The OctoPost: "Keep Octopuses Wild"
Dear friends, I’ve been flat out like a lizard drinking so the newsletter is late & short. This classical octopus (a product of my attempt to practice more digital art) appreciates your understanding!
Cephalopod News
The United States Congress saw the introduction of the cleverly-named OCTOPUS bill to ban octopus farming. (That means octopuses as livestock, not as farmers. I’d be incredibly stoked to see farming octopuses.) The acronym stands for “Opposing the Cultivation and Trade of Octopus Produced through Unethical Strategies,” highlighting concerns that these animals cannot be humanely farmed for meat. Similar state legislation recently passed in Washington, and is under consideration in California and Hawaii. I was one of a hundred signatories on a letter of support published in Science today: Support US OCTOPUS Act to Keep Octopuses Wild.
We all know cephalopod skin is the best skin, with its ability to change color and texture at the speed of thought. Now scientists have found it even contains a pigment that can boost our own skin health! A synthesized version of this pigment helps create effective sunscreen that’s nontoxic both to humans and to the rest of the environment. (That those go together isn’t surprising, since humans are part of nature. I’ve been reading great books on this theme, like Wild Souls and Braiding Sweetgrass, and I just saw this fascinating campaign to redefine nature.)
My News
August 21, 11am Pacific Time: SCBWI Book Club on Instagram Live
August 26, 3:45pm Pacific Time: “Understanding Cephalopod Behavior” (unofficial title: “From Greedy Trickster to Kindly Teacher: Octopuses Have the Range”) with Smithsonian Associates (online, tickets here)
October 26, time TBD: “Happy Endings” at Lit Crawl in San Francisco, CA
Funny Pages
My husband and I saw a big dog at the beach.
