Biomes Blog

Entry #1356

Via The Boy, you can bid on Stephen Colbert’s wrist cast, but since ebay items disappear quickly I thought I’d immortalize it with a photo.

Holy shit, my kid’s an adult. How’d that happen?

These two guys raised a lion and released him back into the wild. A year later they went out to check on him and got quite a greeting.

Timewaster of the Week: Every possible combination of potential words using four letters or less.

Dear Al:
You’re running.
Sincerely, America

Videoblogger rocketboom does a story on Yearly Kos 2007.

iPod Shuffle:

1. Maggie May (Rod Stewart)
2. I Wanna Roo You (Van Morrison) What??
3. The Big Muddy (Bruce Springsteen)
4. Guess Things Happen That Way (Johnny Cash)
5. Sad Caper (Hootie and the Blowfish)

Entry #1355

The Lesson. By Darksyde.

“The tragic lesson of Katrina is what will happen when men and women who openly despise our government - who brag they plan to weaken it until they can drown it in a bathtub - are allowed to govern. Moreover it's revolting that after telling the nation that they and only they could keep us safe from any and all threats, the neo-clowns were caught off guard by a Weapon of Mass Destruction called 'water,' arising from a storm that could be seen lumbering toward the Gulf Coast from the surface of the moon for a week. Choose your leaders wisely; these neo-GOP idiots couldn't run a rib-joint, let alone the United States of America.”

And to think in some countries these dogs are eaten.

Play! Tilox. Wise use of the double jump is key to clearing the board.

Stuff You Shouldn’t Know: Places that are blurred out on google maps.

Atrios says to lay off Ms. Teen SC, but I disagree. Watch and weep for our youth.

Entry #1354: Reggie

Here's me and Reggie the boa constrictor with a small group of kids. Reggie was named after the snake in the plane at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here's a movie The Boy made of him. I'll have more to say about that pirate in the background on Sept. 19.

Search Results: I’m not sure why I’m getting so many hits from googlers looking for “hot cup of monkey”, but it’s bringing them to my 2004 “Monkey Day” post here.

Tom Tomorrow: And then the cartoonist fell out of bed and woke up.

Win a wedding at a Walmart superstore. How romantic!

Extreme coin balancing.

Stuff You Should Know: Ten things you didn’t know about cigarettes.

Josh Marshall has put together a video of the top ten greatest moments of Bush flunky, disgraced Attorney General and failed human being Alberto Gonzales.

Entry #1353

See ya, Gonzo. Now if only he could take the rest of the administration with him.

There’s just no hope for this country when a debate host asks the Dem candidates if praying to God could have prevented Katrina or the Minnesota bridge collapse, as if this is actually a rational question to ask. Richardson had a decent answer, but it was met with silence. I don't like Joe Biden at all, but his answer was pretty good as well. Mike Gravel is still crazy. And I’m getting really sick of Kucinich’s “As president...thank you” routine.

Christ, I'm starting to sound like a bitter old man.

Hurricane George.

Jackie and Dunlap’s Red State Update series on YouTube.

Take this short etymology test. I got half right.

You may have noticed, but I’ve been trying to limit the number of links in each post to between four and six. I think it’s more likely people
will click if there are fewer of them. Thoughts?

Entry #1352

The difference between a normal person and a scientist. This comic explains at least one very big screwup I’ve made in my personal life in the past year.

Popular Mechanics debunks most of the crazy 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Back in 1994 Dick Cheney was almost sane before oil money rotted his brain. History will not be kind to us for putting these two fools in power.

Now we’re cookin’: A recipe for beef tea.

Albino Monday: White white-tailed deer.

Entry #1351

This week's Marine Life Series is about tropical strays.

If you’ve got a couple hundred bucks lying around, upload your baby picture here and see what a forensics team comes up with as they predict how you’ll age.

Watch a bunch of clips from the Discovery Channel’s “Planet Earth” series.

Today’s long read is by Rolling Stone magazine, which neatly lays out the case for the truth about the Iraq war. Which is that this is pretty much nothing but the largest heist in human history. Bushco has basically transferred billions of dollars from our treasury directly into the hands of big corporations. And did so under the guise of patriotism and protecting the “homeland”. Hell is too good for these people.

Dear Dr. Graham: I’m a really dim bulb, so I have a question...

Entry #1350

Here’s a blog that features hundreds of stunning landscape photos. Maru, bookmark this.

The Burr-Hamilton Duel.

As much as I dislike stereotyping, I’m guilty of it myself when it comes to Republicans. I simply can’t wrap my mind around the thought that anyone with the slightest bit of intelligence, logic and common sense could not help but see the damage that party does to this country and the rest of the world. Then I see this. *sigh* Republicans are idiots. The smarter ones are either morally bankrupt or willfully ignorant. There is no other explanation.

I'm sure you've all heard that Buddhist monks in China are now not allowed to reincarnate without the government's permission. This world is nuts.

