Tuesday Morning – Smile, You're on Candid Camera!

You can call me skeptical, but I am skeptical about the real existance of a supposed new product for club hoppers called the Photoblocker.  South American brewer Cerveza Norte distributes their suds internationally and are known for their innovative and humorous television ads.  Recently they have released a couple of ads featuring this device that they claim will prevent your image from showing up on someone else's Facebook page and causing a bit of embarrassment for you.

The Photoblocker is a tabletop beer cooler that has a series of photoflash lights and sensors arranged around the top edge.  According to Norte, they can sense the impending camera flash that is coming your way and it instantly sends out a brilliant counter-flash that washes out the image on the candid cameraman's  HD disk. The brewer's advertising agency says the device is a real product that has been field tested and actually works. "We placed several beer coolers in different bars in the North of Argentina," says Maxi Itzkoff, executive creative director at Del Campo (ad agency). "People took lots of photos that ended up being blurry beyond recognition and then uploaded them to social media anyway."

Photoblocking technology has been put to actual use in other applications (such as the famous anti-speed cameras along the highway), so it is plausible that something like this could be real.  Take a look at this video and see how it works:

I have checked around and have been unable to locate so much as a single photograph of one of these (other than the one issued by the ad agency), nor any information on its availability for purchase.  Combining that with Norte's previous record for satire, I am naturally a little bit skeptical, as I said.  But then again, it is just now being field tested according to the company.  Maybe there are a couple of prototypes out there.  I just don't know.  What do you think?

I think we'd better get this equipment checked out now, though.  I'm going to make some more Facebook-safe coffee for us.  See you back in the day room.

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Did Anybody Self-Dispatch For the Assist?

A BEER DELIVERY TRUCK IN MUNICH, GERMANY (of all places), was making its rounds to bars and markets last Thursday when the driver took a corner too fast and hurled a major part of his load from the trailer onto the street.

The local fire lads were very willing to help clean up the mess and the police cordoned off the block to keep the other people from intruding and offering to assist with the clean-up. After the front-end loader cleared all the broken glass off the street, the firefighters hosed the rest of the debris down the sewer.

One fire spokesman told the German Herald, 'You always get a few who want to sneak a bottle or two from a crash but there's broken glass everywhere and it's really very dangerous because the rest of the load could fall at any time.  (Yeah, right.  That's what you tell the locals while your guys are pretending to be "picking up" while the cameraman is still there.)  'You might love a beer but you wouldn't want to be be buried under a landslide of it.'  (Speak for yourself, Heinrich.)

The shifting load damaged the trailer enough that the un-hurled cartons had to be offloaded to another truck before the first one could be driven away.

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A 53-ft. TRACTOR TRAILER ROLLED ONTO IT SIDE Monday morning in Sacramento, California, tumbling its load of 35,000 lbs of bottled beer, namely Bud Light Lime. While most of the 40,000 cans and bottles seemed to have survived the rapid relocation of their packages, quite a few of them broke and provided a steady stream of beer washing down the exit ramp.

KCRA-TV

The truck had just exited Interstate 80 and was turning left off the ramp when the driver lost control and rolled it. With that large and heavy a load, it was not possible to pull it back upright with tow trucks due to the probablilty of the trailer walls not being able to contain the weight. So first a pair of flatbeds and a busfull of laborers were brought over to offload the beer cases first.

Channel 13 News covered it in this video report:

KCRA-TV has more plus a photo gallery HERE.

Firegeezer notes:  Bud Light Lime?  Bud Light Lime?  It wasn't driver error that caused that wreck, it was the invisible hand of Bacchus himself reaching down from the heavens and knocking that load of swill over.

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This One Came Fully Equipped

WHEN THE PORTLAND, OREGON, AIRPORT FIRE DEPARTMENT wanted to sell off their mass casualty unit, the Redmond Fire & Rescue Department jumped at the offer.  The former 1976 Ranier Beer delivery truck fit their needs perfectly at the Redmond Municipal Airport firehouse that they also operate.

KTVZ-TV image

KTVZ-TV reports:  The Port of Portland offered the truck to several airports, and the Eugene Airport turned it down first. "Before they could offer it to somebody else, I bought it and paid $1,200 for it," said Redmond Airport Manager Carrie Novick.

It came with more than $1,200 of back boards, body bags, a generator and other things on board.

Before the vehicle was placed in service, the airport had another that was designed to serve only 37 patients — this one has enough supplies for 100 patients. The truck includes 80 long back boards for spinal immobilization, two fixed power generators to provide lighting and power away from the rig, gloves, oxygen masks, splints, IV fluids and more — a number of items that a normal fire truck couldn't carry.

