Two minutes with Bob.

4:13:40 PM    

I'll admit that I am one of Conan's new viewers- I think I watched Leno exactly twice during his tenure.

‘Tonight Show’ Audience a Decade Younger. Early in Conan O’Brien’s tenure, the median age of “Tonight Show” viewers has dropped by a decade, partly because older people are tuning out. [NYT > Business]

We used to call that "blowin' out the bluehairs" on college radio. Not that any bluehairs were listening to me spin The Clash and The Buzzcocks. Fight the power. Heh. Thank goodness I was as clueless as I was lame.

3:02:57 PM    

Mark today on your calendar. Humanity's bacon is officially fried.

Scientists fear coral reef extinction.

David Attenborough joined scientists today to warn that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is already above the level which condemns coral reefs to extinction, with catastrophic effects for the oceans and the people who depend upon them.

Coral reefs support a quarter of all marine life, including more than 4,000 species of fish. They also provide spawning, nursery, refuge and feeding areas for creatures such as lobsters, crabs, starfish and sea turtles.

This makes them crucial in supporting a healthy marine ecosystem upon which more than a billion people depend for food. Reefs also play a crucial role as natural breakwaters, protecting coastlines from storms.

Attenborough said the world had a "moral responsibility" to save corals. The naturalist was speaking at the Royal Society in London, following a meeting of marine biologists.

"A coral reef is the canary in the cage as far as the oceans are concerned," said Attenborough. "They are the places where the damage is most easily and quickly seen. It is more difficult for us to see what is happening in, for example, the deep ocean or the central expanses of ocean."

Global warming means warmer seas, which causes the corals to bleach, where the creatures lose the symbiotic algae they need to survive. Carbon dioxide also makes seas more acidic, which means the corals find it difficult to prevent their exoskeletons from dissolving.

"We've already passed a safe threshold for coral reef ecosystems in terms of climate change; we believe that a safe level for CO₂ is below 350 parts per million," said Alex Rogers of the Zoological Society of London and International Programme on the State of the Ocean, who helped organise today's meeting.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from 280ppm before the industrial revolution to around 387ppm today. Environmentalists say that any new global deal on climate must restrict the growth of CO₂ levels to 450ppm, though more pessimistic scientists say that the world is heading for 550ppm or even 650ppm.

"When we get up to and above 450ppm, that really means we're into the realms of catastrophic destruction of coral reefs and we'll be moving into a planetary-wide global extinction," said Rogers.

"The only way to get to 350ppm or below is not only to have major cuts in CO₂ emissions but also to draw CO₂ out of the atmosphere through measures such as geo-engineering."

• Coral
• Marine life
• Carbon emissions
• Conservation

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

[The Guardian World News]

2:58:10 PM    

From Facebook, comes this meme:

25 Random Things About Me

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

This should (but might not) be interesting!

Right! Let's go!

1. When I was 12 I had a plantar wart on my right big toe that looked like the face of Jesus.

2. At one point in the 1980's, due circumstances surrounding my employment, I was the President of a Latin American country for 3 hours and 26 minutes.

3. Mark Knopfler once asked me to shit in his hand.

4. I had a radio show in Kearney, NE where all we did was order different delivery pizzas and then interview the delivery drivers.

5. I am cholesterol free!

6. The 14th smartest child in the United States for 1976 was my next door neighbor.

7. I am banned from the Mossad's break room at the UN.

8. I refuse to eat strawberries, because every time you poop after eating one, it's like hundreds of little strawberry abortions when you flush the toilet.

9. Once, I was in the desert. It was the middle of the day. Nothing but sand and cracked dirt for miles around and there, in the middle of nothing, was a turtle, lying on it's back. I didn't flip it over. I don't know why, OK? I just didn't. JESUS! This TEST IS STUPID!!!

10. The only French sentence I have memorized is this one: "Jóhanna Sigur[>]ardóttir est une femme politique islandaise, premier ministre de l'Islande depuis le 1er février 2009."

11. My first pet was a de-scented striped skunk named "Checkers." We had to put Checkers to sleep after she bit off the tip of the index finger of then Governor of Nebraska, Norbert "Nobby" T. Tiemann

12. I am banned for life from a Canadian restaurant in San Francisco's Outer Sunset district, due to a racially insensitive remark I made about myself and my scarf-wearing, alcoholic ancestors. Hey, I was drunk.

13. I am a teetotaler.

14. I was arrested but not indicted for cleaning a pheasant in my motel room's sink.

15. Nail polish is named after my birth mother's maternal grandfather.

16. I come from the land of the ice and snow OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH!

17. Bill Frist attempted to dissect me in medical school.

18. I tried the veal once. Yes, of course, I tipped my server.

19. N-n-n-n-nineteen.

20. For years, I would drink as much Belgian beer as possible before performing Shakespeare, because I thought it was written in Lambic Pentameter.

21. I had a ten inch penis.

22. There is a vial of used embalming fluid, stolen from Lenin's mausoleum, in a box under my bed.

23. Heights are afraid of ME.

24. Morgan Fairchild is my ex-wife.

25. Everything in this note, including this sentence, is a lie. Except the stuff that isn't. Ain't I a stinker?

5:17:17 PM     leave/read comments []

12:58:33 PM     leave/read comments []

Scooter's Screen Test:

If only Andy were here to see it...

11:31:58 PM     leave/read comments []

moar funny pictures


9:10:42 PM     leave/read comments []