Science and Technology

Geek Chicks: PyLadies, a Gang of Female Computer Programmers

Nanette GonzalesKatharine Jarmul, PyLady​It's not that the PyLadies are intimidated by the men who dominate computer programmer events and workshops. It's just that they got tired of feeling like outsiders.Katharine Jarmul, 29, remembers the day they first identified the problem. She and t ... More >>

UCLA Scientists Invent Cheap, Bendy Solar Panels That Could Charge Your Car, Phone

This is the handiest thing to come out of UCLA since those stretchy, glowing devices that can "move with the body." (Aka, a raver's dreamwear.) Now, UCLA is expanding its stretch-nology into the Big Green industry. A new method of collecting the sun's energy and using it to power man's devices is ... More >>

'Bark Side' Super Bowl Ad, With Star Wars' Imperial March Sung by Dogs: Director Keith Schofield Explains How He Did It

Have you seen that video of the dogs barking the Darth Vader song? Chances are, if you have a pulse and an Internet connection, you have. The viral video is a teaser for a Volkswagen Super Bowl commercial, so yes, that makes it a commercial for a commercial. It's bold new territory for advertising ... More >>

Fun Food Things You Can Make On MakerBot's New 3-D Printer (Sporks! 8-Handled Cups!)

If you own a 3-D printer (lucky you), you are probably already halfway to a drawer full of printable forks and spoons. If like us, you had no idea you could buy a 3-D printer for less than the price of dinner for four at The French Laundry, well, let the hamburger patty press printing fun begin. M ... More >>

Study: Popcorn Eaten 2,000 Years Earlier Than Thought

Did cavemen sit around the fire stuffing their hairy faces with popcorn? After analyzing recently unearthed ancient corncobs, researchers say people in what's now Peru were eating popcorn 2,000 years earlier than previously thought -- up to 6,700 years ago, National Geographic reports. Previously, ... More >>

XXX Porn Sites That Advertise Local College Girls Get The Block Treatment From USC, UCLA

imgurThis USC rooftop action deserves a .xxx domain.​Why would a university want to buy a porn domain name on the web? Because that website URL just might advertise hot, nude college girls who (allegedly) attend said school. And that would be bad for ... something. And so campuses across the ... More >>

Wrekmeister Harmonies Score Wavelength at Cinefamily

Michael Snow's game-changer, with live music

10 Favorite Food Quotes in Simpsons' "The Food Wife"

L. Balla​The food media world was chomping at the bit to see last night's highly anticipated Simpsons episode. "The Food Wife" has Marge, Lisa and Bart write a food blog called The Three Mouthkateers as they make their way through the surprisingly eclectic Springfield food scene. There are sno ... More >>

Smart Meter Resistance Spreads to SoCal: Are New Wireless Meters Spying on You, Making You Sick?

Burbank ACTION​Over 100 worried residents packed into the disco-themed ballroom of Moose Lodge in Glendale last night -- summoned by a growing base of health, privacy and consumer advocates lashing out against California's sketchy new method of measuring household energy use. The new wireless ... More >>

The Ig Nobel Awards: Researchers Invent a Wasabi Fire Alarm

Anne Fishbeinwasabi, etc. at Kiyokawa​ The Nobel committee has been awarding their coveted prizes this week, which fact may have overshadowed the announcement of the 21st annual Ig Nobel (get it?) awards, sponsored by the Annals of Improbable Research and handed out last Thursday at a Harvard ... More >>

Which Is Better: Spotify or Grooveshark?

