The Urban Pantheist

This is playing over and over and over agaiun in my head.

Alexis and I have an ongoing challenge for ourselves to find the most urban British soldier lichens in Boston. ("Closest to Boston" was how we were phrasing it.) British soldiers (Cladonia cristatella) are charismatic lichens with bright red spore-bearing bodies. Lichens in general are not tolerant of air pollution, and so are more rare in urban and industrial places. Some lichen species are more tolerant than others, and the presence of various species and how well they are thriving can be excellent indicators of air quality.

We found some British soldiers near our place in Brookline, and that stands as the closest to the heart of the city so far. The closeness of the Emerald necklace might help air quality in that neighborhood. The lichen community (with some moss and other organisms) pictured above is from the roof of one of the admissions booths at Franklin Park Zoo. This is the first of this species we've found actually in the City of Boston, though the Brookline patch was actually closer to the middle of the City. Using City Hall Plaza as a landmark, the Brookline lichens were 3.1 miles away while the zoo lichens are 4.6 miles out.

Check out this Oregon Public Television clip about lichens, featuring lj friend omphalina!

p.s. First LJ post from the Dedham House!

The Onion uses and endorses swear words

To be honest, I'm just posting this stuff so I don't have to remember where I'm keeping it anymore. My neurosis is your gain.

For example:
This is a fantastic lecture on endangered species given by the late great Douglas Adams. At least the first 45 minutes is fantastic, I haven't finished watching it. So far he's covered aye-ayes on Madagascar, the preparations for getting to Komodo (don't get bit), and the sad mating habits of New Zealand's Kakapo. I haven't read "Last Chance to See" or seen the documentary based on it, but this makes me want to.

FUNGI magazine. Who knew?

Speaking of fungi, here's another house sprouting mushrooms. It's in Australia, and the mushroom doesn't look like a species I recognize. Nice orange mycelium there.

And then, two pictures that have nothing to do with anything but I like them:

This is a cartoon from Punch. (click to see bigger)



Edgar Wright, Nick Frost, and Simon Pegg. I'm following the latter two gentlemen on Twitter these days. HI-larious.
Nick Sample: "I can't get this taste of chimp urine out of my mouth."
Simon Sample: "I am furious! Was really looking forward to watching Lost but my WiFi was being a fuckplank so my Apple TV wouldn't stream it and shitballs!"

So. Anyone else out there I should follow on Twitter?

Please feel free to share and relink!

A cute video starring the president of Zoo New England and many of the zoos' animals. Beau the giraffe gets a bonus for producing a baby!

(Warning: Song contains seasonably vulgar language).

I know there are zoo themed videogames out there, where you design exhibits or group animals together by type or whatever. But a realistic zookeeper game would essentially be a floor cleaning simulator. And then I could say, hey man, that isn't realistic! Where's the different textures of animal poop? Where's the stench?

Horrible icy morning today. I stepped out onto my sidewalk and just barely avoided falling on my ass. I minced my way (sorry Alex, I was wrong, swaggering on ice doesn't work) the half mile or so to the city lot to get to Alexis' car. At one point Charlie wanted to abandon the mission, but we were past the pnr. Then I hacked my way into the car, and v-e-e-e-r-r-r-r-r-y carefully backed out of the skating rink I mean parking lot. I didn't want to reenact this well worn video from a Portland ice storm:



So about this Facebook thing. I haven't totally figured it out, but it really seems like livejournal is more intuitive. Or maybe since I've been on lj for more than 5 years it just feels that way. It's neat to contact people you haven't seen in a while, but what if you were trying to avoid them? Also, are there really things that you want to scream to the world, your coworkers, your drinking buddy, your boss' wife, and your grandma? I suppose that applies to lj too, but at least I know how to make a post friends only.

Saw Master and Commander last night. I wasn't as impressed with it as I thought it was. ( minor spoilers ) My mother in law loved this movie, also Apocalypto. The only thing I can think they have in common is that they are period pieces with scenes of surgery without anaesthesia. Make of that what you will.

Edited to add: Here's a fun toy for aracnhophiles.

I bought a second guitar controller the other day (from an lj person--go figure!) so last night we had family game time. Alexis played bass, the kid was on guitar, and I rocked the house on drums, naturally. Good times.

Also another lj friend (who is also a real life friend, but I communicate with her 100x more on lj than I ever did in rl) is having her honeymoon on Easter Island! I'm happy to pass on my indispensable guidebook and have it do some real good.

Iorana!

Happy Hallowe'en everyone! And new years wishes to those of you who celebrate it now.

This was the first morning that it was below freezing when we walked the dogs. Didn't feel that bad, since it's dry and clear and not windy--plus I wore a hat and gloves in anticipation of the weather. It's been an extraordinarily beautiful fall so far.

And because I can't not post this, here's a video of Sarah "Bush-In-Drag" Palin courting the very important "stupid" vote:



In Paaris Fraance no less! Let's storm the laboratory with torches and pitchforks!