It’s true, in fact, there are several of them but mostly in the nature reserves of the Santa Monica Mountains. This one is different because it is truly in the heart of LA, Griffith Park. Surrounded by freeways on two sides, Hollywood and downtown on the others, this is truly an urban area. …
Continue reading “There is a mountain lion in central Los Angeles, prowling around Griffith Park”
From the Nielsen Wire: …Nearly half of American smartphone owners (47%) used shopping apps in June 2012, according to Nielsen. Overall, 45 million smartphone owners used apps in the Shopping/Commerce category, accessing shopping apps 17 times on average during June 2012. More analysis: eBay, Amazon, and Groupon dominate with 60% of all uniques. …
Continue reading “Smartphone owners love shopping with apps – use them on average 17x month”
Finally, a marathon for me. Called the Pier to Pier Quest, it is a run/swim along the coast from one pier in the south to another in the north, approximately 20 miles. You run on the sand, swim around coves, climb rocks, traverse the harbor, and finish with an ice cream on the pier. The …
It turns out Jason Bourne didn’t really have amnesia. That would require a hit on the head or something similar. He would then lose all of his past memories and kind up wake up clueless, maybe even unable to make new memories. No, Jason Bourne had selective amnesia where he was able to forget all …
Continue reading “Jason Bourne didn’t really have amnesia – it was more of a writer’s trick”
Baja California seems like the perfect place to recreate that Italian sense of wine. Both are peninsulas with rolling hills of heat and fresh ocean breezes, perfect for a multitude of grape varieties. Food is central to the culture, like it is in Italy, with most Mexicans in the area practicing some sort of agriculture, …
Continue reading “Mexico’s wine country – Valle de Guadalupe – is on the rise”
The term ‘carbon sink’ is becoming more common as we all gain the scientific education needed to deal with climate change and global warming. According to Wikipedia, carbon sinks can be both natural and artificial. Both involve the process of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is called carbon sequestration. The main natural carbon …
Continue reading “Our carbon sinks are absorbing twice as much carbon dioxide as they used to”
One of the last holdouts retail, video games, looks like it too will disappear. The biggest player, GameStop, who controls nearly two-thirds of the market, has been able to stay alive by pushing used games and devices. Last year the company earned $9.55 billion, 46% of which came from used items. Unfortunately, that cannot sustain …
Did you have a chance to see the white water sports at the Olympics, like kayaking and canoeing? If so, you probably noticed that the entire venue was artificial. The Lee Valley White Water Centre in the north of London was created out of a vast expanse of flat land. The designers, including a firm …
An article from The Atlantic focuses on the value of trees: I was approached by someone from an initiative called San Diego County Trees…(a project) extolling the benefits of urban trees. I just spent time on the website, where the coolest feature is an interactive map of the whole county showing very specific tree locations and information, …
Camera in tow, Jana Morgan and a few friends dove in and looked around. Her images expose a mesmerizing world of green sea grass and a community of marine mammals that seem blissfully ignorant of the debate that rages on land about how to split the cove’s sand between people and animals. – UT San …