LJ WilliamsonWhich one gets your money?​The arrival of Google is forcing us to make some tough choices about Facebook -- what about the friends, carefully-curated photo albums, and goofy little notes you're not sure you want to pack along to the new place? And now there's Spotify, which is tr ... More >>

Vidcon 2011: YouTube Stars Invade the Hyatt Century Plaza for the Comic-Con of Online Video

Zachary Pincus-RothThe line to meet the online comedy duo Smosh​ An army of teens sporting Justin Bieber haircuts, donning animal hoods and wielding Flip cameras invaded the Hyatt Century Plaza in Century City Thursday through Saturday for the second annual Vidcon, which is making a push to be ... More >>

DJ Turntables Become Art in Pop-Up Gallery Outside MOCA's 'Art in the Streets'

Lea LionBMX guru Bob Haro's customized CD player​ Thanks to the rise of hip hop, the turntable transcended its status as an electronic device, emerged as the instrument of our time -- and gained a whole lotta respect in the process. Recently an exhibit titled "Art Mix" paid homage to the turnt ... More >>

Study Says Lab-Cultured Meat Would Reduce Greenhouse Emissions, Save Energy, and Conserve Water

Sifu Renka/flickrturkey slices​ When you examine a heap of sliced deli turkey from Von's, you see no obvious connection between the slippery pink sheets and a semi-winged, beaked creature, or even a lovely roasted bird like you'd enjoy at Thanksgiving. Had you no prior knowledge, if someone t ... More >>

Top 5 Reasons to Love E-Reader Cookbooks

D. GonzalezPick Your Platform... ​ Sunday is the day for food rituals. Trips to Trader Joe's and the farmers market. The pull-out-all-the-stops multi-course dinners. And the most sacred, Sunday mornings spent thumbing through cookbooks, food magazines and newspaper food sections in the sear ... More >>

Justin Bieber's Carmageddon Anti-Texting Campaign: "A Personal Goal of Mine"

This is a cause very close to my heart ​We knew Carmageddon was gonna be near-apocalyptic, but if even celebrities who never have to lay a finger on a steering wheel for the rest of their lives are getting involved, consider us very, very scared. Justin Bieber's lending his voice (just as lo ... More >>

Shuttle Atlantis Launches with Yeast Onboard

NASAThe launch of space shuttle Atlantis on the morning of July 8, 2011. It will be NASA's final space shuttle mission.​When NASA's final space shuttle mission successfully launched this morning, along with four astronauts and thousands of pounds of jet fuel Atlantis was carrying some unusual ... More >>

Michael Molina, LAX Official Who Resigned After Sexting Controversy, Deleted Racy Messages on City Cellphone

CBS2Molina.​If you're a public official involved in a sexting scandal, be sure to delete the pornographic material -- before they catch you. Unfortunately for LAX executive Michael Molina, his data dump happened after he lost his job. He resigned in the wake of a CBS2 report earlier this mont ... More >>

Veggie-Powered Road Trip

A Frank Gehry design whiz creates biofueled Volkswagens

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Endeavor Space Shuttle to Get Permanent Home at California Science Center in Exposition Park, NASA Says

NASAEndeavor.​Updated after the jump with reaction from Exposition Park-area county leader Mark Ridley-Thomas. As NASA retires its space shuttle program, L.A. will get a piece of that history -- permanently. The space agency announced today that the California Science Center in Exposition Pa ... More >>

EXCLUSIVE Interview: Dave Grohl on Cutting the New Foo Fighters Album's Master Tape to Pieces--and Giving Them Away to the Fans

add caption​Imagine our surprise when we received the advance CD of the Foo Fighters' new album, Wasting Light, and we noticed the following sticker copy: Recorded Entirely On Analog Tape in Dave's Garage. A piece of the ORIGINAL MASTER TAPE included in this package. Upon opening the cardboa ... More >>

'Simpsons' Show Faces Foreign Backlash Over Nuclear-Themed Episodes in Wake of Japan's Radiation Crisis

FoxThis photo would be censored on some stations.​Our favorite nuclear family is suddenly losing viewers in some parts of North America and Europe. And it hasn't done anything different. No, the L.A.-born Simpsons is a victim of thinned skinned censors who fear some folks can't stand to consi ... More >>

Weird Science: Bad Hare Day

Not N. rex. Even scarier, the Donnie Darko bunny.​Enormous bunny rabbits, six times the size of today's rabbits, roamed Minorca three to five million years ago, reports Discovery News. Too big to hop, the well-marbled creatures, ominously known as N. rex, dragged their cottontails around the C ... More >>

Nuclear Crisis in Japan: Time to Reconsider the Safety (And Sanity) of Atomic Energy in the U.S?

