Giant Squid Caught on Film

caffeined writes "I think almost every geek's heart must skip a beat when they hear about giant squids (think "Jules Verne"). It appears the two Japanese researchers have managed (for the first time) to get actual footage of a live giant squid in action. It was "only" 26 feet long (a little more than 8m) which is big enough for me." Update: Pictures and no registration required at National Geographic.

Comments

I cant wait for the video release

[Anonymous Coward]

This will user in a whole new era of porn
http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e050925.html

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[einhverfr]

One should note that the above link is perfectly worksafe. And a mighty interesting read too....

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[jlseagull]

OK, so I hit the link to read the comments, closed my eyes before the page loaded, and said out loud, "Porn." I am glad that /. did not fail me. :)

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[quigonn]

New? I wouldn't call this new.

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[Anonymous Coward]

wicked stuff ...

now this will make the sexual movie industry just blush /* from the article mentioned above */

The male's sexual organ is actually a bit like a high-pressure fire hose and is normally nearly as long as his body - excluding legs and head. /* end snippet */

So pr0nowood has a long to go with the genital enhancements.

So you can pretty easilly say that "he is a serious pr*ck!"

sneak/peak preview here (warning, explicit content!) : http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/ops/fm/shellfish/Imag es/couple_squid.jpg

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[LiquidCoooled]

Hang on a minute, its not all rosey when you got a huge high pressure hose for a knob:

"But having such a big penis does have one drawback: it seems that co-ordinating eight legs, two feeding tentacles and a huge penis, whilst fending off an irate female, is a bit too much to ask, and one of the two males stranded on the Spanish coast had accidentally injected himself with sperm packages in the legs and body. And this does not seem to have been an isolated incident since two of the eight males that had stranded in the north-east Atlantic before had also accidentally inseminated themselves.

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[Anonymous Coward]

Why can't I read a science post without seeing garbage-minded posts like this? Somebody at least moderate him off-topic for Pete's sake.

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[xedicate]

Is the missing "h" in "usher" a deliberate and subtle hint that there aren't enough tentacle hentai? ;)

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[Anonymous Coward]

I love your sigline, tied in with your quote..

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like a long night...

One of the two males washed ashore was found to have been accidentally inseminated - backing the findings of research in previous strandings.
 
And scientists now believe the males had either accidentally inseminated themselves during "violent" lovemaking sessions with females or been inseminated by other males after "bumping" into them in the dark depths of the ocean.
...
"But males get round their inferior size by being endowed with a particularly long penis, which means they can inject the female without having to get too close to her chomping beak. The male's sexual organ is actually a bit like a high-pressure fire hose and is normally nearly as long as his body - excluding legs and head.

"But having such a big penis does have one drawback: it seems that co-ordinating eight legs, two feeding tentacles and a huge penis, whilst fending off an irate female, is a bit too much to ask, and one of the two males stranded on the Spanish coast had accidentally injected himself with sperm packages in the legs and body. And this does not seem to have been an isolated incident since two of the eight males that had stranded in the north-east Atlantic before had also accidentally inseminated themselves.

"It is also possible that the sperm packages had come from other males that they had 'bumped' into, in the dark depths of the ocean. However, the sperm packages ended up in the squid - it is just another part of the mysterious lives of these creatures of the deep sea."

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[calags]

Come on now! It's obvious what happened there: they just didn't have any napkins handy.

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[Anonymous Coward]

Because, believe it or not, we don't all have a stick up our asses.

Re:I cant wait for the video release

[Anonymous Coward]

eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww That's just wrong.

It's amazing that some schools, still teach that the giant squid is a myth or that no physical evidance has been seen.

When I was in school only a few years ago there were still books insisting it was just seaweed people had seen and that giant squids if they did exist were freaks of nature.

How long?

[the-amazing-blob]

How long until we start catching them and getting them in aquariums?

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Its already been done - though for a different species. http://www.thesciencesite.info/squidcam.shtml

Re:How long?

[mrchaotica]

Aren't giant squids one of those animals that lives so deep that it can't survive without really high pressure (too high for an aquarium)?

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

the hell with that....how long until we capture them and start putting lasers and darts on them??

Re:How long?

[magarity]

lives so deep that it can't survive without really high pressure
 
Without lungs to collapse is the pressure really an issue? I thought the only thing from a fish's point of view (besides the light level) that changes with pressure was the viscosity.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Without lungs to collapse is the pressure really an issue?

You mean like how humans would do just fine in outer space wearing nothing but a face mask?

No. Pressure is always an issue.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

I eat babies

Re:How long?

[Hans Lehmann]

too high for an aquarium

What, you were hoping to keep one of these babies in your swimming pool?

Re:How long?

[trewornan]

It's usually the swim bladders that cause the problem (not lungs) because the gas in them expands, liquids are usually incompressible (nearly). If squid have swim bladders I don't know - probably.

Re:How long?

[JVert]

Eh, with enough glass you can create any pressure. If we can make space shuttles that sustain pressure where there is none then we can build a pressure vault.

Re:How long?

[mrchaotica]

I'm no biologist, but I'm sure pressure affects more than just lung cavities. For example, divers get the bends when they come up and the pressure is released too quickly, causing the nitrogen in their blood to come out of solution. Now, I'm not saying that squid get the bends, but I imagine taking one to the surface would have some effect.

Re:How long?

[mrchaotica]

Well, yeah, anything's possible, but is it practical to build one big enough for a giant squid? Don't forget that the pressure vessel would have to be much stronger than a spacecraft -- a spacecraft only has to contain a pressure differential of one atmosphere, whereas this would have to contain a differential tens or hundreds of times that.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like how humans would do just fine in outer space wearing nothing but a face mask?

No. Pressure is always an issue.

Pressure is only an issue when compression is an issue. Fish don't compress underwater (they don't breathe in gas, only liquids [solutions of oxygen, etc]).

Living in gas versus liquid is different than living in gas versus a vaccuum.

The grandparent already pointed out that lungs make a difference. Humans' lungs would implode underwater, and explode in space. However, liquid cannot be compressed (pressure can change, but volume doesn't change). Since squids have no internal gasses (hence, no lungs) to compress or exapand, water pressure won't make a difference.

Re:How long?

[jspoon]

Eh, with enough glass you can create any pressure.

Glass is no use. What you want is transparent aluminum. That's the ticket, laddy.

Re:How long?

[Tony Hoyle]

Space shuttle? pfft. 1 atmosphere...

Diving bells are more the kind of thing you'd need.

Re:How long?

[zippthorne]

You don't need to. Just bring it up slowly. There's actually a lower concentration of dissolved O2 in deep water than there is closer to the surface, so the main problem in sustaining a live one would be avoiding it getting the bends. (which it would get from the other dissolved gasses it would have absorbed at depth) and possibly figuring out what to feed it during that time, though from what I've read, pretty much anything. Might have to keep the o2 concentration down at surface also. and where would you put a ~40ft. seagoing monster? Are there any tanks big enugh?

Re:How long?

[chris macura]

Same place we keep the blue whales.

We do have captive blue whales, right?

Re:How long?

[mrchaotica]

No, but the guy I was replying to did.

Re:How long?

[zxnos]

the bends has to do with nitrogen in your blood stream. when you depressureize too fast bubbles of it form. very painful i guess. causing one to double over, or bend, in pain. that is what i recollect anyway.

pressure is a big deal because the water (or atmosphere) pushes in on the body. the body in turn exerts an equal force in the opposite direction. it is conceivable to bring deep sea critters up if it is down slow enough. when deep sea fishing the eyes of the catch are often 'bugged out' because of the loss of external pressure.

Re:How long?

[Belseth]

Doubt it's even possible. Pressure isn't the issue, temperature and range would be the main issues. They can't breath in warm water and they have massive ranges. No one knows how far they range but in a single day they could go easily tens of if not hundreds of miles. I don't think one would ever survive capture for any real period of time let alone in an aquirum. Kind of like trying to keep a Blue Whale in a tank only much worse. Large sharks have proven to be nearly impossible to keep. I'd love to see a living one it's not going to happen.

Re:How long?

[mctk]

The real question is: how long until we can outfit them with some toxic dart guns?

Re:How long?

[mrchaotica]

the bends has to do with nitrogen in your blood stream. when you depressureize too fast bubbles of it form.

Yeah, I think I said that: the bubbles form when the nitrogen comes out of solution. ; )

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

If the fish remain in water during the duration of their trip, pressure won't be an issue. The reason humans get the bends is because they breathe in that nitrogen from a highly pressurized airtank.

Fish get their eyes bugged out because they're out of water, not just because of pressure. Water cannot be decompressed or compressed (unless it boils or freezes under extreme pressures), and fish are made out liquids and solids -- therefore you can't "explode" or "implode" a fish unless you take it out of water, or force into saturated water that contains soluble gasses (like a human diver's blood that gets the bends).

Re:How long?

[trewornan]

build a pressure vault.

Or build an aquarium 3000ft high.

Re:How long?

[modest apricot]

According to Wikipedia, giant squids don't have swim bladders. Instead, they use ammonia in some way or another.

Re:How long?

[Newrad]

The animals cells are pressurized for a certain depth. If they come up too fast, the cells burst, and the animal bursts. But if the creature is brought up slowly, it will probably be able to equalize its pressure it be normal in an aquarium.

Re:How long?

[justin12345]

Now would that be worth something to ya? Or should I just punch up "clear"?

Re:How long?

[einhverfr]

There could well be other problems we don't know about. Increased O2 levels and sunlight are the two that come to mind. And who knows, maybe there are other ones we haven't thought of.

Re:How long?

[hesiod]

> you were hoping to keep one of these babies in your swimming pool

No, just regular babies...

Re:How long?

[martyr69]

Our top priority should be hunting them down and defeating them. They're much too large to not be a danger to us: we might be looking at the new WHALES here people.

Re:How long?

[hesiod]

Who doesn't?

Re:How long?

[0xB00F]

How long before the Japanese start capturing them for "scientific" purposes? You know, like they do with whales?

Ok, you can mod me flaimbait now...

Re:How long?

[Cadallin]

Actually, yes, for awhile. The primary problem is that we have too many moist mucous membranes that will loose fluid. A face mask, covering ones nose and mouth would let one stay alive in space, even without a suit. However, one's eardrums would burst and one's eyes would boil away and probably burst as well. Add pain to the mixture as you think appropriate.

Arguably, one could make a space suit that was simply a skin tight layer + helmet. The problem with that would be that it would have to be *perfectly* skin tight. I.e. Any gas between the suit and you, and you will be VERY uncomfortable, as the gas makes the suit expand like a balloon. Assuming that was worked out, it would have of number advantages over conventional space suits. The joints would be MUCH more flexible, and less complex, as they wouldn't require complicated pressure equalization systems to allow the joints to move.

Hey, I just thought out how to get around the skintight issue. Cover the human in vaseline, or some other viscous nonvolatile (which means the vaseline wouldn't work very long, depending how much was evaporating through the suit) fluid, to fill in all the empty spaces left by the suit!

So you get a system that is = person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply. I'm certain it would work, just not sure for how long. The limiting factor is how fast you lose volatiles, but it could easily be made to work as long as the longest spacewalks the US has ever attempted, and would be a hell of a lot lighter, simpler, and cheaper.

Re:How long?

[PingPongBoy]

do just fine in outer space wearing nothing but a face mask?

You're talking abuot my lingerie, you insensitive clod!

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's not forget the temperature differential. I'm working off the cuff, but the temperature on, say, the moon, is something like 250 F in the sun and -200 F in the shade. That skin-suit you're talking about had better be a damn good insulator.

Re:How long?

[Bishop]

Decompression Sickness, DCS, "the bends," is typically not that painful. Typical symptoms are mild numbess, muscles cramps, or something similar to arititic pain. Unfortunately it problably goes untreated all the time causing permenant damage. The term "the bends" comes from 150 years ago when workers in pressurized mines and diving bells who would be bent like a cripple.

Re:How long?

[ScarKnee]

"So you get a system that is = person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply "

I guess if you got a couple of Slashdotters to try it out in space you'd have two less lonely people in the world.

I dunno, it's entirely possible that Air Supply already has quite a bit of experience with vasoline, skin-tight body suits, etc... maybe they could go up and try it out.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who is "we"?

Re:How long?

[arodland]

That doesn't quite follow -- the important number is the pressure difference between the two sides of the glass. In the shuttle, you've got 1 atm on the inside, or maybe less, and ~0 atm on the outside, for a difference of no more than 1 atm. On the other hand, the pressure deep in the ocean is (lotso) atm, and up here it's ~1 atm, for a difference of about (lotso - 1) atm. Harder than keeping a space shuttle together ;)

Re:How long?

[miyako]

I have no idea why this was moded flamebait...
Parent should be modded Informative. The giant squid uses ammonia, which is ligher than water, in place of a gas bladder. Link goes to the wikipedia article on the Giant Squid.

Re:How long?

[Your Pal Dave]

How Long?

Cripes, doesn't anyone even read the summary anymore?

26 feet.

Jeez.

Re:How long?

[tomatensaft]

Just imagine how sexy it would look -- a light-blue tighty with a rainbow-ish bubble helmet!

Re:How long?

[wo1verin3]

>> Increased O2 levels and sunlight are the two that come to mind.
>> And who knows, maybe there are other ones we haven't thought of.

They may as well test it now on animals.... before the US withdraws and the Iraqi people get to test this theory...

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Giant Scuid and vaseline? All we now need is japanese schoolgirl!

Re:How long?

[10Ghz]

Cover the human in vaseline

I find your ideas intriguing, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter....

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

What if you fart?

Re:How long?

[theshowmecanuck]

Also, if you go too deep with compressed air, you can get nitrogen narcosis. Anyway, I too wonder if bringing a deep water species to the surface is not that simple.

Re:How long?

[mikeb]

Pressure is a BIG issue. Chemistry changes at pressure, reactions go differently.

Divers going below about 90 feet (30 metres) breathing air suffer nitrogen narcosis as dissolved nitrogen in the nerves cause an effect akin to drunkenness or partial anaesthesia.

Because the human breathing response is driven by the absolute partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream, not its ratio to oxygen, deep diving means breathing much more air than is needed simply to flush out the apparent elevated level of co2 in the blood - the physiology is tricked by the pressure. Anyone practising emergency surfacing from a deep dive is astonished that they don't need to breath as they rise - you continuously exhale as the gas in the lungs expands (I was taught to sing on the way up) and the breathing response isn't triggered because the detected co2 level keeps falling.

Now this may not affect squid much, it's hard to believe that there are no pressure effects on the chemistry underpinning their biology.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

The extreme heat in the sun would be a problem, but remember that there is extremely little matter in space to lose heat to. Basically, you'd lose a tiny amount of heat due to IR radiation.

But you'd still cook to a crisp if the sun ever hit you...

Re:How long?

[king-manic]

Actually, yes, for awhile. The primary problem is that we have too many moist mucous membranes that will loose fluid. A face mask, covering ones nose and mouth would let one stay alive in space, even without a suit. However, one's eardrums would burst and one's eyes would boil away and probably burst as well. Add pain to the mixture as you think appropriate.

Arguably, one could make a space suit that was simply a skin tight layer + helmet. The problem with that would be that it would have to be *perfectly* skin tight. I.e. Any gas between the suit and you, and you will be VERY uncomfortable, as the gas makes the suit expand like a balloon. Assuming that was worked out, it would have of number advantages over conventional space suits. The joints would be MUCH more flexible, and less complex, as they wouldn't require complicated pressure equalization systems to allow the joints to move.

Hey, I just thought out how to get around the skintight issue. Cover the human in vaseline, or some other viscous nonvolatile (which means the vaseline wouldn't work very long, depending how much was evaporating through the suit) fluid, to fill in all the empty spaces left by the suit!

So you get a system that is = person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply. I'm certain it would work, just not sure for how long. The limiting factor is how fast you lose volatiles, but it could easily be made to work as long as the longest spacewalks the US has ever attempted, and would be a hell of a lot lighter, simpler, and cheaper.


The fact that the average temperature of all space is 4' kelvin is also an issue. although it's vastly warmer near leo it's still cold enough to have the person get serious frost bite after 0.01 seconds and the limbs would start freezing soon after. This would be the dark side, the light side woudl experience the same or much warmer temperatures depending on the color of your suit.

Also, radiation is an issue.

Add to this fact that it's not so much space making you explode it's the air in your lungs pushing out and nothing pushing in. This makes breathing very very hard. You would have to have the air mask at enough pressure to inflate the lungs, but not too much to have them tear the lungs as nothign outside is pushing back.

So what you actually need is:

person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply + radiation shielding + rigid structure to allow bretahing + isulation and heating

basically a space suit.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. We should fight the battle down there, so we don't have to fight it up here.

Re:How long?

[Floody]

Actually, yes, for awhile. The primary problem is that we have too many moist mucous membranes that will loose fluid. A face mask, covering ones nose and mouth would let one stay alive in space, even without a suit. However, one's eardrums would burst and one's eyes would boil away and probably burst as well. Add pain to the mixture as you think appropriate.

That's not the primary problem. The primary problem is that the human brain needs a minimum level of oxygen to operate; that oxygen can only be provided by the respitory system at a rate directly proportional to the o2 pressure in the respirated environment(or "partial pressure" in mixed gas environments, like earth at sealevel). If you decrease pressure, you must likewise increase o2 or risk cognitive failure and rapid blackout (with little-to-no warning either). Now, as with all biology, individuals differ widely, but .... even in a pure o2 environment (which certainly is already required for EVA), anything below about 3psi is dangerous. Lungs are a nice flexible organ, but they aren't capable of withstanding more than a very slight pressure differential without over-expansion and potential embolism occuring.

