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The New York Times has put together this very good flash animation on the Asian tsunami.
Stuff to Bookmark: James’ Movie Reviews.
Go here, click on the third picture and read the directions.
Here’s another site that induces seizures in my dog.
Play! The reverse mouse maze game.
I have an answering machine in my car. It says, "I'm home now. But leave a message and I'll call when I'm out." -- Steven WrightMerry Christmas United Kingdom, from the Simpsons.
Pet Corner: Home for the Holidays hopes to find homes for up to 300,000 ophaned dogs and cats by New Years day. (via Freddie the Dog.)
Movie Review: I Robot.
Will Smith is a mediocre rap artist and lame sitcom personality. Each time he stars in a film of his own, such as MIB, Independence Day and Ali, I want to not like him. But like in those other films, he rocks in spite of my expectations in I Robot. The movie is flawed but the effects are great and I was totally entertained. That’s what movies are all about. 4.0 starfish out of 5.
You could be an obsessive nutcase like this guy, or you could just use common sense and enjoy your dang life.
Last week (Entry #376) I linked to the Unfortunate Christmas Cards site. Rebecca sends in her submission (click thumbnail).
Biomes staff member Danielle left us last year to do a two year stint in the peace corps studying corals on a tiny island in Southeast Asia. Rebecca has been trying to reach her with no luck. Danielle, if your reading this send one of us an email so we know you're all right.
Now we're cookin': The potted meat museum. And yes, they do list “pork brains with milk gravy”. That may sound pretty good after seeing some of the others.
Looking to start your own website? Hey, you can’t do much worse than “Deadhost”.
Trailer for Batman Begins. This looks good. And after the last two disasters it better be.
Flattery will get you nowhere.
Animal of the Week: Rock Gunnel.
These little guys are very shy, but they have more personality than most of our species of fish. I mean look at that face. More links are at the end of the "learn it all" section.
Happy Birthday Nathan (5).
Apparently I’m “well informed”, but barely (55.5%). Take this NY Times 2004 trivia quiz.
Search Results: Someone (probably a republican) found the Biomes Blog by Yahooing “I hate biomes”. It brought them here and here.
Stuff You Should Know: Edward Telfair got one electoral college vote in 1789.
Bonus Comic:
What's up with these annual Christmas time natural disasters? Last year it was Bam, Iran. This year an earthquake/tsunami in southeast Asia. This one was bad. Photo essay from a Thai blog.
Dept. of Educashun: Tsunamis.
Today’s long read: Quitting the Paint Factory.
Deep-sea Christmas snow. This is just too cool. Be sure to watch the movie at the end.
A little piece of Dylan: The Man in Me (1970). This song was featured in the Jeff Bridges movie The Big Lebowski, which, by the way gets 4.5 starfish out of 5.
Strongbad on “Radio”.
Albino Monday: Loon.
A Very Biomes Christmas:
Picked up my son and my brother, who have both become city people now, to drive them down to Mom’s and sis’. Hunted for coffee (Starbucks was the only thing open and thanks to finding Buy Blue, they will be getting my business for two reasons now. Three if you count the coffee was damn good). Christmas music included Nora Jones, Van Morrison, Lyle Lovett and Graham’s new six-disc Star Wars sound track (No real christmas music in other words, to the relief of all). They have one of those unreal CD players that holds 400 disks, which they programed and it just played all day. Mom’s angel hair and lobster tails, gifts (one for each and no more is the rule. I got me an updated Photoshop program. Yay.) and then a massive game of Taboo.
The wood duck house I got her last year has been taken over by squirrels, even though we set it up on the edge of the salt marsh in front of her house. What are you gonna do? Spotted a red-bellied woodpecker, marsh hawk and golden-crowned kinglet while we were there. Overall success.
Although I had asked Santa for one of these. No luck, the cheapskate.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Good Nodwish etc.
So, I took another one of those online quizzes:
| You Are a Losing Lottery Ticket! |
|
Burn all of these onto a CD tonight, bring them to dinner tomorrow and take bets on which family member will be first to rip it out of the player and fling it against a wall. (My money’s on my brother.)
Now this is the way to write a christmas carol. (Sound on.)
