Science and Technology

U.S. Earthquake Experts in L.A. Abandon Ship For Government Shutdown

The L.A. area offices of the U.S. Geological Survey, the primary folks responsible for earthquake information in Southern California, have cleared out. Literally. The federal government's shutdown has forced the workers to head home, a USGS representative who did not want to be named told us. Eve ... More >>

L.A. Podcast Festival Returns for Second Chapter

At last year's inaugural Los Angeles Podcast Festival, some fans and amateur podcasters brought their own equipment and started recording. Yep, podcast fans were podcasting live from a festival dedicated to podcasts. "You'd see them sitting at tables in the cafe or downstairs on the couches and th ... More >>

The Five Kids I Eat Lunch With Every Day

[Editor's Note: Shea Serrano sometimes writes about Why This Song Sucks, and sometimes about his hilarious and poignant life and times. Better put your shoes on because your socks are about to be blown off.] School has been in for four weeks already. I teach at an inner city middle school in Housto ... More >>

#LAWebAwards: The 2013 Winners List

The Internet just won't stand still. A few years ago it was all about Facebook and Twitter. Then Pinterest, then GIFs. Now we're all taking a crash course in something called Vine. Oh, and did you hear MySpace is back — and Yahoo is beating Google? But as online life continues to evolve, the ... More >>

#LAWebAwards: 'Shift It' Wins Funniest YouTube Video in L.A.

The L.A. Weekly's 2013 Web Awards honor the best of what's online. Check out the complete list of winners. What's the secret to turning a low-budget commercial into a YouTube phenomenon? Full-time YouTube producers and self-proclaimed "Internetainers" Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, better known as ... More >>

Why Grace Helbig Could Be the Next Big Star to Come From YouTube

If I hadn't had been scanning the entrance to Silver Lake's La Mill Coffee, searching for YouTube star Grace Helbig for our scheduled meeting, I never would have recognized her. Even though I'd been watching her award winning vlog Daily Grace constantly for the past few weeks, sharing such intimate ... More >>

The Mission Is Sake

R.I.P. Diner's Journal, The New York Times Restaurant Blog

Today The New York Times announced in a post titled "A Note to Readers," that it would be shutting down its dining blog Diner's Journal. This comes a little more than six months after The Washington Post did the same, shutting down its blog All We Can Eat. The New York Times was far less forthcomin ... More >>

How USC Grads Freddie Wong and Ryan Coogler Became the Future of Filmmaking, Via Two Very Different Paths

Fruitvale Station was a hit at Sundance, while Video Game High School has millions of teen fans

One-Third of Americans Own Tablet Computers, as Digital Divide Grows

Some 34 percent of American adults have a tablet computer, such as an iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus or Kindle Fire, according to a report released by Pew Research Center. The number has shot up sharply, almost doubling since last year. It's all about how old you are (or aren't). There's a ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Market: GMO Blues First Summer Corn

When you Google Monsanto, the website link has both the company's name and its slogan -- A Sustainable Agriculture Company. It's a website that works very hard from the first click to reframe the conversation around the most controversial issue in worldwide agriculture. Perhaps with good reason. ... More >>

Bobak Ferdowsi: The JPL Mohawk Guy

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here. Last year's Mars landing by the NASA rover Curiosity was a nail-biter broadcast live from the control room at the Jet Propulsion Lab in La Cañada Flintridge. Yet as the r ... More >>

The Crucial Mistake Most Bands Are Making With Facebook

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you ... More >>

Please Subscribe: New Documentary Looks at What Makes a YouTube Star

See also: *Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera and Friends Create a YouTube Channel *Our Profile of YouTube Star Jenna Marbles *Our YouTube Issue Some people like to have only egg whites in their omelet," declares a tomboyish young woman as she weaves around a sparsely appointed L.A. apartment kitchen, h ... More >>

What is .art? Financiers and Artists Vie for the Power to Define the Domain Name

By Jef Otte The Internet is about to radically change, and hardly anyone knows it. Think about it like a phone system: The Internet operates on just a handful of top-level domains (TLDs) -- like .com and .org -- that function like area codes. Right now, the internet needs more of them. And pretty ... More >>

Streamy Awards: Online Video's Biggest Night Accepts Old Hollywood Into the Fold

See also: *Our Streamy Awards slideshow *Our profile of Jenna Marbles, from our People Issue The 3rd annual Streamy awards, honoring excellence in original online video, streamed live online (appropriately) Sunday night at the Hollywood Palladium. More than ever before, nominees ran the gamut of n ... More >>

BiteSize Studio Hits Hollywood

A Truman Show–like view into the world of online video creators

Living on Mars Time: What If Your Day Lasted 24 Hours, 39 Minutes and 35 Seconds?

