Love in the octopus' garden (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/0-0&fd=R&url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKN3144361920080401&cid=1147530920&ei=8AbyR9qqMoq-ywTK3Z2iCg&usg=AFrqEzeV0ZzVijgXMsriylJrhrfiM9cuUQ)
Reuters UK, UK - 7 hours ago
Graduate student Christine Huffard snorkelled in the waters off Indonesia to watch Abdopus aculeatus, an octopus with a spiky tan body the size of a small ...


More... (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/0-0&fd=R&url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKN3144361920080401&cid=1147530920&ei=8AbyR9qqMoq-ywTK3Z2iCg&usg=AFrqEzeV0ZzVijgXMsriylJrhrfiM9cuUQ)


UC Berkeley (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/7i-0&fd=R&url=http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/03/31_octo.shtml&cid=0&ei=8AbyR9qqMoq-ywTK3Z2iCg&usg=AFrqEzfnG0ae1laDfTM1ycN_BDcFq6kaew)
Octopus sex more sophisticated than arm-wrestling (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/7-0&fd=R&url=http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/03/31_octo.shtml&cid=0&ei=8AbyR9qqMoq-ywTK3Z2iCg&usg=AFrqEzfojk1WPPBBYTynWqAn04kCyRxSAA)
UC Berkeley, CA - 14 hours ago
For several weeks, they tracked Octopus Abdopus aculeatus, a diurnal species of cephalopod that typically sports a spiky tan body the size of a small orange ...


More... (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/7-0&fd=R&url=http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/03/31_octo.shtml&cid=0&ei=8AbyR9qqMoq-ywTK3Z2iCg&usg=AFrqEzfojk1WPPBBYTynWqAn04kCyRxSAA)

Way to go, Mucktopus!

Congratulations, Crissy and Roy!
And it's always good to see octopuses in the news.

Nancy

If you're on the east coast, they might be discussed on Good Morning America tomorrow morning because apparently Dianne Sawyer loves octopuses. Of course the story could get scrapped at the last minute.

Super sweet!

congratulations!

J

A friend who lives in upstate NY 5 miles from the canadian border emailed this to me today! Congrats! Will have to tune in and see if you make it on Good Morning America!!!

Metro (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/3i-0&fd=R&url=http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html%3Fin_article_id%3D132614%26 in_page_id%3D34&cid=1147974357&ei=BKr0R6eBB5SoygSSmtDhCg&usg=AFrqEzen9uURL-NsaLCXl09p2ssjyZGihQ)
Octopus is sucker for kinky sex (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/3-0&fd=R&url=http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html%3Fin_article_id%3D132614%26 in_page_id%3D34&cid=1147974357&ei=BKr0R6eBB5SoygSSmtDhCg&usg=AFrqEzckEgQubGcicc9gg1iucp3-O3f6Pg)
Metro, UK - 12 hours ago
Biologist Roy Caldwell, who co-wrote the report, explained that big is undoubtedly beautiful in the world of the wild octopus. 'If you're going to spend ...

More... (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/3-0&fd=R&url=http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html%3Fin_article_id%3D132614%26 in_page_id%3D34&cid=1147974357&ei=BKr0R6eBB5SoygSSmtDhCg&usg=AFrqEzckEgQubGcicc9gg1iucp3-O3f6Pg)

Octobot caught a very tasteless spoof in with these:

[ removed ]

I would also say that Roy and Crissy might have grounds to complain that if one is going to make a (crude and tasteless and not all that funny) knock-off of a real story, they should have the decency to make up fake biologist names instead of leaving the real ones in when the rest of the article has been gutted. I know parody is protected speech, so this is probably not illegal, just in very poor taste.

Hummm, looks like Crissy or Roy have a Berkeley Journalist Major practicing their trade

Whoever wrote that should stick to journalism, comedy is not their thing.

Yeah, I'd just edit it, since I think it adds no value and insults our members, but the octobot posts are sort of weird and I'm not sure if I'd break anything by removing it... hopefully Tony will clean it up. As much as I like parody and dislike censorship, there's no reason we have to link to tacky stuff that fails to be funny.

