According to recent experiments, sharks are more trainable than previously believed.  This means that my goal of having a swimming pool full of pet sharks is viable after all!  And fun for the kids!

As a child I always wondered why aquariums couldn't put on shark shows like they do with dolphins and seals.  Now, apparently, they can.  Dolphins can suck it.

All kidding aside, this will allow make situations like medical care and moving of captive sharks much easier, plus it has a lot of implications for scientific research.  A healthy shark in an aquarium is an ambassador for its species, and anything that allows such an animal to inspire someone to study or protect them is a good thing. 

I've done it.  I've dropped two bucks and rented Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.  To give you an idea, here's the trailer (which frankly, you must have seen elsewhere on the internet by now).


The announcement of this movie actually set off an inordinate number of tongue-in-cheek responses from the internet marine bio-nerd community (something I myself never realized existed until I became an internet marine bio nerd).  So does it live up to the Snakes on a Plane-level internet hype that's built up around that hilarious trailer?

In a way, it does, provided you don't go in expected any sort of competence at all.  There are some movies that are just so campy and unprofessionally done that you wonder if the movie wants you to laugh at it or with it.  Some films, like Snakes or From Dusk 'Til Dawn are so unabashedly, self-consciously bad (for lack of a better term) that it's obvious that the filmmakers are standing next to you laughing at all the same jokes.  Some movies do this well, others are too self-referential and it just comes across as annoying.

Then there are other movies that seem to take themselves seriously.  These are the movies you're laughing at.  Sometimes you get the sense that the filmmakers are aware of the movie's limitations and are just trying to make the best of a bad situation (just about anything that plays on the Sci-Fi Channel during the day on weekends).  Sometimes the director just has their head so far up their ass that they just aren't aware of what kind of travesty they've put together (anything, anything at all by Uwe Boll).  

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus kind of splits the difference, but falls mostly in the former camp.  At certain points you get the feeling that the dialogue is so laughable and the monster attacks so cheesy that everyone involved is laughing along with you, Debbie Gibson and Lorenzo Lamas included.  Debbie Gibson seems to dive right in (puns always intended) to her role as a completely improbable good-at-all-disciplines oceanographer, and Lamas is actually an almost scene-stealing comedic presence as a racist, thoroughly unlikable "equal-opportunity prick" (exact line from the movie).  Add in the awkward budding romance between Gibson's character and her Japanese counterpart and plenty of montages involving scientists pouring different food coloring into test tubes and you've got a film that is well-aware of just how much cheese it wants to serve up.  But what is underlying all the knowing winks is a genuine love of monster movies and an excitement about just what will happen when the titular sea beasts finally go at it.

This is where the obvious budget constraints come in.  Most of the shark-on-octopus-on-various boats, planes, and landmarks action is fairly brief and some of it is made up of repeats of the same sequences.  That said, the final battle is satisfying in a B-movie sense, in that your inner 12-year-old will enjoy seeing these two marine titans clash (I know mine did). 

In conclusion, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus is a nice little B-movie that's well worth a rental, preferably with a decent-sized group of like-minded individuals and a generous amount of beer.  Regardless of where you stand on the never-ending struggle between elasmobranchs and cephalopods, you'll have a good time.

It's been a while since I've posted anything whatsoever about music, so how about a little Brand New?


The Hot GF and I saw this song live when they played at URI a couple months ago.  Hearing new music from a band as tight-lipped about recording as Brand New is always a good experience, especially when the songs are as good as this one. 

Brand New has had a unique evolution among "emo" bands.  They started out as a typical Long Island pop-screamo act that mainly stood out due to lyrics that were darker and wittier than others in the scene.  Their second album, Deja Entendu, saw them delving further into atmospherics and showing definite Smiths and Radiohead influences while still keeping the pop flowing enough to garner a couple hit singles.  Then came the third disc, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me (a title The Hot GF loves), which was all about atmospherics.  Gone were the three-minute rants about the girl that left Jesse Lacey for Taking Back Sunday's Adam Lazzara.  In their place were musings about God, love, death, and nihlism, all delivered convincingly enough for music journalists to stop referring to Brand New as an emo band and start referring to them as critically acclaimed indie rock.  If Deja Entendu was their The Bends, Devil and God was their O.K. Computer.

