Boing Boing » san francisco

Building a better Bay Bridge

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:59:24 +0000

San Francisco will get a new Bay Bridge this summer. The New York Daily News has an interesting story about that bridge's creation — and the earthquake-resistant engineering behind it.

Rudy Rucker art show at Borderlands in San Francisco

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:49:55 +0000

Happy mutant, cyberpunk, and painter Rudy Rucker is hanging a show of his art at Borderlands Cafe and Science Fiction Bookstore in San Francisco's Mission district. Another great reason to visit an amazing store -- he's kicking it off with a reading this Saturday, Jan 12:

I’ll be hanging a show of my paintings in the Borderlands Books café with a reception on Friday, Jan 11, 5-7 pm. And I’ll give a reading and Q&A session for my novel Turing & Burroughs: A Beatnik SF Novel on Saturday, Jan 12, at 3 pm—you can visit with the paintings then as well.

Art Show & Reading At Borderlands Books (Thanks, Benjamin Wilson!)

San Francisco nudists revolt

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:54:40 +0000

Reuters: "Two dozen pro-nudity activists wearing little but their righteous indignation assembled on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday to protest a proposed municipal ban on public nakedness."

Six-eyed reveler wows Folsom Street Fair

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 21:28:07 +0000

From Carolyne Zinko's SF Gate story and slideshow from San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair (a kink/fetish event), this fantastic mask on an unidentified "reveler." I want to wear something like this on an everyday basis.

50 shades of fetish at Folsom St. Fair (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

(Image: downsized, cropped thumbnail from a larger photo by Carolyne Zinko)

Singularity Summit San Francisco, Oct 13/14

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:09:04 +0000

Eric sez, "The Singularity Summit 2012, exploring 'Minds and Machines' and 'Emerging Technologies and Science' will be taking place October 13 - 14 at the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco. The Singularity Summit is the premier event on cutting-edge technologies including robotics, regenerative medicine, artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfacing and more.

Join some of the most brilliant minds in the world for discussions on the most revolutionary technological advancements on the horizon. Speakers include inventor, entrepreneur and author Ray Kurzweil, Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman, professor and author Steven Pinker, professor and author Temple Grandin, science fiction author Vernor Vinge, and many more."

The Singularity Summit | October 13-14, San Francisco (Thanks, Eric!)

BART escalators caked in human poo

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:19:03 +0000

So much human excrement was drawn into one San Francisco subway escalator that a HAZMAT team was required after it ground to a poo-glued halt. Will Kane in SFGate:

While the sheer volume of human waste was surprising, its presence was not. Once the stations close, the bottom of BART station stairwells in downtown San Francisco are often a prime location for homeless people to camp for the night or find a private place to relieve themselves. All those biological excretions can gum up the wheels and gears of BART's escalators, shutting them down for long periods of extended repairs, increasing station cleaning costs and creating an unpleasant aroma for morning commuters.

Sequel to my "General Purpose Computation" talk coming up in Vegas, San Francisco

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 21:07:50 +0000

I've written a sequel to my talk The Coming War on General Purpose Computing, called "The Coming Civil War Over General-Purpose Computing," which I'll be delivering twice this summer: first on July 28 at DEFCON in Las Vegas, and then on July 31 in San Francisco at a Long Now Foundation SALT talk, jointly presented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. As far as I know, both talks will be online, along with slides (a rarity for me -- I normally hate doing slides, but I had a good time with it this time around).

Urban Fantasy this Saturday at the SF in SF reading series

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:00:23 +0000

Fantasy writers Steven Boyett and Bruce McAllister will read from their contributions to the new Peter Beagle-edited The Urban Fantasy Anthology at this weekend's free SF in SF reading series, at San Francisco's Variety Preview Room Theatre (The Hobart Bldg., 1st Floor, 582 Market Street @ 2nd and Montgomery), kicking off at 6PM. No charge, but the organizers do ask for donations for the Variety Children's Charity of Northern California.

