Dateline
Jasoom Podcast #36 includes:
Harvey Paul on little Billy from Chicago ~ Barsoomian
Blade news from Mars ~ Celebrity Jeopardy with O'Banyon ~ Cheta's birthday
~ Prometheus Theater Radio does Tarzan ~ Dum-Dum 2007 news~ Now available
for download at: www.PanthanPress.com
Big cat lover in Loxahatchee
insists he will keep his tigers
South
Florida Sun-Sentinel ~ July 14, 2007
A
year ago, federal inspectors denied Sipek an exotic animal permit to legally
keep his cats because his five-acre ranch did not meet standards in the
Animal Welfare Act. But the former B-movie actor, known around the Groves
simply as "Tarzan," was granted a state permit that allowed him to keep
the cats if he used them for educational or commercial purposes. Sipek
said he's reapplying for another state license, but remains defiant as
ever toward federal officials and what he calls their "ridiculously high
standards" for animal care. He said his cats are well cared for and challenges
the authority of the federal officials to make any demands for better conditions.
His last federal license inspection lasted less than an hour before Sipek
ran the officials off his property.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant
Health division last toured Sipek's ranch in January 2006. The inspection
and licensing arm of the USDA had given Sipek failing grades on two previous
inspections and found conditions had improved little this time. Inspection
records note that Sipek did not have a veterinarian on site or on call
and that no medical records existed for the cats. Inspectors found a section
of fence was only seven-feet high, a foot lower than the minimum standards
for these types of animals. They noted vertical gaps in the fencing large
enough for outside animals to pass through to gain access to the enclosed
tigers and lioness. They also pointed out other potential weak points in
the fence. Records show inspectors told Sipek that he did not provide a
proper diet and feeding program for the cats and that his grounds were
littered with dangerous debris. As with past failed inspectors, this record
concludes that Sipek is not allowed to participate in USDA "regulated activities,"
such as exhibiting the animals, until he obtains a federal license.
Five months later, Sipek easily passed inspection by the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and received a state
license. Sipek admits he's frustrated by this discrepancy in state and
federal standards. While the state last year said he was a good guardian
for the cats, the USDA launched an investigation into his care. USDA officials
would not say whether the investigation is ongoing. "It's a lousy situation,"
Sipek said. "The USDA is not qualified to issue licenses." West agrees
it's a confusing and complicated permit process and said the state has
ongoing discussions with the USDA to simplify it.
The Croatian-born Sipek, who starred as Tarzan in a foreign
remake of the film in 1970, garnered international attention in 2004 when
a 600-pound Bengal tiger he owned, Bobo, escaped from his compound and
into the rural residential community of the Groves. The tiger was later
shot by Fish and Wildlife officials, but soon after, Sipek received another
commercial license from the state for two tiger cubs, Bo and Little Bo.
Those cubs are now 2 years old and weigh 400 pounds. "Nobody could take
better care of my cats than I can," Sipek said. "The health of the cats
is all that matters. That's all I care about and that's all they should
care about, too." More>>>
Found: the giant lion-eating chimps of the
magic forest
The
Guardian ~ July 14, 2007
Deep in the Congolese jungle is a band of apes that,
according to local legend, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the
moon. Local hunters speak of massive creatures that seem to be some sort
of hybrid between a chimp and a gorilla. Their location at the centre of
one of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet, the civil war in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, has meant that the mystery apes have been little studied
by western scientists. Reaching the region means negotiating the shifting
fortunes of warring rebel factions, and the heart of the animals' range
is deep in impenetrable forest. But despite the difficulties, a handful
of scientists have succeeded in studying the animals. Early speculation
that the apes may be some yeti-like new species or a chimp/gorilla hybrid
proved unfounded, but the truth has turned out to be in many ways even
more fascinating. They are actually a population of super-sized chimps
with a unique culture - and it seems, a taste for big cat flesh. The most
detailed and recent data comes from Cleve Hicks, at the University of Amsterdam,
who has spent 18 months in the field watching the Bili apes - named after
a local town - since 2004. His team's most striking find came after one
of his trackers heard chimps calling for several days from the same spot.
When he investigated he came across a chimp feasting on the carcass of
a leopard. Mr Hicks cannot be sure the animal was killed by the chimp,
but the find lends credence to the apes' lion-eating reputation.
"What we have found is this completely new chimpanzee
culture," said Mr Hicks. Previously, researchers had only managed to snatch
glimpses of the animals or take photos of them using camera traps. But
Mr Hicks used local knowledge to get closer to them and photograph them.
