It’s baking in Los Angeles this week, with yesterday’s temperatures reaching an all-time record of 113 degrees downtown yesterday. Via the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, here are some important things to keep in mind as pet owners:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2010

Los Angeles CA – Los Angelenos thought summer was over, but instead the city was hit with record breaking temperatures.  The weather should cool down later this week, but until then, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (spcaLA) reminds people NOT to leave pets or children unattended in cars.  Even a quick trip to the store can become deadly.

On a hot day, the temperature inside a parked car can soar up to 160 degrees.  This temperature is hot enough to cause heat stroke and permanent brain damage in children or pets.

Dogs and cats’ normal temperatures are several degrees higher than those of humans.  Animals confined in a car, yard, or dog run, with no protection from the heat and without ample water are more susceptible to heat stroke than humans.
Dogs with flat faces like pugs, obese dogs, and ones with heavy coats all face an even greater risk of overheating.  It is important to realize that just like humans, not all dogs deal with heat the same way. 

“Unlike humans, dogs do not sweat.  Instead, they lose heat through their tongues, nose, and footpads so it’s important to take extra precautions on hot days,” says spcaLA President Madeline Bernstein. 

California Penal Code 597.7 states it is illegal to “leave or confine an animal in any unattended motor vehicle under conditions that endanger the health or well-being of an animal due to heat…”  This law also authorizes the proper authority to “take all steps that are reasonably necessary for the removal of an animal from a motor vehicle, including, but not limited to, breaking into the motor vehicle…”

If you see an animal overheating in a locked vehicle, take down the make, model, and license plate and have the owner paged in nearby shops.  Contact spcaLA’s Humane Officers at 800-540-SPCA (7722) or the local police department immediately.

spcaLA urges people to consider the following hot weather tips to prevent a tragedy from occurring:

• Keep plenty of clean, cool drinking water available at all times for your pet, including when traveling. If your pets are left alone during the day, ensure that their bowl is tip-proof.
• Keep your pet at home. Never leave your pet in a parked car, not even for a minute. 

• Protect your pet from the sun. If your pet must stay in the yard (instead of the cool indoors which is recommended) be sure there is adequate shade and ventilation.
• Keep pets groomed.  To help your pet stay cool, clip coats short, but not shaved. Sunburn is a danger to animals, especially light-colored animals. Apply regular sun block to vulnerable areas such as the ears and nose.
• Dog pads burn easily, so avoid hot surfaces such as asphalt on hot days. Exercise pets in the morning or evening when it is cooler.  After hiking, make sure to check for fox tails and other burns, as these can cause major problems.
• If a pet is overcome by heat (detected by excessive panting, heavily salivating, and/or immobility) immerse him or her slowly in cool water to lower body temperature, and then go to a veterinarian. Never immerse a pet in ice cold water, as it may cause shock.

For more information, please contact Ana Bustilloz at 323-730-5300 x252, cell 323-707-1271 or abustilloz@spcaLA.com

Google is celebrating its 12th birthday today with a (comparatively unremarkable?) doodle featuring a painting by 79-year-old American artist Wayne Thiebaud.

The GOOGLE.COM domain name was registered on September 15, 1997, but the company wasn’t incorporated until a year later. What Google’s official birthday is remains debatable, but for today, it’s September 27th. Happy birthday, Google!

Below is a look at Google’s birthday doodles from years past.

2002. 4th Birthday:

2003. 5th Birthday:

2004. 6th Birthday:

2005. 7th Birthday:

2006. 8th Birthday:

2007. 9th Birthday:

2008. 10th Birthday

2009. 11th Birthday

It doesn’t get much more vintage than the Six Million Dollar Man intro from the ’70s:

A perfect day at the Portuguese Bend Beach Club in Rancho Palos Verdes CA. 09.25.2010. Photo by M.

The trailer for the upcoming book by Steven Johnson.

“Chance favors the connected mind.”

Creative Copy Challenge is website that offers the creative community a simple, quick way to crush writers block and unleash our creative muses. Periodically the site will create a new exercise in the form of a blog post that contains ten random words or phrases. The challenge for us is to submit a cohesive, creative short story that includes all of the ten words. Stories are submitted in the post’s comments section, with each of the ten words bolded.

I participated in a grip of the site’s first few challenge earlier this year, and found it a great way to shake off the morning dust. While the stories can be any length, I tended to focus on brevity, aiming for a tight story with the lowest word count possible. Sentences must always be grammatically correct, and the jams must always tell a story, no matter how nonsensical.

I was recently hit up on Twitter by the site’s creator Shane Arthur, inviting me to stop by CCC for another jam. They’re currently on Challenge #78.

For the archives, below are the stories I’ve submitted.

(January 15, 2010)

1. Doughnut
2. Philosophy
3. No-Brainer
4. Apartment
5. Heaven
6. Premiums
7. Trucker
8. Freedom
9. Every other Friday
10. Scaffolding

I enjoy regular, street-smart, existential conversations. So every other Friday morning after paying my insurance premiums, it’s a no-brainer to take the freedom to drop into a little place called Doughnut Heaven, a hole-in-the-wall just below the scaffolding of my apartment that’s frequented by a trucker with a degree in Philosophy.

