SFist

American Football Spectacular: Great 49er Mustaches: Kevin Fagan

This Sunday, the current San Francisco 49ers will be honoring the 49ers of the past by wearing mustaches in their final game of 2008 against Washington. We will honor this honor by honoring Great 49er Mustaches as this game draws nigh.

Defensive end Kevin Fagan and his mighty mustache helped hold the line for George Seifert's boxer's-mentality 3-4 defensive scheme during the zenith of San Francisco's 1980s power.

Fagan served stolidly in the d-line trenches alongside such fellows as Pierce Holt, Larry Roberts, the unforgivable Jim Burt, Danny Stubbs, Antonio Goss, and the immovable Michael Carter.

Fagan received NFL championship rings for wins in the oh-so-close Super Bowl XXIII against the Bengals, and as part of Super Bowl XXIV blowout of the Broncos -- at which time the 49ers' 1989 franchise staked their claim as the greatest football team of all time.

Being a lineman in a 3-4 scheme means forcible anonymity. But today, we remember and recognize Kevin (and his mustache) for the hard work put in.

Well done, Kevin.

Comments:

breaking news... AT&T park is officially a hospice with the signing of Randy Johnson.... i love the mustaches..

Day Around the Bay

Photo by Jim Herd.

• Panhandle bike path turned evening water slide? [SFCitizen]
• The Chron's skewed notions of: Water and rights. [SFBG]
• Waiting tables, behind the scenes. [Eater]
• Redwood City, lock your jail cells. God. [SFGate]
• Slow post- X-Mas news day = Christmas compilation of cats being funny, cute. [Laughing Squid]

Comments:

Film du Jour: A Queer Nativity [NSFW]

Well, this looked like festive fun. A Queer Nativity, a 15 minute play that happened at Dolores Park on Saturday night, was a holiday success. Put on by Matt Cornell, who plays Jesus, he describes Nativity as "an act of irreverent defiance against religious and political institutions that would seek to marginalize entire groups and classes of people, effectively leaving them out in the cold."

Also, he sucks a woman's tit in the show. Enjoy.

Comments:

Lame. Is this what passes for cutting edge in this town these days?

blah

trash

I can see that the "everyone's a winner" generation is finally starting to come into it's own. And it's quite appalling.

Something to note, part of the video was cut in with footage shot on Hollywood Boulevard, in L.A. Which explains a few things.

SFO to Install Questionable Carbon-Offset Kiosks

Oh wow. We need to get in on this racket. See, San Francisco International Airport plans on installing carbon-offset kiosks, so guilt-ridden travelers can donate to saving the Earth and stuff. It works like this: Travelers enter their flight info at the green kiosk, which figures out how many puppies and kittens will die as a result from the carbon dioxide emitted from their flight. A cost for offsetting your environment-crippling flight plans will then be deducted from your credit card, then sent to one of several carbon-reducing projects. While this sounds like an inspired idea, it could have corruption written all over it.

Comments:

are those companies hiring? Sounds like a good opportunity to make a bunch of money and then quit in a year.

Brock, why do you hate the environment? You prolly drive down the street and throw your candy wrappers out your car window while saying things like, "ha ha!"

I don't know if Brock "hates" the environment; it sounds like he is wary of the same thing I am - a charlatan who attracts customers with tricks or jokes. Selling carbon offsets is the latest in a long line of schemes to extract money through guilt. The green kiosk may be only one step away from the people who constantly call me claiming to be raising funds for the police, cancer, firemen, tiger memorials, whatever, through nonexistent charities.

And um, how exactly is this "offset" going to work? Are they going to pay someone else NOT to fly?!

Seriously, the machine should just take peoples name and CC number and return the following messsages:

> For $20 you can take a cab back home and call your work/friends/family instead

> For $50 you can BART your ass home and think about how silly you are

> For $100 you can walk your dumbfuck globetrotting ass home and plant a tree on the way

> For $250 you can run through the terminal yelling you'll never catch me aliiiiiive and ground all the flights for the day saving literally tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere

Xenu, I think offsets kill a little child, or something environmentally sound like that. but seriously, i don't know. will find out, though.

