ZOMG, here’s a much better-than-average animated news video from NMA-TV.
This one has it all, even the purported* “French girl” hacker virgin what SF Weekly IM’ed with the other day.
And look to see who makes policy for BART in the video. (Why do we even bother electing BART directors if they don’t do anything about anything?)
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Enjoy:
*Honestly, I don’t think the BART POA hacker(s) was/were a hacker virgin living in France, IRL anyway…
Remember that jackass mayor we had not too long ago? Remember all his unkept promises, like Citywide Wi-Fi for San Francisco?
I do. Bad times. I think it was 2005.
Anyway, these days the few areas around town you where you can rely on free govt. Wi-Fi are around federal housing projects. (One time my Samsung could see the Valencia Gardens WiFi all the way from Civic Center. Good times.)
Anyway, I guess “jtown connected” is the Wi-Fi you can get on Post in the Western Addition.
See?
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Hurray!
Hello BART? It’s me, Margaret. What’s it been, like twelve hours since we’ve last talked?
Appears as if your cell phone shut-down stunt yesterday, that “great tool” that you whipped out, is getting worldwide attention.
And now, you’ve got Anonymous on your tail.
(Is it the politics, dealing with all those elected officials on your board, is that why you’re so clumsy at times?)
Anyway, all the deets, via Bluoz, of the upcoming protest on Monday at Civic Center Station at 5:00 PM, are below.
Here’s my contribution:
And here’s one from Anonymous:
To review:
Here’s the death of Oscar Grant in 30 seconds at the Fruitvale Station in 2009. (Using a SIG Sauer P226 semi-automatic instead of a TASER X26, chapter 1)
Here’s the death of Charles Hill in 80 seconds at the Civic Center Station in 2011. (Using a SIG Sauer P226 semi-automatic instead of a TASER X26, chapter 2)
We made a deal, BART, that you would look after terrorists and I’d tell you when the next protest would come. Well, this is it, your next protest:
“This is a message from Anonymous to the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART)
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE USA:
The past year has brought about some substantial awareness through some unfortunate events that have occurred throughout our world. From internet censorship to the unnecessary violence inflicted upon unarmed civilans, we’ve all seen what can happen once a portion of us are gagged.
In Egypt and Tunisia, we saw people struggling to make their voices heard. We have seen companies such as Telecomix delve into the nastiness of political corruption in an attempt to free those censored individuals from their prisons of silence. We seen social media such as FaceBook and twitter explode with users from around the world speaking out against censorship.
Today, we’ve seen America come alive. In the Bay Area, we’ve seen people gagged, and once more, Anonymous will attempt to show those engaging in the censorship what it feels like to be silenced. #OpBART is an operation geared toward balance – toward learning. You do not censor people because they wish to speak out against the wrongs the wrongful things occurring around them. The Bay Area Rapid Transit has made the conscious decision of ordering various cell phone companies to terminate services for the downtown area inhibiting those in the area from using cell phones – even in the case of an emergency.
To BART:
We will not tolerate censorship.
We will do everything in our power (we are legion) to parallel the actions of censorship that you have chosen to engage in.
We will be free to speak out against you when you try to cover up crimes, namely on behalf of those who have engaged in violence against a mostly unarmed public.
We will set those who have been censored free from their silence. That’s a promise.
Anonymous demands that this activity revolving around censorship cease and desist and we know you are already planning to do this again.
We will not issue any more warnings.
TO THE PEOPLE OF SAN FRANCISCO:
People of San Francisco, join us Monday, August 15th at 5pm for a peaceful protest at Civic Center station to illustrate the solidarity with people we once knew and to stand up for your rights and those of your fellow citizens.
We will be wearing “blood” stained shirts for remembrance to the blood that is on the hands of the BART police.
For the people outside of San Francisco, show solidarity by using black fax, email bombs, and phone calls to the BART Board of Directors. BART decided to cut off your communications and now we will flood theirs.
We request that you bring cameras to record further abuses of power by the police and to legitimize the protest. The media will certainly spin this in an attempt to make our actions appear to be violent or somehow harmful to the citizenry at large. Remember, this is a peaceful protest. Any actions trying to incite violence in our protest are not of our people, and they ought to be discouraged.
We are Anonymous,
We are legion,
We never forgive,
We never forget,
Expect us.
BART contact info:
Phone:
510 465-2278, 415 989-2278, 650 992-2278, 925 676-2278, 510 441-2278, 510 236-2278, and 510 465-2278
Fax: (510) 464-6011
Email: BoardofDirectors@bart.gov
Fliers / Back Fax images
Blacked out: http://a.yfrog.com/img616/5783/2j1oi.jpg
“Bart”: http://www.artificialeyes.tv/files/opBART_exiledsurfer.jpg
Back Fax tools
http://youranonnews.tumblr.com/post/8832483770/email-and-fax-bomb-info-for-opbart”
[UPDATE: Well, it turns out that BART shut down the cell phone antennas on their property. They didn't use jammers.]
Zusha Elinson has the deets on what BART considers “a great tool” in the battle against cell phone use.
BART, I don’t think you know what you’re doing.
You screwed up TASER implementation by doing a half-assed job, right? Why is that LEAs all over the world have managed TASER programs successfully, for the most part, and you haven’t? Why is it that you’re world-famous for your halfway implementation of TASERs? And even now in 2011, you’ve got front-line officers some with TASERs and some not? And then, in a situation custom-made for a TASER, you kill a homeless guy and that’s A-OK? You don’t know how to handle mentally ill people, BART? Isn’t that sort of your job? Do you know who your customers are? Why are you a case study that other LEAs the world over can learn from? Why don’t you, BART, learn from other agencies?
