Homeless encampment, major Japanese city, city center, down by the river:
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Note the bicycle parking area.
Cf. San Francisco homeless encampment, under Interstate I-80, Mile Zero:
Note identical blue tarps as in Japan, sourced from, for all I know, the same factory in China.
One group uses bikes to get around, like to work ‘n stuff.
The other will strip your bike of any parts not superglued on in a New York Minute, as soon as your back is turned.
Which group do you prefer?
Better A…
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…or B?
Hint: One is worth $4.3 million and the other is worth $0.0 million.
Oh well.
Speaking of which, does MUNI pay full market value for the land it uses up at the Presidio Yard?
I wonder.
And for the record, here’s your SFO approach cheat sheet:
I don’t know, I think it could use a little flava…
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…but the person who just bought it for $4.3 million would disagree, to be sure.
Do you notice a theme here?
I don’t know, it seems like writer William Langewiesche, currently residing in France, wants to have it both ways with his new book, Fly by Wire: The Geese, the Glide, the Miracle on the Hudson. He wants to rip on Sully, thusly:
“His performance was a work of extraordinary concentration, which the public misread as coolness under fire. Some soldiers will recognize the distinction.”
“Like it or not, [French pilot Bernard Ziegler] reached out across the years and cradled them all the way to the water.”
But then when Langewiesche gets a little blowback, he folds up like a deck chair, talking about how he’s surprised by Sully’s reaction, and how he’s neither pro- nor anti- fly-by-wire, and how he thinks cockpit automation is merely ”a part of the story,” anyway, of Flight 1549. Well, duh, it’s a part of the story.
But that’s Langewiesche’s “Truth About the Miracle on the Hudson” – that’s it, that’s all there is?
Haven’t read Fly by Wire myself. Probably would rather read it more than Sully’s less-techy book (mostly about the his Search for What Really Matters), which I haven’t read either. Oh well.
Obviously, there are pros and cons to Die by Wire. If William Langewiesche is now going around saying that, as he is, then there’s not much of a dispute anymore, we’ll take solace in the certainly that the bruised egos of French Airbus execs (who want Sully to thank Gaia for Airbus every chance he gets) will heal over time.
I don’t know, pretty cheesy (fromagey?) Monsieur William Langewiesche.
Pretty cheesy.
East Bay local Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger is back flying for U.S. Airways, but he’s still had time to write a book and go on tour. Sully will be at SFO tomorrow, in case you want to drop by at 11:00 AM. Otherwise, it costs $90k to arrange an appearance these days, so this is a good deal.
After all, Sully is Your Homeboy, right?
The SFO Hudson Bookseller is located pre-security (near the BART Station) in the Main Hall of the International Terminal on the “G” Area side.
This was the scene tonight at the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall, where a crowd of 140 offered their support for Euna Lee and Laura Ling. The people at the vigil called on North Korea to release these jailed reporters.
“We miss you” “Liberate Laura & Euna Now” “Set them free”
Supervisor Erica Mar was on the scene along with many City Hall staffers. Read an account from Marisa Lagos here and Jared Grigsby here.
Details after the jump.
So, if two of your family members get kidnapped and the cops tell you that it’s best not to say anything about the matter and then the neighbors start peppering you with queries, what do you do?
That’s kind of the situation that’s facing managers at dumbed-down, youth-oriented Current TV (you can read the Wikipedia entry they wrote about themselves here). The problem is that anybody can post anything about the detention of Laura Ling and Euna Lee at Current.com and the North Koreans might not take too kindly to what’s posted there.
The kind of post that’s routinely getting taken down from Current.com:
So Current has taken to unposting submissions about this matter at Current.com. Fair enough. They’re not really “censoring” in the literal sense of course, they’re simply suppressing all commentary about this case on their own site. That’s probably a good move.
In fact, Current might actually welcome this kind of criticism from Phil Bronstein, in a good-cop/bad-cop, game theory way, showing that they get it, that they’re bending over backwards to be conciliatory, to say sorry in a Fish Called Wanda fashion.
