The San Francisco Citizen

Cindy Sheehan and one of her intrepid supporters at the main entrance of City Hall during today’s primary election:  

(She had at least two other boosters in the area talking with potential voters at this very moment.)

Cindy has been running against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the past eleven months, to the consternation of some. Back in the day, one wag called pushing for impeachment of George W. Bush the “Dumbest Move the Dems Could Make.” Shirley Golub and Cindy Sheehan obviously disagree with that.

But Nancy seems to be weathering this storm well:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in her 10th term, easily beat back local Democratic activist Shirley Golub in San Francisco’s 8th Congressional District. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Pelosi had 89 percent of the vote and Golub had 11 percent. Peace activist Cindy Sheehan is making plans to challenge Pelosi as an independent in November but was not on Tuesday’s primary ballot.  

Full-service public relations and public affairs consultancy Hill and Knowltonannounced today that former vice president Al Gore, upon his death, will be encased in carbonite and then buried. This type of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) was only made possible this year through the use of nanotechnology.

Until recently this was our understanding of carbonite, made famous in Star Wars V - The Empire Strikes Back:

“By the rules of chemical nomenclature, the formula for a “carbonite anion” would be CO22-, which is thought to be an impossible formation (methanoate being preferentially formed instead).”

Impossible no longer.

Artist’s conception of the former vice president encased in the densest form of carbon known to man:

Just one treatment of this double carbon material will take the equivalent of 1200 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The only downside will be the expense of a slightly oversized coffin. The upside is that Al Gore, Jr. will be the most severely carbon negative person in recorded history.

A relieved Hill & Knowlton spokesperson confided to one reporter that this announcement will lay to rest the controversy over the greenhouse emissions of Al Gore’s house, for some reason an issue of almost daily concern to the D.C.-based House of Flack.

If only Han Solo were alive to see this day…

That’s not nice. But that’s what Xinhua (formerly known as Red China News Agency) just said. For the record, Xinhua reports directly to the Communist Party of China’s Public Information Department.

Now, that’s no way to run a Genocide Olympics. Can’t we all get along?

Nancy Pelosi, avec le rag du do, as Rosie the Riveter to celebrate her ascension to Speaker of the House.

After last night’s Earth Hour of partial darkness from 8:00-9:00 PM, the lights on the “architectural necklace” of the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge came back to life on the north side first. (Unfortunately, didn’t get a look at the troubled eastern span last night - it was probably darkened also.) 

You can get the idea of the effect of Earth Hour 2008 in San Francisco by looking at these before and after shots of the Ferry Building taken by talented local photographer Mona Brooks.  

The lights on the suspension cables of the western span of one of the busiest bridges in the world are just for decoration, not for navigation safety or whatever. Pretty. They sure make a big difference to the look of San Francisco at night when they are turned off.

Question: Turning off these decorative lights for an hour saves enough electricity to power Al Gore’s house (his actual house, not his San Francisco condo in SOMA that’s visible on the right) for how many minutes?

Answer: About 13 minutes. Let’s work on that math, after the jump.

(more…)