That means that any environmental suit must maintain the same approximate force upon the wearer as exerted by the wearer's respiration gas pressure. Likewise, in order to prevent circulatory damage, the force needs to be exerted pretty evenly across the entire body. So, in effect, you're talking about a suit that can "squeeze" the wearer evenly at a minimum of three or so lbs/sq inch. Assuming such could be designed, how do you propose one would don such an outfit in a pressurised environment? I don't care how great your lubricant of choice is, I can't imagine someone getting into one of these things in the first place without great physical harm occuring.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

You just forgot the problem with direct (unfiltered by the atmosphere) sun light and cosmic rays. Those have nothing to do with pressure, though.

Re:How long?

[AaronLawrence]

But how can you freeze so suddenly if the only heat loss is by radiation? (Very slow).

Re:How long?

[Nicolas MONNET]

"The fact that the average temperature of all space is 4' kelvin is also an issue. "

Nope. In the void there is no convection -- and that's how you lose most heat. In space you only lose it through thermal radiation.

Re:How long?

[Man Eating Duck]

I'm certain it would work, just not sure for how long

Can you back this up with anything?
I would think that you'll need pressure in order to avoid your blood literally boiling at body temperature.
Assuming that blood has similar properties to water regarding its boiling point: Check the graph at the bottom.

I think that boiling blood would be a serious issue for your circulatory system :) So, if your definition of a "how long" is on the order of seconds, then yes.

Re:How long?

[caluml]

Arguably, one could make a space suit that was simply a skin tight layer + helmet. The problem with that would be that it would have to be *perfectly* skin tight.

I can see the film now! Latex space babes from Mars with anal probes 3 - The return..

Re:How long?

[MichaelSmith]

Any gas between the suit and you, and you will be VERY uncomfortable

Simple: make the suit of a fine open mesh. Similar to stocking material, or just about anything other than rubber.

I know a wetsuit designer who can make suits which conform closely to the wearers body. I am sure he could make a skin suit.

The problems start when you consider parts of the body which can not be covered closely by fabric. The genitals, ears, eyes and mouth need to be compressed by a gas or liquid. Women should have fewer problems in the first instance. Dare I suggest a surgical solution for the male of the species?

For the head you could plug the ears and cover the face with a clear mask. The volume would be small enough for the lungs to circulate air between the supply and exhaust circuits.

Re:How long?

[Inominate]

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answer s/970603.html
Exposure to vaccuum isn't the catastrophic event hollywood makes it out to be.

Re:How long?

[TheWormThatFlies]

Without lungs to collapse is the pressure really an issue?

You mean like how humans would do just fine in outer space wearing nothing but a face mask?

Actually, a human would last for quite a while in outer space wearing nothing but a face mask, and the human's eventual illness and demise, were he not to be rescued, would be unlikely to be the result of pressure*. People don't explode in hard vacuum; they asphyxiate. If for some reason they don't asphyxiate, they may freeze to death (very slowly, because they only lose heat by radiation, since there is no medium for convection), and they may be severely sunburnt if they are exposed to sunlight, because they are exposed to the dangerous radiation directly. Soft tissues can experience swelling, but it's not necessarily fatal. If someone breathes in too deeply before being exposed to vacuum, they might rupture their lungs.

*I don't know if you can get the right amount of oxygen by breathing shallowly enough through a face mask not to rupture your lungs if you have the same air mix you normally use. But a different air mix should fix that problem.

The pressure difference between sea level and hard vacuum is only one atmosphere. All the spectacular explosive decompression accidents happen to divers, who can potentially undergo an abrupt change in pressure which is much higher than that. And the problem is abrupt changes in pressure. If a squid travels to the surface of the water very slowly, gradually acclimatising itself to the change in pressure, there's no inherent reason for it to experience any ill effects.

Re:How long?

[moonbender]

Humans' lungs would implode underwater, and explode in space.

That really depends on what's inside them. Divers survive because they fill their lungs with air at the same pressure as their surroundings. Thus the lungs don't collapse. Of course, if the air inside your lungs is at 1 bar while you're in the deep, bad things happen. But the far more common accident AFAIK is actually the converse: you resurface while your lungs still hold air pressurized for 5, 10, 20 metres. Your lungs get stretched (ie they "explode"), and you're in a world of pain.

Re:How long?

[elgatozorbas]

The limiting factor is how fast you lose volatiles...

In other words: don't fart.

Re:How long?

[moonbender]

It doesn't sound like it's fun, though: "At NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (now renamed Johnson Space Center) we had a test subject accidentally exposed to a near vacuum (less than 1 psi) in an incident involving a leaking space suit in a vacuum chamber back in '65. He remained conscious for about 14 seconds, which is about the time it takes for O2 deprived blood to go from the lungs to the brain. The suit probably did not reach a hard vacuum, and we began repressurizing the chamber within 15 seconds. The subject regained consciousness at around 15,000 feet equivalent altitude. The subject later reported that he could feel and hear the air leaking out, and his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil."

Thanks for the link.

Re:How long?

[-brazil-]

I would think that you'll need pressure in order to avoid your blood literally boiling at body temperature.

Sufficient pressure is provided by your skin and connective tissue. Note that the pressure differential between sea level and vacuum is a measly 1 bar, and that people survive just fine at 0.3 bar on top of Mt. Everest, if they have sufficient oxygen and warm clothing (the latter being neccessary mainly to counter losing heat to the remaining atmosphere).

Re:How long?

[Provocateur]

Interesting. Did the water actually boil, or was that only like an impression? (A serious question, though.)

And I was curious like the high UID, I was thinking for a scientist, worked at NASA back in '65, I would expect a much lower UID in /. At least lower than mine.

Re:How long?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Add to this fact that it's not so much space making you explode it's the air in your lungs pushing out and nothing pushing in. This makes breathing very very hard. You would have to have the air mask at enough pressure to inflate the lungs, but not too much to have them tear the lungs as nothign outside is pushing back.

A modified regulator would take care of the pressure nicely, so that the lungs will fill but not explode. The problem I see is that at such a low pressure, there might not be enough oxygen supplied even when breathing 100% O2.

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

The pressure difference between sea level and hard vacuum is only one atmosphere.

Well... duh.

Re:How long?

[astro-g]

you could make the chest section elastic and very tight,
Pesumably also the neck and helemt sections.

Re:How long?

[obender]

Any gas between the suit and you, and you will be VERY uncomfortable, as the gas makes the suit expand like a balloon.

Now that would be quite a sight, an astronaut with balooning pants in space.

Re:How long?

[Nosferax]

with cat ears....

Re:How long?

[TheWormThatFlies]

Arguably, one could make a space suit that was simply a skin tight layer + helmet.

NASA was experimenting with a suit like this during the sixties or seventies, according to Jerry Pournelle's science articles from the eighties. The results were apparently quite promising, but then they inexplicably dropped the project. A few months, ago, though, there was news that they were trying something similar again.

Introducing widespread use of suits like this would definitely be a major breakthrough in space exploration - the current suits are heavy, cumbersome, uncomfortable, difficult to manoeuvre in, and as far as I know really expensive to make and maintain.

The idea is to make the body out of a kind of diving suit material. I imagine that you could eliminate certain kinds of problems with gas pockets forming by having problem areas partially reinforced with something rigid and springy. Tiny holes are apparently not much of an issue, but you could probably also add protective plates to flat areas that you really don't want a tiny meteorite to penetrate.

Re:How long?

[nwbvt]

Yes, human divers suffer many negative effects from under water pressure, but then again humans evolved to walk on land, not go swimming along the ocean floor. Other animals are better adapted to handle variations in pressure. Giant squid have been known to go to shallow waters at times and occasionally have even attacked boats, in fact that is how they were first discovered. And their chief predator, sperm whales, have to be able to go the surface to breathe. How often do you see whales exploding when they come up because they are used to higher pressure?

Re:How long?

[fredrik70]

very true, might get nasty though if you decide to hold on to that handle in the shadow on the space station

Re:How long?

[Decaff]

Pressure is a BIG issue. Chemistry changes at pressure, reactions go differently.

The reactions themselves rarely go differently; they simply change rates as a result of various factors.

Divers going below about 90 feet (30 metres) breathing air suffer nitrogen narcosis as dissolved nitrogen in the nerves cause an effect akin to drunkenness or partial anaesthesia.

The fact that divers only suffer from a few effects, such as nitrogen narcosis, indicates how little chemistry is affected by pressure, considering the huge number of complex reactions that go on in the human body.

Now this may not affect squid much, it's hard to believe that there are no pressure effects on the chemistry underpinning their biology.

It is not hard at all. Water is largely incompressible, so there aren't going to be any major changes in the volumes of body spaces or cellular organelles if the animal moves between different depths slowly enough to allow equilibration.

The main factors for deep-sea animals are temperature and light. They are probably used to living constantly as low temperatures. Providing they are kept cool and dark, many of the animals from such depths surivive OK at sea surface pressures.

Re:How long?

[Red Flayer]

"But the far more common accident AFAIK is actually the converse: you resurface while your lungs still hold air pressurized for 5, 10, 20 metres. Your lungs get stretched (ie they "explode"), and you're in a world of pain."

The lungs, since they are open to the outside, can easily disperse of increased volumes of gas -- this is why divers exhale so much when rising to the surface. I think you are referring to the bends, which is different. The bends are due to the fact that nitrogen is more soluble in blood at higher pressures. As the pressure decreases, nitrogen will precipitate from the blood, forming bubbles that can block blood vessels (particularly capillaries) and damage soft tissue (like nerve tissue -- ouch!). The bends, if serious, can lead to permanent paralysis or death.

By rising to the surface slowly, with lengthy pauses, the nitrogen can be passed from the body as very small, not dangerous bubbles, or by respiration. It's when the drop in pressure is fast that large, dangerous bubbles form.

Re:How long?

[Kickersny.com]

Hey, I just thought out how to get around the skintight issue. Cover the human in vaseline, or some other viscous nonvolatile (which means the vaseline wouldn't work very long, depending how much was evaporating through the suit) fluid, to fill in all the empty spaces left by the suit!

Good idea except that a human does in fact breathe through their skin. If you covered someone in vaseline, they would suffocate just as easily as if you cut off their air supply. James Bond in Goldfinger, anyone?

Re:How long?

[richlv]

"You do not explode and your blood does not boil because of the containing effect of your skin and circulatory system."

so if he had an open mouth (or probably also access to the tongue through the nose ?) it might have actualle started boiling, though that's the only explanation i can think of and it's a guess :)

Re:How long?

[Bad to the Ben]

Uh, then how come I don't suffocate when I go snorkelling? I mean, I'm under water, my skin is covered by fluid, and the only air I get is down the pipe to my lungs. And since I highly doubt my skin is sophisticated enough to crack water into it's base elements of hydrogen and oxygen, I believe you may be mistaken.

Re:How long?

[jasongetsdown]

No. Pressure is always an issue.

Not true. Nautulis's have been brought up from some of the deepest parts of the ocean and have remained alive in captivity. Pressure is only an issue in a compressible medium, i.e. air. The water in the squids body takes up the same space at 3000 feet as it does at sea level, so there's no harm in bringing one up. If you can figure a way to capture one that is.

Re:How long?

[LordVader717]

Going by the graph, there is a point somewhere between 1/100th and 1/100th atm, where ice turns directly to vapor, without melting to water. Thus, you can't keep liquid water at that pressure, and there is no known organism that can survive without it.

And I don't know how much pressure skin can withstand, but I doubt it could survive a vaccum.
Your skin would either freeze, or dry up and crumble, because you can't have liquid water.
Plus, there are alot of gases solved inside our body, between the tissue.

Re:How long?

[Th0th]

Actually both statements are accurate. If the diver rises while exhaling, the increase in air volume due to reduced pressure IS released, however, if you HOLD your breath, you will suffer from what those of us in the biz refer to as "Lung Pop"

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I read in the venerable Straight Dope about an instance where a Russian Cosmonaut was briefly exposed to space without a suit. Apparently aside from some transient lung damage he made a full recovery.

Re:How long?

[op12]

Divers going below about 90 feet (30 metres) breathing air suffer nitrogen narcosis as dissolved nitrogen in the nerves cause an effect akin to drunkenness...

Sign me up!

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

it rubs the lotion on its body or it gets sprayed with the hose again

Re:How long?

[ianscot]

Aren't giant squids one of those animals that lives so deep that it can't survive without really high pressure (too high for an aquarium)?

The basic answer: no one knows.

People are responding to different flavors of this question all over this post, and seemingly nobody realizes that squid of all sorts of species make a daily migration to and from deep water. As night falls, the largest migration known to us occurs: deep water critters, like squid, come up to shallower water. Sonar goes nuts with the sheer volume of animals that do this.

Giant squid have been encountered alive at the surface. One of the best stories involves Newfoundland fisherman who rowed out to what they thought was a big mass of wreck material at the surface, only to have it heave a huge tentacle up. A kid chopped the thing off. The assumption has always been that architeuthis was at the surface dying when encountered this way, but you know, nobody knows.

The more recently discovered "colossal squid" -- seemingly an even nastier item than architeuthis -- has been encountered at the surface aggressively feeding on Patagonian toothfish. Whether it too spends time in deep water isn't known.

Re:How long?

[CommieLib]

And having the suit change colors in respond to temperature (hot-white, cold, black) would help ameliorate the temperature problem.

Re:How long?

[ShadowBot]

Well according to this
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/07 01_040701_oceantrap.html
many deep sea fish die simply in the process of being captured and transported to the surface due to changes in "temperature and pressure"

and according to this
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?art icle_id=218391869&cat=1_1
at least one known fish has an enzyme which simply doesn't work at aquarium pressures (so it dies)

And according to this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sea_fish
"These fish live at depths of several kilometres with pressures of several hundred atmospheres; as a result they cannot survive at sea level and any attempts to keep them in captivity has led to their death."

So raising them in captivity is probably a bit more complicated than simply turning down the lights and attaching a small refrigeration unit.

Re:How long?

[DVega]

You've just described the "Space activity suit".

Re:How long?

[nadaou]

Well, yeah, anything's possible,

That's not quite true. You can't ski through a revolving door.

Re:How long?

[Zeos386sx-16]

Actually, People have been working on this for quite some time. See here: http://www.marssociety.org.au/marsskin.shtml/ Skinsuits, aka Mechanical Counter Pressure Suits, were originally built and tested by Paul Webb and Others in 1968.

Re:How long?

[Payday_Jones]

Really? On a board as cynical and crass as this one? Goldfinger? As a reference for skin aspyxiation? I think NOT Sir!

Re:How long?

[Ced_Ex]

Exactly. We should fight the battle down there, so we don't have to fight it up here.

Well, that shouldn't be too hard. I've seen some pre-emptive action already from Greenpeace videos of countries dumping illegal nuclear waste in drums into the ocean. It won't be long before they die of radiation poisoning.

Or... *gasp*... they mutate in even MORE giant squids...

In which case, I, for one welcome our new giant squid overlords.

Re:How long?

[-brazil-]

That's why the posting a few levels up suggested a "skin tight layer" of some fabric to keep the water in as neccessary additional protection.

As for the solved gasses, they are not a problem as long as they stay solved, which they will since the pressure inside the body is maintained.

Re:How long?

[-brazil-]

so if he had an open mouth (or probably also access to the tongue through the nose ?) it might have actualle started boiling

No, because the blood is still protected by the skin and blood vessel tissue. What actually DID boil away in the incident mentioned was the saliva on the tongue. This loss of moisture would pose a problem in prolonged vacuum exposure without any protection, apart from the lack of oxygen.

Re:How long?

[Decaff]

Well according to this
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/07 01_040701_oceantrap.html
many deep sea fish die simply in the process of being captured and transported to the surface due to changes in "temperature and pressure"

Of course! In such cases the changes in pressure and temperature can be rapid, which would naturally be damaging to most organisms. There can also be excessive oxygen present, which can also be fatal.

and according to this
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?art icle_id=218391869&cat=1_1
at least one known fish has an enzyme which simply doesn't work at aquarium pressures (so it dies)

One example of a high-pressure-adapted enzyme does not contradict my point.

And according to this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sea_fish
"These fish live at depths of several kilometres with pressures of several hundred atmospheres; as a result they cannot survive at sea level and any attempts to keep them in captivity has led to their death."

This is not a valid statement. Living at pressures of several hundred atmospheres does not of itself imply that that such organisms can't survive at sea level. This is obviously false as there are many animals that normally migrate between such pressure ranges!

So raising them in captivity is probably a bit more complicated than simply turning down the lights and attaching a small refrigeration unit.

There are very, very many reasons why wild animals die in capitivity, and they can be very complex. For example, the animals may starve as a result of the lack of chemical cues in the water. Some deep-sea squid species will grow to a certain age in captivity but then stop eating because some (as yet) unknown factor is present.

Re:How long?

[moonbender]

The lungs, since they are open to the outside, can easily disperse of increased volumes of gas -- this is why divers exhale so much when rising to the surface.

Like Th0th already pointed out, there are problems when you don't exhale, because the lungs are actually fairly fragile when you cut off the only way for the gas to disperse. It's something you need to be aware of when doing an emergency resurfacing - or that's what I was taught, anyway.

Re:How long?

[StarRoamer]

skinsuit/s-suit: See _Where the Winds Sleep_ by Neil P. Ruzic, written in the 1970's I think. Interesting projection of technology by fiction.

