New Island Reported in the South Pacific

Wow, this is just one of those exciting news weeks.

According to news reports, a new volcanic island has been reported in the South Pacific, near Tonga.

A private yacht first encountered the island, and posted pictures on their weblog.



They reported sailing through a sea of pumice, then seeing lightning and fire in the sky, and finally seeing a view of the new peak rising from the ocean. More pics are available at the original blog.

What a wild experience. I've been wanting to sail through the South Pacific ever since reading Kon-Tiki; this just heightens my desire even more. To check out a new island! Imagine!

I wonder who will be the first group to actually set foot on the island?

Repeal Oregon's Measure 37

According to recent polls, "Oregon voters now oppose Measure 37 by a nearly 2 to 1 margin. That's a shocking reversal from just two years ago the measure won 61 percent support."

I think it's time for Oregonians to start thinking about a repeal effort. There seems to be a pattern of people in the Green State having to vote twice on controversial measures: assisted suicide, term limits, etc. Why not vote twice on something as critical as land use law reform?

I expect to see an effort along these lines come together in time to put something on the November, 2008 ballot (if not before then). HOPEFULLY, it will be a product of Governor Kulongoski's BIG LOOK on Land Use, and represent a comprehensive plan to bring Oregon's land use laws into the 21st century. If not, a simple repeal of 37 would be enough to satisfy me.

Who's going to sign on to help make this happen?

cheers,
~Garlynn

P.S. 1000 Friends of Oregon may be one of the groups to try to repeal this measure.
Now that Oregon will have a Democratic House, Senate and Governor come January, this is extremely possible. Check their website for more info on their efforts.

End of the road for traffic lights?

Reports have been coming out of Europe for some time: traffic lights do more harm than good. Indeed, even stop signs may no longer be the best approach. Some say that lane markings are also not helpful.

Why is this?

Apparently, by removing the devices that give motorists a sense of security, a sense of risk is introduced into the equation. And with risk, motorists tend to slow down and take fewer chances.

So, what's the solution?

Replace traffic lights and stop signs with roundabouts and other street furniture. Rather than telling traffic what to do with a sign or a signal, show them what to do with a curb, a traffic circle or other street furniture. Give pedestrians and bicyclists a separate path through the intersection, and let everybody sort it out on the scene.

How well would it work in a major city?

That remains to be seen... but I suspect that, outside of a downtown one-way grid, it would work extremely well. And, who knows -- in a one-way grid, it still might work out just fine.

But which major city would have the balls to try and pull it off?

Congratulations, Democrats of America (Oregon: let's have a pint!)

*** warning: this is a meandering, multi-subject post ***

DEMOCRATS TAKE BACK CONTROL OF UNITED STATES DEMOCRACY

It appears that the Democratic Party has pulled off something of a historic stunt, by re-capturing the United States House of Representatives, and at least pulling even in the Senate, if not actually capturing control of it, as well. Big Dick Cheney may still have the tie-breaking vote (or not, we shall see) -- but come January, 2007, it will be a lot better than the situation has been since January, 2003!

Would having Puerto Rico statehood help the Democrats in the Senate?

I wonder if we can induct Puerto Rico as a state, and add two more senators into the mix, just for kicks? Whatever happened to that Puerto Rico statehood initiative, anyways? Looks like a report has been generated recommending that Puerto Ricans are authorized to take a series of votes on the issue, first to decide whether they like the status quo or want a change, then secondly to assess, if they want a change, whether they would prefer statehood or independence. Wow, that'd be an interesting election, I'd bet!!

Voter Fraud: Vote-By-Mail is the answer.

While I don't think that the 2006 election has spelled an end to the problems of voter fraud/disenfranchisement of voters in the United States, it has at least seen a slight curtailing of the ability of Republicans to use these issues to win election by denying Democratic-leaning voters the right to vote. I believe that the ultimate solution should be to just go to vote-by-mail for all United States Elections; that is, for the nation to adopt the Oregon system of voting. Oregon has registered, to my knowledge, zero incidents of voter fraud with regards to the actual voting process of its system (there have, however, been reports of Republican operatives shredding voter registration forms, rather than turning them in, which has nothing to do with vote-by-mail but is an issue which needs to be addresses), which has been operating successfully for over a decade. It also has a voter turnout that is much higher than the national average. Expect to hear more from me on this issue soon, but suffice to say that none other than the Washington Post has endorsed Oregon's system of voting as fraud-free and easy.

Californians attain Beervana by visiting Portland and having a few good pints.

BTW, Portland's beer scene has been noticed by Californians living in the Bay Area.. This article came up in the Travel section of a number of ANG newspapers in the Bay Area, and may have also been printed in the Los Angeles Daily News.

Proper crankypants Oregonians will, of course, exclaim "great, just another reason for those freakin' Californicators to come up to Oregon, decide they like the place, and drive up our housing prices while clogging up our roads, driving around in their BMWs, talking on cell phones and changing lanes without signalling."

