Some might choose to believe this story of an alien encounter. I couldn’t possibly comment.

Soon to be released top secret documents tell of the first meeting with outer space aliens, according to a CIA source. Just before dawn on the 20th of Dec. 2015, a space ship suddenly appeared on the White House lawn close to the Rose garden. The secret service cordoned off the area and quickly put up a fabric barrier to shield the ship from view. Chief of staff McDonough immediately phoned President Obama who was vacationing in Hawaii. Science advisor Tyson was instructed to meet with the visitors, and to avoid the subject of global warming.

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Figure 1: Apollo Block I Command Module No.009 in Building 290, Apollo Final Assembly and Checkout. Courtesy Aerospace Legacy Foundation Archives.

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By the mid 1920s, the big guns at Fort MacArthur had become obsolete. The carriages on which the original 14" guns were mounted limited their maximum elevation and, therefore, their range. Contemporary battleships and those in development could position themselves beyond the range of the old Fort MacArthur guns to attack the port. To repair this shortfall, the Army deployed two 14" guns mounted on purpose-built railway cars to Fort MacArthur.

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Every bottle of wine tells its own unique story. Varietal, vintage, and region are a fair introduction to a new wine, but they do not provide the full story. They are merely bookmarks of the grape’s life on the vine, explaining what grapes were used, along with when and where the harvest took place. Indicators such as varietal, vintage, and region may also be identical on any two labels

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Memorial Day 2020

Absent from this year’s Memorial Day observances were the ceremonies held at many of the southland’s cemeteries and other landmarks. However, despite social distancing and other restrictions brought on by COVID-19, this Memorial Day, Southern Californians from Inland Empire to the shores of Orange County and Los Angeles County could share in one common experience.

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It seems no novel has been adapted to the motion picture screen more times than The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald's work has been filmed five times. Notable versions include a 1926 silent film starring Warner Baxter and a very young William Powell; a 1949 Golden Age motion picture with Alan Ladd and Shelly Winters; and arguably the most popular adaptation in 1974, featuring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, and Sam Waterston, with a script by Francis Ford Coppola. The most recent epic stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Tobey Maguire. Other popular titles that have enjoyed numerous reboots include William “Wild Bill” Wellman’s A Star is Born, and most recently, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

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Mention the “Port of Los Angeles”, and the most familiar images that immediately come to mind may include massive container ships, trucks, cars, and an array of work boats all contributing to the Port’s status as a center of international trade.

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Ever since the genetic code carried by the DNA double helix was deciphered, it has been the dream of biologists and medical doctors to be able to modify the code for the betterment of humankind.

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USS R-7 Submarine, launched in 1919, on maneuvers with Palos Verdes Hills in the background.

After construction of the San Pedro breakwater was completed in 1912, Los Angeles outer harbor was used to support U.S. naval operations. As early as 1913, submarines would berth along the San Pedro waterfront. But it was not until 1914 that the Harbor Commission allowed the Navy the use of City Dock No. 1 and part of its transit sheds as a temporary base for submarines.

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Marymount California University is a private Catholic four-year university situated on the picturesque bluff on the Palos Verdes Peninsula that once served as an all-girls Catholic high school and a Catholic two-year junior college. MCU embraces is Catholic identity in the tradition of its founding order, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. The chapel on campus conducts weekly services and special holiday masses which the community is welcome to attend.

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Our Moon, the moon of planet Earth, is special. The fifth largest moon in our solar system, our Moon is an old soul sister of planet Earth. She has been in orbit around the Earth since the time the early solar system took shape. Our Moon was born in a fiery tangle between a Mars-sized object and Earth, during the early period, when our solar system looked more like a free-for-all shooting gallery with bullets the size of planets whizzing around, and no sheriff in charge. She has been slowly tamed and nurtured over four and a half billion years, and now, literally embraced in a waltz that we call tidal locking, with her face toward mother Earth.

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There is little doubt that Southern California has played a significant role in aerospace history. Much of that can be traced to the South Bay and other areas of Los Angeles County. The first airshow in the United States was held on a hilltop on a parcel of land that was once included in a Spanish Land Grant known as Rancho San Pedro and later developed by Manuel Dominguez.

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