Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: aldo_14 on September 28, 2005, 05:11:38 am
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4288772.stm
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S'quids in for the guy who got that photo.
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Hohohoho!
god save us.......
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So, when are we going to be able to put mind-control devices on 'em and order them to destroy entire Carrier Battle Groups...?
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Can you copy and paste the article/pictures please?
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[q] BBC NEWS
Live giant squid caught on camera
A live, adult giant squid has been caught on camera in the wild for the very first time.
Japanese researchers took pictures of the elusive creature hunting 900m down, enveloping its prey by coiling its tentacles into a ball.
The images show giant squid, known as Architeuthis , are more vigorous hunters than has been supposed.
The images, captured in the Pacific Ocean, appear in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Documentary companies have invested millions of dollars trying to film adult giant squid in their natural environment. These efforts have met with little success - though one team has managed to capture a juvenile on film.
Japanese fishermen have taken snaps of an adult at the surface but, until now, no one had obtained images of the animal in its deep-sea hunting grounds.
Slippery customer
In their efforts to photograph the huge cephalopod, Tsunemi Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori have been using a camera and depth recorder attached to a long-line, which they lower into the sea from their research vessel.
Below the camera, they suspend a weighted jig - a set of ganged hooks to snag the squid - along with a single Japanese common squid as bait and an odour lure consisting of chopped-up shrimps.
At 0915 local time on 30 September 2004, they struck lucky. At a depth close to 1km in waters off Japan's Ogasawara Islands, an 8m-long Architeuthis wrapped its long tentacles around the bait, snagging one of them on the jig.
Kubodera and Mori took more than 550 images of the giant squid as it made repeated attempts to detach itself.
The pictures show the squid spreading its arms, enveloping the long-line and swimming away in its efforts to struggle free.
Finally, four hours and 13 minutes after it was first snagged, the attached tentacle broke off, allowing the squid to escape. The researchers retrieved a 5.5m portion with the line.
Severed appendage
"It was exciting to get a live Architeuthis tentacle. It was still functioning when we got it on the boat," Dr Kubodera told BBC News.
The large suckers repeatedly gripped the boat deck - and Dr Kubodera's fingers when he prodded the severed appendage.
"The grip wasn't as strong as I expected; it felt sticky," he explained.
But while other researchers have suggested that Architeuthis is a rather sluggish creature, the images show it is in fact an energetic predator.
Dr Steve O'Shea, of the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, told the BBC News website that he was extremely pleased for the researchers.
Kubodera, he said, had "ever-so-quietly been working away in the background on this for a number of years".
And Dr O'Shea, a world renowned expert on giant squid, added: "From the point of view of the public, who believe this squid is the largest, the meanest, most aggressive squid that we have - it is hugely significant."
Trawling threat
The Auckland-based researcher said now that the squid had been caught on camera, researchers could focus on other, lesser known squid species and on conservation.
Bottom-trawling by fisheries is destroying squid egg masses on the seabed, Dr O'Shea claimed. Evidence for this comes from an efficient squid predator - the sperm whale.
"Five of the species of squid that were staple in the diet of the sperm whale are recognised in New Zealand as threatened solely as a consequence of the effects of deep-sea bottom-trawling."
"[Sperm whales] are returning from the Antarctic on their historic migratory route to one of the richest regions on Earth in terms of squid diversity. But the larder is bare and the poor things are washing up on the beaches here starved."
The giant squid is by no means the largest known. Several other species, including the colossal squid Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni , are thought to grow larger.
[/q]
(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40847000/jpg/_40847252_squid_kubodera_203.jpg)
(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40848000/jpg/_40848696_squid4_kubodera_203.jpg)
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Originally posted by Kosh
Can you copy and paste the article/pictures please?
I dislike the BBC, too, but isn't that going a bit overboard? ;)
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:yes: :yes: :yes:
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Originally posted by Sandwich
I dislike the BBC, too, but isn't that going a bit overboard? ;)
How can you dislike the BBC?
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Originally posted by mikhael
How can you dislike the BBC?
