I have no idea why this old pick-up truck was parked on a Westside school campus at night. It was completely covered with rust and looked a little eerie in greenish light — as if it had appeared right out of the past.
Mystery Truck. Photo: Reinhard Kargl, 2010. (Added vignette and adjusted tint, exposure and sharpness digitally). Click to enlarge.
I haven’t met a journalist who does not love books. If obsessive book collecting were not enough, we usually have huge stacks of newspaper and magazine clippings, in which we often seem to suffocate.
What do I need? What should I keep, what should I toss? Just reviewing everything takes time. And when do I find the time to file everything away so I can actually find it when I need it??
It’s hopeless. Sometimes I fear I could end up like this one day:
Trekking up and down the East Fork of the San Gabriel River last weekend, through intense heat and about 20 wildwater crossings, we found the mysterious Bridge to Nowhere.
Bridge to Nowhere. Sheep Mountain Wilderness, California. 34°16′59″N 117°44′48″W. Click to enlarge. Photo: Reinhard Kargl, 2010
Why is there a bridge in the middle of the wilderness?
I was wondering too.
Built in the San Gabriel Mountains in 1936, the 120 ft (27 m) high bridge was supposed to be part of a road connecting the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County with Wrightwood in San Bernardino County. But the road was never completed.
After being overcome by a flood in March of 1938, the road construction project was abandoned.
The bridge remains, leading nowhere. It is accessible only on foot.
In his new book, journalist Peter Beinart argues that when America’s optimist spirit became devoid of all limitations, the nation fell victim to hubris — the same euphoria that afflicts a gambler after winning a few times. As a result of feeling unstoppable, America began to project its power globally and beyond what is reasonable and affordable.
As an advocate of American Isolationism (and the ideas of Thomas Paine in particular), I know I will find this book to be a fascinating read.
Here are the author’s home page and blog.
ISBN: 9780061456466; ISBN10: 0061456462; Imprint: Harper; On Sale: 6/1/2010; Format: Hardcover; Trimsize: 6 x 9″; Pages: 496; $27.99;
Estimates of the amount of oil spilled from the still gushing BP well in the Gulf of Mexico range 25,000 to 60,000 barrels per day.
It’s hard to imagine how much this is. Here is a video simulation of 25,000 barrels, the lowest estimate. This animation was done with software normally used to produce video games. Impressive!
When I was a junior in college, one of my favorite books was Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis. I read the German translation a few years after it came out. At the time, the novel piqued my interest in Los Angeles and laid the basis for my perception of the anthropological circus that makes up “Hollywood”.
25 years after the novel’s release, Ellis has now revived its twisted characters for his latest book, Imperial Bedrooms.
Blair and Trent now have a loveless marriage. Clay is a narcissistic but successful screenwriter (“with occasional production credits”), who attempts to have Julian killed. And Rip, of course, is still a villain.
I’ll put it on the ever growing “must read” list.
What’s that incessant, deafening honking noise heard all the way from South Africa’s soccer stadiums?
It’s the vuvuzela, of course. World Cup teams are complaining bitterly (players can’t hear each other or the referee’s whistle). Stadium ticket holders are blown deaf on one or both ears. TV directors are throwing up their arms in despair. Flooded with viewer complaints, the BBC is now looking into ways to cancel the noise from its World Cup broadcasts.
South African officials have suggested that foreigners should just embrace the South African way of celebrating. No, it’s not a traditional instrument any more than a car horn is. Instruments make music. The vuvuzela just honks. And it’s not traditional either. Vuvuzelas have only become popular in the 1990s, and the cheap plastic models are nothing but a recent fad. Probably made in China.
Vuvuzela. Vuvuzela! Just about the only nice thing to say about it is the word itself! I absolutely love it!
So much so that I propose we adopt secondary uses of the word as it enters the English language, such as:
Don’t talk like a vuvuzela! (Used in arguments).
Sarah Palin is such a vuvuzela. (I’m not trying to make a political statement here).
Don’t vuvuzela us! (Said to Sarah Palin).
My editor just gave me the vuvuzela because I missed my manuscript deadline.
Oops …
The new NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden showed a passionate side in his radio interview with Patt Morrison today.
He gets teary-eyes about the retirement of the Space Shuttle but then turns his eyes toward the future. Bolden, a retired U.S. Marine Corps major general, is a former astronaut who flew on 4 shuttle missions. But despite his feelings, Bolden seems content with the notion that it is time to retire the shuttle and move on by limiting NASA’s role in Earth-orbit launch operations. Which must happen by default anyway, since NASA has no shuttle successor anywhere near the launchpad at this time.
Taking a big step, Bolden conceded that future NASA astronauts will be flying on spacecraft mostly developed and built by private firms.
You can listen to the interview below:
To download the entire audio file, click on Download.
The Austrian postal service is launching an innovative smart phone app.
First, take a picture on your smart phone and upload it. Then, add a recipient mailing address and a personal message. The postal service in Austria will generate a postcard, print it on paper and send it (via domestic or international mail) to the recipient.
The cost (1.99 euro for postage and postcard) can be paid via credit card or other payment options).
Now you can send your aunt Mimi a postcard from Austria, with a picture of you in Las Vegas. Just for the heck of it.
No smart phone? You can also upload pictures from a computer with Internet access. No special software is required.
http://app.post.at/e-postkarte/site/karte