"Simon Blint, Director of Visitor Relations at the SFMOMA is a first rate asshole." And so begins Bay Area photographer and blogger Thomas Hawk's most recent entry about being physically thrown out of SF MOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) for having the unmitigated gall to snap this image within the touristy downtown museum. It seems SF MOMA has, or had, a strict no-photography policy. Hawk goes on to say that said ban......

Goodness, it's been quite an enthralling day, hasn't it? The tale of the cheap patrons versus the cranky House of Shield bartender got many of us hot and bothered. And in an effort to pour fuel on that fire -- oh, you're welcome - we contacted both the House of Shields' owner, the awesomely-named Schlomo Rabinowitz, and the anonymous bar patron who spent much of last night digging glass out of her foot. While......

Internet drama of the hair-pulling, eye-scratching, and feline variety is always high quality entertainment. And today Yelp has it in spades. It seems some sort of Coyote Ugly-vs.-patrons fight went down over at the wonderful drinking establishment House of Shields last night. A gaggle of drinkers - celebrating a colleague's wedding plans no less! - were put off by a crusty female bartender. Her crimes? She allegedly had the unmitigated gall to ignore the......

We've had to curb our games of Scrabulous since Phllyist's editor can't stop kicking our ass raw red at it since we no longer have time to play. But over the last few months, FB users have been pulling out their hair over the mere thought of the game getting yanked. Hasbro freaked out, or something like that. Anyway, according to the SJ Merc, Scrabulous, which has over 5 million users, is staying put. Which......

The west coast leg of the Web 2.0 Expo is here! Yay! Wait, just what is this Internet-y web 2.0 exposition, exactly? Aside from the open-bar fetes presumably laced with cocaine and boobs, that is. According to their site, Web 2.0 Expo is: Co-produced by TechWeb and O'Reilly Media, [Web 2.0] is a conference and tradeshow for the rapidly growing ranks of designers and developers, product managers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketers, and business strategists who......

27-year-old Danny Yep of San Francisco must spend two months in a federal prison and then four months in home confinement for selling the endangered Asian Arowana fish (AKA the Asian Boney tongue fish) after a U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent came across his ad on Aquabid. Yep apparently knew the freshwater fish was illegal to sell as well. The fish, it should be noted, is quite spectacular. The Asian Arowana fish, also known......

In more pink slip sadness today, San Jose Mercury News (owned by Denver-based MediaNews Group) eliminated 50 jobs. Fifteen newsroom employees and 19 employees from "other parts of the paper" were let go today. Citing a loss of advertising revenue because to the evil Internet, this most recent workforce slashing represents "a cut of about 5 percent" of the over Merc staff. On the flip side, two editors received promotions: Barbara J. Marshman, associate......

With regard to the SFBG vs. SF Weekly (VVM) lawsuit -- you know, the one where the Guardian sued the Weekly and its parent company for predatory pricing practices? where the Guardian's Publisher, Bruce Brugmann, claimed that the competition was so unreasonable that it could force the Guardian out of business? -- our sources confirm that: Word just came that Guardian won the lawsuit and were awarded 6.3 million [the Gate is claiming $15M]......

When first reading the headline, "Google Gives All SF Homeless Free Voicemail" on our Digg feed, we didn't get it. Why the heck would the homeless want free voicemail? Aren't there more vital things the homeless need? Perhaps in our over-cellular phone'd society, we overlooked the importance of having a way for people to reach us. Google recognized the need for the homeless to have some connection to loved ones and plan to do something......

Remember the great Youtube outage of 2006? Horribly, it seems to have returned. Can you access the site? We can't. Multiple theories are popping up -- generally, hackers or incompetent cyber-Mohammedans are getting the blame -- or perhaps Google itself is at fault? This may not be just affecting Youtube -- sites with embedded Youtube videos are predicting problems of their own. Worse yet, the issue is affecting users globally -- and has even impacted......

While not all of us are fortunate enough to zip around in swank Aston Martins, or have sleek Tesla waiting for us on the horizon, the "bus of the future" is the next best thing. Well, almost. Yesterday, if you recall, we reported on the Connected Bus' dramatic at the Federal Building. On the green machine, according to Mayor Gavin Newsom, you can "[y]ou can download music, you can play video games. It's a......

Luring us in with "just the kind of quirky San Francisco event that SFist readers would be interested in," a PR company sent us word today of a zany pre-Valentine's Day activity that's happening right this very second! It seems that a woman -- a woman who looks like she has no trouble finding a date whatsoever, God bless her -- is looking for love. Check it: [Today] at the bright and early hour......

And honk they did. Yesterday a worldwide Scientology protest took place by "Anonymous" (AKA Project Chanology, an Internet-based protest against the Church of Scientology), and we caught a few images of the action on our rickety, old cellular communication device. Had we had a better camera, we could've gotten images of the police surrounding the Scientology building entrance; the tour guide telling his gaggle of tourists that John Travolta was, in fact, inside the......

Attention criminals: as of this week, your swashbuckling days of villainy and misbegotten Muni rides have become easy and breezy. Muni has "decriminalized" citations, which means that you won't have to go to court to deal with them. Now, you can contest or pay them through the Customer Service Center at 11 South Van Ness, just like parking tickets. You can also deal with citations via phone, or mail; and allegedly you can pay......

