Impulse

The premise of British artist Michael Wilkinson's exhibition at Blum & Poe is immensely appealing: The social and political tumult of May 1968 as seen through the lens of punk, anarchism and art history? Sign me up.  It's a shame the resulting works are so bloodless - austere to a fault, controlled to the point of preciousness - although the exhibition does have some lovely moments. In the center of the gallery sits “Black Citadel,” a cube over 6 feet high made of 52,250 black Lego bricks.

A spindly solar-powered aircraft took to the skies Friday from Moffett Federal Airfield, near San Francisco, on a pioneering coast-to-coast flight that will not use one ounce of fossil fuel. The plane, called Solar Impulse HB-SIA, has an immense 208-foot wing covered with 12,000 solar cells that soak up the sun's rays and power the plane's four electric motors while simultaneously charging batteries. That means the plane can keep flying at night. The goal is not speed, because it's traveling a leisurely 43 mph. Nor is it endurance, because it's making the trip in five legs.

"Impulse" (citywide) is a sex-and-suspense thriller about the divided consciousness of a woman in a man's world: a smoky-eyed vice squad cop named Lottie Mason (Theresa Russell), who poses by night as a hooker, prowling the Hollywood streets, picking up potential johns, getting them busted. The basic idea, or impulse, is simple. This phony hooker, flirting with danger and pulling back at the last possible moment, has become fascinated with her own alter ego.

Macy's on Wednesday launched its new "MADE Fashion Week for Impulse" collection at stores nationwide and online at Macys.com. The collection, which was designed in-house, was inspired by New York's MADE Fashion Week initiative, which connects emerging talent in fashion, music, art and pop culture with brand partners. The collection, priced from $39 to $139, has a strong street-style aesthetic. There are bold print pants and maxi dresses, leather skirts, hoodies and wide-leg sweatpants. Throughout the season, 20 to 30 new pieces from the collection will be on rotating display at the Impulse sections of the department stores.

It's the end of the world as we know it, especially in New York City, where what is being called "end-of-the-world sex" or "terror sex" has become a means for some to cope with terrifying feelings of fear, vulnerability and sadness.

The LA WineFest takes the laudable impulse toward drinking lots of wine and tries to wring some education out of it. Geared toward consumers looking to broaden their palates, the fest will showcase a variety of wines, artisanal beers and spirits alongside panels and discussions to help demystify the culture of good booze. Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave., L.A. Sat.-Sun., various times. $75 per day. http://www.lawinefest.com

For all of you whose impulse marriage was followed quickly by an impulse dissolution, here is today's social brain-scratcher: What do you do with all the loot? If people bring gifts to your hey-honey, let's-get-married wedding ceremony, or if they send presents soon thereafter, what happens when the union ends unhappily ever after? Etiquette guru Judith Martin (also known as the author and syndicated columnist Miss Manners) says, basically, once you're married, the stuff is yours.

"Fighting Words" was a thrilling story of the triumph of free speech. The story also presents one of those occasional cases where the ACLU justifies its existence. Now, if only it would defend the right to keep and bear arms, as guaranteed by the Second Amendment, our protection against the tyrannical impulse so clearly revealed by the University of Wisconsin would be assured. ROBERT M. BECKETT Fountain Valley

If only the children who watched with such delight that cavalcade of weapons could have felt, even briefly, what their peers in Iraq had felt at the approach of the same machines. If only those parents who'd pointed skyward in wonder and glee had had the impulse, instead, to hit the ground in terror and cower in despair. DIANA SHAW Los Angeles

If "rap's most important message may not be in the music or words at all, but in the establishment of rappers as role models," and even if "what's often overlooked in the criticism of the song is that the narrator doesn't follow through on the impulse," any group that even has the impulse to "kick the woman in the stomach and kill the baby" is sick, deviant and totally pathetic! Role models? To whom? And to what mentality? To what kind of society are we speaking? The fact of the matter is quite simple, really.

