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Posts for February 2009
"What's in the daily news? I'll tell you what’s in the daily news."
So this afternoon I took a gander at what folks were looking for on the Interwebs; seeing what people are searching for or sending to each other. As I surfed, it occurred to me that we have a lot of information in the Yahoo! Directory on those very subjects; the things that people are interested in, whether it be the Obama's dog; the doings at the caves in Lascaux, France; serial killers; Tiger Woods's comeback (and his wife, of course); or baseball gearing up again (not to mention the question of just where Manny Ramirez is going to end up).
So take a look at the Yahoo! Directory, won't you? The more you know about the stuff you’re interested in, the more interesting it (and you) will be.
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
Dogs, Barack Obama Administration, Paleolithic Cave Painting, Serial Killers, Manny Ramirez |
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Archived under: Ancient History, Animals, Archaeology, Artists, Arts, Athletes, Barack Obama, Baseball, Baseball Players, Crime, Criminals, Dogs, France, Golf, History, In Character, Internet, Law Enforcement, MLB, Models, Presidents, Serial Killers, Spring, Spring Training, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Directory |
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L.A. Times page about the event,
February 26, 1942 |
In the 1996 film "Independence Day," aliens converged on various cities all over the world in order to destroy human civilization. One of the most iconic scenes involved an alien spacecraft hovering over the Los Angeles skyline. But it's just possible that that scene was based on a true story.
Well, sort of... On February 24, 1942, just months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and only hours after a Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, a series of mysterious lighted objects appeared in the night skies over Los Angeles. The U.S. Army responded quickly, triggering air raid sirens, a city-wide blackout, and a barrage of anti-aircraft shells that both illuminated both the horizon and panicked civilians. Witnesses described the ensuing scene as looking like a sinister version of the Fourth of July. When the shelling was over, six people were dead and the unidentified object had disappeared over the Pacific Ocean, its true identity forever unknown. The event became popularly known as "The Battle of Los Angeles."
To this day, a debate continues over just what Angelenos saw that night -- was it aliens? The Japanese? A weather balloon? The U.S. government reached no definite conclusions (or none they're willing to reveal), and of course UFO aficionados have their own theories. Interestingly, although the event has largely faded from pop culture consciousness, an upcoming movie may restore interest.
While it's unlikely we’ll ever know exactly what happened that night, one can only hope that the truth is out there.
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
Los Angeles, UFOs, World War II, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Extraterrestrial Life |
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Archived under: 1940s, Aliens, American History, Anniversaries, Conspiracies, Cover Ups, History, Los Angeles, Military, Paranormal, WWII, Weird Stuff |
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Why is food so hot? Maybe it’s because everybody eats. Or maybe it's because it’s all around us. We watch it being made on TV, we cook it in our homes, and we tweet about it. We even pay through the nose to partake in it on the sly. If we are what we eat, we are fast and we are slow. We are divided into a world of different faiths, from Pizzaphiles to Tacotarians to experts in Mixology.
Maybe even more than eating food, we love talking about it: developing recipes, photographing our creations, and critiquing the restaurants we’ve visited with our friends (even if we keep the really good ones to ourselves). After all, if sharing a meal with friends is the height of interpersonal contact, sharing a meal with the entire Internet has to be better by orders of magnitude, right?
Suggested Sites...
- The Ghetto Gourmet - find an underground dinner party near you
- Chowhound - discussions about food, wine, cooking, cookware, how and what to eat.
- FoodBuzz - a busy community sharing recipes and restaurants.
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Directory categories:
Recipes, Social Networks, Eating Practices, Food and Drink, Food Blogs |
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Archived under: Alcohol, Blogs, Cocktails, Cooking, Eating, Fast Food, Food and Drink, Internet, Junk Food, Networks, Pizza, Restaurants, Slow Food, Social Networking, Society and Culture |
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Remember the Future? When everything was going to be clean and bright and efficient? When we'd all be whizzing around in flying cars to supervise our robots or eating meals in pill form?
