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Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

nature.com

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Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#111

Post by jtchang »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #4

May I suggest a book to anybody that finds cephalopods interesting, especially given the connection with consciousness which is a recurring topic in these circles: Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness My only critique is that the plural spelling is octopuses and not octopi , just like the article. Octopuses just looks wrong and sounds funny, I stand my ground. Yes yes I know that i…

Actually you are slightly wrong (but only if you are british). Per the merriam webster editor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s166nC_hiZ0&ab_channel=Sebas...

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#112

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

addaon wrote: post #26
DizzyDoo wrote: post #6

As a counterpoint, The Atlantic ran an interesting article[0] yesterday suggesting that it's not really clear what the Octopuses' aims are when they do this, and that we do really like to anthropomorphize them. [0] - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/11/gloomy-o...

They really like being anthropomorphized.

Thank you for this. Perfect joke.

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#113

Post by flyingfences »

dmichulke wrote: post #102
space_ghost wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I would happily jump in your vacant seat and enjoy hours of pedantic discussions on the vagaries of silly English words.

Pro tip: invite him for for pizzae

Dialectically, "pizza" is an uncountable and "pie(s)" is the unit.

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#114

Post by a1369209993 »

permo-w wrote: post #75
cecilpl2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japanese is worse. You count "1 thing", "2 thing", "3 thing", except the word for "thing" changes depending on the shape of the thing you are counting. So thin flat things like paper or shirts are 1 mai, 2 mai, 3 mai, while to count books you say 1 satsu, 2 satsu, 3 satsu. Long round things like pencils or umbrellas go 1 pon, 2 hon, 3 bon, 4 hon, 5 hon, 6 pon, etc (yeah you read that right). There are different count…

christ that is horrendous, especially pon hon bon hon hon pon. is there some kind of historical logic behind it?

That's just consonant mutation[0][1], like how english speakers say "a pencil" but "an umbrella"[2]. (Ie, "hon", "pon", and "bon" are all the same word, just pronounced differently due to environment.) The fact that ほ ぼ ぽ (ho bo po) are all the same underlying letter, just with different diacritics, kind of hints at this.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant_mutation

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku

2: Of course, English pretty much only does the conspicous verson of this for that one word, because English.

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#115

Post by valarauko »

cph123 wrote: post #36
bananarchist wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the plural is octopodes, just like cactus->cactodes, virus->virodes and surplus-surplodes (my favorite)

I googled "cactodes" and this comment was the 7th result on the first page.

8th for me on Kagi

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#116

Post by comboy »

pmb_ wrote: post #82
4gotunameagain wrote: post #4

May I suggest a book to anybody that finds cephalopods interesting, especially given the connection with consciousness which is a recurring topic in these circles: Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness My only critique is that the plural spelling is octopuses and not octopi , just like the article. Octopuses just looks wrong and sounds funny, I stand my ground. Yes yes I know that i…

I'd have to give an anti-recommendation to this book. The author never explains his thesis and the book reads like his thesis was "Octopuses are cool" and spends the entire time listing fun facts and interesting stories about his interactions with cephalopods. He spends very little time drawing connections to consciousness or speaking about what octopus life can tell us about consciousness. There is a whole chapter w…

Same. I had huge expectations. Basically what you learn is that octopuses are intelligent and for a long time we didn't realize because they are smart enough to know they are in custody when we catch them and they're pretty social. I mean, it's OK, but the whole book feels a bit like a preface to the thing which never came.

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#118

Post by klabb3 »

DizzyDoo wrote: post #6

As a counterpoint, The Atlantic ran an interesting article[0] yesterday suggesting that it's not really clear what the Octopuses' aims are when they do this, and that we do really like to anthropomorphize them. [0] - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/11/gloomy-o...

> we do really like to anthropomorphize them.

Yes, people tend to over-anthropormphize in the sense they map to specific human concepts. But otoh, we tend to greatly underestimate the complexity of animal behavior. Sometimes people mix these up. So, just because an anthropomorphization isn't correct, doesn't mean that the behavior isn't complex.

Even animals like spiders and ants demonstratw incredible complex behavior, for social, hunting, sanitation purposes etc. So don't feel bad about anthropomorphizing, as long as you are aware it's just fun speculation. There are infinite mysteries in animal behavior and it's absolutely fascinating. There is so much left to explore.

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#119

Post by jjtheblunt »

jacobmartin wrote: post #98
jjtheblunt wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

octopi arises because people have learned Latin 2nd declension masculine nouns, by accident or repetition, where pluralizing (nominative case) turns the -us to -i. It's a pattern matching phenomenon. It would be less weird if there were not spelling irregularities, since the -pus is meant to be foot (like pes, pedes...in Latin, or pos, podes,... in Greek). Basically, the spelling irregularity triggers a sensible patt…

Maddeningly, it doesn't even apply to all Latin -us nouns. For instance, the plural of apparatus should be apparatūs if we're applying the Latin rules. Apparati, as it might seem, makes no sense! So even when the pattern match correctly identifies the language, it can be misleading. --fellow Latin nerd

4th or 5th declension esoterica ftw!

Re: Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other

#120

Post by autoexec »

permo-w wrote: post #66
daveslash wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be a word like "fishes". I once saw "fishes" on an interpretive sign at an aquarium and some folks were mocking such and obvious grammatical error. Turns out, "fish" is the correct way to refer to multiple individual fish as a group, whereas "fishes" is the correct way to refer to multiple species of fish. I wonder if "octopi" might refer to multiple octopus without making any indication as to weather they are…

one that I often hear foreign speakers struggling with is “hair”. 1 hair, 2 hairs, a whole head of hair. seemingly, if it’s countable it follows normal rules, if it’s not, it goes back to singular form. but then it could be absolutely correct to say “the many hairs on my head”, an uncountable which retains the plural. English is an absolute mess

> it’s countable it follows normal rules, if it’s not, it goes back to singular form.

You'd have a hard time counting all the stars, but "sky of star" doesn't work like "head of hair" does. I love how expressive English is, but it's got issues for sure.

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