Ilustración hecha por Jeremy Forson, se puede visitar su web aquí.


...Estoy cantando
Me descubro extendiendo mi voz como la piel de un animal
que se pone al sereno llena de sal y estacas
estirada en la noche como una mancha...

Uno no sabe si llegarán al mercado español, pero esta especie de cortezas que tienen forma acucharada con sabor a pulpo, parecen de lo más exótico. Siempre he sido un fan de los bocabits, pero no tendré ningún problema en aventurarme hacia otros gustos, salvo que sepan a rayos.

Sigo con la exposición, por que he intentado encontrar el autor de la gigantesca octoescultura que preside la exposición y que sobrepasa los dos pisos de la sala, pero mi esfuerzo ha sido infructuoso. Así que lo único que puedo dejar de muestra es una fotografía del asunto (Foto de José Aymá). Y de paso una nueva foto de Ouka Leele.

La fotógrafo Ouka Leele de la que ya hablamos aquí en otra ocasión ha preparado una exposición en Madrid con una retrospectiva de su obra en la Sala de exposiciones de Alcalá 31.
La exposición lleva por nombre Pulpo’s Boulevard. Lo cual no hace más que constatar la vena pulpera de la artista. Por ello le damos toisón de oro.

PULPO'S BOULEVARD.- Días: Del 10 de octubre al 12 de noviembre de 2006. Lugar: Sala de Exposiciones de la Consejería de Cultura y Deportes (Alcalá, 31). Horario: De martes a sábado de 11 a 14 y de 17 a 20.30 horas. Domingos y festivos de 11 a 14 horas.

Vía elmundo.es

La exposición 'Pulpo´s Boulevard' supone para la artista Barbara Allende, más conocida como Ouka Leele, mirar hacia atrás y hacer una reflexión inédita sobre su propia obra.
Esta exposición, dirigida por Jaime Brihuega y Mónica Carabias, y ubicada en la Sala de Exposiciones Alcalá 31 (sede de la Consejería de Cultura y Deportes), estará abierta al público del 11 de octubre al 12 de noviembre.
'Pulpo´s Boulevard. Ouka Leele en su laberinto' está articulada en dos grandes apartados. Por una parte, se recoge una muestra antológica de los 30 años de oficio de la artista, en la que no faltan imágenes inéditas y que reúne los originales más representativos de su carrera, como su conocida serie 'Peluquería', o sus primeros célebres trabajos en blanco y negro, entre otros. La antología se completa con una selección de sus desnudos y retratos coloreados.
Además de estas obras, la planta baja de la exposición presenta la obra que Ouka Leele ha creado específicamente para esta exposición. Así, se propone al público un recorrido conceptual por el siglo XX en el que la artista reflexiona sobre su propia obra, y el contexto en el que se realizó. Como resultado, la autora obtiene la esencia de la cultura visual del siglo XX, todo ello en torno a un pulpo gigante de ocho metros colgado del techo de la sala.

Los últimos estudios sobre comportamiento animal dicen que los pulpos son inteligentes y juguetones.

NATALIE ANGIE

Un pulpo es un invertebrado y un molusco. Por lo tanto, está en la misma categoría que las almejas y las ostras. Pero supera con mucho a otros invertebrados en su capacidad de despertar afecto y fascinación en los humanos. Los últimos estudios dicen que los pulpos juegan, tienen diferentes personalidades y son grandes imitadores.

Jennifer Mather, profesora asociada de psicología y neurociencia de la Universidad de Lethbridge en el Canadá, informó ante la Sociedad de Comportamiento Animal en julio que los pulpos participan de un comportamiento de juego. Los hallazgos de Mather demuestran que tienen una relativa complejidad mental que se considera dominio de los mamíferos jóvenes. Los pulpos, entonces, son inteligentes.

Mather describió sus observaciones de un pulpo en un acuario. El animal llevó deliberadamente una botella a la corriente de agua del tanque, la observó flotar y alejarse con la corriente y la llevó de vuelta al mismo lugar. Repitió la acción una y otra vez. Si eso no es comportamiento lúdico, dijo la investigadora, no sé qué es. Según Jennifer Mather y Roland Anderson, biólogo del acuario de Seattle, en los Estados Unidos, los pulpos podrían ser clasificados e interpretados según tres diferentes humores temperamentales: pasivo, agresivo y paranoide. Trabajando con pequeños pulpos rojos, los investigadores testearon reiteradamente a 44 individuos en 19 circunstancias definidas. Probaron cómo reaccionaba cada pulpo cuando alguien abría su tanque y miraba dentro; cómo respondía a una amenaza, por ejemplo, cuando lo tocaba con un cepillo áspero; y con qué rapidez se arrojaba sobre una presa, un cangrejo. Algunos pulpos atacaban el cepillo y capturaban el cangrejo apenas lo veían. Los investigadores los rotularon como agresivos. Otros se encogían ante el cepillo y esperaban hasta estar solos, después del anochecer, para comer sus cangrejos. Fueron llamados pasivos. Y otros, los paranoides, respondían a una amenaza echando un chorro de tinta y huían velozmente. Cada animal mantuvo una consecuencia en su comportamiento de una ronda de pruebas a la siguiente.

Hasta ahora, los especialistas conocen unas cien especies de pulpos (octópodos), y sospechan que podría haber otras cien más, todavía no conocidas. Ellos (los pulpos) tienen ojos grandes, casi humanos, ojos que miran, con pupilas que se dilatan y contraen. Su manto, el gran saco que sale de los brazos, hace pensar en un gigantesco cerebro. Pero, en realidad, el manto de un octópodo guarda los órganos internos del animal. Y la cabeza es una pequeña protuberancia entre los ojos.

Los pulpos no son aburridos, pero son comunes. Abundan en todos los mares de la tierra y viven tanto en aguas bajas como en aguas profundas. Tienen mucha capacidad para camuflarse: pueden pasar del color naranja al verde, al blanco y al azul, en una fracción de segundo. Mientras la mayoría de los animales que cambian de color, como el camaleón, confían en señales transportadas por la sangre, que demoran algunos segundos en llegar a la piel, el octópodo maneja el cambio con su sistema nervioso. Su piel tiene unas células llamadas cromatóforos, que tienen pequeños sacos de pigmentos rojo, negro y amarillo. Con una simple contracción que provoca un impulso nervioso, los cromatóforos liberan una mezcla de aquellos pigmentos y la nube de color rodea al pulpo. Para ampliar aun más la gama de disfraces, la piel está salpicada de células cristalinas que reflejan la luz exterior.

