Story at Knoxnews.com and video at WBIR. The bear was tranquilized and will be released. Watch the video to see how fast he can run and how well he can climb a downspout. It’s amazing video.
Semi-hemi-related kinda sorta - Lots of new posts over at Lawyerbear. I especially liked A Tense Scene from Lawyerbear: The Movie.
Ok, folks, it’s time to do it again! Let everyone know; pass the word; let’s make it a big one before summer really gets going.
WHEN: Saturday, June 9
WHERE: Bailey’s in West Knoxville.
TIME: 6PM
Leave a comment if you’ll be there. I’m setting the time early enough that it’s still a kid friendly atmosphere for those who want to bring them along. I’d bring my kids, but they’re at that age whre it’s not cool to hang out with dad on the weekend.
I’ll see everybody there!
Yes, It’s 3:30AM and yes, I just got back from watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End.
And yes, I will be working tomorrow. Er, today.
And finally, yes, you should go see it.
One of the most pleasant surprised for me in this series is the depth it has, particularly given that it started as a Disneyland ride. There’s not much material in a 3 minute ride to make a 2 hour movie, (anybody remember Haunted Mansion? Me neither.)much less three movies clocking in at roughly 8 hours, but POTC transcends its origins thanks to the writing of Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, along with Gore Verbinski’s direction, and of course, Johnny Depp’s signature Captain Jack Sparrow.
Ok, enough of the critic speak. This is a fun movie, although maybe a trifle overlong at 2:45 minutes. The first hour moves along nicely, but things slow down a bit in the middle hour, but hang on to your seats for the last hour. At Worlds End is much darker than the first movie in the series, but not as gloomy as the second, and it is certainly the most violent of the three. I’m not going to say anything about the story, because I don’t want to spoil it for anybody; I’ll just say that At World’s End was a great way to wash away the mediocrity that was Spiderman 3.
The previews on the other hand, those I’ll talk about.
First up was the newest Die Hard movie, Live Free or Die Hard. While the first three movies in this series were basically an excuse to kick the crap out of Bruce Willis for 2 hours, the trailer for the latest installment look like John McClane is dishing out more than he’s taking, cracking wise the entire time. The only potential drawback is the presence of the annoying little snot from the Apple commercials. Of course, we may get lucky and get to see him die harder.
Next up was, believe it or not, the Transformers movie. In the trailer, there’s a scene of a Decepticon rollerblading down the highway while blowing up a bus. I’ll pass.
Finally, the latest Disney Pixar joint production features a rat in a French kitchen training to be a chef. Trust me, the trailer makes this idea look every bit as bad as it sounds. In fact, after seeing the trailer for Ratatouille, (Get the joke? He’s a rat,making ratatouille.) rollerblading robots are starting to sound a lot better to me.
Zorb is coming to Knoxville Tennessee! Well, not exactly… Zorb is coming to the Smoky Mountains which is only 30 miles southeast of Knoxville Tennessee. The Smoky Mountains location is planned to open sometime in 2007
What is a Zorb and what is Zorbing? I can’t think of a better resource than Wikipedia’s article on Zorbing to explain the answer.
Zorbing is a recreational activity developed in the 1980s that consists of rolling downhill inside of a usually white, double-hulled sphere called a zorbus, made from PVC.
Zorbing originated in New Zealand as the brainchild of Dwane van der Sluis and Andrew Akers. In 1967 they conceived the idea of the spheres in Rotorua, New Zealand. The inside of the original zorbo has 9 straps to keep the rider in place. Variations include strapless hydro zorbos where water is added for an experience somewhat like a water chute. The latter variation can be ridden with two or three other zorbonauts.
For those of you who didn’t follow that explanation it is “a person in the middle of this big ball. They’ve got about 700 mm of air between them and the ground - that’s about 2 feet for you metrically challenged folks - and this air cushion keeps em safe as they hurtle down the side of a hill at speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour.”
It looks like a blast and I am already planning a trip down for a ride after it opens. I’ll pay someone $10 if they can convince Frank Murphy and Michael Silence to ride down a hill in a Zorb together and $15 if they can get Randy Neal in there for a three person Hydro Zorb ride.
If you want to try and contact Zorb’s Smoky Mountain location try the following information:
Zorb Smoky Mountains
203 Sugar Hollow Road
Pigeon Forge, TN 37863
smoky@zorb.com
1.865.428.2422
On the way back from Norris this afternoon we spotted a huge plume of smoke off of the interstate, so we pulled off to take a look. The fire is in a huge compost heap on Ailor Avenue near the intersection of Sutherland Avenue and Middlebrook Pike. Knoxville firefighters were already at the scene.
I believe the fire was at Shamrock Organic Products at 2501 Ailor Avenue.
This post will be coming tomorrow. I had a good one lined up and then I got distracted by a minor security flaw in the KGIS website. More details to come tomorrow.
Update: I contacted KGIS@KGIS.org and have not heard back from them. So I’ll assume that this isn’t a big deal and explain the security flaw I mentioned last night in passing. The exploit is a simple and very common SQL Injection technique. Since this blog is about Knoxville and not about SQL I’ll skim over most of the details save for a few.
Before I do that let me first make my original post. KGIS.org is the coolest county/city owned and maintained website in Knoxville for quite a few reasons. The first reason is because it is one of the most heavily skinned and customized DotNetNuke sites that I have seen on the net.
