The first weekend of the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments is in the books -- are you still alive in your office pool? Not if you took the Road to the Final Four less traveled.

If you went with the favorites, chances are you're sitting pretty. With the exception of the toothless male Badgers of Wisconsin, all first and second seeds in both tourneys advanced to the Sweet 16. That's not to say that a few high seeds didn't get a scare or that some middling seeds will never get a chance to germinate into full-blown Cinderellas, but overall, both tournaments are sticking to the script.

A new neighbor has moved into an old house in the 'hood, renovated the place and promises to be part of the community -- going to PTA meetings, Little League games, community centers and talking to local activists. But the guy you know and love will still come back and visit. Vienna, Virginia's Backfence has acquired Dan Gillmor's Bayosphere, garnering further citizen-media cred and a new market! Susan Mernit scooped the blogosphere yesterday morning,......

There's a whole wide world out there, and here's the proof: DCist revels in The University of Maryland's basketball triumphs, marvels at Metro's security strategy, and applauds DC local Katie Couric's new gig. Phillyist is all about the Philadelphia Film Festival. OK, not all about -- they still have time for loitering, underage sex, and random wacky news. LAist would have to send a camera around the world to get shots as bizarre as Katie's......

This year the women's NCAA basketball tournament definitely achieved a level of parity with the men's NCAA basketball tournament. But it wasn't all good.

A few days ago, the Secretary of State of California, Bruce McPherson, certified those Diebold Election Systems electronic voting systems to be used in California for upcoming elections. Up to twenty-one counties in California are said to be interested in buying them, including Alameda, Marin, and Humboldt. The move is a bit of a reversal in that McPherson, a Republican (this will become important in a bit, so hold on), said that he'd wait for test results from the Independent Testing Authority (ITA) before approving, but just went ahead and announced the move anyways before hearing from them. ...

1115.org weighs in with their analysis of last night's State of the State, and Capitol Notes' John Meyer takes folks behind the scenes. SF CityScape has high hopes for The City's promotion of interim Planning Director Dean Macris to a permanent post. And San Jose decides they want a city wifi network, too. Many Friends of SFist are down in Las Vegas this week, some at CES, some at AVN, most probably going both......

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is in town again. It's only the 134th edition -- how many times have you seen it? And did you know the guy who did the logo is a local font guru?...