Plight of the Tree Octopus

This link comes from my brother. It's a couple of months old, but I think it's fantastic. I don't really want to ruin the story for you, so click to read about the Pacific Northwest tree octopus.

Basically (and here's where I ruin it, if you're peeking): the tree octopus is fictional, and is being used as a tool to teach school kids how to spot fake websites. Delightful!

The project’s goal is to improve how adolescents are taught today’s new literacies, including parsing search-engine results, critically evaluating online content, interpreting hyperlinks and communicating effectively by e-mail.

Ideally, you'd now scamper away to (re-)read the article... but if not, let me share the best line with you:

When students e-mail to ask if the tree octopus is real, [tree octopus creator] Zapato writes back, “They are as real as the sasquatch that prey upon them.”