Lee.org

There have been 2 days of protests inside the BART system. On Thursday Aug 11, protests got off to a slower than anticipated start when BART turned off the cell phones in all the downtown stations, making Flash-Mob style organizing impossible. Today, protesters roamed around downtown, causing BART to close all the stations from Civic Center to Embarcadero.

On Thursday, protesters tried to forcibly disrupt train service in protest to all the recent BART police killings. More about that later but I say that disruptive actions like this should certainly not be the first act of a civil disobedience group. It shows a lack of maturity, strength of character, and moral high ground.

Now let’s discuss all the recent BART police killings.

The No Justice No BART website has this on their homepage

DISBAND THE BART POLICE!
No Justice No BART is a campaign of protests targeting the BART system. We are fighting for justice for Charles Hill, Oscar Grant, Fred Collins, Bruce Seward, Jerrold Hall, Robert Greer, and all victims of BART police violence and murder. We demand that BART disband its murderous, inept, corrupt police department.

Who are all these victims? Let’s find out. Tell me how you feel about BART after reading their stories.

(much of the text below was lifted directly from the mentioned news outlets)

Charles Hill was shot and killed July 3. The BART survellence video shows the officer shooting and then a knife with a 4″ blade skittering across the floor at the officer. I would conjecture that Mr Hill was holding the knife high and the shock of being shot caused him to throw it down forcefully. I don’t know how close Mr Hill was to the officer but the video implies the officer did the right thing as a dangerous attacker approached the uniformed officer wielding a knife despite being told to drop it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v2WnPxwNAo

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Oscar Grant was shot and killed Jan 1, 2009. BART officer Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to two years, minus time served. He served his time in the Los Angeles County Jail, occupying a private cell away from other prisoners. He was released on June 13, 2011 and is now on parole. Video of the shooting shows Mehserle and the officers around him very surprised and distraught immediately after the shot; it didn’t look like Mehserle intended to shoot him, he likely thought he was reaching for his Taser. A horrible, tragic mistake.

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Fred Collins was shot and killed on Saturday July 19th, 2010 by Oakland and BART police officers after charging against them with knives in each hand … The incident began when a 911 call alerted Oakland police to a man wielding a knife in the 3200 block of East 12th Street… Upon seeing the BART police officers approach him, one witness said, Collins began screaming “shoot me, shoot me, shoot me” and took off running, Thomason said… Oakland police Officer Jeff Thomason said Collins had been arrested in the past for prior incidents of assaults on officers, terrorist threats and resisting arrest.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/19/BAPG1EGADV.DTL

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Bruce Seward
Officer David Betancourt, a 22-year law enforcement veteran, shot a naked Bruce Seward outside the Hayward BART station before dawn on Memorial Day in 2001. Seward, 42, was asleep on a bench and appeared unconscious. After calling for an ambulance, Betancourt approached when Seward woke up, grabbed the officer’s nightstick and swung, smacking the patrol car, police said. Betancourt used pepper spray on Seward, but it had no effect, police said. Family members and mental health advocates decried the shooting, but a BART review cleared Betancourt of wrongdoing.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oakland-bart-shooting-headlines/ci_11369405

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Jerrold Hall
A tragic story of a boy who was possibly murdered by a BART police officer and the corrupt coverup where the officer got away… November 15th, 1992.
http://www.sfbg.com/2009/01/05/lethal-force?page=0,0

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Robert Greer… I can’t find any information about him

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And there is one more they left off the list, shot by SF Police while getting off the Muni:
Kenneth Harding
Shot and killed by San Francisco police July 16th, 2011 after getting off a Muni train.
Convicted of trying to force a 14 year old into prostitution, wanted for questioning in connection with a recent murder in Seattle, he ran from police and shot at them when they questioned him for fare evasion. The police returned fire but he may have accidentally or intentionally killed himself. Officers were firing .40 caliber bullets but he was killed by a .380 bullet and they found a .380 caliber bullet in his jacket, the gun was stolen from the scene (because, hey, free gun!) so they don’t know. Read the article.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/21/kenneth-harding-shooting-self-inflicted-killing_n_906356.html

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Correct me if I’m wrong but it looks like the score that No Justice No BART is trying to settle is:

* Drunk guy threatening officer with a knife gets shot in 2011
* Crazy guy with a knife attacking people gets shot in 2010
* Mistaken use of a gun by an officer, paid for with a year in jail in 2009
* Crazy guy swinging a club at officer is maced and shot in 2001
* A very suspicious, corrupt shooting by an officer in 1992
* Robert Greer ???

It doesn’t seem like a very high score.

