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Avast! Carnival of the Blue #37

That’s right, kids, it’s that time of month again. Ocean time. This month’s Carnival of the Blue is up at Blogfish. Awesome posts, and I always encourage, a great way to find new blogs to read.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


That's right, kids, it's that time of month again. Ocean time.

carnival of the blue logo.jpg

This month's Carnival of the Blue is up at Blogfish.


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Awesome posts, and I always encourage, a great way to find new blogs to read. This month particularly, there are some really interesting and important posts to read concerning the oil spill. And speaking of oil spill, have you seen this awesome infographic?

Here's the part with the link to my salty post this month:

Jason Goldman at The Thoughtful Animal wonders if whales and dolphins should have "human rights," and also in the category of comparing us to ocean animals, Zen Faulkes asks if octopuses feel pain as deeply as mammals on NeuroDojo...which brings up the least important question of the day, what is the actual true plural of octopus? Any definitive answers from the cephalopodists amongst us?

As Zen points out,

Octopus is a Greek word. Strictly speaking, the correct plural of octopus is octopodes.

Since the word has moved into English, octopuses is also acceptable.

The way most people pluralize it (one "-pus," many "-pi") is a Latin pluralization, which does violence to the language of the word.

I agree! Octopuses it is. Now, go forth, go deep, and go blue.

Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication.

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