Ferrari F430 Spider Bio Fuel

Think that the world’s greatest high-performance automakers aren’t thinking green? Think again. Even the mighty Ferrari has come up with a model that provides improved fuel economy and reduced emissions. Its moniker, the F430 Spider Bio Fuel, gives it away -- as the F430 droptop’s 4.3-liter V-8 is set up to run on E85 (a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline).

Not only does the Bio Fuel F430, still considered a concept, bring a 5% fuel economy improvement over its gasoline counterpart, but the use of ethanol also increases engine output by about 10 horsepower. (Well, let’s face it: This is a Ferrari we’re talking about, after all.)
(Carlos Osorio/ AP)

Saturn Flextreme

The star of General Motors' new E-Flex hybrid system is the Flextreme concept, which was co-developed by GM’s Saturn and Opel brand engineering teams. The E-Flex unit uses lithium-ion batteries hooked to a 1.3-liter turbo-diesel engine as a range extender.

The result is a versatile small utility employing conventional front, right-hinged rear and gull-wing cargo doors while delivering about 34 miles of all-electric driving with zero emissions. Flextreme is just one of several GM hybrid systems vying for production consideration in the next three years.
(Rob Widdis / EPA)

A Bat Outta Toyota

Bringing a much-needed rethink to the left-for-dead small pickup segment is the A-BAT concept, a hybrid-powered mini-truck design exercise from Toyota. The A-BAT -- for advanced breakthrough aero truck -- looks something like a downsized Honda Ridgeline from outer space. The unibody design features a 4-foot bed that can be expanded to a 6-footer by dropping the midgate, as well as a handy pullout underbed drawer.

Although some may consider Toyota’s concept too much of a stretch for production, there’s something to be said for a small, light hauler that combines hybrid fuel economy with expressive styling and the utility of a Swiss Army knife.
(Bernd Weissbrod / EPA)

Toronto's Smallest House is Up for Sale!

This house, located near the intersection of Dufferin Street and Rogers
Road is believed to be Toronto's smallest house. Occupying what used to be
a driveway, it's a one-bedroom, one-bathroom house that sits on a parcel of
land 7.25 feet (2.2 metres) wide and 113.67 feet (34.6 metres) long and has
an interior area of just under 300 square feet (under 28 square metres).
The asking price is $179,900.!!!!

Here's my nomination for the best "It seemed like a good idea at the time" award

Irving Penn portraits on display at Morgan Library & Museum

More than 60 of the most famous faces in the world will hang out at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York this winter.

Pablo Picasso (above), Truman Capote, Janis Joplin and dozens of others populate "Close Encounters: Irving Penn's Portraits of Artists and Writers," a retrospective of the photographer's career that opens Friday.

Penn, 90, whose work has appeared in Vogue magazine and elsewhere, is known for his incisive, spare portraits. The master artist, Picasso (1957), peers at the camera out of one eye. The show, which spans six decades, runs though April 13. (212) 685-0008, www.themorgan.org.

Woody Allen as Chaplin, 1972

Mile-High Luxury

The Ritz-Carlton in Denver offers more than 200 rooms and a restaurant named after NFL great John Elway. After a $75 million renovation the downtown Ritz offers 400-thread-count Frette linens and Bulgari bath items. Rates start at $249 and the Ritz maintains a Rolls-Royce Phantom to ferry guests around downtown free. We would expect no less.
(Ritz-Carlton)

India unveils world's cheapest car

The Nano is unveiled in New Delhi to much excitement. The four-seater is priced around $2,500 -- about half the price of the world's cheapest car.

Here's what $35 MILLION buys today

Suzane Somers' mountainside home in Palm Springs, dating to the 1920s, is reached by way of a private funicular railway. The estate has 10 bedrooms, nine bathrooms and three half-baths in multiple structures. It is on the market for $35 million.
Somers' estate consists of a French-style stone house, an Albert Frey-designed guesthouse, other "no-two-are alike" guest cottages, an amphitheater, an 80-year-old renovated lap pool, a carousel and Coachella Valley views.
(David Blank)

Al Hirschfeld will be long remembered

Artist Al Hirschfeld created the most recognizable caricatures in the world. Mr. Hirschfeld died in his sleep at age 99 in 2003. Mr. Hirschfeld covered the world of theater for nearly 70 years. His work is immediately recognizable to anyone who has been alive in the last century. Mr. Hirschfeld�s pen and ink drawings usually held a hidden word "NINA" for his daughter. Mr. Hirschfeld was the subject of a 1996 documentary "The Line King: Al Hirschfeld." He also appeared as himself in several other documentaries including "Marlene: Inventing Dietrich," "The Tramp and the Dictator" and "Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There." Mr. Hirschfeld was also an artistic consultant on the updated "Fantasia: 2000."

Here's the new home of the New York Times . . .

. . . in 1922.

The Bee Gees were the Best at what they did

We thought they would go on forever but in 2003 Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees died at age 53.
They brought so much joy to the world. They never cooled down and we'll never be able "to mend our broken hearts."
The Bee Gees in younger days.

