Nine PBS VP and CCO Leah Freeman confirmed the station's lawsuit against Iron Mountain and its dedication to retrieving the archival materials and programming, which she says span over "70 years of our organization's history." [...]

The contract provided 30 days for Nine PBS to retrieve its data from OSS' storage "upon termination of services." But on March 6, OSS cut off the station's access without warning, according to the complaint. When Nine PBS attempted to contact OSS to sort out the problem, it discovered that OSS' website was defunct and the company had delinquency status with the Colorado Secretary of State. [...]

Iron Mountain has refused to return the materials to the station because its client, OSS, technically owned "the physical services housing the data" within Iron Mountain, according to the complaint.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/today-in-clown-storage-pbs/feed/ 8 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/someone-who-is-good-at-the-economy-please-help-me-budget-this/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/someone-who-is-good-at-the-economy-please-help-me-budget-this/#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2026 17:49:54 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-k It was never about the money, it's about the impunity.

Google oligarch Brin has now spent $100 million to avoid paying $13 billion in taxes.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated another $20 million to Build a Better California, an organization advocating against California's proposed billionaire tax, according to a new filing. That means that the world's fourth-richest man, whose net worth hovers around $267 billion, has now spent more than $100 million to avoid an estimated $13.3 billion tax payment.

California's Prop 40, known as the billionaire tax, would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of around 200 billionaires that live in the state. The windfall from this proposed tax would mostly go toward funding California's healthcare programs. The state's Medicaid program alone could lose up to $30 billion in federal funding once Trump's budget cuts take effect next year.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/someone-who-is-good-at-the-economy-please-help-me-budget-this/feed/ 11 https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/08/10.html Mon, 10 Aug 2026 19:46:02 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-f house. Crashed 1,507 systems in one day. Biggest crash in history. Front page New York Times, August 10, 1988.

Naturally, that means it's time for our latest installment of CYBERDELIA.

This is the THIRTY-FIRST Anniversary of HACKERS, yes really. Join me as I crumble to dust. So, as per tradition, we will have:

• A screening of Hackers at 8pm;
• Hackers costume contest at 11pm;
• Head-to-head Wipeout XL competition throughout the night;
• Skate ramps! Rollerblades welcome!
• Electro / big beat / cyberpunk dance party to follow.

If you've been to some of our other movie nights recently you may have noticed that people tend to clear out pretty soon after the movie ends. This one is not like that. There really is a dance party after, so be prepared!

▶︎

"Hackers penetrate and ravage delicate public and privately owned computer systems, infecting them with viruses, and stealing materials for their own ends. These people, they are terrorists."

And we hope we will also see you at our subsequent movie nights as well! The Crow, Thu Oct 29 (Devils' Night Eve), Scott Pilgrim, Sun Nov 22, and the greatest Christmas movie, Batman Returns, Sun Dec 20. Season Pass tickets available!

Bonnie Tyler died last month, and so the glorious "Total Eclipse of the Heart, Literal Version" by Persephone Maewyn and dascottjr was making the rounds again, dodging takedowns. (This video is a textbook case of fair use, since not only is it a parody song, but the lyrics are direct commentary on the video itself, I mean come on.) Anyway all extant copies of it are shit quality, so I reconstructed it from the official HD video plus the "literal" audio, and re-built the subtitles by hand. Immediate takedown. I appealed. A week later, some intern or chatbot at BMG said "fuck you no". Then I tried to do a counter-claim, but they wouldn't let me, because I wouldn't give them a lock of my hair first. Then... 30 days later... they're both up, and all is forgiven I guess?

Mirror them while the mirroring's good.

Salem Brought a Guillotine To Oppose New AI Data Center. Company Reps Left, Feeling "Unsafe".

Someone brought a guillotine to a city council meeting in Salem, Oregon on July 27, 2026. Not a sign shaped like one. Not a drawing. According to community accounts and social media posts, an actual guillotine structure appeared at the protest outside Loucks Auditorium, where hundreds of residents had gathered to oppose a proposed multi-billion-dollar AI data center. Company representatives reportedly assessed the scene and left, citing safety concerns -- though that detail hasn't appeared in formal news coverage or official minutes. [...]

