Exploration

In an age of long commutes, late sports practices, endless workdays and 24/7 television programming, the image of Mom hanging up her dish towel at 7 p.m. and declaring "the kitchen is closed" seems a quaint relic of an earlier era. It also harks back to a thinner America. And that may be no coincidence. A new study, conducted on mice, hints at an unexpected contributor to the nation's epidemic of obesity - and, if later human studies bear it out, a possible way to have our cake and eat it too, with less risk of weight gain and the diseases that come with it. Just eat your cake - or better yet, an apple - earlier.

In a pivotal moment for private spaceflight, a towering white rocket lifted into space a cone-shaped capsule headed for a three-day trip carrying cargo to the International Space Station and a tricky rendezvous in outer space this week. The launch Tuesday marked the first time a private company has sent a spacecraft to the space station. On a column of fire, a Falcon 9 rocket - built by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX - carried the unmanned Dragon capsule into space after a 3:44 a.m. EDT launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. But the launch is just the beginning of the mission, and some of the most challenging tasks lie ahead.

The Times reported (July 17) an agreement that would have the effect of blocking exploration for oil and natural gas on much of the submerged federal lands off the California coast. The agreement, a tentative pact between some members of the California congressional delegation and Interior Secretary Donald Hodel, is shortsighted, inconsistent, unnecessary and damaging to the nation's economic and energy future. It would make available for leasing only 150 of the 6,460 tracts now under a congressional moratorium.

WASHINGTON - Joan Miró, the great Spanish painter of dreams and symbols, lived through so many harrowing eras of the 20th century that critics believe his masterpieces surely reflect the tensions of political events in one way or another. But Miró's world of art was so special - with stars and moons, biomorphs and delightful dogs and sly monsters and wonderful color - that it has always been difficult to find much politics there. An exhibition that just arrived at the National Gallery of Art - "Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape" - makes a spirited attempt to find and explore the politics.

Occidental Petroleum Corp., the 13th-largest oil company in the U.S., on Monday slashed its spending on exploration and production of oil and natural gas by 63% to cope with low energy prices. Los Angeles-based Occidental, with 1997 revenue of about $8 billion, reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission this month that it's facing a cash shortfall for 1998 that may force it to sell assets, restructure debt and cut spending. Occidental reports fourth-quarter earnings today.

Randolph the Robot, a sonar device inspired by the ability of bats and dolphins to use echoes for locating prey, has some experts reevaluating the merits of sound waves versus camera vision for exploring new environments. The robot, created by Yale University electrical engineering professor Roman Kuc, is so sensitive that it can tell whether a tossed coin has come up heads or tails, according to research published recently in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

American hero Robert E. Peary was not a fraud but reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909, just as he claimed he did, the Navigation Foundation reported Monday after a yearlong study designed to quell the long-simmering controversy. "We sincerely hope," said the small but well-respected foundation, "that this report will help to set the record straight and perhaps put an end to the long process of vilification of a courageous American explorer."

Scientists will use advanced technology never before deployed beneath the sea as they try to discover new creatures, behaviors and phenomena in a 10-day expedition to the Gulf of Mexico's deepest reaches. An international team of 16 scientists embarks today on the $210,000 mission, called Operation Deep Scope. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is paying for the expedition through a grant to the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution of Fort Pierce, Fla.

The Navy plans to send a research submarine to explore the wreckage of an airship that disappeared 56 years ago off the Central California coast with four spy planes aboard. The Navy is trying to find a way to salvage one of the four vintage Sparrowhawk biplanes that went down with the airship Macon on Feb. 12, 1935. Navy officials said they hope to retrieve one of the planes this summer so it can be placed in the Smithsonian Institution.

Want to explore the ruins of Central America? Try out Maya Adventure, developed by the Science Museum of Minnesota. It includes images from the museum's anthropological collections and activities and can be reached at http://www.ties.k12.mn.us:80/~smm/ The page also features information from two Maya exhibits.

