cuttlefish are awesome.

check out what it does around 3:30.

the cuttlefish (which is NOT a fish, or a vertebrate at all, in case you were wondering, but is closely related to squid and octopi) is interesting because it has such exquisite control over its pigmentation, such that it can change its patterning on the fly (as illustrated in the movie). each individual pigment cell has a cluster of muscle cells around it, controlling whether it is contracted (invisible) or extended (visible). pigment cells come in several colors, and by controlling each pixel at the cellular level, this amazing cephalopod is able to blend in with its environment, mimicking plants, other animals, and rocks as it chooses, or by parading around in threatening or seductive coloration it can warn off predators or attract a mate.

another interesting thing about cuttlefish is that although they can change colors, they cannot see colors, though they can detect the polarization of light. so somehow, though they do not have cone photoreceptors, they can match their own coloration to that of their environment.

read more about cuttlefish.

friday harbor

more here, and more later.

oysters!

my friend kevin (whose couch i slept on in new york last summer) was in town for a microsoft interview, so he called me and we had dinner last night at elliot's oyster house. mmmm! oysters are tasty. we sat at the bar and chatted with the oyster guy (i'm sure he has a fancier name than that) about shellfish and seattle. he hooked us up with the last two of the ones on the bottom, the pretty round ones. they were super-tasty. but the icing on the cake was the champagne stuff in the middle. it's this icy, peppery really tasty frosty stuff made out of mumm's champagne and some other stuff. (sorry, i am so not a foodie... i should be able to describe that better.) anyway, it was yummy.

the picture was taken on my new camera phone. after the camera saltwater tragedy i figured it was as good a time as ever to upgrade my cellphone, especially since i was up for a contract renewal. so i signed my soul away to cingular for another 2 years, but i got a sweet sony ericsson w810i for just 75 bucks. it's got a 2 megapixel camera, which is the same as my old camera... slightly less zoom power, but definitely smaller. plus, it's two gadgets in one. plus, it's got video capabilities with a microphone, something my old camera was lacking, and it takes good pictures at high resolution. the downer is that it takes memory stick instead of SD (damn you and your proprietary formats sony!) so my 1gb SD card is no good, and i'm stuck with 128 mb unless i want to buy a memory stick. overall though, i have to say i am impressed. it's a great phone, and a pretty decent camera to boot. :D