cephalopods. Visit their website at http://www.miskatonic.net. Now with online admissions!

    …it’s so EASY to find information on the web. Now as to its veracity… off to the wikipedia.

    I thought my alma mater was a bit weird: GO, banana slugs!

  11. says

    Vance Maverick, I hope the publisher sees the inherent advertising in what Dr. Myers does. Because of his scans of the photos in the book, I went out last week and ordered a copy from Amazon. At $65 a pop, I hope they appreciate that I would’ve never bought the book without seeing these gorgeous photos first here on this site.

  12. says

    PZ should look up the Octopus poem of Arthur Clement Hilton that begins:

    Strange beauty, eight limbed and eight handed,
    Whence camest to dazzle our eyes?
    With thy bosom bespangled and banded
    With the hues of the seas and the skies;
    Is thy home European or Asian,
    O mystical monster marine?
    Part molluscous and partly crustacean,
    Betwixt and between.