Metro is meeting today to discuss the “subway to the sea,” which doesn’t exist yet. But transit to downtown does. However, higher gas prices, closed off streets and high parking fees really make going to downtown Los Angeles inconvenient on the weekends. Weekdays too. Weekdays, maybe you don't have a choice about whether to go, but you do have a choice on weekends, and that could mean you're skipping a downtown happening.
But if you use the Metro, you won't have to.
A visit to the Metro Web site will not only help you plan your trip, but it'll also let you know what's happening near a Metro station.
For example: Next month, in China Town, there will be New Year's celebration from Feb. 9 to 11. And on Feb. 24, the 2008 Amgen Tour of California bicycle race will end at the Rose Bowl, and Metro and Pasadena will provide a shuttle link from the Gold Line to the Rose Bowl.

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This year, L.A. County public health officials have too much of a good thing. In an attempt to use up a surplus of flu shots (which will expire if not used this year), the Department of Public Health is offering free vaccinations to anyone who wants one.

"It seems it's either feast or famine," Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said Tuesday. "It's never an easy thing to forecast exactly how much we'll need, so we always want to err on the side of protecting the public."

The shots are especially recommended for young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems, but any person of any age -- with or without health insurance -- can get a flu shot at the public health clinic in Torrance. You can find more clinics at the department's Web site.

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With elections right around the corner, you want to make sure your vote goes to the best candidate. FactCheck, run by a bipartisan organization, can help you decipher a candidate's true position and find the truth from the spin. Click here to get the facts behind the candidate. And if you're curious about something President Bush said in the State of the Union Address on Monday, the folks at FactCheck went through the whole speech. There are interesting assessments of his takes on pork barrel spending, Iran and tax deductions.

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The air in the South Bay is usually pretty clear. But if you're traveling or commuting inland, you might want to check the air quality before you go. This comprehensive site has links listing air quality and UV forecasts.

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It's voting season and awards season, and the Bloggies offers you a fix in both areas. Not familiar with the Bloggies? Get the details on the Bloggies Web site, but the basics are that the best blogs in several categories have been nominated, and it's your job, as a blog reader, to vote for the winner. Categories you can vote in include politics, fashion, Europe and humor. Some of these blogs will be familiar to some of you -- TMZ, Cute Overload and Gawker -- others are a bit more obscure -- Iceland Weather Report, The Rural Juror and Greeblemonkey. Maybe you can help the Daily Link blog be in contention for an award in 2009.

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Today is the last day to request vote-by-mail ballots for the Feb. 5 vote. Registered voters who want a mail ballot must submit a written request containing the voter’s name, home address, mailing address and signature, so you cannot apply online. However, you can get the application online. It must be turned in to the L.A. County Clerk's Office by 8 p.m.

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Torrance-area biomedical firm's work could prove helpful for people with cancer and Alzheimer's disease. "Determination of Protein Synthesis in vivo Using Labeling from Deuterated Water and Analysis of MALDI-TOF Spectrum" was published by a team of researchers at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute. Read the study.

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A revamped online file-sharing service that debuted Sunday offers free, unlimited song downloads, with the blessing of major recording companies, The Associated Press reports.
New York-based Qtrax lets users tap into file-sharing networks, but downloads come with copy-protection technology that prevents burning copies to a CD. The music can, however, be stored indefinitely on PCs and transferred onto portable music players.

In addition, the service promises its selection of up to 30 million tracks will be playable on iPods as early as March. As of now, iPods only play tracks that use Apple's proprietary copy-protection technology.

UPDATE: Qtrax has postponed its launch while it finalizes some licensing deals. However, you can still visit the site to find out more about the service.

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A so-called tantric master stood immersed in ice for 72 minutes, breaking his own world record of 68 minutes, The Associated Press reports.

Wim Hof’s feat, performed in an ice-filled container on a Manhattan street Saturday, was the kickoff of BRAINWAVE, a series of New York events exploring how art, music and meditation (which Hof says he used to withstand the cold) affect the brain.

Full-body ice contact isn’t Hof’s only trick, though he does seem fond of cooler temperatures. His Web site claims he has also swam under ice without oxygen and climbed snow-covered mountains with bare feet. Read more about Hof and his feats of endurance at his personal Web site.

And if you’re looking to test your mind and body, you can contact Hof about joining him on an adventure.

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Is there such a thing as a healthy map? Sorta! Gmaps Pedometer not only gives you mileage, but it will act as a pedometer for you. Enter your weight and route and it will tell you exactly how far you’ve walked and how many calories you burned in the process. Next time you want that Starbuck’s Cinnamon Dolce Latte with whipped cream, you might want to walk to the store in order to indulge.