Además, los músculos dérmicos pueden plegar instantáneamente la piel para que parezca arena o coral; o alisarla para que se asemeje a una piedra. Recientemente científicos australianos han descubierto un espectacular grupo de pulpos, llamados pulpos imitadores, que pueden cambiar de forma para personificar otros animales marinos. Los imitadores pueden adoptar la apariencia de un lenguado, un camarón, una serpiente marina, una raya, una estrella de mar o un cangrejo gigante. Es que usan su camuflaje no sólo con fines defensivos, sino también a la manera de un lobo con piel de cordero, para cazar mejor.

(c)The New York Times.

Artículo que explica la increible capacidad de aprendizaje de los pulpos...

The Octopus Memory

Vía This Magic Sea

In Polynesian legend, the octopus spirit is soft yet powerful, hidden yet aware, quiet yet quick. It guards secrets and treasures of the deep. One secret is, where do octopus keep their smarts. They don't really have a brain. Yet everyone who has studied octopus, put them through mazes and tests, say these 8-legged beasties are one of Sea's most canny creatures.
They are wonderful camouflage artists, able to assume almost any shape, even altering the texture and color of their skin to blend imperfectly, invisibly, with the sea floor. They talk to each other and to fish by color signals washing through their satin soft skin. They know all about subterfuge, puffing out a murky cloud of ink like a magician puffs out a plume of smoke to vanish behind. I even saw one throw a decoy crab shell to win a live crab from a determined queen trigger fish. Octopus eat crabs, shrimp, and clams.

Octopus are brilliant learners.
With a little imagination you can teach an octopus nearly any trick at all. A German agricultural expert in Samoa became curious about the flexibility of octopus. How small a hole can an octopus slither through? He set up an aquarium divided by a sheet of clear plastic. A glass tube connected the two halves of the tank. He put a crab in one, an octopus in the other. The Octopus saw the crab, quickly ran its tentacles over the Plexiglas wall, discovered the glass tube and slid through it to get the crab.
Smaller tube. The second time the octopus didn't waste time fiddling around. It immediately slithered through the glass tube. The researcher put in another plastic barrier with a smaller tube, and the octopus oozed through. Then a smaller tube until the hole was just about as small as the diameter of the octopus' eye. He made a movie of his octopus going through the glass tube and it looks like a pink worm with a big eye on one end.
The Seaquarium in Miami Florida had a display of Florida lobsters. The lobsters kept vanishing and the manager thought, perhaps, one of the employees was making off with them. Or maybe somebody was sneaking in over the fence at night and stealing them. The Night watchman himself was one of the suspects and was determined to catch the thief if only to clear himself. Again and again the lobsters vanished but he couldn't catch anyone doing it. One night he went about his rounds as normal and then slipped back into the main display area and waited. After 30 minutes he thought he saw something happening in the lobster tank and he turned on all the lights. A big octopus was in the lobster tank. The watchman ran around to the walkway above the tanks and as he entered the area he saw the octopus lugging its captive lobster along the walkway, hell bent for its own tank. When they checked the octopus tank they found the empty shells of the stolen lobsters buried under the rocks. Octopus can obviously learn new tricks all by themselves.

Where do they store their memories?
Some memories are genetic, recorded in the large, complex DNA molecules found in every octopus cell. These tell the cells how to go from one fertilized egg cell to the billions of cells that form and are an octopus. They store important memories about how a baby octopus should crawl, swim, disguise itself, communicate with rainbows in its skin, mate, reproduce, lay eggs and protect them and die. These are tricks the canny octopus learned over the hundred million years or so it has been prowling the seven seas. Ancient memories.
Then there are very short term memories, such as the ability of a cell to remember conditions existing a fraction of a second before, so it can compare incoming perceptions with the prior condition and thus respond. These are erased almost immediately and involve changes in simple protein structures.
And there are memories that the octopus stores for its rather short (one year) life. The wonderful discoveries each octopus makes during its life are stored in some secret place, maybe in RNA scattered everywhere in the octopus body. They are not passed along to their young. octopus never get to see their own offspring. The female does not eat while guarding her eggs. She dies when they hatch out and swim into the sea.

Thought Transference
There are some very peculiar aspects to memories. Single celled creatures, like protozoa, or bacteria can be taught to respond to certain signals. When the cells divide, the progeny keep the recorded memory.
Scientists in the mid fifties taught flatworms to curl up when a bright light was turned on. The flatworms were cut into hundreds of tiny pieces and fed to untrained flatworms. Yes indeed, the cannibalistic flatworms received and used the memory leading researchers to believe the memories were somehow stored in proteins.
How about this. Take a green sponge and a red sponge. Mash. Separate the cells by straining through a nylon sieve. Mix. The sponge cells change into little amoebas, collect together and form up again into a green sponge and a red sponge.
This is something like a human corporation that is rebuilt even if a fire or bomb destroys the entire physical plant and all the corporate records. The corporation remains because the people, if not destroyed, too, remember a pattern of mutual intercommunications, and can put their act together again. None of the individuals have the complete story, but each knows how to relate with each other to get the job done.
Interesting? Here's another and this is really strange. The ability to do all this remembering, especially genetic remembering, is stored in the DNA molecules. Take a colony of radiation resistant bacteria. Blast them with radiation until they fragment, keep blasting until their DNA molecules fragment. Mix. The bacteria, along with their DNA molecules reassemble themselves. How can this happen if the DNA is supposed to organize the construction of the bacterium? How does DNA, once fragmented, put itself back together again?
The miraculous radiation resistant bacteria are not unique, either. It seems all DNA can repair itself. Again, the system must have a kind of central organizing system to even know part of its coded information is messed up and, it must have some way of repairing the problem correctly and in sequence.
There is only one model that fits these events;
Memory is the result of the flow of information in specific patterns. It easily reforms into these patterns so long as the "concept" remains in the perception, memory, and response of some portion of the whole association.

