Penny Palfrey & Bad Buzz: misreporting about killed sharks detracts from her accomplishment

News reports that the support crew, for ocean endurance swimmer Penny Palfrey, killed several curious oceanic whitetip sharks during the course of her swim from Little Cayman to Grand Cayman are now having to do an about-face. The Cayman Islands Department of Tourism looked into the reported killings and found there was no evidence of any sharks being harmed. Several were hooked and towed away to be released at a safe distance - and that's a far cry from saying they were killed.

A variety of information outlets ricocheted the story like a steel ball in a pinball game, from respectable news sources to the blogosphere where, unfortunately, attitudes can get nasty. I read many of the reports and chose not to report it in my blog until Monday, when I mentioned it in regards to Diana Nyad's upcoming swim. Based on what she was hearing in the press, Diana decided to do an 11th-hour revamping of her security protocols and, in the end, it was a wise move regardless of what did or did not take place during Penny's swim.

But there were many who took poor Penny to task in a big way and it illustrates the zealous passion that some people have regarding the preservation of sharks, how it is becoming a hot button news topic, and how dangerous the entire "social media" craze is to the tenants of accurate and balanced reporting.

According to The Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Penny Palfrey's man in charge of security may have used a poor choice in words which was misinterpreted by some news outlets, and so the bad buzz began. "The findings were that The Cayman Islands Department of Tourism contacted the individual named in the original report, Charles Ebanks, who confirmed that he did not kill any sharks during the historic Bridging swim and states that reports to the contrary are inaccurate. He stated that he 'hooked the sharks and lead them away', he further added, 'I was there, I did not kill any sharks. They are assuming I did something which is not true and you can quote me on this.' Charles stated that the boat captain from the boat asked him what he did with the sharks and he replied, 'I got rid of them.' He said he thinks this could have been taken to mean that they were killed."

Hooking a shark (basically fishing for them with a baited line) is the last ditch approach to be taken with a shark that is proving to be intensely curious to the point of being a threat to the swimmer. There are several other steps that are taken to ward off the shark before one decides to catch it and then quickly motor a mile or so away and release it. It's a bit more involved than a straight forward catch-and-release because the shark needs to be transported out of the area.

Apparently, Penny Palfrey's crew felt compelled to take that step because a shark was reported to have bumped her during the night - and you can imagine how that could rattle a swimmer's concentration.With all the questionable reporting that has been swirling about for the past week, I have no reason to question the actions of Penny's staff. Is the loss of three sharks worth an ocean swim record? I think not. And it now appears that, for Penny, that dilemma does not have to be debated.

Hopefully, Penny will be able to regain some of the attention regarding her accomplishment that was lost due to the media storm. In my brief time so far with Diana Nyad, I have come to appreciate the dedication and commitment these ocean endurance swimmers invest into their sport. So, let me join the chorus of others who are saying, "Bravo, Penny! Bravo!"

In the meantime, I wait for the call to join up with the film crew as she prepares for her Cuba to Florida swim, a staggering 103 miles in 60 hours. One for the record books.

Read about the investigation in The Daily News of Open Water Swimming.

"When we were Kings"

Name a sport and chances are good you'll be able to find a movie to indulge your fandom. Ping pong? "Balls of Fury." Ice skating? "The Cutting Edge." But when it comes to the big ones -- baseball, football, basketball, hockey -- Hollywood has gone to the court (or the field) so many times that it's not a matter of finding your sport in a movie as finding the greatest movie with your sport. Baseball movies are everywhere, but what's the best baseball movie? How can you decide which film best captures the spirit of boxing?

That's where the fans come in. We've dug out five of the best movies featuring 10 of America's biggest sports. Now it's up to you to cast your vote and decide which film is best for each sport. To vote for your favorite, click on the heading above.

--Commentary by Patrick Kevin Day

"transforming robots"

Without a doubt, the "How Stuff Works" staff is anxious about the upcoming "Transformers" movie. They don't just wonder whether it will be good. They wonder whether we'll see robots with Transformers' capabilities during our lifetimes. While full-scale Transformers seem a little implausible - and impractical - it turns out that some existing robots have a lot in common with Transformers. Click on the heading above to explore what these transforming robots look like, how they work and how they're similar to Transformers like Optimus Prime.

Devout Christian discovers miraculous image of Mark Spitz on toast

Filmmaker's Journal: getting the call to join the Xtreme Dream

This past April I had the opportunity to film long distance ocean swimmer Diana Nyad at the Pepperdine University pool in Malibu, California. My friend and photographer, Budd Riker, and I spent the day shooting Diana for CNN as she obligingly swam lap after lap. Diana was in serious training for a proposed open ocean swim from Havana, Cuba to Florida - a distance of just over 103 miles and one for the record books.

You can read my blog post about that day in Malibu when I first met Diana, a very dedicated and inspiring person to say the least. At the end of the day, we all wished her well and that was that.

