Saturday morning Awesome: Living year-round in the Arctice Wildlife Refuge

Meet Heimo & Edna Korth, the last family living in ANWAR full time. Well worth watching all 5 episodes. Click Here for the full series, just scroll down for the links.



Enjoy watching badasses at work,

Bp

[via Boingboing]

Saturday Morning Awesome: Eagle Owl in Flight

Just fantastic video here of an Eagle Owl landing in slow motion. I have watched it over and over again, just noting how the feathers are moving around.

For the camera geeks in the audience, here is the Youtube writeup:

New Photron SA-2 High Definition High Speed Camera. Shot of 'Checkers' the eagle owl, 1000fps 1920x1080 resolution. Shot by SlowMo (www.slowmo.co.uk). See the owl and other birds of prey at www.turbarywoods.co.uk.

Enjoy watching flight,

Bp

[via Uncle Tom]

Anthony Weiner Vs. the GOP

Lovely.

Between him and Grayson, could there be a bit of chutzpah growing in the dems possibly? Possibly?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Enjoy not holding your breath but glorying in the moment anyway,

Bp

[via Kipp, good catch sir]

Saturday Morning Awesome: The Good, The Bad, The Weird trailer

Enjoy schlocky films, even if they have subtitles,

Bp

Rachel Maddow and Bill Nye on Climate Change

Just because big winter storms are happening, doesn't mean "global warming" is false. For god's sake I'm tired of hearing this crowing from the right. In fact, it could be a proof that climate change is actively in progress creating that very storm.

Here is Bill Nye on the Rachel Maddow show addressing this sentiment directly.

The quote that says it best from Nye is, "there's more energy in the atmosphere, and this is stirring things up." The global climate is a complicated system, you heat one area and another could get very cold because of it -- thus the 'stirring things up' he's referring to.



Enjoy logic and reason applied to large planetary problems,

Bp

Oarfish are awesome

For the Saturday Morning Awesome this week, I present the first known footage of an Oarfish in its native environs (very deep sea) off the Gulf of Mexico. [BBC doesn't have embeddable video, just click over and it's right there].

From the BBC Earth News Article:

Oarfish (Regalecus glesne) are one of the world's longest fish reaching 17m.

Their strange appearance may have provided the basis for the sea serpent myths told by early ocean travellers.

Not only are they elongated, they also have a prominent dorsal fin which gives it an unusual "serpent" appearance.

Recalling the event Professor Benfield explained how at first, they thought the fish was simply a drilling pipe called a riser being lowered into the water.

"We saw this bright vertical shiny thing, I said 'are they lowering more riser?' as it looked like they were lowering a huge pipe."

"We zoomed in a little bit and we said 'that's not a riser that's a fish!'"

The article has other deep water video provided by the remotely operated submarine they were using in the Gulf of Mexico.

I've mentioned this sublimely bitching creature before, but just to be clear, this blog is a huge fan of these animals.

Enjoy 'monsters' being filmed live and healthy,

Bp

[via my faithful Canukistani operative, Yuri; photo credit at Weird Sea Monsters]

Roman Army Knife scoops Swiss by 1,800 years or so

Check out that beauty -- a real multi-tool, but dating back to 200AD. It's made of silver, though the blade is iron. Pure class I tell you.

Check out the details at the Mail Online article.

Enjoy ingenuity years ahead of its time,

Bp

[via my faithful Canukistani operative, "Yuri." Photo credit in linked article.]

Epic slow motion frog fail

A quickie post to prove I'm not dead.

See ya'll soon.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Enjoy nature doing its best,

Bp

[via Blame it on the Voices]

My new favorite internet article -- ever: Lady Gaga, The Illuminati Puppet

This is why the internet rules. If there is 'something' out there in the public consciousness -- The Internet will grab it and turn it into something you never ever expected in a million years.

Here is an EXPOSE of Lada Gaga and her occult/illuminati connection from Vigilant Citizen. It's my new favorite thing.

I'm pretty sure we need a corollary to the Internet Rule 34 -- adding, 'and conspiracy connections made of it.'

Enjoy life,

Bp

[photo credit in linked article]

New band: The Finches

Ok I hesitate to post right off Boing Boing but I couldn't resist. Here is a video of finches 'playing' electric guitar.

But here's the capper -- what made me have to post this.

"the best angular, atonal, postpunk, improvisational guitar I've heard in a while."

Awesome. And a tip -- stick to .46 to see the stick-bowing finch rip it up.



Enjoy birds out-doing Dinosaur Jr.

Bp

Great geek out fun with microscopic size comparisons

Here is a link to the University of Utah "Cell size and scale" teaching illustration tool. It's great fun for geeks and nerds alike. Give it a shot.

Below is just a picture of the the flash tool, use the link above to actually use the thing.



Enjoy geeking out in the privacy of your own home,

Bp

[via my ex-pat Canukistani Uncle Ted]

Daybreakers -- alright ya got me

I have mostly avoided this whole vampire chic thing going on, but this trailer caught my attention on a few levels. It's dark enough, it has no apparent 'tween' demographic hooks, and who doesn't love Willem Dafoe.

Oh, and it opens tonight.



