Alice In Wonderland from 1903

Alice In Wonderland - 1903

Restored the very rare, first film version of Alice In Wonderland, made in England by Cecil Hepworth in 1903 (this versatile director also plays Frog in the film).

The original negative is severely damaged, and much of the film has deteriorated. No known prints survive anywhere so restoration is next to impossible.

The music you will recognize as Claude Debussy's "Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun."

The BBC have rescued this film from obscurity by releasing it as an extra, with commentary, on their DVD for the 1966 Jonathan Miller production of Alice in Wonderland.

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Thanks to Milk and Cookies for the link.

Magazine ads from 1904

The 1904 magazine features ads for horse carriages, but by 1909 the ads are for automobiles.

This cool ad and more can be found at getrichslowly.org using the link below.

Marvelous Magazine Ads from 1904

In case you haven't heard ...

Senator Barack Obama has selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate, according to his official Web site and a text message the campaign sent to supporters on Saturday.

(And, no I wasn't awake at 3am to read the text message on my machine when it came - I do need my beauty sleep, how else will I stay so handsome)

It's in the record books

Tropical Storm Fay crossed into the Florida Panhandle on Saturday, becoming the first storm of its kind in recorded history to hit the state four different times.
Fay's center made landfall around 1 a.m. EDT about 15 miles north-northeast of Apalachicola, Fla., according to the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center.
Fay was expected to skirt across the Panhandle's coast Saturday and the coast of Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday, forecasters said.
Although Fay never materialized into a hurricane, its zigzagging downpours have been punishing and deadly.

A Grizzly Encounter

One moment Howard Hawkins Jr. was driving to get an early morning cup of coffee and the next he hit a large grizzly bear running at a full gallop across one of Anchorage's busiest streets.

"It is just unreal," Hawkins said Friday, less than 12 hours after his 2002 Land Rover struck the bear.
"I didn't have time to react. I wasn't even able to hit my brakes or anything.
What stopped the forward motion of the car is that I ran into a big bear."
Hawkins, 57, plowed into the bear shortly before 4 a.m. in what is the latest in a summer of close encounters between human and bruin in Alaska's largest city.

The male bear came out of the woods from one of Anchorage's many greenbelts.
It was struck on a four-lane highway near a large car dealership and RV campground.
The collision pushed in the front end of Hawkins' Land Rover.
The vehicle's air bags deployed but Hawkins was uninjured.
He called 911 and got out of his car to await police.
The bear, angry and in a lot of pain with a broken leg, was behind the Land Rover stumbling around, roaring and growling.

Officers arrived within minutes and advised Hawkins to get back in his vehicle; which he did.
At one point, the bear charged the officers, police spokesman Paul Honeman said.
The grizzly made its way off the road and back into the woods, where officers found it and killed it.

The bear was a 15-year-old grizzly that was part of a state Fish and Game research study to determine how many bears there are in Anchorage.
The bear was trapped in 2006 and fitted with a global positioning collar that showed it stayed mostly in one of two areas, including Far North Bicentennial Park where there have been two bear maulings and several encounters with grizzlies this summer.

One of the bears, a sow with two cubs that was believed to be responsible for much of the trouble, was shot and killed Tuesday.
DNA showed that bear was not the one responsible for the most serious attack, on a 15-year-old bicyclist.

The grizzlies come into Anchorage in the summer to feed on salmon and moose, said Sean Farley, a Fish and Game research biologist who conducted the study that showed residents share the city with at least 20 grizzlies.

So far this summer, 18 black bears and one grizzly have been shot in the municipality in defense of life or property.
That's a higher number than normal, said Jessy Coltrane, an assistant area wildlife biologist.
Last year, that total was about 10 black bears and one grizzly, she said.
Coltrane attributes the higher number this summer to a "social reaction" among city residents.
When there are maulings, people are less tolerant, she said.

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Met a black bear or two over the years myself ... it always has been an 'interesting' experience.

Canada confirms 4th death in listeriosis outbreak

A third death has been confirmed in a nationwide listeriosis outbreak that might be linked to tainted meat products, Canadian health officials said Friday.
They said the latest confirmed death from the bacterial infection was a woman who died in June at a retirement home in St. Catharine's, Ontario.
"In Ontario, there are three confirmed deaths at this point linked to the investigation," said Robert Clarke of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
A fourth death British Columbia has been linked to the investigation.

Listeriosis is a kind of food poisoning that can be dangerous to the elderly, newborns, pregnant women and people with chronic medical conditions. Symptoms include fever, headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea

Officials said there are 17 known cases in Canada, including the three deaths, with the same strain of listeria bacteria: 13 in Ontario, two in British Columbia, one in Saskatchewan and one in Quebec.
More cases are expected to be found, officials said.
An additional 16 samples from suspected cases are currently being tested to confirm if they are related to the outbreak are related to the outbreak, Clarke said.

Health officials are studying whether there is any connection between the 17 cases and the recall of nearly two dozen types of processed meats manufactured at a Toronto plant owned by Maple Leaf Foods.
Officials said they have positively identified the bacteria in 18 food samples representing six different types of the meat products, but had yet to determine whether the meat was responsible for the outbreak.

While the cause of the contamination at the Toronto plant has yet to be determined, the plant was undergoing three separate sanitation processes, all under the watch of a microbiologist and a sanitation expert.

Officials announced Wednesday that an elderly woman from Ontario was the first fatality to be positively linked to the listeriosis outbreak.
Earlier Friday, officials announced that another elderly woman, also from Ontario, had died from listeriosis.
Health officials grappling with the outbreak have said they expect to see more cases of the disease.

Let's hope health officials are incorrect and they do not see more cases.