Come and see NN guru Tim Wu, Art Brodsky, Richard Clarke, Lawrence Spiwak, and a host of others. Why should you care about Network Neutrality? Here's why.

Al Gore took the initiative in creating the Internet during his service in the United States Congress for YOUR benefit. You should return the favor by showing an interest in how it's run (at least until the day the United Nations takes it over or Cyberdyne Systems finally gets SkyNet up). And if you're a lawyer, this is a painless way to get tons of MCLE credit. See you there! If you can't make it to the campus, then check it out on your PC via uStream starting at 8:30 AM.

More details, after the jump.

"All my ghosts, on every sea, in every land / Who needs that now?"

The 49ers venture into the wilds of Jersey this Sunday to war with the New York American football Giants.

* San Francisco vs. New York Giants
Sunday, October 21, 2007. 1:00 PM, PST.
Week 07
The Battle Of Old Blood

* Photo of Cody Pickett being pursued by NYG linemen via SFGate

Both teams are stumble-bum flawed at this juncture; the Niners with their horrifically mis-called offensive scheme, the Jints with their utterly undermanned defensive secondary, and both teams with a wave of injuries.

Hoo-boy, the only sure thing 'bout this game is that it's sure to be uglifitateous.

Dang; the level of play wasn't always this way between the 49ers and the Giants. Throughout the 1980s, whenever these two franchises met, it was a toe-to-toe match of two great forces: Bill Parcells' big-stick powerhouser Giants and Bill Walsh's adaptive, keen-hewn Niners.

We remember those Giants of the 80s: The cold, steely eyes of Phil Simms. The maniacal thrash of Lawrence Taylor. The mustachioed guttiness of Jeff Hostetler. The flea-like skittering of Dave Meggett. Whoever-it-was-this-week that Parcells plugged in at halfback banging the ball behind that huge offensive line (which would include Jumbo Elliot, of course). Pepper Johnson, Leonard Marshall, and that damned Jim Burt on defense. Burt might have picked up a ring in 89 with the Niners, but we never really accepted the idea of having him on the team after that monstrous hit he put on Joe Montana in 1986.

American Football Spectacular's New York Giants correspondent Joon Lee had some choice recollections of past NYG/SF battles:

Bad day on the transportation front yesterday: so someone got stabbed on a MUNI bus yesterday afternoon around 1 p.m. at 16th Street and Mission, and on the morning commute, southbound 880 near Hayward was completely snarled after people discovered body parts all over the highway. Turns out a person walking on the highway was hit by several cars early in the morning. And on Wednesday night, an AC Transit bus was in a seven-car pileup.

Yipes, baby mama drama -- two men got in a fight in the parking lot of a Fremont day care center when both of them came by to pick up the same child. The biological father showed up at the day care center, saw his ex-girlfriend with her new boyfriend, The father stormed up and sucker punched the boyfriend through the window, at which point the boyfriend then got out of the car and gave the father a bloody nose. The authorities came and arrested the father for violating the terms of the restraining order the mother had gotten against him, and arrested the new boyfriend on an unrelated warrant. The child in question didn't witness any of the fighting.

And you know famous local beat guy Lawrence Ferlinghetti? His art's been taken down from a corporate lobby in the Bank of America building because some of the corporate clients in the building complained about the nudes in the painting. What makes the story weirder is that the paintings are all kind of abstract. Ferlinghetti's gallery rep says, "I suppose if you look very carefully you might see a breast. But they are very expressionistic." (We're borrowing one of the Ferlinghetti pictures from the Merc News's gallery so you can decide on your own.)

"I am not gay. I never have been gay," lisped Republican Idaho Senator Larry Craig, with his beard wife, Suzanne, by his side.

After getting arrested by an undercover office in a Minneapolis airport boy's room for engaging "in actions 'often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct,'" the GOP senator plead guilty to a disorderly conduct charge, with the hope that it would all quietly go away.

Well, it didn't.

What's more: while some gays snort a line or eight of crystal meth to deal with their self-loathing, others, such as Miss Lawrence Craig, for example, vote for a constitutional ban of same-sex marriage, vote against adding sexual orientation as a basis for hate crimes, vote no on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation, and more. Fabulous.

See you at Twin Peaks, grandpa. Or in hell.