The thing that sets Brand New apart and keeps them in my mental "Top 10 bands" list is that they've grown and evolved with each successive album.  This has allowed them to age far more gracefully than any of the other bands that gained national attention during the early-mid 2000's emo surge.  Taking Back Sunday continue to mine the same semi-vapid material about relationships (admittedly they're really good at it; they're like the David Lee Roth of emo), Thursday gave up on the intricate twin-guitar/screaming attack that made them musically interesting, The Used brought the world My Chemical Romance and then tried to become My Chemical Romance, and Fall-Out Boy have settled into their particular brand of comforting mass-market pop.  Somehow, probably by virtue of becoming well-known but not being catapulted into super-stardom, Brand New have been allowed to develop organically, and as a result are now a band worthy of being named as a musical influence.  

As seen in the YouTube clip, Brand New are continuing to evolve in the Devil and God vein, with a little more emphasis on rocking.  The results should be spectacular.  

I caught this when it was linked off of Deep Sea News, and thought it was well worth sharing.  Artificial Owl, a website that documents abandoned man-made structures, has a list of the most spectacular shipwrecks they've covered this year.  Interesting stuff with some damn fine photography. 

I've always found something poetic about shipwrecks.  I think its that even after the vessel dies, it becomes home for hundreds (or thousands, if you're talking about macrofauna) of living things.  So in a way the ship keeps fulfilling a purpose and in most cases is actually far better for the ocean than it was when it was running.  These shallow-water wrecks (and one totally landlocked) give us a glimpse of this without even having to put on a wetsuit. 

I hope none of these wrecks ever get moved.

In honor of the shark-finning ban passing the House (call your Senators!), I've decided to resurrect Shark of the Week today.  Today we have an especially charismatic species; Carcharinus brevipinna, the Spinner Shark.



C. brevipinna is probably best known from the many photographs and videos of it leaping acrobatically near surfers.  This is generally thought to be a hunting behavior, with the shark darting upwards through schools of fish and breaking the surface with dramatic effect.  The spinner shark is at home in shallow coastal water, making it one of the sharks most likely to share the water with humans.  Fortunately for us, spinner sharks feed mostly on small schooling fish and only grow to 2-2.5 meters (about six feet).  This combined with their ability to put on a good show makes it a species most surfers and beachgoers regard with affection. 


The spinner is mainly an Atlantic species, common along the temperate and tropical coasts of North and South America and Africa, though it also appears in the Indian ocean and around Australia.  Though it looks similar to many other Carchariniform sharks, it is distinguishable due to its sharp snout, relatively short pectoral fins, black-tipped fins, and aerial acrobatics.  The species most likely to get confused with it is the blacktip shark Carcharinus limbatus, a shark that shares much of its range, though the blacktip has a more heavyset body and black tips on its pelvic fins (which are unmarked on the spinner shark).  Other species of note interacting with the spinner shark include the Carribean reef shark Carcharinus perezi, the sandbar shark Carcharinus plumbeus, the lemon shark Negaprion brevirostris, and the bonnethead Sphyrna tiburo, all mid-sized sharks that hunt in relatively shallow water.  The tiger shark Galeocerdo cuvieri may be a predator of the spinner shark, but it is more likely the great hammerhead Sphyrna mokorran, a shark that specializes in eating other elasmobranchs, that the spinner should avoid. 

Final thougt on this species: dolphins are posers. 

The situation at Quonset Point is looking better and better.  This was rumored a few years ago, but has finally been confirmed: North Kingstown, Rhode Island will be the home port of the Okeanos Explorer.  That the move also includes improvements to the pier infrastructure is an added bonus.  The presence of the ship nicely complements Bob Ballard's work on the Inner Space Center at URI and will go a long way towards establishing Rhode Island as a major hub of marine research, a goal that has been frustratingly just out of reach for too long. 

For those not in the know, the Okeanos Explorer is the first American vessel to be completely and utterly devoted to marine science.  The most exciting aspect of this vessel's mission is that its main goal is to make observations and generate hypotheses, as opposed to making short-term voyages to test them.  Think of it as the modern-day Challenger.  Exciting stuff.

