Double Double-Shootings End March Madness

The first double:

(03-30) 18:39 PDT San Francisco -- The Chron -- A man who was shot and killed this weekend in San Francisco's Sunset District had been buying pizza for the workers he supervised at a Verizon Wireless store to show his appreciation for a successful sales month, his family said.

Jason De La Cruz, 31, of Daly City and his friend, Derek Butch, 23, of San Francisco were killed in a double shooting early Saturday morning outside a pizza joint on Irving Street near 19th Avenue in an attack his family described as senseless.

The other one:

Saturday, 3/29/08
Shooting/Homicide at Athens/Excelsior
A wounding and homicide had occurred a 1:50 a.m. at Athens Street/Excelsior Avenue (Excelsior District). The victims were sitting in a parked vehicle when the suspect, a Latin male (in his 20's) approached on foot and shot both victims in the head. The suspect then fled on foot. One victim, a 21 yr. old Bosnian male from Daly City, died at the scene. The other victim, a male (possibly Asian), was transported to SFGH ED in critical condition. The other victim had passed away later during the weekend...

Lesson: Keep your head on a swivel after closing time.

Hacks: Digital Billboards Hacked in Southern California

Hacks: Digital Billboards Hacked in Southern California

Best of 2007 - FYI

Hacked I-78 sign touts live nudes - Reading Eagle Newspaper

Hacked I-78 sign touts live nudes - Reading Eagle Newspaper

Curbed SF: Tuesday PM Linkage

Curbed SF: Tuesday PM Linkage

Sturdy Cars Make It Harder for Rescuers

Sturdy Cars Make It Harder for Rescuers: "Later this year, the nonprofit group COMCARE Emergency Response Alliance, with cooperation from automakers, is introducing a single Web site that will offer schematics and safety specs for most cars on the road. Rescue workers could flip open a laptop computer on the way to a crash scene to find out about the construction of the car, placement of air bag canisters and other details."

Rainbow iceberg in the Antarctic - Telegraph

Rainbow iceberg in the Antarctic - Telegraph

Fear and Forced Sodomy — A New American Epidemic

Gelf Magazine; 03-30-06; By David Downs: "The greatest majority of kids getting molested aren't being pulled out of their windows in the night by some MySpace freak. Some guy in a mask is not dragging them into the park bushes. They're getting raped inside the most sacred institution in America: the family."

The Tao of Bo

Gelf Magazine 09.30.07 By David Downs:

"You take a guy who has that much desire to be a Michigan Wolverine—who's willing to go through all those two-a-days without any guarantee of even getting in a game—well, we'll find a place for a guy like that. And we'll treat that guy exactly the same way we treat Dan Dierdorf, or Jim Harbaugh, or Jamie Morris. Like dogs, of course!"

Coca-Cola for Culture Jammers

SF Weekly 1-2-08
By David Downs

Admit it: You've always wanted to crush a human skull with your bare hands. This week, you won't need to. You can simply taste how that would feel thanks to Brawndo, a powerful new energy drink from San Francisco.

Billed as "The Thirst Mutilator," 2.4 million bright-orange, 16-ounce cans of Brawndo will soon appear in chain convenience stores, representing both the nadir and the zenith of pop culture. Brawndo's viral video ads proudly proclaim its skull-crushing prowess and its "five kinds of sugar!," while its nutritional label reveals 350 milligrams of caffeine per can, making it as strong as five cans of Mountain Dew. ...

Closing in on Klosterman

Gelf Magazine, Feb 2, 2006:
Gelf gets Meta-Journalistic with ESPN.com's newest blogger.
David Downs

The nut graph—the concise who, what, when, where, and why of a story—can be a combat zone. Newsworthy people go up against the forces of calamity and good fortune. Anything can happen.

News gatherers themselves live and die by their nut graphs, and a measure of their fame or infamy is the number of nuts that end up getting devoted to them.

Some famous reporters-turned-journalistic fodder: ...

Supreme Court Inc. - New York Times

"“I recall a comment by Eugene Debs,” Nader said, looking at me intensely. “He said: The American people live in a country where they can have almost anything they want. And my regret is that it seems that they don’t want much of anything at all.”"

New York Times 3.16.08

Next Gen Web Crimes and Policing

WWW's inventor in Times Online:

"'There are definitely better ways of managing that threat. I think we're soon going to see a new tipping point where different types of crimes become possible and lucrative, and it's something we constantly have to be aware of.