Puesto que los pulpos son animales de una gran inteligencia, sería natural que en cautividad se les proporcionara algunos juguetes para disminuir su stress. Este artículo habla de las experiencias documentadas sobre los pulpos y los juguetes.

Octopuses would seem to be good candidates for environmental enrichment. They are the most intelligent invertebrate, being able to learn to negotiate simple mazes, open jars, engage in play behavior and exhibit individual personalities (Mather and Anderson, 2000). Although aspects of octopus enrichment have been documented (Wood and Wood, 1999; Rehling, 2000; Anderson and Wood, 2000), it remains unknown how beneficial octopus enrichment is to the animals since there is yet no way of measuring it (Anderson and Wood, 2000). Rehling (2000) noticed increased activity in octopuses with enrichment but Anderson and Wood (2000) point out that increased activity could be a sign of disturbance or perseveration (Shepherson, 1998). Boal et al. (2000) have shown that enrichment benefits the learning and memory in cuttlefish (Sepia sp.).

Since octopuses have demonstrated play behavior (Mather and Anderson, 1999), allowing them access to "toys" has been one aspect of their enrichment (Anderson, 2003). Mark Rehling at the Cleveland Zoo has kept a notebook of enrichment items used on octopuses (including toys) as reported by public aquariums keeping octopuses. The toys appear to have several aspects in common. First, they allow exploration of the toy, which is a preliminary to play behavior (Mather and Anderson, 1999). Secondly they contain parts moveable by the octopus's arms and suckers (Anderson, 2003). Thirdly, some of the toys had parts with direct connections to other moveable parts via levers, gears, or linkages (Anderson, 2003). But it remains unknown what types of toys give the best exploration/play experience. The purpose of this study was to find what makes a good octopus toy based on octopus handling times. Finding a good octopus toy would allow better enrichment for captive animals and hence better health (Shepherdson, 1998).

El artículo entero se encuentra en The Cephalopod Page

Ya lo decía yo hace unos días que los pulpos se escapaban de sus tanques como niños traviesos, en este artículo se comentan estas escapadas, el motivo es que los pulpos se aburren en sus tanques. Ergo si el pulpo se aburre, es porque es inteligente.

Es por ello que el Acuario Nacional de Washington tiene una medida antiaburrimiento, ha comprado un Mr. Potato para que el pulpo se divierta.

Lurking at the Aquarium, Brilliant Houdinis of the Deep
By Darragh Johnson

Wednesday, August 16, 2006;

Vía Washington Post

A leading indicator of octopus intelligence is that they get bored.

A leading indicator of human intelligence is that the humans at Washington's National Aquarium have figured out this, despite long-standing prejudice against octopuses: That they are invertebrates, all squish and shape-change, and one of their greatest tricks is squeezing through something that's the dimension of their eye -- which makes them sound like worms. Out of hunger for amusement -- not necessarily food or freedom -- they can maneuver out of tanks whose covers have been held down by 40 pounds of concrete blocks, and climb into the tanks of other sea creatures and eat them. They can die of boredom -- by climbing out, but not finding a tank to climb back in. Perhaps recalling the suicide note of British actor George Sanders: "Goodbye. I am leaving because I am bored."
Hence, while better-behaved angelfish and clams entertain themselves, it is the job of the aquarium staff to entertain octopuses as if they were bright, spoiled and manipulative children demanding attention.
Just now, one of those humans has dropped a green plastic alien action figure into the tank.
"Oooooo," croons the crowd as a 6-month-old, five-pound great Pacific octopus stretches out a long, red arm. She lassos the alien's head and swings it toward her mouth.
"What's he doing with the alien?" worries Patrick Orwin, 9.
Then a pair of big blue feet splashes into the tank. The octopus drops the alien and reaches for the feet, which sink fast. The objects are followed by a brown body, a Tom Selleck mustache, a red Bozo nose and a green plastic ball cap.
"Mr. Potato Head!" a few children squeal, and immediately Shania (who came from Canada and was dubbed Shania Twain by the aquarium's director) hugs herself around him. Minutes pass. The octopus-keeper has hidden smelt inside the plastic potato, but so far, Shania ignores the food. She's more into snuggling.
"You guys!" shouts a boy in the crowd. "Look at that! Look at that !"
Ah, the creepy-crawly creature, the swarming arms, that deep-sea demeanor. This is the bearer of intelligence?
"That was my attitude, too," confesses science writer Eugene Linden, who has written about animal intelligence since the 1970s and had focused, mostly, on the "big-brained" creatures such as apes, dolphins, elephants and whales. "I shared all the prejudices everybody else has."
Then he started hearing octopus stories. Like how they can open screw-top jars and hamster balls and child-proof caps. They can do mazes and learn shapes and distinguish colors and use tools.
"They play," says Jennifer Mather, a psychologist and octopus expert at Canada's University of Lethbridge.
There are even hints that octopuses have a sense of humor, Linden says.
He talks about the finicky octopus who, in a lab in Pennsylvania, was served slightly spoiled shrimp. The octopus refused to finish its dinner, and when the feeding researcher returned to its tank, the octopus made eye contact with her, then meaningfully pushed all the shrimp down the drain.
And Linden talks about the octopus that glided along the seafloor while holding a shell like a helmet over its head, as seen by the former director of the New York Aquarium, who was scuba diving in New England. As Linden writes in his 2002 book "The Octopus and the Orangutan: More True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity," it was as if the octopus were saying: I want to be a mollusk protected by its shell -- and not a mollusk protected by its wits.
"If you don't have a shell to hide in," says octopus-expert Mather, "you better be smart."
"They're really quite beguiling and fun to spend time with," says Linden. "They seem to have a personality."
Their personalities can be so strong that, at the Seattle Aquarium, octopus names describe their characteristics, like "Emily Dickinson," the shy mollusk who always hid; and "Lucretia McEvil," the troublemaker who tore up her tank; and "Leisure Suit Larry," who, notes Seattle Aquarium biologist Roland C. Anderson, "would have been arrested for sexual assault because his arms were all over you."
"Look!" chirps a mother, Stephanie Sanders. "She's got Potato Head glued to the wall!"
The crowd in front of Shania's tank keeps growing: About a dozen people jostle for a better view, and small children squeeze between the adults and push their hands and faces to the glass.
Shania lets go of Mr. Potato Head. Rick Quintero, an aquarist, herpetologist and Shania's keeper and personal enrichment tutor, dips a hand into her tank. He's holding an inch-long slice of smelt. Ignoring the fish, she grabs hold of Quintero's hand and doesn't let go, even when he starts to pull away. He nearly lifts the five-pound animal out of the water.
"Wow -- look at the suction on those limbs!" Patrick Orwin says.
An 8-year-old named Mary Mills Lochala starts giggling. "The octopus is tickling him!"
Eventually the day's class ends. Shania has played with a chartreuse hamster ball, has plucked the mustache from Mr. Potato Head's face and is still holding on to his Bozo nose. She hasn't eaten much, so Quintero leaves behind the toys in which her food is hidden.
Shania's tank is kept much dimmer than others at the aquarium, lest too much light make her nervous. Octopuses have been around since the dinosaurs and can seem more primitive than ancient or wise. They're capable of lifting four times their body weight -- a feat that screams muscle beach, not ivory tower. They change color.
Ask Quintero exactly what shade of red she is, and he answers: "She'll make a liar out of you: As soon as you call her one color, she'll change." And she does. Just before she starts playing with the alien and Mr. Potato Head, and before the thick crowd has gathered around her tank, Shania is a solid, vivid coral-red. But by the time she's cuddling with the Potato, she's turned an elaborately patterned white-and-crimson polka dot.
Replacing the Velcro-sealed top to Shania's tank, Quintero weights it with concrete blocks. The children remain pressed against the window. A 7-year-old from Michigan named Jill Neumann says, almost to herself: "That's a sweet octopus. I would like it for a pet."
Her mother, Jeanne Neumann, reacts quickly: "Uh, nooo thank you," she says. "No."
Quintero reappears in front of Shania's tank, in his blue National Aquarium staff polo shirt. He is talking about how Shania's predecessor, a shy male, spent about 80 percent of his time hiding within the tank's rocks, while Shania spends 80 percent of her time in plain view. It's a question of personality. She will soon move to a new and bigger tank, here in the basement of the Commerce Building, and they expect her to grow to about 30 or 40 pounds.
Another mother, Julia Helveston, turns away from the tank and says to Quintero, "They're smart, aren't they?"
He beams. Shania is his girl -- the smartest in the aquarium. Other animals get attention and enrichment, too, but it's nothing like what she gets.
Once a week, the two alligators are thrown some big leaves of lettuce and hundreds of crickets -- stuff that glints and moves and gives the animals an excuse to attack something that isn't the other alligator. But there it's aggression, not intelligence or boredom, that demands attention.
As Quintero says, "Not every tank gets Mr. Potato Head.