And yet, everything BART does is perfect? Per your spokesmodels, anyway.
Hey BART, why don’t you focus on terrorism and then just let me tell you when the next big BART shooting protest will occur? ‘Cause I know when they’re going to occur, and, you all, apparently don’t.
And BTW, do your phone jammers let 911 calls through? (That’s a srius question – I don’t know. ‘Cause, you know, I could totally get some parts from eBay or one of the Chinas (the One-Party State China or the other one) for like $100 and then soup it up and have it powered by a 12-volt car battery and put it in a backpack and walk around your stations. And that would be it – no cell phone calls or texting in or out. I’d shut it down, Charlie Brown. Oh, if I had a license. Hey, do you have a license, BART? Just crius. Anyway, what I wouldn’t be able to do is to let 911 calls through. Not dat tophisticated. 
)
And BTW, do want an inventory of all the possible negative consequences of your cell phone policy? Because I could generate one real easy.
Keep on keeping on with your “great tools,” BART. Until the next time…
Here’s the sitch at the foot of Grove Street these days.
See? Traffic moving inbound, west towards Market Street, backs up to Polk sometimes:
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The thing about that is that not many cars can make it through each traffic signal cycle, so it might take ten minutes to go 1.5 blocks.
There’s a bike lane in there inbound on the right, but, as you can see, it oftentimes gets blocked by double-parked cars and private bus lines like that from the CPMC.
Cyclists are rightly tempted to just take the little-used outbound lane to get to Market.
Oh well.
Said light should be coordinated with the lights at the nearby intersection of Stanyan and Fell.
With the way things are now, with the stop sign, you get traffic backed up all the way to the Conservatory of Flowers.
See?
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Make it so…
Or, I don’t know, maybe this utility pole / traffic signal combo just fell down on its own last night.
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men were working on getting back up when I passed through.
The scene at Hayes across the street from the John Adams Campus of San Francisco City College – the former Lowell High School:
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Pedestrians should just remember to stay out of the crosswalks and off of the sidewalks and then they’ll be fine…
While Consumer Reports monomaniacally jabbers on about the iPhone 4 antenna issue (Gee, didn’t everybody know about that already? And gee, didn’t everybody know about that, as well, already?), let’s review some real concerns:
1. You’re throwing away about $40 a some money (see Comments) each month by signing up for the iPhone/AT&T package as opposed to something else. That is, you’re paying a thousand dollar premium to use an iPhone over a two-year period. (That’s too expensive even for some quasi-billionaire nerds.) Which is fine, just as long as you know. If you’re on food stamps already, you don’t really need an expensive iPhone contract, right?
2. AT&T continues to be overwhelmed, in certain areas of the country, it seems, so that leads to dropped calls and other bad tings. Didn’t the iPhone 3 also have “signal woes” as well?
Issue number one can’t be fixed by applying duct tape or buying a bumper case, right? Isn’t this a much bigger problem than the antenna issue? Yes. Can’t you fix the antenna issue for about a dollar a month (over two years, added up)? Yep. Don’t most people get bumpers anyway? Yep. So, why would CR pick this particular nit to pick?
Issue number two can’t be fixed by applying duct tape or buying a bumper case, right? Isn’t this a much bigger problem than the antenna issue? Yes. Maybe CR could have withheld endorsement until Apple officially permitted iPhone users use a different cellular service? Yep.
So the whole idea of withholding a strong recommendation of iP4 over who is going to pay for a bunch of bumper cases does indeed smack of a stunt from CR.
Now, CR, why don’t you get some ads going, so you wouldn’t need stunts to get attention to stay relevant, to stay in business? Or work on getting a massive endowment so your manifest money troubles don’t make you act they way you do?
After all, a little duct tape never hurt anybody, right? Like this passenger plane, for instance. I guess that Piedmont Airlines could have started cancelling flights when this plane had an issue. But instead, they slapped on some tape and kept going with no fuss.
See?
P.S. CR: Also, you don’t know much about cars. You think you’re the automotive guru, but you’re not. Why you waste your limited financial resources to buy a bunch of vehicles from dealerships is beyond me… So, yes, you have authority, but the question is whether the general public should have given you that authority.
Anrica Deb at Mission Local today asks whether the harmless pigeon is a Winged Rat or Family Bird?
But why should it be one or the other? The correct is answer is that San Francisco’s Official Bird is both winged rat and family boid.
As seen here, where the traffic signal-loving rock doves of Mid-Market have set up a new nest, after the Owner Move-In eviction that occurred recently at the amber light.
See? It’s a new nest for our family-oriented pigeons. The LEDs act as incubator lamps when the parents are out making a mess of Mid-Market:
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Que bueno!
Here’s a scene from my third trip (and counting, there’ll be more) up and down Market today – it seems the traffic signal-loving rock doves of Mid-Market are actually members of yet another young family trying to make a go of it in the big city. They’re nesting up there.
The Almost-Famous Pigeon Family of Market Street (Familia Casi-Famosa de la Paloma de Calle de Mercado, mas o menos) just might change how you think about rock pigeons. Be sure to look up at the Mason Street signal the next time you illegally proceed up Market Street in your private car.
The amber light has the young-uns along with one of the parents while the red and green lights serve as perches for the other parent.
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Bon Courage, Rock Pigeon Family.