(I’m not saying these two people were kidnapped – maybe they were and maybe they weren’t. It’s tough to know for sure when you’re literally in the Vanguard)
Patience, people. All will be explained by all concerned when this matter gets resolved.
Check out this creek that feeds Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park. See it on the right side, flowing away and to the right? Doesn’t it appear to be going uphill and around the corner?
Check it out yourself the next time you’re on JFK Jr. Drive near Transverse in San Francisco.
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Popular Bay Area local Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III was just seen on the East Coast in his debut interview on 60 Minutes. Not that I ever watch that show, but I’ll check it out tonight, just for kicks. The reminder that his interview with Katie Couric was going to be on tonight came from the spike in traffic this blog just received.
It seems America is still curious about the issue of whether Sully is Jewish (see below for the online search terms people are trying right now), a question that probably wouldn’t have occurred to me otherwise. The Jewish Post of New York (Your Gateway to the Jewish World) looked into it and signs point to no. But that’s O.K., right? A better question might be why he was prepared to act correctly on that day.
The Cap’n
Of course we have a lot of knucklehead pilots up there, so how do we get more like Sully? He stands out with his military experience, the amount of experience he has generally and the number of hours he has spent cogitating about accidents. It’s nice to know that he and his ilk won’t be forced to retire at age 60 (which, until recently, was a hard and fast rule.
And speaking of Sully’s future, it looks like San Francisco politico and Sullenberger family spokesperson Alex Clemens of Barbary Coast Consulting and the famous The Usual Suspects website will have his hands full sorting through all the offers, including one from Richard Branson of Virgin Air.
Anyway, here are some of the search terms people across America are using today:
sullenberger jewish
is captain sullenberger jewish
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is sullenberger jewish
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sullenberger is he jewish?
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is chesley b. sullenberger iii jewish?
us airways sullenberger jewish
sullenberger and jewish
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sully sullenberger jewish ?
capt sullenberger jewish
is captain sullenberger jewish?
sullenberger, jewish?
sullenburger jewish hero
is chesley sullenberger jewish
capt sullenberger jew
is chesley sullenberger jewish?
chesley sully sullenberger religion
chesley b sullenberger jewish
The thing you’ve got to realize, is that sometimes things just happen. It’s not your fault, it’s not anyone else’s fault, it’s just, you know, things happen. Kind of like the time spokesmodel and romance novel cover-boy Fabio got hit in the face with a bird when he was on a roller coaster. Whose fault was that?
That’s something to ponder when you consider the whining of some of the passengers of famous Flight 1549, piloted by Bay Area local Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. You see, they gots to get more money than they’ve gotten so far from U.S. Airways
Of course, the airline isn’t done talking with people yet:
“US Airways Vice President Jim Olson says that an insurance claims specialist is contacting passengers and that they’ll be reimbursed for expenses or losses above $5,000. The airline wants to ensure no passenger is “losing money for the inconvenience or anything lost during the accident,” he says”
But that doesn’t stem the whining. Obviously, this was a traumatic event, but unless passengers want to allege something about defective engines (as Geraldo Rivera seems to be doing) or negligent bird vigilance by somebody, then maybe these passengers should be happy to take the five G’s, file any additional claims and then move on with their lives.
Just saying.
An old story:
A grandmother is sitting at the beach, watching her young grandson play in the water. Suddenly, an enormous wave crashes over the boy’s head, and when it recedes, the boy is gone, washed out to sea. Frantic, the grandmother cries out to God, “Lord, what has my grandson done to deserve this? Please bring him back to me, and I’ll forever be grateful to you!” Moments later, another enormous wave crashes against the shoreline, returning the boy to the beach, soaked but unharmed. He begins happily digging in the sand, oblivious to what just occurred. The grandmother looks at the boy, then raises her head to the sky. She shouts, “He had a hat!”
Today, this tale could be updated by replacing the word “hat” with Blackberry, or cell phone, PSP, whatever.
Oh well.
