YouTube

San Mateo based YouTube offered a new service this week. Users can now upload movies from their video-capable camera phones to the website. Then email your friends the link. Cool.

Categories:Gadgets

Inflammable Material

Stiff Little Fingers will be at Slim's Friday June 16th.

I still like SLF because of the social and political angst. And it's really good punk rock.

I wonder what this band meant to people in Belfast living with 'The Troubles' in the late 70's? Did you have to be Catholic to like SLF?

I was there in 1976. The British Army were on the streets, and the police carried military rifles. I'd get stopped and searched at least once a day by the army, and they weren't messing around. It was a very dangerous and exciting place for a teenager.

36" Unicycle

On the way back from Marin yesterday I spied this group of unicyclists on the Golden Gate bridge. They were traveling smoothly at 10 to 12 mph. At first I thought they were mountain unicycles because of the large knobby tyres. But the 36" wheels are far to big for steep trails.

These guys weren't interested in clown outfits or juggling. They just wanted to ride fast.

Categories:Sports

Marin Headlands Nike Missile Site

I took the free tour of the missile site today, which included riding up out of the silo with the bomb (But they won't let you ride on the bomb!).

The guide explained that the missiles with the plain nose-cone carried conventional explosives, while the missiles with the black 'doodad' carried up to a 40 megaton nuclear bomb.









Both bombs would be launched to 120,000 ft then descend and explode in the vicinity of incoming aircraft. The guidance system uses a mechanical computer which can only handle one missile at a time. Once the first missile explodes they could launch the next one.



















The guide told me that the facility on Mt. Sutro was a missile tracking station and not a launch site as I stated here.

Colbert at White House Dinner

Thanks Google Video
Categories:Politics Movies

Shopping Cart Chair

I admire the mind that can imagine new uses for common objects.




Categories:Furniture

Presidio Housing Development

The Presidio covers a huge part of the city, and there are parts of the former army base you may not know about: Such as the former Public Health Service Hospital, which must easily be the most massive structure on the Presidio.

From the Presidio website:
"In the post-Gold Rush days of the mid-1800s, San Francisco was a booming city and port. In 1853, a Marine Hospital opened in the city to care at no charge for merchant seamen from all over the world. In 1875, a new Marine Hospital opened on the Presidio, with an expanded mission to serve immigrants, the U.S. Coast Guard, Native Americans, and patients with leprosy.

"In 1902, the Marine Hospital was renamed the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, and its mission was again expanded to include public health efforts such as plague eradication campaigns. In 1931, the old hospital was demolished and replaced with a 480-bed hospital and support buildings, all designed in the Georgian Revival style. In 1952, two new wings were added to the front of the hospital."

SF architectural blog SF Curbed reveals that the Presidio Trust has plans to turn the hospital into condos.

The developer Forest City will have to be very creative to make a silk purse out of this sows ear. Ideally the 1950's wings would be demolished, but Forest City insists that the project is only economically feasible with a minimum of 230 units. Plans had been scaled back from 350 units because of objections from Outer Richmond neighbours concerned about the additional traffic. And though they've reduced the number of units, each unit will now be proportionally larger to use all the available space, and the larger units will sell for more. Existing hospital parking should be adequate.


More than 200 very cool photos of the hospital on Flickr.






Thanks Curbed SF

Categories:San Francisco Architecture








Update January 24th,2009:
Work is underway to convert the old Marine Hospital into apartments. The two modern additions have been demolished, and I can see that minimal damage was done to the original building when the additions were added in 1952.

SF Nike Missile Sites

I didn't know until today that there had been a Nike missile site on the hill behind where I live. Chilling!

These ground to air missiles from the 1950's were designed to carry conventional explosives, and protect us from the kind of aerial bombing that devastated Britain and Germany in WW2.

Missile site SF88L on the Marin Headlands was equipped with the Nike-Hercules missile which was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. It was closed in 1974. It's been preserved and is open to the public on the first Sunday of the month, when you can watch a missile rotated out of its silo into the launch position. The military has never said whether Nike missile sites in the Bay Area had nuclear warheads.

Thanks Tam Valley Bike Club for the pictures
Categories:San Francisco

Vandelay Industries

It's not often you see a Mk1 Jaguar in original condition, with the original registration plates, and used as a daily driver. This one was parked near our new apartment on 8th and Kirkham.

Categories:Cars

Bicycle Floor Pump

I'm told that the correct way to store a floor pump is with the hose looped over the handle. That way you can pick the pump up by the handle, and the handle stays put. This pump came with an awkward clip to hold the hose in place, so I used a clip from the sparkplug wires on my car. It works great!




Categories:Sports