Being such highly intelligent creatures, octopuses are master escape artists, and can be hard to keep in an aquarium if they want out. I've known a couple of people who've gotten a small octopod for their home saltwater aquarium, only to find the creature dead and dried-up on the floor after it pried off the tank lid and crawled out in the night. One acquaintance of mine found his little octopod dead of electrocution after it escaped from its tank and made the mistake of probing a socket on a nearby power strip with one of its damp tentacles.
My marine biology professor from my undergrad college once had a laboratory job where they often kept octopuses. He learned a simple technique for convincing the new octopus that, yes, it really wanted to stay put in the aquarium.
He'd put the new octopus in the tank, do some odds and ends in the lab for a few minutes, then leave the room and turn out the lights. He'd wait outside until he heard the telltale, sodden slap that mean the octopus had staged a jailbreak and had hit the floor. He'd wait one minute, then go back into the lab and put the octopus back in the tank.
He'd repeat the process, the next time waiting three minutes. And on the third time, he waited a whole five minutes before rescuing the miserable, sticky, dust-bunny-covered octopus from the lab floor, rinsing it off, and placing it back in the aquarium.
After that third time, he told me, an octopus wouldn't try to escape again. In fact, he sometimes had to work hard to get it out if it needed to be examined or transferred to a new tank so the old one could be cleaned.

SEÑORA PEACHUM. — ¿No pretenderías que fuésemos tan groseras como para pedirle sus documentos, siendo él tan gentil al invitarnos a las dos a una reunión danzante en el Hotel del Pulpo?
PEACHUM. — ¿Dónde?
SEÑORA PEACHUM. — En el Hotel del Pulpo.
PEACHUM. — ¿Capitán? ¿Hotel del Pulpo? A ver, a ver, a ver...

Bertold Brecht -La opera de los dos centavos-

(Eso digo yo que a ver, a ver... que a ver cómo esta el cambio del pulpo en la obra de Bertold Brech: Die Dreigroschenoper, que según la traducción puede ser a dos centavos, tres centavos o incluso tres peniques)


Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
Nacido en Augsburgo, Alemania, estudió filosofía y medicina en la Universidad de Munich. Sus primeras obras muestran la influencia del expresionismo, el principal movimiento dramático de la época. En 1928, escribió un drama musical, La ópera de los dos centavos, cáustica sátira del capitalismo que se convirtió en el éxito teatral más importante de Brecht. Se estrenó en 1928 en Berlín. La preocupación por la justicia fue un tema fundamental en toda su obra. Durante este periodo inicial de su carrera, Brecht dirigía a los actores y empezó a desarrollar la teoría de técnica dramática conocida como teatro épico. Salió de Alemania tras el ascenso de Hitler y, tras pasar por Dinamarca, Suecia y Finlandia, se instaló en California en 1941. Interrogado por el Comité de Actividades Anti Estadounidenses, en 1948 huyó a Europa. En 1949 se estableció en Berlín Este, donde permaneció hasta su muerte. Durante esos años de exilio produjo algunas de sus mejores obras: La vida de Galileo Galilei (1938-1939), Madre Coraje y sus hijos (1941), que consolidaron su reputación como importante dramaturgo. Murió el 14 de agosto de 1956 en Berlín.

Ilustración de Juan Jesús Fernández, mediante la técnica del aerógrafo. Para más información se puede visitar su web.