Unfortunate Christmas cards.
Here are the lyrics to that “Jingle Bells” song they play every single Christmas which made me laugh the first three times I heard it (I was around ten). Via Freddie the Dog.
Stuff You Should Know: The evolution of Santa.
Use the Perfect Present Picker for your last minute holiday shopping.
Santa Claus is on the FBI ten most wanted list. Find out why here. (I had to use a google cache version cause the original page is down. Must be a lot of sightings.)
Play! mahJong Christmas.
I bought my brother some gift-wrap for Christmas. I took it to the Gift Wrap department and told them to wrap it, but in a different print so he would know when to stop unwrapping. -- Steven Wright
Pet Corner: The Humunga Tongue.
Meet the real historic Santa Claus.
From last January, buy a giant microbe.
The very first post of this site featured a photo of a meerkat as I tried to figure out how this foolish blog thing worked. Here's a pair playing with mistletoe.
Animal of the Week: Blue Mussel.
It's a yummy filter feeding bivalve that may help cure your dog's arthritis. (I did a search and this blog has never before used the term "yummy".)
Poodle aerobics video. This thing is a riot.
Dept. of Educashun: The christmas tree glossary.
Give the gift of blogging this holiday season.
While writing this entry I received the weirdest email. No links or anything just this:
Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ....
That which brings the highest happiness!!
A search brought me to this site.
Get yours now! Makes a great xmas present. Life size, realistic and just as effective as the real thing. (flightsuit not included).
Now we’re cookin’: Google recipe search.
Here’s the results for “Pork brains in milk gravy”.
Yummy.
Happy Holidays. Here’s a gallery of children being scared by Santa.
Stuff You Should Know (and avoid): The history of the fruitcake.
Search Results: Someone found the Biomes Blog by Jeeving “How Do I Write My Name in Cuniform”. It brought them here.
This is not a good idea. And it won’t make you look like Morpheus.
Have your heart torn out here.
Bonus Comic: (clickitty-click)
According to this site, 15,000 volunteers work every christmas answering children’s letters to Santa. They ask that parents be sure that children don't include cookies in the envelopes.
Movie Review: In the Heat of the Night.
This won best picture in 1967, and deservedly so. Rod Stieger is a Mississippi sheriff forced to work with Sidney Poitier and comes to question his own racism. All the other actors are just filler. This is a two-man show and certainly worth a look. (They had funny looking police cars in the sixties.) 4.5 starfish out of 5.
The history of Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.
Stuff You Should Know: Weird city names.
A little piece of Dylan: Absolutely Sweet Marie (1966).
Welcome to Absolutely Cynthia Marie’s Bob Dylan Shrine.
Introducing the top ten cheesiest movie lines. Number one courtesy of the worst movie ever filmed.
Albino Monday: Sea Turtle.
Happy Birthday Hayden (9).
Tom Lehrer’s Christmas Carol.
Cool Site of the Week: Money Maps.
“Are we smarter than birds” is a wonderful Daily Kos diary. Read it.
Happy Birthday Patrick (8) and Nicholas (7).
Here’s a messy desk contest. Go vote.
At the request of family and friends I put together an Amazon wish list and stuck it on my right sidebar so Santa can find it (obviously he’s a liberal so he reads this blog). When you search my name on Amazon you get about 15 Mark Halls who also have wish lists there. So, for the hell of it I searched “John Smith”. 976.
Here's Santa’s Blog.
Timewaster of the Week: Newton’s Penguins.
Welcome to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, a NOAA facility like Biomes only better funded because, you know, it’s taxpayer financed. Thanks to Kos reader Bengoshi for the link.
The nomination process for the Koufax awards (it’s the Oscars for liberal blogging) has started. I’m requesting a new category this year, Most Useless Progressive Blog, and nominating the Biomes Blog. I hope I win!
Spongebob kidnapped and held for a ransom of 10 crabby cakes, fries and a milkshake.
The movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was released this week in 1954. If they had consulted us at Biomes they wouldn’t have made the mistake of making the mechanical squid’s beak upside down. This is how it should look. The flick's a bit lame even without this goof, but a decent enough time waster. 2.8 starfish out of 5.
