February 7, 20252 min readWhy This AI Gazes into Goat FacesAI-based systems can help identify livestocks early signs of distressBy Lucy Tu edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Nitin Prabhudesai/Getty ImagesThe patient grumbled and grimaced, but he refused to speak to his doctor.The patient was a goat.Recognizing animal pain is notoriously difficult. To do so, humans must rely on subtle body language or behavioral changes. But a new artificial-intelligence model automates this process by identifying pain in goatsusing only their facial expressions. The model, described in Scientific Reports, achieved 80 percent accuracy and offers a promising avenue for automatically monitoring livestock health.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Traditionally, detecting animal pain involves analyzing photos or videos by hand for specific cuesa raised lip, a flared nostriland creating pain scales tailored to individual species. But as humans, we both detect and interpret animals pain through a biased lens, says University of Florida veterinary anesthesiologist Ludovica Chiavaccini, the new studys lead author. When detection is automated, the computer just picks up the patterns.Chiavaccini and her team videotaped 40 goats of various breeds and ages with different medical conditions at a veterinary hospital, generating more than 5,000 fixed frames. Using a behavioral pain scale, clinical history and physical exams, they classified each goat as in pain or not. The team tried three approaches, training an algorithm on different groupings of images while reserving others to test that training. The most balanced model, similarly adept at detecting pained and not-pained goats, was trained on four fifths of the frames, fine-tuned using the remaining fifth and tested on videos of two additional goats. Repeating this process five times with varying groupings yielded an average accuracy of 80 percent. Such training essentially builds 30 years of clinical experience in 30 minutes, Chiavaccini says.Similar AI tools exist for cats, which have better-established expression-based pain scales, but the only such pain scale for goats had been validated solely in young, healthy males undergoing castration. Chiavaccini was inspired by the lack of goat pain scales, in addition to a graduate students enthusiasm for the animals after presenting them at an agricultural show.AI-powered tools built with similar methods could someday help veterinarians make quicker and more accurate diagnoses or alert farmers to early stages of livestock distress. This study shows the potential for broader adoption of AI in animal care and highlights the need for further exploration across diverse species, says University of Glasgow computer scientist Marwa Mahmoud, who specializes in human and animal behavioral AI.Expression-based pain-assessment tools already exist for nonverbal human patients, but these systems effectiveness can be limited by poor image quality or suboptimal camera angles. Many of the engineering problems we solved, like adapting to messy, real-world conditions, could be helpful to human medicine, Chiavaccini says. Doctors worry about perfect lighting or head alignment. Meanwhile Im out here racing after a goat with my camera.

February 6, 20256 min readHow Can We Know If an Asteroid Will Hit Earth?Keep your eye on the ball is a motto for many athletesand for astronomers trying to find Earth-threatening space rocksBy Phil Plait edited by Lee BillingsA not-to-scale illustration of an asteroids orbital path crossing the orbit of Earth around the sun. Nazarii Neshcherenskyi/Getty ImagesYouve no doubt seen this sort of news story: Astronomers say space rock may hit Earth in the not-too-distant future! We usually see such warnings about one or two objects every year; the latest iteration concerns an asteroid, 2024 YR4, that may be up to 100 meters wide and as of this writing has a greater than 2 percent chance of striking our planet in 2032.But how can anyone know such things? How do astronomers find these asteroids and then determine where theyll be many years into the future?Weve actually known how to do this for centuries thanks to German astronomer Johannes Kepler, who first figured out the requisite orbital laws in the 17th century. Since that time, the advent of better telescopes, digital cameras and fast computers have made the task much easierthough by no means foolproof.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.There are roughly a dozen currently operating survey-type telescopic observatories that take wide-angle images of the sky every night and look for undiscovered objects zipping through our solar system. Seen from Earth, such objects appear to move relative to the far more distant fixed stars. Astronomers used to look for such motions by eye with photographs, but automation can now perform this task far faster and more accurately.Once a new moving object is found, its orbit needs to be determined. Is it on a circular path out past Mars, or does it have an elliptical orbit that brings it close to Earth? This is where Kepler and his laws come in.He figured out that all orbits have one of three shapes: elliptical, parabolic or hyperbolic. (A circle is just an ellipse where the long and short axes are equal, so we lump circles in with ellipses.) Parabolic and hyperbolic orbits are what we call open, meaning they dont close back on themselves. An object on an orbit like that is just passing through; its moving rapidly enough to escape the suns gravity and disappear into interstellar space. Most comets that fall in toward the sun from beyond Neptune have nearly parabolic orbits. Only two objects have ever been found on extremely hyperbolic orbits: Oumuamua and the comet 2/IBorisov.But an object on an elliptical orbit is bound to the sun and should orbit it indefinitely (unless it gets a gravitational kick from a planet, say). Our ability to predict a sun-orbiting objects future position comes from understanding everything we can about its ellipse.The basic characteristics of an orbital ellipse are its size (mathematically, half the length of its long axis, a measurement called the semimajor axis), its eccentricity (which essentially measures how elliptical it is: 0 is circular, and 1 is infinitely stretched out, like a line) and its orientation in space. An objects orbital ellipse can be tipped relative to that of Earths, for example, with its long axis pointed in some particular direction in space. Once we know all those parameters (called the orbital elements), we can mathematically define the associated ellipse. If we also know an asteroids position along its ellipse at any one time, say, the date it was discovered or during any subsequent observation, Keplers equations tell us where along its orbit the asteroid should be at any timewell, in theory.In practice its not so easy. Forecasters usually need at least three well-separated observations of an asteroid to start nailing down all the variables governing the ellipses shape. And those observations are not exact: asteroids dont look like perfect tiny dots in an image but are instead smeared out a bit, making it hard to know their precise position as it shifts against the background stars.Such imprecisions may be small, but they add up. So the result usually isnt an ideal ellipse, and the calculated path of the asteroid is fuzzy; in reality its position might be a bit off from the predicted location. The farther into the future (or past, for that matter) you try to calculate the position, the worse the prediction gets. Its like the actual path of the asteroid is a cone with its vertex at the present position, opening up in the direction youre trying to predict. Statistically speaking the rock could be anywhere inside that cone, and that can add up to a large volume of space.The predicted orbit of the asteroid 2024 YR4 as animated in 3-month intervals per frame, beginning on December 22, 2024 and ending on December 22, 2032.NASA/JPL-CaltechThe only way to narrow that path down is to get more observations, either fresh from telescopes or retroactively found in archival data. Also, the longer the stretch of time an object is observed, the more certain its orbital element measurements become.Its like being an outfielder in a baseball game. Imagine the pitcher throws the ball, but one second after the batter hits it, you have to close your eyes and guess where it will be so you can catch it. You can make a decent estimation, but it wont be anywhere near accurate enough to guide you. You have to be able to keep your eye on the ball and watch as it moves to maximize your chances of making the catch.So we continue to observe asteroids for as long as possible to increase the temporal baseline of observations. Thats not always possible, though: some asteroids are small and decrease in brightness rapidly as our mutual distance increases. This is the case for 2024 YR4, which is now moving away from Earth and forecasted to fade from view in late April. Asteroids can also avoid observation by getting so close to the sun in the sky that they cant be seen for several months.Assuming, however, that an asteroids orbit is well-constrained and predictable, how do we know what the odds are of an Earth impact? There are many methods to calculate this, but one way is to simulate the orbit and note the dates it is located in Earths orbital vicinity, then determine if our planet will actually be in its path at the same time. If so, well, thats bad.But its not necessarily catastrophic. Earth is a small target, and the statistical volume of space the asteroid can be in on that date is usually large. So even for an apparently alarming asteroid theres only a chance well get an impact, and its usually very low, especially the farther in advance we try to predict it. Typically the odds of impact for any newfound potentially Earth-threatening space rock are one in thousands.In most cases better observations nail down the path and show that it passes well away from Earth, and the odds drop effectively to zero. Irritatingly, the statistical chance of impact sometimes increases firstwhich is what happened with 2024 YR4 in recent days. Remember, the asteroid is somewhere near the vertex of a large cone, and we dont know where. If Earth is near the centerline of that cone, then as the cone narrows with better observations, were still inside it. The chance of impact goes up. But then, almost always, the cone narrows further and winds up pointing in a slightly different direction, leaving Earth safe outside it, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.Thats not to say we never get hit! Recent examples abound, such as the Chelyabinsk asteroid in 2013, the Tunguska event in 1908 and the impact that formed Arizonas Meteor Crater 50,000 years ago. Every day Earth plows through roughly 100 tons of interplanetary material, the vast majority of which is composed of tiny rocks that wind up as lovely meteors streaking across our sky. But sometimes those chunks of debris are biggersometimes much bigger. The bigger they get, the rarer they become, so truly devastating impacts are few and far between.But they do happen, so we must keep our eyes on the sky. The good news is that even more telescopes are coming online, including the huge Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile and NASAs NEO Surveyor (planned for launch in 2027), that should help us not just map where these objects are and where theyre headed but also determine their size and what theyre made of. If some asteroid big enough to do damage has us in its crosshairs, hopefully well know about it as soon as we can, giving us enough time, perhaps, to do something about it.The more telescopes we have, covering the most amount of sky over time, the better.

