Damien Hirst + Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers - spun bass guitars

London-based Damien Hirst and California-based Flea, of The American Red Hot Chili Peppers have collaborated on the spun guitar series. The collection consists of 125 color spun guitars with cases decorated in the same manner. The 'multi colored deluxe spin', 'black and white', and 'color spin bass guitar' are each signed by Hirst and Flea on the back with an edition number on the base of the neck and the Hirst-Flea logo featured on the headstock. LINK

World of Color 4th of July Fireworks Special Show

This is a special 4th of July World of Color Fireworks show recorded July 1, 2011 at the 9PM showing.

Disney's California Adventure 4th of July fireworks World of Color pre-show. LINK: Youtube

8 of the Craziest Houses

Cruise ship meets land? This contemporary house can be found in Orinda, Californi. It’s called the “saxophone house” but should be relabeled, “saxophone of the seas.” LINK

Nitto Tire Drifts Downtown Long Beach!

Watch Nitto's sponsored teams drift in downtown Long Beach at the 2010 Formula Drift season opener. See Joon Maeng of Bergenholtz Racing and his Mazda RX-8; Michael Essa and his brand-new BMW 350R; grassroots racer, Matt Powers, and his Nissan S14, and Alex Pfeiffer of Tanaka Racing and his C5 Corvette. All four teams tear it up with Nitto's max-performance tire, the NT05. LINK: Youtube

Security camera catches cat burglar

Security camera catches cat burglar in California. LINK: Youtube

The Albino, Vampiric Redwood Tree

Have you ever seen an albino plant? Albino redwood trees are very rare, since they lack chlorophyll plants use to convert sunlight to nutrients. However, they can survive by sucking nutrients from neighbor trees. There are only 25 known specimens of albino redwoods alive, eight of which are in California. Read more about them at Discoblog. Link -Via: mental_floss, Via: Neatorama

Appleton Mn "Prison May Reopen"

The privately run Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton may reopen and house prisoners from California.

According to a news release from the owner, Corrections Corporation of America, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation intends to award a new contract to them to manage about 3,200 offenders in Appleton and at the company's Colorado facility.

Appleton Mayor Ron Ronning, a 16-year employee of the prison, told the West Central Tribune that he's hoping the prison will reopen early in 2012.

The 1,600 bed prison closed in February. The company didn't give a specific time frame for employees being rehired there.

At full operation, its economic value was estimated at $45 million a year. LINK

'Happy Days' Dad Tom Bosley Dies At 83

Tom Bosley, whose long acting career was highlighted by his hugely popular role as the understanding father on television's nostalgic, top-rated 1970s comedy series Happy Days, died Tuesday. He was 83.

Bosley died of heart failure at a hospital near his Palm Springs, Calif., home. Bosley's agent, Sheryl Abrams, said he was also battling lung cancer.

TV Guide ranked Bosley's Happy Days character, Howard Cunningham, No. 9 on its list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time'' in 2004. The show debuted in 1974 and ran for 11 seasons.

After Happy Days ended, Bosley went on to a recurring role in Murder, She Wrote as Sheriff Amos Tucker. He also was the crime-solving priest in television's The Father Dowling Mysteries, which ran from 1989 to 1991. LINK

Raw Video: Polar Bears Play in Snow in Calif.

Under a sunny California sky Saturday, the San Diego Zoo's three polar bears played in snow. Twenty seven tons of shaved ice was blown into the exhibit so three-area artists could make treat-covered snow sculptures. (June 8). LINK: Youtube

New Musical Instrument Prototype By Roger Linn

Roger Linn Design is a small, home-based business in Berkeley, California, USA, that is engaged in the design of products for the electronic musical instrument industry. Here he demonstrates a prototype for a new musical instrument that for the time being is called LinnStrument. LINK: The Presurfer, Via: Youtube

The Mirror Man

“When you live in a world of mirrors, can any fact go unchallenged? When you are the mirror itself, what do you see? Who can say what thoughts were going through the mind of this extraordinary street performer when he came up with his design for the ‘Mirror Man’. The sight of this man made of mirrors certainly must have been a surprise for the visitors to Griffith Observatory in LA late last year. A few hours spent contemplating the far off mysteries of the universe only to have one land in front of you must have perplexed a number of people that day.” w/ photos. LINK

Can Marijuana Save California Agriculture?

California produces a large chunk of the nation’s crops despite a shortage of water. The demand for water for cities has created a problem for agriculture that will only get worse. Legal marijuana crops could benefit the state’s industry by bringing in more money, employing more people, and using fewer resources.

First, while growing outdoor pot is not especially ecologically benign, it’s far more benign than raising commodities like cattle, rice or alfalfa. Consider: Agriculture uses 80 percent of California’s developed water supply; alfalfa soaks up a full 20 percent of that. The alfalfa is used primarily to create forage for feedlot and dairy. That means that 1 gallon out of every 5 used in California goes to a crop that humans can’t eat.