Enjoy the last few attempts,

Bp

Whups, Sea Shepherd pushes a bit too hard

Well the chess game in the Southern Seas just got a bit messier. Sea Shepherd lost a ship due to collision with a Japanese Whaler. Bad strategic move there, folks. That ship was a peach, and would have been extremely effective.

I don't know or care who did what -- they're playing with fire down there and folks are going to get burned. I still fully support Sea Shepherd's activities.

Here is an link to some video footage, and the type of vitriol the anti-environmentalist folks sling at Sea Shepherd.

Here's the thing -- the anti-whale, anti-environment folks always rail against the illegality of Sea Shepherd's actions, but not against the illegality of Japan's actions. Japan is blatantly breaching international law and lying about not using the whales for food (which they can't even find a market for, so they put in school lunches despite high levels of mercury). They're international poachers for crissakes. And there is zero enforcement down in those seas except for Sea Shepherd.

When the whales are gone, they're gone -- FOREVER. No take-backs.

Now, is the Sea Shepherd crew a bunch of amateurish, media-hungry blowhards? Well, sure. Sure they are. But I don't care. Forever is a very long time, and that's where I draw the line.

Bp

[photo credit in linked article, vitriolic video link via Dani Boynton Photography]

Octopi officially deemed 'tool using' animal

Scientists seem pretty loathe to hand out the title 'tool using' to animals. The bar is set pretty high. But these rad cephalopods won the prize fair and square. Not only do they collect coconut shells to use as armor, or portable housing -- but they clean them, and move them, and use them when needed. They even store them.

Awesome.

The article is worth a read.

Enjoy watching animals rock it,

Bp

[via My Lovely Wife, photo credit in linked article]

Saturday Morning Awesome: Balloon Bass and Box Jam

A couple nights off work unexpectedly, and ya'll actually get a Saturday Morning Awesome post.

Enjoy the video, worth sticking to the end, they ramp it up a notch.


Ballon Bass And Box Jam - Watch more Funny Videos

Enjoy folks makin' it happen,

Bp

The Pig and the Butcher

Here is a great short on Vimeo showing a butcher taking apart a pig with very little waste. Click the text link for more info on the film and the butcher.

It reminds me of a sentiment I got from Gary Snyder, from one of his books of essays -- simplistically paraphrased: If you want to learn about mastering something, hang out with masters of any sort. You can learn to be a master meditator by hanging out with a master mechanic.

Watch a master butcher.

The Pig & The Butcher from Quarter Productions on Vimeo.

Enjoy getting closer to your food sources,

Bp

[via my faithful Canukistani operative, "Yuri"]

R.I.P. health care reform

Great video that captures a bit of information, and a lot of emotion (that I share) about the current B.S. that's making its way through congress about health care. Is the host being helpful? No -- but I can relate to where he's coming from:



Bp

[via Faith in Honest Doubt, whose post is worth reading]

100 days in Glacier National Park

Here is a really awesome photo set from Bostom.com's "The Big Picture."

Part of their writeup:

This summer, Glacier Park Magazine editor Chris Peterson undertook a photographic project to take photos of Montana's Glacier National Park over 100 consecutive days, starting on May 1, 2009, for a traveling photo show in 2010 to commemorate Glacier's Centennial. He used a mix of film and digital cameras, including an 8 by 10 field camera, a Kodak Pocket Vest camera, circa 1909, and a Speed Graphic, among others. His idea was to use the cameras that would have been used over the course of the Park's 100 years.

Here is the whole set of 100 photographs with the artists comments, well worth your time. Some great reading, as well as more amazing shots.

[remember to click images for larger size]

check the foreground right on this one



The beargrass in this one reminds me of my days in the fire lookout.



Bufo! [that one's for you Wife]



[As is this one] Smallest bird in North America, Calliope hummingbird (Stellula calliope)



And you gotta have bighorns.



Enjoy phenomenal photography of nearly untrammeled nature,

Bp

[via my faithful Canukistani operative "Yuri", all image credits in linked photo set]

Half inch jellyfish that can take you out, quick

That little guy pictured on the right there can kill you dead, pronto.

Here is the post from Boing Boing, and here is the post they referenced at The Telegraph UK.

The jellyfish's sting can lead to "Irukandji syndrome," a set of symptoms that includes shooting pains in the muscles and chest, vomiting, restlessness and anxiety. Some symptoms can last for more than a week, and the syndrome can occasionally lead to a rapid rise in blood pressure and heart failure.

and

There is no antivenom, and people generally do not realize that they have been stung at first. The initial sting causes little pain, and it may be up to half an hour before a victim starts to feel the effects.

But those effects, Miss Gershwin says, can ultimately be disastrous, with some stings causing blood pressures to soar as high as 280 over 180.

Enjoy never meeting this organism in your whole life,

Bp

[via Boing Boing, photo Wiki Commons]

Building a passive solar greenhouse

The chard outside in the garden is frozen and wilted. I hear it will perk right back up, but as of the moment, it's lookin' pretty sad.

What would be better this time of year than a nice, passive-solar greenhouse out in the garden. Here is a great link from the Bradford Research and Extension Center, University of Missouri, showing plans and instructions and design concepts for a very straightforward passive solar greenhouse.

An illustration with the basic concepts [click picture for a better view]:



The solar gain off of those water barrels is amazing.

So, for the serious geeks out there, here is the page with the construction details and materials list.

Enjoy dreams of season extension in the garden,

Bp