Cuz you just can’t get enough Archituethian goodness. For your enjoyment we present the squid blog Squid.US. I especially adore the crocheted squid ballerina and ninja (with bonus nunchuks and star) and do confess to desiring the “Welcome our Squid Overlords” tee from Mule Design.
Only 120 shopping days left till my birthday!
Otherwise known as a large serving of calamari.
‘Please, please tell your readers they cannot come to see the squid unless they book.’
Done.
Archie is proving rather popular. Ah, I must have a lot of British readers! Could London be facing Calamari Riots if everyone can’t get in to see the Giant Squid? There’s a two-month waitinglist now; the next few weeks will determine the course of the Calamari Uprising. Enquiring minds want to know what’s going to happen; the placards are guaranteed to be Flickr-worthy. Here is historical background on today’s Giant Squid story. And here is the latest Καλαμάρι Γίγαντας news.
Over the past four days thousands have arrived to see Archie, the giant squid, after news of his unveiling – in a tank of pickling fluid in the basement of the museum’s Darwin Centre – had been revealed in newspapers and on television. ‘You could get about 600 portions of calamari out of him,’ admitted one particularly pragmatic member of museum staff.
Apparently, emotions surrounding Archie the Giant Squid are running as high as the attendance. And no wonder: ain’t that beeyooteeful?
First, of course, they named it. Archie. Say it with me, folks: Archie. Sheer poetry, ain’t it? Short for Architeuthis dux of course. The starchy old scientists say Archie has some gender issues, being probably female although it is hard to tell, especially in some of the outfits they wear nowadays (hey, they’re starchy old scientists!), but as a good lefty I say the gender issue is society’s fault, always labelling individuals, particularly those individuals who dare to be different, even unique as Archie so obviously is. As is Archie, so obviously. And, indeed, have you seen some of the outfits they wear nowadays? Here’s a hint: the ones with the boobs hanging out of their camisoles are female; the ones with the moobs mashed down in too-tight polycotton shirts are nerds.
Nay, it is not for us to decide Archie’s gender, nor even Archie’s name although, to tell the truth, Archie looks a little butch to me and might just go with it. I will avoid cheap references to seafood’s distinctive scent and “lesbian potpourri.” Yes, I shall avoid all such references, for lo I am way classy.
And so is Archie, for they have declared him/her to be a work of art. Ah, we are as of one mind in this.
“We contacted Damien Hirst‘s group after seeing their animals preserved in formalin,” explained Mr Ablett.
Beauty, eh?
Blog posts featuring Giant Squid are precisely half as good for hits as Stephen Hawking singing. Okay, live and learn. Strange that the squid fanbase has a hard time getting online, given all the Worldcom cables just lying all over the ocean floor. C’mon invertebrates, give it up for raincoaster!
For some, it’s the British Museum. For some, Buckingham Palace.
For me, it’s this
It is one of the most mysterious animals on the planet – no one knows how it moves, where it lives, what it eats or how it reproduces. And now members of the public can see one for themselves.
Yesterday the most complete giant squid ever found was put on display at the Natural History Museum’s Darwin Centre in London.
Ain’t nuthin like the world’s largest serving of calamari to get me checking airfare.
And strikey, and killey and eatey. But most of all, Giant Squid (note meek and respectful capitalization, any giant squid who may be reading this) kick assy!
I don’t know why I am so fascinated by these critters, but there is nothing that starts my day better than a hot cup of coffee and a paper on Giant Squid from the Royal Society, particularly if it includes, as this one does, the word “cloning.”
Kewl.
Here, we show the first wild images of a giant squid in its natural environment. Recovery of a severed tentacle confirmed both identification and scale of the squid (greater than 8m). Architeuthis appears to be a much more active predator than previously suspected, using its elongate feeding tentacles to strike and tangle prey.
Extraction, amplification, cloning and sequencing methods follow Carlini & Graves (1999) and Kano & Kase (2004).
The recovered section of tentacle was still functioning, with the large suckers of the tentacle club repeatedly gripping the boat deck and any offered fingers (figure 3f)…The longest giant squid on record was 18m total length (Clarke 1969).
raincoaster 