Pick your poisson:

The financial crisis is far from over, the "election" is around the corner, purportedly iranian ships are found carrying dirty bombs, posse comitatus is being violated -- I think we can all feel there's something in the air.

I do believe it'll become quite a bit messier before it'll all get better.
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happiness is either here or nowhere

swimming upstream hoping a bear doesn't snatch me. i think i'll skip the spawning part for now.

just dropped my MeetUp, but still trying to look good, show my colors in the tank

probably just a danno

Giant squid have a sophisticated nervous system and complex brain, attracting great interest from scientists. They also have the largest eyes of any living creature except perhaps colossal squid — over 30 centimetres (1 ft) in diameter. Large eyes can better detect light (including bioluminescent light), which is scarce in deep water.

Speaking of fish

They changed the name a few years ago due to political correctness.They are now called goliath grouper.They tend to eat all the fish over the reefs they settle in on here in Florida.They will ruin a fishing trip if you happen to anchor anywhere near them because they will eat any fish you catch before you can reel them up usually breaking your line.If you do happen to catch one they must be released due to their protected status.Kind of like certain art students.

BIG FISH GET GIANT NAME

By MIKE BRASSFIELD

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 24, 2001

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The head of the Florida Aquarium was giving his Jewish grandmother a tour when they came to the tank with the great big jewfish. It was an awkward moment.

"Grandma," said aquarium CEO Jeffery S. Swanagan, "this is, um, a large grouper."

The name "jewfish," which some find offensive, is on the way out. In a rare move, the group responsible for naming fish in the Americas is changing the common name of Florida's largest grouper species.

The American Fisheries Society wants people to call jewfish "goliath grouper."

"This was not a quick or easy decision," said Joseph Nelson, chairman of the society's Committee of Names of Fishes. "For several decades, this committee has been petitioned by people who felt the name was offensive to Jews. But our overriding principle has always been one of stability of names, and we've resisted, politely saying, 'No.' "

But the committee recently received a petition asking that the name be changed. After a lengthy discussion, members decided to change it.

The society in Bethesda, Md., resists altering fish names unless they "violate the tenets of good taste," according to the society's rules.

This is only the second time it has happened. The first was in the late 1990s when the squawfish of the American Northwest became the pikeminnow.

"People think we're going to start changing all kinds of names, like Spanish mackerel," Nelson said. "But that's ridiculous. This is not a domino effect."

News of the change is getting a muted reaction.

"I never thought twice about it as a major issue in my life," said Rabbi Jacob Luski of Congregation B'nai Israel in St. Petersburg. "It's not something I would have gone out of my way to get changed, but it certainly is a sensitivity that is appreciated."

Gary Folden, a Clearwater charter boat captain, recently took a group of Jewish doctors out fishing. Large grouper were chasing mackerel around his boat. When he was asked what they were, he matter-of-factly replied, "jewfish."

"I've never had anybody that's found it offensive," Folden said. "People ask me, 'How did they get that name?' I tell them I don't know."

No one knows for sure how the jewfish got its name, although several theories exist, said Nelson, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta.

One theory is that when people started eating the fish, they found its flesh very clean, like kosher food.

A less pleasant theory is that in the 1800s, jewfish were considered trash fish, and some people declared it was only fit for Jews.

Yet another theory is that it was called "jawfish" for its huge mouth, and that later became "jewfish" through Southern accents and colloquialisms. And those aren't even all the theories.

The Florida Aquarium has a 190-pound jewfish in one of its display tanks. The aquarium gets complaints about the fish's name and will be happy to start calling it a goliath grouper, said Swanagan, the CEO.

"It's been a concern so much that sometimes when I'm giving tours, I just call it a big grouper to avoid the issue," Swanagan said.

He thinks goliath grouper is a fine name.

"Let's enjoy the animal for all its glory, and not let nomenclature forced on it by humans overshadow the magnificence of the animal."

- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Jewfish or goliath grouper
Epinephelus itajara

SIZE: grows up to 8 feet long and may weigh as much as 700 pounds
LIFESPAN: 30-50 years
DIET: Feeds on crustaceans, fish
HABITAT: Found in western Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans
FLORIDA RECORD: 680 pounds, caught off Fernandina Beach in 1961
"JEWFISH" ORIGIN: Oxford English Dictionary lists the first usage of "jewfish" in this 1697 quote: "The Jew-Fish is a very good fish and, I judge, so called by the English because it hath scales and fins, therefore a clean fish, according to Levitical law."Webster's New World College Dictionary says the phrase may have been borrowed from the Italian giupesce, which means "bottom fish."
http://www.sptimes.com/News/052401/State/Big_fish_get_a_giant_.shtml