Offsets work by calculating your carbon footprint (i.e., how much carbon you produce by flying from Point A to Point B) and then determining how much of an offset is needed (e.g., how many trees would it take to absorb that much carbon?) to balance out the carbon produced to a zero level. You then buy an offset, which represents an investment into a project that nullifies your carbon footprint. This program is a joint venture between SFO and the City and a company called 3Degrees. The offsets they offer include methane capture projects, sustainable energy production (e.g. wind farms, solar arrays, etc.), and sustainable forestry.

Is it a scam? Depends on the company managing the offsets. 3Degrees is a reputable firm, investing in worthwhile projects. I fly at least 30 times a year and I generally buy offsets. I hardly see the like extra three American dollars a flight it costs me as being a waste of money when it's going to fund sustainable energy development.

Jnice, that was brilliant. Ha!

TAYM, 30 times a year?! sounds trying.

people love the chance to continue to live life as they are now, and "feel good" about "being good" with little trinkets like these. It's the same as people who want to lose weight but insist on eating the same food they're eating now, instead of switching to fruits, vegetables and a balanced diet that's more nutritious. Or the person who insists on driving a 15 mpg SUV, and tweaks their tire pressure to get an extra mile per gallon, thinking they're going to save a few pennies.

You can't drive 3 blocks to the store for smokes and buy a carbon offset and thinking you're helping the Earth. Sure you'll "feel good" but in the short term, we'll all be choking on the smog your car generated on the way to buy whatever.

Count me among the skeptics. This sounds like nothing more than a scam to separate yuppie liberal enviro-guilters from their money. It's not so easy as paying money. Want to help the environment? Quit fucking driving so much. Live closer to your job, quit fucking breeding.

But no one wants to hear that. Swiping a card is so much easier.

a sucker is born every minute

"carbon offset kiosk" sounds like a great euphemism for the crapper

the concept of "carbon offset" is as logical as "clean coal" or not calculating and preparing for a balloon mortgage contract and sucking the taxpayer teet dry to offset your ignorance.

How about simply not doing activities that require an offset? Gee, now there's a concept.

Stop gambling with the environment like it's a credit card you can never hope to pay down. Fixing the problem by declaring bankruptcy is an option that means death to us all.

Knock it off.

@travin: indeed

I think "King of the Hill" made a good point when Strickland Propane was to "go green" and bought into the idea of Carbon Offsets and of course, when Mr. Strickland is involved, with Dale, you know it's going to be shenanigans...

Greg, yeah. Thinking about it more after getting that off my chest, I do see some utility in making the concepts of carbon emissions more accessible and understandable to a broader range of people. Though a scam, this sort of does provide that in some small way. Now only if industry will devise a method of education and compliance that doesn't rely on the same methods that isn't just a money suck, we'd be golden.

I'm just worried that resorting to bargaining with our lives is, well, just replicating centuries of religious practices and none too progressive. There's some irony.

CEO of 3Degrees, you magnificent bastard, I salute you. Corporate offices in three US cities, and you still manage to make money off of climate change guilt.

Oh my God, the whining here is ridiculous. If y'all don't like the idea of purchasing carbon offsets, fine, DON'T PURCHASE THEM! However, at the very least, know a little something about what you're talking about before you dismiss it with that typical sfist hipper than thou, left over 1990's cynicism. I mean, really, what are any of YOU doing to impact climate change? Hah?!

do you want me to list them here or should i drive my hummer over and tell you in person?

I need one of these in my bedroom

TAYM, your post-ironic, trendy, green attitude is, as always, very suspicious. but if you think an airport kiosk will save the Earth in any way whatsoever, have at it.

me, i plan on ending homophobia and racism at Hot Topic.

carbon offsets = 21st Century Catholic indulgences

Isn't the real danger the fact that these kind of things, may cause the green mov't to be mocked? More than it is currently?

And then you know the backlash, etc....

I guess you guys just want to say they are useless so you feel better for not buying them.

mushmouth, some of us cannot afford them.

Consumers receive the false notion that they are helping to stem global warming. But this is idea is not merely a little white lie, or some benign snake oil. Rather, it is a poisonous illusion. As long as we think that we can compensate for our consumption with a little extra cash, we come no closer to -- and in fact prevent -- the kinds of change needed to fend off global warming. As Kevin Anderson, a scientist with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research put it, “Offsetting is a dangerous delaying technique because it helps us avoid tackling the task [of dealing with climate change]... It helps us sleep well at night when we shouldn’t sleep well at night” (as quoted in Smith 2007).

