Beautiful, Intelligent and Deadly

Nature 2 Minutes

Octopuses are marine creatures that have an excellent sense of touch, powerful, beak-like jaws and venomous saliva. Their suckers have receptors that enable an octopus to taste what it is touching. They are predators, and they typically kill their prey by dropping down on them and enclosing it with their arms. The prey is then pulled into their beaks and broken up. An octopus’s beak resembles a parrot’s beak.

Octopus beak

An octopus has three hearts, two of which pumps blood to the gills and the third heart circulates blood to rest of the body. Their blood is actually blue, mainly because of the presence of hemocyanin – a copper-based protein in its blood cells instead of an iron based system like we have. An octopus can squeeze itself into ridiculously small cracks and crevices because it has a soft body and lacks an internal skeleton.

The size of octopuses usually vary, normally ranging from 12 to 36 inches in length. According to National Geographic, the giant Pacific octopuses, which are found throughout the Pacific Ocean, weigh between 50 kg to 272 kg and measure over 30 feet long.

Octopuses are known to be masters of disguise in which they can easily change colors in 3-tenths of a second. It is one of their distinct features as it eludes predators easily. This talent is so impressive that they can instantly change colors accurately to that of their surroundings–including texture–hiding in plain sight to help catch prey off guard.

PEEK-A-BOO

Because they have such a large brain, octopuses are a highly intelligent marine species. They also have a well-developed central nervous system and 500 million neurons found in their arms, allowing for touch, taste, and gripping its prey. 75% of the octopus’ neurons are located on its arms and each arm can do something on its own at the same time. When one of their arms is severed, it will actually regenerate itself.

Octopuses have a very short life span. Some species live only for six months; however the giant octopus can live as long as five or six years. According to some research, octopuses mate and then die in a few months. They are an egg-laying species, and a female octopus can lay 200,000 to 400,000 eggs at a time and will guard the eggs without eating until they hatch. The female octopuses die through cellular suicide soon after the eggs are hatched.

Octopus eggs

When an octopus is relatively hungry, everything is on the menu, and they will even eat their fellow octopus. Furthermore, scientists and researchers have also witnessed female octopuses eating their mating partner once breeding is done. However, male octopuses have learned how to avoid getting killed once copulation is done– including mating within arm’s reach to avoid getting eaten by the larger female and sometimes sacrificing one of its limbs just to get away as it will just soon regenerate.

All octopuses are venomous but evidence shows that the animal does not make the venom by itself. It is produced by symbiotic bacteria instead. The blue-ringed octopus is the most venomous to humans and they are fatal. It is estimated that a single drop of tetrodotoxin is enough to kill about 27 people in a matter of minutes.

This is why I don’t go in water!!!

Octopuses are fast swimmers, but they usually prefer to crawl rather than swim. While swimming, the systemic heart becomes inactive and stops delivering blood to its organs and makes them exhausted very soon. They can, however, crawl on land…which is why I avoid the beach!

YIKES!!!!!

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Published by pat frederick

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152 thoughts on “Beautiful, Intelligent and Deadly”

  2. I am soooo sick and tired of this crap where blacks are allowed to use the word “ni…er” any fricking time they please – they ALL call each other that – but when a white person does it, they get all up in arms and offended!!! Screw all of you hypocrites!!!!

    EXCERPT: “Twitter users erupted with anger when Morgan Wallen took the stage to perform live at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night.

    Wallen was highly scrutinized after a video surfaced in February 2021 that showed him slinging profanities and using the “N” word after a night of drinking in Nashville, according to TMZ. Just a year later, he was not only invited to attend the Billboard Music Awards but was also one of the evening’s featured performers, a move that wasn’t widely accepted on Twitter.

    This gesture of apparent acceptance caused a stir on social media, as many fans aired their grievances and claimed Wallen got a free pass after a display of alleged racist behavior.
    ————-
    However, other users spoke out on Wallen’s behalf, citing Diddy’s message of love and forgiveness that he shared with the audience during his opening monologue.

    “People need to get over themselves. This ‘I can use this word and you can’t’ is BS. No one should say that word but my goodness there are rappers with literal criminal rap sheets performing but someone who uses a word and not in a pejorative way? STOP IT PEOPLE,” one user wrote in a tweet.

    Wallen also took the stage to accept the award for top country male artist, according to People.”

    https://dailycaller.com/2022/05/16/twitter-erupts-after-morgan-wallen-takes-billboard-stage/

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Most of article @ DC: “Darren Harrison, 39, was flying from the Bahamas to Florida when the pilot of the single-engine Cessna 208 passed out, leaving Harrison to land the plane despite him having no flying experience, Today reported. The pilot suffered an unspecified medical emergency and became “incoherent,” so Harrison went to the front of the plane as the aircraft fell into a nosedive, according to the outlet.