I was reminded of those days that never were when I saw that February 21 was the anniversary of Waldo Waterman's first test flight of his "Aerobile," the world’s first flying car -- in 1937! 1937?! You mean, we've had flying cars for over 70 years, and no one bothered to tell me? And to make matters worse, Glenn Curtis built a flying car in 1917?! (Though, to be fair, that model may not have made it off the ground).
Waterman was an aviation genius, but he was never able to make his flying car practical. He built six of them, and only five of those flew -- and only two of those were able to make the first test flight from California to Ohio.
Reading about the Aerobile made me wonder if there were any other inventions that were supposed to be parts of the far future, but had actually already existed. Somehow we didn't even notice how big-screen TVs infiltrated our homes or how computers went from filling whole rooms to fitting on our laps.
And robots? Most of us still don't have robots to run our space ships or clean our homes (or do we?), but who knew that the first robots were built in 1206(!), or that there were human-like robots in movies as early (or as late, I suppose) as 1920, or that they were walking around the 1939 New York World’s Fair?
The more I looked, the more revelations appeared. Personal jet-packs? Done. Death rays? Old hat. Moving sidewalks? Barely worth mentioning. Heck, even Disneyland’s "House of the Future," which showcased such unimaginable gadgets as microwave ovens and PicturePhones became obsolete and was torn down in 1967!
While teleportation, man-made food, and interstellar travel still aren’t commonplace, we have to admit we’re glad that such "innovations" as artichoke hair and glass clothing never came to be. Although that head-mounted flashlight does look pretty sweet...
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
Future Studies, Inventions, Science Fiction, Aviation History, Concept Cars |
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Archived under: 1930s, Anniversaries, Autos, Aviation, Creativity, Disneyland, Gadgets, History, In Character, Invention, Inventors, Predictions, Science, Science Fiction, Society and Culture, Technology |
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Friday night (or Saturday morning, technically), Conan O'Brien ends his 16-year run as the host of "Late Night," and will assume the throne that was once Johnny Carson's on "The Tonight Show." Jay Leno might still be on TV (though an hour earlier), but I'm betting -- or maybe hoping -- it won't be for long. Conan deserves to own the title "The King of Late Night." Over the last two weeks, he's proven the case with highlights from over fifteen years of his show, particularly the remote skits, such as going on a wine-tasting tour in Napa Valley, picking apples with Mr. T, or Triumph the Insult Comic Dog harassing Star Wars nerds -- not to mention a montage of some of his best bloopers.
When O'Brien first took over David Letterman's post-"Tonight Show" slot, there were naysayers aplenty. Nobody knew who this tall, lanky, redheaded kid was. Even if they were aware that he was one of the Emmy-winning writers for "Saturday Night Live," they were still concerned, and asked, "Can he really run his own show?" Obviously, the answer was "Yes." Conan brought his own unique zaniness to late night TV, including sketches or characters (like the Masturbating Bear) that the older crowd might find offensive, but that's just it -- his show was for the younger crowd. That's plain to see in his audience, which is full of college kids who scream his name when he walks out on the set, as though they're at a football game. "Keep cool, my babies," he'd tell them, and they'd get even rowdier.
Aside from the bizarre antics on the show, O'Brien's success is mostly due to his sense of humor. This was obvious from the opening skit of his first episode, in which everyone he passes reminds him of the pressure he's under in replacing Letterman. Conan finally cheerfully reaches his dressing room -- only to put his head in a noose. He often makes an ass of himself and laughs about it, and although he jokingly boasts that he "loves the ladies," he has no problem looking like a complete idiot in front of his most beautiful guests, whether it means dancing like a fool or mopping up his hair and leaving it frazzled -- anything for a laugh. He often jokes about being a nerd, both as a kid and an adult (and his impression of a nerd is one of my personal favorites), but in reality, Conan O'Brien is one of the coolest dudes on TV.
The man is fearless, and that's why I love him. And now I finally have a reason to watch "The Tonight Show" again.
Suggested Sites...
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Directory categories:
Conan O'Brien, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Talk Show Hosts |
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Archived under: Comedians, Conan OBrien, Entertainment, In Character, Late Night TV, TV, Talk Show Hosts |
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