Entry #1349

Watch Obama on the Daily Show. I got the chance to see him up close in Chicago, in a small group setting, and the guy is really quite impressive and extremely likable. Although in real life he's about 120 pounds. I'€™m still waiting for Gore and barring that, leaning Edwards. But I'€™d be thrilled to have the chance to vote for this guy as our President.

The Yangtze river dolphin is extinct.

Arnold has magic shoes that make him seem taller than he really is.

Now we'€™re cookin': Everything should taste like bacon.

Buy a Submissive Jesus, the prayer-answering talking head.

iPod Shuffle:

1. Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
2. The Ballad of Carol Lynn (Whiskeytown)
3. Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen)
4. Copperline (James Taylor)
5. Daily Grind (Little Feat)

Entry #1348: New Toys

Try out wetpaint and pass it on for others to add to.

My Roomba would be so jealous, so don’t tell him I’m lusting for the newest version.

Cool Site of the Week: Universcale.

I was so sick of my gas mower constantly needing repairs, having to be tuned-up every year and spewing pollutants, just to cut the grass on my small 1/4 acre yard. So for a mere hundred bucks I got one of these old-fashioned, rotary blade push mowers and I love it. Normally I let my lawn go until it gets to be a little embarrassing. But now I’ll be out there three times a week. And it is a little bit of a workout, so there’s an added plus. Oh, and it really does a great job. One thing I really like is it spreads out the clippings evenly rather than periodically leaving a mat that needs to be raked or else it kills the grass. My friend David runs the little family-owned hardware store I got it from and he threw in a free blade-sharpening kit. Life is good.

Entry #1347

Animal of the Week: Cherry-headed Conure.

Movie Rating: The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. I’ve mentioned before how much I love documentaries. My biggest problem with them is they tend to be too short. At just an hour and a half, this movie is about an eccentric living in San Francisco who dedicated over five years of his life to caring for a colony of about forty wild Peruvian parrots that live in a city park. I laughed, I cried etc. 4.6 starfish out of 5. Watch the trailer at the link above.

Modern conservatives are truly disturbed people.

Who would have thought that collecting garbage is now one of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq. Nice going, George.

Stuff You Should Know: Vinegar is a nearly universal cleaner.

Entry #1346

I should have made it clearer that yesterday's link about the death of Oscar the death-predicting cat was from a a satirical website. Oscar is still alive. And so is Scamp, the Dog of Doom.

These stories of psychic animals are both examples of confirmation bias, where people tend to see patterns that confirm their beliefs, even when no patterns actually exist.

No, I’ve never heard of “glacial surfing” before, but somehow I don’t think the fact that glacier chunks fall so regularly is very good news.

Get your own life size dinosaur for only $55,000. Great for garden decorations.

Trivia (5 biomes points): Who's this? Click to embiggen.

Entry #1345

Remember the psychic cat that could predict the death of residents at a retirement home? Well, he’s dead. R.I.P. Oscar.

This can’t be right. According to this article, the British drop 855,000 cell phones a year into their toilets.

The Midnight Rider is the world’s largest limo.

Iraq is the world’s second most failed state. Way to go George.

Albino Monday: Grey Nurse Shark.

Entry #1344

This week's water tower is found in Millan, MI.

Movie Rating: Rocky Balboa. Although Rocky II through XXI were horrible movies, this final (we hope) entry gets back to the original masterpiece’s relaxed story line with actual character development that made that first film so memorable. You have to suspend reality to believe a sixty-something can actually fight a world heavyweight, but I was very pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable this movie was. 3.2 starfish out of 5, rated low mainly for the lame and sappy dialog. And Sly’s weird looking eyebrows, which were very distracting.

Happy 25th birthday to the CD (Twenty-five years?!)

How to wash a cat. (thanks, Rebecca)

Watch the animated sketch called “The Door”.

Entry #1343

This week's marine life series essay is up. It's about the blue whale.

I love Olbermann’s Worst Person in the World segment, but he outdoes himself with this recent one.

Morford: Thank God You Are Not Karl Rove. Damn, this guy’s good.

Buy the ultimate coffee cup here.

The Blue Bottle Coffee Blog is a site dedicated to coffee.

Entry #1342: Is this week over yet?

Here are a bunch of pie chart representations of flags.

   

Trivia (5 Biomes points each): Which nation’s flag do these pie charts represent?

Stephen Colbert on Daily Kos, and Markos on Colbert. Here’s the comment he mentions on the show. And of course Stephen uses a Mac.

Jesus and Mo, and the barmaid makes sense.

Odie the pug talks on David Letterman.

God, this has been a long week. Here's Friday's iPod shuffle to pass the time away:

1. Long Shot (Aimee Mann)
2. Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner (Warren Zevon)
3. All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan)
4. Congratulations (Traveling Willburys)
5. Waitin' For the Deal to go Down (Reba McEntire)