Without hesitation, one can say that the California fires are a major disaster but I'm surprised to see some considering components of the disaster to be "worse" than Hurricane Katrina of 2005. For instance, yesterday, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender was attributed as saying that the San Diego County evacuations resulted in more evacuees than Hurricane Katrina. That isn't the case. Half a million have been evacuated in San Diego while most report that about a million people evacuated for Hurricane Katrina. The fires have caused the destruction of about 1600 homes while Katrina destroyed nearly 350,000 (not to mention many hundred of thousands of homes damaged). Katrina caused more than 1500 deaths but the wildfires have fortunately only claimed a half-dozen lives. Following Katrina and subsequent storms, nearly 400,000 people left Louisiana and did not return in 2005. We won't see 9% of Californians leave the state because of this disaster.

A British public health study has revealed that among 12 year-olds, the United Kingdom's teeth aren't as decayed, missing or filled as often as the teeth of many other European Union countries and are even actually better than the teeth of 12 year-olds in the United States! The study showed that Eastern European teeth suffer the most across the EU.

While one can easily discover a listing of the world's busiest airports, what about a list of the world's worst airports? Well, Foreign Policy has such a list and not all of the airports are in developing countries!

Thousands have been evacuated and hundreds of homes have been destroyed in dozens of fires across the Los Angeles and San Diego regions. The Internet is an incredible source for information about these fires burning in Southern California. The widespread nature of the catastrophe is difficult to comprehend. Thankfully, various sources have created Google Maps of the fire zones, evacuations centers, and road closures that provide very valuable geographic information to the public. San Diego radio station KPBS has created and is updating a Google Map of the San Diego-Area Fires and the Los Angeles Times has created a similar map for the Los Angeles Area.

The following sites are excellent sources for local information:

• California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection - official fire status updates
• San Diego County Wildfires 2007 - the San Diego Union-Tribune fire blog
• San Diego KPBS Twitter Feed - frequently updated
• Los Angeles Times - general news and information
• San Diego Union-Tribune - general news and information
• California State Office of Emergency Services - fire information from the state; includes latest Situation Report

I'd better be careful what I write because the United States ranks number 48 on this year's Reporters Without Borders index of press freedom around the world. The list ranks Iceland and Norway in the top spot and Eritrea and North Korea at the bottom of the list of 169 "countries" (which includes several non-countries); I wonder what happened to the more than twenty missing countries? Maybe they have no press freedom at all and thus aren't worth mentioning? The report also warns that bloggers are also facing problems in countries where governments disapprove of what they have to blog.

The FP Blog provides an in-depth look at Transnistria, a Russian speaking exclave in Moldova and adjacent to Ukraine. Transnistria declared independence unsuccessfully in 1990 and a war of independence with Moldova was ended with a cease fire in 1992. Transnistria now looks toward merging with Russia, a prospect that Russia doesn't seem to be too keen about.

A new United Nations treaty has established a deadline of May 13, 2009 for countries to make claims on continental shelf up to 380 miles (612 km) off their shores. Last week the United Kingdom announced that they would make a claim under the treaty for one million square kilometers around its territories. The one claim that is creating the most debate is the claim for shelf space around the disputed Falkland Islands off the coast of South America.

Travel and Leisure Magazine and CNN Headline News polled more than 60,000 Americans on their likes and dislikes about twenty-five major U.S. cities. They have ranked these cities into a plethora of lists. The lists include the cities with the most attractive residents (Miami is #1), the safest cities (Santa Fe), the cities with the best museums (Washington D.C.), most intelligent citizens (Seattle), the best singles scene (Austin), the best city for a wild weekend (New Orleans), and so much more. I don't particularly care for their choice of the twenty-five; two of the ten largest cities in the U.S. are not on their list (Houston #3 and San Jose #10).

My friend Joshua and I were talking today about the state of the population and social situation in India versus China. I mentioned India's prominently low ranking on the U.N.'s Human Development Index versus China's much higher ranking and we talked about the fact the India is likely to succeed China as the world's most populous country in the not too distant future. Well, you can benefit from our discussion by reading my latest article, overview of India's population. Once you read, come back to the blog and let me know what you think. Click "comments" below and share your thoughts.

The American Planning Association has inaugurated a listing of ten "places of exemplary character, quality, and planning" in the United State. The listing of places includes locales in Austin, New York, Savannah, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and more.