(January 18, 2010)

1. Bookshelf
2. Music
3. Glory
4. Coed
5. Tailwind
6. Dietician
7. Propeller
8. Bumblebee
9. Seasons
10. Rattlesnake

At the change of seasons, the coed dietician — a glory seeker often seen sporting rattlesnake boots and a bumblebee-colored hat equipped with a tailwind propeller — will set some time aside to re-organize the Music section of her bookshelf.

(January 21, 2010)

1. One thing leads to another
2. Ruffian
3. Extrovert
4. Tranquility
5. Unlimited Access
6. Lantern
7. Dishwasher
8. Coffin
9. Barrier
10. Between the lines

With unlimited access to barrier-less tranquility between the lines, the ruffian extrovert set down his lantern and converted the empty dishwasher into a makeshift coffin. Because, you know, what the hell. One thing leads to another.

(This was used as an example in How to Fight Writer’s Block.)

(January 26, 2010)

1. Daydreamer
2. Silkworms
3. Painkillers
4. You got lucky
5. Catcall
6. Phobia
7. Iron-ore
8. Wavelength
9. Closed fist
10. Desire

On painkillers to dampen his phobia of iron-ore-dwelling silkworms, the daydreamer’s desire to remain on his usual cynical wavelength provoked the following catcall (with closed fist): “You got lucky!“.

(January 28, 2010)

1. Bubble wrap
2. Sick Fucker
3. Gumdrop
4. Culmination
5. Horseback
6. Ammonia
7. Little by little
8. Irregular
9. Scapegoat
10. Birdcage

The culmination of fumes from the sick fucker’s ammonia-laced gumdrop weakened the birdcage-making scapegoat little by little as he fled on horseback atop his irregular saddle made of bubble wrap.

(February 1, 2010)

1. Stupidity
2. Deathtrap
3. In the name of love
4. Switchblade
5. Gunpowder
6. Clobber
7. Kindergarten
8. Sorrow
9. Goatee
10. Asylum

In the name of love and stupidity, the sorrow-filled goatee-sporting kindergarten teacher clobbered the pint-sized asylum-bound troublemaker and confiscated a barrel of gunpowder, a homemade switchblade, and a curiously out-of-place bootlegged VHS tape of the 1982 thriller Deathtrap starring Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, and Dyan Cannon.

(February 4, 2010)

1. Dagger
2. Hyperactive
3. Freeway
4. Would I lie to you?
5. Thorn
6. Beauty
7. The voice
8. Vanilla
9. I dare you
10. Skeleton

Not to be a thorn in your side or a skeleton in your closet, but I dare you to imitate the voice of a hyperactive midget as he accidentally drops his dagger-shaped vanilla ice cream cone into his lap while driving on the freeway. Go ahead. It’s pure sonic beauty. Would I lie to you?

(February 8, 2010)

1. Coke
2. Glacier
3. Cesspool
4. Womanizer
5. Rancid
6. Paycheck
7. Imposter
8. Tablet
9. Just an illusion
10. Shield

Maybe I’m just a distracted womanizer living paycheck to paycheck, or maybe it’s just an illusion caused by the tablets and the Coke, but I could’ve sworn that rancid cesspool out there on the lawn was a fresh water glacier shaped like a Roman shield. The imposter!

(February 11, 2010)

1. shadow
2. trespass
3. warmth
4. fragrant
5. doppelganger
6. cupid
7. butterfly effect
8. luminescent
9. velvet
10. simpatico

While eternally forbidden to trespass beyond the warmth of Cupid’s luminescent shadow, the doppelganger — thanks in no small part to the butterfly effect — is still considered by many to be as simpatico as fragrant velvet.
PS: Happy Valentine’s Day.

RELATED: Shane’s entry mentioning this guy.

(February 16, 2010)

1. Eyes of a stranger
2. Gumbo
3. Contraband
4. Meadow
5. Shimmer
6. Nude
7. Fall on me
8. Dolphin
9. Sidestep
10. Death

Eating my gumbo in the meadow and waiting for the truth to fall on me, I concluded that — in the eyes of a stranger, anyway — there were not two more different things in this world than A) death by contraband, and B) the shimmer of a nude dolphin. But that was probably just me sidestepping the real issue again.

(February 22, 2010)

1. Red wine
2. Hurricane
3. Scary Monsters
4. Photograph
5. Drama
6. Prophylactic
7. Morgue
8. Hysterical
9. Wheelchair
10. Stain

In a hurricane of hysterical drama at the morgue, the reprimanded intruder attributed the prophylactic’s stain to red wine that he had supposedly spilled after seeing a photograph of scary monsters taped to a wheelchair.

(February 25, 2010)

1. Do you hear me?
2. Gut
3. Evil
4. Felony
5. Revolution
6. Riptide
7. It’s hard
8. Vagrant
9. Lush
10. Lightning

Dear gut,

It’s hard to write this letter without looking like an evil vagrant defending his latest felony in a riptide of revolution-minded lightning, so I won’t.

