The Blob!

July 2, 2003 2:42 PM

Unidentified marine blob stages first beach landing assault of unidentified marine blob species! Can't survive in air! Dies. I for one welcome our new blob... Aw, sorry, guys, it's a reflex.
posted by klaatu (37 comments total)

I'm pretty sure its a beached squid. Or God's Lugie. Or Something. (but why would God want to spit on Chile, right?)
posted by anastasiav at 2:52 PM on July 2, 2003

that's the biggest mound of crap i've ever seen!
posted by magikeye at 2:52 PM on July 2, 2003

God, you can probably smell that thing from Europe.
posted by mathis23 at 2:55 PM on July 2, 2003

More info in a chilean newspaper. They're calling it a giant octupus.
posted by signal at 2:55 PM on July 2, 2003

blue whale placenta?
posted by scarabic at 3:04 PM on July 2, 2003

And a much better link (also in spanish, sorry) from the institute the scientist works for.
posted by signal at 3:04 PM on July 2, 2003

I dunno... whale blows nose and it makes the news.... tschh.
posted by Blue Stone at 3:23 PM on July 2, 2003

Recent and obligatory reference material - this is fascinating stuff.
posted by magullo at 3:25 PM on July 2, 2003

It is kind of disturbing that so many giant thingies are washing up lately. Have we killed the ocean so much that these majestic boogers (or octopuses) can no longer survive?
posted by Kafkaesque at 3:32 PM on July 2, 2003

"a new species"

Hah-ha.

Aren't we fucking arrogant.
posted by dash_slot- at 3:43 PM on July 2, 2003

It's called Hedora. Godzilla battled and defeated it back in 71. I'm surprised it took this long for the carcass to wash ashore though.
posted by reidfleming at 3:55 PM on July 2, 2003

Actually we are killing off so many of the natural predators of squid, squid now have the largest collective bio-mass of any creature on earth. They are literally taking over the ocean. We really should welcome our new squid overlords.
posted by stbalbach at 3:58 PM on July 2, 2003

Yeah, I'll welcome them all right... to my stomach! mmm.... giant squid...
posted by hammurderer at 4:00 PM on July 2, 2003

Aren't we fucking arrogant.

I think most people mean "undiscovered" when they say "new" before "species".

This leaves aside what offspring of mating alient-shape-shifting hot women with normal soon-to-be-dead human men are called.

klaatu bardo nickname.
posted by namespan at 4:00 PM on July 2, 2003

It is kind of disturbing that so many giant thingies are washing up lately. Have we killed the ocean so much that these majestic boogers (or octopuses) can no longer survive?

or maybe stuff like this has always washed up, and media outlets are just picking up on them more?
posted by angry modem at 4:02 PM on July 2, 2003

Mmmmmm... Chilean Sea Blob....
posted by jonson at 4:07 PM on July 2, 2003

I seem to recall "tall tales" of seamen, involving huge squid that attacked their ships and the like. Nothing new.
posted by Blue Stone at 4:07 PM on July 2, 2003

Rarer are the tall tales of seamen doing battle with large marshmallows, and roasting them with treasured hoards of the cacao bean when victorious, and dying horrible sticky deaths when vanquished.

Much rarer indeed.
posted by namespan at 4:21 PM on July 2, 2003

cthulhu?
posted by outsider at 4:22 PM on July 2, 2003

He's supposed to be napping in R'lyeh (spelling from memory, probably wrong), isn't he?
posted by jokeefe at 4:35 PM on July 2, 2003

Since all species are human inventions, yeah, it could be a new species. Everything else has to settle for just being organisms that may or may not be suitable fuckmates for each other until we deign to classify them into the groupings we invcented and called "species."
posted by NortonDC at 4:46 PM on July 2, 2003

I'd also like to propose that the giant squid be named the official mascot of squid... I mean, metafilter.
posted by jokeefe at 4:47 PM on July 2, 2003

"The specimen was at first taken for a beached whale when it was washed up a week ago but experts who have seen it say it appears not to have a backbone."

I didn't think Rush Limbaugh could swim.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 4:55 PM on July 2, 2003

scarabic: placenta is what I thought, as well... maybe a miscarriage from the beached whale?

Hm.
posted by silusGROK at 5:43 PM on July 2, 2003

He's supposed to be napping in R'lyeh (spelling from memory, probably wrong), isn't he?

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

"In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

The Call of Cthulhu
posted by cup at 5:44 PM on July 2, 2003

1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup prepared chili sauce
4 tablespoons prepared horseradish
1 teaspoon sugar
5 grinds fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher/sea salt
posted by jfuller at 7:20 PM on July 2, 2003

Or just "Cthulhu fhtagn!" if you're into the whole brevity thing.

I wonder about the fact that it was spotted next to a dead whale carcass. Did the two do battle, and if so, for what, and who won?
posted by Hildago at 7:21 PM on July 2, 2003

El chupacabra ????!!!!! a-iiiiii
posted by xtian at 7:23 PM on July 2, 2003

cup: Whoa! Excellent link! Thanks!
posted by slipperywhenwet at 8:47 PM on July 2, 2003

Squid... yummy squid.

I wonder how this thing would taste prepared Thai-style: perhaps garlic-peppered or with chilli-tamarind paste.

Blob Pad Grak-tiem Prikthai... yeah! ;)
posted by madman at 8:56 PM on July 2, 2003

If only i could cram that into a 40 gallon tank and keep it as a pet...
posted by pemulis at 9:01 PM on July 2, 2003

this looks a lot like another adventure in cryptozoology: the Bermuda Blob and other "globsters."
posted by hashashin at 9:19 PM on July 2, 2003

This msnbc article rehashes some, but also brings up two more possibilities: whale skin or a pyrosome "a colony of millions of plankton that can grow to up to 60 feet long." However, God's lugie is still sorta probable, I mean, just look at the thing. My father horks minature versions of that out the car window every day.

And dash_slot- I'm mighty confused as to your choice ofthe word arrogant. I think it's a very humble and staggering thing that we know so very very little about the oceans, much less the Bolivian rainforests.
posted by nelleish at 9:49 PM on July 2, 2003

No. I'm not going to read it. I'm getting toward the end of "From a Buick 8" and I don't need to know about things dying because they can't breathe our air and decomposing in a smell of salt and seaweed (well, cabbage).

lalala-I'm_not_listening.... Erm...

*blink*blink*blink*I'm-not-looking. Or something.
posted by twine42 at 5:20 AM on July 3, 2003

Follow up - it's a squid. With better photo.
posted by Joeforking at 6:52 AM on July 3, 2003

"click to enlarge"

Mmmm. A lugie close-up. Just what I wanted for breakfast. [retch]
posted by five fresh fish at 9:08 AM on July 3, 2003

Squid? Well, it still needs a theme song.
posted by mediareport at 10:33 AM on July 3, 2003