When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, it’s a good core workout. If you’re sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More
Many of us remember coming home from our elementary schools with freshly glazed pinchpots, cups, or whatever else our young imaginations could conjure up. Saturday mornings at the Randall Museum can bring that memory back, or create a new one for the youngsters. Ceramics make great gifts — especially on Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Hop on board for the Randall's once-weekly class, and for $6 and two weeks to have your work fired and glazed, you'll have all the materials you need.More
December is almost over - the New Year is coming up and everyone is busy drying off from the rain or holiday shopping. Let's take a look at what's happened this month.
PostedByMax DeNike
on Tue, Jun 14, 2016 at 12:54 PM
Wikimedia Commons
Today is a good day to drive.
Are San Francisco’s notorious commuter shuttle activists driving more tech workers into cars? That probably sounds infuriating or laughable, but it could be true.
“Facebook disclosed that their car commute trips had spiked in recent months, adding about 400 more cars to San Francisco streets, due to new San Francisco rules changing shuttle stops.”
Those new rules started Feb. 1 and were born out of the SFMTA’s pilot program regulating such vehicles, which one could argue was born out of people’s displeasure with the shuttles that were becoming more and more common on city streets after years of unfettered operation.
Or, perhaps slow-moving government finally caught up at the same time activists started making headlines.
PostedByChris Roberts
on Mon, Jun 13, 2016 at 2:20 PM
This fall, Californians will vote on a ballot proposition that would extend the state's gun control laws. The "Safety For All" campaign would not ban guns in California — far from it — but would ban large-capacity magazines, require background checks for anyone purchasing ammunition, and require California's reported 18 million gun owners to immediately notify police if their guns are lost or stolen. Launched last fall, this campaign is Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom's main political effort this year.
If measures like that were in effect in Florida, Omar Mateen may have had a harder time killing 49 people, as he did early Sunday morning at Pulse, a gay nightclub. But even before Mateen's massacre, LGBT people were front-and-center in this debate in California — as a reason not to extend gun control.
That's a specious argument even before a military-style weapon with a high-capacity magazine was used to murder a club full of LGBT people. But rather than back off on it, the pro-gun set is doubling down — and arguing further that LGBT people need guns.
We do know, however, that there are currently five gun safety/gun control bills in the California Legislature — and at least one of them, were it to become law, would make it more difficult for a man like Mateen to acquire a weapon like an AR-15. And some of them are coming up for hearings on Tuesday.
PostedByMax DeNike
on Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 1:40 PM
When law enforcement bungles something, we grab for that familiar dig by likening them to the silent film era’s comedically incompetent police force, the Keystone Kops.
But when it comes to the paper bag containing disciplinary cases that was found recently at the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, the comparison could not be more fitting.
Last week during an office cleaning at City Hall, a paper bag — with handles, mind you, not some tiny school lunch-size waste of paper — was discovered stuffed in a filing cabinet under other paperwork, according to the SF Examiner.
Inside the bag were three incomplete Internal Affairs cases, two of which reach their statute of limitations for taking action in June and July.
We haven’t seen the demographic breakdown yet on voter turnout, but California’s Tuesday primary definitely failed to meet expectations. Both here in San Francisco and statewide, voter turnout did not match up with the record new number of registrations. Many more Democrats stayed home this year than in 2008, the last time Hillary Clinton won the state in a presidential primary.
Voting is pretty simple, but apparently so are humans.
It would be hard to blame it all on the Associated Press calling the Democratic nomination for Hillary Clinton the night before, so instead we’re going to blame it on millennials.
PostedByBob Calhoun
on Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 8:00 AM
Randy Heinitz/Flickr
Something wasn't right in the Anderson house just outside of Yuba City in Northern California on Sept. 13, 1946.
"We found fragments of flesh and bone and blood scattered about the bedroom and part of a charge fired from a shotgun in the wall," Sutter County District Attorney Lloyd Hewitt told the San Francisco Examiner. "A crude attempt had been made to clean up the room and to burn the bedsheets and other things. An analysis has shown the blood was human blood."
"There can be no doubt that someone was murdered in the Anderson home," Hewitt added.
W.H. "Dick" Anderson, a 50-year-old ranch hand, and his young wife, Donnie, 26, were missing. The family's two cars were also gone.
PostedByChris Roberts
on Wed, Jun 8, 2016 at 11:52 AM
One of the favorite post-election kvetches — aside from your guy going down in bitter defeat to the sound of wailing bros coast-to-coast — is how shitty turnout is.
This started early on Election Night, the day after the Associated Press told everyone interested in voting in the Democratic primary that they'd be better off staying at home watching Veep, before all the ballots had been counted. But it was still premature. whatever numbers you saw yesterday missed almost one-quarter of the votes.
Today, San Francisco's Department of Elections reported that 263,000 ballots had been cast in last night's election — including 78,000 mail-in ballots cast at City Hall, plus provisional ballots, as well as the 185,000 counted as of last night.
So. Out of 468,238 registered voters, that's 56 percent turnout — which, as far as things go, is pretty good. Better than the turnout for the municipal election in the fall, but not nearly as good the last time California's presidential primary mattered, way back in 2008.
Norton is a member of the San Francisco Board of Education and the mother of teenage daughters. After the news that former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail for raping an unconscious woman at a campus party — prosecutors had recommended six years — Norton took to her personal website to say that she, too, had been raped in college, by an acquaintance with whom she had been drinking.
And she went on to say that Judge Aaron Persky — who, like Turner, attended Stanford — likely went easy on him because of race.
PostedByMax DeNike
on Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 10:54 AM
Ryan McNulty/SF Examiner
RIP to our youth.
Today is Election Day in California — but sorry, voters. Whether you stay home or participate in democracy doesn't matter. This jig is up.
Last night, the Associated Press called the Democratic nomination for Hillary Clinton — the day before the presidential primary in California, and before any results from Tuesday's election were counted.
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.'"
