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Spotlight Story
The amazing spider woman
October 17, 2014
Cat Urban is L.A. County's very own spider woman. You won't find her swinging from tall buildings to fight crime, but she just might help you feel a little safer at night.
As supervisor of invertebrates at the Natural History Museum, it's Urban's job to manage all things creepy and crawly—including the orb-weavers that are currently stretching their spiral-shaped webs across the spider pavilion.
Fear of spiders is said to be the most common phobia in the world (look no further than Halloween decorations and Hollywood movies for confirmation), but Urban says the creatures are misunderstood.
"They don't want anything to do with us," Urban says. "They're more like 'I'm going to run away from this giant monster that ran into my web.' "
The orb-weavers in the pavilion are technically blind, so they can't see people and they don't detect them as prey. As a rule, spiders also need to conserve their venom to anesthetize prey—it takes a lot of energy to produce. So it's a fair bet that they will avoid wasting it by biting humans or other creatures they can't consume.
On the other hand, the eight-legged creatures are an important part of our ecosystem and the food chain, serving as meals for reptiles, birds and amphibians. And their own dining habits are something to applaud.
"They eat a ton of bugs," Urban says. "The world would be overrun with flies and mosquitos if we didn't have orb-weavers; they are essential to our livelihood on the planet."
That usefulness notwithstanding, people frequently get so creeped out that they have to make an early exit from the pavilion. Even Urban's older brother is "petrified" of spiders—a major motivating factor behind her interest in the creatures, which began when she was a 12-year-old in Texas.
"There was this special place right across from my house where they were everywhere," Urban said. "It was this huge community of nephila—they're the ones that make the big webs that are always right across the path when you're jogging or biking."
Urban spent six years at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. before moving to Los Angeles. One of the main reasons she came was the spider pavilion, which she said is the only one of its kind in the world.
The pavilion is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until November 2. Entrance is $5 for adults and $3 for children, in addition to general museum admission. Advance reservations are recommended.
Those brave enough to enter will be treated to a dazzling display by hundreds of orb weavers, from the Giant Wood Spider, which builds webs that can measure up to ten feet in diameter, to Golden Silk Spiders, whose yellow webs contain silk that's as strong as steel. Other arachnids such as tarantulas, wolf spiders and jumping spiders are showcased in a newly-redesigned indoor exhibit adjacent to the pavilion.
Urban and her fellow museum workers will be on hand to educate the public and answer any spider-related questions. Each morning they must adjust the visitors' path through the pavilion to accommodate new webs that were built overnight, and they also deliver fresh meals like crickets, blowflies and roaches directly to the spiders' webs.
While Urban has no qualms about letting a spider the size of a bread plate crawl up her arm, she's not completely fearless—zombies, she says, give her the heebie-jeebies. Which is a much more rational thing to fear, of course.
Posted 10/17/14
A tribute big as the Ponderosa
October 9, 2014
After years of navigating enough obstacles to prompt the patriarch on TV's Bonanza to yell, "What in tarnation is going on down there?" Los Angeles County is poised to finish upgrades at Dan Blocker Beach in Malibu, though on a more modest scale than initially envisioned.
The $5.5-million project at 26200 Pacific Coast Highway included purchasing a sliver of land above the mile-long beach, where a scenic overlook is now being constructed, complete with picnic areas, parking spots and restrooms. The site also will feature, for the first time, a bronze plaque funded by fans and honoring the actor who played Hoss Cartwright on one of the longest-running and most beloved series in television history.
The overlook area will not provide direct access to the beach that bears Blocker's name. Not only is the bluff extremely steep—30 feet high in some places—but the beach area directly below is too rocky for general use. However, beachgoers can walk onto the sand by entering at more accessible points north or south of the new overlook. Those new access ways also are being improved as part of the project.
The project should be substantially completed in time for a dedication ceremony on Nov. 14.
The late actors Michael Landon and Lorne Greene, who rose to fame as Little Joe and Ben Cartwright on Bonanza, bought and donated the beach to the state of California in 1979.
It was their way of honoring their costar and friend Blocker, after his untimely death at age 43 from a pulmonary embolism following what should have been routine surgery.
The state handed the beach over to the county in 1995.
It was designated "for public park and recreation purposes" but the public didn't get much of a chance to enjoy it because neither the state nor the county could afford to install amenities.
In 2004, the state Coastal Conservancy awarded the county $700,000 to make the beach more accessible, but that covered only half of the price tag for improvements mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act and various local zoning codes. The grant ended up being diverted to other, more shovel-ready projects.
Malibu City Council members, frustrated with the slow pace, sought to take over the project in 2011. But the county, which was shouldering the price tag for renovation, refused.
With no safe way to access the beach from the bluff, authorities erected an unsightly chain-link fence that discouraged, rather than encouraged, visitors.
"When we started, the site was empty," said county Department of Public Works project manager Salim Sioufi, who oversaw the construction. "There was nothing on it."
"Now, we're building an area where people can sit and look at the ocean," he added. "It's going to be beautiful."
The county eventually cobbled together funding from various sources, including money from the 3rd Supervisorial District, to build a space offering stunning views of the coast, picnic tables and trash receptacles, restrooms with an underground wastewater treatment system, and a parking lot with 15 spaces.
"The bluffs are very steep, so it was a very difficult place to do construction," said Carol Baker, public information officer with the Department of Beaches and Harbors.
"We wanted to provide safe, accessible and beautiful open space but we also needed to appropriately address the challenges presented by the natural environment," she added.
Although Bonanza, which ran for 430 episodes between 1959 and 1972, has long been off the prime time network schedule, it still has legions of fans. So does Blocker, who despite his intimidating physique—6'4", 300-plus pounds—played the warm but gullible middle Cartwright brother who once mistook diminutive circus performers for leprechauns.
In real life, however, the Texas-born Blocker once worked as an elementary and high school English and drama teacher, and was the only member of the cast with a master's degree. He also tried to pursue a Ph.D. until acting took up all of his time.
Carla Ledford, 56, has been watching the show ever since she was a child and continues to do so, when she's not working in marketing for a university in Ohio.
She and fellow fans got the idea for a plaque after struggling to locate Dan Blocker Beach during a visit to Malibu in 2004.
"There was just wasn't anything there," Ledford said. "We drove up and down trying to find it when we finally saw a faded lifeguard tower where we could just make out the name 'Dan Blocker Beach.' "
"I mean, it's a nice beach, but…we just thought it needed something," she added.
They took up a collection through the fan fiction website Bonanza Legacy and received donations from fans as far away as Australia, England, France, and the Netherlands.
Ledford said because she's literally been waiting 10 years to see the plaque installed, she's considering postponing foot surgery and flying from Ohio to California to attend the dedication ceremony.
"I'm seriously thinking about it," Ledford said.
Posted 10/9/14
Time to grin and bear it for CEO
September 25, 2014
This is the story of Bill and the three bears.
