German postcard. Film-Sterne, No. 536/7. Richard-Oswald-Film. Card for the German silent film Das Dreimäderlhaus (The House of Three Girls, Richard Oswald, Richard-Oswald-Film 1918), considered a lost film and dealing with the life of composer Franz Schubert (Julius Spielmann). The three sisters from the title, presented here, are played by Sybille Binder, Käthe Oswald, and Ruth Werner.

 

Das Dreimäderlhaus was based on a homonymous operetta, first performed in 1916 and using Schubert's music, while successful operetta adaptations were made as Chanson d'amour (1921), Blossom Time (1921) and Lilac Time (1922). The story deals with the love affairs of the three daughters of court glassmaker Christian Tschöll (Wilhelm Diegelmann) with Schubert and his two friends. Under the lilac tree Tschöll agrees to the marriage of his three daughters with the three young men, but while Schubert's friends marry, a misunderstanding prevents marriage between Schubert and Hannerl (Sybille Binder). She marries baron Schober (Conrad Veidt), against whose maneuvers his girlfriend Grisi (Anita Berber) warns. Hannerl instead thinks Grisi warns against Schubert, so she marries Schober instead, and Schubert is left alone.

DL feels kinda jealous of her, and crazy about him :-<

 

"I kissed Bella....and she broke her hand....punching my face... it was all a misunderstanding" - Jacob Black, Eclipse

 

8-}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

 

therainbowfashionista.blogspot.com/2013/06/gotta-catch-em...

 

Skin: cStar Limited - Carla 1 - Amber

Hair: Alice Project - Steph II - Black/Yellow

Horns: .::Kre-ations::. - {.*Chibi Oni*.} Horns

Cupcake: I made it ask me for it

Eyes: .::Kre-ations::. - Eclypse eyes - Uranus

Necklace: Cute Poison - Gamer Necklace (Available in Endless Summer Hunt)

Shirt: [IMP TAIL] - Catch'em All Female Mesh Tee

Skirt: .::Kre-ations::. - Pika Microskirt (Group Gift)

Shoes: N-core - COQUETTE - Black

Pose: Love Me Brutal - Pokemon Trainer 1

 

Special Thanks to Kaylith for pulling this out of her ass last minute and taking the pics for me. And apologies to Skyler for the misunderstanding that lead to us being mad at each other about this post.

Dee Why Beach

Northern Sydney, New South Wales

 

As summer approaches, it seems like more and more people are flocking to the beach to cool off. Surf lifesavers are busy patrolling the beach/ surf in their inflatables and buggy. At fixed section of the beach, there are these surf rescue boards propped up in the sands, ready to be used in any emergencies. They also make great foreground subjects for photographers :)

 

On another note, I felt really awkward using my DSLR in a crowded beach. Does anyone have the same feeling? I felt that I need to be really careful of where I am framing my shot (and who is in my shot) just to avoid any misunderstandings. Also lugging a DSLR meant that someone had to keep a close eye on the belongings, while the other go for a swim. Life of a photographer really ain't easy ! :)

 

1 exp shot (with CPL), edited in lightroom.

 

Comments and constructive criticisms are appreciated!

The Coco Cola company feel free to contact me if you want to use this image for any advertisement purposes. I can rotate the logo very easily!

 

"Bayer: Respecting Your Right To Be You"

 

I am proud to work for a company that values Diversity and Inclusion. I am also glad to see that the LGBTQIA community is gradually gaining acceptance in this country (unfortunately, it is more gradual in some areas than her in California).

 

I am hopeful that one day, we can be accepting of all who are "different." On a personal note, I grew up with bullying for being a foreigner when I was a kid. I also discovered that, although heterosexual, I have a foot fetish, which also caused me to be made fun of. Popular culture and fear both contribute to a misunderstanding, misrepresentation and fear of my "condition." I had a deep sense of shame about both (German and foot fetishist), and much like members of the LGBTQIA community, I was born this way , and I cannot be cured. Nor do I wish to be.

 

The flag was provided to the West Sacramento facility by BLEND -- an Employee Resource Group for the LGBTQIA community within Bayer (Note: BLEND is not an acronym -- just all caps -- so don't hurt yourself, trying to figure out what it stands for).

Taoist Ethics ,By Bill Mason ..Portions of this essay is derived from The Tao of Inner Peace by Diane Dreher. I highly recommend this book for the way it beautifully divides the Tao Te Ching into principles and ways to live.Through the four basic principles of nature, there are several derived ethical suggestions which make up the bulk of the Tao Te Ching. The unique thing about the Taoist approach to ethics is that they aren't designed to preach to people about how to live. They're simply a description of what certain behaviors produce, when applied to these four principles. It's sort of like wondering why your foot hurts but then you find out that you stabbed yourself in your foot with a nail. The Tao Te Ching wouldn't say, "thou shalt not stab thy foot with thy nail," it would say, "if you stab yourself in the foot with a nail, your foot is going to hurt!" This may seem like common sense, but you'd be surprised just how easily everyone violates the principles of nature.Selflessness

One thing basic to the Taoist belief is a redefinition of "self" or "ego." Taoists believe that the way we try to stand outside ourselves in the attempt of self-observation is the source of most, if not all, of our unhappiness and loneliness, simply because in order to observe as such, we must see our "self" as separate from other "selves." This creates many unnecessary and troublesome illusions, and is based on an untrue assumption: that organisms are mutually exclusive. For a good argument against this assumption, as well as some of the negative affects of the illusions it creates, it is recommended that you read The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts. The goal of Taoism isn't to obliterate the ego, simply because this isn't possible. In order to stop ourselves from seeing ourselves as separate, we must see ourselves as separate, which creates a never-ending paradox. The goal instead is to keep our attention on the greater whole, the process to which there is a pattern, which is known to always return the source. The Tao is infinite, eternal. Why is it eternal? It was never born; thus it can never die. Why is it infinite? It has no desires for itself; thus it is present for all beings. The Master stays behind; that is why she is ahead. She is detached from all things; that is why she is one with them. Because she has let go of herself, she is perfectly fulfilled.- Tao Te Ching (Mitchell translation), Chapter 7 ModerationLimitations are everywhere. Even if you were convinced by science fiction that some day, humans will conquer nature, and we will no longer be subject to its limitations (which is logically impossible), think of all the other limitations you're given from day to day: rules imposed by society, parents, and your nation. Even if you pick and choose which rules to obey, you're still left to deal with the consequences. Limitations are unavoidable. Freedom resides in the recognition of limitations. In knowing how far you're able to reach, you'll have perfect freedom to choose just how far within that range to reach. The ideal of unlimited freedom is an illusion. Maximum freedom is experienced when one is in the middle between the upper bound and lower bound limitations, in other words, moderation. Then one has the maximum range in which to alter his behavior. This is the Taoist ethic of freedom through moderation. Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.

 

- Tao Te Ching (Mitchell translation), Chapter 9 Embracing the Mystery Fear is a basic inate feature of living things. It is what allows the "fight or flight" response. By being afraid, one keeps himself away from danger. However, by humbling yourself with the knowledge that you are a part of nature, you know that you have to rely on nature for your needs. Not everything can be "out to get you," and, in fact, most of our fear reactions are overreactions. Despite all we know of nature, through science and art and living, there are still many things which we don't know. How could we? We only have a brain a few cubic centimeters in volume. How could we store the knowledge of everything about nature? The truth is, we've stored only those things which help us to survive in nature, with perhaps a few added goodies which enable us with the potential to enjoy a happy life and pursue our own dreams and aspirations. But what of all the things we don't know? That's what religion is for, right? Well, despite what you may claim is true or not true, despite all your opinions and biases, beliefs and disbeliefs, the Universe is still a great mystery to you, and much of life is taken up with coping with this mystery. Living your life in an environment which you know nothing about. No wonder why we're so scared!

But Taoists take a different approach. Taoists embrace the mystery. They enjoy every confusion and misunderstanding and mysterious thing they see, because to them, life is a game, and games, as you know, aren't fun without both the possibility of winning and the equal possibility of losing. Mystery is what makes games fun, and to Taoists, mystery is what makes life fun. For this reason, Taoists still retain their basic innate fear. As Lao Tzu put it, "they were careful, as someone crossing an iced-over stream," yet "Receptive as a valley, clear as a glass of water." They balance their fear with their curiousity to seek the true potential of their existence. They look within themselves and see all that they don't understand, and they like it that way. Because they're centered in the Tao, they don't need to worry about that which they don't understand. The Master keeps her mind always at one with the Tao; that is what gives her her radiance. The Tao is ungraspable. How can her mind be at one with it? Because she doesn't cling to ideas. The Tao is dark and unfathomable. How can it make her radiant? Because she lets it. Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not. How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see.

- Tao Te Ching (Mitchell translation), Chapter 21 Non-Contrivance

As I said above, the Tao Te Ching doesn't preach. At most it describes the results of various behaviors, based on the four basic principles of nature. However, it goes on to warn against those who preach, or try to tell you how to live. It warns against contrived, or consciously manipulated morality. Because nature is dynamic, and contrived morals are stiff, contrived morals go against nature. Furthermore, the purpose for these morals are usually not better living, but greater control, either for yourself or for others. By dictating your morals, other people feel a sense of control over your life, and its no different just because you dictate your own morals. The bottom line is that whether you're living better or not has no bearing on morality, only if your more controlled. Nature is not something that can be controlled; it controls itself. You needn't impose your control on it, or let others impose their control on you.

Perhaps an example would help here. Several years ago, I worked at a pizza place. I was a great worker, did everything I was told, and did it as efficiently as I knew how. I was very open to constructive criticism, and I was constantly trying to improve my job skills. One day, I had to pick up my mother from work and bring her home before I went to work. I got into work just in time, but I wasn't in my uniform yet. I changed as quickly as I could and reported to my manager at 6:03p.m. She asked me, "what time is it?" I said, "around six o'clock." She yelled, "what time is it?!" I repeated my answer. She told me to look at the clock. I returned and said, "it's six o' three mam." She proceeded to scold me for being late to work. When I tried to explain, she yelled at me to shut up. So I quit. I use this as an example because there was nothing of substantial value I could have done in those three minutes. She scolded me not because I have caused problems but because I broke the grand moral, "thou shalt not be late for work." If you want to be a great leader, you must learn to follow the Tao. Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself. The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. The more weapons you have, the less secure people will be. The more subsidies you have, the less self-reliant people will be. Therefore the Master says: I let go of the law, and people become honest. I let go of economics, and people become prosperous. I let go of religion, and people become serene. I let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes common as grass.- Tao Te Ching (Mitchell translation), Chapter 57 Detachment Because there are two polarities overriding all existence, to attach to one or the other would be to misunderstand them. By nature, they are inseparable. To have one, you implicitly have the other. Therefore the Tao Te Ching often teaches detachment. Attachment can come in several forms, just as the yin and yang come in several forms. You can be attached to knowledge from the knowledge/ignorance polarity. You can be attached to life from the life/death polarity. You can be attached to action from the action/non-action polarity. The most general of all, you can be attached to the being, or manifestation, in the being/non-being polarity. The Tao Te Ching teaches that learning is a part of life, but what you learn doesn't belong to you. To attach to your learning as your own, strutting your stuff and trying to scare people with your big concepts, or to even think that your knowledge is all that important, is to misunderstand the knowledge. In such a game, knowledge becomes a prize, and ignorance is the enemy. The Tao Te Ching teaches that life and death are cycles of nature. One day something is allowed to live, the next day it dies. One thing lives at the expense of another, and this creates a chain of dependence of one species upon another. This is neither bad nor good, it just is. The goal of all species is to survive, but only as a part of the living/dying game. To attach to life and fear death is to misunderstand life. Life is a cycle, not a grand victory or grand loss. The Puritan work ethic is prevalent in Western thought. Work, work, work. Laziness, by this way of thinking, is the enemy. The Tao Te Ching teaches that playing gives purpose to work, and work gives perspective to playing. Furthermore, as everything else, they go in cycles. Lao Tzu warned that anything excessive will lead to its excessive opposite. Thus, by preaching that everyone work excessively, the Puritan work ethic is actually creating laziness and excessive playing. People seek more and more exciting forms of play: drive-by shootings, all-night parties with kegs and every drug known to mankind, promiscuous sex, etc. By detaching, you allow yourself to live in moderation.

In the most general sense, all of these can be summed up as the battle between having and not having, being and not being, existing and not existing. The frantic struggle to control and possess more and more things (being, or manifestation), and eliminate lack, misfortune and emptiness (non-being). The struggle, of course, is what makes life fun, but without the thing to be struggled against, there is no struggle. Therefore, the Tao Te Ching teaches to honor the enemy, to humble yourself in knowing that you'll never win, but that doesn't mean to quit playing, it just means to play with honor and fairness. To use the game analogy, it means to not pull a .64 magnum on your opponent in the middle of a monopoly game. Empty your mind of all thoughts. Let your heart be at peace. Watch the turmoil of beings, but contemplate their return. Each separate being in the universe returns to the common source. Returning to the source is serenity. If you don't realize the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow. When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king. Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.

- Tao Te Ching (Mitchell translation), Chapter 16 Humility "Congratulations! You just won! What are you going to do now? ... I'm going to Disneyland." This is a classic Disneyland commercial that most people have heard before. You know, whenever someone does something outstanding, they're what they're going to do next, and they would reply that they're going to Disneyland.

The proper question is, what else is there to do? No one is going to play trumpets for you and have the whole world bow. You'll get a bit of recognition no matter what you succeed at, but you can't expect too much. Disneyland happened to believe the best thing for someone to do once they've succeeded at something is to go to Disneyland. Lao Tzu would agree. Humility means doing your job with detachment from the outcome. It means to commit yourself from moment to moment, all that it takes. Success happens every moment you do this; it's not something that only happens when you have no more to do. Actually, that's the time that you've stopped succeeding, and, of course, the time to go to Disneyland. The Master does his job and then stops. He understands that the universe is forever out of control, and that trying to dominate events goes against the current of the Tao. Because he believes in himself, he doesn't try to convince others. Because he is content with himself, he doesn't need others' approval. Because he accepts himself, the whole world accepts him.

☛ Facebook ıı Tumblr ☚

Ugh, I think a bit of it is starting to get infected, which I totally don't understand since I've KEPT antibiotic cream on it. I'll watch it for the next day or so. The rest seems to be healing nicely.

Damme became a great town due to its connection with the sea. This was not via the Damse Vaart, as people do think sometimes. It's a widely spread misunderstanding since the canal follows in great lines the bed of the old Zwin.

The Damse Vaart was dug on command of Napoleon (start in 1810). This is why it is sometimes also referred to as the Napoleon canal. The digging was done by Spanish prisoners of war, "descendents" of the soldiers that ruled in the Netherlands no so long before. This channel was intended to be a part of a network of canals alongside the coast. This would enable the French army to move around much faster and to transport supplies much more rapidly since the French marine was not match for the English navy. The "Damse Vaart" was supposed to connect Bruges with the Scheldt, but that was never accomplished because of the loss of Napoleon in battle. The last piece between Hoeke and Sluis was only finished in 1856. In the meantime the evil had been done: Napoleon had the canal dug straight through the town of Damme with as consequence that a large portion of the town was demolished: the Corn Market and a number of stately mansions. The three waterways that merged in the centre of Damme (Lieve, Reie and Zwin) and the old harbour were filled up with the sand that was dug up for completing the "Damse Vaart". Alas the last remains of Monnikenrede dissapeared under the canal.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Leopoldcanal and the Schipdonkcanal were dug. They stream next to each other on the territory of Damme and cross the Damse Vaart between Damme and Oostkerke. In order to make the Damse Vaart pass the other two canals, a system of siphons was used where the two canals passed under the Damse Vaart.

