Eight arms, three hearts, and endless capabilities! Cephalophiles, dwellers of the deep, and lovers of all things absurd, join us as we explore and celebrate everything octopus!
Check out what Gabby and Tal are selling on Etsy.com. These two are purveyors of fun and funky vinyl decals for your home appliances, windows, cars, and even toilets - as they demonstrate.
My favorite, of course, is the creature lurking in the toilet tank, the octopus!
Many more cool stickers available at their shop. Enjoy!
"Octopus" was a song on Syd Barrett's first solo record, "The Madcap Laughs". Barrett released the album after being booted from Pink Floyd and replaced by longtime friend, David Gimour. The song, "Octopus", was released as a single in November of 1969 and was well-received, reaching #40 in the UK. The album containing the song followed in January of 1970.
Trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro You have no word Trip, trip to a dream dragon Hide your wings in a ghost tower Sails crackiling at evry plate we break Cracked by scattered needles Little minute gong Coughs and clears his throat Madam you see before you stand Hey ho, never be still The old original favourite gran Grasshoppers green herbarian band And the tune they play in us confide... So trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro You have no word Please leave us here Close our eyes to the octopus ride! Isnt it good to be lost in the wood Isnt it bad so quiet there, in the wood Twenty even less to me than I thought With a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds Clover honey pots and mystic shining feed... Well, the madcap laughed at the man on the border Hey ho, huff the talbot Cheetah he cried shouted kangaroo So through their tree they cried Please leave us here Close our eyes to the octopus ride! The madcap laughed at the man on the border Hey ho, huff the talbot The winds they blew and the leaves did wag And theyll never put me in their bag The seas will reach and always see So high you go, so low you creep The winds it blows in tropical heat The drones they throng on mossy seats The squeaking door will always creep Two up, two down well never meet So merrily trip for good my side Please leave us here Close our eyes to the octopus ride!
Because of their advanced problem-solving skills, dexterous mobility, and lack of a rigid skeletal structure, octopuses have the unique talent of being able to fit through tiny spaces. In this video, a 600 pound Cyanea Octopus wriggles it's way through an opening no bigger than a quarter! The footage is very high quality, offering a detailed view of the slippery tentacles as they maneuver through a clear plastic tube, and the narration is pretty darn informative. Enjoy:
To pay homage to the ever-fascinating and inky creatures, many humans opt for their own dose of ink with octopus tattoos. Below are some of my favorite octopus tattoos from BMEzine.com.
A lifelike beauty.
Such a cutie! Check out this Shel Silverstein illustration.
A badass nicknamed "Prometheus".
The skin pattern of an enraged Blue-Ringed Octopus.
From MailOnSunday.co.uk Writen by Daily Mail Reporter
Ask anyone how many arms an octopus has and the usual answer will be eight. But scientists now insist these nautical animals only have six. In a new study they found that the creatures used six of their tentacles as arms and two as legs. Marine experts at 20 Sea Life centres across Europe gathered data from over 2,000 separate observations. They found common octopuses moved over the ground using their back two limbs, leaving the remaining six for eating.
(Above) Scientists found that octopuses use two tentacles for walking and four as arms.
Claire Little, a marine expert from the Weymouth Sea Life Centre in Dorset, said: 'We've found that octopuses effectively have six arms and two legs.
'It had been thought they used four tentacles for movement and the other four for feeding and manipulating objects.
'But observations showed that they use the rearmost two to get around over rocks and the seabed.
'They also use these two legs to push off when they wish to swim, and then other tentacles are used to propel them.'
Four legs up, two legs down: An octopus goes for a walk.
The results came out of a study designed to show if octopuses favoured one side or the other. The study had involved giving them jam jars and Rubik's Cubes to play with in a bid to see if the creatures favour a particular tentacle for handling objects. While there is no obvious difference between any of the tentacles, experts were surprised to note how often the octopuses' third tentacle from the front was employed for eating.
They also concluded the creatures favour no side and are ambidextrous.