'One option is to build systems which more effectively track what information you've used to perform a particular task, and make sure people aren't using their authority to do things that they shouldn't be doing.'"

Systems to track my information? Like Carnivore? Grrreat. Glad you're on board with the panopticon, dude.

J.P. Donleavy's "Wrong Information ..." - A+

"... There goes by down in the a street a familiar Oriental gentleman of noble mien, pushing his barrow loaded with boxes and a Caucasian son of a bitch in an automobile behind him blowing his horn. The story of America told in one simple message. Get the fuck out of my way I am in a goddamm hurry. Just like the guy in the bus station who was telling everyone wrong information is being given out at Princeton. ..."

Reader verdict: A+. Highly recommended. I devoured this 330-page book in two days. It rips and roars and fortifies one against the blows of life.

"Dragnet, Reinvented" - On patrol with the LAPD's high-speed plate-reading network

The City of Angels is stolen-car hell. But the mean streets just got a lot meaner for bad guys.

Read "Dragnet, Re-Invented", by David Downs for Wired

Lessig on Blowing up the FCC

Lawrence Lessig:

"I think in places there ought to be government, but by being really clear to get rid of regulations of government where they’re not serving anything except special interests that happen to have the power to get them into place."

Too bad it takes power to unseat power. And Larry has none.

AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water

Associated Press:

"How do the drugs get into the water? People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue....

Over the past five years, the number of U.S. prescriptions rose 12 percent to a record 3.7 billion, while nonprescription drug purchases held steady around 3.3 billion, according to IMS Health and The Nielsen Co. ...
Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation."

Of course, the real problem: [Putting on tin foil hat, decoder ring.] FLOURIDE!

First Ad To Be Broadcast Into Space

ScienceDaily:

"With the transmission technology and planning we are employing there is a much greater chance that the Doritos advert will potentially be seen by any alien life form."

Roflcoptor.

Michael Pollan on Amy Goodman: Don't Eat Anything That Doesn't Rot

America doesn't have a health care problem. It has a health problem. To fix it:

Pollan on Democracy Now!: You need a farm bill that basically evens the playing field and is not driving down the price of high-fructose corn syrup, so that, you know, real fruit juice can compete with it. You need a farm bill that makes carrots competitive with Wonder Bread. And we don't have that, and we didn't get it this time around.

And we won't be getting it the next time around or the time after that, Michael.
My solution: dissolve Iowa in Coke.

Klosterman in The Believer on Road Trips = Cinema

"... we will always watch anything that keeps us from being here, regardless of where that is (or isn’t)." -The Believer - 'On the Road'

Blaszak Family Kidnapped, Forced to Watch The Wire

"YOU'VE
GOT TO WATCH
THE WIRE.
BY SCOTT BLASZAK

- - - -

For five years, I've begged you to watch the best show on television, but you didn't listen. That's why I've kidnapped you, my closest friends and family members, and locked you here inside my apartment. I know how tired you all are of me telling you about The Wire's deliciously complex plotlines, its unflinching sociological commentary, and its note-perfect gallows humor. Well, I'm tired, too.

And so here we are."

"Extinct" X-Man Returns to NorCal: Shall we call you Logan?

It's been a long time since our boy Logan has been spotted in these parts. Good to have you back, buddy. Enjoy the Moose. From the Chron today:

"The image of the elusive creature has created a sensation among wildlife experts and ecologists, who have tried for years to get the wolverine listed as an endangered species. ... The wolverine is believed by many to be extinct in California. The species has not been documented in the state since 1922, the last recorded killing of the furry animal in the Sierra Nevada. ... Remarkably strong, with powerful jaws, wolverines have been known to kill prey as large as a moose. ... Individual wolverines can range as far as 240 square miles, eating insects, berries, small animals, birds and carrion."

Army of 2 - PS3 - 1st Impression: Ptthbbt!

What a disappointment. This is a Gears of War clone, without any of the fun alien gore. The controls feel ham-fisted, and the tutorial text reads so tiny, I almost gave up. It's like the programmers were saying, "Sack up and get a 46-inch HD plasma, you broke-ass."

And why is everything "locked" when games start now?

"Just keep playing and you can unlock stuff. It'll get more fun."

