The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a nice overview of wolf tracking efforts in Wisconsin.  These wolves, of course, formed the core of Michigan’s wolf population.  Excerpts and link:

Wisconsin’s wolf population is thriving. Back when radio collars were first used, only 25 wolves were counted during the winter of 1979-’80. The animals had been hunted for lucrative bounties, and by the 1950s and ’60s they were considered extirpated in Wisconsin and listed as a federal endangered species. They began padding back into the state from Minnesota in the 1970s, but diseases such as mange and parvovirus killed many.

When Wydeven started working with Wisconsin’s wolf population in 1990, there were an estimated 34 wolves, and the goal was 80.

“At the time that seemed pretty formidable. Back in the early 1990s nobody would have guessed we’d have 500,” Wydeven said.

The last winter count estimated the number of wolves living in northern and central Wisconsin between 535 and 564 in 143 packs, with 30% to 40% sporting radio collars.

Last year wolves were removed from the federal endangered species list. The population has rebounded to the point that conflicts with landowners are growing. Last week, Wydeven said that plans and studies are under way for a wolf hunting season in two or three years. Wolf hunting would have to be approved by the Natural Resources Board and the Legislature, and a court challenge would be likely.

Full article:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=784272

Note: The image above was taken from the State of Wisconsin’s DNR web site.

My dad was born and raised in the country of Belgium.  Unlike the Irish or the Italians, the Belgians do not have much crossover appeal in terms of mass culture.  Feather bowling and pigeon dinners just never caught on in the United States.  But you gotta love a country famous for beer, frites/French fries, chocolate and a statue of a peeing boy in the center of Brussels.

A few years ago, I attended World Youth Day in Denver with the youth group from St. Mike’s in Monroe.  Pope John Paul II was saying hello to the crowd and reading off the list of nations represented at Mile High Stadium.  Big cheers would rise up for Germany and Poland and other countries.  The Pope said, “Belgium” and I jumped out of my seat and started cheering.  There was one other hardy Belgian on the other side of the stadium, but mostly everybody around me started laughing at how lonely I looked.

The Olympics are one of the few major events in which Belgium gets on TV.  One of the highlights of the Opening Ceremonies is always the ten seconds that the networks devote to Belgium’s entrance.  We always cheer.

Well, tonight, the Belgian beach volleyball team almost took the first set against the American juggernaut of Misty May and Kerri Walsh.  My sister, Michelle, called my dad.  My dad called me.  We got all excited until May and Walsh crushed the Belgians in the second set.

Still, it was nice while it lasted.  Almost as good as the Tour de France, Justine Henin and the 1986 World Cup.

Go Belgium!

I was in the barber shop yesterday and overheard a conversation from a man who had just visited Adrian’s TLC Community Credit Union.  The woman in line next to him had spent a sleepless night after learning that Georgia had been invaded by Russia.  The woman had seriously thought that the United States had just been invaded by Russia.

Later that night, I watched the NBC Nightly News and Brian Williams clearly annunciated that “the nation of Georgia” had been invaded.  Clearly, the network had been made aware that some viewers had thought that the State of Georgia was under attack.

I don’t seriously believe that a large percentage of Americans believed that we were under attack.  But I feel pretty sure that 5 or 10 percent of Americans probably thought that the Russians had finally invaded.

It gives me pause.

Olympic Swimmer Kirsty Coventry:

Hell’s Kitchen Star Chef Gordon Ramsay:

While cleaning out the garage the other day, I came across a very cool bug on the floor.  It has green, leafy camouflage.  Thanks in advance.

We are once again in one of those special situations in which SE Michigan has a TV-viewing advantage over the rest of America.  While the West Coast complains about tape-delayed NBC coverage of Michael Phelps’ first gold medal, Michigan viewers have two networks to choose from - NBC and Canada’s CBC.

Of course, Olympics coverage is not the only reason to watch the CBC.  The network has excellent documentary programming, interesting news broadcasts, odd curling and Calgary Stampede coverage and, my favorite, Hockey Night in Canada.

But you will still need your analog TV to watch it come February 2009.  Canada is not requiring its television broadcasters to shift to digital signals until August of 2011.  So, if you buy a conventional digital converter box,  you’ll get “no signal” if you turn to Channel 9.

http://www.accesscomm.ca/access/docs/Microsoft_Word_-_digital_conversion.pdf

This is actually a big deal in our area.  My father is one of the local holdouts from cable TV.  He still uses a rotating outside antenna for his television.  And it works extremely well.  He is able to pull in analog signals from Lansing, Kalamazoo, Cleveland and Bowling Green.  My dad is also a regular viewer of the CBC and TVOntario, Channel 32.  He also receives Canadian signals from channels 16, 18, 32 and the French 54.  My dad probably has over-the-air television choices comparable to my basic cable package in Adrian.

