Evil Ali--not so evil after all

NO on 8--Oakland Rally TODAY 10:30am

alih — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:14:07 GMT

Sorry for the late notice (just heard about this). There is an "anti-8" rally going on at Oakland's City Hall at 10:30 tomorrow (Saturday) morning. I'm going, and I'm meeting a couple of friends outside the Tully's right there at the point of Frank Ogawa Plaza and Broadway (at 10:30). I would love to see all of your faces there!! if you have an American flag, please bring it, they are trying to show that we are all Americans. And I want to see a huge Oakland turnout, in part to prove this is not just a San Francisco issue. Call my cell if you go!

I want the current administration to serve time for their crimes.

alih — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:47:09 GMT

And provide financial reparations. Who's with me? Maybe I'm just feeling slightly empowered (due to our success in having our votes counted and choosing our next leader), but is it not also the time to lobby the next administration to (in addition to all the other crap they're left to deal with) charge these freakin' crooks for the massive crimes they pulled off the past 8 years? Start with Kill the Patriot (Act)....they should give up the act anyway...clearly people who f*ck this country up beyond belief are NO PATRIOTS.

Protest Prop 8 today (5:30-8:30pm)

alih — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:19:55 GMT

Passing this along for those among us who may wish to march. Starts at Civic Center then goes down to Castro and ends at Dolores Park. Thousands of people! Please forward.

Oakland's Paramount Movie Classics - 11/7, 11/21, 12/26

alih — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:58:22 GMT

All Tickets: $5.00 Box Office @ 6:00pm | Doors @ 7:00 | Curtain @ 8:00pm FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7 - NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) - Classic Alfred Hitchcock: suspense, intrigue. comedy, humor. Seldom has the concoction been served up so delectably. A sleekly handsome Cary Grant is the perfect match for the innocent (or is she?) Eva Marie Saint and the sinister James Mason. And, of course, the film's finale on Mount Rushmore is one of cinema's greatest climaxes. Academy Awards for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay; for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; and for Best Film Editing FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21 - SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) - For many critics and fans, Singin' in the Rain is simply the finest musical ever made. Starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds. Directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, with Kelly also providing the choreography. Everyone is at the top of their game: from the choreographers to the co-directors to the actors to the songwriters. While the film is chock full of musical highlights, Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain" number is the genuine showstopper. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26 - MARY POPPINS (1964) - A mystical nanny literally falls from the London sky and into the lives of two lonely children. Hailed as one of Walt Disney's greatest films and winning Julie Andrews the Best Actress Oscar for her title role, Mary Poppins remains one of the most popular films ever made. Mary Poppins is "practically perfect in every way" and is the ideal day-after-Christmas family movie. (The film received 13 Academy Awards nominations and won 5 awards: Best Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Original Music Score, Best Song for "Chim Chim Cher-ee", Best Special Visual Effects.)

YES on 5...Let's keep non-violent offenders out of jail.

alih — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 02:07:53 GMT

More political schtuff (actually, a very nice summary from my friend Christopher)

alih — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:58:42 GMT

First, for you, this hilarity from Jon Stewart, particularly for those who wonder where the heck all those "experts" come from: http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/daily-show-who-f-guy Next, a bit of compassionate campaigning for your remaining Republican friends and relatives: http://www.conservativesforchange.com Videos of life-long conservatives explaining why they're voting for Obama. Particularly moving is this young guy who's always been pro-life. He says "Abortion... I've kinda RELEASED this as an issue in this campaign." That's right! You don't have to change your mind about such an emotional issue, just see it as not quite as important as whether or not the country goes under economically. An excellent talking point for your Christian folks. Here's another bit for an anti-choice friend/relative: Obama is in favor of keeping Roe-v-Wade, but he also said this at the last debate: This is an issue that look, it divides us. And in some ways, it may be difficult to to reconcile the two views. But there surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, "We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption, and helping single mothers if they want to choose to keep the baby." Those are all things that we put in the Democratic platform for the first time this year, and I think that's where we can find some common ground, because nobody's pro-abortion. I think it's always a tragic situation. We should try to reduce these circumstances. Here's another surprising site that can be useful: http://www.republicansforobama.org And if anyone ever tells you that Obama is Muslim, or says he's in league with terrorists, or that he's socialist, or that he'll bring upon us a COMMUNIST nightmare, just ask whether any of the following folks would support him if he were anything like that: Colin Powell Christopher Buckley Paul O'Neil (W's first treasury secretary) William Weld (former GOP governor of MA) Arne Carlson (former GOP governor of MN) Francis Fukuyama (neocon philosopher-king) Lincold Chafee (former GOP senator from RI) Ken Adelman (advisor to Reagan) many more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_Republican And it just gets better: In case you were wondering how conservatives who still support McCain REALLY feel about him, well now that he's losing, their tongues are coming untied: George Will: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/29/AR2008102903199.html?nav=hcmodule Neil Cavuto: http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/neil-cavuto-john-mccain-economic-matter and even "Joe the Plumber" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/30/joe-the-plumber-ditches-m_n_139248.html And lastly, more fun for you, one of Obama's latest ads, which says so muchwith so little: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/29/new-obama-ad-goes-after-m_n_138811.html

