California - new посты

About 4,000 people have flooded California's Mojave Desert for the annual post-apocalyptic festival called Wasteland Weekend, and the pics looks out of this world. The festival, which was inspired by the Mad Max film series, is unlike most desert parties because it requires all attendees to be in costume. Yes, even staff members and journalists. The idea is to create a full-immersion effect, making everyone feel like they’re inside a Mad Max universe.

Recent wildfires across the state of California have claimed 80 lives so far, making it the nation’s deadliest in at least a century. There are still nearly 700 people who are unaccounted for. The so-called Camp Fire in Northern California has also completely destroyed the town Paradise, turning it into a “toxic wasteland.” In it, however, Captain Ryan Coleman of the Fairview Valley Fire Department still managed to find a survivor.

A few days ago, Mark Hough from Altadena, California set out to enjoy a margarita in his backyard but an uninvited guest interrupted his plans. “So I got up, looked over in the bushes and lo and behold there’ a bear climbing up over my fence,” Hough told. Intrigued by the surroundings, the beast instantly abandoned whatever plans it had and decided to have some fun instead.

California, rush to the gold is the states nation highest minimum wage at $10 an hour. Fazed in the next 3 years, California's Legislature passed the bill last Thursday, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown calling it, "an overdue piece of legislation that would help working-class families." The last raise was over 6 years ago to its previous $8 minimum. Concerns of the bill effect: Will the cost for the employer be to much for affording an employee? aka "job killer". Over the previous years personal experience in San Francisco, California; I would say no. More likely to happen and seen is a full time employee at 40 hours cut down to 30 or even 20 hours, eliminating the cost of insurance for employers and hiring a second "cheaper" part-time employee. I being a college educated part-time employee and not a member of Congress. Cities like San Francisco has its minimum wage at $10.50. While the new bill is razing minimum wage it is not set for inflation, at the same time, San Francisco Area prices went up 0.5 percent over the past two months and 2.6 percent from a year ago, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index. "The federal minimum provides $15,080 a year assuming a 40-hour work week, which is $50 below the federal poverty line for a family of two. More than 15 million workers nationally earn the national minimum, which compares to the median national salary of $40,350, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics." President Barack Obama has "sought" to increase the federal minimum wage from &7.25 to $9 an hour. Below are some graphs to show Consumer Price Index of San Francisco, as well as, Prices graph of what our wages can afford.

Arroyo Grande, California-based artist Mark Bryan has created a surreal collection of sci-fi themed oil paintings titled Things From Space. The paintings portray a futuristic vision of Earth that is under attack by monstrous alien robots and UFOs. In a few of his pieces, Mark mixes in pop culture icons who are either helping to protect us (Mona Lisa) or are one of the many helpless victims (Bambi). Prints are available to purchase online via Mark’s Imagekind store.