Aerial

They are the two words no struggling secondary would ever want to see on the schedule: "New" and "Orleans." That's the challenge the Atlanta Falcons are facing tonight at the Superdome: Drew Brees and the high-flying New Orleans Saints, whose offense is averaging an NFL-best 427.3 yards per game. Last week, the Falcons' young and smallish secondary was burned for 311 yards passing by Dallas' Tony Romo. The week before that, the Falcons yielded 300 to Chicago's Jay Cutler. Brees is averaging 283yards a game and has more than his share of capable targets.

On a recent evening outside a San Fernando Valley movie theater, a young man startled passersby when he hurled his cellphone onto the sidewalk. As he sheepishly picked up the pieces, he apologized and said he was having a bad day. It turns out he's not the only one to transform a smartphone into a missile. Driven by impulse, it seems a lot of people are texting and tossing. "It's one of these behaviors that express frustration, anger or irritability that is simply easy, because we have a phone in our hands most of the time," says Emanuel Maidenberg, director of the UCLA Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Clinic.

The serene views of America that Ryan Bingham enjoys from his American Airlines seat at 15,000 feet in "Up in the Air" were pretty to look at but a chore to capture for aerial director of photography Dylan Goss. With a chartered plane, Goss made a weeklong cross-country flight to capture footage between L.A. and Chicago from a height not normally seen in Hollywood movies (most aerial photography is shot at 500 or 1,000 feet). For five hours a day, Goss was tucked in the back of the small Cessna Skymaster, bundled up in layers of clothing and wearing an oxygen mask when they flew above 10,000 feet.

Armchair travelers and adventurer-seekers who dream of getting off the grid will find a taste of the exotic in a new trip being organized by Asia Transpacific Journeys called The Wild Jungles of Borneo . The April 8-21 trip will explore the Southeast Asian island's national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, known for their variety of species. The tour promises a chance to search for tigers, rhinos, elephants and leopards from treetop aerial walkways and to observe nocturnal wildlife and birds on a night safari.

Delta Ornamental Spraying in Ventura won a $139,200 contract from the Navy to provide an aerial application of mosquito larvacide.

Sean D. Tucker, flying an Oracle Challenger biplane, and Ed Hamill, in his Air Force Reserve Dream Machine biplane, demonstrate their aerial skills above Riverside. Both will be performing in today's 14th annual Riverside Air Show at the city's airport.

Several weeks ago, TBS ran the movie "West Side Story." It was an abomination. I don't mind them cutting the overture, but I do mind putting that music over the prologue (the aerial footage easing down to the playground). Michael Heiter, Costa Mesa

Colorful hot-air balloons will dot the sky as the Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival lifts off. Aerial activities include balloon shows and rides. While on the ground, visitors can partake in food and wine tastings, live music, children's activities and a motocross show. Lake Skinner Recreation Area, 37701 Warren Road, Winchester. 5 p.m.-11 p.m. Fri., 6 a.m.-11 p.m. Sat., 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Sun. $15-$22 per day, $50 for a weekend pass. (951) 676-6713. http://www.tvbwf.com.

This continuous spraying of our population with poisonous substances is like killing the chickens in order to keep the coop clean! Granted, the Medfly infestation is a serious problem. But if we possess the technology to land men on the moon, surely we can devise a less-hazardous method of eradication. Any politician supporting aerial spraying of malathion will certainly not get my vote. VIVO BENNETT Los Angeles

State officials Thursday abruptly canceled California's aerial spraying program to combat a crop-eating moth in urban areas, after months of public uproar over its unclear effects on the environment and human health. Secretary of Food and Agriculture A.G. Kawamura announced that the state had abandoned all plans to send up pesticide-spraying planes to fight the light brown apple moth in cities and towns, including those in the densely populated San Francisco Bay Area, which was scheduled for treatment this fall.