Once again, this is exactly the kind of investment Rhode Island and the rest of the country need to make to take us into the 21st century. 

The anti-shark fin soup movement is actually starting to gain traction in Asia. 

This is fantastic news for all involved.  If a major consumer of shark fins like Singapore can breed this kind of movement, it bodes well for the health of Pacific shark species in the future.  Here's hoping it doesn't come too late.

In other news, I'll be making regular appearances elsewhere on the internet.  Of course the MySpace music page remains in use, and I am now a regular poster on Matt's Marine Music Medley.  Also, due to having to create a page in order to sign up for tumblr, I've created Lovecraft in Carolina, where I'll be putting up spiffy new music ideas and things of a more eldritch nature. 

Short post today, but I may resume regular features this week.

Some good news, today.

Quonset Point is finally getting some development that might actually do something help the Rhode Island economy.  The former Navy base will soon be home to a $7.5 million biodiesel storage and blending facility.  Currently there are three companies in the Ocean State producing the clean fuel, but they lack the storage capacity to keep up with the demand.  The aim of this facility is to give them that option and take biodiesel production up to an industrial level.  Granted, the article does state that it will only employ six full-time employees, but this is exactly the kind of infrastructure investment that will be needed if Rhode Island wants to get serious about being a leader in the new green economy. 

And it's a hell of a lot better than a Kohl's get pulls in maybe eight customers at peak hours. 

See what happens when you get rid of the morons (that would be you, Saul Kaplan)?  Keep up with the new ideas, Rhode Island.  You'll need to.

As even the most casual reader of this here Livejournal will tell you, I grew up in New England and have a particular fondness for it, and by fondness I mean I tend to show blatant favoritism towards the region (particularly the Great State of Rhode Island... minus its useless Governor).  That said, there are times when even that most enlightened of American regions can have its head so far up its ass that even I get fed up with it.

Even now, in the face of overwhelming evidence, New England's fisheries are defiantly, staunchly, blatantly ignorant.  And fiercely proud of it.

Having worked in fisheries management, I've seen firsthand how personally offended New England fishermen can get when someone attempts to regulate the fishery.  There is also a culture of "blame the agency" that is especially prevalent there as well; most commercial fishermen in New England like to think that NMFS should make all the decisions, so when something doesn't work (usually because of action by the fishermen themselves) it automatically becomes the fault of the regulators.

Some of this may be from a cultural and historical point of view.  The New England cod fishery was one of the original industries of the American colonies and a large part of the economic independence they developed from Mother Britain (which would later lead to actual independence).  However, the cod fishery failed due in no small part to the fact that both Canadian and American agencies believed in the inexhaustability of the ocean and actually told fishermen to keep fishing despite all evidence that a collapse was eminent.  At the time, fishermen were actually calling for regulation and protection of the stocks.  Now, the situation is reversed. 

The sad part is, nearly every other region has learned from the downfall of the New England fishery, complying with NMFS regulations for the benefit of the greater health of the fishery.  New England fishermen should be the first to accept regulations backed up by sound science because they are the fishery that initially created the need for such regulations.  Instead, they continue to fight tooth and nail against any regulation at all that prevents them from following the practices that wiped out their livelihood.  They would much rather just keep strip-mining George's Bank in the blissful fallacy that "the cod/flounder/hake/dogfish/herring will be back next year."

Now, I am not anti-fisherman.  I fully believe that fishing is an important part of both the culture and economy of New England.  And I've met several fishermen who know that drastic regulatory measures need to be taken to preserve the resource (and their jobs).  Also, some blame does go on NMFS for being unnecessarily soft on New England fishermen (hopefully Jane Lubchenco, known for being a hard-ass when it comes to standing up to fishing interests, will change this). 

The regulations that New England fishermen fear so much have far from wiped out commercial fishing in just about every other major fishing region in the US.  Alaska may have the single most-regulated fishery on the planet (certainly the country) and still manages to churn out enough salmon, pollock, and snow crab to be one of the main economic drivers of the state.  The time has come to wake up, New England.  Your fishery is acting like a small child with a cold who would rather suffer with the virus because the cough medicine "tastes icky."