If you want to know if there was navigation on the Damse Vaart, well there was. Next to ships for supplying the villages next to the canal (coal, agricultural products,...) there was also a so-called barge transporting people from Bruges to Sluis and back. This barge remained in service until 1940, the year in which French army engineers blew the siphons in order to stop the German advance. Well, it did not stop the Germans and made navigation no longer possible on the Damse Vaart. The siphons were never rebuilt. There was just the tourist boat "Zeehond" that still sailed between Damme and Bruges. This boat is now replaced by the "Lamme Goedzak". So there is still opportunity to enjoy it from the water.

The canal is nowadays mainly known for its bicycle friendly character in the beautiful green polders.

After Raquelle left, they start talking things out

 

K: I feel sorry that you have to deal with this foolery everyday

 

R: First off I didn't have anything to do with this, sorry about that.I'm here now so tell me what you want.

 

K: Allright *takes a quick breather* I just wanna tell you that what happened was a big misunderstanding it was not what it looked like.

 

R: So this was just an illuison and not your boyfriend? save the bullsh*t! you lied to me, and even brought me to your house knowing he could walk in any second..

 

K: No, it wasn't like that, just listen! He's NOT my boyfriend anymore, i broke up with him not long ago before we met. But he didn't move out completly and he still had some stuff over there at the house.

 

R: Really? this is your excuse? Kara, don't tell me any fairytales now..

 

K: Ryan i swear, what i say is true. After i got to know you, i knew there is more between us. Belive me,i didnt do this on purpose and i'm so sorry for what happened.

 

R: So what you're saying is that he just wanted to get his stuff? How come he got so anrgy and almost beat the crap out of me?

 

K: Like i said, we broke up recently.Nobody wants to expose their ex in a bed after a recent break up.

 

R: Then why would you bring me to your place knowing he could expose us?

 

K: It was just the wrong place at the wrong time, but that doesn't take away the fact that it felt right between us.

 

R: I can't belive you for some reason, you lied to me. We made a great connection that i didn't expect and you kinda grew on me.But the little bit of trust i built up is gone now.

 

K: It was my fault i should've told you,ok? I made a mistake and I'm sorry you did not deserve that.

 

R: I'm confused. I don't know what to belive.

 

K: I'm keeping it 100 right now with you. Belive me you grew on me too and i don't wanna loose you

 

Ryan get's kinda blushed but keeps a straight face

 

K: and you know, you're looking kinda foine in your white v-neck

 

He turns his head around to hide his smirk

 

K: Oh, was that a smile?

 

R: Yes, but i still don't know if you're telling me the truth, i don't tolerate liars at all.

 

K: Look here, if you belive me and feel the same as i do, then here take my hand as a sign *holds her hand open*

 

a short recap of the previous event takes place in Ryans head

 

R: I'm sorry i gotta pass kara. I was really hurt and still am, but i like you a lot and if what you told me is the truth and If you really like me as much as you said, then just give me some time, ok?

 

K: That's fine, i'll give you as much time as you need.

 

R: Okay so....I'll see you ok?

 

K: Allright, babe.

 

They hug each other before seperating ways

 

------------------------------------

Tommorow is the start of the Finale which included 4 Parts. After this i can glady say that i'm happy this is over lol

...at what price?

  

izzy's-photos on Flickeflu

 

Edit: Some people are misunderstanding my title and description, I'm referring to the production of very cheap clothes contributing to the wasteful society we live in.... the price I mention is not the price of the clothes but the price to the planet and the well being of the people on it.

 

I don't remember what was said, but I think I was the only one who realized that Laura heard something completely different from the rest of us.

Pickpockets attention!!!. Please take care for your hand luggage!!! :-)

 

Please have a look to the notice!!!

 

VIEW ON BLACK

Burrito keeps trying, and he is making progress. He and the Ixies had a little misunderstanding today though, something to do with yes, they were planning to eat the food that was left on their plate, and no, he is not welcome in their room just yet. Watching them interact has been very interesting, and I had no idea that cats would hunt in a pack. Apparently, neither did Burrito:-))

 

The music is the song Funny How Love Can Be, by The Ivy League. They were a '60s British pop group who were together only a couple of years but remain a big favorite with me!

On this day 23 years ago, following a small misunderstanding, I offered Tracy a hug by way of apology. She accepted, snuggled under my arm... and stayed there. She never seems to to have moved since.

 

Five years later we were married, and today is our 18th wedding anniversary, marking 23 years of being together.

 

There have been ups and downs, but she has always been there for me, not least most recently when clinging to her hand was the only respite that I had from the pain in my gut from my malfunctioning gall bladder.

 

So here's to Tracy, my Tracy, and may there me 23 more wonderful years and more to come.

Spent some hours at this spot north of Madrid Airport whilst waiting for our friend who, due to a misunderstanding, was unable to arrive the night before.

 

The clouds were low and planes quite distant, but this one worked!

 

The aircraft is Spanish Air Force Airbus A310 T.22-1 - not a bad item :-)

 

Madrid-Barajas, Spain

9th October 2014

  

20141009 IMG_6279cc std

(Corynorhinus rafinesquii). Deep East Texas.

 

We've heard it said many times that people fear what they don't understand. I believe that we also often fear things that are vastly different from us. In the case of the bat, I think that the reason they inspire so much fear in so many is that they are so different, yet in many ways eerily similar.

 

Their volant nature, nocturnal habits, and propensity to dwell in the darkest, most hidden of places has perpetuated unjustified fear and misunderstanding for millennia. It is hard to imagine another group of animals that has been the basis for so much dark folklore. Add to the mix that a small number of species feed on mammalian blood, and it seems that bats are doomed to forever dwell in our nightmares.

 

It is unfortunate that such a diverse, beneficial group is surrounded by this cloud of negativity and fear. Bats are perhaps the most beneficial group of non-domesticated animals. In the case of the Rafinesque's Big-eared Bat, and many more insectivorous species, as they emerge from their daytime refugia each evening during the warmer months, they embark on a journey to find, capture, and consume as many flying insects as they possibly can. The result is fewer mosquitoes and other insect pests in areas with healthy bat populations.

 

The truth is that these winged masters of the night pose no threat to us. But they themselves are in danger. Populations of different bat species are declining across most of the United States. Some are vanishing due to white-nose syndrome, a fungal ailment that is killing colonial bats by the millions. Others, like Corynorhinus rafinesquii are suffering unprecedented habitat loss as the mature bottomland forests they depend on are rapidly disappearing.

 

This handsome bat is part of a colony that a friend found in an abandoned, dilapidated house deep in the forest. This species historically roosted in large, hollow trees. As suitable trees became more and more scarce, and old timber-boom towns became abandoned, they began finding refuge in these old buildings.

 

Though my previous statements may paint mankind's opinion of bats in a negative light, over the past few decades it seems that opinions have been changing, thanks to efforts to help educate the public to the interesting ecology and unprecedented benefit of the Chiroptera. Today, for example, hundreds of people will congregate nightly to watch the emergence of bats from caves and the underside of bridges as they begin their nocturnal hunt. Others are placing bat boxes across the country in order to encourage them to take up residence near their homes.

 

It is my hope that as attitudes continue to change, and hopeful strives are made to conserve bat habitat and combat the spread of white-nosed syndrome, that the future of the only mammal capable of true flight will be much brighter than the past.

 

Yesterday, Republican Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana signed a bill that ushered in the Indiana Religious Protection Law, which legalizes discrimination in employment, housing and the delivery of services to people who are or appear to be gay.

 

After the private signing ceremony, the governor, and leaders of the Republican-controlled General Assembly called concerns about discrimination a "misunderstanding," claiming: "This is not discrimination against gays."

 

Gov. Pence closed the doors to the press and uninvited guests at the signing ceremony. He was joined instead by supportive lawmakers, Franciscan monks and nuns, orthodox Jews, and some of the state's most powerful lobbyists on conservative social issues.

 

The governor's obvious lying about the effects of his bill is not wearing well with a number of critics, hitting well beyond a civil and human rights perspective, and is already creating a firestorm against Indiana from a business and revenue perspective.

 

It appears that Hoosiers can say goodbye to their convention and tourist trade, and, if this stands, they will struggle to replace some of the major international corporations located in Indiana that have already taken a stand against this.

 

Today, Mark Beinehoff, CEO of SalesForce, Inc. announced that they will be moving their major convention out of Indiana to New York. Eli Lily and Alcoa have each already come out with clear and concise statements of warning about this legalized discrimination. It's too late for the NCAA to make a change this year, but they're already talking about moving operations out of Indiana. Even the Chamber of Commerce was against this bill.

 

Indiana is now the 20th state to knuckle under to pressure from religious bigoted groups and pass a bill modeled on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by Bill Clinton in 1993.

 

If you know me, you know that I consider Bill Clinton to be the most overrated president of my lifetime and I'll be glad to explain why to anyone interested. He did a lot of harm. But the purpose here is to ask you to Boycott Indiana in any way possible in payment for the way their governor and his cronies have come down on the LGBT community and lied about it to boot.

Day six!

this was inspired by a friend of mine that has anorexia!

follow me on twitter twitter.com/#!/lottieh45

Love Lottie

The octopus (plural octopuses) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (/ɒkˈtɒpədə/, ok-TO-pə-də). Around 300 species are recognised, and the order is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like other cephalopods, the octopus is bilaterally symmetric with two eyes and a beak, with its mouth at the center point of the eight limbs.[a] The soft body can rapidly alter its shape, enabling octopuses to squeeze through small gaps. They trail their eight appendages behind them as they swim. The siphon is used both for respiration and for locomotion, by expelling a jet of water. Octopuses have a complex nervous system and excellent sight, and are among the most intelligent and behaviourally diverse of all invertebrates.

 

Octopuses inhabit various regions of the ocean, including coral reefs, pelagic waters, and the seabed; some live in the intertidal zone and others at abyssal depths. Most species grow quickly, mature early, and are short-lived. In most species, the male uses a specially adapted arm to deliver a bundle of sperm directly into the female's mantle cavity, after which he becomes senescent and dies, while the female deposits fertilised eggs in a den and cares for them until they hatch, after which she also dies. Strategies to defend themselves against predators include the expulsion of ink, the use of camouflage and threat displays, the ability to jet quickly through the water and hide, and even deceit. All octopuses are venomous, but only the blue-ringed octopuses are known to be deadly to humans.

 

Octopuses appear in mythology as sea monsters like the Kraken of Norway and the Akkorokamui of the Ainu, and probably the Gorgon of ancient Greece. A battle with an octopus appears in Victor Hugo's book Toilers of the Sea, inspiring other works such as Ian Fleming's Octopussy. Octopuses appear in Japanese erotic art, shunga. They are eaten and considered a delicacy by humans in many parts of the world, especially the Mediterranean and the Asian seas.

 

ETYMOLOGY AND PLURALISATION

The scientific Latin term octopus was derived from Ancient Greek ὀκτώπους, a compound form of ὀκτώ (oktō, "eight") and πούς (pous, "foot"), itself a variant form of ὀκτάπους, a word used for example by Alexander of Tralles (c. 525–605) for the common octopus. The standard pluralised form of "octopus" in English is "octopuses"; the Ancient Greek plural ὀκτώποδες, "octopodes" (/ɒkˈtɒpədiːz/), has also been used historically. The alternative plural "octopi" is considered grammatically incorrect because it wrongly assumes that octopus is a Latin second declension "-us" noun or adjective when, in either Greek or Latin, it is a third declension noun.

 

Fowler's Modern English Usage states that the only acceptable plural in English is "octopuses", that "octopi" is misconceived, and "octopodes" pedantic; the latter is nonetheless used frequently enough to be acknowledged by the descriptivist Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary and Webster's New World College Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary lists "octopuses", "octopi", and "octopodes", in that order, reflecting frequency of use, calling "octopodes" rare and noting that "octopi" is based on a misunderstanding. The New Oxford American Dictionary (3rd Edition, 2010) lists "octopuses" as the only acceptable pluralisation, and indicates that "octopodes" is still occasionally used, but that "octopi" is incorrect.

 

ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY

SIZE

The giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) is often cited as the largest known octopus species. Adults usually weigh around 15 kg, with an arm span of up to 4.3 m. The largest specimen of this species to be scientifically documented was an animal with a live mass of 71 kg. Much larger sizes have been claimed for the giant Pacific octopus: one specimen was recorded as 272 kg with an arm span of 9 m. A carcass of the seven-arm octopus, Haliphron atlanticus, weighed 61 kg and was estimated to have had a live mass of 75 kg. The smallest species is Octopus wolfi, which is around 2.5 cm and weighs less than 1 g.

 

EXTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS

The octopus is bilaterally symmetrical along its dorso-ventral axis; the head and foot are at one end of an elongated body and function as the anterior (front) of the animal. The head includes the mouth and brain. The foot has evolved into a set of flexible, prehensile appendages, known as "arms", that surround the mouth and are attached to each other near their base by a webbed structure. The arms can be described based on side and sequence position (such as L1, R1, L2, R2) and divided into four pairs. The two rear appendages are generally used to walk on the sea floor, while the other six are used to forage for food; hence some biologists refer to the animals as having six "arms" and two "legs". The bulbous and hollow mantle is fused to the back of the head and is known as the visceral hump; it contains most of the vital organs. The mantle cavity has muscular walls and contains the gills; it is connected to the exterior by a funnel or siphon. The mouth of an octopus, located underneath the arms, has a sharp hard beak.

 

The skin consists of a thin outer epidermis with mucous cells and sensory cells, and a connective tissue dermis consisting largely of collagen fibres and various cells allowing colour change. Most of the body is made of soft tissue allowing it to lengthen, contract, and contort itself. The octopus can squeeze through tiny gaps; even the larger species can pass through an opening close to 2.5 cm in diameter. Lacking skeletal support, the arms work as muscular hydrostats and contain longitudinal, transverse and circular muscles around a central axial nerve. They can extend and contract, twist to left or right, bend at any place in any direction or be held rigid.

 

The interior surfaces of the arms are covered with circular, adhesive suckers. The suckers allow the octopus to anchor itself or to manipulate objects. Each sucker is usually circular and bowl-like and has two distinct parts: an outer shallow cavity called an infundibulum and a central hollow cavity called an acetabulum, both of which are thick muscles covered in a protective chitinous cuticle. When a sucker attaches to a surface, the orifice between the two structures is sealed. The infundibulum provides adhesion while the acetabulum remains free, and muscle contractions allow for attachment and detachment.

