Obviously a Metaphor For Something
December 14, 2019 2:43 PM Subscribe
Those assholes, stealing that hardworking cephalopod’s lunch! Vertebrates stick together, I guess.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:09 PM on December 14, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:09 PM on December 14, 2019 [11 favorites]
Direct YouTube link (in case either of the above are region-locked)
posted by hangashore at 3:15 PM on December 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by hangashore at 3:15 PM on December 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Rock paper scissors, now with more peril!
Also hellyes teamoctopus.
posted by twentyfeetof tacos at 3:23 PM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
Also hellyes teamoctopus.
posted by twentyfeetof tacos at 3:23 PM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
Here's better view of a Bald Eagle swimming after too large of a catch - Alaska (YT).
Obviously a Metaphor For Something: The USA, entangled in (and suckered by) a Trumpublican administration, drifting with the current and waiting for help.
posted by cenoxo at 4:32 PM on December 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
Obviously a Metaphor For Something: The USA, entangled in (and suckered by) a Trumpublican administration, drifting with the current and waiting for help.
posted by cenoxo at 4:32 PM on December 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
Bald Eagles are total jerks, and sound ridiculous to boot.
Octopus should have been allowed to keep it's lunch.
posted by porpoise at 5:14 PM on December 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
Octopus should have been allowed to keep it's lunch.
posted by porpoise at 5:14 PM on December 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
#TeamOctopus
posted by porpoise at 5:18 PM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by porpoise at 5:18 PM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
I almost came as a shark an octopus actually, but then I realized an eagle’s slightly better.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:35 PM on December 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:35 PM on December 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
ITT people who are on the wrong side. Eagle forever!
posted by Splunge at 6:12 PM on December 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Splunge at 6:12 PM on December 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
I've seen eagles go after baby ducklings, diving at them over and over as the terrified ducklings tried to duck underwater away from the claws. Eagles are beautiful but deserve no sympathy. Don't start somethin' with a tentacled horror, won't be nothin' with a tentacled horror.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:51 PM on December 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:51 PM on December 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
While I share the general feeling of leave nature to itself, it'd be really hard to watch an animal suffering for such a extended period, when you can fix the issue. I suspect I'd end up freeing the bird too.
posted by tavella at 6:52 PM on December 14, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by tavella at 6:52 PM on December 14, 2019 [8 favorites]
Let's try to talk about it from the octopus's point of view.
We can't.
Us vertebrates split off soooooo long ago, and the evolutionary path so divergent, octopode intelligence is almost as alien as an extraterrestrial one.
However, it's super amazing how certain criticial synaptic cleft scaffolding proteins are evolutionarily convergent between vertebrates and higher order Cephalopoda.
Octopodes also don't have a that blind spot in their visual field that we vertebrates do. Their eyes evolved independently and picked a more optimal developmental path. But on a gross level, the Molusca eye looks a lot like an Animalia eye, in it's structure and composition.
--
it'd be really hard to watch an animal suffering for such a extended period, when you can fix the issue
Shoot the eagle.
posted by porpoise at 7:00 PM on December 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
We can't.
Us vertebrates split off soooooo long ago, and the evolutionary path so divergent, octopode intelligence is almost as alien as an extraterrestrial one.
However, it's super amazing how certain criticial synaptic cleft scaffolding proteins are evolutionarily convergent between vertebrates and higher order Cephalopoda.
Octopodes also don't have a that blind spot in their visual field that we vertebrates do. Their eyes evolved independently and picked a more optimal developmental path. But on a gross level, the Molusca eye looks a lot like an Animalia eye, in it's structure and composition.
--
it'd be really hard to watch an animal suffering for such a extended period, when you can fix the issue
Shoot the eagle.
posted by porpoise at 7:00 PM on December 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
"Two legs, good. Eight legs, bad."
