Biomes Blog

Entry#3075: Lazy Harp Seal

Who really caused the deficit? Be sure to check out the chart.

Since climate change is supposedly a hoax, there must be some reasonable explanation why after thousands of years living apart, grizzly and polar bears are now creating hybrid cubs.

Why Iron Man is better than Batman.

Hump day musical interlude: Lazy harp seal has no job.

Entry #3074: Sea Monkeys

I mentioned the other day that I read endless comic books when I was a sick eight-year-old with rheumatic fever for a couple of months. These sea monkey ads were on the back of nearly every issue (this was in the ’70’s, not the ‘60s).

I’ve heard of fishermen accidentally hooking birds and turtles, but never a dolphin. I think it’s because the dolphins know exactly what they are doing.

Friend and Foe is today’s slide show, featuring unlikely animal pairings.

Entry 3073: The Illusion of Choice

Albino Monday: Pocket gopher

Media consolidation infographic. Just six companies control 90% of what you see, hear and read in the media.

Geek stuff: The Star Trek ambient noise engine. The ship makes the idling sound for 24 hours on this YouTube sound video.

This list of the ten best TV show opening themes includes video examples of each one.

Entry #3072: Safety Last

Mosquitoes have no reason to bite us, but they do so out of spite.

As a kid I went through this phase of being obsessed with silent movies. I gobbled up Chaplin, Keaton and Harold Lloyd movies like “Safety Last!”. Keep in mind this stunt was done for real, and there were no stunt doubles, safety nets or FX involved. Lloyd actually climbed this building to do the scene (and he did it with only eight fingers, since he lost two of them doing a stunt in an earlier film).

Entry #3071: Mostly Feathers

Nearly a quarter million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits this weekend.

I think that in general people underestimate an animal’s ability to learn (I work with octopuses, so I’m very well aware of this), but I’m not sure I buy this story about a hummingbird, a wasp and a birdwatcher.

Stuff you should know: An owl is 70% feathers.

Entry #3070: Calvin

Biomes hit the news all over the country yesterday for a calico lobster I don’t even have yet. I even did a phone interview with the New York Times. It will be arriving as a donation from the New England Aquarium next week. They named the lobster “Calvin”

Old Jews telling jokes: Giving a bull an enema.

Entry #3069: Moondance

See what phase the moon is at right now.

Man reports the moon to police. And in other moon news...

The evolution of the moon.

Top ten songs about the moon.

Bill Nye the Science Guy was booed in Texas (where else?) for saying the moon reflects light from the sun, and doesn’t emit light of its own. Apparently people were greatly offended because there’s a line in some book of fairy tales that says otherwise.

A video comparison of some of the heavenly bodies in the universe, from our tiny moon to a red hypergiant star.

Entry #3068: My Hometown

Give Krugman a listen. I’m no economist, but for the last few years I’ve had the sense that this guy is the only one out there who has any idea what he’s talking about.

The ten most iconic portraits of the 20th century.

Hump day musical interlude: My Hometown.

Entry #3067: Decorah Eagle Cam

The Decorah Eagle Cam is one of the best live feeds of this kind I’ve seen. Be sure to watch it before this year’s brood leaves the nest (via my mom, who sends in the link and the screenshot).

Steve Benen has been cataloging all of Romney’s many, many blatent lies he’s been telling in his speeches. Here’s volume 16, and links to all the others are at the bottom of that page. The list is stunning, but it doesn’t matter because Al Gore once said he invented the internet.

If your girlfriend is a dentist, don’t break up with her and then ask her to fix your toothache.

Entry #3066: Peach's Rubik's Cube

Here's "Peach", one of my two octopuses, who loves her Rubik's Cube. She spends three or four hours a day playing with it. And she really doesn't like anyone trying to take it away from her. She can spray water six or seven feet and you'll get soaked if you try.

Stuff you should know: Hibernating black bears heal wounds without scarring.

Celebrities that look like mattresses.

Entry #3065: Supermoon

The cloud cover was thick last night, so I didn’t get to see the supermoon.

Analytical thinking can undermine religious faith.

George Carlin had fourteen HBO specials over the years, but his last one, filmed in 2008, four months before his death, is incredibly good. It’s Carlin, so of course it’s not safe for work. It’s called It’s Bad for Ya.

Entry #3064: The Avengers

The worst billboard in America. I swear, conservatives are getting sicker by the hour.

When I was eight years old I was bedridden for three months with rheumatic fever (one of the symptoms is nosebleeds, and I would occasionally have episodes that would cause me to pass out from blood loss). Since there was no cable, internet or netflix at the time, I amused myself mainly with comic books. And The Avengers were by far my favorite. So I’m looking forward to seeing the movie. 

Entry #3063: When the Road Gets Dark

Fascinating Civil War photos. Part 1 is about the places, and part 2 is about the people.

What your email address says about you.

iPod Shuffle:

1. Have a Little Faith in Me (John Hiatt)
2. It's Alright Ma (Bob Dylan)
3. Sandman (America)
4. I Hung My Head (Johnny Cash)
5. A Night on the Town (Bruce Hornsby)

Entry #3062: Beatboxing

According to Wikipedia, beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of producing drum beats, rhythm and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.  Here’s an example from 1938.

Human bipedalism may have evolved as an adaptation to carrying scarce, high-quality resources.

Now we’re cookin’: The most common cooking mistakes.

Entry #3061: Schlock and Roll

The awfulness of Billy Joel, explained. I actually kind of like his pre-Glass Houses music.

I won’t give away my results, except to say that given my cultural upbringing it was disappointing but not surprising. Set aside ten or fifteen minutes to take the African-American/European-American Implicit Association Test.