Biomes Blog

Entry #807

Trivia (10 Biomes points): There is a parasite whose larva infects the brain of an insect, turning it into sort of a zombie and causing it to climb to the top of grass blades night after night until it is accidentally ingested by a grazing mammal.  The parasite then migrates to the new host’s liver where it matures.  What is the common name of the parasite?  Googling allowed, and include a link if you find a good one. ("Google" is the next "Kleenex".  I used the term to mean any type of net searching without realizing it.)

Search Results: Someone found the Biomes Blog by googling “tv stars who wear toupees”.  It brought them here.  At first I couldn't figure out why, but the words "wearing toupees" appears in the comments.

I'm a hippopotamus and I've got noodles on my back.

Thirty-two rules of email etiquette.  This one is important:

31. Don't reply to spam.
By replying to spam or by unsubscribing, you are confirming that your email address is 'live'. Confirming this will only generate even more spam. Therefore, just hit the delete button or use email software to remove spam automatically.

  Stuff You Should Know: Why your feet smell.

Meet best buddies, Aochan the rat snake and Gohan the hamster.

Welcome to HiddenSongs.com - a comprehensive listing of hidden and unlisted tracks from albums by all types of artists. I must have linked to this site a long time ago because I vaguely remember contributing this one.

Jeebus.

Entry #806

When I was eight years old I would spend every Friday night with this guy.
RIP Darren McGavin.  And of course, A Christmas Story will always get a once a year viewing.
This is Ralphie today.

Here’s a photo gallery of stuff breaking.  Some of these are pretty cool shots.

Some weird art by d’Holbachie Yoko.

Garrison Keillor: The Little Man.

“Most of us sense that when, decades from now, the story of this administration comes out, it will be one of ordinary incompetence, of rigid and incurious people overwhelmed by events in a world they don't dare look around and see.”

Apparently The Boy is building a web browsing application tool he calls “Zelda Web Browser”.  (Scroll down.)  I have no clue what this means.

Albino Monday: Lion.  This one's a repeat, but of the 110 or so albino animals I've posted, this is my favorite.

Entry #805

Some last photos of the lasts of their kind.  Wayne, in comments, gave me this idea.
Quagga, pictured on the left.
Caribbean Monk Seal.
Bali Tiger, as well as two subspecies known as the Caspian and the Javan Tigers.
Passenger Pigeon.
We’ll end this a bit more uplifting with a list of animals known as Lazarus species, those thought to have gone extinct but later found again alive.

Although I haven’t seen a second of the olympic games, and really couldn’t care less about them, you still have to admire the ability of this athlete.

  Let weird Al read your mind.

RIP Don Knotts.  Not many left of this cast.

Cool Site of the Week: A handy-dandy list of RAP phrases.

Get your Slanket, the blanket with sleeves!, here.

Entry #804

When will people learn that trickle-down economics doesn’t work?  It didn’t work for Reagan and it doesn’t work now.  It enriches the rich, and that’s all it does.  There is no “trickle-down” effect.  It doesn’t happen.  Why is this so hard to understand?

The Science of Superman.

Breaking!! Cheney secretly underwent cardiectomy.

Bookmark worthy: The red list of endangered species.

Answer to yesterday’s trivia:  Mixter finds what I believe is the footage in question. It’s dated 1936, but this could be an error or when the film was released, not shot.  Here’s the story as I understand it, and if someone finds something that contradicts it, please let me know.  In 1933 some documentarian wanted to film the the last living Thylacine.  Problem was, there were actually two known to be alive, but since they were both female the species was doomed anyway so they decided to go ahead with the project, being careful to only include one individual in the movie (if you look closely at the film I believe the other’s shadow appears for a moment).  62 seconds into filming, the next-to-last living thylacine attacked the cameraman from behind, biting him in the ass if I recall.  I’m giving Wayne 5 points for being so close.  And as I said in the comment thread, “By the way, to me that footage is heartbreaking. Extinction is natural and is the fate of all species eventually. But when it happens because of human intervention it's just devastating.”  It really is. (I don't think "intervention" was the word I was looking for, but you get my drift.)