The eyes of the octopus are large and are at the top of the head. They are similar in structure to those of a fish and are enclosed in a cartilaginous capsule fused to the cranium. The cornea is formed from a translucent epidermal layer and the slit-shaped pupil forms a hole in the iris and lies just behind. The lens is suspended behind the pupil and photoreceptive retinal cells cover the back of the eye. The pupil can be adjusted in size and a retinal pigment screens incident light in bright conditions.Some species differ in form from the typical octopus body shape. Basal species, the Cirrina, have stout gelatinous bodies with webbing that reaches near the tip of their arms, and two large fins above the eyes, supported by an internal shell. Fleshy papillae or cirri are found along the bottom of the arms, and the eyes are more developed.

 

CIRCULATORY SYSTEM

Octopuses have a closed circulatory system, in which the blood remains inside blood vessels. Octopuses have three hearts; a systemic heart that circulates blood around the body and two branchial hearts that pump it through each of the two gills. The systemic heart is inactive when the animal is swimming and thus it tires quickly and prefers to crawl. Octopus blood contains the copper-rich protein haemocyanin to transport oxygen. This makes the blood very viscous and it requires considerable pressure to pump it around the body; octopuses' blood pressures can exceed 75 mmHg. In cold conditions with low oxygen levels, haemocyanin transports oxygen more efficiently than haemoglobin. The haemocyanin is dissolved in the plasma instead of being carried within blood cells, and gives the blood a bluish colour.

 

The systemic heart has muscular contractile walls and consists of a single ventricle and two atria, one for each side of the body. The blood vessels consist of arteries, capillaries and veins and are lined with a cellular endothelium which is quite unlike that of most other invertebrates. The blood circulates through the aorta and capillary system, to the vena cavae, after which the blood is pumped through the gills by the auxiliary hearts and back to the main heart. Much of the venous system is contractile, which helps circulate the blood.

 

RESPIRATION

Respiration involves drawing water into the mantle cavity through an aperture, passing it through the gills, and expelling it through the siphon. The ingress of water is achieved by contraction of radial muscles in the mantle wall, and flapper valves shut when strong circular muscles force the water out through the siphon. Extensive connective tissue lattices support the respiratory muscles and allow them to expand the respiratory chamber. The lamella structure of the gills allows for a high oxygen uptake, up to 65% in water at 20 °C. Water flow over the gills correlates with locomotion, and an octopus can propel its body when it expels water out of its siphon.

 

The thin skin of the octopus absorbs additional oxygen. When resting, around 41% of an octopus's oxygen absorption is through the skin. This decreases to 33% when it swims, as more water flows over the gills; skin oxygen uptake also increases. When it is resting after a meal, absorption through the skin can drop to 3% of its total oxygen uptake.

 

DIGESTION AND EXCRETION

The digestive system of the octopus begins with the buccal mass which consists of the mouth with its chitinous beak, the pharynx, radula and salivary glands. The radula is a spiked, muscular tongue-like organ with multiple rows of tiny teeth. Food is broken down and is forced into the oesophagus by two lateral extensions of the esophageal side walls in addition to the radula. From there it is transferred to the gastrointestinal tract, which is mostly suspended from the roof of the mantle cavity by numerous membranes. The tract consists of a crop, where the food is stored; a stomach, where food is ground down; a caecum where the now sludgy food is sorted into fluids and particles and which plays an important role in absorption; the digestive gland, where liver cells break down and absorb the fluid and become "brown bodies"; and the intestine, where the accumulated waste is turned into faecal ropes by secretions and blown out of the funnel via the rectum.

 

During osmoregulation, fluid is added to the pericardia of the branchial hearts. The octopus has two nephridia (equivalent to vertebrate kidneys) which are associated with the branchial hearts; these and their associated ducts connect the pericardial cavities with the mantle cavity. Before reaching the branchial heart, each branch of the vena cava expands to form renal appendages which are in direct contact with the thin-walled nephridium. The urine is first formed in the pericardial cavity, and is modified by excretion, chiefly of ammonia, and selective absorption from the renal appendages, as it is passed along the associated duct and through the nephridiopore into the mantle cavity.

 

NERVOUS SYSTEM AND SENSES

The octopus (along with cuttlefish) has the highest brain-to-body mass ratios of all invertebrates; it is also greater than that of many vertebrates. It has a highly complex nervous system, only part of which is localised in its brain, which is contained in a cartilaginous capsule. Two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are found in the nerve cords of its arms, which show a variety of complex reflex actions that persist even when they have no input from the brain. Unlike vertebrates, the complex motor skills of octopuses are not organised in their brain via an internal somatotopic map of its body, instead using a nonsomatotopic system unique to large-brained invertebrates.

 

Like other cephalopods, octopuses can distinguish the polarisation of light. Colour vision appears to vary from species to species, for example being present in O. aegina but absent in O. vulgaris. Researchers believe that opsins in the skin can sense different wavelengths of light and help the creatures choose a coloration that camouflages them, in addition to light input from the eyes. Other researchers hypothesise that cephalopod eyes in species which only have a single photoreceptor protein may use chromatic aberration to turn monochromatic vision into colour vision, though this sacrifices image quality. This would explain pupils shaped like the letter U, the letter W, or a dumbbell, as well as explaining the need for colourful mating displays.

 

Attached to the brain are two special organs called statocysts (sac-like structures containing a mineralised mass and sensitive hairs), that allow the octopus to sense the orientation of its body. They provide information on the position of the body relative to gravity and can detect angular acceleration. An autonomic response keeps the octopus's eyes oriented so that the pupil is always horizontal. Octopuses may also use the statocyst to hear sound. The common octopus can hear sounds between 400 Hz and 1000 Hz, and hears best at 600 Hz.

 

Octopuses also have an excellent sense of touch. The octopus's suction cups are equipped with chemoreceptors so the octopus can taste what it touches. Octopus arms do not become tangled or stuck to each other because the sensors recognise octopus skin and prevent self-attachment.

 

The arms contain tension sensors so the octopus knows whether its arms are stretched out, but this is not sufficient for the brain to determine the position of the octopus's body or arms. As a result, the octopus does not possess stereognosis; that is, it does not form a mental image of the overall shape of the object it is handling. It can detect local texture variations, but cannot integrate the information into a larger picture. The neurological autonomy of the arms means the octopus has great difficulty learning about the detailed effects of its motions. It has a poor proprioceptive sense, and it knows what exact motions were made only by observing the arms visually.

Ink sac

 

The ink sac of an octopus is located under the digestive gland. A gland attached to the sac produces the ink, and the sac stores it. The sac is close enough to the funnel for the octopus to shoot out the ink with a water jet. Before it leaves the funnel, the ink passes through glands which mix it with mucus, creating a thick, dark blob which allows the animal to escape from a predator. The main pigment in the ink is melanin, which gives it its black colour. Cirrate octopuses lack the ink sac.

 

LIFECYCLE

REPRODUCTION

Octopuses are gonochoric and have a single, posteriorly-located gonad which is associated with the coelom. The testis in males and the ovary in females bulges into the gonocoel and the gametes are released here. The gonocoel is connected by the gonoduct to the mantle cavity, which it enters at the gonopore. An optic gland creates hormones that cause the octopus to mature and age and stimulate gamete production. The gland may be triggered by environmental conditions such as temperature, light and nutrition, which thus control the timing of reproduction and lifespan.

 

When octopuses reproduce, the male uses a specialised arm called a hectocotylus to transfer spermatophores (packets of sperm) from the terminal organ of the reproductive tract (the cephalopod "penis") into the female's mantle cavity. The hectocotylus in benthic octopuses is usually the third right arm, which has a spoon-shaped depression and modified suckers near the tip. In most species, fertilisation occurs in the mantle cavity.

 

The reproduction of octopuses has been studied in only a few species. One such species is the giant Pacific octopus, in which courtship is accompanied, especially in the male, by changes in skin texture and colour. The male may cling to the top or side of the female or position himself beside her. There is some speculation that he may first use his hectocotylus to remove any spermatophore or sperm already present in the female. He picks up a spermatophore from his spermatophoric sac with the hectocotylus, inserts it into the female's mantle cavity, and deposits it in the correct location for the species, which in the giant Pacific octopus is the opening of the oviduct. Two spermatophores are transferred in this way; these are about one metre (yard) long, and the empty ends may protrude from the female's mantle. A complex hydraulic mechanism releases the sperm from the spermatophore, and it is stored internally by the female.

 

About forty days after mating, the female giant Pacific octopus attaches strings of small fertilised eggs (10,000 to 70,000 in total) to rocks in a crevice or under an overhang. Here she guards and cares for them for about five months (160 days) until they hatch. In colder waters, such as those off of Alaska, it may take as much as 10 months for the eggs to completely develop. The female aerates the eggs and keeps them clean; if left untended, many eggs will not hatch. She does not feed during this time and dies soon afterwards. Males become senescent and die a few weeks after mating.

 

The eggs have large yolks; cleavage (division) is superficial and a germinal disc develops at the pole. During gastrulation, the margins of this grow down and surround the yolk, forming a yolk sac, which eventually forms part of the gut. The dorsal side of the disc grows upwards and forms the embryo, with a shell gland on its dorsal surface, gills, mantle and eyes. The arms and funnel develop as part of the foot on the ventral side of the disc. The arms later migrate upwards, coming to form a ring around the funnel and mouth. The yolk is gradually absorbed as the embryo develops.

Most young octopuses hatch as paralarvae and are planktonic for weeks to months, depending on the species and water temperature. They feed on copepods, arthropod larvae and other zooplankton, eventually settling on the ocean floor and developing directly into adults with no distinct metamorphoses that are present in other groups of mollusc larvae. Octopus species that produce larger eggs – including the southern blue-ringed, Caribbean reef, California two-spot, Eledone moschata and deep sea octopuses – do not have a paralarval stage, but hatch as benthic animals similar to the adults.In the argonaut (paper nautilus), the female secretes a fine, fluted, papery shell in which the eggs are deposited and in which she also resides while floating in mid-ocean. In this she broods the young, and it also serves as a buoyancy aid allowing her to adjust her depth. The male argonaut is minute by comparison and has no shell.

 

LIFESPAN

Octopuses have a relatively short life expectancy; some species live for as little as six months. The giant Pacific octopus, one of the two largest species of octopus, may live for as much as five years. Octopus lifespan is limited by reproduction: males can live for only a few months after mating, and females die shortly after their eggs hatch. The larger Pacific striped octopus is an exception, as it can reproduce multiple times over a life of around two years. Octopus reproductive organs mature due to the hormonal influence of the optic gland but result in the inactivation of their digestive glands, typically causing the octopus to die from starvation. Experimental removal of both optic glands after spawning was found to result in the cessation of broodiness, the resumption of feeding, increased growth, and greatly extended lifespans. It has been proposed that the naturally short lifespan may be functional to prevent rapid overpopulation.

 

DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT

Octopuses live in every ocean, and different species have adapted to different marine habitats. As juveniles, common octopuses inhabit shallow tide pools. The Hawaiian day octopus (Octopus cyanea) lives on coral reefs; argonauts drift in pelagic waters. Abdopus aculeatus mostly lives in near-shore seagrass beds. Some species are adapted to the cold, ocean depths. The spoon-armed octopus (Bathypolypus arcticus) is found at depths of 1,000 m, and Vulcanoctopus hydrothermalis lives near hydrothermal vents at 2,000 m. The cirrate species are often free-swimming and live in deep-water habitats. Although several species are known to live at bathyal and abyssal depths, there is only a single indisputable record of an octopus in the hadal zone; a species of Grimpoteuthis (dumbo octopus) photographed at 6,957 m. No species are known to live in fresh water.

 

BEHAVIOUR AND ECOLOGY

Most species are solitary when not mating, though a few are known to occur in high densities and with frequent interactions, signaling, mate defending and eviction of individuals from dens. This is likely the result of abundant food supplies combined with limited den sites. The larger Pacific striped octopus however is social, living in groups of up to 40 individuals that share dens. Octopuses hide in dens, which are typically crevices in rocky outcrops or other hard structures, though some species burrow into sand or mud. Octopuses are not territorial but generally remain in a home range; they may leave the area in search of food. They can use navigation skills to return to a den without having to retrace their outward route. They are not known to be migratory.

 

Octopuses bring captured prey back to the den where they can eat it safely. Sometimes the octopus catches more prey than it can eat, and the den is often surrounded by a midden of dead and uneaten food items. Other creatures, such as fish, crabs, molluscs and echinoderms, often share the den with the octopus, either because they have arrived as scavengers, or because they have survived capture. Octopuses rarely engage in interspecific cooperative hunting with fish as their partners. They regulate the species composition of the hunting group - and the behavior of their partners - by punching them.

 

FEEDING

Nearly all octopuses are predatory; bottom-dwelling octopuses eat mainly crustaceans, polychaete worms, and other molluscs such as whelks and clams; open-ocean octopuses eat mainly prawns, fish and other cephalopods. Major items in the diet of the giant Pacific octopus include bivalve molluscs such as the cockle Clinocardium nuttallii, clams and scallops and crustaceans such as crabs and spider crabs. Prey that it is likely to reject include moon snails because they are too large and limpets, rock scallops, chitons and abalone, because they are too securely fixed to the rock.

 

A benthic (bottom-dwelling) octopus typically moves among the rocks and feels through the crevices. The creature may make a jet-propelled pounce on prey and pull it towards the mouth with its arms, the suckers restraining it. Small prey may be completely trapped by the webbed structure. Octopuses usually inject crustaceans like crabs with a paralysing saliva then dismember them with their beaks. Octopuses feed on shelled molluscs either by forcing the valves apart, or by drilling a hole in the shell to inject a nerve toxin. It used to be thought that the hole was drilled by the radula, but it has now been shown that minute teeth at the tip of the salivary papilla are involved, and an enzyme in the toxic saliva is used to dissolve the calcium carbonate of the shell. It takes about three hours for O. vulgaris to create a 0.6 mm hole. Once the shell is penetrated, the prey dies almost instantaneously, its muscles relax, and the soft tissues are easy for the octopus to remove. Crabs may also be treated in this way; tough-shelled species are more likely to be drilled, and soft-shelled crabs are torn apart.

 

Some species have other modes of feeding. Grimpoteuthis has a reduced or non-existent radula and swallows prey whole. In the deep-sea genus Stauroteuthis, some of the muscle cells that control the suckers in most species have been replaced with photophores which are believed to fool prey by directing them towards the mouth, making them one of the few bioluminescent octopuses.

 

LOCOMOTION

Octopuses mainly move about by relatively slow crawling with some swimming in a head-first position. Jet propulsion or backwards swimming, is their fastest means of locomotion, followed by swimming and crawling. When in no hurry, they usually crawl on either solid or soft surfaces. Several arms are extended forwards, some of the suckers adhere to the substrate and the animal hauls itself forwards with its powerful arm muscles, while other arms may push rather than pull. As progress is made, other arms move ahead to repeat these actions and the original suckers detach. During crawling, the heart rate nearly doubles, and the animal requires ten or fifteen minutes to recover from relatively minor exercise.

