Friday Squid Blogging: Participatory Squid Dissection in October in Tennessee

I feel like someone who reads this blog will want to go to this:

Families are invited to dive into the fascinating world of marine biology during an exciting, hands-on Family Squid Dissection at the Hands-On Science Center. Designed for curious learners of all ages, this unique experience combines an interactive lesson with the opportunity to explore the anatomy and adaptations of real ocean life.

[…]

During the guided squid dissection, each family will work together to examine a squid up close, exploring its organs, structures, and specialized features. The experience provides a memorable opportunity for children and adults to see firsthand how the anatomy of a squid helps it survive in its underwater environment.

If you go, take pictures.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Blog moderation policy.

Posted on September 25, 2026 at 5:08 PM • 5 Comments

Comments

Andrew • September 25, 2026 5:37 PM

Exciting! I hope each family gets to grill theirs afterward

In other news, the company formerly known as Accellion is in the news with guidance to customers to shut down their software for 6 hours tomorrow.

1st post kitty (denied) • September 25, 2026 6:13 PM

1st post kitty is denied the glory of 1st post for this blog thread.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡴⣆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣼⣿⡗⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⣠⠟⠀⠘⠷⠶⠶⠶⠾⠉⢳⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣧⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⣰⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢻⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣿⢿⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⣷⡴⠶⣦
⠀⠀⢱⡀⠀⠉⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠛⠃⠀⢠⡟⠀⠀⠀⢀⣀⣠⣤⠿⠞⠛⠋
⣠⠾⠋⠙⣶⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣀⣠⣤⣾⣿⠴⠶⠚⠋⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠛⠒⠛⠉⠉⠀⠀⠀⣴⠟⢃⡴⠛⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠛⠛⠋⠁ but still content

Clive Robinson • September 25, 2026 6:35 PM

@ Andrew,

With regards,

“I hope each family gets to grill theirs afterward”

Not all squid are either edible or palatable.

In fact quite a few “smell of ammonia” / urine and last weeks Friday Squid gave me pause to think about it.

Ammonia is a natural by product of a carnivorous diet… And some “ammoniacal” squid species have a sufficient quantity to make them not just smell of pee but made inedible by the ammonia ions in their body.

Interestingly ammonia ions are slightly lighter than sodium ions thus the resulting solution is lighter than seawater thus if stored in an internal sac gives buoyancy in a dozen or so squid species for little or no energy input.

Admittedly these dozen or so squid species are of the deep-sea or even Giant-squid so would not be considered for the dinner table anyway. Also as they are rarely caught and sufficiently rare that they are considered for either chucking back or made available for science / research.

And that’s about all this Dad can remember from the obligatory parent and child visit to a natural history museum and aquarium 😉

Nobby • September 25, 2026 8:25 PM

@All
Guys, for years I use a cosmetic userscript to make reading this blog more comfortable. With all these spammers, I think maybe others who read this site via a browser would find it useful too.
All it does is adds two buttons to each comment, one (>>) to fold/unfold comment content, leaving only author name visible, the other (X) to hide the comment completely, so that it’s not seen until you reload the page. The code is trivial and safe, makes no requests, and doesn’t require javascript to be enabled, it only uses css features.
Use it with Greasemonkey/Firemonkey in Firefox, or Violentmonkey in Chromium-based (I recommend against Tampermonkey).
I think there’s no need to remind to users of this blog that you shouldn’t install directly but should save the file first and look through the code, to be sure it’s safe.
Also, you can set some of four variables in the top of the script, so that comments are folded or unfolded by default. If folded, you can use whitelist so that whitelisted commenters are unfolded by default. Similarly, if unfolded (open) by default, you can use blacklist to fold ones who you still want folded, or hide (“delete”) blacklisted comments completely.
The whitelist includes some old-timers, but I removed really old ones like NickP, who would barely show up. Adapt to your needs.
It’s purely cosmetic and does little, but removing those fake Clives with one click saves me some neurons.

The script is at
hxxps://onlyfiles.com/wIwBwmlhZoai

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