He had this love for Alaska and the Yukon

On Jan. 12 , 1876, Jack London , the American author best known for his novel "The Call of the Wild" , was born. He died on Nov. 22 , 1916.

Technology Controls Our Lives

The prospect of autopilot in automobiles has been with us for some time, reaching back as far as Jules Verne. But it's quickly gaining currency. This week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, for instance, Infiniti introduced lane-departure warning technology to the U.S. market. The Infiniti EX35 system uses optical sensors to pick up road markings and alert the driver if he or she has crossed a line without signaling.
Using a constellation of cameras around the car, the around-view monitor (AVM) creates a composite image, a virtual bird's-eye view that shows the car from overhead. With the AVM engaged, you could parallel park into a teacup if you wanted to.
With the new EX35, Infiniti offers an additional overlay: lane-departure prevention. If the driver opts into the system -- by way of a button on the steering wheel -- the car will automatically nudge itself back into the lane by gently pulsing the brakes, should the sensors and algorithms dictate. -- Dan Neil
(NISSAN)

He Was A Giant Among Us

Sir Edmund Hillary, the mountain-climbing New Zealand beekeeper who became a mid-20th century hero as the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, has died. He was 88.

Hillary, who made his historic climb to the top of the world's highest mountain with Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay of Nepal, died Friday, according to an announcement from the office of New Zealand's prime minister Helen Clark. The cause and place of death were not immediately reported.

The mountaineer and explorer, shown above in December 1958, became a world-renowned celebrity after climbing Mount Everest. Over the years, his rugged looks appeared on everything from magazine covers to postage stamps.
(AFP/Getty Images)

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy

NASA and the DLR, German Aerospace Center, are working together to create SOFIA — a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems to accommodate a 2.5 meter reflecting telescope. SOFIA will be the largest airborne observatory in the world, and will make observations that are impossible for even the largest and highest of ground-based telescopes.

A New Plan: 77 years after the Pantages' spectacular opening

The Pantages Revival: a tower plan from the 1920s; Its owners are expected to announce a project to add the 10 floors that were left off the Art Deco icon of Hollywood after the 1929 market crash. A massive steel and concrete foundation was laid, but the 1929 stock market crash halted construction at two stories.

A Festival of Snow and Ice

The temperature in Harbin, China, reaches forty below zero, both Fahrenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away. So what does one do here every winter? Hold an outdoor festival, of course! Rather than suffer the cold, the residents of Harbin celebrate it, with an annual festival of snow and ice sculptures and competitions.

Above we have an overview of the ice festival from atop the Great Wall of ice. It's like a Disney theme park, with multiple attractions and food hawkers and kids running around and people lined up for bathrooms. The only differences are that the temperature is about a hundred degrees colder than the typical Disney park, and all the structures are made out of ice rather than plastic - and slipping and falling here doesn't result in tremendous lawsuits.

Is Moby-Dick the greatest novel ever written ??

Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut

The Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut (1950-53) at Ronchamp, France, by Le Corbusier, selected by Time magazine as the finest work of 20th century architecture.

"ON KING !! ON YOU HUSKIES !!" (making like Sgt. Preston of the Yukon)

Winteropening Mauterndorf
Von Manfred Karisch

Christian Oehler aus Karlsruhe, Deutschland

Everytime that I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face gettin’ clearer
The past is gone
It went by like dust to dawn
Isn’t that the way
Everybody’s got their dues in life to pay

I know what nobody knows
Where it comes and where it goes
I know it’s everybody’s sin
You got to lose to know how to win

Half my life is in books’ written pages
Live and learn from fools and from sages
You know it’s true
All the things come back to you

Sing with me, sing for the years
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears
Sing with me, if it’s just for today
Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away

Steven Tyler/Joe Perry (Januar 1973)

“Twenty-four Hour Sunshine”

Clare Woods’ “Twenty-four Hour Sunshine” at Karyn Lovegrove Gallery.
(Todd White Art Photography)

The "Greeter" of Laguna Beach left an indelible image

He had wandered the world, selling butter in czarist Siberia, fighting in France during World War I, walking the Appalachian Trail with his dog -- and strolling down Colorado Boulevard, unofficially bringing up the rear of the Rose Parade one year.

But when he got to Laguna Beach, Eiler Larsen was so captivated by it that he stayed and welcomed the rest of the world there.

Laguna Beach returned the salute, naming him its official greeter. In good weather and bad, Larsen would stand on South Coast Highway waving to drivers and pedestrians and booming out a big hello.

A block-longlane bears his name, and two life-size statues on South Coast Highway -- where he called out greetings for 33 years -- honor the bearded, wild-haired fixture of the quirky, artsy seaside town.

"They may think I'm crazy," Larsen once said, "but when a motorist comes to town, tired and weary of the traffic, and smiles when he leaves, does it matter what they think?" Larsen died in 1975.

Anything for "ratings"

Over 20 years ago on April 21, 1986, a vault in Chicago's Lexington Hotel, former residence and headquarters of mobster Al Capone, was opened during a live TV special hosted by Geraldo Rivera. Geraldo lured viewers with the promise of finding historic artifacts, a cache of treasure or even the bones of gangster.

Aside from a few bottles and a sign, the vault was empty.

