Biomes Blog

Entry #1264

The photography of Rarindra Prakarsa is pretty impresive. (Click to embiggen.)

I’ve only seen two of these shows that should never have been canceled, Arrested Development and The Tick. I agree that the first one should be on this list. But where’s Twin Peaks? Curb Your Enthusiasm?

Famousr. I can’t seem to get more than ten in a row correct.

The other week I linked to a story about Colony Collapse Disorder, asking “what’s happening to all the bees?”. This theory says it’s our cell phones that are to blame.  This one blames pesticides. And this one says it may be a fungus.

Entry #1263

Check out these predictions from 1900 about what life will be like in the year 2000.

Prediction #6:  Automobiles will be cheaper than horses are today.

Trivia (5 Biomes points): What’s the only English word that has three consecutive double letters?

If you’ve read the Biomes Blog for a while you know I faithfully take part in “Talk Like a Pirate Day” every September 19th. I’m disappointed I missed out on the first annual “Talk Like a Pilot Day” a couple weeks back.

Sell your hair here.

Animal of the Week: Dumbo Octopus.

Entry #1262

Yabba-dabba science is an opinion piece from the LA Times about the new creation museum opening in Cincinnati. A museum for anti-science people who think “The Flintstones” represents reality.

Here’s a thoughtful gift for your ex.

Math in the movies. I think this one by Abbott and Costello is my favorite.

The first ancient Gladiator graveyard has been found, revealing some fascinating new information about how they lived and died.

Entry #1261

The Encyclopedia of Life should be interesting if they manage to pull it off. The aim is to fully document information on over 1.8 million species of plants and animals.

I was going through my wallet and found a fiver with a wheresgeorge.com stamp on it. After logging in the serial number and series it showed me where this bill came from. This bill travelled 29 miles from Fall River MA to get to me. Here’s my question: If you saw a website stamped on money would you go through the trouble of logging into the site and tracking the bill or is there something wrong with me?

Homing fish.

The Governor of Oregon tries to get by on a $21 per week food budget (amount alloted to those that live on food stamps). Ohio congressman Tim Ryan also took the “food stamp challenge” and documents his experience on his blog. (via DailyKos)

Albino Monday: Giraffe.

Entry #1260

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

The legend of Owosso.

What would Jesus drive/drink. A music video.

Check out the subway in Stockholm.

Cool Site of the Week: Zoomquilt II

Morford: Rejoice, the Hummer is Dead.

For his memorial day comic, Gary Trudeau has posted a tribute to all of our service people murdered by Bush and Cheney.

Happy 5th Birthday, DK.

Entry #1259

This week's Marine Life Series essay on DailyKos is up. Life Cycle of the Moon Jelly. Don't forget to take my poll.

Al Gore on The Daily Show.

My cousin Patty and her husband Patrick just started a fishing charter service and have put together a really nice looking web site. Check out the dolphin video she took under the “Fish Tales” section.

Stuff You Should Know: 77 ways to help you think better.

How to tell an octopus from a dolphin.

Entry #1258

A little sparrow did to the Prez what he’s been doing to the country for the past six years.

Al Gore has a new book out, called “The Assault on Reason”. I wish he’d stop writing and start campaining.

I’m a celebrity.

If ancient Rome had the internet.

So I was about ten years old and my mother dropped me and my little brother off at this playground in Scituate, RI while she visited a friend. There was one other person there, a kind of weird kid around seven years old, and he kept repeating this Bill Cosby monologue over and over and over again.

Entry #1257: 30 Years

Star Wars is thirty years old. Here’s some trivia.

Watch Star Dudes: A New Hope. (Note: In the real movie, Luke does actually yell “Carrie” in this scene.)

Listen to Star Wars Cantina.

Where are the cast members now?

Star Wars origami.

When I was nine.

The Tao of Star Wars.

Entry #1256

Animal of the Week: Chinese gliding frogs.

Yesterday’s “long read” was Plastic Ocean, which was as fascinating as it was horrifying, so give it a look if you missed it. That awful photo in the piece of the giant turtle with the plastic band squeezing its shell is misidentified. It’s not a sea turtle. It’s a freshwater snapping turtle.

Watch this Gore interview and imagine what it would be like to have an intelligent man in the White House again. Diane Sawyer just can’t stop with the defensiveness of her profession.

People who are banned from appearing on Saturday Night Live.

Science art blog by Karen Wehrstein.

Entry #1255: SiCKO

A sneak peek at Michael Moore’s new film “SiCKO”.
[Update: Link fixed.]

Today’s long read: Plastic Ocean.

Back to the Future trivia.

Top ten weirdest diseases.

Here's an alligator eating a volleyball.

Entry #1254

All Hail the King. What happens when you pledge your loyalty to a petty, little man.

Morford: Oh Right, We’re Still At War.

World population percentages of obesity by country. USA! USA!

