"What's in a name ???"

We have a glorious group of constellations over in the Eastern sky. Capella is the brightest star over here, high in the northeast at the top of the ring-shaped constellation Auriga the charioteer. Below Auriga is Gemini, two bright stars on the left as the heads of the two famous warrior twins, and two strings of stars going off to the right as their bodies.
Jupiter is still fantastically bright, low in the south at sunset, then moving into the southwest as the evening progresses. But Jupiter is not the only planet in the evening sky tonight: Uranus is out too, although you probably won’t find it without a telescope. The planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn have all been known since ancient times. Uranus was the first planet to be discovered! It was found by the English astronomer William Herschel in 1781. This was the first time in history that anyone had ever discovered a NEW planet. However, things became a little controversial when Herschel announced what he wanted to name the new planet: “I have decided that my new planet shall be called: George! That’s right, George, named after my very good friend George, the King of England. The planets will now be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and George! Now, there are some who have said that I’m only naming it George, because in the past, the King has given me a lot of money. And I mean a lot! But that is completely untrue. I’m not naming it George because of all the money that he gave me in the past: It’s because of all the money that he could give me in the future! After all, he’s the King, and there’s lot more where that came from, isn’t there?” Fortunately, astronomers instead decided to name the new planet Uranus after the Greek god of the sky.

"Lost at Sea"

"Andrea Doria: Dive to Adventure and Danger" was part of a three-part lecture series, "Lost at Sea," that highlighted research on shipwrecks at Penn State. David Bright, Penn State alumnus and president of Nautical Research Group, Inc. of New Jersey, presented a multifaceted view of the Andrea Doria from her initial planning and construction to salvage dives in the 260 feet of cold North Atlantic waters.

The Andrea Doria was an Italian steamship with 1705 passengers and crew on board that was struck in fog off the coast of Rhode Island by the Swedish-American liner Stockholm. The ship was traveling from Genoa, Italy to New York City in 1956. The 29,000-ton liner sank in 11 hours.

Bright is an experienced shipwreck historian and deep technical diver. He studied the Titanic for more than 30 years and in 2003 and 2005, as part of scientific research, dove 3 miles to the wreck site of the ship on the Atlantic floor. He has studied the degradation of the ship caused by increased microbial activity. He has also worked on the wreck of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. He is considered the foremost historical authority on the Andrea Doria.

Obama as a Boy

A women stands near the bronze statue of young U.S. President Barack Obama during a ceremony at a park in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009. The statue of President Obama as a 10-year-old wearing shorts and a T-shirt has been erected in the park to inspire children in the country where he lived as a boy. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Achmad Ibrahim)

"lost album that once belonged to Adolf Hitler"

This Dec. 2, 2009 photo taken in Dallas shows a lost album that once belonged to Adolf Hitler, part of a series compiled for Hitler featuring photographs of art he wanted for his "Fuehrermuseum," a planned museum in Linz, Austria. The book, taken by U.S. serviceman John Pistone during World War II from Hitler's home, is expected to be formally returned to Germany in a ceremony at the U.S. State Department in January. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

Gene Barry 1919-2009

The derby and gold-headed cane of the title character drew Gene Barry to "Bat Masterson." Those elements "appealed to the actor in me," he recalled in a 1989 Associated Press interview. "If it hadn't been for that, I would have turned it down. I didn't want to be tied down doing a western. I went to wardrobe and found that hat and cane and an elegant swallowtail coat and shiny black boots."

"Twelve Nights in Hollywood"

For a generation of listeners, the late Ella Fitzgerald exists perhaps as more of a concept than someone who was once a living human being. As the Beatles are to pop music, Fitzgerald is to jazz vocals, and the quality and influence of their respective outputs have become such a part of our cultural firmament that they seem easy to take for granted.

