It sounded like a great technological advance...

It sounded like a great technological advance at Cal State Northridge. But school officials were careful about making any claims, no doubt aware of the controversy that befell the University of Utah after its alleged “cold fusion” breakthrough.

As part of National Engineers Week Thursday, several Northridge students will showcase motorized mousetraps.

At last! If the mouse won’t come to you . . .

“These don’t catch anything,” explained spokeswoman Kathy Chase. “What the students do is create vehicles out of the mousetraps, put wheels on them. They’re propelled forward by the snapping portion of the trap. It’s a race.”

Sounds like the world won’t be beating a path to Northridge’s door after all.

Only in L.A. Ombudsmen Report:

Silver Lake resident Bob Claunch tried for weeks to have the city remove a sign that designated one block of La Paz Drive as Avenel Terrace. He reports that the day after we ran a photo of the misplaced marker, it was taken down.

And, in the aftermath of a short item we published on Shaun Chater, the 6-year-old national weightlifting champ, he’s been interviewed by People magazine and the makers of the “To Tell the Truth” TV show.

We can just imagine Shaun appearing on the show, intoning:

“My name is Hulk Hogan. . . .”

List of the Day:

Some downtown buildings that have portrayed fictional headquarters in TV and the movies:

1--444 (formerly Wells Fargo) Building, 444 S. Flower St.: Houses the stars of “L.A. Law.”

2--Title Guarantee Building, 411 W. 5th St.: L.A. Tribune newspaper in the “Lou Grant” show.

3--Park Plaza (Elks Building), 607 S. Park View St.: Office of dastardly businessman Ricardo Montalban in “The Naked Gun.”

4--Bradbury Building, 304 S. Broadway: Digs of gumshoe Wayne Rogers in “City of Angels.”

5--City Hall: The Daily Planet newspaper in “Superman.”

6--Bonaventure Hotel, 404 S. Figueroa St.: Cafe served by daffy waitresses in “It’s a Living” sitcom.

7--L.A. Herald Examiner, 1111 S. Broadway: Clint Eastwood’s police station in “The Rookie.”

8--Union Station, 800 N. Alameda St.: Police station in “Blade Runner”; played itself in “Union Station.”

“Faulty Towers” is the title of an Angeles Magazine article that criticizes L.A.’s movers and shakers for opting for one monstrous skyline downtown rather than a “low- to mid-rise” pattern across the city. The result, the magazine says, has left L.A. “choking on its own traffic.” (Small compensation for the thrill of seeing an occasional high-rise in a movie.)

Downtown can be unpretty in other ways, too. While taking pictures for the story, an Angeles photographer was mugged twice.

miscelLAny:

“Heart of Screenland” is the motto, not of L.A., not of Hollywood, not of Burbank, but of . . . Culver City.