Biomes Blog

Entry #2938: No Angels Born in Hell

Today’s slide show is the many faces of Hell’s Angels, 1965.

Remember a few years ago when Iceland went bankrupt and it was all over the news? Since then they’ve had a revolution, elected a new government, actually wrote a new constitution and have completely recovered financially, and we hardly hear a word about it. And check out the process they used to forge their new document:

“To write the new constitution, the people of Iceland elected twenty-five citizens from among 522 adults not belonging to any political party but recommended by at least thirty citizens. This document was not the work of a handful of politicians, but was written on the internet. The constituent’s meetings are streamed on-line, and citizens can send their comments and suggestions, witnessing the document as it takes shape. The constitution that eventually emerges from this participatory democratic process will be submitted to parliament for approval after the next elections.”

The history of Earth as a clock.

Entry #2937: Hits Me Straight in the Eye

“If you watch it backwards...” is a new humor meme, and Mental Floss has some good examples. Like if you watch Saving Private Ryan backwards it’s about a bunch of soldiers wandering through Europe and then going to the beach.

Tom Tomorrow’s 2011 admittedly incomplete and utterly subjective year in review, part I. And part II.

Clever examples of toy photography.

iPod Shuffle:

1. Talk to Me (Chris Isaak)
2. Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning (Cowboy Junkies)
3. El Amor De Mi Vida (Warren Zevon)
4. Here in the Real World (Alan Jackson)
5. Canceled Check (Beck)

Entry #2936: Occupy Stuff

Animal of the week: Shelby is the newly elected leader of Occupy Denver.

Thirteen observations made by Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) while watching Occupy Wall Street from a discreet distance. You can find more stuff by supportive authors at Occupywriters.

Where Ebert stands on the occupy movement.

Entry #2935: Cheetah

In Entry #118, I said happy 72nd birthday to Cheetah, the star of the 1930’s Tarzan movies (and spelled his name wrong). Tony informs me that he died yesterday at the age of 80.

As a marine biologist, you’d think my favorite animals would be octopuses, or sharks or something else watery. But my favorite creatures, by far, are bats. And the rescue and rehabilitation of Lil’ Drac melts my heart.

Entry #2934: Blue

Here's a one-pound blue lobster I got this weekend off Little Compton, RI. It's one of the most brilliantly colored ones I've seen. The odds of finding these are 1 in 5 million (depending on the source you read).

Meet "Fifty", the half-black, half-orange lobster this same volunteer collector caught in the same area a couple of years ago. This one stayed in their fish market for a while before they lost it.

A picture of an acrobat seagull stealing a shrimp dinner - by flying upside down. That’s the headline, but it looks to me like he’s just bending his head down, but it’s still a nice shot.

Entry #2933: Run, Dozer, Run

Albino Monday: Lightning Medicine Cloud, a leucistic buffalo calf, was born at the Lakota Ranch in Texas. It’s a one in ten million occurrence and he’s the first leucistic male calf born in 150 years.

Dozer, a three-year-old labradoodle, got through his owner’s invisible fence and ran the Maryland half marathon solo.

Now we’re cookin’: Ground pork peanut butter cookies. What’s better than starting a recipe by mixing lard, sugar and cinnamon?

Entry #2932: Occupy Xmas

Brought to you by the good people of Occupy Boston.

Teddy the talking porcupine wishes you a Merry Christmas.

Entry #2931: Holiday Mondegreens

Snopes has a list of Christmas carol mondegreens. Mondegreens are misheard song lyrics, such as the Jimi Hendrix line “‘scuse me while I kiss this guy”.

Morford: Dead men sell no heretical iPhones.

A Christmas light show from League City, TX. 50,000 lights synchronized to four different songs. Impressive or annoying? (Assume you don’t live next door).

Entry #2930: Old Parked Cars

Old Parked Cars is this week’s niche blog.

Look what happens when you google the words “let it snow”. Once it frosts over you can clear it with your mouse.

My favorite tribute to Christopher Hitchens so far is Neal Pollack's satirical piece.

Entry #2929: A Puppy Christmas

We might start seeing Fixtations in other places besides Minneapolis. A Fixtation is a bike-repair hub with everything you need to fix a bike, including a vending machine that supplies essentials like patch kits, drinks and energy bars.

How men and women see colors.

Now we’re cookin’: I think I’ll be liking this Italian grilled cheese with basil and oregano pesto.

Pet corner: A puppy christmas.

