'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Response
Re: Bear Cam
bear cam is down (hopefully a temporay thing)
.
this is a post on the
bear cam blog....
Here's a report from the technicians at SeeMore Wildlife Systems regarding the WildCam...
"Hello to all of you, we have had very high winds here in Southcentral today and have lost our video feed from McNeil. We believe the problem is the repeater antenna on Augustine volcano. We are receiving a weak video signal and the camera control telemetry is working fine. The microwave antenna has been moved just enough by the wind to degrade the video signal. High winds are also predicted for tomorrow, as well, which may make access problematic. We are making every attempt to access the repeater site as soon as possible. Please bear with us...thank you."
Just a reminder that McNeil Falls is a remote site 100 miles across Cook Inlet from Homer, Alaska where we operate the camera. The signal is delivered via microwave and is repeated twice (once on the volcano) before making a complete connection.
I sure hope it comes back soon. If you read the blogs, you'll see I'm not the only one. :-)
ducks
Thanks, ducks!
Somebody's got to physically get out to the repeater site. Also remember they're on Alaskan time.
Roughly translated that means they'll get to it when they get to it.
OTOH, I'll bet the person whose job it is realizes what a cool mission they have.
PS - Just got a note from ducks - the camera is back up.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The mismeasure of woman (economist.com)
Men and women think differently. But not that differently.
Don't call me baby (guardian.co.uk)
Most 49-year-olds would be delighted if bartenders still asked them to prove they were over age. But life with a youthful face can be a curse as well as a blessing, says Lionel Shriver
The death of denim (guardian.co.uk)
Where did it all go wrong? How did the ultimate fail-safe fashion item fall from grace? Ruby Warrington explains how jeans finally fell victim to their own success
Born to be wild (guardian.co.uk)
A doberman pinscher has caused havoc by destroying a valuable exhibition of teddies he'd been left to guard. Surprising? Not really, says Zoe Williams as she rounds up the most unruly mutts we call our best friends
Daniel Engber: How To Boycott Mel Gibson (slate.com)
Q: What's the best way to boycott Mel Gibson?
A: Don't see Apocalypto. The most damaging consumer boycott would be an attack on Mel Gibson films that have yet to be released. If his upcoming blockbuster flops at the box office and in secondary markets, Hollywood producers might decide that he's no longer a bankable star. That could have a long-term effect on his career.
Joseph Epstein: The Many Faces of Celebrity Philanthropy (incharacter.org)
My father, who was a reasonably successful small businessman, was generous in his donations to the charities and causes in which he believed. The charities and causes regularly sent him certificates and plaques in recognition of his generosity. One day I noted a plaque on which they had misspelled his name Maurice as Moreese. When I pointed this out to him, he replied, "For less than a fifty-thousand-dollar donation you mustn't expect them to spell your name right."
Joel Stein: I'm Game-Show-Host Hot (Not) (latimes.com)
Blowing the 'Starface' audition is OK. Losing out to Danny Bonaduce is insulting.
Live in Jefferson County, Alabama? Borrow Bruce's Books
Perform a search for "Funniest People."
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cooler than seasonal & damn nice.
No new flags.
Sends Powerful Signal
Jailing of Reporters
The jailing of a video journalist this week is turning up the heat on the growing list of reporters ordered to cough up information to federal grand juries. It also is sending a powerful signal: cooperate or face prison time.
Trying to compel journalists to testify is an increasingly popular tactic among federal investigators seeking all types of information. Even the occasional incarceration of reporters is enough to put the squeeze on the news media.
Prosecutors are exploiting the absence of a federal shield law protecting journalists from prosecutors who seek their sources or material, said Duffy Carolan, a media attorney at the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine.
Jailing of Reporters
Oscar Was Counterfeit
Leo McCarey
An online auction of an Oscar statuette expected to sell for more than $100,000 was cancelled on Friday after investigators discovered it was a "high quality" counterfeit, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences said.
