Colonies

Nearly four decades after astronaut Neil Armstrong planted his boot on the surface of the moon, the U.S. is about to take the first small step toward colonizing Earth's tag-along satellite. On Wednesday, NASA is scheduled to launch a robotic mission aimed at finding the best site for Earth's first off-world colony, the centuries-old dream of science fiction writers and utopians.

Known for the great variety of the roles he plays, Leonardo DiCaprio now is trying his hand at Malibu beach house landlord. He has listed this Cape Cod-inspired home for $75,000 a month for a long-term tenant or $150,000 a month for leases of less than six months. His Malibu Colony compound was recently remodeled and features a four-bedroom main house on the ocean side, a two-bedroom guest house and a detached loft with gym. There is a beach-front deck, a fire pit, gardens and lawn on the less-than-half-acre lot. DiCaprio, 37, whose blockbuster hits include "Titanic" (1997)

Scientists have identified a new suspect in the mysterious die-off of bees in recent years - a class of pesticides that appear to be lethal in indirect ways. The chemicals, known as neonicotinoids, are designed to target a variety of sucking and chewing insects, including aphids and beetles. Bees are known to ingest the poison when they eat the pollen and nectar of treated plants, though in doses so tiny that it was not seen as a threat. But two reports published online Thursday by the journal Science indicate that the pesticides are not altogether benign.

The signs of penguins in love were unmistakable at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach on Monday: puffing their chests, standing on tiptoes while clicking their beaks together, belting out donkey-like brays. The colony of 13 Magellanic penguins, which recently moved from holding pens to a new $1.5-million exhibit that opens to the public Thursday, has seethed with courting rituals since the arrival of breeding season. One pair is already tending to a newly hatched chick.

When African leader Felix Houphouet-Boigny was laid to rest last week in Ivory Coast, 3,000 miles south of Paris, 100 French politicians stood dutifully at the graveside. But even as President Francois Mitterrand, Prime Minister Edouard Balladur and other French officials mourned an old friend and assured Africa of their support, they were steadily putting an end to the long, cozy and paternalistic relationship with France's former colonies on the continent.

Contra leaders pledged Saturday to begin the stalled process of disarming their forces this week in return for the permanent demilitarization of a remote corner of Nicaragua where former guerrillas will settle as pioneer farmers with government aid. The accord, announced at 1 a.m. after 15 hours of talks, was the first step by President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro's 10-day-old administration to demilitarize Nicaragua after eight years of war between the U.S.

If she were still alive, Ellen Babcock Dorland would be startled by what will happen at her old homestead in west Riverside County on Sunday. From 1 to 4 p.m., up to 300 visitors are expected to tour the grounds of Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, a working retreat for creative people. Visitors will sample wine and snacks, listen to poetry readings and music, look at art and absorb the atmosphere of the property, which Dorland and her husband, Robert, began homesteading in 1930.

The taps are dry for days, weeks, even months in large parts of this seaside capital. Once running water disappears, whether in the poorest or the wealthiest neighborhood, it is usually gone for a long time. Angolans do not blame this on the water department or on the country's lack of trained plumbers, or even on a decade-long shortage of spare parts. They blame it on Portugal. Did They Take the Maps? It is widely believed here that the Portuguese took all the maps of the underground waterpipe network when they left at the time of Angolan independence in 1975.

A quaint farm on an island in Puget Sound has been converted into a retreat for women who want to write and think and dream in solitude, beyond the press of family and jobs. The writers' colony at Hedgebrook Farm, which began receiving its first authors-in-residence in August, is the creation of Nancy Skinner Nordhoff, the 56-year-old daughter of a shipping executive who has long been active in community affairs in the Seattle area.

The idled Contra army began speeding up the stalled process of disarming Wednesday after the government accepted a relocation plan allowing former rebel combatants to police their new communities. After all-night negotiations, rebel leaders promised President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro for the third time in six weeks that their forces will surrender all their weapons to U.N. peacekeeping troops by June 10.

