EXTRAS

[Gio]

From Alfred Hitchcock...

“Congratulations. Very scary four years.”

[Gio]

Characteristically ...
A life in the garden...
Thorn (s) included ...

A prowling octopus (right) comes across another in its den in Nelson Bay, Australia. Arm-probing and wrestling ensues.

When Usually Solitary Octopuses Get Together,
Odd Things Happen

Observations from Octopolis and Octlantis.

by Peter Godfrey-Smith December 14, 2020

"Wandering on scuba across a sandy plain populated by scallops during an exploratory dive in 2008, off the east coast of Australia, diver Matt Lawrence came across a small area where thousands of empty scallop shells were piled up and about a dozen octopuses were living. Octopuses have generally seemed very solitary animals, but this site showed that octopuses can, in some circumstances, live in rather close quarters. Lawrence and I, as a diver and philosopher of science, have studied this site, which we called “Octopolis,” extensively over the years, and witnessed a range of unusual behaviors among these octopuses, from evicting others to passing touches to ongoing ruckuses of den-eviction, jostling, and turf-wrangling. This might be a situation where animals of a mostly solitary species have come to live in unusual densities and are learning, individually, how to get along. Alternatively, more sociality might exist in octopus lives, in this species and some others, than has been recognized.

In 2017, two other divers, Marty Hing and Kylie Brown, exploring the same general area, discovered a second site, now christened “Octlantis.”

Like Octopolis, it was a setting with much food in the form of scallops, much danger from a range of predators, and few den options outside of a couple of isolated rocks poking up from the seafloor. At both sites, octopuses bring in scallops and leave the shells, which makes more places for dens. The numbers at Octlantis are similar to those at Octopolis; the most I have seen there is 14, spread across three subregions, all in a pretty small area."

An octopus portrait at the Octopolis site, where discarded scallop shells provide ample den opportunities.

"Both sites generate more behavior than you usually see with octopuses—more interaction, more activity. We just watch the octopuses do what they do, and years of observation have given us a growing sense of their range of behaviors. As I watch, I am always wondering about those relationships between central brain control and their neuron-packed arms.

A lot of what we see is coordinated, whole-body behavior. The animals shift between different kinds of motion. In jet propulsion, the arms are brought together and the animal becomes a slender missile. When crawling, the arms go everywhere at once. Some behaviors are packaged together into what appear to be social displays. An aggressive animal will often stand very tall with arms spread, and with the mantle (the large rear part of the body) pointing straight upward. This is combined with intense dark colors—an octopus can change its entire color in less than a second. It makes the animal look as large as possible, and genuinely ominous. We call this the Nosferatu display.

A particularly intriguing behavior is throwing. Octopuses sometimes gather material in their arms, and then either carry and release it, or sometimes throw it out in a concerted, occasionally spectacular, way. The arms are used to first collect some combination of shells, seaweed, and silt. As this material is held, the animal’s jet propulsion device is brought under the arm web, and a sudden jet of water propels everything out. These debris-throws can go for several body lengths. Often the material thrown hits another octopus."

Two octopuses fight at Octopolis. The one on the left is about to jet away, fleeing.

"My collaborator, marine biologist David Scheel of Alaska Pacific University, was the first to note a possible social role for this behavior. Are the octopuses aiming these throws at others? Is it a form of mild aggression? It is very hard to tell, as this requires working out what the octopus intends to do. That is difficult enough in the case of animals very close to ourselves, and extremely so with an octopus. Scheel and I have spent a lot of time trying to work out how to interpret octopus intentions, an activity fraught both with scientific and philosophical puzzles.

Most debris throws are probably part of den-building and den-cleaning. Octopuses spend a lot of time clearing rubbish that accumulates in their dens, and throws are part of this. If an octopus is doing this while paying some attention to another nearby octopus, as they often are, then it can be expected that some throws would inadvertently result in hits. Females seem to throw more than males, which is intriguing, but females also tend to build and maintain better dens than males. This makes sense, as females eventually have to brood eggs.

However, females quite often throw at males who are pestering them. They also throw at other females who seem to be too much “in their space.” If you are hanging out with an octopus near its den while diving and you start to bother it—perhaps by interfering, perhaps just by being too long in its space—you may feel a brisk jet of water propelled toward you. One can see a path where an octopus throws debris incidentally, hits another octopus by chance, and notices the effects. If the throw is big, a pestering male will back off, startled. All this may well be an instance of the kind of low-level aggression we’ve seen at both sites. But with octopuses, it’s always hard to tell what is going on.

At Octlantis, I saw an interesting use of a found object. A small octopus was staring at one of our unmanned cameras from its den, and then went off camera and returned with a piece of dead sponge. It arranged this on the top of the den, as something between a roof and a helmet, and huddled beneath it, looking out. I am not sure that the little octopus was bothered by the camera, and wanted a barrier against its presence, but it did look that way."


