Remember this, from earlier this month?
“From Todd Lappin Telstar Logistic:
“RT @burningman: Jeez, people! RT@danger_ranger: Post-burn abundance: 2,000 bicycles left on the playa. http://t.co/MrdinrR“
See?
Via Danger Ranger – click to expand
What’s going to happen to all these bikes?”
Here’s the answer:
“Most will go to the Reno Bike Collective and other bike organizations, some will be repainted and added to the BRC Yellow Bike program.”
Hurray!
From Todd Lappin Telstar Logistic:
“RT @burningman: Jeez, people! RT@danger_ranger: Post-burn abundance: 2,000 bicycles left on the playa. http://t.co/MrdinrR“
See?
Via Danger Ranger – click to expand
What’s going to happen to all these bikes?
Not too often you see regular military fighter jets above San Francisco these days, you know, just flying around on some mission as opposed to performing an airshow. Last time for me seeing something like that was when a pair of U.S. Air Force F-15′s roared low and fast over the Western Addition about a half-decade ago.
Here’s the view from Haight Ashbury yesterday, through the Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees. Don’t bother looking at the misfocused photo ’cause you probably won’t be able to see them, but KPIX / CBS5 has some footage from Oakland International Airport yesterday. There they are lined up next to the King Airs and whatnot at OAK.
Speaking of airshows, remember this alarmist headline from a few years back: “Blue Angel Kills Thousands in SF crash”
Of course, no spectator has died at an airshow in San Francisco ever, I don’t think. And actually, no airshow accident has killed or injured a spectator in America in the past half-century or so that writer Tim Redmond has been alive. (Let’s not talk about Russia or Ukraine – spectators die all the time in those places.)
And of course, a crash like that one in San Diego wouldn’t kill anybody in San Francisco because the Blue Angels would react differently to a sudden loss of power. And if there were a crash for other reasons, it would be simply unpossible for that to kill “thousands.”
Anyway, if you ever want to say that you don’t like the Blue Angels, it’ll be up to you to just say that you don’t like the Blue Angels or, instead, to make a blog post going, “Blue Angel Kills Thousands in SF crash.”
Your choice.
Anyway again, this “Military Aircraft operation” might have brought a nuclear aircraft carrier to the waters of the Farallones, who knows.
Look to the skies! They are ever changing.
Suit and tie comes up to me
His face red
Like a rose on a thorn bush
Like all the colours of a royal flush
And he’s peeling off those dollars bills
Slapping them down, one hundred, two hundred,
And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see the fighter planes
Across the mud huts as the children sleep
Through the alleys of a quiet city street
Up the staircase to the first floor
We turn the key and slowly unlock the door
A man breathes deep into saxophone
Through the walls we hear the city groan
Outside is America
Outside is America
Check out just a part of the throngs clamoring to see Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at our de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park this Free Target Weekend.
See? The line started at the front, then headed towards the Japanese Tea Garden and then on off to JFK Jr. Drive and points unknown.
Now people, you didn’t expect that the mummy would be traveling around the world, did you? That thing’s not leaving Egypt ever – it never has and it never will. And the iconic funeary mask and Selket – you could see those things back in 1979 but not anymore. And actually, Egypt’s on a museum-building kick these days, so when this traveling show’s over, it’s over - the stuff on this tour won’t ever be coming back to America.
This exhibit packs up on on March 28th, 2010. See you there!
The anti-abortion mobile billboard trucks seen below, in town for Saturday’s West Coast Walk for Life, could be banned from the Streets of San Francisco, IMO. Here’s how to do it:
Step One: Amend San Francisco Police Code section 680 to make it look more like the City of West Hollywood’s Municipal Code section 11.441. Basically, that would mean, instead of banning “commercial advertising” on vehicles, we’d be banning all advertising, banning all mobile billboards.
Step Two: Start writing tickets.