Entry #2928: Sick Snowmen

Hump day musical interlude: A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas. Here’s a collection of the C & H snowmen comics that inspired this video, from an angelfire (!) site.

Gin and Tacos on scenario fulfillment and the militarization of civilian police forces.

The North American Bear Center has discovered that black bears can smell hazelnuts from up to 41 miles away (via Hans).

Entry #2927: Get To Philosophy

Cool site of the week: Type in the name of any possible set of Wikipedia topics, and this widget will show how it’s related back to philosophy. I typed in “starfish, coffee cup and fingernail” and got this (click to embiggen): Wikipedia even has an explanation.

Stuff you should know: How the electoral college works. There’s a part II link at the end.

Geek stuff: Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of That’s No Moon”.

Entry #2926: An Actual Wolf Would be Smarter

I very rarely take time to sit and watch the news, but I decided to take the morning off to curl up with the canine unit and see what all the fuss was about in North Korea. Maybe this is old news to y'all, but Wolf Blitzer comes off as an extremely dumb human. Then there's this.

Eleven ways to gain self-confidence.

I'm wondering if this dessert is served in an urn.

Albino monday: Leucistic wolf.

Added: I competely forgot, but Saturday was this blog's eighth birthday. The first post was on December 17, 2003 and I've never missed a day since. At random, here's Entry #371.

Entry #2925: New Center

About 100 feet from my Biomes Center is a small dam that was built in the 1820’s. It provided energy for the old blue-jeans mill complex I’m part of, and it’s being prepped for dismantling to bring the river back to its natural flow. Here’s a video of the dismantling of the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington state.

Now there’s a paint that can turn an entire office into a giant whiteboard, and I may be installing this in my new office.

It's been just over a year since I found the building, but I'm one signature away from this 7,000 square-foot building being the new Biomes Center.

Entry #2924: Moondance

While suffering from esophageal cancer, Christopher Hitchens took on Nietzsche’s saying that “whatever doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger”.

Stuff you should know: Mailing chicken pox-laced lollipops through the mail is illegal.

Internet kittens got old around 2005, but I’m posting this series of classic album covers anyway.

Entry #2923: Jellyfish Lake

The amazing jellyfish lake, located on Eil Malk island in Palau. Click the photo to make it big.

Stuff you should know: How to occupy, the bible of the occupy movement.

One interesting thing about this article is I learned that Rhode Island has the fastest internet speed in the U.S (Idaho has the slowest).

iPod shuffle:

1. Here Comes the Night (Van Morrison)
2. Make Me a Believer (Patty Smyth)
3. Wrong (Everything But the Girl)
4. Back O' the Moon (10,000 Maniacs)
5. Whenever We Wanted (John Mellencamp)

Entry #2922: Things That Have Been Dead a Long Time

Animal of the week: The extinct saber-toothed squirrel.

I’ve never found an actual fossil myself, although I’ve looked for them quite often. This six-year-old girl found a 160-million year old nautilus. She dug it up with a little plastic shovel.

Truk Lagoon, an underwater burial ground for WWII tanks, planes and ships, is today’s slide show.

This headline was a bit unsettling for a few seconds.

Entry #2921: Death by Brinicle

I’ve never heard of a “brinicle” before, but it’s a very cool phenomenon (unless you’re a starfish). It’s part of the BBC’s series “Frozen Planet”. However, if you’re in the U.S. you won’t be able to watch the whole thing on television. Because there are so many science-challenged morans in this country, they’re not playing the episodes about climate change (most of the teatards think it’s “junk science”). Register your complaints with the Discovery Channel’s viewer relations department here.

Hump day musical interlude: America has always been one of my guilty pleasures.

Entry #2920: Password

Portraits of America’s most endangered species.

What your toilet paper says about you. I prefer the first panel, usually guilty of the third panel and I have to admit that I’m sometimes guilty of the move mentioned in the meta text.

The 25 worst passwords of 2011. Number one on the list is “password”.

Entry #2919: Reel Injun

Albino Monday: A very lucky snow crab (via Hans).

Valerie Taylor hand-feeds a great white.

There’s a documentary from 2009 called “Reel Injun”, which documents how a hundred years of film has influenced the public image of Native Americans. Every now and then you find yourself informed about little things you remembered, but didn’t quite understand, about indian issues such as Wounded Knee, the significance of headbands in Westerns (they keep the wigs in place), and why Sacheen Cruz Littlefeather accepted an Oscar in Marlon Brando’s place. Watch a five-minute trailer, and catch it on streaming Netflix if you have it.