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Mickey Mouse Horror Films Announced as Copyright Expires
I'm sure that Toho is hard at work on the script of Godzilla vs. Mickey, too...Oh boy! Barely 24 hours after Disney's initial copyright on Mickey Mouse expired, two new indie horror films starring the beloved character have been announced.
"Steamboat Willie," the first Disney movie to feature Mickey, entered the public domain under US law on Monday, 95 years on from its initial release.
That means anyone is now free to copy, share, reuse and adapt the primitive, early versions of the characters that appear within the film, including Mickey and his girlfriend Minnie.
Despite warnings from Disney that it would seek to safeguard its most iconic character, opportunistic filmmakers had been expected to quickly announce their own unofficial remakes and adaptations -- and they did not disappoint.
"Mickey's Mouse Trap" will feature a masked killer dressed as Mickey stalking a group of young friends through an amusement arcade, while another untitled horror-comedy sees a sadistic mouse tormenting unsuspecting ferry passengers.
"We just wanted to have fun with it all," said "Mickey's Mouse Trap" director Jamie Bailey, in a trailer posted on YouTube.
"I mean it's Steamboat Willie's Mickey Mouse murdering people. It's ridiculous. We ran with it and had fun doing it and I think it shows."
The low-budget horror-comedy is expected to launch in March.
Meanwhile filmmaker Steven LaMorte -- known for "The Mean One," a 2022 slasher romp inspired by The Grinch -- is working on his own "twisted take" on Mickey.
"'Steamboat Willie' has brought joy to generations, but beneath that cheerful exterior lies a potential for pure, unhinged terror," he said in a press release.
Production on the untitled film is due to begin this spring.
Both projects are reminiscent of "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey," a micro-budget slasher film that drew headlines last year after the copyright on the first A.A. Milne books expired.
Analysts say Disney will be watching closely, and is likely to send in the lawyers if anyone oversteps.
Only the earliest, black-and-white version of Mickey is in the public domain -- not the colorful character from later Disney films like "Fantasia."
And trademark protections mean that any film or product that could mislead consumers into thinking it was made by Disney could be liable.
"We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright, and we will work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters," said a Disney statement.
But LaMorte told Variety he was not concerned.
"We are doing our due diligence to make sure there's no question or confusion of what we're up to," he said.
"This is our version of a public domain character."Leave a comment:
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There was a brief fashion for ram-raiding (as the media named the practice at the time) ATMs and stores with small, high value goods, e.g. jewelry stores, in Britain in the late '90s and early '00s. Its legacy was reinforced bollards sprouting up in front of them, which probably remain to this day.
Obituary
Maureen Sweeney, Irish postmistress who reported the 1944 storm that delayed D-Day – obituary
She did not know the data she sent from Europe’s most westerly weather station went straight to the Allies – even though Ireland was neutral
Maureen Sweeney, who has died aged 100, was a postmistress on the west coast of Ireland who supplied the weather reports of a storm in the Atlantic that persuaded Eisenhower to delay D-Day by 24 hours.
The Blacksod lighthouse-cum-post office, on the wind-battered Mullet peninsula in County Mayo, was Europe’s most westerly weather observation station. Every hour, day and night, reports had to be collected on barometric pressure, wind speed, temperature, precipitation, water vapour and other variables, using rudimentary instruments, by the assistant postmistress Maureen Flavin (as she then was); her future husband, Ted Sweeney, the lighthousekeeper; his mother, the postmistress; and his sister. Their reports were then transmitted over crackling telephone line to Ballina, Co Mayo, then to the Irish Meteorological Service in Dublin.
What they did not know was that, although Ireland was ostensibly neutral, the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, was sharing weather intelligence with the Allies, but not the Nazis. (With a similar sleight of hand, the Irish government had ordered huge stone signs saying “Éire” to be erected on the Irish coastline to ward off belligerent aircraft; each sign had a special number, which in fact made them invaluable for navigation, but these numbers were only supplied to the Allies.)