Time marches on and now, as we approach July, I find myself again in the company of Diana and her support team as they are in the final stages of preparation for her momentous swim. Diana prefers to swim without the aid of a shark cage, as that is considered a crutch by many swimmers because the cage has a tendency to smooth out the water that the swimmer is moving through. It puts an asterisk next to your name in the record books and Diana would prefer not to have that diminish her feat.

Just a few weeks ago, another ocean swimmer, Penny Palfrey, did a similar swim (but not as far as Diana is planning) from Little Cayman to Grand Cayman Islands. But her accomplishment was completely overshadowed by the fact that her support crew killed three oceanic white tip sharks that apparently came close to her. Oceanic white tip sharks are both dangerous and intensely curious, but their numbers are, like many other sharks, in peril due to international commercial shark fishing.

Diana, wisely made the decision to re-think her shark safety protocols to both ensure her security and to avoid the bad publicity that would ensue if a shark was harmed during her attempt. So the call went out to find a crew who could look after Diana and deal with any curious sharks in a safe and humane manner - and have it documented. And that's where our paths crossed again.

I will be a member of the team, doing underwater filming of Diana and her accompanying flotilla of support vessels for a documentary produced by Tim Wheeler of Documenting Life Productions.

All of us constitute an experienced team dedicated to Diana's safety and the conservation and well-being of sharks - no cowboy shark killers here. In the next week or so, when the water temperature reaches the optimum level Diana requires and the weather reports point to calm seas, then we will all get the call, grab our bags that have been waiting by the front door, and head to the Florida Keys to board boats that will take us to the start of what will prove to be a marvelous adventure - the Xtreme Dream as Diana's website calls it.

Oh, and did I mention that Diana took a 30-year break from endurance swimming and came back to take on this challenge at age sixty-one? Makes one think twice about a lot of the things we whine about in our daily lives.

Check out Diana's website to learn more about her background and where she is today. CNN will be doing live coverage throughout her entire swim - which will last about 60 hours non-stop. If there's a lull in my regular posts, you'll know that I got the call and rushed out the door to be a small part of something very momentous, all due to one woman's determination to set goals that are just outside her reach . . . and reach them.

Halibut Cove – Kachemack Bay, Alaska

(Photo by brownbearsw)

Nevada's newest ghost town

The recession has claimed many victims, but this could be the first town to be completely wiped off the map.

The mining town of Empire in Nevada, about 100 miles northeast of Reno in the Black Rock Desert, was created in 1923.

But from June 20, it will simply cease to exist, its 300 inhabitants will no longer live there, the ZIP code won't even exist any more.

In fact the only thing remaining of the town, which was once home to the United States Gypsum Corporation, will be an eight-foot chain-link fence crowned with barbed wire sealing off the 136-acre plot and a sign saying Welcome to Nowhere - which has never proven so true.

"The ugly side of an art law"

Perched outside the Posco steel company office, the jarring 30-foot-tall object looks like the remains of a plane crash — all crushed steel and gnarled parts — because that's what it is.

Creator Frank Stella built what he considered a modern work of art and named it "Amabel," in honor of an artist friend's daughter who died in a plane accident. But many passersby for years have considered it to be something else: an eyesore.

The work is one of the more avant-garde sculptures in Seoul and the symbol of an art controversy in South Korea.

For 16 years, a national law has required builders of large commercial projects to commission an adjoining piece of art — including engravings, calligraphy works or sculptures — whose cost would equal 1% of the overall cost of the project. The public art promotion act produced 10,684 public art works between 1995 and 2008,— at a cost of more than $546 million.

But critics of the urban improvement effort objected, some saying the law had created a monster that over the years generated too much art that many find objectionable. There's the huge straw man that sits, feet dangling, on the ledge of a downtown building; the copper piece that is supposed to look like a group of people but which many say looks like a dirty ashtray; and a mammoth gorilla wearing a backpack scaling a building.

Filmmaker's Journal: when mother nature says no, you can't film here

This past weekend, my dive buddy, still photographer Bidd Riker, and I tried once again to dive on the wreck of the "ACE" off the coast of San Clemente, California. I say tried once again, because this was to be our 4th attempt at trying to reach the ship. Three previous attempts were met with poor visibility to the extant that it made for unsafe dive conditions. We were past the "third time is the charm" mental attitude and were now bordering on the "we better find this bloody #@!!% thing" philosophy.

The "ACE" is a 58-foot fishing boat - a drum seiner, to be exact - that sank in the fall of 2006 during rough seas with a full load of sardines and mackerel. With a measure of air trapped in its holds, the ACE drifted a bit across San Clemente's sandy bottom before finally settling down on its port (left) side at a depth of 114 feet. That drifting made it hard to locate for officials and salvagers, and so it remained out of sight until a year ago when a local dive boat charter set about to find the ACE based on rumors and speculation provided by local fishermen.