Carve a Jack-o-Lantern without all the mess

alih — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:57:28 GMT

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/pumpkin_sim.html Happy Halloween!

Happy Open Access Day!

alih — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:21:37 GMT

Those of you who read my blog may have seen me post about Open Access and PLoS. Today is a VERY special day...it's the first international Open Access Day! http://openaccessday.org/about/ It's a great opportunity to learn more about Open Access and educate others. Here are some short videos of key members of the research community, (a teacher, a librarian, a researcher, a patient advocate, and a funder) speaking on why Open Access matters to them. http://www.vimeo.com/oaday08 (Please feel free to spread the word! We'd love for these to go viral.) Open Access... ...is a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge. ...encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society. ...the principle that publicly funded research should be freely accessible online, immediately after publication, and it’s gaining ever more momentum around the world as research funders and policy makers put their weight behind it. And Happy Birthday to PLoS (5 years ago today we launched our first journal: PLoS Biology (http://www.plosbiology.org)...which, like all PLoS titles, ANYONE can read and share...no barriers, no subscriptions needed.) Another amazing resource of freely available research is PubMed Central (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ - ALL NIH-funded research published after April 2008 will eventually end up there as well )

Sarah Palin Action Figure...in action!

alih — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:27:07 GMT

http://gomistyle.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/sarah-palin-action-figure-vpilf-edition/ Thanks GXAOUI!

Worse Than Quayle

alih — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:51:21 GMT

by Trapper John Fri Aug 29, 2008 at 08:36:03 AM PDT So it's official - John McCain has thrown a Hail Mary and tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. The trad med types are ga-ga about what a game-changing choice Palin is. And they're right. It is a game-changer. The Palin pick takes a race already leaning toward Obama and pushes it further into his corner. Why? Because Sarah Palin is the most unqualified VP nominee in modern history, with the possible exception of Admiral Stockdale. She's worse than Quayle. After his selection in 1988, Dan Quayle was rightly lambasted as a dim, inexperienced lightweight with no real pertinent experience who was named by George H. W. Bush as a gimmick - a case of an old, out-of touch candidate trying to appear relevant by teaming up with a much younger pol. Now, Palin's not Quayle - by all accounts, she's quite bright. But she's fantastically inexperienced, far more so than Quayle was when he was tapped. And she possesses an attribute far worse than Quayle's stupidity - she's a big corrupt wheel in Alaska's big corrupt Republican Party, arguably the most corrupt political apparatus in the United States. We're told that McCain really wanted to pick his old friend Joe Lieberman to run with him, but that Karl Rove and the rest of the elite Republican politburo nixed the idea, and told McCain that he had to take a conservative. And as he has at every step of his campaign, the one-time "maverick" sold out to the venal, icy core of the Republican leadership, and acquiesced by selecting Palin. Palin is really a Republican after Rove's heart - she's a product of the party that produced the indicted Ted Stevens and ethically tarred Don Young, and she's embroiled in a Troopergate scandal of her own, with state investigators looking at serious allegations that Palin abused her office by pressuring the state Public Safety Commissioner to fire "an Alaska state trooper involved in a rough divorce from Palin's sister." Sounds like a woman after Karl Rove's heart. In addition to further associating McCain with the Republican culture of corruption, the Palin pick undermines one of his main anti-Obama narratives. It's going to be laughable to hear McCain assail Obama's supposed lack of experience after naming the first-term governor -- only one-and-a-half years into her term -- of the 47th largest state to be his running mate. Palin lacks any foreign policy experience, and is bereft of even the two core areas of policy expertise that governors are supposed to bring to a ticket -- ag policy (Alaska doesn't have much in the way of traditional agriculture) and urban affairs (Anchorage is the 65th largest city in the US, behind giants such as Corpus Christi). She's easily the least experienced running mate in recent memory, which is pretty scary, given McCain's age and his history of cancer. By picking Palin, McCain revealed his desperation to make a splash to rival the genuine excitement generated by the Obama campaign. But desperation leads to poor decisions -- and McCain's Hail Mary, like most last second desperation moves, is destined to fail miserably. He's smeared himself with the pungent mud of Alaska Republican corruption, while cutting the legs out from one of his most reliable attacks against Obama. And he's presented Americans with the prospect of electing a dangerous neophyte to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, behind a man whose life expectancy is less than two presidential terms. We all expected McCain to pick someone underwhelming to run with him. But we never could have expected a pick worse than Quayle. Yet that's what we got. Thanks, John! (And for those who are certain to point out that Bush-Quayle won in '88 -- do you really think that Barack Obama is remotely close to Michael Dukakis in political skill? No? Didn't think so.) http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/29/104611/395/220/578471