Watch the entire report in their video:

Redmond Fire & Rescue WEBSITE.

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Be there.

Baltimore County Fallen Firefighters Foundation

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

Keep them coming

I guzzle diet sodas. It irritates wait staff that the glass is empty by time they enter the food order.

The older guys working at an all-night diner where I am a regular have two glasses ready when I sit down.

This guzzling is a remaining behavior from a long-ago habit.

The Challenger shuttle disaster is an annual reminder of a personal crisis decision point.

White-knuckling an urge

Spent weeks attempting to reign in the uncontrollable … could never predict how much I would drink once I started.

When off-duty I often needed 3-4 drinks in order to go to sleep. Would follow the nightcap with a 20 oz sports drink/acetaminophen bolus.

I was trying to go more than two consecutive days without drinking. January 28, 1986, would have been day three. The first three-day dry spell in years. It did not happen.

The last close call

I thought I separated drinking from the job. Until an off-duty response to a greater alarm fire while hammered resulted in a terrifying realization that I could lose my job.

That started the unsuccessful effort to reign in the drinking … and then to visit the Employee Assistance Program to ask for help the day after the Challenger disaster.

I entered an outpatient rehabilitation program 25 years ago tonight. I was angry and uncertain.

Just cause you are sober does not make you “all right”

Up to 90% of alcoholics have at least one relapse in the first four years after treatment. It could be from a behavioral, cognitive or biochemical factor.

I have maintained sobriety for a quarter-century. Doing Job 1 every day.

That was the easy part.

Still have behaviors and thinking that are addictive and destructive. They remain resistant to lasting change.

So much for the “Anonymous” in AA

Alcoholics Anonymous, is the 12-step spiritual self-help program that remains a force in treating a variety of addictive behaviors. Estimate about two million members.

I don’t think Bill Wilson or Dr. Bob Smith ever envisioned a society as tolerant and open about addiction as we are now. There was a lot of shame associated with alcoholics in 1935.

Rescue Me and alcohol

Alcoholism is a frequent topic in Denis Leary’s Rescue Me series.

Season 5 (2009) ended with this cliff-hanger:

Rescue Me’s creators, Denis Leary and Peter Tolan weren’t afraid to risk it. In the waning moments of the finale, Tommy Gavin (Leary) takes two bullets to the chest, courtesy of his grieving Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke), who seeks revenge for the recent alcohol-fueled death of his wife. Tolan says it was a natural progression of this season’s story arc, which saw Tommy fall off the wagon and drag the entire Gavin clan with him.

“We just really got into the whole idea of Tommy starting to drink again and being the merry piper leading everybody down that road. And what the consequences would be,” Tolan tells TVGuide.com. “We’ve already established over the seasons that Tommy’s curse — which is a direct reflection of 9/11 — is that he survives. When he should be dead, he survives, and there’s death all around him, which is what he is left to deal with.”

Leary says Teddy, who murdered the drunk driver who killed Tommy’s young son in an earlier season, was the obvious choice to shoot Tommy.

Leary says the show’s success at depicting alcoholism comes from a mixture of personal experience and letting the disease speak for itself. “Our investigation of [alcoholism] comes from a real place,” Leary says.

“I know firefighters who have drank, quit, started up again, quit, and finally said, “I can’t work unless I have alcohol. I need to have some fun.” So I think we’re portraying every part of it, and I don’t think we’re preachy about it. If Tommy keeps on drinking, I don’t think we will judge him. And if he quits drinking, I don’t know how we’ll judge the characters that continue to drink.”

Adam Bryant (Sept 1, 2009) “Exclusive: Rescue Me’s Creators Dish on the Shocking Season Finale” TV Guide.

My brothers and sisters were supportive and ball-busting. I did not have to hide my recovery – that was a powerful benefit.

Thanks!

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward
February 4, 2011

Friday Morning Lineup

FossilMedic announced it (below), but I want to remind you anyway that the nomination round for Best Fire and EMS Blogs of 2010 is completed.  A total of 20 Fire blogs and 22 EMS blogs were nominated by avid readers around the globe.  Of course, many of the blogs received more than one nomination, but I believe this is the list of all of them that were nominated at least once, and met the qualifications.  CLICK HERE to view the nominees.

This is the best part of the contest because we are introduced to new blogs that many of us hadn’t seen before and you get to browse around the blogosphere checking them out where you just might find some that you like well enough to add on to your Favorites file.  They are all good because at least one reader of each thought highly enough of them to nominate them.  After you read this Morning’s Lineup, scroll down to the previous posting just before this and see what FossilMedic’s take is on a few of the newbies.

