The San Francisco Citizen

Reuters has a short video report from a few weeks back about Japanese company claiming to be working on a car that “runs on water.” Check it: “Water-fuel car unveiled in Japan“.

Now, here’s the beef, this quote from reporter(?) Michelle Carlile-Alkhouri: “…Genepax may well have the solution they’ve been looking for.” No. Genepax does not have the solution they’ve been looking for. Simple as that. You’d think there might be a retraction from Reuters by now, and yes, a few days ago they ran a kind of follow-up: “Professor doubts water car claims“ 

The problem with the title of the follow-up report is that the professor doesn’t just doubt the claims, he thinks it’s impossible for the Japanese company’s claims to be true. Now if Reuters had put these two stories together and maybe paid an editor to be a little more careful with the final product, then the news service wouldn’t have anything to be embarrassed about.  

As an alternative, Reuters could do a story on my Japanese water car. I won’t let them see what’s inside the magic engine box - they’ll just have to trust me.    

See you  in the funny pages (or the MSM)!

When they’re not eating flowers, the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill like to fly around San Francisco in big flocks.

Click to expand:

Wild parrots above the KPIX-TV building on Battery Street and also near 202 Green Street, where Philo T. Farnsworth invented television a while back. 

Some people are afraid of these red masked conures, but others would like them to become the state bird of California instead of the Valley Quail. We have some quail in San Francisco as well, but not all that many.

Will the Parrot cell phone-accessory company be able to change our state bird from quail to parrot?

Only Time Will Tell.

Here it is, one of the first Lexus LS 600h L hybrid luxury sedans to arrive in San Francisco. The letter “L” appended to the end of the model name stands for “long,” so it’s a little difficult to navigate on our narrow streets.

However, balance that with the letter “h,” which tells tout le monde your ride is a hard-to-get six-figure hybrid, the most expensive in the land.  

And it’s even bigger and better than the slightly older Lexus GS450h hybrid.

(Sir Paul McCartney just got his LS 600h L on the other side of the pond, but he was horrified about how it was delivered to him. Chin up, Paul!)

Zoom zoom.

San Francisco’s famous wild parrots have spread out a bit lately, so they’re easier to spot these days.

Watch them eating springtime blossoms (cherry? plum?). You can listen to them also. And of course, you can read all about them.

Click to expand. (With your help, we can fight moiré):

Mmmmm…, flowers.

The game of bowls is thriving in Golden Gate Park.

A bowl in search of the little white kitteh:

Hello kitteh! Hello kitteh, where are you? Helloooo?

White House hopefuls and famous Greens Ralph Nader & Matt Gonzalez didn’t really participate in this Green Party debate at the Herbst Theater earlier in the year but, oddly enough, they’re in the presidential race anyway. As independents.

Come visit San Francisco’s favorite Ivy Leaguers, if you want. Sunday Sunday Sunday! May 11th. 

Let’s start Mother’s Day at a bar:

[..] meet our independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, his VP running mate local badass Matt Gonzalez, and the legendary Jello Biafra AT OUR HOME BAR this Sunday morning.  Max’s 540 Club, 540 Clement Street (between 6th and 7th ave) Sunday, May 11, 11am (we will be opening at 9am) 

And let’s finish in the Mission District:

Sunday May 11th 7pm
Ralph Nader & Matt Gonzalez Rally
Roxie Theater
3117 16th Street San Francisco, CA 94103
$10 contribution/ $5 student/low-income (no one turned away)
More Info Call -(510) 914-8355 or events@votenader.org  

See you there!

[This item altered to reflect the reality that the Green Party hasn’t yet decided on their ticket. Ralph is managing to win as a Green in a few regional votes this year regardless.]

Part of this crowd, a large crowd actually, at the San Francisco Ferry Building yesterday was there to get their very own free stainless steel vacuum flask to carry around tap water as an alternative to buying water in plastic bottles.

These were handed out for free:

Doesn’t everyone heart S.F.? How about the tap water you get in S.F. and some sourrounding areas? It comes from the Yosemite area, takes a rest around here, and then comes into your kitchen. It’s the best tap water in the world. So what’s wrong with drinking it instead of Dasani or Aquafina or whatever?

In 2007, Mayor Newsom famously worked on getting municipal workers off of the plastic water bottle. That move generated a little blowback but it also attracted some national interest.

In 2008, attention turns to restaurants routinely offering bottled water to patrons. It didn’t used to be this way, but nowadays it’s the first choice  you have to make at some joints and some diners might feel that they’re being a bit cheap if they don’t spring for the spring water. What the Mayor is doing is using a little moral suasion to affect public behavior for the greater good. It’s not really “greenwashing,” actually. What it is is a perfectly appropriate use of the bully pulpit, as it doesn’t force anybody to do anything and it doesn’t cost the taxpayers any substantial amount of money.

Of course the bottled water industry thinks yesterday’s effort smacks of  totalitarianism.

Stainless steel bottles are available while supplies last at SFPUC Customer Service at 1155 Market Street near Civic Center. Take a pledge to stop buying plastic bottles of water and you can get a nice metal bottle as well. Just drop on by. Who knows, you might get lucky.

The large crowd at O’Reilly’s on Green Street in San Francisco’s North Beach might not have realized it, but the Bud Man was hard at work last night.

One burly guy with a huge truck made 40 trips into the bar transporting 2 heavy kegs each time.

Dude, for all you do, this Bud’s for you.