FoxA d'oh in the real world can mean hundreds of thousands displaced.​Nuclear power has had a good run in the last 20 years or so. With 9/11 inspiring Americans to think more about how to ween the nation off Middle Eastern oil, atomic energy maybe even had a hey day in recent times. After all ... More >>

Sea Levels are Rising Faster Than Expected, Say L.A.-Area Scientists

Could LA one day look like Kevin Costner's Waterworld?​Scientists at Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has discovered that the gigantic ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting much faster than anyone ever expected. As a result, the seas could potentially rise much faster, as well, e ... More >>

Amateur Astronomers Invite the Public to Informal Viewings

Y2K, 2011-Style: We're Running Out of Internet Protocol Addresses

hotgirlswithiphones.comOne IP address at work.​When the precursor to the Internet was developed at UCLA in 1969, little did the pioneers know that we would all someday be connected by this thing many times over: Your computer at work has an IP address. Your laptop has an IP address. Your iPhon ... More >>

L.A. Facebook Lawsuit Pits Moms Against Zuckerberg: Quit Making Cash off Our Kids

Chill, Ma!​It was bad enough when the mothers and fathers of the world all started joining Facebook -- posting family portraits, friending our crushes and spelling out statuses in correct caps 'n' grammars like the Tweetarded calligraphers they'll forever be. But a lawsuit? Come on, Mom. Da ... More >>

Hydraulic 'Fracking' -- New Oil-Drilling Technique -- Could Create Jobs, Poison Tap Water in California

What's a little contamination in the name of the drill?​The nation was abuzz yesterday with highly unsustainable news of a fresh way to squeeze millions more barrels of oil from the deepest Earthstuffs of America the Beautiful: It's called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" among Big Oil exec ... More >>

UCLA Egypt Professor: Museum Looting, Mummy Beheading Amid Chaos Is 'Huge Loss' for World Heritage

This King Tut statue was smashed by looters​At stake: Human rights. Freedom. Democracy. And a gilded wooden statue of King Tutankhamun. UCLA Professor Willeke Wendrich just got back from an Egyptian archeological dig in December. She says she could detect a "longstanding unhappiness" in lower ... More >>

Whole Foods Conditionally Supports Genetically Engineered Alfalfa

Flickr/VirtualErnSome Roundup with your mayo?​ Whole Foods Market conditionally threw its support behind the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent decision to deregulate genetically engineered Roundup Ready Alfalfa. In an email sent to customers last week, Whole Foods professed their support ... More >>

Donald LeBuhn Files Class Action Lawsuit in LA Against Apple: Says iPhone 4 Glass Casing Sucks and is Not as Strong as Apple Advertises

Gizmodo​If you own an iPhone 4 and the glass casing has broken, you are not alone. So many people have complained, in fact, that the phenomenon has even earned the nickname, "Glassgate." Apparently fed up and pissed off, California resident Donald LeBuhn filed a class action lawsuit earlier thi ... More >>

Camp Blogaway 2011 Update: Registration Is Officially Open

Camp Blogaway​ If you're reading our food blog, chances are good that you might have your own food blog. You might write about recipes, restaurants, chef crushes, or even obscure flavors of Kit Kats. And whether you have 10,000 loyal followers, or twenty casual readers of the friend-and-famil ... More >>

8 Last-Minute Gift Ideas for L.A. Music Lovers (and Obsessives)

​There's always that someone in your family or group of friends or entourage (this is LA we're talking about after all) who is a little intimidating come Holidays gift season. They're way into music, but they're into music in an obsessive way that seems to say "you'll never be able to find a m ... More >>

'XXX' Domain Names For Online Porn Delayed But -- Breaking News -- You Can Still Find Smut Online (Somewhere)

diebmxPorn!​Implementation of the ".xxx" domain name suffix was delayed by the international organization responsible for such things. Darn. We need this. Because a name like YouPorn (.com) isn't quite clear enough for us. ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) postpo ... More >>

