Biomes Blog

Entry #564

Last night I went to a 24-hour grocery. When I got there, the guy was locking the front door. I said, "Hey, the sign says you're open 24 hours." He goes: "Not in a row!" --Steven Wright

  Ze Frank’s version of the game “Simon”.

Watch the Rolling Stones on Ed Sullivan.

Our new ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins (R-pasty), has been to Canada. Once.  Back around 1973ish.  This was brought to my attention by reader Patty.

Pet Corner: The dog-powered scooter.  Watch the video here.  I’d survive maybe five minutes if I tried this with my ridgeback.

Cast your vote for the world’s ugliest animals.

The evolution of a blog: The Biomes Blog was started as part of biomescenter.com's site as sort of a "what's happening at Biomes/cool animal links/harmless humor" site.  It was basically a blog format using a blank GoLive page, but after a few months all the images would eat up my site's memory. So to continue I'd have to trash all the entries and start again.  After a year and about 300 posts I decided it seemed like such a waste so I thought I'd go with a real blogging tool.  I tried blogspot but I couldn't figure it out.  So I tried movable type, but couldn't figure that one out either.  Then I found typepad, which seems to be tailor made for the computer challenged.

Unfortunately, I discovered that some school systems have internet filters which would block any site that links to blogging software.  So this blog was pulled completely and stands on its own as the edgy/political/science blog you now bow down before.  Actually, it's just a bunch of junk I find and throw up on these pages, but you get the idea. Although it has allowed me the freedom to expand my blogroll to include blogs I could never link to before (I'm looking at you, Maru).

Anyway, I've reinstated a severely limited version of the "what's happening at Biomes" stuff again, which you would really have no interest in, although it's here if you want to bore yourself silly.  Hits on Biomes Blog went from about 15 hits a day in December 2003 to about 500 today.  Not impressive, I know, but I'm happy with it.

So, that's the story.

Entry #563

So, I wasted the entire afternoon trying to figure out the basics of my spanking new Adobe GoLive update.  I really don't get along with these computer thingies.  Of course, the boy comes in tonight and solves all my problems in about fifteen minutes. 
(Posts are prewritten the night before, in case you're wondering about the occasional weird chronology.)

Dept. of Educashun: All about Poison Ivy.  And be sure to check out the Grody Poison Ivy Skin Rash Hall of Fame.  (Lower left side of the page.)

Courtesy of Wiki, here are tons of Simpsons quotes.

Yes. What Kristen says.

The top ten apocalyptic movies.  Number seven, “A Boy and His Dog”, is very good, if you haven’t seen it.

Meet the saddest caveman.

This two-million dollar, diamond-encrusted shark was photographed in China.

Entry #562

Animals of the Week: Malformed amphibians.
Here's a congressman, Jack Kingston (R-gasp!) who actually seems to care about this.

Check out the “All In The Family” tribute page.

  Fruit fly fight club.

Monitor air travel, real time, at Logan Airport.

Aint It Cool News reviews “War of the Worlds”.  And who knew star Tom Cruise was a Sith? (Poor Oprah.)

Stuff You Should Know: How to shave with a straight razor.

Cuttin' things short today as the boy is bugging me to put in disk 3 of "Mork & Mindy", which arrived from Netflix.  He's hooked.  Retro-kid. (And, who's this guy, who appeared in season one?)

Entry #561

Meet Hercules, a giant Liger.

A caller from Florida, who lost both of his sons to flightsuit boy’s illegal war, calls in to Rhandi Rhodes radio show and slaps down evil traitors and America haters Bill O’Reilly and Karl Rove.  Worth a listen.  Good god, this is just heartbreaking.

William Shatner parodies the movie Seven.

Stuff You Should Know: How to make a million dollars.

Welcome to the Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua.

What kind of idiots run CNN’s online quickvote poll?

A little piece of Dylan: Heart of Mine (1981).

The Biomes Blog Linkzoom.

Watch a preview for the documentary “March of the Penguins”.

Albino Monday: My dog has this one white whisker growing out of the left side of her snout.  I’ve trimmed it but, of course, it keeps growing back.  Would it be cruel of me to yank it out by the roots?  It’s really annoying.

Entry #560

Al Franken and Joe Conason skewer simpleton Ed Klein, liar extraordinaire, about his book against Hillary Clinton.  Listen to it all. And remind me never to get on Conason’s bad side.

Cool Site of the Week: Wow. Forests Forever is one of the most impressive Flash sites I’ve ever seen. Don’t miss the gallery.

