DailyDirt: I'd Like To Be... Under The Sea

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are plenty of smart animals in the world. Dogs, cats and pet birds are the ones we're usually familiar with, but there are also dolphins, elephants... and octopuses. Generally, animals with 8 legs are fascinating because that's just a lot of legs. If you haven't been to an aquarium recently, check out some of these links on our friend the octopus.

• Inky the octopus escaped from the National Aquarium of New Zealand less than a year ago -- and no one knows exactly how he did it. Just more evidence that Inky is (was?) one smart octopus -- given the examples of other octopuses being able to open jars and perform other complex cognitive tasks. [url]
• Another cool octopus trick is to see our 8-legged friend catch a shrimp by startling it to jump straight into an octopus's mouth. This kind of intelligence might deter some people from eating octopus, but we're all animals, right? [url]
• An octopus can actually sense the brightness of light with its skin. This ability helps with camouflage (since the octopus can change the color, pattern and even texture of its skin), but it's not the only marine mollusk that has light-sensing skin. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: biology, camouflage, inky, intelligence, mollusks, octopus, smart animals

South Korea Tries To Patent Military Uniforms To Prevent North Korean's Dressing Like Them

from the that'll-stop-them dept

Two years ago, we wrote about how the Finnish military was accusing the Russians of infringing on their camouflage intellectual property. The Finns had apparently registered the camouflage as a design right, and the Russians were copying it. Perhaps building on that idea, it appears that the South Korean military is now trying to patent the camouflage design of its new uniforms, with the idea being (again) to prevent others (the North Koreans, for example) from copying the uniforms in order to confuse South Korean soldiers. I'm not quite sure how South Korean patent law works, or how it's even possible to patent such a thing there, but if the goal really is to prevent nefarious enemy soldiers from dressing up in South Korean uniforms, you'd have to imagine it's not going to be effective. After all, if we're talking about an army invading or infiltrating, one imagines that they wouldn't have much concern about how they're also infringing on the patent. In the meantime, I'm curious if anyone can explain the "incentive" provided to the South Korean military by this potential patent. Is anyone really suggesting that such a uniform would not have been designed without the protection of a patent?

Filed Under: camouflage, patents, south korea, uniforms

Finland Thinks Russia Violated Its Design Right With Military Camouflage

from the camouflage-wears-you dept

Apparently, intellectual property issues can show up even in the middle of a warzone. It seems that some Finnish officials, reviewing images and videos of the Russian invasion of Georgia earlier this year were somewhat upset to note that Russian military uniforms appeared to have copied Finnish military camouflage design -- which, yes, the Finnish government has legally protected in Europe (found via Open IT Strategies). Finland has decided not to pursue the issue, and Russian officials deny the copying, but it still shows how weird a world we live in when governments are using intellectual property rights to try to protect military camouflage designs.

Filed Under: camouflage, copyright, design right, finland, russia