"We were told of this sort of fabled land out west by one of our trackers
who goes out there to fish," said Mr Hicks whose project is supported by
the Wasmoeth Wildlife Foundation. "I call it the magic forest. It is a
very special place."
Getting there means a gruelling 40km (25-mile) trek through
the jungle, from the nearest road, not to mention navigating croc-infested
rivers. But when he arrived he found apes without their normal fear of
humans. Chimps near the road flee immediately at the sight of people because
they know the consequences of a hunter's rifle, but these animals were
happy to approach him. "The further away from the road the more fearless
the chimps got," he added. Mr Hicks reports that he found a unique chimp
culture. For example, unlike their cousins in other parts of Africa the
chimps regularly bed down for the night in nests on the ground. Around
a fifth of the nests he found were there rather than in the trees. "How
can they get away with sleeping on the ground when there are lions, leopards,
golden cats around as well as other dangerous animals like elephants and
buffalo?" said Mr Hicks.
"I don't like to paint them as being more aggressive,
but maybe they prey on some of these predators and the predators kind of
leave them alone." He is keen to point out though that they don't howl
at the moon. "The ground nests were very big and there was obviously something
very unusual going on there. They are not unknown elsewhere but very unusual,"
said Colin Groves, an expert on primate morphology at the Australian National
University in Canberra who has observed the nests in the field. Prof Groves
believes that the Bili apes should prompt a radical rethink of the family
tree of chimp sub-species. He has proposed that primatologists should now
recognise five different sub-divisions instead of the current four. Mr
Hicks said the animals also have what he calls a "smashing culture" - a
blunt but effective way of solving problems. He has found hundreds of snails
and hard-shelled fruits smashed for food, seen chimps carrying termite
mounds to rocks to break them open and also found a turtle that was almost
certainly smashed apart by chimps. Like chimp populations in other parts
of Africa, the Bili chimps use sticks to fish for ants, but here the tools
are up to 2.5 metres long. The most exciting thing about this population
of chimps though is that it is much bigger than anyone realised and may
be one of the largest remaining continuous populations of the species left
in Africa. Mr Hicks and his colleague Jeroen Swinkels surveyed an area
of 7,000 square kilometres and found chimps everywhere. Their unique culture
was uniform throughout.
However, the future for the Bili apes is far from secure.
"Things are not promising," said Karl Ammann, an independent wildlife photographer
who began investigating the apes 1996. "The absence of a strong central
government has resulted in most of the region becoming more independent
and lawless. In conservation terms this is a disaster."
Beyond the Farthest Star
Astronomers
spot most distant galaxies ever seen
CNN
Technology ~ July 11, 2007
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Astronomers using a giant
telescope say they have found glimpses of the most distant -- and oldest
-- galaxies ever seen, a finding that will help provide clues to the origins
of the universe. The light the researchers viewed originated when the universe
was only 500 million years old and has been traveling through distant space
for billions of years. This means the team found galaxies further back
in time than anyone has ever seen as scientists try to better understand
how the universe was born some 13.5 billion years ago, he said in a telephone
interview. The findings offer important clues into the origins of the universe,
which scientists believe was created with an explosion of energetic radiation
-- the Big Bang. More>>>
Watch Disney Movies on Your Xbox 360
Microsoft
E3 Press Event - July 12, 2007
Last night at a press conference kicking off the E3 gaming
conference, Microsoft added Disney to the increasingly growing list of
content providers for its movie, TV-show, and video download service on
Xbox Live. This means that users can now download movies such as 'Tarzan,'
'The Emperor's New Groove,' 'The Queen,' 'Bridge to Terabithtia,' and others--
all in HD -- to their Xbox 360s.
THE ITALIAN JUNGLE COLLECTION
A Eurotrash Double Feature of Tarzan Clones On
TCM DVD
TCM.com
Retromedia Entertainment’s “Italian Jungle Collection”
DVD features two European bush adventures patterned after Hollywood’s hugely
successful Tarzan franchise. It was inevitable that Italy, having
exhausted the sundry possibilities of such shirtless Greco-Roman titans
as Hercules, Maciste, Ursus, Samson and Goliath, would want to give the
more cost effective Tarzan game a go. A co-production of Italy and West
Germany, Luana stars Netherlands-born actor Glenn Saxson. The expedition
to find the remains of Isobel’s scientist father, whose plane went down
fifteen years earlier in the jungles of Darkest Africa while searching
for a rare plant, is joined by the late Derek Donovan’s business partner,
Norman Albright (Pietro Tordi), who has designs on the plant that are less
than scientific. As bad luck plagues the expedition, Barrett finds himself
falling for Isobel, whose wears a charm bracelet identical to one he had
seen on a mysterious jungle girl who once saved him from certain death.
