Category Archives: Places

A Santa Barbara itinerary from ChatGPT

I asked ChatGPT for a three-day itinerary to give visitors to Santa Barbara. Here ya go: Day 1: Start the day with breakfast at the Shoreline Beach Cafe, which has a beautiful view of the ocean. After breakfast, head to … Continue reading

Posted in AI, Photography, Places, Travel | 2 Comments

Places

Let’s say you want to improve the Wikipedia page for Clayton Indiana with an aerial photograph. Feel free to use the one above. That’s why I shot it, posted it, and licensed it permissively. It’s also why I put a … Continue reading

Posted in Art, education, Photography, Places | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

From Hollywood Park Racetrack to SoFi Stadium

Hollywood Park Racetrack is gone. In its place is SoFi Stadium, the 77,000-seat home of Los Angeles’ two pro football teams and much else, including the 6,000-seat YouTube Theater. There’s also more to come in the surrounding vastness of Hollywood Park, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art, Aviation, Awesome, Business, california, data, infrastructure, Photography, Places, Technology, Travel | 4 Comments

Geology answers for Montecito and Santa Barbara

Just before it started, the geology meeting at the Santa Barbara Central Library on Thursday looked like this from the front of the room (where I also tweeted the same pano): Our speakers were geology professor Ed Keller of UCSB and … Continue reading

Posted in Future, Geography, Geology, history, infrastructure, Nature, Photography, Places, Research, Santa Barbara, Science, ThomasFire, weather, wildfire | 17 Comments

Making sense of what happened to Montecito

Montecito is now a quarry with houses in it: So far twenty dead have been removed. It will take much more time to remove twenty thousand dump truck loads of what geologists call “debris,” just to get down to where … Continue reading

Posted in fire, Geography, Geology, infrastructure, Journalism, Links, News, Places, Politics, problems, Technology, weather, wildfire | Tagged , , , , | 61 Comments

BYSMD

Once, in the early ’80s, on a trip from Durham to some beach in North Carolina, we stopped to use the toilets at a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. In the stall where I sat was a long conversation, … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Family, Friends, Fun, Geography, North Carolina, Personal, Places, Strange stuff, Travel | Leave a comment

The Giant Zero

The world of distance Fort Lee is the New Jersey town where my father grew up. It’s at the west end of the George Washington Bridge, which he also helped build. At the other end is Manhattan. Even though Fort … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Broadcasting, Ideas, infrastructure, Places, Politics, privacy, problems, Technology | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

Speeding on the Subway

At the uptown end of the 59th Street/Columbus Circle subway platform there hangs from the ceiling a box with three disks on fat stalks, connected by thick black cables that run to something unseen in the downtown direction. Knowing a … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Geography, infrastructure, Internet, Personal, Photography, Places, Technology, Travel, VRM | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Valley Fire losses

Here is the current perimeter of the Valley Fire, according to the USGS’ GEOMAC viewer: As you see, no places are identified there. One in particular, however, is of extremely special interest to me: Harbin Hot Springs. That’s where I … Continue reading

Posted in Friends, Geography, infrastructure, Journalism, Life, Links, News, Personal, Photography, Places, problems | 6 Comments

What’s up with @TMobile in North Carolina?

Check this out: I took that screen shot at the excellent Oakleaf restaurant in Pittsboro, NC a few days ago. Note the zero bars (or dots) of telephone service, and the very respectable (tested!) data service. To confirm what the … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Family, Gear, infrastructure, Internet, North Carolina, Places, Strange stuff, Technology, VRM | Tagged | 9 Comments