Also Jerry Pournelle used similar outfits in one of his novels I have read ( was it _High Justice_ ? _Exiles to Glory? ? ), sorry I'm not in my library at the moment.

Re:How long?

[ShadowBot]

Well, those quotes were simply the result of a one minute search on google.
And taken individually your replies have merit.
If what you're saying is that a mere change in pressure (no matter how big) may not necessarily kill a giant squid, I won't argue with that.

However it sounded (to me) like what were saying is 'All we need to do is keep them warm and dark' in which case, the number of failures listed would point towards it's being more complicated (or the previous attempters being really dumb)

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

This idea of kind of space suit has been floating around for a while (since 1968 to be precise), called the space activity suit.

Re:How long?

[Red Flayer]

"if you HOLD your breath, you will suffer from what those of us in the biz refer to as 'Lung Pop'"

Yikes. Is that anything like a Pudding Pop?

Re:How long?

[mrchaotica]

That means that any environmental suit must maintain the same approximate force upon the wearer as exerted by the wearer's respiration gas pressure. Likewise, in order to prevent circulatory damage, the force needs to be exerted pretty evenly across the entire body. So, in effect, you're talking about a suit that can "squeeze" the wearer evenly at a minimum of three or so lbs/sq inch. Assuming such could be designed, how do you propose one would don such an outfit in a pressurised environment? I don't care how great your lubricant of choice is, I can't imagine someone getting into one of these things in the first place without great physical harm occuring.

Think about something stretchy, like spandex. I think something like that would work, but it would just be really hard to squeeze into. That problem could be solved by a material that would relax when a current was applied and constrict when it was removed, sort of like an artificial muscle in reverse.

Re:How long?

[mrchaotica]

Sure you can! You just need short enough skis, or a big enough door. ; )

Re:How long?

[Firethorn]

Other than "Lack of funding", they probably paused to let materials technology catch up for a while.

Kinda like a certain amount of money has been invested into skyhook/space elevator technology. They figured out the tensile strength required to make one economic, then essentially shelved it while waiting for material tech to catch up.

Okay, we see no problems with XYZ tech other than we need a material that can do ABC. It looks like the material science boys are working on it, and we don't have the funding to help them along, so we'll shelve the project for 5-10 years, then check up on their progress.

You think about it, there are so many ideas from the 1900's that sat around for 30-50 years it's insane. Partially from patent issues, but more along the lines that they figured out how to do it, but only with x ubermaterial. That's no longer so uber today...

Re:How long?

[nazsco]

>person + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply + radiation shielding + rigid structure to allow bretahing + isulation and heating

and don't forget a powerfull megaphone, or else, nobody will hear you scream in space.

Re:How long?

[citabjockey]

How long till the "B" movie comes out detailing construction of this aquarium, catching the squid, putting it in and then having it escape before they close the hatch. It then goes on a rampage of manhattan, squeezing the life out of every junk bond trader it can get its tenticles on. I'd rent it!

Re:How long?

[Floody]

I'm no biologist, but I'm sure pressure affects more than just lung cavities. For example, divers get the bends when they come up and the pressure is released too quickly, causing the nitrogen in their blood to come out of solution. Now, I'm not saying that squid get the bends, but I imagine taking one to the surface would have some effect.

This is true. Under normal 1 ATA conditions we operate with a certain level of n2 dissolved in all of our soft tissues (blood being one). However, this is largely a non-issue because astronauts already have to go through a slow "decompression process" to reduce nitrogen loading when prepping for a flight, as the shuttle and EVAs operate at significantly less pressure than sea level. This is for a number of reasons, but mainly because the consequences of environment puncture are much less severe if the pressure differential is less.

Besides, off-gassing (the term for decreasing non-metabolic soft-tissue gas loads) occurs quite rapidly in a pure o2 environment with little or no of the "disposed" gas existing as external partial-pressure (see boyle's law).

Additionally, decompression sickness (i.e. "the bends") doesn't occur instantly, it takes a while for the gas to expand and "bubble out" of the tissues, gathering at places like joints and causing the sufferer to attempt pain alleviation by "bending" the joint.

Re:How long?

[Digital Pizza]

This Wikipedia Article disagrees with you about the dangers of vacuum exposure.

Re:How long?

[phasm42]

A full body blood pressure cuff :-]

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Without lungs to collapse is the pressure really an issue?

You mean like how humans would do just fine in outer space wearing nothing but a face mask?

No. Pressure is always an issue.

You missed the point. Lungs are affected by pressure because they are filled with air, the density of which is directly proportional to pressure. Animals that live in the bottom of the ocean do not have air spaces in their bodies, and water is uncompressible. Therefore, pressure does not affect them as much. That's the reason Humboldt squid can live at 2000 feet and come up to the surface to feed, whereas a recreational diver must stay within 130 feet of the surface and ascend no greater than 60ft/min, even taking 8 or 15 minute stops if necessary.

Re:How long?

[Decaff]

However it sounded (to me) like what were saying is 'All we need to do is keep them warm and dark' in which case, the number of failures listed would point towards it's being more complicated (or the previous attempters being really dumb)

I was not saying that. What I was objecting to was one of the original posters saying that the significant pressure differences would naturally and obviously result in major chemical/biochemical problems for animals if they were bought up to the surface. This is nonsense. Pressure alone (particularly in a liquid medium) has extremely minor effects on biochemistry. A few animals may have very specific adaptations to pressure in the form of highly tailored enzymes, but these are going to be the exceptions as it will limit where they can live.

What really matters for animals living at depth is not pressure at all - it is (1) temperature. It is cold at the bottom of the oceans, and the temperature doesn't change much. (2) Oxygen concentrations are low. (3) Food is sparse.

I haven't said it isn't complicated to keep animals from the depths alive in aquaria. It is complicated to keep almost any wild oceanic creatures alive in these conditions. My point is that the problem is almost never a matter of pressure.

I guess my real complaint is when common science programs invariably say that creatures that live at depth 'are very strong because they have to survive under such pressures' as if deep-see jellyfish are supposed to be built like bathyscapes...

Re:How long?

[hesiod]

Geez, just because I like "dead baby" jokes doesn't warrant troll mod. Maybe Offtopic...

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

How Long?

Cripes, doesn't anyone even read the summary anymore?

26 feet.

Jeez.

Wait. What did the thing I just quoted say? I can't fucking reach that up arrow. Tell me. Don't make me stretch, you bastards. Damn you.

Re:How long?

[bmrh]

Have none of your heard of altitude sickness? This is a problem that affects mountain climbers when they climb at high altitude. There are 2 main effects that result: pulmonary and cerebral oedema. This is what happens when the fluid in your body starts to pool in places that the body is used to having a bit of space - namely around your lungs and brain respectively. This problem can easily be fatal when travelling from sea level to 5000m (if you go quickly), and would be much worse in space. So even with a body covered in vaseline and a face mask, you'll still die. (and I wont even begin to talk about the radiation and cold) Now to get back to the topic (very rare on /. I know) I'm not sure if a giant squid is going to have that problem because of it's body structure. It may not suffer from cerebral oedema because it doesn't have a hard skull encasing it's brain (and not much brain I guess either since it has a penis that large!). It may not suffer from pulmonary oedema because it doesn't rely on having a gas move in and out of it's body (i.e. no lungs).

Re:How long?

[adamgolding]

wouldn't it lack appropriate insulation?

Re:How long?

[richlv]

i'm sorry, i should have been more specific then :)

post that i replied to asked about water boiling _on_ his tongue, so that's what i was referring to - seems that we agree on this :)

another thing that i was thinking about - even if it was boiling, it should not have caused any serious burns, as the temperature did not change, right ?

Re:How long?

[TheWormThatFlies]

I doubt this was the case with the space-environment-suits - as far as I know, they didn't use anything more advanced than diving suit material. Of course, I'm sure that if anything better exists today, that's what's going to be used.

Pournelle's theory, as I recall, was mismanagement at NASA - but I don't have the book here and I read it a long time ago.

Re:How long?

[-brazil-]

even if it was boiling, it should not have caused any serious burns, as the temperature did not change, right ?

Actually, it would cool down because the state change from liquid to gaseous requires energy. This is basically how freezers work. But since the saliva would have been near body temperature at first, it probably wouldn't get really cold. Should be a weird sensation, though.

Re:How long?

[butterwise]

Cover the human in vaseline

In space, no one can hear you cream...

Re:How long?

[Firethorn]

We've come a long way in the development of multiple layer flexible products. Virtually any such suit is going to use some form of Kevlar, for example, and that was invented in 1971, where the parent talked about the efforts being in the 60's, early 70's.

Of course, there's a big difference on how hard it'd be to build an emergency, minimal weight suit and a long duration work suit.

Re:How long?

[crystalattice]

Don't forget the movie "The Abyss". My diving instructor said that the fluid used for the final dive sequence is a highly oxygenated pig's blood-based solution. It lets divers go to extreme depths without worrying about excessive gas buildup in the blood since the gases remain in solution.

The only reason it's not passed the experiemental stage is because when it's ejected from the lungs, there's no air pressure to keep the lungs in shape, resulting in the lung's air sacs sticking together or a lung collapsing. It's just like pouring water from a plastic bag: the surface tension of the water keeps the bag stuck together.

Re:How long?

[SilverspurG]

However, liquid cannot be compressed (pressure can change, but volume doesn't change)

I think the hydraulics industry would have a different opinion on that. A liquid's change in volume due to pressure is much much much smaller than any gas, but there is still a change in volume.

And the parent was right. Pressue is always an issue. The membranes in your nose, throat, lungs, sinuses, ears, and intestines have designed themselves to accomodate a certain difference between the pressure on one side of the membrane and the pressure on the other side of the membrane. Unless you drained yourself of significant amounts of blood the blood would probably blow out every capillary in open space.

The entire body would be one big muffler burn (commonly seen on the neck).

Re:How long?

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet they construct Weapons of Mass Destruction ... in their tummy.

hehehehe

[Anonymous Coward]

Hehehehehe

where's the vid

[b17bmbr]

there's no video link. i need to see that.

Re:where's the vid

[Bananatree3]

I have been searching up and down google for a video, and I have yet to see even a reference to a site with it. According to this article, It is a 30 time-laps movie of 3 hours while the giant squid was tied up. If you find a link, please post.

Re:where's the vid

[syukton]

Video is on this page but since it's on MSNBC, they bend you over and make you take it Internet Explorer style. Actually, I went ahead and opened it in IE and I'm stuck watching the Iams multicat commercial over and over because the advertisement stream keeps timing out just before the end and it just replays over and over again without letting me move on to the content.

Oop, there it goes. It's 21 seconds of video. And....I can't play it again. The "play" button on the embedded player is disabled after playing the stream once.

I tried to grab a screenshot but it didn't work. The embedded player's video acceleration doesn't draw to the screen bitmap but uses the overlay mode of the video card...

Well if you've got IE and you can put up with the headache required to see the video, it's there. The squid looks REALLY unusual and the 21 seconds of video are...hm, yeah, I'll say it's worth it.

Re:where's the vid

[KylePflug]

Note that the video is not of a giant squid and is from 2001.

The video mentioned in the slashdot post is actually a series of photographs in 30-second intervals. National Geographic has a few of these photographs and the link has been posted numerously already.

Re:where's the vid

[syukton]

ah, yes. I suppose I jumped the gun and endured msnbc hell for no reason. Still, the clip was novel and the squid interesting.

Re:where's the vid

[KraZy-KaT]

Japanese researchers found the squid to behave rather aggressively; here's a link to extra footage, witnessing the attitude of this giant sea creature: Giant Squid

Re:where's the vid

[Traf-O-Data-Hater]

I believe what you are looking for is called a 'squid vid'.

Re:where's the vid

[b0r1s]

Just FYI, since I see this come up a lot -

You can take a screenshot of a Windows Media Player by disabling Overlays:
Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Uncheck 'Use Overlays'

Re:where's the vid

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats funny, I was searching Google left and right. So you're the person I collided with!

Re:where's the vid

[Anonymous Coward]

Video Link here...

http://news.tbs.co.jp/newseye/tbs_newseye3126582.h tml

Re:where's the vid

[Jane_Dozey]

BBC news has some piccys and a video. Unfortunatly I think you either need real player or WMP to see it :-\ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4288772.stm#

Re:where's the vid

[MemeRot]

What the heck? The video is from december 2001. Why is this news? The article on that page talked about this being some new species (or possibly phylum?) of squid, not the normal run of the mill giant squid I was expecting. I think it may be totally unrelated to the Japanese squid video.

Re:where's the vid

[Anonymous Coward]

Where on earth did you get the date December 2001 from? The only date anywhere near the video is todays!

The Pictures

[dodald]

It sure would be nice to see the pictures.

Re:The Pictures

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

Here you go giant squid

Re:The Pictures

[m0nk3ym1nd]

Here's one at National Geographic

Re:The Pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy crap, you slashdotted National Geographic. Wow.

Re:The Pictures

[superpulpsicle]

That is incredible. Except they shouldn't have thrown in the artist drawings of the 2 squids combating a whale. That just add confusion and hype.

Re:The Pictures

[Alomex]

I wonder if Akamai secretly pays Commander Taco to slashdot commercial sites, so that they learn their lesson and pay for protection^H^H^H^H^H^H^H content distribution from them.

Re:The Pictures

[OpCode42]

Dont click the link in the parent post! It's a trap!

Re:The Pictures

[Lispy]

Obviously a fake, just look at his hands, he's never get that wrist through the sleeve of the jacket he's wearing.

Skip a beat, eh?

[Dachannien]

I think almost every geek's heart must skip a beat when they hear about giant squids

Mmmmm.... Tentacle hentai....

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[TriezGamer]

I don't know if that's a heart skipping a beat so much as something else STARTING to beat...

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Neo-Rio-101]

I can't believe some people get off on that stuff.

My girlfriend knows such a Japanese lady who draws tentacle hentai and gets off on it. She's cute, but has many imaginary boyfriends apparently. We always joke that she has a octopus for a boyfriend. She thinks that men and women holding hands and kissing is disgusting though (?!) - which as you can imagine, tends to turn most guys off her, probably causing her to fantasize about poor octopi.

On a seperate note, I think Freud would have had a field day over in Japan.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

Nah you got it wrong, mate... more like

Iya Cthulhu!!!

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[UserGoogol]

I believe the reason is that at some point there was some law restricting the publication of erect penises, so hentai authors who really wanted to show penetration needed to be creative. Also, tentacles have the advantage that you can just grope everything at once.

Also, Japan is just a veritable breeding ground for fetishes in general. I suspect the rapid modernization and high population density probably has something to do with it, but hell... nobody can really understand Japan, not even Japanese people.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Solder Fumes]

On a seperate note, I think Freud would have had a field day over in Japan.

Forget Freud, introduce me to the abovementioned wacko and I'd have a field day! And I'm with her on the holding hands and kissing thing...at least, in public, and if it's really fugly people doing it. It's like flaunting their genetic crime against the species.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[midimastah]

Is she anything like this woman?

WARNING... LINK TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL!!!

http://www.erosblog.com/archives/00000386.htm

I hope this isn't going against some decency thing here on slashdot...

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[JanneM]

Also, Japan is just a veritable breeding ground for fetishes in general.

Actually, living here I suspect that it's not that various fetishes are more common here than elsewhere. It's rather that it's much less of a social stigma, and so people are more open about it - which of course increases the available audience for material catering to it, which in turn greatly increases the visibility.

Also, the concept of "fetish" is a rather slippery one (entendre intended). In psychological litterature, having a strong preference for red hair counts as a fetish, but not a similarily strong preference for blonde or black hair. Nothing is a fetish in itself; it's very dependent on the social context. Having a strong preference for tall, blonde women would make you a fetishist in Japan; in Sweden you'd just be seen as boring. If everybody would like tentacle sex, it would cease to be a fetish at all.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[jamstar7]

Not to worry, the FBI has started monitoring online porn in the name of Truth, Justice, and the NeoCon way to PROTECT you from such filth.

See you in Gitmo...

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[NeoSkandranon]

One of my friend who'd spent a lot of time in japan once suspected the popularity of various fetishes was dependant on the sexual openness as you mentioned, but also the encouraging of mantaining the status quo in certain walks of life, in particular men who are largely expected to basically be wage slaves their entire lives and conform to the corporate face. In that case, all the urge for deviation tends to get pushed into something you could partake of behind closed doors: sexual gratification.

Having only a bare knowledge of Japan and its culture I have no idea if his speculation is anywhere close to the mark, but it seems to make sense. I'd be interested in your affirmation or denial of the theory.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Profane MuthaFucka]

See you in Gitmo...

Ironically, Gitmo is one of the places where you are forced to have lots of sex.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Um..

*cough*

Phone number? URL? e-mail?

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Jeremi]

And I'm with her on the holding hands and kissing thing...at least, in public

Heh... "I don't have anything against heterosexuals, as long as they keep their relationships private and don't rub everybody's nose in it"

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Neo-Rio-101]

Although it looks like it on the outside, Japan is not open about sex at all. Otherwise all my Japanese colleagues would be having orgies every second week - but none of them can even get a date. In fact, it's not very open socially much at all. Non-comformity is flattened by society as it ignores anyone loud who dares stick out. Anyone trying to get attention is viewed as an attention whore and is summarily ignored. Anyone who truly NEEDS attention is ignored as well - which is the sad part.

IMHO the whole sex perversion thing is basically due to hordes of men not being able to get laid. Pure and simple. That frustration has got to come out somewhere. The reason they can't get laid is that most of the men are unromantic, selfish, uncaring, and have no respect for women basically. The only reason why foreigners get laid is because they are the exact opposite of Japanese men, and have blonde hair.

