After a failed attempt to get a vacancy tax on empty grocery stores on the ballot, District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood is proposing a new Affordable Groceries Act—this time through an ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors.
https://www.sfpublicpress.org/food-insecurity-up-and-city-officials-disagree-on-solutions/

Military jet low over downtown SF just now. Odd. Fleet Week isn't til October.

For as long as I’ve been alive, progressives have been asked (told) to fall in line following primary outcomes that favored centrists/moderates.

Now the same people complain that progressives are undermining the party by (checks notes) winning elections.

#uspol

In-depth NPR report on the worsening of black lung disease in U.S. Appalachian coal country. Mining in thinner seams, raising more dangerous silica dust around the coal. Black lung rates at the worst levels since the 1970s.
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/05/nx-s1-5894884/appalachia-black-lung-coal-miners-silica-dust

All American Towel.
Large! Strong! Absorbent!

Thinking how "computer" long ago meant a woman who ran calculations by hand under orders. Until the women who did that work came up with other approaches.

Here in San Francisco, every time I go to Costco I'm surrounded by AI ad billboards feeding the fantasy of oddly steely yet obedient women who will take care of the awkward fiddly bits in jobs mapped out by the implied customer, a big-picture thinker.

Funny how the awkward fiddly bits are always the important part.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/history-human-computers-180972202/

A volunteer chia plant started growing in a pot on our porch in San Francisco a few years ago. This year's stalks produced a half-teaspoon of chia seed, shown in that first photo below. Second image is a closeup of our same homegrown chia seeds using a GoMicro lens clip for phones that they used to sell at the Exploratorium. Third image is commercial chia seed from the package for comparison. Stunning how many plants' whole yield we eat for breakfast every morning.

"At any rate, spring is here ... and they can’t stop you enjoying it."

G. Orwell, "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad," 1946.

San Francisco looking more Besźel than usual this evening.

The site of Compton's Cafeteria joined the National Register of Historic Places on January 27, 2025.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sf-transgender-historic-landmark-20154723.php

https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=news&sc=national&id=337812&title=san_francisco_building_becomes_1st_us_transgender_movement_historic_site

Worth remembering what happened in Hood River, Oregon in 1944 and the public shock and amends that followed.
https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Hood_River_incident/

Golden Gate Park Panhandle: someone has planted daffodils (or similar) in the hollow of a sawn-limb scar on a very old eucalyptus. #hellascape

Freelon Street

Kind of love this wildstyle grisaille on Freelon Street, South of Market.

http://marthabridegam.com/2023/12/02/freelon-street/

Because all the news is terrible, can anybody help identify this moth seen laying eggs on a window near San Francisco?

Image: broad-bodied moth photographed from inside a glass window. It has folded wings patterned in kind of grayscale leopard spots. Next to it is a cluster of about 100 fresh-looking white eggs placed side by side, each adhering to the window.