Biomes Blog

Entry #503

After a year of anticipation, and a bit of fretting after reading this review I linked to a couple of weeks ago, I have to say that the movie was actually pretty enjoyable.  Sure, they left out a few key characters and changed some dialog and added a couple of really stupid unAdams-like gags.  But, aside from perhaps the worst opening theme song ever in movie history (listen to track two sample), overall I think they pulled it off nicely. Here's a more positive review than the one above. Rating: 4.2 starfish out of 5.

The guide to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Timewaster of the Week:  Play around with this.

Happy Birthday Audra (12), Matthew (7) and Abby (7).

I discovered a love for cooking in my late 20’s, inspired by Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet) who had a show on PBS.  I think it was his overall zeal and cosmopolitan approach to the art that first attracted me to his style, as well as the  childhood illness we both shared, Rheumatic Fever.  Fortunately for me I didn’t suffer the same long term effects of the disease that led him to an early demise.

This week’s recipe is my great-grandmother’s Italian Gravy.  Man, she could cook, but she didn’t write so the actual recipe is lost. This is as near as I’ve managed to come to it (with the help of some of Smith’s hints).  It’s actually just spaghetti sauce, but you have to call it “gravy”.  You know us Sicilians.  Recipe in the extended post below:

Entry #502

This is being passed around the internets titled “French Troops Arrive in Iraq”.  Actually, they’re British, but it’s pretty funny anyway.

The mystery of Germany’s exploding toads may be solved.  Blame the crows.

Dept. of Educashun: Everything you could ever want to know about Ben Franklin.

What’s your Wu-Name?  Mine is “Annoying Menace”. (via Tom Tomorrow, aka “Bitter Observer”.)

Watch Buddy Rich on the Muppet Show.

Play! Smiley Rush.

So girls, what’s in your bag? Bag Ladies.

This week's Echinoderm Blogging will be preempted for some great news. I have several birding books here that clearly state that the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker has been extinct for sixty years.  I really hope these new rumors turn out to be true.  More from DailyKos.  And here's some rare footage of the bird, taken in 1935.

Entry #501

"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig."  --Mark Twain

Star Wars origami.

Riddle:  What’s smaller than a quark.  Larger than the universe.  The rich don’t need it.  The poor have it.  And if you eat it you will die.  If you press your shift key you’ll get the answer. 

Celebrities wearing safety goggles.

Creation Myth: Salish.

Visit Anne’s Banana Museum.

Stuff You Should Know:  The History of the Teddy Bear.

Here is a list of famous vegetarians.  I’m a huge Dylan fan, but I would never have guessed he’d be on this list.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  I did try this for about four years.  Didn’t work out.

Pet Corner: The Goldfish Racetrack.

Tom Tomorrow strikes again.

Entry #500

Animal of the Week: Bay Scallop.
Although I don't eat a lot of seafood myself, the adductor muscle of this bivalve is hard to resist.  Unfortunately, they have become very rare in the bay.  Most of those that are served in restaurants are from the larger, less superior deep sea scallop. Some recipes to try out.

Happy birthday Coretta Scott King (78).

Here’s a blog about nothing but the supposed extraterrestrial activities on Mars.

How much do you know about Separation of Church and State?  Take the test. I got 19 out of 21, but embarrassingly enough one of my wrong answers had to do with Roger Williams.

Stuff You Should Know:  If you are thinking about moving to Denver, the house built for Woody Allen’s film “Sleeper” is for sale.

Meet "One-Take" Georgie.

Watch the newest Star Wars III trailer.

Now we’re cookin’:  The Hamdog.
It’s a chili, bacon, egg and cheese hamburger wrapped around a hot dog and served on a Krispy Kreme donut bun.  Ack.

Entry #499

Ebert Reviews “Turtles Can Fly”.

More bad news on the ocean front. Top Fish Populations Being Replaced by Rays, Smaller Fish.  Part of the reason is found in this new global shark assessment report.

Creation Myth: African. 

Stuff You Should Know:  Combating mind control with the AFDB (Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie).

Aurora the octopus is a mom.

Graham’s first animation, done when he was in the sixth grade.

Search Results: Someone found the Biomes Blog by googling “monkey messing with tigers”.  It brought them here.

Secret service charged with protecting a DC mallard’s nest.  Officials fear Cheney will bite the ducklings' heads off once they hatch.

Entry #498

   Spell with Flickr.

Creation Myth: Digueno.