Net Neutrality Symposium at USF...

The image from Centernetworks, above, could be either a new overall format, some sort of mobile version, or just a figment of someone's imagination as the next Wikipedia we know and love. According to Allen Stern:...

OMG we're so excited! Muni's giving away free computers, and all you have to do is sign up for their mailing list! Oh, and also sign up for some credit cards. And join Netflix. And a CD club. And a matchmaking service. And buy a satellite dish. This is such an awesome deal!!!!!!!!!! Okay, so why did we get an email from mailinglistadmin@sfmta.com that says "You've been chosen to recieve a free Sony Vaio"......

After EarthLink and Google gave up on high-speed networks that would have seen San Francisco gain access to free wireless service, Meraki Networks Inc. is now taking a stab at it. Financially backed up by Google, the Silicon Valley startup could make an even bigger name for itself if it follows through with its promise to "blanket San Francisco with free wireless Internet service." Although the specifics on their daunting plan will be released......

Rejoice, space believers! For there is finally - yes, finally! - someplace you can go on l'Internet to read about such sci-fi-ness (excuse us, "science fiction-ness" for all of you purists) ranging from Samuel R. Delany to Joss Whedon to Small Wonder. Io9, a Bay Area-based blog care of Gawker, launched yesterday, and we couldn't be more thrilled. That is, until we read about their editor, Annalee Newitz. Newitz seems like a fantastic piece......

New feature alert, folks! Ever want to know more about your local library? Or anything about libraries of the world. The art of receiving a masters in library sciences? Or why people use the Main Library bathroom as their own personal, um, spa? Well, send us your bibliotech-y questions. We've got a real-life librarian who will answer your many queries about documentation, fact-finding, library culture, annals, stacks, record-keeping, donations, cruising, Internet usage etiquette at......

Yesterday, David Hazinski attempted to harness the awesome power of the world wide web with this colonel of wisdom about the currant state of journalism. In his op-ed peace for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he informs us that such journalistic mediums as CNN YouTube debates, political blogs, and cellphone videos are, in a word, crap. At least when it comes to giving and receiving accurate, Pulitzer-worthy information. Granite, the only time we here at SFist......

Did you know that the "North of Market Holiday Celebration" is coming up? Neither did we! And neither did the rest of the internet, because there's no mention of the (possibly-fictitious) event anywhere else online. What could it possibly be? We simply couldn't find any information or imagery related to the damn thing; and that's why we decided to run this totally-unrelated picture from a few weeks ago. Anyway, Muni claims that they'll be closing......

Oh, this looks like fun. While hogging the Internet today, we came across this Yahoo group for the homeless, which bills itself as a "unique, independent, community based support group, moderated by anonymous homeless and formerly homeless volunteers, in San Francisco, California." It's great. The homeless or lease signers among us can send them tips, blow whistles, upload real photos of meals served in several shelters, see photos of health and hygiene conditions at......

-- In the 3600 block of Waterbury Court way down in San Jose last night, a double shooting left one man critically injured and another man dead. According to CBS 5, "no arrests have been made and no description of the suspect or suspects was immediately available." -- 17-year-old Rosie Blanckenburg left home on her bicycle for Berkeley High at 8 a.m. yesterday morning, and never showed up for class. According to SFGate, "a......

It seems the world of dating has moved beyond breaking up on post-its into the new world of breaking up via Facebook status. That's rough. Breakups are hard enough to go through without spreading the news in front of all your virtual friends. The update from Boinkology paints an even uglier picture: the dumper placed it on Digg, too. While the dumper reasons out why a face-to-face breakup wasn't deserved, we can't help but......

The legendary Cafe Flore might find its way to the obit page of the B.A.R. soon. Why? Because if it doesn't "get permission to have the option to serve food 24 hrs a day, to have the option to have amplified entertainment to allow a background DJ," or to get the chance to serve booze until 2 am, the place might zip up and never call again according to SaveCafeFlore. Noes! Look, Cafe Flore......

Well, this certainly rocks. Gina Pell, Internet-y type and founder of Splendora, just started a brand spanking new non-profit, Care Through Action. And their first event, happening next Wednesday, is a fundraiser for Darfur victims. The benefit will be held at Frisson (mmm!), and there will be an exhibition of photographs by noted photographer, Alissa Everett. And sure, a few of you might find the dinner a bit on the pricey side (at $200......

On a recent cab ride to the airport, we picked up the November issue of TODO: Little Guide. Big Town. for kicks. After scanning the restaurant, bar, and shopping guides, we came across a map of San Francisco. We thought we must be a little behind on all the new neighborhood names, but after scouring the internet for some proof, we were unable to find any other map of the city that designates a neighborhood......

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos threw down some serious shade today. "While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," he cried, shaming two senior Yahoo officials. Why? Because the Sunnyvale company named names, handing over private information about Chinese journalist Shi Tao's online pro-democracy action to country officials. (Or, as the New York Times so eloquently put it, their "complicity with an oppressive communist regime." Oh snap.) This landed......

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