By Will Harper
Am I the only one who thinks Attorney General Jerry Brown shouldn’t be doing the “independent” investigation of the Oakland Police Department’s mishandling of the murder probe of journalist Chauncey Bailey?
Chronicle columnist Chip Johnson today even praised his favorite punching bag, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, for bringing in Brown’s office. And as far as I'm aware, the Chauncey Bailey Project -- the consortium of Bay Area news organizations investigating the circumstances around Bailey’s murder -- has raised no objections to the attorney general overseeing the probe of a police department led by someone Brown himself appointed chief when he was mayor of Oakland.
By Benjamin Wachs
A friend of mine has a daughter, and one day this kid starts crying because all the other kids get to jump off of tall bridges.
Well, what could my friend do? He had to let his little girl jump off bridges, too. Otherwise, she might miss out on the chance to gain valuable bridge-jumping skills.
Is that a facile example? You bet, but that's the way we think about kids and technology. We encourage them to ride each new trend as though there were a stampede behind it, and we condemn parents who think that separating their child from the herd might be good for them.
This point was made dramatically this week by Silicon Valley author-cum-blogger Sarah Lacy, who wrote:
Keeping your children from using some of the most socially transformative tools modern technology has ever seen was at best wildly overprotective and at worst setting them up for a lifetime of disadvantages. It's like homeschooling, cutting off all access to pop culture and self expression, and not allowing them to participate in anything that might advance future career-networking all rolled into one. Ok, maybe that's extreme. But, in some households and cultures, maybe not.
Then Brittney Gilbert, who runs a meta-meta-blog on San Francisco bloggers blogging about San Francisco, also declared that white noise can't possibly be bad for kids if they find it online.
I think keeping your children from the networking powers of the world wide web is effectively keeping them from developing new media skills. These sites and the skills you need to navigate them are not going away. MySpace, Twitter, Facebook--they are only tools. The behavior parent are trying to prevent will surface with or without an internet ban.
There are two problems with this common line of thinking, and only the first is that it's self-evidently not true. Let's let Sarah Lacy take a deep breath while we wonder: Can kids really not "access self expression" without the internet? Are kids who play in the woods really more stifled than kids who stay indoors playing Diablo? Is the only way to share your thoughts with fellow human beings to Twitter in 140 characters or less?
Really?
I've got all of human history that says differently. Whadda you got?
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Every once in while, you open your inbox and there is a press release so awesome, so devoid of imperfection, it takes your breath away. Behold the missive I received from a Berkeley-based condom manufacturer:
We are Mayer Laboratories-makers of Kimono condoms. This past February we released the thinnest condom in the U.S--Kimono MicroThin...Recently, however, the largest condom manufacturer in the world, SLL Americas (Durex Condoms) released a condom that they claimed to be the thinnest in the world. Mayer Labs immediately tested random lots of the Durex SensiThin (using the methods they described) only to realize that it was not only not the thinnest condom in the world, but not thinner than Kimono MicroThin either!
Such tomfoolery! Anyway, Kimono says that a stern letter was sent to SLL Americas and they will be removing the claim from their boxes. But just in case you don't quite get it, above is the helpful info-graphic that accompanied the press release.
Also, you know what is fun? Chatting with your coworker when you've got, like, five condom Web sites open in your browser. It was for work! --Andy Wright
[image-8](Photos by Sam Heller)
Yesterday, our friends at SFist tipped us off about a Palin look-a-like meet-up scheduled for 5 p.m. at the intersection of Castro, Market and 17th. The plan was for the Palin types to "fan through the city looking for Joe Six-Pack," organizer Eve Moran (pictured at left) told Bay City News. They wouldn't have had to walk far to run into Joe Stumblebum, trusty bottle-in-paper bag in tow.
We're guessing Moran (who somewhat-famously played the VP candidate when the real McCoy made a fundraising stop in Burlingame) was a little disappointed in the turnout. Weekly photographer Sam Heller made his way to the Castro to shoot the spectacle and met with a very apologetic Moran, and two dudes in dresses. George Circlo (pictured at center) didn't even bother shaving. Shane Hladki (at right) was dressed as the Alaska gov.'s 17- year-old daughter Bristol. A fourth lady Palin showed up briefly, but then scampered away to move her car, lest it be ticketed, gosh darn it.
Expect to see more Palins roaming the city today, rain or shine. More photos from yesterday's meet-up beneath the fold. --Janine Kahn
