dl004d, in blog form

Beautiful smog

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:46:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES – Can you see that layer of smog? Blech. Then again, it makes for beautiful sunsets.

This guy doesn't like TVs

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:43:00 +0000

PASADENA, Calif. – Protesters gathered outside Pasadena's City Hall as part of the "occupy" movement. This guy was riding a bike with a TV on his head. Uh-huh. Totally normal.

Santa Monica Mountains

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:41:00 +0000

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – I was not the only one taking photos of the views from this spectacular lookout along Mulholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Future mudslide site

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:37:00 +0000

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – You know how there's a mudslide and some rich guy's house is ruined. Well, maybe we shouldn't build houses like this one.

Watts Towers

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:30:00 +0000

WATTS, Calif. – So here's what happened. This weird dude named Sabato Rodia built a series of sculptures using random objects he found. The result is bed frames, bottles, tiles and sea shells held together with mortar. Oh and it's located off Compton Ave. in Watts., an area of South Central that had previously existed to me only in the form of rap lyrics.

Getty Villa

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:26:00 +0000

MALIBU, Calif. – The oil tycoon J. Paul Getty built this villa in Pacific Palisades off the PCH but never lived to see it completed. The villa design was inspired by the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, which was destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius.

The villa is home to Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities dating from 6,500 BC.

The below image is a Cypriot figurine of a fertility goddess from about 2,500 BC.

Santa Monica fog

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:25:00 +0000

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – We had great weather. Low 80s. Sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. Oh, except for the first two days.

But as you can see, the whole town was overrun with Badgers fans. Very cool.

The ocular lens

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:17:00 +0000

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – A camera obscura is a rare optical device first conceived by Aristotle that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. However, I'm not sure who conceived of the idea to put one in the Santa Monica Senior Recreation Center.

It's very cool, though.

Ray Pruit

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:08:00 +0000

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. – You didn't think I was going to L.A. without visiting Kelly Taylor's beach house from 90210, did you? Remember, I'm the guy who examined whether the Peach Pit had better music acts than the Bait Shop.

Kelly and Donna's beach house is located on Hermosa Beach along a strip known as The Strand. Oh and the middle unit (where Kelly and Donna lived) is currently for rent for only $5,500 per month.

8 mph

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. – Typically, speed limits are nice round numbers. Not in Delaware, I learned last summer. And not along The Strand in Hermosa Beach, either.

Meanwhile, don't those trash cans look sort of like R2 units from Star Wars?

Occupy the occupation

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:38:00 +0000

The protestors have occupied D.C.'s McPherson Square for long enough, say counter-protestors. Do you side with the occupiers? Or the people occupying the occupation?

Tweets from @LeavittDC

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 14:13:00 +0000

The #Packers success "is helping the water and the environment. http://zite.to/uuJ9A3 And my well-being. The stories never mention that.
Scott Walker has raised $5.1M to defend his recall. http://zite.to/rV6N45 Ah, so he's done well bringing money into #Wisconsin after all.
Long Island high school students suspended for "Tebowing." http://zite.to/tKzkLS It's against the rules to shock pundidts by winning?
#Packers Jermichael Finley calls Tebow coverage “kind of disturbing.” zite.to/tWL7NZ Actually, the complaints are what's disturbing.
It's the most wonderful time of the year. The mad dash for elite status. RT @NYTaviation: Elites Eye the Finish Line: http://tinyurl.com/7unqnjg
Joe Flacco is complaining about Tim Tebow coverage. http://zite.to/sqzmZR Joe is clearly the expert on the attention no-talent QBs deserve.
The #Wisconsin #Badgers are "the most boring team in America." http://ht.ly/81N8Z I keep forgetting: is the goal to win or be exciting?
ESPN charges cable/satellite companies $4.69 per month for each subscriber. The next highest is TNT at $1.16. http://nyti.ms/txwWlf
Nice one. RT @DanielMorgan: Fox News, turn off that intern's fucking gchat. Amateur hour over here. #IowaDebate
RT @kaylynkvochak Ughhhh still trying to check my nonexistent gchat windows. EVERY TIME. #iowadebate
RT @JoshBrandfon The gchat 'ding' is distracting me from the crazy people. #iowadebate
Every time Fox plays the "time's up" beep, my wife asks me who keeps pinging me on Google Talk. #IowaDebate
Rick Perry compared himself to Tim Tebow and said he will "get it on" with Obama. But wait, isn't Tebow a virgin? #IowaDebate
Chicago Bears WR Sam Hurd arrested on drug charges http://zite.to/rAEF72 Sounds like he was trying to sniff more than the endzone.
Most print newspapers will be dead within five years, predicts USC: http://zite.to/sCAHuo
Hispanics and old, white, rich people still like Obama: http://zite.to/uXj1f4
Pretty sunset. Goodbye Piedmont Valley. http://pic.twitter.com/KKD0olEA
The Atlantic's gift advice: "Buying for a guy? Get a gadget. Buying for a girl? Get something expensive and useless." http://bit.ly/rvDFBX
The feds approved iPads during takeoffs/landings. But only for use in cockpits, not in the main cabin: http://zite.to/rJh51Q
I'm a couple days late, but these are some great photos from the #Moscow protests: http://goo.gl/s2PR2 #Russia
Guess which airline is reportedly developing a system to seat passengers according to their social media profiles? http://bit.ly/rNuiCJ
Derek Jeter gives autographed baseballs to his one-night stands http://zite.to/tfWI8A I want to mock this, but it's kind of a nice move.
RT @jonb819 That awkward moment when your girlfriend shows you her new signed Derek Jeter baseball.
Sunrise over Charlotte. Not a fun time to have a body clock on Pacific Time. http://pic.twitter.com/IR6c54Dv
In my former career, I would have used this as an excuse to write about Liechtenstein. RT @AP_Phuong: Canada pulls out of Kyoto Protocol.

