My Quake’s Bigger than Yours

The USGS posted a link to a calculator to help people understand the difference between two earthquakes of different magnitudes.

Case in point? Let’s compare the 9.0 March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake (My one month later post with video) with the m5.1 March 24, 2014 La Habra Quake

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake is 7943.282 times bigger than a magnitude 5.1 earthquake on a seismogram, but is 707,945.784 times stronger (energy release). Makes the mind boggle!!

Iron Man Three (2013)

Only a month after watching Iron Man 2, I decided to not let my Netflix envelope sit on my TV stand too long and with Daniel working a night shift, I popped the Blu-Ray in and watched Iron Man Three. I have actually enjoyed going into these Marvel films blind – not reading up on what the movie will be about in Entertainment Weekly or online and oblivious to any spoilers that are around.

This Iron Man is my favorite one so far. Whereas the first two struggled to keep my attention, this one kept me focused that I didn’t feel the need to check my Twitter at all! (Such a 2010′s problem..) I liked the overall tone of this movie – not too gimmicky and Robert Downey Jr was once again great as Tony Stark. Everyone of the returning characters were better than they were in Iron Man 2 (Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey) and I loved the fact that Guy Pearce was in the movie as well. Like Mickey Rourke in the last movie, it wasn’t until halfway through the movie I realized – Oh, it’s him!

I’ll have to find a Marvel geek to explain the Mandolin to me. Either that or I will have to do some research about the character to see if the movie represents him faithfully to the comics. Sorry, I’m not an avid comics reader so I can’t tell you if it’s accurate or not. I can tell you as a complete noob, that I really enjoyed the movie, and the whole Iron Man exhibit at Innoventions finally makes sense.

Next up: Thor and Thor 2. By then I hope Captain America 2 will be on Netflix so I will be caught up. Just one year to Avengers 2 and by then I’ll actually get the in-jokes!

Figueroa Street Tunnels

Two-way traffic once ran through the Figueroa Street Tunnels, now part of the Arroyo Seco Parkway. Courtesy of the USC Libraries - Dick Whittington Photography Collection.

Two-way traffic once ran through the Figueroa Street Tunnels, now part of the Arroyo Seco Parkway. Courtesy of the USC Libraries – Dick Whittington Photography Collection.


I am such a freeway nerd, so I cannot resist good articles on Los Angeles freeway history. One of my new favorite blogs, LA As a Subject, has a great article on the history of the Figueroa Street Tunnels.

You may recognize them as the Pasadena Freeway tunnels, and I remember them most from the Universal Studios Tour back in the early 1980s when they would get volunteers from the audience to come on stage and bounce on a bicycle in front of a green screen and they made it look like you were riding down the freeway. I love the look of the tunnels and the other LA bridges that architect Merrill Butler designed in the 30s. It’s almost like the LA River bridges and the tunnels are Art Deco bookends for the city.

Check out the article for some great photos of the tunnels under construction and in use as a road before being upgraded for freeway traffic.

New Doctor Who Series 8 Trailer

With Series 8 just around the corner next month, the BBC premiered a one minute trailer looking at the upcoming season. I am really looking forward to the Twelfth Doctor and from the trailer it looks like we are in for quite the epic ride. BTW – DUH! Spoilers!!

I think over the past few years, they have done a good job getting me excited about an upcoming series or special with these trailers. Some of my favorites of the last few years are below:

The 50th Anniversary Special
I was so excited for the 50th anniversary special, but after the first couple of teaser trailers I was not feeling it. This trailer, first shown at Comic Con, sealed the deal and put me into overdrive waiting for the episode.

Series 6
Featuring trailer music from Two Steps from Hell, this trailer had just the right amount of epic-ness to get me stoked for the season.

End of Time Part 2
Probably my all time favorite – after the finale of part one, this trailer was just stunning to behold and I probably watched it 100 times in the week between part 1 and 2.