"Original" Batmobile Awaits Auction Hammer

"Original" Batmobile
(Image: topgear.com)

For decades, I have lived with the assumption that the original Batmobile was the vehicle that appeared on the Batman TV series. However, thanks to a piece in topgear.com (a jazzed up version was posted on the BBC news website), the scales have fallen from my eyes. It turns out that Forrest Robinson created the first "official" Batmobile. The means of determining the "official" accreditation was not explored, but let's not quibble. The Caped Crusader's means of transportation offers much more fun than some bureaucratic attribution.

The car's details, including its powerful engine and other curious features, are noted in topgear.com's story. The article notes that the bidding for this version of the Batmobile starts at $90K. I don't know if the vehicle runs on unleaded gas or how one registers the car with the appropriate state authorities. I do suspect the new owner will have a ball with his or his automobile insurer.

A Drone's Eye View of Chernobyl

Chernobyl

Twenty-seven years ago, the Soviet Union's version of Fukushima took place at Chernobyl. The disaster created an "exclusion zone" in which human habitation is forbidden. Recently, a drone was used to video footage of the land on which radioactivity imposed a death sentence. The footage was posted in the Italian website corriere.it, the website for Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera.

I once taught a man who directed the effort to extinguish Chernobyl's nuclear fire. He suffered from radiation sickness, but he never doubted his actions during the disaster. I was proud to be his teacher. When I watched the drone's footage earlier tonight, I thought about a brave man whose life touched me, and saved the lives of thousands.

And so, on Thanksgiving Day, I want to thank the many who put their lives on the line for others.

PS. Shortly after Thanksgiving Day, the online version of the BBC posted an article about wildlife returning to the Chernobyl contaminated zone. The fascinating story is linked here.

Fumiko Hayashida, Face of WWII Japanese-American Internment -- RIP

Nearly sixty-three years ago, President Franklin D Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. That document condemned over 100,000 Japanese-American citizens to internment camps during World War II. The shameful episode remains a dark moment in our nation's history, and one the "rule of law" crowd rarely trots out in defense of its perspective.

Fumiko Hayashima, Dec. 1941
Enroute to Internment Camp
(Image: idahoptv.org,
Original from Seattle Post-Intelliegcer)

The literal and figurative face of the internment period was Fumiko Hayashida. The Washington state resident and her young child were photographed on their way to their incarceration odyssey, which included terms in Washington State, California, and Idaho. More than a half-century later, she testified before Congress about her experiences. Ms. Haysahida recently passed away in Seattle at age 103, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times and reprinted in the Seattle Times.

"I realized," she said during her House testimony, "that I now had the face of the enemy." That ironic observation continues to resonate today, as the country faces a combination of nativist sentiment and suspicion that Arab-American citizens might harbor hostile intent toward the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

Barry Diller's TV Initiative Aereo Opts for Bankruptcy

A couple of years ago, Barry Diller wanted to break into the video content distribution game. His gimmick was Aereo, a firm which promised streaming TV for gadgets. His trick was to use micro-antennae to capture cable television signals and send them to Aereo users. (The blog techcrunch.com has a useful overview of this initiative.) The cable barons fought back via litigation and won their case before the US Supreme Court.

Recently, Aereo declared a financial no mas and declared bankruptcy. The AP story appears in siliconvalley.com.

The firm is continuing to tout the value of its Internet recording technology, and try to snatch financial victory from legal defeat.

Mike Nichols -- RIP

Mike Nichols
(Image: deadline.com)

How many people have their deaths announced by the president of a major American television network's news division? Well, that was the case yesterday, as ABC News prez James Goldston informed the world that Mike Nichols had passed away at age 83. Not even US commanders-in-chief get the Goldston treatment. However, Nichols was married to ABC News star Diane Sawyer, whose position in the network's firmament apparently demanded her spouse receive presidential attention.

Nichols won praise for his work in show business. However, in an era of auteurist movie directors, Nichols never achieved a memorable, defined style. While some of his films were very good, Nichols' work did not achieve the stature of contemporaries such as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Robert Altman, or William Friedkin, just to name four A-list directors. In some ways, he seemed more a creature of the theatre, where Nichols' wit and finesse with actors delivered splendid results.

My wife reminded me that we saw Nichols on our first date. He was ducking into a New York movie theatre where we happened to be on line (no, not to watch a Nichols feature). He seemed comfortable in the public without working hard to get noticed. We also saw Nichols in a Ridgefield Park, New Jersey movieplex. One of his films (I don't remember the picture) was being previewed. Nichols and his entourage slipped into the back of the house just as the film began. They slipped out before the end credits were shown and the opinion cards were filled out and returned to the studio's staff.

For the record, my favorite Nichols film was Working Girl. The movie remains a curious choice for the husband of Diane Sawyer to make.