BEIRUT - Rebel fighters and government forces on Thursday battled for control of two strategic airports in northern Syria, the loss of which would be a severe blow to President Bashar Assad's efforts to maintain a hold in the region. Fighting erupted around the international airport in Aleppo, Syria's commercial capital, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in London. The airport has been shut since Tuesday because it has been under attack by rebels seeking to cut off Assad's aerial supply route.

In the ever-escalating effort to bestow the ultimate holiday gift (come on, admit you feel the urge to be at least a little bit competitive about it), the tendency is to focus myopically on the material. That's all well and good as long as there are sports-stadium naming rights, moon rocks or French vineyards to be bought. The downside, of course, is running the risk that one's fantastic gift will be overshadowed by someone else's even bigger display of seasonal largesse. Why go to all the trouble, for example, of cloning your wife's favorite pet only to have your thoughtfulness all but forgotten the second she finds out your father-in-law has given her a South Pacific archipelago?

Thousands of people gathered in the new Grand Park on Saturday to watch aerial dancers scale City Hall, performers splash in the fountain and other festivities marking the opening of downtown Los Angeles' major new green space. The rectangular park, which stretches from the top of Bunker Hill to the base of City Hall, has been partially open since midsummer. The opening of the lower section completes the project, which includes lawns, fountains and a cafe plaza. The project has been billed as L.A.'s Central Park, and officials hope it will blossom into a cultural hub. But for some visitors Saturday, it was enough just to have a new urban retreat.

Teetering 23 miles above the New Mexico desert, Felix Baumgartner plans to leap head first into the abyss and become the first free-falling human to break the sound barrier as he plummets to the ground. The feat, which will put his life on the line and push his body to the limit, is scheduled to take place shortly after dawn Monday when he falls from 120,000 feet in the air. JUMP DELAYED: The attempt by Felix Baumgartner to set the world's free-fall record at 23 miles has been postponed from Monday to Tuesday because of a cold front with gusty winds near Roswell, N.M. Wearing a newly designed pressurized suit and helmet, the Austria native will test the threshold of his equipment as scientists, aerospace engineers, the Air Force and NASA study what it shows about the limits and capabilities of the human body bailing out from aircraft at ultra-high altitudes.

It was an air show to end all air shows, a spectacle that saw California crane its collective neck to the sky in wonderment. The space shuttle Endeavour, perched atop a modified 747, captivated millions on a pre-retirement tour of the Golden State on Friday, bringing an end to NASA's space shuttle program in dramatic style. Endeavour flew as low as 1,500 feet past photo-op perfect California landmarks and cheering crowds. While many were glued to their televisions, thousands of others grabbed smartphones and cameras and experienced the flyover in person from atop Los Angeles skyscrapers, on hillsides and in backyards.

It wouldn't be a trip to Southern California without a visit to Disneyland. The Anaheim park is one of several Los Angeles-area landmarks that space shuttle Endeavour will fly over before landing Friday morning at Los Angeles International Airport, according to NASA. Also on deck: the Getty Center, Griffith Observatory and the California Science Center, the retired orbiter's new permanent home. The Los Angeles flyover will mark the end of Endeavour's farewell aerial tour which is slated to begin at dawn Wednesday when it departs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

We want sophisticated technology to protect us. But we don't want it to stalk us. A new aerial surveillance system that the city of Lancaster put into place last week to reduce crime has the potential to do both, although with some strict monitoring, it might accomplish the former without subjecting residents to the latter. Officials in the high-desert city unveiled a program in which a small plane, manned by a pilot and equipped with cameras capturing real-time video footage of the landscape below, will fly in a loop at 3,000 feet.

Officials in Lancaster are crediting the city's new aerial surveillance system with aiding in the capture of a suspect wanted in connection with a double slaying. The incident unfolded Tuesday when Los Angeles Police Department officers were conducting undercover surveillance of an apartment complex on the east side of Lancaster, looking for a man wanted in connection with two homicides, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County sheriff's station in Lancaster. Shortly before 3 p.m., the officers determined that their suspect was inside one of the apartments and called on deputies to help take him into custody.