So I stumped across this article on Hacker News titled “Science project prompts SD school evacuation“.  This is why the US can’t produce enough good engineers.  Read this and tell me if you aren’t pissed off at the American educational system.

Students were evacuated from Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School in the Chollas View neighborhood Friday afternoon after an 11-year-old student brought a personal science project that he had been making at home to school, authorities said.

Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said the student had been making the device in his home garage. A vice principal saw the student showing it to other students at school about 11:40 a.m. Friday and was concerned that it might be harmful, and San Diego police were notified.

I have a couple of questions:

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Tags: California,Police,Science Fair
Categories: Rants
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We went to the beach in San Francisco.  Larissa knew of a beach out here, which was supposed to be really nice.  It was a bit of a trip, but was a nice town along the water.  We got to the beach, but it was freezing.  The wind had picked up and the sun was hidden behind the clouds.  Four of us decided to get food and gave up on the beach.  We went back to the main strip and saw a bunch of seafood restaurants but they were pretty expensive.  We settled on a place next to (and connected to) the beach’s snack bar.  The food was good; I got fish and chips and had some clam chowder.  We saw Ethan and Larissa heading away from the beach so they came and joined us.  Nobody went in the water; all the locals had wetsuits on.  Oh well…

We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway.  It is pretty nice out, and the scenery is beautiful.  However eventually you just have seen enough of the coast.  It is all the same up here.  Trees & Cliffs.  We can’t really tell one place from another.  I wouldn’t recommend this stretch of the road.  Along the sides there are roadside attractions everywhere.  Most of them look like they hadn’t been visited in about 30 years, and we weren’t going to stop.

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Tags: California,Crystal Meth,Eureka,Pacific Coast Highway,San Francisco
Categories: Travel
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We woke up and Ethan and Larissa wanted to get to San Francisco as soon as possible.  Our RV Park was across the bay, so they took a ferry in.  The rest of us decided to hang out for a bit then head in a bit later.  We drove the jeep because even after a day of parking, it would be cheaper than the 14 dollars each to take the ferry there and back.  We parked near the waterfront by Pier 39.  Whit and Danielle wanted to go to the aquarium, Mark and I decided to watch the sea lions for a bit, they’re pretty awesome animals.  I saw a boat that looked like it did charters, so I inquired as people were disembarking and met the first mate.  His name was Gangus, and he was really awkward; I think he was the first mate.  The boat ride was 30 dollars, and took us out and under the Golden Gate Bridge, so I convinced Mark to come along, and we bought tickets.  We ran into Whit and Danielle before we left, but they weren’t interested in going.

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Tags: California,Chocolate,Sailing,San Francisco,Sea Lions
Categories: Travel
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When we arrived in San Francisco, we hung out at the RV Park for a bit.  Everyone showered up and a few people went for a swim.  I spoke with my cousin about things to do in San Fran, since she lives here and grew up in Berkley.  She told me the Sex Worker Film Festival is going on, and it’s a pretty ‘Only in San Fran’ kind of thing and that I should check it out.  When I came to visit when I was 14, I had the best Chinese food ever, in a small restaurant where we didn’t order food, we just told them how hungry we were, and how spicy we liked our food; I asked Cindy what the name of that place was, and if it was still around.  She told me it was the House of Nan King, and gave me the address; she reminded me not to order food, that’s just what tourists do, and it’s not as good as when you just let them decide what to make.

I told the group about my discussion with my cousin, and we decided to follow her recommendations.  We went to the House of Nan King, and they brought us a bunch of food, everyone was really happy about the food, and the service was great, as soon as we finished one entree, another came out.  If I lived around there, I’d certainly be a regular.  The price was definitely right…  After eating, we wandered around Chinatown for a bit and looked in at the shops.  I got a call from my brother saying we might be getting a sailboat from my uncle, so that made my day.

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Tags: California,Chinese Food,Film Festival,Prostitutes,San Francisco
Categories: Travel
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We’d all seen things on the History Channel about the Winchester Mystery House/Winchester Mansion; you probably have too.  I grew up in New Haven, CT, and have driven down Winchester Ave past all of the old Winchester factories on my way to hockey practices at Yale.  In high school my AP Environmental Science teacher, Stephen Broker, even took my class to the last operating firearm factory at the site.  So I always felt like I have a little bit of a connection to the Winchester brand.  (And they made my pocket knife and multi-tool!)  Since we were in town, we had to check out the place.  It is supposed to be one of the weirdest places to visit.

We arrived at the mansion around 11am.  There was supposed to be RV parking there, but nothing would fit the Rambler, so we parked it at the movie theater.  There, we saw a guy living out of his car, and that was pretty depressing; we hoped the Winchester House would take that off our minds.  We entered the ticket office/gift shop and got our tickets.  We got a regular tour and the extended behind the scenes tour; it cost 35 dollars for each of us, but we all may never come back, so it was probably a good decision.  We had a while before our tour started so we checked out the Gun Museum and other things that Winchester made.  They had some nice stuff there; I liked the old Winchester ice skates and fishing gear.

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Tags: California,San Jose,Tourist,Winchester
Categories: Travel
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