The San Francisco Citizen

A stealthy U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin / Boeing F-22A Raptor fighter out of Elmendorf Air Force Base intercepts an extremely unstealthy Russian Tu-95 Bear bomber near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Thanksgiving Day, 2007. (This photo was not released at that time.)

Under the serious moonlight, click to expand:

The pricey Raptor program ($138 million each) had a few teething problems last year. One of which was a computer failure affecting multiple aircraft brought about by merely flying over the International Date Line.

Per Maj. Gen. Don Sheppard: 

At the international date line, whoops, all systems dumped and when I say all systems, I mean all systems, their navigation, part of their communications, their fuel systems. They were—they could have been in real trouble.

Them computers.

Guess what. Smokey the Bear is back, baby. And he’s all bear. Smokey recently came to San Francisco’s City Hall to show off his new look.

Kind of a gender bending ad campaign, you might think. Check the video if you want. CGI S.B. is now voiced by Sam Elliot, sort of.

What would you make of this scene?

Feel free to check things out. The Bear is Back, after all.

The problem with this new Poochie-esque makeover of shirtless Smokey is that, at least in San Francisco, this is a bear:

via markjhandel’s flickrstream

But if the new half Fonzerelli/half Smoking Joe Camel Smokey doesn’t do it for you, there’s always the national Real Time Wildfire Map to look at. It’s kind of cool.

And your kids might like this. Stay safe this summer!