Calm

Kicking off another typical seven-day work week in the offices of his management company 19 Entertainment, Adam Lambert fixed his gaze on his own pretty face. Scattered across his publicist's desk were proof sheets from a photo session with the singer, who will release his debut album on RCA Records, "For Your Entertainment," Nov. 23. The shots captured Lambert in typical glam-god poses: peacock, street tough, space oddity, freaky adventurer in the boudoir of the damned. Lambert, who in person is none of those things but rather a startlingly grounded 27-year-old radiating Southern Californian optimism, took up a red pencil and circled a frame.

In the pandemonium of people scrambling to escape the bloodiest shooting rampage in Orange County history, Kenneth Caleb saw a lone, limping figure possessed of a strange calm. Caleb was staring out the window of Patty's Place, the Seal Beach restaurant where he went for lunch that day in October. Moments earlier, a terrified employee at the Salon Meritage next door had rushed into the restaurant screaming one phrase over and over: "Call the police, he's shooting everybody!"

Ron Artest , the calming voice of the Lakers. Surprisingly, even shockingly, it was true for the first half of Game 7, the Lakers forward keeping his team in the game as everybody else misfired from every angle. With Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol unable to do much of anything, Artest had 12 points and three steals to keep the Lakers within 40-34 at halftime. He finished with 20 points and five steals, the Lakers' biggest free-agent acquisition saving his best for the last 48 minutes of the season in the Lakers' 83-79 championship-clinching victory Thursday over the Boston Celtics.

Hundreds of Occupy marchers peacefully convened Tuesday evening in Pershing Square, an hour after the May Day protest in downtown Los Angeles took a tense turn. The mood was jovial as about 200 protesters listened to live music and watched performers. Earlier, police clashed with protesters at 4th and Hill streets, causing officers clad in riot gear to swarm the area. A police official said a female officer was struck in the head with a skateboard and taken to a hospital.

Is 2012 the end of the world? If you scan the Internet or believe the marketing campaign behind the movie "2012," scheduled for release in November, you might be forgiven for thinking so. Dozens of books and fake science websites are prophesying the arrival of doomsday that year, by means of a rogue planet colliding with the Earth or some other cataclysmic event. Normally, scientists regard Internet hysteria with nothing more than a raised eyebrow and a shake of the head. But a few scientists have become so concerned at the level of fear they are seeing that they decided not to remain on the sidelines this time.

I am getting tired of seeing articles proclaiming how well yuppie stockbrokers have maintained their wits during the Crash of '87 ("New Brokers Appear Calm Facing First Bear Market," Oct. 25). How could these brokers be upset over a market turn that has generated millions of dollars in commissions that go straight into their pockets? The only people who will certainly make money during these market swings are the stockbrokers. MITCHELL BLAKE Culver City

Tailback Johnathan Franklin will try to remember, "football is football." Cornerback Aaron Hester will remind himself, "It's a football game." Quarterback Kevin Prince knows, "I'll be nervous, but that's football." Yup, it's football. But for those three, and a host of others, UCLA's season opener will be the first time they have played in a college game. The Bruins will have at least 10 players making their debut against San Diego State on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

Al Qaeda's attack on New York's twin towers eight years ago today killed about 2,600 people, destroyed buildings, contaminated the region and disrupted the global economy, but it did not conquer the citizenry. When the planes became bombs and the towers became torches and then shards and clouds of dust, many were afraid, but few panicked. Instead, hundreds of thousands of people rescued each other and themselves. Even as New Yorkers worried about more violence to come, a spontaneously assembled flotilla of boats, ranging from a yacht "borrowed" by police officers to a historic fireboat, evacuated 300,000 to 500,000 people from Lower Manhattan, a nautical feat on the scale of the British evacuation of an army from Dunkirk in the early days of World War II. As Adam Mayblum, who walked down from the 87th floor of the north tower with some of his co-workers, wrote on the Internet immediately afterward: "They failed in terrorizing us. We were calm.