People don’t make a meal of marijuana either, of course. But measured by water, marijuana barely registers on the California’s water scale. A pound of pot requires, at the outermost limit, 250 gallons to grow, which means that a large serving of it requires about a half pint of water. By contrast, an orange takes 13 gallons water, a glass of wine 32 gallons, and a hamburger 600 gallons. LINK, Via: Neatorama

The Tufa Towers of Mono Lake

One of the most amazing sites to be found in California (and perhaps the US) is the eerie beauty of Mono Lake. The "towers" became visible when the lake’s source water was diverted for human use, and the water level fell. While conservationists battle over its future, there is still hope for the lake and its fragile ecosystems.

The tufa rock formations became visible. This is a sedimentary rock that is formed by carbonate materials. Once underwater the tufa became a land bridge for animals to the lake’s islands. They also give the lake it other worldly look. So, although the tufa towers are natural, the fact that they are so visible above the surface of the lake is entirely our doing. It soon became obvious that the lake was beginning to die.

Link, Via: Neatorama

Man Attacked By Butterfly Swarm

(YouTube Link)

This short video shows a man getting attacked by a swarm of butterflies near Palo Alto, California. LINK: Neatorama

The Hooded Pitohui - a Poisonous Bird

YouTube link

Jack Dumbacher, an ornithologist at the California Academy of Science, describes the discovery of and studies of a neurotoxin produced by this bird from New Guinea. The batrachotoxin that the bird produces is a sodium-channel blocker that is chemically identical to the neurotoxin used by poison dart frogs, and it is potentially lethal in higher doses. One assumes that this evolved as a deterrent to predation, so it’s interesting that like monarchs and other toxic butterflies, this bird exhibits a strikingly bright warning coloration. LINK: Neatorama

Plastiki, A Boat Made from Plastic Bottles, Sails for Australia from California

The Plastiki is a boat made from recycled plastic bottles. It was built by a team led by David de Rothschild in order to call attention to the value of recycling. It set sail on Saturday from Sausalito, California and is heading for Australia:

The Plastiki, named in honor of Norwegian explorer Thor Hyderdahl’s raft Kon Tiki, is a boat like no other in the world. Besides the hull of recycled plastic water and soda bottles, the vessel is made of a hardened plastic called PET.

The boat is a twin-hulled catamaran rigged as a ketch. It will rely on the wind for propulsion and has only a small auxiliary engine. No such boat has ever made an ocean passage before.

The Plastiki was built on the San Francisco waterfront in 2009 and has been making trial voyages on the bay.

Link, Via: The Presurfer | Official Website | Photo: Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle, Via: Neatorama

The Besler Steam Plane

A Travel Air 2000 biplane made the world's first piloted flight under steam power over Oakland, California, on 12 April 1933.
The strangest feature of the flight was its relative silence; spectators on the ground could hear the pilot when he called to them from mid-air.
The aircraft, piloted by William Besler, had been fitted with a two-cylinder, 150 hp reciprocating engine.
An important contribution to its design was made by Nathan C. Price, a former Doble Steam Motors engineer.

More information at the LINK: Youtube

Skeletonized Oscar

In LA, a skeletonized Oscar-esque statue suddenly appeared atop Runyon Canyon days before the awards show last week. For those who don’t know it, Runyon Canyon is a park in Hollywood that’s very popular with joggers, hikers and dog lovers (dogs can go unleashed and run up the canyon trails).

No one knows who sculpted the giant Oscar, but clearly there’s a message behind it. Has plastic surgery taken over Hollywood? The world? Is there anything wrong with plastic surgery? (Via: Los Anjealous.)Via: Neatorama

Edwin Gray's 'Splitting the Positive' Engine And The 'Fascination Car'

image credit

One of the pioneers in early application of causal positron energy was inventor Edwin Gray of Van Nuys California. After World War II he had learned to perform what he called 'splitting the positive,' using 'cold electrical energy' as well as the normal positive electrical energy. His first motor was operating by 1961.

The Fascination Car was the brain child of Paul M. Lewis, of the Highway Aircraft Corporation. It was developed with a standard engine, but he wanted to power it with anything that didn't burn gasoline. He was in negotiations with Ed Gray for a while to use the EMA Engine, but that fell through. Neither the engine or the car were ever produced.

(Via: Philthy's Diversions), Via: The Presurfer

Cannabis Cultivation Comes Out of the Closet

A new medical marijuana superstore opened yesterday in Oakland, California. Now people who want to grow their own weed have a place to purchase all of the necesary supplies and get expert advice from the store's "Grow Squad". LINK: Neatorama, Via: Youtube

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