Greetings, y'all...  another altered states post, as tonight I spent a good two hours listening to music with friends while drinking wine...  good times, but I am not up to even my usual low standard I'm afraid :)  Still, it does all seem to be happening...

Happy groundhog day to y'all.  I thought about it often, and even featured it in a presentation I gave today (really!).  A great movie, and incredibly unique; you cannot name another which was even somewhat similar.  Funny and sexy and yet really poignant and even somewhat moving. 

Oh, and you will not be surprised to find that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.  So be it, six more weeks of winter.  Although I must tell you, here is North San Diego the weather has been perfect!

Victor David Hanson ponders who is the "they" now in California?  "How does one explain how California is broke, tens of billions of dollars in aggregate debt, despite having among the highest sales and income taxes in the nation?"  Weeell... 

The always interesting James Surowiecki considers Hazardous Materials, whether the "moral hazard" of government intervention has sufficiently bad consequences to imply bailouts shouldn't be executed.  He says no, but I am unconvinced.  Pretty much any government intervention in markets is bad... 

Jason Kottke on America's Quiet Ports.  Too quiet, apparently, silenced by the lack of underlying economic activity... 

Eric Sink advises us to read the diffs.  Good advice, I do :) 

John Battelle on the Kindle and Print: "What we're trying to say is that as a technology for delivering the news, newsprint isn't just expensive and inefficient; it's laughably so."  I must tell you that while I love books, my Kindle is a keeper; much more so than I ever would have imagined. 

TTAC on Tata Motors: Profile of an Indian Car Company in Trouble.  "India’s Tata has gone from darling to dumpling in just a year. The high profile Nano People’s Car project still hasn’t gone into production, and the $2.3B purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover now seems spectacularly ill-timed."  Sigh.  Jaguar can't seem to get a break... 

There's a new Google Earth!  Featuring the oceans and Mars.  How excellent, I must try it.