The statuette, being offered by Chicago firm Mastro Auctions, had been billed as the statuette won in 1944 by director Leo McCarey for his work on the Bing Crosby film "Going My Way." The firm said the best director's Oscar was expected to fetch more than $100,000.
Mastro Auctions brought the Oscar to the Academy to be authenticated after McCarey's daughter, Mary McCarey Washburn, said she still had all three of her father's Oscar statuettes.
Academy executive administrator Ric Robertson said the "McCarey" statuette was made up of two mismatched parts, including an authentic Oscar base. The statuette's top weighed a pound more than an authentic one.
Leo McCarey
Airs At Traverse City
'Jesus Camp'
Ignoring a request to remove the documentary "Jesus Camp" from its lineup, Michael Moore's Traverse City (Mich.) Film Festival went ahead Friday with the first of two screenings of the film.
After Magnolia Films acquired North American distribution rights last week, the company asked festival organizers to drop the film because it was concerned that any association with the polarizing director of "Fahrenheit 9/11" could damage its prospects in conservative circles.
In a statement issued Friday, Moore called Magnolia's request "truly one of the worst publicity stunts I have ever seen."
Moore added, "I had no intention of showing 'Jesus Camp' in this festival. The producers begged me to show it. I said OK. Then they sent me the film this week to show it in the festival. (Then), one day before its screening, after all its tickets have been sold, they sent me and the press a fax saying they want the film pulled."
'Jesus Camp'
Leno Subbing For
Roger Ebert
Jay Leno's thumbs are about to get a workout. "The Tonight Show" host is filling in as a guest critic on the movie review show "Ebert & Roeper" while regular co-host Roger Ebert recuperates from cancer surgery.
Leno's appearance with Richard Roeper will air nationally Saturday and Sunday. He will be the first of at least two guest hosts - director Kevin Smith is slated to host in a show airing Aug. 12-13.
Ebert, 64, is at a Chicago hospital, where he's in good condition "and improving each day" from surgery last month to repair complications from a previous cancer surgery, the show said in a statement.
Roger Ebert
Judge Dismisses Filmmaker's Suit
John Kerry
A federal judge has dismissed a filmmaker's defamation lawsuit against Senator John Kerry, saying remarks linked to Kerry's campaign during the heat of the 2004 presidential race amount to political opinions.
Filmmaker Carlton Sherwood sued Kerry and John Podesta, an aide who ran the Massachusetts Democrat's campaign in Pennsylvania.
Sherwood accused them of blocking the release of his documentary about Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities by labelling Sherwood a "disgraced journalist" and a "Bush hack."
U.S. District Judge John P. Fullam said he found no evidence that Kerry personally made any of the statements, and furthermore, found that they were protected opinions.
John Kerry
New Principal On 'Chris'
Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander ("Seinfeld," "Listen Up") is set to play the principal of Corleone Junior High on two episodes of "Everybody Hates Chris" and will direct a third, series producer CBS Paramount Network Television said Thursday. Air dates have yet to be announced.
In one episode, Alexander, as Principal Edwards, makes Chris (Tyler Williams) confront a bully. In another, the principal and Chris bond while they wait out a snowstorm at school.
Whoopi Goldberg was previously announced as a guest star for the comedy's second season, playing a new next-door neighbor for Chris' family.
Jason Alexander
What Special Treatment?
Mel Gibson
The movie that could be the most important of Mel Gibson's career is one the actor likely will fight to never have released.
The video and audio recording of Gibson's drunken driving arrest could add fuel to the controversy over his anti-Semitic tirade at a deputy who pulled him over and his self-described belligerent behavior when he was brought to a sheriff's station early on July 28.
For now, authorities won't release the tapes.
Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, said the tapes would not be made public unless they were introduced as evidence at a trial.
Mel Gibson
Statue On The Ropes
'Rocky'
A push to move the bronze statue of a triumphant Rocky Balboa to the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps is on the ropes.
