Extreme

If you want to give zip-lining a try, your Southern California options are plentiful. Most have physical requirements participants must meet, so be sure to call or check the website before you book. Catalina Zip Line Eco Tour: This two-hour aerial tour of Catalina Island is comprised of five zip lines, and guides provide information about local wildlife and history along the way. Tours leave 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. From Jan. 1 through May 24 and fromSept.

Had the rain lingered a bit longer in central Alabama, Bob Jenkins and his Front Row Motorsports team might still be looking for their first win in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. Instead, they're now the little NASCAR team that could. Front Row's David Ragan, exploiting a push from teammate David Gilliland, won Sunday's race in near darkness at Talladega Superspeedway after a 31/2-hour rain delay. Gilliland, who grew up in Riverside, finished second. It was the first time in nine years of trying that Jenkins' team, which operates on a shoestring compared with powerhouse teams such as Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing, reached Victory Lane in a Cup race.

Amid a rebirth of conservative activism that could help Republicans win elections next year, some party insiders now fear that extreme rhetoric and conspiracy theories coming from the angry reaches of the conservative base are undermining the GOP's broader credibility and casting it as the party of the paranoid. Such insiders point to theories running rampant on the Internet, such as the idea that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and is thus ineligible to be president, or that he is a communist, or that his allies want to set up Nazi-like detention camps for political opponents.

  NEW YORK - Another day, another milestone on Wall Street. The red-hot Dow Jones industrial average barreled past 15,000 to close Tuesday at its highest point in history. It marked the 16th record close for the blue-chip index this year and came just three months after it crossed 14,000 for the first time since the financial crisis. Bulls say the market could keep hitting new highs the rest of the year. They predict that investors who turned their backs on equities after being stung by crushing losses in 2008 will have no choice but to move into stocks to make up for lost time.

Preparing for the big match in London, an English soccer fan runs down his mental check list. Ticket? Check. Supporter's scarf? Check. Toothbrush? What, did you even have to ask? An unnamed Chelsea fan has achieved YouTube fame by standing behind the Chelsea bench and brushing his teeth while the team was preparing to send in a substitute during its 1-0 victory over Manchester United. The fan, taking dental hygiene to an extreme that was previously unimaginable, can be seen in a blue top and dark sunglasses while chewing on a white toothbrush.

The idea of a woman giving out a bogus "loser's" phone number instead of her own is an old one ("Hey, Loser, Got a Message for You," Sept. 9). Some years ago I met an attractive young woman and asked for her number. She gleefully gave it to me. I phoned the very next day, only to hear a taped recording: "Thank you for calling the Los Angeles Zoo.... " My only solace was a good laugh because, even though the joke was on me, it was truly funny. Unfortunately, Jeff Goldblatt's "loser's" phone number is lean on humor and mean to the extreme.

Re "Tiny Congregation Weathering Zoning Battle," Dec. 31: Government is always imposing laws upon private citizens and organizations while conveniently exempting itself from such requirements. Extreme zoning laws make housing far more expensive than it should be. When Los Angeles wanted to reduce the number of people sleeping under bridges and inside cardboard boxes, it provided fiberglass domes and waived zoning laws. What is needed is more integrity and reality in government at all levels.

"Whitewater Roulette" (April 27) was media sensationalism cleverly cloaked in an analysis of psychological decision-making. Millions enjoy kayaking without playing roulette on extreme whitewater. The river section highlighted is the most extreme level of difficulty. Most river trips are on vastly safer and easier sections of whitewater. Matt Bare Two Harbors

It seems to me that President Bush is demonstrating exceptional leadership by refusing to sign a blank check that "could obligate the United States and other wealthy nations to provide unlimited financial support to help poor countries preserve endangered habitat." By signing such a treaty, he would be pacifying the extreme environmentalists at the expense of the great majority of American people. A strong leader does not bow to the squeaking wheel but has the stamina to oppose radical ideas coming from the extreme right or the extreme left.

In the Feb. 13 episode of "227," a statement was made by Sherman Hemsley, who played a new tenant in the building looking for someone to clean his apartment. He offered Marla Gibbs the job for $3 an hour. When she answered him, he said, "But since you speak English, I'll pay you $3.50 an hour." I consider that a slur against all non-English speaking women who earn their living doing that type of work. What is especially surprising is that not too long ago, blacks were objecting to this sort of thing.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is beefing up its staffing in anticipation of a fire season officials worry could be affected by an "extremely" dry winter, the agency announced. CalFire has hired and trained seasonal firefighters that will help staff seasonal stations and some helicopters "around the clock," according to a department statement. The agency announced Monday it had begun "transitioning into fire season" in San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Last Halloween season, if you passed by the corner of 2nd Street and Broadway, you might have wondered what all the quivering, shrieking people were doing streaming out of that darkened office building. The explanation was the first L.A. edition of the New York City-based extreme haunted house Blackout. For a few weeks in late fall, Angelenos willfully submitted to Blackout's deep dive into psycho-sexual torture scenarios and total sensory deprivation. L.A. horror fans must be a masochistic bunch - tickets were sold out, and Blackout had to add on a week of dates just to meet the demand for heebie-jeebies.

Rainfall or snowfall dumped by the most intense storms could grow significantly heavier in most of the United States by the final decades of the century, according to a new climate change study. The paper, written by a research team led by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, examines the effects of rising greenhouse gas emissions on factors that influence maximum precipitation. The authors concluded that increasing atmospheric moisture will play the dominant role in ramping up rainfall intensity, which they projected using climate models.

The Sacramento County coroner on Tuesday identified a man who died nine stories up an office building in what appeared to be an attempt at producing what's sometimes called "extreme graffiti. " Craig Fugate of Vancouver, Wash., was found dead hanging outside the downtown Sacramento building Monday. Police said he appeared to be attempting to vandalize the facade of the building; a spray-paint bottle and a tool for etching glass were found on the roof of the building. Police have been targeting daredevil taggers, who have vandalized such landmarks as freeway signs and the walls of the L.A. River.

Anyone forced to shovel their car out of a snowbank this winter might wonder just how it is a blizzard can occur in a warming climate. The answer, climate scientists say, may have to do with record sea ice losses in the Arctic. At a Tuesday news conference, several researchers said that warming conditions in the Arctic may be weakening jet stream currents and causing extreme weather systems to linger in northern mid-latitudes. "Ironically ... as the ice pack retreats and the Arctic heats up, there's a counteracting tendency in middle latitudes for colder winters, as well as hotter summers," said Stephen Vavrus, senior scientist at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin.

Hollywood boulevardier Joshua Wattles was taking his daily constitutional along the Walk of Fame when he stopped to point at a pole bristling with parking signs. "It's predatory signage," said Wattles' companion, whom he called his "ghostwriter. " "It's gotcha signage," Wattles said, turning to his friend. "How's that? Is that better?" "No, predatory signage," the friend corrected him. The two men were talking about the confusing and contradictory parking signs proliferating in our city.

Re "Canada Shifts to Right in Election," Jan. 24 You state that Stephen Harper was elected Canadian prime minister despite concerns that some of his social views are extreme. In fact, he was elected because the opposition has been pushing extreme left positions for years, and that finally resulted in Canadians being fed up. Anything short of full acceptance of the traditional definition of marriage being changed to include gays and other options is considered extreme. Any view that doesn't embrace abortion as morally just is considered extreme.

I recently read that Gregory Peck will be the grand marshal in the Rose Bowl parade next year. Does that mean that all the floats will be tilting to the extreme left? THOMAS JEBB Camarillo

Efforts to limit gun violence and to bring about immigration reform have led to a growing backlash from the extreme right, including the so-called patriot and militia groups, a civil-rights group said Tuesday. In its latest report , the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extreme right-wing and hate groups, said that it had counted 1,360 patriot groups in 2012,  up about 7% from the 1,274 active in 2011. But that is also a rise of 813% since 2008, the year before President Obama, the nation's first elected African American president, took office.

VENICE, Italy - Over strong espressos and crunchy biscotti in the garden at Hotel La Fenice et des Artistes, choreographer-filmmaker Wim Vandekeybus does not seem like a man who puts his dancers through agonizing paces. Indeed, his adrenaline-laced work - second nature to him - is more a badge of honor worn by members of his Brussels-based troupe, Ultima Vez. But on this cloudy morning, the Flemish-born, soft-spoken artist takes time both to reflect and to express a bit of apprehension over his newest piece, "Booty Looting," which would make its debut in June as part of the eighth edition of Venice's Dance Biennale later that night.