Oh Lordy

Disney buys Marvel

Embrace the Royal

Jenna Bush Hager

Hicks Engine

Hicks Engine

This guy is sitting on the Hyde Street pier. It's a 1925 4-stroke Hicks engine. Made by (James L.) Hicks Engine Sales company here in town, it shows that San Francisco once made things other than sourdough bread and grand speeches. Two fellows who were beside me were disparaging it in comparison to their motorcycle engines, but I don't think you could run their bikes on whatever (including hootch) or repair them with a file and a ball peen hammer. Saltwater cooled, make-break ignition, 799 cc with a , six and one half inch bore, they powered the Monterey fishing boats and tugs. There is a video of a restored Hicks here and a discussion by Lauren Williams here

Sunday Again

View from Broadway

This week's this and that. One follows up the augmented reality idea from last week, listing some of the engineering problems. The Tom and Jerry cartoon refers to an older version, not the cat and mouse duo. As for the guitar museum, I hope some of the upstate N.Y.luthiers get some attention for their craft.The cell article seems an extention of using the sim card in your phone as a payment platform. They use it in some other countries,and recently did a test run here. We're assured all sorts of security measures will be in place, and the back doors will only open to authorized persons or politicians or security contractors or the guy down the street who's brother-in-law is a cop or that bright kid in Falls Creek with too much time on her hands.

• Visual Cryptography
• Local Guitar Museum
• Wot a Night: Tom and Jerry ( Van Beuren)
• finisterre by Maria Deira
• Larison on Russian Policy
• Nokia cell banking
• Augmented Reality glitches

Outside Lands has a cast on You Tube if you're not in the area. Grab a cuppa and see if the bandwidth you pay for delivers.

Warning Sign

A Stranger in Town

This guy was checking out the shipwright's workshop on Hyde Street pier today. As far as I can tell, it's an immature brown pelican. ( if I'm wrong, Marilyn or Susan will set me straight.) It definitely had flying down, but on the dock it did a very credible imitation of a drunken sailor. One of the older guys in the shop was taking a break, so I showed him the picture. He said that when he started in the mid-sixties he saw a few almost every day, but now they're rather unusual. Let's hope that changes, it was a pretty impressive bird.

Tiger Phone Card

Dengue Fever's documentary, Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, is coming to town.

Addendum, next day: Where's the best place to go for the real skinny on all things Cambodian? The answer, of course, is May at Happy Donuts. It turns out that the singer, Chhom Nimol ( Dengue Fever), and her family are friends of May's dad. A quick lesson in Cambodian pop and a high school story ensued. A bit of education and the usual cup of expresso, what could be better?

( pn: deŋ - gē )