1:18 moments

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CItnAR5ku80


"Octopuses show all these well-organized, whole-body behaviors, but there’s another side to their actions: ongoing exploration by the arms. A crawling octopus that’s not in a hurry often allows its arms to roam a bit in many directions. When an octopus is sitting fairly quietly, a few arms often range out, like little eels, with their delicate, questioning tips. But this behavior is less apparent at Octopolis and Octlantis, perhaps because these octopuses are less relaxed. I think there is a kind of heightened attention at Octopolis and Octlantis, due to the social complexity, and ever-present question of sex.

A picture suggested by all this is that the octopus body is subject to a kind of mixed control. The body can be partially commanded and steered by the central brain, but the body also has parts that engage in their own ongoing exploration, reacting individually to their surroundings. Centrally coordinated actions can pass over to the exploratory tendencies of the arms. Watching octopuses sometimes results in a series of gestalt shifts, between seeing the animal as a whole whose each arm is a tool, and seeing an arm wander about, apparently in response to what it is sensing itself.

People often now talk about octopuses as “smart,” and in some ways they are. But that is not the term that comes readily to my mind. Octopuses are behaviorally complex, and I think they are also sensitive. I think they experience their lives in a rich way. The word “smart” points toward a particular way of being, however. It suggests that we interpret their behavioral complexity in a rather intellectualized manner. Octopuses are exploratory animals who direct the complexity of their bodies on whatever confronts them. They fiddle about and try things and turn the problem over and over—physically, not mentally. Octopuses have an extraordinary sensorium and an anarchic bodily embrace of novelty, but they are not, for the most part, ruminative and “clever” sorts of animals."

An octopus seizes a soft coral colony while foraging at Nelson Bay.

"But they do have a little of this clever side—some famous incidents where octopuses have escaped mysteriously from aquarium tanks might involve something close to planning, and their employment of objects such as shells and coconuts for protection is a kind of tool use. This use of objects seems to have an improvised, opportunistic look about it in some cases, including the case of the one at Octopolis that retrieved a sponge to hide from our camera. Those behaviors suggest a sort of mental as well as physical exploration. This appearance might be misleading—perhaps all the uses of shells, coconuts, sponges, and the like are well-established behaviors that evolution has shaped as a response to predators. But there, along with one other context, is where I’d be looking for signs of “cleverness.”

The other context is more social. Octopuses show a surprising awareness of what other agents, including people, are up to. They often make their moves to escape when you are not looking at them. The same sort of thing is true with cuttlefish. Bret Grasse, who manages octopuses and other cephalopods at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, has spent more time around these animals than just about anyone. Grasse has the impression that they are often very aware of what he is doing. They squirt water at him sometimes, but wait until he is not looking. Once he was squirted and turned to see a bunch of innocent cuttlefish near the bottom of their tank. He then used his phone’s camera to watch them while his back was turned."

A sponge-encrusted jar provides a perfect sleeping bag.

"Several came up to the surface and squirted him again.

Something else I like about octopuses—not something related to smartness, just something good—is the fact that individuals of the same species differ so much, even when performing fairly basic behaviors. They show many differences in personal style, for want of a better word. At another site, I came across a large octopus in his den. I didn’t try to disturb him, but he hauled himself out as I watched, and we set off across the landscape.

He kicked one octopus out of its den and mated with another. All the time during this, he moved in an unusual, stylized-looking way, producing flattened blade-like shapes in his arms, winding his arms over his head and backward for no apparent reason, coiling an arm into a wheel. I had not seen an octopus handle its arms like this before, and there seemed no particular reason for it. It just seemed an eccentricity, a quirk, like the many individual quirks in den-building. Everything he did was writ large."

Atlas Obscu

[Gio]

Sharing the love ...


Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano and John Gotti

“This life of ours, this is a wonderful life. If you can get through life like this and get away with it, hey, that’s great. But its very, very unpredictable. There’s so many ways you can screw it up.” ~ Paul Castellano


Scene of the Paul Castellano hit

Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano spills
Gambino secrets again

By Larry Celona and Lia Eustachewich

December 16, 2020

"Sammy “The Bull” Gravano is spilling his guts — again — in a new project that chronicles his time as the ruthless underboss of the Gambino crime family.

The first episode of the 75-year-old mobster’s “Our Thing” podcast dropped Wednesday, on the 35th anniversary of the infamous hit on Gambino boss Paul Castellano at Sparks Steak House in Manhattan in 1985.

Gravano copped to the inside job, along with 18 other murders, in a deal with the feds that led to his testimony against John Gotti in 1992.