@spysea: The notion that offsets in and of themselves are a "poisonous illusion" is absurd and I suspect that the quote you attribute to Kevin Anderson is being applied out of context, at least in regards to this particular conversation.

Carbon offsets, purchased by, say, major polluters, as a way to continue business as usual, are certainly no solution to the problem of global climate change. However, as demonstrated here, most people aren't familiar with the concept in the first place and even when introduced to it, are highly skeptical. Accordingly, the notion that carbon offsets allow anyone to sleep well at night is ridiculous. Regardless, we're not even talking about carbon offsets for major polluters, so relevance?

Here, we're talking about allowing people to buy carbon offsets for their time spent flying. As someone who already gave up his car, uses his bike to commute, generally relies upon locally grown, and sustainable food sources, and has chosen not to breed, the primary source of carbon for which I'm responsible is the several times a month I have to go through the torture of boarding a commercial aircraft and flying elsewhere as a requirement of my job. If I want to spend a few extra American dollars on each flight buying offsets - money that will go to planting some trees or developing a windfarm in a developing country - I fail to see what the big deal is. It is, after all, better than doing nothing. Which, it would appear, is what the majority of people on this thread would propose to do because whatever solution they're willing to embrace must be absolute and final or it's apparently not worth pursuing at all.

So Brock, when you pay for your $600 ticket round trip to JFK, you can't find another $6.00, to help fund a landfill methane cap that wouldn't otherwise be funded? Dude if your so fraking broke maybe you shouldn't be flying.

SFist Tonight

THEATER: Jackie Mason, Pontius Pilot, Bacchus, Mother Theresa, Mohamed, Mary Magdalene, Phil Silvers, Satan, and more come together to throw shade at Our Lord and Savior Jesus H. Christ. Conceived by locals Howard Stone and Kurt Weitzmann, and featuring the real-life talents of Will Franken, Caitlin Gill and Beth Schumann, "The Jesus Roast - A Celebrity Roast of Jesus H Christ" is a tribute to the celebrity roasts of yore. We hope you enjoy the performance and the eternity you will spend in hell.

8 p.m. // StageWerx (533 Sutter) // $25 ($17 in advance)

FILM: "I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain. I have confidence that spring will come again! Besides, which you see, I have confidence in me!"

7 p.m. // Castro Theatre (Castro & Market) // $10-15

Comments:

Wow, it's been awhile since I've seen Serrano's "Piss Christ." Mentioning it to my high school English teacher would send him into a rabid rage. Always fun for a good laugh.

Piss Christ is fun for the holidays, or any other time of the year.

Christmas Morning Assault Leaves Mission Man in the Hospital

At around 4 a.m. on Christmas morning, five teenagers beat and kicked a man at 25th and Mission streets. According to KCBS, the victim allegedly said something to aggravate the five teenage suspects, "who then followed the man to the intersection of Mission and 20th streets before throwing him to the ground and attacking him." (Group of teenage boys = scary. Which is why you should carry pepper spray, folks. A convergence of hormones, zits, and skidmarks is a Molotov cocktail waiting to blow.) The victim is being treated for life threatening injuries. No arrests, to no one's surprise, have been made.

Comments:

hmph. my brother was mugged by a group of people yesterday morning, too. i think these people were in their 20s though. it was really awful 'cause our family celebrates christmas on the evening of the 24th, so they took all of his christmas presents, camera, iPod. he got mugged on market street/7th. stupid people.

Pepper spray? More like a baseball bat. Teach those little twats a lesson their kneecaps will never forget.

Xenu: against five teenagers? I'm reasonably confident in my odds for a 1-on-1 confrontation, but 5-against-1? Forget it, just run. That bat'll end up out of your hands and upside your head in a few seconds. Pepper spray at least can be spread across a bunch of folks quickly, giving you a head start. But your best bet is to just avoid the hell out of clusters of jumpy juveniles.

their parents must be proud

Hey, What's Going on for New Year's Eve?