Most of those American broadcasters will be out of range come February.  Digital signals just don’t reach as far as analog.  The digital picture might be crisp, but for long-distance transmission, we’ll miss analog.

Our first attempt at installing the digital converter box at my dad’s house was a failure.  We were in the middle of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  When we installed a conventional digital converter box, we realized that dad would have to physically disconnect the thing every time he wanted to watch hockey.  Dad mouthed a few choice words and told me he wasn’t going to make the transition:)

So, after a little research, I found that we needed an analog pass-through digital converter box.  This type of box allows a viewer to change from digital to analog signals by pushing the “Power” button on the converter box remote control.

These were not easy to find.  I went to about ten stores in Monroe, Marquette and Green Bay.  Some stores were out of the converter boxes.  Others had the digital-only boxes.  Finally, I went to Best Buy in Ann Arbor and picked up an APEX analog pass-through box.

After installation, my dad can now move from digital to analog signals with relative ease.

Is the analog to digital conversion good for over-the-air viewers in the Monroe area?  Well, my dad now gets three PBS channels from Detroit and Toledo, but he loses the PBS station from Bowling Green, OH.  His TV signals from Detroit and Toledo are slightly more clear than they were before, but he’ll also lose the opportunity to watch out-of-market NFL games from Cleveland and Kalamazoo.  It is slightly more difficult to watch Canadian TV, but it may be possible to receive more Canadian analog signals once American analog broadcasters leave the scene in 2009.

All things considered, it’s probably a wash.

10:19AM:  I found a good live feed online.  So, be sure to watch the USA arrive from the main page.  This ends the live blog.

9:55AM:  Iran and Iraq arrive.  Iraq receives a big cheer.

9:45AM:  Canada arrives.  The flag-bearer is doing a particularly good job of waving the flag.  I particularly love the red-turban-wearing field hockey players.

9:35AM:  John McCain’s birth country, Panama, arrives.

9:32AM:  One interesting aspect of Canadian coverage is the complete lack of the John Williams Olympic theme music.  It probably costs too much for a government broadcaster.  But it just shows how localized the Olympics are in reality.  Sure, it’s a collection of nations from around the globe, but each country watches only their particular sections of the games and in a uniquely localized style.

9:23AM:  Warm receptions for Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

9:22AM:  Israel arrives with hopelessly terrible blue and white stripes.  Haven’t you guys watched “What Not to Wear?”

9:21AM:  Go Belgium!  My family is from Belgium, so I am always happy when the Belgians arrive.  I think I’ll go have a Budweiser.

9:20AM:  Eritrea is in the house.

9:17AM:  CBC in commercials.  One result to report.  The United States Men’s Soccer Team defeated Japan earlier today 1-0.  This was the opening match for both nations.  The U.S. is in a tough group with both Nigeria and Holland.

9:15AM:  How did Malaysia get a flag so much like that of the United States?

9:13AM:  Bagpipes play as Turkmenistan arrives.  Chinese cheerleaders do their best western imitation at the center.

9:11AM:  The moment we’ve all been waiting for… The arrival of Equatorial Guinea.

9:09AM:  The Parade of Nations begins with Greece.  CBC reports that the parade will last two hours.  So, grab a doughnut and settle in.

9:08AM:  The dancers are, apparently, representative of China’s 56 ethnic groups.  I haven’t seen Tibet yet.  The Parade of Nations seems imminent.

9:06AM:  Fireworks boom.  Chinese dancers in traditional costumes frolic.

9:04AM:  Performers unveil pictures of children from around the world as smiley-face fireworks boom.  This could be a Michael Jackson video.

9:02AM:  Sarah Brightman and a Chinese vocalist sing a major Olympic theme song.

9:00AM:  A giant blue globe ascends from the ground.  Dancers run along the sides of the now-multi-illuminated globe.

8:58AM:  CBC is in commercials.  One of the best pre-Olympics columns that I have seen is Michael Rosenberg’s with the Detroit Free Press.  He tries to understand the message that China is trying to convey with these Olympics.  Click here to read it:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080808/COL22/808080422/1118/rss

8:55AM:  The schoolchildren are creating a giant painting as we speak.  They are surrounded by environmental video and one colossal Tai Chi exercise.  Tai Chi, apparently, holds the man/nature connection to be very important.

