In this day and age of ever increasingly smaller and more powerful technology, I guess Erin Andrews, the popular ESPN sportscaster, found out the hard way that even the tiny peephole on hotel doors isn’t safe from prying any more.

According to Erin Andrews’ reps, in an incredible invasion of privacy, somehow, someone standing in a hotel corridor managed to put a video camera to her room’s peephole and take a video of her while she was unclothed.  They then proceeded to upload it to the Internet.

After being threatened with legal action, the  video and pictures have been taken down, but the damage has already been done.  And as with all things Internet, they will no doubt surface again and again over the years…

How sad is it that you have to now think about somehow covering over the peephole in your hotel room to prevent prying eyes (and cameras)? Of course, it’s been said that Erin Andrews is more of a target for that type of "assault" than say someone like Jim McKay or Tommy Lasorda would have been.  Female sportscasters are supposed to have it all: gorgeous looks, a great personality AND an encyclopedic knowledge of sports. Male sportscasters can get old and craggy, and ramble on and no one seems to care (or takes nude photos of them – probably actually a good thing come to think of it.)

Of course, now that the story has broken all over the major new sites about how Erin Andrews was taken advantage of, no doubt a few crazies out there are looking for ways to do the same thing to their favorite celebs or sports figures, male or female. It’s a weird world… Hotels will no doubt have to be extra-vigilant to anyone who seems to be standing in front of a door for longer than it takes to actually open it (or who seems to be staring at the peephole from the wrong side of the door…!)

I’m not famous (and wouldn’t want to be after reading about Erin Andrews’ troubles), but this cautionary tale makes me want to keep a roll of duct tape with me whenever I travel so I can cover up any potential privacy problems with it. (A little over the peephole, some on the keyholes, some to cover any cracks around the doors and keep the curtains from moving, and some to keep the towels from slipping off the 2-way mirrors in the bathrooms… Hey! A little healthy paranoia seems to be appropriate, wouldn’t you say?)

Here’s hoping they catch whoever did it, and give them more than just a slap on the wrist.  Who needs terrorists to keep you from feeling safe when you travel when you have the paparazzi doing their jobs for them?

Technorati Tags: erin andrews, espn, female sportscasters, privacy issues, sportscasters

I want to let you all know about a cool non-profit that is doing great things: Kiva.

Kiva allows individuals to make $25 loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world (microfinance). By doing so, individuals like you provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc.), empowering them to earn their way out of poverty.

It’s a new, direct and sustainable way to fight global poverty, and the way I see it, you get a higher return on $25 helping someone build a future than the interest a checking account pays.

Please check out the site: http://kiva.org. If you need more “reputable” validation than my recommendation, know that they have received great press in publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal to NPR to BusinessWeek.

And unlike most charities where your money goes into a big pool and you never know who you’re really helping (or even how much of your money is really going to the people who need it), Kiva allows you to make loans to specific people or small groups, with the ability to match your giving goals and personal preferences to small businesses which just need a little helping hand to get going. The site gives you profiles of the people asking for loans, including what they plan to use the money for. You can help as many or as few as you feel willing.

If you’ve been looking for a way to give that’s just a bit more personal and which helps people help themselves, consider making a small business loan to someone listed on Kiva.

For more info on microfinance and how it affects the world around us, check out the books below:

Technorati Tags: Charity, Microfinance, Small Business Loans

First my site goes splat over at Yahoo right after I get it all nice, mostly the way I want it, but right before I get a complete backup. So I move it over to BlueHost and make sure I have a backup. Suddenly they have a major internet pipeline that services them go down, causing my site to be unavailable to me for about 2-3 hours, either to look at or restore if need be. (Supposedly 85-90% of the rest of the world still had access according to tech support – just not me, so having a backup didn’t make a difference this time…!)

If I were a suspicious person, I’d either think someone was out to get my site or my site suffers from Typhoid Mary syndrome – killing hosting servers/hardware right and left.

Hmmmm.

BWAHAHAHAAAAHA (Okay, now that’s out of my system, back to thinking of what else to post that the internet can kill at its leisure…)

Technorati Tags: Computers, Hosting, Technology, WordPress

I keep seeing Drew Barrymore in her latest Cover Girl TruBlend makeup commercials, and all I can think when I see them is: if you’re going to ask me “is my makeup showing?” and then try to sell me makeup that “blends seamlessly” and looks natural, could you not put a shade on Drew that makes it look like she’s wearing a very bad tan mask?

Whoever did her makeup for the commercial put it on with a trowel and seems to have disregarded the fact that she’s naturally quite fair-skinned. To put a medium/tan color on her looks flat and odd, if not actually quite awful, especially given how thick they made it.

