Peaker power plant
Peaker plants operate only during high, or peak, electricity-use hours when main plants can't meet demand. But they are increasingly being built in residential areas, close to homes and schools, where the increase in noise and pollution is often unwelcome. There are only two in Orange County in operation, but two more are proposed, one in Anaheim and one, where we did this story, in Ladera Ranch, a new, upscale south county neighborhood with lots of families with kids. The residents are organizing to oppose its construction.
The graphic explains how a peaker plant works and shows the Ladera Ranch area along with some data about pollution the plant could produce. Ran in black and white on A3, with a color PDF on line. In the paper's seemingly incorrigible website dysfunctionality, someone posted the black and white print version of the graphic directly beneath the link to download the color PDF. So we go from being unable to get any version of a graphic online to having two versions of it on the same page. Progress after a fashion, I suppose. And the story was featured in the main home page box.

LACMA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened new buildings and exhibits this past week. The centerpiece is art collector Eli Broad's striking new building, designed by Renzo Piano, to show off his collection of 70’s-80’s modern art (although he paid the $56 million cost of the building, he declined to donate any of his collection to the museum, instead just loaning it for temporary display.)
This graphic ran on the Sunday Arts section cover along with a review of the show. Although I was given generous space, especially for a cover, I wasn't able to do what I had planned, which was to have several images with cutaways of the building to show its various features, which is the overarching reason for doing this as a graphic rather than just using a photo of the building. In the end, we decided to use the large rendering without the cutaways because the page needed a central image with some impact. The Los Angeles Times, by contrast, allowed their graphic a full inside double-truck (two full pages) in color, allowing for a true indepth look inside the building.
I also didn't do an online version for lack of time, which is unfortunate because then I could have used the cutaway images. Instead there's just a PDF of the print version that can be downloaded.
The Register has started selling ad space on its section covers - another reason we were short on space. Scroll down on the link to the print version to see its impact on the page.

Whirling dervishes
The dervishes came to town, so our Show section did an article on them. I did an illustration combined with some facts about the ceremony they perform, during which they do the robe-spinning dance that earned them their name.

They're very adamant that the ceremony is not a show but an 800-year old meditative practice for the Sufi dancers — they request that the audience not clap at the end. Nevertheless, they charge $30-$50 for admission.

Building a green house
Graphic showing ways that commercial builders can be more environmentally friendly when building new homes. Reporting by Heather Ignatin.

A portable DNA analyzer
This was a great story that an intern and I came across while we were at UC-Irvine interviewing a researcher for another story. A team there is developing a device that looks like a portable CD player that will analyze a sample of DNA in about 20 minutes and very inexpensively. Currently, DNA analysis takes several days of lab work and costs about $70 per sample. Their device will drop the price to a few dollars, and can be used in the field.

It is, in fact, a CD player of sorts — it works by spinning a CD with micro channels engraved in its surface, the centrifugal force moving a fluid sample from one chamber to the next as the procedure is done.

If this device reaches the market, the ramifications would be huge — testing for E Coli in the supermarket, or for evidence at crime scenes, or quick disease diagnoses in Third World countries to combat epidemics — the possible applications are vast.

In the end, however, I wasn't happy with the way the graphic came out. I wasn't able to simplify the topic to the point that the casual reader would get it and understand the implications.

Brown pelican
Illustration for Pat Brennan's Edge of Nature column, which runs on the back of the sports section every Thursday. The illustration usually runs small, only 1 column, but it's fun to do.

Blue whale
Laylan Connelly, our beaches reporter, did a story on blue whales unexpectedly showing up in the waters off Orange County. I did a fairly whimsical graphic to give an idea of the size of these largest living creatures on the planet. Ran on A3.

Nuclear process
Large graphic accompanying a New York Times story on Iran's nuclear enrichment program. The graphic shows how uranium is enriched, how it is used in both power plants and bombs, and which countries have it. Ran on A3 in black and white; color version was posted on web.

Ortega Highway
Story about partial shutdowns of the only road over the mountains from OC to Riverside county, which has a high accident rate. Graphic shows what will be done, how long it will take, alternate routes and how much longer people's commutes will be. Ran on front page.

Tunneling under the mountains
The water district is doing some exploratory drilling to look at the feasibility of digging a 12-mile tunnel underneath the Santa Ana Mountains. At its greatest depth, it would be 2,300 feet below the surface. It would house a water pipe to help supply Orange County, and might eventually even be used for a road. The graphic shows the ruggedness of the terrain and the machine that would dig the tunnel. Ran on the front page.