While this is a valid point, I might also point out that beer tourism looks like it is growing into a substantial subsector of Portland's tourist-based economy. When you live in Beervana, apparently, you should get used to folks from other places, like California, dropping in to sample all the delicious ales and lagers that get produced locally.

Hey, crankypants Oregonian, maybe you'll get lucky, and they'll decide to just go back home and open up their own brewpub! ;-)

(full disclosure: I am myself a crankypants Oregonian, temporarily transplanted to the foreign land of San Francisco for employment-related purposes)

Here's the full article:

Brew mood
Portland has vibrant beer culture, pubs to match
By Eric Noland, LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:
PORTLAND, Ore. - DECISIONS, decisions.

A visitor to Rogue Ales is confronted with a sign behind the bar listing microbrews available on tap. On this day, it numbers 24, which is nothing short of daunting.



Pale ale, amber ale, red ale, English brown ale. Pilsner, porter, bitter, Belgian.

Then there are the names! Shakespeare Stout, Dad's Little Helper, Old Crustacean Barleywine ... and a real head-turner, Dead Guy Ale.

For the uninitiated, the same puzzlement will play out all over Portland. According to the Oregon Brewers Guild, there are 80 beer-brewing facilities in the state, 30 of which operate within city limits (this for a town with a little over half a million residents).

At each, it's not unusual to find taps sunk into two dozen diverse offerings, not one of which you've ever seen advertised on a national football telecast.

It reflects a convergence of tradition, opportunity, appetite, a spirit of experimentation and a healthy dose of brewer one-upsmanship.

"In Portland, the culture helps that," said Karl Ockert, brewmaster at BridgePort Brewing Co. "It's an open-minded, fiercely local crowd. It latched onto the good coffee movement, the good bread movement, the organic vegetables movement. People here want food with flavor, beer with flavor. All that falls into that general category — enjoying the good things in life."

Portland's love affair with beer goes way back, at least to the mid-19th century and a fellow named Henry Weinhard. When the city's Skidmore Fountain was due to open in 1888, Weinhard offered to pump beer from his Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Co. through the city's fire hoses to the fountain's nozzles. City fathers rejected the idea, not because they thought it too lowbrow for the civic image, but for fear citizens along the way would poke holes in the valuable fire hoses in an attempt to hijack the cargo.

That thirst doesn't seem to have abated much today, and as a result, brewers experiment like alchemists to produce ever-more-exotic varieties. They work with prime Pacific Northwest ingredients: hops from Oregon's Willamette Valley and Yakima, Wash.; barley from eastern Oregon and Washington; even yeast from a laboratory in Hood River, Ore. The municipal water source, meanwhile, is the Bull Run Watershed east of town, rainwater so clear and soft that you don't have to waste money on bottled water while visiting this city.

And even with all those breweries, the people making the beer engage in a surprising amount of cooperation, eschewing the customary cutthroat practices of the business world.

"It's a slacker mentality with a creative edge," said Tom Bleigh, lead brewer for Pyramid Breweries. "It happens on the music scene as well. It's a sense of fraternity that lends itself to experimentation."

It also contributes to a roster of microbrews that can be downright perplexing.

One way to navigate your way through it is to inquire about a sampler, an assortment of six or so tastes, offered at most of the brewpubs. Bartenders will also provide a tasting sample of a particular beer, if asked. And it never hurts simply to inquire as to a particular pub's best seller — its flagship, if you will.

But perhaps the best orientation to Portland's vast society of suds is the Portland BrewBus tour, which rolls on occasional Saturday afternoons (and some Sundays), visiting four or five of the city's most noteworthy breweries. You might get abrewery tour to hear how it all comes together, but the real treat is sampling a broad spectrum of Portland's microbrew offerings, with running commentary provided throughout.

Best of all, someone else drives.

"Your heads will buzz with brew knowledge," tour guide Jim Long promised as our group of 15 set out one recent Sunday afternoon in a bright-yellow school bus. In five hours, the tour made five stops, calling at Pyramid Breweries' MacTarnahan's Taproom, Lucky Labrador Beer Hall, BridgePort Brewpub, Amnesia Brewing and Roots Organic Brewing. Along the way we sampled and learned about 20 beers, from light and creamy Apricot Weizen at MacTarnahan's to molasses-scented Black Lab Stout at Lucky Labrador.



Fortunately, Long handed out tasting-note forms at the outset and encouraged us to write down our impressions. It was a good call, because, uh, memory can turn a little fuzzy on this trip.

On our sheets, terms such as "bite," "bitter aftertaste," and "mediciny" showed up — it's all part of the educational process.