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You can report the location of abandoned shopping carts to the California Shopping Cart Retrieval Corp. via a toll-free phone number or online.
California Shopping Cart Retrieval Corp. is authorized to pick up most but not all shopping carts, according to the toll-free number. Carts are usually picked up within 24 to 48 hours.
Look for the Report Cart Location link on the left side of the page.
People are asked to provide the city, street address and nearest cross street of where they saw the shopping cart and details such as the store name on the cart and if it is in a difficult spot to find, like an alley.

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Are you on MySpace? How about your pet?

Two Marina del Rey residents have created PoochSmooch, a Web site where pet owners and their four-legged companions can meet and network. Check out the site and create a profile.

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You read about the controversial Manhattan Beach blogger, who gives his take on the local real estate market. Read his writing at Manhattan Beach Confidential.

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I got a children's clothing catalog today that has an art contest in it. We normally try not to do shameless plugs for companies in this blog, but I figured with the rain and all, you might need something to amuse the kids, so here it is.

BodenUSA is having a Monster Design contest. You have your kids (or yourself, I guess) draw a monster that would work in the clothing company's building, write a job description for it, and mail it in. They'll choose three winners, design a T-shirt with your monster on it and send it to you, along with $500 worth of clothes.

You can see some samples of the monsters the Boden designers have done on the company's Web site. And if you want an idea of what kind of drawings win, check out the winners from the UK contest.

Send your drawing, monster's job description, the artist's name and age, address, phone and email address and send it to:
Monster of a Competition
JP Boden USA LLC
180 Armstrong Road
Pittston, PA 18640

It has to be there by Feb. 15, 2008.

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Keep up with South Bay globetrotters with the new blog links we've added to the links column at the right.

Jamie Roach, a Redondo Beach native, is blogging about his experiences in Uganda where he works to rebuild war-ravaged areas.

The Mathers, a Redondo Beach family that set sail in 2005 for a five-year journey, are blogging about their voyage around the world. You can also track them on a map and see a lot of photos from the places they have visited so far, including a gorgeous pic of the kids in Malaysia.

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There are only 29 days to prepare yourself for the Academy Awards by watching video previews of nominated movies, reminiscing on last year'snominees for each category.

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Fed up with all those drivers who just can't drive in the rain? Tell them to check out these rainy-day driving tips. The site offers driving advice based on current weather conditions in specific ZIP code. It can also provide an overview of driving techniques for all weather conditions, just in case you may be driving in weather you've never experienced.

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If you’re fascinated by outer space and all those twinkling stars, you should enjoy Heavens Above. By using their sky charts you can identify constellations and track satellites overhead. They’ll even customize pages in real-time specifically for your location and time zone!

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Harbin, China, comes alive in January when the highs may only be 10 degrees above zero. The cold doesn’t seem to stop tourists from flocking to the incredible city built each year where the huge buildings are all ice, with lighting from within that makes them shimmer in the evening sky. But if the cold is too much for you to handle in person, you can enjoy beautiful — and eerie — pictures of the 2007 Harbin Ice and Snow World from a warm living room.

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If photography and nature sound like a winning combination to you, check out National Wildlife's Photo Zone, where it really is. Highlighting the winning work from the magazine’s annual contests, the site also provides details on how to enter your own work.

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The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks is conducting an online survey about what should be done with San Pedro's parks.

If you're passionate about this issue, you can find out more about the assessment on the L.A. Parks Web site or read the blog about the process.

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The Redondo Beach-based International Association for Freedom and Equality United is offering scholarships to help disabled veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who want to go back to school. The deadline for the first round of scholarships is Jan. 25. To apply or donate, go to www.iafeunited.org or call 310-297-3610.

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You think your home is small? Check out the digs at Apartment Therapy.

For the third year, Apartment Therapy is holding a contest for the smallest and coolest apartment. If you’ve set up your primary residence in less than 650 square feet and designed it yourself, you could win up to $2,500 in store credit at Design Within Reach. The entry deadline is April 16.

If you don’t think your place is cool enough, check out the photos of last year’s winning entries. They might inspire you, and you can always enter the contest next year.

If your place isn’t small enough, you still might find some design concepts that strike your fancy. After all, there are no small ideas, just small spaces.

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Now that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is trying to reduce plastic bags, it might be a good time to bite the bullet and make your own reusable bags. Added bonus: Many grocery stores give a 5-cent rebate for each bag you bring in when you shop.

Jan Andrea's craft site has tips on fabric, a pattern and detailed instructions.

Make-it-easy has instructions for visual people.

