Giant Squid in the news....

I always find random reference to the giant squid, maybe for it's mystery yet popularity.
The Onion has a lot of references ~will find the links later.

But here is one from iPhone use:
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/11/15/iphone-has-google-lost-its-voice-search/

Giant Squid joins the View !
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/900_pound_giant_squid_joins_cast

More fun websites (less squid related!)
Ink Scape - a free vector program similar to illustrator (GIMP style)
http://www.inkscape.org/

Fun community of on-line artists
http://www.deviantart.com/

depthCORE - some amazing graphical artwork
www.depthCORE.com

Soccer and more soccer
http://www.uefa.com/

Badass of the week, a new fun way to learn history
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/list.html

See your night sky by entering your ZIP
http://www.wunderground.com/sky/index.asp

Cephalopod Facts

Octopus or (Octopuses/octopi/octopodes)

The have a very short lifespan!
Smaller pygmy octopuses live around 6 months (these types are usually your pets) and the Giant Pacific Octopus lives between 3-5 years, possibly longer in colder water !!

The mother octopus lays eggs, stops eating, hides in her den, and withers away ~tear.

Squid or (Squid/squids) - squid can be plural, squids usually refers to multiple species

Skin:
- have chromatophores - produce color changes
- photophores - produce light (believe this if for group communication)

Blood:
- have hemocyanin (instead of hemoglobin) which provides oxidation by using copper (instead of iron) as a carrier of sulfide H2O (instead of oxygen)
- this "blue blood" is less viscous, making it very efficient at oxygenating gills.

Movement:
- Jet propulsion - water pushed through funnel in mantel, very efficent at pushing water over gills.


Cephalopods

gelatinous tissue - filled with ammonium ions - to approximate sea water buoyancy !!

GIMP

Just discovered GIMP
- a free image compostion and photo touchup program.

It is very similar to photoshop, especially since I have an older version - photoshop 5.0 LE, which won't update :,(

Here's what I've made so far (but I'm still learning layers and filters and effects... )

Giant Octopus (eating shark! ) and Squid blog

Giant Octopus is placed in a large aquarium shark tank
- see what happens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaOWJxEr3U0&feature=related

Wow, it's bIG! new respect for the octopus!


Squid blog - fantastic resource for all things squid related!
- educational and cutsie

Squid - a San Francisco blog site
http://squid.us/
- I found squid blog by Laughing squid through twitter
--> try twitter, it's fun!

Giant sQuid song!

Jonathan Coulton - I crush everything !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RFEzpUsUBk

... mean dolphins!

Giant Squid Book

So I'm searching for a fun and entertaining book about the Giant Squid, and BAM! it exists! Thank you Richard Ellis!!

(btw, he has more books about sea monsters and the deep to read! wow)