Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

    And to make it even worse one of the aquarium employees attempted to end the octopus mating by employing the cheeping of baby seagulls, which is known to be an anti-aphrodisiac to octopuses. But he had to run to the beach to get baby seagulls. Before he could get back to the aquarium with the baby seagulls he found that a lion, which had earlier escaped from the zoo and been hit with a tranquilizer dart, had fallen asleep in his path. Carefully he stepped over the lion and was promptly arrested for…wait a minute! They were supposed to be dolphins so I could say he was arrested for transporting young gulls across a sedate lion for immoral porpoises.

    However this does have me thinking of a lovely book which I read at least a dozen times when I was young called Octopus by Evelyn Shaw. Even though it was aimed at young readers it was a very descriptive and unsentimental story of an octopus’s life cycle. To this day my parents talk about how, after reading it, I casually described octopus sex to my grandfather.

  • Brainspore

    May we also conclude that Octopussy probably died a short time after she mated with James Bond?

    • nowimnothing

      I don’t know, how good were the treatments for Syphilis back then?

  • LinkMan

    [Insert tentacle porn joke here...]

    • robotnik

      “Insert” – HA!!!

  • wrwetzel

    I suggest that Ravel’s Bolero would be a better choice of music. Think of Bo Derek and the movie “10″ if you are not sure why.

  • nowimnothing

    FYI, skip to 3:00 if you want to jump over the foreplay and get right to the hot cephalopod on cephalopod action.

  • fjsr

    Well, I for one thought that the sad, sick choice between mating and survival was excellently investigated in the Futurama episode in Decapod 10. Sure, these were more crustacean-like creatures, but their terrible choice was strikingly reminiscent of this case, nevertheless. 

  • http://codeflow.org/ Florian Bösch

    I think this belongs here, Mantis lady chewing the head off her mates: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYp_Xi4AtAQ

    • Brainspore

      Who is giving head to who now?

  • Amphigorey

    I’m surprised the aquarium staff didn’t bring the hammer down on the assholes using flash photography. That shit doesn’t pass in the aquarium I volunteer at.

    • http://dailygrail.com/ Red Pill Junkie

       But zoo porn does?

      • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

        Zoo porn doesn’t interfere with peoples’ ability to enjoy the exhibit since it’s part of the exhibit. Flash photography, on the other hand…

        • http://dailygrail.com/ Red Pill Junkie

           I hear ya. Those poor animals suffer from enough stress already ;)

  • Van Diemen

    The kid that walks right past the screen at the critical moment.. 3:08… I want to put him in the tank.

  • http://redesigned.com redesigned

     with all the kids watching, i’m glad this didn’t end badly…look they are going to mate…wait, oh looks like someone is getting eaten for v-day.

    • howaboutthisdangit

      Given the choice of exposing their kids to death and cannibalism or exposing their kids to s-e-x, many parents would chose death and cannibalism.

      • http://redesigned.com redesigned

        wow, didn’t think of it but you are right.  we live in a strange strange society indeed.

  • gwyllion

    are you kidding – that was one of the most LOVELY things i have seen in an AGE! GORGEOUS!

  • TheOven

    Thank you for using the correct plural.

  • snagglepuss

    The floating bouquet of roses was a nice touch.