He thinks their anti-Israeli IIRC. I have no idea why.
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Truth hurts.
As for why Kosh asked, he's in China remember.
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The BBC's website is censored in China ?
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In communist china, squid photograph you!
But anyway - some cool pics on the Royal Society website.
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Originally posted by Col. Fishguts
The BBC's website is censored in China ?
A lot is; even blogs. IIRC the blogging software MS is providing for Chinas nationalised internet filters out words like 'freedom' and 'democracy', for example. I think the likes of Yahoo, Google, etc also provide censorship-by-proxy for the Chinese government. IIRC they filter their search results, and Yahoo provided the Chinese government with name and address details from a yahoo mail account (for a journalist jailed for 10 years).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_mainland_China
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Did they have to trap the squid like that, or was it accidental?
I read about this in the paper today. So just photographs? No videos? ;)
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They were trying to bait it, yeah. I read somewhere there was a video, albeit the BBC article indtimates it was more likely to be a rapid-fire camera.
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that is a big ass squid
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i bet it tastes like piss
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Originally posted by Kosh
Can you copy and paste the article/pictures please?
Whats the matter? Freedom loving Chinese don't want you to read articles from the BBC? :p
On a side note, are the stories about theses dragging ships down possible? We honstly have no idea how big these things really can get.
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Originally posted by Janos
i bet it tastes like piss
Probably yes
One of the more unusual aspects of giant squid (as well as some other species of large squid) is their reliance upon the light weight of ammonia in relation to seawater to maintain neutral buoyancy in their natural environment, as they lack the gas-filled swim bladder that fish use for this function; instead, they use ammonia (in the form of ammonium chloride) in the fluid of their flesh throughout their bodies. This makes the giant squid unfit for human consumption, although sperm whales seem to be attracted by (or at least tolerant of) its taste.
Isn't Wikipedia great ? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_squid)
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dingg dingg, we have a winner already
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Arrgh mate!
I've told you, boy, that Kraken isn't a legend!
But who ever listened to'ol One Legged Pete, yhm?!
Who?!
Ah never mind... :arr::ha:
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Originally posted by Sandwich
I dislike the BBC, too, but isn't that going a bit overboard? ;)
Actually that isn't true. I love the BBC.
Whats the matter? Freedom loving Chinese don't want you to read articles from the BBC?
Screw you, you fascist. :p
Actually I can access most western news sources (Reuters, Washington Post, Fox, etc), just not the BBC.
EDIT: And thanks Aldo, before a certain someone decided to turn this into a political thread.
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(http://www.tripletriad.net/Simpsons/SeaCaptain.jpg)
Arrr! Fifty feet long she was, with tentacles that could snap a ship in two. A ravenous beast from the pits of Hell, who devoured me crew and nearly did me in as well.
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Originally posted by Kosh
Actually that isn't true. I love the BBC.
Screw you, you fascist. :p
Actually I can access most western news sources (Reuters, Washington Post, Fox, etc), just not the BBC.
EDIT: And thanks Aldo, before a certain someone decided to turn this into a political thread.
lol
Actually I was just joking around. And I am shocked, they allow fox news but not the BBC? I am absolutly floored.
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Fox is probably identified as a humorous news site. Hell, if I didn't know any better, I'd think the same thing.
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AAaaa!! they are every where! (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0423_030423_seamonsters.html)
It makes me not want to join the Navy. :nervous:
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Originally posted by redmenace
lol
Actually I was just joking around. And I am shocked, they allow fox news but not the BBC? I am absolutly floored.
I know you were.
Fox news is much less reliable than the BBC, that is probably why it is allowed. For a long time it was blocked, along with CNN and the Washington Post, amoung others. But things are changing here.
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Have Fox news ever heard of China?
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This thread makes me think of Japanese schoolgirls. . .
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Who doesn't constantly think of Japanese Schoolgirls...?
...No, really, i'm asking a question here...
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That whole Japanese schoolgirl thing - especially the dirty knicker vending machines - is just a wee bit too dodgy for my tastes.