From Dublin, the Blacksod reports were passed to the UK Met Office in Dunstable and the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force, under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower. By the start of June 1944, around 5,000 ships, 11,000 aircraft and 156,000 Allied troops were assembled for the invasion of Normandy. D-Day was set for June 5, when the full moon and tides were favourable for seaborne and airborne landings.
By June 2, D-Day minus three, the American meteorologists were optimistic about a ridge of high pressure, but the Brits were “unmitigatedly pessimistic”, according to Group Captain James Stagg, Operation Overlord’s Chief Meteorological Officer. Although the RAF, the Royal Navy and United States Army Air Force had meteorologists reporting from various stations, and from weather ships in the Atlantic, the Blacksod reports – where the storms would first hit land – were keenly awaited as a significant piece in the puzzle.
At 1am on June 3 1944, her 21st birthday, Maureen Flavin was on duty when she noticed a sharp drop in the barometer, and force-six winds. She woke the more experienced Sweeney, who confirmed her readings, then transmitted her report. At 11am, a woman with an English accent rang, and asked: “Please check. Please repeat.” Two hours later, she rang back and asked them to double check again.
They checked and rechecked, but the figures remained the same. Stagg drew the conclusion that gale-force winds, low cloud and rain would still be affecting the English Channel at dawn on June 5, when 130,000 amphibious troops would be on the move, and advised Eisenhower to postpone the invasion.
If the June window of moon and tide were missed, the invasion would have to wait another month – a scenario “too bitter to contemplate,” as Eisenhower put it, since Rommel was urging for more Panzer divisions to be diverted from Calais to Normandy, to fortify that coast. But Eisenhower did postpone the invasion, thereby averting disaster. The prophesied storm struck, and a jubilant Rommel, confident that no landing could be made, returned to Germany for his wife’s birthday.
On June 4, oblivious to the havoc her reports were causing, Maureen Flavin began to see the pressure-drop easing. At noon, Ted Sweeney reported that the rain had stopped.
The next day, at Eisenhower’s morning briefing, a cheer was raised by the latest Blacksod report, confirming a window of fair weather – of which the Germans, who had no weather boats west of Ireland, were unaware. The next day, the Allied invasion of Europe went ahead.
It was not until 1956 that Maureen Flavin learnt how momentous her work had been.
She was born on June 3 1923 in Knockanure, north Kerry. Aged 20, she applied to be assistant postmistress at Blacksod, two and a half days’ journey away. It was only when she arrived that she realised she would have to do meteorological work, but “you fell into it automatically,” she said.
She didn’t enjoy the night duty, in case the Germans invaded. Once, she and Ted Sweeney saw a submarine surface, but they never knew if it had been German or British.
Maureen Sweeney was the subject of the 2019 RTE documentary Storm Front in Mayo, later broadcast in America as Three Days in June. In 2021, she was given a special honour from the US House of Representatives.
In 1946, she married Ted Sweeney, and eventually took over from her mother-in-law as postmistress, only retiring in the 2000s. Ted was succeeded as lighthousekeeper by their son, Vincent.
Maureen Sweeney, born June 3 1923, died December 17 2023Leave a comment:
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burstall-credit-union-break-in.jpg
I'd like to make a withdrawal?
Someone stole a loader and drove it into the Burstall Credit Union building to steal the ATM yesterday.
And have (so far) gotten away with it.)
(Burstall is a tiny little Saskatchewan town near the Alberta border.)Leave a comment:
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I remember reading a story some years ago about a wino who fell asleep on a London tube train late at night, and no-one spotted him when it got to the end of the line. The driver shut the train down, got off, clocked off, and went home, leaving it parked at a platform at the terminus station. A couple of hours later, the wino woke up, went into the driver's cab, and tried to start the train up and drive it back to the station he'd intended to get off at in the first place. He managed to drive it a considerable distance before automatic signalling equipment detected that there was something wrong, and stopped it.Leave a comment:
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https://www.ocregister.com/2023/11/0...ail-in-orange/
I find it amazing that nobody would check a jail waiting room. I figured every inch of a jail would be either monitored or patrolled on a regular basis. Silly me, I guess.By Tony Saavedra | tsaavedra@scng.com | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: November 9, 2023 at 11:19 a.m. | UPDATED: November 13, 2023 at 9:28 a.m.
