International media and scientific organisations are lapping up footage of a real life ‘Sharktopus’ filmed in the Hauraki Gulf.

Marine biologist Professor Rochelle Constantine said the encounter in December 2023 was a tale to top them all.

  • @eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
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    4 days ago

    I can’t remember exactly where I learnt about the LPSO. Might have been a documentary. Hopefully climate change doesn’t wipe them out.

    There is a book by Adrian Tchaikovsky about a planet taken over by genetically modified octopuses that started their own civilisation. They even had their own space ships. Children of Ruin is the title if anyone’s interested.

    • @liv@lemmy.nz
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      32 days ago

      Hopefully some of them survive. They sound so amazing.

      Thanks for the book rec - good timing! I only just read Children of Time a few weeks ago - didn’t realise the sequel was going to be about octopuses, thought it was just going to be spiders in space! @Dave@lemmy.nz has Children of Time on reading list too.

      • @eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
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        22 days ago

        Nice! I think the third one is about corvids. I haven’t got around to it yet as I got sidetracked with other books.

        Out of interest what are you guys using to track books? I’m still using good reads. I know it’s crap, but haven’t looked into anything else.

        • @liv@lemmy.nz
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          2 days ago

          Awesome. Corvids seem like a solid choice.

          I am still using… a very old bio-method to track my reading; it has worked up til now but as time goes by data loss is an increasing possibility so I should probably switch to tech. I think there might be a fediverse Goodreads alternative for books? Bookwyrm. Also NeoDB but I’m not sure what that does.

          • @eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
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            2 days ago

            Haha do you mean… remembering?

            Thanks, I’ll look into bookwyrm. I like to see how many books I read every year, which is mainly what I use Goodreads for.

            Maybe we need a Lemmy Nz ebook repository

            • @liv@lemmy.nz
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              2 days ago

              Ha yes remembering is what I’ve been using. I tried Goodreads but it always makes me feel like I need to write reviews and I don’t want to.

              Hate to think how many I read! I’m still traumatized by the time in middle school when they made us write books we had read on a wall chart.

              I would totally peruse your bookwyrm/gr though, based on your rec so far!

              I think we’d have to be careful about what we reposited (reposed?). Shadow libraries seem to be in the crosshairs at the moment including in NZ.

              • @eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
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                22 days ago

                I tried Goodreads but it always makes me feel like I need to write reviews and I don’t want to.

                Understandable! I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed anything on there. I only ever do the star rating. But I think 5 stars isn’t really enough granularity, so everything ends up almost the same for me. Unless I really don’t like it haha.

                Mine is mainly all speculative/science fiction as it’s probably my favourite genre. I’m guessing there’s no NZ instance for Bookwyrm… I have to join the official one I suppose?

                I think we’d have to be careful about what we reposited (reposed?). Shadow libraries seem to be in the crosshairs at the moment including in NZ.

                I suppose you’re right about that. However I’ve been using Anna’s archive/Z-library/Libgen for a long time and they always come back after awhile if they get taken down. Or they’re always available on Tor.

                • @liv@lemmy.nz
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                  22 days ago

                  There seem to be way more options for Bookwyrm than last time I looked! but no NZ one.

                  Sci fi is among the genres I like and I have discoverability issues so would definitely be up for reading your list even if it is all 5 stars ha ha.

                  Libgen etc is like that one Chumbawama song but you definitely wouldn’t want to do it in NZ jurisdiction. Things seem to be heating up with the society of authors getting all up in arms, and a disproportionate number of those guys are lawyers. Not sure what it is about being a lawyer that makes people write novels.

                  • @eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
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                    12 days ago

                    Ok I created a Bookwyrm account and did an import, I need to fix some of the dates and matches but seems mostly right. I’m not sure how to share it, but my profile is: eagleeyedtiger@bookwyrm.social

                    If you decide to create an account, let me know and I’ll follow you!

      • @Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
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        22 days ago

        Only an 8 week wait until I can get started!

        I’ve just put a hold on Children of Ruin too. A 4 week wait 😆

        • @liv@lemmy.nz
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          22 days ago

          😄Hmm does that say something about the books I wonder or is it more a reflection of how many people only read the first part of trilogies?

          • @Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
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            2 days ago

            I think it’s pretty normal for the wait time to be longest for the first book. Some number of people read the first one, then a smaller number are interested in the second, and an even smaller number are interested in the third. Almost no one reads the second book before the first so it’s always front loaded like that.

            Luckily I can strip the DRM and read it in my own time 🙂.

            • @liv@lemmy.nz
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              22 days ago

              That makes sense. Good, I am looking forward to this octopus book!

              Do you use Calibre as your ebook manager too? 🙂

              • @Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
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                22 days ago

                Oh boy, you asked so here it comes. A summary:

                • Borrow book on Libby
                • Download adobe DRM formated book
                • Use libgourou to remove DRM and create epub
                • Import into Calibre then immediately export - just do this step for the consistent naming structure
                • Copy to server
                • Run Kavita on server for managing and reading the books

                It seems there’s a de-DRM plugin for Calibre but I wasn’t aware of this. So I could simplify this process a bit but it works so I will probably just keep doing it 🤷

                • @liv@lemmy.nz
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                  22 days ago

                  I did not know about libgourou, that sounds like a good tool.

                  Not up to speed with the new format but as far as I know, the Calibre situation is very simple, it strips DRM automatically while a book is being imported.

                  I side load everything onto an old kindle (from 2012, back before they nagged you about the Amazon store) so Calibre is perfect for me.

                  I’m always intrigued by all your server stuff though.

                  • @Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
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                    22 days ago

                    Now I think about it, I think the issue is that I cannot even obtain the DRMed eBook because I use Linux and so can’t install whatever adobe software is needed. Not sure if calibre needs you to get the proper book file or not.

                    The server stuff is fun when it works 😅. Docker makes it low risk to just spin up a new service that looks cool, try it out, and delete it if it wasn’t what you were looking for. I started on a raspberry pi, then moved to using an old laptop, and now use an old gaming PC for my personal self-hosting (mostly for the photo services, which can be resource heavy).