Data guru Ben Welsh (of L.A.’s Top Dogs fame) is the brains behind this project, also built in Django (which, it’s safe to say, has become the framework of choice for our editorial data projects).

I think my favorite part is the ability to rank schools in your county by different criteria, such as average SAT scores or API score (California’s benchmark for academic performance). Factoid: Of the 10 schools statewide with the highest API scores, eight are in the Bay Area and four of those are in Fremont. Is it something in the water up there?

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Warning: It’s pretty addictive. For example, if you ever wanted to know how many dogs are named after your favorite superheroes, dictators and hip-hop stars, we can tell you.

It’s already drawn some notice in the linkosphere:

• “really cool database”
• “How many dugs could a Digg dog dig if a Digg dog could dig dugs?”
• “what kind of person names their dog Hitler?”
• “corgis unite!!”
• “How to look suspicious in the park: ‘Here, 8-ball! Here, Blunt! Come, Reefer, come!'”
• “So does this mean Beverly Hills ChiWOWhua will be a blockbuster locally?”
• “What will L.A. Times will come out with next? Perhaps a list of SoCal’s Top-10 best dressed pooches?”

It’s taken some criticism from folks who seem to think it’s not serious journalism. To those people I say: You’re right. Lighten up. We do a lot of other serious journalism.

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