Link Roundup

Real quick link roundup, mainly on the stuff that's near and dear to my heart:

Update on the status of the California fires, including a map from BBC so you can see where each fire is. FEMA, by the way, is the epitome of fabulous. They faked a news conference on the fires on Tuesday. Gave no notice to the press so they had their employees pose as reporters and give them questions that were, shall we say, less then impressive.

In other, slightly more happy/geeky news, a copy of the Koran sold for 1.1 million pounds sterling (that's about 2.2 million US dollars, give or take...). Why so much? It's from 1203 and written completely in GOLD. Yes, GOLD. Marginalia in silver. It reminds me of a little news item I saw a few weeks ago... when Ross Perot decided it was a good time to sell a little document called the MAGNA CARTA. Isn't that insane? It was the only copy of the Magna Carta in America. And why should we care about some old document that was the first codification of the rights of men against a tyrannical king? Well, aside from the obvious it was the basis of our own constitution.

Speaking of constitution, it's what we're doing this week in state and local. AGAIN. I'm as much in love with the Constitution as the next history geek, but this is the 6th time in 4 years, and it's not like we're going in depth, which would make it worth it...