Last Sunday afternoon, the county's chief executive officer was pursing his usual weekend pasttime—terracing his sprawling, hilly backyard with bricks—9,000 of them , so far—when his wife bolted out of the house. She announced that three sheriff patrol cars were blocking the driveway and that officials from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife were there, too.
Why the commotion? A mother bear and two cubs had shimmied up an oak tree in front of Fujioka's house in the tiny city of Bradbury, nestled at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains near Monrovia. They'd been spotted on a busy street in the area and were being guided back towards the mountains by authorities when the parched and hungry animals decided to hole up at Fujioka's place.
"Holy smokes," Fujioka exclaimed as he saw for himself what was unfolding out front.
Wildlife officials told Fujioka that because of the severity of the drought, the bears had wandered from the mountains looking for food and water. "It was sad," Fujioka said. "The mother's fur looked bad and the cubs looked malnourished."
At one point, Fujioka said, he started walking towards the tree when the mama bear "started hitting the branches."
"Back up!" a wildlife official told Fujioka. "She's warning you. If you keep going, she'll come down that tree and charge you."
After more than an hour, the bears did climb down but quickly jumped Fujioka's fence and high-tailed it into another tree, a birch that was even closer to the house. "From my bedroom window," the CEO recalled, "I could look at the bear eyeball-to-eyeball."
By now, the news crews had arrived, hoping for footage of the bears' descent.
As they waited, a reporter for KABC-TV interviewed Fujioka, who admittedly was "as filthy as could be" from his backyard brick work.
Usually when he makes the news, Fujioka is seen unveiling the county's budget or taking part in other official business. This time, his name was misspelled as "Fugioka" and there was no mention of his position with the county. He was just another neighborhood man in the news. And that neighborhood is no stranger to attracting media attention for its occasional bear visitors. A few years ago, one made headlines for taking a dip in a resident's hot tub.
On Sunday, in the end, the bears waited out almost everyone—the deputies, the fish and wildlife people, even the news hounds. Everyone except Fujioka and his wife, Darlene Kuba. After more than two hours in the branches, at about 4 p.m. the trio inched down and literally hit the bricks, ambling across Fujioka's prized, terraced backyard and then back into the hills—leaving Darlene as the lone chronicler of the moment. Here are some of her pictures of the bears on the lam:
Trouble at sea
September 18, 2014
A punishing heat wave sent thousands of people fleeing to the beach this week, but many who tried to cool off in the ocean found themselves in hot water instead.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department's Lifeguard Division saved more than 1,000 swimmers and surfers swept up by rip currents and other hazards over a five-day period when temperatures peaked at 107 degrees in the San Fernando Valley.
This brought the lifeguards' total number of rescues up to about 12,000 since January. That's their third highest tally ever in a single year — with three months still remaining in 2014.
Acting Chief Lifeguard Steve Moseley attributes the spike to a rare confluence of factors: A surge in beach attendance driven by extended periods of unseasonably hot weather, more frequent occurrences of high surf and a warmer ocean.
"All of these contributing factors have combined to create one of the busiest years in recent memory for the Lifeguard Division," Moseley said.
To date, beach attendance has hit 61 million — well past the 20-year average of 54 million and on pace to exceed last year's 71 million.
"It's been so hot inland that everybody's coming to the beach, even on a Tuesday or a Wednesday," said Ocean Lifeguard Specialist A.J. Lester. "And because ocean temperatures are warmer, everybody's staying in the water all day long." (Tips on staying safe on the beach are here.)
Jet Propulsion Laboratory climatologist and oceanographer Bill Patzert said swimmers and surfers have been particularly vulnerable to being swept away by rip currents, and falling into deep grooves on the ocean floor.
He explained several hurricanes and tropical storms spawned by El Nino conditions in the equatorial Pacific scored the ocean floor, leaving uneven contours.
"The county's south-facing beaches have been hit with big waves, almost week after week," Patzert said. "Hurricane Norbert is breaking up, but we have yet another one forming now.
"Because these tend to change the configuration of the ocean bottom," he added, "people very easily can get into water over their heads in these rip currents."
Lester said the county employs 200 full-time and 700 part-time lifeguards and has "needed every one of them." He himself rescued 18 people in a single day last spring, including a pair of boogie-boarding teenagers swept away by rip currents.
"The sister was screaming blood-curdling screams because her brother had fallen off his board and, basically, he was drowning," Lester said. "I wrapped them around my rescue can but a wave slammed us down to the bottom, and when we got back to the surface, we were all spitting up water."
Moments after he brought the siblings ashore, he had to dive back in for yet another double rescue. "Then I returned to my tower and parked my truck, but before I could even dry off, we had to pull more people out," Lester said.
"It's gotten to the point sometimes when we're going from one rescue to the next," Lester said. Still, he added, "There's nothing more rewarding than completing a rescue, coming back to the beach, and watching those kids run back to their parents, and they're all hugging each other, and thanking us."
Section Chief Chris Linkletter said lifeguards also have racked up 1 million "preventions."
"This means we have prevented that number of people from either becoming rescues or getting into a hazardous situation," she said.
Amid all the rescues, however, there also have been mishaps.
On Monday, a lifeguard driving a pickup truck back to his tower accidentally ran over a sunbather, who survived but sustained fractures and lacerations to her internal organs.
It was the second such accident this year. In May, another sunbather was hit by a county beach maintenance vehicle.
Posted 9/18/14
A peak accomplishment
September 11, 2014
Milt McAuley's fingerprints are all over the Santa Monica Mountains. Soon, his name could be on one of the range's most visible peaks.
Acting on a motion by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to write the United States Board of Geographic Names in support of changing the name of Peak 2049 to "McAuley Peak."
The motion is the latest boost to a campaign championed during the past several years by West Hills resident and avid hiker Coby King, who had long felt a special connection to McAuley. Before venturing onto a new trail, King would turn to McAuley's landmark guidebook, Hiking Trails of the Santa Monica Mountains.
"Most hiking guides are really straightforward," King said. "But his guidebook, you could hear his voice coming through in every hiking description. You could tell that the guy had a personality and that he loved the mountains."
McAuley also authored and self-published other reference materials on the mountains, including a wildflower guide and a guide to the popular Backbone Trail, which transects the range from East to West and which he helped plot. McAuley's books and advocacy for public acquisition of land in the Santa Monica Mountains drew scores of people to the area and generated a groundswell of support to protect the mountains from development.
Although King never met the conservationist, he said he did hike "just about every peak" in McAuley's book. When the author died in 2008, King was moved to action.
"I felt like he deserved some kind of recognition for all that he had committed to the mountains," King said. Out of all the hikes to peaks in his guidebook, "2049 was the only one that didn't already have a name."
The peak is situated right next to the Backbone Trail and is crested by a large sandstone rock visible for miles. King said the peak is an appropriate monument to a man whose work still looms over the mountains. Since applications to name geographic landmarks can't be filed until five years after the person's death, King, who serves as chairman of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, used his government expertise to start building a case.
