Road Trip at Home

The art of putting out airplane fires

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif.--The flames were raging, and the cries of people trapped inside the plane were audible, even from well over a hundred feet away.

Yet despite the fire crews wearing heavy-duty proximity suits, blasting water from a pair of hoses, and a collection of fire trucks gathered near the burning fuselage, no one looked particularly worried. No lives were actually at stake.

This was firefighter training at Moffett Field, part of an annual process that the crews from the NASA Ames Fire Department and the nearby Palo Alto and Sunnyvale Fire Departments have to go through in order … Read more

Road Trip Pic of the Week, 10/7: What is this?

Update (Monday, 3:16 p.m. PST): The complete answer to last week's Picture of the Week--which 106 people got--is the landing at the end of the maiden flight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, at Boeing Field, in Seattle, Wash., on December 15, 2009. For this challenge, I required more specificity than I usually do because I asked why the picture mattered. So while more than 200 people knew it was Boeing's Dreamliner, and even where the picture was taken, many didn't correctly identify the significance of the initial flight. Thanks to all who played, and to … Read more

Celebrating 60 years of 'Peanuts'

SANTA ROSA, Calif.--If you're a "Peanuts" fan, you have got to get yourself to this wine-country city about an hour north of San Francisco, the home of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. There may well be no better place on the planet to get your fill of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, and the rest of the gang.

And today could be one of the best days ever to visit: it's the 60th anniversary of the famous comic strip, and what better way could there be to celebrate such an event than … Read more

A Frank Lloyd Wright gem in Northern California

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.--It looks like a futuristic spaceship, resplendent with sand beige walls, a sky-blue roof, and a 172-foot-tall gold tower, but it's not quite that sci-fi. Still, the Marin County Civic Center definitely has an out-of-this-world pedigree: It was designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and was the last major design of his career.

For anyone who lives in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, or who has driven through, the Civic Center may well be a familiar sight. Located just east of U.S. Highway 101, the beautiful low-slung complex … Read more

Road Trip Pic of the Week, 9/23: What is this?

Update (Wednesday, 2:20 p.m. PST): The answer to last week's Picture of the Week challenge--which 43 people got--is the Yellow Bikes program at Burning Man. Under the program, hundreds of these green bicycles (though they are called Yellow Bikes) are made available free of charge to attendees of the Burning Man festival, which is held annually in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Thanks to all who played last week, and please come back Thursday for this weeks's challenge.

That's quite a few bicycles, isn't it? And they all look pretty much the same. … Read more

Road Trip Pic of the Week 9/16: What is this?

Update (Saturday, 1:54 p.m. PST): The answer to this week's challenge--which 178 people got--is the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge in Boston. Thanks to all who played, and to everyone, please come back Thursday for the next Picture of the Week challenge.

If you've been following the Road Trip Picture of the Day--or Week--for a while, then you know that I'm a fan of bridges. So, rather than denying my true self, here's another bridge for you to identify. So, if you know what this bridge is called, and where it's … Read more

At Google, doodling is real work

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--They've celebrated Pac-Man's anniversary, Einstein's birthday, the World Cup, the Fourth of July, Persian New Year, the Olympics, U.S. elections, and just about everything in between. Who are they? Google's Doodlers, of course.

A band of artists whose job it is to translate special events into those colorful, whimsical versions of Google's corporate logo, the Doodlers almost certainly have one of the best jobs in the world.

This team's members mix artistic skills with an ability to fit into Google's culture--meaning they can speak engineering and hold their own … Read more

Road Trip Pic of the Week, 9/2: What is this?

Update (Wednesday, 8:13 p.m.): For the first time in this challenge series, no one got the correct answer, which is the Hunt Armory of the Pennsylvania National Guard, in Pittsburgh. Thanks to everyone for being patient while I was on vacation, and please come back Thursday for this week's challenge.

"National?" National what? It could be just about anything, or anywhere. And if you know what this is and where it's located, you could win a prize in the CNET Road Trip Picture of the Week challenge.

If you have those answers, please e-mail … Read more

Road Trip Pic of the Day going weekly

On June 7, I began what became a daily feature over the next 11 weeks: The Road Trip Picture of the Day challenge. Each day, with the help of CNET summer intern Polina Polishchuk, I posted a mystery photograph and tasked readers with identifying it. Of those who sent me the correct answer, I picked one at random, and that person won a prize.

This was all part of Road Trip 2010, which took me to the East Coast for weeks this summer, and during which I posted dozens of feature stories and full photo galleries on many of the … Read more

Road Trip Pic of the Day, 6/23: What is this?

Update (Wednesday, 11:43 p.m. EST): The answer to today's challenge--which 66 people got--is mission control for the International Space Station at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Congratulations to the winner, and for everyone, please be sure to come back for tomorrow's challenge.

This just looks like the epitome of geek heaven, doesn't it? Do you recognize it?

I'd be surprised if you--or many others--can identify what's in this picture without doing some research. But I'm also quite sure a lot of you will be able to figure out what … Read more