Please put urine into urinal

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:04:00 +0000

CHARLOTTE – Welcome to the latest installment of bathroom news. Today we'll be discussing a sign making it clear that men are to place no liquid other than urine into the urinal. It sounds like good policy.

The sign also claims that placing any liquid other than urine into the urinal "will cause equipment malfunction." Really? If I pour water down there, that will cause problems?

It just adds up to balderdash

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:54:00 +0000

Heading into the Thanksgiving holiday, I give you a passage written by Wolcott Gibbs in the New Yorker in June 1941:

The great paradox about this age of perfect communication, of course, is that nobody knows anything about what's going on. We ourself read six newspapers every day, listen interminably to the the radio, and spend a good deal of our time talking to industrious prophets who have just flown in from the warring cities and the capitals and battle fronts. Our guess is that we know rather less about the state of the world than an ancestor of ours who lived in Connecticut and depended for his information on old copies of The Federalist Papers delivered occasionally by a man on a horse.

He got his news late and in fragments, but in the end the picture in his mind was probably clear and sensible; we hear about everything the minute it happens, in staggering detail, and, generally speaking, it just adds up to balderdash.

This is not only because the stage these days is too big for any man to comprehend, or because an event described by 95 eyewitnesses is apt to be less satisfactory than the same thing reported on by one, or even because the current government spokesmen are sometimes apt to be rather coy about their facts.

It is caused mostly by our own frantic state of continual reception. We are too busy listening to hear anything in particular, too overwhelmed by the parts to see any outline of the whole. History, to be understood at all, should be absorbed a very little at a time, in solitude, and always a step or two behind the actual march of events.

If we had the organization of this magazine to do over again, we would employ an elderly hermit to lie on a couch in a small quiet room, perhaps eating an apple. He would read exactly one copy of the Times every month and then, whenever our editorial way grew dark, we'd drop in for a minute and ask him what the hell was really up.

Tweets from @LeavittDC

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:16:00 +0000

It's too bad. Nothing compared to her. RT @starpulse: Sinead O'Connor Quits Twitter.
NFL road teams are 9-2 so far this week. Maybe teams have started staying at Holiday Inn Express.
Great response to Bachmann's assertion that the ACLU is running the CIA. RT @ACLUofIL: We've been trying to keep it on the DL. #cbsnjdebate
Rick Perry says he'd defend the use of torture to his death. Maybe, but I'll bet we could waterboard a reversal out if him. #CBSNJdebate
Were they chanting a list of people who didn't protect children? RT @PeteThamelNYT: Crowd here chanting "Joe Paterno" as second half starts.
No girlfriend? He's had a rough week. RT @Marfamata: Wilson Ramos: "Pienso disfrutar de mi familia, béisbol y mi soltería. No tengo novia."
Wow. RT @ESPN_BigTen: First Penn State game without Joe Paterno on staff since October 1949. (via @JoeDRobinson4)
Or Energy. Or Commerce. RT @neiltyson: Odd that people focused on Perry's memory lapse and not that Education was an agency he wants to cut.
Healthy. RT @OMGFacts: McDonald's oatmeal has more sugar than a Snickers and 10 fewer calories than a cheeseburger. http://ow.ly/7pQGi
Stupid, stupid, stupid. RT @LucyKafanov: #OccupyOakland Vandalize Whole Foods and Banks: (video) http://goo.gl/EGAZv #OWS
Probably a good idea. RT @normative: Amazon Supports a Bill Forcing Online Shoppers to Pay Sales Tax http://j.mp/rGzwoR
What a great victory lap for the USS Carl Vinson after burying bin Laden at sea. #CarrierClassic #MSU #UNC
From now on, all college basketball games should be held on aircraft carriers. #CarrierClassic #MSU #UNC
RT Herman Cain's hilarious 404 page: "Like an Obama policy, this 404 page gets you nowhere." http://read.bi/tlua9R h/t @igorbobic
New explanation for the Rick Perry flub: "We’re asking more of our brains than evolution ever prepared us to handle." wapo.st/vl0e09
The original DA who investigated the Penn State incident in 1998 went missing and his hard drive was found in a river: http://bit.ly/tG84vb
Penn State students protested the Paterno firing by blowing vuvuzelas. Vuvuzelas? Did the whole student body study abroad in South Africa?
White House says there is no evidence of space aliens. http://zite.to/s1XngN I can't wait to hear the Republican rebuttal.