Ice storm.  How’d you like to be that mallard pair in the last one?

Entry #803

I'm a sucker for chili dogs.  Anyone remember Lums?  I don't think the chain exists anymore, but when I was a kid they had these awesome dogs served in a plastic mesh basket.

I found out a bunch of cool and useless stuff about me at the birthday calculator, including the fact that I’m 5.90724070450098 in dog years, making me slightly older than Ngazi.  Maybe when she reaches my age she’ll stop pissing on the carpets.

Arrested Development.  This show is pure genius.  Just finished a marathon of season one.  I don’t have tv access so I do this through Netflix.  On to season two.  5 starfish out of 5.

Welcome to the Siskiyou Project.

Trivia (20 Biomes points): I’ve posted about the extinct Thylacine (Tasmanian Wolf) before.  There is a movie, filmed in 1933, about the last Thylacine, but the film suddenly ends after 62 seconds.  Why?

Trivia update: Jim D is in the lead with 55 Biomes points. Shayera has 45, Dan with 27, Mixter with 11, Wayne with 10 and mzn, Patty and Bev with 5 points each.  Molly, I know you're reading, so let’s get on the board, mkay?

iPod Shuffle: (low battery, damn.  Hold on a sec.)

Ok, back. Here we go.

1. I Won't Back Down (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
2. High And Dry (Gordon Lightfoot)
3. It Won't Hurt (Dwight Yoakam)
4. Heart Of Glass (Blondie)
5. Riding The Storm Out (REO Speedwagon, live)
6. Every Breath You Take (The Police)
7. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (Sting)
8. The Waiting (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
9. No Earthly Good (Johnny Cash)
10. Just Another Nervous Wreck (Supertramp)

Entry #802

I mentioned this entertainment book the other day.  If you aren’t familiar with this thing, it’s basically a huge book of coupons, mostly for restaurants which offer one free meal when you buy another.  I love it because it gets me to try places I might not ever go to (which is really the point, right?).  So, I’m driving through this rural section of Massachusetts and it’s lunchtime so I take out my book to see if there are any coupons for a meal in this town.  I find one for a small deli and notice it’s actually on the road I happen to be on.  So I pull in and order a chicken salad sub for lunch and a free sausage sub that I’ll save for dinner.  Good deal, right?  But the owner doesn’t recall taking part in the Entertainment Book promotion and doesn’t want to honor the free sandwich.  No way Cubby, I tell him, I have this coupon right here saying you offer a free sandwich when you buy another of equal or greater value.  We go back and forth about it and finally he says fine, he’ll get my damn sandwiches, but he takes a very long time making them.  I pay the man and leave.  A while later I pull over at a state park, unwrap my chicken salad and bite into what was basically a bun filled with mayonnaise.  What the.....?  I open the sausage grinder and it’s just a bun filled with tomato sauce.  The son of a bitch took so long because he was picking out all the meat from my sandwiches.  Can’t remember the name of the place, but stay away from the one sub shop in town if you ever pass through little Uxbridge, MA.

Heh. Harry Whittington has a blog. And don't miss the comments.

Letterman plays a parody ad that is spot on.  Dick Cheney: Just a Big Bowl of Bad.

  Protect your laptop with this pizza box.

Bookmark worthy: Center for Biological Diversity.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have yet another dog seizure to attend to.

Entry #801

Tbogg picks up on something interesting. Check out White House propagandist Karen Hughes indocrinating a bunch of kids using the “Encyclopedia of the Presidents”.  Compare the man in the upper right corner with the vastly superior one who graces the actual book’s cover.  These people are just so amazing.

Now we’re cookin’: Pikachu Hors d’oeuvres.

Hotlix insect candy doesn’t look very good.

Retouching magazine cover photos. Unveil the fraud. 

Trivia (10 Biomes points): Name the singer.

Morford: Sam Alito on Brokeback Mountain.

