Pacificapocalypse

Yeah the post title has absolutely nothing to do with the actual post, but how often do you get the chance to insert random Doors lyrics?

SF Chronicle announced - Part V: The Aftermath
Okay, so the final tally is something like 30 people from the business side have taken the buyout and are already gone; there are ( that I know of ) another three or four that have applied for and been accepted for the buyout but they’re still on-site for a number of different reasons ( training replacements, that sort of thing).
My old department has been eviscerated. And I mean that in the technical sense in that the internal organs have been removed leaving and empty shell of a carcass. I started with the Chron three years ago; when I was hired my department was made up of 14 people, some outside people, some inside people, some dealing with agencies.
As of this morning there are three people remaining.
Where once, there was enough business to support a 14 person department, there’s now only enough for three. Like a jumper of the Golden Gate, the business has just dropped out of sight.
Pretty friggin’ tragic.

Oh yeah and I’m no longer *in* my old department.
I’ve been transferred to a whole ‘nother part of the business. It’s been busy ( hence the lack of and intermittent posting ) which is good, makes the days go by quickly.
The training has been pretty much what I expected. None.
But at least I already know all the back end systems that make this multi-media behemoth function.
A whole new group of people to charm and subvert to my will; it’ll take time, but that’s ok.
I have all the time in the world.

Previous episodes of this sordid tale here:

SF Chronicle buyouts announced
SF Chronicle buyouts announced - Part II: The Reckoning
SF Chronicle buyouts announced - Part III: The Long Descent
SF Chronicle buyouts announced - Part IV: The Death March

Sounds legit, what do you think?

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

Via BoingBoing

Avast ye scally wags! ‘Tis only two days until International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Still time to brush up on yer Piratical jabberin’ with such classics as:

• Avast, me hearties!
• Shiver me Timbers!
• Yo ho ye lily livered scoundrel!
• I’ll run ye through with me broadsword!

And of course, Yarrr!!

Say it once, say it twice, say it like a pirate.

Ok so I’m watching Good Morning America and Chris Cuomo is interviewing the former CEO of AIG, Hank Greenberg, and he’s talking about how the government bail-out is a necessary thing ( side note - did you know that we just bought an insurance company? By ‘we’ I mean every tax paying American… for the bargain price of $85 billion. Now try and wrap your head around that number for a moment. That’s 85 followed by nine zeros. Here, take a look: $85,000,000,000. That’s more dollars than there are people on the planet by several factors. If every single living man, woman and child on the globe gave $10 that still wouldn’t get us to $85 billion. ). His rational is that if AIG goes under there would be a domino effect of financial firms that would go tits up.
Me, I’m thinking, ‘hey, how about a bailout on a more personal level? I could use a couple thousand dollars. That’s not even a worthy of notice when we’re talking billions.’
So Greenburg then goes on about how the downturn in AIG’s fortunes have effected him on a personal level, but he then says “but don’t worry, I’ll be alright.”

He’ll be alright.

Did you hear that? The man has a net worth of $3.2 billion, but he wants us to know that AIG’s misfortunes, are also his misfortunes. That this has effected him on a personal level.

But he’ll be alright.

fucker.
I swear to christ, someday I’m going to be rich and famous for inventing a machine that let’s you stab someone in the face over television.

</rant>

Man, Latino Review has been getting some good stuff lately.
Now they have the latest Max Payne posters. They look pretty good I think; captures the dark feel and oppressive constant snowfall of the first game, but they’ve turned the brooding Wahlbergness (Wahlbergian brooding?) up to 11,  and dude! Look up for once! But the Brooklyn Bridge angel wings are as subtle as napalm. And where’s Max’s Hawaiian shirt?

Click for full size.

Check it!
Can Wahlberg atone for THE HAPPENING? I’m starting to get interested in this. This first poster mimics the box art of the original game perfectly
Trailer here.

Click to embiggen.

Yet another post on That Violet Blue Thing, though not named directly, but let’s be honest, that’s what it is. This time from Xeni and an apology. By this time it’s patently obvious that the various Boing Boing editors really *really* misjudged this one.
Let’s hope they learn and move on.

Doc has a round up of the back story here.

I knew that this feature in Firefox 3 just had to been in there somewhere.
I was killing myself trying to find it though, ever since I upgraded to FF3 I’ve been missing this: how the heck do I open a copy of an already open tab? There was a keyboard shortcut that I can’t remember (from me repeating the key combo ad infinitum, has fogged my memory.)  It’s one of those little frustrations that you run into on a daily basis that I just knew had to be in there; my Google-Fu was weak and I simply gave up on finding the right keyboard shortcut, and believe me I tried every combo of CTL+ALT+SHIFT+TAB+WTF!
Then while cruising Reddit today I came across this entry:
Firefox 3 features you may not know
And there it was, top of the list:

1. To duplicate tabs press Ctrl  while dragging a tab to create a duplicate of the dragged tab including its history.

So thank you very much Feel Firefox, Mozilla Links, that’s one (unfortunately of many) minor irritations that threaten to set me off on a daily basis.

UPDATE: Apparently FeelFireFox was lifting content from Mozilla Links - naughty naughty. Link fixed.

Ok, true it’s *barely* Pacifica, but WTF?

Pacifica Police respond to Fairmont shooting
Pacifica Tribune Staff
Article Launched: 07/02/08 10:51:08 AM PDT
Pacifica Police responded to the Sunshine area of Fairmont on the afternoon of June 26 on a report of a shooting victim. Callers said several males were seen running from the area with baseball bats. Residents also heard several shots.

Police officers arrived in the area at about 2:45 p.m. and found a 15-year-old male shooting victim on the 200 block of Gateway Drive. He was taken by ambulance to San Francisco General Hospital and is listed in stable condition. Pacifica, Daly City and San Bruno police searched the area and briefly detained several teens, but no suspects were located.

“There’s nothing to lead us to believe at this time the shooting was gang related,” said Pacifica Police Capt. Fernando Reayvasquez.

I’d never thought I’d say this, but, thank you Supreme Court.

Ok here’s the deal; the definition of the 2nd Amendment has been kicked back and forth for the last century (that’s 100 years kids). The main contention has been this - does the 2nd Amendment confer an individual right or a collective right? Lemme see if I can explain.
Some people view the 2nd Amendment (hereafter referred to as 2ndA) as referring to a collective, that is the militia referenced in the actual wording of the amendment. The Army, the National Guard. In this light the ownership and use of firearms is affirmed when on duty, in the performance of your duties as part of a collective group.
Then again the opposite opinion states that the 2ndA refers to the individual’s right to keep and bear arms, and that you do not need to be part of an organized militia, Army or National Guard, in order to legally own firearms.

That’s it. Pretty simply stuff but no court in this great country of ours has decided what exactly is the correct definition.
Until now.
Today the Supreme Court adopted the individual rights view, affirming District of Columbia v. Heller in a 5-4 decision.

This decision by the Supremes will have a ripple effect throughout the country for a very long time; individual cities bans against firearms ownership such as San Francisco’s ill-fated attempt, Chicago’s ban and the now reversed Washington DC ban are all out the window and any future bans, city, state or federal, are in serious question.

And to clear up a common misconception, the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, does not give the right to own firearms (whether collectively or individually) - it simply affirms an existing right. It says nothing about bestowing a right, it simply states that the existing right “shall not be infringed.”

Right on America.