Wonders of ocean life counted in massive census

[SarasotaRepub]

Oh noes, the ocean is dead!

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A city of brittle stars off the coast of New Zealand, an Antarctic expressway where octopuses ride along in a flow of extra salty water and a carpet of tiny crustaceans on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor are among the wonders discovered by researchers compiling a massive census of marine life.

I'm sure Ted Danson thinks this a Bu$h plot. :D

[Sonnabend]

Octopii

Sheeesh

[AmPat]

What do you call more than one platypus, platypusi?:D:o

[Sonnabend]

What is the plural of “platypus”?
This is perhaps the single most frequently asked question about the species. People feel that “platypi” doesn’t sound quite right, but what’s the alternative? According to our copy of the Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary (Fourth Edition, reprinted in 1999), the word “platypus” is derived from two Greek words meaning “flat foot”.

Given that the plural of the Greek “pous” is “podes”, we presume that—strictly speaking— platypodes should be living in the Antipodes. However, given that “platypodes” has for some unfathomable reason never really become popular, the dictionary goes on to inform us that the accepted plural is “platypuses” or (particularly in scientific and conservation contexts) “platypus”. With hindsight, it might have been best if the English word used to describe the animal now known as the platypus had been “watermole” (as suggested by the first English colonists) or one of the many aboriginal terms for the species. On the other hand, we are deeply and eternally grateful that the platypus’s official scientific name, “Ornithorhynchus”, has never been adopted for popular purposes!