Meta stuff: The contents of “peeps”, on the right-hand side links, are bloggers who comment here on a regular or semi-regular basis.  I’m an avid blog reader, but more of a lurker, so I apologize for not being more interactive.  Some comment often, while others hardly at all, but just knowing that you check in occasionally means a lot.  As far as Bartcop goes, he’s never commented but we’ve emailed and spoken by phone (he’s a great guy in person).  In any case, I wanted to take a sec to thank you all for contributing to this insignificant little site.  Thanks.

Entry #800

Animal of the Week: Baby hedgehogs (pic via Maru).
More information can be found at hedgies.com.  Wiki on hedgehogs. And I forgot "Albino Monday" yesterday, so here it is: Hedgehog.

Buy your woodland eco-coffin here.

Alternate rules for monopoly.

Watch a Moveon ad morphing one criminal into another.

  The history of the Kinzua Bridge, which collapsed a while back.

Search Results: Someone found the Biomes Blog by Yahooing “why do dogs eat wood”. It brought them here.

Had dinner at the Cav Restaurant in Providence, and the meal was absolutely spectacular.  Very expensive, but the service and food was unmatched.  We used our Entertainment Book coupon and still spent a fortune, but for a special night out it was worth it. I used to keep sheep as pets so I haven’t eaten lamb in 20 years (imagine being served a cat or dog fillet), but I went way out on a limb and tried the braised lamb shank mentioned in that review above and was in heaven. I’m going to hell, I think.

Entry #799

NASA wants to know why some of last year’s biggest hurricanes were accompanied by lightning, something that normally does not occur during these storms.

Which File Extension are You?  (Never heard of one before, but this is what an .ogg is.)

Ten reasons not to buy a diamond.

Make the pie higher poem.

The Freeway Blogger’s Impeachment Project.  I saw one on an overpass about a mile from my house last week.

Trivia (5 Biomes points): What’s the real name of the Banjo Boy from the movie Deliverance?

Paging Dr. Seuss. Taiwan scientists create green transgenic pigs by adding genetic material of jellyfish into the pig embryoes.

Entry #798

This week's water tower is found in Lebanon, MO.  "Friendly people, friendly place".

Another Valentines Day gift I missed out on.  Anatomically correct chocolate heart.

Hey, here’s a good idea.  Let’s put control of six of our largest ports in the hands of a state-run company in the Middle East (UAE) that has proven ties to terrorist organizations.  Republicans: Makin us safa.

Bookmark worthy: National Wildlife Federation.

Cool Site of the Week: The Song Tapper. Tap your space bar to the lyrics of a song in your head and this program will return some possible results. It missed Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”, but got Seger’s “Night Moves” on the first try. If it gets a song wrong you can submit it to help them build their song inventory. Loaded very slowly for me, though.

Congrats to Rufus, the 130th winner of Best in Show at the Mayflower Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
Here’s this years Ridgeback winner, LaFleur's Flashy Prospect.

Entry #797

I know I just recently linked to this, but it’s Jon Stewart at his finest.  When I really laugh I cry, with tears streaming down my cheeks, and this was one of those times.  Seriously, in spite of Mr. Whittington being a corrupt republican croney for many years, I hope he gets better, and it's nice to see he's been released from the hospital.  However, the laughter that Rob Courdry gets when saying the  line “in this post 9/11 world” is a good sign that people are starting to catch on to the right’s fear tactics and propaganda to keep people scared and cowed enough to support their ineptitude.

Here’s a fascinating video of a shooting experiment by a group of hunters showing that Cheney is mostly lying.  Like that comes as a surprise.

Timewaster of the Week: Money does grow on trees.

Buy your Fork-Art here.

Space jellyfish.

Movie Rating: Shanghai Knights.
I can’t help it.  I like Jackie Chan.  He’s obviously got incredible martial arts talent but comes off so self-deprecating about it (see Rumble in the Bronx for his best early example of this, since it’s admittedly getting a bit old).  Sure, his movies are mostly terrible and Owen Wilson adds nothing to this film (Dude, you’re rich. Get the damn nose fixed.), but Chan is nearing 50 years-old and the guy still does all his own amazing stunts. The flick is a big disapointment, but still gets 3.5 starfish out of 5 due to the Chan factor, even though his character’s name is Chon Wang (pronounced “John Wayne”. ha, ha).

