Or is it the Great Leader?
I can’t tell.
Posts Tagged ‘bay area’
North Korea’s “Dear Leader” Lords Over the Fulton and Masonic Starbucks
Monday, January 26th, 2015A Possible Defense for the Famous Red Light Running SFMTA MUNI Bus Driver in Golden Gate Park
Monday, January 26th, 2015Here’s the sitch.
But you can’t actually see the bus driver run the red in this video:
Is there an all-red phase in the signal timing of this intersection? I assume so, but I don’t know.
The yellow line shown is about 200 feet long. It’s possible that a MUNI bus could enter the intersection on a yellow and then take six or seven seconds to clear it.
Cars going the other way need to wait for traffic legally in the intersection to clear, under CA law, so even though you have a green light that doesn’t mean you necessarily have the right of way.
Car drivers, particularly those with a running start, need to be mindful of this.
Scenario: The City of Boston Makes Even More Mistakes and Then the USOC Decides to Bid a California City for the 2024 Olympics
Monday, January 26th, 2015Well, here’s the news:
And here’s your nut graf:
“Kamp and Futterman say, ‘The USOC would likely view even the prospect of a referendum as a major obstacle to the U.S. hosting the Summer Games for the first time since 1996 and could decide to nominate another city.’ The pair add, “USOC officials fear even a nonbinding referendum could signal a lack of public support to the international community.'”
Figure that the USOC has about six months to ponder matters.
So, what about the three Loser Cities?
DC: AHAHAHHAHAHAHA! Get crucial, Dude. That’s never going to happen. The USOC was just being nice to throw DC into the Final Four. DC could bribe 30% of the IOC and still lose the vote for any future Olympic Games.
SF: Nope. The USOC knows that the opposition here in the bay area is even higher than in Boston. So it wouldn’t make sense to kick Boston to the curb over the unpopularity issue only to get it back three times worse in Frisco.
LA: Ding ding ding!
And I shouldn’t say LA, I should say DTLA, baby! The IOC thinks that LA is old hat, you know, now, but we’ve never had an Olympics in newfangled DTLA, the “urbanist’s” dream, as seen in that Her movie.
Anyway, that’s the scenario.
So, we Californians aren’t out of the woods yet…
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee Sadly Caresses a Broken Smart Parking Meter, Or That’s What It Looks Like To Me
Monday, January 26th, 2015
Here’s the caption:
“Report Broken Meters and Faded Curbs
Where the curb has faded so badly as to be difficult to determine the curb color, it will be enforced for curb color violations. And while you may only park for the posted time limit at a broken meter, functioning meters guarantee better parking availability for everyone. Help us keep meters working and curb colors bright and up to date by calling 311. By calling 311 you’ll create a record so that the curb or meter will be evaluated.”
Actually, I’m still not sure it’s not him.
The Chimneys of 2622 Jackson – Where Japanese Consulate Secrets Went Up in Smoke on Dec 7, 1941 – A Fine Stone House
Friday, January 23rd, 2015Here you go, 2622 Jackson in Pacific Heights. It was the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco until just after the start of WWII. And how do you get rid of your papers back in ’41 before you leave town all of a sudden? You burn them, the same way diplomatic staff did all over America, like in DC and New Orleans.
The Gibbs mansion, designed by SF architect Willis Polk and used as the Japanese consulate before the war:
And then Harry Potter director Chris Columbus bought the place – I don’t know where he lives now…
What will happen next at this grand stone palace…
License Plate Holders from the Corrupt “CHP 11-99 Foundation” Will Never Die – Here’s the Proof
Friday, January 23rd, 2015Supposedly, we weren’t supposed to be seeing these particular license plate holders because they’re an embarrassment for the CHP.
And yet they’re still all over the place, even on brand new cars:
The older versions have “CHP” on them and the newer ones don’t, but all of them seem wrong to me.
Like the dinosaurs of Isla Nublar, They Should All Be Destroyed.
How the Giant Airbus A380 is a Fuel-Hungry Dinosaur and How Smaller Mammals are Eating Its Eggs – The 80 Meter Box
Friday, January 23rd, 2015Here you go, let’s take a look at two recent flights out of SFO.
An Airbus A380:
And here’s a Boeing 777, which is an older design, but it’s not yet a flying dinosaur:
Here’s why. What are the differences you see? Doesn’t the A380 look sort of stubby to you? Part of that has to do with the 80 Meter Box, which is the reason why the wingspan is 79 point-something meters. The wings were made as long as possible, so they just barely fit inside that box. The result is a design that isn’t aerodynamically efficient. Also the wings were made too big and too strong* in order to accommodate anticipated future stretched models. So that means that if the A380 never gets stretched, then it will be burdened by too short, too strong wings for its whole life. (And look at the A380’s huge tailplane in the back – that’s another sign of its stubbiness. It’s too close the wings, so it needs to be bigger and heavier, ala the even-stubbier Boeing 747SP.) Future 777s will have folding wingtips, the better to be long and thin in flight, but easier to move about the gate area. Mmmm…
Also, four engines vs. two. Well, if you want to build big big big, then four engines is the way to go, but why would you want to build so big? Well, efficiencies, but landing slots at big international airports aren’t as precious as Airbus anticipated. If you think that international flight will grow spectacularly and that the hub and spoke system will dominate, well then, yeah, it’d be nice to get as many passengers as possible into the limited number of flights you’re allowed. But that’s not the point we’re at now, so maybe Airbus built the A380 “too soon?” It’s sure looking that way. And then Airbus is stuck with four older-style engines sucking up fuel. Unless, they want to hang newer style engines off of the wings, but that change would take a long time and cost a lot of money. But then it’d still be too stubby.