Don’t forget to check in with The Faux News Channel every once in a while.

Ok, this is a bit creepy. And what does it say about relationships in the internet age?  The Last Email.

Here’s a huge animal photo gallery.

  Megaman’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Movie Rating: S.W.A.T.  S.W.I.L.L.  0.8 starfish out of 5.

Damn.  I’m not complainin’ or nothin’, but whenever Bartcop links to this humble blog I get hammered with hits.  Welcome, guys.

Milk makes me sick, via fanatic cook.

Heh.

No-kill animal shelters are wonderful ideas and should be fully funded by the government (yeah, right).  Anyway, that’s how we found our cat Sammy, who lives at the Biomes Center and helps to control our once rampant mouse problem.  So visit your local shelter today and adopt a lovable furry companion.  Like Pinky, for instance.

Entry #559

Wiki takes on Star Wars.

You gotta love Landover Baptist Church.  Better than The Onion for my money.

Today’s long read: Suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge. (via Majikthise).

Last requests.

Who else but George Carlin could logically whittle down the ten commandments to two that actually make sense.

Timewaster of the Week: How to keep an idiot busy.

Hero and patriot Howard Dean on Jon.  Here’s more from Onegoodmove.

“You talking to me?”  AFI lists their top 100 movie quotes.

The many moods of Dick Cheney.

Here’s a photo/video gallery of people crying while eating.  The site is called...cryingwhileeating.

Today’s long read II: How Deep Throat fooled the FBI.  Turns out Deep Throat was once assigned to investigate who Deep Throat was. 

Entry #558

A water tower in the town of Gas, Kansas.

I passed by the Jamestown osprey nest this morning and saw one of the parents perched on top of some new contraption sticking out from the nesting post.  Turns out it was the osprey camera set up by the town. The other parent was feeding the chicks, who look like they'll be ready to start flying in a week or two.

The world’s longest-married man just died at the age of 105.  He and his wife Flo were married for 80 years.  Via Blog of Death.  The record will never be broken because our tolerance for civil unions has destroyed the institution of marriage, or so they say.

Morford: Downing Street Is For Liars.

Wiki learns you all about Watergate.  It’s just incredible that we’ve sunk to a level even lower than Nixon, president-wise.

Play! Punch the failure with the pathetic poll numbers.

The stuff you can find on these here internets.  Meet the Daily Dancer.

Check out Floor 42.

Friday Echinoderm Blogging: Leather Sea Star.

Entry #557

"I intend to live forever. So far, so good." --Steven Wright

Meet Sonya Thomas, competitive eating champion.  Yikes, nine pounds of crawfish Jambalaya.  And this guy ate 17.7 pounds of cow brains in 15 minutes.

Dept. of Educashun: The strawman fallacy.

Buzzflash’s archives of their “GOP Hypocrite of the Week” awards.

Here is part of a mass email I received:

...In my Southern Baptist church our preacher made reference to airlines pairing their pilots with one Christian (or saved) and one non-Christian (or unsaved). This is done on the pre-text that if and when the 2nd coming of Christ happens and the one Christian pilot is taken into the clouds with Christ, leaving the non-Christian pilot to supposedly land the plane safely alone. Our preacher specifically mentioned American Airlines as having this policy.

I can’t believe this nonsense actually has to be debunked, but Snopes does it anyway.

South Knox Bubba visits the Clinton Library.  OK, then.

You can actually watch online “Ascent to Power”, a documentary about one of history’s most disgustingly corrupt politicians, here.

Morford: Die, Die SUVs, Please Die.
As an aside, I was behind a Ford Excursion this morning at the gas station.  Her fillup came to $102.50 at the diesel pump.  The attendant (no, I don't pump my own gas.  It's one of the few luxuries I afford myself.) told me she comes in to fill the tank three times a week.

  Bob Dylan song facts.

Pet Corner:  Glamour dogs, home of the puppy purse.

Entry #556

Animal of the Week: Silverside.
These common fish travel in large schools.  Each school is always made up of fish of nearly identical size.  I always feel bad for these poor guys.  They are constantly on the run, relentlessly hunted by bluefish, striped bass, cormorants, terns and nearly every other shallow water predator. The one in this picture is obviously kept in captivity and is seriously malnourished. (Notice how fat and healthy mine, above, are. Just sayin'.)

The Saga Begins. The boy captured this Weird Al channelling Don Mclean Star Wars music video and compressed it down to 1.8mb somehow.

Watch a clip from the new documentary “Hijacking Catastrophe”.  Impeach already. 

More Downing Street Memos, by The Ape Man.

