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Octopuses Have No Personalities and Enjoy HDTV

Posted by kdawson on from the or-was-that-redundant dept.

Whiteox writes about an Australian researcher named Renata Pronk, who has discovered that octopuses prefer HDTV. She recruited 32 gloomy octopuses from the waters of Chowder Bay. Previously, researchers have reported little success when showing video to octopuses. Miss Pronk's insight was that the octopus eye is so refined that it might see standard PAL video, at 25 fps, as a series of stills. She tried HDTV (50 fps) and her subjects reacted to the videos of a crab, another octopus, or a swinging bottle on the end of a string. A further discovery is that octopuses show no trait of individual personalities, even though they exhibit a high level of intelligence. It would certainly be possible to quibble about the definition of "personality" employed, and whether Miss Pronk had successfully measured it.

10 of 482 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Error in TFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Offtopic? It's a joke, you moron.

  2. No personality and likes HDTV? by nEoN+nOoDlE · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Sounds like my ex.

    --
    Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
  3. Re:How could they... by Sanat · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I spent three years in Australia back in the 70's and never did learn to enjoy eating Vegemite... it certainly has an acquired taste whether in soup, gravy or on a piece of bread.

    How the kids can devour it is beyond me.

    I do agree that giving Vegemite to an octopus should be against the law.

    --
    And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
  4. Re:Personality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Correct! I just found out about this myself from my girlfriend who happens to be a Linguistics major at UCLA. Mod parent up.

  5. Re:Correlation is not causation by TheThiefMaster · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You didn't get funny, but you did manage to get "+1 Troll". :)

  6. Re:How could they... by jibjibjib · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I accidentally modded you redundant; I'm posting this to undo the moderation.

  7. "I have more lives than I do arms!" by superwendel · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    This lady hasn't played FF6. Ultros has more personality than an annoying uncle.

  8. What about the consequences for Tarvuism? by teleny · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Clearly this is in direct contradiction to the Tarvunty, and should be stopped, lest a holy jihad erupt! tarvuism.org

    --
    teleny, friend of cats.
  9. Dr not Dr. by kramulous · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Sorry to go a little grammer nazi on you, but there is no fullstop after Dr. Since the last letter of word to be abbreviated is the last letter of the abbreviation, the fullstop should not be present.

    Doctor - Dr not Dr.
    Mister - Mr not Mr.

    Sorry about that :)

    --
    .
  10. Re:Sounds like... by mopower70 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Interesting? Seriously mods, Interesting? Possibly a page out of The Onion's version of "Dear Penthouse Forums", but... Interesting? Come on.