Tuesday, October 21, 2008

and then the tide came in

Sleep didn't acknowledge me till 5am last night, and the hours were long and nothing on my iPod was what I wanted to listen to. I suspect that will be making itself felt shortly. At least, I hope so. It'd be nice to sleep at a reasonable (ie, before 3am) hour tonight.

Ah, Melbourne. It's a chilly night, the rain has been lashing against my window, and my fingers are too cold to type properly. A good night for sitting at home with multiple cups of tea and a movie. Or doing tax. Meh.

Before I disappear into that dungeon of bizarre financial questions I do not understand I will share with you some things.

First; the Red Paper Lantern Medusa (for which I can find no wikipedia page).



The above link is to a Pink Tentacle article, which includes a video of raw footage shot by JAMSTEC, starting with a medusa and including a UFO at 6:11 and a poor jelly with its tentacles snared in the sub.

The JAMSTEC videos suggest that a variety of sea creatures regard the red paper lantern medusa as a safe place to establish temporary residence. In the video, the developing larvae of shrimp and sea spiders can be seen hitching extended rides on the jellyfish.

“We didn’t expect to find such a variety of organisms attached to the jellyfish,” said Dr. Dhugal Lindsay. “Humans apparently are not the only ones attracted to red paper lanterns.”


So, apparently hitch-hiking on a jellyfish is the done thing these days.

And at Zooillogix: Piglet Squid. Looong at that picture, I have the irrational urge to squeeze the little tyke till it pops.

ETA: Estimated tax return of $6. It didn't take long though, so I am thankful.

3 comments:

  1. I hope the jelly was able to regenerate its tentacles -- I think it lost a few when it pulled away from the sub.

    Awesome. And the piglet squid is most squeeworthy.

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  2. It looked like it lost all of them, after getting them knotted up. : /

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  3. I checked -- they can regenerate tentacles if they're otherwise healthy. Phew!

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