Biomes Blog

Entry #106

The fourth graders from the Springbrook School (Westerly) visited Biomes for a class field trip this morning.

Try this. Go to google and type in your phone number like this 555-555-5555. They even provide a map to your house.

Our two baby horseshoe crabs emerged from hibernation (known as "Winter Dormancy") today. Unlike the adults, which move into deep water during the winter, the young burrow under the mud in shallow estuaries and remain there until spring. Even in captivity they imitate what they would do in the wild. They do this by using their internal seasonal clock. Because they haven't eaten in months they were very active and Rebecca fed them some live black worms as a welcome back treat.

For an amazingly complete source of information on horseshoe crabs, see this site.

The radio network “Air America” started today. Here’s the link to listen to it live and streaming.

Letterman. Watch this. Then this. (Give it a minute to load. The second one takes a bit longer.)

Time Waster of the Week: Scissors, Paper, Stone.

Entry #105

Here’s a picture of a bear attacking a nukular* submarine.

I've learned today that scientists have just discovered a rare species of very, very tiny horse.

20 questions. Wow. You've got to try this. (The page opens to "Demographic Info". Skip this if you want and just hit play.)

So, I get a phone message from a woman today complaining that she was "offended" by my Kerry sticker that is displayed on my personal van as I was working today for my private company. Why do wingers hate the first amendment? (Hey Bart, sound familiar: "I was about to send you money but...") I've had political stickers on my van for five years and this is the first negative comment (there's hope for this country yet). I promised myself I would donate $25 to a political campaign for each negative comment I got. So, ka-ching: $25 has just been sent to Kerry via Atrios. Anyone care to match me? Every person (yes, even those that own businesses) in this country has every right to proclaim his support for a political candidate in any (responsible) way s/he sees fit. I am offended that anyone would try to take that right away from me. Sorry lady, the stickers will remain on Biomes I and I will continue to do my small part to take this country back to sanity, even if it costs my business a few bucks.

Now, back to our normal foolishness:

This is cool. It's a panorama of the Swiss Matterhorn.

Rebecca visited the Providence Hebrew Day Academy today to do a set of in-class programs for grades 1-4. (My mom teaches there. Hi Mom)

Whack a penguin update (this is getting ridiculous).

Entry #104

Today we had our first ever visit from a school in Norwich, CT. Being so close to the Mystic Aquarium, we don't see many of the students from Norwich and other surrounding towns, but the first graders from the Greenville School visited us today. They say they'll be back next year so I guess Biomes was worth the trip. Cool.

Rebecca winds up her five-part afterschool program at the Frenchtown School (E. Greenwich). For today's lesson, "Sharks and Rays", she brought in some of our baby chain dogfish and a living mermaid's purse.

Play: Grow. (My first score was 9900.) I haven't quite figured out how this works yet (it conveniently doesn't come with instructions, but I think that's half the point). Anyway, it's very clever and worth wasting some time on.

Star Trek starship charts.

Here’s where I’m taking my next vacation. Bring the kids.

Albino Monday: Crab.

Entry #103

Happy Birthday Matt (8) and Spencer (8).

Website’s I Should Read: The apostrophe protection page.

Ooohh. Russian ABBA nesting dolls!

Cool Site of the Week: Dinosaur Safari..

Why you shouldn’t park in front of a fire hydrant:

You know, computer people are weird.

Play: Pastaroids.

Entry #102

Happy Birthday Scott (5), Thomas (6) and Ryan (5).

Nice form, now get back to work my friend.

As I said, yesterday's group of 4th graders were from Fall River MA. This town was the home of Lizzie Borden. Learn all about her here.

Dept. of Educashun: Science from the South Pole.

Pet Corner: Adopt a penguin.

Yeah, like my dog would put up with this

The ad firm that did this has been fired.

.

This week’s Super Hero: Protecting us all from the Patriot Act.

Entry #101

The St. Anne's School (Fall River, MA) visited biomes today.

If you can catch a single fly with a chopstick, I’ll send you a teeshirt. (Not really.)

Eye Exam: How many “f”s do you count in this sentence?

FINISHED FILES ARE THE
RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC
STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF YEARS

Click here for the answer.

A judge who loves nature: Via Bad Attitudes I learned that the latest pick of you-know-who for a position on the bench is a man named William Haynes II. Here is one of his past legal arguments:
“Bombing an island in the Northern Marianas did not violate the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Bombing can enhance bird-watching because people get more enjoyment spotting a rare bird than they do spotting a common one.” Nice.

Fun with Numbers: So, I checked my “stats” for The Biomes Blog last night.

Total number of hits: 3178
Average per day: 31.78
Hits today: 78
In the last hour: 3
Hits this week: 317

Ok, I’m a bit freaked.

Ooh. ooh. This is good. (I love this guy.)

Entry #100

Meet Mr. Jeffries. He holds the record for largest pair of ears on a dog. His grandfather, Biggles, was the face of Hush Puppies shoes. (Biggles used to hold the record.)

Rebecca spent the day taking care of some of our in-school aquariums. I stuck little stickers on 3,000 postcards for our upcoming summer camp programs. Fun.

I’m really surprised that this didn’t make it into last year's SOTU Address. I mean, hey, if you’re gonna stretch the truth, go for it all.

Hats for clowns. Warning: this site may cause “earworms”.
And it doesn't help my Coulrophobia any.

This is nuts.

Bonus comic:

Entry #99

Wow. Big news day today.  My blogroll has it all if you feel inclined to do some reading. [Update, 9/29/05: No idea what this was about.]

Dept. of Educashun: Famous Trials.