As a side-note, anyone wondering where I picked up the little historical tidbits about the New England cod fishery should check out Mark Kurlansky's book Cod, which traces the cultural significance of the cod fishery and how it has, in fact, changed the world on several occasions.  It's a damn good read.

It's been a while, Livejournal. 

My lame-ass excuses?  Well, first my housemates and I got into dire enough straits that we had to make a choice between the internet/cable bill and the heating bill for February.  Then the horrific economy took me to its logical end and deposited me in North Carolina.  Fortunately, it gave me a solid internet connection.  Between that and being dragged out of retirement by a certain music-loving cephalopod enthusiast, I realized it's probably time to start posting regularly again. 

So your Canadian music-loving, shark-hugging, fiercely proud (though now temporarily transplanted) Rhode Islander is back.

Toady, a list of fun links.

-WhySharksMatter of Southern Fried Science apparently beat me to the Shark of the Week feature, and admittedly he's probably better at it than I am.  Don't you worry, I'll still keep posting mine, but make sure you check them out.  SFS is probably one of the best marine science blogs I've seen. 

-Charlie the Unicorn is back!  Make sure not to give the starfish your real phone number.

-Via both Matt's Marine Music Medley and Fuck Yeah Sharks: a four-song mini-playlist of shark music!

-Strangley enough, there is some damn fine shark research based out of ECU.  You probably missed it because you were distracted by their ridiculous football team.

-Matthew Good has a new album on the horizon. 

There you have it, an nice light and airy list o' links.  Keep checking back for more Shark of the Week, Music Education (soon, I promise), rants about politics, love for Rhode Island, and probably quite a bit about the fact that yes, the South is different from the North. 

Just dropping a note to say that I'm not sure when the next time I'll be posting is, due to a bizarre demonstration of pack-hunting on the part of the recession and the general tendency of computers to break.  First, the fan on my computer gave out, meaning that if I have it on for longer than half an hour at a time, I run the risk of melting important things.  I'm working on it, though apparently there is one website which happens to be the one place on the planet I can get a replacement fan for my computer.  I suppose this is what I get for going seven years without being able to afford a new one...

The second factor is that my housemates and I have had to make the decision to drop cable and internet in favor of more important (and cripplingly expensive) utilities like heat.  Mmm mmm... gotta love that recession!  Thank your local Republican politician for me.

So that's the reality right now.  I may be able to toss up a random post every so often from a library computer lab or something, but expect regular posts to stop (which sucks, because I was really excited about Shark of the Week). 

Until the next time I'm able to post...

I'm starting a tradition today I hope I can keep up.  Every Friday I'm going to try to add some educational value to this LJ (and exercise my obsessive nerdiness) by putting up some info about a different shark.  This is inspired by the myriad weekly offerings at different blogs and sites I read, notably Pharyngula (Friday Cephalopod), Deep Sea News (TGIF), and Ectoplasmosis (Chtulhu Cthursday).  Plus it's a somewhat practical use of my Sharks of the World book (simultaneously the best and worst possible Christmas gift someone could get for a person like me - unless of course you count the Cthulhu iPod cozy).  So the following info is either from there or from the swirling mass of shark information trapped in my brain that's only gotten larger and stronger since I was a kid.  Fishbase may come in too.

And with that link-splattered introduction out of the way, allow me to introduce Mustelus canis, the Smooth Dogfish.



Also referred to as the dusky smoothhound, M. canis is actually not a true dogfish at all (family Squalidae) due to the presense of an anal fin and a lack of spines on its dorsal fins.  It actually falls under the family Triakidae, which it shares with the other species of smoothhound, the gummy sharks (basically Australian Smoothhounds), the soupfin shark, and the leopard shark. 

Mustelus canis is readily identified by the small barbels around its nostrils, large eyes, deeply notched tail, and dark grey dorsal coloration (though young specimens are lighter colored and usually have dark fin margins).  It's a small to mid-size coastal shark that can reach up to 1.5 m (about 3 or 4 feet) and lives on the Atlantic continental shelf along the East coasts of North and South America.  Generally preferring temperate waters, it is absent from the tropics with the exception of a subspecies in the Caribbean (Mustelus canis insularis). 