The whole octopus thing extends farther back than mere penis censoring. I have seen old Japanese art depicting Japanese women being mauled by octopus. Why octopus, you may ask? I don't know, but since the Japanese eat so much of it I figure "you are what you eat".

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[mano_k]

The reason they can't get laid is that most of the men are unromantic, selfish, uncaring, and have no respect for women basically. The only reason why foreigners get laid is because they are the exact opposite of Japanese men, and have blonde hair.
To be romantic, unselfish and caring helps you get laid? That's news to me!

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[commodoresloat]

If everybody would like tentacle sex, it would cease to be a fetish at all.

You mean all we have to do is to get everyone to like tentacle sex?

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Neo-Rio-101]

as the old joke goes..... only in Japan!

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[JanneM]

I'm not sure I agree. I actually don't really find Japan to be all that different when it comes to conformity; yes, it is fairly conservative compared to northern Europe, but I found the US was as socially rigid, disapproving and conservative when I lived there. The way conformity is expressed differs greatly of course, which is probably why it seems so much more prevalent to visitors.

And the "foreigner gets the dates" effect is just as prevalent in other countries and cultures. The grass is perennially greener somewhere else, and the foreign and exotic is always more exciting than the familiar.

One very real effect I've sen, though, is that a lot more younger women here are pushing for change than younger men (especially well-educated men). To make a gross overgeneralization, more young women wants to make a real career, while most younger professional men are still looking for a home-staying wife to be ground support for his career. Their attitude becomes more understandable when you realize that your future status in larger organizations in part depends on you having that kind of family to show your superiors (again, not unlike larger, conservative businesses in the west and the US especially, particularily in the financial sector). And it's not only to show your stability either; the company typically wants you to give all your time to the company, working insane hours, and you can't pull that off without support from home.

But hearing my female friends talk about this, seeing the rapid increase of middle-aged divorces (almost always initiated by the (house)wife) and considering how quickly attitudes can flip in this society, I'm thinking young conservative professionals may be in for a world of existential pain in the not too distant future.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[StrawberryFrog]

. I have seen old Japanese art depicting Japanese women being mauled by octopus.

Yup. The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife done in 1820.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[joss]

It helps if you are thought to have a big dick too. No, I'm not kidding. The stereotypes Japanese women have about western men are similar to the ones caucasians have about blacks in the west.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Your blonde neckbeard will not help.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Pollardito]

causing her to fantasize about poor octopi

it sounds like she needs 4 boyfriends that are really "grabby"

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Having a strong preference for tall, blonde women would make you a fetishist in Japan; in Sweden you'd just be seen as boring. If everybody would like tentacle sex, it would cease to be a fetish at all."

The same applies in reverse, of course. In fact, non-Asian men who are Asian fetishists happen to be the largest group of fetishists I've ever encountered, online or in real life. They rival homosexuals in number, as far as I can tell.

But then, this will get modded down, if at all.

Re:Skip a beat, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Although it looks like it on the outside, Japan is not open about sex at all. Otherwise all my Japanese colleagues would be having orgies every second week

The second doesn't necessarily follow the first. Sexual frankness doesn't directly cause sexual activity, nor necessarily any sort of INCREASE of same.

IMHO the whole sex perversion thing is basically due to hordes of men not being able to get laid. Pure and simple.

Too simple. Japan doesn't have one of the highest population densities in the world because Japanese people aren't fucking each other. Same thing to be said of the Chinese - As one Chinese friend of mine likes to say, "There are over a billion of us - do white people think we're hatching out of eggs or something?" And as so many in the thread including yourself have pointed out already, there are traditional pop art porn pieces that go back centuries....back to when men really DID get to have their way with women any time of day without even so much as a blink from the rest of society.

The reason they can't get laid is that most of the men are unromantic, selfish, uncaring, and have no respect for women basically. The only reason why foreigners get laid is because they are the exact opposite of Japanese men, and have blonde hair.

No WONDER you were modded up. It's very easy for know-nothing mods to agree with stereotypes they've heard before, especially ones that appeal to their egos.

I don't know what generation you're from, but in mine (20s to 30s), Japanese men have responded to the changing attitudes in Japanese women quite well. Of my many Japanese friends, only a few don't date regularly. In fact, back in the U.S., I had a much higher proportion of friends who couldn't land a date when they wanted. Outside of Japan, Japanese guys may not have the same level of success with non-Asian women as Korean and Phillipino guys, but that's not to say that they're as hopeless as you try to point out.

As for the foreigner thing, I agree much more with JanneM. "The grass is always greener, etc." Of my female Japanese friends, so many more have been caught up in the Korean wave thanks to Yong-sama than have ever expressed any interest in dating a non-Asian, or actually done so. What does this mean in the context of the fact that Koreans have black hair too, and that Korea is an even more patriarchal society than Japan?

May I propose that you have a chip on your shoulder when it comes to Japanese guys, and perhaps a superiority complex with them when it comes to your dealings with Japanese females? Normally, in conversational speech, it's easy to pick up when some American bouncing about Roppongi holds this all-too-common attitude, but it's a little more difficult with written words.

Why octopus, you may ask? I don't know,

Metaphor and extreme imagery, just as with current-day H pop art. You weren't even trying, huh? :)

but since the Japanese eat so much of it I figure "you are what you eat".

You know, I think your whole post was designed just so you could turn that phrase. :)

mmmmm ... calamari

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

served with a little butter, garlic and wedge of lemon

Re:mmmmm ... calamari

[AcidDan]

Must... Not... Give... In...
Bah! Sod It:

In depths of ocean, calamari eats you!

-- Dan =)

Re:mmmmm ... calamari

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally don't find ammonia palatable.

Re:mmmmm ... calamari

[TouchOfRed]

Must... Not... Give... In...
Bah! Sod It:

Yes, but do they run linux?

Re:mmmmm ... calamari

[bombshelter13]

Dear lord, that's the most original Soviet Russia joke I've heard this year.

You sir, win.

Re:mmmmm ... calamari

[scottc229]

Maybe it's just better if we ignore the giant squid.....

Re:mmmmm ... calamari

[niktemadur]

He's not kidding, that's the way they grill calamari in Spain, but usually they use baby squid, known as "chipirones".

Believe it or not, if you soak calamari meat in fresh water for 24 hours, then prepare it as you would an abalone filet, only a connossieur can taste the difference. Some upscale seafood restaurants are notorious for this practice, having been caught in the act.

I know a restaurant that serves calamari fried in beet and orange sauce, with ginger, garlic and chili powder, and I have to tell you, after trying it, I lost my aversion both to calamari AND beet.

Re:mmmmm ... calamari

[Anonymous Coward]

> > In depths of ocean, calamari eats you!
>
> Maybe it's just better if we ignore the giant squid.....

IT'S A TRAP!

Re:mmmmm ... calamari

[bleckywelcky]

I think most people who eat calamari are stupid. They either deep fry it to hell and dip it in some sauce, or smother it with garlic, butter, and lemon. In either situation, it's to the point that all you are tasting is the oil and sauce or the garlic, butter, and lemon. And the only reason they eat calamari is tell other people that they eat calamari. Merely for shock value, not for the taste of it at all. In fact, the few times that I've been with others and calamari was served, I tried to remove all the covering to get at the bare calamari and see what it tasted like ... and it was basically nothing. Just blandness. It's not like a nice piece of elk or something that has a distinctly different taste than other meats, that you can enjoy as a bare steak (with minimal seasoning).

A buffet!

[darkitecture]

Calamari for EVERYONE!

Re:A buffet!

[Anonymous Coward]

We love Calamari...Calamari Damacy!

Re:A buffet!

[Anonymous Coward]

Fortunately for the squid, humans would probably find that their flesh would taste like the inside of a duracell on account of the ammonium chloride present.

Unfortunately for the squid, sperm whales don't seem to mind it.

Re:A buffet!

[agm]

Giant squid are the only natural predator of many whale species (other than the Japane... I mean humans). I wonder how long until these squid are seen as a threat to so called "scientific whaling" (which somehow is the source of whale meat in restaurants)?

Re:A buffet!

[squidinkcalligraphy]

I paid for a Colossal Squid, and I'm gonna get a colossal squid.

Tonight's special is ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Calamari. Bon appetit!

yarrrr!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

YARR
Me and me pirate buddies have been fighting tee squids for years

No video

[Rooked_One]

looks like the giant squid will continue to remain uncaught on cameras. Personally I think they are just really ET's who like to have a nice sauna in our freezing oceans.... What?! Prove me wrong.

Re:No video

[Solder Fumes]

Prove you wrong? Well, for one thing, an intelligent being wouldn't grab an obvious trap. Also, the DNA structure is too similar to everything else on the planet.

Re:No video

[cornface]

Prove you wrong? Well, for one thing, an intelligent being wouldn't grab an obvious trap. Also, the DNA structure is too similar to everything else on the planet.

Sneaky, aren't they?

Pictures

[youknowmewell]

Pictures here.

Re:Pictures

[captnbmoore]

please dont link to something that requires IExploder to watch a freaking video.

Re:Pictures

[KylePflug]

... he didn't. It's an article with a picture (no video), and it works fine in Firefox.

And if it were an IE-only page, the obvious response to your trolling would be: Please don't whine unless you are going to go to the trouble to provide a better link yourself.

Re:Pictures

[Eric Savage]

Please don't complain about the quality of people's links unless you have better ones.

IExploder...that's quality. Is it from Micro$oft? Does it run on windoze?

Re:Pictures

[eht]

Works fine for me in Firefox, and there are no videos on the page.

How you got moderated insightful is beyond me.

Re:Pictures

[dtfinch]

It links to a related article "Deep-sea monster caught on tape" which links to the video which they'll prevent you from viewing unless you're running IE6. Having barely skimmed through the 50kb or so of javascript that verifies your browser by dozens of methods, and generates urls to multiple scripts which it loads on the fly which it calls to finally generate the secret url to the video, I'm guessing their motive for blocking other browsers wasn't compatibility related.

Re:Pictures

[jangobongo]

If you are referring to this link which is on the page that the GP post linked

Deep-sea monster caught on tape

You should note that the video referred to there is from Dec. 18, 2001.

It does not work with Firefox, but then I couldn't get it to work on Explorer either. All I got was the message "The video you requested is not available." Possibly because the link was 4 years old?

Re:Pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

Those little anti-competitive bastards.

Re:Pictures

[jayhawk88]

Why not? Just because you refuse to use IE for silly and pointless reasons doesn't mean the rest of us can't enjoy it.

Re:Pictures

[KylePflug]

So you are actually complaining to the grandparent because he clicked a link which you followed through two generations to a page that doesn't work outside of IE?

Amazing.

Re:Pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

-5: Pretentious Asshat for use of the phrase "IExploder".

Re:Pictures

[dummyname12]

More pictures here.

Re:Pictures

[Nirvelli]

The "Deep-sea monster caught on tape" video is not the same thing that this article is talking about: "Dec. 20, 2001 - A ghostly, 23-foot-long creature..."
The article talks about one "only" 26 feet long

Re:Pictures

[PenGun]

So you want me to reboot to my XP install that flashs my burner to see this. Silly and pointless indeed.

  Ahh I love my bad karma, delineates me from poodles like the parent.

    PenGun
  Do What Now ??? ... Standards and Practices !

Re:Pictures

[Kidbro]

Bah! Liar! That one's not even six feet long!

Re:Pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

Reread his post... that wasn't complaining at all. Just commenting on the stupidity of MSNBC.

Re:Pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you ever seen him out of his suit?

Re:Pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

> Have you ever seen him out of his suit?

I know a TRAP when I see one.

Re:Pictures

[gnunick]

If you want to see a lot more than the two pictures in the MSN article, and even more than the several provided by Nat'l Geographic, check out the Beeb. They have a 1m39s video.

In the upper-right corner you will see the video link. RealPlayer--it may suck for windows users (does it, still?), but it's *nix friendly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4288772. stm

Re:Pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting links promising amazing pictures without showing pictures.
It is the anti-Goatse troll.

Re:Pictures

[Boiling_point_]

And there's a mirror here as well.

Heart Skip

[mrclark13]

I think gaint squid are interesting. That being said, I think maybe the submitter needs to get out more and enjoy some human companionship if his heart skips a beat at the thought of squid. Either that or his ex-girlfriends must have been really monstrous.

Re:Heart Skip

[Anonymous Coward]

Or she had 6 hands and talent...

Re:Heart Skip

[trewornan]

Perhaps she just smelled like a squid.

Re:Heart Skip

[tsm_sf]

Some of us can't wait to see a giant squid, some of us can't wait to see Everybody Loves Raymond.

Re:Heart Skip

[Guppy06]

"Either that or his ex-girlfriends must have been really monstrous."

Dude, the closest thing we have to "attractive guy" here on Slashdot is freakin' Wil Wheaton. Assuming the poster has even had girlfriends, what do you think they were like? Supermodels? :)

Re:Heart Skip

[Anonymous Custard]

Some of us can't wait to see a giant squid, some of us can't wait to see Everybody Loves Raymond.

But the majority of us would rather see Smackdown: Raymond vs. The Giant Squid.

Re:Heart Skip

[tsm_sf]

Arr, squiddy, I got nothin' against ya. I just heard there was gold in yer belly.

Re:Heart Skip

[PakProtector]

Hey, now! As a heterosexual male who has no problem in acknowledging the physical beauty of other men (After all, ain't Michelangeo's David a beautiful piece of art?), I will venture to say that Wil Wheaton is a very sexy man, and if I were gay, he and Jude Law would be the only ones for me.

That's right. Wil Wheaton is as handsome as Jude Law.

Re:Heart Skip

[Anonymous Coward]

I resent that! My mom says I'm very handsome.

Re:Heart Skip

[Captain_Chaos]

I think gaint squid are interesting. That being said, I think maybe the submitter needs to get out more and enjoy some human companionship if his heart skips a beat at the thought of squid. Either that or his ex-girlfriends must have been really monstrous.

There must be a way to tie this in with the tentacle hentai thread...

Something fishy

[azbot]

Thats a big squid

Two Tiny Humans Caught on Film

[bonch]

JoeSquid writes: "I think almost every squid's hearts must skip a beat when they hear about tiny humans (think "The Monkeys Above The Shore"). It appears a giant squid researcher has managed (for the first time) to get actual footage of two tiny humans in action. They were only five feet long (a little more than 1.5m) which is big enough for me."

squid pic

[opaqueice]

Here's a photo:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9503272/

Pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/ph otogalleries/giant_squid/index.html

I just hope..

[Anonymous Coward]

that she doesn't try to take my happycake oven. Seriously, 40 watt deliciousness.

Re:I just hope..

[Anonymous Coward]

... but the secret ingredient is love.

Re:I just hope..

[eLamer]

sealab 2021 reference? haha

Giant Squid happy snaps

[Anonymous Coward]

Pictures here

http://www.smh.com.au/media/2005/09/28/11278045094 63.html

Re:Giant Squid happy snaps

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, if people are going to post links to pictures that scuttlemonkey should have posted since they're not in the article, to whore an informative score, they should at the very least show us some pics that everyone else isn't showing us.

Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn right. I remember that day back in 6th grade where we got into a huge fight over the existance of the giant squid.

I had said that carcasses were found, and after making fun of me for using the word "carcass," you proceeded to articulate further on my sexuality (which, btw, you couldnt have been more wrong about.)

Tom, you then declared, through some haphazard strange conglomeration of swears and 6th grade dialogue, that you would drink your own pee if it were real.

Im going to find your number, and ask if you are going to do it. Just to fuck with you.

(name changed)

Re:Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[Anonymous Coward]

+2 Hilarious (except for Thomas Patterson).

Re:Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[Anonymous Coward]

Im going to find your number, and ask if you are going to do it.

No need to call me. Sure, I'm going to do it.

Thomas Patterson

Re:Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[techno-vampire]

Im going to find your number, and ask if you are going to do it. Just to fuck with you.

This reminds me of Neil Armstrong's comment on his moonwalk: "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky."

Re:Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[Mechcozmo]

This reminds me of snopes...

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/mrgorsky.htm

Status? False.

Re:Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[Anonymous Coward]

Two words: Seek Therapy

Re:Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[Anonymous Coward]

BLAST! i hate snopes.. it keeps ruining things for me. i didn't even know about that one, and before i read about it, it had already ruined it for me.

Ironic, the captcha for this post is the word "disprove".

Re:Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[CharonIDRONES]

Agreed - And I'll take the karma hit.
He has some pent up feelings about the past he needs to talk to someone about - Like Thomas, ha.

-Brandon
PS Yes, people do grow up and grew things

Re:Fuck You Thomas Patterson!

[Anonymous Coward]

Come and get me bitch!!
- Tom Patterson

Worthless without pics

[Wind_Walker]

Researcher 1: OMFG! We just caught a Giant Squid on camera!
Researcher 2: Quick, let's get an article up and not give them any pictures!
Researcher 1: Perfect!

Re:Worthless without pics

[grimJester]

Researcher 1: OMFG! We just caught a Giant Squid on camera!
Researcher 2: Quick, let's submit it to Slashdot!
Researcher 1: Perfect! Who wants to host the pics?

Re:Worthless without pics

[Anonymous Coward]

Researcher 3: Profit!

Re:Worthless without pics

[elknco1]

Reasearcher 3: Let's wait a year before doing any of this.

pictures were taken in September 2004

"only" 8m...thats big

[weighn]

from the wikipedia : recent estimates put the maximum size at 10 m

Re:"only" 8m...thats big

[Boccaccio]

From the National geographic article on the squid.... The longest giant squid on record measured 59 feet (18 meters), including its two elongated tentacles.

