This thing is big

Image courtesy of NASA-GSFC, data from NOAA GOES

A live updated image of hurricane Rita. Click on the image to go to the GOES Project page where it came from.

*UPDATE* Okay by now the image above has been updated to the point of not showing the hurricane.

Click on this link to see a QuickTime movie of Rita, 14MB

No updates

Sorry, I'm somewhat infirmed so updates may or may not happen. Guess this is an update huh? Still working but kind of out of it at home.

WTF is the problem with people?

Out of the blue I got an email from someone saying a person was impersonating me on a message board online. They thought I'd be amused and I should call the guy out on the forum. From what I could tell there was a guy that has pulled this stunt many times before, pretending to be some other person and posting messages in online forums. So I visited the forum and saw that they were hijacking images from my blog and pretending to be me.

Now, why anyone would want to screw around with someone who's in the news business is beyond me. Don't they know that news people are usually well connected to law enforcement and govt official during our daily course of assignments? And identity theft along with photo theft is a bit of a no-no. Since the SportsShooter.com workshop last year and getting an earful from shooter Rick Rickman drill into us about getting our images copyrighted to protect ourselves and about how automatic fines kick-in against violators I have sent all images I shoot into the copyright office. It's not hard to do, just fill-out copyright form AV, send them a CD or DVD full of images and it's copyrighted.

So anyway, my back is killing me in pain (see Oct. 3rd post) so I'm in a bad mood and this idiot is impersonating me and some others are bugging me via IM from the forum and in the forum after I ask them nicely that I want to inform the impersonator that I don't appreciate what he's doing. Now, I don't know what goes through the minds of people b/c here it is, my day off, and I'm pissed so I research and dig-up the names and email addresses and work info on these jerks.

Needless to say the guy freaked and sent me this via email: just a harmless joke, no one was hurt. i'm sorry i used your copyrighted material.

I decided to let the guy off the hook and he apparently learned his lesson about identity theft is no joking matter.

I was close to asking some law enforcement types to look into the matter for me (remember I'm in a bad mood with a killer backache). It also turns out I have a friend living in the same town as this impersonator guy up in Canada and he volunteers to visit him but by this time it isn't needed. It's good to have friends in different places :^)

So anyway the moral is the usual saying. "Don't put anything on the Internet that you would be embarassed to see on the front page of the NY Times" And hey, I do know photogs that work there too. Harassing someone while having information about yourself on the Internet is just dumb, it's too easy to track information down.

I don't want to go on a rant here...

To steal a line from Dennis Miller.


I actually won't go on a rant with this particular post, I think Madge has said it best over at Yeast Radio.

Go to CharityNavigator.org to make sure your donations for Hurricane Katrina will be well spent.

Shell in Waimea

Shell in Waimea
Originally uploaded by MediaBaron.

Regular Gas

Second Life is now free

The virtual world of Second Life is now free. It's an interesting place in that it's not so much a game, maybe more like a chat room on steroids or something. If you want to ride a motorcyle you can or do many other things. Most of all, Second Life is a game for creators.

And some folks are even making real money in Second Life by creating things to sell (land, homes, objects, clothes, etc) by getting people to pay virtual money for the items then exchanging this virtual money for real money. Pretty amazing.

Check out this one gal that designs clothes and makes a living selling this virtual clothes online. I think she was making some pretty good money each month.

The greenest thumb

Yet another visit to my friend in South Kona, gardener supreme Sunao.


One of Sunao's little family members (I'll have to find out who later) with a 120 pound bunch of bananas. That's a whole lotta bananas there. He usually has to prop up his banana plants with 2x4 pieces of wood to support all the weight.


Sunao next to a dryland taro patch growing in his yard as we walk along for a tour.


A tree full of Jabone fruit. These things are the size of honeydew melons hanging from the tree.


Dasheen, a variety of taro where you can cook and eat the runners you see coming out of the ground like tentacles. I cooked some in stew and it was a bit different in texture.


Pulasan growing on a tree. Very much like lychee but much sweeter. Click on this text for more info. It has a larger seed than lychee and although the skin looks different it peels pretty much like lychee except maybe its more flexible.


Neat rows of taro growing between weedblock cloth. Sunao is trying a new technique of just flattening the weeks and grass to reduce the effort of growing by not having to clear all the land.


A final photo, sorry but its a low quality cameraphone photo as I got lazy. Sunao and one his last giant squash plants growing in the yard.

Sorry for the late posting of these photos but I'm sure you'll understand.

Missing? Is he okay?

Through all of this we haven't seen Vice President Dick Cheney, is he okay? His health isn't always the best. Or is he off somewhere in some secret talks? Iran? North Korea? Venezuela?

Is the White House trying to keep some kind of bad news from us?

*Update* Okay, Salon Magazine tracked him down. He was out real-estate shopping on the east coast. Hurricane? What hurricane?

Do you feel lucky?

At the motorcycle rodeo they were selling $5 raffle tickets for this 2005 Harley-Davidson Sportster I bought a ticket for myself and bought another for Mike who couldn't resist the offer when I told him over the cellphone.

Pimpin' Brian's ride

Saw Brian's old jeep that he sold when he left Kona.


The new owner put new seats and a new top on it. He's still working on a side Mirror.

Last Gas

Well, gas prices are supposed to go up tomorrow.

I'm a shootee

The Shootee. Covered a little block party in Waikoloa and girl was fascinated with the camera gear so I handed her my Canon Powershot and we squared-off taking photos.


The Shooter with my PowerShot s500.

Head to the Ranch

Now they're saying the Houston Astrodome is closed to more survivors from hurricane Katrina. If I were a bus driver I'd tell the media and other bus drivers to follow me and I'd drive straight to Crawford, Texas so people can camp out at the Dubya ranch. I'd like to see the President say no to them on national TV. Put up some of those lightweight concrete buildings and quonset hut tents. He must have a swimming pool there to relax in too.

Blog Rant at The News Blog

Free Amputation Kit - Cool!

Got some junk mail today wanting me to subscribe to Outside Magazine. One of the sample magazine covers in the offer showed Aron Ralston, he's the guy that cut his arm off when it was trapped by a boulder while rock climbing.

If you subscribe they give you a free multi-function pocketknife, similar to the one Aron Ralston used to hack his arm apart. Now I don't know how many freebie gifts you have from magazines, free football phones, Michael Jordan videos, day planners, crappy AM/FM radios, etc you have but you gotta admit that a free amputation kit is pretty darn cool and could save your life.