Etsy Labs has an innovative idea: fusing several plastic bags together to make one strong, reusable one. So, you can recycle the bags you have now and make a cool looking reusable bag for the future.

If you would rather knit than sew, The Purl Bee has a pattern for a pretty knitted bag.

And, (this is rather amazing) My Recycled Bags has a tutorial for making yarn out of old plastic bags that you can then crochet into things like a large market bag, a grocery tote with a granny square, or dozens of other things.

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It's been awfully rainy and cold here lately, but it's summer in Australia, where the world's best tennis stars have taken to the courts. So bask in others' ability to play a few sets in the sunshine and enjoy the terrific play. Get official schedules, news, photos and more at Australianopen.com. Schedules are updated every evening. If the time zone difference is giving you trouble, go to the World Clock. Select "Australia - Victoria - Melbourne" for one time zone and "U.S.A. - California - Los Angeles" for the other. For U.S. TV listings, go to ESPN, the network broadcasting matches. If you stay up late, you can watch live matches. Rebroadcasts come in the afternoon. It's your own fault if you miss any of the action.

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Idealbite.com, which bills itself as a sassy, eco-friendly blog for real people with busy lives, just launched a Los Angeles-based newsletter. Subscribers can get the newsletter and a daily tip sent to their email address of choice.

The blog was way ahead of the curve on the plastic grocery bag issue that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is set to vote on today. In September 2006, they published a list of some sites where you can buy reusable shopping bags.

If you want to know more about Ideal Bite, you can read up about the founder in a cool little profile in February's Domino magazine.

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Are you in the habit of throwing money in the trash? You may not realize it, but that's just what you might be doing when you throw a bottle or can away instead of recycling. At Bottles and Cans find out just what can be recycled and how much you can make with little effort.

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Today is a day for honoring a man who resisted the status quo and called a nation into action. Click here for a biography on Dr. King.

His widow, Coretta Scott King, offers an inspiring message about the meaning of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday here.

And although you have probably heard Dr. King's "I have a Dream" speech, you can find other sermons and speeches online as well. Click here to listen to an audio excerpt from "The Drum Major Instinct", a 1968 sermon by Dr. King.

If you want to test your knowledge on how much you know about the civil rights leader after reading those links, try taking a trivia game here.

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As the Patriots and Giants prepare to face off in Super Bowl XLII, we thought you might appreciate some Web destinations dedicated to the gridiron -- or at least mentioning it. First, check out the official Super Bowl XLII site for all the official news, merchandise, etc.

Then, if you get confused because of all the Roman numerals, head here for a refresher on how the Romans used to do math and for a handy converter.

Then if you're planning a party but want something more than beer, grub and football, check out these ideas for Super Bowl parties. Some of you may think that a "Sopranos" party is a little excessive when such a big game is on, but this one is for those of you who don't.

Last, get your fill of Super Bowl commercials. It's not a comprehensive collection, but it's pretty close.

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... to come back to our blog, we bring you The Shark Is Still Working. It's a Web site devoted to -- you guessed it -- "Jaws" and everything even tenuously linked to that horror film of horror films. You'll find information about a documentary, discussion boards, fan info galore and goofy references to the film peppered throughout -- "can't beat that with a compressed air tank." Because, you know, sometimes you just can't get enough "Jaws."

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From the San Jose Mercury News:

Attention old analog TV set users: If you haven't already, you may want to apply for the $40 coupons the government is offering for converter boxes that will allow your old and faithful TV to receive digital signals.
The U.S. plans to abandon traditional analog broadcasts on Feb. 17, 2009.

Under the federal program each household is entitled to two coupons. They can be requested online at www.dtv2009.gov or by calling 1-888-DTV-2009.

EchoStar, the parent company of Dish Network, announced that it will sell a digital TV converter box for $39.99. The company said its TR-40 converter box will be available in limited quantities in March and unlimited quantities in June.

Other companies have announced that their converter boxes will cost around $60 to $70.

The feds have received requests from more than 1 million households since Jan. 1, according to the Commerce Department, which is overseeing the program.

The coupon program is aimed at owners of traditional analog sets who view over-the-air broadcast TV. Those sets will not work after the digital switch without a converter box. If you receive your TV signals via cable or satellite, you will not be affected.

Analog is the process of taking an audio or video signal and translating it into electronic pulses. Digital, on the other hand, breaks the signal into a series of ones and zeros. Congress ordered the switch to digital television because it will free up valuable airwaves for other uses, such as for police and fire departments. The change should also lead to improved picture and sound for TV viewers.