It’s incredible how it is was billed as some kind of revolutionary “green” aircraft just eight years ago. Anyway, that’s the fuel-hungry dinosaur part.
Now, where are the smaller mammals? Well they’re coming, they’re the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350. Look at what you can do with them – you can more easily avoid those those big, crowded airports, right?
So we’ll just have to wait and see how things go for the A380. Maybe the world will change soon enough for the A380 to start making sense, despite its shortcomings. But until that happens, the A380 is nothing but a superjumbo jobs program, something the Euros can waste $20 billion of development money on, to put workers to work, all over Europe and in a few American states as well.
(It’s like the Concorde program all over again, spending big bucks to sell thirsty four-engined aircraft at less than cost.)
Oh well.
IMO, if Airbus wanted a big hub and spoke airliner, it should have built a big big twinjet, which would have fit into the 80 meter (or whatever) box more efficiently.
Boxes are efficient for watermelons, but not for jetliners – that’s how it works.
It’s halftime for the A380 and it’s down by three touchdowns.
Oh well.
Maybe it was just a bad idea…
*Or I should say designed too strong. The wing crack issue is there, but it doesn’t go to show how the A380 was fundamentally a bad idea for its time. It was just something that happened. My point is that the wings on the current and only A380 don’t really match the rest of the current and only A380, even leaving aside the 80 Meter Box
Western Addition Update: Is This a Real Fire at Grove and Lyon Right Now or Is It Just a CW Nevius-Style False Alarm?
Thursday, January 22nd, 2015[UPDATE: It _was_ a false alarm, sort of. I mean it wasn’t a raging house fire, but it was a BFD that the SFFD and the SFPD needed to take of pronto.]
There was a time when fires in this area North of the Panhandle were mostly criminal-related. But this nabe has at least one $5 million(!) single-family house now, so I don’t know what to think anymore. As they say, it’s “in transition.”
Or perhaps this SFFD call is just another CW Nevius-style false alarm – IDK
Speaking of which, I had no idea how unpopular our Fire Chief is until I saw this bit from CWNevius defending her after she lost a vote of no confidence by like 4 to 1. How are you helping, Nevius? I see what you’re trying to do, but how are you helping her?
Remembering 2012, When the SFPD Picked Up Enforcing Traffic Laws on Market Street, One Bike Rider at a Time
Thursday, January 22nd, 2015It looked like this:
In the 80’s, 90’s, and early aughts, bikes were practically invisible to cops on Market Street, except for the occasional* Commute Clot / Critical Mass event. But these days, the SFPD seems to consider enforcing traffic laws on bike riders a higher priority,** for whatever reason.
Anyway, back in the day, you’d just have to sit and wait for your ticket to get written up, but nowadays you can play Tetris on your iPhone to make the minutes fly by, as you can see.
Cops generally prefer to give tickets to car drivers for various reasons. One of them is that the protest rate is many many times greater from cyclists than drivers. So the theory that this recent push to enforce traffic laws on bike riders came from the top down sounds right to me.
*And especially except that time in ’97, when Mayor Willie Brown decided to “do something” about CM. A hundred-something people got ticketed / detained and had their bikes impounded, most of them getting penned in at Sacramento Montgomery for running a red light.
**Think it was in 2012 or 2013 that I got detained by two Crown-Vic driving SFPD on Market near 6th. Pretty sure it was just after the #5 Fulton line was rerouted to take McAllister almost all the way to Market, and I’d noticed two #5’s jammed up in front of the Hibernia Bank building along with three marked and two unmarked Crown Victorias within a block or so. I was thinking, well, this certainly is unusual so it looks like the cops are dealing with something around 7th and Market, maybe involving the buses, so I’ll just keep on moving inbound by taking McAllister all the way to Market and then I’ll cross over Market after the SFPD radio car goes off east on Market. Except the car slowed down waiting for me to cross over to the right side of Market. I couldn’t understand how I was getting all this attention from the SFPD. Anyway, flashing lights, a request from a rookie for my “license and registration” (I looked at his partner, who sort of chuckled – I don’t think the rookie had ever pulled over a bike rider before), a quick warrant check for me, an admonishment to use the correct side of the road, and I then I was off again. And all the while, some photographer guy recognized me and started taking pictures from a traffic island. (He never sent them to me, oh well.) I’ll tell you, I moved to the Tenderloin back in the 1980’s and I’d been California stopping at stop signs and red lights around and on Market for more than two decades before I got any kind of attention from the SFPD. And I thought, oh, things are different now…
What Happens When You Pay $40k a Year to Send Your Kid to Private School in Haight Ashbury
Thursday, January 22nd, 2015This happens.
NTTAWWT, but smoking in Golden Gate Park is agin the rules…
Oh, and parents, please “expect a five percent tuition increase per year,” ’cause, you know, what’s another ten thou, right? C’mon, that’s chicken feed!