Bring Your Own Big Wheel

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:04:29 +0000

These people in San Francisco probably had more fun than you on Passover/Easter weekend. BB reader Bhautik Joshi shares his photographs from "Bring Your Own Big Wheel 2012" in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool, and explains the idea behind it—

For the uninitiated, the gag is really simple:
- large group of adults in costumes assemble with a variety of wheeled, childrens toys (Group A)
- large group of spectators gather (Group B)
- Group A races down windy Vermont St as fast as they can, leaving a trail of noise and awesomeness in their path
- Group B cheer like maniacs

What's the story behind this fellow's costume, I wonder? Perhaps one of you can fill us in, in the comments. View the full photo set here. Here's Joshi's website.

Underground press history event in San Francisco this Saturday

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 04:28:06 +0000

Rina writes, "Join SF in SF and PM Press for an evening with ON THE GROUND: An Illustrated Anecdotal History of the Sixties Underground Press in the U.S. with Trina Robbins, Billy X. Jennings, Judy Gumbo Albert and Terry Bisson. Join contributors to the original underground press movement in discussion, reading, and what's bound to be interesting debate!"

As with all SF in SF events, it's free: Mar 31, 6PM, 582 Market Street @ 2nd and Montgomery, San Francisco, CA 94104.

Bonus Reading This Saturday – Sixties Underground Press

Midnight Climax: CIA's MK-ULTRA LSD experiments in San Francisco

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:20:03 +0000

Newly released documents shed light on the San Francisco edition of the CIA's notorious MK-ULTRA program (through which people were unwittingly given massive doses of LSD to see if the drug would be useful for brainwashing), which ran from 1953-1964. There's lots of detail about MK-ULTRA's work in NYC and Montreal, but the San Francisco operation has been shrouded in mystery. The newly declassified documents form the springboard for a good investigative piece in SF Weekly, in which Troy Hooper speaks to Wayne Ritchie, one of the survivors of MK-ULTRA's San Francisco operation.

There were at least three CIA safe houses in the Bay Area where experiments went on. Chief among them was 225 Chestnut on Telegraph Hill, which operated from 1955 to 1965. The L-shaped apartment boasted sweeping waterfront views, and was just a short trip up the hill from North Beach's rowdy saloons. Inside, prostitutes paid by the government to lure clients to the apartment served up acid-laced cocktails to unsuspecting johns, while martini-swilling secret agents observed their every move from behind a two-way mirror. Recording devices were installed, some disguised as electrical outlets.
To get the guys in the mood, the walls were adorned with photographs of tortured women in bondage and provocative posters from French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The agents grew fascinated with the kinky sex games that played out between the johns and the hookers. The two-way mirror in the bedroom gave the agents a close-up view of all the action.
The main man behind the mirror was burly, balding crime-buster George H. White, a Bureau of Narcotics maverick who made headlines breaking up opium and heroin rings in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and the U.S. Few knew he doubled as a CIA spook for Uncle Sam. He oversaw the San Francisco program, gleefully dubbing it Operation Midnight Climax.
"[White] was a real hard head," said Ritchie, who regularly ran into him in courtrooms and law enforcement offices in downtown San Francisco. "All of his agents were pretty much afraid to do anything without his full approval. White would turn on them, physically. He was a big tough guy."
American chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the brains behind White's brawn. It was the height of McCarthyism in the early '50s, and government intelligence leaders, claiming fear of communist regimes, were using hallucinogens to induce confessions from prisoners of war held in Korea, and brainwash spies into changing allegiances. What better way to examine the effects of LSD than to dose unsuspecting citizens in New York City and San Francisco?

Operation Midnight Climax: How the CIA Dosed S.F. Citizens with LSD (Thanks, tyrsalvia!)

SFPD corruption report from 1937

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:46:23 +0000

Here's a long-lost 1937 report on police corruption in San Francisco:

In 1935, the citizens of the city of San Francisco were indignant when tales of police officers having amassed huge fortunes through payoffs, graft and bribery came to light. In a convulsion of civic anger, District Attorney Matt Brady and Mayor Angelo Rossi were pressed to act, and they hired private investigator and former G-man Edwin N. Atherton. The so-called Atherton Report prompted dozens of cops to quit or lose their jobs, some went underground, one killed himself and his family. The entire police commission was forced to resign and reports of police payoffs, staged raids on gambling houses and brothels, bail bond skimming, unpaid loans to public officials and other were laid at the door of the House of McDonough.
Lost for more than seventy years, here is the infamous Atherton Report.

