Link roundup

1. "The highest-paid state employee in California last year, a prison surgeon who took home $777,423, has a history of mental illness, was fired once for alleged incompetence and has not been allowed to treat an inmate for six years because medical supervisors don't trust his clinical skills." Via.

2. At Laughing Squid: Pranksters Dump Paint on Berlin Intersection, Cars Create Street Art; The Soft City, A Bouncy Street Installation.

3. Tilt shift traffic jam wallpaper. Via.

Link roundup

1. Julie Taymor blaming others for the failure of the Spider-Man musical:

“It’s very scary if people are going more towards that, to have audiences tell you how to make a show,” said Ms. Taymor, a Tony Award-winning director of “The Lion King” and other stage works and films. “Shakespeare would have been appalled. Forget about it. It would be impossible to have these works come out because there’s always something that people don’t like.”

Because everyone knows of how respectful audiences were in Shakespeare's time.

2. Idoru used to promote a Japanese ice cream. Here's the commercial itself. Via.

3. Transformers: Turn Off the Moon kid's meal toys at Burger King.

4. I like the muted colors on this blog layout. Even the icons look like they were doodled in ink.

5. For Californians, one pundit's analysis of the current budget battle.

*Buy Happy Meal toys at eBay.

Cretaceous Republic t-shirt

Cretaceous Republic t-shirt on sale here. Via.

Link roundup

1. How Arnold Schwarzenegger ended his term:

Three Republicans who split with their party to approve tax increases backed by Schwarzenegger in 2009 were given high-paying appointments to assorted state boards. Ironically, Schwarzenegger himself tried to eliminate one of these boards after his California Performance Review determined that its functions were duplicative. Other boards and commissions deemed wasteful by the review panel were also stuffed last week with politically connected appointees, including Vicki Marti, the wife of Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, who will now serve on the California Medical Assistance Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board.

2. The Fifth Element cosplay.

3. Octopus hat.

*Buy The Fifth Element posters at eBay.

Is California Sinking?

Aquaman #53 cover circa 1970. Several are available at eBay. Via these sites.

Link roundup

1. Steve Thomas's Tron Grand Prix poster is now on sale.

2. Support the Transmetropolotan art book at Kickstarter, and help the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Hero Initiative. Via.

3. Apparently Central California is now exactly like the economically devastated cities Cory Doctorow imagined in Makers.

*Buy Tron posters at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Penelope Trunk talks about her sex life and failure as a nude model. It's one slapstick moment after another.

2. The LA Times says a recent poll shows Californians don't support tax increases or spending cuts. "That paradox rests on Californians' firm belief that the state's deficit — estimated last week at nearly $25 billion over the next 18 months — can be squared through trimming waste and inefficiencies rather than cutting the programs they hold dear." I don't see how people could possibly believe that. The public school system can't even afford janitors and has to beg parents to at least help keep the dining areas clean.

3. Bad logo contest. Via.

*Buy condoms at Amazon.