Big Butts Butting Into Beauty Biz

Padded Panties
(Image: herroom.com)
Please note: not a commercial endorsement
or a "placed" ad

Maybe I've been looking in all the wrong places lately. According to an AP report reposted in zerohedge.com, the beauty business (female division) has shifted its focus from breasts to butts. Apparently, there's big bucks in big butts, thanks to the notion that zoftig physiques are more appealing than skinny up-and-down figures.

One commercial item to ponder in this phenomenon is the sale of padded panties. The idea is similar to padded bras, only the focal point has changed, so to speak. For a little over thirty dollars, one can purchase a pair of the padded undies.

I'm wondering who will put the padded panties on their holiday wish list.

Woman Replaces Woman in Oakland Mayor's Office

Oakland Mayor-elect Libby Schaaf
(Image: libbyschaaf.com)

For all the fuss about the US Senate elections, a very interesting electoral phenomenon took place in Oakland, California. The local stakes included a vote for a new mayor. What was curious was that the three candidates were all female, including the incumbent, Jean Quan. Ms. Mayor did not win re-election; city councilwoman Libby Schaaf decisively outpolled Quan and Rebecca Kaplan.

It is highly unlikely that any major American city has offered a ticket of exclusively women candidates for a major office. However, Oakland is a curious political case, with a feisty, left-leaning population and intense social and economic issues facing it. The city lives in San Francisco's shadow, and the rise of Silicon Valley has only exacerbated the sense of Oakland's inferiority. Ironically, the acceleration of real estate prices into San Francisco's stratosphere has pushed people to "discover" Oakland. The usual suspects -- galleries, inexpensive restaurants, clothing stores -- are starting to open. However, women running the political show is definitely not business as usual, and bears watching in the months ahead.

"Hunger Games" Stage Show Planned

Image: nytimes.com

According to a BBC story, plans to stage The Hunger Games as a theatrical event are in the works. The show will reportedly require a theatre build in London specifically for the event, with organizers suggesting the performance will be an "immersive" audience experience. Unaddressed was the notion of a live audience applauding survivors of author Suzanne Collins' grimly depicted death matches.

The concept of a Broadway-style Hunger Games seems more in keeping with ancient gladiatorial concepts than the cherished theatrical traditions of the land of Shakespeare and Shaw. It does seem likely that the production will be a big-budget item, with ticket prices and hype to match. The global road show, de rigueur for contemporary theatrical extravaganzas, should be a curiosity. Somehow, a Roman setting echoing a decadent empire would seem fitting for a theatrical showcase of Collins' dystopian themes.

Foreclosure Home Buyer Gets Corpse in the Deal

A Florida newspaper recently reported that the buyer of a foreclosed home bought something more he bargained for. The surprise was none other than a corpse, and apparently not a fresh one. The story, which includes more details on the episode, was reposted in today's zerohedge.com.

The story noted the house had been in foreclosure for three years. The holding bank, unwilling to sell at a loss, let the structure sit there. No one bothered to knock on the door, mow the lawn, or wonder why debt notices went unanswered. Interestingly, neighbors (at least those willing to be interviewed by journalists) seemed to be at a loss over what happened during those thirty-six months of the holding bank's indifference to the home's condition. What were they thinking? Was anyone even a teensy, weensy bit curious?

Frankly, though, Florida strikes me as a Petri dish for weirdness. The Sunshine State features a long list of unpleasant oddballs, from corrupt politicians to real estate sharks, from unscrupulous medical practitioners to protected college football rapists, from wacky right-wing rednecks to wacked-out liberal milquetoasts.

Well, at least the housing is relatively inexpensive. And the dead body -- well, that's on the house.

Chilled Words on a Cold Election Night

American conservatives are happy tonight, as most of their candidates for legitimately contested political office are winning. What could this event bring to the United States? Well, a lot of depressing actions. Here's an upcoming GOP menu for your digestion:

• Turning pregnant women into potential felons
• Dismembering health care fairness
• Voter repression campaigns aimed at minorities (why are conservatives afraid of people of color?)
• The evisceration of many environmental protections
• The disintegration of church-state separation
• The spectacle of Southern Republicans denouncing the federal government while pitching for increased defense spending in their respective districts

Of course, there are GOP presidential candidates to consider:
Scott Walker
Chris Christie
Rand Paul
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
Mitt Romney (!)
and the "moderate" Republican's great white hope, Jeb Bush

I'm trying to imagine any of this group in the same room with Vladimir Putin. If there's a wager in play, take Putin and the points against any of these right-wing lightweights (Bush excepted).

Tonight's voting let me to think about writers, in the belief that words can still sway minds to specific paths of thought and action. For books such as Albert Camus' La Peste, Leonardo Sciascia's Il Giorno della Civetta, Andrea Camilleri's Il  Cane de Terra-Cotta, Edna O'Brien's Country Girls, Chester Himes' Cotton Comes to Harlem, Anais Nin's diaries, and all other works that attempt to explore and depict reality, I take hope and, with them, defy tonight's vote that unfortunately delivered a profound ignorance upon our land.