The series debuts with the Dec. 11, 1990 raid of the Ravenite Social Club, resulting in the arrest of Gravano, Gotti and Gambino consigliere Frank Locascio.

But the day before the bust, Gravano plotted with Gotti, who took the helm of the crime syndicate after orchestrating. the Castellano hit, to rub out Genovese boss Vincent “The Chin” Gigante in retaliation for the 1986 assassination of Gravano’s predecessor, Frank DeCicco.

Gravano called Gotti’s order “music to my ears.”

“When I knelt at Frankie’s funeral, I knelt at his coffin and I whispered to him, ‘Frankie, I’ll never let this go. I will kill who did this. I will kill everyone who was involved. I will kill everyone who knew about it in advance,’” Gravano recalled in the episode. “I was going to now live up to my oath to him. This was extremely important to me.”

Gravano understood the gravity of a Gigante hit, which never came to fruition.

“When we killed Castellano and Tommy Bilotti in front of Spark’s Steak House, it was an internal thing,” he said. “Now, this was killing a boss of another family.”

Gravano got a wrist-slap sentence in exchange for flipping on Gotti but was tossed behind bars in 2000 on drug raps before getting released in 2017.

Future episodes of “Our Thing” promise to delve into Gravano’s upbringing in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, his time with the Colombo family before transferring to the Gambinos and his tenuous relationship with Gotti.

“I was the underboss of the most powerful crime family in American history. I was respected, loved, dedicated and feared,” Gravano says in a teaser for the show. “My love for Costa Nostra runs so deep — even to this day.

“You think you know the story. You think you know Costra Nostra. You think you know what I did. You have no f–king idea.”

Source


'Our Thing' Podcast Teaser | Sammy "The Bull" Gravano

5:30 minutes

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHLq-Y9664Y


In his own words ...

PREMIERE: 'Our Thing' Podcast Episode 1:
The Tipping Point | Sammy "The Bull" Gravano

Dec 16, 2020

45:13 minutes

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kVE1BuxCR0

[Gio]

Some interesting observations ...

New World Next Year 2021

"Welcome to New World Next Week — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news."

This year:

Media Monarchy’s 2020 Story: The Maskerade Is Weaponized By the Scamdemic
https://bit.ly/37r9FK8


Guardian Story Photo Reminds Us Gitmo Prisoners Forced to Wear Masks
https://bit.ly/38fGys8


Guantánamo Bay: 14 Years of Injustice (Jun. 5, 2013) // Fighting “Terrorism” With Torture (Apr. 12, 2003)
https://bit.ly/3p285V0


Scamdemic Lockdowns Just the Latest Use of Time-Tested Psych Warfare Techniques, From the Cold War to the War Of Terror
https://bit.ly/3p3sEAn


Corbett Report’s 2020 Story: The End of the Internet (as we knew it)

The Library of Alexandria is on Fire
https://bit.ly/2LISjzU


Media Monarchy’s Trend Prediction for 2021: Scamdemic Paves the Way for Smart Gridification

Techsperts Propose Driverless Highway
https://bit.ly/3r3HIzw


The "Possible Problems" with #V2X, Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication
https://bit.ly/37qejrC


#FCC Opens up the 5.9 GHz Band for #WiFi and #Automotive Applications
https://bit.ly/37ohMqK


SKYA21043 is a highly-integrated, 5 GHz FEM for high-power automotive #V2V and #V2X applications.
https://bit.ly/3r5PtF5


Coronavirus Pandemic Paving the Way for Drone Delivery Services
https://bit.ly/3rc9wlF


Welcome to Your Driverless Future!
https://bit.ly/3r7rpBN

Dec 17, 2020

33:59 minutes

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQrNaet6Fa8

[Gio]

Santa Baby

Sarah Miller-Crews sings Santa Baby with the Quarantine Sessions Band, with Dennis Gurwell on piano, Gene Williams on guitar, Brent Hahn on bass, and Tim Jimenez on drums and sleigh bells. Audio mix and video editing by Brent Hahn. Happy Holidays! 2020

Dec 13, 2020

3:00 minutes

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b35y1q2vM1I

#Trending

Some more music in the making ...

Guitarist’s duet with pet cat ‘playing’ the piano



Dec 16, 2020

41 magical moments

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQUNpxdAVyk

[Gio]

Wealthy Californians offering
thousands to jump line for
COVID-19 vaccine


By Tamar Lapin

December 18, 2020


Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

"Well-heeled Californians are offering doctors tens of thousands of dollars for a coronavirus vaccine — and it’s still not enough to get them on the list.

Other tactics from the West Coast wealthy and famous include having their personal assistants pester physicians daily and offering up five-figure donations to hospitals, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

“We get hundreds of calls every single day,” said Dr. Ehsan Ali, who runs Beverly Hills Concierge Doctor and whose clients include Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.