8:52AM:  Enormous video screens are projecting waterfalls and clouds.  A Chinese classroom is now at the stadium center.  This seems to be the “let’s protect the environment” portion of the show.

8:50AM:  A Tai Chi performer now takes center stage.

8:47AM:  Dancers have created a large dove.  A small Chinese girl flies above the scene while suspended by ropes.

8:45AM:  One of the cool things about the ceremony setup is a gigantic wide-screen video projection system across the center of the field.  Dancers move about while video projects an incredible variety of video.

8:44AM:  Spray & Wash commercial/Aveeno soap commercial

8:36AM:  One has to admire the ability of organizers to pull off the massive synchronization present so far.  It seems to be technically perfect.  Like other opening ceremonies, the events are extremely beautiful, but very dense.  Each move seems to be laced with meaning.  And again, the ceremony is so massive in scale and so lacks individuality - so far - that it will be off-putting to some Americans.

8:35AM:  Dancers are mimicking the maritime silk road.  Now a performer is holding another great Chinese invention, the compass.

8:30AM:  The ceremony has now shifted to a dance/video montage related to the Great Silk Road.  Stadium attendees are waving multi-colored flashlights.

8:27AM:  The CBC has gone to commercials.  One thing I love about CBC coverage is the way they slip in subtle slaps at America.  Early in the program, they interviewed athletes about what it was like to wear the Maple Leaf.  “Friendly” was used probably 20 times.  The unspoken “unlike the Americans” seemed just below the surface.  I love the CBC.

8:24AM:  The Confucian print-makers are in an acrobatic synchronized dance of Chinese characters.  Very cool.

8:20AM:  The ceremony so far has been a review of major Chinese contributions to world culture.  The first was gun powder/fireworks.  Now, the ceremony is focused on paper making and moveable type.  Currently, hundreds of followers of Confucius are creating a massive demonstration on printing.  It’s quite cool, but again, very massive in scale.

8:16AM:  So far, the Opening Ceremonies have been quite militaristic.  Hundreds of Chinese-style drummers pounded cool rhythms en masse.  It was quite incredible, but I could see American viewers being put off by it.

One cool thing is the use of Feng Shui in the opening.  Positive energy flows from the north, so fireworks shot off from about ten or fifteen places north of the stadium and led towards the event.

I just want to take a second to thank Dan Shaw, the outgoing new media head at the Monroe Evening News.  Dan is taking a position at the Monroe County Community College.

About a year-and-a-half ago, I got in my car and drove from Adrian to Monroe to discuss with Dan the possibility of creating a blog.  I was so excited that I got pulled over on M-50 by a pleasant state trooper.  All I could think was, “Give me the ticket.  I’ve got a blog to start.”

Dan didn’t hold the lateness of my arrival against me.  And he didn’t hold it against me when I abandoned my original idea of creating a place for members of the great Monroe diaspora to gather.  Monroetalks is doing that just fine.

During this past year-and-a-half, I have had such a great time writing this blog.  I’ve met some very nice people, explored some incredible places and just had a great time doing it.  Dan has been supportive all the way.

And the blog received enough attention that I am now writing a quarterly column about outdoor recreation for Lenawee Magazine.  I’ve been able to interview some incredible people for those articles.  And, unbelievably, the magazine even published a few of my pictures.  That would not have been possible without Dan’s help in creating this blog/forum environment.

I used to volunteer at the Monroe County Historical Museum during my high school years.  I would file obituaries and look through old bound volumes of Monroe newspapers from the past hundred years or so.  In those old, musty storerooms, I realized how important the Monroe Evening News has been in recording Monroe’s “first draft of history.”

Dan has done a great job of placing this community institution firmly within the cyber world.  With that kind of innovation, the paper will be around in some form for a very long time.  I thank him for that and for allowing me to explore my great love of writing within the context of this blog.

Thank You, Dan!

Eric Sharp of the Detroit Free Press has a nice explanation of why Michigan’s state stone is composed of warm-weather coral species in an area that isn’t currently warm enough to support coral:

The great majority of corals do live in tropical or semitropical oceans, and so did the corals that formed your Petoskey stone. But when those corals were alive in the Devonian era, more than 350 million years ago, Michigan wasn’t where it is now. It was near the Equator and covered by a shallow sea. Michigan eventually was pushed to the north by the movement of continental plates deep in the Earth. Corals are colonial animals, and if you look at a Petoskey stone that is wet or has been polished, you can see the skeletons of the individual, six-sided coral polyps.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080724/SPORTS10/807240347/1118/RSS