On this fourth attempt, Budd and I once again found visibility to be very poor at around 5-foot - not dangerous diving but certainly not what you're hoping for when shooting video and hoping to capture images that show the size and overall condition of the wreck. The ship is nearly covered from bow to stern with white metridium anemones which are startling for their bright white color against the backdrop of rusting steel and dark water. In addition, the ship is littered with sculpin, a type of scorpionfish, that prefer resting on the bottom quietly waiting for small fish to pass by and inadvertently become today's meal.

Wrecks of just about any size are fascinating subjects to film. Their appeal works on several different levels: they are something out of place (its supposed to be floating on the surface, not resting here in the murky depths); man-made objects are a testament to our folly either to the ravages of war, as with the South Pacific wrecks from World War II, or to underestimating the power of nature; and they can be marvelous artificial reefs that attract a wide variety of marine life.

However, on this occasion, there were to be no sweeping panoramic shots of the ACE - not when you can only see a few feet in front of your face. And that points out one of the challenges faced by nature photographers and filmmakers. You may have phenomenal skills and all the equipment in the world at your disposal, but you are still a slave to the devilish whims of mother nature. Many times, the footage you see on television or in the theater, or the images you see in books, are the result of many, many repeated attempts. And the more unusual the subject matter, whether it be a particular animal or a certain animal behavior (or simply a capsized fishing boat), the more challenging it can become to find just the right conditions that will enable you to get what you had hoped for.

But when the dice roll in your favor, you can come away with some startling imagery. And this can raise another issue: are we doing the oceans a favor when we show it in all of its visual glory, when we show the best of the best of our photographs of video? Or are we presenting the general populace with a false impression of the actual health of the oceans? When I have had the opportunity to speak with renown underwater photographer David Doubilet, he often asks this same question. Can we effectively talk about, say, fragile coral reefs that are in decline when every book on the subject is full of glorious and stunning images of vibrant fish and reef communities? One would hope that the viewing audience would appreciate the diversity and color of underwater life as seen in photographs and film and, by extension, want to preserve it. But it's a thought that gnaws away in the back of the minds of some of the great craftsmen who so beautifully chronicle the world's marine ecosystems.

For Budd and me, such heady questions needed no pondering this weekend. Skunked again by mother nature and its millions of sand particles, plankton, and animal larvae that can make for a thick soup of poor visibility, we decided we would try again in the fall when changing temperatures and currents can make for a few more days of acceptable conditions.

Of course, we're bound to hear how great it was the very next day. "Oh, you should have been there. . ." Shoulda, coulda, woulda - words to live by for the underwater filmmaker.

Where there's no end to beauty

Autumn photograph of Mount Shuksan located in the North Cascade Range of Washington State reflected in Picture Lake.

A nice place to visit

Proxy Falls, Cascade Range, Oregon

Bravo's five-story treehouse

This five-story treehouse in the middle of the Bravo Farms complex in Travers, California is ready to be explored. The tourist-friendly Bravo also has a bar and cafe with tri-tip sandwiches.

"one of the most eloquent attacks on the death penalty ever delivered in an American courtroom"

A tragedy of three young lost lives, a dead fourteen-year-old victim and the imprisonment of two teenage killers, unfolded in Chicago in 1924. The murder trial of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold that shocked the nation is best remembered decades later for the twelve-hour long plea of Clarence Darrow to save his young clients from the gallows. His summation, rambling and disorganized as it was at times, stands as one of the most eloquent attacks on the death penalty ever delivered in an American courtroom. Mixing poetry and prose, science and emotion, a world-weary cynicism and a dedication to his cause, hatred of bloodlust and love of man, Darrow takes his audience on an oratorical ride that would be unimaginable in a criminal trial today. Even without Darrow in his prime, the Leopold and Loeb trial has the elements to justify its billing as the first "trial of the century." It is not surprising that the public responded to a trial that involved the kidnapping and murder of a young boy from one of Chicago's most prominent families, a bizarre relationship between two promising scholars-turned-murderers, what the prosecutor called an "act of Providence" leading to the apprehension of the teenage defendants, dueling psychiatrists, and an experienced and sharp-tongued state's attorney bent on hanging the confessed killers in spite of their relative youth.

The crime that captured national attention in 1924 began as a fantasy in the mind of eighteen-year old Richard Loeb, the handsome and privileged son of a retired Sears Roebuck vice president. (Interestingly, Barack Obama's home in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood (5046 S. Greenwood) is only one block from Loeb's former home.) Loeb was obsessed with crime. Despite his intelligence and standing as the youngest graduate ever of the University of Michigan, Loeb read mostly detective stories. He read about crime, he planned crimes, and he committed crimes, although none until 1924 were crimes involving physical harm to a person. ( Darrow and Leopold later saw Loeb's fascination with crime as form of rebellion against the well-meaning, but strict and controlling, governess who raised him.) For Loeb, crime became a sort of game; he wanted to commit the perfect crime just to prove that it could be done.