Nacido en Cádiz en 1980, España, J. Jesús se declara seguidor de Luis Royo, Hans Rüdi Giger y heredero del movimiento expresionista alemán (Käthe Kollwitz, Blaue Reiter o die Brücke).
B. Wrightson, Ashley Wood y Chichoni se cuentan entre sus influencias más directas. Se decanta por el aerógrafo, pero también hace amplio uso de óleo, lápiz y tinta, amén del inevitable ordenador. Estudió en la Facultad de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, ha recibido varios premios y participado en multitud de exposiciones por toda Andalucía y parte del extranjero. En la actualidad vive en Alemania.

Si eres un conocedor de los carácteres Hanzi chinos o japoneses, tal vez puedas navegar con soltura por la web de Bah, pero lo que es yo voy casi a ciegas. Incluso dudo del nombre del artista. Pero de todas maneras he rescatado de ahí esta magnífica ilustración.

Si estás por Iowa en Marzo del 2007, tal vez tengas tiempo de visitar el Campeonato de construcción con latas. Este año ha sido la primera vez que se ha desarrollado, y los resultados han sido más que satisfactorios. La pena es que los equipos participativos creo que suelen ser de Iowa. Otro año será.

Fox & Fowle Architects, P.C., New York, NY

Cans Used: 4,100.
The water is upside-down blue Jell-O cups.

Para ver la galería de imágenes

La costa mexicana tiene una extensión de más de 9.000 km y cuenta con una gran variedad de especies de mariscos, pero por tradición no es habitual su consumo habitual en la dieta del mexicano, sin embargo la pesca ha percibido un aumento de demanda gracias sobretodo a las exportaciones. Sin embargo durante los últimos años el mercado europeo ha frenado la importación de pulpo mexicano, debido a casos de mala conservación del producto, lo que ha provocado que aparezca la salmonelosis. Esta noticia hace eco de este problema y de la saturación del mercado con el pulpo pescado en todo el litoral del Yucatán, pero con la imposibilidad de quitárselo de encima por las normas sanitarias del mercado europeo.

Saturado el mercado de pulpo
viernes, 20 de octubre de 2006

Las congeladoras están saturadas del molusco. (Julio Jiménez)

Grandes cantidades de pulpo se han estado capturando en estos días.
Derrama de más de $100 millones/ Unas 2,000 ton del molusco desplazadas a mercados internacionales

PROGRESO, Yucatán, 19 de octubre.- Un promedio de 2,000 toneladas se han desplazado al mercado internacional que ha generado una derrama económica de más de 100 millones de pesos.

El mercado de pulpo está saturado, por lo que se contempla que se han capturado unas 7,000 toneladas del molusco, además del producto que se comercializa en el mercado nacional.

Estas fueron las palabras del empresario pesquero Ceferino Gutiérrez Aguilar, quien dijo que el pulpo ha inundando el mercado, pero hasta el día de hoy el precio del molusco continúa a 40 pesos el kilo, pero no se descarta que debido a la sobreproducción éste tienda a bajar en los siguientes días.

La derrama económica es grande, hay barcos que están llegando de 5 a 7 toneladas del producto y los pescadores de ribera están capturando hasta los 75 kilos por embarcación, por lo que los recursos que se están generando son muy aceptables.

Señaló que el pulpo se esta exportando a Europa, y de ahí éstos lo están canalizando al mercado asiático, pero todo está yendo de inicio al viejo continente.

Señaló que el enviar al mercado europeo pulpo se tiene que cubrir todas las normas de control sanitario. De hecho, si el producto que se envía por lote o por contenedores, se le llegara a detectar salmonera se regresa todo el lote.

Esto significa para el empresario un riesgo, por lo que la Canaimpesca ha sostenido diálogo con la Licda. Aída Albuena de Cofepris para que no vayan a darse casos como el ejemplificado.

De hecho se podrían detectar casos de salmonelosis en los primeros centros de recepción que son en este caso los campamentos pulperos y la caleta, que es donde llegan los pescadores a depositar su producto.

Porque al llegar a las congeladoras que es el centro de recepción y acopio del producto, ahí se guardan las medidas de higiene, entre estos el evitar que gente extraña o insectos voladores o rastreros se introduzcan a las plantas donde se trabaja el molusco.

De hecho de las 7 mil toneladas que se contempla se han capturado, unas 2000 se han desplazado al mercado extranjero. hay otras 1,000 que en breve serán canalizadas al mercado internacional.

Por lo que se espera que en esta temporada los volúmenes de captura lleguen a 15,000 toneladas de las 12,000 que se tienen programadas.

Los empresarios que no comercializan con el mercado internacional han almacenado parte de su producción, y esperan que el producto agarre un precio más alto.

Pero para evitar la descapitalización desplazan su producto al mercado local a los estados de Nuevo León, Jalisco, y desde luego al Distrito Federal, de donde se distribuye a todo el país para el consumo popular.

De hecho el litoral yucateco es un área bendita con la captura del pulpo Rosado maya y el patón o vulgaris. En el caso del Rosado maya, aunque la talla no es muy grande su estructura es ancha, por lo que en peso iguala a los de patas largas, además del sabor y consistencia de su carne deja un sabor especial a los clientes que han sabido valorar esta especie.

De hecho, a nivel mundial en producción de pulpo esta Marruecos, en segundo lugar México, porque hay que tener en cuenta que el pulpo se captura en Egipto e Israel, pero no reúnen las características del pulpo de este puerto. (Julio Jiménez Mendoza)

Hace un par de años alguien llenó la isla de Manhattan y sus alrededores con el símbolo de un fantasma. Ocurre que ese símbolo sonreía a los neoyorquinos y la mayoría lejos de encontrar que ensuciaba las paredes, encontraba la firma del nocturno graffitero simpática
Si vas por New York, aún encontrarás en las más insospechadas esquinas la firma del fantasma. El fantasma ¿cómo no? presenta una sospechosa forma pulpera.

Y es que el pulpo también ha puesto sus tentáculos en la gran manzana.

En este link se puede ver el debate generado por el fantasma.

La respiración del pulpo se produce a través de unas branquias interiores, pero no es imposible que un pulpo pueda dejar el agua por un breve periodo. Se cuentan historias de pulpos que han intentado escapar un acuario próximo para invadir otro por la presencia de pescados. No lo tengo confirmado... pero juro que lo he leido.