Salem just reminded the industry that community consent isn't a formality you schedule around -- it's a variable that can stall a $5.1 billion project before a single permit clears.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/today-in-mr-choppy-news/feed/ 26 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/outside-lands-2/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/outside-lands-2/#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2026 03:22:13 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-U calendar file of the whole schedule.

Also, if you are going and we actually know each other in person, lemme know!

Previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/outside-lands-2/feed/ 3 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/today-in-the-scraperpocalypse-2/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/today-in-the-scraperpocalypse-2/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2026 20:37:23 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-S You may have noticed that my various sites were nearly unusable for the last 4+ days, and are still maybe not doing great. The current attack by AI scrapers is somehow of an even more harmful character than previous ones.

During the last storm, I was able to weather 80+req/sec. But this time with only 32 req/sec, responsiveness went completely to shit. Possibly because thousands of connections were staying in LAST_ACK? I dunno.

After trying many things, the only thing that alleviated it somewhat was to start blackholing entire countries by /16.

And having done so, I'm... still getting 32/req sec. But now the site is responsive. So there's some thing special about this latest attacker that makes things fall over, that is not merely "hammering you with page loads as fast as you respond". And this was the case even if I fed the scrapers a plain-old Apache 404 or 503, without dropping down into PHP at all.

To whom do I send the invoice for the lost productivity of my staff, who could not access our own web site to do their jobs for most of the week? Asking for an everybody.

Anyway, some things I have been finding helpful this week:

• country-block;
• ipsum = level 3;
• blocklist.de = all;
• rezmoss clown providers.

My approach (which had been working great last week, but not so much this week) was to create separate php-fpm pools for "real" web sites and for scrapers; and a corresponding fcgi proxy for each. The idea here being that under load, the "scraper" responder might become unresponsive, but the "real" site will be fine. And that was working pretty well... last month.

Something like:

<Proxy "unix:/run/php-fpm/jwz.sock|fcgi://php-jwz"> ProxySet </Proxy> ... <Proxy "unix:/run/php-fpm/dadadodo.sock|fcgi://php-dadadodo"> ProxySet timeout=10 </Proxy>

But the fact that under catastrophic load, I couldn't even get the php-fpm status pages to load, despite using a pm.status_listen "invisible pool" to bypass the queue, suggest to me that there's some other shared resource contention I don't know about:

<Location /fpm-status-dadadodo> SetHandler "proxy:unix:/run/php-fpm/dadadodo-status.sock|fcgi://php-dadadodo" Require ip ... </Location>

I also have conflicting experience with whether things are better with a "reasonable" number of Apache workers, or going hog wild on it: ServerLimit 16, MaxRequestWorkers 400 versus ServerLimit 400, MaxRequestWorkers 10000.

In summary: "AI is the future, don't get left behind." Also in this future you can't have a web site.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/today-in-the-scraperpocalypse-2/feed/ 40 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/please-keep-this-clown-out-of-congress-redux/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/please-keep-this-clown-out-of-congress-redux/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2026 18:02:17 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-P Scott Wiener, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Wiener employs Anthropic's tech for an interactive attack ad, but all Chan's campaign sees is desperation:

The Wiener campaign was in part inspired to create the chatbot in order to "lean into the AI craze overtaking the city," Arellano added. [...]

Ian Krager, spokesperson for the Chan campaign, told Gazetteer that Wiener is "desperately resorting to gimmicks" because Chan's message to voters has narrowed the gap; recent polling suggests that Chan is within five percentage points of Wiener.

"If there was ever any doubt that Scott Wiener is bought and paid for by Big AI, he's not even trying to hide it anymore," Krager said. "We know Scott Wiener is desperate for attention, but it's never a good idea for a man to put words in a woman's mouth -- especially when they are falsities fraught with racist and sexist undertones."