Eight years ago, Japanese writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda explored childhood and family in the acclaimed drama "Nobody Knows," about a 12-year-old boy who must take care of his siblings when their mother runs off with a new boyfriend. Kore-eda returns to a similar theme but in a lighter, whimsical vein in "I Wish," which opened Friday. The leisurely paced comedy stars real-life brothers Koki and Ohshiro Maeda as siblings who live hundreds of miles apart from each other on the island of Kyushu after their parents break up. The elder brother, Koichi (13-year-old Koki)

Willie Robert Middlebrook, a photographer who sought to enlarge public perceptions of the African American community through painterly depictions of its people and places, died Saturday at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City. He was 54. The cause was complications of a stroke suffered last month, said his daughter, Jessica Middlebrook. Middlebrook's death came just a week after the unveiling at the new Expo/Crenshaw Metro station of one of his largest public installations, a series of 24 mosaic panels based on his photographs.

Train tracks carry a lot of history. In 1862, President Lincoln inked the Pacific Railroad Act to fund construction of a transcontinental rail route. Seven years later it was completed with the symbolic golden spike ceremony at Promontory Summit in what was then the Utah territory. National Train Day on Saturday marks the 143rd anniversary of the completion of the route with free events in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles, and many cities and towns in between.

Gabriela Lena Frank's "The Singing Mountaineer" is fond, alluring music that sounds like a vivid memory of a place that doesn't exist. It was written for the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Los Angeles-based Latin American folk/jazz ensemble Huayucaltia and given its world premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall Sunday night as part of a program that focused on the choral music of Peru and Venezuela. The South American sound is usually pretty easy to identify. And 10 of the 11 works that Master Chorale music director Grant Gershon selected easily fit that bill.

The most remarkable achievement within Charlotte Rogan's debut novel, "The Lifeboat," is how neatly it exceeds, and defies, expectations. The plot seems basic: Some people clamber aboard a lifeboat as a ship sinks, and we think we're all set for a tale in which someone inevitably will be eaten for dinner. But Rogan delivers something entirely different (rest easy, no one gets eaten) by using a familiar setting to explore moral ambiguity, human nature and the psychology of manipulation.

WASHINGTON - The Senate Homeland Security Committee will hold public hearings on the Secret Service sex scandal, Chairman Joe Lieberman said Sunday, to explore whether the incident in Colombia was isolated and what rules govern the conduct of agents who are on assignment but off-duty. "From what we know about what happened in Cartagena, they were not acting like Secret Service agents," Lieberman (I-Conn.) told "Fox News Sunday. " "They were acting like a bunch of college students away on spring weekend.

Oh why! Oh why would we want to spend good money to go to other planets and to study the stars. We have too many chores to do here at home! Global warming, poverty, pollution, crime, drugs, it never ends. How could a reasonable person decide to go to Mars? How could a reasonable person decide to have a baby? But people do want children, and people do want to explore. Despite the drawbacks, we must carry these burdens. I guess we're only human! EDWIN HOLLOWELL Lawndale

This week's subject: Middle East The Middle East has been called the cradle of civilization because it was the sight of the earliest cities, governments, law codes and alphabets. This region in southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa is home to many nations, which, while separated by deep political differences, offer unique cultural treasures and important natural resources.

Growing up in Philadelphia, I could hardly avoid history. Virtually every semester in grammar school, we would be packed on to buses to visit all the approved historical stops: the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's grave, Betsy Ross' house, then lunch and back to improper fractions. Southern California was different. When I first arrived in the 1960s, all I could see was the absence of the East, no overhanging past, no famous history. There were palm trees and open spaces, as well as a fair number of buildings.

Earth Day , marked each year on April 22, has mushroomed into a longer outdoorsy celebration with the advent of National Park Week , John Muir 's birthday and National Junior Ranger Day. Whatever you're celebrating, here are some of the best places in Southern California and points north for getting in tune with nature. Santa Monica Mountains : Bring the kids to one (or both) of these Adventure in Nature: Let's G.O. play dates on Saturday. Learn about the mountains in your backyard through two hours of stories, music, art and exploration at 11 a.m. at Temescal Gateway Park (15601 W. Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades)