Fog

Manny Hamelburg, 68, a retired businessman, had fought prostate cancer for years. First, he tried radiation, then a drug with side effects that nearly killed him, and finally Lupron, a drug that blocks production of testosterone, the hormone that can fuel prostate cancer. The cancer disappeared. But life was miserable. Without normal levels of testosterone, Hamelburg says, he had no energy, and "zero libido for seven years. I was like a eunuch. I was chemically castrated. Sex was just hugs."

At his kitchen table, orthodontist Bob Smith tried to solve a problem that dogged him on the ski slopes in the early 1960s by using dental tools and foam to fashion prototypes of fog-resistant goggles. As he developed what is commonly called the modern ski goggle, he often traded early versions of the eyewear for lift tickets. His were the first to feature a sealed thermal lens and breathable foam venting, according to Smith Optics, the company he founded in 1965 in Ketchum, Idaho, to manufacture them.

You look fat in that. Of course I'll be late. Your baby reminds me of Gollum's uncle. This is what the 2013 Subaru BRZ might say if it could talk. The all-new, rear-wheel-drive sports car starts at $26,265, and boy is it honest - perhaps more so than any other car on the market today, save for its mechanical twin, the Scion FR-S. The two were jointly developed by Subaru and Scion's parent company, Toyota, with both assembled by Subaru in Japan. The question about the BRZ is, can you handle the honesty?

SEATTLE - U.S. Air Force pilot Patrick Burke's day started in the cockpit of a B-1 bomber near the Persian Gulf and proceeded across nine time zones as he ferried the aircraft home to South Dakota. Every four hours during the 19-hour flight, Burke swallowed a tablet of Dexedrine, the prescribed amphetamine known as "go pills. " After landing, he went out for dinner and drinks with a fellow crewman. They were driving back to Ellsworth Air Force Base when Burke began striking his friend in the head.

Santa Monica's decision to proceed with an invisible fireworks display in the predawn fog on July 4 confirms its reputation for being a unique--some would say flaky--municipality. Perhaps the local authorities were concerned that cancellation of this costly, but totally unobservable, display might adversely impact their budget request for a similar spectacular next year. Of course, lost sea gulls and passengers in low-flying aircraft might have derived momentary enjoyment from any pyrotechnics that might have penetrated the fog bank.

An enduring myth about California is that it never gets much weather. This misperception is fanned in part by our own relentless hype about a golden land of endless summers. Also, there is the Rose Bowl, a New Year's Day tradition in which snowbound Midwesterners watch with hatred and wonder as football is played under balmy Pasadena skies. In fact, as most Californians know, the state is loaded with extraordinary weather.

Everyone in Poland is mourning the catastrophic plane crash in a forest near Smolensk that killed the nation's president, his wife and 94 other senior members of the Polish political elite. The officials were on their way to a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the execution of as many as 22,000 Polish officers and intellectuals by the Soviet secret police But beyond their grief, the Polish people are asking an unavoidable question: What caused the crash? The plane itself, as has been noted, was far from modern.

A test of an unarmed U.S. cruise missile over Alberta was canceled Tuesday after fog enveloped an Alaskan air force base, Canadian military officials said. Tanker airplanes that refuel the U.S. B-52 bomber carrying the missile were unable to take off from the base, the officials said.

Ordinary ground fog, the kind we generally experience in Orange County, is a product of changing temperatures and humidity. Here's how it forms: 1. Ground cools during the evening. 2. Wind moves humid air inland, across cool ground. 3. Air temperature drops to the dew point and fog forms. 4. When sun rises, air temperature heats above dew point and fog disappears. What's a "Dew Point?" Dew point is the temperature at which air will not accept additional moisture.

For the second day in a row, dense fog rolled into parts of Los Angeles County from the Pacific, limiting visibility along the coast to a quarter-mile or less by nighttime, the National Weather Service said. While many areas enjoyed a clear, crisp autumn afternoon, the fog caused traffic delays of about an hour at Los Angeles International Airport, and 14 flights were diverted to Ontario International Airport, an airport spokeswoman said.

For almost as long as women have been living beyond their childbearing years, many have complained about a mental "fog" that seems to descend at about the time of menopause. And you would think those complaints might prompt some smart scientist (a woman herself, perhaps) to seriously investigate those complaints. The questions most women would probably ask are not whether these complaints are real (since they are clearly very real in the experience of the women who report them)

When observers from the Arab League drove into this mountain town in southwestern Syria, a hotbed of dissent against President Bashar Assad, they received a hero's welcome. Residents mobbed the observers' car, clamored to tell of their plight, and carried one of them away on their shoulders in celebration. But just hours later, the five league representatives sped away under a hail of bullets. It was impossible to determine who was doing the shooting. The episode Sunday was a rare, unsettling glimpse into the spiraling conflict that is threatening to plunge Syria into civil war and the challenges faced by about 160 monitors who are trying to verify wildly divergent versions of events under sometimes dangerous conditions.

Whether it was fog or smog, thousands of travelers have been delayed since Sunday evening by the almost opaque air around Beijing Capital Airport. The delays at one of the busiest airports in the world raise questions about whether air pollution in China has gotten bad enough to derail the country's economic growth. Hundreds of flights were canceled and even the highway to the airport had to be closed. Chinese authorities insisted that the murk was fog, purely a weather phenomenon, conceding only that there was “light pollution.” However, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which has its own air monitor on the roof, reported Sunday night that the index of fine particulate matter had soared to 522 micrograms per cubic meter, which is off the charts.

Two Americans were among 19 people killed Sunday in Nepal when a small plane carrying tourists to view Mt. Everest crashed as it tried to land in rain and dense fog, police said. The crash of the Beechcraft 1900D aircraft operated by Buddha Air went down in Kotdanda, about 10 miles from the capital, Katmandu, killing everyone aboard just minutes before its scheduled return to Tribhuvan International Airport. The $140 Buddha Air "Everest Experience" package flies tourists from Katmandu around the world's tallest mountain and back.

Local, state and federal officials on Monday announced a $44.4-million civil settlement with the owners and operators of a container ship that spilled 53,000 gallons of oil after striking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in heavy fog. The Nov. 7, 2007, spill killed thousands of birds, damaged San Francisco Bay's herring spawn, sullied miles of coastal habitat and closed regional waters and beaches to fishing and recreation. "The Cosco Busan oil spill left a lasting scar across our water, natural habitats and wildlife," California Atty.

After a long car ride, my wife and I stopped at Lovers Point Park in Pacific Grove to let our 4-year-old daughter, Ediza, release some energy. Its beach is popular with kids who like to ride boogie boards and check out hermit crabs in the tide pools. Ediza chased seagulls and collected seashells. We eventually made our way to Veteran's Memorial Park in Monterey, where a friend had set up her 1984 Volkswagen camper van - named Brownie - for us to sleep in. The park, about a mile uphill from Old Monterey and the Fisherman's Wharf area, feels like a forested oasis with 40 campsites available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Someone call a doctor for your reviewer, whose review of "The King and I" appeared Sept. 26 in Ventura County Life. As a loyal patron of the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera who endured its version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, I can attest to the fact that the performance bore little resemblance to your rave review. The three people seated to my left joined numerous others in not returning after the intermission. At the end of that matinee performance, the audience gave the performers polite applause, then quickly left the theater.

We arrived at a deserted Los Angeles International Airport on Friday night, Nov. 16, from Hawaii and attended an excellent symposium on lung cancer at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel the next day. Driving back to LAX through the fog at 6 a.m. Sunday, neither we nor our 70-year-old driver were aware of new security off-loading rules. Pulling up behind other vans, with only one hand-carry, my wife and I jumped out of our van at what proved to be a red curb and were quickly giving hugs and goodbyes.

One minute you're shaking it on a dance floor throbbing with happy wedding guests. The next you're navigating darkened, forlorn streets, hoping the bad guys have the night off. Such is the fractured feel of life in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, where the death of a drug lord has intensified months-long fighting between rival cartels and left residents in a dread-filled state of limbo. They know something awful is going on around them, but usually little more than that.

Oregon's Autzen Stadium is rightfully recognized as one of college football's toughest places for a visiting team to play. But Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Ore., where No. 20 USC plays Oregon State on Saturday, has been just as unkind for the Trojans in their last few visits. USC is 1-2 in its last three games there, and even the victory was fraught with the unexpected. On Nov. 6, 2004, the top-ranked Trojans fell behind 13-0 in a fog-shrouded stadium that made visibility nearly impossible for players, coaches, fans and media.