Kirsten Siebach didn't want to go to the party. "There's just no way I can make it at 10 p.m.," she found herself thinking, "because that's breakfast time." For weeks Siebach had been falling asleep in church and calling her mother daily to check her own sanity. But it was her friend's birthday, so ... More >>

The God Particle Complex

Evening With Dr. Jane Goodall

Why Artists Are Blurring the Line Between Real History and Pretend

Promised Land Review: Gus Van Sant Directs a Screenplay by Matt Damon and John Krasinski

Caltech Crafts Gingerbread Mars Rover

One giant leap for a pastry chef? We've seen a lot of cool gingerbread houses around town, but nothing tops the gingerbread Mars Curiosity rover that the nerdy minds at Caltech have come up with. Crafted by Kevin Isacsson, head chef of the Athaneum, the Pasadena university's private dining club, the ... More >>

Rainn Wilson's Website SoulPancake Gets Serious, With Web Series About Death and L.A.'s Homeless

In 2008, Actor Rainn Wilson (NBC's The Office) wanted to create a space on the internet where people could discuss life's big questions with total strangers. You know, what Socrates and Plato would have done if they had access to adequate bandwidth and a YouTube deal. Knowing nothing about building ... More >>

MOCAtv on YouTube: Museum Tries to Lure Online Art Lovers

Space Shuttle Endeavour is Home: PHOTOS

In laid-back, SoCal style, the space shuttle Endeavour was more than fashionably late to its final home, the California Science Center, but people along its 12-mile route from LAX to Exposition Park didn't seem to mind the extra viewing time. The Endeavour got to its destination today at 1:10 p.m. ... More >>

Endeavour's Tree-Chopping Truth: Readers Weigh In

Endeavour's Road Trip to California Science Center Expected to Draw Masses to L.A. Streets

You thought Endeavor fever was over once the retired space shuttle hit the ground at LAX following its amazing flyover last month. You're wrong. The fever has only begun. Because L.A. will get an even closer look at the shuttle next week. That's way cool, except that the cops are worried too many ... More >>

Endeavour's Tree-Killing Debut

Steve Soboroff falsely said the chopped trees were dying, sick

8.6 Earthquake in Indian Ocean Triggered Aftershocks in L.A.'s Backyard

If you've noticed that the Ring of Fire around the Pacific Rim seems to rock like a frat party every time there's a giant earthquake, new science might just back up your observation. A new study by U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Fred Pollitz documents how the Pacific Rim went bonkers following ... More >>

Teen Sexting: More Than 1 in 10 L.A. School District Kids Do It

Sexting is the new teen scourge, apparently. Yet another academic study has found that more than 1 in 10 teens have been sexting lately. This research, however, is local: 1839 students in the L.A. Unified School District were questioned about their texting. The results?

Space Shuttle Endeavour: Why Isn't the California Science Center Conducting an EIR Before Cutting Down 265 Trees?

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires that any project which "may have a significant effect on the environment" be prefaced by an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) -- an often lengthy document investigating the project's possible effects on both the natural environment on the urba ... More >>

Los Angeles, Inglewood Officials to Sacrifice 400 'Majestic' Trees in Way of Space Shuttle Endeavour

"Space exploration events are like the Olympics; everyone just feels good," Inglewood Mayor James Butts said at a triumphant press conference on the September 20 arrival of the space shuttle Endeavour. And the spacecraft's 12-mile trip from LAX to the California Science Center on October 13, added ... More >>

Earthquake 'Swarm' in Imperial Valley Still Raging, Could Signal Larger SoCal Event

An underground thunderstorm of seismic activity, officially called a "seismic swarm," hit a farm town called Brawley in the Imperial Valley yesterday -- gearing up around sunrise with some magnitude 2s and 3s, peaking with a magnitude 5.3 and 5.5 just after noon, and rolling into Monday morning with ... More >>

Curiosity Aside, Mars Could Experience Earthquake, UCLA Researcher Finds

If you think space is the final frontier, you might be in for a disappointment. While NASA's Curiosity rover is snapping shots of a crater and hoping to find earth-like life on the Red Planet, UCLA scientists have discovered it has a lot in common with Southern California. It turns out Mars has te ... More >>

