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Sunday | February 6, 2011
Measurable Percentage Of Portlandians Express Interest In Egyptian Uprising
In a recent article published at Centre for Research on Globalization[1] Larry Chin leads off with a strongly worded assertion: "As people across the Arab world take to the streets to fight for democracy, and an end to oppression and tyranny, the oblivious, uninterested and acquiescent American public has done virtually nothing." But have Portlandians shown total abject apathy and callous indifference to the Egyptian People's Uprising? We think not! As reported by good ol' PortlandWikiNewsLeakers last week (Saturday | January 29, 2011), "about 300" people rallied at Pioneer Courthouse Square in solidarity with the Egyptian pro-democracy revolutionaries. Toss in the assumed solidarity of PortlandWiki's estimated three active readers and the total number of Portlandians expressing and/or fantasizing "solidarity" with pro-democracy Egyptians rises to 303. That's a whopping 0.05% of Portland's population of 583,835! Hey, five one hundredths of one percent of a town's population is nothin' to sneer at.
- Go to story: As the Arab world fights, America sleeps
- Go to story: Showing Solidarity with Egyptians, Protesters at Pioneer Square Rally Against Mubarak
Saturday | February 5, 2011
Yarn Bombers Keep Bridge City In Stitches
Slip Yum Yum keeps to the shadows. "We work hard to keep a low profile and only communicate digitally," explained a go-between. Slip is one of a growing number of a growing underground of stitch artists known as "yarn bombers" who stitch their graffiti onto various public artifacts like statues, bicycle racks, trees, street lamps and telephone poles. Yarn bombers can pick up supplies from any of a surprisingly large number of local yarn shops.[2] Yarn enthusiasts even have their own Yarn Crawl![3] But the yarn bomb blog ("improving the urban landscape one stitch at a time") is maintained from Vancouver British Columbia.[4]
- Go to story: Oregon "yarn bombers" knit graffiti for lamp posts, trees
- Go to crawl: Portland Oregon Yarn Crawl
- Go to blog: Yarn Bombing: Improving the urban landscape one stitch at a time.
Friday | February 4, 2011
Portland Home Sales Drop 7%
The "five-county Portland region" saw a 7% plunge in house sales from December 2009 to December 2010. Absentee buyers accounted for 19.4% of the housing sold. Most of those sales were reported as "investments." Although the median house price hovered at $222,000, absentee investors paid an average of just $190,000.
- Go to story: Portland area home sales drop 7% from a year ago
Thursday | February 3, 2011
Welcome to the Year of the Metal Rabbit
Today is the beginning of the Chinese and Vietnamese (Tết) New Year, marking the beginning of the year of the Metal Rabbit, according to the Chinese Zodiac (year of the Cat in Vietnamese Zodiac). Astrological predictions of rabbit years include associations with "home and family, artistic pursuits, diplomacy, and keeping the peace", and conversely that "nations will also become more insular and increasingly lock down their borders to protect against the 'other'". In Portland, there will be many free activities and celebrations this Saturday.
- Go to events listing (celebrations this Saturday): Chinese and Vietnamese New Year events
- Go to astrology explanation: The Year of the Rabbit: Chinese Horoscope Predictions for 4709 - 2011
- Go to astrology explanation: Chinese New Year 2011 - The Year of Golden White Rabbit
Wednesday | February 2, 2011
PDX Out-Migration Fuels Fossil
Local slacker/hipster has "grown tired of Portland" and plans to relocate to Dinosaur, Colorado, a "very real town."
- Go to story: I've grown tired of Portland, so I'm moving to Dinosaur, Co. A very real town.
- Go to very real town: Dinosaur, Colorado
Tuesday | February 1, 2011
Gov. Kitzhaber releases state budget proposal, responding to funding crisis with further cuts to education, health
The budget Kitzhaber offers would include cuts to Oregon's already ailing K-12 education, reducing teachers and increasing class sizes. Also Oregon Health Plan, the same program Kitzhaber started in the mid-90s, would have cuts. According to OPB, "doctors would be paid less to treat Oregon Health Plan patients and fewer treatments would be covered." Since it was conceived, people who have relied on Oregon Health Plan have experienced several critical cuts in their health care, including a massive cut in 2003 that attracted national attention, when 100,000 people in mental health and/or substance abuse treatment lost their prescription coverage.
Monday | January 31, 2011
Feds Want To Roll More Green
A number of Federal agencies are already familiar with the color green. Whether it's an alert code stuck at the very bottom of Dept. Homeland Security's Terror Alert System[5], or the hue of endless piles of loot shoveled into the black hole of a failed financial system, green is the new black as far as the Feds are concerned. Now they want to raise the green bar high on their own supply. Supply chain, that is. And you can participate! The White House Council on Environmental Quality and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) are co-sponsoring a "Greening the Supply Chain Roundtable" tomorrow in Portland at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) Auditorium (1945 SE Water Avenue, Portland, OR 97214). The event is scheduled for Tuesday, February 1, 2011; 3:15 PM - 4:45 PM. Wanna join the fun? Visit Greening the Supply Chain Roundtable to sign up.
- Go to story: Obama administration looks to greening federal supply chain
- Go to sign-up form: Greening the Supply Chain Roundtable
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