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Blizzard shares first look at World of Warcraft's housing, with unsubtle dig at rival Final Fantasy 14"If you want a house, you can have a house."Image credit: Blizzard News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on Feb. 7, 2025 Blizzard has shared a first look at the housing system it's adding to MMORPG World of Warcraft, but not without a dig at its main rival Final Fantasy 14.Though it's still without a release date, the system has been five years in the making and was first revealed at last year's Warcraft 30th anniversary celebration in November.Blizzard's main aims for housing are to offer "boundless self-expression", for the system to be "deeply social", and to have a "long-last journey". As such, the toolset will be easy to use, can be experienced solo but is more fun with other players, and will be an evergreen addition to the game with its own roadmap of patches and expansions.Housing Teaser | World of WarcraftWatch on YouTubeThe developer also wants housing to be widely adopted by players. "Most players should want a house in Azeroth, and if a player wants a house in Azeroth, they can have a house in Azeroth," reads this new post on the system.And that's the first of multiple not-so-subtle digs at Final Fantasy 14. Square Enix's MMORPG has had an equivalent housing system for some time, but it's been a notorious point of frustration for players.Despite changes, players must enter a lottery to purchase one of the popular plots. And even on owned plots, players must enter their house at least once every 45 days to maintain it or it's lost. That means continuing to pay the game's subscription."If you want a house, you can have a house," reads the blog post. "No exorbitant requirements or high purchase costs, no lotteries, and no onerous upkeep (and if your subscription lapses, don't worry, your house doesn't get repossessed!)."It's a cheeky note, but it's also great to see Blizzard learning from its key rival, as both games have long been in competition for players. While World of Warcraft has been praised for its intuitive menus and ease of use, Final Fantasy 14 excels for its story and friendly community.Executive producer and vice president for World of Warcraft Holly Longdale spoke to Eurogamer last year, stating it's "time to make a bold statement, it's time to set ourselves up for the next twenty-plus [years]."Housing is part of that process. The new post details two housing zones, one for Alliance and one for Horde, to promote interaction between players and ensure the zones work as intended. The system is also intended to be "player-first and not revenue-first", though a small number of items will be available in the cash shop (comparable to transmogs and pets).Houses will also be organised into around 50 plot Neighbourhoods, which will be either public or private, in which players can share rewards.World of Warcraft's next expansion will be Midnight, which will continue the Worldsoul Saga later this year.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Contents hide By far one of the coolest elements of NetEases Marvel Rivals is the addition of proper destructible environments. While most maps are basically just three-lane arenas, the NetEases addition of destructible environments helps to make sure that every match can feel fresh.However, in a blog piece regarding the games use of Unreal Engine, NetEase revealed that the destructible environments were actually a huge issue for the team. Alongside the creation of Doctor Stranges portal, the games destruction tech caused huge issues early on in development.Marvel Rivals destruction was a huge issueVia the blog post, Marvel Rivals technical lead designer Ruan Weikan explained that the team was originally working with Unreal Engine 4. However, when working on the older engine, the game couldnt handle the massive destruction while also keeping solid performance.We encountered a significant technical hurdle: our core environmental destruction system consistently fell short of expectations in terms of production efficiency, physics simulation, and performance metrics, Weikan explained.With complex destruction and a modern approach to rendering, the Unreal Engine 4 version of Marvel Rivals kept hitting further technical limitations as time went on. With this, the team moved the project to Unreal Engine 5, replacing the global illumination system with Epic Games Lumenused to great effect in Fortniteand using the Chaos destruction system instead of their own tools.According to Weikan, the process of shifting from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 only took the Marvel Rivals team three months but also resulted in significantly enhanced dynamic scene performance. Without this shift, the game might have been forced to axe its destructible environments, or sacrifice performance.While upgrading the engine and reconstructing core technical systems mid-development represented a significant risk, the results vindicated this decision, Weikang explained. The upgrade to UE5 marked a crucial turning point in development, with the final results justifying every resource invested in this ambitious technical transition.For more Marvel Rivals news, check out every leaked hero coming to the new hero shooter. Must-Listen: Publishing Manor Lords w/ Joe Robinson VideoGamer Podcast Listen Now Marvel RivalsPlatform(s):macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series XGenre(s):Fighting, ShooterSubscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereWith the next Fortnite season quickly approaching, Epic Games has prepared another event. The event files were added with the v33.30 update on January 31, but the game developer hasnt decrypted them yet. However, its just a matter of time before this happens, as the event is supposed to take place in the last two weeks of the season.Chapter 6 Season 2 is set to arrive on February 21. According to leakers, Epic will introduce us to a new season using this event. Without further ado, lets check everything that has been leaked about it so far!The next Fortnite event will take place at the end of the seasonWenso, one of the most popular Fortnite leakers, revealed a couple of details about the upcoming event. It is important to clarify that this will not be a big live event. Instead, Epic Games will release a longer in-game event that will be used to tease the upcoming season. Most of these hints will most likely be released through a new quest line, and we may get a shorter event, similar to those in Chapter 5.The Fortnite leaker revealed the following regarding the next event:It will have combat elementsThe event will include at least one new questThere will be a countdownDaigos NPC will tease the event Fortnite Chapter 5 has several mini events, and the next one will probably be similar. Image by VideoGamerThe precise release date and time of the event remain undisclosed. However, with only two weeks left in the season, we anticipate teasers to drop soon. While the theme for the next Fortnite season has been leaked, well need to wait a little longer for further details.Once we find out more information about the event, we will update the article. Related TopicsFortnite Subscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

Meals are often communal and celebratory and are thus decidedly personal. Table Manners, now showing at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (through July 25), examines these rituals through tableware creations by talents like Virgil Abloh, Joe Colombo, and Zaha Hadid from the institutions permanent collection. Dining as an expression of culture is amplified in pieces like Robert Lugos Lil Wayne and James Baldwin teapot, and local studio Soft Geometrys Mirrors for Aliens, which is founders Utharaa Zacharias and Palaash Chaudharys personal meditation on identity. A recent acquisition and the largest work in the show, it transforms the stainless-steel thali, a traditional Indian dinner plate, into a gleaming, hand-polished mirror that encourages museumgoers to reflect.AD PRO HearsThrough April 13, Salon Art + Design is taking over Bergdorf Goodmans iconic seventh floor with an exhibition presented in hopes of making collectible design more accessible to a wider audience. It features picks from galleries participating in their annual art fair, like Onishi Gallery, Verso, and Room 57 Gallery. Pembroke Lodge, one of the oldest estates on Illinoiss famed Green Bay Road, will host 2025s Lake Forest Showhouse & Gardens. From April 26 through May 25, see the dwellings interiors and landscape reimagined by 38 designers, including Directory members Amy Kartheiser, Randy Heller, Emily Sturgess, Rebel House, Robbins Architecture, and Studio W.ProjectIn Monaco, Hugo Toro designs a British-inspired royal restaurantVisitors to Mareterra, Monacos recently unveiled luxury eco-district, can now dine on lobster rolls and beef Wellington for two at Marlow. Inaugurated last month by Prince Albert II, the dreamy British restaurant is part of the Monte-Carlo Socit des Bains de Mer portfolio. Its also the handiwork of Paris-based AD100 architect and designer Hugo Toro, who melded expanses of lustrous wood with pink and green marble, Murano glass, and fluted columns to evoke an elevated 19th-century air. Feasts, unfurled in curving banquettes heightened by decorative panels and bespoke chandeliers, are followed by nightcaps at the cast-iron-accented bar.AD PRO HearsDanish furniture brand BoConcept has announced its very first global artistic director. Who better to usher in their new creative era than style icon, artist, model, and fellow Dane Helena Christensen?Debuting at Paris Design Week, Japanese ceramicist Yuki Nara collaborated with Poltrona Frau to display a series of vases on leather-and-wood pedestals. The vessels look like flowers in bloom in this perfect pairing of Japanese and Italian craftsmanship.This weekend, AD contributors Rachel Davies and Samantha Klein kicked off NYtoLA, a Brooklyn-based fundraiser fair and online silent auction raising direct aid for those impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles County. Dont worry, youve still got till February 12 to bid online for goods from Den, Starface, Catbird NYC, and more.ProductAlluring simplicity defines Nordic Knots Modernist CollectionThe Modern rug in Milano Green. Launched on January 21, prices for rugs in the Modernist Collection range from $1,195to $2,295.Courtesy of Nordic KnotsThe pared-back Swedish Functionalism movement, colloquially dubbed as funkis, took root in the 1930s. As an homage to this 20-year period of elegant minimalism, Nordic Knots has launched The Modernist Collection, featuring five rug styles that emphasize crisp architectural lines in neutral and vivid hues alike. The Andreas Martin-Lfdesigned AML 01 features a graphic pattern that references Stockholm boulevards motley faadesthey first appeared in the architects Norr Mlarstrand collection for the company. Also in the collection: the asymmetric Grid; the industrial-inspired Modern; and the textured Lux-2, which is distinguished by subtle pile height variations. The Pavilion rug takes cues from earthy Japanese tatami mats.AD PRO HearsKitchenAid unveils its 2025 Color of the Year and affirms our trendspotting predictions: Butter, a soft, energizing yellow, invokes every bakers favorite ingredient.Dedar is getting outdoorsy. The textile giant has successfully acquired Filippo Uecher Srl, the company behind the acclaimed performance fabric brand, Mariaflora.Finnish textile darling Marimekko has expanded its ongoing partnership with Scalamandr. The luxury interiors resource now offers Marimekkos bubbly, buoyant printed fabrics as well as wall coverings both in stores and online.

