The University of Maine Lobster Institute is getting a lot of well-deserved international notice for its Lobster Cam, which provides live worldwide coverage via the Internet of a pair of crustaceans in a trap off Spruce Head. There is one hitch — the light doesn’t work, so pictures can be viewed only during the daytime. Researchers think the bulb burned out. We think the celebrity couple just wants a little privacy.

More than 25 new state fishing and hunting regulations take effect Sept. 18, some aimed at cleaning up old laws now considered outdated. One eliminates a ban on using helicopters to transport fishermen to small, remote ponds. The original law was enacted to prevent “pond-hopping.” It worked, so apparently it’s time to repeal it.

The American Banking Association, leaving no brimstone unturned in its quest to allay Y2K panic, has composed a calming sermon it hopes the nation’s clergy will deliver as the new year approaches. The clergy is giving it lukewarm welcome — although written in a light, folksy style and full of worthy appeals to the public’ s better instincts, they just aren’t buying the idea that Moses had strong views about the fiduciary solvency of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The General Accounting Office is scolding the Navy again, this time for failing to bill foreign customers for some $582 million in delivered goods and services. For example, the GAO says the Navy provided $1.1 million in support services for the Canadian Navy’s shipboard launch and command system, but only charged Ottawa $18,507. It’s unclear whether that was at par.

After veterinary science was unable to explain why he was losing 10 to 15 head a year to mysterious death, Sabbatus cattleman Leon Hinkley began mounting the heads of butchered livestock on fenceposts — to ward of evil spirits, he says — and it worked. Not only are his cows living longer, but there has been a marked improvement in barnyard conduct.