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Wily Octopi Walk on Two Arms

lousyd writes "Offering hope for new forms of ambulatory robots, biologist Christine L. Huffard, at UC Berkeley, has caught individual octopi sneaking away from predators by using two of their arms as legs. They use the other six arms to make themselves look like coconuts or algae. The research is being done as part of a project on robotics. This reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where the cows drop to all fours when humans come around, but resume standing on two legs otherwise." And I for one welcome our new mollusk overlords.

22 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. I saw this on the news. by FireballX301 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mind you, a large clump of reddish flesh walking along a sandy seabed with greenish water as a background is not what I would call camoflauged.

  2. How perfect... by PedanticSpellingTrol · · Score: 5, Funny

    What better way to ring in the opening of the Hardware section than with... invertebrate biology? Wait, WTF?

  3. Re:Octopus is a Greek word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    By your crap logic, a person who has a foot fetish is a pedophile.

  4. Re:Octopus! by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Despite the fact that the tube was much smaller than the octopus, the animal was able to move between the chambers at will.

    Feed it a diet of Cheetos and TV, and THEN see it fit thru.

  5. Allow me to be the first to say... by uhlume · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cthulhu fhtagn, Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

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    SIERRA TANGO FOXTROT UNIFORM
  6. Most excellent, thank you by SweetAndSourJesus · · Score: 2, Funny

    Always nice to have solid ammunition for arguments in bars.



    ...

    Well, what sort of bars do you go to?

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    the strongest word is still the word "free"
  7. Damn Dirty Octopi by tinrobot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just make sure they don't get their tentacles on any firearms.

  8. More "New"s by paronomasia5 · · Score: 2, Funny

    In related news, the babylonians have attacked the greeks, and the roman empire's power is waning.

  9. Hardware section? by mtrisk · · Score: 5, Funny

    hardware.slashdot.org? Where's the slashdot announcement? And why are octopi in the hardware section? Do they run linux or something?

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    Without a proper flamewar, Anonymous was undecided on what shell to run.
  10. Coconuts? by Skiron · · Score: 5, Funny

    I didn't know coconuts 'sneaked' away from predators away? What do they do, roll away innocently whistling?

    1. Re:Coconuts? by SweetAndSourJesus · · Score: 2, Funny

      Just remember: you don't know what coconuts do when nobody's watching them.

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      the strongest word is still the word "free"
  11. all fine and well but..... by shrewd · · Score: 1, Funny

    "This reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where the cows drop to all fours when humans come around, but resume standing on two legs otherwise." And I for one welcome our new mollusk overlords."

    did you have to take possibly the two best replies along with it?

  12. Re:I object to the anti-squidism! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Squid can kill anyone they want! Squid cut off heads ALL the time and don't even think twice about it. These creatures are so crazy and awesome that they flip out ALL the time. I heard that there was this squid who was swiming along. And when some dude dropped a spoon the squid killed him. My friend Mark said that he saw a squid totally uppercut some kid just because the kid opened a window.

    And that's what I call REAL Ultimate Power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  13. I for one . . . by TheScorpion420 · · Score: 1, Funny

    I for one welcome . . .dammit!!!

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    If you pay your taxes you support terrorism!
  14. Automobile, feh! by douglips · · Score: 4, Funny

    I laugh at your claim of the existence of an "automobile". Surely anyone inventing such a device would be educated enough to know that it should be called either an "ipsomobile" or an "autokineticon."

  15. Re:Octopus! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    /me looks down into Pot Noodle, freaks out...

  16. Re:Parent is a RETARD. DO NOT VIEW AVI by smellystudent · · Score: 2, Funny

    Cue half of /. clicking on parent link...

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    Predictive text is shiv!
  17. Sharks with internet access by Dangero · · Score: 2, Funny

    Crap, I hope the sharks over there don't have internet access or these octopi are in some serious trouble.

  18. Okay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Since we're calling things by the most popular terminology: My hard drive was acting up, so I took my CPU into the store. They said I didn't have enough megahertz for the software I was running, so I asked them to buy me more. when I came home I asked my neighbor boy to download my bonzai buddy again. He had to bring over the internet because I didn't have that anymore either. The rascal said I should click on this fox-thing on my computer instead of the internet to surf the web. I wish he'd just put the internet back, but as long as I can sell my knitting on ebay I'm happy.

  19. Re:I object to the anti-squidism! by MoogMan · · Score: 2, Funny

    And that, my friends, is how to kill an interesting thread with lots of interesting stories...

  20. Re:I object to the anti-squidism! by abell · · Score: 2, Funny

    Credit due to realultimatepower.net.

  21. Re:Octopus! by Scrameustache · · Score: 2, Funny

    Octopus are much more mild mannered

    Or smart enough not to leave witnesses ;-)

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    You can't take the sky from me...