Bi-tibular privilege strikes again.
posted by bcarter3 at 7:31 PM on December 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
Bi-tibular privilege strikes again.
posted by bcarter3 at 7:31 PM on December 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
Silly eagle, octopi are for squids!
posted by clavdivs at 8:49 PM on December 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 8:49 PM on December 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
I side with things with backbones. You can’t trust a squish.
posted by vorpal bunny at 9:02 PM on December 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by vorpal bunny at 9:02 PM on December 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
octopode intelligence is almost as alien as an extraterrestrial one
This sort of assertion annoys me — it it unjustifiable claim. I t may be true, but what evidence backs it up? As we don’t really know how they think and feel how can we be so sure their intellegence is fundamentally different from our own? And which extraterrestrial intelligence are we comparing it to?
Anthropomorphizing cephalopods may be a mistake; assuming they are unkowably alien is falling into a mirror image of the same fallacy. When we don’t know something we should just be content to admit it.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 9:26 PM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
This sort of assertion annoys me — it it unjustifiable claim. I t may be true, but what evidence backs it up? As we don’t really know how they think and feel how can we be so sure their intellegence is fundamentally different from our own? And which extraterrestrial intelligence are we comparing it to?
Anthropomorphizing cephalopods may be a mistake; assuming they are unkowably alien is falling into a mirror image of the same fallacy. When we don’t know something we should just be content to admit it.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 9:26 PM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
While I share the general feeling of leave nature to itself, it'd be really hard to watch an animal suffering for such a extended period, when you can fix the issue. I suspect I'd end up freeing the bird too.
Though I understand what you're saying, the Octopus was merely defending itself. I think it would have preferred the eagle never attacked it in the first place. Freeing the bird gives both what they want, even if it leaves the bird a bit hungry.
posted by dobbs at 12:01 AM on December 15, 2019 [3 favorites]
Though I understand what you're saying, the Octopus was merely defending itself. I think it would have preferred the eagle never attacked it in the first place. Freeing the bird gives both what they want, even if it leaves the bird a bit hungry.
posted by dobbs at 12:01 AM on December 15, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yes, either the bird flew down and attacked the octopus *or* the octopus used its wiles to lure the bird and either way, definitely #teamoctopus.
posted by dame at 1:09 AM on December 15, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by dame at 1:09 AM on December 15, 2019 [3 favorites]
Why choose a team ? We can eat them both...
posted by Pendragon at 1:26 AM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Pendragon at 1:26 AM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
Duelling or ... mating? We could be seeing the origin of a new and terrifying hybrid.
posted by Fuchsoid at 4:27 AM on December 15, 2019 [12 favorites]
posted by Fuchsoid at 4:27 AM on December 15, 2019 [12 favorites]
Team Flying Face-huggers.
posted by amanda at 8:31 AM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by amanda at 8:31 AM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
Duelling or ... mating?
A bird and octopus may fall in love – and even dance beak-to-beak – but where will they make a home together?
posted by cenoxo at 2:47 PM on December 15, 2019 [3 favorites]
A bird and octopus may fall in love – and even dance beak-to-beak – but where will they make a home together?
posted by cenoxo at 2:47 PM on December 15, 2019 [3 favorites]
but where will they make a home together?
In a tree in the Pacific Northwest, of course!
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:55 PM on December 15, 2019 [6 favorites]
In a tree in the Pacific Northwest, of course!
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:55 PM on December 15, 2019 [6 favorites]
Octopusses were a big motif in political cartoons from the 19th century, often portraying monopolies, corruption or communism. Definitely a visual metaphor you could get some milage from in our present political climate
posted by biddeford at 10:28 PM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by biddeford at 10:28 PM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
...such as Donald Trump in this 21st century (with apologies to Octopoda).
posted by cenoxo at 1:40 PM on December 16, 2019
posted by cenoxo at 1:40 PM on December 16, 2019
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#teamoctopus
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:04 PM on December 14, 2019 [4 favorites]