On July 5, after Savage predictably asked that students undergoing a weeklong fast for immigration reform (and, bonus, to slim down a few sizes) "fast until they starve to death," Sandoval went into action/wasted tax payers' time. But it looks like free speech reared its vile head again, according to Jew, who shot it down.

Curses again, First Amendment, you rat bastard.

Anyway, today, for some reason, "community organizations and immigrant rights groups have scheduled a vigil to take place in front of the KNEW station offices in San Francisco, urging the termination of Michael Savage’s show." So, bring your favorite pitchfork and Bic those torches, kids.

Also, is it true that Savage hangs out in North Beach, screaming at Lawrence Ferlinghetti and other formerly-famous passersby? Is there footage of this ranting available? Because we'd pay loads for such nuttiness. See, our former, cherished roommate used to listen to Savage for kicks during dinner hour, and the talk show host came across like the Bambi Lake of North Beach. He sounds like he might be one crazy-entertaining brunch guest, someone with whom we'd just love to go to Lime.

Well, maybe if he didn't wish AIDS upon us, that is.

-- Guns-for-gift card trade today at Civic Center. [Chron]

-- How will Giants' owner Peter Magowan celebrate the moment Bonds makes the hit? [Examiner]

-- Rebecca Schaeffer's stalker cum murderer stabbed 11 times in prison. Ouch. [Chron, Examiner, via AP]

-- SJ hit-and-run suspect still at large. [KPIX]

-- Lawrence Livermore Labs plan for more uranium blasts. Yikes! [IndyBay]

-- Free Wi-Fi in SF? [The Register]

-- Blur, "Transgender & Gender Variant" Support Group: Pretty much what it says right there; a good place to go for 18- to 25-year-olds looking for support or just to chat with other fine transgender folk. Free food will be provided. Meeting happens from 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. every Thursday at Dimensions Clinic, 3850 17th Street; admission is free.

-- "Thursday Night Live": Blueflamers, Maniac Martyrs, Wealthy Whore Entertainment, and Prince Dagger perform tonight at this weekly rock series. Music starts at 8 p.m. at the Eagle Tavern, 398 12th Street; cover charge is $6.

-- Edgetone New Music Summit: Experimental and jazz-laced music festival kicks off that goddamn racket with a show featuring Fields of Flowers, Kioku, Jim Ryan's Forward Energy, and Tatsuya Nakatani. The daring noise starts at 7:30 p.m. at SF Community Music Center, 544 Capp; tickets are $5-$10.

-- The SF International Poetry Festival: Lawrence Ferlinghetti opens up this poetry festival at 6:30 p.m. outside on (where else?) Jack Kerouac Alley, between Grant and Columbus; the word is free.

Greg Behrendt's image: USA Today

The movie's won five Cesar awards (the French Oscars) -- plus it sounds like there's plenty of steamy activity as well, given that it's being released without a rating. A perfect third date movie!

Enter and win!

We'll announce winners by the end of the day tomorrow, and the passes are good for any Monday through Thursday screening of the movie at the Embarcadero.

A gay African-American high school English teacher at the private Urban School is recovering from three stab wounds he received a few weeks ago while eating at the Taqueria Cancun down near Mission and 29th Street. A woman came into the taqueria and started yelling racial and anti-gay slurs at people in the restaurant, and when the teacher and his friends tried to get away from her, she attacked him with the knife. The SFPD responded and arrested the woman, who's pled not guilty to the charges.

And Leah Garchik reports that eight cops were called to South Van Ness and 16th Street last Saturday upon reports of shootings! Bang Bang!! Sirens! Running! Guns drawn! ..... only to find out that they were just gunshots in the Theater Rhinoceros's rehearsal for the play , about genderqueering the war in Iraq. Noise travels far on that block -- at the rehearsal the day before, the actors had been bombarded with noise from the Moe! kestra group playing at the Lab down the street.

One has to wonder who would actually go around stealing a Nobel Prize in physics. A rival physicist who didn't get the award? A really smart thief? An international Nobel Prize thief who lives in the South of France and leaves a calling card whenever they steal a prize, something like "the Pink Physicist" or "Danny Nobel?" And what does one do with a stolen Nobel Prize anyways? Is there a black market out there somewhere for it?

And yes, the Lawrence in question is the Lawrence of Lawrenence Livermore Labs and a whole bunch of other ghings