Here's more on Giant Squid.
Make your own snowflake (thanks Graham).
Fifteen Answers to Creationist Nonsense. By Scientific American.
Since we’re entering awards season, here are the top three winners of “Man of the Year”. Congratulations fellas!
Play! Slingshot Santa.
I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms from the statues that are in all the other museums. -- Steven Wright
Pest Corner: The Amazing Fly Gun.
Do You Remember These? (Turn on sound.)
I don’t. I’m old, but not that old. Ovaltine was featured in the movie “A Christmas Story”, which you should remember to watch again this year. I watched it last night for about the eleventh time. I was always a big fan of Kolchak, and he is wonderful as the dad. You can even buy his leg lamp from Amazon. 4.8 starfish out of 5.
Happy Birthday Katherine (7).
Readers Sceptica and Dave have sent in their superhero avatars (mine is on Entry #360)
Sceptica uses her whip and the power of the asp to debunk the superstitous. Dave didn't specify his powers. I assume he can fly.
From last December: Who's on First?
Animal of the Week: Short Big-eye.
This is one of my favorite fish and it's a very rare tropical stray in Rhode Island. We get maybe one or two a year. Here's the movie of our current specimen when he was about 1 1/2 years old. The juveniles get caught in the Gulf Stream Current and start arriving in late August. They do not survive our winters. When we catch them they are only about the size of a nickle but grow pretty quickly. This is what a young one looks like when we first find them.
Now we’re cookin’: Enjoy a can of pork brains in milk gravy.
I dont need page’s like this, but its good info anyway. The Apostrophe Protection Society.
Bob the Angry Flower responds.
What secret name did Santa Claus give you when you where born? Find out here.
Mine is Sneezy Scrooge-Cracker.
Something serious for a second. The Iraq fatalities map. Blue states seem to be taking quite a hit.
Please remember today's important holiday: Monkey Day 2004.
First, sign the Monkey Day petition.
Then relax with a nice hot cup of monkey-picked tea, sit back and read on.
Buy your Monkey Day stuff here.
Happy Birthday Nicholas (6). He's not a monkey, but he did have his birthday party at Biomes today.
Send someone a really annoying christmas monkey greeting card.
Dept. of Educashun: Monkey printouts from Enchanted Learning. And learn some serious monkey stuff here.
Please don't train your monkeys to do this. This is OK, though.
Play! Free monkey games. And this one is good too.
And don't forget about those lovable back-of-the-comic-book sea monkeys. Visit their worship page now.
Monkeys in the news.
Rent this movie tonight. (Actually, I'm serious. It's quite good. 4.5 starfish monkeys out of 5.)
Famous monkeys throughout history.
DU wonders if we're all just a bunch of trained monkeys. (Answer: No, only 51% of us are.)
Here's a tasteful gift idea. Who wouldn't want one of these on their fireplace mantle?
[Update]: Looks like Dr. Pharyngula's in on the action.
Go to google, type in “arabian gulf”, and click on “I’m feeling lucky”.
Check out this dancing car ad.
A little piece of Dylan: It's Alright, Ma (1964)
Some cool 3-D geometrical stuff, via Mr. Sun.
More holiday cheer. Ugly Xmas lights.
William Shatner “sings” Rocket Man.
Albino Monday: Jet.
Meet the staff of the Biomes Marine Biology Center. I figured I should probably get this page up before the beard gets any greyer.
Ten not so successful holiday specials.
Cool Site of the Week: Whalesounds.
December's Eyesore of the Month.
A joke for the halibut:
Three women die together in an accident and go to heaven.
When they get there, St. Peter says, "We only have one rule here in heaven: don't step on the ducks!"
So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first woman accidentally steps on one.
Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw.
St. Peter chains them together and says, "Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly man!"
The next day, the second woman steps accidentally on a duck and along comes St. Peter, who doesn't miss a thing. With him is another extremely ugly man. He chains them together with the same admonishment as the first woman.
The third woman has observed all this and, not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly man, is very, VERY careful where she steps.
She manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to her with the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on.
St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.
The happy woman says, "I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?"
The guy says, "I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck!"
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