Loeb's nineteen-year old partner in crime, Nathan Leopold, was interested in ornithology, philosophy, and especially, Richard Loeb. Like Loeb, Leopold was a child of wealth and opportunity, the son of a millionaire box manufacturer. At the time of their crime, Leopold was a law student at the University of Chicago and was planning to begin studies at Harvard Law School after a family trip to Europe in the summer. Leopold already had achieved recognition as the nation's leading authority on the Kirtland warbler, an endangered songbird, and frequently lectured on the subjects of his ornithological passion. As a student of philosophy, Leopold was attracted to Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche's influence on early twentieth century academics was powerful, and the merits of ideas contained in books like his Beyond Good and Evil were fiercely debated in centers of learning like the University of Chicago. Leopold agreed with Nietzsche's criticism of moral codes, and believed that legal obligations did not apply to those who approached "the superman." Leopold's idea of the superman was his friend and lover, Richard Loeb.

Loeb and Leopold had an intense and stormy relationship. At one time Leopold contemplated killing Loeb over a perceived breach of confidentiality. This relationship, described by Darrow as "weird and almost impossible," led the two boys to do together what they almost certainly would never have done apart: commit murder. Motives are often unclear, and they are in this trial. Neither the defense's theory that the murder was an effort by both to deepen their relationship nor the prosecution's theory that money to pay off gambling debts and a desire by Loeb to "have something" on Leopold in order to counter Leopold's unwanted demands for sex, are likely accurate. What is clearest about the motives is that Leopold's attraction to Loeb was his primary reason for participating in the crime. Leopold later wrote that "Loeb's friendship was necessary to me-- terribly necessary" and that his motive, "to the extent that I had one, was to please Dick." For Loeb, the crime was more an escape from the ordinary; an interesting intellectual exercise.

Murder was a necessary element in their plan to commit the perfect crime. The two teenagers spent months discussing and refining a plan that included kidnapping the child of a wealthy parents, demanding a ransom, and collecting the ransom after it was thrown off a moving train as it passed a designated point. Neither Loeb nor Leopold relished the idea of murdering their kidnap victim, but they thought it critical to minimizing their likelihood of being identified as the kidnappers.


Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb

"enhancing our ability to relate"

From her own experience, April Gornik observes that looking at artwork with a sense of how it is made enhances our ability to relate it to our own lives. In Vermeer’s View of Delft, for example: the clouds at the top and the gently curving shore open to the middle of the painting, like an eye opening, into the exterior world the painting reveals. Light in the distance draws us towards infinity and a sense of the immensity of space extending limitlessly out from us, but which Vermeer presents with great intimacy.

In the same way that a painting holds within itself the history, time, and the tale of its formation, a person looking at it is informed, enriched, and is subliminally able to experience all of that input. This physicality, the way an art object is ‘built’, speaks to us, and our response is an affirmation of our own sensory abilities, forming a connection and an interface of time and space, intent and emotion, even history.

The "Lion Fighter" Prevails

The original Lion Fighter sits as a companion piece to Auguste Kiss's Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther on the steps of the National Museum in Berlin. The Fairmount Park Art Association purchased the original plaster cast for The Lion Fighter in 1889 and placed it in Memorial Hall for public viewing, along with a plaster version of the Amazon. This bronze was cast locally by the Bureau Brothers in 1892 for exhibition at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. When returned to Philadelphia, it was installed on a "jutting rock" on East River Drive. It was moved to the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1929, where—as in Berlin—it accompanies a bronze cast of the Amazon.

Transformation

The GO Train platforms at Toronto's Union Station are to be transformed into a vast, light-filled zone in a 13-stage refurbishing that began in January, 2010 and is expected to take five years to complete.

A Quiet, Restful Day at the Beach

Maho Beach is a beach situated in St Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles, on the Dutch side of the island. The location is known worldwide because of the Princess Juliana International Airport that is situated immediately adjacent to the beach.
Incoming air traffic is known to have to touch down as close as possible to the beginning of runway 10 due to the short runway length of 2,180 metres/7,152 ft, resulting in low-flying aircraft on their final approach over the beach. Due to these low flying airplanes (including large passenger airliners such as the Boeing 747), the location is very popular with plane spotters.

Brest, Belarus

The Valor monument at the Brest Fortress memorial complex is one of the most important Great Patriotic War monuments commemorating Soviet resistance against Fascist invaders. The fortress was bestowed the title "Hero-Fortress" in 1965.

"The Stone Forest”

The Stone Forest is the must-see place in Kunming. However, what we’d like to recommend is to explore the Stones by taking the route to the Peripheral Area (wài shí lín). It features much more natural, much wilder and much quieter. You may have found that in China you always “encounter” thousands of elbows and other crowd troubles in one single tourist site. When you finish the Sword Peak Pond (jiàn fēnɡ chí) in the Major Stone Forest (dà shí lín), please say “goodbye” to other tourist groups and find the footpath to the peripheral area where you will be greeted by distant views, close looks and even birds-eye views of the grotesque lime stones. Only in this way can you say proudly “I’ve been in the Stone Forest”.

"Hochstrahlbrunnen"

The Hochstrahlbrunnen fountain in front of the Heroes Memorial of the Red Army, Vienna, Austria. Interesting shot.

