Biomes Blog

Entry #228

CNN

What time is it?

The South Kingstown Parks and Recreation Dept. had a family day at Biomes today. Also, happy birthday Eric (6) and Hunter (5).

What the...??? So, I try out the jobpredictor and it tells me my ideal job is “ a Satan”. Ok, but do they offer health insurance?

Today in History: Today in 1964 the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was a lie to get the U.S. citizens behind the war in Vietnam, was told. Sound familiar?
Also, in 1774, Joseph Priestly discovers oxygen. Thousands of U.S. minutemen gratefully exhale.

Learn how to parallel park.

Timewaster of the Week: Dancing with cats.

Entry #227

Search Results:  Someone found the Biomes Blog by googling “tropical insect whose name is the last word in the official scrabble player’s dictionary”.
Ok, I’ll bite.  It’s Zyzzyva.  Here’s a pic.

Spot the fake smile.  I only got 9 out of 20.  But now I know what to look for (hint: it's in the eyes). (via Avedon Carol).

Today in History: 1874 marked the first time two baseball teams played a game outside of the U.S. It was in England and pitted the Boston Red Sox against the Philadelphia Whatevers. I really hate dislike baseball and promise that I will never pollute this blog again with another reference to this dullest of pastimes. 

On a lighter note, here is how to give your child a supportive hug.  Ignore all the ?????????? and give it a second to load.  Your child will thank you for it.

Play! Miniball.

Entry #226

I installed a skylight in my apartment...The people who live above me are furious. -- Steven Wright

The pufferfish have arrived. We caught several today that were only about 1/4 inch long. Adorable.
Here's our puffer movie.
We also picked up a bunch of rock gunnels, which are normally very shy and secretive. We released them though because they are cold water fish and I'd like to wait until the fall to keep them at the center. Even with air conditioning, it sometimes gets a little warm at Biomes and I'd hate to lose them because of the heat.

Today in History: Painter Vincent Van Gogh died today in 1890.

On 95 North, about 10 miles south of Providence, there's a huge sign warning of road closures in Boston because of the convention. I hardly ever go into that city and when I do I catch the T in Attleboro instead of trying to deal with traffic. It must be a mess up there today.

Stuff You Should Know: Annual biting injuries in New York City. Conclusion: Squirrels are pretty dangerous. Relatively speaking.

What the heck is this?

Entry #225

Want to see a rising star? This man will be John Edwards running mate in 2012. Remember years from now that you heard it first from the Biomes Blog. Click here, find the link for "Dem Convention Day 2 Part 3", then fast forward to the 30:30 minute mark. I know it's a lot of work but as hard as I tried I couldn't get a direct stream of his speech. Help anyone?
In any case, the guy is awesome.

[UPDATE: Huge thanks to Scorpio for providing the links to the speeches. Scroll down to Barack Obama.]

Squirrel News: Robo-squirrel vs. the Rattlesnake.

Animal of the Week: Red Squirrelfish.
This fish is an extremely rare tropical stray. Dan and I have been trying to catch one for almost 12 years now and today we finally succeeded. We have only seen three of them in all that time, but because they are so secretive they are very difficult to capture. Tropical strays are fish that are normally found in warm southern waters but get caught in the Gulf Stream Current when they are young and get carried to our shores. They do not survive our cold winters.

Happy 104th birthday to the Hamburger, invented on this date in 1900. (And don't believe silly misguided people yapping on about "freedom fries" either. French fries were invented in Belgium.)

Dept. of Educashun: The Grammar Station.

Entry #224

Thanks to whoever checked out our movies at 1:30 pm, the Biomes Center home page just reached 25,000 hits. And yes, that embarassingly inept narrator is yours truly.

So, who watched the Big Dog speak last night? Woof woof.

Now we’re cookin’: Ten foods you should never eat.

The mysterious Atrios has been revealed.

Wow.

Stuff You Should Know: Details of a penny.

Bonus Comic:

Entry #223

Today in History: On this day in 1833 slavery was abolished in all British colonies and territories.

The electoral predictor is a really nice site, updated daily and includes a good primer about how our democracy works.

By the way, yesterday's image was made by the typogenerator. Very clever program. I made up a bunch of them.

Pet Corner: Sadly, this site isn't a joke.

We hosted a really nice group of kids from Cranston's Head Start this morning. There are proposals in congress (I doubt I have to mention from which party) to dismantle this program. Unbelievable. Help save it here.

A Little Piece of Dylan: Don't Fall Apart on Me tonight (1983).

Albino Monday: Killer Whale (Orca).

What a perfect afternoon to skip work and go golfing. Heh. It's nice to be the boss. See ya.

Entry #222

Jean spent the day at Colt State Park doing one of our travelling tide pool programs for Governor Carcieri's (R-Not as bad as most) Bay Day event.

