The San Francisco Citizen

A stealthy U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin / Boeing F-22A Raptor fighter out of Elmendorf Air Force Base intercepts an extremely unstealthy Russian Tu-95 Bear bomber near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Thanksgiving Day, 2007. (This photo was not released at that time.)

Under the serious moonlight, click to expand:

The pricey Raptor program ($138 million each) had a few teething problems last year. One of which was a computer failure affecting multiple aircraft brought about by merely flying over the International Date Line.

Per Maj. Gen. Don Sheppard: 

At the international date line, whoops, all systems dumped and when I say all systems, I mean all systems, their navigation, part of their communications, their fuel systems. They were—they could have been in real trouble.

Them computers.

This official street sign at the end of San Francisco’s Bush Street at Presidio Avenue was manufactured just a few weeks after George W. Bush was sworn into office in January, 2001.

You can go to the intersection near 2999 Bush to see yourself these days. But will it get taken down next year when it’s no longer necessary?

Here’s the sign, made with a little help from 3M:

“END BUSH 2/01 SSC C&C of S.F. 3M” 

Click to expand.

Look fast, as 01.20.09 will be here soon.

San Francisco’s Festival of Sail started yesterday - read all about it.

Movie star The Bounty in front of Alcatraz, as seen from the Crissy Field Overlook in the Presidio. Click to expand:

The Coast Guard’s Eagle, just after passing under the Golden Gate Bridge. Lot’s of great photos here, from Telstar Logistics. Can you spot the baggywrinkle?

A different view of the Eagle, next to the Alpha Tower of the Bay Bridge as witnessed by Petty Officer Sherri Eng:

Lots of people came out to see the SS Jeremiah O’Brien slowly chug along:

See you at the Festival of Sail!

It’s on! Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, July 22, 2008, you should come on down to San Francisco’s waterfront and check out all the old school ships. You’ll be able to see 32 Tall Ships sail through the Golden Gate starting at around noon. You can get good views from the Presidio and Fort Mason.

Look out for the Nazi-built war prize USCGC Eagle (you can’t miss it, it’s huge).

tall ship Pallada, via Towse’s photostream in front of Treasure Island

Don’t miss the Pirate Academy!

There will be three Festival of Sail villages at:

AT&T Park (Green Village),

Ferry Building (International Sail Village), and

Pier 43-1/2 (Marine Educational Village).

Purchase Boarding Passes online for one of three villages, which will feature several vessels and other maritime-history highlights ($10 to $20). Board the Red and White Fleet Water Taxi to connect between the three villages. Book online ($16) for a full day pass.

See you there!

This is what our small version of the the Marine Corps War Memorial looks like from Interstate 80 in Tormey, Contra Costa County.

“Vince Ramos of Crockett guesses he has captured the essence of what someone gazing at Mount Suribachi on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945, would have seen. The tall hill in Tormey, west of Interstate 80 and just north of the Cummings Skyway, is home to Ramos’ replica of the celebrated flag-raising. The statue is a tribute to his late brother, Fernando, a U.S. Marine who served on Iwo Jima, the site of one of World War II’s bloodiest battles.”

You might notice it if you look up from the freeway near the Carquinez Bridge.

The Presidio of San Francisco, on the northern waterfront to the left of the newly upscale Ghirardelli Square, hasn’t seen this much action since they filmed The Presidio, starring Sean Connery. It appears that a mounted member of the United States Park Police briefly detained a Google Maps camera car for some sort of driving infraction this morning. Oh noes! Don’t impede this car - it’s gone to some interesting places. It’s not scary at all, right?

So the photo below shows how the magic of Google Street View happens - you can see their method all laid out. In this case, Google is using a brand-spanking-new Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid (wouldn’t a 50-state VW Jetta TDI diesel get better mileage?) and a rather tall metal mast with mad cameras, GPSes and SICK laser range finders. Click to expand:

Courtesy of damianspain of the San Francisco Bay area. Thanks Damian! Check out his flickrstream for lots of great shots of San Francisco, including a rare blue sky at the North Beach Festival.

(Normally, the Presidio is a quiet place, except for people feuding over the location of the new CAMP museum and the occasional coyote attack. And Hooverball - the kids these days make all sorts of noise throwing their old school medicine balls around.)

Keep up the good work, Google Street View drivers. Just make sure to watch out for The Man (as well as all those sexy pedestrians trying to catch your attention).

[Update: National Park Service employee and Commenter #67 Motorcop_2000 disputes any account that has the Googler getting a ticket. MC_2K indicates that this driver merely got lost and was trying to get "back to the Avenues" (meaning the Richmond or the Sunset districts). Bad driving and Toyota Priuseses seem to go together, so this story rings true.]

Check out yesterday’s march and protest at the headquarters of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) in San Francisco.

Senator Carole Migden dropped by to call these federal raids “improper invasions.” Read about it here and see a video here.

Text after the jump.

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Consider this a more-reliable-than-average rumour about the recent ICE raids  on the Balazos in the San Francisco Bay Area:

We are planning to hold a protest outside the ICE office at 630 Sansome St. in SF this Monday, May 5th at 12:00 PM to condemn the raids and call for justice for immigrant workers.   

It continues…

The one at 1654 Haight was open yesterday, for what it’s worth:

Routine stop on Market Street in San Francisco, March 20, 2008. Click to enlarge.

“The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), commonly known in the United States as “Homeland Security”, is a Cabinet department of the federal government of the United States with the responsibility of protecting the territory of the United States from terrorist attacks and responding to natural disasters.”