Does that make sense? I mean, did we pay for AT&T Park? Not really, right?
So why should we pay a dime for the America’s Cup? Crazy (Like a Fox) Larry Ellison could certainly afford to pay for his boat party so why doesn’t he just pay for his boat party? If he doesn’t like that, then he can host his shindig someplace else, right?
The way things are going, Bridget Fonda will be the only remaining fan of Crazy Larry:
Click to expand
Now Larry cares what people in the bay area think about him, right?
And Larry told the previous Mayor “I’ll give you anything for any project,” right?
So let’s figure the exact eight-figure amount that this thing will cost us, as best we can, and then tell Larry’s people as soon as we can so he can start making alternative arrangements. And then, if he forks over the cash, all the presumed benefits we may or may not net will just be gravy, and we’ll all sing the praises of Saint Larry the Reviver of San Francisco.
Why not let’s do that?
Sky1Ron, San Francisco’s very own Arnie Pye In the Sky, has another nice shot, this time from sunrise above Alameda County.
That three-foot-high sand spit you see jutting into San Francisco Bay is your vaunted Treasure Island.
Doesn’t look like too much, huh?
And here’s how she appeared 75 years ago. Is this terra all that firma?
“Borne on the wings of time
It seemed the answers were so easy to find
Too late, the prophets cry
The island’s sinking, lets take to the sky“
Well, run for the hills, Ma Barker – it’s been reported that Danville, CA had an earthquake of magnitude 2.0 on the Richter (or, IRL, moment magnitude) scale this morning.
Now really, is this event worth reporting if nobody even felt it? I mean, don’t we have hundreds of tiny earthquakes going on all the time? So why inform readers about quakes of magnitude 2, or 1, or zero, or less than zero?
Now, what if The Great Danville Micro-Quake of Novembre 7th in the Year of Our Lord Twenty Hundred and Half a Score, well what if it had had about thirty times as much energy? Well, then it would be a 3.0 and people would have felt it and then it’d be worth reporting.
You know where you want to be the next time a Big One comes? The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed state building in San Francisco’s Civic Center. It’s resting on 288 eight-foot hydraulic seismic dampers. Like this one:
Click to expand
Ergo, resolved: Earthquakes with Magnitudes of Less than 3.0 are Not Worth Reporting.
You know what Mad Men’s Don Draper would say about this Thursday’s Great California ShakeOut Earthquake Drill? He’d say that if it was really all that great, then you wouldn’t need to have the word “great” in the name.
But no matter, all’s you have to do now is make a mental note and then when All Hell Breaks Loose on Thursday, 10-21, at 10:21* AM you can tell those around you to keep calm because it’s just a drill.
Or just plug your ears – that’s the other option:
And here’s a visual aid the boys in the Art Department just whipped up:
And here’s the FB and the Twitter.
And here’s a peek at part of the Facebook Wall:
“The Great California ShakeOut Earthquake Drill
Date: Thursday, October 21, 2010
Time: 10:20 AM- 10:30 AM
Location: SF State University Campus-wide
Web: http://www.sfsu.edu/emergency
Sponsor: SFSU Office of Emergency Preparedness
Your local gas and electric utility monopoly would like you to think before you dig. PG&E reminds us all today to call 811 at least two days before you start digging around, else you might hit a gas main and blow yourself to kingdom come. Some local folks will answer the phone and check things out for you and what’s wrong with that?
But what about all the other x11 telephone services – they are starting to add up huh? Let’s learn about them below.
Here there are, all the N11 Codes we have:
211 Community Information and Referral Services
311 Non-Emergency Police and Other Governmental Services
411 Local Directory Assistance
511 Traffic and Transportation Information
611 Telephone Repair Service
711 Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS)
811 Access to One Call Services to Protect Pipeline and Utilities from Excavation Damage
911 Emergency
Wow, that’s a lot.
That didn’t feel so bad in the 415. A little scary at first, for a second or two. After that you could tell it wasn’t going to be a big deal…
| Magnitude | 4.3 |
|---|---|
| Date-Time |
|
| Location | 37.285°N, 121.620°W |
| Depth | 6.2 km (3.9 miles) |
| Region | NORTHERN CALIFORNIA |
| Distances |
|
| Location Uncertainty | horizontal +/- 0.1 km (0.1 miles); depth +/- 0.3 km (0.2 miles) |
| Parameters | NST=250, Nph=250, Dmin=7 km, Rmss=0.08 sec, Gp= 58°, M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=1 |
| Source | |
| Event ID | nc40234037 |
Straight out of Louisiana, this joint effort from Ferrara Fire Apparatus and Applied Global Technologies will be the center of attention the next time San Francisco faces a crisis.
Or a tailgate party.
Click to expand:
This is what it looked like on Saturday when San Francisco held a dress rehearsal for disaster in the Financial District. Hundreds of people were on the scene. They came from an alphabet soup of local, state, and federal agencies, such as SFFD, SFPD, FEMA, FBI, the Army, etc.
A decontamination tent near the 555 California building. Click to expand