    “Just common sense, I guess, being on airplanes, because I knew if I went up and yanked that the airplane would stall,” he told Savannah Guthrie in the interview, “And I also knew at the rate we were going, we were probably going way too fast and it would rip the wings off the airplane.

    “By the time I had moved forward to the front of the airplane, I realized that we had now gone into a dive at a very fast rate,” Harrison told Today, “All I saw, when I came up the front, was water out the right window, and I knew it was coming quick. Very, very quickly.”

    Harrison described this moment as “the scariest part of the whole story.” He noted that if he hadn’t reacted, he, the pilot, and the pilot’s friend would all die.

    “When I was flying and saw the state of Florida, at that second, I knew, I’m going to land there,” Harrison continued. “I don’t know what the outcome is going to be. I don’t know how it’s going to happen. But I’m going to have to land this airplane, because there is no other option.”

    After landing the plane successfully, Harrison said the magnitude of the situation finally hit him, Today reported.

    “I said thank you for everything, and I threw the headset on the dash and said the biggest prayer I’ve ever said in my life,” said Harrison, who is expecting a child with his wife later this summer, according to Today.”

    Video of part of the interview:

    Liked by 1 person

  4. ABOLISH UNIONS!!!!

    EXCERPT: “A Massachusetts public school district closed its schools after educators, who average over $100,000 salaries, voted to strike over stalled negotiations between the district and union on increased compensation and educator diversity, according to local news reports.

    Public Schools of Brookline closed its doors to students on Monday, May 16, in preparation for a teacher strike. Superintendent Linus Guillory said the Brookline School Committee and the local teachers union, Brookline Educators Union, failed to reach an agreement after four rounds of mediation, according to a statement.

    “There will simply not be the staffing capacity to operate all schools safely, nor can [the school district] provide the structured education required by the state for the day to legally count as a school day,” Guillory said.

    Mediators declared an impasse right before 4 a.m. on Sunday following nine hours of fourth-round negotiations, according to local news outlet WCVB. On Thursday, May 12, members of the Brookline Educators Union voted to strike Monday if the district and union failed to reach an agreement over the weekend.

    “Brookline educators have been working for nearly three years without a contract that addresses fair and reasonable compensation as well as working conditions that meet the realities of a modern, comprehensive education,” the union said in a statement.”

    https://dailycaller.com/2022/05/16/brookline-teachers-strike-compensation/

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “Public Schools of Brookline reportedly offered the union a 6% across-the-board increase in all wages, a second 8% wage increase on Sept. 1, 2023, and an additional 1% wage increase on Aug. 30, 2026.

      Teachers in Brookline earn an average income of over $100,000, according to the most recent available data from the Massachusetts Department of Education. Brookline teachers earn, on average, approximately $37,000 above the average nationwide teacher salary of $63,645.”

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Kea should like this – the sawfish shows up at the 2:20 mark: “A woman managed to snag an incredible video of a sawfish, and it’s definitely worth watching.

    In a YouTube video shared by Julie Higgs, a huge sawfish could be seen casually swimming around like it was no big deal at all. She wrote the following on the video:

    ‘Went spearfishing with my new friend JJ. We stopped at a wreck close to shore and found a few sawfish feeding on a bait ball. What an amazing sight!! Sawfish are extremely rare!! This is my first sawfish sighting and I have been diving my whole life!! I was lucky enough to see 2 of these beautiful animals. Both were actively hunting!! I have been told that this might be the only video of sawfish hunting in the wild!'”

    Hey, Pat! Here’s a guy who agrees with you – stay out of the ocean!

    “Usually speaking, I’m not a big fan of what’s in the ocean. Anyone who reads my stances on the issue is well-aware of that fact. I prefer to keep my feet on dry land.

    Last time I checked, sharks don’t attack people walking down the sidewalk to grab a beer. That’s just a fact.”

    Liked by 1 person

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  9. H/T: Rodney – yet another WHOA!!!! How many fricking agencies like this exist??!!??

    EXCERPT: “The Integrity Initiative “defended democracy” by recruiting secretive “clusters” of academics, national security bureaucrats, journalists, think tankers, and lobbyists in multiple European countries. These clusters would then be engaged in various ways to address nation-specific threats of so-called “Russian disinformation.”

    In its organization, funding, operation, structure, and rhetoric the Integrity Initiative is the single best template for understanding how the entire hornets’ nest of NGOs, journalists, and “national security” bureaucrats work secretly and in concert to wage psychological warfare against citizens of the West. One cannot understand how the Disinformation Industry functions without understanding the little-known (and now defunct) Integrity Initiative.