Help me out here.  Which one's correct?

• 50 years old
• 50 years-old
• 50-years old
• 50-years-old

Entry #796

My brother is a Spanish teacher in Providence (for the record, we’re Irish/Sicilian, he just knows Spanish really well) and for some reason his students are constantly giving him Dunkin Donuts coupons as gifts and random acts of appreciation.  He carries them with him and hands them out to the homeless whenever he encounters one.  No link or anything, just noting that he’s a good guy.

I agree with Atrios.  Having Cheney resign would be bad for Democrats, but good for the country.  But if there is one thing we’ve learned in the past 20 years, Republicans are wonderful at politics but horrible at actually governing. So what’s good for the Democrats is good for the country.  Let him stay, we’ll try to survive the next three years of his errors, greed and the humiliation of this idiot being our pResident’s babysitter, and move on to better days.

iAttire, little bitty clothes for dressing up your iPod. Creepy.

Bookophiles (not a word), buy your very own Thumbthing here.

iPod Shuffle:

1. Pontiac (Lyle Lovett)
2. Kings Highway (Tom Petty)
3. Spanish Harlem Incident (Bob Dylan)
4. St. Judy's Comet (Paul Simon)
5. Just Like A Woman (Bob Dylan, Live)
6. House of the Rising Sun (Bob Dylan)
7. It's Not My Cross To Bear (Allman Brother's Band)
8. You Can't Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones)
9. Hotel California (The Eagles)
10. Flesh and Blood (Johnny Cash)

Entry #795

You know what? I'm wiped.  I have a ton of stuff to do today, I haven't been keeping up with my link searches and for the first time in 795 days, I have nothing to post.  Go play with my archives, browse my blogroll and have a great day.

[Update:]
Damn, I just can't help myself. What I do for the six of you.  Here's a special Valentines Day post by my boy from last Monday.  I’m not sure if I should be proud or join Bad Dads Anonymous.

On Federal Hill in Providence, there's this Italian market called Venda Ravioli. For Valentines Day dinner, the sexy and voluptuous Mary picked up some hand-made ravioli stuffed with truffles, and we topped it with a mushroom cream sauce. (Insert Homer's drool.)

And some Trivia (worth 15 Biomes Points):  Which famous director’s sister is this (and 5 bonus points if you can name her)?

Entry #794

Animal of the Week: Pen-raised quail.

Ok, this is funny.  Jon Stewart on hunting with the veep.

Dept. of Educashun: US volcanoes.

Play! Cheney Hunt.

The 900 Club, cataloging the world’s heaviest people.

Buy a house, get a free dog.  I think this is a good idea.  Maybe not.  I’m really conflicted over this and if it keeps me awake all night I’ll really be pissed.  At least they give you a voucher to the humane society (which you can use or not) instead of actually having a dog installed in the home.

I missed this Valentines Day gift: Anatomically correct heart-shaped soap.

[Update: Visited my usual coffee place this morning and the owner has one of those page-a-day bird calendars next to the register. Go ahead and guess what today's featured bird was.  Seriously.]

Entry #793

Stuff You Should Know: The history of Valentines Day.

Send an email card to someone special.

Ancestral Magnitudes.  Another fantastic post by DarkSyde.

Give that special someone the gift that says how much you care, like, say, a new nose or a pair of butt implants. (Don't be cheap and buy her just one.)

  Last year's Valentines Day Biomes Blog extravaganza.  For those of you who missed it. Don't forget to watch the great monologue by Ze Frank.

Rantings from a lunatic.  This Falwell guy would be hilarious if it wasn’t for the many people who actually take him seriously.

Movie Rating: The Fantastic Four.
I was never a big comic book fan when I was a kid.  But whenever I was sick I’d get the usual; Spiderman, Ironman.  But my favorite was The Fantastic Four.  This movie just ruined some nice childhood memories. Horrible. 1.4 starfish out of 5. (And take the hottest member of the cast and make her superpower.....invisibility.  Nice marketing.)