¿Pero que me dirían de pulpos que vivieran fuera del agua? ¿Oyeron alguna vez hablar de los Pulpos árbol? Una especie que sólo vive en el mar en sus años jóvenes, mientras que posteriormente puede vivir acumulando la humedad de los bosques.
Pues bien voy a dejar un artículo sobre ellos muy divertido, pero antes de liarles con este pulpo anfibio, les desvelo que todo es una inmensa broma que ha llenado páginas y páginas de internet. Así que mi consejo es que no vayan a los bosques a intentar pescar alguno...

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America. Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.
An intelligent and inquisitive being (it has the largest brain-to-body ratio for any mollusk), the tree octopus explores its arboreal world by both touch and sight. Adaptations its ancestors originally evolved in the three dimensional environment of the sea have been put to good use in the spatially complex maze of the coniferous Olympic rainforests. The challenges and richness of this environment (and the intimate way in which it interacts with it,) may account for the tree octopus's advanced behavioral development. (Some evolutionary theorists suppose that "arboreal adaptation" is what laid the groundwork in primates for the evolution of the human mind.)
Reaching out with one of her eight arms, each covered in sensitive suckers, a tree octopus might grab a branch to pull herself along in a form of locomotion called tentaculation; or she might be preparing to strike at an insect or small vertebrate, such as a frog or rodent, or steal an egg from a bird's nest; or she might even be examining some object that caught her fancy, instinctively desiring to manipulate it with her dexterous limbs (really deserving the title "sensory organs" more than mere "limbs",) in order to better know it.

Tree octopuses have eyesight comparable to humans. Besides allowing them to see their prey and environment, it helps them in inter-octopus relations. Although they are not social animals like us, they display to one-another their emotions through their ability to change the color of their skin: red indicates anger, white fear, while they normally maintain a mottled brown tone to blend in with the background.
The reproductive cycle of the tree octopus is still linked to its roots in the waters of the Puget Sound from where it is thought to have originated. Every year, in Spring, tree octopuses leave their homes in the Olympic National Forest and migrate towards the shore and, eventually, their spawning grounds in Hood Canal. There, they congregate (the only real social time in their lives,) and find mates. After the male has deposited his sperm, he returns to the forests, leaving the female to find an aquatic lair in which to attach her strands of egg-clusters. The female will guard and care for her eggs until they hatch, refusing even to eat, and usually dying from her selflessness. The young will spend the first month or so floating through Hood Canal, Admiralty Inlet, and as far as North Puget Sound before eventually moving out of the water and beginning their adult lives.
Why It's Endangered
Although the tree octopus is not officially listed on the Endangered Species List, we feel that it should be added since its numbers are at a critically low level for its breeding needs. The reasons for this dire situation include: decimation of habitat by logging and suburban encroachment; building of roads that cut off access to the water which it needs for spawning; predation by foreign species such as house cats; and booming populations of its natural predators, including the bald eagle and sasquatch. What few that make it to the Canal are further hampered in their reproduction by the growing problem of pollution from farming and residential run-off. Unless immediate action is taken to protect this species and its habitat, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus will be but a memory.

The possibility of Pacific Northwest tree octopus extinction is not an unwarranted fear. Other tree octopus species -- including the Douglas octopus and the red-ringed madrona sucker -- were once abundant throughout the Cascadia region, but have since gone extinct because of threats similar to those faced by paxarbolis, as well as overharvesting by the now-illegal tree octopus trade.
The history of the tree octopus trade is a sad one. Their voracious appetite for bird plumes having exhausted all the worthy species of that family, the fashionistas moved on to cephalopodic accoutrements during the early 20th Century. Tree octopuses became prized by the fashion industry as ornamental decorations for hats, leading greedy trappers to wipe out whole populations to feed the vanity of the fashionable rich. While fortunately this practice has been outlawed, its effects still reverberate today as these millinery deprivations brought tree octopus numbers below the critical point where even minor environmental change could cause disaster.
How You Can Help
Here are a few things that you can do to help save the Pacific Northwest tree octopus:
Write your representatives to let them know that you are concerned and that you feel the tree octopus should be included on the Endangered Species List and given special protection.
Help build awareness of the tree octopus by telling your friends and co-workers.
Place a tentacle ribbon on your website.
Participate in tree octopus awareness marches. You can demonstrate their plight during the march by having your friends dress up as tree octopuses while you attack them in a lumber jack costume.
Pamphlet your neighborhood. Tentacle ribbons make excellent doorknob hangers.
Join and donate to an organization committed to conservation, such as Greenpeas.
Boycott companies that use non-tree-octopus-safe wood harvesting practices.
Sign the petition! -- nothing activates activity like an Internet petition.
Tree Octopus Research
Please see our Tree Octopus Sightings page for additional photos and behavioral research as they become available. [Updated 2005-04-28]
Links To A Better Tomorrow
More About Cephalopods:
The Cephalopod Page - Scientific information about these wonderful mollusks.
The Octopus News Magazine Online - An online magazine about anything and everything pertaining to octopuses, squids and cephalopods.
2006 Cephalopod International Advisory Council Symposium - To be held in Hobart, Australia. Topic: "Cephalopod Life-cycles: biology, management & conservation."
Other Animals of Interest:
Save The Mountain Walrus - Another endangered Northwest creature that needs our help. (Original site down, link is to Archive.org mirror)
Save The Manhattan Beach Mottled Roach - Save one roach today, that tomorrow we may save millions!
Rock Nest Monster - Known only from its rocky nests and porcelean-like eggs, Cryptogorgo petronidus is so endangered that existential environmentalists wonder if it ever existed at all.
Giant Palouse Earthworm (Driloleirus americanus) - This threatened earthworm is native to the Palouse prairies of Washington and Idaho. They can grow up to three feet in length, are pinkish-white, and smell of lilies.
The Red Crabs of Christmas Island - Once every year, 120 million of these forest crabs migrate en masse from their inland burrows to the sea to spawn. Along the way, over a million are crushed by traffic and many die of dehydration crossing deforested land. The offspring of those that survive then have to contend with super-colonies of yellow crazy ants, introduced to the island by the thoughtless actions of Man.
Conservation Organizations
Greenpeas.org - Greenpeas is working to save the world from humans.
World Conservation Union - An international organization whose mission is "To influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable."
The Wildlife Fund - The WWF works to preserve genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity throughout the world.
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre - An office of the UN that provides information for policy and action to conserve the living world.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Pumpkins - How many pumpkins must be sacrificed every year to decorate our houses and keep our bellies filled with pies before we realize the error of our ways? Too many, it seems!