March 1 thru August 16th homicides in the Bay Area

Have you seen how violent San Francisco and Oakland are and what the police deal with? Take a look at Crimemapping. From March 1 til today, there were at least 75 reported murders in the Bay Area. Over the three day July 4th weekend there were some 200 assaults (I would try to measure a longer period but the mapping website can only put a maximum of 800 dots on a map). To be clear, I am not saying anything like “come on, give the police a break”, I am saying that we are living in a violent, dynamic world and we shouldn’t be surprised when we see violent, dangerous behavior met with strongly.

July 4th weekend assaults

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If you disagree with where I’m going with this, all I ask is that you counter my argument with facts. And if I have swayed you, tell a friend.

(I wrote most of this yesterday but updated enough that I want you to notice this is a new version, hence “Redux” in the title.)

The Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum
Mouse-over this panorama! (yes, I took this with my phone and stitched it together)
[photonav url=’http://lee.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/udvar-hazy.jpg’ popup=colorbox container_height=450]

Or look at the whole image:

A 2 hour long docent tour flew by in just a few moments in this phenomenal hall.

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Infinity Nets Yellow by Yayoi Kusama. These images don’t do it justice. Standing in front of the painting, the patterns swirl with a mix of intention and abandon.

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No More Dry Runs by Kim Rugg. A close inspection shows that an actual newspaper was cut into thousands of pieces. Complete nonsense (?) was born of sense.

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I saw parts of Goddard’s first rocket at the National Air and Space Museum… the first liquid fueled rocket. That filled me with glee. And I was amazed at seeing the backup Hubble mirror, one of the most perfectly formed objects ever built. What set me most at ease though were a pair of giant war rockets at the entrance to the National Air and Space Museum. A Pershing II and SS-20 missile, so large their noses almost touch the 4 story ceiling of the museum. Each missile carried multi-kiloton nuclear warheads, launched 3,000 miles from their target, delivering their payload in just a few minutes, travelling so fast they were essentially unstoppable. These two hulks sit, stripped of their innards because they were outlawed by international treaty. The world doesn’t need mutually assured destruction. I am so glad the Cold War is over.
I framed the picture a little off. I took the photo with my right hand and I’m giving a big thumbs-up with my left.

I just got back from a trip to Washington DC to see a long time friend Maura.
* Meeting at the airport… it’s always good to see old friends!
* Waffles (from the super-snazzy Chef’s Choice WafflePro Express waffle maker I got Maura for Christmas)
* Fun
* A fine and fun (and free) tour of historic Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria Virginia, that included seeing people in period dress, gadgetry, and English Country Dancing (which was far more fun than I had originally been led to believe by my previous examinations into the subject)
* got candy at Candy’s Candy
* Saw Jamey Turner the glass harmonica guy in front of the Torpedo Factory
* Grilled cheese at Cheesetique for dinner!
* We sadly had not left room for ice cream, but that’s ok.

Went to the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Center. We spent 2 hours on the most amazing tour of everything! Some highlights: The Enola Gay, Space Shuttle Enterprise, WWII Corsair & Hurricane & Spitfire, Gemini capsules, Joint Strike Fighter Vertical Takeoff engine (I have no idea how they fit that giant thing inside the plane!)

Went to the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art. I needed to see the giant Calder mobile because I never really liked it. But Maura tells me that he practically invented the art mobile… well not really but it was pretty revolutionary when he did his. I like his work now :-). Upstairs in one of the towers there was this pretty awesome art exhibit by Nam June Paik, a real candle at one end of the room was in front of a camera and it’s live image was projected up on the walls. Definitely cool. On a table, an egg was being videoed. Next to the egg was a small television with the live image of the egg. And next to that there was another small television with the tube removed, replaced with an egg. Totally groovy.

Went to Mitsitam inside the Museum of the American Indian on the mall for lunch. I highly recommend it. It’s cafeteria style and you can walk up to the “Mezoamerica” area to get food from that region, “Northern Woodlands” has crab apples and potatoes, “Great Plains” has other native foods. It was a living, tastable food adventure! Check out their menu!

Went to National Air and Space Museum… saw parts of Goddard’s first rocket, saw 2 ICBMs; Russian and American; now outlawed; ending the Cold War, saw the actual Hubble backup mirror; one of the most carefully shaped objects in the world.

Went to a popup restaurant, America Eats. Actually it is more of a temporary art installation of a restaurant. With things like the world’s first gaspacho soup, Waldorf salad, and “vermiccelli prepared like pudding” which is (probably rightfully) claimed to be macaroni and cheese’s grandfather. The restaurant is a complimentary part of a Library of Congress exhibit.

Went to the National Portrait Gallery… saw a tiny photo of a young Lincoln and then another 4 years later, ouch the presidency made him old quick. Saw the Lansdowne portrait of Washington. We both wondered WTF was up with the crappy rainbow in the upper right corner: the colors are crappy and all in the wrong order and the direction of the sun is wrong. It was such an afterthought!

