Entries Tagged "squid"

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Friday Squid Blogging: Steganographic Squid

Seems that some squid can hide messages in their skin:

In the animal world, squid are masters of disguise. Pigmented skin cells enable them to camouflage themselves—almost instantaneously—from predators. Squid also produce polarized skin patterns by regulating the iridescence of their skin, possibly creating a “hidden communication channel”? visible only to animals that are sensitive to polarized light.

[…]

Mäthger and Hanlon’s findings present the first anatomical evidence for a “hidden communication channel”? that can remain masked by typical camouflage patterns. Their results suggest that it might be possible for squid to send concealed polarized signals to one other while staying camouflaged to fish or mammalian predators, most of which do not have polarization vision.

My favorite security stories are from the natural world. Evolution results in some of the most interesting security countermeasures.

Posted on September 29, 2006 at 2:59 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Soap

It’s SquidSoap:

SquidSoap works by applying a small ink mark on a person’s hand when they press the pump to dispense the soap. The ink is designed to wash off after the hands are washed for about 15-20 seconds, which is the time recommended by most doctors.

Note the security angle:

Dirty hands are a leading cause of the spread of infection and food-borne illness. Whether it’s due to laziness or lack of education – our failure to wash our hands is costing the U.S. economy billions every year and causing thousands of unnecessary illnesses and deaths.

Never mind about terrorism. It’s dirty hands!

Posted on September 8, 2006 at 3:07 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Four Squid Cartoons

Wondermark.

Sherman’s Lagoon.

Non Sequitur.

Brevity.

If you know of any other squid cartoons, post the links as comments—or e-mail them to me—and I will add them here.

EDITED TO ADD (9/2): Guy & Rodd, Off the Mark, Her! [Girl v. Pig], a New Yorker cartoon, Doc Rat, Schlock Mercenary, and a German cartoon.

EDITED TO ADD (9/4): Demolition Squid, Sausage Squid from Beaver and Steve,Creative Disease, and very funny one from The New Yorker caption contest. Also, nine cartoons from Dr. Fun; search for “squid.”

EDITED TO ADD (9/13): Penny Arcade.

Posted on September 1, 2006 at 4:06 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: 13-foot Tentacle Found off Santa Cruz Coast

From KSBY:

A fisherman snags a rare catch in the Santa Barbara Channel, a tentacle belonging to a giant squid.

The 13-foot-long tentacle was found floating near Santa Cruz Island last week. Little is known about the species, it is only the fourth confirmed specimen ever found in Southern California.

“They are definitely present off our coast, they are probably not very common here and they probably live in deep water, this one here was caught near the Santa Cruz Basin, which is several thousand feet deep,” said Eric Hochberg, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Curator.

The tentacle likely surfaced after the rest of the squid was eaten by a whale.

Posted on August 18, 2006 at 3:20 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Robotic Squid

It’s being built in a Japanese town:

…on July 18, a group of Hakodate residents made an official announcement regarding plans to create a giant robotic squid for the city.

[…]

…cutting-edge technology…will allow the robot to be controlled remotely via the Internet.

[…]

…the entire body of squid robot will be covered in lights that blink as the robot moves. In addition, the robot will be equipped with a set of wireless receivers and will have its own homepage featuring a set of controls that allow remote users to move the robot’s tentacles and eyes.

The developers plan for the robot to stand 5 meters (16 feet) in height. After an initial 1.5-meter prototype is completed this November, work will begin on the larger final version, which the group aims to unveil in a parade at the Hakodate Port Festival in the summer of 2007.

[…]

The total cost of the robot is expected to be somewhere in the 30 million yen range (US$250,000).

Posted on August 4, 2006 at 4:24 PM • View Comments

Friday Squid Blogging: Unusually Large Numbers of Squid in the Bering Sea

No explanation given, but it’s annoying fishermen:

The problem took on alarming proportions in early July when fishermen netted more than 500 tons of squid bycatch in one week, Josh Keaton, a resource management specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, said Friday.

The amount of squid was about four times what might be expected.

“We confirmed that the numbers were real and they really did catch that amount of squid. We then tried to find out where the squid were caught,” Keaton said.

While high rates of squid bycatch had occurred before, this time it set off alarm bells because the squid were caught near the start of the mid-June-through-September pollock season.

“I just about had a heart attack. That is a lot of squid,” said Karl Haflinger, president of Sea State Inc. of Seattle, which helps the industry manage bycatch, the unwanted and often wasted fish caught along with the targeted fish.

Posted on July 28, 2006 at 3:37 PM • View Comments

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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.