Today marks one month since the outbreak of the worst wildfires in Los Angeles history. While the embers have finally died down, the devastation left in their wake continues to haunt anyone who has ever called the city home. As the mourning of what we lost begins, we reached for a felicitous way to honor the places that make the city what it is. Through the voices of 77 Angelenos, this story pays tribute to a selection of the thousands of structures that were lost or damaged in the blazes. Those we spoke to talked about their homesthe sites of their childrens formative memoriesbut also pharmacies, hardware stores, frozen yogurt shops, diners, and schools. The places where they would bump into neighbors, shop for essentials, go to get inspired, and celebrate lifes milestones. The architecturally significant, the ordinary, the personal, and the communalits here, crystalized in a moment of time, each recollection just as meaningful as the next.And while January 2025 will be remembered for when parts of LAs history tragically burned, we can all help the City of Angels recover, and in the process, course a new path. Please consider supporting these and other organizations in need: Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity: ReBuild LA, Pasadena Humane, LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fun.Toppings YogurtSamantha HahnTyra BanksSupermodel and entrepreneur, Westside LAThe Palisades Village wasnt just a placeit was a feeling. Never just a townit was a true village, in every sense of the word. It was a place where life slowed down just enough to feel connected, cozy, and personal. It was the kind of sweet, walkable dream where you could ditch your car and simply exist, step by step, on foot: groceries in one hand, a bag of toy gifts for a birthday party in the other, balanced with freshly manicured hands at one of the local favorite spots, while hugging a buddy you hadnt seen in a while that you encountered in front of Caf Vida.At the heart of it all for our family was Toppings, the sweet and edgy yogurt shop with a cool personality. Black walls framed the space like a chic gallery, but the real art was the row of toppings that stretched farther than your imagination dared. A hundred options? I think so. And the joy came from standing there, wide-eyed, as if youd stumbled into a treasure chest of marshmallow sauce, sprinkles, mochi, roasted almonds, and more. I loved that they had a whipped cream canister behind the counter, and Id always ask for a generous squirt.My son treated Toppings like his personal playground. No matter how hard I tried to guide him with a gentle, Maybe not to the brim this time, hed gleefully ignore me. But the laughter that followed? Worth every ounce of spilled chocolate sauce and gummy worms teetering on the cup. We have years of photosmy little boy in the same chair by the window, starting as a two-year-old with tiny hands barely reaching the table, and growing taller with each visit, yet somehow never outgrowing the magic of that place. Support ToppingsPalisades Village StarbucksGoogle Street View; Courtesy of Alison PalevskyMichael J. MasucciMedia producer, artist, and writer, Hollywood HillsThere are a dozen or so species of feral parrots in Los Angeles. Theyre not native to the area, but decades ago they either escaped or were let loose by owners, and now theyve become free, wild parrots. I remember one day I was sitting outside the Palisades Starbucks in the patio area, and this flock of squawking, screaming parrots flew overhead. They were so loud, and it was as if they were all giving us the finger and vocalizing hey, we're free.Thats the kind of thing that happened in a banal, regular place. A place you go and buy a latte. There would be young people at their laptopsmaybe aspiring screenwritersfamilies on their way to the beach, or high schoolers on cheap dates. It was just this place where life was happening. Not in a big way either. It wasnt big, it was just Starbucks.Ernest Marquez Collection / Huntington LibraryAlison PalevskyInterior Designer, Pacific PalisadesThere was an iconic building on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Swarthmore built in 1924. I felt the structure was timeless and grand. It most recently housed Starbucks, and I do not think that anyone living in the 90272 hasnt, at some point, stepped foot inside of, or admired it from afar. I have so many memories of getting coffee there, inevitably bumping into friends, taking my children to shop for clothes next door or just using this particular corner as a meeting point to gather with friends and walk together. It was the heartbeat of the Village.Pacific Coast HighwayRobert Gauthier / Getty ImagesClive WilkinsonArchitect, West Los AngelesIf you think about it, this historic stretch goes all the way up the West Coastbut in this one little sliver of it, for nearly a century, a series of smaller homes have been built along the shoreline, acting as a small wall separating the road from the ocean. Every so often, as youre driving along the road, theres a dramatic break where a home couldnt be built for topological reasons, and suddenly the ocean opens up and you see how close you are to it, until it quickly closes again as the little homes continue. That feeling of compression and expansion will always stay with me.Jonathan GrahmChocolatier, Benedict CanyonWhen I would have people visiting from out of town, one of the places Id take them to is that stretch of PCH. Wed just drive up and down it because its so symbolic of Los Angeles. I really loved that each house was individual and they all had their own characteristics, charm, patinas, and lighting. But they all still felt very cohesive.One of the first apartments I was looking at was in that area of Malibu right by Moonshadows. I didnt end up moving there. But I stood on the balcony and I watched humpback whales from the unit. Its so emblematic of the lifestyle here.VW Pics; Robert Gauthier / Getty ImagesTiffany HowellInterior designer, Silver LakeI [used to live] on PCH right by Moonshadows. Driving down PCH with the sea salt and the freedom and the idea of this beautiful beach community it was like this sanctuary in paradise.Living there was like a Pablo Neruda poem. Truly, that is how I felt. I would get up, take walks, and sometimes even the neighbors would come and get my dog without me and walk her down the strip. It was romantic watching the sunsets and feeling so far away but still so wildly Los Angeles at the same time.Samantha KleinContent creator, North Los AngelesThere have been really dark times in my life where Ive gone to Malibu by myself. Its a place to go for escapism, to not really think about the stresses of the world. Getting to put your feet in the sand, looking out at the ocean, and feeling like everythings okay here.[Malibu] isnt super close to me, and I feel like that distance is actually what makes me appreciate it more. Two years ago on my birthday, [my husband] Aaron rented a pink convertible and drove me to get a lobster roll in Malibu. He just was like, Wouldnt it be fun to drive down PCH, go have lunch, and come back? That was perfect.Reel InnSamantha HahnDavid Pierre PappalardoHairstylist, Beverly HillsIm from Marseille in the South of France, and I used to live in New York City. But then I met this Japanese guy who was so into surfing. We would book trips to California to surf. We would rent a VW van in Orange County and drive up and down the coast based on where the waves were good. And on that first trip, we ended up going to Reel Inn.We just pulled over in our little VW van; it just seemed like a great place. Good waves in front and then perfect fish right up the street. Each time wed do another surfing trip, wed make a point to go to Reel Inn.Courtesy of Paul Ben-VictorPaul Ben-VictorActor, Pacific Palisades HighlandsI first stumbled upon it in the mid-80s when I made the leap from New York City to Los Angeles. Back then, it felt like a hidden gema slice of Malibu history that was as much a part of the local fabric as the ocean breeze. It was an experience: fresh seafood, surfboards lining the walls, a fish tank, and, of course, the best sauted salmon with capers Ive ever had. It was a dish that felt like it could only exist in this corner of the world.In recent years, it became a regular stop for family date nights, and with our three-year-old Arabella it became a home away from home. Sitting by the window, watching the ocean, listening to the waves, and soaking in the unmistakable Malibu air, it was more than a meal. It was a ritual, a place where our family grew closer, where we felt a sense of belonging. We couldn't imagine Malibu without it.Noora Raj BrownLuxury brand consultant and writer, Pacific PalisadesThe Reel Inn had a neon sign that seemed to be on stilts, and it looked as if someone had hand drawn a few fish and the restaurant name, set it in neon, and never bothered to look at it again. No matter what your final destination on PCH waswhether it was a business lunch at Nobu or ice cream on the pieryou saw that sign.Saturday lunch at the Reel Inn was always a treat. We didn't go that often, but when we did, we felt lucky it existed. My husband grew up surfing in Malibu, so he'd take our daughter down to the beach and then we'd go to Reel Inn for fresh oysters and because she loved to watch the fish in their aquarium. We loved sitting out on the patio in the summer with friends, the kids up to their antics, and the rest of us drinking wine and sharing platters of calamari. Life felt simple there, in the best way.Cholada ThaiSylvain Grandadam / Getty ImagesBrooklyn Peltz BeckhamEntrepreneur, Los AngelesCholada was a favorite date spot for my wife and me. We loved the food and laid-back vibe of the place, but most of all we loved the people. Weve brought our friends there as well, and my dad too. For us, it was an establishment that provided comfort, good memories, and great food.Bonita KyeFashion designer, Santa MonicaI went to Pepperdine for undergrad, so a bunch of our friends would go weekly to Cholada. It was the best Thai food around. It was just somewhere that felt like home cooking for being far away from home. It was a blue shack and it was very unassuming on the side of PCH. Even after college, living in Santa Monica, my husband and I, whenever we went to Malibu, we would always drive by and it was like a landmark where when we saw itwe knew we were close to home. Support CholadaMoonshadowsSamantha HahnAlessandro AntoniazziGeneral manager, Woodland HillsThe place has been there since the 50s with different names. It became Moonshadows around 72 or 73, I think after the famous Cat Stevens song. It was not a high-end