Re:"only" 8m...thats big

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

Off Topic:

I like the sig, A Farewell to Kings, yes?

Re:"only" 8m...thats big

[weighn]

I like the sig, A Farewell to Kings, yes?

BING BING BING!!!

Re:"only" 8m...thats big

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, if it's on wikipedia, it MUST be true.

Re:"only" 8m...thats big

[child_of_mercy]

and it's not like they've even examined a valid sample.

Are those laser beams in the picture?

[Anonymous Coward]

The story's about a squid, not a fricken' shark, damnit.

OMGOMG

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that a Giant Squid in your pants?
Or are you just happy to see me?

Eh

[phalse phace]

Eh. Nothing exciting here.

Now, if it were giant squids with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads...

Re:Eh

[Anonymous Coward]

ARRRRRR!
You beat me to the fricken' seafood laser joke! I thought better of posting it outright, and getting modded redundant if every other slashdotter thought the same thing, so I read down the list of comments and found yours! Curse you matey!

I think blatant jokes like this one usher in a new era of Slashdot, where all cliches are known to the majority of users, so everyone lunges for the same obvious jokes. A photo of the fark.com "It's a TRAP!" Admiral would be well suited as my signature for the moment.

-Saskboy

Re:Eh

[kfg]

Now, if it were giant squids with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads...

. . .and tits.

KFG

Re:Eh

[game kid]

Now, if it were giant squids with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads...

It usually is. The problem is that they actually use the frickin' lasers on the poor camera guy.

Re:Eh

[Anonymous Coward]

Would you settle for military-trained giant squid equipped with toxic darts?

Re:Eh

[Infinityis]

Laser beams were so last decade. Now they use toxic darts and roam the New Orleans area...

I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[Anonymous Coward]

26 feet long (a little more than 8m)

26 feet = 7.9248 meters

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[RoadDoggFL]

But 26.4 feet = 8.04672 meters.

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[mallocme]

you're forgetting the latest exchange rate. The foot has really been taking a hit lately.

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[Mateito]

26 feet > 8m in japan.

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[R3d M3rcury]

It's not easy when you're big in Japan.

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[Infinityis]

I knew the Chinese were mandating birth control for a reason...if they produce fewer feet than we do, then our feet are worth less and less and we need more of them just to do the same tasks we had done a few years ago.

I think NASA should take this into consideration the next time they launch something...

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[ecoppelmans]

Did't you know? Fishermen always exaggerate.

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[RoadDoggFL]

So would that include Japanese researchers?

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[cujo_1111]

They 'research' whales don't they?

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[Anonymous Coward]

But 26.4 feet = 8.04672 meters.

Japan uses the metric system (as do most scientist around the world) so the original measurements would have been in metres so:

8 meters = 26.2467192 feet

Re:I have some shocking news for you Mr. Geek

[eander315]

The submitter obviously works for JPL (NASA).

PICTURES

[Tyrsenus]

Here they are!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/09 27_050927_giant_squid.html

You know you are ...

[Anonymous Coward]

a japanese fanboy if... you immediately thought "Squid sashimi"

or

a hentai otaku if... you immediately thought "Yes, and were young schoolgirls involved?"

(hentai otaku - fanboy of hentai (perverse) anime)

Re:You know you are ...

[cornface]

(hentai otaku - fanboy of hentai (perverse) anime)

If you were going to explain it, why didn't you just write it out the first time? Alternatively, you could have gone for the gold.

(hentai otaku - fanboy (extreme fan of) of (pertaining to) hentai (perverse) anime (cartoons (a sequence of drawings that give the appearance of motion when displayed rapidly (quickly, one (a single) frame (segment of film, or in this case, drawing (an artistic representation)) in order (from first to last (beginning to end (the final one))))

Or, you could just go ahead and die.

Re:You know you are ...

[Anonymous Coward]

(hentai otaku - fanboy (extreme fan of) of (pertaining to) hentai (perverse) anime (cartoons (a sequence of drawings that give the appearance of motion when displayed rapidly (quickly, one (a single) frame (segment of film, or in this case, drawing (an artistic representation)) in order (from first to last (beginning to end (the final one))))

Shouldn't that be:

(- hentai otaku fanboy (extreme fan of) of (pertaining to) hentai (perverse) anime (cartoons (a sequence of drawings that give the appearance of motion when displayed rapidly (quickly, one (a single) frame (segment of film, or in this case, drawing (an artistic representation)) in order (from first to last (beginning to end (the final one))))

Or is (hentai) some function from emacs?

Re:You know you are ...

[cornface]

I am thoroughly chastised, with the accompanying shame blossoming warmly in my loins.

PIctures

[death or glory]

Here's some more pictures. Or maybe the same ones. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/ph otogalleries/giant_squid/

Some more pictures...

[Anonymous Coward]

National Geographic has more pictures:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/ph otogalleries/giant_squid/index.html

Pics here

[Anonymous Coward]

My god...it's hideous.

Re:Pics here

[MyLongNickName]

You know what. I've seen goatse links before. They are grotesque. But this just crosses the line. Can we get the IP banned?

Re:Pics here

[Liastnir]

I forsee Cthulhu getting might pissed over Reality TV coming to his living room.

oops...

[weighn]

max size is 10m for males and 13 m (43 ft) for females...
"Big Mamma is that a tentacle in your pocket?"

Ogasawara Whale-Watching Association?

[quenz]

Sounds like a fun group to belong - rather like the 'Nebraska Prime Beef Watching Assocation' isn't it?

Why watch when you can eat?

one more off the list

[Bitsy Boffin]

Like many people here at /. I'm sure, seeing a (picture of) a live giant squid is one of those things that were definatley on my list of things to do before I die.

Damn, does that thing look cool.

Re:one more off the list

[Anonymous Coward]

I just commented to the friend who told me about the pictures this morning: I'm one step closer to dying as a happy man. Since she does not have a lightsaber to give me, but is a lesbian, I think she's relieved to have been responsible for crossing the giant squid thing off the list, thus relieving her of any other duties. P-)

-Pirate Dan

Japanese...

[timecop]

Are experts when it comes to filming tentacles.

will photos do?

[weighn]

National Geographic has some piccys
here...

Re:will photos do?

[J. Random Luser]

tfa said "caught on film", doesn't have to mean moving pictures y'know ;-)

National Geographics excelled: 4 out 9 were not library stock or line art :-(

Re:will photos do?

[LarsWestergren]

Tsunemi: "Bah, the pictures are no good without something next to it for scale. Hey Kyoichi-san, get undressed, dive down there and hug it!"

Re:will photos do?

[Geshem]

Holy crap! Is it me or is he shooting a laser-beam there?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/im ages/050927_giant_squid.jpg

I think the U.S army got to him before us (or was it Dr. Evil?)

Re:will photos do?

[Wilk4]

idiot. it's the line to the bait/hook that he's caught on.

Re:will photos do?

[Geshem]

You're the idiot.
I was referring to that faint red line seen at the top of the image, crossing the squid.

And of course it's not laser. That's called "humor", you prick!

Show some pictures, damn it

[schestowitz]

In other news, I have just developed an astounding computer global illumination rendering algorithm. It gives you the most stunning translucency effects your have ever seen and its output looks scaringly photorealistic. I have it all running, I have a zillion images I generated on my computer, BUT...

No picture is public yet!

...now you know how I feel....

Quote

[Anonymous Coward]

After first spotting the giant squid, one of the japanese researchers was quoted as saying: "We're going to need a bigger ball of rice".

Re:Quote

[gcain]

Best laugh I've had all week; although I have no idea what you are talking about!

Re:Quote

[nitehawk214]

He was paraphrasing Jaws, when Roy Scheider's character says, "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

Re:Quote

[Anonymous Coward]

That was really fucking funny, but I think maybe bowl would go down better with people not familiar with Japanese eating habits.

TROLL. MODDA DOWNA.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod down please. Thank you for your consideration of the above post which clearly constitues a "troll" phenomena.

MOD PARENT DOWN! (Or funny)

[Spy der Mann]

Just remove that insightful. I expected to see a REAL squid in there, not a Star Wars character! (repeat after me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)

Re:MOD PARENT DOWN! (Or funny)

[MustardMan]

/. moderation is (intentionally) broken - people get no karma for funny mods. Because of that, moderators sometimes use insigtful or informative to mod up a funny post, so the poster gets some karma.

lol

[mnemonic_]

lol, what?

It's really too bad...

[SSonnentag]

It's a shame that the squid lost the end of one of its feeding tenticles. Now it will most likely starve to death and be snagged in some Japanese fisherman's nets. Oh well. It was worth it all to get a few low quality photos.

Re:It's really too bad...

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

You do know that those things regenerate, right? Please take the tree-hugging shit somewhere else. Now that this species is no longer faceless it stands a much higher chance of getting sympathetic support from non-communist-green humans than it did before.

Chances might not be great now, but when it was a "myth" they were non-existant. Noone in his right mind is going to make sacrifices to protect the existance of a species that has not been proven to exist. At least we know for a fact these buggers are still alive. That's worth whatever sacrifice to that species that the photos necessitated.

Re:It's really too bad...

[KylePflug]

I hereby issue you an order. From now on, every instant that a giant squid or other sea creature is eaten by a sperm whale or other sea creature, you must utter a short prayer/complain, bemoaning the fact that one creature's life was taken merely to make another creature's life more pleasant.

Furthermore, you're an idiot.

Re:It's really too bad...

[TapeCutter]

"You do know that those things regenerate, right?"

No, do you have a reference, all the ones I've seen say that very little is known about the species.

"Please take the tree-hugging shit somewhere else"?"

Don't you mean "squid-hugging".

"...support from non-communist-green humans..."

Ahhh, now we are getting somewhere, the whole thing is about politics, right?

"...protect the existance of a species that has not been proven to exist"

I suppose the specimens that are caught in nets or washed up on shore prove nothing.

That's worth whatever sacrifice to that species that the photos necessitated."

To you maybe but I think the squid would disagree.

Re:It's really too bad...

[Anonymous Coward]

> > "Please take the tree-hugging shit somewhere else"?"
> Don't you mean "squid-hugging".

Deep in the waters off Kamchatka, squid hugs you!

Titanic Struggle

[Quirk]

My step Dad, a naval officer (pilot), now retired, saw a whale surface with a giant squid engulfing it's head. The whale breached a couple of times with the giant squid unrelentingly attached, attacking and maybe feeding.

I've read that during WWII giant squid would attack red life boats filled with sailors from sunk ships. Apparently the red colour attracts them.

By all accounts they are extremely aggresive, suggesting they don't see themselves as prey and know no predators.

I think I'll keep my exposure to them second hand.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[qbwiz]

Everything I've heard of (squid beaks in sperm whale stomachs, for example) suggests that its sperm whales that eat the giant squid.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[MalachiConstant]

Not that I totally doubt your dad's story, but if a squid surfaced it would die unless maybe it did it very, very slowly. I don't think it would be in much shape to be attacking.

As for them attacking life boats, that's ridiculous. If they were that easy to attract we would have photographed and captured them by now.

Thirdly, giant squid do have natural predators, the aforementioned sperm whales and (according to Wikipedia) the pacific sleeper shark.

They are nasty beasts, though. Take a look at their rotating beaks sometime, or read up on them at the Wikipedia article.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[ShawnDoc]

I've never heard of giant squid attacking life rafts before. Got any links to documentation?

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Anonymous Coward]

Not that I totally doubt your dad's story, but if a squid surfaced it would die unless maybe it did it very, very slowly. I don't think it would be in much shape to be attacking.

Says who? From what I've heard they do not seem to have much problem surviving rapid changes of depth.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Quirk]

I ran a search and came up with a few comments on message boards, e.g. http://glorantha.temppeli.org/digest/gd6/1998.11/2 850.html. The stuff I read was probably from the library at home in hard copy.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[dirtsurfer]

From the article:

"The Japanese scientists found the squid by following sperm whales, the most effective hunters of giant squid, as they gathered to feed between September and December in the deep waters off the coast of the Ogasawara Islands in the North Pacific."

So yes, they do apparently have natural predators.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Otter]

Sperm whales frequently have scars from squid tentacles. The squid definitely get some good shots in, and it's not clear that they don't win a round every now and then.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Quirk]

Ya, I've read that too. It may have been the whale attacking the squid and, I, as a child interpreted it to be other way around. IIRC my dad may not have depicted it as the squid attacking the whale. By way of his training he tends to be very exact in his reporting of things.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Wazukkithemaster]

From my immense pool of knowledgem gathered mostly from years of watching the discovery channel, i have learned that giant squid would not be able to survive at the surface of the ocean. their blood is EXTREMELY thin and thus easily influenced by their surrounding environment. Furthermore, their blood temperature must stay around 10 degrees Celcius and too much variation would cause death. Also, The water pressure that they are used to be subject to is much greater in the depths of the ocean (obviously) than at its surface. That said, its unlikely the stories of giant squid feeding on red lifeboats filled with sailors (and what-not) are unlikely, as for the whale... i'm not sure

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Anonymous Coward]

I've heard that there's gold in their bellies. Yarrr

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Procyon101]

I believe they spawn near or at the surface... which is where most of the scientific "hunters" have tried to catch glimpses.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[LWATCDR]

Here is another report of an attack on a surface boat. http://hometown.aol.com/smsjjh/myhomepage/huntfish .html
It is just a report and I have not seen much documentation. Maybe these critters can hunt near the surface.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Frogbert]

By all accounts they are extremely aggresive, suggesting they don't see themselves as prey and know no predators.

Vin Diesel could take one on... probably two on a good day.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[nosferatu-man]

A full grown Architeuthis weighs perhaps 700 pounds, while an adult sperm whale would weight in somewhere between 35-50 tons. I think, the occasional beak scar aside, the whales win. Every time.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Anonymous Coward]

A full grown martial artist weighs perhaps 150 pounds, while a fat slashdotter would weight in somewhere between 300-400 pounds. I think, the occasional bruise aside, the slashdotter wins. Every time.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[scheme]

A full grown martial artist weighs perhaps 150 pounds, while a fat slashdotter would weight in somewhere between 300-400 pounds. I think, the occasional bruise aside, the slashdotter wins. Every time.

Let me correct that a bit:
A full grown martial artist weighs perhaps 150 pounds, while a slashdotter would weight in somewhere between 7000-15000 pounds. Both have rough the same proportional levels of muscle. I think, the occasional bruise aside, the slashdotter wins. Every time.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[duffahtolla]

Rising slowly is to prevent bubbles from forming in the blood (for air breathers) or from the gas bag bursting (gas bladder fish). The Giant Squid does not breath air or have a gas bladder. It suffuses its tissue with ammonia to make itself buoyant, So I'm guessing that rising quickly wouldn't be a problem.

What kills them at the surface is the warmer temperature. Giant Squid blood sucks at carrying oxygen at higher temeratures. If they are too big, they will eventually suffercate in temperate water. The Surface area to volume ratio will only allow the much younger/smaller ones to live near the surface.

Note also that they said the chunk of tentacle that was ripped off the photographed squid was still gripping the boats deck and even fingers when it was prodded.

It could very well be that the Squid seen attached to the Sperm whale was still cold enough to fight (if brought up fast enough) and even as it began to die, it's tentacles would continue holding on for a while.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[rsax]

Yea he looks pretty bad ass here.

*Giant squid runs for the hills*

Re:Titanic Struggle

[rexguo]

Maybe that's why the whale surfaced: to kill the squid using its natural weaknesses.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[MalachiConstant]

You're right, I was not thinking about their different body chemistry. I concede my first point, and thanks for the explanation of why only younger/smaller squids have been seen near the surface.

And just because you exposed my stupidity I'll mention that you spelled "suffocate" wrong. ;)

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Pablo El Vagabundo]

You calling his Dad a liar??

Pablo

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Snoopy77]

As has been pointed out the Giant Squid would probably not survive a surfacing. But as the article points out, even the severed tentacle was able to latch onto things. Perhaps the squid was dead but still wouldn't let go for a period of time.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Anonymous Coward]

From my immense pool of knowledge, gathered mainly from years of saying whatever the fuck I feel like, I say that water pressure gravitulates with the squids skin temperature in such a refined manner that the entropic dynamism has to metastasize with the rock band around level twenty-seven.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[n54]

"...their blood temperature must stay around 10 degrees Celcius..."

Depending on where in the world and when (seasons) this at least should be no problem - think about northern Europe most of the year for example (which fits fairly well with WWII).

Not that this means any of it is neccessarily true - I'm just being sceptic of the sceptic in addition to the original poster :)

Even though I love Discovery Channel I wouldn't base my arguments on them, they mangle a lot of science (seldom really badly but usually enough that one can notice). Also remember that anything you see there, at least among the more scientific programs, is usually at least four years old (production takes time and then add reruns to that) and a lot of details/understanding tends to change in four years. I think we know far too little to definetly say that they couldn't survive over a wider range of pressures, at least for short periods.

Anyway yeah the whale surfacing with a attached squid seems plausible any which way (the squid might actually have been dead for all we know - it might still be an effort to remove its suckers, and if it died in the later part of the ascension it might still be twitching/moving).

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Thrakkerzog]

A lot of deep sea life is red, since it is the hardest color to see in very dark conditions. Some deep sea predators have eyes that are unusually receptive to red. Perhaps if a giant squid gets close to the surface, with better light, there is a massive red blob attracting/blinding them.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Martin Spamer]

saw a whale surface with a giant squid engulfing it's head. The whale breached a couple of times with the giant squid unrelentingly attached, attacking and maybe feeding.

