This article bothered me ( Read more... )

The unmistakable smell of a not-so-rapidly drying lake bottom was beginning to stick to my shoes. The Honey (TH) really knows how to show a girl a good time. We do have the best dates.

The Condit Dam removal had happened a few weeks ago, breaching the 120 foot dam and allowing Northwestern Lake to drain. It was spectacular - my co-hort at work
( Read more... )

Article on Cities as Software as it relates to Newcastle, Australia. Great read, interesting thought experiment. I need to go find more details on how they got this to work.

I do wonder if this sort of revitalization will only work as creating a tourist-based community, as opposed to creating a community for the people who actually live there.

LEED certification achieved! Now shut it down. This makes me annoyed - they went with the letter to get the marketing, and COMPLETELY missed the point of the spirit.

Treehugger.com had a post up on the touchy subject of population control.

( I've some long winded thoughts on this, but there's a bit of a buildup. )

. . .and he tells anyone who will listen that all you need is for construction pallets or a roll of chicken wire to get your compost bin started ( Read more... )

I was listening to the I, Cringely podcast on the way in (if interested, you can read or listen from hereNormally I argue with the radio when listening to Cringley, but I can't say I disagreed with him much this time. I think he's pretty much head on with the flammables metaphor and holistic approach ( Read more... )

Listening to NPR podcasts on the weekly drive into Portland gets moderately depressing. Sometimes there are momentous occurrences, like discovering microbial life on Mars. Often there are interesting facts, such as learning about how swordfish change color to confuse prey fish. But there is an awful lot of information out there on how we’re ( Read more... )

So apparently this spring, something strange happened to PG&E. They made too much power.

See this article or this oneThe short version is that the dam is supposed to spill water to allow baby salmon to pass safely. Too much water could also hurt the fish. The dams try to balance this with the min and max ranges of the powerlines. The ( Read more... )

Reading this article in the Oregonian made me think about urban planning and lack thereof..

“It's not just environmental groups and adjacent ranchers who are concerned. The city of Redmond is worried it will have to pick up the tab to upgrade intersections and roads to handle all the people coming into town to buy groceries, eat dinner or catch a ( Read more... )