Swimming Octopus Mimics a Flounder

Octopus and their kin are known for their intelligence and various formidable habits. In previous studies, octopus have not only learned how to twist the lid off a jar, but research involving cuttlefish have shown remarkable instances of communication between members of the same species. Also known as “chameleons of the sea” for their ability to alter their skin color at will very rapidly for camouflaging purposes, cuttlefish also change color as a means of communicating with their kin. Even stranger, certain varieties have been witnessed making symbols and gestures with their arms that seem to indicate communication on some basic level.

One popular study involved filming a cuttlefish as it made various strange gestures, then placing a television directly through the glass from a tank holding another of the creatures while the footage played before it. As the cuttlefish on the television screen began making gestures, the observer through the glass would replicate the symbols, as though acknowledging receipt of the “message.” Below is a video from Live Science showing some of the various extraordinary methods cuttlefish use to communicate, including an intimidation technique that involves causing large dark “eye spots” to appear on its lower body, to create the illusion of a large fish:

One of the most credible reports of such phenomenon stems from a Chilean news reporter, Cecelia Lagos, who was interviewed by MSNBC and CNN networks. Lagos described “seeing the sky change colors outside her window as her house shook.” Lagos describes “I saw through my window, while I was still in bed, I saw the sky changing colors, it was absolutely surreal. I really thought it was the end of the world…I don’t know I hope you understand me because I’m not exaggerating really because I saw it through my window like that. That was the most terrifying thing seeing the sky changing colors with the terribly, amazingly, strong movement of the earth, I thought, ok…this is mother earth… the earth opened up and buildings crumbled into the earth …like in the movie 2012…”

Obvious comparisons have begun to be made to 2012 prophecies, especially with the apparent recent proclivity for earthquakes around the world at present. One observer in the Western United States (who prefers to remain anonymous) shared the following observations with the Gralien Report:

We (not necessarily you) are living right on the fault here, and a lot of us cannot sleep lately, at all. By ‘a lot’ I mean like 60% of the people I know around here, and by ‘lately’ I mean the past 45 days. There are a lot of other symptoms besides sleep loss. Here’s the basic problem however. The USGS maps have, for about the past 60 days, shown a shocking upsurge in activity to put it lightly. At least a 400% increase in earthquakes in general. Zero warnings from the USGS. There’s a lot to this story and it began prior to Haiti when I started telling people that the USGS maps showed that the ENTIRE PACIFIC PLATE was in motion and no one was paying attention! People utterly scoffed at me. Then we had a 4.0 in milpitas. Some days later, -while I was writing a craigslist post- asking people to prepare and explaining this situation, there was a 6.5 off the coast of Eureka. Then, short time later, Haiti 1.

Doctors in our area do not know what’s happening and are starting to seriously wonder, because -everyone- has been sick, mothers and children more than the men in general (children are more sensitive and women have -wombs- essentially a natural Earthquake detector). None of the people I know have connected their malaise to the plate activity, and usually when I suggest it they simply look sickly or yell at me. This isn’t going to work.

Meanwhile, scientists have discovered a new ‘deep tremor phenomenon’ which essentially indicates a likely 9.0 quake somewhere near puget sound in short order.

While it is wrong to stir panic unnecessarily, I consider it absurd to remain silent when something this obvious and this serious is clearly happening right now. There are probably other causal factors, maybe many, but this particular vector appears common, obvious, and largely unacknowledged – probably due to these factors.

Certainly, large amounts of geomagnetic activity could be a factor in sickness or other disorientation that might occur in conjunction with (or in this case, leading up to) earthquakes. Similar to the earlier reports of colored lights and strange phenomenon reported earlier in Chile, are any readers privy to information regarding similar illuminations or other activty occurring in the Western United States?

Special thanks to Reality Sandwich for the link to CNN transcripts.

Although I was skeptical about the nature of the phenomenon we videotaped during our visit (featured in this video segment), we proceeded after the taping with an extensive analysis. Although the cause remains unknown, we were able to determine two things that seemed to rule out operator error:

1) The light observed was not a reflection, since the cameras being used were fitted with night vision apparatus using tight Velcro straps that fit snugly over the body of the camera (mostly for stability; this also blocked any ambient external light sources completely).

2) You can, in fact, produce colors with the night vision goggles, if they are used in close enough proximity to a plasma discharge (i.e. a lightning bolt, or even “lightning globe” novelty lamps available at most variety stores). Below is a photo of such a device used in a dark closet, photographed through a pair of night vision goggles by LEMUR investigator and Gralien Report Correspondent Mobius:

“The Internet,” he says, “has certainly brought it chaos, but it has also been a catalyst for new life and opportunities. It’s now easier to be taken seriously if you have what you believe is an extra-terrestrial experience—and the very organisations you might try to contact in this case have also had to adapt to change brought about by the internet.”

True, the new methodology applied to the study of UFOs encompasses everything from using programs and utilities like Google Earth to “map” UFO hotspots, to capturing occasional airborne anomalies using outdoor webcams. More simply, however, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are making waves in the field, with online fan groups, networking forums, and even syndicated feeds that bring relevant news to our news collectors and cell phones without anyone having to look for them. Thanks to the web, mankind has all but created a filter that catches the summation of our ideas and interests, categorizing and capitalizing on them in new, exciting, and accessible ways.