Now with a lushly packaged new box set, "Twelve Nights in Hollywood," Fitzgerald comes alive. Comprising four CDs that include 76 never-before-released live tracks recorded in 1961 and 1962, this set is not only a vital discovery for Fitzgerald fans, but also perhaps the best starting point for neophytes who never have had the opportunity to hear what exactly made her special.

To defile a sacred place

The National Science Foundation has picked the Haleakala mountaintop in Maui, Hawaii, as the site for the world's largest solar optical telescope.

The $300-million project is due to be built near the dormant volcano's summit. It will enable scientists to observe sunspots, flares and other phenomena too small to be seen with current equipment.

Opponents of the project say it would defile a place sacred to Native Hawaiians.

Christmas Tree Lane continues to glow in Altadena

The city's founders created the lane of cedars in the late 19th century. In 1920 city officials jazzed up the trees with holiday lights and Christmas Tree Lane was born. (Above: circa 1938)

Rio de Janeiro looking up

From appliance stores in Brazil to auto assembly lines in Mexico, signs are evident that Latin America has seen the worst of the global economic crisis and is poised for solid expansion.

The region is expected to post economic growth of 4.1% next year, according to a forecast released Thursday by the United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. That's a stronger rebound than previously anticipated.

Emerging powerhouse Brazil is expected to lead the way with projected gross domestic product growth of 5.5% in 2010. It should be helped by strengthening foreign demand for its oil, soybeans and other commodities, as well as increased spending by an emerging consumer class that's helping to keep Brazilian factories humming.

Las Vegas keeps reinventing itself

The massive CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip, set to open officially next week, is a blast from the very recent past. With a price tag of $8.5 billion, a roster of famous designers including Daniel Libeskind, Norman Foster, David Rockwell, Cesar Pelli and Rafael Vinoly and a staggering 18 million square feet of space inside six towers and a Strip-front shopping mall, the development is a fitting coda to the decade of celebrity architecture and overextended real-estate mania from which we've just emerged.

If we now expect every major hotel-casino in Las Vegas to have a theme, the one that applies here isn't difficult to make out, despite the architects' collective attempt to scrub the project free of kitsch and historical ornament and coat it with a high-gloss, homogenous and faintly corporate sheen.

CityCenter's true theme is leverage. Ranking as the largest private development in American history, big enough to fill the tallest building in Los Angeles, the U.S. Bank Tower, roughly a dozen times over, the complex is a palace -- a series of connected palaces, actually -- for the age of towering debt and easy credit. They should have put Alan Greenspan's face on the poker chips.

The Biggest "Loser" Ever

There is a moment in Danny Cahill's tryout tape where he looks directly into the camera and promises NBC that if he's chosen for "The Biggest Loser" he won't just win the title -- he vows to become "The Biggest Loser" ever.

See kids, that's called goal setting. And Danny said it was crucial to his win Tuesday night when he swept the Season 8 title and set an all-time record for the show by losing 239 pounds, or 55.58% of his body weight, more than any other contestant has ever done.

Egyptian celebrates Sinatra with 'Ocean's 11,' 'Pal Joey'

The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre celebrates the 94th birthday of the late, great Frank Sinatra with a swinging double bill tonight: 1960's "Ocean's 11" -- the first Rat Pack funfest -- which also stars Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Cesar Romero and Angie Dickinson; and 1957's Rodgers and Hart musical "Pal Joey" with Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak. The latter played at the Egyptian when it was first released. In keeping with the Rat Pack spirit, there'll also be a no-host martini bar reception before the screenings. Shoen above, Kim Novak with Frank Sinatra in "Pal Joey."

