Biomes Blog

Entry #3938: Good News Everyone

This chart is everywhere, and shows that very little of the public is moving towards Republicans and more (especially Hispanics and Whites under 40) are moving more towards the Democrats. The consistent support of Blacks (80%) explains the widespread efforts of voter suppression by Republicans throughout the country.

Entry #3937: What's Wrong With Chicago?

Reporter Erik Cameron was walking down the street when he was accosted at gunpoint by an irrational and paranoid (my term) cop. He tells the story in this thoughtful essay that points out that these confrontations are no longer the result of a few bad cops, but are due to the prevalence of violence and intimidation as part of an institutionalized, rehearsed policing ideology, which he says is even mored troubling than lone, poorly trained individual police officers.

Entry 3936: Earthrise

NASA has released a new photo of Earth rising over the moon's horizon. It's a hi-res version of "Blue Marble", taken 43 years ago by Apollo 17. What struck me is how massive the Sahara Desert is.

Entry #3935: The Party Decides

Nate Silver has a piece on why Trump won't win the nomination of the Republican Party. In "Six Stages of Doom" he argues that the establishment won't allow him to get that far even if the voters in the crazy wing want him to.

Entry #3934: Leaving on a Jet Plane

Off to see the sister in DC for a few days.

Here's a collection of Calvin and Hobbes snowman comics.

Entry #3933: Liar of the Year

Your Republican Uncle has some truth you can use on the less-enlightened family members this holiday season.

Politifact couldn't come up with just a single lie of Trump's, so their annual "Lie of the Year" for 2015 goes to pretty much everything he's said. Congratulations Don!

Entry #3932: Whap

Tbogg's eleven most punchable faces of 2015.

Entry #3931: Upper Paolithic Dogs

New DNA evidence has found that dogs were domesticated 33,000 years ago (or a few million fractions of a second ago, depending on how religiously insane you happen to be).

Entry #3930: The Force Awaits

Today's the big day for Graham and me. 7:00 pm and we've been waiting, like everyone else, for a year. 

The New Yorker has a solid review.

Here's Star Wars if it was told by Ken Burns.

Entry #3929: A Mind-bending Realm

The Quantum Republican Universe, by Tom Tomorrow.

Entry #3928: Hotel California

...and that being said, there are some things that don't make me embarrassed to have grown up in the 70's.

Entry #3927: Dust in the Wind

Sometimes I'm embarrassed to have grown up in the 70's.

Entry #3926: Alvin III

I'm in love with the little guy.

Entry #3925: Tom Speaks It

Tom Brokaw reflects on tRump's dangerous proposal to ban Muslims is worth a watch. Not so much because he is saying anything that isn't obvious to us good guys, but that it was said so plainly on a national network.

I'm not a fan of photoshopping people's faces onto historical photos to ridicule them (he says as he posts a photoshopped face on a historical figure to ridicule him), so I'd rather focus on the quote.

Entry #3924: And Meadowlark Lemon

What it feels like to be a Stormtrooper.

Everything you wanted to know about the Harlem Globetrotters.

Entry #3923: Hanukkah in Santa Monica

Tom Lehrer:

Entry #3922: Gone Bananas

Find out your age in days. I’m 18,367 days old.

The world's favorite fruit is slowly becoming extinct.

Entry #3921: Obi the Octopus

Here's my new octopus killing and eating a crab. You can see when the paralyzing toxin starts to take effect as the crab's legs start twitching.

Entry #3920: WLTLRI

I did a children's talk show this week:

Entry #3919: Haeckel's Drawings

Delving into the Royal Society's archive of Haeckel's scientific illustrations.