« November 2012 | Main | January 2013 »
Sometimes I think I’m in the wrong line of work, since I’m too claustrophobic to don SCUBA gear and get seasick almost the instant the boat comes to a halt. But animals get seasick too, including Ernest Shakleton’s ponies who accompanied him on his attempted trek to the South Pole. Of course, I could just buy a case of CarSik Hurl-e bibs
Welcome to the Museum of Insurance.
Animal of the week: The remarkable giraffe weevil of Madagascar.
It happened in Greenland. Watch the largest ice break-up ever filmed.
The birthplace of vegetarianism originated at the Beefsteak Chapel, where Reverend William Cowherd preached the moral virtues of a vegetarian diet. His followers in this plant-based diet were known as Cowherdites.
Beautiful, intricate cut paper artworks by Calvin Nicholls.
See the first chart here? What they call “Nothing in particular” I call “religiously indifferent”. I love the term and perfectly describes those who simply don’t care. I think most of my family and friends fall into this category, but I could be wrong. Personally, I’m a little more hostile to the idea of spirituality of any kind, but I think my blood pressure would prefer that I call myself by that second term.
There are some issues in America that it may be too late to fix, like obesity and global warming. Another is guns.
The amazing color changing card trick. I only caught one of the four misdirections (the guy’s shirt).
Today is the big day. I've worked on the expansion of Biomes for at least part of every day for the past two years. Tomorrow are the final town inspections: Electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire marshall and general building inspections. If we pass we open right away, otherwise we continue to plod on. I've been here since 7:30 am Thursday, and it's now nearly 4:00 am on Friday and I have five more hours to keep working on exhibits until the first inspector shows up at 9:00. And of course my iPod died on me two hours ago. Coffee shops open in two hours.
In the world’s slowest car chase, the officer left his vehicle, ran alongside the 76-year-old’s car and tapped on her window
Cool site of the week: Play around with some photos taken with the new Lytro camera. It allows the user to refocus anywhere on the picture.
Trivia (10 Biomes points): What is it?
Albino Monday (sort of): Marie Antoinette’s hair allegedly turned white the night before her execution. But scientifically, can stress cause hair to turn grey? I can tell you that the past year has been the most stressful of my life, and my temples are a bit silverish now for the first time, but are they related?
Today’s slide show is Fictitious Dishes, Dinah Fried’s tribute to meals served in novels. This one’s from Oliver Twist.
Architectural eyesore of the month.
WikiHow has step by step directions showing you how to smile. Here’s some good advice they give you: “If you're not used to smiling regularly, overcoming your nervousness or cynicism about smiling can take a little practice.”
Qupid is a one-clawed lobster that became a minor celebrity in New Jersey as part of an anti-bullying campaign. A teacher there rescued her from a Stop and Shop. Today I drove from Rhode Island to NYC to pick her and her benefactor up and brought them back to Biomes, where she will now live. Then I drove back to NYC to bring her owner back to NJ. Here she is giving an interview with NBC just before I introduced the lobster into her new home.
Randall has the best solution to the classic Logic Boat dilemma.
The art of making music with your hands is known as manualism. Here’s John Twomey demonstrating it on the Tonight Show in 1974.
Today’s slide show is art on dirty car windows.