Movie Ratings: The Pledge.  Sean Penn’s directoral debut, starring Jack Nicholson (I’m sure he’s a prick in real life, but what an actor). 4.1 starfish out of 5. 
Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead. Andy Garcia, (with the help of a fantastic supporting cast) carries a movie. 3.9 starfish out of 5. 
The Incredibles.  It’s so nice to be out of that “go see the pokemon movie for the kid” phase.  Grownups will love this too.  4.2 starfish out of 5.

A little piece of Dylan: The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (1964).
The story of The lonesome death of Hattie Carroll.

Coulter’s lies.

Obviousman-The Movie.

“Sydney Opera House” Update: Biomes Blog found via google.ca, .be, .au, .nl, .uk, .pt, .se, .sg, .it, .de, .fr, .kr, .fi, .pl, .ch, .no, .dk, .jp, .th, .cl, .br, .nz, .mx, .ar, .tr, .es, .sv, .ag, .hu, .cl, .lu, .il, .at, .ro, .co, .in, .fi, .at,

Albino Monday: Wallaby.

Element #497

The Periodic Table of Elements.

Periodic Table of Elements song by Tom Lehrer.

The Periodic Table of Blogs.

The Periodic Table of Desserts.

The Periodic Table of Rejected Elements.

The Table of Condiments that Periodically Go Bad.

The Table of Superheroes Named After Elements.

Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar. One says, "I've lost my
electron." The other says, "Are you sure?" The first replies, "Yes,
I'm positive..."

Entry #496

Happy Birthday Emily (5) and Tyler (7).

Creation Myth: Navajo.

I’ve been using Firefox as a web browser and it’s awesome.  But whenever I click on links embedded in emails they launch Internet Explorer.  Via reader (and brother-in-law) Seth, there is an improbable way to fix this.  Open Safari (yes, Safari), go to preferences then “general” and tell it your browser is Firefox.  Problem solved, go figure.

Today’s long read:  Kurt Vonnegut's, “Knowing What’s Nice”.

Cuitlacoche.  Steve, don’t eat it! It’s corn fungus.

Hey, when you image-google “create your own superhero”, check out who’s number one.

I really don’t see the point to the iDog.

"2) It will keep you company, and plays some tunes in a random way. So he can be a companion whenever you feel a bit lonely."

Timewaster of the Week:  A frog watches a lobster listening to Hall and Oates.

A few weeks ago I pulled out my twelve year-old and still completely unused crock pot to try out a new chili recipe.  Now I’m hooked.  I have a bunch of pork chop recipes, but even the best of them tend to be on the dry side.  Try out this one.  The best chops you’ve ever had in the extended post below:

Entry #495

Today is Earth Day 35.  Read Meteor Blades’ thoughts.

The Drugs I Need.  Hilarious.

Stuff You Should Know: Proof that bread is dangerous.

Play! Use your mouse (cursor invisible) to keep the drunk standing.  (emailed by a reader who’s email I lost so I can’t credit, but comment if it was you.)

[Update: Thanks for the linkage, Skippy.]

Golf fans, watch “the shot”.

Movie Ratings:  Rabbit-Proof Fence tells the heartbreaking story of three sisters who were part of Australia’s “Stolen Generation".  4.5 starfish out of 5.  Passenger 57 is tripe. 1.5 starfish out of 5.

A wholphin was born at a marine park in Hawaii.  It’s part dolphin and part false killer whale.  Via Majikthise, and here’s a photo.

"Dear Hotel Manager: I’m planning a trip to Austria and was wondering if you could provide me with some information on Kangaroos, Koalas and the [ed: oh, no] Sydney Opera House."

Friday Echinoderm Blogging: Orange Sea Cucumber, feeding.

Entry #494

I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time". So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance. - Steven Wright

Today in History: Mark Twain died on this day in 1910.
And happy birthday Queen Elizabeth (79).

Flying dog.

Now we’re cookin’:  Baby Jeebus Haystacks.

How Puff-Benny16 got selected.

The Old Grey Squirrel test.  It's a parody of this.

Pet Corner: The dog dog feeder. ("If your dog leaves home [ed: dies], this café converts to a great plant stand!")

Dept. of Educashun: The cactus gallery

Welcome to Canada, eh?

An ad featuring singing belly buttons.

Entry #493

Animal of the Week: Bar-tailed Godwit. Learn about this long distance flyer from Fast Pete.