    Thankfully, before its demise, hackers leaked a huge swath of internal documents from the Integrity Initiative. More on that leak in a moment, but for now, here is an official description of the “clusters” from one of those leaked documents:

    Full text transcribed here for readability (emphasis ours):

    The network of networks:

    ‘The Integrity Initiative was set up in autumn 2015 by the Institute for Statecraft in cooperation with the Free University of Brussels (VUB) to bring to the attention of politicians, policy-makers, opinion leaders and other interested parties the threat posed by Russia to democratic institutions in the United Kingdom, across Europe and North America

    The Integrity Initiative Aims to unite people who understand the threat, in order to provide a coordinated Western response to Russian disinformation and other elements of hybrid warfare.

    The nature of this response needs to render counter productive the Russian tactic of dividing countries internally and from one another. This will be the case if each Russian information and influence attack provokes the country targeted into sharing analysis of the attack with other countries in the network on a governmental basis, thereby increasing collaboration and Alliance cohesion. NATO’s political Committee can play an important role here.

    An effective network is best achieved by forming in each European country a cluster of well-informed people from the political, military, academic, journalistic and think-tank spheres, who will track and analyze examples of disinformation in their country and inform decision-makers and other interested parties about what is happening.’

    Nina Jankowicz’s name appears in a 2018 leak as a member of the “inner core” of the Integrity Initiative’s U.K. Cluster, specifically in the sub-group dedicated to Russia.
    (graphic)
    Another name that appears alongside Nina Jankowicz’s in the leaked documents as a member of the “inner core” of the U.K. cluster dealing with Russia is Anne Applebaum. Revolver briefly touched upon Applebaum’s apparent involvement in the Integrity Initiative in an earlier piece. Applebaum was last seen refusing to comment on the coordinated cover-up of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Applebaum’s apparent fellow “inner core” cluster wingman Nina Jankowicz repeatedly amplified the U.S. intelligence community’s discredited claim that the Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian disinformation operation:

    From the Integrity Initiative’s formal description of “clusters” above it is somewhat difficult to infer what sort of activity Nina Jankowicz may have been involved in. But as luck would have it, the leaks included documents describing the activity of the Integrity Initiative’s Spanish cluster.

    In 2018, Spain’s ruling party attempted to appoint Pedro Baños as head of the country’s national security department. The Integrity Initiative’s Spanish cluster as well as several U.K. associates immediately leapt into action to sabotage the appointment of this allegedly “pro-Kremlin” official. The following document from the leaks details their efforts:

    Transcript (emphasis ours):

    Midday: (II) Integrity Initiative Spanish cluster hear that a well known pro-Kremlin voice Pedro Baños is to be appointed as Director of the National Security Department, which works closely with the Spanish PMs office (La Moncloa) and is very influential in shaping policy

    14:00: Spanish cluster leader alerts other cluster members and prepares a dossier to inform the main Spanish media. The cluster starts a campaign on Twitter to try to prevent the appointment.

    15:45: Spanish cluster leader alerts Integrity Initiative UK Team which activates the Integrity Initiative network to generate international support for the Twitter campaign

    UK team creates a WhatsApp group to coordinate the Twitter response, get contacts on Twitter to spread awareness and get people retweeting the material. Publishes opinion piece by Nico de Pedro on StopFake’s Spanish website, which was also retweeted by key influencers.

    Cluster send material to El Pais and El Mundo to publish and alert contacts at UK and French Embassies.

    Outcome

    By 19:45 Spanish Cluster assesses that the campaign has generated significant noise on Twitter. Contacts in the Socialist Party confirm that the PM has received the message. Some Spanish diplomats also express concerns

    The result of the Integrity Initiative’s campaign was swift and decisive. After a week of lobbying, then-Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez named a different man to the post.

    Despite ostensibly “defending democracy against disinformation,” the Integrity Initiative’s clusters operated in the shadows to interfere with yet another political event in Spain. Consider the following from a leaked Integrity Initiative “Progress Report:”

    Much more: https://www.revolver.news/2022/05/biden-minster-of-truth-nina-jankowicz-and-the-secret-nato-funded-cabal-to-subvert-western-democracies-using-disinformation-as-cover/

    Liked by 1 person

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  13. Hi everyone. Its was such a nice day today. Finally have a chance to pop in. The Octopus eggs are too cute.
    I always liked Octopus. And they are really smart its amazing.

    There’s a youtube channel called Octolab TV

    Liked by 1 person

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