 

Most octopuses swim by expelling a jet of water from the mantle through the siphon into the sea. The physical principle behind this is that the force required to accelerate the water through the orifice produces a reaction that propels the octopus in the opposite direction. The direction of travel depends on the orientation of the siphon. When swimming, the head is at the front and the siphon is pointed backwards, but when jetting, the visceral hump leads, the siphon points towards the head and the arms trail behind, with the animal presenting a fusiform appearance. In an alternative method of swimming, some species flatten themselves dorso-ventrally, and swim with the arms held out sideways, and this may provide lift and be faster than normal swimming. Jetting is used to escape from danger, but is physiologically inefficient, requiring a mantle pressure so high as to stop the heart from beating, resulting in a progressive oxygen deficit.

 

Cirrate octopuses cannot produce jet propulsion and rely on their fins for swimming. They have neutral buoyancy and drift through the water with the fins extended. They can also contract their arms and surrounding web to make sudden moves known as "take-offs". Another form of locomotion is "pumping", which involves symmetrical contractions of muscles in their webs producing peristaltic waves. This moves the body slowly.

 

In 2005, Adopus aculeatus and veined octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) were found to walk on two arms, while at the same time mimicking plant matter. This form of locomotion allows these octopuses to move quickly away from a potential predator without being recognised. A study of this behaviour led to the suggestion that the two rearmost appendages may be more accurately termed "legs" rather than "arms". Some species of octopus can crawl out of the water briefly, which they may do between tide pools while hunting crustaceans or gastropods or to escape predators. "Stilt walking" is used by the veined octopus when carrying stacked coconut shells. The octopus carries the shells underneath it with two arms, and progresses with an ungainly gait supported by its remaining arms held rigid.

 

INTELLIGENCE

Octopuses are highly intelligent; the extent of their intelligence and learning capability are not well defined. Maze and problem-solving experiments have shown evidence of a memory system that can store both short- and long-term memory. It is not known precisely what contribution learning makes to adult octopus behaviour. Young octopuses learn nothing from their parents, as adults provide no parental care beyond tending to their eggs until the young octopuses hatch.

 

In laboratory experiments, octopuses can be readily trained to distinguish between different shapes and patterns. They have been reported to practise observational learning, although the validity of these findings is contested. Octopuses have also been observed in what has been described as play: repeatedly releasing bottles or toys into a circular current in their aquariums and then catching them. Octopuses often break out of their aquariums and sometimes into others in search of food. They have even boarded fishing boats and opened holds to eat crabs. The veined octopus collects discarded coconut shells, then uses them to build a shelter, an example of tool use.

 

CAMOUFLAGE AND COLOUR CHANGE

Octopuses use camouflage when hunting and to avoid predators. To do this they use specialised skin cells which change the appearance of the skin by adjusting its colour, opacity, or reflectivity. Chromatophores contain yellow, orange, red, brown, or black pigments; most species have three of these colours, while some have two or four. Other colour-changing cells are reflective iridophores and white leucophores. This colour-changing ability is also used to communicate with or warn other octopuses.

 

Octopuses can create distracting patterns with waves of dark coloration across the body, a display known as the "passing cloud". Muscles in the skin change the texture of the mantle to achieve greater camouflage. In some species, the mantle can take on the spiky appearance of algae; in others, skin anatomy is limited to relatively uniform shades of one colour with limited skin texture. Octopuses that are diurnal and live in shallow water have evolved more complex skin than their nocturnal and deep-sea counterparts.

 

A "moving rock" trick involves the octopus mimicking a rock and then inching across the open space with a speed matching the movement in the surrounding water, allowing it to move in plain sight of a predator.

 

DEFENCE

Aside from humans, octopuses may be preyed on by fishes, seabirds, sea otters, pinnipeds, cetaceans, and other cephalopods. Octopuses typically hide or disguise themselves by camouflage and mimicry; some have conspicuous warning coloration (aposematism) or deimatic behaviour. An octopus may spend 40% of its time hidden away in its den. When the octopus is approached, it may extend an arm to investigate. 66% of Enteroctopus dofleini in one study had scars, with 50% having amputated arms. The blue rings of the highly venomous blue-ringed octopus are hidden in muscular skin folds which contract when the animal is threatened, exposing the iridescent warning. The Atlantic white-spotted octopus (Callistoctopus macropus) turns bright brownish red with oval white spots all over in a high contrast display. Displays are often reinforced by stretching out the animal's arms, fins or web to make it look as big and threatening as possible.

 

Once they have been seen by a predator, they commonly try to escape but can also use distraction with an ink cloud ejected from the ink sac. The ink is thought to reduce the efficiency of olfactory organs, which would aid evasion from predators that employ smell for hunting, such as sharks. Ink clouds of some species might act as pseudomorphs, or decoys that the predator attacks instead.

 

When under attack, some octopuses can perform arm autotomy, in a manner similar to the way skinks and other lizards detach their tails. The crawling arm may distract would-be predators. Such severed arms remain sensitive to stimuli and move away from unpleasant sensations. Octopuses can replace lost limbs.

 

Some octopuses, such as the mimic octopus, can combine their highly flexible bodies with their colour-changing ability to mimic other, more dangerous animals, such as lionfish, sea snakes, and eels.

 

PATHOGENS AND PARASITES

The diseases and parasites that affect octopuses have been little studied, but cephalopods are known to be the intermediate or final hosts of various parasitic cestodes, nematodes and copepods; 150 species of protistan and metazoan parasites have been recognised. The Dicyemidae are a family of tiny worms that are found in the renal appendages of many species; it is unclear whether they are parasitic or are endosymbionts. Coccidians in the genus Aggregata living in the gut cause severe disease to the host. Octopuses have an innate immune system, and the haemocytes respond to infection by phagocytosis, encapsulation, infiltration or cytotoxic activities to destroy or isolate the pathogens. The haemocytes play an important role in the recognition and elimination of foreign bodies and wound repair. Captive animals have been found to be more susceptible to pathogens than wild ones. A gram-negative bacterium, Vibrio lentus, has been found to cause skin lesions, exposure of muscle and death of octopuses in extreme cases.

 

EVOLUTION

The scientific name Octopoda was first coined and given as the order of octopuses in 1818 by English biologist William Elford Leach, who classified them as Octopoida the previous year. The Octopoda consists of around 300 known species and were historically divided into two suborders, the Incirrina and the Cirrina. However, more recent evidence suggests that Cirrina are merely the most basal species and are not a unique clade. The incirrate octopuses (the majority of species) lack the cirri and paired swimming fins of the cirrates. In addition, the internal shell of incirrates is either present as a pair of stylets or absent altogether.

 

FOSSIL HISTORY AND PHYLOGENY

Cephalopods have existed for 500 million years and octopus ancestors were in the Carboniferous seas 300 million years ago. The oldest known octopus fossil is Pohlsepia, which lived 296 million years ago. Researchers have identified impressions of eight arms, two eyes, and possibly an ink sac. Octopuses are mostly soft tissue, and so fossils are relatively rare. Octopuses, squids and cuttlefish belong to the clade Coleoidea. They are known as "soft-bodied" cephalopods, lacking the external shell of most molluscs and other cephalopods like the nautiloids and the extinct Ammonoidea. Octopuses have eight limbs like other coleoids but lack the extra specialised feeding appendages known as tentacles which are longer and thinner with suckers only at their club-like ends. The vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis) also lacks tentacles but has sensory filaments.

 

The cladograms are based on Sanchez et al., 2018, who created a molecular phylogeny based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA marker sequences.

 

RNA EDITING

Octopuses and other coleoid cephalopods are capable of greater RNA editing (which involves changes to the nucleic acid sequence of the primary transcript of RNA molecules) than any other organisms. Editing is concentrated in the nervous system and affects proteins involved in neural excitability and neuronal morphology. More than 60% of RNA transcripts for coleoid brains are recoded by editing, compared to less than 1% for a human or fruit fly. Coleoids rely mostly on ADAR enzymes for RNA editing, which requires large double-stranded RNA structures to flank the editing sites. Both the structures and editing sites are conserved in the coleoid genome and the mutation rates for the sites are severely hampered. Hence, greater transcriptome plasticity has come at the cost of slower genome evolution. High levels of RNA editing do not appear to be present in more basal cephalopods or other molluscs.

 

RELATIONSHIP TO HUMANS

CULTURAL REFERENCES

Ancient seafaring people were aware of the octopus, as evidenced by certain artworks and designs. For example, a stone carving found in the archaeological recovery from Bronze Age Minoan Crete at Knossos (1900–1100 BC) has a depiction of a fisherman carrying an octopus. The terrifyingly powerful Gorgon of Greek mythology has been thought to have been inspired by the octopus or squid, the octopus itself representing the severed head of Medusa, the beak as the protruding tongue and fangs, and its tentacles as the snakes. The Kraken are legendary sea monsters of giant proportions said to dwell off the coasts of Norway and Greenland, usually portrayed in art as a giant octopus attacking ships. Linnaeus included it in the first edition of his 1735 Systema Naturae. One translation of the Hawaiian creation myth the Kumulipo suggests that the octopus is the lone survivor of a previous age. The Akkorokamui is a gigantic octopus-like monster from Ainu folklore.

 

A battle with an octopus plays a significant role in Victor Hugo's book Travailleurs de la mer (Toilers of the Sea), relating to his time in exile on Guernsey. Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights, and the 1983 James Bond film were partly inspired by Hugo's book.

 

Japanese erotic art, shunga, includes ukiyo-e woodblock prints such as Katsushika Hokusai's 1814 print Tako to ama (The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife), in which an ama diver is sexually intertwined with a large and a small octopus. The print is a forerunner of tentacle erotica. The biologist P. Z. Myers noted in his science blog, Pharyngula, that octopuses appear in "extraordinary" graphic illustrations involving women, tentacles, and bare breasts.

 

Since it has numerous arms emanating from a common centre, the octopus is often used as a symbol for a powerful and manipulative organisation, company, or country.

 

DANGER

Octopuses generally avoid humans, but incidents have been verified. For example, a 2.4-metre Pacific octopus, said to be nearly perfectly camouflaged, "lunged" at a diver and "wrangled" over his camera before it let go. Another diver recorded the encounter on video.

 

All species are venomous, but only blue-ringed octopuses have venom that is lethal to humans. Bites are reported each year across the animals' range from Australia to the eastern Indo-Pacific Ocean. They bite only when provoked or accidentally stepped upon; bites are small and usually painless. The venom appears to be able to penetrate the skin without a puncture, given prolonged contact. It contains tetrodotoxin, which causes paralysis by blocking the transmission of nerve impulses to the muscles. This causes death by respiratory failure leading to cerebral anoxia. No antidote is known, but if breathing can be kept going artificially, patients recover within 24 hours. Bites have been recorded from captive octopuses of other species; they leave swellings which disappear in a day or two.

 

FISHERIES AND CUISINE

Octopus fisheries exist around the world with total catches varying between 245,320 and 322,999 metric tons from 1986 to 1995. The world catch peaked in 2007 at 380,000 tons, and fell by a tenth by 2012. Methods to capture octopuses include pots, traps, trawls, snares, drift fishing, spearing, hooking and hand collection. Octopus is eaten in many cultures and is a common food on the Mediterranean and Asian coasts. The arms and sometimes other body parts are prepared in various ways, often varying by species or geography. Live octopuses are eaten in several countries around the world, including the US. Animal welfare groups have objected to this practice on the basis that octopuses can experience pain. Octopuses have a food conversion efficiency greater than that of chickens, making octopus aquaculture a possibility.

 

IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

In classical Greece, Aristotle (384–322 BC) commented on the colour-changing abilities of the octopus, both for camouflage and for signalling, in his Historia animalium: "The octopus ... seeks its prey by so changing its colour as to render it like the colour of the stones adjacent to it; it does so also when alarmed." Aristotle noted that the octopus had a hectocotyl arm and suggested it might be used in sexual reproduction. This claim was widely disbelieved until the 19th century. It was described in 1829 by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier, who supposed it to be a parasitic worm, naming it as a new species, Hectocotylus octopodis. Other zoologists thought it a spermatophore; the German zoologist Heinrich Müller believed it was "designed" to detach during copulation. In 1856 the Danish zoologist Japetus Steenstrup demonstrated that it is used to transfer sperm, and only rarely detaches.

 

Octopuses offer many possibilities in biological research, including their ability to regenerate limbs, change the colour of their skin, behave intelligently with a distributed nervous system, and make use of 168 kinds of protocadherins (humans have 58), the proteins that guide the connections neurons make with each other. The California two-spot octopus has had its genome sequenced, allowing exploration of its molecular adaptations. Having independently evolved mammal-like intelligence, octopuses have been compared to hypothetical intelligent extraterrestrials. Their problem-solving skills, along with their mobility and lack of rigid structure enable them to escape from supposedly secure tanks in laboratories and public aquariums.

 

Due to their intelligence, octopuses are listed in some countries as experimental animals on which surgery may not be performed without anesthesia, a protection usually extended only to vertebrates. In the UK from 1993 to 2012, the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) was the only invertebrate protected under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. In 2012, this legislation was extended to include all cephalopods in accordance with a general EU directive.

 

Some robotics research is exploring biomimicry of octopus features. Octopus arms can move and sense largely autonomously without intervention from the animal's central nervous system. In 2015 a team in Italy built soft-bodied robots able to crawl and swim, requiring only minimal computation. In 2017 a German company made an arm with a soft pneumatically controlled silicone gripper fitted with two rows of suckers. It is able to grasp objects such as a metal tube, a magazine, or a ball, and to fill a glass by pouring water from a bottle.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Probably best to read no further ..... but then again, this is a test ....... and in a test, it's always best to read the directions before taking the test

 

Test Directions (are in here somewhere):

There once was a man who decided he had to visit Australia once in his life. He read up on everything he could find, visited all the Australian web sites on the Internet and saved his money so he could make this once in a lifetime vacation.

 

The day finally came when it all came together and he was ready to leave. He boarded the plane and some hours later stepped off the plane at Sidney International. Australia at last!

 

Unfortunately, on his first day sightseeing, he began to get a bad headache. Thinking it was probably just jet lag he took two aspirin and continued his tour. The headache didn't go away, however, so he asked the tour guide where was the best place to go for treatment. "Sir, you'll want to go to the emergency room at the Mercy Hospital", the guide told him, "Its not far from here."

 

At the hospital, the doctor suggested he stay there overnight for observation and he agreed. He was assigned a room and a nun who was a nurse came in to see him. When he told her about his headache, she asked him if he had tried their Koala tea. "Its made from the fur of the Koala bear and has great healing properties", she said. He said he was willing to try anything at that point and asked that she bring him a cup.

 

Presently, the nun came back in with a cup of liquid. He looked in the cup and saw it had a mass of hair in the bottom. Feeling rather nausous, he said he didn't believe he could drink the tea with all that hair in the cup. "Couldn't you strain it out or something", he asked. The nun, feeling very indignant and slighted over his obvious misunderstanding of what she'd served, said, "Sir, I'll have you know the Koala tea of Mercy is not strained!"

 

He drank it and recovered quite nicely.

 

Well, dija read it - aren't you sorry now. You'll never get that time back again :-)

 

Thanks for participating in my test, had this been an actual real worthwhile experience and not just a test ... it would have appeared on someone else's photostream because, as we all know, I don't do nor do I know how to do anything worthwhile.

