Comments

  1. BaisBlackfingers says

    False advertising, PZ. This cube will not stack. Also, it does not appear to contain a complete cephalopod, what with part of the mantle sticking out the back.

  2. Aliasalpha says

    @BaisBlackfingers

    Looks like you could just turn it on its side and they’d stack quite nicely.

  3. llewelly says

    The red handle on top makes that cube non stackable. It is particularly important to not damage that handle, in fact …

  4. says

    It’s a physics equation. How many cephalopods can you fit into this aquarium?

    “Assume the Cephalopod is a cube measuring…”

  5. Nice Ogress says

    Klein bottles? oh, wait.

    Actually on reflection I’d pay good money to see footage of a curious octopus investigating a glass klein bottle. Someone get on that.

  6. Neilp says

    There’s actually a story behind this picture. The idea here is that the octopus is supposed to figure out a few different puzzles in order to get into first the outer box, and then a smaller box inside that one that has a crab or two in it.

    Problem is, the octopus out smarted the test. There was a small hole in the box, so instead of messing with the puzzle, he just slipped his entire body through a hole no larger than a quarter. So, underneath him in that photo is another small box with a few really freaked out crabs.

  7. René says

    Holy shit. This calls for a new ISO unit: Suckers per sucker.

    That should be dimensionless, shouldn’t it?

  8. Matthew says

    Remember that the Weighted Cephalopod Cube cannot speak. In the event that the Weighted Cephalopod Cube DOES speak, Aperture Science urges you to ignore its advice.

  9. Gregory Greenwood says

    Its the latest craze:- cephalopod-in-a-box! Like a jack-in-the-box, but with the added fun of tentacles!

    Now I know what to get PZ for squidmass*.

    * Oh teh noes! I said ‘squidmass’! Surely I have declared war on all that is good and pure. Doubtless teh baby jeebus is crying even now…

  10. Acronym Jim says

    You can get them in neatly stackable cubes now.

    But getting them out, is an entirely different matter.

  11. Draken says

    Seen at customs on Heathrow. “Would you please open that case, sir? Or on second thoughts… move on please.”

  12. Z says

    Man, I thought I’d beat my Minecraft addition, and then you had to post a cubical octopus…

  13. Samantha Vimes, Chalkboard Monitor says

    The outer cube masks the non-Euclidean geometries inside. Cthulu f’th’gan!

  14. tlawry says

    I am no animal rightser but seeing an animal confined like that strikes me as cruel and grotesque. Maybe the octopus is dead, that would be all right then

  15. Tsu Dho Nimh says

    @25 tlawry: The octopus voluntarily entered the cube, and one assumes left the cube when it ate all the crabs or got bored.

    No one is going to wrestle an 8-foot Pacific octopus into anywhere it’s not willing to go.

  16. I. Ron Butterfly says

    Years ago I kept a few Octopus Briareus and they were fascinating animals. One in particular would come to the top of its tank at feeding time and extend a tentacle out of the water, waiting for her food.