Free the carp.  A pictoral essay of a guy who buys a live grocery store fish in order to free it.  I used to do this with lobsters when I was a kid.  I’d save up my money and each month I’d buy a lobster and free it.  I’m sure they all just marched right into the nearest trap the next day.

Creation Myth: Hawaiian.

White smoke arose from the Vatican chimney which means a new pope has been chosen.

Somebody, apparently taken by the movie “Sideways”, created this silly wine tasting notes generator.  A random sample:

Ready to drink but wicked Zinfandel. Attacks with mocha, overdone shallot and lingering chutney.

Ze Frank’s love letter to Condoleeza.

Housekeeping: I've decided to post some of my recipes on weekends.  Excited yet? Instead of cluttering up the daily post, I'll use the extended thingy that I've never even tried before.  Lets see if it works:

Entry #492

Phase two of the Harp Seal hunt is underway.  The rationale (protecting fisheries) is based on lies.

If there’s proof we’re a bunch of incompetent liars?  Just scrub the report. Duh.  More here from Kos.

Cows with Guns.

Creation Myth: Dakota.

Harvard students teach you how to fish for squirrels.

Search Results: Someone found the Biomes Blog by googling “the floor’s on fire”.  It brought them here.

According to this guy, the state boundaries should be redrawn and the states renamed.  Click to see the proposed new United States.  I live in Plymouth.

The Dogblog.  An entire site devoted to photos of dogs waiting.

Dept. of Educashun: Seabird Osteology.

Entry #491

You Are Incredibly Logical

(You got 100% of the questions right) You think rationally, clearly, and quickly.

(Yay for me)
How Logical Are You?

Stuff You Should Know:  The complete guide to what kills us.

Who says scientists don’t have a sense of humor?  The editors of Scientific American get all sarcastic-y on the Intelligent Design clowns.
Oh, and thanks to Onegoodmove, I’ve learned that Sci-Am has its own blog, using Typepad no less.

A little piece of Dylan: Desolation Row (1965).

It’s been a while, but here’s another optical illusion.  Stare at the blinking green dot in the center.  The three yellow dots never disappear, regardless of what your eyes tell you.

Warfloggers were wrong.  Of course, we knew that three years ago.

Albino Monday:  Patches the domesticated pony.  They shouldn’t be feeding this horse cheeseburgers.

Entry #490

Jean and Rebecca set up a demonstration of marinelife in the local IMAX lobby, with horseshoe crabs, sea stars, skates and some of our baby sharks, for the viewers of Cousteau's Sharks 3D.  I got me a free viewing and I highly recommend seeing this one.  The underwater photography of sharks, manta rays and other animals was simply stunning. It covered Pacific species (off Central America I believe) and was narrated by a little sea turtle with a British accent for some reason.

Happy Birthday Keiran (6) and Riley (7).

Napoleon Dynamite soundboard.

Chimpy isn’t hot.

Graham’s clownfish movie.

Creation Myth: Aztec. 

Cool Site of the Week: Zipdecode.

Click here for some of the creepiest visuals you can imagine.  Way to honor that first ammendment folks.  The constitution is a doormat and these wingnuts are wiping the mud off their feet with it.

Entry #489

Migrating blacktip reef sharks off a Florida beach.  Note swimmers on the left. Story.

Buy your shark jewelry here

Happy birthday Kyle (5) and David (6).

Creation Myth: Micmac. 

Where sane Republicans meet up.

Dept. of Educashun:  How new technologies are helping scientists learn more about whales than ever.  How’s this for an impressive acoustic discovery: “So if I am a whale off Newfoundland, I can hear a whale off Bermuda.”

Finally made the switch to Firefox and I highly recommend it over Internet Explorer, which has been making me nuts lately.

Entry #488

Clocks Ranked According to the Ease With Which One Can Tell Time From Them (Easiest to Hardest).

So, what do you do if Burger King keeps getting your drive through order wrong? Call 911 of course.

Ma'am, we're not gonna go down there and enforce your Western Bacon Cheeseburger.

Creation Myth: Olori (African).

“No, no. I said G-4. Ahhh, that’s the stuff.”  The backscratcher’s tee-shirt.

Play! Frog concentration.

President scent-of-a-woman thinks he’s Al Pacino (Hoo-ah!).

Evolution: A Fairy Tale for Grownups, or pseudoscience for stupid people.

Friday Echinoderm Blogging: Banded Sea Urchin.