Tue 8/19 Ask a Scientist - Physics Circus!

alih — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:05:10 GMT

Not sure if I will actually make this (still decompressing from NY trip), but wanted to toss this out there for those who may be interested. This seems like it'll be a fun one... Hey everybody, Ask a Scientist is FIVE years old!!! To help us celebrate this momentous milestone, ringmaster Zeke Kossover and his crew of sensational sideshow scientists are returning to the big top to astound, confound, and expound! Tonight Zeke will perform a whole new set of dazzling demonstrations that illustrate physical principles — this time kicking it up a notch with torches, machetes, and broken glass. Why is a wooden stake better than steel for killing a vampire? What happens to an iPod dropped into liquid nitrogen? Will a toy boat float on gas? Can Zeke break a stack of wooden boards with his hand? How much fun is it to ride a hovercraft? Find out tonight! RINGMASTER: Zeke Kossover, physics teacher at Jewish Community High School of the Bay WHEN: Tuesday, August 19th, 7:00 pm WHERE: Axis Cafe, 1201 8th Street (btw. 16th & Irwin) 94107 MENU: Take a sneak peak at Axis's gourmet menu: http://axis-cafe.com/AXISCAFE/menu.html And since it is a birthday party after all, pencil in a celebratory nightcap at either Connecticut Yankee or Thee Parkside (TBD) after the talk. Ask a Scientist - http://askascientistSF.com

FISA Amendments now law.

alih — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:55:27 GMT

Got this from the People for the American Way: *************************************************** Today, President Bush signed into law the FISA Amendments Act. Together, we fought hard until the end, but unfortunately the Senate chose election year politics over our Constitution. The final bill includes telecom immunity and forsakes Americans' civil liberties by not guaranteeing individualized warrants. We will continue to fight to correct this bill in the next Congress. Thank you for your steadfast commitment to the fight for our constitutional rights and liberties. Those members of Congress who opposed H.R. 6304 should be thanked for their efforts, especially Senators Dodd and Feingold who showed real leadership. And those who let this happen should not be given a free pass. Click to see where your members stood, House http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll437.xml and Senate http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00168. Then call 202-224-3121 (Capitol switchboard) and let them know how you feel. Below is our press release from yesterday: In response to the Senate's vote on the FISA Amendments Act, People For the American Way President Kathryn Kolbert issued the following statement: "Today a majority of the Senate sided with the Bush administration and against the rule of law. It was a sadly bipartisan effort, with more than two-thirds of senators voting for a bill that includes blanket immunity for companies that assisted the administration's illegal warrantless wiretapping. Even in an election year with demagogues ready to scream appeaser at those who take a stand, it's a disappointing day. We should be able to expect more from our public officials." You can read People For's letter opposing the bill, including its approval of future wireless surveillance, here. -- Your Allies at People For the American Way

Movers...any recommendations?

alih — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:56:30 GMT

Can anyone recommend decent (reliable/reasonably-priced) MOVERS in Oakland? (They don't *have* to be from Oakland, but it'd probably be cheaper that way.) Thanks!