While SFPD announces their annual, benign "No Tolerance" enforcement policy against New Year's Eve mischief (no public intoxication, sexual assault, groups of teenage boys, drugs, etc.) and fireworks will go off at the Embarcadero at midnight, surely you know of something more titillating going on, yes?

If so, let us know. Please. Because SFist will post a NYE event listing that will keep you hungover well into 2009. Things like dive bars fetes, choice dance club DJs, interesting themes, dork gatherings, and clean-and-sober NYE events are all very much welcome. The curiouser, the better.

Feel free to contact us here with your NYE parties, or just go ahead an post them in the comments.

Straw image by Darwin Bell.

Comments:

You mean the cops want people to hold off on sexual assault until New Year's Day? What a bunch of spoilsports.

As usual, Brock, nice picture selection.

bart has a special 6 dollar "all you can ride " pass you can buy in advance (great deal) and MUNI is running free that night too.

I will be on a fake cable car with an open bar and 39 of my best friends shouting "woo woo woo!" I may even shout "take it off!" and throw mardi gras beads at you.

You're welcome in advance.

no public intoxication...damn there goes my evening

Photo du Jour 302

Photo found at WhatImSeeing.

Embarcadero Center Ice Rink/. Sponsored by Wachovia. Aw.

Comments:

Entombed East Bay Body Identified

Remember how Hassan Ben Ali committed suicide in front of Berkeley police last week? Then, after doing a search of Ali's Ashby Avenue apartment, the police found an entombed body at his residence? Well, it turns out the dead body, -- which was discovered "wrapped up and hidden behind a wall in the laundry room of the complex," according to reports -- was Hassan 's son, Taruk Joseph Ben Ali. It is believed that the latter died of a drug overdose in 2004. Allegedly. Anyway, it turns out his father was keeping his corpse behind a false wall (lined with air fresheners!) in an effort to get free rent. The Chronicle says that "Benali had owned the property, and police believe Bin Ali hid his son's body to continue collecting rent." (Huh?) Although according to KNTV, "[b]oth father and son had been living in and managing the apartment complex," our local rag claims that a "tenant of the building has told The Chronicle that in recent years [Taruk] had been paying rent to Bin Ali, who said he was collecting on behalf of his son." So...yeah. When we know more, we'll update.

Comments:

Crazy person is crazy.

As always, love the picture!!

Tatiana the Tiger Sculpture Unveiled

Yesterday, as Carlos Sousa Jr.'s family mourned the one-year anniversary of their son's death, a sculpture of Tatiana the tiger was unveiled. Halfway up Telegraph Hill, a pleasant yet odd location to place it, the big-cat monument is built to scale as how Tatiana might have looked when she first arrived at the SF Zoo in 2005. Created by 48-year-old Jon Engdahl, who felt sympathy toward to the tiger, he views her as the victim, not the aggressor, in last year's awful Christmas time incident. "This was a labor of love," Engdahl tells the Chronicle, "I identified with this beautiful animal. I felt sorry for the sordid and needless way she died." If you recall, Engdahl had also organized a vigil for Tatiana early last year that attracted a handful feline lovers on New Year's Day 2008.

Comments:

"Don't hate me because you're succulent."

- Tatiana

Photo du Jour 301

Photo by klimari1.

A very WASPy crown pork roast is being served at SFist HQ for X-mas dinner. What's on your menu tonight?

Oh, and Happy Christmas, etcetera, etcetera, and so forth.

Comments:

Sausages, cheese, sparkling wine and a lot of PS3.

pbr,jim beam and a night at the beach

duck, prime rib, crab legs--and that's just the beginning.

Homemade chicken pot pie, a salad and some wine.

Then, more wine.

well aren't we fancy.

ham, green beans, sweet potatoes/yams/i can't tel the diff, ambrosia and a vodka gimlet.

We had an English Christmas: lox on buttered pumpernickel, beef roast, Yorkshire pudding, bangers, roasted potatoes, brussel sprouts and carrots. For dessert there was figgy pudding with custard & brandied butter with hidden gold coins. Oh and a divine chocolate cake.

We ate while wearing our gold paper crowns and drank copious amounts of wine, though this last part sounds like every night.

grilled salmon, roasted veggies, potatoes au gratin and re-heated leftovers from Xmas eve.

And one rockin' appple/pear crisp with vanilla ice cream thankyouverymuch.

and the obligatory wines...oh the wines!