I had a caricature of Mary done by Larime Taylor. He's disabled and draws with a pencil in his mouth and the results are pretty incredible. You email him a sample photo, along with the subject's interests (yoga and information tech, in this case) and he emails back a tiff file of the finished work. I'd post the image, which was really well done, but I'd be dead by morning.

Albino Monday: Squirrel.

Entry #1253

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

Wow. Check out Running the Numbers.

I’ve read about the “Planet Earth” series and it’s been one of the few times I’ve kicked myself for dumping cable twelve years ago. But thanks to Blah3 I’ve got a link to the whole thing. Twenty-seven years after his breathtaking work on “Life on Earth”, David Attenborough brings us another spectacularly done documentary.

Play! Moon Patrol.

The place for people that think giraffes are scary.

Entry #1252

This week's Marine Life Series essay on Daily Kos is up. The topic is the Mola mola, or ocean sunfish.

Fun with clouds.

Fun with contonyms. Contonyms are words that basically contradict themselves. For example, the word “clip” can mean both “attach” and “detach”. The word “custom” can be used as “a longtime traditional custom...” and “ a custom made bicycle...” (usual and special).

Entry #1251

Scaring the mouthbreathers. Brit Hume, the republican candidates and the audience present at this 2nd repub debate are either completely nuts or watching way too much Jack Bauer. McCain is the only one with half a brain. And he only has...half a brain. This was a stupidity contest.

Global warming update: And it goes on.

Morford: The Sad, Quotable Jerry Falwell.

The Bank. Starring the disgusting comb-licking neocon Paul Wolfowitz.

Movie rating: High Fidelity. This was the first movie I saw Jack Black in and I was pretty impressed. Unfortunately he's done mostly garbage since then. John Cusack was fantastic as usual and the narration-as-the-film-progresses, like Cusack is our host for the film, was nicely done. Very funny with a great soundtrack (Dylan's "Most of the Time" was a highlight).  4.4 starfish out of 5.

In case you haven’t noticed, way down on the right sidebar is a list of some pretty cool online games. Go waste some time there.

iPod Shuffle:

1. Pretending (Eric Clapton)
2. Captain Jack (Billy Joel)
3. Uncle John's Band (Grateful Dead)
4. Song for the Dumped (Ben Folds Five)
5. Everyone (Van Morrison)

Entry #1250

"The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country."  -- Rev. Jerry Falwell (R- Pining for the fjords)

Many other quotes from Falwell.

Today’s long read: The evolution of mealtimes.

Wake up to the smell of cooked bacon with the Wake n’ Bacon alarm clock.

Cool Site of the Week: Live global trouble alert map. Monitor earthquakes, floods, wars and other disasters all around the world as they happen.

Check out this sandstorm in Iraq.

Entry #1249

Animal of the Week: Blue Poison Arrow Frog. This species was discovered in Columbia in 1968.

Type in anyone’s cell phone number and this satellite feed will track them to see where they are right now. Try it with the number of someone you love.

I don’t know how I missed this, but Bob Clark, director of “A Christmas Story”, was killed in a car accident on April 4th. Watch some clips of this awesome movie here.

The Brick Testament. The entire bible illustrated in lego.

Entry #1248: Cost of War

“God wants me to be President.” --G.W.Bush

Today’s slide show: What does $456 billion buy?

Bill Moyers Journal: The Cost of War is a must see.

Casualties in Iraq.

Projected cost of this war. $1-2 Trillion.

Ditto.

What can $1.2 trillion buy?

Entry #1247

Morford: Talkin' To The Steering Wheel.

Olbermann won the AAN’s first annual Molly Ivins Award.

Buy your pessimist’s mug here.

And this is why you bang your head against the wall when talking to a Fox News watching sheep person, wondering how they can be so freakin’ clueless all the time, every time. The clowns at this fake cable news station repeatedly reported an Onion-like parody as real news. Seriously, watch the video at the link and bask in the glow of stupid.

Here’s a blog that gives you a daily feul economy tip.

Albino Monday: Meet Tarmac the wallaby.

Entry #1246

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

I’ve been watching some clips of this Derren Brown guy. According to Wikipedia he’s an illusionist and paranormal skeptic, in the same mold as Harry Houdini and James Randi. This one, where he simultaneously plays nine top chess players, is pretty incredible. And here's one on cold reading.

Sweet Little Lies is a must read.

This anti-aparthied music video called Sun City from the eighties, and featuring Springsteen, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and a ton of others was directed by Jonathan Demme.

Use WebWait to time how fast your site loads up. Biomes Blog loads in 1.82 seconds.

Entry #1245

This week's Marine Life Series on Daily Kos is up. It's about Boring Sponges.

The remains of the Kursk, that Russian submarine that sank back in 2000.

Here are some of the winners of last year’s Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest for intentionally bad prose.

Check out these incredible images created by simply cutting a piece of paper.

Famous pairs.