 

Oh, what's this test for this picture you ask ... well, I'm not really happy with this photo, not fully in focus, not all the bird is in the frame, some blown highlights, I'm not good at capturing anything that flies, yadda, yadda, yadda. But I just thought that maybe some Flickrinos would say nice things about almost anything - plus very seldom do they read anything written beyond a sentence or two. So if you want to be on the correct side of this test, mention anything other than what a "wonderful" capture it is. We'll see how many don't read this far and just put the "nice shot" type comment (which is what I would do ;-). A "no comment" comment would be the best ... and wouldn't it be nice to see a whole bunch of "no comment" comments in the comments sections. Flickrites reading all the "no comment" comments would certainly start to wonder what was going on - priceless (especially nice since my funds are limited and I can't afford a new camera or photo lessons, so priceless is right in my price range).

 

Results to be posted when enough statistically meaningful data has been collected and analyzed.

 

If you'd like to participate in the other test (part un) and haven't done so, please click the post before this one:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/parowan496/6686557591/in/photostream/

 

Or click it if you'd like to see if I've posted results from that test ...... I haven't - but I'll get a higher view number for the post and my overall views .. and isn't that what's it's all about anyway <;-0

 

 

Probably would be best for me to keep this out of any Flickrist group right now - so we'll just see who stumbles upon it .... perhaps you could recommend it to those Flickring Friends of yours that you don't Flickr so brightly for.

 

Bye .... time to go wipe the drool off my chin and take my medication ;-)

Photo from the 2010 White Eagle Pow-Wow at Jester Park near Granger, Iowa. The gathering is named for Ralph Moisa aka White Eagle, a young Native American who lost his life in 1995 while heroically rescuing a Red Tail Hawk. See more photos from this event here:

www.flickr.com/photos/don3rdse/sets/72157624831399594/

 

In 2000, Ralph's parents organized the first Multicultural Pow Wow in memory of their son and his dream to break down the walls of misunderstanding and to mend the "Sacred Hoop". This is the 11th year of their celebration of the 7 generations to help mend the Sacred Hoop.

www.whiteeaglepow-wow.org/2.html

Another trip back to my teenage years, when I was about 14. I fell in love with this album, 'And Then There Were Three' after hearing 'Follow You Follow Me' on the radio, and became a big fan from then on, going on to buy the wonderful 'Duke' album. I don't have any older records, but someone recorded some of their older albums, such as 'A Trick of the Tail', which also contain some great songs to play loud!!

 

Fave songs from these two albums are:

Follow You Follow Me

Many too Many

Misunderstanding

Turn in on Again

 

And a special treat for those who live the even older Genesis stuff, A Trick of the Tail How I wish I could play this on the piano!!

Ripples - one to dream to! Or maybe Squonk - I could go on and on!!

 

For Scarlet Pimpernel, the biggest Genesis fan I know!

HIDING

 

is a way of staying alive. Hiding is a way of holding ourselves until we are ready to come into the light. Even hiding the truth from ourselves can be a way to come to what we need in our own necessary time.

Hiding is underestimated. We are hidden by life in our mother’s womb until we grow and ready ourselves for our first appearance in the lighted world; to appear too early in that world is to find ourselves with the immediate necessity for outside intensive care... We live in a time of the dissected soul, the immediate disclosure; our thoughts, imaginings and longings exposed to the light too much, too early and too often, our best qualities squeezed too soon into a world already awash with too easily articulated ideas that oppress our sense of self and our sense of others. What is real is almost always to begin with, hidden, and does not want to be understood by the part of our mind that mistakenly thinks it knows what is happening. What is precious inside us does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence.

 

Hiding is an act of freedom from the misunderstanding of others...Hiding is a bid for independence, from others, from mistaken ideas we have about our selves, from an oppressive and mistaken wish to keep us completely safe, completely ministered to, and therefore completely managed.

 

Hiding is creative, necessary and beautifully subversive of outside interference and control. Hiding leaves life to itself, to become more of itself. Hiding is the radical independence necessary for our emergence into the light of a proper human future. ... Excerpted from ‘HIDING’ in CONSOLATIONS: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.

2015 © David Whyte:

Now

F Available

#leaves d#feet#rrlax#lefkosia a#parkoirinis vidwhyte.stores.yahoo.net/newbook.html

 

18 Likes on Instagram

 

1 Comments on Instagram:

 

katerinakaterfly: #cityfreepress #cityzenoftheday

  

“Ser feliz é encontrar força no perdão, esperanças nas batalhas, segurança no palco do medo, amor nos desencontros. É agradecer a Deus a cada minuto pelo milagre da vida.”

 

Fernando Pessoa

 

Bom dia com muita paz no coração e bastante saúde a todos!

 

======================================================================

 

"Being happy is finding strength in forgiveness, hope in battle, safety on the stage of fear, misunderstandings in love. You thank God for every minute

miracle of life. "

  

Fernando Pessoa

 

Good day with great peace of heart and enough health to all!

  

"WE ARE RUNNING THE ROAD OF HOLINESS, HOW CAN WE NOT MISTAKE?"

 

Stop pretending all the time! Aren't you tired yet? Haven't you had enough to pretend to be something you're not? Many have already figured it out ... They can't tell you, but you know you're constantly living a lie! Be real, be what you are, accept yourself as you are, you can only get and you will lose nothing.

"But how can I admit it, Father?"

When you recognize this and express your feelings to another, there can be a great misunderstanding, because our era and education have taught us that we cannot go wrong. But what does "I can't" mean? I mean, who's up there somewhere that says it? Does God really say "you can't"? God said "you can't" just one thing: we can't not fight, but he didn't say we can't go wrong.

[...] We are following the path of holiness: is it possible not to make mistakes along the way? And who can forbid you from making mistakes?

I went to a monastery once, and there was a monk who was drawing something, correcting it, drawing and deleting again. He turned to me and said, "Don't look, I haven't finished yet!"

He understood what I was thinking. I was ready to tell him. And he said to me: "It will be like on the wall. Look at the example: it's the same. "

"Ahh! Horrible!"

"Yes, what you're looking at now, as I'm doing it with a bunch of mistakes and corrections - it's the same as the wall! The end result will be like this! "

The end result is important. Your errors, passions, sins, difficulties and all that strangles you - they are not the end of your life, it is not the final picture that you will present to God.

Do you hear what I'm saying? "The final image before the Lord". It will not be people who judge the image of your life, what you design and do, but God. Therefore, when you see that someone is going through difficulties in his life, where everything goes dark, causing a sort of unacceptable state, say: "Now he has deleted something; will delete it and continue. The image is not over yet! Mistakes will be made and problems will be encountered. There will be fatigue, tears and everything. "

Show an authentic image of your soul to people ... It is a bold act to be your true self. If you don't find many people, at least before two or three, or even one: your spouse, your family, reveals your heart to those you want to trust and you will feel wonderful.

One day a girl came to me from far away. He just wanted to tell me that he had done something. I didn't tell her anything. What is there to tell you if you know it alone? I just said, "You know God loves you. You know."

Now you will tell me: "Come on, is that really all you could say to her? Couldn't you talk to her and instruct her so that she won't do it anymore? ”Of course, it wouldn't have been bad to tell her not to do it anymore, but her appearance ... It was obvious that words were not necessary.

I wish you loved yourself, your brother ... but above all - God, when you love him, he will tell you again: "Love me and yourself! When you love correctly, "says Christ," then love yourself correctly, help yourself and love your 'I'. Sometimes you complain, sometimes you educate him, sometimes you treat him severely ... and so that you find balance and gradually acquire discernment.

May God grant us to acquire this discernment, this great art and wisdom, enduring many pains and blows to obtain this wonderful gift. We will go through many temptations and a lot of sins, which, unfortunately, we will commit before we understand certain truths and correct ourselves. But it is worth working for God's sake!

 

* p. Andreas Konanos (Orthodox-Greek archimandrite)

The octopus (plural octopuses) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (/ɒkˈtɒpədə/, ok-TO-pə-də). Around 300 species are recognised, and the order is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like other cephalopods, the octopus is bilaterally symmetric with two eyes and a beak, with its mouth at the center point of the eight limbs.[a] The soft body can rapidly alter its shape, enabling octopuses to squeeze through small gaps. They trail their eight appendages behind them as they swim. The siphon is used both for respiration and for locomotion, by expelling a jet of water. Octopuses have a complex nervous system and excellent sight, and are among the most intelligent and behaviourally diverse of all invertebrates.

 

Octopuses inhabit various regions of the ocean, including coral reefs, pelagic waters, and the seabed; some live in the intertidal zone and others at abyssal depths. Most species grow quickly, mature early, and are short-lived. In most species, the male uses a specially adapted arm to deliver a bundle of sperm directly into the female's mantle cavity, after which he becomes senescent and dies, while the female deposits fertilised eggs in a den and cares for them until they hatch, after which she also dies. Strategies to defend themselves against predators include the expulsion of ink, the use of camouflage and threat displays, the ability to jet quickly through the water and hide, and even deceit. All octopuses are venomous, but only the blue-ringed octopuses are known to be deadly to humans.

 

Octopuses appear in mythology as sea monsters like the Kraken of Norway and the Akkorokamui of the Ainu, and probably the Gorgon of ancient Greece. A battle with an octopus appears in Victor Hugo's book Toilers of the Sea, inspiring other works such as Ian Fleming's Octopussy. Octopuses appear in Japanese erotic art, shunga. They are eaten and considered a delicacy by humans in many parts of the world, especially the Mediterranean and the Asian seas.

 

ETYMOLOGY AND PLURALISATION

The scientific Latin term octopus was derived from Ancient Greek ὀκτώπους, a compound form of ὀκτώ (oktō, "eight") and πούς (pous, "foot"), itself a variant form of ὀκτάπους, a word used for example by Alexander of Tralles (c. 525–605) for the common octopus. The standard pluralised form of "octopus" in English is "octopuses"; the Ancient Greek plural ὀκτώποδες, "octopodes" (/ɒkˈtɒpədiːz/), has also been used historically. The alternative plural "octopi" is considered grammatically incorrect because it wrongly assumes that octopus is a Latin second declension "-us" noun or adjective when, in either Greek or Latin, it is a third declension noun.

 

Fowler's Modern English Usage states that the only acceptable plural in English is "octopuses", that "octopi" is misconceived, and "octopodes" pedantic; the latter is nonetheless used frequently enough to be acknowledged by the descriptivist Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary and Webster's New World College Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary lists "octopuses", "octopi", and "octopodes", in that order, reflecting frequency of use, calling "octopodes" rare and noting that "octopi" is based on a misunderstanding. The New Oxford American Dictionary (3rd Edition, 2010) lists "octopuses" as the only acceptable pluralisation, and indicates that "octopodes" is still occasionally used, but that "octopi" is incorrect.

 

ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY

SIZE

The giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) is often cited as the largest known octopus species. Adults usually weigh around 15 kg, with an arm span of up to 4.3 m. The largest specimen of this species to be scientifically documented was an animal with a live mass of 71 kg. Much larger sizes have been claimed for the giant Pacific octopus: one specimen was recorded as 272 kg with an arm span of 9 m. A carcass of the seven-arm octopus, Haliphron atlanticus, weighed 61 kg and was estimated to have had a live mass of 75 kg. The smallest species is Octopus wolfi, which is around 2.5 cm and weighs less than 1 g.

 

EXTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS

The octopus is bilaterally symmetrical along its dorso-ventral axis; the head and foot are at one end of an elongated body and function as the anterior (front) of the animal. The head includes the mouth and brain. The foot has evolved into a set of flexible, prehensile appendages, known as "arms", that surround the mouth and are attached to each other near their base by a webbed structure. The arms can be described based on side and sequence position (such as L1, R1, L2, R2) and divided into four pairs. The two rear appendages are generally used to walk on the sea floor, while the other six are used to forage for food; hence some biologists refer to the animals as having six "arms" and two "legs". The bulbous and hollow mantle is fused to the back of the head and is known as the visceral hump; it contains most of the vital organs. The mantle cavity has muscular walls and contains the gills; it is connected to the exterior by a funnel or siphon. The mouth of an octopus, located underneath the arms, has a sharp hard beak.

 

The skin consists of a thin outer epidermis with mucous cells and sensory cells, and a connective tissue dermis consisting largely of collagen fibres and various cells allowing colour change. Most of the body is made of soft tissue allowing it to lengthen, contract, and contort itself. The octopus can squeeze through tiny gaps; even the larger species can pass through an opening close to 2.5 cm in diameter. Lacking skeletal support, the arms work as muscular hydrostats and contain longitudinal, transverse and circular muscles around a central axial nerve. They can extend and contract, twist to left or right, bend at any place in any direction or be held rigid.

 

The interior surfaces of the arms are covered with circular, adhesive suckers. The suckers allow the octopus to anchor itself or to manipulate objects. Each sucker is usually circular and bowl-like and has two distinct parts: an outer shallow cavity called an infundibulum and a central hollow cavity called an acetabulum, both of which are thick muscles covered in a protective chitinous cuticle. When a sucker attaches to a surface, the orifice between the two structures is sealed. The infundibulum provides adhesion while the acetabulum remains free, and muscle contractions allow for attachment and detachment.

The eyes of the octopus are large and are at the top of the head. They are similar in structure to those of a fish and are enclosed in a cartilaginous capsule fused to the cranium. The cornea is formed from a translucent epidermal layer and the slit-shaped pupil forms a hole in the iris and lies just behind. The lens is suspended behind the pupil and photoreceptive retinal cells cover the back of the eye. The pupil can be adjusted in size and a retinal pigment screens incident light in bright conditions.Some species differ in form from the typical octopus body shape. Basal species, the Cirrina, have stout gelatinous bodies with webbing that reaches near the tip of their arms, and two large fins above the eyes, supported by an internal shell. Fleshy papillae or cirri are found along the bottom of the arms, and the eyes are more developed.

 

CIRCULATORY SYSTEM

Octopuses have a closed circulatory system, in which the blood remains inside blood vessels. Octopuses have three hearts; a systemic heart that circulates blood around the body and two branchial hearts that pump it through each of the two gills. The systemic heart is inactive when the animal is swimming and thus it tires quickly and prefers to crawl. Octopus blood contains the copper-rich protein haemocyanin to transport oxygen. This makes the blood very viscous and it requires considerable pressure to pump it around the body; octopuses' blood pressures can exceed 75 mmHg. In cold conditions with low oxygen levels, haemocyanin transports oxygen more efficiently than haemoglobin. The haemocyanin is dissolved in the plasma instead of being carried within blood cells, and gives the blood a bluish colour.

 

The systemic heart has muscular contractile walls and consists of a single ventricle and two atria, one for each side of the body. The blood vessels consist of arteries, capillaries and veins and are lined with a cellular endothelium which is quite unlike that of most other invertebrates. The blood circulates through the aorta and capillary system, to the vena cavae, after which the blood is pumped through the gills by the auxiliary hearts and back to the main heart. Much of the venous system is contractile, which helps circulate the blood.