'Up in the Air's' aerial shots took some ingenuity

The serene views of America that Ryan Bingham enjoys from his American Airlines seat at 15,000 feet in "Up in the Air" were pretty to look at but a chore to capture for aerial director of photography Dylan Goss. With a chartered plane, Goss made a weeklong cross-country flight to capture footage between L.A. and Chicago from a height not normally seen in Hollywood movies (most aerial photography is shot at 500 or 1,000 feet). For five hours a day, Goss was tucked in the back of the small Cessna Skymaster, bundled up in layers of clothing and wearing an oxygen mask when they flew above 10,000 feet. To keep the lens from fogging up in the subzero temperatures, Goss secured the high-definition cam in a glass ball outside the plane and rigged a tube to pump in argon to keep the lens fog-free. Above, an aerial view of agricultural fields shot by Dylan Goss.

"Time Bandits" -- a fantasyland

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," Terry Gilliam's best film in years, isn't due to open until Dec. 25, but for those of you who can't wait, the American Cinematheque has brought back a few of this visionary director's greatest hits. On Saturday, luxuriate in the glory that is "Brazil," a science fiction satire that has lost none of its bite. And on Sunday, revisit the marvelous "Time Bandits," the story of a time-traveling 11-year-old that proves that smartly made films can captivate children and adults alike. At the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

Spectacular Photos from the HUBBLE Space Telescope

Will Rogers, the "First multimedia star"

When he died, the nation mourned. Flags flew at half-staff. Movie screens went dark. Radio broadcasters observed 30 minutes of silence. Under a scorching sun in Glendale, 50,000 people filed past his casket.

In an era of hip-hop and reality TV, it is difficult to grasp the hold this man had on Americans. He was the most beloved person of his day, the country's first multimedia star.

Damon Runyon wrote in tribute that he was "America's most complete human document. One-third humor. One-third humanitarian. One-third heart."

In "a time grown too solemn and somber," President Franklin D. Roosevelt would say, he "showed us all how to laugh."

Today this man is remembered dimly, if at all. But in Pacific Palisades, his descendants and admirers are working with architects and curators to change that. They are restoring the ranch where he spent his final years.

The process, say those involved, is about more than repairing a house and grounds on which time and the elements have taken a toll. It's about resurrecting the largely forgotten legacy of a man whose humor ("I'm not a member of any organized party. I'm a Democrat") proved a tonic for a nation in the grip of war and depression.

You bring the crackers

Here are some delightful ideas for a party cheese platter (from top, clockwise): Trail Head cow's milk Washington; Hook's Cheddar; Rogue River Blue; Vella Dry Hack; Jasper Hills Farm Constant Bliss; Sally Jackson; Grayson; and finally, Truffle Tremor.

"tampering with climatic inconveniences"

In the snow-hushed woods on Moscow's northern edge, scientists are decades deep into research on bending the weather to their will. They've been at it since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin paused long enough in the throes of World War II to found an observatory dedicated to tampering with climatic inconveniences.

Since then, they've melted away fog, dissipated the radioactive fallout from Chernobyl and called down rains fierce enough to drown unborn locusts threatening the distant northeastern grasslands.

Now they're poised to battle the most inevitable and emblematic force of Russian winter: the snow.

Moscow's government, led by powerful and long-reigning Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, has indicated that clearing the capital's streets of snow is simply too expensive. Instead, officials are weighing a plan to seed the clouds with liquid nitrogen or dry ice to keep heavy snow from falling inside the city limits.

The "Jambiyas"

Yemeni men are often judged by their jambiyas, traditional handmade daggers. But with the ornate rhino-handled jambiyas more expensive and harder to come by, more are turning to knockoffs. Shalan bin Yehaye Hbubari oversees dozens of stalls that sell traditonal Yemeni daggers known as jambiyas. The curved daggers worn by many Yemeni men, are prized and ones made with rhino horns can cost thousands of dollars.

To be ready for the World Expo in Shanghai 2011

An artist's rendering of the flying saucer-shaped arena. The $280-million, 18,000-seat facility in Shanghai will be built in time for use during the World Expo, which starts in May. It will be called Mercedes-Benz Arena in 2011.

Irvine's giant helium balloon ride . . .