What’s that you say, what about the First Amendment ‘n stuff? Well, let’s read up on a recent case from the California Court of Appeal called Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, et al. v. City of West Hollywood (B201721). You see, this animal-loving guy from S.H.A.R.K. got busted for driving his animal-rights mobile billboard advertising truck around town. He sued West Hollywood after he got cited but he lost. Why?
Here Come Da Judges (the bulk of them, anyway):
“The city concedes that SHARK was engaged in noncommercial speech but maintains its ordinance applies to both commercial and noncommercial speech. SHARK, however, argues that the term “advertising” applies only to commercial speech. We agree with the city that the ordinance applies to both commercial and noncommercial speech.
“The term “advertise” is not limited to calling the public’s attention to a product or a business. The definition of “advertise” is more general: “to make something known to[;] . . . to make publicly and generally known[;] . . . to announce publicly esp[ecially] by a printed notice or a broadcast…”
So it looks like West Hollywood has a green light to stop both commercial and non-commercial advertising trucks from roaming its streets. What’s preventing San Francisco from doing the same thing?
Click to expand. On the Embarcadero:
And Market Street:
Just asking.
(Brace yourselves, more these trucks like these are on their way. Get used to it…)
How West Hollywood does it, after the jump
These mobile billboard trucks, in town for today’s West Coast Walk for Life, don’t appear to constitute “commercial advertising” so the people responsible for them don’t appear to be violating San Francisco law.
Click to expand. On the Embarcadero:
And Market Street:
Anyway, this is what’s roaming the streets today…
Let’s see here, that was a big march the anti-abortion people put on today, huh? The Chronicle (or what I’m actually looking at - SFGate, San Francisco’s online newspaper) was on the scene today and reports that “several thousand“ were at the West Coast March for Life on the Embarcadero.
On the other hand, the organizers themselves have the number at “at least 35,000.”*
My count was 22,000+ so 35k sounds, how shall we say, optimistic, unless they’re counting people who didn’t march and were hiding somewhere. PipeLineNews (“the RIGHT news… RIGHT now”) comes in with a guess of “23,000 – 25,000,” which I’m thinking is their good-faith effort to be objective.
But, as always, You Make The Call. If you think this video shows the crowd passing any given point at more than one person per second, then you’ll think an estimate of several thousand is too low. So much for crowd estimates….
UPDATE: The Chronicle’s Joe Garafoli discusses yet another estimate of precisely 22,809 marchers. And the SFPD weighs with more than 10,000 all told. Here’s an IndyBay report that indicated the crowds were smaller this year (they weren’t) and here’s another with five glaring errors in the first three sentences. Oh well. Lastly, here comes the Catholic News Agency with an estimate of 25,000, which sounds perfectly cromulent to me.
Today’s vanguard:
Click to expand
Read all about it, after the jump
*And when you tell lies/ An angel dies. Remember that for next year, Dolores.
Of course any group of protesters naturally wants to believe they are great in number. So when turnout is hard to determine, people tend to get a little optimistic. Now let’s take a look at what the San Francisco Chronicle’s C. W. Nevius has to say about last year’s March for Life West Coast:
“They claim huge numbers for this walk – their estimate last year was 25,000 walkers, although The Chronicle story had the total at 10,000.”
Actually, The Chronicle story had the total for 2008 at “at least 10,000.” To wit:
“At least 10,000 abortion opponents were bused into the city from all over California, and from outside the state, for a morning rally in Justin Herman Plaza.”
Now, it’s not exactly clear what the reporters actually think in this case – it could be they just punted the issue and focussed on other matters. So it’s fairly weak support for an allegation of excessive International A.N.S.W.E.R-style overcounting.
This was the vanguard today – it took 40-something minutes for them to all pass through. Click to expand
The people at March for Life West Coast appear to be generally more realistic than the average protest group, anyway. For 2009, they’re claiming more than 30,000, and one booster is saying precisely 32,200.
This number isn’t impossible, but that’s not the point. The point is that C.W. Nevius could have made his point about ignoring this large event without being devius.
Carry on.
