The Daily Nugget is officially on hiatus until whenever I get around to it. The site will not go down, but do not expect new posts in the near future. Seriously, I went from writing a daily nugget, to a weekly nugget, to a monthly nugget and now I can’t even squeeze out a quarterly nugget. There is just too much going on in my life right now. A 21-month-old at home, taking accounting classes, and studying for the CPA exam have all taken time away from my blogging pastime. I miss it, but I only have time to update Facebook once in a while with baby photos. I highly recommend the following blogs: SFist – Local San Francisco news and happenings Thank you to all my readers and supporters over the years–your clicking the ads have helped keep the lights on. |
Remember this nut that decided to climb the Millennium Tower without thinking about the crazy ass downtown traffic it would cause? He was found guilty today of creating a public nuisance and delaying his own arrest. When sentenced he will face a fine of up to $1,000 and a year in jail. The moral of the story: don’t mess with downtown traffic! |
If you need another reason to turn on the auto password lock timer on your phone, this is it! The California Supreme court determined through a majority 5-2 decision today that if you are arrested a cop can search the entire contents of your cell phone without a warrant. Justices Kathryn Mickle Werdegar and Carlos Moreno wrote in dissent,
I have to agree with the fact that a cell phone can contain as much information as a full filing cabinet that you would keep in your home. If you need a warrant to open a filing cabinet, then I would argue that you need a warrant to see the contents of the cell phone. And you just know that cops will abuse this and search cell phones before making the decision to arrest you. The best protection is to turn on encryption and the auto lock timer feature so that your phone locks automatically when not in use. Sure, it’s a pain in the ass to put in your password every single time, but your privacy is worth it in the long run should you ever be in the wrong place at the wrong time. |
 According to this article, the House of Shields bar reopened last night and I will be stopping by there later today to check it out for myself. The big rumor is that there are no televisions there, which is a throwback to the days when the bar was established back in 1908. That means that you should be able to hear your friends speak. The House of Shields is a San Francisco institution that you have to check out. It’s located at 39 New Montgomery, just South of Market Street. |
This lady is bat shit crazy and clearly off her meds. She seriously thinks that Obama and reptile aliens will kill us all (video link). If this lady watches the TV show V when it comes back on air, she may actually think it’s a news report. |
This is an amazing, well-produced video of SF Giants World Championship Parade. |
After watching this video I am convinced that robots will rise up and kill us all someday. I mean just look at her! She looks like she’s planning some shiznit right now!! I am convinced that she’s about to step up and attack someone in that room. |
Meg Whitman has famously spent more than $140 million of her own money running for governor of our grand state and is still trailing Jerry Brown just two weeks before the election by 13 points. This is proof positive that all the money in the world can’t make you likable when you are as unlikable as Meg Whitman. I mean just look at her! If she loses the election (which seems likely and makes me really giddy) it may make her the biggest loser in the history of politics. Meg Whitman has a bunch of ads that claim that she came to California 30 years ago because it was so effing awesome back then. Well, someone at the Jerry Brown campaign remembered that Jerry Brown was the governor 30 years ago (see awesome ad below). Zing! Thank you, Meg Whitman, you just helped your opponent make his best argument: “I have been governor and you have not.” Game. Set. Match. Adios. |
Gap’s new logo came and went in less than a week. Much like New Coke, there was a huge public outcry about the new logo. The backlash was swift and furious and the new logo lasted less than a week. In contrast, New Coke was on the market for a little less than three months before Coca-Cola brought back the original formula as “Coca-Cola Classic” back in 1985. The moral of the story: if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. |
The Amazing Race is one of my favorite TV shows. The last couple of seasons have kind of sucked, but I am still a loyal fan. I think that this video clip from the upcoming Amazing Race 17 shows what makes the show so good. It brings people out of their comfort zones and puts them in situations where they may get hurt. I love the slow motion replay too. TAR 17 premieres on September 26th. |
