Giant plastinated squid
This lovely 21.5 foot squid is now hanging around Paris's Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. The creature has been plastinated, meaning its fluids have been replaced with a polymer. (It's the same process Gunther von Hagens used for the Body Worlds exhibitions.) The squid was donated by the country of New Zealand. From the BBC News:
A pink pigment was added to make it look as close as possible to the living creature...Link to BBC News, Link to museum page
The usual way of preserving life forms - by pickling them in a jar - would, the museum said, have been demeaning, and out of the question.
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"The squid hangs from the ceiling of France's National Museum of Natural History, where its long pink tentacles stretch down towards a terrified-looking shark."
Why can't I picture a terrified-looking shark?
"The usual way of preserving life forms - by pickling them in a jar - would, the museum said, have been demeaning, and out of the question."
damn, I thought I finally had a use for this giant-squid sized pickle jar i've been saving...
Scrolling down to the photo, I thought it was a still frame from Blade Runner -the color and image quality and background all reminded me of a street scene from the movie. I don't think a giant flying squid would be entirely out of place there.
"I can't do that thing anymore,
I can't be the thing I was before,
maybe I am better off alone,
because I crush everything,
and I crush everything,
and I crush everything."
April Fools!!!
Giant Squids aren't real!
Whatever may exist beyond the limits of space we've explored... It can't be weirder than what is already beneath our oceans.
There are too Giant Squids! Watch this very short clip about penguins to find out more....
Oh yeah like I'm going to believe anything on youtube on April Fool's day. Probably just another Rick Roll anyway!
We have one of those hanging in the Houston Museum of Natural Science, though I think it's just a model, not the plastinated real deal.
The biomass of giant squids is greater than the combined biomass of all of humanity.
There is a beautiful lifesize giant squid made of copper, hanging in the central atrium of the Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA, USA. There are some pictures of it here.
It looks a lot like a model of a giant squid that used to hang in Yale's Peabody Museum, one that was not plastinated.
People projecting a lot of their issues on squid lately, don't y'all think? You've got one boat captain describing them as vicious and this museum describing the usual preservation methods as demeaning(!) and a researcher tell us they have no feelings at all.
I suspect squid feel a lot of things. I don't think demeaned is one of them, especially after they are dead. While they are still in the pink, I think mostly they feel... hungry.
I feel for you dog..squid.....better paris than houston tho eh?