ZPi Logo "Serving the Paranoid
since 1997"
Lyle Zapato

Octopus-Horde Attack: The Perle, 1906

Lyle Zapato | 2014-07-23.7900 LMT | Piratical Yarrings | Anarchy | Retro


A SINGULAR BLOW OF THE NET. — Boat attacked by octopus

The attack of the fishing boat Perle by an octopus horde in 1906, from Le Petit Journal's illustrated supplement (click for full image). The article it illustrated:

Read more...

Lyle Zapato

Video: Tree Octopus Camouflage

Lyle Zapato | 2014-02-10.0240 LMT | Fashion

YouTube channel SaveTheTreeOctopus presents another video of rarely seen tree octopus behavior, this time camouflaging:

One of the greatest challenges of tree octopus research is that most of the time they're indistinguishable from bark.

Lyle Zapato

GPM #25: NRO's Earth Encompassing Octopus

Lyle Zapato | 2013-12-10.6010 LMT | Government Propaganda Mascots | NWO

NROL-39

The Internet is atwitter over the National Reconnaissance Office's logo for their newest spy satellite, NROL-39 (as tweeted by the Office for the Director of National Intelligence).

Given all the coverage in the increasingly paranoid mainstream media, my posting about this feels superfluous at this point, but also expected, since it's both a GPM and ties into my current theme of menacing cephalopods. So for the few of my readers who haven't seen it, there it is.

Read more...

Lyle Zapato

The Strange Adventures of Captain Quinton

Lyle Zapato | 2013-12-05.0890 LMT | Piratical Yarrings | Lost Worlds | Retro

'The Strange Adventures of Captain Quinton' cover showing man in diving suit battling giant devil-fish in sunken ship
(Click for larger cover and spine)

The above is the cover of The Strange Adventures of Captain Quinton: Being a Truthful Record of the Experiences and Escapes of Robert Quinton During His Life Among the Cannibals of the South Seas, as Set Down by Himself (1912).

Read more...

Lyle Zapato

Arboreal Octopi Of Planet Cholganna

Lyle Zapato | 2013-11-22.8895 LMT | Entertainment
Lyle Zapato

Horse Seized By A Devilfish

Lyle Zapato | 2013-10-22.8650 LMT | Retro
Lyle Zapato

Cumbrian Rocktopus

Lyle Zapato | 2013-07-04.6870 LMT | Nature | Random Found Thing
Lyle Zapato

Tree Octopus Pathtag

Lyle Zapato | 2013-05-10.6450 LMT | Mysterious Doodads

Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus Pathtag, sent to me by Shop99er and TTUMS. What's a Pathtag? you ask...

Pathtags are personal trading items. Used most often in Geocaching, they are also very handy for Scouting, Military and Promotional use. ... Pathtags are not typically traveling items such as Geocoins or Travel Bugs. They are generally used as personal "signature items" for Geocaching or other trade item. If found, simply log it and the tag's profile will display for you to view. Unless the profile says otherwise, you are welcome to add it into your permanent collection.

You can find more info on the Pathtags site. They're about the size of a US quarter and the reverse has a unique ID number that you can enter into the site to log it and tell the maker where or how you found it.

The Tree Octopus ones are not for sale. If you want one, you'll either have to find it in a Geocache or trade with someone who has one (like Shop99er and TTUMS on the Pathtags site, who had them made with my permission).

Lyle Zapato

Leaping Tree Octopuses!

Lyle Zapato | 2013-01-08.9820 LMT

The mysterious cephalopodologist behind the SaveTheTreeOctopus YouTube channel has come through again with more video footage of the endangered tree octopus, this time exhibiting never-before-seen leaping behavior:

Lyle Zapato

The Wonderful Electric Elephant vs. Giant Octopus

Lyle Zapato | 2013-01-04.9240 LMT | Elephants | Simulacra | Retro | Random Found Thing

Happy New Year again! Here's a giant octopus trying to crush an electric elephant:


The elephant in the grasp of an octopus.

It's from The Wonderful Electric Elephant (1903) by Frances T. Montgomery, a children's book about a young man named Harold who encounters and shoots an elephant on a trail at the Grand Canyon, only to discover it's actually an electric-powered mecha-elephant piloted by a mysterious old man who soon dies after spilling his immortality elixir. Harold finds the man's will inside, which states that he now owns the elephant, as well as the gold and other curios and treasures the man had collected. Reading the instruction manual, he learns the elephant is watertight, so decides to cross the Pacific seafloor to Japan. On the way, he frees silky-locked Ione from Native Americans and she becomes his companion, and eventually wife, as they travel the world having adventures and frightening people, as one does when one comes into possession of a wonderful electric elephant.

Read more...