Patrick Dougherty's tree art at Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden

LOOKING like children's building blocks tossed by giant hands, the assemblage of woven-willow cubes and rectangles conveys kinetic energy.

Titled "Catawampus," the installation by Patrick Dougherty beckons from the main path at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden in Arcadia, sunlight slipping between the warp and weft of twigs. The tactile quality of each thread-like branch appeals to me: the in-and-out, the over-and-under. I run my hand along the twisted surface, marveling at the density of 4-inch-thick walls. My fingers stroke the soft tips, velvet against the rough bark.

On this day in 1965 . . .

Gail Goodrich scored 42 points to lead UCLA to a 91-80 victory over Michigan in the NCAA championship game -- a great moment in sports history.

"Los Angeles Sunrise"

A morning view of sunrise in downtown Los Angeles.

Note: This is a straight shot with minimal photoshop work.

Photo by Jim Goldstein

Spectacular Effect . . . but how was it done ??

Very carefully . . . I suspect.

"Is it courage . . . or stupidity ??"

"Proud to be an American"

Germany's Das Kurhaus Fountain

One of the fountains at Das Kurhaus in Wiesbaden, Hessen.

Photo by duncandavidson on Flickr

"The Significance of an Event"

To paraphrase the great Henri Cartier-Bresson, to make a brilliant image is to capture, in a fraction of a second, the significance of an event. This photo, one of the iconic images of 2007, shows Colts running back Joseph Addai in a game against the Houston Texans.
Photo: Bob Rosato/Sports Illustrated

Check out what some of our boys overseas did to their helicopter

This very special Mi-24 helicopter is presently flying in Afghanistan, where it is no doubt causing quite a stir.

"Stop Loss" opens March 28

Actor Ryan Phillippe who portrays Brandon King in the movie "Stop Loss" poses for a portrait in Los Angeles March 16, 2008. The movie opens in the U.S. on March 28.
REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (UNITED STATES)

It May Take Some Time To Sort All This Out

African artists perform during a dress rehearsal of the show "Afrika-Afrika" produced by Austrian multi-media artist Andre Heller in Vienna, March 17, 2008. The show will have its premiere on March 20.
REUTERS/Herbert Neubauer (AUSTRIA)

Hauntingly Beautiful Photos of China

Sometimes the new technologies are hard to grasp

Sometimes it seems a strange world . . .

The Church on Spilled Blood

This marvelous Russian-style church was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881. After assuming power in 1855 in the wake of Russia’s disastrous defeat in the Crimean war against Britain, France and Turkey, Alexander II initiated a number of reforms. In 1861 he freed the Russian serfs (peasants, who were almost enslaved to their owners) from their ties to their masters and undertook a rigorous program of military, judicial and urban reforms, never before attempted in Russia. However, during the second half of his reign Alexander II grew wary of the dangers of his system of reforms, having only barely survived a series of attempts on his life, including an explosion in the Winter Palace and the derailment of a train. Alexander II was finally assassinated in 1881 by a group of revolutionaries, who threw a bomb at his royal carriage.

The decision was taken to build a church on the spot where the Emperor was mortally wounded. The church was built between 1883 and 1907 and was officially called the Resurrection of Christ Church (a.k.a. The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood ).

"Damn Hippo"

Italy's Museum of the Imperial Forums recently unearthed

A stone's throw from the Coliseum is Rome's new, masterfully designed Museum of the Imperial Forums, in a brick complex built by Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century but long concealed beneath centuries of subsequent construction and rubble.

When excavation of Trajan's Markets revealed the walls and roofs of the complex, huge glass windows were added, allowing light to pour into the brick Great Hall, considered a model for vaulted structures built later in the capital. Smaller chambers line two sides of the hall with a dramatically displayed collection of ancient Roman sculptural fragments from several forums in the vicinity. The entrance to Trajan's Markets is on Via IV Novembre just above Trajan's Column.
Info: en.mercatiditraiano.it.

"Hat Trick"

Carolina Hurricanes' Joe Corvo (L) scores a hat trick against Ottawa Senators goaltender Martin Gerber during the third period of their NHL hockey game in Raleigh, North Carolina March 16, 2008. REUTERS/Ellen Ozier (UNITED STATES)

Las Vegas embraces its mobster past

LAS VEGAS -- a city forged on gambling, booze and flesh, has been strangely reluctant -- and perhaps a little nervous -- to make money off its mob roots. Until now.

On a recent drizzly night, a small, white Vegas Mob Tour bus rumbled past aging strip malls, its passengers eager to see the spots where wiseguys were killed. Thug Jerry Lisner was repeatedly shot, strangled with an electrical cord and dumped in his swimming pool on a tree-lined street named Rawhide. Tour guide Robert Baltus pointed out the street but not the house -- the owners are uneasy about publicizing its bloody past.

In a Tony Roma's parking space next to a light pole, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal was nearly blown up in his booby-trapped Cadillac Eldorado. "He should have been in 50 different pieces," Baltus told a dozen silent tourists, but a steel plate under the car saved the casino executive's life. "Vegas was built with mob money," he said. "They did a hell of a job."

Americans have long been entranced by hooligans who laundered money, bootlegged, bullied and killed. Entrepreneurs have bused tourists to mob haunts in Newark, N.J.; Kansas City, Mo.; and Chicago. Vegas' own godfathers were immortalized in the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie "Casino," which was partly filmed here.

Sin City has dusted off its gangster skeletons with the Vegas Mob Tour based at the Greek Isles Hotel & Casino, "Sopranos"-inspired dinner theater at the Riviera Hotel & Casino and a proposed mob museum.

The tour offers insight into how this city has -- mostly -- made peace with gangsters such as Tony "the Ant" Spilotro and mob bosses who helped turn the remote town into a resort by investing in casinos that mainstream businessmen scorned.

A plaque to Ben "Bugsy" Seigel is a stop on the Vegas Mob Tour at the Flamingo hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

Bugsy Siegel remade himself in Las Vegas when he opened the Flamingo. His mob partners became unhappy with its losses, and Siegel became increasingly paranoid, with good reason. He was gunned down in 1947 in Beverly Hills, and the killing was never solved.