The tree-swinging Luana is played by Mei Chen. Mei Chen may not be
a very compelling “daughter of the virgin forest” but there are a couple
of near-nude scenes that surely made male moviegoers stand up and take
notice forty years ago. A hardbodied non-entity named Johnny Kissmuller,
Jr. is Karzan, Jungle Lord The bulk of this tedious trek across the
Serengheti is taken up with an expedition to find a specimen of “white
ape” glimpsed on a remote plateau. Karzan, Jungle Lord benefits from greater
location photography and less reliance on studio interiors, giving the
production a slightly more expensive feel. More>>>
Ray Bradbury and the Secret Self
The
Inferior 4+1 Blog ~ July 11, 2007
From at Ray Bradbury 2003 interview 2003 on the occasion
of the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Fahrenheit 451.
PW: Do you still write every day?
RB: Every day for seventy years.
PW: We solicited questions from readers and teachers
of your work, and selected two to ask you. I'll ask the teacher's question
first. What can teachers, educators, and parents do to instill a
love of language in young people so that they appreciate the power of the
word in a culture that is increasingly dominated by the visual?
RB: (laughs) Hand them a book, that's all. Science fiction,
fantasy – my books have changed a lot of lives. My books are full of images
and metaphors, but they're connected to intellectual concepts. Give one
of my books to a twelve-year-old boy who doesn't like to read, and that
boy will fall in love and start to read.
PW: What books did you fall in love with as a boy?
RB: The Oz books. Tarzan and John Carter, Warlord of
Mars, by Burroughs. Jules Verne, at a certain age. Edgar Allen Poe when
I was nine. And H.G. Wells, who was very negative but very exciting, because
when you're sixteen years old, you're paranoid, and H.G. Wells is a very
paranoid writer. And a very necessary one. More>>>
Tarzan Video Game
Game
Advisors Blog ~ July 10, 2007
The legendary boy who grown in monkey family is going
for the new adventures in African jungles. This game was developed by Disney
Studio and it is based on their famous movie of the same name. It was originally
released for Nintendo 64 in the late 90th. Now it is abandoned. That means
you can play it for free.Tarzan is a high-quality three-dimensional game.
You need to run through levels collecting coins and jumping over the monkeys
and other unfriendly animals. Created by professional cartoonists, its
a very beautiful game. Unlike many other similar games which are stricted
to two-dimensional space, Tarzan can thrill you with three-dimensional
effects. The birds are flying in three dimensions, the road is turning,
also in 3D.
It has many levels and they are very different. You have
to walk, jump, climb on trees, swim and even run from the herd of scared
elephants. The world of Tarzan is just amazing! Flying birds, cute animals,
big trees, waterfalls - all the beautiful nature of African jungles that
live it’s own life. If you love this kind of games, or if you like the
original cartoon - welcome to the jungles! Downloads and More>>>
Minnie Driver is the New Lara Croft
TV
Guide ~ July 12, 2007
Minnie Driver, who previously voiced Jane in Disney's
hit animated Tarzan, will be providing the voice of Lara Croft in GameTap's
new 10-part animated series premiering July 10 at GameTap.com/TombRaider.
GameTap is Turner Broadcasting's video-game-themed broadband network.
In
response to the excitement surrounding the recent announcements of film
projects with Disney/Pixar (live-action John Carter of Mars) and Warner
Bros. (Del Toro's Tarzan of the Apes). . . as well as the international
excitement over Tarzan the Musical (currently playing in Holland) . . .
the ongoing publishing and merchandising projects (Penguin, Bison Press,
independents, PODs, comics, computer and online gaming, etc.). . . and
the overwhelming popularity of the ERB Websites. . . Danton and Webmaster/Editor
Bill Hillman have launched a new site which will feature stories, articles,
photos, comics, and rare archival material which will be of interest to
ERB fans and scholars.
On
the other hand, if you are a fan of Tarzan, then there is a distinct possibility
that this is where you heard the name. Edgar Rice Burroughs mentioned Opar
in 1913 in his second Tarzan book, The Return of Tarzan, and then
in 1916, he wrote Tarzan and the Jewels-of-Opar.
This
week's Podcast from 