Lottery trucks

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:48:00 +0000

As in many other cities these days, people in D.C. like to eat food when it's sold out of a truck. Perhaps trying to capture that excitement about truck-related commerce, there is now a lottery truck that evidently drives around to sell lottery tickets.

Price of Internet

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:21:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered how much it actually costs for a company to provide your house with broadband Internet service? According to Brian Stelter of the New York Times, $9.99 would "more than cover the overhead costs of providing monthly Internet service." Not bad.

Bob Costas, Luddite

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:49:00 +0000

On his radio program last week,¹ Dan Patrick chatted with Bob Costas, who shared his view on modern communications technology.

Costas: "I am happily a Luddite when it comes to this. I have never sent or received an email in my life. I don't have a Facebook page and I won't look at anyone else's tweet under any circumstances, okay? I don't need additional portals opened up."

With Andy Rooney retired, perhaps Costas is showcasing his talents as a curmudgeon?

¹Listen yourself, starting at the 19:10 mark.

William Davie

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:59:00 +0000

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – People generally know Charles Cornwallis, a British general during the Revolutionary War. But who the hell is Davie? Do people know who Davie is?

Doritos inventor Arch West, RIP

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:31:00 +0000

@EricStangel
Eric Stangel Inventor of Doritos dies. By expiring, he did something his product can't do...
Sep 27 via webFavorite RetweetReply

@pourmecoffee
pourmecoffee Doritos inventor's grave will be sprinkled with chips, but let's not forget Fredric Baur was buried in Pringles can. http://t.co/bVGconvA
Sep 27 via TBUZZFavorite RetweetReply

Prior to inventing Doritos, Arch West "worked as a traveling cheese salesman." You know, I don't hear much about traveling cheese salesmen these days.

Skyscrapers of Charlotte

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:30:00 +0000

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Behold, the tallest building between Philadelphia and Atlanta: the Bank of America Corporate Center. Pretty much this exact photo was in my Charlotte guidebook, so I figured I'd recreate it. Not pictured: the Charlotte skyline's newest tower, which I mention only as an excuse to link to an interesting article about a skyscraper built for Wachovia that will instead become the headquarters for Duke Energy.

Your safety is our priority

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:07:00 +0000

The TSA line at National Airport has a handy sign informing travelers that children 12 and under do not have to take off their shoes. The QR code on the sign directs users to a website that reads: "Intelligence and history have shown that allowing passengers of this age to leave their shoes on poses little risk to aviation security."

That's nice to hear, but now that we're advertising the belief that 12-year-olds can't possibly cause security issues, aren't we pushing the terrorists toward that direction?

Wash your hands

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:30:00 +0000

NEW YORK – The hand-washing process in public bathrooms is problematic. That's been well established.

This week, I came across the sign pictured above, and it turns out I've been doing things wrong all along. Switching Step 5 with Step 6, I've been turning off the water before I dry my hands. I figured it was the better option since it saved water from running needlessly while I dried my hands.

Also, the diagram shows that we're supposed to touching the faucet with the towel we used to dry our hands. But what if the bathroom has one of those Dyson Airblade hand-driers that use no paper? In that scenario, what should we use to make sure we don't get our hands dirty from the faucet that was previously touched only by people with hands so dirty that they necessitated washing?

My trip to the Meadowlands

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:30:00 +0000

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – My hotel would be great if I was attending something at Giants Stadium. (Or MetLife Stadium.) (Or whatever that thing is called.)

But I'm not.

Instead, I'm left to look out the window at the city that will require a New Jersey Transit ticket to visit. (My dad, a native New Yorker, called me a "commuter.")

Making it worse was reading today about the exciting guests that night at the very midtown hotel where I'll be in two weeks (after they've all left): Henry Kissinger, Desmond Tutu, Dikembe Mutombo and the athletic directors and presidents of all the Big East football schools.

Next time, I'll plan more than a day in advance before coming to town during U.N. Week.

Serena Williams

noreply@blogger.com (dl004d) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:26:00 +0000

NEW YORK – It's a compliment to call a male athlete a "beast." Not so for a woman. After meeting Serena Williams, I'll go with "muscular." I thought about taking a photo of her legs as proof of that description, but I chickened out.