208 Comments
User's avatar
heyalumnigo's avatar

But this popped up on my youtube feed and it's pretty amazing. OSU band doing their Top Gun show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNhHW6hIr2Q

TheBuckeyeBear's avatar

Info from my coworker:

COVID-19 vaccines are now available at Oakland Medical Center:

Fabiola Building, 3801 Howe Street

Ground Floor, G26/27 conference rooms

By appointment or walk-in

Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

I went this morning at 9. I recommend being there when they open. For some reason, they said they were only doing boosters until 10 am today, but when I left a few minutes after 10, they weren’t turning people away

“Ground floor” means basement. Take the elevator or stairs down and the vaccine line forms to the right

Berkelium97's avatar

I switched to Verizon's Fios about 4 months ago and it's been fantastic so far. 1Gbps up/down for $75/month including all taxes, fees, etc. It's not a promotional rate, so the bill should stay the same indefinitely.

I got tired of the same thing happening every year with Comcast: bill jumps from $50 to $90, I call up and threaten to cancel their service, and they find some magical discount to drop the bill back down to $50.

DC Trojan's avatar

I've had FIOS since we moved into our house in 2007 and the internet service has for the most part been very good - stable and reliable. I would very much like to ditch the television and phone element, but it's not at all clear that my major stakeholder will agree to this ;)

g.oso's avatar

I keep getting email offers to switch, i think both of your endorsements might seal the deal.

Wiata78's avatar

where I'm living now (SF) and moving to (Marin), comcast is the only option :(

Though we only get 200 mbs now, I measured over 500 mbs at the new place.

DC Trojan's avatar

I had a choice of FIOS or Comcast, and after my experience of Comcast in DC, there was no way.

SGBear's avatar

I just called AT&T to sign up for internet at my new house. Apparently, I can get 5 gigabyte speed for $185/month. I don't know what I'd do with that much bandwidth, but lawdy that's fast.

clapdoc's avatar

But that will be throttled down to 1% of that speed in three months.

MoriBear's avatar

what is your upload speed? for me, that's what limits my performance with the work network. I get like 350 Mbps down and 10 up (and can't get it any faster)

paulie's avatar

I have ATT fiber running to the house. Over the course of 2 years the line has been cut twice (once by neighbor’s landscaper, once by fence installer). Clearly the markings aren’t working. But when it’s up the speed and latency is outstanding.

FiatSlug's avatar

We have Sonic Gigabit fiber. Very reliable, although if I could get similar for cheaper, I might do it.

Cugel's avatar

Monkey Brains (for me free, other tenants $35) 500 up/down

FiatSlug's avatar

Does Monkey Brains require a rooftop installation because there is no wire from a telephone pole? Is it strictly by line-of-sight transmission?

Cugel's avatar

Line of sight, and I think they only do multi-tenant.

MoriBear's avatar

LoS and our place (in the Castro) didn't have it. :-(

FiatSlug's avatar

Their website seems to indicate that they also serve single family homes.

Cugel's avatar

FYI, any line of sight network goes down if the links lose power.

FiatSlug's avatar

Is that any different than a wired network?

SGBear's avatar

Holiday gift ideas

SGBear's avatar

Butter bell. Keeps butter fresh and at spreadable room temperature. It's a game changer. Scootie gave me the idea two years ago. I think of her every time I use it, which is daily.

heyalumnigo's avatar

I got a pretty cool blue butter dish from Bennington Potters when I went to No 1's grad school graduation a few years ago. It's a nice, heavy butter dish.

https://www.benningtonpotters.com/product/covered-butter-dish

What would be the benefit of a butter bell vs a butter dish?

heyalumnigo's avatar

oh interesting. I always assumed it was just a jar with a lid. Never knew it is spread in the bell and put upside down to the water.

rocksanddirt's avatar

our butter doesn't sit in the dish long enough for this to be a concern. Though perhaps the consumption of butter might be....

HeyStudentsBears's avatar

books for kids.

yes, i am that annoying person who always buys books for kids for Xmas.

i just bought some classics for the 8-11 yrs niece/nephews.