But we also found ourselves enthusing over the "crispness" of Curve Ball Kolsch at MacTarnahan's, the "robust flavor" of No Pity Pale at Lucky Labrador, and the "floral bouquet" and "apple aftertaste" of Hop Harvest Ale at BridgePort. The latter is what is called a seasonal beer in Portland brewing parlance. When a particular ingredient is fresh in the fields — in this case, hops in the Willamette Valley, in late summer — the brewers rush out to get it, then make a special beer with the greens.

"We'll actually start the brewing, drive down and get them, then come back and put them in," BridgePort's Ockert said later. "You have to hope there aren't any traffic jams."

Throughout the tour, Long, who sports a long, gray, braided ponytail and is partial to Pacific Northwest hippie garb, dispenses statistics, history and insight about each offering. As we sipped one of three India pale ales on the excursion, he said, "This is the beer that saved the British Empire. The beer would get warm and go bad on ships. They started adding more hops to it to preserve it."

The brewery settings can be as interesting as the beer flowing from the taps — whether you're on the bus tour or exploring independently.

For example, McMenamins, one of Oregon's largest brewpub operators, houses one of its family-friendly establishments in a converted World War I-era elementary school. A visit to the Kennedy School can unleash a torrent of memories, but with Lewis Carroll twists.

Remember how kids who got caught smoking were sent to detention? Well, here the Detention Room is now a cigar lounge. Remember the trouble you could get into for eating in a classroom or in the auditorium? In its current incarnation, the Kennedy School's classrooms are banquet rooms for birthday parties and wedding receptions, and first-run movies are shown in the auditorium — and you're free to carry a plate of pizza, a glass of wine or a frosty beer in there to enhance your enjoyment of the film.

The wide hallways have glass cases exhibiting memorabilia from the school's history, and the walls are hung with photos that tell its story.

McMenamins has yet to meet the building it didn't deem suitable for one of its pubs: an old movie theater, a triangular building downtown, a chapel and the power station of the former Multnomah County Poor Farm.

Other brewpubs are found in more conventional settings. Our favorite was the recently opened Lucky Labrador Beer Hall in the city's northwest quadrant. It's housed in a big, airy warehouse with a rough concrete floor. There is an outside seating area where patrons can bide time with their dogs.

At MacTarnahan's, in an industrial region of northwest Portland, you can peer in at huge, gleaming, hand-hammered copper kettles. And a side patio is a nice place to relax with a pint when the rain lets up.

BridgePort, in the Pearl District, offers the most upscale setting of the lot — exposed brick, mood lighting, dining fare that is a cut above the usual pub grub and, frankly, a little bit of attitude at the tap.

Amnesia, in a slightly tawdry neighborhood north of downtown, has a wonderful vibe, with long picnic tables outside and an open grill that will entice you with its scents of meats cooking.

Roots Organic, in Portland's emerging southeast neighborhood, reflects a playful South Seas theme, with palm trees, tiki gods and surfboard handles on the draft taps.

The real benefit of being in a small city with so many brewpubs, however, is the opportunity to find your own neighborhood hangout. On our stay, this turned out to be Rogue, housed in a former dairy in the Pearl District.

After a couple of visits — and the education that the BrewBus afforded — that list of two dozen beer offerings was much less intimidating.

Honey Orange Wheat? Sure, that should be refreshing after an afternoon of walking around the city. A seasonal offering of Imperial Porter? Let's see what kind of chocolaty notes the malts have imparted to this one. India Pale Ale? We'll of course order it as "IPA" to sound as if we know what we're talking about, and then debate its degree of "hoppiness."

And the Dead Guy Ale? Well, why not?

"Portland seems to have a little more of an educated beer drinker," said Bleigh, the brewer for Pyramid. "They know all the styles and want to experiment. There is cachet in having these beers that no one else is making.

"You just have to jump in there and see what you like and don't like."

If you go

-Portland BrewBus. The five-hour tour, offered on some Saturdays and the occasional Sunday, costs $34.95 per person, which includes transportation, beer samples and some appetizers. It departs at 1:30 from the Doubletree Hotel, 1000 NE Multnomah Blvd. (in the Lloyd Center). Information and reservations: http://www.brewbus.com; (503) 647-0021.

-Amnesia Brewing. 832 N. Beech St.; (503) 281-7708.

-Bridgeport Brewpub. 1313 NW Marshall St.; http://www.bridgeportbrew.com; (503) 241-3612.

-Kennedy School. An outlet of McMenamins. 5736 NE 33rd Ave.; http://www.mcmenamins.com (under pubs, look for Courtyard Restaurant at Kennedy School); (503) 249-3983.

-Lucky Labrador Beer Hall. 1945 NW Quimby St.; http://www.luckylab.com; (503)517-4352.

-MacTarnahan's Taproom. An outlet of Pyramid Breweries. 2730 NW 31st Ave.; www.macsbeer.com/taproom.php; (503) 228-5269.