It is more likely that the whale was eating the Squid not the other way around. Squid is a primary food source of many Whales including Sperm and Killer Whales. Though it's quite possible that it had bitten off more than it could chew.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Gulthek]

Forget the movies. Unless said martial artist is very good; a significant mass difference wins over skill.

I.e. a 100-150 pound martial arts expert could not expect to easily or reliably defeat a 300 pound unskilled foe. The difference in size provides a huge advantage. That's why martial arts competitions are classed by both belt AND weight.

A 200 pound unskilled fighter vs. a 150 pound martial artist would be a good fight.

Now if you are a 150 pound unskilled fighter facing a 300 pound martial artist...hope that you can run really, really fast.

Note: all of these fights assume serious fighting to incapacity. If any sort of martial arts tagging and hit zone games are played, obviously someone skilled at the game will have a huge advantage.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[himself]

Malachi Constant wrote:
>
> ...but if a squid [battlign a whale] surfaced it would die unless maybe it did it very, very slowly.
>
      Did you ever consider the possibility that, with a brain as big as a Volkswagen Microbus, the whale might _know_ that?!
      Childhood memories of "Jaws" scared me away from the ocean for life -- and now thinking about how whales have already planned out how to use water pressure differences to battle their enemies....spooky.

Re:Titanic Struggle

[m50d]

"Did NOT know who he was fucking with"

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Frenchy_2001]

By all accounts they are extremely aggresive, suggesting they don't see themselves as prey and know no predators.

If you read the article, you'd know that the scientists found this giant squid by following some sperm whales (cue the jokes), that actually feed on those creatures. They found some carcasses of squids after the whales left and then started their research near the same place.

So, giant squids DO know predators. The sperm whale is one of them...

Re:Titanic Struggle

[owlstead]

Holy shit, the article has already got the picture inserted in it. Try to get that happening with a commercial encyclopedia :)

Encyclopedia-'r'-us

Re:Titanic Struggle

[Llywelyn]

Anyone, properly trained, can deliver 2/3rds of their body weight in any given direction (more along specific lines).

It takes something like 50 lbs of torque to break someone's neck.

Wait...

[Anonymous Coward]

From the msnbc article:

The Japanese scientists found the squid by following sperm whales, the most effective hunters of giant squid, as they gathered to feed between September and December in the deep waters off the coast of the Ogasawara Islands in the North Pacific.

Wait... Whale spermatozoides hunt and feed on giant squids? Holy shiznit!!

Tentacle?

[tedrlord]

So, wait. These scientists worked so long to track down and photograph this rare creature in its natural habitat, then tore off one of its tentacles before it could get away? That can't end well for the creature.

Re:Tentacle?

[KajiCo]

I always thought Squid, like most other invertebrae, could regenerate missing limbs.

Re:Tentacle?

[damiam]

The squid tore off its own tentacle while escaping. If it comes off that easily, it can probably grow back.

Re:Tentacle?

[Mateito]

All Japanese seafood research involves a hook. This is just an exension of their use of whales for scienfic purposes. mmmm... scientific purposes in garlic butter.

Re:Tentacle?

[Peyna]

If it comes off that easily

If you call four hours of fighting "that easily," then maybe.

Re:Tentacle?

[rhodes777]

Yes, I can't understand why humans always have to hurt everything. From the sound of the article, it doesn't seem like they learned anything much more than "it is big" and "it moves fast" and "its suckers aren't as strong as expected when you cut its leg off". What was the point? Did they have to hook it?

It was all a publicity stunt if you ask me. They didn't learn squat. They just wanted to make headlines. And in the process they ripped off one of its legs. I hope they burn in hell. Motherfuckers.

Re:Tentacle?

[mjtg]

I agree. Poor creature, I hope its not in too much pain and can survive and regenerate its tentacle. Bastard arsehole scientists.

Re:Tentacle?

[m000]

"They can regenerate lost arms and tentacles."
http://www.szgdocent.org/resource/ff/f-reef5b.htm

Re:Tentacle?

[GecKo213]

P.E.T.A. is going to have a Hay Day with this! Bastard Extremists!

Re:Tentacle?

[bleckywelcky]

That would be a "Hey Day" thankyouverymuch.

Re:Tentacle?

[GecKo213]

"Hay" for animals... to make them fat and ready to eat!

P.E.T.A. People Eat Tasty Animals >:)
P.E.T.A. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. >

Re:Tentacle?

[cephyn]

mmmm...scientific porpoises in garlic butter....

IT'S A TRAP!

[SoundGuyNoise]

That's what Calimari say when they get caught like that.

Re:IT'S A TRAP!

[KylePflug]

+5 Funny for the intent,
-4 for the execution.

Re:OH, You Are Sooooo Wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Barbara happens to be one of the largest contributors to the ISTGSF, or, International Save The Giant Squid Fund.

This is rad and very. on. topic.

re: Giant Squid Caught on Film

[surrenderMonkey]

I, for one, welcome our new giant squid overlords.

Thats not nice

[wasteg8]

..you could have just called him a big fat navy sailor instead :)

Well if it becomes a threat

[Solr_Flare]

We can just send in a squad of Toxic Dart Dolphins.

Re:Well if it becomes a threat

[blackwing0013]

We can just send in a squad of Toxic Dart Dolphins.

Hey, there's a game something like that but the Dolphins are using sonic disuptors instead of darts. It's Red Alert 2.

Re:Well if it becomes a threat

[BrynM]

We can just send in a squad of Toxic Dart Dolphins.

I can see the posturing now...

Invertibrates like these, and their cartelage allies, constitute an octopus of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. Either you're with above the surface or against us; and any species that thwarts our ability to rout invertabrates out where they exist will be held to account, one way or the other.

404

[wetdirtmud]

[insert clever joke about Japanese people and Sushi]

What do they look like? Duh...

[NewsWatcher]

"Nobody knew what they looked like in the wild."

Well, at a guess, just like a normal squid, only bigger.

Thank god the hunt is over. That was obviously worth the effort.

Re:What do they look like? Duh...

[mcclungsr]

Sarcasm detector explodes.

last one :(

[nbkolchin]

I think this was the last giant squid in the ocean. Poor thing.

Re:squid pic OT

[bigenchilada]

And the banner ad that appears on msnbc with the squid image asks:
"I thought the redness, bumps and genital irritation were from shaving. But now I'm not so sure...."

hentai fans know the truth...

Too bad

[93 Escort Wagon]

Am I the only one who finds it a bit sad that this poor creature got entangled with the bait, and was only able to get away (after several hours) by ripping off a tentacle?

Re:Too bad

[seanadams.com]

Am I the only one who finds it a bit sad that this poor creature got entangled with the bait, and was only able to get away (after several hours) by ripping off a tentacle?

Yes.

WRT to the tentacle, the rest of us are thinking: deep fry, or sashimi?

Re:Too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup.

This is /. Any empathy has been burned away by either Korporate greed or flame wars.

Re:Too bad

[Otter]

The NYT article makes it sound like the squid got accidentally entangled, but if you look at the diagram on the National Geogrpahic site, the scientists deliberately snagged it. The baits were rigged with what seem to be scaled-up versions of squid jigs.

Re:Too bad

[gnunick]

Am I the only one who finds it a bit sad that this poor creature got entangled with the bait, and was only able to get away (after several hours) by ripping off a tentacle?

No, you're not the only one. Cephalopods are very interesting and possibly intelligent creatures, and this giant squid amputee certainly has a bigger brain than any of the posters who offhandedly dismiss your empathy (not withstanding the brain matter that has been lost along with its limb--squids' brains extend into their "arms").

Whether or not it would be capable of creating more cogent responses to your post than them is still open to debate.

Googling for "squid intelligence" led me to this very interesting, if inconclusive article. Unfortunately I couldn't find the article posted on any "reputable" online news source... I'm afraid it's probably plagiarized from some print publication. But here's the link:

http://members.fortunecity.com/templarseries/cephp od.html

You can surely find out far more about cephalopods if you are interested... including those articles I've read before which suggest their intelligence rivals those of dogs. And yes, I do feel some empathy when I see a three-legged dog.

Re:Too bad

[RabidMutantStargoat]

Totally agree; headline should be:

Japanese 'scientists' torture animal for 4 hours.

I'd love to read the ethics committee application for this 'experiment'! How do you justify this kind of thing for a few photgraphs (oh, and the honour of getting the first video).

What do you call a female octopus?

[Anonymous Coward]

Octopussy.

Jules Verne?

[aussie_a]

I think almost every geek's heart must skip a beat when they hear about giant squids (think "Jules Verne").

I never knew Jules Verne included tentactle rape in his stories.

How do we know they're Giant Squid?

[winkydink]

The Japanese long ago mastered the art of making small animals look very big. So big they could destroy entire cities.

Pictures here!

[Glowing Fish]

In case the pictures are slashdotted, here is one:

Giant Squid Thing!

Arrrrrr

[TeamAwsom]

Imagine how much gold be thar bellies mateys!

I sware I got nuthin against em! I mean em no harm

Yearrrr

Re:Arrrrrr

[Frogbert]

Dude we had that that day weeks ago.. let it go steve.

Re:Arrrrrr

[TeamAwsom]

Yes and we have had simpsons quotes every day for many many years. Whats your point?

where???

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is the frikin' film?

tracking device

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't they put a tracking device on it and have it lead us to its buddies. Like Darth Vader did with the millenium falcon.

Now that you mention sperm whales..

[Spy der Mann]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_Whale

There was an episode on Discovery's Animal Face-off about a Giant Squid versus a Sperm Whale: The winner was the sperm whale, which stunned the squid with its sonic emitter, and then ate it whole. Of course, before this, the whale had to swim at a very high speed to get rid of the squid's clawed tentacles (this is why some sperm whales have scars on their heads, because you can't just take off a squid's tentacle, you have to rip it off - ouch).

It was an exciting and interesting episode :)

Re:Now that you mention sperm whales..

[khellendros1984]

....and apparently pretty inaccurate....since when are a squid's tentacles clawed??

Re:Now that you mention sperm whales..

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe the show pits a COLOSSAL squid vs the whale. Colossal squids have clawed tentacles.

Re:Now that you mention sperm whales..

[scheme]

There was an episode on Discovery's Animal Face-off [discovery.com] about a Giant Squid versus a Sperm Whale: The winner was the sperm whale, which stunned the squid with its sonic emitter, and then ate it whole.

Given the sperm whale weighs 30-50 tons and the squid weighs a few thousand pounds, I think it's pretty much foregone that the squid loses since it's not poisonous.

Re:Now that you mention sperm whales..

[Owndapan]

Speaking of Wikipedia, you gotta love it! Updated already with the latest squid pics and info. Take that hard-copy encyclopaedias! :)

Re:Now that you mention sperm whales..

[LarsWestergren]

I really can't believe people watch that trash. All these resources, they could have made some GREAT nature shows (or some great tech shows), and instead they had to make it into a fucking pro-wrestling show for the drooling masses. "These are the weapons and armour of contestant one..."

Hey, I have an idea, for next season maybe they can add some CGI of the animals talking trash at each other and screaming threats before the face-off. That would be awesome!

Re:Now that you mention sperm whales..

[vain gloria]

Speaking of Wikipedia, you gotta love it! Updated already with the latest squid pics and info.

Not anymore!

</satire>

mmmmm ... rubber (yuck!)

[SpeedyGonz]

An animal that size, living so deep in the ocean, must have tough-as-fiberglass meat.

Expect to be beating the meat night and day for a week, with a sledgehammer, to ready it before cooking :)

Re:mmmmm ... rubber (yuck!)

[jcorno]

It's not the texture you have to worry about. They taste like ammonia. Apparently it's necessary because they don't have a swim bladder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_squid

Re:mmmmm ... rubber (yuck!)

[Detritus]

Not to mention that they are full of ammonium chloride, not sodium chloride.

Re:mmmmm ... rubber (yuck!)

[Anonymous Coward]

Expect to be beating the meat night and day for a week, with a sledgehammer, to ready it before cooking

I'm not sure what prolonged violent masturbation has to with cooking, but what the hey...

It goes without saying

[TeamAwsom]

.. that documentary whores would absolutely love for the squid to be depicted as a hostile creature. I'd say the floodgates are officially open. Coming soon: Giant Squid week! (can't forget the obviousness of hollywood revisiting this now. I suppose if they have another shark movie ready to go they could just do a search and replace in the script and change shark to giant squid.. presto!).

Amazing....

[Lord_Dweomer]

Isn't it one of the signs of the coming Apocolypse that not one Overlords joke has been modded up in this story yet?

Re:Amazing....

[slideroll]

Oh, there is one... there is one... I think it's a bot.

Re:Amazing....

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it one of the signs of the coming Apocolypse that not one Overlords joke has been modded up in this story yet?

But there is a +5 twist on InSovietRussia. That, and your reassuring mis-spell of apocalypse, lead me to believe that we are not on the verge of doom. Indeed, I'd go so far as to say I, for one, welcome the lack of Overlords jokes

Re:Amazing....

[Anonymous Coward]

"I say if it's funny the first time, it's funny every time."

Amazing, and IE sucks.

[Brantano]

Thats completly amazing, however it required me to use satan to watch it. Which..the first time i tried, caused the browser to crash...Then i must suffer through a 1-2minute advertisement of some crap before i get to see the what..10 second clip of the giant squid? I hate you microsoft -_-

Why photographs?

[Kerhop]

They knew what they were looking for and video captured at even one frame per second provides more valuable information than still photographs. It seems a trigger system of some sort could have been used to tell it to start filming if the bait actively thrashes about (i.e. attacked by something, maybe a squid, maybe not). Maybe a bit off topic, but why isn't the same done with space craft especially with the storage space of hard drives and memory as a buffer. Sure it might take awhile to download the data to a computer but video is so much better.

I can't believe no one has yet said

[Junior J. Junior III]

It's a TRAP!

Re:I can't believe no one has yet said

[slideroll]

An admirable joke...

Re:I can't believe no one has yet said

[Anonymous Coward]

Ack! Bah.

That wasn't a giant squid...

[Stu L Tissimus]

It was Cthulhu's head!

WOW.

[game kid]

Not much more than I expected...but WOW. I wonder, though, if the tentacle break was an evolutionary trait to survive entanglement, or simply a fragile body part yanked off by the force of the line or something.

If someone/something mods parent down, I'll kill 'em.

Re:WOW.

[0rionx]

I've seen documentary videos showing how octopus's limbs often detach if they get caught by a larger predator...a moray eel or somesuch. I'd imagine the giant squid would be much the same, though I can't imagine there's too many predators that want to tangle with a 40 foot long tentacle monster.

I suppose in that sense it's a similar survival mechanism that of lizards, where if you try to catch 'em by the tail it just detaches and they scamper away without it.

Re:WOW.

[Ironsides]

though I can't imagine there's too many predators that want to tangle with a 40 foot long tentacle monster.

It only takes one, and the squid is dead. That one happens to be sperm whales, maybe other giant squid as well. Possibly even some other large predators we have never found as of yet (or think are extinct).

Re:WOW.

[Hafren]

Like glowing prehistoric sharks or giant eels?

Re:WOW.

[Bertie]

Sperm whales can't get enough of them, apparently. I once saw some utterly incredible TV footage where they'd stuck a camera to the back of a sperm whale in the hope of seeing a giant squid when it went hunting. The camera was designed to pop off once it reached a certain depth so that they could recover it. They didn't find any squid, but the whale behaviour was amazing. There was a whale on either side of the one carrying the camera as they went diving down, and all the way they were chattering away to each other. At one point, they stopped (the depth was displayed in the corner of the screen), had a bit of a discussion, then the whale on the right swam right up to the camera and the screen was filled with whale eye. A few seconds of staring later, they had another chat among themselves and carried on. It seemed pretty obvious to me that the camera-carrier had said "hey, there's something stuck to my back, would you check it out?" and the other whale had a look, said words to the effect of "move on, nothing to see here" and off they went...

Re:WOW.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's also the Colossal Squid which is even bigger than the Giant Squid, and apparently one scary ass SOB. Here's a BBC article. An some more coverage here.

It's rare and only 6 captures are known, all of which were dead.

Re:WOW.

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw that too and interpreted it like you say, but they actually knocked the camera off and it floated back to the surface. Think that documentary also had the incredibly serene footage of some whales sleeping in a group, they sleep upright/vertical.

Re:WOW.

[mctaylor82]

Any idea what the documentary was called and/or who made it? Netflix carries some of that stuff and I'd like to take a peek....

Re:WOW.

[Anonymous Coward]

I could be wrong but I think it was a doco regarding 'CritterCam' in general which included sections on various implementations of CritterCam (including the sperm whale one). From memory it was on either Discovery Channel or National Geographic so that might help you narrow it down.

Like I say though, I could be wrong. :)

Re:WOW.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wasn't wrong (or at least most of it was right!)

The footage is CritterCam footage and was taken by National Geographic. I still couldn't tell you the name of the documentary but the specifics of the expedition were;

Location: Sao Miguel and Pico Islands, Azores
Target: Sperm Whale

Collaborator with National Geographic: Clyde Roper, Smithsonian Institution; Malcolm Clarke, Royal Society; Kurt Fristrup, Cornell University

Years: 1996, 1997

Research question: What is diving behavior of sperm whales?

Deployment methods: Suction cup or buoyant system tethered to whale via monofilament

Number of deployments: 12

Results: Recorded rubbing and vocalizing between whales at depth. Recorded dolphins near surface and whale feeding event that may be evidence of whales stunning prey through use of acoustics. This needs additional verification through more deployments.

