BUSINESS
March 20, 2013 | By Andrea Chang
Samsung held a toned-down launch event for its 2013 line of televisions -- probably a wise choice after last week's theater of the absurd, Broadway-themed launch for the Galaxy S 4 smartphone. The South Korean electronics giant instead defaulted to the tried-and-true method of trotting out a stream of celebrities to help demo some of its latest products: supermodel Kate Upton, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and hip-hop star Flo Rida. All told, Samsung will launch 100 new televisions this year (that includes models that come in several sizes)
ENTERTAINMENT
March 20, 2013 | By Susan King, Los Angeles Times
In May 2005, DreamWorks Animation SKG and Aardman Animations announced that, following their collaborations on "Chicken Run," "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and "Flushed Away," their next joint venture would be "Crood Awakening," a stop-motion comedy about a caveman living in a small village with a prehistoric genius. John Cleese of Monty Python fame and Kirk DeMicco ("Racing Stripes") were hired to write the script. And now nearly eight years later, a vastly different version of the tale is opening Friday.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 23, 2013 | By Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times
Hollywood considered Matt Mattox one of the best dancers in the country when he was cast to dizzying effect in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," the 1954 Oscar-winning film celebrated for its imaginative and masterful dance moves. Billed as one of the "frontier Romeos" in the musical set in the American West, the classically trained Mattox memorably vaults over a sawhorse, pirouettes on a plank and poetically wields an ax in striking choreography by Michael Kidd. "Everyone on the movie set agreed that he was the best dancer of all," Jacques d'Amboise, who was a leading figure in American ballet when he danced alongside Mattox as one of the film's rowdy brothers, said this week in a French media report.
OPINION
February 10, 2013
Re "Wingnuts, guns and liberals," Opinion, Feb. 7 When cable television came into being in the 1980s, each channel had a specific message and focus. Over time, the shift from the original concepts has been slow but seismic. I remember when A&E was the arts before "Law & Order" reruns. The changes were made for ratings. In 2000 I was doing work for the National Geographic Society, which was launching its own cable network. So how did this fabled institution get so far off message that its most popular program, as Meghan Daum notes, is "Doomsday Preppers?"
SCIENCE
January 23, 2013 | By Rosie Mestel, Los Angeles Times
Long ago, some brazen wolves started hanging around human settlements, jump-starting events that ultimately led to today's domesticated dogs. Now geneticists say they have identified one of the key changes that turned wolves into the tame, tail-wagging creatures well-suited to living by our sides - the ability to digest carbohydrates with ease. The report, published online Wednesday by the journal Nature, found signs that dogs can break down starch into sugar, and then transport those sugars from the gut into the bloodstream, more efficiently than can wolves.
ENTERTAINMENT
November 22, 2012 | By Gerrick D. Kennedy
Trey Songz knows what his fans want -- though it's usually him. Since his 2005 debut, the R&B heartthrob has offered a master class on the art of seduction with albums stuffed with steamy bedroom jams and sexy club bangers. His latest album, “Chapter V,” debuted at the top of the charts when it was released in August -- his first to do so. The album is the singer, born Tremaine Neverson , at his best: balancing soulful melodies that explore matters of the art with tracks best reserved for after hours.