Emmi-dent. It's the toothbrush you're not supposed to brush your teeth with. But that's not to say you shouldn't use it regularly. Like any other toothbrush, Emmi-dent has a head full of bristles. But they're for transmitting ultrasonic impulses from a microchip inside the brush head. When these impulses interact with Emmi-dent's own toothpaste, they cause millions of infinitesimal "nano-bubbles" to form and then collapse. To the bacteria in your mouth, this mass bubble implosion is cataclysmic.

Nicole Richie has put on her designer hat once again with her new limited edition collection for Macy's Impulse. The collection of jewel-tone sweaters, mixed print dresses and fitted blazers is slated to hit select Macy's stores and Macys.com Sept. 12. Richie is no stranger to the fashion industry, having designed the clothing line Winter Kate and jewelry line House of Harlow. She was also a judge on the NBC fashion competition show "Fashion Star," where the winning designer created and sold a collection for Macy's.

Miley Cyrus likes to spend her days playing with her dogs , skateboarding and watching television marathons of "SpongeBob SquarePants" - activities she often chronicles on Twitter. Now, the 19-year-old will have to fit a more adult activity into her schedule: wedding planning. The singer-actress announced last month that she is engaged to 22-year-old "The Hunger Games" star Liam Hemsworth. She becomes the latest in a line of young Hollywood stars to head for the altar, even as Americans are marrying older than they used to, and many are skipping the nuptials all together.

The premise of British artist Michael Wilkinson's exhibition at Blum & Poe is immensely appealing: The social and political tumult of May 1968 as seen through the lens of punk, anarchism and art history? Sign me up.  It's a shame the resulting works are so bloodless - austere to a fault, controlled to the point of preciousness - although the exhibition does have some lovely moments. In the center of the gallery sits “Black Citadel,” a cube over 6 feet high made of 52,250 black Lego bricks.

Sir Andrew Huxley, the British researcher who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries of how nerve impulses are transmitted through cells, died May 30. He was 94. His death was announced by the University of Cambridge's Trinity College, where he served as master from 1984 to 1990, but no details were released. Working with fellow Nobel laureate Sir Alan Hodgkin, Huxley solved a puzzle that had perplexed biologists for decades: how nerves generate the electrical impulses that control muscle activities and even thoughts.

If you're one of those people who says, "There should be an app for that!" every time you're confronted with one of life's little quandaries (recent entrepreneurial brainstorms in my household include What's the Dog Thinking? and some form of gaydar), you've probably already imagined this: an app that will tell you how ugly you are. Too late. The Ugly Meter has been around for more than a year, but thanks to a recent mention by Howard Stern on his satellite radio show, it's suddenly become a sensation, with upward of 5 million purchases.

To all the people, Katherine Manabat included, who think that children in harnesses look like leashed dogs, think again! As Manabat says, "when young children are developing their ability to walk and explore their environment" a harness allows them to do just that while maintaining a vital contact with Mom or Dad. For those of you who feel that it is "dehumanizing for a child to be tied to a parent," I suggest that you bone up on children development....

Re "Taco Bell Heir Serves Up More Convenient, Easier Way to Vote," May 27: In the context of the last election cycle, when some polling places went unattended, others had staff but no paperwork and the typical staffer was a distracted part-timer, not a regular county official, the notion that voter registration should be added to election day duties is laughable. There is no way to test, in advance, how many "sudden impulse" voters this new option might add to the ranks of those who care, but you can estimate how many millions it will cost to make this into law. If Rob McKay really wants to help the election process, perhaps he could use the $10 million or more that he may spend on this initiative for voter education or even voting equipment.

When Garth Webb was sent to Napa State Hospital, his parents were relieved. The bellboy and amateur composer from Sebastopol had been in the throes of bipolar disorder when he was charged with threatening the lives of co-workers. His family encouraged him to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, thinking that in a mental hospital he would get the treatment he needed. Instead, Webb and his parents say, he was repeatedly brutalized. His main tormentor, a patient in the room next door, assaulted him several times, wrapping him in a headlock and sexually abusing him. Soon after, the same man strangled a psychiatric worker on the hospital grounds.