Do you hear me?

Sincerely,

Your lush

(March 1, 2010)

1. If I could turn back time
2. Slaughter
3. Residue
4. Lunacy
5. Tyrant
6. Luxury
7. Foreigner
8. Cocaine
9. Broken
10. Sniper

If I could turn back time,
If I could find a way,
I’d take back those words that slaughtered you,
And you’d stay.

I don’t know why I did the things I did,
I’m a tyrant in the luxury of lunacy,
Pride’s like a sniper, it’s all broken inside,
Bags of cocaine are like foreigners,
They wound sometimes.

If I could turn back time,
If I could find find a way,
I’d take back those words that hurt you,
And you’d stay.
If I could reach the stars,
I’d give them all to you,
Then you’d love me, love me,
And all my residue.

If I could turn back time.

(March 4, 2010)

1. All over the place
2. Fanatic
3. Promise
4. Butternut
5. Childbearing
6. Cupcake
7. Invincible
8. Human
9. Honeybee
10. Hammer

Butternut, butternut, promise me,
I’ll be as free as a honeybee;
Invincible with a human face,
Hammering cupcakes all over the place.

Butternut, butternut, promise me,
I’ll be as free as a honeybee;
Away from fanatics,
And childbearing addicts.
Butternut, butternut, promise me.

(May 10, 2010)

1. Sprint
2. So good
3. Focus
4. Style
5. Why should I?
6. I need
7. Go
8. I know
9. Shock
10. Final

FINAL SPRINT: Why should I go focus? I know; I need style. (So good. Shock!)

(September 16, 2010)

1. Tertiary
2. Ephemeral
3. Intensive
4. Conceited
5. Duty
6. Snarky
7. Get on it
8. Nebulous
9. Tremendous
10. Instantaneous

“And tertiary,” she continued, as though her first two conceited points were not intensively snarky enough for the tremendous sense of duty she had to be nebulous and ephemeral, “Get on it. Instantaneous.”

(October 14, 2010)

1. Nervous
2. Panoply – A splendid or striking array; ceremonial attire
3. Gaffe – A clumsy social error
4. Prognosticate – To predict according to present indications or signs; foretell
5. Extractor – Something that draws or pulls out, often with great force or effort
6. Putrid – Decomposed and foul-smelling; rotten
7. Infallible – Incapable of erring
8. Juice
9. Inflate
10. Akimbo – In or into a position in which the hands are on the hips and the elbows are bowed outward

“To prognosticate the infallible,” concluded the putrid juice extractor with inflated arms in nervous akimbo, “Would result in nothing less than a panoply of gaffes.”

(December 22, 2010)

1. Rush
2. Pilates
3. Pump
4. Lozenge
5. Indigo
6. Equestrian
7. Survivor
8. Blur
9. Friends
10. Winding

She may do Pilates while I dabble in equestrian, and she may listen to Blur while I prefer to spin some Rush, but we’re still best friends. We will always have our differences on this long and winding road of life, but there is one thing we will never disagree on: ’tis better to have an indigo lozenge pumped from your stomach than to be forced to listen to those Survivor songs on the Rocky IV soundtrack.

Shane asked if I’d like to submit the 10 words for the next challenge. Why, of course:

(January 27, 2011)

1. Under
2. Angels
3. Code
4. Tunnels
5. Incognito
6. Quota
7. Dog
8. War
9. Wife
10. Puzzle

The community did a great job with these. Check out the jams.

To be continued…

Today’s the first day of Fall, my favorite season of the year. The autumnal equinox will be hitting us overnight. What’s the difference between an equinox and a solstice?

The word “equinox” comes from Latin and means “equality of night and day.” Contrary to popular belief, the equinox does not last for 24 hours. It occurs at two specific moments in time when the sun is exactly above the equator. This year, that moment is at September 23rd, 3:09 A.M., Greenwich Mean Time.

The equinox is often confused with the solstice, which is either of the two times a year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator. The solstice occurs around June 21 and December 22. Solstice derives from the Latin solstitium, which literally means “the standing still of the sun.”

So that’s that. A solstice marks a period of time — which can last for hours or days — when the sun is farthest from the celestial equator. We get two solstices per year: one in Summer, the other in Winter. An equinox is a specific moment of the calendar year when the sun is directly above the equator. We get two equinoxes per year: one at the onset of Spring, the other at the beginning of Fall.

“Fall officially starts today in Los Angeles. Time to put away my shorts and break out my slightly thicker shorts.”
— Conan O’Brien

Beast and Mike Portnoy. Sent tonight from his iPhone backstage at the Avenged gig in Bakersfield.

RELATED: A killer photo that Randy Johnson took behind Mike’s kit the other night in Phoenix.

*UPDATE 09.26.2010. Just in from Vancouver:

A behind-the-scenes look at the mathematical strategy, musical intelligence, and meticulous engineering that went into the Lexus IS ‘Music Track’ commercial.