Octopuses Have No Personalities and Enjoy HDTV 482
Whiteox writes about an Australian researcher named Renata Pronk, who has discovered that octopuses prefer HDTV. She recruited 32 gloomy octopuses from the waters of Chowder Bay. Previously, researchers have reported little success when showing video to octopuses. Miss Pronk's insight was that the octopus eye is so refined that it might see standard PAL video, at 25 fps, as a series of stills. She tried HDTV (50 fps) and her subjects reacted to the videos of a crab, another octopus, or a swinging bottle on the end of a string. A further discovery is that octopuses show no trait of individual personalities, even though they exhibit a high level of intelligence. It would certainly be possible to quibble about the definition of "personality" employed, and whether Miss Pronk had successfully measured it.
Re:Personality (Score:5, Informative)
FTFA:
"The definition of personality," she said, "is having repetition in your responses, for example, being consistently bold, or consistently shy, or consistently aggressive."
She went on to say that any individual octopus had random, inconsistent, reactions to the same stimuli on any random day.
Re:Octopi are Awesome! (Score:5, Informative)
jdb2
Re:Personality (Score:4, Informative)
The plural is octopodes, not octopi.
HDTV inaccuracies in article (Score:5, Informative)
Ok, a couple of problems here:
- Standard video is not 24 frames per second, as the original article states. That's the speed for film, not video.
- 1080i HDTV is displayed at the same frame rate as standard definition TV. In PAL land, that's 50 fields per second, which makes 25 frames per second.
- Even at 720p's 50 full frames per second in PAL countries, that does not give the perception of smoother motion. SDTV will give you 50 half-resolution fields per second, and 720P will give you 50 full-resolution frames per second. The motion smoothness will be essentially the same. The real difference is the resolution delivered with each picture.
Re:Never the same color (Score:3, Informative)
You do realize that NTSC has a faster frame rate than PAL, right?
Re:HDTV inaccuracies in article (Score:5, Informative)
1080i HDTV is displayed at the same frame rate as standard definition TV. In PAL land, that's 50 fields per second, which makes 25 frames per second.
Only if it's 1080i25/1080i30 and not 1080i50/1080i60
Even at 720p's 50 full frames per second in PAL countries, that does not give the perception of smoother motion.
Yes it does. There are no interlacing artifacts for the horizontal component of the motion.
The motion smoothness will be essentially the same
No, because the claim is that the octopus can see the individual pictures (i.e. fields) at 25/30 fps. Where there is significant horizontal motion in an a picture where each field is only updated every 1/25th of a second, the octopus may be able to see each field being updated. At 50 progressive fields per second the entire image is updated at twice the rate. This of course depends on the display type.
We have to remember that one reason CRT's look "smooth" to us is persistence of vision. We don't notice the light intensity fade over 1/25th of a second as the electron beam scans out the rest of the picture. However, the octopus's persistence of vision may be different. Imagine for a moment that the octopus see's the old "standard definition" display the same was as we see an old CRT when viewed through a camcorder: With big bands running across it due to the scanning done by the electron beam. Maybe with HDTV, where CRT technology is less likely to be used, this is no longer the case and thus the octopus sees the picture as real.
Anyway, to me this is perfectly plausible. We shouldn't be dismissive so quickly towards a behavior that has actually been observed for several subjects, even if we can't instantly explain it.
Re:How could they... (Score:2, Informative)
There are really only 2 tricks to learning to eat Vegemite - both based around the same fact.
This stuff ain't peanut butter or jam!
Re:Personality (Score:5, Informative)
-1, irrelevant pedantry
We have borrowed words or phrases into this language that include non-native morphology. With the exception of some Latin and Greek plurals, we generally ignore the non-native morphology and use our own endings. So, for example, not only is it acceptable, but it is required to say "the La Nina" or "those La Ninas" and not "*La Nina" or "*the Nina" or "*those Las Ninas" or "*Estas Ninas". The lexical item is "La Nina", which cannot be decomposed into smaller morphemes like it can in Spanish.
