California is loaded. From Disneyland to farmland, we've got Scientology and superstars, Silicon and silicone, crips and bloods. The border. Krunkin' Clownin' Jerkin'. The surf and the turf. The boom and the bust. California is humanity run amuck and then packaged, branded and sold. California Cuisine, California Love, California Casual, California Gold, California Girls, and of course, California Dreams. If it exists in the world, it exists here and it does so with pizzaz.

Obviously, we love this stuff. That's why we're doing this project. Simply put, California is sensational. And the closer we look the better it gets: words and images, stories and songs, opinions and ideas. This project is ongoing. We hope you like what you see and say so. We plan to post often. So until that day, when we finally float off into the Pacific, California is a place. Stay tuned.

The first video is on Scraper Bikes.

California is a place.

Train Runs Through Bangkok Market

Already blogged but this link has both memos. The FISA one is substantially less provocative than the one about the bill of rights not applying to military operations on domestic soil.

Obama unseals Bush-era wiretap memos

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. - There’s something lurking in the water at several south Florida beaches.

Hundreds of swarming sharks, some as close as 10 feet offshore, have closed down beaches in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

"The water clarity has been so good" that it's been easier than usual to see the annual migration, Bob Taylor, superintendent for lifeguards at Delray Beach, told NBC's "Today" show.

The video is amazing - 100s of sharkies, a massive swarm of em, swimming North.

Sharks clear out south Florida beaches - U.S. news- msnbc.com

freakn wrote:

Though it is a bill that is presented every other year in the GA congress, the current form of the Sunday alcoholic sales bill is expected to gain the most ground ever, but still fail. This bill, along with some other previous renditions basically allows a county and/or city to let the citizens decide on afternoon Sunday sales with a vote. The most recent action is that the bill got recommitted in to the Senate 2 weeks ago, but this was after almost a full year of nothingness.

There are some big name supporters behind this bill, including a laundry list of senators and reps. Two of the biggest names are Kroger and Publix. All state breweries and wineries support the bill, of course. The convenient store chains support it, though some smaller package stores are iffy about having to produce a Sunday payroll.

There are plenty of groups highly against the freedom to allow citizens to put the issue to a vote. Already infuriated by the law changes in the last few years allowing home delivery and higher alcohol content in fermented beverages, various religious and socially conservative groups are being vocal.

The bill has a chance of reaching the governor's office. But it is expected that the governors morals and values will prevent him from allowing counties and cities to chose for themselves in a democratic fashion. In an election year dominated by national economic, war, and presidential issues, and with local water and housing issues, this bill and it's subsequent repression of democracy will be overlooked.

I don't see why they don't just challenge this law as religious establishment.

Sunday Alcoholic Beverages in Georgia

Very good coverage on the actions of the UN Security Council. Watch Online.

----

The world vowed "never again" after the genocide in Rwanda and the atrocities in Srebrenica, Bosnia. Then came Darfur. Over the past four years, at least 200,000 people have been killed, 2.5 million driven from their homes, and mass rapes have been used as a weapon in a brutal campaign - supported by the Sudanese government - against civilians in Darfur. In On Our Watch, FRONTLINE asks why the United Nations and its members once again failed to stop the slaughter.

Never Again. Then came Darfur.

"The Bull," 94.9 FM, is hosting a free gas promotion at the Sam's Club in Alpharetta, near the Georgia 400/Mansell Road interchange. The first 125 people to arrive will receive free gas.

The promotion starts at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

GDOT is reporting that Alpharetta Police are prepared to shut down the ramps at Mansell Road if conditions warrant. This could mean gridlock on Georgia 400.

What a bunch of jerks. Its rush hour! This is almost as bad as the idiots who killed a woman in California last year.

11Alive.com - Free Gas Giveaway May Cause Gridlock

If only she was as beautiful as Switzerland...

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a convenient way of measuring and comparing the size of national economies. Annual GDP represents the market value of all goods and services produced within a country in a year. Put differently:

GDP = consumption investment government spending (exports – imports)

Although the economies of countries like China and India are growing at an incredible rate, the US remains the nation with the highest GDP in the world – and by far: US GDP is projected to be $13,22 trillion (or $13.220 billion) in 2007, according to this source. That’s almost as much as the economies of the next four (Japan, Germany, China, UK) combined.

The creator of this map has had the interesting idea to break down that gigantic US GDP into the GDPs of individual states, and compare those to other countries’ GDP. What follows, is this slightly misleading map – misleading, because the economies both of the US states and of the countries they are compared with are not weighted for their respective populations.

Pakistan, for example, has a GDP that’s slightly higher than Israel’s – but Pakistan has a population of about 170 million, while Israel is only 7 million people strong. The US states those economies are compared with (Arkansas and Oregon, respectively) are much closer to each other in population: 2,7 million and 3,4 million.

And yet, wile a per capita GDP might give a good indication of the average wealth of citizens, a ranking of the economies on this map does serve two interesting purposes: it shows the size of US states’ economies relative to each other (California is the biggest, Wyoming the smallest), and it links those sizes with foreign economies (which are therefore also ranked: Mexico’s and Russia’s economies are about equal size, Ireland’s is twice as big as New Zealand’s). Here’s a run-down of the 50 states, plus DC:

131 - US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs « strange maps

--timball

billy & jill's wedding

Make plans now!

PhreakNIC Technology and Hacker Culture Convention