Cool Site of the Week: Bugs.

Dept. of Educashun: Know your insect orders.

Check out the upside-down house (and car).

"It's never the end of the world. It's already tomorrow in Australia." - Charles M. Schultz - Showing that, in spite of his lame comic strip, he actually had a sense of humor.

Click here to join the LNSEMS Foundation.

Entry #221

Happy birthday Tyler (10) and Charlie (6).

Search Results: Wow. This is a first. Someone found the Biomes Blog by googling “antidisestablishmentarianism Doonesbury”

Timewaster of the Week: Rake some sand in the Zen garden..

Head Games: The Bicolor Tower of Hanoi. It took me 11 moves.

Entry #220

Dan collected a whole bunch of whelks for our tide pool exhibits today.

Pink Five Strikes Back.
If you have dialup, just move on.

Check out the owl cam. (Thanks Ellen.)

Stuff You Should Know: Urban birds of Puget Sound.

Now we're cookin': Really expensive tea picked by trained monkeys.

Don’t let go.

Entry #219

I was in the grocery store. I saw a sign that said "pet supplies". So I did. Then I went outside and saw a sign that said "compact cars". -- Steven Wright

In the old house, (it was built in 1765) we had seven acres surrounded by several thousand more of state land (very uncommon in this suburban nightmare that Rhode Island has become), it seemed like every animal that could be found in our state passed through our property at one time or another (including scarlet tanagers, bobcats and coyotes).
I just got a touch of nostalgia, having just seen my first hummingbird in the eight years since moving back into town. She disappeared before I could grab my camera.
Sidenote: When we were selling the old house, James Woods came by with his mother and brother to check it out. He’s as big of a jerk in person as you could imagine.

Now we’re cookin’: Political Animal points out that now we can drink a doughnut for breakfast.

Buy ladybugs here.

Pet Corner: This is a $1650 dog bed. Man, you could almost give your dog an MRI for that much.

This is an inept egg-shaped cowboy animation, or something.

Play! Three Monkeys.

Entry #218

Animal of the Week: Red-Eared Slider.
Seriously now, here's more and more.

Happy birthday mom. Usually I cook a meal for her on her birthday. This year I may go with my world famous octo-dogs.

Stuff You Should Know: Florida Bird Songs.
It even includes an audio of the now extinct Dusky Seaside Sparrow.

Welcome to Fox and Roach Realtors.

Pet Corner: Dog kimonos.

Play! Fishball.

Entry #217

This picture has been making the email rounds lately. It’s a hoax.

Pet Corner (sort of): The world’s largest pigeon farm.

A local Mom's Club visited us today after summer camp.

Talk to a ouija board.
The skepdic takes a crack at explaining these things seriously.

The breaching shark. Cool stuff.

Bonus Comic:

Entry #216

Here’s an illustrated guide on how to sample your own DNA. As you can see it is very important to wear rubber gloves because who knows what awful germs you might catch from yourself.

Stuff You Should Know: Lumpy Squirrels. This is very interesting, but kind of gross.

Poke a penguin. Good. Now poke a rabbit. Very good. Now go back and poke each one really fast for about 15 seconds.

Now we're cookin': A guide to TV dinners, for us hapless single guys.

Albino Monday: Badger.

Oops. Almost forgot.
A Little Piece of Dylan: Where are you tonight? (1978).

Entry #215

One of the Biomes staff, Rebecca, got married this weekend at the historic Mystic Seaport Village. You know a wedding is going to be fun when the invite states "Dress: casual, jeans". Lucky for me since jeans are all I have to go with my Tevas.

Today in History: In the year 64, the Great Fire of Rome started burning. Although Nero didn't fiddle because the fiddle wasn't invented until 1805.

Happy Birthday Zachary (7).

Cool Site of the Week: What do license plates look like in other countries?

Another illusion: Follow the instructions to make your skin crawl.

Here are thirty great Westerns.

Oh, pu-leeze.

Entry #214

As usual, Saturday's image stolen from Maru.

The artist's co-op next door had an outside market today so I closed Biomes to give them all the parking space. Basically just went in to feed the cat and check up on all of our sharks. That new dogfish is one big dude.

Timewaster of the Week: Sticky baby.

Here’s another illusion for you.

I don’t buy this story at all. It’s a photoshopped pic of a deer with a fox’s head and a dog’s tail. (Found it at the Freeper site so you may want to wash well with plenty of soap after going there.)

The Night Stalker. When I was a kid I absolutely loved this show. I was just devastated when it was cancelled.
He was pretty good in “Christmas Story” as well.

Speaking of movies, I've added Metacritic to the "Great Sites" list on the right. Check it out.