- Encyclopedia Brown

- Choose Your Own Adventure

i got one of the Encyclopedia Brown books for my senior in HS too since she is a taking a "mystery novel" class for her English requirement.

MoriBear's avatar

And we always get her books for holidays (among other things), so it's not a bad thing :-)

MoriBear's avatar

Bought an Encyclopedia Brown for my 6-yo a week ago. (I was thinking Great Brain series, but it was still interesting, albeit anachronistic.). She enjoyed them. And even solved a few of the mysteries (sometimes with a bit of me asking her pointed questions about the plot).

Was surprised about the number of stories that involved guns. And for the one story with a dentist named Lindsey (I think), I thought "wow, a female dentist back then...cool". But turned out it was a guy, and that fact was part of the answer to the mystery.

Now I need to hunt down a Great Brain book.

SGBear's avatar

Everyone in my family is getting Petit Ecolier (dark choc) this year.

MoriBear's avatar

Flashing back to "best cookie" thread from a couple of months ago: yes!

SGBear's avatar

EVO oil sprayer. I use this every day. It is the only spray bottle that I've found that actually sprays oil rather than streams it. It will coat a pan or whatever you're cooking evenly, faster, and cleanly. I have the stainless steel one.

https://evooilsprayers.com/buy/

Berkelium97's avatar

That's a good idea and more efficient than my strategy of using a silicone brush to coat everything. That could be a good stocking stuffer for the missus.

HeyStudentsBears's avatar

i think we need one of these for our new air fryer

DC Trojan's avatar

sold out, unfortunately, because it's a classic

TheBuckeyeBear's avatar

on my other internet community:

American: What does the War of 1812 smell like anyway?

Canadian: maple syrup and American tears

Wiata78's avatar

For a 3 year old, a Hot Wheels Mars Perservance Rover and associated kids book.

goldenone's avatar

B to C, B to B, ASP, Web 2.0, Blah Blah, Web 3.0, Metaverse

SGBear's avatar

I fucking hate you, Amazon. See you again tomorrow.

g.oso's avatar

Trying to do all my shopping without Amazon this year

Terence's avatar

Things which you thought would never work

SGBear's avatar

Eating peanut butter to stop hiccups.

Terence's avatar

"Isn't that just Friendster? What's so different about Facebook?"

goldenone's avatar

Friendster>MySpace>Facebook

Terence's avatar

DBD Not Official Financial Advice

Terence's avatar

Whew, I know, don't pay attention to daily.weekly/monthly fluctuations but seeing my personal wealth go down X% before the holiday was a tiny bit gulp inducing.

MoriBear's avatar

But I'm assuming that you saw it come back up after the holiday, yes? At least, that was my experience. (but I did the same fluctuation attention and had the same reaction.)

HeyStudentsBears's avatar

air fryer cooking.

my wife tried to buy me an air fryer as a surprise for my bday this week, but did not do a good job of hiding the giant box that UPS delivered. so we tried it last night for the first time.

the breaded fish cutlets turned out good. the veal ones, not so good.

other people have amazing things they are doing w/ their air fryers?

SGBear's avatar

Tater tots, french fries, hash browns, fresh sweet potato cubes, any baked good that needs a bit of texture refreshment (eg, quiche), anything with panko breading (having Nashville hot chicken sammies for lunch today).

Berkelium97's avatar

Ours has been wonderful for restoring crispiness to those kinds of foods. The only problem is that there seems to be a two-minute window between being underdone and turning into a piece of charcoal.

SGBear's avatar

Really? Are you putting enough supplemental oil into it?

Berkelium97's avatar

Hmm, that could be it. Now that I think about it, I think it happens more often with things that are minimally oiled (or inconsistently oiled because we don't yet have that spray bottle you recommended).

paulie's avatar

Supplemental…oil? I am intrigued

SGBear's avatar

Yeah. The airfryer creates a vortex of hot air and small droplets of aerosol oil. The oil sticks in a very thin coating. Without the oil, you're essentially convection roasting it - which is why things burn. Coated in a thin coat of oil, it fries.

Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

After seeing it on a recent Beat Bobby Flay, I had a hankering for chicken parmigiana so I made it last night using my own 3 quart fryer.....it tasted delicious, but what a mess, with the pounding of the chicken breast into a cutlet, the egg & flour/panko dusting, the homemade tomato sauce and of course the fryer oil, etc., at the end of the meal, it's just not all that worth it. I'll order out next time, but it scratched the chicken parm itch.

SGBear's avatar

Suggestion: use Springer Mountain chicken breasts. They are 4 ounce individually wrapped & frozen breasts. Perfect for a quarter-pounder meal. No pounding. Just defrost and go. And then use Michael's of Brooklyn Homestyle Gravy. Flour dredge, egg dip, panko coat, air fry, add the slice o cheez, then add the tomato gravy. Done start to finish in less than 17 minutes.

Scootie's avatar

I have not seen those on this coast. Would love them. I get so annoyed with how HUGE chicken breasts are these days. No, I do not need to eat 9 oz of chicken, thank you.

heyalumnigo's avatar

This is the recipe I use. It's from Cook's Illustrated. It's really good.

https://www.katecooksthebooks.com/cooks-illustrated-chicken-parmesan/

Scootie's avatar

I fry mine up in a cast iron frying pan, with just 1tbs oil and 1tbs butter. Takes about 5 minutes total for the chicken to be fully cooked. Bung it in the oven with the cheese and sauce just until they are melted/hot. I have finally stopped making the sauce from scratch for chickyparm, because I feel like it just doesn't make any difference, so I generally have a small jar of Rao's in the cupboard or fridge. (I am a homemade sauce Nazi for all other uses)

Cugel's avatar

Cooking for one sucks, amIrite?

Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Fact, C, especially after I quit drinking & considering I abhor leftovers, for the most part. I used to enjoy mixing a cocktail, opening a powerhouse bottle of Tikal Malbec or something by Oren Swift and fixing up a real nice dinner, for me (and then me & Mrs Jimmy C)...while I still like the idea of it, now it's just a chore, all the way down to the dishes. I microwave quesadillas FFS....what happened to me?

FiatSlug's avatar

"...I abhor leftovers,..."

I see your problem, said the guy who loves his wife's cooking and leftovers.

TheBuckeyeBear's avatar

Way to kick him when he's down and cantankerous

Terence's avatar

Our Crumbling Democracy

SGBear's avatar

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist publishes book, where he estimates that Trump Org squeezed $1.7b from American taxpayers.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-org-fleeced-america-for-1-7-billion-while-in-office-david-cay-johnston/

SGBear's avatar

Speaking of Mark Meadows, his replacement tweeted this forehead slapper:

https://twitter.com/CawthornforNC/status/1465055143221678080

FiatSlug's avatar

Fuck him. He enabled this trash.

sycasey's avatar

Also barely an actor.

clapdoc's avatar

No one told him that Teddy Roosevelt founded the progressive party.

goldenone's avatar

Trump effort to stymie Jan. 6 committee faces appeals court reckoning

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/30/trump-jan-6-appeals-court-523484

HeyStudentsBears's avatar

not-so-secret update from my wife (works at Pfizer)

- they dont know yet how good/bad current vaccine is vs Omicron variant

- Pfizer has already sequenced the new variant and could deliver new vaccine for approval w/in 100 days

- the anti-viral pill works on some different aspect of the virus and should be equally effective against Omicron

other news

- S Africa saying that unequal vaccine distribution lead to current problem

- however, SA apparently has too much vaccine and not enough nurses, syringes, etc to actually administer the doses even if they wanted to.

heyalumnigo's avatar

I've got my Modera booster (Team Pfizer for the first 2) scheduled for 12/11. I guess I should go ahead with that and then get the Omicron booster after it comes out.

paulie's avatar

Health care worker burnout from COVID is real.

clapdoc's avatar

Flew back to LA on Sunday and late night in the office yesterday started feeling sore throat, headaches, chills, and slight fever. Working from home today and have a test scheduled later today.

SGBear's avatar

ICYMI: Panther fans reminded why they should hate Cam Newton. He had a 5.8 passer rating vs. Dolphins. An incomplete pass is worth 39.6.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/panthers-bench-cam-newton-vs-dolphins/rgni920wrrjs1w55a3drdhn37

Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

He was awful and is not a fit for Joe Brady’s O, which is built around the passing game. He struggles mightily to complete passes on a good day.