place, though a lot of people went there for their anniversary, their wedding, their first date. It was a casual but upscale place where people felt comfortable to walk in and enjoy their meal. Our view of the Pacific was stunning. Around this time of the year, November through January, we had a spectacular sunset between five and seven, and we were always busy with people taking pictures.I have been working at Moonshadows since 2005 and its a part of my family, not only because my uncle is one of the owners of the restaurant, but because of the people I worked with. When you have 67 employees, all of them with different personalities, different energy, going to work, there was always a new thing, some new excitement. It was a second home. Support Moonshadows employeesCourtesy of MoonshadowsHanane El MoutiiPublicist, Hollywood HillsIf youve heard about the celebrities that go there and its your first visit, you would probably be shocked to see it from the outside. Its a bit rundown, a very casual wooden restaurant. But really, it was the view that was the most impressive.It was a place I was able to let loose in an organic, natural way, to really be one with the ocean. It wasnt about who you were or what you represented to society, it was just everybody celebrating the essence of life. Thats what Moonshadows was to me.Side PieSamantha HahnMimi ZeigerArchitecture critic and curator, PasadenaThere was a little pizza place in Altadena I used to visit with some regularity called Side Pie. The owner got his start by making pizzas in the side of his yard during the pandemic, hence the name. He later opened a storefront, and they opened the back parking lot for patrons to sit and enjoy their food while seated on colorful picnic tables and umbrellas. It was all very casual, but because of this casualness, and the incredible pizza, it had a community feel. Everyone felt welcome. It was a special establishment that went a long way in creating the fabric of Altadena. Support Side PieRancho BarBen WillettDesigner, AltadenaThe Rancho was iconic. It had been a local hang for Altadena residents since 1953, and the moment you stepped inside it, you felt its history. Wall-to-wall wood paneling, plaid carpeting, low ceilings, warm lighting, a jukebox, and a pool table that was always busy.My wife, Molly [Baz] and I started to frequent the Rancho right around the time we purchased our home in 2020. We would belly up to the wooden bar, and order Bloody Marys from our blue-haired bartender. They made the best bloody in town and were fiercely proud of that. We'd take our drinks out to the patio, and sit underneath the mountains dreaming up our new life in Altadena. Support the RanchoGeorge Wolfberg Park at Potrero CanyonCourtesy of George Wolfberg ParkJuan Santiago Rodriguez and Mariana CarvajalSpirits entrepreneurs, Bel AirMariana: When we first moved to California, we stayed with a dear friend for a few months while we looked for our own place. Wed walk to Wolfberg Park, which was a beautiful, wild canyon. I dont think it was very well known outside of the Palisades, but it was like a little haven you could escape to. Thats the magic of LA that we discovered. Youre in the middle of the city, but in a few minutes you can be immersed in the wilderness.Every year on the anniversary of my fathers death, I write a letter to him. The last time we did this, I did it there. And there were four deer that were there in the park with us.Juan: Walking the trail was something wed do sporadically when we were staying in the Palisades. After we moved, we would still go back from time to time to the Recreational Center and take walks in the canyon.Antioch StreetMelissa RiversTV host, producer, and author, Pacific PalisadesOn Sundays, wed head to Caf Vida, but it wasnt just about the restaurant. Antioch Street was closed for the farmers market, buzzing with familiar faces popping into shops like my friend Jaimie Gellers jewelry store and Marc Michel Eyewear Studiothe only place Ive bought glasses in the past 25 years. Then, there was the iconic Elysewalker; Ive known Elyse since her store was just one room. At Caf Vida, I found comfort in my usual order: the brown rice pancakes. Every Sunday, I'd have brunch with Steve, my fianc, and we'd often go for errands, appointments, or to visit friends businesses throughout the week. It was a constant in my life.I also cherish the moments when my mother would take my son Cooper to the corner Starbucks for his favorite treat: the lemon loaf cake. Those small, heartfelt experiences made Antioch Street truly special.Enchanted WayCourtesy of JJ MartinJ.J. MartinCreative director, Milan, ItalyEnchanted Way, in the heart of the Pacific Palisades, is the street where I grew up. There were so many families on that street, and a band of kids that all played together: War in the canyon, flag football on the pavementobviously, I was the only girl in the group.I have been living out of America for 22 years now, but Enchanted Way was always such a beautiful anchor point, a point of reference for myself. The street itself looked not so remarkable, but as soon as you went into everyones backyards, you were stepping off into this Eden overlooking the valley and the ocean. In my home, we had a huge pine tree in the backyard and a beautiful garden with flower beds. The trees in our backyard all carried so much memory, so much wisdom, so much grace. Thats really what well miss.Tuna Canyon ParkCourtesy of Evelynn EscobarEvelynn EscobarNonprofit founder and activist, Mid-CityGoing out on those Tuna Canyon Park trails provides a level of serenity that people dont necessarily think about when they think Los Angeles. These places that we go to seek solace, rest, recharge, and take some time for introspection are now undergoing their own healing phase. The land will always rebound, it knows what to do, its deeply intuitive, and its going to heal itself.[Tuna Canyon Park] is such a beautiful place. You get to see the magic of the ocean and the beautiful views of the lush brush of the mountains and the Palisades. You can go and have this moving meditation. My connection to Los Angeles is the outdoor spaces, that is what drew me to live here in the first place. Even now, most of the time on the weekends, I spend my time outside. I ride my bike by the ocean, Ill go on a hike.Piedra Morada DriveCourtesy of Renee MillerRenee MillerCreative director, Pacific PalisadesDuring Covid, Piedra Morada was the place Id go to escape. Getting to the street was a steep incline from my house, so I used it almost like a challenge to see how far I could walk without taking a break. At the end of the block, there was a small public park and a little tennis club, and you could catch glimpses of the ocean as you walked toward it.It was one of those neighborhoods where people just seemed to get along. There was one house where a kid would always be playing drums in the garage; every time we were thereusually late afternoon or early eveningthe kid was always playing drums.Pasadena Waldorf SchoolSamantha HahnEliana Gil RodriguezClothing designer, Eastside LAWe have really close friends whose kids go there and would go to the Elves Fair every year. We always thought, Oh, maybe our son will go there one day. [The Marchris Mariposa Campus] was like Hogwarts or something, it was completely out of a storybook. It had these beautiful circular buildings and all of these different structures. It was all wood and felt like hobbits lived there. It was so close to nature and felt like exactly the kind of place you would want to go to school if you were a small child.Courtesy of Melora HardinMelora HardinActor, Los AngelesOur two daughters were lifers at the Pasadena Waldorf School from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, and Scripps Hall was the centerpiece of the lower school. It sat in the middle of the Paquita Lick Machris campus and was the first thing my husband and I fell in love with when we came to look at PWS for our daughter Rory, who was four at the time. Scripps Hall was an American Craftsman House built in 1904 surrounded by beautiful mature trees. After visiting other schools that looked like cement jungles, we were drawn into this beautiful campus that felt like it would be a magical learning environment for our children.Scripps Hall was a large, stately home where the kids would go to see Ms. Pam if they skinned their knee. The steps were used as risers for the chorus and the house was the meeting place for tours as well as the background of so many class photos and countless school festivals.We dropped off and picked up our girls right in front of Scripps Hall five days a week, twice a day, nine months of the year, for a combination of 13 years, and even when they moved on to the PWS High School, which is on a different campus a few blocks away, many of the high school festivals still happened on the lower campus because it was so beautiful.Frances AndertonArchitecture journalist, Ocean ParkI recall going to a graduation for a friends child at the Pasadena Waldorf School and immediately thinking, this is one of those quintessential Southern California experiences from another century. It was a school that harped on the act of making things, and I remember at the graduation a boy who talked about how, at a time when all his friends from other schools were obsessed with their iPhones, he was so pleased the Waldorf school had allowed him to become a good knitter. I was struck by how glorious a place this would be to go to school. Support Pasadena Waldorf SchoolPalisades Charter High SchoolGoogle Street ViewDan UlinYouth educator, HollywoodI guess the best way to describe it is an all-American high school. Did it look like California? No. It could have been dropped down anywhere, but it just had this classic feel to it. A really great, positive vibe.I originally came to Hollywood 30 years ago to get into the screenwriting business, and Pali High is an iconic place because so many movies were filmed there. And as somebody who now works in education, the school has a special place and its loss really hit me. Support Palisades Charter High SchoolEliot Arts Magnet SchoolCourtesy of Stefan BishopStefan BishopArtist, AltadenaMy son, True, was attending Eliot Arts Magnet school on Lake Avenue in Altadena. It was a beautiful, century-old building that had so much character. And the school created such a great environment for the kids to express themselves that my son started playing the drums and started dancing. I am an artist, and my wife, Abby [Brammell], is a performing artist, so we were so excited. To see him blossom in these two areas that were completely new to him we were so proud.Village PlaygardenPaula