Should help you track it down :)

Re:WOW.

[Anonymous Coward]

Likely to be this: "On The Edge: Sea Monsters: Search for the Giant Squid". Credits are here: National Geographic Channel website.

Re:WOW.

[Tom Courtenay]

Yes! I've seen this too.

There is a spectacular scene where the whale is rapidly descending to a depth I can't remember. It passes through dirty water and eventually emerges among seven or eight whales sleeping in a group....it looked like Stonehenge. Absolutely beautiful.

Re:WOW.

[Bertie]

That seems likely to me. This show also had a sequence showing a diver in a shark cage getting attacked by a big squid (not a 40-foot giant, it was probably the size of the man or a bit bigger). It squeezed through the horizontal gap in the cage which they would normally dangle the shark bait through, came in and bit a lump out of the guy, who unsurprisingly was absolutely shitting himself. seem to remember it leaving a perfectly circular hole in his wetsuit.

Re:WOW.

[Nintendork]

Thanks to the link posted by someone else and some creative Google seaching, here's a link to purchase the video. It even mentions the scene with the camera mounted on the whale.

pressure

[Vexar]

I refuse to believe it is impossible to recreate deep water pressure in an aquarium. It might not be a fun aquarium, with little windows instead of immense, seamless sheets of acrylic or glass, but it could be built. The forces that go against submarines are the same in either direction, so at the very least, they could put a giant squid inside a submarine.

Re:pressure

[cornface]

so at the very least, they could put a giant squid inside a submarine.

He could wear a little captain's hat and pretend to steer.

Re:pressure

[Furmy]

You owe me a keyboard too.

Re:pressure

[imsabbel]

ok, lets take your example:

Submarines. You can build submarines capable of diving very deep. But those things are
a) made from steel (many times stronger than _any_ glass
b) self supporting (try cracking an egg by pressing on it from the outside, compare to pressure by chicken form inside)
c) go nowhere near "deep water" besides very small ones (which would be a unsuitable size for an aquarium).

Just imagine: a 1000m deep sea aquarium would have a pressure of 1000 metric tons per m^2 on every surface. Thats a stack of 15 fully supplied M1 tanks.
And it scales _baddly_. if you have a cube, and double the side length, you get square the surface, and thus square the force pushing on one side. But the line of material holding the the face in at the edge is only doubling, so you have to double glass thickness, too...

With those forces, you may build a pressure chamber (i.e. massivly externally supported structure with small volume) from glass (although i dont think it will work well), but an aquarium needs support (air/heating/cleaning), and any of those breaks would make the whole thing instable (remember, glass likes to crack).

Re:pressure

[elgatozorbas]

The forces that go against submarines are the same in either direction, so at the very least, they could put a giant squid inside a submarine.

Note that submarines can resist a high outside pressure. There is no reason to assume they can also resist a strong inner pressure. I can imagine the doors open to the outside etc...

Re:pressure

[FuturePastNow]

Sounds like we need some transparent aluminum. I heard there's this company in San Francisco....

Re:pressure

[Anonymous Coward]

OR they could put a giant squis in space.

All you need is:

GIANT SQUID + skin tight body suit + nonvolatile fluid + bubble helmet + Air supply + radiation shielding + rigid structure to allow bretahing + isulation and heating

And the most dificult thing to get is the squid.

Re:pressure

[Noaccess0]

Transparent Aluminum Anyone? I saw how the molecules link in Star Trek IV. We just need to find that company in San Francisco.

Re:pressure

[copec]

Yarrrrr, he be drivin me nuts.

Re:pressure

[Anonymous Coward]

Hydrostatic pressure is only dependent on the depth, not the surface area. A lake 1000 feet deep has the same pressure as the Pacific Ocean.

Re:pressure

[Vexar]

Okay, heating? Air? I thought it was an aquarium supposedly resembling the cold, dark bottom of the sea? And I did mention tiny windows on the submarine, didn't I? And, you could put the aquarium underwater to reduce the pressure differential, like a real submarine, and then to view the deep sea creature, you could sit in a slightly immersed submarine ride.

That way, it would be entertaining and handle pressure leaks by repressurizing the squid tank constantly. You have to think Disneyland rides, or this whole thing won't come off right. I like the hat idea, works with kids!

Besides, New Zealand Biologist Steve O'Shea captured 17 juveniles and tried to raise them, so naturally someone has put a little thought into this already. I think I'll give him a call.

Re: Giant Squid Caught on Film

[superyooser]

What about our COLOSSAL squid overlords?

See scary pictures. (I had no idea there was an Octopus News Magazine.)

Octopus attacking shark and other videos

[brit74]

Quite a few people have commented on octopus being predators. Here's a video of an octopus attacking a shark:

(Sorry, realplayer only.)
(Low Bandwidth)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/octopus/media_playe rs_blue/shark_lo.html
(High Bandwidth)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/octopus/media_playe rs_blue/shark_hi.html

WMV of an octopus blending in with its surroundings (which is pretty amazing to watch). http://www.big-boys.com/articles/octopus1.html

Re:Octopus attacking shark and other videos

[Anonymous Coward]

but then you'd get squids with frikkin lasers!

Obligatory Family Guy quote...

[Viper233]

in regards to the lump found on Peter's breast, goes something like this
Peter: "...now the best thing to do is to go on living life like it doesn't exist just like the giant squid."

hmmm... what squid? :)

One Word....

[EtherealStrife]

Enterprise

Re:One Word....

[hesiod]

Enterprise? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the TV show, but I must admit ignorance. Could you please clarify a bit for an uninformed reader? Is it a reference to a particular episode? Or are you saying a business (AKA enterpries) could arise from this?

(incorrectly assuming so) Yeah, it could, but I don't think most people would be impressed enough to make it a profitable venture.

Re:One Word....

[FLEB]

Rent a car.
Put giant squid in car.
Hilarity, yes, but also loss of deposit.

Not toxic dart guns

[grahamsz]

Fricking lasers

they have already been known to exist

[MC68000]

It is already relatively common knowledge that giant squid exist. Dead ones have been found several times. These are just the first live pictures.

Only one problem.

[jd]

Giant squid (and giant octopi) have amonium-based nervous systems. You'd need to find a good way to prepare it.

Date issues?

[Mechcozmo]

What took them so friggin' long?

"The photo sequence, taken off Japan's Ogasawara Islands in September 2004, shows the squid homing in on the baited line and enveloping it in "a ball of tentacles.""

The DNA testing to make sure it was a real giant squid or what?

alrighty then...

[nighthawk127127]

here goes: Did you hear about the new sushi bar that caters exclusively to Japanese lawyers? It's called "Sosumi."

Watch out!

[Chris Brewer]

It's a trap!

Did you actually see the page in IE?

[njchick]

How did you like the video? Can you tell us more about what you've seen, so that we, strange users who don't run IE "for silly and pointless reasons" are persuaded to install and use it?

Re:Amazing.... Overlord Championships!

[Ranger]

Isn't it one of the signs of the coming Apocolypse that not one Overlords joke has been modded up in this story yet?

It's worse than that. I was just complaining about having to welcome yet another overlord when they announced acetylene based life on Titan. Now we add the Giant Squid Overlords and the Poison Dart Dolphin Overlords into the mix. The field is just getting too crowded. Maybe the guy who replied to my comment is right. It's about having the Overlord Championships and the toy tie ins. He was right. It's all about the children.

Get ready to RUMM-BOLLL!!!! I for one welcome the Overlord Championships. It is the only civilized way to find out who to be subservient and obsequious to.

did you know...

[Kadmos]

Given the ability of squid to join together with other "squids" the potential for the size of these groups (or "caches" as I prefer to call them) of squid is almost limitless! For maximum effeciancy in these groups the squid talk to each other and help each other out. The communication between each squid relies primarily on each squids role in the "cache" and can be anything from a "parent" or "child" squid to "siblings" (please note these relationships no not denote the lineage of family groups, but simply the authoritive role each squid plays). From what I have seen you could be quite close to one of these "caches" right now and not even be aware of it!

Re:did you know...

[suwain_2]

Unfortunately, it seems that went flying over the heads of most mods, as this is modded Insightful.

Now I see what the OP meant about very few people having seen squid.

It would be tough but possible.

[jd]

One of the problems with any of the species of giant squid (there are two that are known of) is that they absolutely require a very high pressure to survive. This makes recovery of a live one very difficult. But it could be done.

Start off with a hollow tube. I would suggest a tube about 60' in length (giant squid grow up to 40', and you have to allow time for this to work) and about 10' in diameter. Possibly a bit more. The tube walls need to be somewhere between 10'-20' in thickness and be good-quality steel. Each end needs to have a door that can close and be 100% watertight. Both the door and locking mechanism have to survive pressures of around 400 atmospheres or more. There needs to be a motion detector at each end. If either motion detector registers sustained motion for more than some given length of time, both doors shut the moment motion is no longer detected. (ie: whatever is moving is now fully inside.) You also need to set it that once the doors close, bags on either side are forcibly inflated, so the tube rises to the surface. Once it hits the surface, a radio signals where the tube is.

It's a simple system, the pressure is constant on the inside (so the squid won't be affected) and you could scatter any number of these at the required depth. You then just sit back and wait. Eventually, a squid will be caught. You then tow the tube to the aquarium and lower it into a tank. You then pressurise the tank to 400 atmospheres and open the tube.

(Pressure increases by 1 atmosphere about every 25 feet, so the pressures at 10,000 feet - where Giant Squid roam - will be 400 atmospheres. In practice it may be a little more or a little less, but if you aim for the theoretical pressure, the squid should do just fine.)

This would be implementable by any aquarium (with money) right now. They could have a giant squid within a few months at most, if the tube is baited the way the hooks by these researchers were. There are a few difficulties, though. You'd need 300' thick windows to withstand the pressure. Yes, that's feet. The second problem is that it would be almost impossible to put food into the tank. The third problem is that it would cost a LOT of money to build even one tube, and you'd likely lose most of those you drop into the ocean.

(I'm ignoring the practical difficulties in building a containment system large enough for the squid not to be injured by a high speed impact against the doors when they close, or by impact with the side walls when it tries to turn around.)

Obligitory Simpsons Reference ...

[bizitch]

"Arr, squiddy, I got nothin' against ya. I just heard there was gold in yer belly. Ha ha Harr, Harr Harr."

Kraken

[Ironsides]

I'm reminded of the old "tales" that seamen told when they came back from sea. Circa ~1400s, give or take a few centuries. There was a giant seamonst that looked a lot like a giant squid, except it had a beak below the eyes on the outside of it's head. Well, giant squid have a beak, it's just betweent he tentacles instead. Here's a picture of a Kraken. Look familiar?

Re:Kraken

[Anonymous Coward]

Must resist urge... ...hehe seamen

Best laugh I've had all day!

[Wabbit Wabbit]

I'd mod you up if I could. And you owe me a coke and a keyboard.

Re:Best laugh I've had all day!

[pi4arctan1guy]

Maybe if you had a good keyboard, you could just rinse it off in the shower.

Who links to the NY Times?

[hshana]

Cmon, do you really read that paper? This story is available from so many other places... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050928/ap_on_sc/japan _giant_squid

Fucking jocks

[Anonymous Coward]

A bag of mashed shrimps acted as an odor lure.

Always picking on the short kids.

Is anyone going to use the adjective "Cthulhoid?"

[Errandboy of Doom]

Man, judging from those pictures, those giant squids must be 20,000 leagues long!

This one is my favorite. The only thing more satisfying to my aquatic geekiness than a giant squid is a giant squid fighting a giant sperm whale.

Oh come on, you know you've run that fight in d20, or will soon.

Cthulu 1, God 0

[Nailer]

Let's see pics of your figure of worship

An even bigger species than the Giant Squid...

[DesScorp]

...is the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni. Where giant squid are thought to get up to 60 ft long, no one knows just how large the CS can get. Remains of the two species have been compared, and the CS is bigger in just about everything, including the beak. They live only in Antarctic waters (that we know), and the remains of one washed up in the Ross Sea in 2003.

size matters

[Anonymous Coward]

It was "only" 26 feet long (a little more than 8m) which is big enough for me.

26 feet should be big enough for everybody

Ummm, no, not EVERY time...

[DesScorp]

...according to this:

In 1965, a Soviet whaler watched a battle between a squid and a 40 ton sperm whale. In this case neither were victorious. The strangled whale was found floating in the sea with the squid's tentacles wrapped around the whale's throat. The squid's severed head was found in the whale's stomach.

Re:Ummm, no, not EVERY time...

[Keebler71]

I'm trying to picture where a whale's neck is...

Re:Ummm, no, not EVERY time...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ask your wife.

Re:Ummm, no, not EVERY time...

[Rogerborg]

Yarr, that be a likely tale. Do you know how much pressure a sperm whale endures during a dive? Try reproducing that around the circumference of a whale using the few dozens of pounds of muscle in the squid's long tentacles. And a squid's 'head' is the majority of its body. Cephalo-pod. What were the tentacles anchored to if the 'head' had been eaten?

All of the tales of squid attacking whales are based on a very few unsubstantiated and highly colourful accounts that fail in every detail. A giant squid's mass is somewhere in the region of 1% of that of a mid-sized whale. That's like a (small) domestic ferret preying on adult humans.

Re:Ummm, no, not EVERY time...

[JWhiton]

Well, that's silly. It's between his shoulders and his head!

correct, as seen on tv

[psyclone]

There was a good Futurama episode (season four I think) where the ship went down to the bottom of an ocean. And since it was built for space, it could not withstand the pressure at depth. Seems they had no pressure problems after returning to the surface though.

Re:correct, as seen on tv

[mrchaotica]

Oddly enough, that particular episode is on Adult Swim tonight! Any science in Futurama is dubious, though -- they also visited the lost city of Atlanta, and took big pressure-counteracting suppositories.

Re:correct, as seen on tv

[FuturePastNow]

Paraphrasing, if you want accuracy look it up:

"How many atmospheres of pressure can the ship take?"

"Oh, it's a space ship, so I'd say anywhere between zero and one."

zeuglodons

[Anonymous Coward]

my best SWAG on various deep water lake "monsters".

Never - but there may be a better way

[Julian Morrison]

They'll never put one in an aquarium. It's just impossible in any current or near-future tech. You'd need a pressurized, chilled, darkened tank capable of simulating huge range by moving the water. And then, nobody could look in, because human light levels would blind this beastie like you or I standing right next to a stadium-sized floodlamp.

A better solution by far would be to build some sort of long-running underwater cam with the speed and agility to keep pace with a sprinting squid, and a satellite radio link to relay back live video. The "zoo" can display this footage in lieu of a tank. Not that this wouldn't be a daunting technical task in itself, but to me it would seem to make more sense. The sea's there already, why bother to simulate it up on land? That's just redundant.

In fact, the whole "aquarium" could be that way. What's more interesting - a couple hundred tons of water full of bored fish out of their ecological context, or a bunch of live screens following real sea-creatures going about their natural daily lives?

Breathtaking obsequiousness

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm very impressed that in your earlier complaint you were already welcoming Giant Squid Overlords, fully four days before this article appeared. Precognition or preferential access for a four-digit-UID? Don't disappoint me by telling me the current article is a dupe.

I haven't seen so many parenthesis...

[bennomatic]

...since they tried to force SCHEME (Berkeley LISP (in case you didn't know (OK, I'll stop now))) down my throat back at UCB in the early nineties! CAR! CDR! ACK! STOP!!!

so where's the film?

[krunk4ever]

or are they not planning to make that public?

wait - when did this happen?

[the_wesman]

am I the only one who read in the article that this thing was seen in september of 2004? why is this news a year later? was the boat really slow?

and the squids friend was overheard to say..

[kn0tw0rk]

Dont go Jello-mee, it's a trap!!

*apologies to those who liked Watership Down* :)

Are they real Japanese researchers?

[Anonymous Coward]

or are they "Japanese researchers" wink, wink, nod, nod, aka illegal whale/fisherman.

Enterprise as a Fish Tank

[Somegeek]

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092007/

They basically used the Enterprise a fish tank to carry some whales back to the future. Well Scotty did some stuff with transparent aluminum, but..., geeze, and I'm not even a real Trekkie.

Re:Enterprise as a Fish Tank

[pe1rxq]

Actually the Enterprise was blow to pieces in ST-III...
It was a Klingon bird of prey.

Re:Enterprise as a Fish Tank

[EtherealStrife]

sorry, should've said *the crew of* the enterprise. :)

Think Jules Verne?

[batlock666]

More like, "Think Cthulhu!"

uhh yes we are researchers

[cwraig]

what do you mean whalers? where only catching these exotic creatures for "research" purposes...i promise...

The Video is Fake!

[sarge apone]

C'mon! It's from Japan. They used toy boats to make the squid look bigger. And you can see the strings....

Re:The Video is Fake!

[b17bmbr]

and if you look closely enough, you can see godzilla swimming by.

I grew up on Model M's

[Wabbit Wabbit]

Cut my teeth on those things! Best.Keyboard.Evar. (Don't tell anyone, I even still have an IBM Selectric II typewriter. I LOVE THAT THING)

Unfortunately, the mushy excuse for an input device I'm using right now is integrated directly into my PowerBook. I remember a while back (i.e., 7 years ago) someone showed how to modify a resistor or something in the Model M to make it work with some new-at-the-time finicky motherboards (Asus, I believe?) but that was still via a KBD to PS/2 mini adapter.