After securing the blessing of the McAuley family, he garnered support from elected officials and worked with environmental groups like the Sierra Club, which began calling the site McAuley Peak in their materials.
King is hopeful that the U.S. Board of Geographic Names will quickly approve the application so that the new designation will become official sometime next year. And that's good news to the many friends and former associates of McAuley, who believe his contributions warrant the honor.
Jim Hasenauer met McAuley in the 1980s when he and some fellow mountain bikers were trying to convince local trail managers to allow them to use the trails. Some of the hikers were resistant, but McAuley—whom Hasenauer described as a gentle giant—was welcoming.
"He felt that people needed to experience the trails, sights, vistas, flora and fauna of the area and then we would appreciate it and die protecting it," Hasenauer said, adding: "To go on a hike with him was like going to a graduate seminar in mountain ecology."
Ruth Gerson, who worked with McAuley on the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council and serves as the organization's current president, said he was instrumental in naming trails and opening them up for public use. "He was a wealth of knowledge in the mountains," Gerson said. "There was nobody that disliked him. And he could out-walk anybody—even in his late 70s."
Bill McAuley, Milt's son, said he's never hiked the peak that could soon be named in his dad's honor. But he certainly intends to hit the trail when, hopefully, McAuley Peak becomes a reality.
"I see the names in the Sierras and they're all people who had something to do with the mountains," Bill said. "He really did have a lot of influence."
Posted 9/11/14
Rhapsody in blue
September 10, 2014
It was the kind of discovery that can rock a gem scientist's world.
Eloïse Gaillou, an associate curator at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, started picking up social media chatter early this year about a 29.6 carat rough diamond found in South Africa.
She hardly imagined that just months later she would be on a team at the Smithsonian Institution conducting scientific tests on the rare diamond—now exquisitely cut to 12 carats and dubbed the Blue Moon for its exceptional color—let alone helping to host the super-stone's visit to Los Angeles, where it will be on display in the museum's gem vault from September 13 through January 6.
"We tweeted about it, we blogged about it, never thinking that it would come to us eventually," Gaillou said.
The Blue Moon will join a collection of 240 colored diamonds called the "Aurora Butterfly of Peace" now on display at the museum.
"Putting those two collections together is really going to be an exceptional thing for the public to see. You won't be able to see that many colored diamonds again in your life," Gaillou said. "I'm sure we're going to blow people's minds."
The idea for the temporary exhibition was launched, she said, after the owner of the Butterfly of Peace diamonds put her in touch with Cora International, the diamond firm that owns the Blue Moon. Cora International agreed to allow the museum to display the rare stone, whose distinctive color comes from traces of boron within its carbon structure.
It is likely to be the only public display of the diamond before it disappears discreetly into a private collection, Gaillou said.
Gaillou, who grew up in the Brittany region of France, has childhood memories of prospecting for fossils and minerals in local fields and on vacations with her parents in the Alps. As a geologist specializing in gemstones, she focused on sapphires for her master's degree and opals for her doctorate, but became interested in diamonds when she pursued a diploma in gemology. It was at the Smithsonian, where she did nearly five years of post-doctoral work before joining the county's Natural History Museum in 2012, that she began to turn her attention to rare pink and blue diamonds—"the ones that you don't usually have the opportunity to study unless you are in a very special place that owns such diamonds."
Even without glamorous visitors like the Blue Moon and the Butterfly of Peace passing through, Gaillou said the NHM's gem collection is "amazing," second only to the Smithsonian's.
While she got a thrill from handling the Blue Moon during the scientific tests with her former colleagues at the Smithsonian last month, it's clear that science—not jewelry—is this curator's best friend.
She was most wowed by the Blue Moon's red afterglow—"a good 20 seconds!"—after it was exposed to UV light. That kind of phosphorescence, she said, is usually associated only with the finest blue diamonds, like the Hope and the Wittelsbach-Graff.
"Diamonds, they're pretty, don't get me wrong. But from a scientific point of view, I just love studying diamonds. They give us a clue not only about the deep earth, but also the evolution of the earth from about 3 billion years ago until now," she said. "You would be done looking at a diamond in about five minutes if you were just looking at its aesthetics. But from the scientific point of view, I have been working on them for over seven years now."
Still, like a pastry chef who steers clear of macarons, Gaillou said she doesn't indulge much in sparkling bijoux in her private life.
"I see so many beautiful things that I don't even buy jewelry myself, or not much. I think it has probably killed it for me," she laughed.
But she does get a charge out of walking through the museum's gem exhibits on the way to her office each day, and overhearing the oohs and aahs from visitors.
She's expecting to get quite an earful in the months ahead. Even though she has studied more than 100 diamonds, including legendary stones like the Hope, the Wittelsbach-Graff and the Blue Heart, she considers the Blue Moon exceptional.
"You never get tired of looking at big gems like that," said Gaillou, 34. "There's just something about this color. It's something that you will never forget."
"Some gemstones are just dead, and some gemstones are just alive. And definitely this one is alive. You see it. It's just aglow. The cut is wonderful, the fire is amazing. After that, as to the personality of the Blue Moon, I think that everybody will have a different answer. You just have to come and see the diamond by yourself and make up your mind on that."
Posted 9/4/14
Staging Grand Park's biggest act yet
August 28, 2014
The pink furniture is being packed off to storage. The splash pad is disappearing under a protective mat. The street closure notices have been circulating for a week and a security detail of more than 1,000 has been assembled.
With Grand Park scheduled to welcome its biggest crowd yet this Labor Day weekend, local authorities have mustered a similarly impressive response to gear up for Budweiser Made In America, the two-day downtown music festival being curated by Jay Z and promoted by Live Nation.
"There are a lot of headline acts and they're expecting more than 30,000 people each day," explained Christine Frias, a program manager in the county CEO's office who is coordinating the departments involved in the deployment.
"I think, with the help of Grand Park, the Sheriff's Department and all the collaboration that's going on, this event will be successful. "
Still, she notes, "you have to take extra precautions when there's going to be alcohol."
Preparations for the August 30-31 festival have been the talk of the town since April, when Jay Z and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the bicoastal music festival would be held this year in downtown's most popular new park.
Though Grand Park has seen some grand crowds—about 20,000 gathered there for its first New Year's Eve bash, for instance—they have mostly been free to the public and explicitly family friendly.
And peaceful: Frias said the more than 10,000 people who gathered there for July 4 music and fireworks were so well behaved that none of the park's plants or furnishings had to be replaced.
But the Budweiser MIA concert is the first attempt to use the 12-acre space as a venue for a major ticketed rock concert, and—though neither Jay Z nor his superstar wife, Beyoncé are among the acts on the lineup—this event is expected to be a doozy, with Kanye West, John Mayer and other big names on the roster. More than 30 bands are expected to play over the festival's two days.