I have $250 on CAR over 8 wins and mentally tore up the ticket a few weeks ago after they lost to WAS...wasn’t counting on CMc missing another season...ye5 another example of RBs not being able to hold up w/ a heavy workload w/o breaking down.

SGBear's avatar

For those who claim that snooker players aren't athletes...

https://www.bbc.com/sport/snooker/59457433

SGBear's avatar

Riley already paying dividends. Looks like he's already got three five stars to go to USC: Makai Lemon (#1 ATH), Malachi Nelson (#2 QB) and Raleek Brown (#2 RB).

Newellbany's avatar

Didn't Helton have some pretty small recruiting classes the last few years? Riley might have lots of scholarships at his disposal to expedite the reload.

(And Cal fans be like "dang - I didn't know stars went up to five!"

SGBear's avatar

We got D-Rob (5-star) and a bunch of four stars like Zach Kline, Allan Bridgeford, Kyle Boehm, Austin Hinder, Joe Ayoob, Cecil Whiteside, Gabe King, Chris McCain, Carlos Strickland, Nick Forbes, Kevin Bemoll, Melquise Stovall, Tevin Carter, Alex Cook, Virdell Larkins, Kyle Reed, and Dasarte Yarnway.

paulie's avatar

I didn’t I know I was going to cry today.

AndyPanda's avatar

The one really small class was all he could give and not go over the 85 limit. You can't give the annual max every year if you don't have some attrition or it adds up to more than the total available.

g.oso's avatar

aLeX mAcK wAs A 2 sTaR

SGBear's avatar

ICYMI: Arizona football team briefly scuffled with ASU groundskeeper

https://twitter.com/JDigosPhoto/status/1464694753711177731

User's avatar
Comment deleted
Nov 30, 2021
Comment deleted
SGBear's avatar

... or dry, hardpacked dirt.

Or as I like to call it, "Oakland Colosseum"

SGBear's avatar

If you're wondering what the question is, "money" is always the answer.

https://twitter.com/RobertHefnerV/status/1465419950911365125

Berkelium97's avatar

Usually the fun of the coaching carousel is seeing who goes where. This year, half the fun is watching the explosion in lengths and amounts of these contracts.

Newellbany's avatar

It makes me nauseous. $15M a year to coach "amateur" football. It's grotesque.

FiatSlug's avatar

^^^That is absolutely the right response.

heyalumnigo's avatar

Basically getting a 6M bonus plus a free private jet.

Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Auburn does not mess around...guy put 60+ on the board early, and almost beat Bama w/ a backup QB, tho that pick was a big one...Wilcox should take note, tho.

GoldenSD81's avatar

That was a strange hire to begin with. He wasn’t a very good OC while he was with Georgia.

SGBear's avatar

Hosting Cal for an OOC conference is a near-flawless predictor of a football program's short-term nadir.

GlueAndBold's avatar

Programs should bribe us to schedule their rivals

SGBear's avatar

There is the graceful exit. And then there's Brian Kelly's exit.

https://twitter.com/PeteSampson_/status/1465521214340882434?s=20

Newellbany's avatar

"Men, I'm going to break up with you and crap all over the program you've worked and bled for. But first, as my last order of official business here, I'm gonna drag you all out of bed for a 7 a.m. meeting."

GoldenSD81's avatar

I mean, he did kill a student and didn’t miss a practice.

DC Trojan's avatar

he really is the most amazing asshole, like 24/7/365, true dedication to his craft

Cugel's avatar

When I saw this in the DBD yesterday, I thought it was a joke, this move makes exactly zero sense.

Fire Starkey's avatar

$$$ and easier to win NC. If Les Miles and Knuckle dragger Orgeron can win one, lots of guys have to tghink they can do it there

Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Getting a dynamic young offensive mind to run the O + the Heisman Trophy winner + elite WRs + NFL talent at every position is the recipe.

g.oso's avatar

But for LSU to win a natty, the road will always go through Alabama. always.

