Random News Stories

[Leo Enticknap]

There appears to be been quite a subgenre of killer bee movies in the '70s and '80s...

[Ryan Gallagher]

There appears to be been quite a subgenre of killer bee movies in the '70s and '80s...

I remember at least one of those from the late night cable channels in my youth. I think it was just "The Bees" (1978)

I will say they have some memorable movie posters though!

MV5BZjQzYTM4NWUtYjZlMS00ODU2LThmNDktZDQ4M2UxYTI0YTRiXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpgp36668_p_v8_aa.jpg

[Harold Hallikainen]

Pants on Fire?

https://www.cleveland19.com/2025/06/...rs-catch-fire/

Rocky River firefighters respond after multiple AMC theater recliners catch fire

ROCKY RIVER, Ohio (WOIO) - Rocky River firefighters responded to an AMC Westwood Town Center after multiple recliners caught fire.

Rocky River Fire Chief Aaron Lenart said the fire activated the automatic sprinkler system, extinguishing the bulk of the fire.

Fairview Park Fire assisted Rocky River Fire with the response.

Lenart did not have an estimate of the damages.

“The sprinkler system most definitely controlled and saved the rest of the building from a devastating fire,” Lenart said.

19 News is working to confirm details on any injuries and the precise time of the fire.

The fire remains under investigation.

[Martin McCaffery]

I wonder how this worked out
Alexander City(AL) Outlook



April 18, 1929The_Alexander_City_Outlook_1929_04_18_1 copy.jpg

[Ryan Gallagher]

I wonder if anyone thought to bury film in time capsules, master negatives or otherwise. You’d have to choose your container and location wisely for preservation success though. Lol

[Ed Gordon]

Deputy’s act of kindness during speeding stop goes viral

A picture was taken of the shared moment and has since gone viral on social media, and people are sharing their own stories of kindness from deputies.

Author: Kenny Kuhn / WWL Louisiana
Published: 10:31 AM CDT June 23, 2025

ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — A traffic stop in St. Tammany Parish turned into a picture-perfect opportunity for a St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s deputy to show compassion.

Deputy Dustin Byers with the 4th District pulled over a driver for allegedly speeding on Highway 21. According to the sheriff’s office, the man explained he was having a ‘tough day’ and was on his way to a funeral.

The officer noticed that the man’s necktie was a mess and that he could not tie the knot correctly.

That is when Deputy Byers seized the opportunity to help and tied the man’s tie for him.

A picture was taken of the shared moment and has since gone viral on social media, with people sharing their own stories of kindness from the deputies.

image.png
..........

[Leo Enticknap]

In respect of Martin's story, I find it interesting that the camera negative of The Birth of a Nation was found to be well into what would now be termed stage 2 nitrate decomposition after only 15 years. It wasn't until the late 1930s that the first anecdotal evidence emerged to suggest that cool and dry storage was beneficial to preserving nitrate, and not until the mid-1950s that the underlying chemistry was fully understood. So that negative had likely been stored in typical SoCal, Pacific coast conditions: very warm and rather humid.

[Martin McCaffery]

And yet they kept re-releasing Birth of A Nation well into the 1950s. I have no idea what they were using to make those copies. They released the sound version in the late 20s. Guessing multi-generation copies that looked like crap. Also guessing Griffith owned the negative (as DeMille obviously did in the above story), given the film industry almost total lack of interest in preserving its past during this period.

Also interested in what happened to those alternative back up camera negatives they mention. Did they survive? I read of the "foreign" takes being used in restorations, wondering how common that is.

[Jim Cassedy]

Aside from the obvious "tastes like kitten" jokes, this is a really horrible news story of
animal abuse. But when I saw this headline and the expression on that cat's face, I
swear I couldn't stop laughing for almost a full minute.

TacoCat_1.jpg

"Merced County officials seized over 100 cats from a U-Haul van in a Taco Bell parking lot Sunday.
A deputy was dispatched to the Santa Nella restaurant for a welfare check regarding several cats
visible through the vehicle’s windows. The deputy estimated there were at least 20 cats in distress
in the van, but when county animal control officers arrived, they found 106 “extremely emaciated”
cats inside, in addition to 28 dead felines, according to a Merced Sheriff’s Office news release."

> The complete story, including some really depressing pictures of the interior of the van can be
seen here> https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/artic...t-20417821.php

I know I've eaten at least half-a-dozen or more times at that Taco Bell, as Santa Nella is a very
popular pit stop for anyone driving along Interstate 5 between points in Northern and Southern
California. I'll probably never be able to stop there again without thinking of this poor, pissed
off puss. I hope it finds a good home!