Three stages, an amusement park ride and an exhibition skate park will dot the lawns between City Hall and the Music Center, and 40 to 50 food trucks will ring the venue. And while all ages will be welcomed, the festival site will allow beer drinking at more than a half-dozen public and VIP beer gardens.
"It's going to be a couple of long hot days, and hopefully people will mostly consume water, but we are concerned about alcohol consumption," said Los Angeles Sheriff's Capt. Chuck Stringham.
About 270 sheriff's deputies and a similar number of Los Angeles police are expected to be deployed on each day of the festival, along with several dozen Music Center security officers and an unknown number of undercover officers who will be enforcing laws against underage drinking for the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Another 370 private licensed security guards are expected to be on hand at the behest of the acts themselves and the concert promoter, according to a spokeswoman from Garcetti's office. The Sheriff's Department will handle security within the event perimeter and LAPD will be in charge outside.
Alcohol will be permitted only in the beer gardens, and patrons will be limited to two beers at a time and required to produce valid photo I.D.s, he said, adding that attendees will not be allowed to exit and re-enter the venue.
Frias said the park itself will be braced for the masses. Grand Park is owned by the county and operated by the Music Center, although the surrounding streets are mostly the jurisdiction of the City of Los Angeles. Live Nation is paying $500,000 to the city to cover its costs and $600,000 to the Music Center to cover park rental and county services.
But the promoters must pay extra for any damage, and more than 300 workers per day have been on the site this week, spending an average of 15 hours a day to assemble about 100 tractor trailers' worth of equipment, according to a spokesman for Live Nation.
Videographers have been filming the lush grounds all week, she said, to establish the park's pre-festival condition, and the park's signature hot pink furniture has been stored for safekeeping.
Vulnerable landscaping is being cordoned off with temporary fencing. And, she said, the splash pad around the Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain also is getting a custom buffer to protect it from a stage that is being installed over it for the festival deejays.
"The splash pad will be turned off and dried, and then they're putting a 4- to 5-inch rubberized mat on it to cover it and distribute the weight of the equipment on top of it," said Frias.
Outside the Lines, the construction firm that helped build the splash pad, will oversee the construction to ensure that none of the festival preparations damages the water feature or surrounding tile and LED lights, she said.
Perhaps the trickiest set of preparations is for festival traffic. Already, various downtown streets have been closed this week for delivery of production equipment and stages. (Most of the work has gone on overnight).
Though ticket sales are not as high as the initial daily estimates of 50,000, the crowds are still expected to set records for Grand Park, and organizers have spent months reassuring downtown residents and business owners that the area won't be inundated.
"But we've had major closures in the downtown area before—we know how to do this," said Aram Sahakian, who oversees special traffic operations for the city Department of Transportation.
On the Fourth of July, for instance, he noted, thousands cars were swiftly ushered in and out of downtown parking structures by traffic control officers who patrolled the park area on foot and on Segways.
"And how about Fiesta Broadway? That used to bring in hundreds of thousands of people," Sahakian said.
Organizers are urging concertgoers to take public transportation, Sahakian said, and between 7,000 and 10,000 are expected to ride mass transit into the venue. But the Civic Center station—which opens directly into Grand Park—will be closed so that riders can't bypass the ticket-takers, and to accommodate safety concerns.
Though the Civic Center station does have a second entrance outside the perimeter of the festival, event organizers and law enforcement insisted that the whole station be closed because the bottleneck that would have resulted from channeling thousands of riders at one time into one exit might have overcrowded the platform and created a safety hazard, said Metro spokesman Marc Littman.
So subway riders are being urged to get off at Pershing Square or Union Station and walk the few blocks to the venue.
Meanwhile, Sahakian said, those who drive will be directed to downtown parking garages, though some may have to park as far from the venue as Staples Center or Dodger Stadium, and ride in on shuttles. Extra traffic engineers and traffic control officers will be on hand to help channel traffic toward open parking structures, he said.
"Yes, this is a first time thing for the park, but we're prepared," he said. "Hey, we moved the Space Shuttle, right?"
Posted 8/28/14
Our new social club—the L.A. River
August 13, 2014
Most Angelenos know that the Los Angeles River is making a comeback. Still, the hipsters hawking free breakfast on its banks were a surprise.
Waving their arms and proffering scrambled egg sandwiches and muffins they'd cooked on a camp stove, the group of about a dozen young people were on the bike path near Rattlesnake Park on Saturday morning, flagging down cyclists for no apparent reason beyond community building.
"They said they had done it before, and had just decided to do it again," said one passing cyclist, a 24-year-old from Eagle Rock who's been riding along the river near Griffith Park for years. "It seemed like they were just, like, 'Let's just get together and do something nice.'"
Gathering at the river to do something nice has become a trend this summer, as momentum has built around the restoration and revitalization of L.A.'s long-suffering namesake waterway.
With scores of projects already complete and a $1 billion Army Corps of Engineers plan expected to dramatically improve an 11-mile stretch between downtown and Griffith Park, a nascent but notable scene has taken hold along the once-maligned L.A. River, particularly where it has been spruced up with pocket parks, hiking trails and bikeways.
This summer, for instance, kayaking tours are being offered in public recreation areas in the Sepulveda Basin and in Elysian Valley; later this month, about 100 stand-up-paddlers and rowers will gather in the Glendale Narrows for a first-ever L.A. River Boat Race.
The Los Angeles River Corp. is offering outdoor bike-in movies along the riverbanks later this month and has its second annual Greenway 2020 10k race scheduled for early November. Meanwhile, the Elysian Valley Arts Collective will host its annual Frogtown Art Walk again next month by the river. Nearby, Elysian, an underground restaurant that materialized two years ago on the river near Atwater Village, will be up and running, legally and officially.
Elysian is also the home of Clockshop, a non-profit arts and cultural organization, and the site for more than a few weddings during the past year. And speaking of art, be on the lookout for the L.A. Mud People, a performance art group that frequents the river both as a medium and a backdrop.
"It's really kind of miraculous," marveled Lewis MacAdams, president of Friends of the L.A. River, which has itself drawn thousands of passersby over the past six weeks by staging free weekend concerts at The Frog Spot, an informal venue it set up this summer on Benedict Street along the Elysian Valley bike path.
"We've been surprised at how many people have showed up—probably 500 or so every Saturday and Sunday," said MacAdams, adding that FOLAR will also be sponsoring a catch-and-release fishing event next month. "People are getting interested, and looking for community."
MacAdams sees the interest as an outgrowth of the long political fight to restore the river, which was paved in the 1930s in an attempt to tame periodic but lethal floods. Nearly 4,000 people participated this year in FOLAR's long-running annual river cleanup, he said—a record turnout—and each cleanup has helped spread the news of the river's revitalization and potential.
