I was going to blog on something serious tonight. But that can wait.

Instead, I was captivated by a remarkable article which Max Lindenman recommended with the moniker: “These suckers are smart.” (Sometimes I think he scours the Internet for articles with the sole purpose of posting puns on Facebook.)

It’s a long article, but it doesn’t read like one. Here’s an appetiser:

WHILE ALEXA WARBURTON was researching her senior thesis at Middlebury College’s newly created octopus lab, “every day,” she said, “was a disaster.”

She was working with two species: the California two-spot, with a head the size of a clementine, and the smaller, Florida species, Octopus joubini. Her objective was to study the octopuses’ behavior in a T-shaped maze. But her study subjects were constantly thwarting her.

Some would let themselves be captured, only to use the net as a trampoline. They’d leap off the mesh and onto the floor—and then run for it. Yes, run. “You’d chase them under the tank, back and forth, like you were chasing a cat,” Warburton said. “It’s so weird!”

Admit it. You want to read the rest now!

Meanwhile, in Korea:

I could never do this. When I was a kid, I wanted an octopus like that as a pet!