Though it has been found in waters up to 360m deep, this shark usually sticks to shallow, inshore sand and mud bottoms.  It's a common site at beaches and is frequently caught by surf-casters looking for bluefish and striped bass.  Smooth dogfish usually feed on small prey such as squid, small bony fish, and crabs, and with their small, rasping teeth they probably couldn't do much damage to anything larger than them.  They are a very social shark, traveling in loose packs and occasionally schooling with other similar-sized species of sharks. 

I've had a lot of personal experiences with this species, since it is the shark that comes up most often on the Rhode Island DEM's trawl surveys.  They are hardy in captivity and adapt readily to aquarium life (as long as they're well-fed they will behave and keep from eating any smaller fish they share a tank with).  M. canis is a very active, inquisitive shark and can be conditioned to take food by hand (I used to regularly hand-feed small ones during my time at the DEM).  

The shark most often associated with Mustelus canis is the spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias), which is the origin of the smooth dogfish's common name in American waters.  Smooths and spinys occasionally school up together and can often be found competing for the same food sources.  The range and preferred habitat of the smooth dogfish also coincides with that of the similar-sized Atlantic sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae) and the slightly larger sandbar shark (Carcharinus plumbeus) which take larger prey and may competitively dominate it, but don't seem to prey directly on the species.  However, M. canis has been confirmed to be a prey item for some of the large coastal sharks, including the bull shark (Carcharinus leucas), tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), sand tiger (Carcharias taurus) and great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran, a specialist at eating other sharks).  A few specimens have been found in the belly of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias).

Final thought on this species: I want one as a pet.

I'm posting like a bat out of hell this week.

It turns out in some cases, sewage runoff may not be so bad for the environment.  Underwater Times just ran a story about research done by Autumn Oczkowski, a PhD student at URI (my alma mater and possible graduate institution) that suggests that excess nitrogen runoff from Egypt has revitalized fisheries in the Nile Delta.  What's really interesting is that this research comes out of Rhode Island, where we've been frantically upgrading sewer systems to prevent the ill effects of nitrogen runoff.  Here, it causes massive fish kills.  In Egypt, apparently it brings the fish back.

The key difference is that the Nile was screwed up in the first place.  As is mentioned in the article, ever since the completion of the Aswan Dam the Nile's regular flooding cycle has been disrupted.  This annual flooding cycle was the source of much of ancient Egypt's agriculture but was effectively stopped after the building of the dam.  The nutrients swept downstream by the annual floods supported a major fishery in the Meditteranean Sea around the mouth of the Nile, and now those nutrients are being replaced by runoff from Egypt's cities and farms.  This is a rare case of two wrongs making a right.

So excess nitrogen is awesome, right?  Not necessarily.  The point to take home here is that the Nile Delta was an unhealthy ecosystem that was accidentally made healthy again by an influx of nutrient runoff.  In the case of Rhode Island, estuaries like Greenwich Bay and the Narrow River were perfectly fine, highly productive ecosystems before people started building entire neighborhoods of leaky sceptic tanks along the shoreline. 

Interesting stuff.  It's nice to be able to post about my home state without having to bitch about its politicians.

In case you've been living under a rock, Barack Obama was sworn in as President #44 today.  Eight years of the most incompetent, destructive Presidency in the history of the United States are over (and no, that isn't an exaggeration at all).  I have a lot of high hopes for Obama (after all, I did vote for the guy), and so far he's been pretty impressive, putting together his cabinet and working both behind the scenes and at center stage to set up his policies from the second he won on Election Day. 

Sadly, Ted Kennedy, one of the original New England liberals, was stricken by what has been described as a seizure today.  This is a low point on an otherwise celebratory day.  Hopefully he pulls through, there's a lot of work to be done and he'll be needed. 

Possibly the most fun I've had all day has been flipping over to Fox News for a few minutes of comedy.  Go ahead, try it out.  They're so angry about today.  Everything they say is seething with passive aggression.  Even Joe Scarborough of MSNBC (one of the few conservative TV personalites I can stand) challenged his fellow conservatives to appreciate the historic nature of this inauguration.  Apparently this was lost on the fine, upstanding journalists at Fox News.  I hope they enjoy being increasingly marginalized and exposed as the frauds they are.