So far, MacAdams said, most of the community activities have centered around FOLAR and the Elysian Valley arts community near Frogtown. "But a lot of it also is the bicycle population," he said. "There are more bicyclists than we imagined, and they keep coming back."
Julia Meltzer, executive director of Clockshop and the wife of David Thorne, who runs Elysian restaurant, agreed that the riverfront has become exponentially more active.
"There's a lot more recreation and sporting," she said, acknowledging that the various improvements, from friendlier landscaping to paved bikeways, have created occasional conflicts among walkers, cyclists, locals and other constituencies.
Nonetheless, a first-ever, free community campout along the river that Meltzer said she helped organize over Memorial Day weekend—along with California State Parks, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, the Natural History Museum and others—was fully booked within an hour of its announcement.
"I think it's the big buzz, and the opportunity to come down to the river's edge legally now," said MRCA Chief Ranger Fernando Gomez, adding that some 200 campers showed up on Memorial Day and that hundreds more have shown up this summer for MRCA river programs, ranging from free community paddles to evening weenie roasts in Marsh Park.
"It used to be that people weren't allowed in the river without a special use permit—it wasn't meant for recreation," Gomez said. "People would look at the river and think it was disgusting.
"But now, they can go down in, say, a kayak, and they see that the water is actually pretty clean, and there's a heron right over there taking off with a fish in its mouth. They see that it's not just all about concrete anymore," Gomez said. "It's a river—a real live river—now and people want to be part of it."
Posted 8/6/14
Cracking the ER "Code"
August 13, 2014
In the beginning, the idea was simply to produce some archival footage—a project pitched by a young medical student to document life-saving efforts unfolding amid the controlled chaos of the emergency room at Los Angeles County's old General Hospital.
It was there, on the edge of downtown, that the concept of emergency medicine was born in 1971 and, in some respects, had remained the same in theory and practice throughout the ensuing decades.
Despite medical modernizations that had become the norm at most hospitals, the emergency crew at the renamed Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center still operated more like a battlefield MASH unit. Crowds of doctors and nurses swirled around patients suffering the most catastrophic of injuries. Side by bloody side, the stricken were packed into a cramped trauma bay in the ER called "C-booth," with barely a curtain between them.
But in 2008, all that was about to change, and first-year resident Ryan McGarry, who also had a keen interest in filmmaking, wanted to capture the era before it was gone. Because of earthquake damage to the old county hospital, the emergency department was moving next door to a new state-of-the-art facility that would rocket the doctors into 21st century medicine, complete with its emphasis on patient privacy and layers of paperwork.
Although initially modest in scope, McGarry's ambitions for the project soared with the support of top Los Angeles County officials and the help of a producing team that included USC Distinguished Professor Mark Jonathan Harris, who has won three Academy Awards for documentaries.
McGarry's film, Code Black, opened nationwide in June and has become a critical success, a gripping and graphic look at the shifting world of emergency medicine for the destitute and working poor who rely on public hospitals, such as County-USC, for their care. The term Code Black refers to the hospital's designation for the highest level of emergency room crowding. Among other honors, the film won the Jury Award for best documentary at the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival.
Focusing on a cadre of idealistic young residents, including himself, McGarry explores the challenging new realities for the next generation of emergency room physicians as they remain committed to maintaining a personal connection with patients while confronting the escalating regulatory demands and settings that emphasize patient privacy.
Dr. Sean Henderson, chairman of the hospital's emergency department, says his 21-year-old daughter saw the documentary at a film festival in Santa Barbara and was so inspired that she changed her major.
"She decided to become a physician's assistant because of that movie," he said.
"Often, doctors are portrayed as overpaid snobs who don't really care," he continued the other day, sipping a caffeine-free Coke in his office in the old county hospital. "But I think you'll see in this movie that this is not always the case. There are people doing things because they really care about the people they serve."
Still, Henderson said he has some personal reservations about the film—a project he inherited from his predecessor, Edward Newton—and isn't sure he would have green-lighted it himself.
"I've never believed in cameras in the hospital," he explained. "The fact that you're in an emergency room with an unplanned, unscheduled, unanticipated event—stressed, waiting, probably less informed than you'd like to be—I think that's a very vulnerable place to be."
That said, Henderson praised the filmmaker for getting two sets of consents from patients whose emergency room visits are shown in the film—everyone from a drunken man belting out a romantic ballad in the waiting room to the family of a patient whom doctors unsuccessfully fought to save as they cut into his chest to keep his heart beating.
Henderson, who became department chair in 2012, also appears in the film, but mostly to defend a prominently featured action he imposed in the face of a severe nursing shortage. In a dramatic segment of the documentary, he shut down an area of the new emergency department, creating a monumental patient backlog, to make the point "that we couldn't continue to care for all these people with inadequate resources."
"I caused the crisis and I had to defend the crisis. I was the villain," he said, and then offered a fuller explanation of his actions than he did in the film.
He said that in the past, before Health Services Director Mitchell Katz's arrival in 2011, "the way you got attention in the county system was to create a crisis. It wasn't just me. It was throughout the system…If you have a crisis, resources are pulled from someone who's not having a crisis to take care of your crisis. And so, without permission from the school [USC] or the county, I created a crisis knowing full well that it would create a pushback downtown that would allow them to hear my pleas that heretofore had gone ignored.
"It was manipulative, it was sneaky, and mea maxima culpa. But it worked," he said, noting that more funding was soon made available for the desperately needed nurses.
Another top L.A. County emergency department official, Dr. Erin Wilkes, said she's seen her good friend McGarry's film more than a dozen times in various stages along the way. The two were residents together, beginning in the old hospital's emergency department. Today, she's the director of Emergency Medicine Systems Innovation & Quality.
Wilkes said she helped organize various Code Black screenings for county officials, including the Health Services executive team. The feedback was mostly positive, she said, although "there were a lot of questions about what the consent process was like." Wilkes said McGarry obtained his first consents at the hospital and then got a second round of permissions after showing people the actual footage he wanted to use.
Wilkes said she'd now like to build on Code Black's positive buzz by holding a panel discussion event at USC that would include McGarry, now an assistant professor of emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical College.
In a recent interview with the emergency medicine publication ACEPNow, McGarry talked about the demands of simultaneously pursuing his residency and filmmaking. "It was three years of no vacation," he said. But he said he had no regrets.
"One thing that I feel very lucky to have experienced," he said, "is nonmedical people sitting through some pretty tough stuff in cases we show. And at the end of the film people give us a standing ovation. I wish I could share that with every physician, nurse and X-ray tech who leaves a really tough shift."
