Today on the show, we'll hear about the cash coming in from California's cap and trade program. Then, we have an audio tribute to some of the notable names we lost in 2013, KPCC's Sanden Totten looks back at the year in space and photographer Scott Rinckenberger talks about capturing a fleeting meteor. Plus, our regular On The Lot segment looks at the latest news out of Hollywood, and we look into why scientists are naming species after characters in pop culture.
California's cap and trade program reels in the green
A program to make California green has brought in a lot of green. The state's program designed to control CO2 emissions has netted $1.1 billion in its first full year. But what to do with that money is another matter entirely.
For more on this is John Myers, political editor for the ABC affiliate in Sacramento.
Remembering the notable voices we lost in 2013
As we say our goodbyes to 2013, we also bid farewell to some of the people who touched our lives. From Take Two's Steve Proffitt, we bring you the voices of some of the ones we'll miss the most.
Voices in order of appearance:
George Jones
Nelson Mandela
Ray Manzarek (The Doors)
Stan Musial
Lou Reed
Al Goldstein
Conrad Bain
Peter O'Toole (from Laurence of Arabia)
Slim Whitman
Roger Ebert
Ed Koch
David Frost (interviewing Richard Nixon)
Ray Price
James Gandolfini
Richie Havens
Pat Summerall
J J Cale
Helen Thomas
Jean Stapleton
Hugo Chavez
Annette Funicello
2013: A look back on the year in space
2013 was quite a year for space fans. We had that supersonic fireball explode in February over Russia, NASA launched the MAVEN mission last month to unlock the mystery of what happened to Mars' atmosphere, plus much more.
KPCC's science correspondent Sanden Totten caught up with three space-watchers to get their favorite moments.
Picture This: Scott Rinckenberger captures a fleeting meteor
Seeing a meteor streak through the night sky takes a certain amount of luck. Turn away for a second and you could miss it. Capturing one on film is even harder.
So when photographer Scott Rinckenberger set out to shoot fall landscapes in the West, he wasn't expecting to capture the fleeting image of a shooting star. But when it happened, he knew he'd captured something rare. As part of our occasional series, Picture This, Rinckenberger joined Take Two to talk about capturing the luckiest shot of his career.
Interview Highlights:
On the genesis of his photography trip:
"I generally spend my falls spending a lot of time in the outdoors, backpacking and climbing and that sort of thing, but late this summer I suffered a shoulder injury on my mountain bike and was sort of unable to go through my normal procedures, which are pretty active. As a way to keep myself busy and to keep myself creatively inspired, I decided I would hit the road and just go out and try to track down the best landscape and the best weather I could starting in Seattle with a final destination of Joshua Tree National Park down in Southern California."
On what happened his last night in Joshua Tree:
"I guess I was just looking to get a shot that sort of encapsulated the feeling of camping out in the desert. I think Joshua Tree is such a spectacular landscape. It's just such a wonderful way to spend the night, watching the stars and hanging out by a campfire that I was just looking for a shot that did a good job of sort of capturing that essence. So it was set up to capture the night sky with the brilliant starscape that was going on, as well as the beautiful camp we had set up among the rocks. It was going to be a good shot, but it turned out to be so much more."
On when he realized he captured something amazing:
"I had the camera set up on a tripod up on top of the roof of my truck and I would go up there and start an exposure and then jump off of the truck and run down to the campfire and actually sit in the picture. It was during one of those moments of sitting while my camera was doing a long exposure that all of sudden the sky was though lighting had gone off, like incredibly bright flashes in the sky.
"Myself and Hayden, who was my friend who was with me, we both looked over our shoulders to see what the heck was going because it was just a spectacular flash and then instantly I realized that A.) something spectacular had happened in the night sky, and B.) that we had to get back to our initial pose we were holding so we didn't make ourself blurry in the picture."
