D'AWWWWCTOPUS: post yr images of adorable octopuses here (no squid allowed)

If the Residents were octopusses

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2013/10/39714.jpg?quality=45&resize=620,413

https://media.nature.com/w800/magazine-assets/d41586-019-03390-x/d41586-019-03390-x_17350538.jpg
it's party time!

Meet the dumbo octopus 🐙 just one of the creatures revealed by the Schmidt Ocean Institute during an exploration of the dark, uncharted waters more than a mile below the surface in the Coral Sea off Australia’s east coast https://t.co/RGMbQ2poTn pic.twitter.com/YZVpgOTU93

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 26, 2020

Beautiful

well well well

Well, I watched "My Octopus Teacher" on netflix: a flawed but moving documentary about a straight man who has a lifechanging erotic relationship with a female octopus. I cried, then read out loud to my friends the entirety of @amiasrinivasan's 2017 essay (https://t.co/ILun9KMlxz) pic.twitter.com/Azefm8xJjU

— Sophie Lewis (@reproutopia) September 20, 2020

lol, that film is dumb insofar as he befriends an octopus and then doesn’t interfere with a shark attacking it but then feels it’s appropriate to bring it food to heal and then bring his son to meet the octopus and that’s at the halfway mark of the film. narrator says “that’s when my relationship with my teacher deepened” and i peaced out. i’m as avidly pro-cephalopod as the next person but projection on that level is just gross. yes, the photography is spectacular. it’s good oceanography film porn but no, it's not erotic.

actually, i just read that whole tweet thread and i guess lewis is right on!

Some of the reactions to that fun thread..

Bernie would fuck an octopus

is it possible to have a non-erotic relationship with an octopus? or, because octopuses are by nature boundary-negating (in your reading) which is the essence of eros (in your reading), does that make them inherently erotic, meaning all relationships with octopuses are erotic?

— Elizabeth Bruenig (@ebruenig) September 21, 2020

I have to say, I never much care to hear anything from Elizabeth Bruenig and this goes double for this.

It's an illustration of democratic socialism Vs communism, with an octopus.

I have no intention of watching it but that LRB piece linked is classic and all the tradcaths/bores replying to that thread going “uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” are only telling on themselves.

Wild octopus reaches out to touch his human best friend whenever she visits 🐙💙 pic.twitter.com/VDniOcE1Bi

— The Dodo (@dodo) October 17, 2020

v good boy imo

d’awwww

that's about how long "my octopus teacher" should have been

Aw, I liked it, it was kind of like an octopus "Charlotte's Web."

Okay I know this isn't the right thread for it but I can't help falling in love with the banded piglet squid

https://azure.wgp-cdn.co.uk/app-practicalfishkeeping/news/4d04db986832b.jpg

it says no squid allowed right there in the thread title ffs

Yes and I am protesting that octonormative bigotry

loving it

pic.twitter.com/Q1FcXMd2SV

— Earth Aquatic (@earthaquatic) March 24, 2021

you had me there for a second

I thought it was real :(

octopus: come at me bro
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56612257

https://i.redd.it/py9vqx759wg41.jpg

It was at this moment that he knew he fucked up. pic.twitter.com/OM4cYwYLKE

— Kevin (@forensictoxguy) August 21, 2021

that moment just before the lethal neurotoxins from the blue ringed octopus paralyze your muscles and you can't breathe any more!

I have had a very similar experience - "oh wow, look, I think that is a tiny octopus! how magical, never seen one in a rock pool before"
*BING, dozens of blue rings light up on its skin*
"oh shit I am leaving now"

in the thread it diverges into other dangerous Antipodean creatures like the "murder-bird" and on reflection I very much like this colourful little octopus.

if i were australian i would never leave the house

An octopus changing colors in her sleep might be an indication she's dreaming. pic.twitter.com/vkZOLXWPkb

— Figen (@TheFigen) July 24, 2022

gorgeous

YES.

Incidentally: https://www.atlasobscura.com/experiences/cephalopods-online-course

what beauty! but that's gotta be perilous in the wild, surely? if protective camouflage is one of the main objectives/benefits of this ability then flashing like a beacon while you're unconscious seems counterproductive. maybe there has to be a baseline comfort level or established lack of nearby predators before a sleeping octopus relaxes to that degree. damn they are cool.

👑🐙🐙🐙👑

I really wonder what she is dreaming about.

Like, does an octopus having a pleasant dream look different from an octopus having a nightmare?

cat, I'd expect that most most sleeping octopuses aren't out in the open but in secure(?) dens where color flashing isn't such a giveaway.

I really wonder what she is dreaming about.

japanese researchers are way ahead of you on this one (nsfw)

yeah Leee, that makes sense. happy little octopi/octopuses/octopodes, all cozy in their dens, dreaming dreamy octopus dreams.

*ringo starr voice*

YES.

Incidentally: https://www.atlasobscura.com/experiences/cephalopods-online-course

My family and I did the last session of this course because my 8-year-old is a squid fanatic, and it was a very worthwhile and recommendable experience.

*ringo starr voice*

perfect

cross-posted from Weird Animals thread:

More evidence (i.e. RNA editing) that cephalopods are aliens: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/curiouser-and-curiouser-octopuss-evolution-is-even-stranger-than-thought/

― Antifa Lockhart (Leee), Wednesday, September 14, 2022 9:38 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

shameless BG bait:

Empathic octopus usually goes nearshore to receive the caresses of children before returning offshore (Sardinia, Italy) pic.twitter.com/Lqth1vaoG0

— Gabriele Corno (@Gabriele_Corno) September 19, 2022

a+ octopus, would caress

wild

Yes this a squid fight me:

This is a piglet squid and it is real.

📸: (Cabrillo Marine Aquarium/Gary Florin) pic.twitter.com/pyf2SnvUh1

— Erin Biba (@erinbiba) July 26, 2021

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/2022/09/lindblad-expeditions-national-geographic-to-explore-kimberley-and-beyond/

pouring one out for the other cephalopod thread, RIP to a real one
even more squiddities and sepiidies of the schooling class - the other cephalopod thread

Doh, I didn't see that thread! Will bookmark it now!

I was a bit tongue in cheek there, I don't think the cephalopod ILX traffic is so intense that we need two threads!