Visit the kelpforest....

Paragraphs vs. Bullet Points: We Speak Now In A Hail Of Bullets

Good stuff to know. Yes, I use them completely wrong here; I quite often combine bullets and paragraphs. Or I'm just so long-winded I find it impossible to cut myself off at a statement per bullet.

One thing to remember for a Powerpoint presentation, though. Even if your talk is about them, DO NOT use little tiny squid as your bullets. From the back of the room, they look like something completely different.

I had to go in on a Saturday and spend about 12 hours at work, but before I did, I had to photograph this house in the neighborhood across from my office, before they took their Halloween decorations down. They had a whole pirate theme going, with a full-on ship in the driveway and a giant squid!

Pirate house
Seal Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
01 November 2008

Today is the 2nd Annual (Unofficial) International Cephalopod Appreciation and Awareness Day, 10/8/2008!

http://cephalopodcast.com/blog/2008/10/08/2nd-annual-unofficial-international-cephalopod-appreciation-and-awareness-day-1082008/

"What better day to celebrate Octopus and Squid then on OCTOber 8, the eighth day of the 10th month of the year? Octopus have eight arms and squid and cuttlefish have eight arms and two tentacles, for a total of 10 appendages."

My favorite Halloween squid from a few years ago...

Or so I would say if I said that kind of thing... *clears throat*

My boss sent this last week:

http://ladiving.smugmug.com/gallery/4732421_zMKoR#280250057_uWs4P-A-LB

It's a bobtail squid, related to the stubby squid I posted about quite awhile ago... (and I can't believe I never put the tag "squid" on that post...)

I'm sitting in the living room of a house, a condo actually, on Mission Bay in San Diego. I'm about to call John at home and go to bed. I've been sharing the place with three coworkers this week, attending two conferences back to back. The first I had been looking forward to; the CalCOFI conference this year was about jumbo squid "invasions" - lots of talks about Dosidicus gigas biology and how their range is massively expanding (not a new thing - this has happened repeatedly in the past). A lot of very interesting information - including the first ever observation of an egg mass, which was estimated to contain about half a million eggs and was the "size of a small car."

Today and tomorrow is the Sardine Trinational Forum, where biologists and industry from Canada, the US and Mexico share information once a year. All of which is interesting, but damn the chairs in auditorium are hard. Eight hours a day in them for a week is hard on the tush. But there was a wonderful dinner tonight at The Fish Market downtown, and I am stuffed. Last night my boss had us over to his house for carnitas and home brewed beer - I had wine instead. I swear I've had more wine this week than when I was in college. Not enough for a buzz - my tummy doesn't seem to like it very much any more. My younger colleagues were hip on going out to bars earlier in the week; I told them I was old and needed to go to bed. Mike was trying to talk me into a tattoo; I said I'd get a squid paralarva, life size (about as big as the period on the end of this sentence, heh). Bill has gotten up early every morning to go fishing; although his Catch-per-Unit-Effort is not very high.

I wish I were renting this place on vacation with my family instead of co-workers. This would be great in the summer time. Bill found the place, and figured out that four of us going in together it would be much cheaper than the hotel for the conferences. It has two bedrooms and a sleeper couch, a kitchen with everything and feels very homey. I've got my own room, but it'll be nice to get back home tomorrow.

This is the third time down to San Diego in the last two months. I would love to come down here for a vacation instead of work.

John told me this evening Avalon told him, "You're here, and Mom's in San Diego in a motel with three guys." It's not how it sounds, dear, really.

Humboldt squid, also called jumbo squid, (Dosidicus gigas) have been showing up in huge numbers off the coast here recently, more than the usual summer appearance; commercial fishermen are complaining that they are catching too many (and there being no market to sell them) and the squid are eating stuff they are usually catching. The local sport boats are running special charters for them. One of our managers was recently heard saying she hoped they were preying on all the Pacific mackerel that supposed to be out there now (very high harvest guideline this season) and not the rockfish, whose populations are recovering. There is a concern about effect such an influx of voracious high level predators has on an ecosystem; it's the symposium topic for the CalCOFI conference this coming November. I'm looking forward to hearing those presentations.