Yvette, Monique, and Sparks from MillerCoors

Delicious brisket, latkes, stuffing, cookies, cupcakes, champagne, mudslides, and a failed hot buttered rum (I made it, and it tasted like potpourri).

American Football Spectacular: Great 49er Mustaches: Roger Craig

This Sunday, the current San Francisco 49ers will be honoring the 49ers of the past by wearing mustaches in their final game of 2008 against Washington. We will honor this honor by honoring Great 49er Mustaches as this game draws nigh.

Roger Craig was one of the most versatile running backs the NFL has ever seen.

A perfect fit for Bill Walsh's short-passing offensive system, in 1985 Craig became the first man to gain 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 receiving in the same season.

Walsh's system was based on gaining yards after initial contact. Yet to open up the short passing game, the defense had to be made to account for the running game. Craig excelled at both -- making defenders miss after a catch or running the ball out of the backfield in the 49ers' nimble rushing playset.

Eyes struck wide-open and high knees thrashing as he ran the ball, Craig was a marvelously unique weapon in the 49ers' offenses of the 80s that defenses were forced to adapt to. He could run with agility, or he could lower the shoulder and run with power. He could take the handoff, or he could catch a pass as ably as the best wide receiver.

His slicing scamper through a interlacing gauntlet of missed Dolphin tacklers became the signature image of Super Bowl XIX; Craig's knees threshing furiously in avoidance, and then bounding high in celebration as he crossed the chalk line into the endzone.

He would score three touchdowns that day, the first ever to do so in a Super Bowl.

Much as he would change the style of his face-mask from time to time, Craig would sometimes rock a mustache, and at times he would not. Another testament to his versatility.

Merry Whatever's-Your-Thing to y'all, and may your mustache be bushy and bright.

Comments:

LOL...that thing looks drawn on!

He tried to pick up on my girlfriend a few years ago but I still love you Roger.

All that and leading the Giants to the 1989 World Series!

/joke

Ha ha Troy, nobody remembers that we had two Roger Craigs here.

@Slappy

LOL...that thing looks drawn on!

@Troy

All that and leading the Giants to the 1989 World Series! /joke

Hrrm, I wonder what he's up to these days...

@Glen

Ha ha Troy, nobody remembers that we had two Roger Craigs here.

Today in San Francisco History - the First Cliff House Burns

Timecapsule: December 25, 1894

On Christmas Day, 1894, the first San Francisco Cliff House burned to the ground.

As the Chronicle poetically reported the next morning,

San Francisco's most historic landmark has gone up in flames. The Cliff House is a smouldering ruin, where the silent ghosts of memory hover pale and wan over the blackened embers.

Ah, yes. We discussed this first incarnation of the Cliff House a few weeks ago -- its novel location at the edge of the world, its singular popularity with San Francisco's beautiful people, and its subsequent decline into a house of ill-repute.

Well, before it could rise from that undignified state to the status of a beloved landmark, San Francisco's original "destination resort" needed a white knight to ride to the rescue. That knight would be Mr. Adolph Sutro, who -- in 1881 -- purchased not only the faded Cliff House, but acres of land surrounding it.

Mining engineer millionaire and future San Francisco mayor, the larger-than-life Sutro had already established a fabulous estate on the heights above the Cliff House, and by the mid-1880s could count 10% of San Francisco as his personal property.

Unlike the robber barons atop Nob Hill, though, Adolph believed in sharing his good fortune. His first order of business upon making acquiring the property was to instruct his architect to turn the Cliff House into a "respectable resort with no bolts on the doors (ahem) or beds in the house."

This was just a small part of Sutro's grand entertain-the-heck-out-of-San-Francisco scheme. The elaborate gardens of his estate were already open to the public, and the soon-to-be-famous Sutro Baths were on the drawing board. His goal was to create a lavish and family safe environment out at Land's End, and that's just how things worked out.

With streetcar lines beginning to move into the brand new Golden Gate Park, and the City's acquisition of the Point Lobos Toll Road (now Geary Boulevard), the western edge of the City was becoming more attractive and accessible, and over the next decade, families did indeed flock to Adolph's resuscitated resort.

And then in 1894, it happened.