“This is the first time where I have not been able to get something for my patients.”

Dr. Jeff Toll, who runs a private concierge practice in Los Angeles — that charges up to $25,000 a year for top-notch care — said that “people are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars.”

Toll, who also has admitting privileges at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, recalled how one patient asked him, “If I donate $25,000 to Cedars, would that help me get in line?’”

Another doctor with many Hollywood clients told the Times that celebs and execs are having “their people calling me literally every day.”

“They don’t want to wait. They want to know how they can get it more quickly,” the doctor said.

The Golden State has strict rules for who should get the shot first: health care workers and nursing home residents, and then essential workers and those with chronic health conditions before everyone else.

But concierge doctors are already gearing up to help their powerful patients get vaccinated as soon as possible, the Times reported.

They’re compiling long patient files with medical histories and potential COVID-19 risks and buying pricey, ultra-low-temperature freezers required to keep the vax at minus 94 degrees, the report said.

“As soon as we heard about the vaccine coming to market, we started looking for freezers,” said Andrew Olanow, co-founder of Sollis Health, a concierge practice with clinics in New York, the Hamptons and Beverly Hills."


The COVID-19 vaccine in Los Angeles, California.

"The well-connected could take advantage of the vague guidelines and argue that an underlying condition or a top position at an essential company should push them to the front of the list, warned Glenn Ellis, a bioethicist and a visiting scholar at Tuskegee University.

“With enough money and influence, you can make a convincing argument about anything,” Ellis told the Times.

But Gov. Gavin Newsom — who made his own gaffe by dining maskless and indoors at the tony French Laundry restaurant — has warned that California will be “very aggressive” in making sure the rich and powerful “are not crowding out those that are most deserving of the vaccines.”

“Those that think they can get ahead of the line and those that think because they have resources or they have relationships that will allow them to do it … we also will be monitoring that very, very closely,” Newsom said."



Source



Wink/Wink ...

[Gio]

Those devious Russians ...

“Either Vladimir’s behavior has improved dramatically,
or the Naughty and Nice Database has been hacked.”

[Gio]

Hablando de ...

Elf on the what?????

Via Sebastian Maniscalco

My wife has a new elf for our Son....

Dec 18, 2020

2:29 minutes

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X2UXn03c18

[Gio]

He's been waiting ...

Blackbird

Instrumental Cover - Acoustic Guitar

2:35 minutes

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaQPvgdnC4k


♪ Sing Along ♪

[donk]

Yo Gio!! Sick versions, I always liked Bobby’s:

How you holding up?

[Gio]

Yo Gio!!

How you holding up?

At the moment, fine i think ...

Happy holidays to you and everyone!

[Gio]

So this is Xmas ...

hmm ...

The U Turn ...

Almost like a bipolar twin...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson 'Cancels Christmas'
as New Strain of Coronavirus Spreads Rapidly

1:52 minutes

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gDBs3wBkx4

[Gio]

Don't cry for me Argentina... Not.



Trump’s Future: Tons of Cash and Plenty of Options for Spending It

"Donald J. Trump will exit the White House as a private citizen next month perched atop a pile of campaign cash unheard-of for an outgoing president, and with few legal limits on how he can spend it.

Deflated by a loss he has yet to acknowledge, Mr. Trump has cushioned the blow by coaxing huge sums of money from his loyal supporters — often under dubious pretenses — raising roughly $250 million since Election Day along with the national party.

More than $60 million of that sum has gone to a new political action committee, according to people familiar with the matter, which Mr. Trump will control after he leaves office. Those funds, which far exceed what previous outgoing presidents had at their disposal, provide him with tremendous flexibility for his post-presidential ambitions: He could use the money to quell rebel factions within the party, reward loyalists, fund his travels and rallies, hire staff, pay legal bills and even lay the groundwork for a far-from-certain 2024 run" ... Read more here

[Gio]

When COVID-19 doesn’t go
away: Some survivors
experience symptoms months
after infection



"Josephine Keefe walks with her daughter Nora Hickey, 5, in downtown Spokane recently. Keefe had COVID-19 back in July and still feels some of the symptoms of the disease, making her one of the “long haulers" ... Read more here

[Aragorn]

When COVID-19 doesn’t go
away: Some survivors
experience symptoms months
after infection



"Josephine Keefe walks with her daughter Nora Hickey, 5, in downtown Spokane recently. Keefe had COVID-19 back in July and still feels some of the symptoms of the disease, making her one of the “long haulers" ... Read more here

Yep, I'm a long-hauler myself, and having been infected not once but twice in six months has certainly not helped in that regard. My body never had the time to properly heal from the first infection before the second one turned around the corner.

But hey, it's all just a ruse so they can inject us with microchips made by Bill Gates, ya know?