-Ringlers. Outlets of McMenamins Pub is at 1332 W. Burnside St.; (503) 225-0627. Annex is housed in a triangular building at 1223 SW Stark St.; (503) 525-0520; www.mcmenamins.com.

-Rogue Ales Public House. 1339 NW Flanders St.; www.rogue.com; (503) 222-5910.

-Roots Organic Brewing. 1520 SE Seventh Ave.; (503) 235-7668; http://www.rootsorganicbrewing.com.

Election Day 2006: A Close Call, or a Stolen Election?

I've been participating in a program called Call For Change, organized by MoveOn Political Action. I've hosted house parties at my house, where people come over with their cell phones and call voters in other districts, as a part of a massive, nationwide Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort. This effort continues through the close of polling today, which I plan on participating in. I encourage you to do the same, if you're reading this on Election Day:





However, there have been reports and indications that the Republicans have conspired to steal the 2006 election by denying the right to vote to Jews, Hispanics and Blacks in contested districts throughout the country. They've slipped in language to a federal vote-reform bill that requires voter rolls to be matched from the local level to the federal level -- and then did not update the federal rolls in a timely manner. Where it is legal to require photo ID at voting precincts, the names must match *exactly*, and Republican lawyers will be out en force at the polls to attempt to deny the vote to targeted groups for any possible reason, including mis-match of names on IDs (I'm guessing that this could be stuff like having an initial for a middle name, rather than the entire thing spelled out. Or, for Hispanics, only including one rather than both surnames).

The full story is re-printed here (below), because the link to the original is only up sporadically. I don't agree with the conclusions of the author, however (he says that if Democrats can't win with greater than 51% of the vote, they don't deserve to, and if they can get greater than a 2% lead, they will win). I'm certain that the Republicans, if they are engaging in this sort of election-rigging, will target it in those races where it will make the most difference, and they will shoot for denying more like 10-20% of the vote in these districts -- which may then give the appearance of them winning by only 1-2%.

I'm hoping that the MoveOn and other GOTV efforts will prevail over these Republican dirty tricks, but this article sure isn't very inspirational towards that hope. So, to counter the bad news from the Republican front, here's some good news, in the form of inspirational quotes, from MoveOn:

"I'm writing to tell you that the Democratic candidates in the tightest, neck-to-neck races in the country are counting on you to pull them through to victory with the energy, spirit and passion that define MoveOn."—Bill Clinton(1)

"This morning, I joined the team and made some calls...I know it's easy to feel like your calls will be drops in a political ocean. I'm here to tell you that they're not. I know a thing or two about close races where a few hundred "drops" make all the difference. And the margins in many of these races are even closer. You could personally turn out the voter who tips the balance."—Al Gore(2)

"Through Call for Change, you're reaching out to folks who have been told they should keep quiet for so long, they almost believe it. They want a different direction for our country, but they've been disappointed, and ignored, and they need a reason to hope. You're calling to give them that reason—to let them know that this week, their vote has the power to turn it all around."—John Edwards(3)

"As a disabled veteran who is greatly affected by this administration's failure to properly fund VA health care and mental health programs for active duty troops and veterans, I urgently ask all my readers to help work for change in America."—MoveOn blogger Mike(4)

"I don't normally post politically themed topics, but this is too important to not talk about. This election day, on Nov. 7, the Democrats have a solid chance of taking back Congress...Help MoveOn.org and sign up as a volunteer to call people and make sure they get out to the polls."—MoveOn blogger Ari(5)

"In the most sophisticated phone banking program ever produced in American politics, MoveOn.org has created a program to call [five] million key voters in 50 key House districts and more than half a dozen Senate campaigns...it is amazing stuff."—Chris Bowers, MyDD(6)

Sources:

1. Bill Clinton's letter to MoveOn members, November 6, 2006
http://pol.moveon.org/pac/call4change/clinton.html?id=9455-6713077-cpqbT.fSwf0JPCS7Gfdv_Q&t=13

2. Al Gore's letter to MoveOn members, November 2, 2006
http://pol.moveon.org/pac/call4change/Gore.html?id=9455-6713077-cpqbT.fSwf0JPCS7Gfdv_Q&t=14

3. John Edwards' letter to MoveOn members, November 4, 2006
http://pol.moveon.org/pac/call4change/edwards.html?id=9455-6713077-cpqbT.fSwf0JPCS7Gfdv_Q&t=15

4. "Time for Change for veterans and Congress," MoveOn blogger Mike, October 29, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2217&id=9455-6713077-cpqbT.fSwf0JPCS7Gfdv_Q&t=16

5. "Call for Change," MoveOn blogger Ari, October 29, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2218&id=9455-6713077-cpqbT.fSwf0JPCS7Gfdv_Q&t=17

6. "Call for Change," MyDD.com, October 18, 2006
http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/10/18/144555/18

And now for the bad news (skip reading this until after the election if you'd like):

HOW THEY STOLE THE MID-TERM ELECTION
Published by Greg Palast November 6th, 2006 in Articles

by Greg Palast

for The Guardian (UK), Comment is Free
Monday November 6, 2006

Here’s how the 2006 mid-term election was stolen.

