Flickr [RSS]

  • Ferry Building

    An amazing, albeit pricey, food shopping extravaganza at the foot of Market Street. I wasn’t around for the farmer’s market here on Saturday, but the regular stores and restaurants kept me well occupied.

    May 29

  • Bay Bridge, seagull

    Around the back side of the Ferry Building there are nice views of San Francisco Bay, and plenty of grubby-looking seagulls.

    May 29

  • Coit Tower

    I was in Washington Square and the #39 Coit bus was coming by, so I rode up Telegraph Hill to take some photos with the rest of the tourists. Although the view of the city and the bay is great from way up there, the trees on the hill have grown a bit too tall to allow good landscape photography from ground level.

    May 29

  • Jon Lester warming up

    After doing long-toss, Lester moved to the visiting bullpen down the right-field line to throw off the mound before the game. John Farrell supervises here on the right. Lester went five innings in the game, giving up four runs (three earned), and striking out three batters. Oakland finished the three-game sweep of the Red Sox with a final score of 6-3.

    May 29

  • Saints Peter and Paul Church

    I shot some photos around Washington Square before meeting friends at Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store Café for lunch.

    May 29

  • Blue Bottle cappuccino

    Ordinarily I just drink drip or French press, but here I went with a cappuccino because it was before 11:00 AM (the only correct time to drink the foamy stuff) and because I was at hoity-toity Blue Bottle Coffee.

    May 29

  • Josh Beckett throwing long-toss

    Beckett warms up at McAfee Coliseum before going up against the Athletics on May 24, 2008. He threw seven innings, giving up two runs and striking out nine batters. The Red Sox, however, were held to one hit and no runs over the entire game and Beckett took the loss.

    May 29

  • Transamerica Pyramid

    The Transamerica Pyramid, viewed edge-on from the east. The trees at the bottom of the frame are redwoods in the little park adjacent to the building.

    May 29

  • Clay Street typography

    Most sidewalks in San Francisco have their respective street names embossed into the concrete near the intersections. Here on Clay Street near the Transamerica Pyramid, there are actual metal letters pressed into the ground. Unfortunately, two-thirds of them are wrong. The C and S are flipped vertically and the A and Y are flipped horizontally. Actually, I bet the T is backwards too, although since it’s symmetrical it doesn’t matter; my guess is that these metal letterforms are supposed to be installed with the flush side to the pavement, like the L here.

    May 29

  • Toronado

    Superb pub in the Lower Haight. Those listings on the wall are the draught beers, 52 varieties from a couple dozen different breweries. The only thing missing here is a patio, but that’s a bit of a quibble. Tragically, Rosamunde, the equally superb sausage grill next door that exists in a symbiotic relationship with Toronado, was closed for some minor renovations while I was in town, so I was unable to enjoy the take-out sausage experience while drinking my pints.

    May 29

Delicious [RSS]

  • Porky in Wackyland

    Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938. This cartoon was made in 1939. I’m just saying.

    July 24

  • Ebert’s Most Hated

    Collection of excerpts from the most negative of Roger Ebert’s movie reviews, with links to the full reviews. The worst reviews are always the funniest, of course.

    July 24

  • RI man arrested for DUI on I-95 with .491 BAC

    Rhode Island’s drunkest person on record short of fatal alcohol poisoning. At that level of inebriation, I wonder if you can actually light your breath on fire.

    July 23

  • Cast of 300 Advises Obama on Foreign Policy

    For a second I thought this was referring to the movie “300” and I became very confused. This! Is! Obaamaaaa! (Kicks McCain into a bottomless pit.)

    July 17

  • Human Computation

    Google tech talk by a CMU prof who does work on making AI-hard problems into games so that people will solve them voluntarily, for fun.

    July 17

  • New Yorkers try to swallow calorie sticker shock

    I think the calorie-labeling law in NYC makes plenty of sense, given the existence of idiots like the woman quoted at the end of this story, who apparently thinks calories only count if you read about them before ordering.

    July 16

  • Anatomy of a bank failure: When the liquidators come calling

    Wall Street Journal piece on how the FDIC liquidates failed banks. These guys are like the CIA of the financial industry. Awesome.

    July 12

  • D-Listed Decor

    Compilation of hilariously awful home furnishings being offered for sale on Craigslist. Just try and imagine the people that would buy some of these things.

    July 11

  • Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

    Online copy of Charles Mackay’s 1841 treatise on fads, follies, and manias.

    July 9

  • The Eagle and the Dragon, part two: Requiem for a dream

    “America’s credit-crunched suburbs may be facing a decline as dramatic as that of Detroit.” The fifty mile out of town suburb is already a corpse, but it has only just begun to decay.

    July 6

  • The Economic Organisation of a P.O.W. Camp

    What happens when an economist is captured by the Germans during WWII? He writes a paper on the bartering market that develops in his prison camp. Fascinating story, no heavy economics background necessary.

    July 6

  • At $100 for Tank of Gas, Some Choke on ‘Fill It’

    I like the Floridian chiropractor who drives a huge pickup truck and pays $130 to gas it up. I guess he must use it to haul all his… chiropractic… stuff.

    July 5

  • Jesse Helms dies at 86

    Happy Independence Day, America! I bet when he finally croaked, his body flew apart into a swarm of bats and mosquitos like Nosferatu.

    July 4

  • 101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics

    Personally I don’t do too many picnics per se, but a lot of these mini-recipes seem like good candidates for snack-type foods to stick in the fridge and nibble on throughout the week.

    July 2

  • James Dobson accuses Obama of “distorting” Bible

    Fundamentalist cleric forgets Matthew 7:3 – “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

    June 24

Miscellany

Contact info

  • My e-mail address: the name jack, followed by the “at” symbol, followed by the domain jlet.org (some assembly required, sorry).