'A curious, eclectic tour throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Reflecting man's relationship to nature and his culture, this visual poem is an elegy for what is past and a sardonic commentary about contemporary life in America.' Images from the greater Los Angeles landscape include a lizard in a cage, a man painting a billboard mural, firemen on the roof of a building, a makeshift shooting range, cars driving up and down sand dunes, traffic, and the ocean. The piece is approximately 11 minutes in length and was broadcast as a segment of episode 504 (1989) of 'New Television.' Produced and directed by John Arvanites.

This animation sequences through the MODIS imagery of the devastating Californian fires from October 23, 2003 through October 29, 2003. Then the animation resets to October 23, 2003 and zooms out to see the TOMS aerosol sequence. It clearly shows that the California fires had an impact on air quality as far east as Maine.

This visualization shows the Southern California Fires.

Coastal fly down from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara (S to N).

Coastal fly down from Santa Barbara to LA (N to S).

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, animations are used to show how the hills around Los Angeles were formed by earthquakes at small thrust faults that extend outward from the larger San Andreas fault.

What kinds of wisdom do other ways of life offer our own? How do other perspectives on the world challenge our assumptions about life? These questions are addressed through the four fields of anthropology: biological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology, and archaeology. We examine family and kinship, religion, economics, politics, survival of indigenous groups, and Western influences from an anthropological perspective to gain appreciation for cultural and ethnic diversity. This class introduces students to the methods and perspectives of cultural anthropology. Readings emphasize case studies in very different settings (a nuclear weapons laboratory, a cattle-herding society of the Sudan, and a Jewish elder center in Los Angeles). Although some of the results and conclusions of anthropology will be discussed, emphasis will be on appreciating cultural difference and its implications, studying cultures and societies through long-term fieldwork, and most of all, learning to think analytically about other people's lives and our own.

Transitions between relatively cloud free scenes of the Los Angeles region, using true color land and clouds with false color-chlorophyll water images, all from SeaWiFS

These scenes show Los Angeles and Burbank as seen by the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) instrument. The shortwave infrared (TM band 5), infrared (TM band 4), and visible green (TM band 2) channels are displayed in the images as red, green, and blue respectively. In this combination, barren and-or recently cultivated land appears red to pink, vegetation appears green, water is dark blue, and artificial structures of concrete and asphalt appear dark grey or black.

Zoom onto metropolitan centers from wide angle views, 11 seconds each.

SeaWiFS false color (chlorophyll-phytoplankton levels) ocean and true color land of Los Angeles for 20 dates from September 9, 1997 to August 8, 1998

SeaWiFS true color still images of Los Angeles for 20 dates from September 9, 1997 to August 8, 1998

Transitions between relatively cloud free true color scenes of the Los Angeles region from SeaWiFS

The collision of a flow of moisture from Hawaii known as a "Pineapple Express" and a persistent low pressure system are wreaking havoc on California weather. This movie shows rain accumulation in San Diego from Jan. 6 through Jan. 11 based on data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)-based Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis. The accumulation is shown in colors ranging from green (less than 50 mm of rain) through red (200 mm or more). The TRMM satellite, using the worlds only space-borne rain radar and other microwave instruments, measures rainfall over the ocean. In this case instruments were able to reveal rainfall structure resulting from storms "riding" the actual Pineapple Express extending toward Hawaii, which is beyond the range of conventional land-based National Weather Service radars. In early 1995, a Pineapple Express hit California, contributing to a season of winter storms that killed 27 people and did $3 billion in damages and costs. A Pineapple Express in mid-October 2003 wreaked havoc from south of Seattle to north of Vancouver Island. Flooding forced more than 3,000 people from their homes.

" Problems in nuclear engineering often involve applying knowledge from many disciplines simultaneously in achieving satisfactory solutions. The course will focus on understanding the complete nuclear reactor system including the balance of plant, support systems and resulting interdependencies affecting the overall safety of the plant and regulatory oversight. Both the Seabrook and Pilgrim nuclear plant simulators will be used as part of the educational experience to provide as realistic as possible understanding of nuclear power systems short of being at the reactor."

Several massive wildfires were raging across southern California over the weekend of October 25, 2003. Whipped by the hot, dry Santa Ana winds that blow toward the coast from interior deserts, at least one fire grew 10,000 acres in just 6 hours. Moving northwest to southeast along the coast, the first cluster of red dots is a combination of the Piru, Verdale, and the Simi Incident Fires; The next cluster-to the east of Los Angeles-is the Grand Prix (west) and Old (east) Fires; To their south is the Roblar 2 Fire; Next is the Paradise Fire; Then the massive Cedar Fire, whose thick smoke is completely overshadowing the coastal city of San Diego; Finally, at the California-Mexico border is the Otay Fire. At least 13 people have lost their lives because of these fires, which officials are reporting were caused by carelessness and arson. Thousands have been evacuated across the region and hundreds of homes have been lost.

Several massive wildfires were raging across southern California over the weekend of October 25, 2003. Whipped by the hot, dry Santa Ana winds that blow toward the coast from interior deserts, at least one fire grew 10,000 acres in just six hours. Moving northwest to southeast along the coast, the first cluster of red dots is a combination of the Piru, Verdale, and Simi Incident Fires. The next cluster, to the east of Los Angeles, is the Grand Prix (west) and Old (east) Fires. To their south is the Roblar 2 Fire; next is the Paradise Fire; then the massive Cedar Fire, whose thick smoke is completely overshadowing the coastal city of San Diego; finally at the California-Mexico border is the Otay Fire. At least 13 people have lost their lives because of these fires, which officials are reporting were caused by carelessness and arson. Thousands have been evacuated across the region and hundreds of homes have been lost.

This visualization shows the Southern California and Mexican fires as seen by Aqua-MODIS on October 27, 2003.

This visualization shows the Southern California and Mexican fires as seen by Aqua-MODIS on October 27, 2003. This version included red fire pixels to display each incident fire.