Friday, January 29, 2010

Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles CA

Griffith Observatory is on the south facing slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.’s Griffith Park, it commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin, including downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest.


James Dean filmed “Rebel Without a Cause” here in 1955. There have been 17 movies filmed here. The Cosmic Man, The Terminator, Dragnet, The Rocketeer, The End of Violence, Midnight Madness, Bowfinger, Flesh Gordon, War of the Colossal Beast, The People vs. Larry Flint, Charlie’s Angels, House on Haunted Hill, Queen of the Dammed, Transformers, Yes Man, Earth Girls Are Easy.
This picture is towards the Capital Records building and Hollywood blvd Walk of Fame.
395 pound meteorite
Two Einstein’s
Foucault pendulum was designed to demonstrate the rotation of the earth. The observatory pendulum is a 240 pound brass sphere suspended from a 40 foot steel wire. Once started, it continues to swing in the same direction. A ring magnet above the ceiling keeps the pendulum in motion without influencing the direction of its swing. Every ten minutes or so the pendulum knocks over a peg, but it is not the pendulum that has moved over to hit the peg. The earth has moved the peg into the path of the swinging pendulum. The pendulum is essentially disconnected from the turning of the earth and once started in motion, it continues to swing in the same direction regardless of what the earth does. The earth rotates beneath it, making it look as if the pendulum is changing its direction of swing.



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Griffith Observatory photos

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Tri-tip… The other red meat

Tri-tip is a local favorite. We’ve never heard of it till coming to Santa Barbara County. This cut was typically used for ground beef or sliced into steaks until the late 1950s, when it became a local specialty in Santa Maria, California, rubbed with salt, pepper, and other seasonings, cooked over red oak wood and roasted whole on a rotisserie, smoked in a pit, baked in an oven. The tri-tip is a cut of beef from the bottom sirloin primal cut. It is a small triangular muscle.


Start out with a nice $9.00 hunk of Tri-tip, price is right too!

Then we season and brown it

On to the grill, cook to medium rare
Fry up some onions, garlic and mushrooms
Slice up some nice thick slices Dinner time!


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Tri Tip photos

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Friday, January 15, 2010

Hollywood “Walk of Fame”

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood that serves as an entertainment museum. It is embedded with more than 2,000 five-pointed stars featuring the names of not only human celebrities but also fictional characters honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for their contributions to the entertainment industry


Grauman's Chinese Theatre
John Wayne
Tom Cruise
Harry Potter Cast
El Capitan Theatere
Kodak Theatre
Hollywood Hard Rock
Hollywood High
Capitol Records
Rodeo Drive
Beverly Hills

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Hollywood Walk of Fame pictures


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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles CA

The La Brea Tar Pits (or Rancho La Brea Tar Pits) are a famous cluster of tar pits. Tar (brea in Spanish) has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. The tar is often covered with water. Over many centuries, animals that came to drink the water fell in, sank in the tar, and were preserved as bones.

Among the prehistoric species associated with the La Brea Tar Pits are mammoths, dire wolves, short-faced bears, ground sloths, and the state fossil of California the saber-toothed cat. Only one human has ever been found, a partial skeleton of a woman dated at approximately 9,000 BP.





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La Brea Tar Pit photos


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