The 1937 San Francisco Police Graft Report by Edwin Atherton (Thanks, hankchapot!)

Rudy Rucker, KW Jeter and Jay Lake: free reading in San Francisco this Sat

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:50:05 +0000

Rina from San Francisco's SF in SF reading series sez, "Join SF in SF for a very special evening with steampunk innovators K. W. Jeter, Jay Lake, and Rudy Rucker on Saturday, February 11th. Each author will read a selection, followed by Q & A moderated by author Terry Bisson; booksigning and schmoozing follows. Books for sale courtesy of Borderlands Books." (The Hobart Bldg., 1st Floor, cash bar and doors open at 6PM, San Francisco). (Thanks, Rina!)

Impromptu to do today in SF: Johann Sebastian Joust in Yerba Buena Gardens

Dean Putney — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:31:56 +0000

This afternoon some friends and I will be playing this new game we really like in Yerba Buena Gardens, and you're welcome to join us.

Johann Sebastian Joust is basically like high-tech tag. Each person has a Playstation Move controller, and the object of the game is to jostle other people's controllers so that you're the last man standing. The twist is that as you play, a Bach concerto will also be playing and its tempo indicates the upper threshold for how much your controller can be jostled before you're out.

If you want to play, we'll be in Yerba Buena Gardens today at 5PM. You don't need to bring anything, we have a full set of controllers, and we'll trade off. See you there!

On the horrors of getting approval for an ice-cream parlour in San Francisco

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:03:27 +0000

The NYT's Scott James recounts the insane red-tape endured by Juliet Pries, an entrepreneur who decided to open an ice-cream parlour in San Francisco's Cole Valley. She had to pay rent on an empty storefront for over two years while the necessary permits were processed, and tens of thousands of dollars in fees (including the cost of producing a detailed map of nearby businesses, which the city itself seemed not to have). If the story sounds familiar, it's because it was the subject of a notorious Xtranormal-produced Hello City Planner video that used it as an example to lampoon the planning bureaucracy in San Francisco.

Pries's restaurant, the Ice Cream Bar, is a popular hit, and employs 14 people, but “Many times it almost didn’t happen," as she says, due to the incredibly administrative hurdles she faced in opening it.

Ms. Pries said she had to endure months of runaround and pay a lawyer to determine whether her location (a former grocery, vacant for years) was eligible to become a restaurant. There were permit fees of $20,000; a demand that she create a detailed map of all existing area businesses (the city didn’t have one); and an $11,000 charge just to turn on the water.
The ice cream shop’s travails are at odds with the frequent promises made by the mayor and many supervisors that small businesses and job creation are top priorities.
The matter has also alarmed some business leaders, who point out that few small ventures could survive such long delays.
“Someone of lesser fortitude would have left three months into it,” Ted Loewenberg, president of the Haight Ashbury Improvement Association, said of Ms. Pries. “Through these hard times we’ve heard all the rhetoric about streamlining the process, about one-stop shopping. It hasn’t happened.”

The link comes by way of JWZ, owner of the DNA Lounge and the adjacent pizzeria, who notes that, "I started the process of trying to cut a door in the wall between my restaurant and nightclub in February 2011. It is now February 2012, and we still don't have the necessary permits and have not yet begun construction. If we have a door in that wall -- and are allowed to let people walk through it -- before 2013, we will consider ourselves lucky."

Before Ice Cream Shop Can Open, City’s Slow Churn

Clever-folding tyvek San Francisco map, with out-of-the-way landmarks

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:06:20 +0000

Shan sez, "Our guide/map of SF is printed on a single sheet of A3 Tyvek, and is then folded up according to a technique originally developed at Tokyo University for satellite solar panels. The bistable nature of the fold means that it can be fully opened or closed in one smooth motion, and that there is no way to fold it 'wrong.' The places we included are a mix of overlooked gems, classic restaurants, and other things like hidden parks, games played across the city, and interesting shops and markets. We just launched our project on Kickstarter yesterday evening, and as of today we're almost 10% funded!"

TOC Guide to SF (Thanks, Shan!)

Little Brother play, extended

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:50:23 +0000

The San Francisco Chronicle loves the stage adaptation of my novel Little Brother, and brings the welcome news that its run has been extended by two weeks!