No Fracking Way

The dirty cost of clean energy in GASLAND

Don't Buy An iPad This Christmas! (A New One's Coming Out In April, Say Chinese Spies)

The iPad 2 will upgrade to laser-proof gorilla tape​Nothing to damper your love affair with the bright, shiny new iPad in your stocking like finding out in February that a brighter, shinier, probably way cooler one now exists, rendering your dark, dull 2010 version a total clunker. Luckily, de ... More >>

California's 2010 Embrace of Green Tech

In killing Proposition 23, residents choose to pay more for energy, use less

Greens Vs. Big Oil and Prop. 23

To save California's global-warming law, a 23-year-old finds his rage — and 60,000 friends

Food Bloggers Now Eligible for James Beard Foundation Awards

James Beard FoundationA Coveted James Beard Award​ In barely the blink of an eye, food blogging has exploded. Sometimes it seems that hardly an accountant, construction worker, or production assistant is without a personal blog detailing their relationship with food, or at the very least, the ... More >>

Camp Blogaway: A Boot Camp For Food Bloggers

Camp Blogaway​ There are two types of food bloggers, says Patti Londre, who runs Camp Blogaway, a boot camp for food and recipe bloggers. There are those who don't care all that much about how many hits they get but are more interested in the content, and there are those trying to make a few ... More >>

The Orangutan Angel

Birute Galdikas' quest to save a vanishing habitat

Councilman Ed Reyes Wants To Stop Installation Of Solar Panels In Montecito Heights

david.nikonvscanon via Flickr​Updated with a response from Councilman Ed Reyes Councilman Ed Reyes introduced a motion at a meeting Tuesday to halt the installation of 1,000 solar panels in a hillside of the Montecito Heights area, The Eastsider LA reports. The city's Building and Safety Depa ... More >>

Red State Blue State Smackdown: Red States to Sue California Over Global Warming Law

​The attorneys general of Alabama, Nebraska, Texas and North Dakota will sue California over its Global Warming Solutions Act, known as AB32, which requires 80 percent carbon emission reductions by 2050, California Watch reports. First, though, the potential litigants are awaiting the results ... More >>

El Ninos Getting Stronger, More Frequent, According to JPL In Pasadena

JPL​Get ready for the storm of the century: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena this week unleashed a study showing that El Ninos, those wet-weather generators for Southern California, are growing stronger and more frequent. There has been some speculation that the warm Pacific water ... More >>

Jerry Brown Or Meg Whitman? Your Phone Is A 'Tell'

Gizmodo​It might be a little scary knowing that pollsters and political operatives can take one look at you or, rather, at your mobile phone, and have some idea of who you will vote for in California's November gubernatorial race. That is, at least if you have one of the two most-popular smart ... More >>

Software Could Prevent Texting And Web-Browsing While Driving

​Though thirty states, including California, have banned the practice of texting while driving, many drivers text and surf the web during their rush hour commutes anyway. This practice, however, may no longer be physically possible. According to USA Today, two companies have partnered up toget ... More >>

L.A. Artist's 37-Year-Old Nudity Too Much For YouTube

susanmogul.com​By Tom Christie Susan Mogul's landmark 1973 video, "Dressing Up," has been taken down by YouTube censors. The video, which was posted on YouTube by Mogul's Chinatown gallery, Jancar Gallery, features a nude Mogul putting on underwear and clothing, while chewing on a carrot and ... More >>

Is The New iPhone 4 An Epic FAIL? Consumer Reports Gives It A Thumbs Down

Gizmodo​Hold on to your Ray-Bans, Echo Park hipsters: The iPhone 4 has been declared a FAIL by Consumer Reports magazine (via LA Biz Observed). It wasn't AT&T's new reaming digital data plan that will certainly put most monthly iPhone bills above $100. It wasn't the fact that the new phone ... More >>