War Began

Navy officers at dawn today in Westerplatte, Gdansk, on Poland's Baltic coast, commemorating the moment a Nazi battleship fired its first shots at a military garrison 70 years ago to spark the Second World War.

" The Battle of Britain celebrates 70th anniversary"

It was one of the most important victories of the Second World War and a defining moment in Britain’s struggle to stand firm against the forces of Hitler’s war machine.

Not only did the Battle of Britain scupper Nazi plans for a British invasion, many consider the RAF’s rout of the Luftwaffe over the skies of Southern England during the summer of 1940 to be the first significant defeat of the German armies and a major turning point of the war.

Ukraine city in ‘Communism is Nazism’ poster drive

Authorities in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Wednesday pinned up posters on billboards equating Nazism to Communism to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

The posters, with the slogan “Communism = Nazism”, were a hugely provocative gesture in a country whose east still fondly remembers the rule of the USSR, which the more nationalist west regards as an occupation.

The billboards were put up at the behest of the local authorities and show two pictures, one of locals murdered murdered by the Soviets in 1941 and another of seven people hung in public by the Nazis in 1942 after the invasion.

“The inhabitants of Lviv suffered both under the Nazi and Communist regimes in the war,” said deputy mayor Vasyl Kosiv.

“Prisons and concentration camps were used by both the Soviet NKVD and the Gestapo.”

“These were two forces identical in their criminal actions,” he added.

When the Nazis entered western Ukraine in 1941, some greeted them as liberators from the Soviets.

Nationalist guerrillas continued to fight Soviet forces in the mountains of western Ukraine into the 1950s and are regarded as heroes in the region to this day.

Hitler and Stalin

I wish I knew when this imaginative cartoon was done -- If you have any information regarding this item, please leave me a comment.

Tagging of Pacific Predators: a decade of data reveals important migration patterns

In California, many people involved in ocean conservation are familiar with the ground-breaking work of Dr. Barbara Block and the program she started, TOPP (Tagging of Pacific Predators). Using various types of telemetry and satellite tags, the TOPP crew has tagged a variety of ocean animals, from sharks to tuna, to turtles and more. Doing so has enabled them to determine many of the key migration routes these predators take - quite often of a seasonal nature, traveling great distances back and forth between key locations year after year.

After 10 years of tracking using over 4,000 tags and accumulating data from over 23 different species, TOPP has released a final report of its findings in conjunction with the Census for Marine Life, published online in Nature. The report shows that migration patterns play a very crucial role in the lives of many ocean predators. Writing in the Washington Post, Julie Eilperin repeated TOPP's description of the eastern Pacific Ocean as being akin to Africa’s Serengeti, teeming with wildlife and crisscrossed by migration corridors used by sharks and seabirds. Two currents play a key role in the migrations: the California Current - which stretches from western Canada all the way south to Mexico - and the North Pacific Transition Zone - which travels east and west between the sub-arctic and subtropical waters.

Because of my interests with great white sharks in California and Mexico, I have watched the TOPP data over the years and was fascinated by the migration patterns taken by the sharks, seeing the same sharks return to locations like Isla Guadalupe, Baja year after year after year. You could predict with near certainty when sharks would be reported along the California coast based solely on the time of year and where that coincided with their migrations.

“Just off the West Coast may be one of the greatest hot spots for open ocean predators in the world,” said Dr. Block. “They have their favorite haunts, they clearly have the places they keep going back to. The upwelling [of nutrients] is so intense there in the springtime it really sets the table for the whales, the tuna and the sharks. They come and lunch at that table, from everywhere in the entire Pacific realm.”

The data collected in the TOPP program consisted of more than just the whereabouts of an animal. Water conditions including temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, and more enable researchers to examine the environments that might help to explain the migration patterns more thoroughly.

“It’s precedent-setting. It’s a tremendous tool for conservation and management,” said Jesse Ausubel, vice president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and co-founder of the Census of Marine Life. “We were literally blind. We can now see. We know what’s underneath now.”

Read Julie Eilperins' article in the Washington Post.
Learn more at the TOPP website.
Migration Maps: TOPP.

"Wild in the Streets"

A few years ago, suburban teen Max Flatow (Christopher Jones) was making bombs and LSD. Now he's a rock star using his fame to urge young people to vote at the behest of a senator (Hal Holbrook). But Max hasn't abandoned his love of anarchy. Soon, the voting age is lowered to 15, Max is elected president, and everyone over 30 is shipped to retirement homes. Richard Pryor and Shelley Winters co-star in this Cult Classic.

This movie has not been released on DVD. Future availability is uncertain.

Tony Smith’s monumental sculpture "Smoke"

Those who have visited LACMA the past couple of years have seen and walked around Tony Smith’s monumental sculpture Smoke. The space that it inhabits in the Ahmanson Pavilion was actually redesigned (by Renzo Piano) specifically for the work.

