Ubiquitous

He fought powerful interests: Caltrans, Orange County, the state parks system and the Irvine Co., all in the name of ocean views. Dale Ghere, then a high school biology teacher, spent the late 1990s eradicating towering brush from Crystal Cove State Park, south of Newport Beach. The saltbrush was blocking views — not from his home, but from Coast Highway, where he rode his bike each day. Then in May, a cellphone company stuck a pole next to the state-owned highway. It was not one of those lunar rover-looking cell towers, but a slender, 30-foot tall pole.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an area of the ocean larger than Texas and thick with floating plastic debris: bottles, bottle caps, bits of packaging and uncountable plastic bags. It's not surprising that carry-out plastic bags make up so much of the patch; they constitute the third most common trash item found on California beaches, and they're light and easily lifted by the wind. That is just one of many reasons to ban them. The bags are too flimsy to carry more than a few items, which then commonly roll out of them in the back of the car. Once empty, unless they're quickly stuffed into the garbage or recycling bin, they can waft into the air, floating not only onto beaches but into wilderness areas, where they endanger animals.

Poor Flag Day. It has to be the single most ignored national holiday in an otherwise patriotic country that loves its holidays — and no, it's not just because we don't get the day off. Nor is it because Flag Day gets lost between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. The real reason that most Americans ignore the June 14 holiday is that it's utterly redundant. In the United States, every day is Flag Day. That's right. In this flag-crazy world, Americans are arguably the most obsessed with our national banner.

The Ford Mustang is ubiquitous. More than 9 million have been manufactured over the last 47 years, driven by generations of owners, including my mechanic's son, my neighbor's daughter, even my very own mother. But none are quite like the 2011 version, which got a radical and somewhat unusual update for a muscle car. It simultaneously ramps up the performance and the fuel economy. Like any redo worth the R&D money, the aluminum 5.0-liter V-8 is all new and outfitted with twin independent variable camshaft timing, allowing the car to offer a triptych of benefits.

The Ford Crown Victoria police car, which for nearly three decades has been the star of high-speed chases and an unwelcome sight in rearview mirrors, is being phased out. Ford unveiled its new patrol car, the Police Interceptor, at an event Friday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway attended by fleet buyers and law enforcement officials. The new car was designed to be faster, safer and stronger, and will come packed with advanced technology. But for some at the unveiling, it was a nostalgic occasion.

One evening in 1966, not long after the Los Angeles Philharmonic moved into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, concertgoers were surprised to find a picket line in front of the hall on opening night. Though picket lines were a dime a dozen in the '60s, this one was unusual, for these young music lovers were protesting the shortage of works by Gustav Mahler on the philharmonic's agenda. The protest received radio coverage, and it had the effect of launching the local Gustav Mahler Society. Can you imagine such a scene today?

Plagued by recalls of toxic toys, poison pet food and other products, and facing rising trade barriers for its exports, China is taking a page from the American corporate playbook. It has hired a Madison Avenue ad agency to help burnish its image. In what is believed to be Beijing's first global ad campaign, a television commercial now airing on CNN in the U.S., Asia and Europe portrays satisfied consumers enjoying Chinese-made goods. It also touts the notion that China's manufacturing prowess benefits nations around the globe.

Showing that the ingredients for life in the universe may be distributed far more widely than previously thought, scientists have found traces of a key building block of biology in dust snatched from the tail of a comet. Scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have uncovered glycine, the simplest amino acid and a vital compound necessary for life, in a sample from the comet Wild 2. The sample was captured by NASA's Stardust spacecraft, which dropped it into the Utah desert in 2006.

Theodore D. Nierenberg, who founded Dansk International Designs in New York to manufacture modern Scandinavian tableware and cookware that became popular among postwar American families ready to embrace a new casualness at the dinner table, has died. He was 86. Nierenberg died Friday of pancreatic cancer at his home in Armonk, N.Y., said a son, Al.

I've been giving it serious thought, and I'm pretty convinced spiders are taking over the world. Not that they wouldn't do a better job. In the kitchen, there's a web running from the skylight to the stove. It glistens in the morning light, which leads me to think it's fresh. Fresher than most things in our kitchen. In the yard, there are webs everywhere, mostly stemming from the giant magnolia tree. Trust me, there is no unemployment in the spider world.