 

RESPIRATION

Respiration involves drawing water into the mantle cavity through an aperture, passing it through the gills, and expelling it through the siphon. The ingress of water is achieved by contraction of radial muscles in the mantle wall, and flapper valves shut when strong circular muscles force the water out through the siphon. Extensive connective tissue lattices support the respiratory muscles and allow them to expand the respiratory chamber. The lamella structure of the gills allows for a high oxygen uptake, up to 65% in water at 20 °C. Water flow over the gills correlates with locomotion, and an octopus can propel its body when it expels water out of its siphon.

 

The thin skin of the octopus absorbs additional oxygen. When resting, around 41% of an octopus's oxygen absorption is through the skin. This decreases to 33% when it swims, as more water flows over the gills; skin oxygen uptake also increases. When it is resting after a meal, absorption through the skin can drop to 3% of its total oxygen uptake.

 

DIGESTION AND EXCRETION

The digestive system of the octopus begins with the buccal mass which consists of the mouth with its chitinous beak, the pharynx, radula and salivary glands. The radula is a spiked, muscular tongue-like organ with multiple rows of tiny teeth. Food is broken down and is forced into the oesophagus by two lateral extensions of the esophageal side walls in addition to the radula. From there it is transferred to the gastrointestinal tract, which is mostly suspended from the roof of the mantle cavity by numerous membranes. The tract consists of a crop, where the food is stored; a stomach, where food is ground down; a caecum where the now sludgy food is sorted into fluids and particles and which plays an important role in absorption; the digestive gland, where liver cells break down and absorb the fluid and become "brown bodies"; and the intestine, where the accumulated waste is turned into faecal ropes by secretions and blown out of the funnel via the rectum.

 

During osmoregulation, fluid is added to the pericardia of the branchial hearts. The octopus has two nephridia (equivalent to vertebrate kidneys) which are associated with the branchial hearts; these and their associated ducts connect the pericardial cavities with the mantle cavity. Before reaching the branchial heart, each branch of the vena cava expands to form renal appendages which are in direct contact with the thin-walled nephridium. The urine is first formed in the pericardial cavity, and is modified by excretion, chiefly of ammonia, and selective absorption from the renal appendages, as it is passed along the associated duct and through the nephridiopore into the mantle cavity.

 

NERVOUS SYSTEM AND SENSES

The octopus (along with cuttlefish) has the highest brain-to-body mass ratios of all invertebrates; it is also greater than that of many vertebrates. It has a highly complex nervous system, only part of which is localised in its brain, which is contained in a cartilaginous capsule. Two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are found in the nerve cords of its arms, which show a variety of complex reflex actions that persist even when they have no input from the brain. Unlike vertebrates, the complex motor skills of octopuses are not organised in their brain via an internal somatotopic map of its body, instead using a nonsomatotopic system unique to large-brained invertebrates.

 

Like other cephalopods, octopuses can distinguish the polarisation of light. Colour vision appears to vary from species to species, for example being present in O. aegina but absent in O. vulgaris. Researchers believe that opsins in the skin can sense different wavelengths of light and help the creatures choose a coloration that camouflages them, in addition to light input from the eyes. Other researchers hypothesise that cephalopod eyes in species which only have a single photoreceptor protein may use chromatic aberration to turn monochromatic vision into colour vision, though this sacrifices image quality. This would explain pupils shaped like the letter U, the letter W, or a dumbbell, as well as explaining the need for colourful mating displays.

 

Attached to the brain are two special organs called statocysts (sac-like structures containing a mineralised mass and sensitive hairs), that allow the octopus to sense the orientation of its body. They provide information on the position of the body relative to gravity and can detect angular acceleration. An autonomic response keeps the octopus's eyes oriented so that the pupil is always horizontal. Octopuses may also use the statocyst to hear sound. The common octopus can hear sounds between 400 Hz and 1000 Hz, and hears best at 600 Hz.

 

Octopuses also have an excellent sense of touch. The octopus's suction cups are equipped with chemoreceptors so the octopus can taste what it touches. Octopus arms do not become tangled or stuck to each other because the sensors recognise octopus skin and prevent self-attachment.

 

The arms contain tension sensors so the octopus knows whether its arms are stretched out, but this is not sufficient for the brain to determine the position of the octopus's body or arms. As a result, the octopus does not possess stereognosis; that is, it does not form a mental image of the overall shape of the object it is handling. It can detect local texture variations, but cannot integrate the information into a larger picture. The neurological autonomy of the arms means the octopus has great difficulty learning about the detailed effects of its motions. It has a poor proprioceptive sense, and it knows what exact motions were made only by observing the arms visually.

Ink sac

 

The ink sac of an octopus is located under the digestive gland. A gland attached to the sac produces the ink, and the sac stores it. The sac is close enough to the funnel for the octopus to shoot out the ink with a water jet. Before it leaves the funnel, the ink passes through glands which mix it with mucus, creating a thick, dark blob which allows the animal to escape from a predator. The main pigment in the ink is melanin, which gives it its black colour. Cirrate octopuses lack the ink sac.

 

LIFECYCLE

REPRODUCTION

Octopuses are gonochoric and have a single, posteriorly-located gonad which is associated with the coelom. The testis in males and the ovary in females bulges into the gonocoel and the gametes are released here. The gonocoel is connected by the gonoduct to the mantle cavity, which it enters at the gonopore. An optic gland creates hormones that cause the octopus to mature and age and stimulate gamete production. The gland may be triggered by environmental conditions such as temperature, light and nutrition, which thus control the timing of reproduction and lifespan.

 

When octopuses reproduce, the male uses a specialised arm called a hectocotylus to transfer spermatophores (packets of sperm) from the terminal organ of the reproductive tract (the cephalopod "penis") into the female's mantle cavity. The hectocotylus in benthic octopuses is usually the third right arm, which has a spoon-shaped depression and modified suckers near the tip. In most species, fertilisation occurs in the mantle cavity.

 

The reproduction of octopuses has been studied in only a few species. One such species is the giant Pacific octopus, in which courtship is accompanied, especially in the male, by changes in skin texture and colour. The male may cling to the top or side of the female or position himself beside her. There is some speculation that he may first use his hectocotylus to remove any spermatophore or sperm already present in the female. He picks up a spermatophore from his spermatophoric sac with the hectocotylus, inserts it into the female's mantle cavity, and deposits it in the correct location for the species, which in the giant Pacific octopus is the opening of the oviduct. Two spermatophores are transferred in this way; these are about one metre (yard) long, and the empty ends may protrude from the female's mantle. A complex hydraulic mechanism releases the sperm from the spermatophore, and it is stored internally by the female.

 

About forty days after mating, the female giant Pacific octopus attaches strings of small fertilised eggs (10,000 to 70,000 in total) to rocks in a crevice or under an overhang. Here she guards and cares for them for about five months (160 days) until they hatch. In colder waters, such as those off of Alaska, it may take as much as 10 months for the eggs to completely develop. The female aerates the eggs and keeps them clean; if left untended, many eggs will not hatch. She does not feed during this time and dies soon afterwards. Males become senescent and die a few weeks after mating.

 

The eggs have large yolks; cleavage (division) is superficial and a germinal disc develops at the pole. During gastrulation, the margins of this grow down and surround the yolk, forming a yolk sac, which eventually forms part of the gut. The dorsal side of the disc grows upwards and forms the embryo, with a shell gland on its dorsal surface, gills, mantle and eyes. The arms and funnel develop as part of the foot on the ventral side of the disc. The arms later migrate upwards, coming to form a ring around the funnel and mouth. The yolk is gradually absorbed as the embryo develops.

Most young octopuses hatch as paralarvae and are planktonic for weeks to months, depending on the species and water temperature. They feed on copepods, arthropod larvae and other zooplankton, eventually settling on the ocean floor and developing directly into adults with no distinct metamorphoses that are present in other groups of mollusc larvae. Octopus species that produce larger eggs – including the southern blue-ringed, Caribbean reef, California two-spot, Eledone moschata and deep sea octopuses – do not have a paralarval stage, but hatch as benthic animals similar to the adults.In the argonaut (paper nautilus), the female secretes a fine, fluted, papery shell in which the eggs are deposited and in which she also resides while floating in mid-ocean. In this she broods the young, and it also serves as a buoyancy aid allowing her to adjust her depth. The male argonaut is minute by comparison and has no shell.

 

LIFESPAN

Octopuses have a relatively short life expectancy; some species live for as little as six months. The giant Pacific octopus, one of the two largest species of octopus, may live for as much as five years. Octopus lifespan is limited by reproduction: males can live for only a few months after mating, and females die shortly after their eggs hatch. The larger Pacific striped octopus is an exception, as it can reproduce multiple times over a life of around two years. Octopus reproductive organs mature due to the hormonal influence of the optic gland but result in the inactivation of their digestive glands, typically causing the octopus to die from starvation. Experimental removal of both optic glands after spawning was found to result in the cessation of broodiness, the resumption of feeding, increased growth, and greatly extended lifespans. It has been proposed that the naturally short lifespan may be functional to prevent rapid overpopulation.

 

DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT

Octopuses live in every ocean, and different species have adapted to different marine habitats. As juveniles, common octopuses inhabit shallow tide pools. The Hawaiian day octopus (Octopus cyanea) lives on coral reefs; argonauts drift in pelagic waters. Abdopus aculeatus mostly lives in near-shore seagrass beds. Some species are adapted to the cold, ocean depths. The spoon-armed octopus (Bathypolypus arcticus) is found at depths of 1,000 m, and Vulcanoctopus hydrothermalis lives near hydrothermal vents at 2,000 m. The cirrate species are often free-swimming and live in deep-water habitats. Although several species are known to live at bathyal and abyssal depths, there is only a single indisputable record of an octopus in the hadal zone; a species of Grimpoteuthis (dumbo octopus) photographed at 6,957 m. No species are known to live in fresh water.

 

BEHAVIOUR AND ECOLOGY

Most species are solitary when not mating, though a few are known to occur in high densities and with frequent interactions, signaling, mate defending and eviction of individuals from dens. This is likely the result of abundant food supplies combined with limited den sites. The larger Pacific striped octopus however is social, living in groups of up to 40 individuals that share dens. Octopuses hide in dens, which are typically crevices in rocky outcrops or other hard structures, though some species burrow into sand or mud. Octopuses are not territorial but generally remain in a home range; they may leave the area in search of food. They can use navigation skills to return to a den without having to retrace their outward route. They are not known to be migratory.

 

Octopuses bring captured prey back to the den where they can eat it safely. Sometimes the octopus catches more prey than it can eat, and the den is often surrounded by a midden of dead and uneaten food items. Other creatures, such as fish, crabs, molluscs and echinoderms, often share the den with the octopus, either because they have arrived as scavengers, or because they have survived capture. Octopuses rarely engage in interspecific cooperative hunting with fish as their partners. They regulate the species composition of the hunting group - and the behavior of their partners - by punching them.

 

FEEDING

Nearly all octopuses are predatory; bottom-dwelling octopuses eat mainly crustaceans, polychaete worms, and other molluscs such as whelks and clams; open-ocean octopuses eat mainly prawns, fish and other cephalopods. Major items in the diet of the giant Pacific octopus include bivalve molluscs such as the cockle Clinocardium nuttallii, clams and scallops and crustaceans such as crabs and spider crabs. Prey that it is likely to reject include moon snails because they are too large and limpets, rock scallops, chitons and abalone, because they are too securely fixed to the rock.

 

A benthic (bottom-dwelling) octopus typically moves among the rocks and feels through the crevices. The creature may make a jet-propelled pounce on prey and pull it towards the mouth with its arms, the suckers restraining it. Small prey may be completely trapped by the webbed structure. Octopuses usually inject crustaceans like crabs with a paralysing saliva then dismember them with their beaks. Octopuses feed on shelled molluscs either by forcing the valves apart, or by drilling a hole in the shell to inject a nerve toxin. It used to be thought that the hole was drilled by the radula, but it has now been shown that minute teeth at the tip of the salivary papilla are involved, and an enzyme in the toxic saliva is used to dissolve the calcium carbonate of the shell. It takes about three hours for O. vulgaris to create a 0.6 mm hole. Once the shell is penetrated, the prey dies almost instantaneously, its muscles relax, and the soft tissues are easy for the octopus to remove. Crabs may also be treated in this way; tough-shelled species are more likely to be drilled, and soft-shelled crabs are torn apart.

 

Some species have other modes of feeding. Grimpoteuthis has a reduced or non-existent radula and swallows prey whole. In the deep-sea genus Stauroteuthis, some of the muscle cells that control the suckers in most species have been replaced with photophores which are believed to fool prey by directing them towards the mouth, making them one of the few bioluminescent octopuses.

 

LOCOMOTION

Octopuses mainly move about by relatively slow crawling with some swimming in a head-first position. Jet propulsion or backwards swimming, is their fastest means of locomotion, followed by swimming and crawling. When in no hurry, they usually crawl on either solid or soft surfaces. Several arms are extended forwards, some of the suckers adhere to the substrate and the animal hauls itself forwards with its powerful arm muscles, while other arms may push rather than pull. As progress is made, other arms move ahead to repeat these actions and the original suckers detach. During crawling, the heart rate nearly doubles, and the animal requires ten or fifteen minutes to recover from relatively minor exercise.

 

Most octopuses swim by expelling a jet of water from the mantle through the siphon into the sea. The physical principle behind this is that the force required to accelerate the water through the orifice produces a reaction that propels the octopus in the opposite direction. The direction of travel depends on the orientation of the siphon. When swimming, the head is at the front and the siphon is pointed backwards, but when jetting, the visceral hump leads, the siphon points towards the head and the arms trail behind, with the animal presenting a fusiform appearance. In an alternative method of swimming, some species flatten themselves dorso-ventrally, and swim with the arms held out sideways, and this may provide lift and be faster than normal swimming. Jetting is used to escape from danger, but is physiologically inefficient, requiring a mantle pressure so high as to stop the heart from beating, resulting in a progressive oxygen deficit.

 

Cirrate octopuses cannot produce jet propulsion and rely on their fins for swimming. They have neutral buoyancy and drift through the water with the fins extended. They can also contract their arms and surrounding web to make sudden moves known as "take-offs". Another form of locomotion is "pumping", which involves symmetrical contractions of muscles in their webs producing peristaltic waves. This moves the body slowly.

 

In 2005, Adopus aculeatus and veined octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) were found to walk on two arms, while at the same time mimicking plant matter. This form of locomotion allows these octopuses to move quickly away from a potential predator without being recognised. A study of this behaviour led to the suggestion that the two rearmost appendages may be more accurately termed "legs" rather than "arms". Some species of octopus can crawl out of the water briefly, which they may do between tide pools while hunting crustaceans or gastropods or to escape predators. "Stilt walking" is used by the veined octopus when carrying stacked coconut shells. The octopus carries the shells underneath it with two arms, and progresses with an ungainly gait supported by its remaining arms held rigid.

 

INTELLIGENCE

Octopuses are highly intelligent; the extent of their intelligence and learning capability are not well defined. Maze and problem-solving experiments have shown evidence of a memory system that can store both short- and long-term memory. It is not known precisely what contribution learning makes to adult octopus behaviour. Young octopuses learn nothing from their parents, as adults provide no parental care beyond tending to their eggs until the young octopuses hatch.