 An old man decided to climb the Millennium Tower and cause all kinds of traffic ruckus yesterday. The reason for all this craziness? “To dramatize the vulnerability of skyscrapers to terrorism and his own fight against cancer.” Uh, so now we are all informed: skyscrapers are vulnerable. Oh wait, that’s right, there was this small event called 9/11 which really dramatized the vulnerability of skyscrapers a few years back. Have you heard of that old man?! We don’t need you to tell us skyscrapers are vulnerable. Other ways people learn skyscrapers are vulnerable: getting stuck in elevators and spitting (or being hit by spit) from the top of buildings. We really don’t need your assistance to understand the effects of gravity. And cancer. Almost everyone knows someone that has died from cancer. Unless you have a new rare Ostrich Ass Crack virus that you picked up and needs attention, please keep your feet firmly planed on the ground. Also, if you want to impress us, you need to free climb the building like Alain Robert. You used suction cups. Suction cups!? How are we supposed to take you seriously buddy? I mean c’mon!! Needless to say, most people in The City didn’t appreciate the street closure, extra traffic and emergency vehicles. You are just plain lucky the residents in the building gave you water out of their windows instead of trying to take you out Crazy Climber style with a flower pot. Thanks for nothing and enjoy jail. |
Derek Powazek wrote a great blog post with ten very helpful tips on how to be a driver in The City. I read through these and can say that they are all reasonable and actionable. The only tip I would add to the list is that if you are a serious San Francisco driver is that you should know all of the events going on in The City at all times. San Francisco is very small and any event causes a huge traffic backlog. You should know the one day a month when Critical Mass is taking place (last Friday of every month). You should know when parades (Folsom Street, Haight Street Festival, Gay Pride), races (Bay to Breakers, SF Marathon, AIDS Walk), and street closures (JFK in Golden Gate Park on Sundays, filming downtown) are happening to avoid being stuck in traffic. The days when these events are happening are walking days, period. Only advanced drivers should attempt to drive around major events while they are taking place. Send your friends a link to Derek’s tips next time they come into The City and check the event schedule while you are at it. If there is a parade or major event that day, just tell them to take BART or MUNI coming in. Good luck drivers! |
 Via xkcd. |
Wired used the following graph to validate the assertion that the web is dead as a proportion of total internet traffic:  However, Wired failed to account for the growth of Internet traffic during the same period. There millions of web pages created every single day. Just because the size of these web pages is small in comparison to video doesn’t take away the fact that more web pages are created than videos posted every single day. Also, the idea that video is *not* part of web traffic is a bit silly, since YouTube is alas a website on the web and responsible for majority of the video traffic on the Internet. Taking into account the growth in traffic, the graph should look like this:  Yeah, I don’t think we need to worry about the death of the web any time soon. The growth isn’t even slowing down yet. Perhaps in an alternate universe where publishing to the Internet is limited to a select group of people the Web is dead, but not here. Via BoingBoing. |
A German tourist was struck by a car and killed this weekend while riding a bike in the North Panhandle on Masonic and Turk. While just last weekend, another German tourist was shot and killed by a stray bullet just one block from Union Square on Mason and Geary. It’s hard to believe that German tourists were involved in both of these tragic incidents. The shooting last weekend was particularly tragic, since the lady that was shot was only walking down the street after dinner, not riding a bike through city streets which is inherently dangerous. Stay safe. |
In case you haven’t already noticed, The Daily Nugget is on hiatus and I haven’t posted new entries for the last three months. With a one-year-old baby at home I just have not had enough time to post (see moblog for baby). I hope to update the whole site to include Facebook registration and a few other new features within the next month or so. Once the new features are installed I will resume posting. |
Wired did a great Q&A with the creator of Pac-Man for its 30th anniversary. Happy Birthday Packie! “I got a pocket full of quarters and I’m headin’ to the arcade…” |
This video captures the craziness of Bay to Breakers 2010 in a nutshell. I love the fun of the race, but the drunkenness and public urination (and even defecation) I think we can do without. Either way, B2B is uniquely San Francisco. Big ups to “rockjonj” for putting this together. Update: Here’s a link to SFGate’s great photos of the event as well. |
Sweet video of a bright summer day at Dolores Park in San Francisco. |
The Better Marriage Blanket (YouTube Infomercial) is a fart filter that uses “the same fabric used by the military to protect from chemical weapons.” It would make an awesome wedding gag gift. It’s just too bad most of my friends are married. |