And to our outgoing President, I have to say thank you.  Thanks to you, the Bush name is ruined (have fun running for Senate, Jeb.  Even in Florida), the Republican party is weaker than it has been since Nixon resigned, and voters turned out in record numbers (specifically to throw you and your policies out).  I can't wait for my kids someday to learn in U.S. History class about The Worst President Ever, and to tell them that their textbook is being too kind to him.  I think on his way out, every single American citizen should be allowed to land one punch anywhere on George W. Bush's body.  Hopefully he survives that, in which case he should be flown over to the Middle East where every Iraqi civilian should be allowed one stab. 

Meanwhile, Dick Cheny is slithering back into his underground lair, waiting for his next chance to try and take over the world.

But seriously, this is a historic day, and hopefully means a better, brighter, more intelligent future.  Happy Inauguration Day.

Happy MLK day, all.  Tomorrow we have the big transition and I'm sure I'll be posting all kinds of opinions, so today I'm just going to throw up some fun ocean-related stuff.

-My good friend Matt (of Rustbeard fame) has a new project on the interwebs - Matt's Marine Music Medley.  He'll be devoting that page to posting up music that involves the ocean, boats, fish, whales, submarines... you get the picture.  He hasn't put up anything by me yet, but there's already quite a bit of good stuff on there.  I've become particularly addicted to "Shark Fin Blues" by the Drones.  

-Linked off of Matt's site, check out this list of weird noises from the sea, sky, and earth.  Of course I'm a big fan of the Bloop and Slow Down, since they're both from the deep sea.  And the Sounds of Hell is just an internet classic.

-Speaking of weird stuff from the deep sea, check out the crazy changes going on in the depths off of Tazmania (linked via Underwater Times).  Something about carnivorous tunicates kind of creeps me out.

That's all I've got for now.  More than likely I'll have a clever, articulate post up tomorrow about just what exactly we should do with George W. Bush once he's out of office.

It was mid-December when I last posted something, so it's time to get back on the horse.  First there was Christmas, then New Year's, then my computer was wiped out by a horrific virus... you know how it goes.  Here's a recap of some interesting stuff that happened since then...

- Another glimmer of hope from the incoming Obama administration.  Apparently we're about to have a President who actually considers science important, rather than a scapegoat to be thrown under the bus whenever business or religious interests need to be placated.  I'm especially excited about a marine biologist being put in charge of NOAA, particularly because she has conservatives freaked out. 

- I do enjoy giving George W. Bush a good verbal thrashing on here, but every once in a while he does something that's actually pretty good for the ocean.  Probably by accident.  Or maybe he's trying to build up some good karma in the vain hope that we'll overlook just how much he's enjoyed raping and ruining our natural resources. 

- Moving to a little more local news, Governor Carcieri has announced his plan to plug the hole in Rhode Island's budget.  As usual, he's using the economic crisis as an excuse to push a Republican agenda.  He's still hell-bent on eliminating social programs and laying off state workers (the fact that these laid off workers cost the state just as much collecting unemployment doesn't seem to phase him).  Particularly worrying is that he'll need to shut down the state in order to plug the gap (notice how he doesn't say it definitively but his math doesn't add up without it) but hasn't said when those days will be.  What a smart governor would do is say "hey, you'll need to take X unpaid days off, but you can take them when you want."  Unfortunately, because he's still keeping that option "in reserve" what will end up happening is that the whole state will shut down for weeks right at the end of the fiscal year (which means late May).  Shutting down a state that depends on it's summer fisheries and beaches to generate revenue right at the start of the summer?  Surely nothing can go wrong with this plan...

- The year might be looking up for our finned future overlords, as some major vendors are deciding to stop selling shark fins.  I agree with The Chum Slick, I hope this turns out to be a permanent situation and not some New Year's publicity stunt.

- Biology dorks (including myself) should be interested to see that a great white is getting the live dissection treatment, much like the giant and colossal squid dissections that were broadcast over the interweb a little while back.  Maybe they'll find a colossal squid in its stomach?

