Awesomeness! Check out what we thought today’s skyline would look like way back in 2006. It feels just like the 1950s version of the future, all shiny and mind-blowing with personal robots and food in pill form. Much like the 50s future it also just never quite materializes like you had hoped.

Be sure to click on SEE Progression below, that shit is interactive! If you want to see it bigger, go here.

If you’re keeping score at home, here’s how it shakes out:

1. The Edge - no dice.
2. Signature Place - under construction.
3. The Sage - holy shit, completed!
4. Ovation - under construction.
5. Grand Bohemian - no dice.
6. 601 Central - no dice.
7. The Arts - ROFL… no.
8. The Tamarind - no dice.
9. Parkshore Plaza - holy shit, completed!
10. La Vista - no dice.
11. The Edge - holy shit, completed!
12. Allard Project - no dice.

Bonus points if you can name and mark off other failed projects like any of Grady Pridgen’s brilliant ideas (Bayway Lofts or 1500 Central ring any bells?).

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Our favorite provider of hangovers (hi Colleen!) sent us a link to St. Pete Recycling Solutions, which makes us about 3 months late to the party, but dammit, I’m still posting it. We’ve spent plenty of time badmouthing the city’s recycling “program” (if you can call it that), and it looks like someone else decided to do what us bloggers never do - actually act on something. Greg Foster had the bright idea of turning the city’s embarrassment into a business venture, building a curbside recycling program where Mayor Greenie Baker said one couldn’t be built.

For the completely reasonable amount of $15/month, SPRS will provide you with recycling bins and actually pick that shit up from your curb on a weekly basis. This sounds so damn familiar to me, although I can’t seem to place where I might have… oh wait, this is what most real cities do when they claim they have recycling programs!

It will be interesting to see if SPRS will be able to entice enough lazy ‘burgers to pay money to have their recyclables removed. My gut says that the time-honored American tradition of lazy-assedness will just about guarantee their success. Bravo to you SPRS and Greg Foster, now let’s see what other companies we can create to fill in all the other gaps in our city government.

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I really, really, really do not understand Charlie Crist. There’s a story over at tampabay.com indicating that he has asked for federal disaster relief funding for Florida’s shark fishing industry. Yes, you read that right, yummy shrk snaks. It looks like the peculiar industry of eating these things is in trouble for several reasons, including:

Sharks are slow growing, bear only a few young at a time and are particularly susceptible to fishing pressure. This year, federal regulators have banned all shark fishing at least through August as they consider new quotas.

Ah yes, I see, all the funding for the majority of Florida is getting slashed, but fuck… you mess with the shark industry and Charlie’s fighting for federal dollars. You go, Charlie! Federal ducats for an industry that essentially over harvested their own crop never makes much sense, but when you’re talking about sharks it is even more mind boggling. Kids need to get into college: fuck them. Our needy population needs social programming: fuck them. Shark fishing, an admittedly boutique industry, needs money: march on Washington!

Well, good luck, Chuck, I’m just not seeing disaster relief (which “typically has applied to natural disasters, such as recent hurricanes that devastated Gulf of Mexico shrimp boats”) coming for a few dudes that love the taste of shrk. This story required not one, but three lolcristshrks. Enjoy!

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Wow, Push is putting itself on the map tonight with John Travolta launching the Sunscreen Film Festival. That’s right, that John Travolta. I’m actually pretty stumped because the festival doesn’t start until the 19th, but the Juice has never lied to us before. We totally encourage you to head downtown to get your Look Who’s Talking poster signed, seriously, that thing will be worth a fortune someday.

Happy fun bath time with John and Xenu brought to you by the makers of Olde English 800.

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That’s right, America’s punchline turns 163 today. Nice work. Also, big shout out to John Tyler who signed us on as a state. Below is the only known documentation of the real reason he liked Florida so much.

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