The Great Northwestern Tree Octopus

Is it real, is it a hoax? In this quantum century, does it matter?

  1. This is where it all started....
  2. The Tree Octopus, while native to the Pacific Northwest, is rarely seen--even by lifelong residents--due to it's shyness, ability to camouflage itself, and most importantly its unique ability to harness quantum uncertainty to literally "be or not-to-be" as required to elude predators. 

    This may appear to be either pure insanity or simply another example of Northwest quirkiness, but consider, if you will, the case of the Mad Fishmonger:
  3. It might be said at this juncture that Charles Fort was a nut (or that 19th Century newspapers had a somewhat different relationship with objective truth than they do today), but consider the Smoked Barracuda...
  4. To this, I can only quote someone:

    "Nature has shewn herself capable of many freakish performances."  --H.P. Lovecraft

    And he would know, being an exceptionally weird guy.  Also he hated fish. It's all coming together!

    Also coming together... more stuff that people didn't believe before, but now can reproduce in a Lab:
  5. Artificial Life asks Fundamental Questions of the Living #DNA
  6. Or have been here, swimming along, for the last 480 million years or so...
  7. With the extent of odd things bubbling up into the collective unconscious, is it so ludicrous to believe that a little seen amphibious octopus is at large in the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest?

    The horrible truth is, that it isn't*!

    (*Really. It's a hoax. You know, like the Jackalope)

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Karl Eckler

Cyberpunk Librarian. UW iSchool MLIS candidate 2012. CISSP candidate 2012. Javacrucian: Caffeine is God

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