Amen, it's OK to be the brunt of a joke(if it's funny).But that was crap!

Octobot caught a very tasteless spoof in with these:

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s5i32928

I would also say that Roy and Crissy might have grounds to complain that if one is going to make a (crude and tasteless and not all that funny) knock-off of a real story, they should have the decency to make up fake biologist names instead of leaving the real ones in when the rest of the article has been gutted. I know parody is protected speech, so this is probably not illegal, just in very poor taste.

I totally agree it's beyond a joke to use the name of a real biologist in such a piece :mad:

I could be wrong (it happens more than I would like), but I suspect no harm was intended and that Crissy knows the author, however, it is not what a biologist wants to pop up on Google when one's name is searched.

I don't know the author, and to be honest it doesn't bother me. When you study animal sex and sperm you set yourself up for a whole slew of jokes. After years of being teased (always in good fun of course) for making octoporn I'm immune to it by now. This article is so over the top and obviously untrue that any colleague reading it would know it is not an accurate representation of our work, or us as researchers. The website name says it all, and the other posted articles are warped too. To me this link shows that we've reached a fringe crowd that may not normally think about science, and that in itself is a good thing.

I like a good joke as much as the next person and certainly have been the object of my share, so this sort of thing doesn't bother me either. The only thing that offended me was that the writing was so horrid. Where have all the good comedy writers gone?

I've been through several of these press release feeding frenzies before and the one thing that always impresses me - besides that sex sells - is how starved the media is for content. The web, radio and television, and print markets are creating an insatiable appetite for "interesting" material. It is too bad that a little story like ours gets picked up by dozens of markets. As biologists I wish we could provide enough material to promote a bit more diversity.

Roy

Well, I'm glad you two are both thick-skinned. I agree that the horrible writing is by far the worst of it. It's actually a fine topic for parody, but it was done in such a tacky way. But if it doesn't bug either of you, I suppose there's no reason to remove the link, just not recommend it to anyone except connoisseurs of bad satire.

Popular Science (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/8i-0&fd=R&url=http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-04/octopus-dating-game&cid=1148773310&ei=JZ_4R_PJMI2uygTTtoHVDw&usg=AFrqEzefmaZI7_BlPKHEUqBfi_952jpfuA)
The Octopus Dating Game (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/8-0&fd=R&url=http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-04/octopus-dating-game&cid=1148773310&ei=JZ_4R_PJMI2uygTTtoHVDw&usg=AFrqEzfDZUgkERGC8HI61g8NnGWZW0Z1GA)
Popular Science, NY - Apr 3, 2008
By Gregory Mone Posted 04.03.2008 at 9:42 am 0 Comments UC Berkeley scientists have found a species of octopus whose members flirt, hold "hands", ...
One Crustacean: Many Powers (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/8-1&fd=R&url=http://www.sciencefriday.com/newsbriefs/read/167&cid=1148773310&ei=JZ_4R_PJMI2uygTTtoHVDw&usg=AFrqEzcF3fsTTYniLE7iAxSTVEcnZE-g_w) Science Friday
all 2 news articles (http://news.google.com/news?tab=vn&ie=ISO-8859-1&lr=&hl=en&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2006-19%2CGGLG%3Aen&ncl=1148773310)


More... (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/8-0&fd=R&url=http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-04/octopus-dating-game&cid=1148773310&ei=JZ_4R_PJMI2uygTTtoHVDw&usg=AFrqEzfDZUgkERGC8HI61g8NnGWZW0Z1GA)

Hey guys -- I'm just catching up with what Mr. Octobot pulled in a few days ago. I'm sorry the crude article made its way on here, the link has been removed.

Every so often that site will produce some really lame article about a giant squid or octopus, and it gets picked up by octobot. As others here have said, most of those articles are not funny. Kind of a waste of cybertext.

Thanks for alerting me, and sorry for missing it... falling a bit behind!