In addition, it has some really cool information available online that is easy to navigate. For instance, if you are looking to buy a house in Knoxville or you want to find out how much your neighbor or friend paid for their house, you can do that with the Owner Card application.
If you want to look at an interactive map of the new school zones, you can do that and view an assortment of other maps using KnoxNetWhere. Finally, you can use the Property Map and Details Report which will plot your property lines and give you all kinds of other interesting data about your land.
I’m going to let you explore the bunches of other maps and information they have at KGIS.org so I can get on with explaining the security exploit I mentioned last night.
**EDITED - KGIS informed me that they are patching the exploit and requested that I not publish the security flaw to which I kindly agreed **
I haven’t had time to determine how serious of a security flaw this particular exploit is causing. It appears that the variable is being passed into a stored procedure which will significantly decrease the vulnerability as it acts like a filter, but I would probably advise them to get it patched up none the less since it is a 15 minute or less fix.
Every time I think about Knox County Politics I’m reminded of Black Wednesday and the quite humorous edits that were made to the Knox County, Tennessee Wikipedia article.
Heading up those proceedings was of course Scott Moore who also happened to be the speaker for this month’s West Knox Republican Club meeting.
Commissioner Moore didn’t have a whole lot to say but he did mention the following:
I will say the tone of the meeting was drastically different from last month’s meeting with Mayor Bill Haslam. Moore got railed by a few people in the meeting for several minutes during the question and answer time after his speech, but recovered from the cheap shots with the help of Brian H. and Barbara P.
I think a lot of people in Knox county want to find somebody to blame for the chaos that ensued as a result of the court’s ruling on term limits (and I can’t blame them). Scott, as head of the Knox County Commission, is an easy target especially since he has a tendency to speak his mind in a tone that can easily be perceived as course and arrogant.
I’m not going to claim that I want Scott Moore as my best friend, but I’m certainly not going to blame him for events and circumstances that are out of his control which is what quite a few people seem intent on doing.
Volunteer Princess Cruises LLC has a 96-foot yacht, Volunteer Princess, that can be rented by businesses, organizations, families, fans and just about anybody interested in cruising Knoxville’s waterways. Walter LeMasurier, president of the company, estimated the craft’s cost at more than $2 million. The Volunteer Princess was constructed in Wisconsin by SkipperLiner and can accommodate 149 passengers.
I haven’t had the privilege of taking a cruise on the yacht but maybe someone will invite me in the near future. I did however take the picture above while I was on the Tennessee River Boat today for mother’s day. The river boat made for a nice afternoon and tomorrow I plan on writing a review of my experience on that ship.
The Volunteer Princess is setup very similar to the Tennessee River Boat for public voyages. The public voyages include special events like the mother’s day lunch outing as well as a Sunday Champagne Brunch Cruise (Adults: $35.00 Children under 10: $17.50) and a Thursday Night Dinner Cruise (Adults: $50.00 Children under 10: $25.00). But, the Volunteer Princess is by far the most unique and luxurious boat in Knoxville which makes it ideal for private parties. This boat is definitely the eye candy of Volunteer Landing marina. I wonder if they auction the boat to the highest bidder for Boomsday.
Who: Clay Aiken, performing with a full symphony orchestra
When: Sunday, August 12,
8 p.m.
Where: Tennessee Theatre
Tickets are $49.75 and $69, plus applicable services fees at the Tennessee Theatre box office, all Tickets Unlimited outlets, by phone at 656-4444 or online at TennesseeTheatre.com.
Clay Aiken fans are in luck! In support of his 2006 release, A Thousand Different Ways, pop idol Clay Aiken makes his Knoxville debut at the historic Tennessee Theatre this summer, performing with a full symphony orchestra.
Aiken’s live show include performances of the following cover songs:
Harry Nillson’s “Without You,”
The Bad English hit “When I See You Smile,”
The Foreigner classic “I Want to Know What Love Is,”
Bryan Adams’s “Everything I Do (I Do It For You),”
Paul Young’s “Everytime You Go Away”
Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again.”
Email from Angie Clement
The Disc Exchange loves Vestival, the quaint celebration of life across the Henley Street bridge in the South Knox neighborhood Vestal. Food, fun and LOTS of great local music make this one of the coolest and most unique Saturdays you can spend with your friends or family. Read the release below and go!
The 7th annual Vestival will be held Saturday May 12th from 11AM to 7PM at the site of the old Candoro Marble Company (on the corner of Candora Avenue and Maryville Pike in the South Knoxville community of Vestal). The festival will begin with a Vestival tradition – a Mother’s Day Brunch (free to mothers) at 11AM. Music also begins at 11:00 and continues until 7PM. Fine food and arts and crafts vendors will fill the beautiful festival grounds (pick up those last minute Mother’s Day presents). Children’s activities and tours of the old marble building are also on tap.
The music schedule is as follows:
Candoro Café:
12:30 Greg Horne
1:30 Jim Myers
2:30 Sweethearts of the Bitterroot with Cary Masters
3:30 Trisha Gene
4:30 The Maid Rite String Band
5:30 The Bearded
Maryville Pike Stage:
11:00 Grupo Lavolta
12:00 The South Knoxville Persian Music Ensemble
1:00 Christabel and the Jons
2:00 The Lonetones
3:00 Sara Schwabe and Her Yankee Jass Band
4:00 The Hector Qirko Band
5:00 Los Breakfast Meats
6:00 Exit 65
