Gizmodo reports on a project from tow MIT researchers called The Big Atlas of LA Pools. It is exactly what it sounds like, a catalog of every single pool, in the Los Angeles basin. It took 74 books and about 6000 pages to show all 43,123 pools with related data, like area, dimensions, water evaporation, lot price, and crime rates of the neighborhoods. No word on on whether those crime rates include trespassing in said pools. These volumes don’t appear to be for sale though, Gizmodo reports the volumes have only been printed once, allegedly at a cost of $3,700. The Big Atlas of LA Pools was not started to incur the wrath or aid a generation of upcoming young Salbas, it was started out of curiosity, after repeatedly noticing pools on approach to LAX. After watching the these videos, check out this 2008 Google Maps screen grab of an airplane flying over a pool on approach to O’hare airport in Chicago. [Via Jim Goodrich on Facebook]

L.A. is going to ban bombing hills after two recent deaths. This is also bad news for Portland skaters fighting a similar ban in the Zoo Bomb neighborhood, although the ban isn’t an outright skateboard ban. They just want skateboarders to observe the traffic laws like stop signs and speed limits. Really, you can’t blame them for that. Portland’s coalition is asking for the same thing in lieu of an outright ban. The end result is that it will still be illegal to have a speed run downhill. Skateboarders aren’t usually prone to following rules and regulations regarding our useless wooden toys. Serious hill bombing will still happen, but maybe it will keep some of the yahoos away. [Source: “Los Angeles City Council bans skateboard ‘bombing’ after San Pedro deaths” – via the Daily Breeze.]

This year’s Stand up For Skateparks benefit for the Tony Hawk Foundations saw skate action from Bucky Lasek, Pierre-Luc Gagnon, Andy Macdonald, Lincoln Ueda, and Kevin Staab. Old man Hawk even landed a 900 himself. The event raised a total of 775,000 dollars to support the Tony Hawk Foundation, including $43,500 in pledges for a skatepark project in the Watts district of Los Angeles. There were many celebrities present, both skateboarding and mainstream, including Erik Estrada, who is a celebrity in both worlds. If you have a soft spot in your heart for Watts,you can donate $5 to the project by texting the word RIDE to 90999. Do it before the end of Tuesday, October 20 if you want the cash to specifically benefit the Watts Towers Skatepark project.