Si vas por el barrio de Brooklyn y pisas el metro, tal vez te encuentres con uno de los siete mosaicos de Deborah Brown que decoran la IRT West Side Line. Este que reproducimos lleva por título Platform Diving.

Le poulpe
Réalisateur : Charles Gassot Acteur(s) : Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Clothilde Courau Genre : Comédie

Ya hablamos aquí de este personaje creado por Jean Bernard Pouy, pues bien esta película no deja de ser una adaptación para la gran pantalla.

Gabriel Lecouvrer, alias el Pulpo, no ha conseguido aclarar su última investigación, por lo que decide tomar un descanso a su pueblo natal, en una pequeña ciudad portuaria, con su compañera. Una vez allí, descubriran que la tumba donde descansan sus padres ha sido profanada. Las vacaciones del pulpo acaban de finalizar...

La película creo que aún no ha sido doblada al castellano.

Los inquietantes cuadros de Keith Louise Judd se puden visitar en Swan Bones, nosotros nos quedamos obviamente con éste



Kelly Louise Judd spends a great deal of her time creating paintings, dolls, and jewelry. Victorian illustration, fairy tales, abnormal psychology, and Northern Renaissance art are a few of the things she is inspired by.
Kelly Louise received a B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2002, she continues to live in Kansas City where she works in her studio full time.

Elaboración
Cogemos cuatro cazuelas como para gambas al ajillo. Las ponemos al fuego sobre la plancha, echamos el aceite y cuando el aceite esté bien caliente ponemos el ajo en filetes y las guindillas. Cuando empiecen a dorar ponemos las gambas y a continuación el pulpo cocido, cortadito en trozos. Le ponemos la sal gorda, el pimentón, el aceite y el perejil. Cuando estea la gamba hecha lo retiramos y ya está rico para comer.
Fuente: Chef Casi Mera

El neurólogo Oliver Sacks desde luego apuntaba de pequeño maneras, mientras otros niños se dedicaban a comprar chucherías y jugar a fútbol durante las vacaciones, el pequeño Oliver jugaba en su bañera con un pulpo que le había dado un pescador. Lo mantenía vivo en el cuarto de baño del hotel donde se alojaba, alimentándolo con cangrejos vivos, y observándolo, lo que sería un preludio a sus futuros informes clínicos. Un dia una criada entró en el cuarto de baño sin estar avisada, y después de el susto inicial, acabó matando al pulpo con el palo de una escoba (el susto que se llevó el pulpo debió ser mucho mayor). Los Sacks una familia no al uso, lo que hizieron fue disecar a su “animal doméstico” y guardar algunas de sus partes en formol.

Esta historia se cuenta en el el libro de memorias de infancia de Oliver Sacks: El tio Tungsteno. Recuerdos de un químico precoz.

Over the past twenty-five years or so I have kept a wide range of strange and unusual marine species; everything from sharks and rays to Frogfish and Flying gurnards. In this time I have accumulated a good deal of knowledge about how to care for the weirder aquarium inhabitants.

For many years, keeping an octopus had been a really appealing idea - I was fascinated to learn for myself whether the stories regarding their intelligence and camouflage were true. I had heard rumours that they were extremely difficult to keep but, always ready for a challenge, I decided to take the plunge.

The first problem I came across was a complete lack of information on keeping an octopus in a home aquarium. I found lots of information about various species, but absolutely nothing about water conditions, filtration, aquarium size, behaviour and other crucial factors.

The first aquarium was 68 l./15 gal. and equipped with a Bak-Pak skimmer with built-in biological filter. An eight-watt fluorescent tube provided lighting - this was the smallest available, but still a little too bright. For decoration I used 10 Kg/22 lbs of live rock.

After the aquarium was matured I obtained a small Red octopus, I later found out this was an extremely nocturnal species, Octopus bocki. Identifying any octopus correctly is difficult, even for experts. This species only comes out in complete darkness and does not exhibit many of the character traits associated with other more diurnal octopuses, for example, colour changes.

It fed well on cockles still in their shell and it used the empty shells to form a barricade to its hole in the live rock where it lived. This did well for two months, before it got stuck behind its own barricade. It was trapped for several days before I realised and when it was released it was very distressed and died the next day.

Over the next few months I tried to keep octopuses in this aquarium on several occasions without success. They did well initially, but then stopped feeding and then deteriorated very quickly. I tested the water frequently and never found anything to be concerned about.

Unfortunately I was not sure what the parameters for octopuses should be. In hindsight there may have been inadequate oxygenation and circulation or a low s.g. I had never been so unsuccessful in keeping any species before and octopuses were rapidly loosing their appeal due to my failures. I decided to throw everything I had (including over two and a half thousand pounds) at one last attempt...

I purchased a 91 x 66 x 51cm/36" x 26" x 20" custom-built aquarium designed to house an ab Aqua Medic Marin 500 internal filter, this includes a large air-driven protein skimmer, trickle filter and a D and D Sulphur Denitrator. The Marin 500 is rated for tanks up to 590 l./130 gal., I installed it on my 181 l./40 gal. tank to ensure that inadequate filtration was not going to be an issue. (...)

El artículo completo se encuentra en Practical Fishkeeping

Si está planteándose ponerse un acuario en su casa con algunos peces, tal vez sea hora de plantearse una nueva posibilidad menos común, pero puede que más atractiva. ¿Qué le parecería tener un pulpo en un acuario casero?

El siguiente artículo reflexiona sobre este tipo de acuarios.

Don't Fear the Raptor - An Octopus in the Home Aquarium

By Dr. James B. Wood

Are you ready to keep a new pet: something different, challenging, intelligent, and cunning? A creature that has entirely too many plural noun names: octopuses, octopi, octopods, octopoids, octopodes, octopussies (Lane)—and you thought ozone kinetics was confusing! A creature that has a reputation and a place in folk lore. Octopuses, or devil fish, have battled at least a few epic heroes to the death and have allegedly attacked and sank ships in order to dine on sailors. Whether in fiction or fact, octopuses are amazing creatures; and with preparation and knowledge, they can be successfully maintained in a home aquarium.