About 8 o'clock on Christmas evening, after most of the holiday visitors had gone home for the day, a small fire broke out in a kitchen chimney. As the flames shot up inside the walls, the horrified staff quickly learned that none of the fire-extinguishers around the place actually worked. Within minutes, the entire building was engulfed in flames.

The resort burned so quickly, in fact, that its famous guest book, inscribed by such notables as Mark Twain, Ulysses S Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes, was lost along with the building itself.

As the Chronicle went on to report, the Cliff House

"... went up as befitted such a shell of remembrances, in a blaze of glory. Fifty miles at sea the incinerating fires easily shone out, reflected from the high rocks beyond."

Sutro hadn't taken out insurance on the place, but he was so determined to rebuild -- and so damned rich -- that it just really didn't matter. And in fact, the burning of Cliff House number one was a sort of blessing in disguise. That fire cleared the decks -- so to speak -- for Cliff House number two, which would rise from the ashes like a magnificent 8-story Victorian phoenix.

Cliff House mark 2 would become everybody's favourite, an opulent monstrosity as beloved by San Franciscans in the Gilded Age as it still is today, frankly -- but guess what happened to that one?

Comments:

Love these articles, please keep doing them!

i've been looking forward to this all week. wonderful. as usual.

Thanks for another great post! Many great pictures at your links, too. I'm looking forward to your next one.

Thanks guys ... I'm just sorry I wasn't around in the 1800s to report on this stuff in person. :)

I'm on the edge of my seat to hear what happened to Cliff House II: Electric Bugaloo, but I refuse to google it because I want Sfist Richard to be the one tell me the story!

I also adore this series. Loved the story of Mary Ann Patten.

American Football Spectacular: Great 49er Mustaches: Joe Montana

This Sunday, the current San Francisco 49ers will be honoring the 49ers of the past by wearing mustaches in their final game of 2008 against Washington. We will honor this honor by honoring Great 49er Mustaches as this game draws nigh.

When Joe Montana first came to the 49ers from Notre Dame in 1979, he brought this fanciful Fu Manchu style with him.

Of course, everything went up from there. Joe grew into the greatest quarterback the NFL has every seen, and the 49ers began their golden age of dominance throughout the 1980s.

All due to a mustache?

Well, let's just say that it was there when he began...

Comments:

Why can't they honor Joe Montana by winning?

Melissa, like the Allman Brothers, I'm afraid those days are long gone.

@ Melissa & Glen

Well, it would be nice...

Man Arrested After Chaining Himself to City Hall Christmas Tree

In an effort to protest Newsom's recent budget cuts to public health departments and services for low-income San Franciscans, a totally awesome guy used a bicycle chain and handcuffs to attach himself to the giant "Tree of Hope" (sigh) at San Francisco City Hall today. The incident happened around 11 a.m. Aaron Buchbinder, 25, was arrested after the one-man protest. According to reports, Buchbinder "poured glue into the handcuff lock, forcing deputies to cut him free from the bindings before they could detain him." He was stuck up in the tree for about an hour. "The Tree of Hope," the Chron goes on to say, "was not harmed in the incident." We repeat, the tree was unharmed. (Photo: Jim Herd)

Comments:

You misspelled Newsom's name. There should be an "r" between the o and the m.

Ugh, "tree of hope"??

Unharmed? Hello! The tree is dead - how could it be any more harmed?

maybe a child's hope will bring it to life? like Frosty? Or Puff the Magic Dragon? Or Jesus?

Hm, I knew a kid named Aaron Buchbinder when I was growing up in the city. The age would be about right, too.... I need photos!

I love this town. Merry Christmas, folks.

He should have chained Mr. Nuisance to the tree, handcuffed that D lister.

Good Job Moron , SFPD overtime on Christmas just cost the city a few thousand $$$ , assholes like Aaron Buchbinder are what makes me sick of folks in SF who have no idea what they are doing... and what it costs to SF when your a dick....should have cut his arm off !

Let's protest health care cuts by getting ourselves sent to the hospital.

What a piece of shit. They should've left him chained to the tree to freeze his ass off and to be urinated on my drunk ass bums. Dick.

Afternoon Shooting in Lower Haight

Brazen drive-by shooting in the Lower Haight this afternoon. We're told the shooting happened at around 12:30 p.m. at Webster and Haight. Around five shots were heard. No word yet on any injuries or arrests.