Saw the Calder wireframes, which were pretty awesome. Saw the originals of the paintings on the $20 and $100 bill. Heard stories about Singer (of sewing machine fame), the founder of the girl scouts (who lost her hearing due to rice in her ear on her wedding day, hurumph!), and Walt Witman, saw a young George Washington portrait. And heard the story of Sequoyah, a Cherokee who invented the Cherokee syllabary in 1819, by 1830 Cherokee literacy had gone from 0% to 90%! Talk about an idea who’s time had come!

No, it won’t be televised. It’ll be live at The Dark Room in September!

local version:

This Greasemonkey script will lift all the Questions you answered on OKCupid so you can take them with you. OKCupid questions downloader. It puts them into JSON format which you should be able to convert into other, more readable formats.

I don’t have any good way of copying the other data, messages and photos and such. But that greasemonkey script is a good start.

I’m mostly giving up on OKCupid. I’ve been at it a while and I keep finding people that say, “You’re really great but I just realized I’m not available.” Some literally already had one-way plane tickets to India or New York before we met, some don’t know if they want to date at all. I’m a bit bitter.

My niece is running a Monster High drawing contest. Monster High are dolls very popular with the under 16 set. If you have friends that are fans of the dolls, watch “Kelsey”‘s video and make your submission!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKK5AHrS8NI

This from Simone Davalos of Robogames.net

We only have three days!

Hey guys and gals, I am popping up and will offer you labor, time, excitement and beer if you help me spread the word and vote for a grant for RoboGames for the Pepsi Refresh program!

Here’s the link: http://pep.si/nHlOZZ

We’re up for a chunk of change which would enable us to get more kids competing at RoboGames and generally make things more badass than ever! The top 15 finishers get funded, it will be so easy if we mobilize everyone we know!

Please send it to lists, tweet, facebook, whatever. The Robots thank you!

Thank you!

I went out with Rick, Charlotte, her brother Robert, and Laurie last week and saw “Pornography in Denmark”. It was pretty awesome from several angles: historical, sociologically, and hey porn is pretty much always awesome.

Short form: there were laws against hardcore porn for pleasure but an exemption for documentaries. Exploit the loophole. Make money. Change attitudes and laws about porn in America. Win.

Yes, it’s a real documentary. The most striking moment for me was watching a couple going at it and hearing the narrator list off the prices of myriad pornographic literature. The intention was clear from a documentarian’s viewpoint, “See this? This is big business. We should have this in the US.” But I was a bit distracted to listen to the prices. ;-)

Here is the (fascinating) handout we got before the film:

PORNOGRAPHY IN DENMARK
(aka: CENSORSHIP IN DENMARK: A NEW APPROACH) BY ALEX DE RENZY (1969, 90 min, 16mm)
The film you will see tonight completely changed the exhibition of sexually-oriented films in San Francisco. It was the first film containing hardcore sex to be shown publicly here. From this point forward interest dwindled in softcore sexploitation, and dozens of theaters jumped on the hardcore bandwagon (including the Roxie in the Mission).

It’s worth noting that this is an artifact, and not fine art. lt was made by a 34-year-old Alex de Renzy, at the world’s first sex trade show in Copenhagen. Because the film is constructed as a documentary, de Renzy was able to include hardcore material being presented at the convention. He could then argue that the footage was justified within the context of a documentary about censorship and pornography, but was not pornography itself.

He began showing it at his own theater, The Screening Room, at 220 Jones Street, where he had been presenting softcore pictures since 1967 (most of which he made himself). The film cost de Renzy $15,000 to make. It sold $25,000 worth of tickets in its first week, and is said to have gone on to gross over 2 million. The Screening Room was raided dozens of times by the police, but de Renzy was never successfully convicted of anything.

He went on to become a hugely successful pornographer, directing several films which are considered classics of the genre, including Pretty Peaches, Babyface and Femmes de Sade. He introduced at least three actresses who went on to become icons of adult cinema; Desiree Cousteau, Annette Haven and Aunt Peg (Juliet Anderson) – who was a longtime volunteer here at YBCA until her death last year.

After these “golden age” classics, in his later years de Renzy churned out well over one hundred shot-on-video, anal sex oriented quickies under the pseudonym Rex Borsky. He died in June of 2001.

“Smut Capital of America: San Francisco’s Sex Cinema Revolution” film series continues through August 25. Visit www.YBCA.org for film descriptions and program details.
Program notes by Joel Shepard, YBCA Film/Video Curator

You missed this movie in this YBCA series but there are several more to see! The series ends this month so click and see some culturally relevant and historically important smut this month!

There are a few more films coming up as part of the series. Go see them.

If the “Check Engine” light in your car has come on and you find out what the trouble code is, you can use this website to find out what the code means:

http://www.canobd2.com

They also have THE database of car recalls. Check and see if your car has any recalls!

If you are intrigued at what is happening in this picture, you should go to  Inferno: A Fire Circus at the Crucible tonight at 7pm!