Irvine's giant helium balloon ride -- the first piece of a massive urban park project -- gets a new UV-protected bright-orange envelope to replace faded fabric. Balloon pilot Frank Loughridge, center, helps move the inflated envelope into position to attach the gondola that will carry passengers 400 feet into the air. The $550,000 replacement is expected to resist fading for five years.

Frank Lloyd Wright keeps "popping up"

Discover some of Wright's most iconic works--Fallingwater, the Guggenheim, the Robie House--with this spectacular pop-up book. Each pop-up focuses on a particular work and is accompanied by a detailed history of its planning, design, and current state.

VIVA ZAPATA !!!

The famous rebel poses in full regalia, his right hand gripping an Old West carbine, his left steadying a sword that dangles from the waist. You recognize the bushy mustache, broad sombrero, crisscrossed bandoleers.

It's an icon of Mexican history: a black-and-white photograph of Emiliano Zapata believed taken in 1911, a year after the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution.

Published in a Mexican newspaper two years later and reproduced since then in history textbooks and on postcards, T-shirts and shopping bags, the Zapata image is almost as famous as that of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Would you believe that this is a single one dollar bill ???

This work of art is by Won Park who is the master of Origami. He is also called the "money folder", A practitioner of origami whose canvas is the United States One Dollar Bill. Bending, twisting, and folding, he creates life-like shapes in stunning detail.

(source unknown)

He hasn't been just Twittering

Twitter was just the beginning. After dreaming up the innovative social-networking medium, Jack Dorsey is looking to revolutionize another core aspect of society: money.

Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, has announced that his new start-up, Square, has developed a way for anyone with a cellphone or iPod to become a merchant and accept credit card payments.

Square is a small plastic device that plugs into a gadget's headphone jack. Buyers swipe their credit cards through the device, which then transmits the payment data to an application running on a connected iPhone or iPod Touch. (Android and Blackberry apps are in development, and computer software will be available later.)

Building with a rap sheet

For sale: One police station in the middle of Los Angeles. Slightly used.

Looking for an office building with bulletproof windows, mirrored interrogation rooms and a big vault? It could be yours for just $4.5 million. The seller is motivated.

The two-story structure west of downtown is also rather notorious. Among its previous occupants were members of the Los Angeles Police Department's anti-gang CRASH unit (short for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums), who were accused of running a rogue operation that framed suspects, administered beatings, stole drugs and committed other crimes.

A few officers were fired after investigations, and former policeman Rafael Perez went to prison for stealing cocaine from an evidence locker.

Now the former station's longtime private owners would like to let go of it because tenants like the LAPD are hard to come by in the depressed real estate market and an empty office gathers no rent. Perhaps another institution will buy it, they hope.

For most of its existence, the white building at the intersection of 3rd Street and Union Avenue was an outpost of civility in an indisputably rough part of town.

The Rampart Division station a few blocks away was long regarded as one of the toughest assignments in the LAPD, where officers faced a crush of felonies in a neighborhood plagued by poverty and gangs.

"There was a time when Rampart's murder rate led the city," department spokesman John Romero said. "It's a night-and-day difference now."

"a most artistic football venue"

One of the most artistic football venues in South Africa, the newly-built Green Point Stadium is situated in one of the much sought-after areas in the city of Cape Town. Green Point Stadium is one of the two semi-final venues for the FIFA World Cup™.

This multi-purpose venue is also going to be used to stage major events and concerts. Fans will be a stone's throw from the ocean and the mountains of Cape Town will also provide the backdrop for matches. The location is ideal as it is a short walk from the transportation hub of the city. The new stadium has been partly built on land that was previously used as a golf course.

The stadium, which has an exterior that is covered with noise-reducing cladding has a capacity of 70,000 and is scheduled for completion in December 2009. The Green Point Common, on which the new 2010 stadium is being built, was originally much larger than what now remains, and included most of the land between the sea and Signal Hill, stretching from the city centre towards Sea Point.