For the next few days, the judges will be calculating the nominees according to their popularity and will present the list of finalists.  We will have seven blogs in each category to vote on for the Best Blogs.  Voting begins on Monday January 24 and runs for nine days through February 1.  So, get ready!

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It just had to happen eventually, and now somebody has developed a means to pour beer faster.  Yes, that’s right…..Faster Beer.  The problem that was waiting for a solution is the lengthy time it takes to fill a plastic cup with beer at public events like stadiums and outdoor festivals.  The slow pouring time for a draft beer dispenser to fill the cups and ease off the foam tends to create lines of thirsty customers waiting unnecessarily long times before they get served.

Now that problem is solved thanks to the Bottoms Up Dispensing System.  This innovation fills the specially-designed plastic cup from the bottom, which not only speeds up the dispensing time, but eliminates the foam head as well.

They have already been using this system at several major sporting events and arenas in Texas, Arizona and Nevada, and now they are ready to go national with the system.  I still can’t figure out how it works, but I know that it has something to do with magnets on the bottom of the cups.  Take a look at this video demonstration of how it works:

The cups themselves cost more than a plain generic plastic cup, but that cost is made up in reduced labor expense plus the unknown losses from discouraged customers who don’t want to wait in line for 10 minutes.  If you need convincing that the system is efficient, they have also produced this video showing one man filling 56 pints of draft beer in one minute:

If you are involved in your FD’s annual carnival fund raiser, you should check this out.  Their WEBSITE is HERE for more information.

Now I’m still filling coffee pots the old-fashioned way, from the top.  So I’m going to get started now with that while you begin the equipment check routine.  See you back in the day room.  Bottoms up!

WHEN A BREW-PUB / HOTEL IN CORNWALL, ENGLAND, brewed up a special beer recipe to benefit the Cornwall Air Ambulance, they decided to hold a contest to name the charity brew.  The Driftwood Spars Inn started brewing the reddish-amber colored ale with a policy of donating 25p from the sale of each bottle, and 10p from each pint sold over the bar, to the air ambulance fund.

But they needed a name for the brew and came up with the idea to have a competition to name it.  The Falmouth Packet picks up the story:

(The winning name Red Mission) was coined by 25-year-old Laura Bosworth from Lanner, who won a county-wide competition to name the beer.  Laura said: “It was a great competition to win because I had to put some real effort in to thinking of a name.

“After researching Cornwall Air Ambulance, I saw the mission counter on the website that said there had been more than 22,000 emergency call outs, plus I knew the colour of the beer was reddish amber. I wrote down a few alternatives, but Red Mission seemed like a good idea.”

Air paramedic Steve Garvey (left), contest winner Laura
Bosworth, and brewmeister Pete Carvers toast the new brew.
(Falmouth Packet photo)

Read the complete article in the Falmouth Packet HERE.
Cornwall Air Ambulance WEBSITE.
Driftwood Spars WEBSITE.

Cornwall Air Ambulance website photo

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STARTING THIS EVENING (TUESDAY) TRAFFIC between Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario, is expected to be a bit more congested than usual.  Beginning at 9 pm 20 police cars will be escorting a convoy of special trucks hauling  six huge beer vats from the Hamilton Port to the Molson’s brewery in Toronto 65 miles away.  The unusual transfer will take four nights to complete.

The new, custom made vats were shipped across the Atlantic from Germany on a 15-day voyage.  They are part of an expansion of the Toronto brewery and each vat has a capacity of 1.4 million bottles of beer which is stored in them during the fermentation process.  The individual vats are 150 feet long and 25 ft. in diameter, requiring a careful plotting of route and in many instances the temporary removal of electric lines and traffic lights.

Typical beer vat installation

The convoy will travel at a walking speed the entire distance and will only move from 9 pm each evening until 6 am the next morning when they will pull over for the day in order to not disrupt regular traffic flows.

Firegeezer will watch their progress and keep an eye out for any good photos of the parade.
The Spec has the STORY.

SATURDAY WAS AN UNSCHEDULED HOLIDAY IN JAIPUR, INDIA, when a delivery truck filled with beer collided with another truck, spilling its cargo across the roadway.

Within moments the area was swarming with passerbys who stopped to help clean up the mess.  While some of them decided to open a bottle or two and drink them right on the spot, many others loaded what they could into their cars and onto scooters before motoring away.  By the time the police arrived, more than half the booty was gone, gone.

NDTV had their camera on the scene though, and caught some of the activity:

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