But it’s not just the Internet that’s hooking up UFO hunters in ways that previously were unavailable. More and more photographs of strange things in the skies are now captured with camera phones, and images can not only be circulated from phone to phone via SMS text messages and email, but they can also be uploaded directly to the web via mobile applications, putting the stranger, seldom seen aspects of existence more in touch with the masses than ever before.

Although Google Earth is becoming a common tool used in the dissemination of information about odd locations and, occasionally, aerial phenomenon photographed via satellite, another feature Google provides is at the forefront of providing information to researchers once it has made its way to the web. Google News allows people to search for the most relevant news stories that include key terms they enter, and even sorts them into categories spanning frequencies as little as stories posted within the last hour! Additionally, Google Alerts will automate the same function in reverse: enter a term you want Google to send you notifications about, and you can get email messages with links every time they appear anywhere on the web. Instant news, and for users of BlackBerrys and other phones that carry email services, instantly at your fingertips!

With the growing availability of social networking and web-based resources, the field of Ufology will indeed continue to change… as well as virtually every kind of news gathering and reporting. Terms like “citizen journalism” come to mind, and a future of rich, constantly renewable source material is growing closer with every nanosecond. But what lies around the next bend? Where will it go from here, and more importantly, will technology be smart enough to crack any new leads on the mystery of strange objects seen in the skies?

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Also, below is a quick excerpt from the piece:

Many times throughout history, especially in recent times as modern technological advances continue to push the boundaries of our capabilities as humans, we have asked, “if other civilizations exist out there in the cosmos, are they like us?”

Less frequently do we ponder whether this is something that should concern us; with humanity’s history of conquest, capture and colonialism, if alien beings were anything like us, what if they decided to act in this manner toward humans if they visited Earth?

Of course, the researchers have already probed for potential links between children who report hearing such disembodied voices and those who will later suffer from mental disorders like schizophrenia. Nonetheless, in most cases this sort of activity, at least among young children, has not been found to be a cause for concern, and is considered to be quite normal.

If we choose to look at this from an evolutionary viewpoint, it almost seems that hearing voices would be beneficial to young people, or even mature adults at various times throughout human history. Many people have observed how animals have a sort of “sixth sense” when it comes to navigation and other biological functions (consider the multitude of stories of household pets who, after being separated from their families, manage to travel enormous distances to find their way home). Indeed, if we were to consider whether man could have ever harnessed similar instincts, it might make sense that our early ancestors, often wandering nomads, might have had a psychological development in their brains that created a sort of “knowing” or “guiding force” they could rely on. Indeed, it would be assumed that this would have been entirely a product of how the early mind worked, rather than some supernatural force. To put it simply, before mankind had risen to the dominant species on Earth, they may have relied on senses that instilled a feeling of “being led,” when in essence, they were leading themselves.

Another example of this might be a child who, in a moment of distress (getting lost in the forest, for example), manages to find their way back to safety. Rather than saying they followed landmarks they recognized or other visual cues, they might say that an imaginary friend “led them home,” or kept them company so they wouldn’t feel alone on the way home. Again, it is evident that such a psychological manifestation might be helpful in creating the impression of comfort and security when a child might otherwise succumb to fear of the dark, or of merely being alone in such traumatic circumstances.

Although the circumstances above are intended for use as an analogy, similar phenomenon is occasionally reported by adult victims of trauma, as well as UFO abductees. One abductee, while on a family picnic in France in the 1950s, had wandered into the nearby woods, where she was later found unconscious and bleeding from the nose. Her only immediate recollection upon being revived was witnessing a group of rabbits hopping about in the clearing where she had been found. Later, hypnosis suggested that she had encountered a group of “strange little men” in the area, rather than the harmless rabbits she had remembered. Another famous example is Whitley Strieber, author of the Communion series, whose early abduction accounts were filled with memories of a large owl lighting on his windowsill and staring at him with its dark eyes. Later in Communion, Strieber also recollects a trip he made with his father by train, in which he experienced another abduction sequence. His only memory of the event had been looking out one of the windows as the train passed a hill, on top of which sat a large wolf howling.

In his book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, psychologist Julian Jaynes looks at the notion of bicameralism, which is a psychological hypothesis that argues how the human brain may have once assumed a state where cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be “speaking”, and a second part which listens and obeys. Throughout history, prophets and seers long claimed to have been able to hear the voices of God and angels, and Jaynes made the argument that there was a similar period during which a variety of religious texts illustrated the complaints that their authors “could no longer hear the gods,” or that “God no longer speaks to me.” If Jaynes’ theory that early man was directed by auditory hallucinations, often interpreted as being some external source or “higher power,”again the notion that a child might do this in their developmental years leading to age ten doesn’t seem so strange, but in fact may be a hold-over from a time when all people’s minds acted in this way.

So perhaps the “gods”, or even something archetypical within ourselves, does still speak… to a few of us, at least.

A security guard on foot patrol reportedly discovered the clothed decomposing body Thursday afternoon on the southwest beach area of the island, where access is restricted, police said.