On his road trip routine:
"Mine was pretty regimented in terms of trying to make the most of the time out there, so it was a lot of getting up really early, getting up in the cold and dark, and finding really good locations to shoot photos from and shooting throughout the good light in the morning . Then sometimes in the midday, when they light gets less ideal for photography, it makes a good time to travel or a good time to explore or set up shops for the evening or for the next day."
On The Lot: Film controversies, Palm Springs International Film Fest and more
Time for On The Lot, our weekly look at the business of entertainment with Rebecca Keegan of the LA Times.
Maybe we're all just cranky from holiday hangovers, but it seems there's a lot of criticism trickling in lately for a lot of these Oscar buzzing movies. There's currently some controversy over "Saving Mr. Banks," the Disney movie about the making of "Mary Poppins."
A lot of the criticism seems to stem from the fact that this is Disney doing itself; That the studio has Disney-fied its own history. How involved was Disney in the development of this film?
Now to the new Martin Scorsese film "The Wolf of Wall Street," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the con man stockbroker Jordan Belfort. This film has caused a bit of a backlash as well, and to rub even more salt in those wounds, the real Jordan Belfort is apparently going the route of many a disgraced sleazeball and pitching a reality TV show.
In Italy there's been a bit of controversy over the poster for the film "12 Years A Slave."
The Palm Springs International Film Festival is kicking off this week, and this marks the 25th year since Sonny Bono started it back in 1990. Now it's grown to the be third biggest film festival in the country, not to mention probably the one with the best weather. How did this festival become so important? It has a bit more of an international flavor than Sundance.
2013 Review: The year's immigration stories and what to expect in 2014
2013 started out as the year for sweeping overhaul , at least, that's what President Obama and many Senate Democrats were hoping for. But things didn't quite work out as planned, and we wanted to find out what we can expect from immigration as the new year starts.
KPCC immigration reporter Leslie Berestein Rojas joins us for a look ahead.
Forget the Lakers, here come the Triquis
Los Angeles lives and breathes basketball. The freeways sports a sea of purple and yellow Lakers flags fluttering from every other car, and the Sparks are arguably the most popular team in the WNBA.
So perhaps it should come as no surprise Oaxacan immigrants in L.A. operate a children's basketball league with dozens of teams. Over the holidays, a team from Southern Mexico called the Triquis came up to play. Caitlin Esch watched courtside and filed this report.
Why 2013 is the year of the taco
As we take a look back at the year that was, we're looking at all the epic moments, all the trends and important people that defined 2013. We turned to our intrepid food contributor, LA Magazine's Bill Esparza, to talk about the flavors that defined the last year.
Esparza recently made a bold pronouncement: he officially christened 2013 the Year of the Taco.
The 5-plus best Korean restaurants in LA
What should you look for in a good Korean restaurant? Matthew Kang knows. He grew up in Koreatown, and he's put together an official list of the best Korean restaurants in Los Angeles. He spoke to "Take Two" co-host Alex Cohen about his picks and why you should be eating more banchan.
Check out some of his favorites:
1. The best Korean restaurant in L.A. is worthy as his last meal
The Corner Place: Kang has been eating here since he was a baby, and it's his favorite Korean restaurant in L.A. The BBQ is delicious, but it's the dong chi mi gook soo that keeps him coming back. The cold noodles in the fermented vegetable broth is meant to be slurped in conjunction with the hot rice, hot meat and savory banchan. Matthew describes the noodles as cold, refreshing, tangy and sweet. Originally from North Korea, he hasn't found the dish done as well anywhere else.
2. The best banchan
Soban Korean Restaurant: Their focus is seafood, but they also have some of the best banchan in the city. Other suggestions:
- Kobawoo House: Get the pork belly and some of the most piquant and delicious kimchee in L.A.
- Jun Won: Their banchan is so sought after that this mom-and-pop shop has a separate business that just serves banchan.
3. The next big trend in L.A. Korean food
It's table-top shellfish cooking. There are fire pits in the middle of the table on which you can throw shellfish to cook. For that, Matthew recommends Jae Bu Do.