"Justice" to be served

Los Angeles County’s Hall of Justice, vacant since it was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, might be reopened.

The Board of Supervisors today ordered staff to prepare a report within 45 days on the feasibility of again using the facility. They noted that construction costs have decreased over the last year as available federal funds have increased.

The ornate 14-story building, at the corner of Temple Street and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, once housed county courts and coroner's, sheriff's and district attorney's offices, and a jail. Built in 1925, it has a storied history in the annals of local justice.

The hall was among 26 county buildings shut down in the immediate aftermath of the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake. At the time, then-Sheriff Sherman Block said damage had rendered the department's data systems there -- including computers, automated fingerprint systems and criminal history information -- at least temporarily useless. He estimated the cost of repairing the building at $100 million, a figure he said probably meant it would be permanently vacated.

Some groundbreaking movies are being released by the Warner Archive

Here's the great Ethel Waters performing "Birmingham Bertha" in the 1929 musical "On With the Show!" (Warner Brothers)

Once Upon a Time . . .

The Duncan Sisters starred in the 1929 film "It's a Great Life," one of the first musicals shown in movie theaters. (Warner Bros.)

"the Big Sur coast"

The infamous McWay Fall on the Big Sur coast.

Shot with Canon Elan 7; Canon 70-200mm lens; Fuji Velvia 50 film by Buck Forester on Flickr. For more of Forester's spectacular photography click on the heading above.

"the most important event in my life. If I had never done anything since . . . my involvement in Sleepy Lagoon would justify my existence."

Alice McGrath, a lifelong activist who first gained fame as a champion of the wrongly convicted young Mexican Americans in the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon trial, has died. She was 92. McGrath's role in the infamous trial was celebrated in Luis Valdez's play "Zoot Suit," which debuted at the Mark Taper Forum in 1978 and was made into a movie in 1981.

"She was one of the heroines of the 20th century," said Valdez, who remained a friend over the years. "In Los Angeles, I can't think of many people who surpass her influence."

McGrath was 24 when, recovering at home from a bout of pleurisy, she was visited by a friend who asked for some administrative help. Attorney George Shibley was defending 22 Mexican Americans, ages 17 to 21, who were charged with killing a young Mexican farmworker near a swimming hole in southeast L.A. County known as Sleepy Lagoon. Shibley needed someone to write summaries of the daily proceedings of the trial, which would later become known as one of the most racist in local history.

The defendants, dubbed "zoot suit gangsters" by a xenophobic press after the long coats and pegged pants that were popular among Mexican Americans, were being tried en masse. Portrayed as members of the "38th Street Gang," they were not allowed to consult with their lawyers during the 13-week trial. And in a tactic that made them look disreputable, they were not permitted to have their hair cut and were denied a change of clothes for the first month of the trial.

The judge was openly contemptuous of the defendants and their lawyers, and the all-white jury was allowed to go home at night, with access to sensationalist media coverage that focused on Mexican American delinquency.

Twelve were convicted of murder and the rest of lesser charges.

McGrath, who attended the trial after her illness subsided, was outraged, and began to volunteer with the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, which lobbied for an appeal. Committee head and renowned author Carey McWilliams was impressed with her passion and named her executive director.

McGrath would become an accomplished fundraiser and speaker, at one time addressing 1,000 longshoremen in San Francisco. She regularly visited the Sleepy Lagoon defendants at San Quentin State Prison.

In 1944, an appeals court overturned the convictions, finding there was no evidence that any of the young men had been involved in the killing.

Decades later, in 1981, McGrath would tell a Los Angeles Times interviewer that the successful appeal was "the most important event in my life. If I had never done anything since . . . my involvement in Sleepy Lagoon would justify my existence."

Are You Ready ???

