Results tagged “southern california” from Daily Link

Yesterday marked the beginning of Slow Food Nation 2008, a weekend-long celebration in San Francisco dedicated to introducing an environmentally friendly lifestyle of buying organic, locally grown eats instead of less-than-healthy fast food. But just because the festivities are nearly 400 miles away doesn't mean you can't be a part of the Slow Food movement. Read the posts at http://slowfoodnation.org/blog, where you can get information on all things food science and history and smart agriculture. You'll even find recipes for scrumptious, easy-to-make foods, such as goat cheese-stuffed squash blossoms and wild blackberry sorbet with mint and lavender.

If you find yourself inspired, you might want to visit Slow Food LA at www.slowfoodla.com. This chapter of Slow Food USA - the guys who put on this weekend's festival - organizes and keeps tabs on all the food activism happenings in L.A. Up next? The Hollywood Farmers' Market Peak of Summer Tomato Festival on Sept. 7. Information is available at the Slow Food LA Web site or at www.farmernet.com. Get your hands on free samples of more than 30 tomato varieties and learn how to sun-dry your own 'maters. Now that's a sweet way to end the summer.

Wanderlust seems to be infectious around these parts.

Remember Zac Sunderland? He's the 16-year-old Marina del Rey teen who set about exploring the world in his 36-foot fiberglass sailboat, Intrepid. He was also featured in the Daily Breeze, and more importantly, The Daily Link.

Sunderland's site has a biography, images and a blog that lists his global coordinates. Thus far, he has been very good in providing daily updates.

Dining out has been made easier and more fun thanks to the web. Not only can databases make it easier to find restaurants, but interactivity allows us to share our experiences -- good and bad -- with fellow diners.

Listing/review sites are abundant, so the novelty has worn off and the quality of reviews by average Joes and Janes can be decidedly hit-and-miss.

For foodies, Eater LA strives to be the highly regarded sit-down restaurant in a world dominated by noisy fast-food dining sites.

Eater LA has its own community of reviewers, but it's a blog that writes and aggregates news about restaurants, chefs, critics and industry developments. The site is nicely polished, modeled on the template of sister sites Curbed LA for urban planning and Racked LA for shopping.

Our little corner of the world is modestly represented in the subcategories. So far, Eater has listings for the Del Reys, LAX, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and San Pedro. It will only be a matter of time before Eater readers and the internet as a whole discover Lawndale's restaurant scene.

Gas prices may have made Sunday drivers fewer and farther between, but there's still a great way to get out and enjoy some weekend cruising -- pedal power! Not only is riding a bike better for the environment, it's better for you. But where to ride? If you're tired or wary of clueless motorists making you fear for life and limb, give labikepaths.com a try. Choose anywhere from Los Angeles to northern Orange County, even out to Angeles National Forest, from a drop-down menu, and the site will show you your best options nearby. It even offers local weather, trail descriptions, cyclists' warnings and links to bike paths on Google maps. For even more information, check out the site's extensive list of cycling resources from community services to clubs -- even phone numbers for city bike assistance! Also available are recommended cycling books and a calendar of cycling events (if your group has something coming up, feel free to submit it). It's too expensive to drive around, but don't let that keep you inside.

Everybody is doing the locomotion. May 10 is National Train Day.

Southern Californians can partake in the festival for ferroequinology at Union Station, 800 N. Alameda St., in downtown Los Angeles.

Los Angeles boasts an entire day of history, music, speeches and merchandise about trains. May 10 is a better day than any to celebrate trains, as it was on this day in 1869 when the last spike was wedged into the ground in Promontory, Utah, symbolizing the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

South Bay residents cannot take a train directly to Union Station, but it is a straight shot up the Harbor (110) Freeway with a short drive on the 101 freeway in downtown Los Angeles. Most of Metro's buses using the Harbor Transitway (PDF) also serve Union Station, as does Torrance Transit Line 2 (PDF).

Global positioning technology has come a long way. Prices have come way down and the technology has become more versatile than a high-tech replacement for the Thomas Guide.

Zoombak is marketing itself as a GPS device to help track lost pets. The $200 unit weighs less than 3 ounces and can be attached to a dog's or cat's collar, and the canine or feline can be tracked on the web, via Zoombak's customer service line or through text messaging on a cell phone.

Zoombak also has a unit available for GPS's most customary use, vehicle navigation and tracking. The $250 unit can be fixed inside a vehicle and portable, and can be used to track a vehicle's location and notify subscribers when it enters or leaves a user-defined "safety zone." The GPS device is promoted as a great way for parents to monitor teenagers' driving habits.

The low price and interface has attracted the attention of Martha Stewart and techno-geek sites such as Engadget and Slashdot. Early adopters have taken advantage of the compact size and cost to track other valuables besides pets and cars: An art collector places Zoombaks on expensive pieces, and a pharmaceutical uses the devices to track inventory.

Zoombak is not without its flaws. The $200-$250 price tag is for the physical unit; customers must still pay a monthly service fee to maintain coverage. Real-time cell phone tracking is not yet available. Also, the GPS technology is not yet advanced enough to receive a strong signal while indoors. This is less of a concern for vehicles, but the gadget might not work if a dog or cat happens to be inside a building.

Still, Zoombak would be a useful gadget to have for your lovable four-legged friend. Plus, the cellular-based coverage for the service shows signals to be robust throughout all but the mountainous areas of Southern California. And for other helpful products, information or pet-related chatter, visit the Daily Breeze's South Bay Pets blog and South Bay Pet Talk, which appears online and in the Breeze print edition every Tuesday.