Note the past tense. And I’m not kidding.

And shoot me for saying this, but it won’t be stolen by jerking with the touch-screen machines (though they’ll do their nasty part). While progressives panic over the viral spread of suspect computer black boxes, the Karl Rove-bots have been tunneling into the vote vaults through entirely different means.

For six years now, our investigations team, at first on assignment for BBC TV and the Guardian, has been digging into the nitty-gritty of the gaming of US elections. We’ve found that November 7, 2006 is a day that will live in infamy. Four and a half million votes have been shoplifted. Here’s how they’ll do it, in three easy steps:

Theft #1: Registrations gone with the wind

On January 1, 2006, while America slept off New Year’s Eve hangovers, a new federal law crept out of the swamps that has devoured 1.9 million votes, overwhelmingly those of African-Americans and Hispanics. The vote-snatching statute is a cankerous codicil slipped into the 2002 Help America Vote Act — strategically timed to go into effect in this mid-term year. It requires every state to reject new would-be voters whose identity can’t be verified against a state verification database.

Sounds arcane and not too threatening. But look at the numbers and you won’t feel so fine. About 24.3 million Americans attempt to register or re-register each year. The New York University Law School’s Brennan Center told me that, under the new law, Republican Secretaries of State began the year by blocking about one in three new voters.

How? To begin with, Mr. Bush’s Social Security Administration has failed to verify 47% of registrants. After appeals and new attempts to register, US Elections Assistance Agency statistics indicate 1.9 million would-be voters will still find themselves barred from the ballot on Tuesday.

But don’t worry: those holding passports from their ski vacations to Switzerland are doing just fine. And that’s the point. It’s not the number of voters rejected, it’s their color. For example, California’s Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPherson figured out how to block 40% of registrants, mostly Hispanics. In a rare counter-move, Los Angeles, with a Hispanic mayor, contacted these citizens, “verified” them and got almost every single one back on the rolls. But throughout the rest of the West, new Hispanics remain victims of the “Jose Crow” treatment.

In hotly contested Ohio, Kenneth Blackwell, Secretary of State and the Republican’s candidate for Governor, remains voter-rejection champ — partly by keeping the rejection criteria a complete secret.

Theft #2: Turned Away - the ID game

A legion of pimple-faced Republicans with Blackberries loaded with lists of new voters is assigned to challenge citizens in heavily Black and Hispanic (i.e. Democratic) precincts to demand photo ID that perfectly matches registration data.

Sounds benign, but it’s not. The federal HAVA law and complex new ID requirements in states like New Mexico will easily allow the GOP squads to triple the number of voters turned away. Rather than deny using these voter suppression tactics, Republican spokesmen are claiming they are “protecting the integrity of the vote.”

I’ve heard that before. In 2004, we got our hands on fifty confidential internal memos from the files of the Republican National Committee. Attached to these were some pretty strange spreadsheets. They called them “caging lists” — and it wasn’t about zoo feeding times. They were lists (70,000 for Florida alone) of new Black and Jewish voters — a very Democratic demographic — to challenge on Election Day. The GOP did so with a vengeance: In 2004, for the first time in half a century, more than 3.5 million voters were challenged on Election Day. Worse, nearly half lost their vote: 300,000 were turned away for wrong ID; 1.1 million were allowed a “provisional” ballot — which was then simply tossed out.

Tomorrow, new federal ID requirements and a dozen new state show-me-your-ID laws will permit the GOP challenge campaign to triple their 300,000 record to nearly one million voters blocked.

Theft #3: Votes Spoiled Rotten

The nasty little secret of US elections is that three million ballots are cast in national elections but not counted — 3,600,380 not counted in 2004 according to US Election Commission stats. These are votes lost because a punch card didn’t punch (its chad got “hung”), a stray mark voided a paper ballot and other machinery glitches.

Officials call it “spoilage.” I call it, “inaugurating Republicans.” Why? According to statisticians working with the US Civil Rights Commission, the chance your vote will “spoil” this way is 900% higher for Black folk and 500% higher for Hispanics than for white voters. When we do the arithmetic, we find that well over half of all votes spoiled or “blank” are cast by voters of color. On balance, this spoilage game produces a million-vote edge for the GOP.

That’s where the Black Boxes come into play. Forget about Karl Rove messing with the software to change your vote. Rather, the big losses occur when computers crash, fail to start or simply don’t respond to your touch. They are the new spoilage machines of choice with, statistically, the same racial bias as the old vote-snatching lever machines. (Funny, but paper ballots with in-precinct scanners don’t go rotten on Black voters. Maybe that’s why Republican Secretaries of State have installed so few of them.)