Krager added that Wiener has "cozied up to Big AI and corporate money," and that "voters deserve better than the tired and trite slop Scott Wiener is offering."

48 Hills: Wiener’s racist, sexist AI chatbot attacks Chan – and it’s weird and stupid and gross.

Update:: Oh no, Wiener had to take down his AI racism-bot. Oh no.

"Scott Wiener can rightly take down his bigotry bot, but he can't erase the concerns it raised among San Franciscans about his character and judgment," said Ian Krager, Chan's spokesperson.

"San Franciscans deserve better than a campaign funded by Big AI weaponizing the technology to mock an immigrant woman of color, doubling down after justified outrage, then reversing course and shrugging it off as simply 'missing the mark.'" [...]

"Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power," read the statement from Pelosi. " We should not have to fight against artificial intelligence putting words into our mouths."

This clown also had a giant sign across the street from the entrance to Outside Lands that said "Connie Chan wants to cancel Outside Lands". If she was as much of a lying piece of shit as he is, she might have had a sign that said "Scott Wiener wants to build millionaire condos on the Polo Field." I mean, it sounds true, doesn't it? My AI Girlfriend says it might be.

Previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/please-keep-this-clown-out-of-congress-redux/feed/ 1 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/bummer-and-lazarus-appreciation-post/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/bummer-and-lazarus-appreciation-post/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2026 01:17:34 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-N

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/bummer-and-lazarus-appreciation-post/feed/ 14 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/tlds-used-to-mean-things-we-used-to-be-a-society/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/tlds-used-to-mean-things-we-used-to-be-a-society/#comments Sun, 02 Aug 2026 05:01:21 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-L sfgov.org domain instead of the sf.gov domain.

I'll bet the reason is deeply, deeply stupid.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/tlds-used-to-mean-things-we-used-to-be-a-society/feed/ 48 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/trillionaire-versus-lettuce/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/trillionaire-versus-lettuce/#comments Sun, 02 Aug 2026 01:09:15 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-J Elon Musk is the world's biggest loser ever, having lost $800 billion in 7 weeks.

Apartheid Emerald Mine Space Karen supposedly became a "trillionaire" on June 12 and lost that status 12 days later as nearly half of that money [sic] evaporated. Yesterday SpaceX and Tesla stock had a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" and he was down to a paltry $600 billion, his 2024 level, meaning that in 49 days, he lost 25% more money than he had ever had prior to that. 49 days is the same timespan by which a head of lettuce famously outlasted Liz Truss in office.

This is almost enough to make you think that money isn't real and the stock market runs entirely on vibes. But that can't be right.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/08/trillionaire-versus-lettuce/feed/ 19 https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/31.html Sat, 01 Aug 2026 03:01:49 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-H something else entirely that I'm told I can't talk about yet, so let me sublimate that instinct with this unrelated story:

The SFPD "Real-Time Investigation Center" is the surveillance nightmare funded by a $9.4 million "donation" from billionaire Chris Larsen and another $3 million "donation" from Salesforce and Trump quisling Marc Benioff.

"We're going to be covering the entire city with drones," said RTIC representative Captain Thomas MacGuire.

Because there's nothing fascists like more than keeping the populace under constant surveillance.

(Funny story about this Chris Larsen guy, he calls himself a "privacy activist". How does a "privacy activist" end up buying cameras for cops? Oh that's easy; when he says "privacy" he means "financial privacy" which means "tax evasion" and "cryptocurrencies".)

Well. Besides partnering with enthusiastic ICE accomplices Flock, they have now begun "reaching out" to local businesses to really build out that Public-Private Panopticon Partnership. From a recent couple of emails we received from some private company who apparently got an SFPD contract to recruit for this grift:

Vale is building a direct link between SOMA and SFPD's Real-Time Investigation Center, the same unit that's already helped with over 500 arrests. We'd love your feedback on what to build to make SOMA safer and help businesses flourish. [...]

By tying businesses directly into the RTIC, SFPD can respond faster with evidence that actually leads to an arrest. We're reaching out to businesses to build a list of the first 100 businesses to roll out Vale's product with.