Tue 6/3 - SEAN SULLIVAN for Oakland City Council (West Oakland)

alih — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:03:14 GMT

Please vote for Sean...he'll be an asset to West Oakland. From his website: http://www.seansullivan.org: Oakland's Third Council District needs a new representative who can combine bold ideas with the ability and willingness to work constructively with all the people that make up this diverse and complex constituency. I live in West Oakland, where daily my neighbors and I are faced with unsafe and unhealthy environments. I work in Jack London Square, where residents and businesses struggle to enhance their neighborhood without a partner in City Hall. From Adam's Point to Pill Hill to Prescott, District Three needs responsive and responsible city leadership. I am committed to providing that leadership, and I ask for your vote this June 3rd to make the change Oakland needs now. **Safer Neighborhoods** Many Oakland residents feel our city is in crisis. People have moved away because they are too scared to remain in their neighborhoods, and businesses have closed because of property crime. It was never acceptable that violence was seen as commonplace in West Oakland. As crime becomes more widespread, the entire city is now on alert and demanding immediate action. Violence from shootings - whether at a corner on Market and 14th or in a piano studio in North Oakland – frightens and touches us all. As citizens we need to demand adequate police services and efficient prosecutions. As a community and a city we must work with the state to ensure adequate rehabilitation that addresses the whole person during incarceration to ensure those returning to our streets have access to employment. To address these issues I fully support: * Immediate redistribution of police from administrative posts to community policing and neighborhood patrols. * Increasing the size of the police force beyond the currently funded 803 officers. * Implementing measures that have proven effective in reducing crime in other jurisdictions, such as the using crime-tracking software to maximize effectiveness of deployment and patrols. * Increasing the number of investigators within the police department. * Institution of aggressive incentives to recruit new cops, such as workforce housing to keep our officers in the neighborhoods in which they work and hiring bonuses. * Recognizing that different areas have different needs, and working to provide appropriate safety measures throughout our city: walking officers in high-density neighborhoods, proper equipment and technology in other areas, and water-based safety along the waterfront. * Working with the Oakland Police Department to ensure that our federally funded Weed & Seed Initiatives partner with violence prevention efforts funded by the city. * Implementation of community policing with new officers hired through Measure Y. * Refocusing of Measure Y violence prevention funds towards more direct street outreach to get youth off of the streets and into schools and employment, and coordinating all programs to achieve desired goals. Demand clear and measurable outcomes from Measure Y funded programs. * Creating youth oriented, educationally supportive, community one-stops with existing non-profits and local churches to address issues of youth truancy, loitering and job creation. * Work with the City Auditor to create systematic analysis of violence prevention programs to identify how to most effectively spend scarce funds. * Ensuring that police are culturally competent and able to appropriately address the diverse citizenry that makes up Oakland – including African Americans, Hispanics, the LBGT community, Asians and everyone else.

Crowded House RAWKS! (They're playing again tonight, too.)

alih — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:29:42 GMT

Went to see Crowded House w/Bruce, Frances & Barney.... WOW, what an amazing concert. These guys (and the opening act) really know how to do it up. They just played and played and played...with MAJOR audience singalong action. I highly recommend catching them, if you have time tonight and ~$50 to spare. Playing at the Fillmore (as of yesterday they still had tickets). Here's a video of Neil Finn getting a haircut on stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0umb_z24lo And here's Four Seasons in One Day (one of my favorites): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9sem05RHnM

All Your Research Belongs to You

alih — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:09:42 GMT

from: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/all-your-resear.html A law guaranteeing the free availability of federally funded biomedical research took effect Monday. Research paid for by the public now belongs to the public -- and everyone else. Passed by President Bush in December as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007, the law requires the submission of all scientific articles produced with National Institutes of Health funding to PubMed, the NIH's public digital library. Within one year of publication, articles must be made freely available in their entirety. The one-year delay should ease the concerns of prominent journal publishers, who were so worried about losing subscription revenues that they hired a PR firm and formed an astroturf group to derail the legislation. But though journals are concerned about their income streams, there's little reason to fear for the future of peer-reviewed science: peer review, which relies on the voluntary contributions of unpaid scientists, exists independently of business models. In an editorial published in the open-access Public Library of Science Biology, PLoS co-founder and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus notes that the law won't make all science free: it doesn't apply retroactively, meaning that large amounts of federally-funded research are still firewalled or unavailable except in print, and it doesn't apply to researchers unsupported by government. But it's still a step in the right direction -- and it's a vast improvement on the NIH's voluntary open-access policy, in which just five percent of grantees shared their work. Progress toward Public Access to Science (PLoS Biology): http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060101 Image: Photograph by Marshall Astor, tweaked by me. Thank goodness this law went live without any further delays, because the image well has clearly run dry.

Torch Protest - view from my office

alih — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:49:07 GMT

It's cwazy 'round here.