So Let’s Add it Up

Two million legitimate voters will be turned away because of wrongly rejected or purged registrations.

Add another one million voters challenged and turned away for “improper ID.”

Then add yet another million for Democratic votes “spoiled” by busted black boxes and by bad ballots.

And let’s not forget to include the one million “provisional” ballots which will never get counted. Based on the experience of 2004, we know that, overwhelmingly, minority voters are the ones shunted to these baloney ballots.

And there’s one more group of votes that won’t be counted: absentee ballots challenged and discarded. Elections Assistance Agency data tell us a half million of these absentee votes will go down the drain.

Driving this massive suppression of the vote are sophisticated challenge operations. And here I must note that the Democrats have no national challenge campaign. That’s morally laudable; electorally suicidal.

Add it all up — all those Democratic-leaning votes rejected, barred and spoiled — and the Republican Party begins Election Day with a 4.5 million-vote thumb on the vote-tally scale.

So, what are you going to do about it? May I suggest you… steal back your vote.

It’s true you can’t win with 51% of the vote anymore. So just get over it. The regime’s sneak attack via vote suppression will only net them 4.5 million votes, about 5% of the total. You should be able to beat that blindfolded. If you can’t get 55%, then you’re just a bunch of crybaby pussycats who don’t deserve to win back America.

********
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “ARMED MADHOUSE.”

The New German Army: Is it really ready?

Recent scandals have called into question the ability of the modern German Army to be a useful asset to the United Nations in bringing peace to war-torn regions of the world. Germans serving in Afghanistan have been caught taking photos with human remains, which is a no-no. And now, they have been caught displaying the palm tree and iron cross on their military vehicles, a symbol which was apparently originally used by the Nazi's Desert Fox (a German commander, General Erwin Rommel) in North Africa during World War II.

This raises grave questions about the ability of the German Army to operate in a non-offensive manner, and just generally be helpful, while in foreign countries trying ostensibly to keep the peace. There is apparently a national debate currently raging in Germany over what exactly the role of the modern German military should be, in light of these allegations.

We in the United States should know about the potential pitfalls of sending young men full of testosterone off to foreign lands in the name of... whatever crusade happens to be in vogue at the moment. Certainly, displaying a symbol on an off-road military vehicle that may be somewhat hazily linked to a symbol, not the swastika, once used by the Nazi army... is not the same as raping and murdering young Iraqi girls while serving in the U.S. army, torturing victims being held in custody, or any of the other innumerable offenses that our own armed forces have committed in recent years while in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Cuba (at Guantanamo Bay).

Indeed, it's hard to uncouple this particular news item with reports coming from Japan that it is again building up its military, this time in response to the report of a nuclear test by North Korea. The fact of Japan's current military buildup is reportedly making the leadership of South Korea a little bit worried, and it's definitely a bit worrying to me as well.

All in all, the first six years of the 21st century have had a little bit too much war and terror for my tastes, and I don't really see any sign of abatement right now. I'm hoping that the Democrats will be able to perform miracles in the 2006 mid-term elections, and somehow be able to right the United States and perform a course correction that will, in turn, begin to lead the rest of the world back to a more peaceful path. But, I'm aware that this is a pretty far-fetched dream, and don't really know what you and I can do to turn it into reality, aside from campaign like hell for the Dems between now and next Tuesday!!

cheers,
~Garlynn

Bus of the Future?

I recently came across an article about a new diesel-hybrid bus that is currently under development in Detroit by AutoKinetics. It apparently can get 12-15 mpg, and will have a more comfortable ride than existing buses. It also has wrap-around rear windows, and of course has low-floor boarding for easy access.

My question is -- how long before we can see one of these deployed by Tri-Met?

Condo Parking: Spaces vs. Private Garages

In a discussion over on Portland Transport, the topic of parking in condos came up. Specifically, Portland is apparently on the cusp of passing an ordinance requiring condo builders to un-bundle parking from condos. So, rather than purchasing a $300k condo with an included parking space, buyers would get a $270k condo and then have the option of forking over an additional $30k for the parking space. It is argued that this will give people pause, as to whether they really want that additional space, or even want to own a car at all, for that much additional cash.

I thought that this would be a good opprtunity to bring up an additional point, which is this:

Parking spaces in condo buildings don't have to just be for cars. If they're made wide enough so that you can open your doors entirely within them... then walls can be constructed between them, rather than painted white lines (doesn't need to be anything fancy, just some sheetrock over a mesh fence for security) and garage doors installed. Presto -- for, say, $30k, a condo buyer can add the option of a private garage, which they can use for either storing their single car -- or for storing ten bicycles, their skis, their camping equipment, a bike trailer, some snowboards, and their old vinyl record collection.

Catch my drift?

