Mt saint helens is broken. fortunately the press has realized this remarkably quickly, and thankfully no longer considers every little steam burp newsworthy.

Posted by: gmangw at December 14, 2005 12:35 AM

Mt. St. Helens is not broken; the intelligent designer her created her is. Why would you make mountains that blow up?

Posted by: Mac at December 14, 2005 08:10 AM

This isn't totally broken. It's just a bug.

;)

Posted by: Greg Raiz at December 14, 2005 08:11 AM

Was that really necessary, Greg?

Posted by: Frauline G at December 14, 2005 08:50 AM

I'm glad the fly is too close for the camera to focus on it. I really wouldn't want to see a fly in detail that closely... ew.

Posted by: Chaos at December 14, 2005 09:24 AM

Haha, that's pretty funny.

Posted by: Brooke Browne at December 14, 2005 09:54 AM

Anyone notice the date?? This must have been a conspiracy. The fly is blocking our view of the terrorists planting anthrax in the the volcano. Beware!!

Posted by: bubba at December 14, 2005 10:55 AM

that fly is a robot made by the terrorists

Posted by: riblet15 at December 14, 2005 11:44 AM

Ok, this was on Fark, Slashdot, Boingboing, and pretty much every other blog on the internet about 9 months ago. If you're going to be doing the "blogosphere" thang, try to be prompt about it, huh? :)

And to make things worse, he didn't even use the best picture! (This one is the most clear; but there's another frame where it actually looks like the fly is standing atop the mountain itself. In this image, it's obvious the fly is on the lens.)

Posted by: James Schend at December 14, 2005 12:09 PM

James:

How could it have been there nine months ago when the date on the photo is from september?

Posted by: Chaos at December 14, 2005 02:29 PM

Whats broken is the network

For Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Network Update @ 8:06 am PST - There is an unknown network failure preventing images from the VolcanoCam from reaching the main Forest Service web server. Stay tuned for any updates. We apologize for the inconvenience.

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/

or did we jinx it?

-JM

Posted by: J Masters at December 14, 2005 02:55 PM

James Schend and Chaos, FYI the above picture is a new "mutant fly," notice the old pics in the Archive part of the website are actually a year older and those were the images transmitted throughout the blogosphere.

Seems like someone should provide the address of the Volcanocam:

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/

BTW, it was broken earlier today as J Masters pointed out but it is back up now. There is something over the west flank of the crater that might be a streak on the lens or might be the leg of the mutant fly.

One thing slightly broken is that a few months ago they zoomed it in on the crater, maybe to match the "old" volcanocam. I liked the wide shot better.

Posted by: Pat at December 14, 2005 03:48 PM

Oh, duh, JM did provide the web address. Looks like I need to be reported to the Department of Redundancy Department.

Posted by: Pat at December 14, 2005 03:50 PM

you guys have completely missed the boat. this is not broken...

in an attempt to study flies, a genius set this camera up knowing that flies are anoying. he then pretended that it was for observing volcanos - he did this because flies are very hard to catch... hard to catch in hand and on film. so, of course the fly comes and lands on the lens trying to anoy the "volcano observer" falling right into the fly scientist's plan. ah! he's caught on film...

not broken...

Posted by: fly guy at December 14, 2005 07:52 PM

It's not a bug, it's a feature!

Posted by: Fayth at December 14, 2005 10:52 PM

my fingers are heavy...

Posted by: tom at December 15, 2005 12:17 AM

How did the fly get up that high? Like, where is the cam at? Is it resting? Is there enough oxygen for it?

BROKEN.

Posted by: Jim at April 10, 2006 06:08 PM