Cam

It's long been a quandary for researchers and wildlife enthusiasts: How can they observe sensitive species without displacing or disturbing them? Remote cameras have solved the problem, and in some case web cams have created Internet stars of pandas munching on bamboo. Beginning this week, two of California's endangered bird species -- the western snowy plover and the California least tern - will get their shot at stardom.  The birds can be observed via a nest-cam at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach.

It's long been a quandary for researchers and wildlife enthusiasts: How can they observe sensitive species without displacing or disturbing them? Remote cameras have solved the problem, and in some case web cams have created Internet stars of pandas munching on bamboo. Beginning this week, two of California's endangered bird species -- the western snowy plover and the California least tern - will get their shot at stardom.  The birds can be observed via a nest-cam at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach.

Another season, another press release from a pest-control association warning us that bedbugs are baaack in the United States! (We can’t think what they have to stand to gain by reminding us of this.)  Bedbugs are more common than they used to be: Read this L.A. Times article about bedbugs   from 2007, for example. That article quotes a fellow from the National Pest Management Assn., the same organization that just saw fit to alert the press today. And here’s another article we ran on the topic, last year—about bedbug-sniffing dogs , of all things.

It's a boy for actor Cam Gigandet! The "Twilight" baddie and his fianceé Dominique Geisendorff welcomed their second child on Jan. 23, his rep confirmed the news to Just Jared on Wednesday. "All are happy and healthy," the rep said . PHOTOS: The Hollywood baby boom The baby's name: Rekker Radley Gigandet. Try saying that three times fast! The little guy weighed in at a hefty 9.9 pounds. Gigandet and Geisendorff have a 3-year-old daughter named Everleigh together.

Let's do it again, this time with Favre-Cam. Yes, Fox will have a camera dedicated to catching Brett Favre every minute, all game long on Sunday. The first time the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers met this season was on a Monday night and was pumped up (as if it needed to be) by the effective hype of ESPN and its cast of thousands. It was, of course, a hit with viewers. This time the game is on Sunday afternoon, on Fox and it's in Green Bay. So there's a little less manufactured hype (well, except for the Favre-Cam)

Midway through nearly every Lakers game at Staples Center, in a manner so pure and unscripted we sometimes cry out in wonder, it happens. It's about twisting, spinning, lunging, stretching, feinting, grabbing, clutching and, ultimately, scoring. It's about kissing. Strip me of my fedora and cigar, but I'm puckering up today for what can be the most vibrant, humorous and even compelling part of a Lakers home game. All praise the Kiss Cam, a promotional gimmick that, when practiced in a darkened Staples Center for an energetic Lakers crowd, becomes a two-minute glimpse into a city's soul.

SERIES Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: The rock band KISS joins Ty Pennington and his team as they rebuild a home for former college sweethearts who have enriched their community by starting a music school to provide services even for those who are disabled or have financial disadvantages (8 p.m. ABC). The Simpsons: Lisa (Yeardley Smith) discovers that her Southern ancestors once helped a slave named Virgil (Wren T. Brown) escape to freedom, a family saga she presents during Black History Month in a new episode of the animated series (8 p.m. Fox)

You've got to hand it to the technological wizards at ABC in their NBA debut. The sky-cam showed everybody what it's like to have a bad seat at Staples Center and the floor-cam showed what it would be like to sit under Jack Nicholson's seat. Alan Matis Sherman Oaks Why can't Staples Center reserve one luxury box for all the celebrities in attendance? It's difficult and distracting to watch the game when celebrities are popping up all over the arena. Fran Rivers Bradley

I believe there was an error in "Recording Your Travel Experiences for the VCR" (Oct. 13). Reference to the new, smaller viedeotape casette used in the compact cam-corders should read "8 millimeter" and not 16 millimeter. The cam-corder tape is about the width of 8 millimeter movie film, and the popular Beta and VHS VCR casette half-inch tape is slightly wider than 16 millimeter movie film. I enjoyed reading the subject of photography in the Travel Section. DONALD W. NESBIT Tehachapi

Percentage change (1986 to 1987) in retail purchases of: Videocassette recorders -0.5% Projection color televisions -7.8% Color televisions with built-in stereo decoding +29.1% Video "cam-corders" +49.2% Source: Electronic Industries Assoc. Year-to-date movie box-office receipts: 1985 $1,926,700,000 1986 $1,724,800,000 1987 $2,010,700,000 Source: Variety

"Mr. Orr, this is the White House operator. " As a White House spokesman, I received phone calls like this all the time. But this was the first time the president's secretary had ordered me to report to the Oval Office immediately. Before 7 a.m. on a Saturday. It was December 2003. Iraq was all over the news. We were closing in on the capture of Saddam Hussein. But - and the nation should be thankful - this wasn't my domain. President George W. Bush had another reason for calling for me now. Barney Cam. How it happened Whenever I'm asked to speak about my tenure in the White House, the conversation always shifts to Barney, the Scottish terrier whom the president regarded as the son he never had. After Barney died Friday at age 12, I found myself thinking about how he became an Internet sensation.

