Biomes Blog

Entry #197

Animal of the Week: Striped Bass
We released our striper today. He lived in our Ocean Tank and was just getting too big and aggressive. We got him when he was about 8 inches long from someone who was keeping him as a pet. He was very malnourished. By the time we let him go he was well over a foot long and should survive quite well in the bay. Here is some info on their life history. Stripers, like salmon, are known as anadromous fish. This means they live most of their lives in salt water, but travel into fresh water rivers to spawn. Most Atlantic striped bass travel to the Chesapeake Bay during spawning season.

Groucho Marx once said “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have someone like me as a member”. Like this one.

Who’s this?
Another $50 will be donated to John Kerry if anyone knows the correct answer.

Pet Corner: This is actually quite impressive.

Play! A game from "Lizardpoint": Connect the dots (for the little kids.)

Entry #196

The picture above is of a turtle known as a "stinkpot". We have a pair of them at Biomes and the female laid six eggs in her sand-filled basking tray last night. They should take about eight weeks to hatch and we'll then release the babies into the mill pond next to the center. Stinkpots are in a group of reptiles known as "musk turtles", which have a pair of scent glands that emit a nasty odor when the animal is disturbed. Here is more info on them.

Now We’re Cookin’: Oh, give me a break.

The Breezy Knoll Day Care Center visited Biomes today for a grade 2-3 field trip.

Today’s light reading assignment: Homer’s Iliad.

Stuff You Need to Know: How to juggle.

According to this survey I’m a “hardcore skeptic”. Duh.

Bonus Comic: (Click it. It grows!)

Entry #195

We started our first set of Trident Camp today. This three-part program includes one day at the Biomes Center, one day at the indoor pool of Ocean State Scuba (learning to snorkle and kayak) and one day sailing on the Tall Ship Brandaris. Day one was held at Biomes.
Here's the Brandaris:

Geography Class: The state of Idaho is a myth.

Holy Smokes! $21.96 million opening weekend.

According to exit surveys in about 15 cities, 91 percent of respondents gave the film an "excellent" rating, while 93 percent said they would "definitely recommend" the film -- tallies that Ortenberg said were the best he had ever seen.

A Little Piece of Dylan: Angelina (1981).

Pet Corner: How to play head games with your dog.

Albino Monday: Turtle.

Entry #194

Happy Birthday Jacob (7) and Tao (5).

Movie Review: F911. Fantastic. I've never had a movie experience that had such a mix of audience laughs, gasps and periods of stunned silence. Oh, and both theaters were sold out. Here's another review.

Cool Site of the Week: Plants in Motion.

Revenge of the squirrels.

Why squirrels shouldn’t pump iron.

Now we’re cookin’: The $1,000 omelette.

Entry #193

Pic, as usual, stolen from Maru.

Happy Birthday Tyler (6), Brevin (7) and Erik (6).

Today in History: In 1817, the bicycle was first patented.

Only seven more hours until F911.  Here's a review.

Check out the Wolfsong Ranch. (Thanks Kristen.)

Movie Review: Matrix Revolutions.  They should have stopped after the first one. 2.4 starfish.

Timewaster of the Week: Steamroller.

Entry #192

Blast from the past: Felix the cat.

Dept. of Educashun:  Really bad science songs.

For those of you who have been asleep for the past 50 years, here’s a guide showing you how to use a telephone.

The food chain in action.

Have you tried out Froogle yet?  I just paid $12.59 for a bottle of this (which my dog needs real bad) at a local pet shop.

Entry #191

I went to the bank and asked to borrow a cup of money. They said, "What for?" I said, "I'm going to buy some sugar." -- Steven Wright

F911 opens tomorrow. Go. I've got my preordered tickets for Saturday and I'm counting down the hours. Oh, and don't forget to wear blue to show your support for MoveOn.org.
If you don't have a blue shirt go out and buy one and then you can join this prestigious club.

Dept. of Educashun: Word origins.

This is a 1966 interview with Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock explaining what the show is going to be about.

Where I’m spending my summer vacation.

Now We’re Cookin’: Kitty sushi.

Entry #190

Animal of the Week: Polar Bears.