I'm not sure that this belongs in a City Council ordinance, except that it would be cool if it made it in as an option to encourage developers to absorb the up-front costs of building the walls, installing the doors and making the spaces wide enough to drive a car in and open the door wide enough to get groceries in and out on one side and a person out on the other.

I, for one, would much prefer a private garage to a plain private parking space. Sure, it's nice to have a place to tuck away the ole' car, but it's much preferable to have room for all the other stuff (bicycles, etc.) Plus, in a garage, somebody could perhaps have the best of both world -- a Mini Cooper in one half, and the bikes, etc. in the other.

PDX Transportation Issues of Concern

As a part of Metro's RTP update, they're soliciting feedback from community groups. One such group is the Coalition for a Livable Future, which has asked for a list of transportation-related issues of concern.

Here is my response:

- Lack of regional rail connectivity to all the regional and outlying town centers. Where is the commuter rail link to McMinnville, Hood River, St. Helens, Forest Grove, Oregon City, Salem, etc.?

- Lack of regional Class 1 bicycle facilities: Where are the Spingwater Corridor-equivalent bicycle freeways linking the communities mentioned above, as well as Wilsonville, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Aloha, etc. to the rest of the system?

- Lack of pedestrian facilities on all streets. Where are the sidewalks, especially in suburban and rural residential areas?

- Lack of pervious surfaces on transportation facilities. Why not use the planting strip between the sidewalk and the street as a bioswale for most streets, to mitigate storm runoff?

- Exposed automobile infrastructure (freeways) -- why not bury I-5 through N/NE Portland and SW Portland, as well as I-84 in NE Portland and I-405 through downtown, or even I-205 and I-5 through the Central Eastside? Ultimately, all the freeways should be capped and placed underground, for three reasons:

1) Air Quality. If they're underground, their emissions can be "scrubbed" through fans & air filters (perhaps even biologically) before being released into the community

2) Real Estate. The freeways take up a lot of land. Their air rights could be sold to finance the capping project, and that space used for new developments, parks, open space, community facilities, etc.

3) Pedestrian/street network connectivity. Currently, most streets don't connect across freeways corridors. These street connections could all be re-established as a part of the capping process.

***

Other strategies for managing the Portland region's growth in population (projected at one million by 2030) and the increased demand on the transportation system:

- Increase allowable densities near high-quality transit systems, so that more of the growth in the region's population can take place within walking distance of attractive transit options.

- Build more commuter rail links to connect regional town centers, as well as town centers of nearby urban areas that are functionally a part of the metro region. Similar to the European system, this removes the need for an automobile for most trips. This could/should include rail/tram links to the coast and to Mt. Hood, so that people can also recreate without cars.

***

Strategies to get car owners to use their cars less, and make transportation options more convenient for people who don't own cars:

- More high-quality public transportation connections, especially new passenger/commuter rail lines, water taxis/ferries and trams so that all major attractions in the region and easily and quickly transit-accessible through timed-transfer links.

***

Strategies to improve the region's economy and livability:

- Build out a super-efficient regional mass transit system, including many more commuter/passenger rail links, light rail lines, streetcars, trams, trolleys, water taxis, ferries and BRT/high quality bus services, in tandem with the buildout of a regional high-quality bicycle infrastructure system, and make all of this the focus for high-intensity employment and residential focused development, with easy access both to other regional centers as well as greenspace. If design/build contracts are awarded locally, vehicles built locally, then this will provide a good shot in the arm to the region's economy.

***

Other strategies for supporting an efficient, sustainable transportation system:

- Make timed transfer centers an integral part of the regional transit system. In conjunction with running all transit service son time, this will allow transit to "pulse" out from these centers, so that passengers can remain in motion from their origin to their destination, minimizing wait time.

***

Strategies for reducing car crashes and improving pedestrian and cyclist safety:

- Create sustainable alternatives to driving, so that fewer people see driving as the only preferable option.

- Re-design street facilities so that the facility itself informs the speed of travel through it, i.e. bring back cobblestone streets for dense areas, narrow residential streets to slow down and limit through traffic, construct bulb-outs and curb extensions to ease pedestrian crossings, give bicyclists preferential treatment at intersections, etc.

***

Strategies for the funding of transportation in a fair manner:

- Use Tax Increment Financing to allow new transportation projects to help pay for themselves by getting a cut of the incremental increase in value that they bring to properties that directly benefit from their development.

- Increase the amount of freight movement that takes place using the regional rail system, and use fees from this to help pay for maintenance and operations of the system.

- Charge a wholesale delivery fee that taxes goods as they are sold from distributors to retailers, assessed for the maintenance and expansion of the transportation system used to deliver those goods.

***

Other ideas for helping the Coalition for a Livable Future to Shift the Balance:

- Make it fun. Make it exciting. Cooperate with the City Repair Project, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and other community-focused groups to really engage the community on these issues.

- Throw good parties, where people can come out and meet other folks to discuss the issues over beer & food, but also in combination with entertainment and perhaps related artsy/craftsy stuff.