A woman attempting to visit an inmate last weekend at the Theo Lacy detention facility in Orange was inadvertently locked overnight in a jail visiting area, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed.
Sheriff’s officials did not disclose the identity of the woman, who was described only as being in her 30s.
The woman was at the maximum-security jail to visit an inmate on Saturday and was directed to a public visiting area for the barracks section of the facility, confirmed sheriff’s spokesperson Carrie Braun.
Braun said the inmate the woman wanted to see was unavailable and she fell asleep in a visiting booth while waiting. No one noticed the woman when the area was closed at 5 p.m. She was not discovered until the area was reopened the next morning at 8 a.m.
Braun said the woman was immediately treated for a laceration to her hand, but she would not disclose how the woman sustained the cut.
Security cameras inside the waiting area can only be monitored from the guard station inside the room, which was not manned overnight, Braun said. There is no phone inside the visiting waiting area. The woman was not allowed by state law to bring her cellphone into the jail.
The woman was in an area not freely accessible to inmates.
An internal investigation is underway to determine how the woman was locked inside and whether any procedures or policies need to be changed, Braun said. One immediate change has already been made — a supervisor must check the area at least once during overnight hours.
Additionally, an emergency phone will be installed in the waiting area.
“This unfortunate incident should never have occurred,” Braun said. “The department is committed to fully investigate and ensure this never happens again.”
Theo Lacy has a maximum capacity of 3,442 inmates, according to the sheriff’s website.Leave a comment:
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Tesla's and I imagine other well designed (notice I didn't say well built) electric vehicles have heaters in the battery cases. They are mainly to extend the range of the vehicle on cold days and nothing more...Leave a comment:
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Especially if you crank it up to11...
Being moderately serious for a moment, it would likely deliver intense, localized heat to one spot on the battery casing, which I'm guessing is what set it off. I haven't used a European-style popup toaster since moving to the US (my wife prefers toaster ovens), but my vague memory of them is that they pull hundreds of watts at least, and possibly heading into kilowatts. If all that heat is being applied to one 5" square spot under the car, a tiny part of the battery pack is going to cook, while the rest of it remains below freezing (until it ignites!). If he'd put, say, an electric blanket under there, he'd likely have gotten away with it - other than that the power that would have cost him would likely be an order of magnitude more than that needed to drive the EV with a cold battery.Leave a comment:
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Sticking with the theme of electric vehicles, I think I may have found the first documented case of somebody using one in an attempt to secure a Darwin Award nomination.
Man Burns His EV To The Ground Trying To Warm The Battery With A Toaster
Danish Police say they "strongly discourage" this practice.
By Bradley Brownell ; Published 12 hours ago
A Danish EV driver faces a hefty fine for negligent actions that led to the destruction of their own car and damage to their own home. On Saturday, in order to combat the below-freezing overnight lows in Stenlille, Denmark—about 40 miles from Copenhagen—and keep their electric car’s battery warm, the homeowner placed a toaster underneath the car and cranked the knob to eleven. Sometimes you have to think through your ideas once or twice before acting on them.
Danish police confirm nobody was injured in the resulting fire, though the EV was fully consumed by the blaze. The car was parked in a carport attached to the home at the time, and both structures were damaged. Some reports of the incident indicate a neighbor’s home was also damaged.
“The cause of the fire is most likely to be found in the toaster that the owner of the car had placed under the front of his car to keep the battery warm,” police said on Monday.
