Mission Mission

Well I sure know what I would do if I had a kick ass view of Sutro, make a bunch of timelapse videos of it. Thats what Jonathan did.

Check out this stunner. Kinda makes me feel like I’m soaring towards the Ivory Castle on Falkor, my trusty luck dragon:

The instructions for making your own are simple, just fire up that Linux machine you have lying around and dig through heaps of ffmpeg forums:

I used gphoto2 running on an Ubuntu machine to grab photos, basically as quickly as I could get them off the camera (roughly one every 5 seconds). I’m getting them at fairly large resolution (2048 x 1536), though I crop and downsample them for the video. To create a 20fps video from the still photos, I use ffmpeg, which is amazingly powerful provided you get the command line options right.

He adds:

So as the unrepentant perfectionist, I still see some areas of improvement. Despite a fairly decent camera mount, I still see more camera motion than I would like: I am going to try bolting the camera directly to the building, but I suspect the building itself moves.

God damn plate tectonics. Maybe he could bolt the camera to Sutro?

[via rotormind]

Man, over at SF Appeal what started as a simple, “can my landlord really raise my rent?” turned into, “short answer is yes, long answer <insert history of land ownership in Western civilization>”. Here’s a snippet:

As societies became more complex, ruthless bands of sociopaths (call their leaders pharaohs, kings, popes, bankers or the 1%) took control, they usurped the commoners’ (call them the people or the 99%) rights to own the land. I’m sure the bargain went something like this: “Look peon, I’ll defend your land for you, but because I have taken on this burden you have to give me unfettered rights to your land.” Faced with an offer they could not refuse, most commoners gave in. Those who resisted lost their ability to pass down their genetic make-up to future generations. It seemed that evolution created the perfect marriage of cowards and kings.

Good read, if you wanna shake your fist at the sky. Check it out.

[via SF Appeal]

“What thing?”, you ask. Well, isn’t it obvious?

Ken Ken Ramen is hosting a 3-day “Asian night market” style event with local artisinal crafts and food vendors at their space on 18th St.:

We love Asian Night Markets full of interesting stalls, vendors, food, and craziness — so much so that we’re turning our noodle factory into a three night Mission Night Market! Set up next door to Ken Ken Ramen at 3376 18th St, Mission Night Market will run Thursday, Friday & Saturday, hosting independent vendors, crazy artists, and more. Themes and vendors will range from Surfers to Vintage to Palm Readers to Jewelers to Japanese Dessert Makers & more!

Look for a wild selection of local artists setting up shop and hawking their goods at this evening bazaar. Three nights only! March 8-10 2012. 6pm to Late.

Selected vendors and more include:

• Bobaguys
• ScuttleFish Vanagon Surf Mobile
• SanFlan Japanese Desserts
• Palm Reading
• The Gypsie Shop by Curator Amanda Krampf
• Alite Camping Equipment
• JackKnife Outfitters
• Revolver Select
• Cureall Vintage
• Auger + Ore Jewelry
• Webster Reading Room
• Roppongi Records
• Aoi Yamaguchi
• Kitsch Art Gallery
• Valerian Jewelry
• Dillon Montara Clothing
• Adam Lam Furniture

Nice try guys, but we all know it’s not a real Asian night market without knock-off Adidas shoes and booth after booth of iPhone cases.

This goes down at 3376 18th Street 6pm to late Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (March 8th, 9th, 10th).

1. “Frankie” is on the dog’s birth certificate, but everyone knows him as as “Blanca”. Owner realized this after having printed the sign.
2. It’s a recycled sign. Owner couldn’t be bothered to design a his own, and this dog looked close enough. Oh, and somehow he has the same phone number.
3. A disgruntled neighbor is trying to sabotage the recovery effort.

Any other theories?

[via webuiltthiscity]

AKA “titty kitty”?

[22nd and Bartlett parklet]

It’s no surprise that Bernal Heights has a completely different class of theft problems. Stroller theft, to be exact. It’s said that a nice stroller can fetch up to $100 on the black market.

Nice try at security here pops, but anyone carrying a hex wrench could detach that handle in minutes, leaving you with a long walk home carrying a sobbing baby. Here are some time-tested tips:

1. Cover the stroller with stickers. A thief is less likely to want to deal with removing a bunch of stickers to make the item sellable.
2. Get a beater stroller. Sorry, but having nice things comes at a cost. Spare yourself the heartbreak of losing something extremely valuable. I hear www.strollersdirect.com has some decent rides that wont break the bank.
3. Leave an ugly decoy baby in the stroller while it is unattended. Nobody wants an ugly baby.

[Snapped in Bernal Heights, Sunday]

Will this optical illusion be the one that finally unseats “Old-lady-with-cartoonishly-large-nose-or-comely-lass-looking-away“? I think so. Snatch it up before it becomes the next classic.

By Octavio Ocampo, the guy who did the freaky Don Quijote one.

[22nd and Mission]

Rudy from Monkeybrains sent us this snap and added:

Found on the corner of Bryant and Cesar Chavez while walking beside my 4 year old learning to bike.

Well a kid’s gotta learn about legalized prostitution sooner or later. Better this way than from some punk at school.

15th and Dolores.

Seeing stuff like this makes me wonder how houses don’t just fall over all the time.

[via dexnandflexn]