Another example, also Spanish-related, is the presence of a number of words of Arabic origin in Spanish that begin with "al-", such as "algodon". Originally, this was the definite article in Arabic, but it is now a meaningless part of the word in Spanish and does not prevent the use of the native definite article.
Or, going back to English, it is generally correct to use a native s-plural for words of Latin origin, except in a small set of common loanwords: "formulas", "nexuses", "moratoriums", etc. Again, this is okay because English isn't Latin and isn't required to use Latin morphology. The fact that it does at all is a more a testament to the high standing Latin had and still has in our culture. Those non-native plurals are actually affectations, rather than the rule. You don't see people generally trying to use non-native plurals with words from other languages (the less important the language, the less likely we are to use anything other than the native s-plural).
So, my point is, it doesn't really matter what the original morphology was in the language we borrowed from. We borrowed the word as "kraken" and it is not decomposable into any smaller morphemes. The correct *English* plural is "krakens" and not "kraker", "kraks" or "krakulations".
Re:Personality (Score:4, Informative)
For the pedant in all of us, the GP is correct. Etymonline [etymonline.com] explains how the -pi inflection results from an overgeneralization of the latin -us to -i pluralization (eg. status -> stati, terminus -> termini), but octopus is Greek (oktopous), not Latin, and the plural of pous (foot) is podes.
Unforutunately (of fortunately, depending on your stance), many of these words are losing their original inflectional category and are being "regularized" to the more Englishy -es (octopuses, statuses, terminuses). Many dictionaries [merriam-webster.com] (or the one you provided) don't even list "octopodes" as a plural (and they even list "octopi" since it's taken on a kind of folk-correctness). In order of historical correctness, it would be "octopodes" > "octopuses" > "octopi". In order of usage (and general acceptance by the masses) it would be "octopuses" > "octopi" > "octopodes"
Now, if we all spoke Chinese or Japanese, there would almost be no such thing as "plural inflection" (imagine all nouns being like mass nouns... "one octopus", "two octopus").
Re:I shall name my first child Renata Pronk (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I shall name my first child Renata Pronk (Score:5, Informative)
It's up to the individual. My wife prefers Mrs instead of Ms. Perhaps the researcher in question prefers Miss instead of Ms.?
You could always ask her [mq.edu.au]. (thanks slushdork)
On your doctoral point, in the above site she states that she is an Honours student. That's post-grad. Next step is Masters or Doctorate.
As she is not a Phd, Richard Macey (the author of the article ) entitled her as 'Miss'.
"otako slashdotters" -- too punny! (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, that's just too punny -- only I'm not sure if you meant it, or just made a typo.
For those not familiar with Japanese, otaku is the word for "nerd" -- generally not in any positive sense. The word stems from the roots o-, being a generic honorific prefix to refer to things not your own (simply speaking), and taku or "residence", the underlying implication being someone who never leaves the house.
Meanwhile, tako is Japanese for "octopus".
I once heard of an idea for opening a chain of Mexican-themed seafood fast-food restaurants around Japan, called "Tako Taco"...
Cheers,
Re:Sounds like... (Score:5, Informative)
......... Actually octopus have relatively short lifespans. The first one was several months old when I got her from a lab that was doing behavioral research and the fact that he lived almost a year after that was pretty good. The second octopus was a bit of a stowaway when I found her on my SCUBA tank at a gas stop about 100 miles away from the ocean. She was tiny then and lived for almost two years which is pretty long lived for an octopus.
Re:Personality (Score:3, Informative)
Octopodes? Are you sure?
Thus speaketh [wikipedia.org]:
There are three forms of the plural of octopus; namely, octopuses, octopi, and octopodes. Currently, octopuses is the most common form in the UK as well as the US; octopodes is rare, and octopi is often objectionable.