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Perhaps you'd prefer the beer, pr0n and sex toy vending machines?
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Who wouldn't prefer Beer, pr0n & Sex Toy vending machines...?
...No, really, i'm asking a question again here...
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Originally posted by mikhael
Perhaps you'd prefer the beer, pr0n and sex toy vending machines?
Porn vending machines? Superb!
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squid...
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Originally posted by aldo_14
That whole Japanese schoolgirl thing - especially the dirty knicker vending machines - is just a wee bit too dodgy for my tastes.
we're dodgy guys
and you love it, don't you?
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Originally posted by aldo_14
That whole Japanese schoolgirl thing - especially the dirty knicker vending machines - is just a wee bit too dodgy for my tastes.
Agreed.
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From giant squids to Japanese schoolgirls and their knickers... :wtf:
The newest in our series: Discussions on Fire!...
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Originally posted by Fearless Leader
AAaaa!! they are every where! (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0423_030423_seamonsters.html)
It makes me not want to join the Navy. :nervous:
You really think it can do anything to a carrier or battleship? dream on...
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*whispers in the wind* ............ titanic ....................
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Not all the navy's ships are big and huge. And what if the ship sinks?
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Squid will not attack ships.
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Not ships, but people.
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Doubt it. These giant squids are deep sea predators.
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squid attacks ship (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2661691.stm)
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I would never be so quick as do deny legends and fables as myth and nothing more. They don't just come from no where. There is often some truth to it. I remember when they discovered a new mammal in the jungle that was often spoken of as a myth by locals and villagers. Everyone blew it off as untrue till they found it. Point is don't be so quick to judge.
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Personally, I class the myths of kraken consuming entire ships right up there with Jörmungandr.
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that pic makes it look like it could just be a humbold squid, mean little basturds that they may be
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Originally posted by redmenace
I would never be so quick as do deny legends and fables as myth and nothing more. They don't just come from no where. There is often some truth to it. I remember when they discovered a new mammal in the jungle that was often spoken of as a myth by locals and villagers. Everyone blew it off as untrue till they found it. Point is don't be so quick to judge.
I never thought I would hear myself say this but you are right.
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Originally posted by redmenace
I would never be so quick as do deny legends and fables as myth and nothing more. They don't just come from no where.
Until the advent of the Internet, that is. :p
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true. But my point still stands.
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Originally posted by redmenace
I would never be so quick as do deny legends and fables as myth and nothing more. They don't just come from no where. There is often some truth to it. I remember when they discovered a new mammal in the jungle that was often spoken of as a myth by locals and villagers. Everyone blew it off as untrue till they found it. Point is don't be so quick to judge.
Um.... true in the dugongs = mermaids sense, though?
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I am sure that their are legends that are BS like the Lockness Monster.
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The what?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster
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double post.
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Oh, Loch Ness.
you've obviously never seen the documentary evidence (http://www.familyness.co.uk/) of that one.
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LOL!! (http://www.lochness.co.uk/livecam/lochnessmonster.html)
:wakka:
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On a more serious note, we haven’t even began to explore the ocean, this planet is two thirds water and we still don’t know every thing that’s down there. We don’t even know about all the species that on land.
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You run into certain limits on biology, however, that block such things as some of the description of the kraken.
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Didn't you know, the Loch Ness Monster has apparently died of old age (this is what the tourist board are claiming since there have been no sightings in something like 4 years now).
Personally, I think a squid got him.
As far as sea monsters are concerned, I'm not sure, there are almost certainly no Island-sized turtles out there (Can you imagine one coming ashore to lay eggs?) but I wouldn't be surprised to find there are bigger yet Squids and Octopi out there waiting to be found.
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Ya, like those new kind of deep sea sharks that were discovered a few years ago, the ones that are larger than anything else known to man.
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I could be thinking of the wrong thing, but weren't those fossils of prehistoric ones?
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They were. The largest known living fish are the whale sharks. Anyway, the fossils were still smaller than the blue whale, which is normally considered to be the largest any sea-dwelling animal can get.