Posted 7/17/14


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Tribe Hammers Twins
Pedro Florimon hit a two-run homer and knocked in three runs as the Twins lost 12-6 to the Indians. Alex Presley drove in two runs while Trevor Plouffe was 3-for-3 with an RBI for Minnesota, …28 Sep 13
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Pedro Florimon hit a two-run homer and knocked in three runs as the Twins lost 12-6 to the Indians. Alex Presley drove in two runs while Trevor Plouffe was 3-for-3 with an RBI for Minnesota, …28 Sep 13
Cleveland's Yan Gomes hit a two-run homer and Michael Brantley had three hits and two RBI to lead the Indians to a 6-5 win over the Twins at Target Field. Cleveland took a five-run lead …27 Sep 13
Detroit right-hander Max Scherzer cruised to a 1-0 win over the Twins last night at Target Field, as Detroit clinched the American League Central title. Scherzer improved to 21-and-3 on the season, allowing two hits …26 Sep 13
Detroit's Austin Jackson smacked a two-run homer, which highlighted a four-run fourth inning, as the Tigers went on to a 4-2 win over the Twins at Target Field last night. Scott Diamond gave up four …25 Sep 13
Twins catcher Josmil Pinto [[ HOSE-meel PEEN-toh ]] drove home the game-winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning to push Minnesota to a 4-3 win over Detroit in Minneapolis. The Twins had rallied …24 Sep 13
The Athletics scored six runs in the second inning and cruised past the Twins 11-7 at the Coliseum, clinching the AL West in the process. Cole DeVries took the loss for Minnesota after giving up …23 Sep 13
Josh Donaldson and Yoenis Cespedes each homered to lead the Athletics in an 11-0 win over the Twins in Oakland. Andrew Albers allowed eight runs in less than five innings, but only three were earned. …21 Sep 13
The Twins rallied from a three-run deficit but came up short, 8-6, against the A's in Oakland. Reliever Shairon Martis took the loss and is 0-and-1. Oswaldo Arcia homered for the Twins and Chris Parmalee …20 Sep 13
KNUJ's FFA Broadcast crew of Larry Baumgardt, and Jim Bartels bring years of broadcast and FFA expertise to the airwaves each year from both the National FFA Conventions. Stay tuned for interviews and updates from …


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Money Clarity
How Yolanda Found $1,000 in Savings
Yolanda Enoch, a lifestyle organizer from Atlanta, Georgia, shares her experience with DailyWorth's eLearning program, Money Clarity. Sign up for the next session of Money Clarity today by clicking here. I'm an organization expert: I have a side...
Money Clarity: Design Your Future
We all know the usual financial advice: pack lunch, skip the latte, grow your retirement stash. But how often do these suggestions translate into dramatically changing your financial future? You may not act on financial advice if you're confused...
Summer Howard Bags Her Divorce Baggage
You'd think that as a divorce counselor, I'd know a thing or two about "money baggage" and would be able to avoid accumulating some of my own. Not so. Until recently, I was a financial disaster.
Don't Be A Yawn
Are you a power suit or a petticoat? How you present yourself can say a lot about how you feel about yourself. Your haircut, your clothes, your facial expressions, how you enter a room, even your make-up. Think about who you are, who you want...
DailyWorth Round Up: Recession!
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Home » News » Public Safety
GPS puts driver on snowmobile trail
That was the navigational nightmare for one motorist who became lost while trying to find a house in Epping last weekend, but instead found himself on a snowmobile trail that leads to the Lamprey River.
"He was pretty close to the river and it was pretty damp, so his passenger-side tire was taking on a little bit of water," said Officer Matthew Blonigen, who responded to the late-night call for help.
The sticky situation happened about 1 a.m. on Feb. 17 when the driver, from Massachusetts, was trying to find a place several streets away but followed the GPS into Camp Hedding, an old Methodist campground with seasonal and year-round homes tucked away in the woods under towering pine trees.
Blonigen said the GPS took the driver down a road that ends and becomes a snowmobile trail. The driver thought it most likely continued, so he drove on, passing a yellow pole indicating that it was a trail.
"He apparently didn't pay attention to that," Blonigen said, "and it definitely didn't look like a road people would drive on."
The driver had no idea that he was nearing the Lamprey River until the ground became wet - and his Audi got stuck.
"He wasn't in the river by any means, but he was close," Blonigen said.
Realizing he was in trouble, the driver decided it was time to call 911. It wasn't long before police arrived and located the vehicle about 100 yards past the snowmobile trail.
A tow truck was then called.
The driver wasn't shaken by his GPS goof up, but he wasn't very happy either.
"He was kind of upset that his car was stuck," Blonigen said.
On the bright side, this driver had better luck than a man in Alaska last year who followed his GPS after driving off a ferry and took a turn down a boat launch and landed in a harbor.
A similar incident happened to a woman in Washington state in 2011 when she mistook a boat ramp for a road while using a GPS in a rental car. She ended up in water, too.
This isn't Blonigen's first call for a motorist who was counting on his small navigational device operated by satellites.
He recalled a time in recent years when a driver had failed to update his GPS maps and didn't realize that a bridge was out on North River Road. The GPS still showed a bridge, and by the time the driver realized the bridge was gone, it was too late. Blonigen said the driver went off the road.
Incidents of drivers calling police after their GPS had led them astray are rare, but they have happened, local police said.
Hampstead police Lt. John Frazier said his department has had some motorists call to "get their bearing straight" after becoming lost or confused while following their GPS, but so far no one has ended up in water.
Frazier stressed the importance of having a "working sense of direction" when using a GPS.
"Some degree of common sense does exist, but people trying to get to the Seacoast from points south should know driving west won't get you there," he said.
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Resolution: standard / high
Figure 1.
Reproducibility of 3' tag digital gene expression profiling. 1a - Pearson correlation coefficient matrix of all 8 HBRR libraries prepared at two Mayo locations (Minnesota and Florida), sequenced in 35 lanes of 5 different runs on two generations of Genome Analyzer (I and II). The rows and columns are all 35 lanes in 5 HBRR sequencing runs, and named using the corresponding library names (L1-L8). The same libraries in each run have been grouped together for visual benefits. The correlation coefficient was calculated using Log2 transformed tag counts. The tag counts of zero were coded as missing data. The actual numbers of the correlation coefficient are listed in the Additional File 2. The color in each squire of the matrix reflects the pair-wise lane-to-lane degree of correlation of gene expression levels; 1b - Concordance of gene detection. Gene expression levels are represented by the raw number of reads (dark red) and number of reads per million (yellow). More than 70% of the genes were repeatedly detected in all 35 lanes. 1c - The relationship between gene detection and expression levels. Genes that were detected in less than 35 lanes were lower expressed at levels of 1-2 CPMT, or 0.35-0.7 copies per cell; 1d - The histogram of gene expression levels.
Asmann et al. BMC Genomics 2009 10:531 doi:10.1186/1471-2164-10-531


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November 27, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says he supports beleaguered Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki , but adds that the care the VA offers veterans is "not good enough."
Shinseki is a retired four-star general and Vietnam veteran who has come under criticism since reports surfaced that as many as 40 veterans died while waiting for medical care from the VA hospital in Phoenix. Veterans have also waited years in some cases to collect benefits from the administration. The American Legion and some in Congress have called for Shinseki's ouster.
