California is facing a $20 billion deficit. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just proposed massive spending cuts, and outright elimination of long-standing government agencies.
From the LA Times, Jan. 8:
The Republican governor will renew his call to expand oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast and extend the payroll cuts that have resulted in furloughs and a 14% salary cut for more than 200,000 state workers... and extend the payroll cuts that have resulted in furloughs and a 14% salary cut for more than 200,000 state workers... he will propose the wholesale elimination of CalWorks, the state's main welfare program, as well as a program that provides in-home care to the elderly and disabled.
But the Governor doesn't stop there:
"As bitter as the words are in my mouth, we face additional cuts," Schwarzenegger said in his State of the State speech before lawmakers Wednesday.
The Legislative Analysis Office (LAO) just released a report. Although they acknowledged dramatic actions needed to be taken, the LAO dubbed Schwarzenegger's cuts "draconian."
Meanwhile California's Capitol blog is reporting that the LAO is now saying that the budget includes $2.4 billion reductions for public schools despite the Governor's claim to protect the education budget from any cuts.
Reaction from California Liberals has been severe.
Democrat Assembly candidate Das Williams issued a release calling the cuts "devastating," and claiming: "Californians have been suffering from two years of nonstop budget cuts and one-sided sacrifices. More pain for children, seniors, the disabled, and our low-income citizens."
UC News called it: "bad news for state workers, health and social services and prisons..."
Democrat Assemblywoman Noreen Evans of Santa Rosa, Chair of the Budget Committee is accusing Schwarzenegger of wanting to "privatize the prisons," and has called his budget cuts "radical." (Source: Petaluma Press-Dem)
Last week you were crying out for more ideas from 
Until Star Wars comes out on Blu-ray, I really don't see the point.
The answer is: don't buy a 3DTV.
Designers can have senses of humor, too.
I'd say judging by the smell of some CES-goers, they didn't even bother with a catheter.
Spamming goes back to the pen and paper days.
Did anyone see a Dolby marketing guy lurking around Haier's stand last week?
While phones don't often fold, I'm pretty sure you can watch TV on them and they fit in pockets.
Dear god, please—no more!
It's such a simple idea, why didn't Apple think of it before?
Australians say the darndest things.
Has this guy never seen an iPod Touch, Zune or Creative Zen in his life?
I'll leave you with the CES equivalent of your mother's calendar. Enjoy.
Google has announced a rather bold move today: It will no longer censor search results on Google.cn, the Chinese version of the search engine. Apparently they will maintain this stance, even if it ends in shutting down Google.cn.
What if we could outsource the manufacturing process to the very things we’re manufacturing? That’s the tantalizing promise of self-assembling systems, in which scientists use the laws of nature to get components to organize themselves into, say, a computer chip. Or in this case, a 
This is what $170 will get you: One small black box that clones 2.5 and 3.5-inch SATA I and II drives at 72MB/sec, inner peace, and multiple digital lives. Thanks, you Aleratec HDD Copy Cruiser Mini you. [
In a brief post this morning reminding readers that cellular carriers do not necessarily get sneak peeks of Apple's top-secret products, Daring Fireball's John Gruber said that his (often reliable) sources suggest that Apple's tablet will not have any camera.
Way to go, semiconductor suppliers. Thanks to you, we're all going to be paying more for our PCs going forward. Possibly a lot more.