Kudos to Laker announcer Keith Erickson for keeping Chickie (Homer) Hearn honest. Erickson is willing to challenge Chick's most outrageous calls in a calm, non-offensive manner that allows the Dynamic Duo to call a most credible and accurate game. PATTY HOOVLER Torrance

The most disturbing aspect of witnessing the earthquake was not the quake itself, but how a couple of TV newscasters handled the episode. To say the least, I considered their conduct deplorable. All forms of the news media, not just TV, have a responsibility to be prepared to handle any such catastrophic event in a calm, cool and collected manner. They need a check list, or better yet, a prerecorded tape, to relate immediately to the public what people should and should not do. They need background information to be able to discuss the situation in an intelligent manner.

We briefly interrupt this Matt Kemp lovefest to wonder - just wonder, mind you - if he hasn't had a momentary relapse. That would be the Matt Kemp who leads the majors in batting average, home runs, runs, slugging percentage, total bases and on-base percentage, and is tied for first in RBIs and runs. The Matt Kemp who has been every rotisserie-league player's dream and April's most feared hitter. Also the Matt Kemp who's made at least two base-running blunders in as many games, and probably should have caught that game-winning triple Tuesday.

The voice of the Delta Air Lines captain on Flight 1063 on Thursday sounds beyond calm as he informs air traffic controllers: " Aaaand Delta 1063 has had an engine failure on the right engine, declaring an emergency due to a bird strike. " (Check out the audio above, posted online by NYC Aviation. ) The rest of the conversation tracks the emergency landing of the flight that had just taken off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and was bound for Los Angeles.

GODALMING, England - He had just landed his biggest assignment yet, senior telegraph officer on the world's biggest ship. On the second day of its maiden voyage, he celebrated his 25th birthday. Four days later, in the first minutes of April 15, 1912, Jack Phillips was at his post in the wireless room of the Titanic, sending out distress signals and cries for help in Morse code. "CQD CQD," Phillips tapped out. Calling all ships - distress. "Come at once. We have struck a berg.

Luke Eubank works so fast and usually throws so few pitches that Newbury Park road games are ending in less than 90 minutes, leaving varsity players with nothing to do while waiting for their bus to arrive. Eubank, though, is perfectly content using his cellphone to listen to music or text his girlfriend. "Fortunately, he has unlimited texting," said a family friend. Newbury Park Coach Matt Goldfield is still trying to figure out what to make of Eubank's pitching dominance.

SANFORD, Fla. - When the Rev. Al Sharpton led a rally of thousands here last month, he told city leaders that they "risked going down as the Selma or Birmingham of the 21st century" unless George Zimmerman was arrested. On Thursday, with Zimmerman behind bars, many here were wondering when they would get their reputation back. "There's not all this racialism, like everyone's saying," said Beth Rollf, who is white and owns downtown's Taste of Thyme Cafe. "There are no riots.

A day after Mojave Desert school officials rejected a controversial effort by parents seeking major changes at their lowest-performing elementary school, the embattled campus finally appeared calm even as supporters vowed to continue the fight. David Mobley, principal at Desert Trails Elementary in Adelanto, said Thursday that the school was free from weeks of conflict between supporters and opponents of the petition to hand over management to a charter operator under the state's landmark parent trigger law. "It was nice to relax," he said.

Parents who are putting their children in private schools should feel guilty--for what they are doing to the children. If they think there are problems in the United States now, imagine the world that will exist when more and more of the hurt, the angry, the deprived, and the hopeless see fewer and fewer of the kind, the calm, the successful, and the optimistic. Private schooling buys a few years of "security" at the cost of creating a society that will be increasingly unlivable when those children reach adulthood.

The parents of slain teenager Trayvon Martin took their call for justice for their son to Capitol Hill on Tuesday as the special prosecutor appointed to the case asked that the political temperature be lowered so that she can properly investigate the Florida shooting. State special prosecutor Angela B. Corey, who was named last week by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to take over the case from local officials, said her team of investigators needed time to do its job. Corey said her investigation could possibly result in state charges that bypass the need for the Seminole County grand jury, which is scheduled to convene April 10 to hear the case.

The cigarette smoke hovers dense inside the neighborhood cafe. Young patrons knock back beers at greasy wooden tables. A heated debate rages about Syria's revolt. The rotund bar owner labels the rebels baltajiya , or bandits, who are ravaging towns and villages. Demonstrators want only change and freedom, replies a young man in a hooded sweat shirt. Others wrangle over the president and the uncertain future. It is a striking scene for a tightly controlled police state.