Pirates

I've been to Disneyland hundreds of times over the last two decades and have been writing the Funland theme park blog for about four years now. As a result, people are always asking me how to do everything at Disneyland in a single day. The short answer is you probably can't. It can be a struggle for even hard-core fans with military assault-like strategies. The longer answer is there's lots of ways to maximize your time in the park and get on the most rides possible. PHOTOS: How to do Disneyland in a day So in honor of Disneyland's 24-hour Leap Day celebration , here are my seven tips for tackling Disneyland in a day: Tip 1: If you're trying to get the most out of your day at Disneyland , I always recommend arriving just before the park opens in the morning, staying until the park closes at night and taking a long break in the heat of the afternoon at your hotel pool or cocktail bar. It may sound like a long day, but you'll get more done in the first two hours and the last two hours of your day than if you spent 15 hours straight at the park.

My young colleague, Ben Welsh, who hails from Swisher, Iowa, by way of Columbia, Mo., and Washington, D.C., quickly caught on to what we native Angelenos know subliminally. Los Angeles has its own distinctive voice. It's not the plaintive howl of coyotes in the hills, the frightening screams of the Santa Ana winds or the somnolent lap of surf. Our city's voice, as Ben observed, is a singular human one: Vin Scully's. Its timbre is like no other. Hear a single syllable and, as surely as Billie Holiday is Billie Holiday, Winston Churchill is Winston Churchill and Billy Mays is Billy Mays, you know it's Vin. I think Scully could have been mayor if he'd wanted.

With reigning champions in the NFL and the NHL, Pittsburgh was named best sports city by the Sporting News in its annual rankings. The state of Pennsylvania fared well, with Philadelphia coming in second, ahead of No. 3 Boston, No. 4 Chicago and No. 5 Los Angeles. "I don't know how we don't win this every year," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Here's how: The Pittsburgh Pirates. Trivia time Honus Wagner had 825 of these in this career, including 60 in 1905.

The Somali pirates in the documentary "Stolen Seas" brandish bazookas instead of swords and have roughly the same sense of chivalry as the husbands on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey. " "There's no such thing as a romantic Somali pirate," says one of the movie's many talking heads. You probably suspected as much. Still, Thymaya Payne's ambitious doc contains plenty of surprising and interesting details about the Somali pirate trade, which, according to the film, costs the shipping industry $7 billion to $12 billion annually.

The Somali pirates in the documentary "Stolen Seas" brandish bazookas instead of swords and have roughly the same sense of chivalry as the husbands on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey. " "There's no such thing as a romantic Somali pirate," says one of the movie's many talking heads. You probably suspected as much. Still, Thymaya Payne's ambitious doc contains plenty of surprising and interesting details about the Somali pirate trade, which, according to the film, costs the shipping industry $7 billion to $12 billion annually.

'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' MPAA rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of action/adventure violence, some frightening images, sensuality and innuendo Running time: 2 hours, 17 minutes Playing: In general release

"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact: One sees more devils than vast hell can hold." Neither Shakespeare nor Sir Peter Brook probably imagined the staging of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" like the setup at the Palms pool a week ago Saturday, which had been redone into a pirate's ship with skulls and plunder and sexy, red-dressed pirate babes everywhere. The bar at the center, where O.J. Simpson allegedly planned his recent crimes, was transformed from one angle into a castle and another into a sort of ship's helm.

At PNC Park, Pittsburgh Monday, 10:35 a.m.: Vicente Padilla (12-6, 4.46 ERA in 2009) vs. Zach Duke (11-16, 4.06) Wednesday, 4:05 p.m.: Clayton Kershaw (8-8, 2.79) vs. Ross Ohlendorf (11-10, 3.92) Thursday, 9:35 a.m.: Chad Billingsley (12-11, 4.04) vs. Paul Maholm (8-9, 4.44) On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 790, 930. 2009 series: Dodgers, 4-3. Opening-day facts: The last time the Dodgers and Pirates faced each other on opening day was in 1955, when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn.

The fortunes of a band of Somali pirates quickly changed Thursday when a Russian warship opened fire on a hijacked oil tanker, freeing the crew and arresting the bandits, who a day earlier had raced across the Indian Ocean to seize a cargo valued at more than $50 million. The high-seas battle unfolded after 23 crewmen on the tanker Moscow University sent a distress call and hid from the pirates in a sealed rudder compartment. A Russian destroyer closed in and special forces stormed the vessel at dawn, after marauders shot at a surveillance helicopter, according to the anti-piracy European Union Naval Force.