Now we’re cookin': A photo essay on how to make and eat a 30,000 calorie sandwich.

This is Trippy.

What’s your world view?  I’m a modernist.

Modernism represents the thought that science and reason are all we need to carry on. Religion is unnecessary and any sort of spirituality halts progress. You believe everything has a rational explanation. 50% of Americans share your world-view.

Entry #555

Here’s a carnivorous plant gallery.
These are the six main trapping mechanisms used by them.
The carnivorous plant FAQ.

The Biomes Center’s bathroom mural.

Search Results: Someone found the Biomes Blog by googling "kangaroo spaghetti sauce".  It brought them here.

Here’s the story of how Rolling Stone Magazine’s number one song of all time was recorded.

My mother is insane loves xerox boxes.

Sweaty maniac, Steve Balmer.

Nice.  Tests prove that voter fraud using Diebold machines is possible.

Entry #554

MSNBC poll.

Meet Mark Warner. I’m certainly not endorsing this guy or anything.  Just wanted to point him out for future reference.

A little piece of Dylan: Under the Red Sky (1990).

“Guess Which Movie” is very cool.  Match the stills with the movie they are from.

Watch the very first ever MacDonald’s television ad.

Stuff You Should Know: An interactive periodic table of elements, in detail.  Click on any element for all kinds of information.

Albino Monday: A rare white bison born in British Columbia (via reader Tim).  Albino katonka occur once in every ten million births.

Entry #553

Normally I’d trust Snopes to the end of the earth.  But this didn’t work for my cell phone.

Pac-Man turns twenty-five.

Batman and Robin 20 years later.

Meet Eugene, the marvelous crooning child.

Cool Site of the Week:  Watch stuff get shredded.

Here’s a photo gallery of baby animals.

When I had to have my last rhodesian ridgeback put down a few years ago (man, that hurt), during one of our visits to the vet there was a six-month old boxer that ate fourteen glass christmas tree ornaments. He survived.  Here are some x-rays of kids that swallowed things.  And, x-rays of people with body piercings.

Dept. of Educashun: The world’s deadliest species of animal is a jellyfish.  (This was supposed to go with Friday's picture.)

What is wrong with people?  Stop voting for Republicans. 

Entry #552

A Mount Diablo buckwheat, thought to have been extinct, has been found in California.

Your guide to Episode III “Easter Eggs”.

Timewaster of the Week: Dancing Paul.

Buy your “lock’n load Jesus” mousepads here.

Don’t forget to check in periodically on the cost of war website to watch how your tax dollars are being pissed away by flightsuit boy’s war based on lies. 

Today’s Long Read: The Mystery of the Democrat’s New Spine.

These Yogi Bera quotes are presented here to fill my yearly quota of  baseball related links, because I really can’t stand the sport.  What else could make watching golf seem exciting?

Stuff You Should Know: 2000 uses for peanut butter.

Entry #551

Oh, great. Rummy’s gunning for China now.

The Smoking Gun has the Runaway Bride’s mugshot, for those who care, which I don't.

During staffmember Jean’s wedding, the reverend lady mentioned the Wedding at Canaan.  I had to explain to my tablemates that this referred to the myth of Jesus turning water into wine.  Why does it take the lone atheist in the group to explain this to a bunch of believers?

Clark: Bush is ruining the military.

Yikes! I’m Marge.  Which Simpsons character are you?

What Atrios says.

Play! Unholy Matrimony.  You’re given a morphed portrait and you need to guess which two celebrities make up it’s “parentage”.

Friday Echinoderm Blogging: Salmon Fillet with Sea Urchin Risotto.

Entry #550

So, I just bought this house today, pending any major problems with the inspection.  Why should you care?  Because based on the Hall Family home buying history, I’ve come up with Mark’s First Law of Real Estate.  This theory states that any major house purchase by any member of my immediate family will be followed by a severe drop in the nation's housing market.  So if you’ve been thinking about selling, now is the time.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  It’s a Victorian built in 1880, btw.

Stuff You Should Know: How to fold a t-shirt.  I posted this way back, but this is a better version.

Roger Ebert gives “Batman Begins” two thumbs up.  The boy and I are so there on Saturday.

The 48 rules that guide the Bushco misadministration.  Fortunately they appear to be ignoring #47.

Pet Corner: Order your duck diapers here.

"I only have to change my ducks about every 4 hours and sometimes they last much longer than that. They all sleep in my bed every night."

Check out the pollution scorecard for your county.

Annoy an economist.

Buy your fish plaques here.