Nothing humble about these Humboldts

The LA Times has a story about the amazing Humboldt squid. There are tens of millions of them, invading the coast of California and worrying fisheries officials.

I'm with PZ Myers on this one: they're apparently mugging divers for bling.

Four divers found that out when they tried to document the squids' behavior in the Sea of Cortez 17 years ago. While a non-diving passenger battled to land a 14-foot thresher shark on rod-and-reel, Alex Kerstitch of Arizona and three friends submerged in the nighttime sea, carrying cameras. The divers settled near the dim fringes of the boat's lights. They could see the weary shark being pulled toward the boat. Below, dozens of squid began flashing iridescently, red-white-red.

[...]

A squid grabbed his right swim fin and pulled downward. He kicked it away but another grabbed his head. The cactus-like tentacles found his neck, the only part of his body not covered with neoprene.

He bashed the squid with his dive light, far less bright than the movie lights, and it let go, but it swiped both the light and the gold chain he'd been wearing.

Kerstitch was released by the squid, and made it back to the boat wounded but alive.

Squid the weeds of the sea

PZ Myers has a fascinating post discussing the life of squid. He points out that, unlike most other animals, they just keep growing until they die -- which is generally pretty soon. He describes them as weeds of the sea: they grow fast, live hard, and die leaving a beautiful corpse. At least, beautiful to the beasties that survive by eating dead squid.

Created in Squid's Image

Helmut from Phronesisaical discusses the incredible discovery that Mankind was Created in Squid's Image!

There are more fascinating upheavals in science according to PZ Myers at Pharyngula.

Best movie ever, yarrr.

PZ Myers, who first thought he would be curmudgeonly and hate it, has declared Pirates of the Caribbean II the Best. Movie. Evar.

The plot careered around like a drunken sailor, and made very little sense. [...]

Still...Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was terrific fun. It's got pirates, a squid-man, a giant squid, a crew of undead human-sea creature hybrids, random sword fights, a giant squid crushing ships, the cutest little animated barnacles, a giant squid eating people, very poor dental hygiene, and it just never stops. I'd been warned that it was over-long, but seriously, I got to the end and thought, "It's done? Already?"

[...] The character of Elizabeth is showing signs of dissatisfaction with that piece of damp cardboard, Will Turner. I think you can all see where this is going: I predict that in the final movie, Elizabeth will finally meet Davy, she'll fall in love at first sight, she'll win his heart, and they'll sail off into the sunset, where they'll spawn many squidlets together. Yeah, it's predictable, but this is the kind of movie that just has to have a happy ending.

I loved that movie. The last few seconds of the movie, back at the voodoo priestess' hut (you know the scene, the one with the apple), had me bouncing in my seat going "Squee squee squee!!!" like a 13-year-old fangirl.

But in a manly, pirately way, you understand. Yarrr.