Sylvester Stallone donated the statue of himself playing the boxer from the film "Rocky III." Since that 1982 donation, the city has debated where to keep the statue of Rocky with his gloved arms raised. Most recently, a group proposed putting the 8-foot, 6-inch statue at the base of the museum steps that the cinematic icon mounted in the original 1976 "Rocky" movie.
But the city's Art Commission objected to that move Wednesday, questioning its artistic value.
"It's not art," artist Moe Brooker, a member of the city Art Commission. "It was a prop."
'Rocky'
Now Online
Domesday Book
The Middle Ages met the Internet age Friday when the Domesday Book, a survey of England conducted almost 1,000 years ago, went online.
The book, a record of the people and lands ruled by William the Conqueror, is the oldest record held by Britain's National Archives and one of the country's most valuable documents. Now anyone with an Internet connection can - for a fee - download copies of handwritten records that provide a picture of life in the 11th century.
The Domesday Book was compiled on the orders of William I, who became England's king when he defeated the Saxon king, Harold, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. In 1085, he ordered a survey to determine the taxable value of his kingdom.
Domesday Book
Stolen From The Hermitage
Chalice
An antiques dealer has turned over a 19th-century chalice that he said he had discovered was among items recently found missing from Russia's renowned State Hermitage Museum, a government official said.
The Moscow dealer reported buying the silver, gold and gem-covered chalice in 2004, Anatoly Vilkov, the head of the Culture Ministry's department in charge of protecting cultural valuables, said Friday.
More than 220 antiques and valuables missing from the famed Hermitage in St. Petersburg are believed to have been stolen over several years. Museum officials announced Monday that the theft was discovered by a routine inventory check that began in October 2005 and was completed at the end of last month.
Chalice
Hundreds Expected To Come
'Masturbate-a-thon'
Hundreds of Britons are being urged to attend what is being branded as Europe's first "Masturbate-a-thon", a leading reproductive healthcare charity said on Friday.
Marie Stopes International, which is hosting the event with HIV/ AIDS charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, said it expected up to 200 people to attend the sponsored masturbation session in Clerkenwell, central London, on Saturday.
Participants, who have to be over 18, can bring any aids they need and can take part in four different rooms -- a comfort area, a mixed area, along with men and women only areas.
However, the rules on the event's Web site states there can be no touching of other participants nor are people allowed to fake orgasms.
'Masturbate-a-thon'
In Memory
Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee, the eccentric singer/guitarist with influential 1960s rock band Love, has died in a Memphis hospital after a battle with leukemia, his manager said on Friday. He was 61.
Lee, a Memphis native who referred to himself as "the first so-called black hippie," formed Love in Los Angeles in 1965, emerging from the same scene as groups like the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Doors and the Mamas and Papas.
The first multiracial rock band of the psychedelic era, Love recorded three groundbreaking albums fusing traditional folk rock and blues with symphonic suites and early punk.
Bands as diverse as Led Zeppelin, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Siouxsie and the Banshees cited Love as an influence.
The band's self-titled debut yielded the hit single "My Little Red Book," written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. The 1967 follow-up, "Da Capo," was one of the first rock albums to feature a song, "Revelation," that took up an entire side.
A third release, 1968's "Forever Changes," which boasted adventurous horn and string arrangements, is considered Love's bold response to the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's" album. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at No. 40 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
But Love, which rarely left Los Angeles, lost momentum as Lee hired new musicians and pursued a solo career. Various reunions amounted to little, and Lee's eccentricities landed him in a California prison for six years during the 1990s for firing a pistol into the air.
After his release in late 2001, Lee assembled a new version of Love and toured Europe and North America, often playing "Forever Changes" in its entirety.
Lee was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia this year. In May, facing certain death after three rounds of chemotherapy failed, he became the first adult in Tennessee to undergo a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from an umbilical cord, according to The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal. Doctors said the procedure lifted his chances of survival only moderately, the newspaper said.
Several benefit concerts were held in Britain and the United States to help Lee with his medical bills. Former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant headlined a benefit in New York in June.
Arthur Lee
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