James-MartinezWriter and filmmaker, Sierra MadreI'm British, and when I imagined this dream of California, it was hippies climbing up into the mountains and eating vegetable soup and singing Kumbaya. Village Playgarden, where my seven-year-old daughter previously attended school, embodied that. The youngest kids at the school would stay in the playgarden, which had goats and chickens, and they would paint and make kites together and sing songs. As they got to four or five years old, the children would hike every morning with tiny little backpacks on, just on the edge of Eaton Canyon. They would learn from the trees and pick olives from the gardens and build their own things through nature. It was like this very surreal dream of what it would be to be a kid.My daughter would come home every day so dirty, the bath would turn brown. She came home with so many bruises, and with lizards in her pockets, and to me it was the place that formed her. Support Village PlaygardenSaint Marks SchoolCourtesy of Cienna BennCienna BennArchival practitioner, AltadenaBetween my older sister, myself, and my younger sibling, we represent over 20 years of learning at Saint Marks. Our grandmother taught at the preschool there for 17 years. We continued to visit as alumnus as often as we could over the yearsfor my grandmothers retirement, harvest festivals, and graduations.Our school was such a beautifully green and open space for us to play and learn inside and outside the classrooms. Everyone I went to school with lived locally and have been a part of my Altadena community ever since. My best and oldest friends I have today I met at Saint Marks. Support Saint MarksThe Woodbury BuildingCourtesy of Cody WellemaCody WellemaHatmaker, AltadenaThis building was not some architectural wonder, it was just an old brick building, but this was the cornerstone of the community since it was built in the 1920s. It housed the local hardware store for many, many years. It also housed a lot of commercial businesses, and some restaurants, and barbershops. In the midst of chaos that is Los Angeles, this little building in Altadena was this little slice of small town America. It was something I always wanted as a business owner. What I did, making hats, it was a very old craft, a trade that's dying in America. And I'm very nostalgic in that way, sometimes a little too romantic about things like that. I didn't want to be on La Brea or Melrose. I wanted to be a part of a community, and that's what this building was.Altadena HardwareGoogle Street ViewMara VeitchMagazine editor, Echo ParkThe store was the anchor of a cluster of shops that I often wandered into with my mom any time I dropped by to see her at our family home in Altadena. With our coffees from Caf de Leche, we would round the corner and drop in on the florist, stick our noses into the thrift shop, then eye the ever-impressive line at Amara Kitchen. Wed always end up at the hardware store. Even if we didnt need anything, wed go in. The shoplocated in a high ceilinged yellow brick buildingwas a holdout among the newer independent businesses on the block. Inside it had that pristine, classic smellpolish, sawdust, rubber. It was full of hyper specific things to fix hyper specific problems. Everyone who worked there was either nice or handsome.My mom was in it for the cleaning supplies, and I was into the seeds sold in little painted packets by the till. In an old store on a small street tucked high up under a giant mountain, the idea of planting things seemed natural. During the pandemic, I spent a few months back home and managed to grow a stand of coxcombs from one of those packets in the backyard. Those are still there.Kelsey SundbergInterior designer, AltadenaMy husband and I lost the house we had just moved into in Altadena. We had spent the previous few months fixing it up ourselves, learning how to do the things that I usually do for my clients. We probably stopped into our local independent hardware store multiple times a day for two months. The owners and staff got to know usit was always a chatty, friendly, lovely experience. We're hoping there's a way Altadena can remain a place that small businesses like this one can return to and stand a chance against big development. Support Altadena HardwareThe Little Red Hen Coffee ShopDarin BresnitzProducer, West AltadenaIt had everything that you want out of a diner. It had the old glass and stainless steel coffee pot. It had the griddle. It had red and white checkered wax paper for the sandwiches. It had this patina. I think the sad thing is that you don't get that back. All the nicks and scratches and dentsin the best way possibleall the things that show how much it was loved and lived in, are gone. Support The Little Red HenThe Knolls PharmacySamantha HahnDon HaselkornFormer pharmacy owner, Sherman OaksI had the Knolls Pharmacy for many years. It was a staple in that community.There was an elementary school up the street. Many kids used to come in after school and buy candy and come say hello to doctor Don, that was me. I used to bring my guitar to work and play folk music when the kids got out of school. Id play childrens songs.I hired many kids from the [local] high school. I was their first job. Id try to teach them something about sales technique and how to treat a customer. A kid that I originally hired, who's about 70 years old now, still communicates with me. A lot of the young women and boys from the high school I still see. Some of them still call me boss.Courtesy of Francine Haselkorn LisFrancine Haselkorn LisNonprofit development professional, EncinoI moved to the Palisades when I was two and a half, in 1964. My dad owned the pharmacy. I had my first job when I was five years oldmy job was to dust. I was particularly drawn to the candy, so I made 25 cents an hour dusting the candy.When I was 16, I was a delivery girl. I newly had my license, and I would deliver prescriptions for people. A lot of teenagers learned about the ethics of having a job [there]. In the late 1980s, my dad sold the business. Its now owned by Gordon and Shirley Wong. The next generation, they all know Gordon. Its a neighborhood pharmacy, and its always been a part of my life. Support the Knolls PharmacyMinik MarketCourtesy of Carmela Maria BeyerCarmela Maria BeyerRetail worker, AltadenaMinik Market was my job for the last half of the year. It was a fairly new store, a rarity in Altadena, that was embraced so warmly by our community. This place was my job, but it was something I genuinely looked forward to during my week and had a real connection with our regulars. I could be having a terrible day and a good conversation or hug from a regular could cheer me up instantly. I miss it everyday.Since my bosses [Jon and Gamze] took over the space the place was filled to the top with fresh produce, local teas, and treats, making our 700 square feet feel like a grocery basket in itself. It was a very new and very small business, so our team worked seven days a week to get produce and bread to our customers. Because it was a little less than a mile from my home, I would usually end up stopping by even on my days off, if only to say hi to my boss or coworkers. Support Minik Market708 HouseCourtesy of Eric Owen Moss ArchitectsDax MillerArchitectural designer and community brigade logistics chief, MalibuGrowing up in the 80s, I lived a block away from the 708 House on El Medio Avenue. It was in your face architecture right in the middle of this quiet little historical neighborhood of Pacific Palisades. To me, it was a tangible embodiment of the 1980s. Id skate by it with the crazy retro flying buttress in front and the oversized 7 - 0 - 8 painted on the upper level and immediately Id hear the MTV guitar riff in my head. It had a New WavePunk Rock vibe to it, and I really liked that. 708s dramatic transformation left a lasting imprint on my early architectural mind.Robert Bridges HouseDavid HertzArchitect and community fire brigade captain, MalibuThe architect and owner, Robert Bridges, was an early mentor, friend, and employer. Bridges inspired me to become an architect. [The house] made a statement as to the bold vision of an architect and his determination to build his family home on what was considered an unbuildable steep site. I watched him singlehandedly build this home and raise his family in it for over 40 years. I loved the way the house exhibited a confidence of structure, a grace of form, and a beautiful and honest expression of craft and materiality.Keeler HouseSam LubellJulie D. TaylorPublicist, Pico-RoberstonIt was designed by Ray Kappe. I was good friends with Ray and his wife, Shelly, and in 2020, Anne Keeler, who owned the home, invited me over for a birthday dinner for Shelly. I was extremely honored to be included in this very small group.Rays work just knocks me out. In the Keeler residence, there were great stairs and a lot of glass and wood. Also, a lot of levels; you really had to pay attention. I was there again recently, and Anne took me through every inch of the home. She told stories and talked about her friendship with the Kappes and how so much of the house was designed specifically for her needs. It was a delightful morning. When I left, I thought, Im going to remember this for a long time.Maury PhillipsSusan Von SeggernPublicist, San Fernando ValleyI was at the house in 2022 for a fundraising event with an organization called Presenting AfroClassical Composers. Anne was so nice to host us, and she had this beautiful piano that had just been tuned; it sounded amazing.I went to meet Anne and the executive director of [the nonprofit] at the house a few weeks before the event, and we ended up making crepes. We were in this insane midcentury modern kitchen, and I'm just making crepes. I remember the home made me feel very cozy. Sometimes modernism can be a bit cold and austere, but this wasnt like that. It was open and warm. You could really feel the love that went into it.Audrey GrayJournalist, Santa MonicaWhen you think of a modern California house, you think of post and beamall those long, full windows, seeing right through the house. And Kappe was doing that, but with a 70s vibehe put shag carpet in them and made it look classy, you know? The Keeler House was one of Ray Kappes late masterpieces. Teak, fir, concrete, and glass, everythings really straightforward and simple, but oh my God, what he does with it... its incredible. It was like you experienced the elements of nature in an amplified way when you were in there. Light poured through the center of the house like a fountain. My personal dream had always been to spend 24 hours alone in a Kappe house to just follow the sun going through it.Sam