The special received the highest ratings in the history of syndicated television.

"The People Show"

The water show at the Bellagio attracts crowds of Las Vegas tourists for prime people-watching. One drawback: limited seating.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

For an erupting volcano you can go to the Mirage.

Ron Drake's view of the peaks of Mt. McKinley in Alaska.

Ron Drake of Santa Barbara and several family members were gifted with clear weather on their last day of an otherwise rainy Alaska trip. As they enjoyed a plane trip to a glacier near Mt. McKinley (aka Denali), Drake zoomed in and snapped a photo of the burst of clouds coming off McKinley caused by high winds. He used a Nikon Coolpix S10.

Brando's Private Tahitian Island

An aerial view of Tetiaroa. Executors of Brando's estate have sold an interest in the island to a Tahiti-based hotel developer.
(Douglas Peebles)

Holmenkollen sunsets

The Holmenkollen ski jump offers supreme views of the Oslo sunset.
(Massimo Borchi / Corbis)

San Simeon's Hearst Castle

From afar, the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, Calif., looks like a little hill town huddled around a twin-towered cathedral. Behind the scenes, it takes another small village of dusters, landscapers and conservators to keep William Randolph Hearst's ode to architectural excess up and running.

The Roman Pool, which lies in all its blue-tiled splendor under the tennis courts, is the last stop on tours. The pool perhaps takes its cue from ancient baths such as the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, which date to the early 3rd century.

"The Chemosphere"

There's nothing like this flying saucer, in the neighborhood, in the rest of John Lautner's career, or the world. It stands as a bundle of contradictions, a spectacularly odd landmark, a unique effort, a kind of high-water mark, a signpost to a future that never developed.

By about 1960 the city of Los Angeles and its real estate prices had increased to the point where developers bulldozed residential lots higher and higher into the Santa Monicas. Those years saw the creation of dozens and dozens of customized luxurious perches in these hills, perches in Trousdale Estates and Mount Olympus and along Mulholland Drive, perches that overlooked and trumped the expensive homes in Beverly Hills and Hollywood and West Hollywood. The owners of these houses tended towards late 50's fantasy properties, and the houses on these sites came with unique bonuses: nighttime views as powerfully romantic as Sinatra, air somewhat less laden with carbon monoxide, and a nice illusion of supremecy over everyone living below them.

Fused Stained Glass by Alice B. Gebhart

«Poème électronique»

«Poème électronique» was the first, electronic-spatial environment to combine architecture, film, light and music to a total experience made to functions in time and space. Under the direction of Le Corbusier, Iannis Xenaki's concept and geometry designed the 1958 World's Fair exhibition space adhering to mathematical functions. Edgard Varèse composed the both concrete and vocal music which enhanced dynamic, light and image projections conceived by Le Corbusier. Varèse's work had always sought the abstract and, in part, visually inspired concepts of form and spatial movements. Among other elements for «Poème électronique» he used machine noises, transported piano chords, filtered choir and solo voices, and synthetic tone colorings. With the help of the advanced technical means made available through the Philips Pavilion, the sounds of this composition for tape recorder could wander throughout the space on highly complex routes. The Philips Pavilion presented a collage liturgy for twentieth-century humankind, dependent on electricity instead of daylight and on virtual perspectives in place of terrestrial views.»

The Spectacular Photography of Salgado

The celebrated Brazilian photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado has recorded numerous major upheavals on the African continent, beginning in the mid-1970s -- wars of independence, civil wars, drought, famine, genocide. In "Africa" (Taschen: 336 pp., $59.99), more than 300 of his photographs, dating from 1974 to 2006, are beautifully reproduced.

They are disturbing images -- a record of extreme human and natural violence -- and they are also heartbreaking, because the Africa of your childhood imagination is here too: the stupendous skies, the moss-laden forests, the gorillas on the flanks of a volcano, the migrating wildebeests, a solitary leopard drinking its fill in the Barab River valley. All of these photographs have an eerie immediacy you can get lost in.

Sara Lippincott is an editor for Book Review. sara.lippincott@latimes.com

Hitler the Artist

These original Adolf Hitler watercolor paintings were owned by well-known military history authors Ray and Josephine Cowdery before they were recently sold. The four paintings were part of a lot of property belonging to an historically important Austrian Priest, a good personal friend of Adolf Hitler; the cleric who buried Hitler’s niece, Angela “Geli” Raubal, in the Central cemetery in Wien (Vienna) in 1931.

Early Garbo

Here's an old photo of Garbo that you won't often see.

POPPA NEUTRINO

William David Pearlman, affectionately named Poppa Neutrino, spent his early childhood in San Francisco. At the age of twelve he saw a documentary on nomadic aborigines, and decided: "That's the way I want to live; I never want anything more." Throughout his seventy-four years Poppa has been an underage soldier, inmate-gone-governor-appointed-highway-department-official, circus performer, entrepreneur, religious leader and church founder, interstate nomad, band organizer, street performer, revolutionary football play designer, raft builder, and record breaker.

In the late 1990s Poppa became the second man in history to cross the Atlantic Ocean on a raft, and the first to do it on a vessel made of trash.