YAY Friday!!!

alih — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:56:02 GMT

That's pretty much it. Looking forward to the weekend and all the goodness it has in store. Happy Friday everyone! And HAPPY SPRING!!!!!

Wed 3/19 5-8pm Civic Center Plaza - 5th Anniversary Iraq Invasion

alih — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:13:06 GMT

Hard to believe it's already been half a decade. Anyone else going? Let's meet up! March and Rally Wednesday, March 19 5 8 p.m. Gather at Civic Center Plaza http://answersf.org/ Come by anytime during the week to pick up flyers and posters or to volunteer. The A.N.S.W.E.R. SF office is open 9 a.m. – 9 p.m., Monday – Friday. Call for weekend hours and East Bay office hours. San Francisco office: 2489 Mission St. #24, at 21st St (near 24th St BART) 415-821-6545 East Bay office: 636 9th St at MLK, Oakland (near 12th St BART) 510-435-0844

Really nice Kinetic Sculpture Videos

alih — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:28:02 GMT

Brought to you by Wired's blog: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/top-5-amazing-k.html Enjoy.

For the science geeks among us - Science Cafes

alih — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:45:47 GMT

I've been to a couple of "Ask a Scientist" evenings and they're good, interesting fun. (Also a little bit of a meet market, so if you wanna meet smart folks it might be a good place to go.) Came across this page that has links to a bunch of different science cafes, so if you're looking for something in your area you might wanna check it out: http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/view/383 There are 2 in SF, one in the East Bay, one in Silicon Valley version, as well as an interational one. Enjoy!

Get your unclaimed money...this is real, folks.

alih — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:53:54 GMT

There was some legislation passed where unclaimed funds that used to go to the state coffers are now available for you to get. My co-worker got over $600 and his sister-in-law got $2700! It's free and it's slightly scary (since anybody can use it to get your address): http://scoweb.sco.ca.gov/UCP (Unfortunately, I didn't get one red cent.)

New tribe: "Gold Stars" http://tribes.tribe.net/goldstars

alih — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:36:08 GMT

So I've gone and got myself a premium membership. And what's the fun of a premium membership if you can't be a member of an "exclusive" club? OK, well I'm not sure exactly why I started the tribe...it's been SO long since I've started any tribes. But perhaps we can use this to discuss/vet potential premium membership benefits or something. It's a moderated tribe, but the settings allow you to invite friends. (I've invited some of the premium members in my friends list, but undoubtedly I've missed some.) http://tribes.tribe.net/goldstars

Tomorrow (12/1) is World AIDS Day

alih — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:27:17 GMT

This year marks the 20th World AIDS Day, and sadly the event remains necessary, both as a commemoration and as a reminder of the work that remains before us. In 2007 to date, some 2.5 million people became newly infected with HIV, part of the 33.2 million worldwide who live with the virus, including 2.5 million children under 15 years.

CELLspace needs help - meeting tonight (Mon 11/19)

alih — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:52:33 GMT

Was forwarded this from a friend...in case anyone is inclined to participate: Ever Been to CELLpace? What: Community Meeting to Keep the CELL Alive and Well When: Monday, November 19th @ 7pm Where: CELLspace (2050 Bryant Street btwn 18th & 19th, Mission District SF) Who: the CELLspace community: anyone who has passed through our doors (or has been wanting to!) to attend an event, receive services, create some art, participate in community building, or for refuge. Why: CELLspace's future is in jeopardy. The collective and Board members are struggling to pay monthly operating costs. We need to refocus community support and revitalize our fundraising efforts and collective energies! The Evening will provide an update of the current status, a gathering of creative thoughts and ideas, and an opportunity to get involved in our metamorphosis. The NEED: * Events bookings * grant-writers * Youth service providers * publicity/outreach management * Save the CELL campaign development which includes: reaching out to CBOs, local government, the media, former stakeholders and current stakeholders * monetary and in-kind donations The GOAL: * Revive the collective process within CELL, and engage resources: In 2005-2006 alone, CELLspace welcomed over 80,000 people into the space with services, educational opportunities, events, space and more = 1 in every 8 residents in SF have been through our doors. The purpose of these meeting is to ignite these folks who deem CELLspace a resource and vital ficture within San Francisco's artistic, youth development and social justice community. We will walk away with working groups to tackle 4 major areas: fiscal health/debt management, events development, program development for youth and adults, and leadership involvment. Please circulate this announcement to all Bay Area residents who are willing and able to keep the CELL alive and well!