Monday, March 22, 2010

Hootenanny!

I may take this embed out if it slows down the loading of this page. This is a live (usually) streaming feed from UStream of Molly the Owl, a wild owl inhabiting a barn in San Marcos, California. My friend Carolyn chanced upon this on the 'net and we've both been fascinated. Molly laid six eggs and every so often, if you watch long enough, you may get to see one hatch. You may also get to see a male owl come by for a visit. At the very least, you might get a glimpse of the only baby hatched so far. More hatching is, they say, imminent.

There are actually two cameras that track Molly. The one below usually captures her daytime activities and you can also see its feed at this link. At night, she can more often be viewed on the camera at this link. Whichever site doesn't have her may be running recorded video of interesting past moments.

UStream feeds offer a lot of nonsense but there's also a lot of must-see TV there. They do require some patience because feeds don't always work or they sometimes take forever to load. You may see nothing from either webcam or you may luck onto a show that you'll be hard-pressed to turn away from. Often though, it's worth being patient with the tech drawbacks. Molly certainly is...

• Posted at 6:00 PM · LINK

Additional Useless Information

If you watch this morn's video link here — Kevin Pollak and Maurice LaMarche doing Dueling Shatners — you will see three people talking in the background behind them. The guy with his back to the camera is Billy West, voice star of Futurama and eight thousand other things. The couple he's chatting up consists of two of my best pals, writer Paul Dini and his beloved, magician-actress Misty Lee. Billy, Paul and Misty are all too talented to be performing unpaid extra work in Maurice's online videos.

• Posted at 1:00 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Superstar statistician Nate Silver figured out why certain Democrats voted for Health Care Reform and certain ones didn't.

• Posted at 3:42 AM · LINK

This is What Change Looks Like...

• Posted at 1:24 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Our pal Maurice LaMarche, voice artist supreme, is one of the main commissioners of International Talk Like William Shatner Day which, by an amazing coincidence, happens to be today. If you have a decent bone in your body, you will spend the day talking like William Shatner, taking oddly-placed pauses in your sentences...and you get extra points for a chorus of "Rocket Man." So do your part. Participate. Do not sabotage the system.

• Posted at 12:31 AM · LINK