2012 in review

Ah what the heck.  I’ve found your reports interesting, those of you my friends who have posted them, so here’s mine.  🙂

 

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,600 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 11 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

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Um, Santa?!?

That’s “Merry Christmas” in Tyrannosaur…

Public Service Announcement

With guitars!!

No, not really.  I am actually going to forgo the painting that would normally appear here today to make a real ‘public service announcement’ as I have recently become aware that ‘everybody’ does not know this.  Hopefully for all of you I’m about to state the obvious.

If the accelerator on your car gets stuck, as happened to a bunch of Toyotas two years ago (and most of us also have floor mats that can get bunched up), don’t call 911 and just grip the wheel until you hit a tree at 120 mph.  Do any or all of these simple things instead:

• Put the car in neutral.  When your car is in neutral you’re just coasting.  Your accelerator can stick until the needle on your speedometer cannot possibly go any higher, and the car is not going to go any faster.  Just rolling to a stop.
• Turn off the engine.  If the engine is off the accelerator can be super-glued to the floor and the car is not going to go any faster.  Just rolling to a stop.
• Hit the dang brakes!  Stops the car obviously.  Works better if either of the above also works.  The car is not going to go any faster.  Braking to a stop.

So that’s it.  Don’t die from something so stupid!  🙂  I mean really — pick a better way to go!!

Nudibranchs! Natural abstract art from the sea!

If you’re looking for abstract artistic inspiration from nature, wow this is it.  Spectacularly colorful, nudibranchs are related to soft-bodied marine mollusks, but have recently been given their own taxonomic clade, Nudibranchia.  Nudibranchs live at all depths of the ocean and range from less than an inch to about two feet in length (20 to 600 mm).  They’re the most amazingly colorful creatures I’ve ever seen!   (in pictures)  It was hard to narrow them down to just a dozen for this post!

Update:  These are not my own photos.  I wish!!  No, these are the work of professional and very talented underwater photographers.  Click them to link to the original, full size images.  About half of these are from wikimedia.org, and the rest are from divematrix.com, ianskipworth.com, photec.co.uk, absolutescubabaliindonesia.blogspot.com, and messersmith.

As near as I can tell, this beautiful nudibranch is called "Fed Ex"...

"Fed Ex" again

"Nudibranch" means 'naked gill'. The frill you see on most nudibranchs are the gills.

Nudibranch Tulamben

Nudibranch Tambja verconis

Nudibranch Phyllidiella pustulosa

Nudibranch "Hopkins Cuke"

Nudibranch Nembrotha chamberlaini

Nudibranchs Nembrotha milleri have more dramatic coloring

Nudibranchs Nembrotha purpureolineata. Best of all, the art makes itself!

Nudibranch Chromodoris willani

Nudibranch Berghia coerulescens

Nudibranchs Chromodoris lochi

Click here for more! (this is a Google image search on nudibranchs)

It’s Nigel Tufnel Day! 11/11/11! W00t!!

Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it?

Ah… the sublime artistry…