4. Korean comfort food to celebrate the new year
It's all about the Korean comfort food for the New Year's. Ma Dang Gook Soo and Myung Dong Kyoja both serve tteokguk, a traditional Korean dish eaten to celebrate the new year. It's small slivers of rice cakes in an anchovy or beef broth with dumplings. If you do have to satisfy your late night munchies craving, Myung Dong Kyoja is open until 4 in the morning.
5. An ambiance straight out of the old country
Kang Ho Dong Baek Jeong: Top to bottom, some of the best Korean BBQ he's had. Great meat and an ambiance lifted straight out of Korea.
'Khaleesi' slug: When scientists name species after pop culture
The news that scientists in Brazil recently discovered a new species of sea slug may not interest those who could care less about invertebrates, but it's catching headlines because of a peculiar name.
Instead of naming the new creature after its discoverer or the entity that funded or supported the research, as is typical, scientists at Universidade Federal do Ceará in Brazil named it Tritonia khaleesi, after actress Emilia Clarke's character Daenerys Targaryen in "Game Of Thrones" (or "A Song of Ice and Fire" for those who read the books).
For reference, the name "Khaleesi" refers to the wife of the "Khal," which is the king of the Dothraki people. The scientists who discovered this new species — Felipe de Vasconcelos Silva, Victor Manuel De Azevedo and Helena Matthews-Cascon — say the name was inspired by the slug's resemblance to the Khaleesi's long, silver, braided hair. In addition, de Vasconcelos Silva says, the slugs diminutive size is also similar to Daenerys, who is described as "low and new."
"Historically, there is a few different ways you can name a species," said Joseph Stromberg of Smithsonian Magazine. "You might just name it after the location where you found it. You might name it after a scientist that you admire, a mentor, someone who brought you up in the field, you could even name it after yourself."
Scientists, however, have been naming species after pop culture entities more and more often. For example, this year a new genus of fern was named after Lady Gaga, and a bee species, a jelly fish and an asteroid were all named after the catchphrase "bazinga" from the TV show, "The Big Bang Theory."
"There's a series of codes that govern the naming of species, but they mostly just ensure that there's no conflict, no duplicate names and that it fits the current system," said Stromberg. "There's a lot of leeway that scientists have in determining what they actually want to name the species in particular."
Giving a new species a name inspired by a popular character can give a generally dull scientific discovery new life by getting the word to the media. For example, scientists this year discovered a new species of termite-dwelling gut microbe, naming it Cthulhu macrofasciculumque, after H.P. Lovecraft's horror creature, Cthulhu.
The simple act of naming it after this monster garnered the research a massive amount of attention.
"Even within a field you might have better luck at having other scientists notice your discovery just by seeing the various news reports," said Stromberg. "Maybe they're more likely to cite your discovery or to collaborate with you in future work."
But not all in the scientific community see this growing trend as a positive one. Scientific names for species last forever, and some are worried that such ephemeral names will lose their meaning decades or centuries down the line.
"In 100 years from now, people might not be watching 'Game of Thrones' and have no idea why this sea slug has this particular name, so it is kind of a flash-in-the-pan type of getting appeal for your discovery," said Stromberg.
Another criticism is that the media attention on these new discoveries is so focused on the name that the actual science behind it is an afterthought.
"People speculate that if you asked everyone who read this article, 'What is the actual species? What are its characteristics? What's new about it?' They probably would have no idea because most of the coverage is focusing on the name rather than the actual creature," said Stromberg.
Though this is not a new phenomenon, it is one that seems to be gaining traction as funding for science wanes and scientists are forced to be more creative in getting their research into the public eye.
"Even if people aren't focusing a ton of attention on the actual species...it does bring science into their day and it's something that they are reading about and taking note of," said Stromberg. "I think it also makes science seem more fun...it reminds people that scientists are human too."