Things promise to get ruff Sunday as Animal Planet's "Puppy Bowl IX" goes snout-to-helmet with the Super Bowl for ratings gold. Last year the show, which pits pound puppies against one another in a dangerously cute game of faux football using chew toys, set records for the basic cable outlet, with 8.7 million total viewers during the 12 hours it aired. True, that's nowhere near the more than 100 million viewers the Super Bowl tackles each year, but for a day when most television channels throw in the towel and admit defeat, it's pretty good.

NEW ORLEANS - The San Francisco 49ers made a dramatic move with the midseason quarterback switch from Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick . But the Baltimore Ravens made an equally drastic adjustment, changing offensive coordinators from Cam Cameron to Jim Caldwell on Dec. 10. The switch to Caldwell, the former Indianapolis coach, is among the bigger story lines of Super Bowl XLVII. "[Coach] John Harbaugh and I were sounding boards for each other," Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome said of the coordinator change.

You know the Kiss Cam? That harmless bit many sporting events run between innings or during timeouts, in which a camera operator finds couples sitting in the stands and puts them on the big video screen, trying to get them to kiss? It's a little annoying, but harmless. All in good fun. Unless you are Chris Wilcox. The Boston Celtics center was minding his own business, sitting on the bench during a game against the 76ers in Philadelphia on Friday night when the Kiss Cam operator decided to put him on screen.

Hey kids: Newton-ing and Tebow-ing will get you in trouble. A high school quarterback from Charlotte, N.C., was ejected from a state playoff game last Friday after he imitated Cam Newton's touchdown celebration by pretending to rip open his jersey, Superman-like, after a scoring run. Game officials determined that Jalan McClendon's act was unsportsmanlike and sent him to the sideline. But Newton apparently thought that the punishment was a bit harsh, the Associated Press reported.  "Taunting is taunting, but at the end of the day, you still have to have fun playing the game," Newton said.

Cam Newton faced plenty of questions about his playing ability and character coming out of college before last season. The Carolina Panthers quarterback seemed to silence all the critics with a stellar rookie season that featured no off-field incidents last year. But this year, he and the Panthers are struggling on the field. And some questionable comments following Sunday's loss to the Dallas Cowboys (see part of them on the video above and part here ) - including several that seem to be throwing offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski under the bus and another in which Howard refers to a female reporter as "sweetheart" - have raised some eyebrows.

Prime Computer, a leading miniomputer manufacturer, said Sunday that it has made an unsolicited offer to buy Computervision for about $390 million in cash. Prime, based in Natick, Mass., said it offered $13.50 for each of Computervision's 29 million outstanding shares. Stock in Computervision, a Bedford, Mass., concern that manufactures computer aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems, closed Thursday at $9 a share.

Although it shares industrial DNA with "Entourage" -- some executive producers, a network -- and concerns young men who go to parties and clubs, "How to Make It in America," premiering Sunday on HBO, is a different kettle of testosterone. There is more estrogen in the mix, for one thing. As the title suggests, success is something that will come to its characters after a time. Vincent Chase and his Hollywood pals might be high-fiving or fist-bumping or whatever it is the kids do now over the luxurious goods and services that adorn their celebrity, but it only takes a couple of cafes con leche to make Cam (Victor Rasuk)

Cam Newton laid a giant egg on national TV on Thursday night. That can't be debated. The Carolina Panthers quarterback and reigning NFL rookie of the year threw three interceptions and finished with a career-low passer rating of 40.6 in a 36-7 loss to the New York Giants in his prime-time debut. But it could have been worse for Newton. He completed 53% of his passes (16 of 30), which isn't great but is better than three of his outings during his much-heralded season a year ago. He also compiled 242 passing yards, which tops nine of his efforts from last season.

WASHINGTON -- The capital region's newest celebrity is no bigger than a stick of butter. The National Zoo's female giant panda gave birth Sunday night, generating panda-monium in a city that has adored the rare creatures since the first pandas arrived in the wake of President Richard Nixon's 1972 groundbreaking trip to Beijing. Zoo officials think they caught a glimpse, via panda cam, of the unnamed cub being clutched tightly by its mother, Mei Xiang (pronounced may-SHONG), but got confirmation of its arrival via loud squealing.