Entry #487

Do you think that when they asked George Washington for ID that he just whipped out a quarter? -- Steven Wright

Watch the amazing soccer playing elephant. Why can’t we just leave these beasts alone and let them do their own thing in the wild?

Elephant conservation park.

Here’s something I got to thinking about after posting this letter by William Safire on Entry #451. Did astronauts have a cyanide cap or some other way of ending things quickly and painlessly if things were to go hopelessly wrong? I couldn’t find anything googling it. While taking my diving classes years ago, the instructor liked to test his students panic reaction by sneaking up behind us and turning off our air. (He seemed to enjoy this and did it more than necessary, I think.) So I can tell you that the sensation of suffocation is not a pleasant experience. I don’t imagine floating around in space waiting for your oxygen to run out would be either.

Abe Vigoda update.

To the loser who wasted his/her entire morning repeatedly clicking google picture search in an apparent attempt to annoy me or something: 1) No, you made no difference in my usage and haven’t cost me an extra penny. 2) The extra hits up my google mojo thereby getting me more readers, so thanks for that.

Creation Myth: Tahitian.

Stuff You Should Know: What pi isn’t.

The Endangered Species Act may have several species of corals added to its protected list for the first time. Assuming these GOP clowns running the government don’t try to dismantle this program too. And don’t think they wouldn’t love to do just that. One of the proposed species is the Elkhorn Coral, pictured below.

Entry #486

Animal of the Week: Blood Starfish.
This cold-water species of sea star is pretty rare in Narragansett Bay, although we do come across a few at the mouth of the bay each year. It's small, only a few inches across and the brilliant red color is unmistakable. Because they are so sensitive to heat they are very difficult to keep in captivity unless the water can be chilled. They also have an extremely restrictive diet, consisting mainly of sponges, which can be difficult to obtain in the winter. Basically, it's a pain in the butt to try to keep these animals, but the color alone makes them worth the effort.

Creation Myth: Hopi.

You’ll need to take a shower afterwards, but check out the web site of some of your more demented fellow Amerikkkans.

Another roadside attraction. Visit the Roadside Gallery today.

Movie Rating: Sideways. 4.3 starfish out of 5. Nicely done, but do people actually change the wines they drink based on a movie? My brother is a bartender and he confirms it. (The audio clip of the NPR story was taken from Maddox’s “Best Page in the Universe”'s take on the subject.)

The number of hits received from folks googling "Sydney Opera House" has passed 6,000 for the week. My bandwidth hurts.

John Cleese’s lightbulb joke.

Now we’re cookin’: How to cut stuff.

Entry #485

Here’s a pelican eating feeding her young.

Thanks to Pharyngula, I find out that my Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Rail Gun of Courteous Debate.
Get yours.

Dept. of Educashun: All about rainbows.

Watch the really strange, Oscar nominated short film called “Copy Shop”. (Realplayer).

Creation Myth: Pima.

Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy review (via Bartcop E). Oh, no. This doesn’t bode well:

“You just won't believe how vastly, staggeringly, jaw-droppingly bad it is. I mean, you might think that The Phantom Menace was a hopelessly misguided attempt to reinvent a much-loved franchise by people who, though well-intentioned, completely failed to understand what made the original popular - but that's just peanuts to the Hitchhiker's movie.

Search Results: Someone found the Biomes Blog by googling “monkey printouts”. It brought them to our “Monkey Day 2004” post here.

Stuff You Should Know: What payphones look like around the world.

There are little men in your computer screen and they're trying to get out.

Entry #484

I think my favorite day of the year is that first day the spring peepers start calling. Today was that day.

A group from the Cranston Head Start (you know, the program the misadministration would like to dismantle along with anything else that doesn't serve corporate interests. Ooh, how they do love their corporate welfare.) visited Biomes for some shark petting and snake handling.

It’s spring in Rhode Island, which means, yes, it’s pothole season again.

A little piece of Dylan: From a Buick 6 (1965).

A scene from “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” played out in real life.

The unidentified man was driving westbound at about 10:40 a.m. when he tossed the cigarette out the window of his Ford Expedition, said CHP Officer Shawn Chase. Carried by the wind, the cigarette landed in his back seat and almost immediately burst into flames.

Yet another site designed to induce seizures in my dog.

A little bit of good news for the Mediterranean Sea. The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) has banned bottom trawling at depths beyond 1000m.

Albino Monday: Peacock.