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Japan’s Mount Aso volcano erupts
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Andrew Wallenstein at The Hollywood Reporter suggests more than Al Gore’s marriage is crumbling. Gore’s cable channel Current TV is facing a dramatic makeover with an injection of MTV executives. Wallenstein tried to sugarcoat the inconvenient truths: For all the brilliance he has displayed grasping the meteorological dynamics governing the globe, Gore has miscalculated those of a slightly less complex world: the TV business. The radical ambitions he brought to the environment didn’t pan out the same way in cable; the television will not be revolutionized. Gore tried to sell off Current to his Google pals for half a billion dollars, but that didn’t take. So they’re taking the content away from small-d democracy and toward the persistent formula of other youth-culture channels, loaded with young-skewing documentaries and “reality” TV: For much of the past year, Current TV has been quietly undergoing an overhaul that will change just about everything but the struggling channel’s name. Current declined comment for this story. It’s a revitalization project Gore & Co. embarked on after exhausting a more lucrative possibility: selling the channel. Current’s founding partner, Joel Hyatt, spent much of 2009 shopping the network with a price tag that wildly overestimated the company’s worth, confirmed sources at several conglomerates. Current even had extensive sale talks as far back as 2007 with Google, where Gore serves as a senior advisor. Now the focus has shifted to fixing Current, perhaps with an eye toward a sale down the road. Last July, Hyatt was replaced as CEO by Mark Rosenthal, the former MTV Networks COO who is rebuilding the channel in the traditional mold Gore avowed to avoid, only to suffer the consequences. Rosenthal has brought in a crew of colleagues from his MTVN days including an unlikely ringer: Brian Graden, the programming genius who masterminded hit series from “South Park” to “The Osbournes,” before leaving last year. He’s on retainer as a consultant. Graden helped found the gay channel Logo and expressed joy last year at bringing documentaries to MTV with titles like “I’m Changing My Sex” and “I Work In the Sex Industry.” So here’s where the format change comes in: Forget bite-sized clips created by anonymous viewers; the new Current will consist of full-length series from the usual suspects in unscripted production who are getting the word that Current is open for business…. Several senior MTVN colleagues were brought in as consultants to engineer the turnaround including Hank Close, formerly president of ad sales. Several more key full-time hires have been made as well. But original programming is at the heart of any successful cable network, and for that he’s turned to Graden, who’s known for his knack for hits. Graden and Current make for an unusual combination. A network that has devoted significant time to serious topics ranging from AIDS in Africa to New Age spirituality is in the hands of Graden, who didn’t exactly win Peabodys for shows often criticized for corrupting America’s youth. Graden did not respond to an email seeking comment. The MTV infusion at Current is ironic considering the channel is essentially facing the same fundamental problem MTV confronted so successfully in the 1990s: a TV schedule comprised of multi-minute clips is far less advertising-friendly than the half-hours that ensure viewer tune-in isn’t so erratic. In other words, MTV “so successfully in the 1990s” dumped all the music videos in favor of “The Real World” ad infinitum, et cetera. [HT: Dan Isett]
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Al Gore’s Current TV Is Struggling
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An Icelandic volcano that has grounded planes across Europe is spitting lava but less ash, officials said on Monday (April 19), offering travellers hope that skies might clear at a faster rate. Iceland's erupting volcano sent powerful new tremors on Monday, but scientists said the ash plume rising above its crater was now reaching a height of about 2 km (1.2 miles). Last week, the tower of ash was as high as 11 km. An official at the Meteorological Office said ash production had fallen sharply and the nature of the eruption appeared to be changing. There was still a risk, he said, that molten rock could create new pathways for water to run into the crater, causing more explosions and a higher level of ash production. Scientists flying above the volcano told the Met Office lava had burst from the crater and onto the Eyjafjallajokull glacier that sits atop the volcano. The glacier, about 120 km (75 miles) southeast of Reykjavik, is normally a popular hiking ground. A reporter flying overhead in a helicopter told state radio the volcano was spitting chunks of lava as big as a jeep. The appearance of lava could suggest the eruption is moving into a less explosive phase. Fewer explosions would mean less of the menacing ash that has drifted to the European continent, choking the upper atmosphere with tiny particles of glass and pulverised rock and leading authorities to shut their airspace over safety fears. Police said there was almost no visibility near the glacier as ash saturated the air and covered agricultural fields with a layer of dust, which could be dangerous to animals if eaten. Farmer Katrin Birna Vidarsdottir who lives near the glacier said the cows were unaffected: “The cows are fine, they are calm in the cowsheds and just chewing their cud,” she said. Vidarsdottir's sheep that are normally white were now grey from the ash. She said the farm had an unusual guest during the ash fall: “We had one large guest in here who has fled in here from the ash, a raven. Good food for him in here, newly born lambs and ewes. We barely got him out. He acted quite strangely,” she said. On Sunday, rescue workers were helping farmers to gather horses that were outside when the ash started to fall. Veterinarian Ellert Thor Benediktsson said he had been pleasantly surprised to see the horses in such a good shape. “We went here yesterday into the cloud of ash and didn't like what we saw obviously. We didn't expect to see the horses as healthy as they were today,” he said. Any pick-up in ash production could spell trouble for more populated areas of the country later in the week. Weather forecasts show a shift in winds could cause ash to fall over Reykjavik for the first time since the volcano started to blow through the glacier. The Civil Protection Department prepared plans for such an occurrence, which could include the closure of schools. Someone who has just been through it, farmer Simon Sigurgeiersson, was philosophical about the ordeal: “You just say that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger,” he said. Iceland sits on a volcanic hotspot in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and has relatively frequent eruptions, though most happen in sparsely populated areas and pose little danger to people or property. added by: ctv
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Tagged atlantic-ridge, celeb news, country, current, europe, glacier, horses, meteorological, nature, News, police, weather
A mysterious light the sky shocked residents in northern Norway on Wednesday morning. Norwegian Meteorological Institute is experiencing telephone storm. “It spun and exploded in the sky” added by: cadex 31 comments
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What caused this weird spiral of light in the Norway sky?
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