I mean, check it out:

CoverGirl TV Commercial Look (Plastered on Fake Tan Color on Face/Neck/Etc)

Drew’s Usual Look (Fair Skin – Face, Neck, Shoulders and so on)

Drew’s Updated CoverGirl Makeup Look (Official Site) – Seems they finally realized what tone to actually use on her to show her best (which would only make sense since they’re a MAKEUP company for heaven’s sake… LOL) This works and makes her look fresh, smooth and dewy and not as if she’s wearing foundation, the very idea behind using it! Now they just need to redo the commercial to match… (No pun intended)

Technorati Tags: Drew Barrymore, TV

Northwestern Madagascar definitely breeds ‘em big. According to scientists who unearthed fossils of this monster, “Beelzebufo” or Devil Frog, as it’s been named, was the size of a bowling ball, heavily armored, had teeth, and lived among the dinosaurs way back when, possibly munching on baby dinosaurs for snacks.

The drawing, by Dan Klores Communications, shows a Beelzebufo ampinga staring down the largest known living Malagasy frog, Mantydactylus ampinga. Just to get an idea of perspective, a full-length pencil is included in the drawing.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d want to meet THIS frog on a dark night (or even during a bright sunny day)! RIBBBIT… CHOMP

Technorati Tags: Frog

Due to some REALLY beautifully clear (and very cold) skies, we got a great view of tonight’s total lunar eclipse.

Given the amount of clouds we’ve had all week at night, I was extremely surprised we got a break and very grateful since this is the last total one until 2010.

I took the picture above with my Canon PowerShot G3 4.0 megapixel digital camera at high res using its standard lens (using my car roof as a tripod!) and the self-timer (so it wouldn’t have my usual handshaky totally out-of-focus in a completely non-artistic style. LOL) I cropped the original to show just the section with the moon – otherwise to make it fit the blog it would be just be a black square with a little reddish spot…

What’s really scary is this picture taken with a digital camera actually turned out much, much better than one I tried to take years ago with a Minolta 35mm w/telephoto lens. Weird.

Technorati Tags: Astronomy, Lunar Eclipse, Photography

Steve Gerber, the comic book writer and creator whose best known character was the Marvel Comics alienated, cigar-chomping Howard the Duck, died February 10th. He was 60. Gerber suffered from pulmonary fibrosis and had been waiting for a transplant when he passed away.

Besides his infamous creation Howard, Gerber co-created Marvel’s “Omega the Unknown” and created the 1980s animated series “Thundarr the Barbarian”.

Back when Howard the Duck was created, Disney filed suit saying he looked too much like Donald Duck, their character, (which from the picture to the left I’d say they definitely had a case) so minor changes were made in Howard’s appearance, including his Donald Duckish lack of pants, but not in his biting satire or commentary on the world at large which remained pointed to the end.

Gerber, though, did not have much to do with George Lucas’ film HOWARD THE DUCK (probably one among many reasons it flopped at the box office.)

Goodbye to another creator of yet another icon of my childhood… May he find himself in a world he did make!

Technorati Tags: Comic Books, Howard The Duck, Steve Gerber

After a 100 year beagle drought, the Westminster Kennel Club finally made one its Best in Show Winner for 2008: Uno the beagle bagged it. (Yay – I’ve always loved beagles – now the WKC agrees with me.)

Uno, officially known as K-Run’s Park Me in First, also managed to win the Hound group for the first time a beagle’s taken that award since 1939. He already has 32 best in show titles under his dog collar and finished 2007 as the sixth-ranked show dog in the nation.

What a cutie! Guess HE showed them, eh?

(My own dog is a “wannabeagle” – she’s half shepherd/half husky and THINKS she’s as cute as Uno. I call her my German Hussy aka the Siberian Shepherd.)

Technorati Tags: Dogs

We had been doing some “hunting of the wild book” this morning at a Vancouver library book sale as we are wont to do and decided to hit some of the local thrift stores, too. After going to 3 or 4 of our favorites, and feeling really tired (we had had to get up REALLY early to make the 1st sale), we were going to drive home early. But I had “little book voices” calling to me from over in Portland and wanted to go there before heading back. Mom was of the opinion we should go home and nap out. So we flipped a quarter for it and I won. As we were heading towards Oregon, I told Mom to check out the sky behind us. In front was clearing, but behind was a dark grey, almost black, sky. I was looking for rainbows, since it looked like heavy rain, saw none, so went back to watching where I was driving. We stopped at a favorite haunt or two in West Portland and were about to go our merry way when we heard there’d been 1, possibly 2, freak tornados where we’d just been in Vancouver. Talk about lucky! If we’d headed directly home instead of going south, we’d have driven right into at least one of them! Amazing how things sometimes work out. (Going to have to see about keeping that quarter – it appears to have predictive properties. LOL)

Technorati Tags: Books, Tornado