A new website in Colorado is offering to help people prepare for the coming invasion of alien spaceships. Go to www.outofthisworld.mind

Audi has IDEAS

The Audi R8 e-Tron concept car shows a considerable change in the front grill, wheels and the rear end. The e-Tron also gets an all-LED headlight to save the juice in the vehicle’s onboard batteries. Interiors of the vehicle are centered towards the driver and consist of two screens, one to hold the navigation and the other to display what the rearview camera captures.

BMW Vision EfficientDynamics Concept Car

With its Vision EfficientDynamics concept, BMW projects how its hybrid and engine-efficiency technologies might couple with the company's Formula One racing tech and avant-garde design. BMW says the resulting two-door, diesel-electric sports car pulls fuel efficiency of 63 mpg while getting from zero to 60 mph in a quick 4.8 seconds.

"London Eye"

Photo from Tommi Komulainen's photostream on Flickr.

"the world's deep-sea explorers"

Among the most accomplished and well known of the world's deep-sea explorers, Robert Ballard is best known for his historic discovery of the sunken R.M.S. Titanic (shown above). During his long career he has conducted more than 120 deep-sea expeditions using the latest in exploration technology, and he is a pioneer in the early use of deep-diving submarines.

Ballard has pioneered distance learning in the classrooms of America and around the world with the JASON Project, an award-winning educational program that reaches more than 1.7 million students and 38,000 teachers annually. He has received prestigious awards from the Explorers Club and the National Geographic Society—the Explorers Medal and the Hubbard Medal, respectively—as well as the Lindbergh Award. In 2003 President George W. Bush presented him with the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal in the Oval Office of the White House.

"the art of the possible"

Dubai is a clever blend of audacity and architecture, a shiny monument to the egos and ambition that turned a tiny emirate into a Middle East financial giant. Russian oligarchs stroll along man-made islands shaped like palm trees, and sheiks race down a ski slope built inside a shopping mall.

Lacking the oil reserves of the emirate's neighbors, Dubai's ruling family created a parallel economic reality fueled by real estate, international investment and the art of the possible. The emirate was fashioned into a sleek cityscape of startling images: Islam balanced against the seduction of Western capitalism, and tribal traditions brushing the fleeting trends of globalization.

The Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, shines in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The recession has left the emirate with miles of office space it can't rent.

(Mike Hewitt / Getty Images)

"The Refurbishing of King Harbor"

A new arch has gone up across Catalina Avenue, loudly broadcasting entry to King Harbor. An abstract sculpture fountain has been built at the gateway to the Redondo Beach marina, another encouraging sign that the destination is on the rebound. Shown above is the old King Harbor arch.

The remodeled entryway is just the start of the refurbishing soon to move forward on the city's waterfront. The owners of the hip Shade Hotel in Manhattan Beach are building a Redondo Beach branch, and the leaseholder of many of the restaurants on the pier is planning to spend as much as $2 million to refurbish the eateries. There is also a proposal for a $100-million project that will include restaurants, stores and an amphitheater.

Even a new L.A. County Harbor Patrol building is planned, replacing the temporary one that has been in use for about 20 years.

King Harbor "is one of the jewels of our city but in my mind a jewel that needs some polishing," Mayor Mike Ginn said.

Andre Dawson has earned a place in the Hall of Fame

Results of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame election will be announced on Wednesday, Jan. 6. Andre Dawson, the slender slugger with the cannon arm is on the Hall ballot for the ninth year.

Tony Perez said "We all respect the way he played and the way he played even when he wasn't 100 percent. Talk to any player who saw him play or played with him or against him, and they don't understand why he isn't in the Hall of Fame."

"No player in baseball history worked harder, suffered more or did it better than Andre Dawson," Ryne Sandberg said of the rifle-armed outfielder known as "The Hawk." "He's the best I've ever seen.

"I watched him win an MVP for a last-place team in 1987 [with the Cubs], and it was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen in baseball," Sandberg said. "He did it the right way, the natural way, and he did it in the field and on the bases and in every way, and I hope he will stand up here [Hall of Fame at Cooperstown] someday."