SF in SF reading series returns

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:00:55 +0000

The next installment of San Francisco's SF in SF reading series, on Jan 28, features Ryan Boudinot (Blueprints of the Afterlife) and Ayize Jama-Everett (The Liminal People). Organizer Rina Wiseman writes, "it's Debut Novel Drink Night! Join us for an SF in SF Sling...we can't tell you what's in it til you get here!" Free admission (suggested $5-$10 donation). Doors open 6PM. 582 Market Street @ 2nd and Montgomery.

Little Brother stage-play in San Francisco

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:53:32 +0000

There's a new stage adaptation of my novel Little Brother opening in San Francisco. Charlie Jane Anders from IO9 got to go to the preview and loved it, which is incredibly heartening, since I won't get to see it!

So I'll just say that the version I saw was powerful and brilliant, and the cast was note-perfect, especially Daniel Petzold as Marcus Yallow. (The other two castmembers, Marissa Keltie and Cory Censoprano, have a harder task in some ways, since they play a variety of roles throughout the show. And they're both great as well.) The stage play uses a lot of pre-recorded video and some very clever sets to create a lot of different settings, as well as giving a primer in topics like the futility of using data-mining to catch terrorists.

Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother becomes a must-see stage play

Amateur color film of San Francisco, 1955

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:51:08 +0000

Rick Prelinger sez, "Here's a little holiday gift from Prelinger Archives. It's the work of accomplished amateur filmmaker (and expert tinkerer) Tullio Pellegrini, who combined a 16mm Bell & Howell Cinemascope lens with the wonders of Kodachrome and made this homage to the city of San Francisco. You'll see Playland, our oceanside amusement park which was closed in 1972, very rare footage of the SkyTram (an extinct ride over Seal Rocks and Sutro Baths), and a brakescreeching ride down the Crookedest Street in the World. Happy Holidays!"

San Francisco 1955 in Cinemascope, captured by amateur filmmaker

FOGCon: new literary sf convention in San Francisco

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:20:13 +0000

Keyan sez, "FOGcon is a new literary-themed SF/F con in the tradition of Wiscon and Readercon, but based in San Francisco Bay Area. It was held for the first time in 2011. This year (2012) it'll be from March 30-April 1, 2012, at the Walnut Creek Marriott. The theme is 'The Body', with two wonderful Honored Guests, writer Nalo Hopkinson and writer and artist Shelley Jackson. It's a great con with a warm and friendly ambiance, a manageable size, and intelligent programming. And it's less than an hour from down-town San Francisco."

FOGcon

Derek Kirk Kim's Same Difference: slacker Korean-American kids come of age in the Bay Area

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:22:35 +0000

FirstSecond has just re-released Derek Kirk Kim's Same Difference, his Ignatz, Harvey and Eisner award-winning indie comic from his early career. The FirstSecond edition is absolutely gorgeous, with a transparent plastic dustjacket printed with bug-eyed goldfish that swim through the cover-art.

Same Difference is the story of Korean-American 20-something slackers in San Francisco who wrestle with the stereotypes and ambitions that they feel guide their lives. It has the feel of vintage Douglas Coupland, a drifting ennui shot through with moments of human warmth and connection. And though it's a quick read, it leaves a lasting emotional coal smouldering in its wake.

Same Difference

List of San Francisco long-term brothels, 1937

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:42:59 +0000

Hank sez, "The San Francisco Examiner reported in March 1937 that private investigator Edwin Atherton, hired by the city to investigate police graft, delivered a list of 135 long-term brothels, called 'resorts,' to the Grand Jury investigation police corruption, finding bordellos in neighborhoods from South of Market to North Beach."

San Francisco Examiner lists 135 long-established house of prostitution (Thanks, Hank!)

The mystery of the Lower Haight's Peacock Lounge

Dean Putney — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:41:21 +0000

Rose Garrett over at The Bold Italic did some crackerjack investigative work on a little lounge nestled between the bars in the Lower Haight of San Francisco. The Peacock Lounge is almost always closed, only very rarely opened for private events. Rose's attempts to reach someone, anyone, associated with the venue go unanswered until its doors serendipitously open again to host a neighborhood meeting:

Nate also shared with me a detail that went a long way toward explaining why Peacock Lounge was such an enigma. He said the space was not, and was never meant to be, a bar or nightlife venue. It was owned and operated by Unity Masonic Hall, located upstairs, and its main use was as a private social hall for the Black Masons.