*runs off to see if anyone's made a USB conversion kit for the model m that'll work with an Apple PowerBook*

Re:I grew up on Model M's

[bobbozzo]

http://pckeyboard.com/ has Lexmark (IBM) keyboards. Dunno if they're better with USB adapters or not.

Re:I grew up on Model M's

[i wanted another nam]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16812149113

But what about colossal squids?

[estivate]

Giant squids, been there, done that. Colossal squids, now that's another matter.

Pictures more than a year old!

[crusty_architect]

Has anyone noticed that the Nat Geo article states that the pictures were actually taken in September 2004???

Pictures

[t_allardyce]

Yes, really that's good for them. However, similar to many of the dozen articles i see links to every day with captions suggesting that there's an amazing picture of something to be found; upon viewing the article I am left asking the question: WHERE ARE THE FUCKING PICTURES?! Perhaps someone could fill me in on why so many online news articles are lacking pictures when the entire story is useless without them?

Feature request

[nihilogos]

Taco, Cowboy Neal et al.

Can you guys start recording what browser/platform the user who submitted a comment was on? And then give us an option to ignore all comments from Windows / Mac / IE users. Because they never have anything interesting to say.

Oblig Jaws quote

[Use Psychology]

We're gonna need a bigger boat

Pics here

[hrstrand]

http://ekstrabladet.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=3134 71

they actually cut of a tentacle ( last pic )

Cthulhu?

[Joel Rowbottom]

I think it was probably Cthulhu attacking the whale. Elder gods get really pissed off when they're awoken from their slumber.

The BBC article on the subject has photos...

[cbirkett]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4288772. stm

you wont get cold... silly, just hot.

[cheekyboy]

In cold space, there is barely any molocules to STEAL the heat from you.

So how are you going to get cold? you wont.

You actually will get HOTTER, because of the HEAT from the sun. You need to cool down, something to
take the heat (kinetic energy) away, and there isnt enough medium to do that. Thats why in cold antarctica you
get cold, because there is a LOT OF AIR that steals your heat. In space, what little atoms there are, - are not enough
to take the heat out. We have had this posting before, a human can survive in space because their skin is strong enough
to keep the inside preasure (just dont have cuts on you). Your eyeballs wont blow up though they
might dry up real real fast - so goggles will be usefull. Dont open your mouth either.

The bright side of you wont heat up that fast, it would be the same as you being on the beach or high altitude skiing. There is a maximum level of heat energy per second delivered, its not like your are at mercuries distance. As I said before , you will
get hot because you wont loose heat thats why you get HOT. Even if you rotate slowly to even out exposure. So ironically, space may be -270c, but you will get damn hot because of the suns photons, so you need to cool yourself somehow using liquid nitro or something. Sure if you stayed in the dark you would slowly cool down, but not over 5minutes.

I mean people dont blow up on mount everest do they, and thats pretty damn low PSI. Your inside PSI isnt that high either, not strong enough to burst you.

Re:you wont get cold... silly, just hot.

[Dr. Evil]

You'd lose heat the same way the sun would provide heat. Through the little known method of heat transfer called "radiation"

If you've ever tried to breathe through a garden hose from the bottom of a swimming pool, you'd know what unequalized pressure differences can do to your breathing.

On Everest, you have to acclimatize. The environment up there is survivable. You can't acclimatize to space, and even at Everest presures inside your lungs, your lungs would have a hard time containing your breath from the vacuum of space.

Re:you wont get cold... silly, just hot.

[karnifex]

If you've ever tried to breathe through a garden hose from the bottom of a swimming pool, you'd know what unequalized pressure differences can do to your breathing.

It's settled - I'm hangin' out at YOUR house next summer.

Re:you wont get cold... silly, just hot.

[lav-chan]

If you've ever tried to breathe through a garden hose from the bottom of a swimming pool

lol. Who really does that?

Re:you wont get cold... silly, just hot.

[Dr. Evil]

I think every geek has to have at least tried it once as a kid... then gone to the library to figure out why it didn't work. It's a right-of-passage.

Next you'll tell me that you didn't try the "may explode if heated" direction from the side of a battery.

Re:you wont get cold... silly, just hot.

[cybpunks3]

Open question:

Does this mean you think the scene in 2001 where Dave Bowman blew himself into the airlock was realistic?

Chief Squid?

[entirety]

I for one welcome our new Cephalopod overlords.

I'd like to remind them that as a karmaful slashdot poster I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their deep sea fish farms.

No film, No pictures, no value.

[Blitzenn]

I like reading science fiction too, but that is all this is until there is something more to go along with the pretty words. Why post an acrticle about something being caught on film and then not show the film?

Re:No film, No pictures, no value.

[Junta]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/28/science/28squid. html?8hpib

Trolling?

[Anonymous Coward]

FTA: "The researchers say their photos dispel the notion that it is a sluggish creature that trolls for prey."

Hah!! And you didn't even think we were even capable of posting on /.

--
Anonymous Squid

Re:How long?---IDIOTS--

[MajorDick]

Are you people really slashdotters ?

Not so much at all to the parent poster, but all the absurd children.
Pressure is relative, your lungs dont collapse even at 3k feet while diving , (nor would they at 100k, why ? The pressure is relative , thats why you need to "decompress" when surfacing, think of a pop bottle, its under pressure, do you see bubbles ? not , but off with the top and bam, fizz (and if youre a person a dirt nap)

The problems become gaseous toxicity at depth for land based animals, pure o2 befomens fatal at 1 atmosphere (14.7 psi or 33 ft) Standard air at 297 feet, (or when the partial pressure of o2 reaches 1 Atm)
For marine life there are some that are dependednt on that biological reaction of gases in hyperbaric enviroments

The actual pressure itself has NOTHING to do WHATSO FRICKING Ever on the physical well being of any animal.

And as far as the genius that said you dont even need a space suit, just a mask to cover your mucuous membranes, you sir are a moron. (remeber the pop bottle, be my guest , Walking out an air lock ond you might even POP, dont forget explosive decompression occurs at more than 10k per minute.

I am seriously dismayed at this post for somewhat SUPPOSEDLY technically inclined people, I knew this shit when I was 14, and I was actually NAUI Dive Master certified by 16, but shit this is 9th grade science class.....

TFA, if you don't like bogus registration scams

[Dembonez]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4288772.stm

Nah...

[mindaktiviti]

He'd just befriend them and tell you "it's an animal thing". Then they'd go have squid sex and play D&D after.

Google video has an octopus catching a shark

[jocknerd]

An aquarium kept finding dead sharks in their tank and they set up video to find out what was happening. Turns out the octopus was catching the sharks. See here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-307733038 6558492499&q=octopus+shark

CNN has the video

[libra-dragon]

http://www.cnn.com/

There's the textual article with pictures plus there's a video link off the home page.

Mon Calamari

[Winterblink]

Thought the squid: "It's a trap!"

Re:Mon Calamari

[Gulthek]

Ha! I haven't actually chuckled at a post in a while. Good one :-)

Sorry, no mod points.

what a random discussion

[spanklin]

I know the /. community isn't known for doing things like, say, staying on topic, R'ingTFA, but this is crazy.

in this discussion on an article about giant squid, the comments that stick out are about space suits, Japanese culture and pornography, and grade-school bullying.

anyone care that scientists actually photographed a real, live giant squid?

Re:what a random discussion

[Physics Dude]

You must be new here.

Re:what a random discussion

[spanklin]

not really that new -- this just seemed much more wacky than average. There are usually a few good seeds of info in among the trolls and jokes, but I didn't find any.

Re:what a random discussion

[Dachannien]

When an article says "First Giant Squid Captured On Film", and then there aren't even any pictures in the linked article, I think that level of pointlessness merits a good joke. Or fifty.

But now that the article has been updated with the NG link that actually has a few of the 500 pictures taken of the animal, I do have to say that it's pretty cool.

Giant Squid makes good eats!

[RamonetB]

Yes, I'll have the leg of Architeuthis. And my date will have...?

A salad, please.

Ogasawara Island! That's Frickin' Monster Island!

[saudadelinux]

>> Ogasawara Whale-Watching Association. A little squid is *all* they got on film? What about Godzilla? Ebriah? Booooorrrrinnngggg!

You think this is big?!?!?

[east coast]

You just wait until these "researchers", these so called men of "science", find that the Great Cthulhu is coming. They will feel differently about their "find" I tell you.

Once they see Lord Cthulhu there will be no escape and certainly not meager hook and line will trap Him.

I'a I'a Cthulhu Fthang!

Actually tastes highly ammoniac

[ianscot]

While nobody had filmed one in its habitat, people have actually tried eating pieces of the giant squid caught in deep trawl nets.

The flesh is highly ammoniac. Butter won't cover that.

The feeding was the other way around, though

[ianscot]

The whale breached a couple of times with the giant squid unrelentingly attached, attacking and maybe feeding.

Your dad's first hand story closely resembles those of whalers who saw Physeters with squid in their mouths. Sperm whales dive deep for Architeuthis, and apparently (it's still not clear) stun them with blasts of sound sent through their enormous heads. (Sperm whales with damaged or malformed lower jaws seem to do just fine -- some indication of their hunting technique.)

However, the feeding is clearly the other way around. Giant squid beaks routinely show up in the whales' stomachs. It also bears noting that sperm whales are apparently the largest classic predators ever known on earth -- certainly the largest now unless you count blue whales "preying" through their baleen -- and that they vastly outweigh giant squid. Impressive as it sounds, a 60-foot squid (the longest ever examined was something like 59 feet) is still no match for the whale. Whales eat these things.

(And the lifeboats thing is probably apocryphal. Like any other legendary monster, giant squid have a lot of myths around them. One did bump a racing catamaran a couple of years ago -- during a "Jules Verne" oceanic race, no less -- seemingly accidentally. If it was that easy to find them, though, this story would have happened long since. The only quasi-documented encounter in a row boat that I know of was some Newfoundland fishermen in the late 1800s, IIRC.)

My god, is "incurious" the same as "funny"??

[ianscot]

Thank god the hunt is over. That was obviously worth the effort.

Ho ho. Imagine a 60-foot-long alien intelligence that's been living in the earth's oceans for millennia -- the source of countless myths and legends -- that escaped direct observation by modern science except in the form of dead specimens.

Cephalopods are cool stuff. Their nerve fibers are unbelievably thick -- used for all sorts of medical research, because you can actually see their axons with the naked eye in some species -- and fast. They don't have true brains, just big accretions of these ultra-thick nerve fibers, but they display many of the classic signs of intelligence. For example, octopuses are very adept problem solvers when hunting, and squid of lots of different species are astonishingly good at using changing skin coloration for camoflage and, seemingly, for communication.

Cool animals. Super big example that nobody's been able to find. It's worth being curious -- worth lots more than posing as too cool to be interested...

Re:My god, is "incurious" the same as "funny"??

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I believe he was making the joke specifically regarding "Hmmm. What on EARTH would it look like?"; where it's rather obvious what it will PROBABLY look like. Not that finding an example wasn't cool, just that, hey, we've seen dead samples for a while, we know the smaller relatives etc; so it's not all that surprising what they would most likely look like.

Re:Amazing.... Overlord Championships!

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome the Overlord Championships. It is the only civilized way to find out who to be subservient and obsequious to.

You're French, aren't you?

Did someone say calamari?

[MS-06FZ]

It's a trap! At that close range we won't last long against those Star Destroyers!

Re:Did someone say calamari?

[Bingo Foo]

We'll last longer than we will against that Death Star.

Mmmmm.... calamari

[DaveFromChicago]

Can't wait for McDonalds to start offering Super-Sized calamari rings.

Spacecraft? Duh!

[LouisvilleDebugger]

Dude, giant squids don't live in space.

Architeuthis tentacles aren't "clawed" like others

[ianscot]

Of course, before this, the whale had to swim at a very high speed to get rid of the squid's clawed tentacles (this is why some sperm whales have scars on their heads, because you can't just take off a squid's tentacle, you have to rip it off - ouch).

Giant squid don't have clawed tentacles. "Colossal squid" do, but architeuthis does not, for whatever reasons.

There are some smaller species that have truly badass claws on there. Humboldt squid -- which we have on camera as they become curious about a diver, grab him, and easily pull him down below dive depth before deciding maybe the wetsuit isn't worth fooling with -- are around 6 feet long, big and muscular, and equipped with some very serious hardware nested in the middle of their suckers.

Humboldts are seriously aggressive hunters with those claws. The usual signs of cephalopod intelligence, though:

...From the depths of the sea, several five-foot squid are now hovering around Jacquie flashing colors in what we had learned was pre-attack behavior. I could see her readying herself for the impacts. Then, suddenly, they all retreated with blinding speed, leaving us with only one approaching squid. But this was no ordinary squid.

The largest Humboldt ever filmed was about six feet and weighed nearly 100 pounds. The Humboldt closing in on Jacquie was huge. Truly the giant of the shoal, he was nearly seven feet in length and about three feet across, and must have weighed 150 pounds. He seemed to move slower than the others, but then I realized his size merely made him look slower. He came in to about two feet of Jacquie's lure, then stopped cold. He studied the lure, and then I honestly think he saw the monofilament line because he deliberately raised up along it, right up to Jacquie's eye level. Then, he just hovered there, glaring into her faceplate. He did not flash color or attack, he just sat there for about four seconds and studied her.

I was horrified that this monster was going to attack and kill her. She was so much smaller than this creature that I feared she would have no chance of survival against an all-out attack. So I moved in quickly to help, knowing any second the situation could explode. Amazingly, the enormous squid just hovered there, intensely studying her with no aggressive actions. Then, slowly, without concern for my approach, it flapped its huge fins and glided back down to the black depths of the sea. Much to Jacquie's credit, she filmed the entire event.

http://www.pbs.org/oceanrealm/producers/showscen es3.html

http://diver.net/seahunt/fend/f_scottc.htm

Japanese find giant squid...

[supra]

...sushi all around!

Re:you wont get cold... (What about the bends?)

[ShadowBot]

Someone else in his reply mentioned two risks of a diver coming up too fast. If he holds his breath his lungs pop, and if he exhales he gets the bends.

By extrapolation you should be able to expect BOTH these things to happen in space. No matter how fast you exhale you won't be able to match the pressure of the vacuum so your lungs should pop anyway. And as your inner pressure rapidly drops, nitrogen condenses from your blood, and you get mega-bends.
(AFAIK we still have notrogen in our blood at room pressure, only a lot less than at 100 atmospheres and prolly a lot more than at 0 atmospheres)

Fine, Mr. boring science.

[Spy der Mann]

I really can't believe people watch that trash. All these resources, they could have made some GREAT nature shows (or some great tech shows),

*AHEM*... have you wondered where "All these resources" come from?

Answer: The public. I rest my case.

too bad or too late?

[celtic_hackr]

I wouldn't get terribly upset here.
While it was certainly not the most intelligent way of capturing some pictures of giant squid in the wild. Since the meat is too tough in the large squid species to be edible by most standards, hence the lost squid tentacle is just a loss to both the squid and the gourmet.
However, have some cheer, squid are known to be able to regrow tentacles. Since this squid seems capable of divesting itself of a tentacle to escape it shows promise that it can regrow it.
However, I would hardly now classify this squid as "healthy". It was "healthy", now it may face some challenges until, and if, it regrows a 6 meter length of tentacle. How long does it take to regrow an appendage of roughly 19 feet? How large are newborn giant squid? Until we know these answers, it probably doesn't take much analysis to conclude that intentionally hurting a giant squid for research purposes isn't very intelligent or responsible.

I give these guys the Homer Simpson Research Award.

Quick, someone yank their diplomas (and reproductive organs), before they spawn! Oh, God tell us we aren't too late!

Article is incorrect

[Rogerborg]

The camera was digital; no film was involved.

Why not. .

[wwood_98]

Well, for one welcome our new invertebrate overlords. . .

Ooops, Sorry!

[JimTheta]

"It is also possible that the sperm packages had come from other males that they had 'bumped' into, in the dark depths of the ocean. However, the sperm packages ended up in the squid - it is just another part of the mysterious lives of these creatures of the deep sea."

Ooops, sorry! Didn't realize you were a dude!

Link with photos!

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

At yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050927/sc_nm/squid_dc Not that exciting, but hey, its giant squid.

Am I really the first to quote SeaLab 2021??

[TheDarkener]

Dr. Quinn: "Captin, this giant squid ain't messin 'round!"

found one!

[Wabbit Wabbit]

In response to all of the above posts, I found one! These guys

http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm/fa/items. main/parentcat/11298/subcatid/0/id/131781

have gen-u-ine original model Ms, as well as a special sort of USB adapter (to address the power draw issues/etc.) that even works with Macs!

Looks like I'm gonna have to get me one.

Pressure does make a difference

[benjcurry]

If you catch a fish from deep water, oftentimes it will have coughed up some of its internal organs into its mouth cavity during the ascent.

Possibly some of the movie

[Kawsper]

I found this on a danish website about the giant squid, they are linking to a player i can't use on my linux box. http://www.infocast.dk/eb/mediamaker.php?id=1648

STORY TITLE IS WRONG

[dprovine]

There was no "film"; the researchers used a digital camera.

No problem, Mr. Scott

[Anonymous Coward]

http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/8/8/9

They've had it for a year...

Close but no... well, you know what Freud said.

[A Bengali Menace]

A sexual fetish is not a preference. A fetishist is someone who focuses their sexual arousal on an object rather than their partner. It isn't a subjective measure, as you have suggested.

Looks like Flying Spaghetti Monster

[billstewart]

Squiddy looks a lot like the Flying Spaghetti Monster, as featured in Boing-Boing and elsewhere.