SFist will update as soon as we know more.

Image: Central Services

Comments:

Did anyone hear roughly 20 gunshots last night around 2am in the Lower Haight - perhaps Fillmore and Page? I was convinced they were gunshots, as I can certainly tell the difference between that and fireworks. Besides, fireworks at 2am on a rainy weekday morning makes no sense. Was this shooting perhaps related?

yes. we were wondering what that was; thought it might have been fireworks. heard today's too. we live at Oak and Steiner.

I heard the shots last night too! I thought it was about 20 as well and it sounded like it was coming from Haight and Scott or Divisadero and Haight. Nothing in the Comical today, natch.

when i'm in your neighborhood you better duck
cause ( ) is crazy as fuck
straight outta san fran

Just heard gunshots in Bernal Hill.

It's all the dulcet tones of all the lactose intolerant people being forced to eat lasagne at Christmas eve dinner. Or celebratory shots being fired into the air because Leather Fong resigned. One of the two.

Those "shots" the night of the 23rd were on Scott at Haight, and were firecrackers. So no they aren't going to make Chron.

yea the night of the 23rd sounded like shots in the lowerr haight but was fireworks. could see them a couple of blocks west from my window at steiner/page. big beautiful, colorful fireworks at 3 am.

This is Your Muni on Microsoft

Snapped up by Flickr photog Mike G., this is the new system that replaced the "unreliable" OS/2 system.

Let the hair pulling start...now.

Comments:

HA HA! SFMTA is using the flash plugin within internet explorer as a critical systems application. What freakin maroons.

If you cared to look, they're not using it within IE, and I doubt Flash is used for anything but the top UI layer, hardly a critical system component.

Also, what you're seeing is Microsoft's product working correctly (denying access to a restricted memory location). Blame rests with either whoever made the Flash application or Adobe; I'd guess the former.

The displays for the "unreliable" OS/2 system work as one big generated image which was then displayed (auto-refreshing) in a full-screened browser. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/qviri/3067051215/

And man that's a lot of J-Churches.

When it comes to taxpayers and transportation, good customer service and setting expectations, the UI display is definitely a critical system.

This system hasn't really replaced anything, has it? I'm fairly certain it's just a nicer skin for MUNI's outdated Alcatel OS/2-based system which still actually controls underground train traffic (the Alcatel screenshot is visible at http://www.sfmunicentral.com/sfmunicentral_Snapshot_Objects/Muni_Subway_Snapshot.html)

(Maybe MUNI should upgrade to a system administered by the Oakland liquor store that shares a name with their current vendor?)

This is just a Flash frontend to NextMuni, which is still in beta. It has nothing to do with the train control system which still runs the same software it always did.

What this replaced was a full-screen Internet Explorer running on Windows displaying a web page containing the screengrab of the train control system display that refreshes every five seconds. I suspect that this is unreliable only because the software they're using to upload the image just overwrites the existing image, so if you catch it wrong you get it mid-upload when the image is corrupted.

These on-platform screens have never run on anything other than Windows.

If you want proof that the Subway itself is still running on the same old software, check out the control room at Embarcadero Station as you come in on an inbound train... you can see the real display that sfmunicentral is (and the on-platform refreshing maps are) capturing.

Flash crashes on every single platform, in every browser it is available for. It crashed my Linux Firefox Browser every single time I visit fleshbot.com, then again that might be some sort of work add-on.

No surprises here.

What? You mean to say that Flash is utter, unreliable, bloated crap? Imagine my surprise!

Doomed.

Many of our aircraft carriers run on Windows as well.

Hella doomed.

Exactly. Should have been using assembly on an 6502 for old school robustness. Think of the savings just in memory alone! Irresponsible use of tax dollars.

Well, you pay your IT staff $100,000 per year, you get what you pay for:

http://agency.governmentjobs.com/sfmuni/default.cfm?SearchLetter=I&action=agencyspecs&AgencyID=474

those new displays are dope - when they work. you can see how spoiled N-judah riders really are.

Pope Benedict XVI Says Nope to Gays and Trannies

The main man who gives something so important as religion a bad name, Pope Benedict XVI, has publicly said that "saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction." Surprise! This backwards bit of wisdom came during his year end-of-year hate speech to senior Vatican staff.