Let me know if you'd like your business included in Vale's Pilot with the City or just want to learn more about what we're doing to clean up SOMA.

My best guess as to how to translate that: "We want real-time access to your security cameras, and/or to install our own cameras on your property. And if you happen to have facial recognition at the door, well Hello Sailor!"

It sounds like Vale is a Nextdoor clone (that's the Weaponized Karens snitchware app whose main function is reporting people for Walking While Black.)

And it looks like the founder and CEO (Jon Goldsmith and Andrew Munday) also run a "ghost kitchens" company (that means "ratfucking independent restaurants".) Their third partner? Disgraced former SFPD Chief Greg Suhr.

Did I respond to those emails? I did.

The "Real-Time Investigation Center" is the most dystopian shit I've ever heard of. we want nothing to do with the surveillance nightmare you and your billionaire fascist buddies are trying to purchase for yourselves. Unsubscribe.

Among the statements at the center of the lawsuit were claims that Patel "attempted to overthrow the government," "planned January 6," was "guilty of sedition" and was a "Kremlin asset," as well as an allegation that Patel and his foundation paid people to "lie to Congress," according to the court filing. [...]

The order also referenced a post Stewartson made after the default judgment was entered, in which he called Patel a "Googly-eyed Kremlin bitch" and said Patel would have to return to Nevada for a trial where Stewartson would explain why he was "dead serious" when he called the FBI director a "chud." [...]

"✍️ PSA: Now that my case is settled, you are free to refer to @FBIDirectorKash as a 'chud,' a 'googly-eyed Kremlin bitch,' and a 'traitor' without fear of legal repercussions!" Stewartson wrote. "You're welcome! 😁👍🏼."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/googly-eyed-kremlin-bitch-loses-defamation-lawsuit/feed/ 6 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/amnesty-international-uk-caves-to-jk-rowling/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/amnesty-international-uk-caves-to-jk-rowling/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2026 21:20:05 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-D

On July 8, Amnesty International UK released a report titled "A Growing Threat: The Anti-Rights Movement in the UK." The report mapped 117 organizations working to restrict the rights of, among others, transgender and queer people in the United Kingdom, and documented the financial infrastructure behind them, including far-right Christian nationalist organizations, U.S.-based legal powerhouses like Alliance Defending Freedom, and conversion therapy promoters. [...]

For three weeks, the question was whether Amnesty would stand behind its own research or capitulate entirely. This morning, we got the answer: a full, groveling apology from the organization that has weathered the Soviet Union, Putin's Russia, and the Bush administration's defense of Guantánamo Bay -- but could not weather J.K. Rowling. [...]

The apology identified no factual errors in the report. It did not retract any specific finding. It did not name a single inaccuracy. It simply surrendered the entire document. [...]

This is not the first time Rowling has used the threat of litigation to silence critics in the United Kingdom. In 2022, she threatened legal action against a social media user who called her a Nazi, forcing a public apology. In 2024, her lawyers compelled journalist Rivkah Brown -- whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors -- to publicly retract a tweet calling Rowling a Holocaust denier after Rowling dismissed the Nazis' well-documented targeting of transgender people; her lawyers even required Brown to edit the apology's phrasing.

Previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/amnesty-international-uk-caves-to-jk-rowling/feed/ 18 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/still-no-qr-for-you/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/still-no-qr-for-you/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2026 18:30:46 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk-B aerial imagery of -- checks notes -- the sleepy seaside town of San Francisco. Still no QR for you.

I guess they've redirected that drone budget into feeding books into the plagiarism woodchipper.

Previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/still-no-qr-for-you/feed/ 21 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/the-eye-of-pizza-is-once-again-upon-you/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/the-eye-of-pizza-is-once-again-upon-you/#comments Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:40:22 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk9-

So then I ordered the cheapest fisheye camera lens I could find (49mm wide angle macro, $30) whose smaller lens was just slightly larger than the output lens of the projector. Success! It worked the first time.