 

In laboratory experiments, octopuses can be readily trained to distinguish between different shapes and patterns. They have been reported to practise observational learning, although the validity of these findings is contested. Octopuses have also been observed in what has been described as play: repeatedly releasing bottles or toys into a circular current in their aquariums and then catching them. Octopuses often break out of their aquariums and sometimes into others in search of food. They have even boarded fishing boats and opened holds to eat crabs. The veined octopus collects discarded coconut shells, then uses them to build a shelter, an example of tool use.

 

CAMOUFLAGE AND COLOUR CHANGE

Octopuses use camouflage when hunting and to avoid predators. To do this they use specialised skin cells which change the appearance of the skin by adjusting its colour, opacity, or reflectivity. Chromatophores contain yellow, orange, red, brown, or black pigments; most species have three of these colours, while some have two or four. Other colour-changing cells are reflective iridophores and white leucophores. This colour-changing ability is also used to communicate with or warn other octopuses.

 

Octopuses can create distracting patterns with waves of dark coloration across the body, a display known as the "passing cloud". Muscles in the skin change the texture of the mantle to achieve greater camouflage. In some species, the mantle can take on the spiky appearance of algae; in others, skin anatomy is limited to relatively uniform shades of one colour with limited skin texture. Octopuses that are diurnal and live in shallow water have evolved more complex skin than their nocturnal and deep-sea counterparts.

 

A "moving rock" trick involves the octopus mimicking a rock and then inching across the open space with a speed matching the movement in the surrounding water, allowing it to move in plain sight of a predator.

 

DEFENCE

Aside from humans, octopuses may be preyed on by fishes, seabirds, sea otters, pinnipeds, cetaceans, and other cephalopods. Octopuses typically hide or disguise themselves by camouflage and mimicry; some have conspicuous warning coloration (aposematism) or deimatic behaviour. An octopus may spend 40% of its time hidden away in its den. When the octopus is approached, it may extend an arm to investigate. 66% of Enteroctopus dofleini in one study had scars, with 50% having amputated arms. The blue rings of the highly venomous blue-ringed octopus are hidden in muscular skin folds which contract when the animal is threatened, exposing the iridescent warning. The Atlantic white-spotted octopus (Callistoctopus macropus) turns bright brownish red with oval white spots all over in a high contrast display. Displays are often reinforced by stretching out the animal's arms, fins or web to make it look as big and threatening as possible.

 

Once they have been seen by a predator, they commonly try to escape but can also use distraction with an ink cloud ejected from the ink sac. The ink is thought to reduce the efficiency of olfactory organs, which would aid evasion from predators that employ smell for hunting, such as sharks. Ink clouds of some species might act as pseudomorphs, or decoys that the predator attacks instead.

 

When under attack, some octopuses can perform arm autotomy, in a manner similar to the way skinks and other lizards detach their tails. The crawling arm may distract would-be predators. Such severed arms remain sensitive to stimuli and move away from unpleasant sensations. Octopuses can replace lost limbs.

 

Some octopuses, such as the mimic octopus, can combine their highly flexible bodies with their colour-changing ability to mimic other, more dangerous animals, such as lionfish, sea snakes, and eels.

 

PATHOGENS AND PARASITES

The diseases and parasites that affect octopuses have been little studied, but cephalopods are known to be the intermediate or final hosts of various parasitic cestodes, nematodes and copepods; 150 species of protistan and metazoan parasites have been recognised. The Dicyemidae are a family of tiny worms that are found in the renal appendages of many species; it is unclear whether they are parasitic or are endosymbionts. Coccidians in the genus Aggregata living in the gut cause severe disease to the host. Octopuses have an innate immune system, and the haemocytes respond to infection by phagocytosis, encapsulation, infiltration or cytotoxic activities to destroy or isolate the pathogens. The haemocytes play an important role in the recognition and elimination of foreign bodies and wound repair. Captive animals have been found to be more susceptible to pathogens than wild ones. A gram-negative bacterium, Vibrio lentus, has been found to cause skin lesions, exposure of muscle and death of octopuses in extreme cases.

 

EVOLUTION

The scientific name Octopoda was first coined and given as the order of octopuses in 1818 by English biologist William Elford Leach, who classified them as Octopoida the previous year. The Octopoda consists of around 300 known species and were historically divided into two suborders, the Incirrina and the Cirrina. However, more recent evidence suggests that Cirrina are merely the most basal species and are not a unique clade. The incirrate octopuses (the majority of species) lack the cirri and paired swimming fins of the cirrates. In addition, the internal shell of incirrates is either present as a pair of stylets or absent altogether.

 

FOSSIL HISTORY AND PHYLOGENY

Cephalopods have existed for 500 million years and octopus ancestors were in the Carboniferous seas 300 million years ago. The oldest known octopus fossil is Pohlsepia, which lived 296 million years ago. Researchers have identified impressions of eight arms, two eyes, and possibly an ink sac. Octopuses are mostly soft tissue, and so fossils are relatively rare. Octopuses, squids and cuttlefish belong to the clade Coleoidea. They are known as "soft-bodied" cephalopods, lacking the external shell of most molluscs and other cephalopods like the nautiloids and the extinct Ammonoidea. Octopuses have eight limbs like other coleoids but lack the extra specialised feeding appendages known as tentacles which are longer and thinner with suckers only at their club-like ends. The vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis) also lacks tentacles but has sensory filaments.

 

The cladograms are based on Sanchez et al., 2018, who created a molecular phylogeny based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA marker sequences.

 

RNA EDITING

Octopuses and other coleoid cephalopods are capable of greater RNA editing (which involves changes to the nucleic acid sequence of the primary transcript of RNA molecules) than any other organisms. Editing is concentrated in the nervous system and affects proteins involved in neural excitability and neuronal morphology. More than 60% of RNA transcripts for coleoid brains are recoded by editing, compared to less than 1% for a human or fruit fly. Coleoids rely mostly on ADAR enzymes for RNA editing, which requires large double-stranded RNA structures to flank the editing sites. Both the structures and editing sites are conserved in the coleoid genome and the mutation rates for the sites are severely hampered. Hence, greater transcriptome plasticity has come at the cost of slower genome evolution. High levels of RNA editing do not appear to be present in more basal cephalopods or other molluscs.

 

RELATIONSHIP TO HUMANS

CULTURAL REFERENCES

Ancient seafaring people were aware of the octopus, as evidenced by certain artworks and designs. For example, a stone carving found in the archaeological recovery from Bronze Age Minoan Crete at Knossos (1900–1100 BC) has a depiction of a fisherman carrying an octopus. The terrifyingly powerful Gorgon of Greek mythology has been thought to have been inspired by the octopus or squid, the octopus itself representing the severed head of Medusa, the beak as the protruding tongue and fangs, and its tentacles as the snakes. The Kraken are legendary sea monsters of giant proportions said to dwell off the coasts of Norway and Greenland, usually portrayed in art as a giant octopus attacking ships. Linnaeus included it in the first edition of his 1735 Systema Naturae. One translation of the Hawaiian creation myth the Kumulipo suggests that the octopus is the lone survivor of a previous age. The Akkorokamui is a gigantic octopus-like monster from Ainu folklore.

 

A battle with an octopus plays a significant role in Victor Hugo's book Travailleurs de la mer (Toilers of the Sea), relating to his time in exile on Guernsey. Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights, and the 1983 James Bond film were partly inspired by Hugo's book.

 

Japanese erotic art, shunga, includes ukiyo-e woodblock prints such as Katsushika Hokusai's 1814 print Tako to ama (The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife), in which an ama diver is sexually intertwined with a large and a small octopus. The print is a forerunner of tentacle erotica. The biologist P. Z. Myers noted in his science blog, Pharyngula, that octopuses appear in "extraordinary" graphic illustrations involving women, tentacles, and bare breasts.

 

Since it has numerous arms emanating from a common centre, the octopus is often used as a symbol for a powerful and manipulative organisation, company, or country.

 

DANGER

Octopuses generally avoid humans, but incidents have been verified. For example, a 2.4-metre Pacific octopus, said to be nearly perfectly camouflaged, "lunged" at a diver and "wrangled" over his camera before it let go. Another diver recorded the encounter on video.

 

All species are venomous, but only blue-ringed octopuses have venom that is lethal to humans. Bites are reported each year across the animals' range from Australia to the eastern Indo-Pacific Ocean. They bite only when provoked or accidentally stepped upon; bites are small and usually painless. The venom appears to be able to penetrate the skin without a puncture, given prolonged contact. It contains tetrodotoxin, which causes paralysis by blocking the transmission of nerve impulses to the muscles. This causes death by respiratory failure leading to cerebral anoxia. No antidote is known, but if breathing can be kept going artificially, patients recover within 24 hours. Bites have been recorded from captive octopuses of other species; they leave swellings which disappear in a day or two.

 

FISHERIES AND CUISINE

Octopus fisheries exist around the world with total catches varying between 245,320 and 322,999 metric tons from 1986 to 1995. The world catch peaked in 2007 at 380,000 tons, and fell by a tenth by 2012. Methods to capture octopuses include pots, traps, trawls, snares, drift fishing, spearing, hooking and hand collection. Octopus is eaten in many cultures and is a common food on the Mediterranean and Asian coasts. The arms and sometimes other body parts are prepared in various ways, often varying by species or geography. Live octopuses are eaten in several countries around the world, including the US. Animal welfare groups have objected to this practice on the basis that octopuses can experience pain. Octopuses have a food conversion efficiency greater than that of chickens, making octopus aquaculture a possibility.

 

IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

In classical Greece, Aristotle (384–322 BC) commented on the colour-changing abilities of the octopus, both for camouflage and for signalling, in his Historia animalium: "The octopus ... seeks its prey by so changing its colour as to render it like the colour of the stones adjacent to it; it does so also when alarmed." Aristotle noted that the octopus had a hectocotyl arm and suggested it might be used in sexual reproduction. This claim was widely disbelieved until the 19th century. It was described in 1829 by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier, who supposed it to be a parasitic worm, naming it as a new species, Hectocotylus octopodis. Other zoologists thought it a spermatophore; the German zoologist Heinrich Müller believed it was "designed" to detach during copulation. In 1856 the Danish zoologist Japetus Steenstrup demonstrated that it is used to transfer sperm, and only rarely detaches.

 

Octopuses offer many possibilities in biological research, including their ability to regenerate limbs, change the colour of their skin, behave intelligently with a distributed nervous system, and make use of 168 kinds of protocadherins (humans have 58), the proteins that guide the connections neurons make with each other. The California two-spot octopus has had its genome sequenced, allowing exploration of its molecular adaptations. Having independently evolved mammal-like intelligence, octopuses have been compared to hypothetical intelligent extraterrestrials. Their problem-solving skills, along with their mobility and lack of rigid structure enable them to escape from supposedly secure tanks in laboratories and public aquariums.

 

Due to their intelligence, octopuses are listed in some countries as experimental animals on which surgery may not be performed without anesthesia, a protection usually extended only to vertebrates. In the UK from 1993 to 2012, the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) was the only invertebrate protected under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. In 2012, this legislation was extended to include all cephalopods in accordance with a general EU directive.

 

Some robotics research is exploring biomimicry of octopus features. Octopus arms can move and sense largely autonomously without intervention from the animal's central nervous system. In 2015 a team in Italy built soft-bodied robots able to crawl and swim, requiring only minimal computation. In 2017 a German company made an arm with a soft pneumatically controlled silicone gripper fitted with two rows of suckers. It is able to grasp objects such as a metal tube, a magazine, or a ball, and to fill a glass by pouring water from a bottle.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Olympus µ[mju:]-II | Kodak Pro 100 | 비음산, Changwon-Si, South Korea | Winter 2012

 

found an oldie but a goodie :)

 

that guy was basically my host in korea for like a month. i feel like we were both introverted (which was a good thing) so we were able to hang out together in silence comfortably. i could speak korean but not thaaaat much but there was never any misunderstandings between us either because his english was pretty good himself.

 

thanks 이석민.

A recent storm snapped a large tree like a twig at the Jefferson Davis Monument at his birthplace in Fairview, Kentucky.

 

Whenever I look at the Jefferson Davis Monument (photo above), I cannot help but think of how Kentucky's governor, Beriah Magoffin, was played for the fool by the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis.

 

The Kentucky governor's aim was that President Lincoln and the south's Jefferson Davis would treat Kentucky as a neutral state. Keep the Civil War battles out! Protect its citizens. "I think Kentucky has a right to assume a neutral position," said Magoffin. Governor Magoffin knew the old government and the U.S. Constitution but then stuck his neck way out to appease the new government of the South. That gave the Democratic Southern Conservative even more of a reputation for being a southern sympathizer in a state OVERWHELMINGLY filled with pro-Union state congressmen, senators, and voters. In essence, Magoffin's efforts contributed to him becoming a political lame duck. Nonetheless, Kentucky's governor pushed for and was convinced through his communications with Jeff Davis in the summer of 1861 that the two had an understanding. The Confederate President would NOT order the invasion of neutral Kentucky. The governor told Kentucky lawmakers that Kentucky had an understanding with Davis. It would be left alone by the Confederacy.

 

Unfortunately, the supposed mutual understanding was just one sided. On September 4, 1861, towards the end of that same summer, the Confederate Army invaded Kentucky to set up a major fort at Columbus on the Mississippi River.

 

Even with major egg on his face, the governor still hoped to salvage Kentucky's supposed peace with the South. If he could veto the lawmakers petitioning the United States to come in and defend the state, maybe he could get the South to still respect Kentucky's state borders without a battle. But it was too late. Magoffin’s reputation was blown. Kentucky lawmakers ran to the United States for protection. Kentucky's governor was now lamer than a duck without legs and feathers. He stepped down. It was his third year in office.

 

The Jefferson Davis Monument was constructed in Davis' birthplace of Fairview, Kentucky. A local Confederate fan started it and the Daughters of the Confederacy helped finish it. It was set up after World War I to remember Davis, whose reputation was increasingly growing during that time to be the hero of the Lost Cause myth.

 

Besides the monument, the spot in modern times has become a state museum to Jeff Davis.

An unfortunate Misunderstanding

 

This gallery depicts a series of futuristic pictures by the French painter Jean-Marc Côté and other artists issued in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1910. Originally in the form of paper cards enclosed in cigarette/cigar boxes and, later, as postcards, the images described the world as it was imagined to be like in the then distant year of 2000.

 

At least 87 were produced, and I have managed to capture 73 of them 😊. While a few were on point (A version of Skype or Facetime), many were wildly off-tangent (underwater croquet, anyone?). And all are definitely worth a look!

 

Sources: All images are in the public domain; Most were obtained from gallica.bnf.fr/

, although I had to edit a few to render them in higher resolution.

This beach is filled with a lot of boulders rounded by the ebb and flow of sea water around them. The moment I laid my eyes on the beach for the first time an image I had seen before popped into my head. It was an image of Ryōan-ji a Japanese rock garden [1]. The images aren't nearly as carefully composed as the rock garden, after all I couldn't physically move any of the boulders, all I could control was the perspective.