Droning on and on

Enjoy the Heat Wave While You Can: Los Angeles May Be in for a Long, Stormy Winter

As the mercury rises this week and your commute gets a couple shades sweatier, we don't want to hear you whining to the L.A. Daily News that you're "very tired of it being constantly warm." Seriously -- be grateful, people! Because it's looking like you'll have plenty of time for your miserable rai ... More >>

1 in 4 Teens Sexting Nude Photos; Sexters More Likely to be Having Real Sex

Some research has shown that preteens are hitting puberty and younger and younger ages. It looks like technology is catching up with kids, or vice-versa: A new study finds that 1 out of 4 teenagers has texted or emailed nude pictures, and half have been asked for a naked photo. The study, publishe ... More >>

Issa Rae and Awkward Black Girl Fill a (Tiny) Niche

Check out our entire YouTube issue here. In front of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at the Grove, someone is scraping lightweight plastic chairs across the pavement instead of picking them up, and the sound is akin to fingernails being dragged down a chalkboard. Issa Rae, the 27-year-old writer, direct ... More >>

Megan Lee Heart and Reply Girls Game the System, While YouTube Wants Our Eyeballs Pointed Elsewhere

Check out our entire YouTube issue here. Megan Lee Heart made tens of thousands of dollars in the last year -- and did it all from her home in suburban Sherman Oaks. No special effects. No fancy equipment. Just strategic positioning -- and as many as 10 videos each day. Her most popular YouTube cha ... More >>

30 Other Ways to Succeed on YouTube

After you've read our YouTube issue on the secrets to online video stardom, check out 30 other ways to succeed on YouTube:

Hollywood Fringe Festival Can Has LOLPERA

It's a warm Saturday afternoon a month before the start of the Hollywood Fringe Festival and LOLPERA is in its first day of rehearsal. Cast members have just finished a run-through of the work's dramatic opening number in the living room of Director Angela Lopez's Long Beach apartment. The word "mas ... More >>

Invasion of the Beauty Bloggers

Erika Brechtel's kid is only 3 years old, but she knows the perils of being raised by a fashion blogger. "Mom, put your iPad down," she'll say. Or rather, scream: "Mom! Put! Your! iPad! Down!" Brechtel, 38, is a mom, homeowner and full-time graphic designer married to "a workaholic architect husban ... More >>

Free Wi-Fi Comes to Los Angeles' Comcast, Time Warner Customers (Sort of)

Five of the nation's biggest cable companies today announced they're rolling out free wi-fi hotspots for customers. The markets covered including Los Angeles, New York, Tampa, Orlando, and Philadelphia. The participating companies include Comcast and Time Warner Cable in L.A. and Cox Communication ... More >>

Could Fracking in Los Angeles Cause an Earthquake?

Could Fracking in Los Angeles Cause an Earthquake?

Conversations about fracking, the controversial technique for natural gas extraction (alternately known as "that thing that turns your tap water flammable") are typically confined to Pennsylvania, where the critically acclaimed documentary Gasland was set, or the state of New York, currently debatin ... More >>

It's The Hottest Year Ever, America

If your face melted off in March, you nearly died during the second weekend of Coachella in April, and now you're wondering if there is hell on earth in May, you're not that crazy. And it's not just an Inland Empire thing either. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said recently t ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 5/7 - 5/11

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "I was never trying to make a statement about vegetarianism at Ubuntu, I was just trying to showcase the best ingredients I had available." Q & A With Jeremy Fox: Paper or Plastik, Prefabs, His New L.A. Restaurant Life Post- ... More >>

Sombrero Shaped Galaxy Has Multiplied

It turns out the so-called Sombrero Galaxy -- shaped like the Mexican hat -- is now two. Ay Dios mio: Leave us Latinos alone for two seconds and -- boom! -- we multiply. Well, not exactly. The Sombrero was two all along, NASA Spitzer Science Center researchers at Caltech said recently:

Want to Start a Food Blog? Food Blogging for Dummies Could Be Just What You Need, Depending on Your Pie Expectations

We were bound to get a food-blogging edition of the endless "Dummies" series (we must not be getting any smarter) one of these days. With Food Blogging for Dummies, the days of "Branding Your Food Blog Through Consistency and Frequency" chapter headers has arrived. The author is Kelly Senyei, an as ... More >>