(Someone who knew what they were doing might have looked at the focal length and done math to determine what kind of lens was needed. I very much did not do that. But I got lucky!)

I enlarged the various holes to make the new lens fit inside the dome, and got an 82mm to 95mm step-up adapter ring to screw onto the front of the fisheye, to have something I could drill into to hold it in place inside the dome. Then I cut the old electronics housing in half and dremeled out all of the interior greeblies to have a sleeve to slip over the new projector. The rest is duct tape.

I had to open up the new projector to extend the IR receiver into the dome, since, like the old eyeball, it doesn't remember its settings and you have to manually select HDMI on a remote after a power failure.

The image is 16:9 and doesn't fill the whole dome, and it's a little fuzzy on the edges, but for eyeball purposes, it's close enough. Once I get an ethernet cable in there, I'm going to see what tweaks I can make on the image in software to make it fill the frame a little better.

Previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/the-eye-of-pizza-is-once-again-upon-you/feed/ 26 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/igor/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/igor/#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2026 06:43:55 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk98 which one of these bottle blonde dirtbags is Igor the Carpathian?]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/igor/feed/ 2 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/we-should-rely-less-on-the-nazi-bar-somewhat/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/we-should-rely-less-on-the-nazi-bar-somewhat/#comments Sun, 26 Jul 2026 04:56:04 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk96 After outcry, Meta reverses suspension of The Stud's Instagram page:

Meta Platforms initially suspended its Instagram account after the bar said bad actors flagged old posts with false charges of "human trafficking," striking down a crucial marketing stream ahead of Sunday's Dore Alley street fair. [...]

"We relied on the page because it combined marketing, ticketing, and communications with clients and performers," Ryan said. "To have that taken away with just a moment's notice ... I can't even describe it."

Nowhere in this article does anyone even consider: "Perhaps we should rely less on Nazi Bars for our critical business functions somewhat".

"The account has been restored," said Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold in an email late Saturday. He did not say why the account was initially suspended.

Another co-owner of the Stud is Honey Mahogany, an activist, drag performer and the director of San Francisco's Office of Transgender Initiatives. In a Friday personal video posted to Instagram, Mahogany called on Meta to reverse the decision. [...]

"[blah blah blah]," said state Sen. Scott Wiener in a post on X on Saturday. "Meta should reverse this ban immediately."

District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey also took to X to tell Meta to restore the bar's page. "I'm glad it's back up," said Dorsey upon hearing of Meta's reversal.

"Dorsey took to X to tell Meta." Uh huh. "Wiener post on X." Uh huh. "Mahogany posted on Instagram." Uh huh.

Nowhere in this article does anyone even consider: "Perhaps local politicians should rely less on Nazi Bars for our critical government communications somewhat".

(Yes, my business also uses Facebook and Instagram somewhat. "Curious!")

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/we-should-rely-less-on-the-nazi-bar-somewhat/feed/ 8 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/neuromancer/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/neuromancer/#comments Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:54:43 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk92 So there's a Neuromancer trailer out and it's exactly the necrophiliac snore you'd expect it to be. I already watched this show when it was called Altered Carbon, and it sucked. Nobody listens to me, but the only way to make this work was to have gone full Lisa Frankenstein.

How is Jared Leto not in this? It has that Leto Stink on it.

We could have had a second season of The Peripheral instead of this.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/neuromancer/feed/ 47 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/this-is-fine-4/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/this-is-fine-4/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2026 17:52:18 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk90

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/this-is-fine-4/feed/ 8 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/prosecuted-for-using-a-duress-code/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/prosecuted-for-using-a-duress-code/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2026 02:31:58 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk9y US government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system:

The interrogation, including the questions about child sexual abuse images, was "a pretext for a fishing expedition into Mr Tunick's connections" to the movement against Cop City, according to the motion.

Tunick asked four times during the interrogation to speak with a lawyer, but was rebuffed each time, according to courtroom testimony. Additionally, the agents produced no warrant and did not read Tunick his rights. [...]

