In the movie the Terminator 2 – the main characters are trying to destroy a company that leads in artificial intelligence, in the movie one of the scientist says something to the effect, we found this old arm and seeing how it was constructed gave us great advances. Well that is the movies and this is real life. It turns out there may be an animal on earth that does may give us similar things for humans. The animal is the Octopus. Recently an Octopus escaped from an aquarium by escaping through a small hole which lead to more stories on the radio about the octopus. While looking in the library a book was read called Octopus – The Most Mysterious Creature in the Sea written by Katherine Harmon Courage published by Penguin Group, NY, 2013. The Octopus is one of those very adaptable animals for a variety of reasons but it has to protect itself against fish that would eat it. This adaptability is the what makes the octopus so interesting to research.

The Octopus is eaten around the world and is high in protein, all you need to do is clean it and boil it. The boiling tenderizes the meat and you can add potatoes and season with garlic, olive oil and paprika.

The reasons science is interested in the Octopus is they are very adaptable and can be found living in both hot and cold waters of the ocean. They tend to live in small spaces and if you were to scuba dive looking for them, unless you know what to look for you would likely not see them. The octopus has the ability to change its skin to its surroundings, but at a much higher degree than other animals who blend in. They can change color in 3/10s of a second. When you start analyzing all the surroundings including light combinations, the ability comes to an amazing one. This is one of the reasons the military is interested. How does it do it and could it be duplicated or come close to?

The Octopus is an interesting creature because it is a smart one. It is believed to be one of the smartest invertebrates above or below water. It has engaged in complex behaviors, from play to navigation to tool use and no one ever taught it or it is all self taught. The female lays millions on octopus in the expectation a few live (similar to other fish) and as they grow up they are by themselves. Octopus can and do recognize individual people or their researchers or feeders.

Another interesting feature of the octopus if one of the arms is eaten or broken off, it can grow back. The octopus will close off the affected arteries to avoid blood loss until a small stub stats to form and sprout a new arm. Imagine if we could figure out what the octopus does and use to regrow nerves to fix people with neural injuries or diseases.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as we look around in our world we see things in nature which can help us. As we try to understand it is possible to have seeming a better world. Most of us tend to live in the urban environment because we believe there are more opportunities to make a living. In reality, there is more learning in the rural areas because you have to live with nature. In the above example, the abilities of the Octopus could make our lives better, which means there are other animals we can learn from. In real life, the octopus tends to be almost sleeping or watching most of the day. They use their abilities to catch food and then back to resting. If you wish to do that in real life, add dividends to your stock purchases and then you can enjoy a laid back lifestyle.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.