Track 'em here. Polar bears are not actually white. Each hair is transparent with a hollow core. The hollow core reflects visible light making the hair appear to be white. (This is why snowflakes, which are made of water, which is transparent, also appear to be white.)

This is what happened to a bear that was being medicated for a skin condition. The medicine traveled to the hair follicles as a side effect. (The color will disappear when the medication stops.)  Her name is Pelusa. She is a fifteen year old polar bear who lives in the Medozo’s Zoo near Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This is a bananaphone.
And this is a song about it.

Play! Chinese checkers.

Entry #189

Here’s Graham standing next to a wall of one million pennies.
Here’s Graham next to 10 million of them.

The Francis Varieur School visited the Center today.

This kid got beat up by his desk chair.

Dept. of Educashun: What’s a blog?

Octopus Update: So far, so good. The little guy is doing great. Spread some ink and learn more about cephalopods here.

And yet another silly personality quiz.
Uum....I'm Kanga.

I rarely blog about sports stuff because, honestly, I just don’t care. But here is a sport reserved for really tough geeks.

Well, OK. A little more about sports. Meet Tyson.

Bonus Comic:

Entry #188

The Peacedale School (S. Kingstown) visited the Biomes Center today.

Check out Strongbad’s email story. Email is awesome, email is weird.

Search Results: Someone found the Biomes Blog by googling “How would you dress to visit the marine biome?”
I’d say swimming trunks. Maybe a wet suit if it’s chilly.

I have some friends who send me those chain emails that are always racing around the net and ask me to debunk them. Most are nonsense (like the one I included in Entry #139) and it’s fun to call these out.
But my latest assignment was this. Really people, I do sort of have a life. Although I know for a fact that number 20 is false.

Dept. of Educashun: How bees see.

A Little Piece of Dylan: Someone's Got A Hold of My Heart.

Use this to stop people from drinking from your cup at work.

Albino Monday: Rabbit.

Entry #187

Happy Father's Day.

Cool Site of the Week: What a Character.

The President of Russia has one of the more ridiculous nicknames handed out by our pRes; “Pooty-poot”
You can pootify any web site here.
Here is our main page pootified.

Entry #186

Stuff You Should Know:  Horse colors.

Search Results: Someone found the Biomes Blog by googling “just moved to New Hampshire and yard’s filled with rats”.  What’s up with google?

Draft Bruce.  What a great idea this is. 

Timewaster of the Week:  Venus handfly trap, or something.

Another worst case scenario: How to stop a runaway camel.

Play! Fire Asteroids. (Click on “play with fire”.)

Entry #185

Cooking with Biomes: The original 1963 Ronald McDonald was played by Willard Scott.
And here’s the real Wendy.

Movie Review: The Right Stuff.
This had such a great cast so I was really surprised at how bad the acting was, until I realized it was actually the script. It had spaceship history, though, so the boy ate up all 3 hours and 6 minutes of it.
3.2 starfish.
Update: Like the bad father that I am, I let the kid stay up 'till midnight to finish the movie before he went to his mom's for the weekend (thereby allowing me to return it to netflix right away). He just got home from school and said "Dad, guess what movie we watched in Science today?". Doh.

Rebecca visited the West Kingston School and the Peacedale School (S. Kingstown) visited the center. Dan checked our fish traps this afternoon and came back with a Little Skate.

The DNC has a new “Boot Bush” game. Heh. It’s fun for about a minute or so.

Stupid egg tricks.

Entry #184

I had some eyeglasses. I was walking down the street when suddenly the prescription ran out. -- Steven Wright

Movie Review: Goldfinger.
I mentioned earlier that Graham and I are watching all the Bond films in chronological order. We are up to the third installment and it is much better than From Russia with Love.
Graham films, edits on his mac, and even scores his own movies, so he was really into all the technical gaffes made in a 1960’s movie, most of which go right by me. Except of course for something he calls a “Steer Jerker”, which he claims is the term used for shots where the wheel movement of the person driving a car doesn’t match the scenes in the background. Maybe he's right about the terminology, but this is the best I could find.
Still, Odd Job is one of the coolest villians ever. 4.5 out of 5 starfish. (I know that seems high, but remember that any non-Roger Moore Bond flick has a 4.0 default starfishy setting.)