Agent Findley and several others repeatedly asked Tunick to open his phone during the interrogation, telling him they would seize it if he did not. When he finally provided a passcode, "the screen went blank, flashed several times and the phone appeared to restart", according to the motion.

Previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/prosecuted-for-using-a-duress-code/feed/ 21 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/sf-officials-will-arrest-you-for-partying-in-soma-also-really-want-you-to-come-party-in-soma/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/sf-officials-will-arrest-you-for-partying-in-soma-also-really-want-you-to-come-party-in-soma/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2026 01:34:00 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk9w Do it our way or else!

Two inbox items from Thursday, presented without comment:

July 23, 2026 Press release from San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins's office:

18 CHARGED IN CONNECTION TO UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY ON HOWARD AND WASHBURN STREET

Today, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced that 18 individuals have been charged in connection to an unsanctioned and unpermitted block party in SOMA. [...]

The DJ eventually stopped performing and left. [...] Within an hour, many of the same people from the earlier gathering reconvened on the unit block of Washburn Street and began a second unsanctioned and unpermitted block party with a crowd of approximately 200 individuals.

July 23, 2026 Press release from San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey's office:

SUPERVISOR MATT DORSEY, CITY AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS LAUNCH WEST SOMA ENTERTAINMENT ZONE

Supervisor Matt Dorsey's office, in partnership with Mayor Daniel Lurie, the SOMA West Community Benefit District, the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District, and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, launched the West SoMa Entertainment Zone to support local businesses, strengthen neighborhood nightlife, and bring more activity to the West SoMa neighborhood and its commercial corridors.

Entertainment zones authorized by Senator Scott Wiener's SB 76 (2023) and SB 969 (2024) allow cities and counties to designate outdoor areas where open alcoholic beverages may be consumed during permitted events. Under this framework, the West SoMa Entertainment Zone allows participating restaurants, bars, breweries, and wineries to sell "to‑go" drinks for enjoyment on the sidewalk within marked boundaries.

That first press release is some copaganda defending SFPD's insanely dispropotionate and violent actions during Pride. Mission Local:

For the past six years, Stud Alley, an unsanctioned block party, has been held in SoMa on the Saturday evening of Pride. Police this year arrived at the first gathering on Kissling Street at about 11 p.m. to disperse the crowd, and arrested two participants. The party then re-formed a few blocks over and, after issuing dispersal orders a second time, police arrested another 18 people. [...]

Trans March organizers met with Mayor Daniel Lurie on July 13 about Pride weekend arrests at the Trans March and the Stud Alley party, and presented a letter signed by more than 1,500 people blasting the police response at the march. They demanded the charges against Trans March defendants be dropped, though Lurie is not responsible for the DA's charging decisions. District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder has sent two letters of inquiry to the San Francisco Police Department demanding drone footage of the arrests and other information about the police role at both the Stud Alley party and Trans March.

In the courtroom this morning, the line of defendants stretched nearly out the room. The judge and defense attorneys expressed surprise at the charges, which were announced around noon on Wednesday. "I just found out about this at 4:15 yesterday," the judge told the courtroom.

Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Jeff Wozniak reassured the crowd of defendants. "We haven't seen charges like this in 30 to 40 years," he remarked.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/sf-officials-will-arrest-you-for-partying-in-soma-also-really-want-you-to-come-party-in-soma/feed/ 1 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/i-see-apartheid-emerald-mine-space-karen-is-also-getting-into-the-antichrist-biz/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/i-see-apartheid-emerald-mine-space-karen-is-also-getting-into-the-antichrist-biz/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:33:11 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk9u Tesla swapped a solar owner's lease contract for the Book of Enoch:

A Tesla solar customer went to pull up their lease agreement in their Tesla account this month and found something other than a contract waiting for them: the Book of Enoch, an ancient apocalyptic text about fallen angels.

Not a scanned copy of their agreement. Not an error page. The full text of a roughly 2,000-year-old religious book, sitting exactly where their legally binding solar lease was supposed to be. [...]