I subscribe to what Nitschke wrote: "The garden at Ryōan-ji does not symbolize anything, or more precisely, to avoid any misunderstanding, the garden of Ryōan-ji does not symbolize, nor does it have the value of reproducing a natural beauty that one can find in the real or mythical world. I consider it to be an abstract composition of "natural" objects in space, a composition whose function is to incite meditation."

I hope these images approximate the feelings which the rock garden incites.

------------------

[1]: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%8Dan-ji

[2]: For those interested in Zen buddhism:

www.zen-buddhism.net/

[3]: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_rock_garden

The taiga flycatcher or red-throated flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla) is a species of migratory bird in the family Muscicapidae. The female has brown upper parts with a blackish tail flanked by white. The breast are buffish with underparts mostly white. The male has ear coverts and sides of the neck blue-tinged grey with breeding males having orange-red coloration on the throats. Unlike taiga flycatcher, the female of the similar red-breasted flycatcher has brown tail while the red color in breeding males extend up to the breast in red-breasted flycatcher. It breeds in North Eurasia from Eastern Russia to Siberia and Mongolia. It is a winter visitor to South and South-east Asia in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Japan. Its natural habitat is taiga forest. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe.

 

It was formerly considered a subspecies of the red-breasted flycatcher.

 

The genus name is from Latin and refers to a small fig-eating bird (ficus, "fig") supposed to change into the blackcap in winter. The specific albicilla is from Latin albus, white, and New Latin cilla tail; this meaning of cilla arose from a misunderstanding of motacilla, the name for the wagtail.

  

Seen in Madobpur lake, Shylet, Bangladesh

 

There seemed to be a misunderstanding about my last upload. Some thought the vine was in a pine tree,and I can see now how you would think that. This is the same vine enveloping our mailbox,as it does every year in late summer. It's covered in tiny red buds. I shot this at night,as you can see.

Have a great Thursday,and I'll be back tomorrow to see all your new pics,and comment on them ! Thank you all for your visits and comments ! YOU ARE THE BEST OF FLICKR!

ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA 2020. The World Is Tearing Down Racist [or Fascist] Monuments but Not in Italy. The Daily Beast (15 August 2020). S.v., Finestre sull'Arte (04/08/2020) & La Repubblica (03/08/2020); anche: THE NEW YORKER (5 October 2017); Il giornale dell architettura (27/10/2017) & Il Sole 24 Ore (08/10/2017). wp.me/pbMWvy-uw

 

ITALY - The World Is Tearing Down Racist Monuments but Not in Italy - SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL - The family of Benito Mussolini wants the city of his birth to protect his tomb., Seriously. The Daily Beast (15 August 2020).

 

ITALY - ROME—The crypt holding the remains of Benito Mussolini in his hometown of Predappio in northern Italy has for years drawn neofascists and other sympathizers who come to pay their ill-guided respects to Italy's father of Fascism.

 

And even while images from across the world have shown that old monuments to worse times are being torn down, in Italy things are very different. Just this month, Mussolini's descendants applied to the town council to make his tomb into a national monument, citing the number of people it draws each year and the tourism dollars in the way of fascist souvenirs that are sold in the small town. The Mussolini family thought that the taxpayers should foot the bill to maintain it and pay the annual cemetery dues.

 

The cemetery is open year-round but the crypt is only open to visitors on the day of Mussolini's birth, death, and his October march on Rome in 1922. There has never been a year when no one showed up, the Mussolini family has argued, citing the need for the city to pay for attendees to open it to the public year-round.

 

Mussolini’s granddaughter Alessandra, herself a right-wing politician, has asked the mayor of Predappio to give the tomb what is called “monumental” status, and the family lawyer published a letter in the local newspaper pleading that elevating the tomb's status is in Italy’s “clear interest” to accommodate the “constant flow of devotees” who pay homage to their idol.

 

The town will make its decision in September but its right-wing mayor, Roberto Canali, has hinted he doesn't see a problem. “It will help the cafés, restaurants and shops in the town,” he told local media.

 

The former left-wing mayor Giorgio Frassineti disagreed in an open letter. “We are talking about a dictator who passed racial laws and ruined the country—it’s unacceptable,” he wrote. “This is all about money. The family are saying to the mayor: if you want the tomb open every day, you pay for it.”

 

Before losing to his right-wing successor, Frassineti had secured €3.5 million in private and state funding to open a research center to study the ills of Fascism. The proposal was strongly opposed by the Mussolini family and scrapped by Canali.

 

The request to make Mussolini's tomb a legitimate tourist attraction comes on the heels of a request to establish a Museum of Fascism in Rome, which was handily turned down by the city's mayor Virginia Raggi last week.

 

www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/50251112451

 

The original proposal claimed that similar museums in Germany showcase Nazi crimes without glorifying them. The association of the partisans of Italy who fought Fascism said there was no assurance that it would not instead draw devotees. “We can only imagine how many people will be eager to show that Fascism also did some good things for Italy,” they said in a statement.

 

Sympathy for Fascism is alive and well in Italy, the association said, pointing to the fact that there are people who “have no shame in quoting Mussolini” and that there are politicians who look back on the fascist era with nostalgia.

 

The museum proposal was submitted by Maria Gemma Guerrini, a member of the Five Star movement just like the mayor of Rome. She had hoped to revitalize an old industrial building and provide records for scholars, Italians, and “tourists from around the world.”

 

The mayor [Ms. Virginia Raggi] quickly shot down the plan.“Rome is an anti-Fascist city,” Raggi said. “There must be no misunderstandings about that.”

 

www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/50251304957

 

Fascist symbols and architecture from Mussolini's time are easily visible in Rome, including a giant obelisk that still bears Mussolini's name at the Olympic stadium and a forest with DUX for “il Duce” as he was called, carved out and visible from the city . While the rest of the world has toppled their statues to racism, they have never been under threat and have needed no protection at all.

 

Fonte / source:

--- Barbie Latza Nadeau / The Daily Beast (15 August 2020).

www.thedailybeast.com/the-world-is-tearing-down-racist-mo...

 

Foto / fonte / source:

--- Prix Italia 2019 / Sindaca di Roma - Virginia Raggi (23/09/2019).

gallery.agenzianova.com/picture.php?/2008/search/263

 

--- Mrsimone7, "Rome - Foro Italico / Stadium at Night," Skypixel (20 Dec. 2016).

www.skypixel.com/photos/stadium-night-looks

 

S.v.,

 

www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/50187067173

  

--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA 2020. Federico Giannini, "Perché l'Italia non può avere un museo o un centro di documentazione sul fascismo?" Finestre sull'Arte (04/08/2020). & S.v., Giulia Barrera (06/2011) & IL TEMPO (27/11/2011). wp.me/pbMWvy-u9

 

--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA 2020. Rome, a New Museum of Fascism. Mayor Raggi blocks the proposal. La Repubblica (03/08/2020). The blocking of the new Museum, Not so much for Political or Idealogical Reasonings. But More Realistically, Because Rome’s City Museums are in a State of Neglect, Underfunded and Periodically Looted (1995-2020). wp.me/pbMWvy-rT

 

www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/49872830433

 

--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA. Exhibit – “Political Propaganda Under Fascism and Beyond,” New York University Casa Italiana. ‘ i-Italy’ (06 March 2020) & Mussolini, e sai cosa bevi, La Stampa (14/04/2020). S.v., THE NEW YORKER (5 October 2017); Il giornale dell architettura (27/10/2017) & Il Sole 24 Ore (8 ottobre 2017). wp.me/pbMWvy-bS

 

S.v., Finestre sull'Arte (04/08/2020) & La Repubblica (03/08/2020).

“My flag looks like the original American flag. The red stands for blood and the blue stripes stand for the original colonies. The difference is that it is warped. There isonly one star because America is self-centered.”

--6th grade student artist’s own words written in Dec., 2005

 

This flag was exhibited on a bulletin board in 2005 at Capital Hill Gifted and Talented Magnet Shool in St. Paul. The student, who was in the 6th grade when he/she made this , is now a Senior in High School. Previously I did not want to name the school for fear that it might alert federal agents to investigate and intimidate the teacher or the school for being "anti-american"! That was 6 years ago though . . Great debate below that deals with issues such as brainwashing kids with liberal political propaganda and patriotism, etc. Read on and make a comment!

Please save my head, Pink Pig!

  

Good bye, weak wrapping!

Here is the best way to protect your doll's head.

Please save my head, Pink Pig!

 

Try it now!

 

For large dolls (8~10 inch)

For mini dolls (7~8 inch)

For tiny dolls (6~7 inch)

   

Pink Pig - USD 15 (Limited)

  

"Please save my head, Pink Pig!"

 

Order Form

 

Name :

Phone :

Shipping Address :

Postal code :

Size : SD (Large) / MSD (Mini) / USD (Tiny)

Quantity :

etc. :

 

Please E-mail me if you are interested!!

E-mail address : te_K@naver.com

 

**You should order the items seperetely to avoid misunderstandings.

Please fill out each form of which you want in an E-mail.

** Item ships from South Korea.

** Shipping Option is EMS only.

   

:: Pre-order Period ::

 

May 13, 2013 ~ May 15, 2013 PM 9:00

(Korea time, GMT + 09:00)

   

::Working time::

 

My working time is usually 4-5 weeks after I received your payment.

Each item was done with utmost dedication and effort. :-)

There must be some misunderstanding

There must be some kind of mistake

I waited in the rain for hours

You were late

 

Now it's not like me to say the right thing

But you could've called to let me know

I checked your number twice, don't understand it

So I went home

 

Well I'd been waiting for this weekend

I thought that maybe we could see a show

Never dreamed I'd have this feeling

But seeing you is believing

That's why I don't know why

You didn't show up that night

 

There must be some misunderstanding

There must be some kind of mistake

I waited in the rain for hours

You were late

 

Since then I've been running around trying to find you

I went to the places that you always go

I rang your home but got no answer

jumped in my car, I went round there

I still don't believe it

She was just leaving

 

There must be some misunderstanding

There must be some kind of mistake

 

It is usual here for a foreigner to be treated like a creature from another universe. Instead, her emptiness became her passport in Japan, allowing her to become a two-way mirror for our manners and our ways. I came to realise that foreigners do not exist except in the prison cell of some people's minds. And, what a universe of knowledge is wasted in prisons. I would not be able to explain this to a Westerner. An ocean of misunderstanding lies between us. Their phantoms challenge them as much as our phantoms challenge us. We are condemned to be their hallucination as they are to be ours. But what she did was to reflect our own culture back to us as a hallucination.

 

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

Henry David Thoreau

  

View Large on Black at www.thewindypixel.com!

 

Pale in the flare light

The scared light cracks and disappears

And leads the scorched ones here

And everywhere no one cares

The fire is spreading … (”4th of July” by Soundgarden)

 

Happy Independence Day to all our American readers! And Happy Fourth of July to everyone! I must admit I’ve been fascinated with the news that has come from Iran over the past month. Stories of street protests by Iranians to voice their concern over the electoral process and the nighttime rooftop chants have painted a moving picture of civil disobedience. It is a testament to past misunderstanding of Iran that such a strong stand for democracy and liberty would come from a country maligned as a member of the “Axis of Evil,” though I would doubt these events would surprise many who have a deeper understanding of the Iranian populace. As outsiders, there is little we can do but realize that many in Iran would be heirs to an open, democratic country. Perhaps there will be more to come in the near future, perhaps not. Eventually, though, democratic fire will spark and spread. This is our independence day, be glad we have it.

 

Fireworks over Navy Pier.

A Christian’s Diary: The Misunderstanding Between My Mother and Me Has Finally Been Resolved

Recently, my mother’s health has not been good. It is not very convenient for her to leave the house. Our church leader was afraid that this would interfere with her attending meetings. As a result, he asked me to have meetings with my mother at home. Even though I did not say anything when I heard him say this, inside, I was not very happy. In a flash, the unhappy incidences between my mother and me that occurred in the past appeared in my mind like scenes from a movie.

Recommended for You ：christian family movies

 

The work is my expression in photography and video art, through the improvisational dance moves and voice of performance artist Vicki Tansey.

 

My concerns are in the ambiguity and imperfection of language and the complexity of communication. Words that have been the accepted tool for expression either spoken or written, have often fallen short when it came to understanding between individuals or groups. Differences in culture, religion, social status or even gender, have contributed to misunderstanding and often causing conflict.

 

The photographs deliver a complex message that is not so much from the head as it is from the gut. Images that are left to the viewer’s interpretation,

they are the result of combining deliberate camera shake to continuous and expressive dance moves. With minimal direction, Vicki improvises dance to the sound of her own recorded voice.

 

As does dance, so my visual dictionary of body language transcends spoken or written word. It traverses intellectual boundaries.

 

This is a selection of photographs, which is the result of extensive editing from several hundred images.

 

Along with the material of this package, I propose to include a short video film (not yet produced). This will be my creation with the collaboration of Vicki, whereby I will film her as she dances to one of her own, improvised musical recordings. This will further investigate the expression in movement and sound. It will be a montage of imagery with Vicki at the center, as she gestures expressively in her improvised dance. The film will take place at a selection of locations that will be chosen for their personal significance in her life.

 

I even quite like that misunderstanding.

Platonic love (exp.):

1. A pure, spiritual affection, subsisting between persons of opposite sex, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellences; -- a species of love for which Plato was a warm advocate.[Websters].

 

This interpretation is a misunderstanding of the nature of the Platonic ideal of love, however, which from its origin was that of a chaste but passionate love, based not on lack of erotic interest but on spiritual transmutation of the gender force, opening up vast expanses of subtler enjoyments than physically sexual ones.

 

The beautiful Carly Hildebrant, workin' her new dew. WhiPAH.

 

35 mm. Film

“1. Be Impeccable With Your Word

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

 

2. Don't Take Anything Personally

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

 

3. Don't Make Assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

 

4. Always Do Your Best

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.”

― Miguel Ruiz

  

Fam. Asparagaceae Juss. 1789

Subfam. Agavoideae Herb. 1837

Probably a 'short-day' plant, it begins to bloom usually until September / October, never in the period from May to July! This year these starts to bloom very early! An flower initiation at this Yucca I never observed if was a day length 15 hours or a night length of less than 9 hours.

Yucca x vomerensis C. Sprenger in Cat., 1901

In his "Mitteilungen über meine Yucca-Hibriden und -Formen" (Mitt. Deutsch. Dendrol. Ges. Nr. 29: 119. 1920) he wrote:.

"Yucca aloifolia x gloriosa gave me a large number of seedlings, but among themselves mostly very consistent, so that one could call them without further ado, one and all as 'vomerensis'."

Yucca x glorifolia nom. nud.

(not an valid name, and there can be misunderstandings because also used for Y. gloriosa x recurvifolia hybrids)

In the Botany of the Bermudas by H. B. Small, 1913, is listed

Yucca Glorifolia. Linn. - but these is probably a possible reading error from Carl Linnaeus handwritten record in his Species Plantarum 1748!/

Similar forms are also called Yucca gloriosa 'aloifolia form'.

The fruits of these, although, among other features, forming the typical crown, but are shorter and less drooping than typical fruits of both, Y. aloifolia or gloriosa. Whether this is only because of the lack of heat? Or maybe it's a different hybrid combination than expected!