M.J. Rose

A friend recently explained to me that octopi are intelligent – very, very intelligent. I decided to look into this bizarre claim. Read on and be flabbergasted –

Deep Intellect

Inside the mind of the octopus

BY SY MONTGOMERY

Published in the November/December 2011 issue of Orion magazine

Photograph: Brandon Cole

“ON AN UNSEASONABLY WARM day in the middle of March, I traveled from New Hampshire to the moist, dim sanctuary of the New England Aquarium, hoping to touch an alternate reality. I came to meet Athena, the aquarium’s forty-pound, five-foot-long, two-and-a-half-year-old giant Pacific octopus.

For me, it was a momentous occasion. I have always loved octopuses. No sci-fi alien is so startlingly strange. Here is someone who, even if she grows to one hundred pounds and stretches more than eight feet long, could still squeeze her boneless body through an opening the size of an orange…”

The rest, here.

First of all, I love the word “abandonments” – and here are some in miniature. Made of Legos. Amazing!

LEGO Abandonments: Home-Made Model Haunted Houses

(Article by Urbanist)

“Hundreds of hours and in some cases over one hundred thousand pieces have gone into the creation of this series of seriously detailed LEGO models, each constructed to replicate the processes of decay in miniature…”

Click here for the gallery.

The “de-extinction” project’s big TEDx conference at the National Geographic headquarters is a wrap but you can watch it in its entirety here. And now the ethical and scientific questions are abuzz, and many people are comparing what their doing to a “Jurassic Park” scenario. The bottom line is the science is not able to use DNA as ancient as dinosaur, so the comparison is not appropriate. So then, what will these ground breaking scientists be “resurrecting”? Think carrier pigeon and woolly mammoth, which, in our opinion, is spectacularly exciting. We wish these science pioneers the very best of luck. We will keep you posted on their progress as they go…

The Promise and Pitfalls of Resurrection Ecology