Eye on Blogs

Domestic chickens, you are out of luck. Try the street.

Despite disruptive protests going on at UC Berkeley over the decision to jack up tuition by 32%--where a fire alarm was pulled--one "badass" math teacher continues teaching outside on the wall of Evans Hall:

[via The Daily Blog Twitter feed]

Santa is gonna be around this weekend taking orders.

MarinMommies has a great list of Family Fun Things to Do This Weekend, one of which includes a local visit by the Bearded One. Find out where the Ho Ho Ho Haver will be.

"Cavorting crows" by wolfpix:

["Today's (Insert City Here)" is a photo post series at Eye on Blogs that brings you a provocative or otherwise interesting image from a Bay Area city. Photos are found on Flickr. All photos selected are licensed under the Creative Commons for commercial work.]

Ladies and gents, the curse-laden stylings of one Broke-Ass Stuart is telling you about (what looks to be) a fun event in San Francisco this weekend:

To say I’ve seen a lot of f-cked up sh-t in San Francisco is like saying I sing Lady Gaga in the shower — I rarely admit it but it totally happens. But for all of the really weird, brain bending and memory searing events that have taken place, there is always the really bizarrely amazing ones that completely change my life. Now, I’m not saying in any way, shape or form that this pending event is going to change your life — it may very well do the opposite. But its a great example of all the sh-t our city has to offer us on a daily basis, so take advantage, you culture-less pr-ck.

Bikes and the ballet are two things that I’m completely ignorant of, but the combination of the everyday and the elegance really makes me think that this might be a great thing to get f-cked up at. Just sayin’.

Details at Broke-Ass Stuart.

San Francisco is all abuzz about what the hell is up with their Mayor. His staff is quitting, he's taking unannounced last-minute trips to Hawaii and is generally acting pretty suspiciously. Websites have been made mocking his melt down.

CBS 5's Hank Plante was granted an interview with Mayor Gavin Newsom yesterday, and the result is shocking. Newsom is asked about his recent strange behavior, and said strange behavior increases twofold. When asked what he thought about all that was being said about him, he replied, "I don't read the press. It's comical, some of the things that have been written."

The laughter that he spills while saying these things is eerie. You can tell the laughter is masking a feeling more along the lines of, "I would like to punch you in the neck right now, Mr. Reporter."

The Mayor says questions by reporters and citizens alike about his absence and bizarre behaviors are, "In a box. That is something else. That is irrelevant."

But Plante doesn't merely have buzz and rumors to offer up. Plante busts out a list of events Newsom's missed, which shows it's not just journalists needed to fill column inches musing about him being MIA. Newsom admits to missing one speaking engagement before 6,000 people due to the flu, but says, "that's the only one I knew I missed." So, he missed others, and didn't even know about it. Comforting.

"I was never scheduled to be there," Newsom argues. "I was three events at the exact same time." Perhaps someone should inform Mayor Newsom that that is impossible. Unless he's hiding some kind of time bending machine in that hair.

When Plante switches topics to Newsom losing his PR flack, Newsom's body language changes. He's snippy with his retorts when asked about Nathan Ballard's resignation, "Yeah, I've just said I made a lot of changes here." Did the Mayor ask Ballard to leave? Because that is what his answer implies. Somehow I thought it was Ballard's idea.

When Newsom did get around to being asked about the budget, it took some cajoling to get him to speak about it, despite his insistance that that was the only thing he was there to talk about. He was clearly shaken by the line of questioning that preceded the inquiry about the budget, and his words about rectifying the windfall were tinged with bitterness and anger. Not the least bit confidence-inspiring.

The interview was weird. Newsom clearly has a lot going on behind that mask he's wearing, and it's all starting to bleed through the holes.

A commenter at CBS5.com writes:

I thought he was a petulant, petty, selfish, whiney jerk before but after seeing this I've added idiot, arrogant, stupid and just plain embarrassing to the list. He has taken a page from George Bush, just keep repeating the same lies over and over and hope people believe it. Since he doesn't have the sense to resign, let's impeach him.

Watch Hank Plante's interview with Mayor Gavin Newsom in full, and let us know what you think:

UPDATE: In the version of this interviewed that aired on the CBS 5 newscast, you can see Mayor Newsom forcefully remove his microphone and hurry out at the end, but not before telling Hank Plante that he is "amazingly disappointed" in him. On a personal level. He said that "off the record," but to a hot mic and an operating camera. Watch:

UPDATE #2: The website HasGavinNewsomResignedYet.com now recognizes the interview Plante did with the Mayor:

Don't sit home like a lump on a log. Get out and about. Beth Spotswood has your itinerary:

"Officially Fall":

Techcrunch.com posted about the “Trouble at Twitter" all based on the fact that U.S. visitors to the site were down 8% in October.  The supposition here is that Twitter's growth is stalling. Joe Vazquez is doing a piece on this very number tonight, and when he asked my opinion I said that that number lies. Twitter is increasingly being used on cell phones and web browsers through third party clients. Things like Brizzly.com, Tweetie for iPhone or TweetDeck. Look at the public Twitter stream of everyone using, and you can see how they posted. Very often it is through Echophone or Birdhouse. Something other than Twitter.

Does that mean Twitter's growth is stalling? Hardly. Perhaps page views aren't the bread and butter Twitter is planning on.

Vazquez spoke to the editor of CNET.com, who had a similar reaction:

“Twitter is probably thriving and cooling off at the same time.”  The traffic to Twitter’s web site is apparently cooling off; tapering for the first month-to-month period.  So that’s a big headline.  It’s like, ‘wow, Twitter was one of the biggest things on the web.  The growth that they had was like 1200 or 1300 percent compared to a year ago.  Amazing numbers.  Alright, now we see a little monthly cooling.  But what we don’t have a good handle on is how many folks have instead been using Twitter from their mobile phone, which is a very strong trend.  Or, people who are using special kinds of software to use Twitter; not the twitter.com web site."

Watch the raw video of the interview with Brian Cooley, Editor-at-large at CNET.com:

Vazquez' full piece will air on CBS 5 tonight at 10 and 11.