Melissa Moore

Photo by Foodwoolf via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The holidays are over, the merriment has ceased, and that means that reality now rears its ugly head. It's time to make resolutions to be better this year than we were last year, or any other year, or ever will be in the future. For a lot of us, this means promises to get healthy. Well, LAist believes in you, and so for...

I resolve to find more gluten-free pastries | Photo by Melisa Moore/LAist The new year marks an official "do-over" in the collective consciousness of the world. It's a time to realize our shortcomings, assess our weaknesses, and take stock of the glaring absences (or over indulgences) in our life that need tending. In short, the new year provides us with a clean slate to do more and be more, with 365 fresh and exciting...

Photo by Melissa Moore | LAist What is a New Year’s Eve without an alcoholic binge? (Bringing a bright and shiny New Year’s Day rife with a pounding migraine, vomit-flecked party clothes, and the dim recollection of hooking up with a few ne’er-do-wells, of course.) Booze may have found its humble beginnings in the Neolithic period 10,000 years ago, but scientists are just now getting a handle on the mechanism of action for its...

Photo by Melissa Moore/LAist Honestly, at 31 years of age, I'm not afraid of too many things. Those that struck fear in my heart as a child - heights, for instance - have been supplanted by the wondrous world of science. If I'm on the balcony of a holiday party located on the 10th floor and g = 10m/s2, ignoring air resistance, when I fall off because I'm on my third vodka soda (extra lime)...

Photo by ZigZagLens via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr With gas prices dropping, it seems likely that people will ramp up their holiday travel plans in an effort to reconnect with far-away family and friends (or a tropical island and a Mai Tai). While we are disappointed to see more cars on the road as we move farther and farther away from $4/gallon, December will surely be about planes, trains, and automobiles,...

Remember when the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol was illegal? Yeah, neither do we, and thankfully so. Around the turn of the 20th century, booze started to get a seriously bad rap as the beverage of the unsavory folk, so the 18th Amendment went into effect in 1920. While this "Noble Experiment" didn't specifically outlaw consumption, it sure as hell made it difficult to procure, and public saloons were effectively disseminated. But one man's...

Photo by ~db~ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr GOOD (named in a fit of unwarranted self-deprecation?) is all sorts of adjectives more grandiose than its namesake. Think Awesome, Impassioned, Rad, Staggering, Inspiring...well, you get the gist. Created in 2006, GOOD is "a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward" through a magazine, blog, videos, and community events. The people at GOOD stand as lighthouses among the seemingly insurmountable...

It's hard to believe, but December 1, 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Today we come together as friends and family, as a city, as a state, as a country, and (most importantly) as a global community to educate and inform on the world AIDS epidemic. While others will (and should) debate the politics of this crisis, we here at the ScientIST feel it's our duty to share some basic Health 101...

Black Friday, Schmiday. Even with the impending recession, we know you dragged/dragging/will drag your kids to the various malls and outlets in the LA area the whole damn weekend. While you may enjoy the thrill of sabotaging your neighbors shopping cart in hopes of snagging whatever Elmo incarnation is hot this year (call me when he can do my taxes and empty the cat box), your poor offspring cannot be placated with more than...

Photo by S.C. Asher via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr This year, with the official start of the holiday season tragically mired in a financial fiasco, the fires and soaring temperatures feeling more Summer than Fall, and Prop 8's passage reminding us all we've still a long way to go, it's enough to think drowning your sorrows in gravy and cheese balls is the answer to all of life's problems. So, as...