Muni's giving us the chance of a lifetime: come see the proposed new transit shelter designs! Y'see, we're going to be getting a revamp of our familiar domed-roof shelters, and Muni's in the process of deciding how exactly the shelters of the future should look. They've got a couple designs picked out -- but no peeking! Like the MPAA jealously guards its movies from cyber-pirates, Muni has declined to make pictures of the designs......

A group at UCSF estimates that tobacco products in general-admission films are raising a whole lot of new, young smokers. The solution: slap an R on any film in which smoking is portrayed as having zero health consequences, since kids aren't mature enough to understand the real-life dangers of tobacco. We meet that idea with skepticism; it is with vivid detail that we recall the extensive anti-smoking education of our youth, and our impression......

1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin. 2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented. 3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation. The "General Principles" of......

You know we love us some pirates -- from the grog-guzzling type who sing shanties to the MPAA-headache-inducing types who post Star Wars. But especially we love pirates of the airwaves like our friends at She Said, She Said who cut through the bulls**t on your radio dial like a hot chainsaw through whipped cream. We first met LeE and Jon of Neighborhood Public Radio at a Southern Exposure show many months ago. So......

Spring is in the air -- can you smell it? It's that intoxicating mix of grass, red clay, pine tar and chaw. That's right -- pitchers and catchers report in just a few hours, and no, we're not talking about a party in Key West. Of course, one of the joys of baseball for the rabid fan is signing up with your friends for a fantasy baseball league. Right now, people are poring over......

Three thumbs up!! TiVo's gotten approval to allow subscribers to email recorded shows. Various entities in the television industry objected, as usual - you know, blah blah blah, proprietary rights, blah blah blah, piracy hurts everyone, blah blah, corporate profits down, etc. The FCC, though, found there were enough privacy protections already encoded in TiVo programming that it was unlikely that anyone would be able to, say, mass-mail copies of Amish in the City in violation of the UPN's copyrights....