Mission Mission

Our pal Lindsey came upon this heinous thing at a kiosk in the vicinity of Jamba Juice and Sanrio at Westfield San Francisco Centre, our local giant shopping mall.

“[M]isogyny marketed to tweens,” she says in a blog post, “pretttty cooooool!” We assume she was being sarcastic, but asked for followup remarks, she cuts them some slack: “[T]hey also sell YOLO shirts though…”

I like when a babe makes me a sandwich as much as the next guy, but ‘cmon.

Click to enlarge.

SFist has ongoing coverage of the fire here.

[Photo by Lauren Brunsvik]

I’ve always thought Bryant was one of the prettier thoroughfares in the neighborhood, but I guess the southernmost end needs just a little more juice. They’re gonna remove some left-turn lanes and add medians and bulb-outs in an effort to make things prettier and safer. Mission Local reports:

One of the new medians will go up at Bryant and 26th streets, and another at Bryant and Cesar Chavez streets. The medians will be 8 feet wide, 110 feet long and filled with greenery planted by Friends of the Urban Forest.

Read on for testimony from neighbors and info on how this will affect parking.

SF Weekly reports:

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is responsible for doling out millions for research that, according to an agency mission statement, will “prevent strategic surprise from negatively impacting U.S. national security.” Their latest project, titled Good Stranger, involves S.F.’s finest — and, quite possibly, you.

In April 2012, researchers started tagging along with SFPD officers on their beats, recording video and audio of police interacting with the locals. This data is compiled for studies at theStanford Research Institute and UC Santa Barbara that, according to Dr. Brian Lande, DARPA program manager, aim to examine the “interaction skills” people use to “make sense of and orient toward unfamiliar people, relationships, and social settings.”

DARPA plans to use the recordings in the development of a military training simulator that will use artificial intelligence to read and react to a trainee’s body language and facial expressions. DARPA is dumping $32.5 million into Good Stranger and related projects; the agency states that the training module will eventually be cheaper than arranging live role-players to train soldiers.

So I’m going to the park to meet some friends around 2:30, and my interaction with some cop regarding the Watermelon Wheat I plan to drink will someday factor in to how long some soldier reasons with some suspected terrorist before using lethal force to subdue him? Okay. Happy to help

Read on for official SFPD statements and more. [via Mission Local]

And not too crowded!

First OMG the Mish speculated that the big “Hollywood production” being filmed at La Taqueria was possibly “Burrito Justice: The Movie.”

Then Uptown Almanac investigated and found out the shoot was actually a FEMA production, and wondered why.

Finally, Burrito Justice (not the movie) tied everything together, citing a Mission Mission post from waaaay back, involving this still-disturbing image from some sort of official earthquake-preparedness website, circa 2008:

Eek!

[Photo by Uptown Almanac]

Looks weird, right? That’s because it’s supposed to be in ALL CAPS but it’s not. Our pal TK of 40 Going On 28 did some digging and came upon a horrible truth:

“In 2009, the city adopted something called the Federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which says street signs are harder to read in all capital letters.”

[...]

DO YOU REALIZE WHAT THIS MEANS? We will slowly convert citywide to boring, lowercase signs. In fact, we may be the last generation of San Franciscans to enjoy ALL CAPS street signs. I wonder how long before there aren’t any left.

Sad beans! Read on for more pics and analysis.

(Although, I used to write all the captions to my photos on Tumblr in all caps and then my friend Tag made fun of me for it so I stopped, and I think my Tumblr got better because of it somehow. Maybe San Francisco will get better too?)

[Photo by rickinsf]

Can’t wait!

[via Carlos]

Same thing on both sides! Had no idea Coca-Cola was such a sexed-up megacorporation! We checked with SFist editor Brock Keeling, whose offices are just blocks from the sign, to confirm that this was a new phenomenon, and this is what he said:

Brock: Allan, it’s Pride month. Of course it’s going to say that

Of course! So yeah, enjoy, everybody!