While many of the detractors of electric vehicles like to point and laugh at every EV that burns down, it’s important to note that car fires are far more prevalent than you think. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, some 117,000 passenger vehicles catch fire every year, almost one every five minutes, and that’s just in the U.S. The data out of Sweden, where EVs are extremely prevalent, seems to indicate that electric cars are actually much less likely to catch on fire than gasoline cars. Of the country’s 3,400 vehicle fires, just 0.4 percent were electric vehicles.
There’s no indication of the make or model of the Danish EV that died by toaster, but statistically speaking it probably wouldn’t have burned down had it not been for the incorrectly used small appliances. While EVs do work better with warm batteries, it just isn’t worth the risk to try warming them with anything other than parking them in a garage. The battery will still function cold, albeit with reduced range.
Most modern EVs have a battery pre-warming function, which will help with range in the cold. The best practice is just to keep the car plugged in on the coldest nights. If your EV has phone app, you can just crank up the heat 30 minutes before you need to leave, and it’ll not only warm itself, but give you a nice cozy interior to walk out to in the morning. That’s a win-win.Leave a comment:
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Go get 'im Flash! Heh heh heh....
635640003901237718-635639993342552916-JAMES-BEST-DUKES-OF-HAZZARD_2679388_ver1.0.resized.jpgLeave a comment:
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Tesla Briefly Serves as Plane Before Crashing Into California House
dc8519643079b627b65176cb416fb20d.webpYou don’t usually expect much to happen at 7:00 a.m. in a quiet suburb in California, but last Friday, the driver of a Tesla Model X surprised everyone when she lost control of her car and drove it into a house.
After losing control, the driver hit a curb, drove through a yard, hit two parked cars, smashed through a fence and sailed over a swimming pool before crashing into the kitchen, SFGATE reports.
Thankfully, no one was in the kitchen at the time of the crash, and neither the driver nor her daughter who was in the passenger seat, were seriously injured. Exactly what caused the 70-year-old driver to lose control has yet to be determined, but it sounds like they were traveling extremely fast, with Jerami Surratt, a public information officer for the San Mateo Police Department, telling reporters the car “probably flew 40 to 50 feet through the air, allowing it to clear the swimming pool.”
Surratt also said the car was moving downhill, and the driver was not using Tesla’s so-called Full Self-Driving mode, which is not actually fully autonomous despite the name suggesting that it is. “There were witnesses in the neighborhood that saw the Tesla slow down to a stop and accelerate very quickly, but exactly what happened is still under investigation,” he said.
“Honestly just amazed that no one was hurt… if my mother was in the house, she would absolutely have been drinking her tea at 7 a.m. in the kitchen,” the homeowner’s daughter Meredith Donato told KTVU. “There’s obviously property damage, but at the end of the day it’s just stuff.”
Resident Sean Carmichael also told KTVU that a similar crash happened about 25 years ago on that exact street, adding “Maybe it’s time to put some speed bumps down this road now.”
Photo: San Mateo Police Department
Whoever wrote the "briefly serves as plane" headline clearly wasn't around in the 1980s, when either Knight Rider or The Dukes of Hazzard would have provided ample inspiration for a flying car headline! That having been said, naming a Tesla after General Lee wouldn't exactly fit with its eco-friendly, PC credentials. I can think of some alternatives, but would likely violate the no politics rule if I went too far down that road. Bo and Luke climbing through the windows into the Greta Thunberg doesn't really work, somehow...Leave a comment:
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Well, this certainly livened things up at an old folks' home:
Given the bow and arrow, I wonder if he was performing a scene from Rossini's William Tell?Naked opera singer armed with bow and arrow went on rampage at care home
Police had to taser Mark Holland three times during a stand-off at Belmar Nursing Home in Lancashire
By Telegraph Reporters 30 October 2023 • 8:40pm
A naked opera singer armed with a bow and arrow was tasered by police after causing £3,000 of damage to a care home, a court heard.