FiatSlug's avatar

And yet, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron did it *while* Saban was at Alabama.

Fire Starkey's avatar

and Saban is older than dirt and only has a few years left at most. Once he leaves, I expect Bama to fall off a bit

HeyStudentsBears's avatar

saw a $210 charge on my Amex that to Univ of California that i didnt recognize.

those were college application fees for older daughter. if i recall,she is applying to Cal, UCLA, UCSD, and UCSB.

she claims she would rather go to UW over all of those if she had a choice.

sycasey's avatar

Audio from Cal football COVID call released. Wilcox and parents not happy with lack of support from the administration. Stop me if you've heard this one before.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/11/29/audio-recording-of-cal-football-parent-meeting-during-covid-crisis-reveals-frustration-with-university-berkeley-health-officials/

GlueAndBold's avatar

Can someone summarize for me as I've apparently used my allocation of free articles already.

Justbear's avatar

This Guy Nicolette guy is so incompetent. But he may be the scapegoat, as the people above him might be just as incompetent.

paulie's avatar

This is so rage-inducing

Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

So there you go...basically 1 game out of approximately 800 played in 2021 is affected by COVID, and of course it is Cal. I'd be pissed too, Wilcox, tho maybe letting your backup QB get some reps in practice wouldn't be the worst thing...the QB ineptitude when Garbers is out is staggering, COVID or no COVID.

The Cal football program is going to continue to be middling so long as the University and the City of Berkeley view it as a nuisance. But hey, at least the Bears provided the University of Arizona with it's highlight of the season. Barf.

heyalumnigo's avatar

How many teams had "flu" outbreaks?

Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Good point....Penn State, Florida State, Michigan State for starters....tho their players were allowed to travel and/or play through it.

AndyPanda's avatar

It's those noisy parades down the street the band has done after home wins. I think they are great, but they are so infrequent the neighborhood isn't used to them.

Tangtpt's avatar

Wow, this is quite an article. Great insight into what the football program had to deal with in the last month. Thanks for linking to it.

sycasey's avatar

It kind of crystallizes for me what the real problem with Cal's football program is and has always been. We debate about different coaches and players and who might make a difference, but the root issue is that the administration doesn't support the program. Or to the extent it does, it's nowhere near as much support as football programs get at other major schools. That's why whenever we have success it seems to be fleeting.

Not sure what would change that attitude either, as it's a bit of an ingrained cultural thing in Berkeley. It might take a really extraordinary run of success by one coach to turn it around. For a time it looked like Tedford might do it, but he burned out (perhaps in part due to a lack of support from above).

AndyPanda's avatar

You could sell the Berkeley campus real estate, go buy Pacific University's campus in Stockton, move there, and have a nice chunk of change left to hire an OC. And more parking.

Cugel's avatar

BLASPHEMER! BURN HIM AT THE STAKE!

goldenone's avatar

Also, Berkeley (C of B) bites the hand that feeds it regularly. Take away the University and you have El Cerrito.

sycasey's avatar

Definitely. But CoB has been like this for a long time and yet the Cal administration seems consistently surprised when it happens. It should be a known circumstance that you plan for.

goldenone's avatar

Yep. And as to the comment above about the university bureaucracy - they operate as if they were still using punch cards for registration. When my sister went to Cal a few years before me you had to register for classes with those.

paulie's avatar

Cal always amazed me in the fact that I learned how to think critically and be self-reliant while an undergrad, yet the campus is run by seemingly total mealy-mouthed ineffectual bureaucrats that are the antithesis of my lessons.

heyalumnigo's avatar

I kinda like this poster. Zooming in I can visualize many of the intersections they have here.

SGBear's avatar

I have no idea which intersections these are.

sycasey's avatar

Looks like the stick formation in The Blair Witch Project.

FiatSlug's avatar

Yes, but can you name the streets for each intersection? The only one I'd have trouble with is The Uplands/Roanoake/Hillcrest. Everything else is easy-peasy, probably because I've driven every one of them in the last year.

FiatSlug's avatar

Also, The Circle may be the most challenging. Unless you know the intersection, the title does not name the intersecting streets, only the street at the center.

