Sky

Now this is a hazard worth taking a penalty stroke for. A shark fell from the sky and landed near the 12th tee at the San Juan Hills Golf Club in San Juan Capistrano on Monday. “It was just wriggling around,” Director of Club Operations Melissa McCormack told the Capistrano Dispatch . “Honestly, this is the weirdest thing that's happened here.” The shark, a two-foot long leopard shark, was discovered by an on-duty course marshal, who loaded it onto his golf cart and drove it to the clubhouse, where he put it in a bucket of water.

Close followers of B-list electro-pop ladies -- surely we're not the only ones? -- have been waiting since 2010 for Sky Ferreira to break. That's the year this former Angeleno released “One,” a delightfully slinky single produced by the brilliant Swedish duo Bloodshy & Avant. (Hear it below.) Alas, Ferreira's moment seemed to end before it began. Despite a boatload of fawning style-mag coverage and endorsement deals with Adidas and Calvin Klein, the singer's debut album -- originally scheduled for release on the numerically propitious date of Jan. 11, 2011 -- entered some kind of record-label purgatory from which it still hasn't escaped.

The photograph of the space shuttle Endeavour flying past the Hollywood sign during its final flight, which ran in last Saturday's paper, was perfect - so perfect, in fact, that several readers who tried but failed to capture a similar picture raised doubts about its veracity. (For the record, alteration or manipulation of a photo is prohibited by The Times' ethics guidelines.) Reader Andy Serrano of Los Angeles wrote: "I was at the west end of Mt. Hollywood on a ridge and took photographs at every second of each flyover.

LONDON — British Sky Broadcasting, the satellite TV network partially owned by Rupert Murdoch, remains a "fit and proper" holder of a broadcast license despite the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed Murdoch's media empire, according to Britain's communications watchdog. But the regulatory agency harshly criticized Murdoch's son, James, the former head of BSkyB, for his lackadaisical response to the hacking debacle. The agency said Thursday that James Murdoch "repeatedly fell short of the conduct to be expected of him as a chief executive officer and chairman" of News International, the British arm of his father's media giant News Corp.

The first images are in from the Dark Energy Camera. A week ago, astronomers and researchers from around the world began a collaborative experiment using the super-powerful camera to create a massive three-dimensional map that delves deep into the universe. The camera at the center of the Dark Energy Survey astronomical experiment in Chile is cataloging the sky, bit by bit over 525 nights. "It will record information on over 300 million galaxies, most so faint that their light is around 1 million times fainter than the dimmest star that can be seen with the naked eye," according to the survey's website.

The Dark Energy Camera, a $40-million piece of equipment that represents a pinnacle of astronomical research, is now peering into the reddest reaches of the universe. Last week, the camera, a product of the Dark Energy Survey, saw "first light," said Joshua Frieman, director of the survey. "That's a major milestone," Frieman told the Los Angeles Times in an interview Tuesday, "because it lets us see that the whole thing is working" and soon will be cataloging a vast range of the night sky from its vantage point in Chile.

The man who goes by CrossXBones finagled his way into the center of the scrum. Sweat beaded on his shaved head, an American Spirit cigarette dangled from his mouth and a massive can of energy drink was holstered on the strap of his backpack. Hundreds of protesters had taken over the parking lot in front of police headquarters in Anaheim, where police shootings over the summer had stirred anger in the densely packed neighborhoods in the heart of Orange County's largest city. Protesters scrawled messages in chalk condemning police and chanted as officers on horseback galloped by. But CrossXBones, as Sky Adams is known online, was not one of them.

SPARKS TONIGHT VS. CHICAGO When: 7:30. Where: Staples Center. On the air: NBA TV, TWC 101. Records: Sparks 20-10; Sky 12-17. Record vs. Sky: 0-1. Update: The Sparks will return home after losing four of their last five games on an 11-day trip. They finish the season with a four-game homestand against Chicago, Connecticut on Friday, Phoenix on Tuesday and Minnesota on Thursday. The Sparks have secured a playoff spot and are in second place in the Western Conference, 4 1/2 games behind Minnesota and two games ahead of San Antonio, which has lost its last five games.

A year after a vintage World War II  fighter fell out of the sky , killing 10  spectators and the pilot, the National Championship Air Races in Reno have resumed -- with a greater emphasis on safety. This year's version of the races -- the 49th annual edition -- kicked off this week. The event usually brings out some 200,000 spectators and is worth $80 million to the Reno area, according to the group's website. Vintage planes will be racing at speeds of 500 mph in what promoters call "The World's Fastest Motorsport.” It was on the afternoon of Sept.