Hagel acknowledges that problems with the VA began well before Shinseki took over the agency, but adds that if the allegations in Phoenix are true, "accountability is going to have to be upheld."
Hagel spoke on ABC's "This Week."
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Lambdas in the Immediate Window == awesome
@rogreen: I can't remember what it was right now. If I get time I'll watch it again.
It's just one of those unfortunate things that happen, really.
@rogreen:yeah that's it.
It doesn't entirely ruin the video but sometimes Billy was answering a question you asked, and I couldn't hear the question so the answer lacked context, that kind of thing. It's still worth persevering watching the whole video, though.
I figured it probably wasn't fixable other than re-recording the whole thing.
It's a shame the audio issues spoiled the video somewhat because I find this stuff interesting.
@olexiy:Also, the "Customize notification icons" screen Andrew was on has a "Turn system icons on or off" link at the bottom which also takes you to the same place.
@apardoe:Yeah I think the desktop is going to be around for a while. I missed that desktop wasn't currently supported, but I'm glad you're thinking about it.
I gotta say, "the convenience of C# with the performance of C++" is one heck of a selling technique! :)
So would this enable you to run .NET code without the .NET framework?
I'm mainly thinking about C# code being used by installers, where a dependency on the .NET framework is less than desirable.
This is pretty cool. I didn't realise it was more than just web templates, or that the template builder existed, so I'd ignored it all until now.
I can see us using templates to capture certain patterns, but as you guys mentioned the zipping and unzipping and tweaking and re-zipping every time you want to update a template has meant it's not really worth it. This
The UI's not too bad, you just have to remember to do a couple of things to get things working. I guess that could be made a little more streamlined and automated.
FYI, Scintilla is the editor component that Notepad++ uses. It's quite a popular open source editor control.
Glad I could help :)
I'll continue to play with the extension and will post back if I feel I have something more you might find useful.


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Press Releases
This page displays news from Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales. Please select a title to display the full article.
44 articles. Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
New Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales Trustee appointed
Elisabeth Elias, President of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, has announced the appointment of a new Trustee to the Museum's Board.
New exhibition places Dylan Thomas at the National Waterfront Museum
Placing Dylan - a brand new exhibition is soon to arrive at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea.
Curated by London-born artist and art historian Ceri Thomas, Placing Dylan presents a selection of images created and interpreted by Ceri over the past 20 years.
Unearthing the past: Heritage Lottery grant supports new initiative to get the best from archaeological finds
Every year, metal detectorists, farmers and walkers discover archaeological finds that could have important stories to tell us about the past in Wales. But do we get the most out of these discoveries?
Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales in partnership with The Federation of Museums and Art Galleries of Wales and the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Wales has attracted a major grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to fulfil the exciting potential of new discoveries. The project Saving Treasures, Telling Stories has been awarded £349,000 to work with finders and communities and enhance the archaeology collections of national and local museums across Wales.
Wales' Roman museum first in the world to trial iBeacons app
The National Roman Legion Museum in Caerleon is the first Roman museum in the world to trial the new iBeacons app which will enable visitors to discover more about the collections on their mobile devices as they walk around the site. Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales (Amgueddfa Cymru) is trialling the Culture and Heritage Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology (Apple iBeacon), in partnership with People's Collection Wales and the Locly (app and platform) at the museum in Caerleon following the success of the first trial at the National Slate Musuem in Llanberis. The iBeacons technology was launched today at the National Roman Legion Museum by the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Ken Skates AM.
Roald Dahl inspires National Waterfront Museum
This weekend, visitors to the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea will experience a wonderful array of events to celebrate national Roald Dahl Day.
Diary Marker: Open Meeting of the Board of Trustees
Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales's
Open Meeting of the Board of Trustees
National Museum Cardiff
10.15am-1pm, Thursday 11 September 2014
Members of the public who are interested in the work of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, are invited to observe the Museum's quarterly board meeting in the Court Room, National Museum Cardiff on Thursday, 11 September 2014 from 10.15am-1pm. There will be an opportunity to meet with the Board and Executive afterwards.


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Crisis in Sudan Threatens Christian Community
Crisis in Sudan Threatens Christian Community
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Crisis in Sudan Threatens Christian Community
Media Blames Islamic Expert for Norway Massacre
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Egypt Freedom Rally Hijacked by Islamists
Somalia Drought Yields Famine, Terror Recruits
Concerns Raised over Al Qaeda Ties in Somalia
Police: Oslo Suspect a Christian with Anti-Islam Views
Somali American Pleads Guilty to Terror
Hezbollah Moving Missile Arsenal Closer to Israel
Bangladesh Police Clash with Islamist Protesters
South Sudan Becomes New Nation
Is the Muslim Brotherhood Coming to Brooklyn?
Iran Arrests Christians as More Muslims Convert
Understanding the Muslim Brotherhood's Threat
Europe's Multiculturalism Leading to Civil War?
Arrest Warrant Issued for Libya's Gadhafi
Egyptian Pro-Democracy Party Proving Popular
Dutch Court Acquits Anti-Islam Lawmaker


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Pirates Sign Brad Lincoln
Brad Lincoln, once regarded as the Pirates' top pitching prospect, has signed a minor-league contract with Pittsburgh.FULL STORY
Pirates Sign A.J. Burnett
The Pittsburgh Pirates have agreed to terms on a one-year deal with right-handed pitcher A.J. Burnett for the 2015 season.FULL STORY
From the Scout Network
Amazing Video: Scout's Top Football Recruits
Watch hundreds of incredible profiles of the country's top football recruits in action. For all you recruiting fanatics, it doesn't get any better than this!FULL STORY
No Takers on Qualifying Offers
Twelve players received one-year qualifying offers from their teams last week, and all 12 players rejected those offers (or signed elsewhere) on Monday.FULL STORY
Will Free Agents Bite on Qualfying Offers?
Monday was the deadline for Major League franchises to extend one-year qualifying offers to their impending free agents. Several players received offers. Which free agents will take the offers? We take a look.FULL STORY
BTTV: Cal Baseball Alumni Game Highlights
BERKELEY -- Philadelphia Phillies prospect Andrew Knapp slugs two home runs and Marcus Semien rolls up double plays at short to power the Alumni's first win over the actives since 2009.FULL STORY
Scouting The MLB - September 23
There's enough Aces scheduled to pitch tonight to make your head spin. Our daily DFS breakdown ranks the top SP and provides some solid hitters to help you craft solid lineups.FULL STORY
Scouting The MLB - September 17
Put some money on the Cubbies tonight as they headline our top DFS stacking optionsFULL STORY
Is the .300 Hitter a Vanishing Breed?
Exactly how much has offense dropped across Major League Baseball in recent years?FULL STORY
Should Interleague Intrude on Pennant Races?