LubellSam LubellJournalist, Santa MonicaI had just visited a month ago. I'd never been there before, but was fortunate to have Anne [Keeler] provide a tour. And like most every home, its the people that inhabited them that leave behind their memories. And as she spoke, you could really feel that in this space. But of course, what I will always remember of the home is the architecture. It was just stunning, how it had the ability to somehow lift you up, lift you out, so you're almost floating over the surrounding homes, and in the distance, the ocean. But somehow, in a delicate balance, everything was tethered to the ground by huge concrete slabs and amazing redwood beams.Octavia Butlers houseMalcolm Ali / Getty ImagesMichael MaltzanArchitect, PasadenaI always loved Octavia Butler's home in Altadena. Ive been drawn to her writing for as long as I can remember. I used to cycle by the house all the time, not because it was any different to the other bungalow-style homes in the neighborhood, but because it spoke to somebody who had a particular depth of thinking and foresight and intellect who was living in a very modest house. To me, this really speaks to the quality of the community in a place like Altadena.Park Planned HomesJulius Schulman J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los AngelesSean YasharCreative consultant, Hollywood HillsI lived in Altadenas Park Planned community for a short time in my early 20s, and that experience solidified my enthusiasm for design. Designed by Gregory Ain in 1948, it was an idealistic development, almost like a utopia. What I remember most was how it felt like I had stepped back in time to an era when it wasnt about just living in one houseit was about living within a community. You could really sense what Ain was trying to envision with 28 homes he built around each other.Holmes HouseCourtesy of Greg GoldinGreg GoldinArchitecture critic, Miracle MileArchitect Whitney Smith built the Holmes house in 1941, and it showed that he was a pioneer in upending the idea of a conventional home. You couldnt see the home from the street, only the low pitched roof frame. And when you entered the house, you quickly saw how it reversed the order of a [typical] home. There was a little hallway that led to various rooms, and culminated in the living room, which was framed by these enormous floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the wooded backyard in a way that you never really felt you were indoors. This was Smith telling us that the interior is simply shelter, and not any more important than the outside world.Will Rogerss RanchAl Seib / Getty ImagesLuis Ortega GovelaArchitect, Mount WashingtonI used to go there a lot; you could just sit there. There was always someone playing polo or offering tours, so each visit, Id learn something new about the home. To me, its an emblem of how good LA is to its residents. After Will Rogers died, he donated the estate to the city and it was turned into a public park.The first time I ever took the tour, I learned that Will Rogers salvaged broken pieces of a sidewalk that had been discarded from a construction site. He used it to clad the retaining wall, and it became this beautiful art piece. Its weird, if you look at the burn photo, one of the only things remaining is that sidewalk on the retaining wall.John LesakArchitect, South PasadenaIt had this great living room with a big stone fireplace and exposed wood, and then it was covered in artwork collected over the course of his life. To be able to go in there, it really transported you back in time. It evoked an age of romanticismmaybe I saw it as more romantic than it wasbut it was a place to stop, tune out, and connect with nature. My firm worked on preserving the barn and stables years ago, and it left an impression. Support Will Rogers State Historic Park workersAl Seib, Nextrecord Archives / Getty ImagesMichael Ashley SchulmanFinancial executive, Newport BeachAs a child, I spent a lot of time in Europe surrounded by buildings that were hundreds of years old. I used to live in Boston, and my first place there was older than the state of California. Here, if something is 40 years old, it feels old. Every time Id hike in Will Rogers State Park, Id see that ranch house and think thats historic. Its from the 20s and 30s and nobody is going to tear it down. It just felt like history.The whole grounds were impressive. The house itself was commanding even though there were only two stories and it was built in a nondescript, sort of Craftsman style. But the horse stables, in some way, were maybe even more impressive. They were cream colored with green trim, and it was so wide with this enormous wingspan and a rotunda in the middle. It was like the Spruce Goose.Benedict and Nancy Freedman HouseJulius Schulman J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)Dr. Raymond Richard NeutraNonprofit president, MontereyOne characteristic of my father [Richard Neutra] and his practice was that he was very interested in his clients occupations and how they socialized. In 1949, when he designed the Benedict and Nancy Freedman House, it was for two very talented screenwriters with a young son who later went on to win the Fields Medal in mathematics. Transparency, being able to move through the home while watching over a growing child, was vital in the design. The layout also leaned on my fathers belief that homes should be of both indoors and outdoors.Julius Schulman J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)Mary TaDesign executive, Bel AirEvery new employee that comes to work for me, I would say, they have to go to certain museums, they have to see certain houses, look at Julius Shulman's photography, etcetera. Seeing the Freedman House was like seeing the Hollywood Sign. Its a point of reference. And so if you don't have that anymore, it's like this huge missing gap in your education.Camp Josepho Malibu LodgeCourtesy of Scouting AmericaLee HarrisonScout executive, Westside TerraceThe building itself tells a large story about all of the people who have come through. There were all of these rectangular blocks of wood where the scouts would put their names. You could look up on the wall and see the names of the scouts throughout historythere were even some famous names up there. I always loved spending time when the camp was quiet and the lodge was empty. I would put my sleeping bag next to the fireplace and it would warm up the whole room.Theatre PalisadesSamantha HahnLily Blaisdell HamiltonTheater company owner, London, UKMy theater company did our first actual show therethe Taming of the Shrew. I was 17. I couldnt believe that somebody had agreed to let us put this on. They taught me so many things about how to put on a productionhow to dress a stage, simple stuff. But of course, I didn't know, because I was a teenager. They just were like, we'll teach you. And they basically taught me how to produce a play.We had no microphones. I think that was normal there, because the acoustics were really cool. You didnt even really have to project [your voice]. But what stood out to me were the people who worked there. I model [my work] off of what they did for me.Palisades Branch LibrarySteve GuttenbergActor, Pacific PalisadesI was there with my dad on the librarys opening day; it mustve been about 20 years ago. When they opened those doors, they opened the doors to adventure, imagination, and knowledge to people of every age in the Palisades. It wasn't just a building with books in it. It was a meeting place, a venue for all kinds of events, where authors would come and speak, or people from the town were invited to come and talk about their lives. There were spaces for children to not only learn but to play. I spent a lot of time sitting there reading, learning my lines, and writing letters or emails. It was a building that was alive and friendly. Support Palisades Branch LibraryMalibu Feed BinSamantha HahnRachel GrangerPublicist, BrentwoodEveryone knows the Feed Bin. It was next to all of these really upscale places and then theres a feed bin on PCH in a bright red barn. If you said the feed bin, everyone knew where you were talking about. I always saw it as an entrance and welcome to Malibu, like once you saw it, you knew you were almost there.Ive driven past it for years, but I recently got to start shopping there when I became a horse owner a few months ago. The first time I walked in, I was like, I cant believe Im shopping here, and Id just grab stuff on the way to or from the stables. It was really special for me to get to experience it in my own way and become a part of this iconic place.Wildwood ParkJerrye & Roy Klotz, M.D.Bryan MeadAntiques shop owner, PasadenaThere was one specific area called Wildwood Park, near the ravine below Rubio Canyon, with a group of cabin cottages built forby Walter Valentine in 1912. In 1922, he hired Henry Greene of the Greene and Greene Brothers to build one more cabin and update the other three in the Arts and Crafts rustic style. The area felt almost like a fairyland. They were privately owned homes, but they would do an event called Art on Palm, where the homes would be open for a showcase of modern craftspeople. It was really stepping back in time, to see the craftsmen working in the tradition of really what Altadena was built on.Jennifer TrotouxArchitectural historian, South PasadenaArchitect Henry Greene was so tied to Altadena. He had a real feeling for the landscape. When you walked through the site at Wildwood, you'd see these enormous oak trees and the way that the materials of the homes there responded to the surroundingsthese piled stone chimneys and the board and batten siding. He knew how to build for that kind of rustic environment. It enhanced your sense of place in Altadena to see buildings like that.Daily DrillsMary Ralph Bradley and Kennedy CrichlowFashion entrepreneurs, Pacific PalisadesFour years ago, we started our clothing brand [Daily Drills] as best friends and business partners. As people that never wanted to go into an office, opening a headquarters two years ago changed our minds. With sweeping views of palm trees and the Pacific Palisades, the space was filled with great energy and natural lightdevoid of cubicles, it was a place where our employees could enjoy going to work every day. We remember it as decidedly un-sterile and the manifestation of our brands peak, with a production room and a sunny, yellow-and-white striped couch. It held memories both physical and experiential: the first-ever check we invested in the business and fabric patches from our third birthday were proudly framed on our gallery wall.ElysewalkerCourtesy of Elyse WalkerElyse WalkerRetailer and