[Leo Enticknap]

Very relieved to read that the county has had lots of interest in adoption. So many pets were abandoned after the covid lockdowns were lifted (that's how three out of our five cats arrived) that the shelters were overwhelmed. I'm going to skip the depressing pictures of the van, and I don't think she'd appreciate them, either:

image.png

And yet they kept re-releasing Birth of A Nation well into the 1950s. I have no idea what they were using to make those copies. They released the sound version in the late 20s. Guessing multi-generation copies that looked like crap.

From Wikipedia:

For many years, The Birth of a Nation was poorly represented in home media and restorations. This stemmed from several factors, one of which was the fact that Griffith and others had frequently reworked the film, leaving no definitive version. According to the silent film website Brenton Film, many home media releases of the film consisted of "poor quality DVDs with different edits, scores, [and] running speeds," which were "usually in definitely unoriginal black and white."

One of the earliest high-quality home versions was film preservationist David Shepard's 1992 transfer of a 16mm print for VHS and LaserDisc release via Image Entertainment. A short documentary, The Making of The Birth of a Nation, newly produced and narrated by Shepard, was also included. Both were released on DVD by Image in 1998 and the United Kingdom's Eureka Entertainment in 2000.

In the UK, Photoplay Productions restored the Museum of Modern Art's 35mm print that was the source of Shepard's 16 mm print, though they also augmented it with extra material from the British Film Institute. It was also given a full orchestral recording of the original Breil score. Though broadcast on Channel 4 television and screened in theaters many times, Photoplay's 1993 version was never released on home video.

Shepard's transfer and documentary were reissued in the US by Kino Video in 2002, this time in a 2-DVD set with added extras on the second disc. These included several Civil War shorts also directed by D. W. Griffith.[147] In 2011, Kino prepared an HD transfer of a 35 mm negative from the Paul Killiam Collection. They added some material from the Library of Congress and gave it a new compilation score. This version was released on Blu-ray by Kino in the US, Eureka in the UK (as part of their "Masters of Cinema" collection) and Divisa Home Video in Spain.

In 2015, the year of the film's centenary, Photoplay Productions' Patrick Stanbury, in conjunction with the British Film Institute, carried out the first full restoration. It mostly used new 4K scans of the LoC's original camera negative, along with other early generation material. It, too, was given the original Breil score and featured the film's original tinting for the first time since its 1915 release. The restoration was released on a 2-Blu-ray set in the UK and US by the BFI and Twilight Time, alongside a host of extras, including many other newly restored Civil War-related films from the period.

If this is actually all correct, it's surprising that the camera negative was reported as being brittle as early as 1929, yet was still in good enough condition to scan in 2015. I remember seeing the 1993 Shepard/BFI version with the re-recording of the Breil score when it came out, but haven't sat through the whole thing again since. There is one memorable outtake that either the LoC or NARA has, that I saw at a conference while an archiving student: it shows Henry B. Walthall preparing for a scene, when the wind catches his KKK costume and blows it upwards, revealing his underpants.

[Leo Enticknap]

He didn't quite make it to a Darwin award, but this was a respectable effort!

Video: Rapper 4xtra Jokes About ‘Blowing Somebody Up’ Just Before Blowing Fingers Off with Fireworks

Rapper 4Xtra is now down a few after a gruesome fireworks accident left him with two fewer fingers over the July 4th weekend.

The rapper also posted an unfortunate video on social media ahead of the accident in which he joked, “Dead homies, who wants to get blown up today.”

“Who wants to get blown up today,” the rapper added on his video post. “I’m going to blow your ass up! I’m blowing somebody up today.”

It turned out that 4xtra did, indeed, blow someone up. Unfortunately for him, it was himself.

The joking aside, images of the rapper’s horrible injury also began circulating online showing the dangers of messing with large explosives.

The photo of what 4Xtra was holding could be M1000 fireworka, often called a “quarter stick,” which is a powerful explosive. Further, quarter stick fireworks are illegal to manufacture or possess in the U.S.A. without an ATF High Explosives Manufacturing License. They are generally for professionals, not backyard use.

The rapper’s sister, Emily, has created a GoFundMe page to help raise the money for her brother’s medical treatment.

“On the 4th of July, 4XTRA was injured in a firework accident,” she wrote on the page description. “As many of you know, medical care can be incredibly expensive and add up very fast.”

She continued, “Resan is someone who lights up every room with his humor and energy. If you’ve ever laughed with him, shared a moment, or simply care about his well-being.”

More than $7 thousand has been raised thus far.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) 14,700 people were treated in ERs across the country last year and there were 11 deaths from fireworks-related accidents. The CPSC added that 36 percent of injuries were to hands and fingers and 22 percent were to the head and face of victims.