{"id":3661,"date":"2009-10-14T11:32:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-14T18:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3661"},"modified":"2009-10-14T11:32:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-14T18:32:00","slug":"hump-day-news-chum-car-tones-for-hybrids-cake-wrecks-ktlas-logo-and-sportsmans-lodge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3661","title":{"rendered":"Hump-Day News Chum: Car Tones for Hybrids, Cake Wrecks, KTLA\u2019s Logo, and Sportsmans Lodge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, it\u2019s Wednesday. Time for some hump-day lunchtime news chum. Today\u2019s theme seems to be \u201cWhat Change Hath Wrougt\u201d. Some of our stories are about the impact of technology changes, the others relate to changes in the San Fernando Valley&#8230;.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>I Can\u2019t Hear You<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> We\u2019re all familiar with fake telephone rings: that is, ring tones that sound like an old-fashioned phone, even though they are being generated by a non-physical bell. Well, it appears that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/10\/14\/automobiles\/14hybrid.html\" target=\"_blank\">we may soon have \u201cdrive tones\u201d because hybrids are too silent<\/a>. Car manufacturers are building in car sound effects to warn pedestrians of a car\u2019s approach. For example, the Fisker Karma, an $87,900 plug-in hybrid expected to go on sale next year, will emit a sound \u2014 pumped out of speakers in the bumpers \u2014 that the company founder, Henrik Fisker, describes as \u201ca cross between a starship and a Formula One car.\u201d.  So, want your car to sound like a Ferrari&#8230; or a Model-T&#8230; there\u2019s an app for that. And speaking of apps and sound effects, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.i5labs.com\/iphone-app-showcases-breakout-indie-musician\" target=\"_blank\">a company has developed an iPhone app for everyday sound effects<\/a>: crickets for bad jokes, rimshots for other jokes, evil laughs, etc.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Yes, Everyone <u>is<\/u> Watching You<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> Used to be, when you screwed up, only you or a small circle of your friends knew it. Now the whole world knows. Isn\u2019t that comforting? The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/10\/14\/dining\/14cake.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times is reporting about<\/a> a <a href=\"http:\/\/cakewrecks.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">popular blog<\/a> and book about cake icing disasters called Cake Wrecks. Quoting from the first paragraph of the article, \u201cFinally, a few words about customer service: When someone requests that nothing be written on the cake, \u201cNOTHING\u201d should not be written on the cake.\u201d Supposedly, around 100,000 visitors a day are gawking at Cake Wrecks, and more than a million people subscribe to the author\u2019s updates on Twitter.\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Everything Old Is New Again, Part I<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> The Franklin Avenue blog has <a href=\"http:\/\/franklinavenue.blogspot.com\/2009\/10\/for-its-new-look-ktla-goes-back-to.html\" target=\"_blank\">an interesting article on KTLA-5\u2019s new News Set<\/a>&#8230; and an even more interesting discussion on the evolution of KTLA\u2019s logo, and how it has returned to the stylized \u201c5\u201d of the old days. This particularly interests me, as I find corporate logos and icons interesting (I was once obsessed with articles on the NBC \u201cN\u201d).\n<li><i>From the \u201c<b>Everything Old Is New Again, Part II<\/b>\u201d Department:<\/i> Another old thing being reborn is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/breakingnews\/ci_13554864\" target=\"_blank\">Sportsmans Lodge in Sherman Oaks, which is reopening under new owners, newly remodeled<\/a>. According to the new owners, the previous darkness is gone, and the place has been restored to the brightness and elegance of the 1930s and 1940s with an emphasis on white. Supposedly the rubber chicken cuisine is gone as well. However, some valley institutions are going away. Curbed LA reports on <a href=\"http:\/\/la.curbed.com\/archives\/2009\/10\/plaza_at_valley_glen_will_bring_americanaish_experience_slightly_further_west.php\" target=\"_blank\">a plan to demolish Victory Plaza at Coldwater Canyon and Victory<\/a>, and replace it with a mixed use development with condos, business, a transit plaza, and a hotel, ala the Americana development in Glendale. Somehow, I don\u2019t think it will be that successful: that part of the Valley doesn\u2019t really call out for luxury shopping and hotels.<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, it\u2019s Wednesday. Time for some hump-day lunchtime news chum. Today\u2019s theme seems to be \u201cWhat Change Hath Wrougt\u201d. Some of our stories are about the impact of technology changes, the others relate to changes in the San Fernando Valley&#8230;. From the \u201cI Can\u2019t Hear You\u201d Department: We\u2019re all familiar with fake telephone rings: that <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3661\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,69,1],"tags":[47,171,101],"class_list":["post-3661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-chum","category-television","category-lj-xfer","tag-humor","tag-san-fernando-valley","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}