California

Language
8. Interview with Dagmar Taylor (see pp. 14–19)

Travel
14. Interview with John Heagney (see pp. 28–33)

Californians will elect a governor and senator in November. They'll also be voting on the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, which would legalize and authorize the taxation of what some say is the state's number-one cash crop. 

The British government's wine cellar includes 1,779 bottles of champagne, 25,883 of red and 6,828 of white wine. Château Latour, Château Lafite and Château Mouton Rothschild are in there, but Debauchery, Educated Guess and Chaos Theory are not.

What is love? From Virgil's "Love conquers all" to the Beatles' "All you need is love", it has filled every language with poetry and proverbs. The philosopher Gottfried Leibniz said that love is "to be delighted by the happiness of another."

"I paint self-portraits because I am the person I know best." Frida Kahlo created dramatic images of her turbulent life. A polio survivor who was gravely hurt in an accident, Kahlo spent most of her life in constant pain. She died at 47 in 1954.

The seasonal flu vaccination in the United States this autumn is going to include the H1N1 strain (sometimes called "swine flu"), which means that people will need only one injection in order to be protected.

Author Seth Harwood sits in his home in California, recording a podcast of his crime novel Jack Wakes Up. The podcasts helped Harwood build a worldwide audience for the adventures of Jack Palms and led to a major publishing contract.

Last night in Los Angeles, Mo'Nique won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her portrait of a terrifying mother in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire." Meanwhile, in Oakland, Kwanda Hood survived a terrifying mother and became a good mother.