According to reports, his chat went something like this.

Rainforests deserve, yes, our protection, but the human being ... does not deserve it less," the pontiff said.

It is not "out-of-date metaphysics" to "speak of human nature as 'man' or woman'", he told scores of prelates gathered in the Vatican's sumptuous Clementine Hall.

"We need something like human ecology, meant in the right way."

Somebody needs to sic Bambi Lake (at left at right) on this sick man. Because more of this is bound to happen whenever Benedict opens his mouth.

Speaking of men who give conservative thought a bad name, Debra J. Saunders' shout out to gays as intolerant faggot stupidheads, "Intolerance 2009," was sad. Pro-Obama gay leaders are hypocrites for not loving those who oppress them? Becoming unglued over politically incorrect terms like "bigot" and "hater"? THIS argument? Again?

Really, Chronicle, you can, and yet won't, do better. Thank God for Melanie Morgan.

Image: Moon Trent's Celebrity Gallery

Comments:

Nice dress, pope.

Forget Bambi Lake. I say we sic Carole Migden on His Holiness. That would be a more entertaining duel.

This is an example of why I can't understand why anyone LGBT would want to subject themselves to a hateful church.

I believe the root of the problem is exampled by the statement "something so important as religion."

Remind me again why I should listen to someone who has sworn to remove sexual desire and thoughts from his very soul and has foresworn any type of lifelong emotional committment to another human being about these very topics?

Brock, you tell that pope to take his mass and shove it up his ass.

Also, Debra Saunders has 80's hair. President Ray Gun is dead, her hair should follow suit.

travin, bow down to the panopticon eye in the sky!

I will bow down when Jesus brings the pork chops.

Oy vey!

not only does this clarify the vatican's bigoted position on homosexuality (gay marriage aside)...it also suggests that it doesn't take deforestation all that seriously.

Gay churchgoer makes about as much sense as black KKK member.

Well, to be fair, the pope couldn't really use Rick Warren's pedophilia schtick now, could he? The last thing the pope wants to bring up is pedophilia. This is the only thing he's got left, weird as it is.

"saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction."

The pope didn't say this. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7796663.stm did, at the beginning of the story, which is an interpretation of what the pope said. He never explicitly said anything about homosexuality. Nothing like seeing the media take something nuanced and sensationalize it into something it isn't...If something is going to justify someone's decision to hate or to be violent, it's not going to be what the pope said (which was about gender theory), it's going to be what the media has said the pope said. I am really tired of the media stirring things up and acting as though they are doing real journalism.

So aaaaaaa, what EXACTLY did the Pope say then?

Photo du Jour 300

Airline travelers wait in the security gate line at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

We were at SFO yesterday afternoon, and we must say that it was just delightful. No lines at check-in or security, no long wait for our $5 Peet's tea, ample seating space to watch planes arrive and depart as we finished Caroline Knapp's Drinking: A Love Story, our flight to Orange County (alas) wasn't sold out, and we got two -- two! -- cans of tomato juice. It was practically a day at the spa.

Have a safe and sane travel time, folks. Happy holidays.

Comments:

Happy Holidays, everybody!

I've got to give it up to the guys that organize the lines before security check at SFO. I showed up later than I should of to put my son on a plane once and these guys got us (and everyone else for that matter) where we needed to be when we needed to be there.

SFO is a great place to use those "free cup" cards that Peet's hands out whenever you buy a pound and don't want a cup of coffee with it.

enjoy your vacation

SFO rawks.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Just as important as safety, travel well.

Here's to not flying!

I frickin hate it. It took me from 6am on Thursday, to 9am Saturday to get to England. Holiday travel massively sucks.

Toilet Torcher Strikes Again?

Maybe because it's Christmas Eve Day so nobody at the SFPD is getting back to us. But we'll just put this out there and perhaps you, dear readers, can confirm? A tipster tells us that a "portapotty [was] set ablaze at washington btwn polk and larkin" last night. True? We hope not. Or maybe kind of. Really, this story tickles us. Because we're five. Anyway, this would make the 13th portable toilet to get torched since November.

Comments:

I saw it yesterday surrounded by police tape so probably happened the evening of the 22nd? Super melty.