Even by Clayton Kershaw's elevated standards, this was a special week. Already considered one of the best pitchers in baseball, Kershaw looked as if he could be on the verge of becoming a force. Kershaw was nearly perfect over the first seven innings of a Dodgers 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday, his performance as effortless as his four-hit shutout on opening day five days earlier. BOX SCORE: Dodgers 1, Pirates 0 Kershaw (2-0) held the visitors at Dodger Stadium to two hits, drawing the ever-growing admiration of teammates.

It cost them $147 million, but the Dodgers might have a right-handed complement to staff ace Clayton Kershaw. Zack Greinke pitched his firstgame for the Dodgers on Friday night and delivered the kind of shut-down performance in a 3-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates that made their postseason dreams feel attainable. Greinke was nearly flawless over 61/3 innings at Dodger Stadium, retiring 19 of the first 20 batters he faced. He allowed only two baserunners, both on singles.

Back at Dodger Stadium for the first time in more than two years, Russell Martin was pleasantly surprised to learn part of his legacy was still in the ballpark he used to call home. On his way to the visiting clubhouse, Martin walked by a recently renovated hallway that exhibits awards won by former and current Dodgers. In one of the cases was a replica of a Gold Glove he won in 2007. "It brought back some good memories," said Martin, now a 30-year-old catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

AUSTIN, Texas - Simon Klose would like you to steal his movie. Stream it, download it, share it with someone in Croatia or Brazil and remix it with videos of kittens playing patty-cake, if that's your kind of thing. Klose, 37, is the director of the documentary "The Pirate Bay: Away From Keyboard," which follows the eccentric co-founders of the Swedish file-sharing network the Pirate Bay over four years, including their 2009 trial on copyright infringement charges. Shot like a thriller in the stark light of Stockholm, "TPB: AFK" pits its hoodie-clad young subjects, who created the world's largest piracy site and are part of a global anti-copyright movement, against large American media companies such as 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros.

The gig: Todd Tucker, 38, is co-founder and president of Illusion Industries Inc., a special effects makeup company in Los Angeles. He helped create the Brad Pitt baby in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and the pirates in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. Upcoming films that feature Illusion Industries work include Paramount Pictures' "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" and Sony Pictures Animation's "The Smurfs 2. " First break: Steven Spielberg was a huge inspiration for Tucker, who grew up loving movies.

If you were among those who didn't believe the Pirate Bay actually moved to North Korea, give yourself a pat on the back. The controversial file-sharing website now says its move to North Korea, announced in a news release Monday, was all a hoax. "You can't seriously cheer the 'fact' that we moved our servers to bloody North Korea," the Pirate Bay posted on its Facebook page. "Always stay critical. Towards everyone!" Photos: 10 tech companies to watch in 2013 The Pirate Bay claimed to have moved to North Korea after mounting legal pressures recently forced it out of Sweden.

at Pittsburgh 3, Philadelphia 2: Garrett Jones' two-run home run in the eighth inning won it for the Pirates. Houston 4, at St. Louis 3: Jeff Keppinger hit the winning homer in the ninth. Washington 5, at Chicago 4: The Nationals won a series at Wrigley Field for the first time since 2005. New York 10, at Florida 3: The Mets ended a five-game skid. Cincinnati 8, at Milwaukee 5: The Reds swept a three-game series. at Atlanta 9, San Diego 1: Javier Vazquez pitched seven scoreless.

That's right, our man Jerry Sands, the slugging prospect who could never quite take with the Dodgers, is on the move again. He is clearly still intriguing to many. Sands, part of the group sent by the Dodgers to the Red Sox in the blockbuster trade for Adrian Gonzalez in August, has reportedly been dealt from Boston to Pittsburgh as part of a six-player deal for right-handed closer Joel Hanrahan. Lost amid the big names in the deal, the trading of Sands received scant attention.

First, Dennis Rodman. Now, the Pirate Bay. The controversial file-sharing website said it is now operating out of North Korea, after recently being forced out of Sweden. The Pirate Bay said Kim-Jong Un invited the website to North Korea, and the site's logo, which is a pirate ship, now features the North Korean flag on its sails. [Updated, 11:27 a.m. March 5: The Pirate Bay said on its Facebook page that its move to North Korea was a hoax . ] "This is truly an ironic situation.

BEIJING - Cecilia Wu, 18, is a self-described film freak. Despite the heavy workload of her senior year of high school here in the Chinese capital, she sees a movie every two or three days and has caught most of the films with Academy Award nominations. But Sunday night's ceremony is not so much a festive occasion for Wu as much as a reminder of how much she is missing. Only one of the best film nominees, Ang Lee's "Life of Pi," has been shown in Chinese movie theaters so far; "Les Misérables" is scheduled to open next week.