- And to conclude my first entry in forever on a fun, fin-filled note, watch a pack of sixgill sharks attack a submersible.  I'm not sure if the sounds have been dubbed in (they seem a bit too loud) but you can definitely see the sub move from the impacts.  Awesome stuff.

It's good to be back, handful of readers.  It's good to be back.

Hey all, not quite enough time to post a full entry today, so here's a couple of interesting photo essays to tide you over.

The first is Ghosts of the Antarctic, concerning the abandoned fishing villages and research stations of the planet's loneliest continent.  It popped up on both Deep Sea News and Ectoplasmosis, so there was no avoiding it for me.  Bonus points for the Lovecraft reference.  

The second is an extensive website featuring a photographic history of Lowell, Massachusetts.  This epic undertaking is a years-in-the-making labor of love by Corey, an occasional visitor to the Narragangsta's Paradise.  A very interesting look at a place most people try to drive by as quickly as possible when traveling between Boston and Manchester. 

Enjoy.  I've been doing a fair amount of photography myself, so if you're lucky (or unlucky) I'll be putting a photo essay up myself. 

I'm back, bitches!  Hopefully no one forgot me while I was gone.  Between the Thanksgiving holiday with the family and spending some quality time with the always entertaining sladdis , it's been about two weeks since I've posted anything.  Well, that ends today!

In today's news, it looks like Rhode Island is losing one of it's home-grown Rich People Who Ruin Everything (he's not that old, but stil counts).  Saul Kaplan, now former head of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, has resigned.  Despite the Projo's desire to say something, anything good about him on his way out, one only needs to look at the sorry state of Little Rhody's economy to see that there was very little development going on under Kaplan.  To give you an idea of the complete and utter lack of creativity exhibited by this empty shell, the best thing he could think of to do with Quonset Point is build a Kohl's.  Surely everyone will want to flock to that one instead of the one ten minutes away in Warwick...

Have fun in the private sector, Saul. 

I've often thought that conservative Republicans (as opposed to the moderate ones who may have a glimmer of rationality in there somewhere) are given a Hypocrisy Card when they join the party.  This essentially entitles them to be completely, egregiously hypocritical, usually in regards to whatever it is they happen to be most passionate about.  Hence, Ted Haggard with the gay prostitute, Larry Craig's wide stance, and so on.  Which brings me to one of my favorite objects of scorn...



Congratulations, Donald Carcieri, you've just been caught swiping your Hypocrisy Card!

That's right, Mr. "Clean Government" himself has just been busted engaging in some good ol' fashioned nepotism.  And if you'll read the whole article, you'll find it isn't his first ethics violation. 

I'm so proud of him.  It's like he's a real Republican now!

It's been fun adding some more shark content to this lil' blog, but sooner or later old rich people start ruining everything again...

With just two months left in office, George W. Bush is hell-bent on carving out his legacy... by trying to ruin as much as possible before he leaves.  In yet another shot fired in the Republican War On The Planet, the EPA has put forth a new plan that would allow coal power plants to shower smog on national parks.  This plan is so bad, only one of the EPA's regional directors hasn't protested it in some way.  This is just par for the course with the Bush administration, though.  After all, throwing the monkey wrench into environmental protections is one of Dubya's favorite hobbies. 

Just two more months... two months until Bush is kicked out of the White House and gets to live with the fact that he has been, unequivocally, the absolute worst President this country has ever had.  It'll probably take the next three Presidents two terms just to fix what he broke, let alone get America on any kind of right track.  However, we can take comfort knowing that yes, Bush does care about his legacy, which means on some level it has to bother him that he will be remembered in history books as the man who ruined the most powerful nation on Earth in eight short years.  The Bush name is garbage, the Republican party is imploding... I hope he looses lots of sleep over it.  And that the ghosts of every kid (American and hapless civilian) who's died over in the Middle East due to his stupidity haunt him until he goes insane.

Whew... that was intense.  What can I say?  Bush just causes ranting.

Switching gears to something a little more upbeat, check out my good friend Rustbeard's page.  He's considerably less verbose than I am, and he's one of those dirty cephalopod people, but if you're into facial hair, indie rock, and tentacles, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better collection of internet weirdness.