It would be unimaginable to think of the museum without the piece. Today, you won’t have to. The LA Times reports that LACMA has purchased it. The amount was not revealed, but it is said to exceed $3 million. It is insured for over $5 million, but the institution received a substantial discount in buying it. The funds were provided by one unnamed donor from Bel Air after rumors of a competing offer by another museum was presented. Congratulations to LACMA for now owning one of the “most powerful sculptures of the 20th century.”

"sprightly.language and brilliant orchestration"

Giuseppe Verdi's final opera, Falstaff, composed when he was 80, has no great melodic lines, triumphal marches or consumptive heroines; at its center there is only a drunken old man who imagines himself a seducer. Falstaff's lack of self-awareness permeates the opera and gives it broad brushes of comedy. Handsome once, he has grown grotesque and fat, yet not without wit ("I am in the waist two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am about thrift"--and "If Falstaff were thin, no one would love him"). He behaves like a boor; oblivious to his own hypocriscy, and lectures his servants about "honor."

It's Verdi's only comic opera, based on Shakespeare (mostly The Merry Wives of Windsor, with bits of Falstaff's character adapted from the Henry plays), and it uses sprightly.language and brilliant orchestration to tell the story or Falstaff's comeuppance

HE'S BACK !!!

Keith Olbermann will be appearing tonight(Wednesday, June 22) on Al Gore's CURRENT TV. Check the current TV listings for time and channel number.

"Viking Vampire"

It may be his current role as enigmatic Viking vampire Eric Northman in HBO’s True Blood that has raised his international profile, but Alexander Skarsgård has long been an established star in his native Sweden. Son of renowned actor Stellan Skarsgård, Alexander made his own screen debut at just seven years of age, and went on to become a popular child star. Unnerved by his growing celebrity, he turned his back on acting at the age of thirteen to pursue other interests. He studied Political Science, served in the Swedish Marines, and was contemplating a return to school to study architecture when the acting bug finally bit him once more. Since then he has accumulated over fifteen international film and television credits, not to mention been voted Sweden’s sexiest man no fewer than five times. Eat your heart out, George Clooney!

He made his Hollywood debut with a small role in the movie Zoolander (2001), but it was in the acclaimed mini-series Generation Kill (2007) that he really made his mark. Shrugging off initial doubts about his casting, he completely dropped his Swedish accent to convincingly portray real life US Marine Sgt Brad ‘Iceman’ Colbert, earning widespread critical praise and no doubt bringing him to the attention of the True Blood casting bods.

With a strong pedigree and obvious talent already in his favor, Alexander’s growing legion of female fans will also be pleased to learn that this is one thespian who isn’t exactly precious when it comes to taking his clothes off. As well as a joking insistence that he should have nude scenes written into all his contracts, he has also claimed that he will pose as a Playgirl centerfold in exchange for “a chicken burrito and a pint of strawberry ice cream.”

So with True Blood returning this month for its second season, shall this sexy Swede be putting his money where his mouth is and giving us Eric Northman in the buff? We can only wait and see. In the meantime, does anybody have a good recipe for a chicken burrito?

"doesn't want to die" -- oh really !!!

Nik Wallenda doesn't want to die. It just looks that way sometimes. He's seventh generation of the legendary acrobatic family The Flying Wallendas, and is on a mission to bring his famous family's skill, passion and showmanship to a new 21st century audience.

On Wednesday, June 22, from 10 to 11PM ET/PT, Discovery Channel will sneak peek LIFE ON A WIRE, a limited series commissioned by Discovery Channel that profiles Nik and his incredible family. Additional episodes are set to air later in 2011 on the network.

Oceans On the Edge of Extinction: international scientific panel issues report that demands our attention

A story is moving quickly through the news media like an Arizona wildfire - from England to India, from the New York Times to Al Jazeera. It's not the latest scandal by a self-indulgent politician or the embarrassment of a foul-mouthed entertainer. It's something that many of us who love and respect the oceans have been wrestling with for some time: multiple man-made stresses on the oceans are threatening marine life with inevitable extinction.

The International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) has released a summary of a study undertaken by a group of world renown scientists who examined all of the solid data on the condition of the oceans. Presented at the United Nations on June 20th, the summary's conclusions have been picked up by hundreds of media outlets and for good reason: the prognosis does not look good if things continue as they currently are, with a "high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history."

"The findings are shocking,"" said Alex Rogers, scientific director of IPSO. "As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the ocean, the implications became far worse than we had individually realised. This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children's and generations beyond that."

The summary report concludes with four case studies that focus on several of the key issues. Climate change and acidification, loss of coral reefs, pollution, and overfishing are highlighted not only as activities that are threatening the oceans but also activities that mankind can actually do something about.