The Oxford English Dictionary (2004 update) lists octopuses, octopi and octopodes (in that order); it labels octopodes "rare", and notes that octopi derives from the mistaken assumption that octÅpÅs is a second declension Latin noun, which it is not. Rather, it is (Latinized) Greek, from oktá"pous (á½ÎÏÏZÏÎÏ...Ï), gender masculine, whose plural is oktá"podes (á½ÎÏÏZÏÎÎÎÏ). If the word were native to Latin, it would be octÅpÄ"s ('eight-foot') and the plural octÅpedes, analogous to centipedes and mÄllipedes, as the plural form of pÄ"s ('foot') is pedes. In modern, informal Greek, it is called khtapÃdi (ÏÏαÏÏOEÎÎ), gender neuter, with plural form khtapÃdia (ÏÏαÏÏOEÎÎα).
Chambers 21st Century Dictionary and the Compact Oxford Dictionary list only octopuses, although the latter notes that octopodes is "still occasionally used"; the British National Corpus has 29 instances of octopuses, 11 of octopi and 4 of octopodes. Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary lists octopuses and octopi, in that order; Webster's New World College Dictionary lists octopuses, octopi and octopodes (in that order).
Fowler's Modern English Usage states that "the only acceptable plural in English is octopuses," and that octopi is misconceived and octopodes pedantic.
The term octopod (plural octopods or octopodes) is taken from the taxonomic order Octopoda but has no classical equivalent. The collective form octopus is usually reserved for animals consumed for food.
End quote.
So, in summary, the ONLY acceptable plural is actually octopuses . Not to be pedantic or anything. ^_^
To Nazi or not to Nazi, that is the question (Score:4, Informative)
That's been the case in the UK for the last decade or two (longer at Cambridge) but in the U.S. [bartleby.com] the period is still the norm (as it was pretty much everywhere up until 1950 or so.
Not to go all history nazi on you or anything...
--MarkusQ
P.S. And (switching to spelling Nazi mode) grammar is spelt with an "a."
Re:Personality (Score:3, Informative)
except in a small set of common loanwords: "formulas", "nexuses", "moratoriums", etc
I agree with your post in general about how to pluralise loanwords using English endings, but did you have to give these examples? Maybe it's a dialect difference between where you are and where I grew up, but we'd lose marks in an English test if we ever wrote "formulas" or "moratoriums" - it'd have to be "formulae" and "moratoria". (I just did a quick check at "Dictionary.com" (hardly authoritative, but I'm in a hurry) and it agrees with me about "moratoria", but offers both plurals for "formula" (-s or -ae)). For me, in spoken speech I'd never consider a "-s" ending for a latin word ending in "ium", always "ia". The "formulas"/"formulae" thing also just sounds weird to me with an "-s", although it doesn't feel "as wrong" to me (I'd still use "formulae" in speech/writing).
As I said though, these may be dialect differences - English is drifting apart relatively quickly it seems - television may have slowed down the drift somewhat with US shows being viewed worldwide, but it doesn't seem to be sufficient to stop the drift - I can definitely say that the language I grew up speaking is VERY different to the language I tend to use today (I live in a non-English speaking country, so when I use English, I tend to use a simplified subset of "standard English" - all grammatically correct (no "Me go shop now" or whatever), but avoiding some sentence structures or words with a lot of ambiguity. I also do this online, but to a lesser degree (such as in this post) since I'm well aware that the local dialect I spoke growing up (Southern New Zealand by the way, which has a lot of influence from Scottish English, and is very different to Northern New Zealand which is what most people are familiar with) does not lend itself well to the written form if I really want others to understand me)
(oh, and sorry for the nested parentheses - it's a bad habit I picked up years ago (perhaps related to LISP programming (or perhaps just my own weird thought style)) and I have trouble breaking it)
Re:Personality (Score:5, Informative)
Umm, imagine a Mexican with 8 arms.
Octopi have only six arms. The other two are legs. (Six appendages for manipulating objects, two for pulling themselves along. And one of them doubles as a sex organ!)
Re:Sounds like... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Octopi are Awesome! (Score:3, Informative)
Green blood is copper based (hemocyanin [wikipedia.org]), red blood is iron based (hemoglobin [wikipedia.org]).
According to Wikipedia, they're actually MORE efficient in cold water than hemoglobin is, which is why many marine animals (like horseshoe crabs and such) have hemocyanin-based blood.