181–190 of 194 posts
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…
it's interesting how the constraint of being in water limits inhabitants from developing technologies like fire and throwing projectiles for hunting. octopuses seem like they have the physiology and neurology to figure out projectiles and even grinding a sharp point, but that strategy wouldn't give them the same boost it did early humans because of the drag of water. construction and engineering is also made difficul…
It's interesting then to contemplate what kind of society we would have if we had developed our level of sentience but done so under water. Anybody know of any good sci-fi that explores that?
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...
The worst that can happen is you have empathy for them.
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...
Engaging in play is not unique to humans, so assuming an animal is just fooling around is not anthropomorphizing anything.
It's equally ignorant to assume they don't have emotions as it is to assume they do. We literally don't know, but the harm in assuming they don't is people get a free pass to be cruel without guilt. If you assume they do then maybe you'll think twice about torturing animals or destroying their habitats.
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>because it combined Greek and Latin roots. Romances in a nutshell.
Is it true the majority of imperial Rome personal names had -anus endings and they are not in vogue in Modern English for the obvious soundalike to Uranus? And given the time available to an octopus while she waits for her eggs to hatch, what is the recommended reading list from the Loeb library for the octopus's consciousness if there were a universal translator babelfish she could use?
Yet we still have names ending in -ano. Mariano, Emiliano, Cipriano, Maximiliano...
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There’s no right way. Octopus is a word created in modern scientific latin by nonnative (scientific) speakers out of greek parts brought into English. There are no real rules there. It is not a loanword from Greek, it was meant to be a scientific latin origin word, but not native latin like other Latin words that have -us as endings for nouns. It’s a mess, there’s no answer, pluralize as you like but don’t go telling…
There's a wrong way, though - anybody smugly telling somebody they're an idiot for saying 'octopuses' when it's actually 'octopi'. I think 'octopodes' is 'most correct', but 'octopuses' is fine. And most will mispronounce 'octopodes' if they choose it anyway, so 'octopuses' probably would've been better.
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…
The Octopus is my favourite animal (second is the Camel). For others who may find them interesting check out "My Octopus Teacher"
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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…
There’s no right way. Octopus is a word created in modern scientific latin by nonnative (scientific) speakers out of greek parts brought into English. There are no real rules there. It is not a loanword from Greek, it was meant to be a scientific latin origin word, but not native latin like other Latin words that have -us as endings for nouns. It’s a mess, there’s no answer, pluralize as you like but don’t go telling…
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"Pies" is most certainly not American. I have heard that it is supposedly specific to New York, but if you watch Friends (set in New York), you'll see frequent references to the Joey Special, "two pizzas". It's always possible that there are zero people who think of "pies" as an appropriate way to refer to pizzas, but the myth persists that weird foreign people do it. People will believe anything about weird foreigne…
Not? I'm confused who you're saying does call pizzas 'pies' (or 'pizza pies') then? I assure you some Americans certainly do, wherever they got it from, 'American' or not. I've only been exposed to it via American film/TV, including food shows - most recently Somebody Feed Phil in Chicago. I've never heard it in the UK. I'd be surprised to learn that Italians call them something else too that in other contexts transl…
I'm not saying anyone does that. I said so in my comment just above you. If I knew there were someone doing it, it would be hard for me to claim it was possible that zero people do it.
You've never heard it in the UK. I've never heard it in the US. It's not a normal thing to say. None of that adds up to a claim that some people say it.
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Not? I'm confused who you're saying does call pizzas 'pies' (or 'pizza pies') then? I assure you some Americans certainly do, wherever they got it from, 'American' or not. I've only been exposed to it via American film/TV, including food shows - most recently Somebody Feed Phil in Chicago. I've never heard it in the UK. I'd be surprised to learn that Italians call them something else too that in other contexts transl…
> I'm confused who you're saying does call pizzas 'pies' (or 'pizza pies') then? I'm not saying anyone does that. I said so in my comment just above you. If I knew there were someone doing it, it would be hard for me to claim it was possible that zero people do it. You've never heard it in the UK. I've never heard it in the US. It's not a normal thing to say. None of that adds up to a claim that some people say it.
In addition to the TV citation I gave above, see Wiktionary:
> Noun
> pizza pie (plural pizza pies)
> 1. (US) A pizza.
> [no further entries]
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pizza_pie
And the slew of pizza-based results for the search term 'chicago pizza': https://duckduckgo.com/?q=chicago+pie