Get SF Weekly Newsletters
Pin It

The Snatch: Always Willing to Answer Your Call, No Matter How Stupid It Is 

Wednesday, Jan 28 2015
Comments

Walls Come Crashing Down

This might be news to some people, but nobody cares if your Facebook profile is offline. Especially not the cops. Unbelievably, there are some out-of-touch people who would classify a social media brownout as a life-and-death emergency; hence the five calls East Bay 911 dispatchers reportedly received Monday when Facebook and Instagram temporarily went out of service. Claycord.com reports that an anonymous dispatcher sent the news site a kind note, reminding readers/Facebook users when it is okay to call 911 and when it is not: "I just want to know if you can put a note out to Claycordians asking them to not call 911 when a website doesn't work? We have nothing to do with Facebook and when Facebook isn't working, it's not an emergency. Our lines are dedicated to handle life and death calls, and even though Facebook is important to a lot of people, it's not a matter of life and death when it stops working. One caller even called back to tell me I was being rude because I told her it wasn't a life-threatening emergency. Thank you Claycord for all you do." From what we understand, Facebook's outage was reportedly caused by an internal glitch. The site is back up — and nobody was reported injured or killed because of the social media snafu.

By the Numbers

In grand American tradition, this Sunday's Super Bowl XLIX will showcase only the best stereotypes our country has to offer — like that 14 billion hamburgers will be consumed in celebration of men giving each other concussions. WalletHub released a study on the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks showdown, with some statistics:

-7.5 million households will buy new television sets

-1.25 billion chicken wings will be eaten

-35.7 million tweets will roll out during the game

-Vegas casinos are expected to profit $18.9 million

-$500 million will pump through Arizona's economy

Given that the average ticket costs $4,833 and the $359 million from advertising, there's also 350,000 signatures to revoke the National Football League's tax-exempt status, according to the study.

About The Author

Staff, SF Weekly

Comments


Comments are closed.

Popular Stories

  1. Most Popular Stories
  2. Stories You Missed

Slideshows

  • clipping at Brava Theater Sept. 11
    Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'. Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"