Los Angeles

Not doing much for his legacy

Dwight Howard has not done much for his reputation over the last few years. With the drama that was his last season in Orlando, followed by basically getting Stan Van Gundy fired, and then forcing a trade to LA, Howard went from being an NBA favorite to a mercurial villain. While he didn't garner as much dislike as Lebron James did when he left Cleveland, there was a lot of love lost for one of the most dominate big men in the game right now. This week, Dwight Howard continued to dig himself into a deeper hole.

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Focus@Will uses the power of music to help you concentrate

Focus@Will, a Los Angeles based music startup, wants to help you focus through the power of streaming music. The service uses its exclusive library of instrumental compositions, carefully crafted into 20 minute phases, to keep your mind on the task at hand. Will Henshall, the guy heading the project, says that the app increases focus for 2 out of 3 people that have tried it.

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National Day of Unplugging begins at sundown

Twitter and Facebook feeds are abuzz, as they are every Friday, with posts about dates, movies, shopping and other weekend plans. During the course of the weekend, we will see updated statuses and pictures from our friends showing us what they've been up to. Some people, though, are forgoing social media from sundown today, March 1, through sundown tomorrow, March 2. This evening marks the National Day of Unplugging, an event encouraging folks to unplug from the cell phones, tablets and computers for 24 hours.

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Achewood TV show is in the works

I can't handle news like this first thing in the morning. I am old, and it is bad for my heart. I logged onto Twitter to check out the haps while I drank my first cup of coffee, and found my Twitter stream ablaze with news about the Achewood television trailer.

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Knicks pick up a veteran big man

While the New York Knicks are known for having three All-Star caliber players that struggle to find a rhythm, they are still the second best team in the east. With Tyson Chandler and Melo truly finding a good pace of play together, and Amare Stoudamire happily falling into the sixth man role (sometimes), the team has put up some great numbers, starting out as one of the hottest teams in the league.

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Halfway there

With the All-Star break having just passed, it’s safe to say we've made it halfway through the 2012/2013 NBA season. It has been a nice change to last season’s lockout shortened year, with the drama and excitement being at an all-time high. While we still have a long way to go, and playoff excitement doesn't start for another few months, this season has been far from a let down. So what can be said about what has happened and what the future holds?

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Mice get hangover cure

Everyone wants a better way to get sober and avoid the terrible pains of a next-day hangover. Well, maybe it’s just those of us who enjoy a bit too much to drink that really want it, but it’s still in high demand. Now, it looks like some researchers working out of the University of California at Los Angeles may be on the way to developing just such a miracle.

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James on Anarchy

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Nathan brought up the question of anarchy. (Red Robin, my second-fave comic book character, by the way.)

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It's interesting; James freely mixes his website's material, 80/20 or 90/10, with most of it on baseball but some decent fraction of it on life and philosophy in general. It mixes amazingly well.

Goodbye to a front office legend

While few sports fans are truly interested in sports ownership (until lockouts or dumb trades are made), there are a few who seem to captivate audiences. This week, one of those owners sadly succumbed to his battle with cancer. At the age of 80, beloved Laker owner Jerry Buss died on the evening of February 18.

To his pedigree, the Lakers won 10 of their 16 NBA Championship under his ownership. He was the face behind one of the most successful franchises in history, and did what he loved until the day he died.

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You're probably not eating the fish you think you're eating

I have heard rumblings of this problem for years, mostly from less-than-reliable sources. Former employees who might have an axe to grind, celebrity chefs who could just be trying to smear their competition, industry insiders trying to make themselves sound more "insider-y than thou," and so forth.

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