On Tuesday morning, 80-year-old Bobby Salisbury took the last of his items from his boat moored at Colonial Yacht Anchorage in Wilmington and stuffed them inside his gray Nissan off-road truck. "I'm the happiest guy today," he said sarcastically. For years, Salisbury has lived at the marina. Then last month, the Los Angeles Harbor Department ordered him and more than 90 other tenants to leave by May 1, calling the dock and 138 slips in Berth 204 too dilapidated to be safe.

Harold Hazelton can't imagine living on land. For more than 30 years, the 76-year-old and his wife, Donna, 75, have resided on their 43-foot Grand Mariner at Colonial Yacht Anchorage in Wilmington. That soon will end, however. "I don't know what we're going to do," he said. "I don't like living on land. I've been on water all of my life. " The Hazeltons are among 95 tenants who face eviction May 1, the result of port officials having labeled the marina's dock and its 138 slips in Berth 204 as too dilapidated to be safe.

Scientists have identified a new suspect in the mysterious die-off of bees in recent years - a class of pesticides that appear to be lethal in indirect ways. The chemicals, known as neonicotinoids, are designed to target a variety of sucking and chewing insects, including aphids and beetles. Bees are known to ingest the poison when they eat the pollen and nectar of treated plants, though in doses so tiny that it was not seen as a threat. But two reports published online Thursday by the journal Science indicate that the pesticides are not altogether benign.

Sometimes a house has a story to tell. A Southern Colonial in Hancock Park that just came on the market at $5.295 million was a set location for the 1994 film "Clear and Present Danger. " The nearly 7,500-square-foot house, built in 1925, "stood in" for the Georgetown home of Harrison Ford's character, Jack Ryan, acting CIA deputy director. The movie opens with a breakfast scene in the kitchen of the six-bedroom, 61/2-bathroom main house, which sits on an expanse of lawn and features a planation-style veranda and two-story columns along the front.

Soap star Cameron Mathison and his wife, Vanessa, have bought a house near the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains for $1.672 million. The Spanish Colonial Revival home, built in 1928, features a curving, decorative-tiled staircase, a step-down living room with trussed wood-beam ceiling and vintage tile, ironwork, wood and arches. The formal dining room is large enough to fit a 12-person table. There are four bedrooms, five bathrooms and nearly 3,700 square feet of living space.

Washington, Jefferson and Madison will be chatting with guests at Colonial Williamsburg this Presidents Day weekend when presidents of all stripes -- PTA, student council, book club, etc. -- get free admission to the re-created 18th century Virginia attraction. The deal: Williamsburg visitors have a chance to hobnob with the Founding Fathers (well, actors playing them) and take in special programs, including a fife-and-drum salute to the presidents and Q&As with some of them.

I've grown accustomed to the bugs that flit around my desk at home while I write. They're the buddies of my office mate, a puppy who naps straddling the doggy door, with his head propping open the plastic flap to outside. That's an open invitation to insects sweltering in our Valley backyard. Rio spends entire afternoons chasing down the flies that venture inside. But Rio didn't know what to make of the buzzing that greeted us on the hottest afternoon of the year last week.

Re the American legal system: England's revenge on the Colonies. JAMES J. MURPHY Laguna Niguel

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways. Location: 268 Wigmore Drive, Pasadena 91105 Asking price: $2,875,000 Previously sold: In 2007 for $2.8 million Architect: Reginald Johnson Year built: 1920 House size: Four bedrooms, five bathrooms, 5,276 square feet Lot size: 25,788 square feet Features: Arched ceilings in the dining room and hallway, updated kitchen, wine cellar, brick-paved loggia, lap pool, mature trees, lawn About the area: Last year, 126 single-family homes sold in the 91105 ZIP Code at a median price of $950,000, according to DataQuick.

Tom Barrack has partnered with Leo Hindery on a bid for the Dodgers, bringing together a prominent Los Angeles billionaire with the founder of the New York Yankees' cable channel. The alliance was disclosed Sunday by a person familiar with the Dodgers sale process but not authorized to discuss it. Hindery and fellow New York financier Marc Utay lead one of at least eight groups that survived Friday's first cut among the bidders. That group had been one of the two prospective buyers known to remain in the bidding without a significant tie to Los Angeles.