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I spoke to a friend in southern NJ who lives on the barrier beach where we collect specimens every year. He said that the barrier island is basically wiped out. I can't believe how lucky we got here when I see the images of NYC and New Jersey.
However, remember to always check snopes when you're sent "this is an incredible photo"-type images in emails or on facebook. Many, like the scuba diver in the NYC subway, are fake.
I'm in shock at the destruction and I had no idea until tonight.
My internet service went out about midnight Monday night, and when I got up this morning it was still off. I called Cox cable to see if they could get me going, all the while thinking what an overhyped storm this was once again. I'm only half a mile from the ocean, but there was no water damage on my street, no trees down and no power outages.
So I went to work wondering why all the coffee places were closed along my eight mile commute. Got to work and the power never went out there either, and all 2500 of my animals were safe and alive, although most of the rest of the Post Road corridor looked dark and closed, not realizing that my building was one of the only ones with power. Thought what a bunch of wimps everyone was. I worked until seven, came home and called my mother since she's at sea level a few miles from me. I laughed and said what a joke the "storm of the century" was. That's when I learned of the destruction.
I'm dumbfouded that I could have been so clueless for nearly 24 hours. Here's my mother's street, which is only two miles from my house, and yes that was a snowplow that went down the road so the residents could evacuate. Like I said, I'm a bit shocked, but also a bit embarrassed.
Drunk Jeff Goldbloom is an amusing new meme. Of course he’s not drunk, the video is slowed down.
Republican non-job creation legislation of 2011. “Keeping millions unemployed to put one man out of work”.
This post by Mike Smith on his meteorology blog is a bit disconcerting. I don’t care about my house at all compared to a newly expanded and functionally incomplete facility housing well over two thousand marine animals. And we still aren't completely set up so I'm not in any way prepared for this.
Animal of the week: This is me holding a "black sea hare" we caught this morning. It's not supposed to be found north of Virginia, but thanks to Al Gore they are showing up here. As you can see, it nearly covers the lid of a five-gallon pail. Amazingly, the Creation Wiki gives some pretty good info on this animal without resorting to silliness, except for a brief quote from Genesis.
Five things we learned from watching Obama on Leno. I think he killed on the show, especially the segment on women’s health issues.
Albino Monday: Rare albino echidna released into the wild in Australia.
The most common four number PIN is 1234, so don’t use it. The least used number is 8068, so now don’t use that either.
Cool site of the week: Patrick Smith’s Ask the Pilot. I’ve flown twice in my life, and it would be fine if I never flew again (I really don’t like airplanes, humans have no business being three miles off the ground), but I still enjoy Smith’s page.
Micah Cohen, at Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog, which is the go-to site for all things statistics, calls Rhode Island the “Most Elastic State”. I’m a yellow dog, yet my two greatest state congressperson backers of my business expansion are both Republicans. I’ve told them in person that I love them both, but I won’t be voting for them. They didn’t seem to mind all that much.
Animal of the week: The Venezuelan poodle moth.
Australia has instituted a carbon tax that fines the 300 worst-polluting companies a $24 levy for every ton of greenhouse gases they produce.
25 percent of Americans with graduate degrees believe dinosaurs and humans romped together before Noah’s flood.
No one’s got it tougher than Steve Benen. Here’s number XXXVIII in his series of Willard’s lies. If you read satire sites you’re actually more informed than a Fox News viewer.
Leaving from a collecting trip last night I saw a cold front approaching. I've never seen anything like this before.
For James Bond’s 50th anniversary, IGN has the top 50 Bond moments, presented in 007 minutes.
Matt Taibbi wonders how this presidential race could ever have been this close.
Orangutans are learning to use iPads at a Miami zoo. The hope is they will be able to communicate food preferences and other requests from the staff.
Tuesday coonhound blogging: Some of my volunteers working on one of my new touch tanks. Creole's no help whatsoever.
Dan Savage (pro same-sex marriage) and Brian Brown (anti same-sex marriage) have an hour-long debate in Dan’s dining room, moderated by a writer from the New York Times. It’s very civil, interesting and worth a watch.
Cool site of the week: Vintage cutaways of large commercial buildings. This one’s a brewery.
For news websites, Rmoney is terrible for traffic.
Atheism is on the rise in the U.S.
Even if you’re not a sports fan, this “greatest moments” compilation is a bit moving. Not a boxing fan at all, but watching this I was amazed at how utterly dominating Ali was.