The body was described as that of a white male about 6-feet tall with a large build and “very long” fingers. According to authorities, there were no obvious signs of trauma.

In all likelihood, “long fingers” as described here are probably somewhat less than remarkable, since actual measurements aren’t given along with the scant information the report provides. Until actual photos, coroner’s reports, or at very least, some kind of formal measurements are given, we won’t know for certain how long “very long” actually is. Rest assured, however, that if it is a clothed human body, many of these details won’t be released immediately, as the official investigation ensues.

The next question I have, though it might not be so obvious to some, is “what did the feet look like?”

What got me wondering about the feet, particularly in conjunction with the hands, draws from another article appearing at the PhysOrg.com website. According to scientists in Canada who created a mathematical model using an apelike hand and the modern human hand, changes that occurred throughout history to our fingers mirrored changes that were occurring to our feet and toes. One excerpt reads:

For example if the big toe was long, the finger was also long. Dr Rolian speculated the correlation between toes and fingers may be because they share a similar genetic “blueprint”, so minor changes to the blueprint would affect both hands and feet.

If the fingers on the cadaver found at Plum Island are indeed anything noteworthy for being truly anomalous, as opposed to being an otherwise “normal” unidentified victim of a crime or accident (though reports indicate no sign of trauma), again, it would be interesting to see if the toes appeared longer than normal also. Could this potentially show evidence of some kind of genetic manipulation? Obviously, it is too early to tell, and careful skepticism is the key to preventing such otherwise-average news stories from being blown out of the water. More as it develops.

Tip o’ the hat to Manuel Creech for sharing news that contributed to this article.

The report deals primarily with Campbell’s monkeys, which live in the forests of the Ivory Coast in West Africa. Sounds they produce, which include a “krak” alarm call when they see a leopard, are sometimes modified by adding an “oo” sound to the end of the previous noise, changing it to “a generic warning of predators.” When the monkeys see a leopard themselves, they issue a “krak”, however, if they only hear others “kraking” in the distance, they respond with “Krakoos.” The report divulges further behavior of phonetic interest:

Even more remarkably, the Campbell’s monkeys can combine two calls to generate a third with a different meaning. The males have a “Boom boom” call, which means “I’m here, come to me.” When booms are followed by a series of krak-oos, the meaning is quite different, Dr. Zuberbühler says. The sequence means “Timber! Falling tree!”

Scientists hope that this new information will lead to a greater understanding of how speech was developed in humans. In his book The Ape That Spoke: Language and the Evolution of the Human Mind, Journalist John McCrone detailed how, essentially, human ancestors might have learned the “trick” of mimicking sounds would-be predators make, which eventually led to individual sounds that departed somewhat from mere mimics and became individual words. The recent studies of Campbell’s monkeys seem to indicate a process similar to this, and researchers hope to verify the ways that human language developed over time by observing the ape’s behavior.

Of particular interest, apes are known to be capable of physically producing many (if not most) of the sounds humans do. However, they aren’t able to build sentence structure, nor combine words to create sounds that express a different meaning. So it looks like our chimpanzees and baboons may have a while to wait before we’re living on Planete des Singes.

Indeed, a new process has produced the favorable result of goldfish with translucent skin, in response to growing controversy regarding dissections of animals for study.

Calling the see-through fish “ryukin,” the goldfish were produced through a process of selectively breeding varieties of “mutant” hatchery goldfish with pale skin. “Having a pale colour is a disadvantage for goldfish in an aquarium but it’s good to see how organs sit in a body three-dimensionally,” Tamaru told AFP.

This is the second instance of bio-engineering that has successfully produced translucent animals. In 2007, a team of researchers at the Institute for Amphibian Biology of Hiroshima University also managed to breed light-skinned frogs, creating creatures whose organs can be observed from the minute life stages of tadpole squiggling, to froggy kick-swimming. Such processes are believed to be more humane, and will hopefully curb the dissent of animal rights activists who have suggested other humane methods of study that include computer simulations.

In the new issue of Wired, Jonah Lehrer has written a brilliant article called “The Neuroscience of Screwing Up.” In it, he shares a variety of unique observations that question the way the human mind, as well as the scientific process works in general. Below is a brief excerpt that pertains specifically to the treatment of “anomalies,” and how people are often predisposed to interpret them through this so-called study in scientific failure:

The reason we’re so resistant to anomalous information–the real reason researchers automatically assume that every unexpected result is a stupid mistake–is rooted in the way the human brain works. Over the past few decades, psychologists have dismantled the myth of objectivity. The fact is, we carefully edit our reality, searching for evidence that confirms what we already believe. Although we pretend we’re empiricists–our views dictated by nothing but facts–we’re actually blinkered, especially when it comes to information that contradicts our theories. The problem with science, then, isn’t that most experiments fail–it’s that most failures are ignored.

This makes good food for thought… and questions where we really draw the line between things like myth, science, objectivity and belief. Much like the experimental musings of speculative physicists, even when something observed doesn’t fit the given setting, it doesn’t rule out that the anomaly might exist without conflict in a different, hypothetical setting.