Tim Lincecum Wins Cy Young - First Giant Since 1967

Tim Lincecum delivers during the first inning against the San Diego Padres, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008, in San Diego. (DENIS POROY / AP)

Tim Lincecum this morning became the second San Francisco Giant to win baseball's most coveted pitching honor and the first since Mike McCormick in 1967.

In balloting announced by the Baseball Writers Association of America, Lincecum won in a landslide. He garnered 23 of 32 first-place votes, seven second-place votes and one third-place vote, for a total of 137 points.

Brandon Webb of Arizona finished second with four first-place votes and 73 points. The Mets' Johan Santana was third with four first-place votes and 55 points.

CC Sabathia of Milwaukee got the final first-place vote but finished fifth behind Brad Lidge, the Philadelphia closer.
...
In his first full big-league season, Lincecum threw 227 innings over 33 starts and one relief appearance. He went 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA and led the majors with 265 strikeouts. [SFGate]

High Speed Rail in California

Saw this article on Wired about the approval of bonds for construction of a high speed rail line in California.

Before the final ballots had even been tallied, high-speed rail advocates in California were getting down to work, laying the foundation for a bullet train that will link San Francisco and Los Angeles as early as 2020.

Voters on Tuesday approved the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act, more commonly known as Proposition 1A, by a margin of 52 percent to 47 percent. The law authorizes the Legislature to issue almost $10 billion in bonds to fund the first phase of an 800-mile high speed rail link between Northern and Southern California. Advocates of high-speed rail hailed the victory as a watershed for high-speed rail in America.

It begins almost immediately. Quentin Kopp, chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, told Wired.com the agency will deliver a revised business plan by the end of this week and then begin a comprehensive engineering plan. "We're going to need to do things like dig tunnels through mountains and navigate the Pacheco Pass," he explains. "This is intricate engineering, and it's a crucial part of the project."

Kopp says that the state will also spend $3 to $4 billion this fiscal year buying right-of-way land for the project.

The Authority plans a network that will stretch from Sacramento to San Francisco and on to Los Angeles and San Diego via Fresno, Bakersfield, and other cities in the Central Valley. Trains would use the same wheel-on-rail technology found in France, Spain, Korea and China and reach speeds of more than 200 mph.

Proponents say the project is essential for a state choking on jammed highways and crowded airports, and predict that a well-planned north-south rail link could draw over 115 million riders a year by 2030. Gov. Schwarzenegger, one of the initiative's biggest advocates, argued high-speed rail will not only solve California's infamous gridlock, it will give the Golden State an economic competitive advantage.

The Los Angeles Times endorsed the measure, heralding it as the dawn of a more transit-friendly environment. "We think voters should give in to the measure's gleaming promise, because it's in their long-term interest," the paper wrote. The San Francisco Chronicle also got on board, calling Prop 1A "an ambitious vision that is well-tailored to the state's transportation and environmental needs." [WIRED]

VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to perform your civil duty. Record voter turnout is expected in California today.

A record 13.6 million California voters are expected to cast ballots in today's election, a 78.9 percent turnout that would be the largest in more than three decades, a new Field Poll predicted.

The presidential race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain is attracting most of the attention, but a dozen statewide ballot measures, topped by a proposed ban on same-sex marriage, also are boosting turnout.

"That's over a million more voters than we had in 2004, which was the previous record," said Mark DiCamillo, the poll's director. "This is representative democracy in action."

Throughout California, nearly 3.8 million of the state's registered 17.3 million voters had cast ballots by mail or at early voting sites as of Friday. That's a 22 percent turnout, and hundreds of thousands of early ballots are still to be counted. About 53 percent of this year's votes are expected to be cast at the polls today. [SFGate]

Huffington Post Election Coverage

CNN has some pretty solid election coverage to track your races.

Go HERE.

Voting Problems?

If You Don't Care About Politics, Vote Because You Are Addicted to Caffeine

If you care enough to vote, we care enough to give you a free cup of coffee.

Come into any participating Starbucks on Nov. 4th, tell us you voted, and we'll proudly give you a tall cup of brewed coffee on us.

Its our way of saying, thanks for doing your part.

Limit one per person. Good while supplies last. Void where prohibited by law.

© 2008 Starbucks Coffee Company

********UPDATE********
The song in the song is called, "Trillium Glance" by Michael Montes, for those that are asking.

You Can Vote However You Like

Election day is approaching and the online media coverage is being even more intense. Half or more of the top viral videos all related to the election. Here are some interesting videos I've come across.

You Can Vote However You Like (T.I. Election Parody)


If that doesn't make sense to you, check out the T.I. video below. You really should go on iTunes and look at the popular songs.


There's also another 5 Friends PSA. While Jonah Hill & Sarah Silverman provided the comic relief in the last PSA, it's Sacha Baron Cohen and his character Borat who save this one.

Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Snoop Dogg, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Justin Timberlake, along with Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat, Zach Braff, Colin Farrell, Neil Patrick Harris, Scarlett Johansson, Shia LeBeouf, Tobey Maguire, Ryan Reynolds, and Jason Segal, are featured in a second of a series of public service announcements to encourage American youth to vote.

The non-partisan PSAs, produced by DiCaprios Appian Way, were created to engage and inspire young people to vote and participate in the upcoming election. So get some friends and go vote! [HuffingtonPost]

5 More Friends (Uncensored)


5 More Friends

You can see the other 5 Friends PSA HERE

5 Friends

There's a new viral video making its way around the web. It's a celebrity filled PSA urging people to register to vote. The video itself is a bit lengthy which may limit its appeal as a viral video but the uncensored version offers a few laughs.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, Usher, Halle Berry, Forest Whitaker, Sarah Silverman, Dustin Hoffman and Jonah Hill are just a few of the celebrities who are urging Americans to get out there and vote in a new public-service video entitled "5 Friends."

The spot does not single out a candidate but features the stars urging people repeatedly to register and vote (and encourage five friends or more to do the same). In some states, the voter-registration deadline is October 4, while other states allow people to register at the polls. [mtvU]

Censored Version

Uncensored Version (Warning: Some Profanity)

There's a few pretty cool maps if you putz around on the URL the video gives.

Google Maps - Vote

Google Maps - 2008 Election

Various Other Election Maps