Still Amused...

Back in December I linked you to the story of Otto the Octopus. I was amused with his antics and offered up the story for your amusement.

Today I give you a new story of Octopus intelligence, curiosity, and mischievousness. This time it happened at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and involves their female two-spotted octopus.

Seems little missy was feeling in need of some excitement, so she created some. The story can be found here at National Geographic News. The Aquarium itself also released a press release about the incident, and you can see the CNN Video here. There is also an entry in the official aquarium blog. Oh, and one more link, this is a set of pictures on Flickr where you can see her a little better and appreciate just how pretty she is. They are copyrighted, so I am just linking to them. Enjoy!

These Ironworkers Rock!

I saw this story on Neatorama and thought it was so cool I just had to share it with my friends here.

It seems that a bunch of Ironworkers in Boston are giving a special treat to children who are receiving treatment for cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The Ironworkers are erecting the new Yawkey Center for Cancer care just across the way from the Institute. The children write their names on pieces of paper and tape them to a window for the Ironworkers to see. They, in turn, paint the children's names in bright colors on beams which are then hoisted into place.

This is not the first time Ironworkers have done something like this. They also did it in 1996 when the Smith Research Labs were built.

It is a simple thing. But, for the youngsters who press their noses to the glass each day to watch as new names are added, it is a few moments of joy. Over the last month they have painted more than 100 names on the building, and they have even put a likeness of SpongeBob SquarePants on their crane.

"Look out the window," Souza said, as she held Kristen in her arms. "There's your name up there. There's your name, Kristen." The girl, bald from her treatments, smiled shyly.

It has become a beloved ritual at Dana-Farber: Every day, children who come to the clinic write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the windows of the walkway for ironworkers to see. And, every day, the ironworkers paint the names onto I-beams and hoist them into place as they add floors to the new 14-story Yawkey Center for Cancer Care.

Read the entire story here.