Goodbye Mr. Bond is a really nice looking site that features all some of the Bond villians.

John Horton School did one of our double Biomes/Smith Castle field trips this morning. Jean went up to Cumberland to visit the Ashton School.

I’ve never been much of a Beatles fan, but this is kind of cool.
"Beatlist’s" are what the Beatle’s Fan Club members call themselves. Here is their endorsement. How can we lose?

Entry #183

Animal of the Week: Two-spot octopus.

We'll be trying a little experiment today.  Yesterday I ordered a captive-bred octopus from the west coast.  It was loaded onto a plane last night and should be arriving this morning.  It could be a nice addition to our animal collection.  It's called a two-spot octopus and grows to about a foot and a half (ours is only around an inch long now).
We have kept the local New England octopus at Biomes before but they are very hard to find and only live for a year or two. 
They are also extremely difficult to keep alive and even harder to breed so I give this outfit a lot of credit for their work.
Should be interesting.  Learn more here and here.

Health Tip:  Eat your veggies, kids.

Meet the guy who draws the “google doodles”.

Dept. of Educashun:  Frogs and Toads.  (With sounds!)

Pet Corner:  All for just $84.99.
 
Play! The Pond.

Entry #182

Those are some really long fingernails.

Graham has been working on the theme to Gilligan’s Island on the trumpet but has never seen the show.  So these links are for him.
Here’s Gilligan’s Fan Site.  The Skipper’s too.  The millionaire’s (but not) his wife’s.  The movie star’s.  The Professor’s and Mary Ann’s. They’re all on Gilligan’s Isle’s.

Play! Quick Bricks.

Bonus Comic: (Sort of)  Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” in real life.

Entry #181

We saw a whole lotta eight year olds today. Second graders from the Roosevelt Avenue School (N. Attleboro, MA) and the West Kingston School visited us.
Jean went to the Barrington Middle School to do a series of live animal lessons for the sixth graders.

Search Results: Someone found the Biomes Blog by doing a Foxnews search (how creepy is that) for “n”. Yeah, just “n”.

High-tech Escher. Real Escher is here.

A Little Piece of Dylan: Silvio (1988)

Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

Update: I'm The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I got rid of the results graphic because I tried to get fancy and change their code to make it look better and it messed up my whole site, and I really don't feel like trying to fix it. But go ahead and take the test anyway.

I may be beating this to death, but here is some more vital info on the upcoming cicada invasion (any day now).

Here’s an exercise video for chickens.

Albino Monday: Bat.

Entry #180

Happy Birthday Nick (10), Linsay (9) and Carter (7).

Cool Site of the Week: Meet Zebro.

Get your wings here.

Who said this?

“Our government, unlike many governments, and particularly the governments of where the people that founded this country came from, is a government that is derived from the people that consent to govern. The freedom that is based in the people that then elect their representatives to represent them in a free, representative democracy that we have today.”

Movie Review: The Insider. 4.1 out of 5. Pacino rocks no matter what, but was that really Russell Crowe? Col. von Trapp nailed the part of Mike Wallace.

Are you a “Sinkie”? If so, you can join this club.

When mother nature gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Entry #179

This site is in Russian, so I don’t know exactly what it says. I think they are pictures of animals found in the Chernobyl Zoo.

Happy birthday Kevin (5), Josh (7) and Owen (5).

Heads Up: I’ll be torturing you with a new feature of the blog every Monday called “A Little Piece of Dylan”. Enjoy. Here’s a preview of a song I’ve listened to about 100 times this week.

Do crosswords here.

And you thought his acting was bad.

Cooking with Biomes: Entomophagy.

Note to Dennis Miller: Here’s a room full of people that think you are funny.

Entry #178

Dan picked up dozens of big Northern Sea Stars for us, most of which promptly spawned in our tide pool.  What a mess.

Sad-ham.

This is what happens when matchbox cars crash into Bonsai trees.

I know this is everywhere, but it’s the first version I’ve been able to open.

Play! Funkypong.

I miss Hesiod already.