Click smaller images to engorge.
[Found in here. Top one from the 2016 RNC… kinda.]
Category: Bunk Stuff
Bigass Ammonite Fossil is not a Bigass Ammonite Fossil
Yep, that looks like a bigass prehistoric ammonite fossil, and it’s not a snail fossil as the caption states.
Ammonites are perhaps the most widely known fossil, possessing the typically ribbed spiral-form shell as pictured above. These creatures lived in the seas between 240 – 65 million years ago, when they became extinct along with the dinosaurs. The name ‘ammonite’ (usually lower-case) originates from the Greek Ram-horned god called Ammon. Ammonites belong to a group of predators known as cephalopods, which includes their living relatives the octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus [via].
I found the top image (with the erroneous caption) in here, and wondered about the story behind it. Since fossils are typically embedded in rock and I didn’t see any hole or excavation, something seemed off.
Ammonite fossils are common, but are rarely larger than about 9 inches in diameter. Sure, some larger species have been found, but why wasn’t this one encased in plaster, crated up and shipped to an archeological museum? How could something so heavy and brittle stay in one piece while being tilted up? How could four guys lift it, let alone one?
A Tineye search brought me to the source – a 2005 documentary filmed in Lyme Regis, England for the BBC series “Journey of Life.”
“This giant ammonite was actually a replica that we used to show how big ammonites could grow. Made of polystyrene it squeaked as we rolled it down the beach. The look of gob-smack on the faces of Jurassic Coast fossil collectors was priceless!”
Paul Williams, 3 September 2013.
This “fossil” was a prop, and it had a cameo role in Episode 1: Seas of Life.
[Full story with photos here.]
Perhaps you’re wondering why I suddenly found an interest in large fabricated ammonite fossils. It’s because I saw that top picture and wanted to do this with it:
The .Gif Friday Post No. 438 – Cat Splash, Sand Splat & Dogwash
Be Careful What You Wish For.
The National Lampoon would have done it, but they’re not around anymore so someone had to.
Today’s Headlines: “WE MADE HISTORY”
This is what I found when I opened the paper this morning:
This is the first time in history a political party has nominated the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation.
Please do not harass the advertiser; compliment them for product placement instead. Image resized and cropped from my MojoFone .jpeg. No photoshop.
The .Gif Friday Post No. 434 – Oculus Spin, Duomo Rock & Rain Brain [Updated}
[All the above are my own contraptions.]
Update: Image sources below the break. Continue reading “The .Gif Friday Post No. 434 – Oculus Spin, Duomo Rock & Rain Brain [Updated}”
Three Thousand Five Hundred As Of Today.
Even Kenya Goes Green on Earth Day
[Found here. This was originally intended to be posted on “Earth Day” but our internest access was on the fritz.]
I hate this “Earth Day” garbage. Nature has been trying to kill us off for millennia and has never back-pedaled the threat. Not once. And not once has the Earth given us the common courtesy to thank us for ignoring that undeniable fact.
So in response to “Earth Day,” we turned on all our lights, cranked up the furnace, cranked down the air conditioning, turned on the humidifier and dehumidifier at the same time, and left the refrigerator door open. I plugged in the electric weed-whacker, taped the trigger, watched it dance around the back yard and dig a trench into a fresh gopher run. Judging from the color of the dirt, it actually caught one of the little furry bastards.
We washed our socks one at a time in the Kenmore with the load setting on “full.” We flushed twice to make sure a silverfish was gone forever, and we made sure that the lawn sprinklers watered the sidewalk properly.
We also burned a lot of fossil fuel by taking numerous unnecessary trips to our next-door neighbors’ house for inane chit-chat and let the car idle in their driveway for hours until the Sears DieHard was simply glowing with happy amused electricity. We even left the TV on all night and turned the TiVo on to watch it for us.
And Gaia snickered.
[Related posts here.]
AND… WE’RE BACK!
What an ordeal.
Once Verizon bumped off its FIOS service to Frontier Communications on April Fool’s Day (appropriately enough) stuff happened.
We started hearing an unidentifiable *beep* from somewhere in the house, but it was of such short duration we couldn’t pinpoint the source. We timed it, and the missus and I positioned ourselves in various spots every 15 minutes attempting to triangulate it with no luck. We were hunting for an electronic cricket and after unplugging/dismantling every thing we knew that could beep, it kept recurring. We thought we we’d been pranked by a friend, cursed him while searching likely spots he might have hidden a quarter-sized “beeper.” No dice.
On a whim I opened up the FAU closet and found the culprit. There was the Verizon FIOS equipment, and every 15 minutes it was telling us that its backup battery was dead. Bastards.
So I reset the alarm, yanked the battery. Silence for 24 hours, and then it began again – every fifteen minutes. Hitting the reset button daily was a temporary solution, but we could finally get some sleep without that infernal beeping.
Perhaps it was just a coincidence, that I’d only imagined that the Utoobage was stuttering. Nah.
Then BAM.
Nine days later, our landline and internest access crapped out. The landline came back, but internet access and WIFI was dead. I called Frontier Communications. Technicians would be out the following day between 8AM and 6PM (a tight window) so I took the following day off without pay, as did the Frontier Communications techs who didn’t bother to show up or call to cancel the appointment.
Buh-bye, Frontier Communications.
Time Warner Cable has been deluged with calls from disgruntled Verizon / Frontier Communications subscribers to set up new services, so we waited it out. Three “appointments” later, Time Warner Cable finally came through this morning.
I never realized how much we depend on internest access, and having to watch TV only added to the torture. Instead, I watched “End Of The Century” and “The Imitation Game,” and read Elliot Carson’s excellent book “Joe Rochefort’s War.”
Anyway, we’re back. Thanks for your patience, and we’ll try to make up for lost time.
Bunk
[Related post here, and no, that’s not me in the .gif.]
Wannabe Dodge Hemi Van Babe Magnet
This one’s been sitting in our What-To-Do-With-This-File for several years now. It’s way past time we set it free.
All we can guess is that the owner of this black pervo-van knew exactly what he was doing after he re-upholstered the interior and dash with tufted blue and white carpet, installed a wet bar, string lights and a sound system with an 8-track player that plays nothing but Barry White’s Greatest Hits. But even that didn’t get the babes, so he took the obvious next step: GO STEALTH.
[Found here. More Babe Magnets here.]
Tacky Raccoons 