A The Bold Italic Mystery - Entering the Nest - Thanks, John!

Buddhist monk vs hackerspace

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 20:58:45 +0000

Here's a piece of hackerspace lore from earlier this summer. Rinpoche Fa Zang, a Buddhist monk, believed (incorrectly) that the rule of the San Francisco Noisebridge hackerspace was that "if the space was not being used, it could be used for anything." So he and his disciples rearranged the hackerspace into a shrine and began conducting services in it.

What followed was a gentle but insistent tug of war between a group of anti-authoritarian hackers and a monk, as documented by Danny O'Brien, one of the funniest people I know.

A few hours later, Fa Zang left me a voicemail. I have the MP3 if anyone wants it. It is awesome, and here is the transcript:
"Sir,
This is Fa Zang (Rinpoche). You seem to have forgotten that this country was found... to things written in the Constitution. Our founding forefathers promised us we would have freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. You remember the things that Thomas Jefferson said, about tyranny and religion? If you don't you should look it up. What you people are doing is completely erroneous, I haven't held any ceremonies there, I've simply been paying homage to the teachings I listen to there. And so you are breaking your own by-laws and the constitutional rights of people who come there by doing what you're doing. I think you should reconsider what you're doing."
So there you go. As someone who is also a fan of the founding fathers and ...things written in the Constitution, I'm sensitive to issues regarding religion, so I've been actively seeking out someone who is okay with the meditating, and the incense, and the shrining, and the constantly bloody moving of the tables and chairs. Let me know if you want to represent the Rinpoche's position in this disagreement.
In the mean time, if you agree with what is smelling to me like consensus, and if you see the Rinpoche in the road, or even in the space, can you ask him to keep the ceremonial stuff to Macang Monastery, where he lives.

(via Oblomovka)

(Image: 2009 Bay Area Maker Faire, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from mightyohm's photostream)

[Noisebridge-discuss] update on the shrine! [noisebridge.net]

Fire-escape haircut

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:43:13 +0000

From the Boing Boing Flickr pool, a candid moment of a young man cutting his hair on a San Francisco fire-escape, by Erik Wilson.

Fire Escape Haircut 2 [secure.flickr.com]

Hacker Prom tonight at San Francisco's Noisebridge hackerspace

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:03:25 +0000

NoiseBridge, the celebrated hackerspace in San Francisco's Mission district, is celebrating its third anniversary tonight with a Hacker Prom. There's a makeout room (featuring Makerbots), pre-spiked punch, and awkward prom photos. You're encouraged to bring a robot date. Oh, this does look fun!

The whole event is a fundraiser for NoiseTor, a part of the TOR anonymizing proxy system, which creates and manages Tor nodes for those without the time to set one up themselves.

(Thanks, Danny!)

Noisebridge 3 Year Anniversary – Hacker Prom! [blog.noisebridge.net]

Occupy Wall Street spreads to more US cities

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:20:53 +0000

The "Occupy Wall Street" protests in New York City are inspiring similar demonstrations in other US cities. Above, in San Francisco on Thursday, protesters scuffle with a Charles Schwab employee at the door during a rally against corruption and fraud by American banking institutions.

Are there demonstrations in your area, Boing Boing readers? We're hearing of similar rumblings in Detroit, and other areas. Let us know what's happening where you are, in the comments.

(REUTERS/Stephen Lam)

Broken-hearted boat-builder seeks garage

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:26:23 +0000

A broken-hearted person in Heather's neighbourhood is building a boat. He wants your help, your garage, and your company.

hayes [flickr.com]

BART Police website hacker had no previous experience

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 05:49:31 +0000

Lamaline_5mg, the alleged "French woman" who cracked the BART Police Officers' Website Association site claims to have no experience with hacking: "They had zero security." SFWeekly writes, "she figured out how to get into BART's website by a one-page PDF tutorial and googling 'site:bartpoa.com inurl:.asp?'"