Our own Dr. O'Shea got his own slice of the Web on the Discovery Channel's Website:

Seeking the Giant Squid (http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/quest/projects/oshea.html)

Cool things to come by all accounts; stay tuned.

FYI I've also added this link to our Ceph Web Directory in the Scientific Study (http://www.tonmo.com/links/listing.php?cat=3) category.

:oshea:

At last it's good to see a report in the popular press that does not exaggerate the size or capabilities of Architeuthis.

Good luck next year Steve!

Cheers....but I've a sneaking suspicion that you'll read about anything here first :wink:

Ahhhh.... I'm feeling the smug satisfaction that comes with access to inside info.
"There are creatures," O'Shea says, "that make the giant squid look like real puppies."
Love this quote!!! Wrapping my head around the image of archis with collars and nametags, playfully swatting at eachother and drooling. I guess drool is irrelevant underwater.

wow! This is going to be an impressive expedition:D TONMO is soo cool - i´ve been searching for a long time on information on architheutis and really didn´t find much (except from clyde roper´s site), and now i´m posting on the same board as the pros :notworth: :notworth: :notworth:
Good Luck with the preparations!

volt

steve, was wondering if there is going to be a sequel on dsc about "chasing the giant squid". :)

Way to go Steve!! I can hardly wait to hear more...fascinating as always! We are privileged to get access...its like being one of the men-n-black!
Greg

Congrats, Steve-O', fantastic webpage! Love the slideshow too! As a longtime Discovery Channel fan -- and almost-as-longime Steve-O' fan! -- I'm delighted to see that the general public will now be fully aware of one of the marine biology field's most remarkable scientist-explorers (Neil Diamond obsession notwithstanding :D ).

Now that we all know your "sekhrit" for attracting male Archis, it sounds like you'll have a very good chance of getting one on camera next year. (Though I was curious as to how one would go about attracting a female Archi -- same method, different pheromones?)

Great stuff -- and when your expeditions lead to another AMNH lecture appearance, it would be great if you, Shoba, and Kat could also join me and my XY contingent, Melissa and her sweetie, the Morellis, and whoever else is around for an Eastern US TONMOcon / Steve-O' Roast / :cheers: and pizza bash in Da Big Apple!

:notworth:
The Tanster

steve, was wondering if there is going to be a sequel on dsc about "chasing the giant squid". :)

There'll be a no-tear(s) sequel(s) for sure; check out the second issue of New Scientist (August 2003) and you'll learn a lot more :grad: . There's a fantastic amount of work and progress that we have to do/achieve before we'll undertake it, and we're fast running out of time. Plans are for a Feb 2004 repeat quest for the larval giant, and a July/August (mid-winter) quest for the adult, both in 2004.

I'm busy collecting my marbles now, but I've either left or lost them in all sorts of places and don't think I'll have them all by Feb :bonk: . That's why I'm counting on Kat to have all of hers :usa: .

we'll just have to wait until 2004 then. :D
also in your interview with Maryalice Yakutchik you said,qoute:
"There are creatures," O'Shea says, "that make the giant squid look like real puppies."
now what are you really suggesting, a adult architeuthis 200 feet long or something of the sort. :)

When we did that interview I don't think that the colossal squid had been reported; just fortuitous that this was mentioned then.

There is another equally mean squid that we know about, but haven't a mature animal at hand.

Steve, do you have new glasses? The ones in the photo look like they fit quite well...

KRin

Hi Steve. I'm quite recent here, but far from recent as far as interest for Giant Squid is concerned... unfortunately, as it means I'm no more that young!
Pretty exciting projects indeed!
Just one thing about this "female pheromone mix" : don't you think we should do some justice to Peter Benchley about this? If I'm not wrong, it was more or less the system used by Herbert Talley in "Beast", isn'it?
Of course I don't mean you got the idea from him : I just mean that the novel was (thousands of) miles from being scientifically accurate about Architeuthis, but that not everything was unrealistic inside.
All the best.

There is another equally mean squid that we know about, but haven't a mature animal at hand.

Are you perchance referring to Taningia danae? You once told me that they were "seriously evil". Unless of course you meant me, in which case you'd be only half right. (I'm frequently evil, but seldom serious.)

:mrgreen:

Hi Steve. I'm quite recent here, but far from recent as far as interest for Giant Squid is concerned... unfortunately, as it means I'm no more that young!
Pretty exciting projects indeed!
Just one thing about this "female pheromone mix" : don't you think we should do some justice to Peter Benchley about this? If I'm not wrong, it was more or less the system used by Herbert Talley in "Beast", isn'it?
Of course I don't mean you got the idea from him : I just mean that the novel was (thousands of) miles from being scientifically accurate about Architeuthis, but that not everything was unrealistic inside.
All the best.

:welcome: Whitey! I think you are our first South African member (Tony would know for certain). As for not being young.... betcha you're not as old as I am! (Hint: the first American president I remember is Eisenhower -- but I wasn't born during his administration.)