When they contacted Tesla support, a representative acknowledged the swap in a chat conversation Electrek reviewed. Tesla confirmed the lease had become the Book of Enoch. What Tesla didn't offer was any real explanation.

For the uninitiated: the Book of Enoch is a Hebrew text from around 200 BCE, cut from most Bibles and considered canonical mainly by the Ethiopian Orthodox church. It's best known for the Watchers, fallen angels who come down and father a race of giants. It is a lot of things. A residential solar lease is not one of them.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/i-see-apartheid-emerald-mine-space-karen-is-also-getting-into-the-antichrist-biz/feed/ 21 https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2026/07/24.html Fri, 24 Jul 2026 21:06:45 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk9s video of the first night of Club Q at DNA Lounge, back in the distant year of Two Thousand and Two. Wait, we were still using VHS in 2002? Yes. Yes we were. 2002, in case you didn't know, was 24 years ago. How dare it. The nerve.

Trans community, allies condemn Wiener for exploiting a march he was asked to leave:

State Sen. Scott Wiener was not invited to the Trans March. He was really, really not invited: In fact, Gabriel Haaland, one of the founders of the march, told me, he had been asked specifically not to attend.

In 2016, then-Sup. Wiener, then-state-Sen. Mark Leno, and then-Mayor Ed Lee were booed off the stage at the march. (That was when Leno and Wiener were close, before Wiener stabbed his mentor in the back and endorsed London Breed for mayor.)

"We told them very clearly that we didn't want politicians in our space," Haaland explained to me. "We changed our policy because of Wiener, and his anti-tenant policies, and asked them not to come back." [...]

But Wiener didn't just show up; after he left, he used video of the event to raise national money, $127,000 in national money, for his Congressional campaign. (According to the Standard, even Netanyahu sided with Wiener, saying he was treated unfairly.)

"It's about as craven as I've ever seen," Haaland told me. "To use our community in this way to raise money is disgraceful. ... He never even picked up the phone and reached out to the Trans March folks." [...]

"The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club condemns these self-serving actions by State Senator Wiener and urges politicians to stop using vulnerable communities as a fundraising tool. Trans people already face immense danger in this country. We need real allies, not people who will sell us out for a fundraising opportunity."

As of Tuesday, the van is back in action with a slightly different message: "I live in this van b/c Connie Chan hates housing."

Gazetteer SF learned that the registered owner of the van is being paid by a super PAC that supports Scott Wiener.

In April, the San Francisco Chronicle used California Department of Motor Vehicles data to identify Conor Johnston as the owner of the van. Johnston is a longtime Wiener supporter who served as chief of staff to London Breed when she was supervisor, and later advised her mayoral reelection campaign in 2024. He is also owner of the cannabis company Otter Brands, and has a history of political pranks and provocations.

Johnston and his business have been paid nearly $30,000 by the Families for an Affordable San Francisco super PAC this year, according to financial disclosures to the Federal Election Commission. Families is a super PAC founded by Wiener's active campaign director, Todd David, who remains the PAC's treasurer.

On April 28, the PAC paid Otter Brands, Johnston's cannabis company, $28,611.37 for "office consulting." One week later, the PAC paid $1,000 to Johnston directly for "office refurbishment." [...]

The Wiener campaign declined to comment through spokesperson Joe Arellano.

The Families PAC itself is a dark-money mess, as it leverages a 2024 FEC rule change in order for the PAC and Wiener's official campaign to share staff and coordinate canvassing operations together. In May, campaign finance experts told Gazetteer that the rule change represents a massive breach of a foundational policy to ban communication between a super PAC and a federal campaign on materials that advocate for voter action.

Previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/please-keep-this-jackass-out-of-congress/feed/ 1 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/sd/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/sd/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2026 02:27:26 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk9o https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/sd/feed/ 14 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/the-eye-of-pizza-is-no-longer-upon-you/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/the-eye-of-pizza-is-no-longer-upon-you/#comments Sun, 19 Jul 2026 20:09:07 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk9l

Sadly, the Gakken World Eye is now going for almost a grand on eBay.

