• Over 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants went on strike early Saturday, prompting the Canadian government to force the airline into arbitration. The shutdown of the airline, which operates about 700 flights a day, has left over 100,000 travelers stranded worldwide. [Associated Press]

• Mayor Lurie claimed his office secured $3.4 million in immigrant legal defense funding, which was actually awarded to the public defender’s office. Additionally, he neglected to renew $878,000 in grant funding that London Breed was awarded last year. [Mission Local]
• The Golden State Valkyries won their fourth game in a row Friday, scoring 90-59 against the Chicago Sky. [Bay Area News Group]
• The second bird in a month has been found to be infected with the West Nile virus — a crow from Walnut Creek tested positive on Friday. [KRON4]

• There have been 117 tiny earthquakes since Thursday’s 4.0-magnitude quake near the Geysers geothermal field in Mendicino, northeast of Healdsburg. [SFGate]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A new Canadian law requiring Facebook to compensate news outlets for using their content has led the social media company to just block news article posts outright, which has unintended consequences as wildfires continue to rage in Canada.

You might recall in early June that New York City experienced “orange skies” from wildfire smoke, just as we did here in September 2020. That orange hue in New York was caused by smoke from Canadian wildfires, and those wildfires are still going, having taken five lives, and burned more than 37 million acres, or about 4% of all Canadian forest area.

The timing of the wildfires happens to correlate with the passage of a new law in Canada requiring tech companies to pay news publishers for the use or repurposing of their work. (Australian regulators pulled back on a similar law two years ago due to objections by Facebook.) Facebook responded by just flat-out blocking links to news content on the platform in Canada. Blocking news is perhaps not the best idea during a historic natural disaster, and the AP reports Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is slamming Facebook for not making any exception for wildfire news being posted by Canadian users.

“Right now, in an emergency situation where up to date local information is more important than ever, Facebook is putting corporate profits ahead of people’s safety,” Trudeau said at a Monday news conference. “It is so inconceivable that a company like Facebook is choosing to put corporate profits ahead of insuring that local news organizations can get up to date information to Canadians.”

For their part, Facebook parent company Meta said in a statement that even without news articles, Facebook was still a viable tool for people “to connect with their communities and access reputable information, including content from official government agencies, emergency services and non-governmental organizations.”

Alphabet-owned Google is also covered by the legislation, and also says they will remove news from their platform in Canada. (So, no Google News there?) But that policy simply hasn’t gone into effect yet. There are also reports that Elon Musk’s Twitter/X just decided to remove headlines and accompanying text from articles, displaying only the images, which seems like a boon for misinformation hucksters to post misleading content.

So some of the most visible Bay Area tech companies are noodling around with how news is presented on their platforms, or in certain markets at least. It seems there’s a sensible compromise where the tech companies could just comply by paying the news outlets during emergencies, or for the government to forgive the fees during declared emergencies.

But neither of those outcomes is likely in the immediate near term. And meanwhile, Canada keeps burning, and its residents’ Facebook timelines are all pet photos and retro TV show fan page posts.

Related: Facebook Releases Report On Which Posts They Remove and Censor, Turns Out Most Aren’t Political [SFist]

Image: Helicopter fighting BC forest fires during a hot sunny summer day. Taken near Port Alice, Northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. (Getty Images)

The internet is moving to Canada — well, a backup of its history is, anyway. The San Francisco-based Internet Archive announced yesterday in a blog post that following the election of Donald Trump, the nonprofit has decided to create a Canadian backup of its digital archive of the internet, just to be safe.

"On November 9th in America, we woke up to a new administration promising radical change," wrote Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive Founder & Digital Librarian. "It was a firm reminder that institutions like ours, built for the long-term, need to design for change. For us, it means keeping our cultural materials safe, private and perpetually accessible. It means preparing for a Web that may face greater restrictions."

With possibly computer-illiterate, history-rewriting Trump poised to take office this January, Kahle writes that now more than ever the integrity of services like The Wayback Machine must be beyond reproach. He apparently thinks this may not be possible in Trump's America — "a world in which government surveillance is not going away; indeed it looks like it will increase."

In asking for donations to support the proposed-Canadian backup, which he says will likely cost millions of dollars, Kahle notes the role The Internet Archive has played and will play going forward. "Your support has fueled the work of journalists who used our Political TV Ad Archive in their fact-checking of candidates’ claims," he explains. "It keeps the Wayback Machine going, saving 300 million Web pages each week, so no one will ever be able to change the past just because there is no digital record of it. The Web needs a memory, the ability to look back."

And while an ability to "look back" accurately on the words and actions of those in power is vital to a functioning democracy, we have a feeling that many may end up wanting to forget the next four years.

Related: Possibly Computer Illiterate President-Elect Eager To Kill Net Neutrality

An unruly passenger prompted a flight heading to SFO to make an impromptu pitstop Saturday morning. Adding insult to injury, SkyWest flight 5345 had to land in Reno of all places.

According to a Skywest email sent to KRNV, "SkyWest flight 5343 operating as United Express from Calgary, Canada to San Francisco, California diverted to Reno, Nevada after a passenger failed to comply with crewmember instructions. The passenger was removed and the flight continued to San Francisco."

No word yet as to what exactly happened onboard, but Heidi Jared, spokesperson at Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority, says that the passenger in question was "a little ornery." The problematic traveler was detained in Reno and released with neither an arrest nor a citation.

Hmm.

The flight continued to SFO sans unhinged passenger. But still, one must wonder what the passenger did to divert the plane. Did they store their baby underneath their seat? Let their dog shit in the middle of the aisle? Was it Mrs. Iglesias again? We'll update as soon as we know more.

