Here’s what the Bay Area’s big Zeppelin looks like from San Francisco…
…and here’s what San Francisco looks like from the Bay Area’s big Zeppelin:
Ah, mem’ries:
Passing by Coit Tower:
A close up view, click to enlarge. Can you see pilot Fritz Guenther and his Peltor brand headphones? Sure you can.
And an adorable piggly tail in the back:
There we go, back to normal:
Famous San Francisco photographer David Yu offers up a blue-sky rainbow o’er the Golden Gate Bridge.
Single rainbow, part of the way:
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Here’s a shot from Land’s End from a few years back:
A bit mottled – that’s the way they are sometimes – click to expand
Now let’s hear from Redd Rivett, who recorded some of these critters just the other day:
“These bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were on the East side of the Golden Gate Bridge, next to Fort Point, in the cove. We get to see them in the summer and fall, when they come in to Ft Point cove for a while maybe twice a week or so. They live mostly along the outer coast to the south of us, all the way to Monterey Bay. Thanks Bill Keener of Golden Gate Cetacean Research for the info.”
Check it, our very own Oceanic Society is kicking off annual Farallon Island whale watching season on May 26, 2012.
All the deets:
“WHALE WATCH/NATURE CRUISES TO FARALLON ISLANDS BEGIN MAY 26
San Francisco, California – Oceanic Society’s educational day long boat trips to the Farallon Islands, just 27 miles west of San Francisco, will operate May 26 through November 25, with departures available from San Francisco and Sausalito.
Blue whales (the largest animal to have ever lived on earth), Humpback whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins, Harbor porpoises, Risso’s dolphins and Northern right whale dolphins all may be encountered during the whale-watch cruises to the islands and the nearby continental shelf.
An exceptional wilderness area, the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge is the largest seabird rookery in the eastern Pacific south of Alaska – including nesting Tufted puffins, Pigeon guillemots, Rhinoceros auklets, Common murres, Black oystercatchers and cormorants. The Islands are also a breeding haven and home to California sea lions, northern elephant seals, Steller sea lions, Harbor seals and fur seals.
Though only scientists are permitted on the islands, the abundance of wildlife may be closely observed and photographed from aboard the Salty Lady, Oceanic Society’s 56-foot, Coast Guard-certified vessel. The boat holds 48 passengers.
Experienced naturalists lead each excursion to help identify seabirds and locate whales and interpret their behavior. The naturalists also provide informal discussions on marine wildlife and on the history of the islands. Passengers also benefit from the presence of whale researchers from the Cascadia Research Collective, scientists who have studied these whales since the early 1990’s.
Oceanic Society trips to the Farallon Islands depart Saturdays, Sundays and select Fridays from the Marina Green in San Francisco. Trips begin at 8 a.m. and last about eight hours. Passengers also have the option of departing at 7:15 a.m. from the Sausalito Clipper Yacht Harbor. The minimum age is 10, and an adult must accompany children under 15. Participants supply their own food and beverages.
The fee is $125 per person, with special group rates available. The fee includes a copy of “The Farallon Islands: Past, Present, and Future,” a 42-minute DVD produced by the Oceanic Society in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The DVD offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the natural and human history of the Farallon Islands and provides a virtual land tour of the islands. (Additional DVDs cost $15.)
Founded in 1969, the mission of the Oceanic Society is to protect marine wildlife and oceanic biodiversity through an integrated program of scientific research and environmental education. An official partner of the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, Oceanic Society has offered educational whale-watch cruises since 1984 and is the only nonprofit organization that offers whale-watch trips year round in the Bay Area.
Reservations for the Farallon Islands whale-watch trips are advised. Please call 415- 256-9941 or 800-326-7491 or register atwww.oceanicsociety.org. For recorded information on current wildlife sightings, call 415-258-8220.
Sea you there!
Just like it was on eBay.
But back in the day, this ship was all that.
See?
The auction ends on Friday May 4, 2012. The buyer will be required to cut up this stealth ship for scrap. Current bid is $300k.
Oh well.
This boat was built here in the Bay Area and now it’s about to die here.
All the deets, below.
Remember back when Bay Areans could espy the straight-outta-Redwood-City $200-million Sea Shadow stealth ship bobbing about in San Francisco Bay? Check this video from down Fun Diego way over at Telstar Logistics to see this baby in action.
Say it aloud: Super-Secret Sea Shadow Stealth Ship, Super-Secret Sea Shadow Stealth Ship, Super-Secret Sea Shadow Stealth Ship! This project was so secret that it didn’t make the Bay Area newspapers up until 1999, when this boat was identified as an airplane three times by the San Francisco Examiner.*
But lately, the ex Sea Shadow just sits around in the mothballed Ghost Fleet of the East Bay over in Benicia. Check out these great photos from Amy Heiden. Pretty boss, huh?
Now the first time the Navy tried to get rid of this historic boat, in 2006, they had all sorts of rules. Then they tried again in 2009 with more flexible rules. But the problem is that you can’t just take the Shadow, you also have to take the Hughes Mining Barge (HMB-1), a floating drydock boat that was developed as part of Project Jennifer. (That was the semi-successful, top-secret effort mounted by the Central Intelligence Agency to salvage the remains of the Soviet submarine K-129 from the ocean floor.)
Here’s a shot of them together, ignore the two conventional warships in the background:
But wait, there’s more. Here’s how the Sea Shadow is laid out on the inside:
The bridge of Grant Imahara’s future evil lair. (Boy, talk about a glass cockpit, huh?)
And here’s how she looks from the outside:
You want. However, nobody set up a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and take these things off of the Navy’s hands. So now an important piece of Bay Area military history (and film history what with it inspiring the bad guys’ floating lair in Tomorrow Never Dies) is a gonna get scrapped.
Here’s what came next, after the Shadow got mothballed – it’s the all-aluminum Sea Fighter, as seen back in 2006:
The point being is that the aging Sea Shadow is the ur-ship, the JetFire of the stealth boat world. Why didn’t anybody save her?
Check out the owner’s manuals - pretty soon, that will be all that’s left…
Ever more deets, after the jump.
*From 1999: “The combined Navy-Marine exercise included overflights of the Bay Area by the Sea Shadow, the Navy equivalent of the stealth bomber.” No, this thing can’t fly, it just floats. Veteran SF Chronicle writer Henry K. Lee got that right but others did not. Nevertheless, SFGate.com, San Francisco’s online newspaper, remains an invaluable resource.
I’ll tell you, the first time I saw one of these signs, I thought our local rich, white, old, crybaby, NIMBY homeowners had gotten together to create their own sign to direct drivers the hell away from the ‘hood.
But now I don’t know.
As seen on Geary:
Click to expand
Who knows what SFGov has in store for us…
There’s no shortage of people who want to tell you what to do and how to do it, don’t you know.
As here, where it appears that a small cabal has paid good money for an orange sign to direct traffic away from Golden Gate Park.
Uh, this is not an official City and County of San Francisco sign. Ergo, it is an usurpation of authoritah:
Click to expand
If this wobbly POS gets reinforced with about 100 pounds of QUIKRETE pronto, then it might last a week.
If not, then the over-under is two days, place your bets.
The sign you see above needs to be destroyed. This is not up for discussion.
“It is a visual and therefore, a visceral betrayal. Stop it.”
John Malkovich, Transformers III, Dark of the Moon
I don’t know, do you care about this kind of stuff? I don’t.
I care more about, I don’t know, Fake Patois and DARPA cheetahs and whatnot.
But I certainly don’t care about born-into-the-one-percent, supercracker Supervisor Mark Farrell, who stood me and another Supe up on the steps of City Hall* back in the day, and/or the plans for the new freeway in the Presidio.
Wow, a tunnel. It looks every other, right?
*I don’t know, if you don’t want to do something then you say, “I don’t want to do this.” Or, better yet, say nothing, same message. But what you don’t do is say you’re going to do something and then blow it off. That’s pretty fucking basic, I think.