designer, Napa ValleyI opened Elysewalker Pacific Palisades in 1999. It started off a little more shabby chic and French country, and over the years the look became more modern. We began with 800 square feet. At the end, we were over 6,000 square feet. It was located in the Palisades Village, which had that real neighborhood feel. I opened one block from my kids school, the Village School, because I wanted to be room mom. I picked them up every day, and then when they got a little older, they would walk to my store every day. I could run over to the school for a project or a play, or I could bake cupcakes for Thursday Cupcake Day.And that was the whole point of it. I became a hub where moms would pick up their kids and say, Lets go to Elysewalker! We kept toys under the couch for them. Ive changed diapers on that floor in the middle of the store. To this day, there are little packets of gummy bears behind the counter in every single store I have; that was my little way to get the kids to all want to come visit me after school.I made my best friends there. We used to sit on the floor in the dressing room and giggle. Sometimes wed cry. I have dressed people for weddings. I have dressed people who are getting divorced and theyre like, I havent been out on the town in 35 years. What the heck do I wear? I have dressed moms for funerals. I have dressed mothers, daughters, and granddaughters all together, who loved to come to Elysewalker Pacific Palisades because they knew they were going to be welcome.Molly SimsActor, podcast host, and entrepreneurIve got such vivid memories of passing Elysewalker when I was a young model, pointing it out to my friends and saying, This new store has just the best pieces. I barely went in there at the time, but now fast forward 20-plus years, and it became my go-to spot for everythingfrom a quick grab to wardrobe staples to special occasion outfits. It was more than a store to me; it felt nostalgic being there.The building had this inviting, stylish, warm feel to it. It wasnt too over-the-top but just the right balance of chic and homey. I loved the way the clothes were always presentedeffortless but with an elevated, curated touch. Every time I walked in, it felt like a small escape.Shoppe Amber InteriorsJess IsaacAmber LewisInterior designer, CalabasasWhen I was starting to look for locations for my stores, I knew it would be amazing to be in the Palisades. But it was expensive and hard to find a spot. I was in the area for a meeting with Elyse Walker, who I was working for, and when I got back to my car I noticed a little thrift storeit looked like a charming little housewith a for lease sign in the window. It was just a magical place right on the street with a huge window and a park bench right out front. We were in a lease within a couple days. The owner was one of the kindest men on the face of the earth. He was so excited for us, he said, You're going to breathe new life into it! And thats how we started. It meant a lot more than I can even describe.Corpus Christi ChurchSamantha HahnMarie CarsonInterior designer, Pacific PalisadesI never wanted to live, or raise my family, in any place other than the Palisades. It really was a slice of heaven. And within that slice was Corpus Christi Church. It was the center of the Village. Most parishioners would walk there. My children were baptized there. This past year, 18 people from my family joined me there on Christmas Eve. After the fires, all that was spared was the stained glass windows and, miraculously, the tabernacle. Support Corpus Christi Churchand many personal tributes to homesParis HiltonEntrepreneur, philanthropist, and musician, Los AngelesThis home was where my husband Carter and I truly deepened our relationship during COVIDjust the two of us, completely present, dreaming about the future we wanted to build. Later, it became the place where we brought our babies home, where they heard the sound of the waves before they even understood what they were, where they took their first steps with the sun on their little faces. It was love, safety, and magic all in one place.Malibu has always been our escape, our place to slow down and reconnect. I spent as much time there as possible, and it was always where I felt the most at peace. Losing this home has been heartbreaking, but I know Im not aloneso many people have lost homes, businesses, and landmarks that meant everything to them. More than anything, I want to help our community rebuild so that we can all have our beautiful haven back.Courtesy of Zooey DeschanelZooey DeschanelActor, BrentwoodMy parents home [in Pacific Palisades] had 14-foot ceilings in the living room, exposed wood beams, stunning Gothic arch details, original mission tiles, and handmade stained glass windows everywhere. It had three round rooms with acoustics so unique you could hear someone whispering across the room as if they were whispering right in your ear. Growing up there, I knew there were bigger houses but I never saw a more beautiful one.This was where we spent so many of our lives greatest moments, from my preschool graduation to my sisters wedding to my baby shower. Every Christmas, Easter, and birthday celebration. It was filled with the spirit of my parents' incredibly unique style, artifacts, and treasures collected over a lifetime of travel and a love of art and photography. Several times a week I would visit my parents. Their house is where I felt most safe in the world.Samantha HahnAmir NikravanArtist, AltadenaMy parents home, which they lived in for 32 years, was a hub for so many people in the community. Birthday parties with 70 people, cooking fried chicken for everyone, family dinners every Sunday evening in the backyard. These werent just get-togethers, they were events. The home included a fireplace that my father built by hand with brick and river rocks that he found after the Northridge earthquake in 1994. When we finally went to see the damage, the home was gone, but there, in the middle of all the ash, there was this monumental rock sculpture. My father's fireplace remained.Samantha HahnThomas RenaudCeramicist, AltadenaThe house was turning 100 this year and we had this huge plan to do its centennial birthday. We usually throw a pool party every year for friends and family, so this year we had big plans of doing this 1920s-themed pool party. The house meant a lot to us. We moved in together in that house and that was my partner's first big purchase, having worked in TV and film as a writer for a really long time. It was something hed saved up for pretty much all of his working life.Our neighbors were from all different groups of peoplea lot of public

TechnologyThe Governments Computing Experts Say They Are TerrifiedFour IT professionals lay out just how destructive Elon Musks incursion into the U.S. government could be.By Charlie Warzel and Ian BogostIllustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Getty.February 7, 2025, 9:01 AM ET If you have tips about the remaking of the federal government, you can contact Charlie and Ian on Signal at @cwarzel.92 and @ibogost.47.Elon Musks unceasing attempts to access the data and information systems of the federal government range so widely, and are so unprecedented and unpredictable, that government computing experts believe the effort has spun out of control. This week, we spoke with four federal-government IT professionalsall experienced contractors and civil servants who have built, modified, or maintained the kind of technological infrastructure that Musks inexperienced employees at his newly created Department of Government Efficiency are attempting to access. In our conversations, each expert was unequivocal: They are terrified and struggling to articulate the scale of the crisis.Even if the president of the United States, the head of the executive branch, supports (and, importantly, understands) these efforts by DOGE, these experts told us, they would still consider Musks campaign to be a reckless and dangerous breach of the complex systems that keep America running. Federal IT systems facilitate operations as varied as sending payments from the Treasury Department and making sure that airplanes stay in the air, the sources told us.Based on what has been reported, DOGE representatives have obtained or requested access to certain systems at the U.S. Treasury, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Personnel Management, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with eyes toward others, including the Federal Aviation Administration. This is the largest data breach and the largest IT security breach in our countrys historyat least thats publicly known, one contractor who has worked on classified information-security systems at numerous government agencies told us this week. You cant un-ring this bell. Once these DOGE guys have access to these data systems, they can ostensibly do with it what they want.Read: If DOGE goes nuclearWhat exactly they want is unclear. And much remains unknown about what, exactly, is happening here. The contractor emphasized that nobody yet knows which information DOGE has access to, or what it plans to do with it. Spokespeople for the White House, and Musk himself, did not respond to emailed requests for comment. Some reports have revealed the scope of DOGEs incursions at individual agencies; still, it has been difficult to see the broader context of DOGEs ambition.The four experts laid out the implications of giving untrained individuals access to the technological infrastructure that controls the country. Their message is unambiguous: These are not systems you tamper with lightly. Musk and his crew could act deliberately to extract sensitive data, alter fundamental aspects of how these systems operate, or provide further access to unvetted actors. Or they may act with carelessness or incompetence, breaking the systems altogether. Given the scope of what these systems do, key government services might stop working properly, citizens could be harmed, and the damage might be difficult or impossible to undo. As one administrator for a federal agency with deep knowledge about the governments IT operations told us, I dont think the public quite understands the level of danger.Each of our four sources, three of whom requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal, made three points very clear: These systems are immense, they are complex, and they are critical. A single program run by the FAA to help air-traffic controllers, En Route Automation Modernization, contains nearly 2 million lines of code; an average iPhone app, for comparison, has about 50,000. The Treasury Department disburses trillions of dollars in payments per