I could go on detailing the findings of the IPSO but, instead, I would suggest you read the report yourself - it's available in a long version and shorter version. And I would recommend you read through the IPSO website as it discusses the findings and includes several enlightening videos from many of the scientists involved in the study. These are not just names on a document, hiding behind pronouncements that were destined for oblivion on a library shelf; these are concerned individuals willing to be front and center in announcing that things must change for the better and they must change right now if we expect to have any kind of natural marine resource left for future generations. Visit the State of the Ocean.org website.
Dan Laffoley, of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said, "The world's leading experts on oceans are surprised by the rate and magnitude of changes we are seeing. The challenges for the future of the oceans are vast, but unlike previous generations we know what now needs to happen. The time to protect the blue heart of our planet is now, today and urgent."

Read about the report at State of the Ocean.org.

spfp

"a unique chalk painting art form"

The Guinness World Record for the Largest Display of Chalk Art Returned to Paseo Colorado Father’s Day Weekend, June 18th & 19th, 2011. Over 600 dedicated chalk artists converged on Paseo Colorado’s interconnected mix of retail, entertainment, and garden promenades as the 19th Annual Pasadena Chalk Festival continued the legacy of bringing this unique chalk painting art form to Southern California.

In 2010 Pasadena Chalk Festival received the Guinness World Record for the Largest Display of Chalk Pavement Art, to authenticate its title as The World’s Largest Street Painting Festival. Each year the festival offers visitors an opportunity to shop, dine or see a movie as they see the artworks created by the artists come to life before their very eyes during the two day festival.

A Blackbeard Legacy

Blackbeard's facial hair wasn't the only thing the infamous pirate liked big.

Archaeologists on Friday recovered one of three giant anchors believed to be used by the 18th-century high seas bandit on his ship, Queen Anne's Revenge.

The 11-foot, 4-inch long anchor, weighing 3,ooo pounds, was pulled from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Carolina.

Scientists hoped to raise the ship's other two anchors, but they are stuck to the sunken ship.

"The Stupa of Many Auspicious Doors"

Tashi Gomang Stupa, Crestone, Co (9-25-10)--("The Stupa of Many Auspicious Doors" – thus named for Buddha's 84,000 paths to enlightenment)

A STUPA is a Buddhist monument erected as a commemorative shrine and site of pilgrimage. Stupas are typically filled with hundreds of thousands of Buddhist religious relics. Buddhist practitioners circumambulate (walk around) stupas while reciting mantras as a form of spiritual discipline.

"Fiat 500, a real Italian icon"

Even with the top up, in a blinding rainstorm, the 2012 Fiat 500 Cabrio was still enjoyable during a recent drive through Manhattan and just north of New York City. And with its EPA estimated 38 mpg on the highway, or 32 mpg, with the optional automatic transmission, it was pretty efficient the whole way, too.

You'd expect that combination of fun and economical driving from the modern version of the Fiat 500, a real Italian icon. The original Fiat 500 was launched back in 1957. It wasn't a hardtop, either. It had a manually folding canvas top that's similar in concept to the power-folding version on the new 500 Cabrio.

What's unexpected is that the 2012 Fiat 500 Cabrio avoids so many of the issues that plague most other convertibles. First, it's just about as much fun with the top up. Second, it's surprisingly practical. Third, it's affordable.

The base price of the Fiat 500 Cabrio is an even $20,000. That's a $4,000 premium over the hardtop model. Add extras like heated leather seats, navigation and a six-speed automatic transmission, it's possible to run the sticker price for the convertible up to around $26,000

China builds replica of fairytale Austrian village

China is building a replica of an idyllic Austrian alpine village in a rundown industrial estate in the Guandong province.

The village will be a £5.7billion carbon copy of Hallstatt, a UNESCO World Heritage site, complete with artificial lake.

Posing as tourists, the Chinese have been photographing every building there for three years.

The plan was discovered when a Chinese guest at one of the village hotels left blueprints behind.

Publicy, Hallstatters say they are proud that their village has caught the eye of the Chinese. But the apparent secrecy surrounding the project has revived suspicions about outsiders.

Ocean Conservation and Culture: one does not have to look far to find conflict

Ocean conservation requires not only an understanding and appreciation of the various worldwide marine ecology and the species that contribute to their existence; an understanding of the specific environmental threats to ecosystems and specific sealife, whether directly man-made or occurring naturally through cyclical patterns. We also need to understand the cultural histories that formulate the attitudes of people regarding the ocean and its future.

In the case of endangered species, likes sharks, whales, tuna, or a wide range of commercially harvested animals, we often turn towards Asian or developing island nations and the long-standing culture steeped in the use of seafood. We wring our hands when considering how these societies can appear to be so singular in purpose and dedicated to consuming natural marine resources - both locally and in international waters.

To be sure, these nations have long cultural histories intertwined with the bounty of the sea and it is a challenge to get them to objectively look at what is happening to their treasured ocean resources before it is too late. But internal progress is being made, although it is a slow process. "Outsiders" can have only so much of an effect; much has to come from self-realization within the culture itself. We see this with anti-shark positions being taken by citizens in Taiwan while a healthy trade in shark fins continues. Japan's harvest of whales and dolphins continues while the consumption of their meat is declining. These conflicting positions represent the achingly slow process of transforming a society to a new way of thinking.