Octopuses are classified in the phylum Mollusca which includes gastropods (snails, nudibranchs, etc.), polyplacophorans (chitons), bivalves (clams, oysters, and mussels), scaphopods (tusk shells), and some others. Octopuses are placed in the class Cephalopoda which translates as 'head-foot.' This most advanced molluskan class also includes nautili, cuttlefish, and squid. Of all invertebrates which compose over 95 per cent of the Animal Kingdom, octopuses may be the most intelligent.

Some of the octopus's remarkable abilities include the capability to expel ink and to change skin texture and apparent size. They are able to jettison water through their siphon by contracting their mantel to provide quick thrust. They have well developed eyes and an efficient closed circulatory system. Octopuses have surprisingly strong but sensitive suckers on their eight arms. Some octopuses make 'speculative attacks' on rocks hoping to flush out prey that might be hiding beneath. Others use their bodies as cast nets and 'parachute' onto prey to trap them. There are reports of octopuses dropping rocks in between the open shells of bivalves, preventing the shell from closing and enabling an easy kill (Lane).

Octopuses can adapt to new situations and solve problems; they appear to be curious about their surroundings ('hmmm, I wonder if I could get out of this tank' or 'hmmm, where does that tube go?') They have the intelligence and ability to get into and out of fishermen's crab and fish traps, and certainly to get beneath an undergravel filter plate. Octopuses have very little hard material in their bodies, only a beak and a radula in most, enabling them to squeeze into or through amazingly small spaces. (...)

El artículo completo está en The Cephalopod Page

Un tipo entra en un bar con un pulpo en la cabeza y el camarero le dice: "Paco, ¿pero qué te ha ocurrido?" y el pulpo le responde "Ufff, Manolo, si te lo contara no me creerías".

Para los que le gusta la cultura bizarre de los pulps, aquí hay una dirección curiosísima de portadas de revistas donde el papel protagonista es asignado al monstruo de ocho brazos. Y por supuesto, y como no? con los pulpos también suelen haber señoritas ligeras de ropa… Y es que no sólo de pan vive el hombre!!

Poulpe Pulps



Mis recuerdos a Absencito, todo un teórico de la cultura alternativa. Del cual leo que aunque enfermo ha podido trasladarse al Festival de Cine Fantástico de Sitges (yo debería también estar por allí, y no llorando mis penas). Hoy pasé la tarde con Palimp y nos acordamos de él.

La canción fue compuesta por la banda británica Pink Floyd en su etapa inicial, cuando el líder de la banda era Syd Barret, pero sus crecientes problemas con las drogas harían que tuviese que ser pronto sustituido. Aunque su presencia siempre estuvo presente en el grupo.

Syd Barret murió hace unos días, según parece la causa ha sido una complicación en la diabetes que padecía en los últimos años.

El Octopus Magazine es una revista que edita poemas de autores ingleses. Pero lo que más me gusta de ella no es la poesía en sí, sino la visión limpia de sus páginas. Acostumbrado al mundo internauta donde todos los rincones se aprovechan con barras de herramientas, carpetas, columnas, pestañas... da gusto reencontrarse con el hermoso placer de los espacios en blanco.

Me he animado a hacer una traducción para la receta de las bolas de Takoyaki. Si haya alguna incongruencia es debida a que mi nivel de inglés no llega a donde quisiera. Así que para cualquier duda consulte la receta original en inglés aquí.

Takoyaki (bolas del pulpo)

200g tajó de pulpo hervido troceado
Aceite de cocina
Benishoga (jengibre conservado en vinagre) (al gusto)
Cebolla verde (o cevolleta). (al gusto)
Tenkasu (o arroz crujiente) (al gusto)

Pasta para rebozar
450cc de agua
1 pedazo de konbu (quelpo) de 10 cm.
15g de katsuobushi molido (bonito seco raspado)
200g de harina
2 huevos

Salsa
Salsa comercial del takoyaki
O salsa Perrins
O salsa Bull-Dog
O mayonesa

Tiempo de preparación: : 10-20 minutos
Se sirven 50-60 bolas para 4-5 personas


Takoyaki ("bolas del pulpo") se sirve generalmente en los tenderetes de la calle, pero también se puede hacer en casa. Sin embargo, ayudará que usted tenga una parrilla para takoyaki, o un dispositivo similar con las copas de tres centímetros de diámetro.

Preparación de la pasta
1. limpie el konbu limpiándolo ligeramente con un paño.
2. Corte el konbu en tiras de 2 cm de ancho
3. Agregue el agua y el konbu a una olla, y sin taparlo póngala a fuego lento.
4. Momentos antes que el agua comienza a hervir, quite el konbu de la olla. El líquido debe tener un color amarillento o ligeramente verdosos
5. Agregue el katsuobushi raspado cuando al agua comience a hervir.
6. Después de que el líquido haya estado hirviendo un minuto o dos, apague el fuego.
7. Quite rápidamente el katsuobushi raspado del líquido con un filtro o un tamiz o un paño. Intente quitar el katsuobushi mientras que todavía está flotando en la superficie, antes de que tenga una ocasión de hundirse.
8. Permita que el líquido se enfríe, después agregue el líquido, la harina y los huevos a un tazón de fuente y mézclelo.

Preparación del takoyaki
Hacer una hornada pequeña para probar como salen las bolas de takoyaki 4 o 5 al principio, para comprobar la consistencia de la harina.
Agregue más harina o agua según lo necesitado.
1. Ponga aceite en la cacerola del takoyaki.
2. Agregue los pedazos del pulpo cortado a cada copa.
3. Vierta adentro la pasta rebozada.
4. Agregue el benishoga, el negi y el tenkasu al gusto.
5. Cocine los pedazos del takoyaki hasta que alcanzan el grado deseado de firmeza, dándoles la vuelta con frecuencia.
6. Sáquelos de la cacerola y sírvalos con la salsa y/o la mayonesa.

Fuente: Robb Satterwhite y Kenji Mitsuyama

La famosa mirada del pulpo, después de tomarse unos psicotrópicos.