Octopuses use coconut shells

Octopus in Shell / newscientist.com

People living in Indonesian coastal villages discard coconut shells into the sea after use. When the octopuses come across these on the seabed, they drape their bodies over and around the shells, hollow-side up, leaving their eight arms dangling over the edges.The octopuses then lift the shells by making their arms rigid, before tiptoeing away in a manoeuvre Finn calls stilt-walking.

via Octopuses use coconut shells as portable shelters – life – 14 December 2009 – New Scientist.

The article also states that

There is a growing record of tool use in animals and birds, from musical “instruments” made by orang-utansMovie Camera to sponges used by dolphins to dislodge prey from sand.

Here is my little random and definitely not scientifically supported theory. In fact, come to think of it, it would make for a great science fiction plot.

In the age of the dinosaurs, when they were the dominant species on this planet, our ancestors were like these creatures in the NewScientist article.

Our ancestors were learning about their environment, learning to use tools and developing the brain power to alter their environment to suit their needs as opposed to altering their needs to suit the environment.

Now in our time, we are the dominant species on this planet while those creatures mentioned in the article will be the ancestors of the next new dominant species on the planet.

When we have caused the next ice age, our species might die off, or it might say stagnant or in hibernation, severely diminished in numbers, to wait out the cold. The temperatures deep under the ocean might not change all that much, allowing life there to continue evolving.

Many years later, we “wake up” to a nice new warmer planet, and discover some pretty technologically advanced neighbours who have found their way from the sea to the surface.

 

Was there an alien cover up?

FORMER NASA astronaut and moonwalker Dr Edgar Mitchell – a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission – has stunningly claimed aliens do exist.

And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions – but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.

Defense Tech: NASA Naut Claims Alien Coverup.

This day in age, most of us are quick to dismiss UFO encouters as hoaxes and attribute it to other psychological phenomena.

However, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, whom I assume is a reputable scientist has claimed that extra-terrestials have visited this planet.

I did a wikipedia search on him and turns out that he has a fascination with the paranormal.

Mitchell’s interests include consciousness and paranormal phenomena. During the Apollo 14 flight he conducted private ESP experiments with his friends on Earth.[3] In early 1973, he founded the nonprofit Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) to conduct and sponsor research into areas that mainstream science has found unproductive, including consciousness research and psychic events.

Edgar Mitchell – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Do you think a scientist risk his reputation on such an outrageous claim like that of ETs having visited earth if it were not true? Was it a publicity stunt?

 

Holy Tortise Penis!

YouTube – Tartaruga eh lerda??? AONDE???.

Um, I reading this blog on NewScientist about how this giant tortise, thought to be the last of it’s kind, might have had some reproductive “luck”.

There was a link to that video there.

Wow, that giant tortise penis looks more like a weapon of some sort!

Just in case you think the video is a hoax, like I did, I googled “tortise penis” (yes, the internet tortise porn cops are hot on my trail) and came up with this link from the Colorado Humane Society. It’s real folks.

 

Colossal Squid

Maybe the giant sea-monster and sea-serpent stories have some meat to them afterall! Check out the dissection of the colossal squid and more stories on the squid at discovery.ca.