A couple of our seahorses developed a form of Tuberculosis recently.  It's the one fish disease I hate most because it is always fatal to the fish and it cannot be treated.  We isolated the sick ones hoping to spare the rest of them.
Learn more about seahorses here, and here.
Also, here is the recently discovered world's smallest seahorse.

Now we're cookin': The culinary treasure "as old as King Tut’s tomb".

I could really use one of these.

Entry #98

I finally got around to watching Finding Nemo last night. I loved the details they gave to all the different species but I thought it was just fair. (And why are all the animals intelligent except for seagulls?)

The Community School (Cumberland) started their One-Month Aquarium program.

So, I guess the future isn't all it was cracked up to be:

Time waster of the Week: Annoy an economist here.

Play: Snakeman Steve.

Tuesday's Trivia: Who's this?
And with that, I'm off to pub trivia to win me some valuable prizes.

Entry #97

Rebecca made a great poster for the shark petting station on shark teeth. It features a set of smooth dogfish jaws to show how small the teeth on our sharks are. Also there is a pair of realistic models of the great white shark's teeth and the extict shark giant known as Megalodon. These teeth were purchased from a company called the Acorn Naturalist. Be sure to check out the poster next time you are in. It's very impressive.

The first graders from the Edward Rhodes School (Cranston) visited the Biomes Center this morning.

Ask Biomes:

Q.What kind of local fish is referred to as a "buckeye" (as in "Buckeye Brook" in Warwick). Do you know?

A. The Buckeye.
Actually, I believe it's sort of a nickname for any of the herring type Anadromous fish (like Alewifes and Bluebacks) that live in salt water but travel up freshwater streams to spawn.

Q. Thanks.

A. You’re welcome.

Nice hat!

Albino Monday: Deer.

Entry #96

Happy Birthday Jared (5), Mathew (7) and Andrew (5).

Cool Site of the Week: Wild World of Wonka. I liked Gene Wilder’s version better.

Pet Corner: I like dogs myself, but if you’re into small pet rodents you can learn here how to become a walking habitrail.

Long time readers know about my epileptic Rhodesian Ridgeback. She’s doing really well lately so to be on the safe side I make her leave the room whenever I view pages like this.

Say this, squinting like Clint Eastwood: A man has got to know his car’s limitations.

Dept. of Educashun: How bar codes work.

Play: Staffers. See if you have what it takes to be a staff member on a presidential campaign (via Wonkette). This is lame enough to actually be amusing for a minute or two.

Entry #95

Happy Birthday Anthony (7), Jack (7) and Kayla (8).

The sideshow linked to us yesterday. I haven’t had this many hits since Bartcop gave me a plug a while back. Thanks A.C.!

Penguin/Yeti update.

You know, this stuff isn’t funny. But sometimes you just have to laugh.

Fun with fascism: Saudi Internet Rules.

It’s a classroom, Jim — but not as we know it.

The singhsons.

Bonus Comic: (Click it.)

This is funny.....but tigers are Asian and zebras are found in Africa.

Entry #94

Nothing going on at Biomes today. Rebecca and I set aside the day for aquarium maintenance since it's the last day until June 27th that we won't be swamped with visitors.

Over at Daily Kos, contributor “Meteor Blades” has a story about a new theory on the origin of life on Earth. He also discusses the possible discovery of a new planet in our solar system, which has been named Sedna after the Inuit goddess of the Arctic Ocean.
Kos should be included on your daily “must read” list. Just sayin’.

Want to see how a person who thinks he is intellectually superior to his guests acts when it’s obvious he isn’t? Click here to watch the absolute worst talk show host in the history of TV (and yes, I do remember Chevy Chase.) Also, the audience you hear are paid $15 each to attend the show. Heh.

Dept. of Educashun: The Geological Time Machine.

Today’s light reading assignment: How time travel works.

Whack a penguin update: The random bouncing penguin version.

So, according to Time magazine, for her punishment Martha Stewart is being sent to a dry, arid region. I cancelled my subscription to Time last year because of their right wing bias, but now they can't even seem to spell check their own cover page.

Entry #93

Here is a slide show from a video taken of a stray dog that opens car doors. (Click on "slideshow".)

The second graders from St. Philomena's School (Portsmouth) came for a Biomes field trip this morning.
Rebecca returned to the Austin Levy School (Burillville) to finish up programming for the last six kindergarten classes.

The horseshoe crab display seemed to be an especially big hit with the kids today. (Meet "Hally".)
I get asked all the time just what is it that medical researchers do with the horseshoe crab’s blood. Everyone seems to know about this but not what the details are.
Well, here are the details.

Pictures of Japanese puppies taken with a convex lens (or something).

The Bar Code Clock.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Entry #92

Fáilte romhat to the history of St. Patrick's Day.

Whenever I read polls in the newspaper online, I always wonder why I never get called for these. Well, I just did. It was a long (automated) survey on the economy. I resisted doing my small part to make 'da man' look even worse than he is (if that’s possible), and answered each question honestly.

One question was “How would you rate your boss?” I ‘pressed one’ and gave myself an excellent.

Normally I fight nuisance calls by using the “one second rule”. If the other person doesn’t respond to my “hello” in one second I hang up. I didn’t do that this time and it occurred to me that it was because I’m getting out of practice. I signed up for the government’s do-not-call list last fall and it works so well that this automated survey actually caught me by surprise and I stayed on the line.

The Upham School (Wellesley, MA) started their two One-Month Aquarium programs today.

Happy Birthday Nat King Cole (1917).

In high school, Bob Seger was about all I ever listened to. Here he is then, and now.
(Looks like Bob's fixed that little problem he had with split ends.)

Time Waster of the Week: Bubble wrap.

Update: While I was writing this, someone logged onto the main site (not this blog) and became our 20,000th visitor.