Yeah, I read BEAST too and I remember that part. However, as I recall something went wrong with it -- either Squiddy chomped off the hook, or went ballistic, or some such disaster. However, that critter behaved (and looked) more like a Messie than an Archi, and hopefully Steve-O's "Cephrodisiac" will only attract the non-clawed variety.

The Tanster

:notworth: I will precise that, for my part, I'm pretty sure I'm the first French member living in South Africa, as it is exactly what I am. Sorry for not being a TRUE South African, but, on the other hand, maybe my 'mixture' makes me even more 'exotic'?
Coming back to "Beast", I guess we can sum up that the main reason why good Doctor Talley's trick didn't work as well as expected was because the critter was 100-feet long and 12-tons heavy, if I remember well!

.... and hopefully Steve-O's "Cephrodisiac" will only attract the non-clawed variety.


LOL; good name for it; mind if I borrow that sometime? No, I was unaware that Benchley had used a 'cephrodisiac' to lure the beast in .... the 'movie' was so bad I think I wept or slept most of the way through it, and the book wasn't that much better (although it was better).

Steve, do you have new glasses? The ones in the photo look like they fit quite well...
KRin

.... hmmmmm, what are you trying to say? I prefer my old-style big glasses, but everyone else hates them. I have three sets of kind-of usable glasses, as in the prescription is similar, and several that I can no longer use (and one set I refuse to use - the bifocals); the ones I wear on any particular day are the ones I can find in the morning; the same applies for my clothes and shoes.

That's an old photo they've chosen to put online, although the hair is getting longer again and I am sprouting a new moustache (it's at that stage when it is unwise to eat jelly/cream donuts). There seem to be a few grey hairs about the place too, along with some rather strange super-long eyebrow hairs. Not quite sure what's happening .... maybe it's nearing full moon.

To say the 'movie' (I like the inverted commas!) was bad really is an understatement... The book was very far better - which is not surprising as being some kind of "Jaws" revisited : a well tried formula - as long of course as we were not looking for scientific accuracy about Architeuthis. But Benchley confessed he used the fact so few is known (and even less twelve years ago) about it that he considered he could quite freely imagine a lot. And some ideas were quite good... as, for example, 'Cephrodisiac'!

.... and hopefully Steve-O's "Cephrodisiac" will only attract the non-clawed variety.


LOL; good name for it; mind if I borrow that sometime?

As a matter of fact, that was my intention. (If you didn't pick up on it the first time, I would've sneaked it into a couple more posts until you did 8) )

I always enjoy introducing new phrases into the language (at least, the language of my immediate acquaintances), voluntarily or involuntarily. My biggest "involuntary triumph" was years ago when I wrote an e-mail to Richard Ellis describing the ending of BEAST (the novel) as "Physeter ex machina". Then, much later, while reading THE SEARCH FOR THE GIANT SQUID, I was surprised to see my expression paraphrased by Ellis, in the same context, as "deus ex Physeter" (THE SEARCH FOR THE GIANT SQUID, Lyons Press hardcover, 1998, p. 194).

(Richard E., if you're reading this: I didn't mind -- in fact, it was rather flattering! :))

BTW, a few years ago there was a fragrance called PHEROMONE in men's and women's versions (it may still be around), which claimed to be laced with -- you guessed it -- pheromones that would make the wearer irresistible to the opposite sex (or same sex, depending on which kind they were using). Frankly I think it was a lot of hooey because as far as I know humans no longer respond to pheromonal cues.

However, I see potential here for a great marketing ploy to earn money for TONMO and for your expedition: Pheromones can be harvested from beached Ceph carcasses after dissection and study, and used as the base for a human cologne. It can come in two versions: "Mantle of Love" for women, and "Hectocotylus" for men. We can even use :tentacle: as our logo!

If we get the products released in time for Valentine's Day, we can tie-in the advertising campaign with our "TONMO's Hunks of Teuthology" calendar, and its female equivalent, a life-size cardboard stand-up photo of Uxia the Priestess from DAGON -- personally autographed by Macarena Gomez, of course. The profits from this venture -- fragrances, calendar, and "Uxia" figure -- should net enough funds to buy dental floss and/or nail files for 1 out of every 100 people on TONMO and the O'Shea expedition. (Winners to be determined by random drawing.)

Am I clever, or what?
:bonk:

should net enough funds to buy dental floss and/or nail files for 1 out of every 100 people on TONMO and the O'Shea expedition. (Winners to be determined by random drawing.)


you will take care of supporters and staff first right? :sly:

Yay! TONMO.com is now linked to from this site!

Seeking the Giant Squid (http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/quest/projects/oshea.html)

Thanks Steve -

It will be interesting to see whether there is any noticeable increase in the rate of membership as a result of this link. When do membership spikes usually happen? After big ceph or psuedo-ceph news items, like the chile blob, I bet. That was what led me here. :periscop:

You are correct! The Clilean Blob was a good time, but nothing beats the April 4, 2003 story of the Colossal Squid, where we had 73 visitors online at one time. I think we had as many members join that day as we usually have join in one month.

Ah well... we just need Dr Steve to get footage of a live 'un and the record could be shattered. :meso: :snorkel:

The gruesome twosome (aka Steve & Kat) have a few aces up their sleeve yet ....