Staff called 999 when Mark Holland went on a “rampage” after being told that he would not be allowed to leave the care home to go shopping, Blackpool Magistrates’ Court heard.
Belmar Nursing Home in in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, went into lockdown on Oct 2 during the stand-off. Other residents were evacuated from common rooms and taken to the cellar as Holland went on a wrecking spree.
The court heard that Holland, 63, was only stopped after he was struck three times with a Taser fired by police.
The retired opera singer, was a voluntary resident at the home after suffering health problems and was normally allowed his freedom, the court heard. However, he “flipped” after home bosses feared he had been drinking too much and told him he must remain indoors.
Pam Smith, prosecuting, said Holland suddenly broke out into song and appeared from his room naked. He threatened staff, who rang police and evacuated residents to safe areas when he re-appeared from his room wielding a bow and metal-tipped arrows.
The court heard he caused £2,800 of damage when he broke doors, set off fire extinguishers and threw concrete blocks at a visitor’s car.
In a statement read to the court, Pc Nicole Bennett said the incident “escalated quickly” and police brought in a trained negotiator because they feared Holland would take a hostage.
“He then confronted myself and three other officers with a large bow and arrow. I had never faced this level of threat before. He was preparing to shoot an arrow and had taken direct aim at us,” she said.
It was at this point that she and her colleagues retaliated with Tasers. Holland was tasered three times before retreating back to his room. Police then broke into the room and handcuffed him.
Katie Bent, a member of staff, said in a statement: “He was on the rampage and we had to move all the residents apart from the end-of-life patient who could not be moved.”
Trevor Colebourne, defending, said his client had been at the Belmar for some time and staff were aware he had the bow and arrow in his possession. He said they had even played with the bow and arrow when cleaning his room.
He added that Holland’s mother had died a short time before the incident and he had been depressed, saying: “He has had a fine career as a renowned baritone and has appeared worldwide, as well as starring in the West End. He comes from a good background with family in Hertfordshire.
“Since his arrest, he has been in prison custody. Both he and his family feel he is getting help there.”
District Judge Richard Thompson heard that the arrow Holland had shot towards police only went a few feet because the bow’s string broke.
Sentencing Holland to six months in prison, he told him: “This a sad situation. As an educated man, you lost control and caused fear with that weapon.”
Holland, who had just received a £110,000 inheritance, was ordered to pay £2,800 to the home, £250 compensation to the car owner and £250 each in compensation to staff involved in the evacuation of residents.
More seriously, 63 seems pretty young to be in a care home. If the cops had to taze him three times, there can't have been much wrong with his physical health.Leave a comment:
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From the New York Post:
A man in the Deep South got puffyMan in ‘rocking’ car was ‘having sex with a stuffed animal’: cops
By Yaron Steinbuch
Published Oct. 18, 2023, 8:37 a.m. ET
A 55-year-old Arkansas man was discovered in a compromising position in a “rocking” car – allegedly “having sex with a stuffed animal.”
A deputy with the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office arrived at Midway Store and Lock, a commercial storage facility, at about 12:45 a.m. Oct. 8 to investigate the swaying vehicle, KAIT 8 reported.
“He stated that he observed that the vehicle was ‘rocking,’” an arrest affidavit stated.
When the deputy peered inside, he observed Theodore T. Morgavan III “having sex with a stuffed animal,” according to the document.
The sheriff’s office did not give any detail about what kind of animal it was.
The deputy then found a purse containing “two marijuana pipes and one syringe” during a search of the car, while another deputy later found about 3 grams of methamphetamine in the purse, the news outlet reported.
Morgavan III was hit with numerous charges, including possession of a controlled substance — and public sexual indecency.
He pleaded not guilty at his court appearance on Monday.
The judge set Morgavan’s bond at $5,000 and he is due back in court on Oct. 30.
attempting to bugger a stuffy.
He did the vile deed
after smoking some weed,
and his private parts got rather fluffy.Leave a comment:
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