In what could very well be the most exhilarating to happen to San Francisco since the Presidio trampoline park, a bushel of Canadians are setting up a 600-footer in Justin Herman Plaza last this month. Our friends to the north -- like us, only hoped up on Aero bars and prescription-free codeine -- are installing the high ride to get locals interested in vacationing in Canada. Which is nothing short of brilliant; zip-lines look like loads of fun. Also, "a couple Olympics gold medalists will be on hand to demonstrate the zip-line and sign autograph," Curbed tells us.

According to the press release, which you can read at SF Citizen, "there are no age restrictions, but guests must weigh more than 65 pounds and no more than a maximum of 275 pounds. The ride will be free of charge."

The zip-line will be ready for business starting April 8 to 18.

Ours was. And how. It would neither send nor receive email for hours. The horror.

Hitting all carriers, it turns out the BlackBerry outage afflicted enterprise users across the United States and Canada today. And the "company has no estimate for when service will be restored." Read more about it here. (Our service seems to be working fine as of 5 p.m., btw.)

You win, iPhone. You...you win.

You have, well, two entire days to fill out and return your application to become a torchbearer for the San Francisco leg of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay. The San Francisco relay -- which is entitled, dear Christ, "A Sustainable Journey" -- is the only North American stop on the Olympic Torch Relay, which will make the sporty flame's U.S. visit that more special to us in the Bay Area. Or not.

In addition to being physically able to complete the task of carrying the Olympic Flame from point A to point B, being present on April 8 (the day it comes to town), at least 14-years-old, and a legal resident of either Canada, Mexico, or the U.S., you also will need write a sparkling essay answering the following questions:

- What sustains you on your personal journey for excellence?
- How is your personal journey making your community, your country, and the world more sustainable?
- What are you doing to contribute to San Francisco’s sustainable journey?
- Why should you be considered to carry the Olympic Torch in San Francisco?

We will not be carrying the torch.

But any ideas as to who should be deemed worthy enough to hold the hotrod? (Aside from Frank Chu, that is. We know. He's a given.)

Image of Hong Kong Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-shing and President of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong Timothy Fok Tsun-ting: Xinhua Photo

Though this may amuse a smattering of transplants who neither want this city to grow nor evolve into the world-class city it secretly is, a new global Monopoly board is coming and San Francisco is not a part of it. You see, people of the earth get to vote to see which of the 68 world cities will make the final 22 on the global board game. San Francisco, it seems, is not on the list. In fact, California gets a pithy single nomination (Los Angeles) while France receives a shocking two (Paris Lyon).

Naturally, we are sick to our stomach over this slight. With geographical locations whose existence we question, like "Buenos Aires, Argentina;" "Shanghai, China;" "Caracas, Venezuela;" and "Canada," we're both saddened and surprised not to find Baghdad by the Bay among the list. Hrumph, indeed.

Fear not, San Franciscans--or Oaklanders, Athertonians, or Orindaians, or whatever--there is a write-in wildcard category where you can vote up to 10 times per day for which city not in the nomination bunch will become one the properties on the board. The downside? You have to register. Alas. Anyway, you can vote here.

Gavin, this seems like your kind of issue, yes? Let's get on it, stallion.

Not three feet from our chair was a woman lying on the floor, passed out with blood oozing from the back of her head. Janet, who was traveling to Canada, had passed out, and on her way down hit the back of her head on the corner of the beverage cart. Ouch! When her husband came to see what was going on, Janet had regained consciousness and felt ready to try to stand up. Unfortunately, as Janet was standing up, she fainted again, this time hitting her elbow on said beverage cart.

The flight attendants were freaking out a little, understandably, but did a very nice job calming everyone else on the plane. As the inevitable announcement was made over the loudspeaker ("If there are any doctors or nurses on board...") we expected at least half a dozen medical personnel to flock to the back of the plane. But alas, the sound of crickets could be heard as we soared thousands of feet above the ground.

We got word today from an anonymous source that two residents of Bernal Heights -- including a former President of Golden Gate Audubon Society -- spotted a burrowing owl a block from their house on the southeastern side of the hill. The (sub?)species was confirmed by another Audubon-er.

So, why does this matter? Because at the moment there is construction going on in the same area (i.e., landscaping improvements such as steps, etcetera) where the owl is kicking it. According to Wikipedia, for what it's worth, "[t]he burrowing owl is endangered in Canada, threatened in Mexico, and a species of special concern in Florida and most of the western USA." ("Species of special concern." Aw.) Burrowing owls usually live in ground squirrel holes, according to our source, but so far the bird has been reported up on the Hill, in a tree for the last couple of days.

We talked to the former Audubon president today about the birdie finding, and the Bernal resident wants to know more. To find out if an environmental-impact report was done on the area before current construction, they tried calling the Mayor's office, 311, Tom Ammiano's office, and the City Attorney's office. So far, no one has returned any calls. They also discussed the issue with various fish and game associations, with not much luck there either.

If any of you have further info, we're sure that she (as well as the GG Audubon Society) would love to hear from you, readers. (Also, no little baby kittens better get hurt with this construction, damnit! Kitty cats = sheer darlingness.)

This begs the question: which one is the bitch? Like most gay guys, they both probably say that they're versatile, but once you get them in bed? Total bitches.

Also, this sucks. Even gays in jail -- albeit hot, Genet-esque French Canadian jails -- can get hitched? But local U.S. fruits can't? Pft. Whatever. If the gays can't have the same stupid right to get married as he and she -- in lieu of our generation's separate-but-equal law: civil unions -- then give us back our mental disability status. That way we can start collecting all of those sweet disability benefit checks. Retroactively, of course.

Have you seen one of these cars around? Is it for you? When can you get one to drive on the streets of San Francisco? Will boisterous yoots tip your vehicle over as they do in Canada? See you after the jump.