year.Many systems and databases in a given agency feed into others, but access to them is restricted. Employees, contractors, civil-service government workers, and political appointees have strict controls on what they can access and limited visibility into the system as a whole. This is by design, as even the most mundane government databases can contain highly sensitive personal information. A security-clearance database such as those used by the Department of Justice or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, one contractor told us, could include information about a persons mental-health or sexual history, as well as disclosures about any information that a foreign government could use to blackmail them.Even if DOGE has not tapped into these particular databases, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the group has accessed sensitive personnel data at OPM. Mother Jones also reported on Wednesday that an effort may be under way to effectively give Musk control over IT for the entire federal government, broadening his access to these agencies. Trump has said that Musk is acting only with his permission. Elon cant do and wont do anything without our approval, he said to reporters recently. And we will give him the approval where appropriate. Where its not appropriate, we wont. The specter of what DOGE might do with that approval is still keeping the government employees we spoke with up at night. With relatively basic read only access, Musks people could easily find individuals in databases or clone entire servers and transfer that secure information somewhere else. Even if Musk eventually loses access to these systemsowing to a temporary court order such as the one approved yesterday, saywhatever data he siphons now could be his forever.Read: Trump advisers stopped Musk from hiring a noncitizen at DOGEWith a higher level of accesswrite accessa motivated person may be able to put their own code into the system, potentially without any oversight. The possibilities here are staggering. One could alter the data these systems process, or they could change the way the software operateswithout any of the testing that would normally accompany changes to a critical system. Still another level of access, administrator privileges, could grant the broad ability to control a system, including hiding evidence of other alterations. They could change or manipulate treasury data directly in the database with no way for people to audit or capture it, one contractor told us. Wed have very little way to know it even happened.The specific levels of access that Musk and his team have remain unclear and likely vary between agencies. On Tuesday, the Treasury said that DOGE had been given read only access to the departments federal payment system, though Wired then reported that one member of DOGE was able to write code on the system. Any focus on access tiers, for that matter, may actually simplify the problem at hand. These systems arent just complex at the code levelthey are multifaceted in their architecture. Systems can have subsystems; each of these can have their own permission structures. Its hard to talk about any agencys tech infrastructure as monolithic. Its less a database than it is a Russian nesting doll of databases, the experts said.Musks efforts represent a dramatic shift in the way the governments business has traditionally been conducted. Previously, security protocols were so strict that a contractor plugging a non-government-issued computer into an ethernet port in a government agency office was considered a major security violation. Contrast that with DOGEs incursion. CNN reported yesterday that a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern without a background check was given a basic, low tier of access to Department of Energy IT systems, despite objections from department lawyers and information experts. That these guys, who may not even have clearances, are just pulling up and plugging in their own servers is madness, one source told us, referring to an allegation that DOGE had connected its own server at OPM. Its really hard to find good analogies for how big of a deal this is. The simple fact that Musk loyalists are in the building with their own computers is the heart of the problemand helps explain why activities ostensibly authorized by the president are widely viewed as a catastrophic data breach.The four systems professionals we spoke with do not know what damage might already have been done. The longer this goes on, the greater the risk of potential fatal compromise increases, Scott Cory, a former CIO for an agency in the HHS, told us. At the Treasury, this could mean stopping payments to government organizations or outside contracts it doesnt want to pay. It could also mean diverting funds to other recipients. Or gumming up the works in the attempt to do those, or other, things.In the FAA, even a small systems disruption could cause mass grounding of flights, a halt in global shipping, or worse, downed planes. For instance, the agency oversees the Traffic Flow Management System, which calculates the overall demand for airspace in U.S. airports and which airlines depend on. Going into these systems without an in-depth understanding of how they work both individually and interconnectedly is a recipe for disaster that will result in death and economic harm to our nation, one FAA employee who has nearly a decade of experience with its system architecture told us. Upgrading a system of which you know nothing about is a good way to break it, and breaking air travel is a worst-case scenario with consequences that will ripple out into all aspects of civilian life. It could easily get to a place where you cant guarantee the safety of flights taking off and landing. Nevertheless, on Wednesday Musk posted that the DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.Even if DOGE members are looking to modernize these systems, they may find themselves flummoxed. The government is big and old and complicated. One former official with experience in government IT systems, including at the Treasury, told us that old could mean that the systems were installed in 1962, 1992, or 2012. They might use a combination of software written in different programming languages: a little COBOL in the 1970s, a bit of Java in the 1990s. Knowledge about one system doesnt give anyoneincluding Musks DOGE workers, some of whom were not even alive for Y2Kthe ability to make intricate changes to another.Read: The rapid unscheduled disassembly of the United States governmentThe internet economy, characterized by youth and disruption, favors inventing new systems and disposing of old ones. And the nations computer systems, like its roads and bridges, could certainly benefit from upgrades. But old computers dont necessarily make for bad infrastructure, and government infrastructure isnt always old anyway. The former Treasury official told us that mainframesand COBOL, the ancient programming language they often runare really good for what they do, such as batch processing for financial transactions.Like the FAA employee, the payment-systems expert also fears that the most likely result of DOGE activity on federal systems will be breaking them, especially because of incompetence and lack of proper care. DOGE, he observed, may be prepared to view or hoover up data, but it doesnt appear to be prepared to carry out savvy and effective alterations to how the system operates. This should perhaps be reassuring. If you were going to organize a heist of the U.S. Treasury, he said, why in the world would you bring a handful of college students? They would be useless. Your crew would need, at a minimum, a couple of guys with a decade or two of experience with COBOL, he said.Unless, of course, you had the confidence that you could figure anything out, including a lumbering government system you dont respect in the first place. That interpretation of DOGEs theory of self seems both likely and even more scary, at the Treasury, the FAA, and beyond. Would they even know what to do after logging in to such a machine? we asked. No, theyd have no idea, the payment expert said. The sanguine thing to think about is that the code in these systems and the process and functions they manage are unbelievably complicated, Scott Cory said. Youd have to be extremely knowledgeable if you were going into these systems and wanting to make changes with an impact on functionality.But DOGE workers could try anyway. Mainframe computers have a keyboard and display, unlike the cloud-computing servers in data centers. According to the former Treasury IT expert, someone who could get into the room and had credentials for the system could access it and, via the same machine or a networked one, probably also deploy software changes to it. Its far more likely that they would break, rather than improve, a Treasury disbursement system in so doing, one source told us. The volume of information they deal with [at the Treasury] is absolutely enormous, well beyond what anyone would deal with at SpaceX, the source said. Even a small alteration to a part of the system that has to do with the distribution of funds could wreak havoc, preventing those funds from being distributed or distributing them wrongly, for example. Its like walking into a nuclear reactor and deciding to handle some plutonium.DOGE is many thingsa dismantling of the federal government, a political project to flex power and punish perceived enemiesbut it is also the logical end point of a strain of thought thats become popular in Silicon Valley during the boom times of Big Tech and easy money: that building software and writing code arent just dominant skills for the 21st century, but proof of competence in any realm. In a post on X this week, John Shedletsky, a developer and an early employee at the popular gaming platform Roblox, summed up the philosophy nicely: Silicon Valley built the modern world. Why shouldnt we run it?This attitude disgusted one of the officials we spoke with. Theres this bizarre belief that being able to do things with computers means you have to be super smart about everything else. Silicon Valley may have built the computational part of the modern world, but the rest of that worldthe money, the airplanes, the roads, and the waterwaysstill exists. Knowing something, even a lot, about computers guarantees no knowledge about the world beyond them.Id like to think that this is all so massive and complex that they wont succeed in whatever it is theyre trying to do, one of the experts told us. But I wouldnt want to wager that outcome against their egos.Explore More Topics

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