Six Californias ~ Draper on Rebooting Politics

VC Tim Draper proposes Six Californias in VB interview, saying it's...

"The right way to hold politicians more accountable and to make the state more governable. The deadline to gather 807,615 signatures and put it on the November ballot if July 18. He said that the state is a lot like a monopoly, with high costs, low satisfaction, and little choice for those who deal with it. He came up with the proposal after trying to fix California’s educational system for years. “I marveled at the number of choices we have in the private sector because of entrepreneurs,” he said. “Then I realized we only have one choice of government if we want to live in this kind of weather.”

Exaggerated Relief ~ Map of Western US & Mex

MapPorn spots very cool Exaggerated Relief Map of Western US and Mexico made by Anton Balazh (with NASA help;-) sourced from UnofficialNetworks!

Living with Fire ~ USGS on SoCal Burn Dynamics

io9's Mika McKinnon spots USGS video Living with Fire...

"Last year, the United States Geological Survey produced an educational video on just why fires in Southern California are so different than elsewhere, and how they're using data to develop new strategies in fire prevention and fire science."

Also, FYI, Birago says check out this Drought Map...

California Soul ~ Lovely Video for Kevin Brooks!

Lovely video from Birago for MIT's one-and-only Kevin Brooks who can surely use a little Soul right now, certainly from California, plus parts beyond!

Into The Atmosphere ~ Shainblum's Timelapse...

The Creators Project spotlights Into The Atmosphere timelapse by Michael Shainblum... And here's The Art Of The Timelapse where we meet Shainblum and see how he does it! Thanks to UniqueDaily for spotting these!

Santa Cruz Boardwalk ~ Epic CA Amusements!

Thinking back to my youth, I remember the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk as a favorite spot. And it's still going as one of the last great seaside resorts!  A bit of the background and history...

"The Boardwalk extends along the coast of the Monterey Bay, from just east of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf to the mouth of the San Lorenzo River. [...] The Boardwalk was founded by Santa Cruz businessman Fred Swanton (1862–1940), who aimed to create a resort on the West Coast similar to Coney Island or Atlantic City, New Jersey [...] The West Coast once hosted many more beach parks, including the Pike in Long Beach, California, Neptune Beach in Alameda and Playland at San Francisco's Ocean Beach. Those all have long since closed, but the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk survives as a reminder of a bygone era."

The Sting ~ Photo of Bee Leaving Stinger in Man

Thanks to DailyMail for spotting images of the instant a honey bee stings and flies off! The photos by Kathy Keatley Garvey show the flying insect tugging a long strand of abdominal tissue as it tries to pull away from UCDavis honey bee center apiculturist Eric Mussen!

Freeway Cap Parks ~ Hollywood Central Over 101

The ANBlog spots freeway cap parks, specifically the proposed Hollywood Central capping Highway 101, creating a...

"...44-acre street level urban park [which] allows us to rethink and reimagine our physical environment [...] Park features would include “an amphitheater, walking trails, a dog park, a children’s playground, water features, recreational facilities and much more."

Young Jobs ~ Introducing Apple Mac in 1983!

Young Steve Jobs intros Apples' Mac in 1983 vs IBM monolith PC...

Avoid Carmageddon! ~ JetBlue's 20min, $4 Fly-O

Brill promo by JetBlue -- a 20 minute, $4 fly-o over the under-construction this weekend 405 Freeway in LA -- a.k.a. Carmageddon! Thanks to Sarah Sled for spotting this delighter!

Parklets ~ 120 sq-ft Public Park(ing) Greenspaces!

Here's a lovely idea highlighted by jstephens at the California Planning & Development Report, ‘Parklets’ Create Public Space, 120 Square Feet at a Time...

"The typical parklet consists of a platform that occupies between two or three curbside parking spaces. Typically made of wood and stylistically reminiscent of Scandinavian saunas, platforms sit flush with the sidewalk and usually includes seating and sometimes greenery. Parklets thus serve as outdoor rooms where passers-by can linger without contending with vehicles or pedestrian through-traffic. Parklets can also serve as outdoor dining areas for cafes and even landscaping features to introduce greenery into a streetscape."

LA's Red Cars ~ Pacific Electric Railway System

Fascinating to read about the Pacific Electric Railway or Red Car system in greater Los Angeles...

"...a mass transit system in Southern California using streetcars, light rail, and buses. The largest electric railway in the world at its greatest extent, around 1925, the system interconnected cities in Los Angeles County and Orange County, as well as in San Bernardino County and Riverside County. [...] Pacific Electric was the largest operator of interurban electric railway passenger service in the world with over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of track. The system ran to destinations all over Southern California, particularly to the south and east. [...] The railway company "connected all the dots on the map and was a leading player itself in developing all the real estate that lay in between the dots". [...] Pacific Electric passenger service was sold off in 1953 to a company known as Metropolitan Coach Lines, whose intention was to convert all rail service to bus service as quickly as possible [...] in what became known as the Great American Streetcar Scandal."

Penthouse Palace ~ Top of St Regis San Fran

Forbes promos St Regis San Francisco topfloor Penthouse Palace...

Next Silicon Valley ~ Jurney & Cross on Lessons

Thanks to MIT alumnus entrepreneur Abdulrahman Tarabzouni for spotting this recent Measuring Measures post on the Next Silicon Valley by authors Russell Jurney and Bradford Cross who offer an...

"...historical perspective of the widespread efforts to reproduce Silicon Valley in cities across the world. [...] The Valley has now extended throughout the Bay Area. The furvor of innovation has infected the peninsula from San Francisco to San Jose. Many cities and regions outside the Bay Area have attempted to reproduce Silicon Valley. Despite their efforts, the Silicon Valley ecosystem has remained highly localized. That physical location would come to matter more than ever in a densely networked global economy is counter-intuitive, but economic clusters have come to dominate every area of technology. Despite the Bay Area's dominance, new micro-clusters sprout and grow across the globe. As each new seed develops, the comparison is inevitably made: is this the next Silicon Valley?"

This is especially relevant for Skolkovo, KAUST, Masdar, SUTD, Somaiya, and the other emergent cluster-crafters. See also Steve Blank's talk The Secret History of Silicon Valley...

Kaiser Roof Garden ~ An Epic Green Building!

I'm still in awe of the epic green roof which landscape architect Theodore Osmundson designed in 1958 -- a 3 acre garden on the roof of the 5-story parking garage at the Oakland, California Kaiser Center! As Osmundson wrote about in his Roof Gardens book, this project was championed by no less than Edgar Kaiser, the head of the firm and son of founder Henry Kaiser, the genius WWII shipbuilder. Scandalously and tragically enough, now 50 years after this amazing example, we still have not figured out how to embed these kind roof garden ideas in buildings here at MIT...

Cresting Wave ~ David Merrill Sends CA Regards!

MIT Media Lab alumnus entrepreneur David Merrill of Siftables fame sends his regards from California via this image of a Cresting Wave... What the hell am I doing here in drizzly Massachusetts?!