More fun? How about now? With my shit pistol and rifle? [Snore.]

Level 2, and I already hate the people who made this game.

But. Oscar's coming over for some co-op. Co-op mode better rip nuts, or I will find a way to get even with EA for this.

New Gnarly - The Odd Couple Leaks - 1st Impressions

Finally an album to mark the time by. 2008 did not start until this album leaked, and the moment I saw the file this morning, I got a shudder up my back. Only some music does that.

[Download, download, download.]

[Listen, listen, listen].

Yup, I'll still be dick-riding this band for a bit longer. C-Lo could sing me the phone book and it would sound good. Danger's beats do not fail. March 4, 2008. The Day 'The Odd Couple' leaked. The day 2008 in music began.

Everyone else is just eating these guys' dust.

D2's March Playlist

Select Pics from the Tahoe Trip of 2008

Three, eight-hour powder days = rebirth of fun.

The Girl Talk Phoner: "Riottt's Girl Is Back in SF"

"... That was too chaotic," he recalls. "I half-dove and was half-thrown into the crowd right over my dad and I hit the bottom of my jaw on my sister's friend's shoulder. I was kind of drunk so I don't remember, but my jaw came slamming up into my top teeth and I just felt it crack into pieces. I just stood up and gave a smile. Everyone cheered and my mom started freaking out." (Read all of RIOTTT'S GIRL BACK IN SF)

The Grateful Dead Suck Column: "Ungrateful Living Dead"

"...I'm coming off a bad four-day acid trip where some serious role reversals took place: Radio oligarch Clear Channel Communications — among the most maligned corporations in the Bay — looked as if it was helping to free the music. Meanwhile, file-sharing demigods the Grateful Dead acted like huge, corporate dicks, suing a Web site that introduced a new generation to their music for free, and licensing inane board games that even Deadheads can't tolerate. ... Wait a minute — that was no acid trip. ..." (Read all of UNGRATEFUL LIVING DEAD)

The Legally Blonde Politics Column: "Girl Power Trip"

" ... When Hillary loses in '08, at least part of it will relate to America's infatuation with the Blonde post-feminism template — the superficial, materialistic, adolescent pink plaid dream of retail-happy female emancipation. Elle's big college philanthropy "Shop for a Cause" completely echoes the Gap's absurd (Red) campaign. Musical is a rock candy crystallization of fundamental cultural needs, and it draws audiences of all ages with the exact traits Hillary lacks: Elle's warmth, humility, vulnerability, and great legs. ..." (Read all of "GIRL POWER TRIP")

The Lou Reed Interview: "Venus in Fists"

" ... "I'll do a story on '60s musician and heroin icon Lou Reed becoming a martial arts warrior the day you get me an interview with Mr. Lu-Tang Clan himself," I jokingly tell a PR lady one day. ...
"You are now on the phone with Lou Reed and Master Ren," she says a few weeks later. ..." (Read the Full Story)

The Homeless Auteur Cover Story: "Street Flix"

"... The world has plenty of wannabe filmmakers aiming for social justice with depressing footage of homeless people telling their stories. Pras, a member of hip-hop group the Fugees, even tried to film himself living on a dollar a day in Los Angeles last year. But Shaw differs from the pack. For one, he's the first person to get this far while actually living the life. What's more, My Big Fat Homeless Berkeley Movie is a bizarre sort of triumph — at times very funny, and brutally sad, but never didactic or preachy. Shaw never appears or speaks in the film, which wanders plotlessly through eighteen vérité vignettes depicting individual lives on the street. ..." (Read the Full Story)

The Gracenote Cover Story: "Pirates of the Web: At World's End"

"Gracenote has emerged as a key player in a fast-growing and lucrative niche that enables copyright cops to scour the Internet for illegal content and eradicate it. "It's become a new business arena in a short time period because consumers, mostly unwittingly, started to use copyrighted material," Hollingsworth says. "This is a whole new area coming up — media monitoring and content filtering. And the question is, 'What's the correct use?'"" (Read the full feature)

The Award-Winning Neil Young Hit Piece

"The War Profiteer" — "Let's draft Neil Young. Sure, he's a sixty-year-old brain-damaged Canadian who made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for "Heart of Gold." But let's ship him off to Fallujah with an M-16 anyway, because he's hurting America."