OAKLAND -- Interleague play used to be an early-season novelty. Now, it has expanded all the way into September, and it's having a big impact on pennant races.FULL STORY
Recapping the PG All-American Classic
The Perfect Game All-American Classic is one of the top showcases for talent for the upcoming MLB Draft. Kimberly Contreras recaps the 2014 PG All-American Classic.FULL STORY
Scouting The MLB - August 3
Sunday's MLB slate will be upon us soon, scan the top DFS plays and stacking options here.FULL STORY
Scouting The MLB - July 31
We've got an 8-game slate tonight and plenty of enticing options on the stackable menu.FULL STORY
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Written by John Plestina
Mosquitoes on steroids.
At least it seems that way.
Sometimes we want to have a swatfest with the blood-sucking pests, especially when they follow us in swarms and fly in our faces.
The recent monsoon that brought significant rainfall and left pooling water has compounded the problem.
The little pests are horrific on the Wolf Point High School football field, greatly outnumbering the human fans, possibly attracted to moisture from the grass being watered. Being on the sidelines taking pictures the three times the Wolves have played at home so far this season, I couldn't help but wonder if the annoying little pests had been doing pushups, getting in shape for game nights at Lowry Field.
I felt like mosquito bait with nothing to fight back the first two game nights. I bought a can of bug spray with deet before the third home game, Friday, Sept. 19, so I hit the sidelines cocked and loaded with my sidearm of bug spray in the right side pant leg pocket of my cargo pants, waiting for my quick draw the first sign of a mosquito landing on me. The result was definitely better than the previous two games I attended.
The next night, I covered the Culbertson Homecoming game for The Searchlight. Only one shot of bug spray before the opening kick-off took care of the situation for four quarters, unlike having to reload my exposed skin with bug juice every 20 minutes at the Wolf Point game. I will stop short of saying Cul-
bertson has kinder, gentler mosquitoes.
Hopefully not offending the opposite gender, the female really is the deadliest of the specie when it comes to mosquitoes. The males do not bite. Female mosquitoes bite with a vengeance needing blood to develop fertile eggs.
Typically, females lay their eggs in standing water, including puddles and pooling water in some of our back yards [mine!], or near the edge of a lake, river or large pool of water.
So what really happens when a mosquito bites and we end up with a red, itchy "bug bite?" The female mosquito coats the surface of the skin with her salivation while piercing our flesh and sucking blood, causing the irritation, welt, and the itching and scratching that goes with it.
What's worse, mosquitoes can transmit diseases. Mosquitoes tested positive for West Nile Virus in six Montana counties in 2013. Sheridan, Phillips and Blaine were three of those counties.
Are you mosquito bait?
We wonder why a swarm of mosquitoes follows us when we're enjoying a game or a barbecue. Then we have that swatfest, but they are unfazed. That begs the question: Do mosquitoes prefer some people over others? Yes, they can be finicky [blood] eaters and not to be mistaken for finicky cats and some humans.
According to webmd.com, mosquitoes don't like all of us. They are attracted to about 10 percent of us.
So what is an ideal hunk of human flesh?
Webmd.com reports that the surface is barely scratched with research into what scents or compounds people emanate that attract mosquitoes. However, genetics account for about 85 percent of our vulnerability to mosquito bites. Some elements of body chemistry attract mosquitoes. Carbon dioxide attracts mosquitoes. The presence of generous amounts of steroids and even cholesterol on the skin attract mosquitoes. So does eating healthier by woofing down fewer greasy burgers and fries lead to less vulnerability to mosquito bites? Maybe.
But that's not the entire story.
What might even be a little scary is that mosquitoes can smell their dinner from as much as 50 meters. That's 164 feet or half the football field plus nearly five yards.
When temperatures became cooler recently, dipping to the low 30s some nights, the mosquitoes survived. You'd almost think the little critters were in overcoats. The truth is they don't go away for the winter. They just hide, stay inactive and we don't see them. Mosquitoes lay robust eggs that hatch when conditions become favorable with warmer weather and moisture from rainfall or melting snow.
Mosquitoes are a type of fly and like all flies, go through four stages in their lifecycles: egg, larva, pupa [transformation stage] and adult, when they become flying, biting pests.
The name "mosquito" comes from both Spanish and Portuguese meaning "little fly."
Now we may ask why other summer nuisances, non-bloodsucking flies, keep coming back for more when we shoo them away or swing our fly swatters at them.
The truth is flies like us, but for different reasons than mosquitoes. According to my online research, our bodies are attractive to flies because we radiate a sense of warmth and nourishment just as their favorite foods, feces and rotting flesh. Unbeknownst to us, flies sitting on our forearms might be sucking up oil, salt and dead skin with their straw-like tongues. They might also be looking for a warm place to poop, puke or lay eggs.
Gross enough for you?
So swat on brother and take the shovel out of the basement because winter is almost here and we will have something different to complain about.
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Wolf Point Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture board member Jerald Petersen (at right) presents the First Dollar Award to Old Town Grill owners Brad and DeeDee Iwen, Friday, Sept. 19. Their daughter Ashley Iwen, (left) is an employee of the restaurant. (Photo by John Plestina)
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Nemont sponsored a program that teaches teens distracted driving prevention at Wolf Point and Poplar high schools this week. It is part of the national Save A Life Tour. Pictured is Justin Boss of Grand Rapids, Mich., working with Wolf Point seventh-grader Jori White Hawk, who is in the distracted driving simulator. (Photo by John Plestina)
Nemont knows that texting while driving is a serious concern. That's why they are sponsoring the "Save a Life Tour" at seven local schools in the area.
"Statistics are scary when you figure that 34 percent of teens have said that they have texted while driving. That's why the "Save a Life Tour" is so important to us. We take this safety concern seriously and want to educate our customers on the true dangers of it," said Nemont's CEO Mike Kilgore.
The "Save a Life Tour" includes eight hours of multimedia distracted driving information, including two distracted driving simulators and presentations. Real-life videos are shown and students are asked to sign a pledge not to text and drive.
Nemont is bringing the program to the following schools: Williston High School, Culbertson High School, Glasgow High School, Scobey High School, Poplar High School, Plentywood High School and Wolf Point High School. Parents are welcome to attend the morning assembly to help Nemont educate everyone the to dangers of texting while driving.
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Wolf Point Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture board member Nicole Huber (at right) presents the First Dollar Award to LaBelle Nails owner Vickie Delger, Thursday, Sept. 18. LaBelle Nails opened in April and is located at 700 Knapp Street. (Photo by John Plestina)
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The rail car President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used for whistle-stop tours in the 1930s passed through Wolf Point, Poplar, Culbertson and
Bainville, Thursday, Sept. 18, connected to the eastbound Amtrak Empire Builder. John Paul DeJoria, the owner of Patrón Tequila and a partner in Paul Mitchell hair care, travels the nation in his private 87-year-old railcar, the Patrón Tequila Express. (Photo by John Plestina)
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