TIL: Today I Learned

Apparently, according to Scientific American, Octopi can fly. Numerous anecdotal accounts, including those by marine scientists, suggest that in predator avoidance an octopus can fire it's jets and leap right out of the water. Obviously rare, there's no YouTube video (except octopi balloons and kites). Witnesses claim to have observed the animal adjusting it's fins (some species) and mantel for "English" to maneuver. Octoflight has been visually estimated as at much as 3 meters high and 30 meters in duration.

 

The missing link between fish and birds?

 

TYSL (today you should learn) that 'octopi' is a horrible term, and the actual one to use would be octopodes

By contrast, 'octopi' is something around 25.

 

I could get down with this.

 

Not according to the OED;

The Oxford English Dictionary (2008 Draft Revision)[53] also lists "octopuses", "octopi", and "octopodes", in that order, labelling "octopodes" as rare...

In any case, I think octopi flying are more interesting than octopodes spelling.

 

Oxford, Chelmsford, whatever The point is that -pus just means "leg", so its plural is obviously -podes. Octo merely means eight, cause that is how many 'legs' those beings have

 

I am in favour of bastardising any Greek-derived words as much as possible, so I can't support this.

 

^Fine. Then call it Octiupai or something

 

Okay, but - they can fly, right?

 

Not really. They're just really good jumpers.

 

So are jet airplanes.

 

Octopi, Octopodes, blah, why not just call 'em "Oktopoi". Or "Oktopotassemouspemantezivoulonteporos".

 

^A more authentic-byzantine sounding name for them would be octopodesprotoarchontespolypodespantonpolypodonthalassaes

 

Now write that with the Greek alphabet.!

 

ΩΩΩΩΩΩ∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆µ∑∑∑∑∑∑

 

I agree, which is why I find "prion" such a fun word.

Anyway, before becoming a well-loved provider of engineered crops and pesticides, Monsanto started out hawking caffeine to Coca-Cola for use in its drinks.

I also finally learned why the US sued twenty kegs of Coca-Cola and approximately 29354 kg of shark fins.

 

Ah, that classic Supreme Court case about the shark fins.... The Supreme Court sure has had some weird cases.

 

Ok

octopodesprotoarchontespolypodespantonpolypodontha lassaes would be:

Οκτώποδεςπρωτοάρχοντεςπολύποδεςπάντωνπολυπόδωνθαλάσσης

breaks into

Οκτώποδες πρωτο άρχοντες πολύποδες πάντων πολυπόδων θαλάσσης

and would just mean:

Octopodes proto archons polypodes of all polypodes of the sea



(although i did make up the archons of the polypodes, and iirc the 'polypodes' are in reality an entirely different category of animals anyway, but it was a lame joke, sorry ).

 

Bangladesh really hates atheists. As if I needed any more reason to think it's a terrible place.

 

So at the end of WWII, when Japan surrendered to the allies in Indochina, apparently a lot of Japanese betrayed their part of the surrender deal by doing things like letting the Viet Minh take control of key spots, not letting French prisoners out ("to protect them against the Viet Minh"), and doing other things to indirectly/directly assist the Viet Minh and other pro-independence groups in Vietnam while the allies (mainly the Brits and French) desperately tried to keep control in the growing power vacuum; I suppose for the Japanese it was sort of like giving the allies the finger, I suppose.

Also, after the surrender, a few Japanese soldiers and officers apparently defected to the Viet Minh and assisted them in various ways such as training troops. Those that didn't return to Japan eventually ended up going native, it seems, though not much is known about them.

The WWII history of Vietnam it seems, at any rate, is much more interesting than I used to think.