Justbear's avatar

That was the easiet. Isn't it in North Berkeley where there's a tunnel underneath?

heyalumnigo's avatar

yeah I think it's the circle at the bottom of Marin. Forgot the other road that comes from Monterey Market.

FiatSlug's avatar

Marin Ave intersects The Circle from the west and from the east (steep uphill side). Monterey Ave (southern terminus is at Hopkins St., near Monterey Market) intersects Marin Ave just east of Fire Station No. 4 (which at one time was the only round firehouse in North America; not sure if it has that designation anymore). Hopkins St has its eastern terminus at Sutter St., a little south of the Solano Ave. tunnel.

FiatSlug's avatar

Yes, that's The Circle. The tunnel that runs under The Circle was originally for use only by Key System trains.. Technically, it is Solano Avenue up to the south end of the tunnel, where it meets Sutter St.

Justbear's avatar

Oh yeah, Solano. I had a car for 4 years so I drove around places and I remember a lot of the intersections on that art. For students that didn't have a car, I think it might not trigger any memories.

Justbear's avatar

Haha nice memories from the days I lived in Berkeley

User's avatar
Comment deleted
Nov 30, 2021
Comment deleted
g.oso's avatar

still waiting for the roundabouts we were promised

Scootie's avatar

The problem with roundabouts is that they're rolling them out all over the place and it seems that roughly 1% of the driving population understands how they work. The other day in the Presidio someone was trying to yield to me, at a yield sign waiting to enter the roundabout, when they were already on it. This isn't fucking France folks. If you're on the roundabout you have the right of way.

AndyPanda's avatar

Most of them are too small if you need to get any amount of traffic thru at anything above a crawl (or a fire truck thru at all if they add planters, impeding running over the curb). And every accident turns into a multi-car, block everything incident.

Justbear's avatar

The big roundabout in Long Beach might be intimidating for some people

heyalumnigo's avatar

I remember there's one on the way to the Tommy's from Lakewood where my ex grew up.

MoriBear's avatar

I thought in France the folks on the roundabout kept going. Or maybe that is just Switzerland. I had a Suisse-Morocco trip in the 90s and the roundabout rules are opposite. In Morocco, it's "jam your way on (and the folks on the roundabout 'yield'". Was very confusing for the non-roundabout person that I was (am).

Scootie's avatar

That's the French way --- priorité à droite. If you're on the right, you have the right of way, so people on the roundabout have to yield to people entering. It's absolute madness and it's what makes driving around the arc de triomphe the most stressful thing you can do in a car. The rest of the world is the opposite -- those on the roundabout have right of way, and those wanting to enter it need to wait for a clear spot.

DC Trojan's avatar

When I was a kid and we'd go back to the UK from NL for visits, one of the routine "oh shit" moments was my dad remembering that people entering roundabouts in the UK do not have right of way, unlike the Netherlands. There was also the "disagreement about overall route north while leaving the hotel in Dover only for Dad to realize he was on the wrong side of the road" to look forward to.

g.oso's avatar

well yeah, people are stupid. And by people I mean Americans

SGBear's avatar

Depth chart vs. USC is out. No major changes. Puskas promoted to an "or" 2nd stringer. Craig, Deng still out.

Justbear's avatar

I noticed that Zellers has reclaimed SS duties.

Tangtpt's avatar

I know that Deng is a redshirt, 6th-year senior, but with his injury, is he eligible for an additional medical year?

SGBear's avatar

One has to apply for a medical redshirt and it is not guaranteed, but yeah. He should be eligible.

heyalumnigo's avatar

Got hurt in the first few drives of the 2nd game so I'm guessing he should be able to get it. Hopefully if he wants it.

Justbear's avatar

you should ask Bob R. It's his favorite subject beside Sac State HC.

Terence's avatar

We don't have an article on it up, but Cal beat previously 5-0 Fresno State at Haas.

Cugel's avatar

Feed the rock to Kelly!

Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Consistency from Kelly, limit turnovers, defend and hit your free throws...that's their recipe to win ugly.

Cugel's avatar

He's scoring above 60%

Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Exactly - more shots for AK, less for Shepherd would be bueno