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Richard “Rich” Knerr, the co-founder of the company that brought us the Hula Hoop, the Frisbee, the Slip ’N Slide and the Hacky Sack, died this week at the age of 82.

While the Hula Hoop was arguably Wham-O’s most popular product (“No sensation has ever swept the country like the Hula Hoop,” Richard A. Johnson wrote in his 1985 book “American Fads”), demand for it ebbed quickly (“because every household in America had two and they lasted forever”), and the multimillion-dollar company is credited with introducing hundreds of other toys.

Here are some of their products, with links to videos of some of the commercials that helped make them famous:
- Water Wiggle (introduced in 1962)
- Wheelie Bar (introduced in 1964)
- Super Ball and Super Elastic Bubble Plastic (introduced in 1966)
- Silly String (introduced in 1972)
- Bubble Thing (introduced in 1984)

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The number of abortions in the United States dropped to 1.2 million in 2005, the lowest level since 1974 (the year after the Roe v. Wade decision) and down 25 percent from the all-time high of 1.6 million in 1990, according to a report issued Thursday.

California had one of the highest rates, but that included abortions performed on nonresidents who came to the state for the procedure. Find out more about state trends and how they compare with others at the Web site for the Guttmacher Institute, which conducted the survey.

The resources include a slideshow overview of abortion in the U.S. and a slideshow on trends since 1973, as well as state-by-state facts and state-by-state trends.

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The makers of Scrabble are in a scrap over a free online version that is one of the most popular applications on Facebook. El Segundo-based Mattel and Hasbro announced Wednesday that they’ve sent cease-and-desist notices to the parties behind “Scrabulous,” and they hope an agreement can be reached. Otherwise, Hasbro says it will shut down what it calls “an illegally copied version of the world’s most popular word game.”

So what’s a Scrabulous fan to do?

Check out the free Scrabble-inspired games Scrabble Blast and Scrabble Rack Attack. (How many words can you make from a rack of seven letters?)

Join the “Save Scrabulous” group on Facebook (you must be a registered Facebook member to do this).

Give old-school Scrabble and socializing a try by joining a club or entering a tournament. Find some at the National Scrabble Association’s Web site.

Bide your time and wait for a resolution while building your skills with the official Scrabble dictionary — also a useful tool for settling word challenges — and the word builder — which will help you make sense of those difficult tiles.

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You just finished watching a great movie with the most exciting chase scene through a residential neighborhood. It took place in Florida, but those houses looked so familiar. Was it filmed in the Sunshine State, or did the crew actually set up shop right around the corner from you? Scout the location at Film in America, which lists where all sorts of movies and some TV shows have been filmed. The cool site offers many screen shots with specific addresses and/or descriptions of their filming sites.

And if you’d like to have your front door (and George Clooney knocking on it) on the silver screen, check out Film in America’s sister site, Go for Filming, a subscription service where you can list your property as a potential Hollywood backdrop.

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Identity theft is a hot topic and not even your child's identity is safe these days. Thieves can create a credit history with your child's social security number that can take months to correct.
Learn how to protect your child's - and your - credit identity.

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The folks at Women's Media want to help women succeed in male-dominated professions. They have great articles on all sorts of women’s topics, as well as a free weekly podcast that keeps you in the know in 10 minutes or less.

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Now you can get your critter fix from the comfort of home. See exotic animals as diverse as fishing cats (do they use a fishing pole?), naked mole-rats (will someone please put a coat on them?), cheetahs and gorillas, or watch sea otters playing. The Smithsonian National Zoological Park offers lots of great critter Web cams and tons of information on our furry and feathered friends. It's your chance to frolic with the flamingoes.

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When you think of immigration, you probably think of Ellis Island, where millions first set foot on American soil. Castle Garden, at the tip of Manhattan, was also an entry point for millions from 1830 to 1892. Whether you're searching for an ancestor or just interested in historical information, Castle Garden is a fascinating place to visit.

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They used to be in the corners of arcades, in the back of restaurants and alongside walls at laundromats. But slowly, the classic games have become almost obsolete. If you're looking to reminisce on the days of moving a silver ball around with flippers, try out this link, which offers an array of different pinball games that you can play for free online.

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Then this is the site for you. Mapmyrun.com allows you to map how long your runs are and helps you search for trails and recommended running spots in your area. You can also keep track of your training schedule, look for local races and events and even take part in running forums.

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Want to know which candidates your neighbors and coworkers are supporting for the 2008 election? Or, are you curious about which celebrities are politically active, and how much they give to their respective causes? This site answers those questions and more--including an overview of past and present elections, new contribution limit guidelines and details on which parties are raising the most. Click here to start looking up contributions by donors you may know.

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