Help Name the Octopus!

This is exciting stuff, ladies and gents!

The National Zoo in Washington has acquired a new Giant Pacific Octopus, and they want YOUR help naming the little fella. Since it'll grow to be about 10 feet in length, it won't be a little fella for long.

The zoo has set up a web page for people to vote on one of four octopus-inspired names. Since the octopus has not reached sexual maturity yet, its sex cannot be determined, so the names selected can be applied to either gender. The choices are:

Olympus: This octopus arrived at the Zoo just before the 2010 Winter Olympics, and for many zoogoers the octopus gets a gold medal for being a compelling animal.

Ceph: Octopuses belong to the fascinating group of animals called cephalopods (class Cephalopoda), which means “head-foot.” The arms or feet (podos in Greek) of these animals are on the front of their head (“cephalo” comes from the Greek kephale, for head).

Octavius: “Octavius the Octopus” is more than just a pretty, alliterative name. The prefix “oct” means eight—that’s how many arms an octopus has, and “Octavius” was the Latin name traditionally given to the eighth child.

Vancouver: Home may be where the heart is—three hearts in the case of the octopus—and this octopus came the Zoo from an organization in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the end of January.

Click on the link below to cast your vote, and make your octopus-loving voice heard!

Name the Octopus

Duralee Indoor/Outdoor Octopus Fabric

A few weeks ago, while shopping for fabric at the Pacific Design Center, I made the discovery of a lifetime! Fabulous indoor/outdoor octopus fabric! And best of all, it's rather affordable at $46/yard.

The fabric is made by Duralee, and for those on the hunt for it, you can search Duralee's website, product number 20851 to see all the different colorways.

Check out this beautiful chair with octopus-upholstered cushions...I'm planning on some new throw pillows, myself ;)

Octopus Fooled by HDTV

In experiments evaluating how the creatures react to moving images, the animals responded far more vigorously to HDTV than standard definition TV.

It appears that standard definition moving images are not sufficiently "convincing" for the sophisticated cephalopods, say scientists from Macquarie University.

Researchers can now use HDTV as a tool to study elements of their behavior, such as personality.

Details of the discovery are published in The Journal of Experimental Biology.

Source: Macquarie University, BBC

"Stretch" The Octopus in Toy Story 3

Good news for my fellow cephalophiles! Disney Pixar's newest 3D adventure, Toy Story 3 features a new toy: Stretch, a sparkly purple octopus. Stretch is brought to life by the voice of Whoopi Goldberg. Disney disabled the video link for embedding, so follow the link to watch the Toy Story 3 Trailer featuring Stretch in all her eight-arm glory!

Discovery LIFE Features the Octopus

From: SeattlePi.com, March 21, 2010
Written by: Tim Hall

Discovery LIFE

Discovery Channel's new series LIFE (hosted by Oprah Winfrey) begins Sunday March 21st at 8 PM. The first episode, Challenges of Life, shows what different species do to survive. Each species has a unique way of adapting to their ever changing environment...
The most fascinating part of the first episode was the octopus. The last act of the female octopus is laying 100,000 eggs (not a typo) and tending to them until they hatch. Shortly after she nurtures her eggs, she dies. I'm amazed at the level of sacrifice other animals possess.

To read the full article, please visit Blog.SeattlePi.com

LIFE, an 11-part series, debuts tonight, Sunday, March 21st at 8:00 pm.