Often, one does not have to travel far to find these same dichotomies at work. In the United States, take the State of Florida for instance. Surrounded on all sides, except for its northern border, by ocean, the "Sunshine State" has a long history with the sea and, in light of today's environmental concerns, we see a culture that is in flux with wasteful attitudes or activities colliding with conservation.

Four recent news articles highlight how Florida can have one foot in the past and one in the future. Reported in Ocean City Today, the 31st Annual Ocean City shark tournament concludes today. This three-day event brings in sportfishermen hungry to catch the largest or heaviest shark in the hopes of winning trophy money that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Sportfishing is not only part of the societal fabric of Florida, it's also big business, so the likelihood that it's going to go away anytime soon in deference to overfished species like sharks, tuna, billfish, or other game fish is fairly remote.

As reported in Ocean City Today, "The Ocean City Shark Tournament is the second of two fishing competitions that allow anglers to accumulate points toward the “Ocean City Sharker of the Year” title. The first event was Mako Mania, which took place June 3-5. Divisions for the event, which has become one of the largest shark tournaments on the East Coast, are: mako, open (threshers and blue shark only), release, bluefish, tuna and dolphin."

As much as shark advocates abhor these shark tournaments, within that listing of categories for the Ocean City Shark Tournament lies one ray of hope: the "release" category. The tournament directors are working to promote catch-and-release of sharks as opposed to bringing in dead ones. And they are trying to facilitate a change in attitude by using bait that is tantalizing to the human species; more trophy money is being diverted to catch-and-release prize categories based on species, size or number. Sure, I would be the first to say let's put an end to all shark sportfishing tournaments tomorrow, but that would be an easy pronouncement for me, coming from California where such events mostly don't exist. But to Florida and its long-standing history in sportfishing, baby steps are required.

However, it would appear that progress towards all catch-and-release is continuing. The Blacktip Shark Shootout, a two-day event which concludes today, has adopted an all catch-and-release format.

As reported in the St. Petersburg Times, "Shark, like tarpon, could be the next great catch-and-release fishery. Every angler knows that if you catch a fish and kill it, you've got dinner. But if let it go, it can be caught again and again. 'And they are pretty hardy,' {charter captain and tournament co-founder, Joel] Brandenburg said. 'Sharks put up a great fight, and after you release them, they will swim off as if nothing ever happened.'" Now, there are plenty of shark researchers who might want to argue that last statement, but that's a fisherman talking - albeit one who is making an effort to change the way things have been done for years.

However, attitudes about sharks as a food source still persist, and not just overseas in Asian restaurants and marketplaces. NaplesNews.com ran an article on Friday titled "Locals attack shark, buffet style at CJ's on the Bay." It seems that a popular local eatery is heralding in the summer with Loco for the Locals Luau, a Hawaiian island-style barbecue, and rather than use the more traditional roasted pig as the main course, this year the restaurant decided on a whole shark.

“We wanted to do something for our local customers as well, customers that may or may not be members of the Chamber [of Commerce, which held a prior event using roasted pig],” Chef Laura Owens said. “We threw some ideas around and I said, ‘lets roast a shark.’ We might be setting some new ground.” Well, I sure hope not. In fact, it's a slap in the face to Hawaiian culture to use the concept of a luau and, at the same time, roast an animal that is revered throughout Hawaiian tribal history.

However, while there is not a widespread understanding as to the perilous conditions to which shark populations are faced, even in the waters off Florida, progress is being made by Florida regulatory agencies to better protect more species of sharks that have been the target of sport and commercial fishermen for decades. KeysNet.com reports that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Comission is considering protections for tiger sharks and hammerhead sharks - two species that have been popular with sportfishermen over the years and whose numbers have noticeably declined.

According to Neil Hammerschlag, shark expert from the University of Miami, "Tiger sharks and hammerheads do not reproduce often or quickly, and both are highly prized for their fins for use in shark-fin soup. The pregnant animals come into shallow water to give birth, where the pups can find food and protection from other predators. That tends to make them very vulnerable to fishing. Studies have shown that taking even a few large individuals can have a big effect on the population in a local area."

With already 22 shark species protected in Florida, ranging from great whites to smaller Caribbean reef sharks, a prohibition on landing tiger and hammerhead sharks would not necessarily impact the sportfishing industry, according to Christy Johnson of SeaSquared Charters.

"We do catch and release for big sharks," she said. "I don't know anybody who takes the bigger sharks, except maybe trying for a mako."

So, one does not have to travel far to find conflicting attitudes about sharks or other dwindling fish stocks and what needs to be done about it. Progress is being made but old habits and cultures die hard. It will take patience and persistence on the part of those who recognize the need for immediate steps to preserve our natural resources while accepting the fact that some will need to come kicking and screaming - or may never come around at all.

Read about the Ocean City shark tournament in Ocean City Today.
Read about the Blacktip Shark Shootout in the St. Petersburg Times.
Read about the roasted shark Luau at NaplesNews.com.
Read about tigher and hammerhead shark protections in KeysNet.com.