So I bought the cheapest desktop video projector I could find ($30) just to see if I could aim that at the inside of the dome. Unsurprisingly, the answer is no. That projector needs to be about 2½ feet behind the dome to fill it and be in focus, which is less of an eyeball and more of an eye sausage.

I took both apart and they have very different projectors and optics, so just swapping lenses isn't an option.

I suspect that in principle I could put some extra lenses in front of this thing to make it go but I have no idea how to do that.

So. Got a Gakken World Eye that you'd like to donate to the cause of "weird DNA Pizza decor"? Or, do you know of a desktop video projector that can throw an in focus 10" tall image from a distance of 10" to 20"?

Update: Fixed!

Previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/the-eye-of-pizza-is-no-longer-upon-you/feed/ 24 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/wp-pro-tips/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/wp-pro-tips/#comments Sat, 18 Jul 2026 19:02:32 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk9j There's a new WordPress exploit out there but I will show you how I vaccinated myself against it 6+ years ago:

remove_filter ('wp_head', 'rest_output_link_wp_head'); remove_filter ('template_redirect', 'rest_output_link_header', 11); remove_filter ('wp_head', 'wp_oembed_add_discovery_links'); remove_filter ('wp_head', 'wp_oembed_add_host_js'); add_filter ('json_enabled', '__return_false'); add_filter ('json_jsonp_enabled', '__return_false'); add_filter ('xmlrpc_enabled', '__return_false'); add_filter ('rest_url', 'jwz_no_rest', 1, 4); add_filter ('rest_url_prefix', 'jwz_no_rest', 1, 1); function jwz_no_rest ($url, $path='', $blog_id='', $scheme='') { return ''; } add_filter ('rest_authentication_errors', function ($result) { return new WP_Error ('Fuck REST', 'Fuck REST', array ('status' => 403)); }); // And for good measure: add_filter ('wp_supports_ai', '__return_false');

Previously, previously, previously, previously.]]> https://cdn.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/wp-pro-tips/feed/ 20 https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/today-in-youtubes-joke-of-a-fair-use-appeal-process-6/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2026/07/today-in-youtubes-joke-of-a-fair-use-appeal-process-6/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2026 20:37:43 +0000 https://jwz.org/b/yk9d "Build history as you grow: Once you have enough history, we'll automatically unlock features." Apparently my 14+ year old youtube channel has not yet reached 2 months of active use, according to the vibe-coded math of Google's robots.

Since, as you know, arguing with robots is something of a hobby of mine, I uploaded my traditional driver's license. You can't just "upload" it, of course, they require you to scan a QR code with a phone and take a photo from within the browser, for maximal tracking. So I used one of my burner phones for that. They say their response takes 24 hours, so presumably some dollar-a-day call-center gig worker in India is going to put eyeballs on it, so we'll see how that goes.

In case you're wondering what stupidity I'm up to this time:

Bonnie Tyler died last week, and so the glorious "Total Eclipse of the Heart, Literal Version" by Persephone Maewyn and dascottjr was making the rounds again, dodging takedowns. (This video is a textbook case of fair use, since not only is it a parody song, but the lyrics are direct commentary on the video itself, I mean come on.) Anyway all extant copies of it are shit quality, so I reconstructed it from the official HD video plus the "literal" audio, and re-built the subtitles by hand. Immediate takedown. I appealed. A week later, some intern or chatbot at BMG said "fuck you no". Now I'm trying to counter-claim.

Anyway, maybe someday you'll get to see this higher quality version of the video. It's still pretty funny. You can go request it on the DNA Pizza music video stream I guess.

Update: Oh no. Anyway

Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2026 02:28:12 -0700
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Google couldn't approve your ID verification. You can try again to get advanced YouTube features with your ID or video verification in 30 days. In the meantime, you can continue to build your channel history by uploading videos or live streams and following YouTube's Community Guidelines. After 30 days, this history may help you get access to advanced YouTube features. Learn more