- Encourage more community development exercises like neighborhood cob workshops to build benches near traffic-calming projects at intersections, and plant community gardens (small ones) in those planters.

- Encourage brewpubs, as the centers for neighborhood social activity, to be located in every village, town and regional center, especially right at transit stations and transit points, but also within walkable/bike-able neighborhoods.

***

If you'd like to take the survey, it can be found here:

http://www.clfuture.org/projects/ShiftTheBalance

If you'd like to receive updates on the Shift the Balance! campaign and learn how to be involved in shaping the 2035 Regional Transportation Plan, send an email to jack@clfuture.org (and post your ideas in a rely to this blog)!

cheers,
~Garlynn

From warheads to coffee machines

From the creative re-use of former weapons of mass destruction department:

My housemate, the taxi driver, somehow came across this link and, knowing my fascination with both geography and coffee, passed it along to me.

The full story is quoted below (just in case the link goes away -- dunno if the BBC times out their stories like the NYTimes and other online publications sometimes do), but here's the synopsis: African (Ethiopian) man takes old artillery shells left over from the Eritrean/Ethiopian (civil?) war, and turns them into coffee machines.

My first thought is: "Oh man, that's pretty cool."

I wonder, though... they're pretty vague in the article about what type of machine it is that is produced. If it channels water, coffee and milk, does that mean that it's actually an espresso machine? I've never seen an espresso machine that channels milk. Espresso machines channel steam, sure, which is used to steam milk... but actually channeling milk? I kind of wonder how much this writer really knows about the subject. The finished product looks like a European espresso machine, but I wonder if the finished product photo really is one of *his* finished products, or just a generic shot of an espresso machine in a coffee
house?

In any case, I would love to find out more about this topic, as creative re-use of any old thing into a new thing is of interest to me, whether it be turning toilets or cars into vegetable planters, or bombshells into coffee machines.

Here's the full story: (click on the link to access the original version, complete with photos)

From weapons of war to great coffee
By Amber Henshaw
BBC News, Mekele

In biblical times they said "turn your swords into ploughshares", now in northern Ethiopia a tradesman is bringing the saying into the 21st Century.

In his workshop in Mekele, just 200km from Ethiopia's border with Eritrea, Azmeraw Zekele is turning burnt-out shells into cylinders used in coffee machines.

Most of the shells are left over from the 1998-2000 war between the two countries.

The workshop is made up of three quite small ramshackle rooms that lead from one to another with sunlight coming through the gaps, but it is a hive of activity for Mr Azmeraw and his six staff.

Tradition

"The shells were dropped in Ethiopia during the war with Eritrea. They were dropped so people hid them in their homes and now they sell them," Mr Azmeraw says.

He uses old mortar shells, which stand about one metre high, to make his coffee machines.



He cuts off the pointed ends, seals them and puts holes into the aluminium cylinder. The cylinder channels the water, coffee and milk.



He told me he got the idea nine years ago when he was doing maintenance work.

"I saw some shells being sold for a different purpose and I studied them.

"They were used for washing clothes or crushing things. After studying them I came up with the idea of using them as a cylinder for a coffee machine."

Coffee is a major export from Ethiopia and plays a big role in life.

After meals, the traditional coffee ceremony allows family and friends to get together to share news and discuss the issues of the day.

Coffee shops are also popular.



Fair price

Cafe owner Haile Abraha bought one of Mr Azmeraw's machines a few months ago.

"I had one other imported machine but this one is much better. It is relatively cheap. The price is fair. The machine is good and it makes good coffee."

But Mr Azmeraw says it can be difficult to convince people to buy because of the mortar shell.

"These shells have all been used. We all need peace and we don't want war but once these shells have been used, we should use our skills to do something with them.

"Sometimes I think about the fact they were used for war but I want to change them to do something good. They could be a symbol of war but I am doing something good out of the bad."

Since he started production five or six years ago, Mr Azmeraw has sold hundreds of machines - he cannot remember exactly how many.

Each one costs about $1,300. Most of them have been sold to people in the Mekele area.

But in the future he hopes to sell them more further afield - maybe even to coffee shops and restaurants in Eritrea.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6102290.stm

Published: 2006/10/31 14:37:37 GMT

So, the article says that these machines are about $1300 each. That sounds like a commercial-quality espresso machine with double boilers to me, based on the current market prices of other espresso machines. For comparison, my home espresso machine, with a single boiler, is about $500, and it's made from all-new materials in Italy.

Adaptive re-use. My buddy was just in L.A., where an old pwer plant has been converted into a nightclub. The club is in the basement, with a chic bar and a stage set up apparently amidst the old generators and industrial equipment, all shined & cleaned up for the occasion.

How else can we take the out-dated relics of the 20th century military/industrial complex and re-use them for the 21st century's information society?