A Sign of The Times | Mission Loc@l

A Sign of The Times | Mission Loc@l: "The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal announcing plans to introduce a San Francisco Bay Area edition. The Times wrote Friday in its business section that it and The Wall Street Journal are planning to introduce Bay Area editions in an effort to win over local readers. The papers appear to be getting into position in case the Chronicle fails."

In case? The Chronicle still has a Food Section, a Pink Section and local sports, but, seems to get thinner by the month. It's so small that I don't even have to separate the sections anymore. And, to muddy the news even more

news venture: "A San Francisco investment banker is teaming up with the University of California’s journalism school and public broadcaster KQED to create a nonprofit news organization that he says will fill a gap in local coverage left by newspaper cutbacks."

Bay Area News Project

The most famous unkindness

The most famous unkindness: "The current raven roster at the Tower of London consists of Gwylum, Thor, Hugin, Munin, Branwen, Bran, Gundulf, Baldrick, Fleur, and Colin. Their diet consists of raw meat, bird formula biscuits soaked in blood, whole rabbit, eggs once a week, and occasional pieces of fried bread."

The Community Bookcase

decor8 : The Community Bookcase: "a normal, everyday bookcase with glass doors that you can open and contents inside that are 100% free to the public. No library cards, overdue notices or payment required."

Ah, a fine idea. There are a few bars and cafes with open stacks, but, this is even better. Of course, the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library do a similar service ...

Deep Fried Butter to Hit Texas State Fair

Deep Fried Butter to Hit Texas State Fair - Slashfood: "He wraps butter in dough before frying, so the finished product resembles an especially greasy biscuit. Deep-fried butter is available in four varieties: original, garlic, cherry and grape."

Oh, so wrong. Must have!

Disney snarfs Marvel

Worldwide leader in family entertainment agrees to acquire Marvel and its portfolio of over 5,000 characters. | Marvel.com: "Worldwide leader in family entertainment agrees to acquire Marvel and its portfolio of over 5,000 characters."

Ugg. Family-friendly Wolvernine? Tiny Avengers? The next Kingdom Hearts should be even more surreal ...


At least it wasn't Diamond Comics!

Starve a Vampire. Donate Blood.

Starve a Vampire. Donate Blood.: "The American Red Cross is excited to partner with The CW and Alloy Media Marketing to promote the network s new show The Vampire Diaries"

Now there's some product placement!

The Brains of Early Birds and Night Owls

Lab Notes : The Brains of Early Birds and Night Owls: "Early birds wake up at the crack of dawn and struggle to stay alert and productive (especially in the cognitive realm) in the evening. Night owls perform well in the evening but are worthless if you yank them out of bed too early in the morning."

3 Smart Things About Sleeping Late: "Research by Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders Center found that people who slept eight hours and then claimed they were "well rested" actually performed better and were more alert if they slept another two hours."

I'll sleep to that!

Brightly Colored FastPass To Be Replaced By TransLink

The End Of An Era: Brightly Colored FastPass To Be Replaced By TransLink: News: SFAppeal: "The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will replace all existing fare gates at its Muni underground stations with TransLink-only fare gates by fall 2010 at the earliest, according to a memo sent to the Board of Supervisors."

Oh, I can smell the meltdown from here. Every onboard has to tag the Twiki box? That's going to make for some ugly scrums at busy stops, much less a busted box making people run up and down the stations/trains.

Coming Soon: MUNI/BART to Track Your Every Move: "And how will this work for out-of-town visitors and other people who don't use Muni? There's also the whole Big Brother aspect of our every move being documented on some database."

FriendFeed accepts Facebook friend request

FriendFeed Blog: "We are happy to announce that Facebook has acquired FriendFeed. As my mom explained to me, when two companies love each other very much, they form a structured investment vehicle..."

Facebook Press Release: "Facebook today announced that it has agreed to acquire FriendFeed, the innovative service for sharing online. As part of the agreement, all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed’s four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook’s engineering and product teams."

Gack! Doom! There go the neighborhoods.

Sin bins for worst families

Sunday Express | UK News :: Sin bins for worst families: "the Children’s Secretary set out �400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes. Around 2,000 families have gone through these Family Intervention Projects so far."

Youch. Bad enough that they're all over the streets. They've even become plot points in BBC shows like Torchwood. But in the houses? That's getting the bad end of the reality show!

Table of Hours, anyone?