My boss sent this link to a video posted on Orange County diving listserv.

http://diver.net/waltermarti/Squid1.htm

Wow. Fascinating video - I wasn't sure if they were changing colors that quickly or it was just the flicker of the lights, but I'm assured they really do flash that fast. Unfortunately, one squid seems to be caught on a lure. I'm not sure I'd actually want to be diving with them without a little more protection, and these are only little guys, about two feet long (they get up to two meters, I think). Those suckers have teeth on them.

(The rest of his site has some other pretty neat underwater video as well - http://diver.net/waltermarti

Cool - wish I could get up to Newport OR Aquarium this weekend, although the exhibit is continuing after that.

In Search of Giant Squid

"The exhibit, based on the popular permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, examines the myths and legends that surround giant squid and explores their anatomy; what is known about how they hunt, move and defend themselves. The exhibit, which will remain at the Aquarium through Labor Day Weekend, features a giant squid beak and suckers. Interactive components  allow visitors to compare their own size to that of a giant squid."

( Silly squiddy quizzes... )

And the biggest squid ever caught....
(this is a colossal squid, which is different than a giant squid)

Another story on it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6385071.stm

(written yesterday, but it's about the same today...)

ISO declared Statewide STAGE 2 Electrical Emergency for 07/24/2006 13:00 through 07/24/2006 21:00

A dangerous heat wave with record-breaking temperatures in California and other parts of the Western United States continues to tax the electricity system to the limits of its capacity. According to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) today’s demand is expected to reach 52,000 megawatts – a demand level not projected for California until the year 2011. Heat stress has already caused a number of localized outages, fires and casualties.

In order to maintain vital services and protect vulnerable citizens in nursing homes, schools, hospitals and other critical care facilities, I am again directing all State agencies, departments, boards and commissions (State Agencies) to continue to reduce electricity usage during peak periods by at least 25 percent during the peak usage period today.

I came to work this morning grateful to be spending part of the day in an air conditioned building; unfortunately, it must have been sweltering in here over the weekend and it didn't really start feeling cooler until almost lunchtime. Midmorning, we got an alert from the governator that all state buildings are to reduce power usage 25% this afternoon to reserve power for things like hospitals and nursing homes - meaning we'll probably have to turn out half the lights - not a big problem, since we have large north-facing windows. However, the thermostat's been turned up so it's getting warmer in here.

I don't remember a hot spell lasting quite this long before, especially with the humidity. It clouded up as the sun was going down Saturday evening; a tall cloud right above my neighborhood was reflecting the weirdest yellow light down on us at about 8:00 pm. Weird because of the color (it was as if I were viewing my street through a yellow filter), and because it was coming from a different direction than it should have been. Several of my neighbors came outside as well, to remark on how eerie it was, and Angus was bouncing around speculating that "aliens were about to invade!" I scrambled to try and find some batteries for my camera, but I think it was mostly past before I found a set of four.

It was still 80°F at about 10:30, bearable, but we poor beach dwellers are spoiled. We just about melt when the temperature goes much above that. At lunch today there was a news item showing my home town's pier and beach and how everyone was trying to escape the heat by going there, but not getting much relief. Most of the older homes here do not have air conditioning, because it's seldom hot more than 2-3 days in a row. It's been close to a solid month now, the kind of weather we don't usually get until September -October. Which makes me wonder what it's going to be like then. I'm hearing about 90°F in Seattle - that's almost unheard of, isn't it?

Not only that but it generates an increase in laundry; John is such a sweater, he soaks three or four shirts in a day.

Another odd thing - normally the squid season here is starts in late October and peters out by March or April. Then it picks up in Monterey, farther north, in the summertime, while here, June usually ends the slow season for mackerel and sardines, and the finfish landings usually pick up. Beginning back in June, however, the squid began spawning again off Catalina Island and the boats again began landing them in amounts comparable to the wintertime, while Monterey is getting barely anything. Sometimes we see squid all year long following an El Niño, but according to anyone at NOAA Fisheries, last year wasn't an El Niño, but it was an anomalous year, climate-wise.

Haven't had time to read the entire article (or set of articles) yet in New Scientist, but it looks fascinating....

Pictures
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/deep-sea/mg19125603.900-unseen-oceans-revelations-from-the-abyss.html

Special report
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/deep-sea

Unfortunately, to read many of the articles linked to, it looks like you have to buy a subscription to the magazine. A worthy magazine, I'm sure, but I'm not subscribing to anything right now. Poop.