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https://www.opb.org/news/artic...

Archaic union contracts are the problem for public sector transit, and to a certain degree commuter rail, but not private sector freight.

I'm afraid, you are overly optimistic. Luddites, empowered by bundling together, have been holding humanity's progress for centuries. The most recent battle was against Uber et al (would somebody think of the taxi drivers!) may have been lost already, but new ones are ahead.

Paying two guys to babysit it is literal chump change.

I'm not sure... But, perhaps more importantly, humans suck at driving. If, as /.'s favorite genius predicts, some day driving a car will be illegal for a human, operating a train should already. Because we can automate trains with today's software. And, indeed, the cause of the recent train-wrecks was just that — a human error.

According to my power bill, 87% of my electricity comes from hydro and 11% comes from nuclear.

Where do you live, Newhalem? (mostly kidding) But seriously, as far as I know, Microsoft gets power from Puget Sound Energy, and PSE says they get 31% from hydro:

https://www.pse.com/aboutpse/E...

Sadly 37% is coal. But 22% natural gas and 9% wind.

I did some Google searches and I found that you are correct: Washington just has a single coal plant, and it will shut down its coal burning by 2025. I believe it will burn natural gas after that; it already has a combined cycle gas turbine power unit, operating alongside the two coal power units. Since the two coal power units produce 1340 megaWatts and the combined cycle unit produces only 248 megaWatts, presumably they will be building more non-coal power units.

http://www.power-technology.com/projects/centralia/

But it's still possible to use coal power from out of state, as discussed here: https://www.opb.org/news/article/the-northwest-struggles-with-coal-generated-power-from-out-of-state/

Oracle wants you to use cloudy thinking?

Oracle Effectively Doubles Licence Fees To Run Its Stuff in AWS.

Oracle profit, software license growth decline

Oracle Begins Aggressively Pursuing Java Licensing Fees

Judge Blasts Oracle's Attempt To Overturn Pro-Google Jury Verdict

Oregon settles bitter legal fight with Oracle for $100 million

Oregon Reaches $100 Million Settlement With Oracle

"Oracle ... gouging their clients."

One example of Oracle's gouging, two stories:

Oregon settles bitter legal fight with Oracle for $100 million

Oregon Reaches $100 Million Settlement With Oracle

How it happens: Managers with no technical knowledge believe they can buy contracts for technology development. Technology companies know they can say anything and it will usually be accepted.

Another example of an ignorant manager assuming it is possible to manage technology without knowing anything about technology: Price for Failed Obamacare Website: $394 Million and Counting.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama often acts like a knowledgeable leader even when the depth of his knowledge is extremely shallow.

Then i hope they will tax the vegetables to cover:
- Increases requirements for water alot there by increasing CO2 pollution - http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dams+co2+...
- Pesticide-pollution - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
- Fertilizer-pollution - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Raise livestock close to a water-source and fields of grass they can eat.... Ie free-ranging...
http://www.opb.org/news/blog/e...

Then eat meat, fish, plants in a mix..... In winter when it's hard to get fresh vegetables eat more meat.. When it's easy to get vegetables then eat that... Eat locally produced things instead of stuff produced on the other side of the world.....

"The wall of water would be as high as the fifth floor of Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield or the third floor of the downtown Eugene Public Library, according to the maps." http://www.opb.org/news/articl...

That's enough to dampen my spirits.
There has got to be an easier way to get rid of Springfield and Creswell!

When the "govt operates via bribes", the government is corrupt, and needs fixing.

The Portland, Oregon government is extremely corrupt. The Portland city government has been allowing huge apartment buildings to be built with NO parking. The overpopulation has caused traffic jams during all daylight hours, not just the to-and-from-work hours. The constant traffic jams have increased the already severe pollution.

One of the reasons the air pollution is so severe is that Intel is allowed to release 6.4 tons of fluorides each year into the air.

The Portland city government passed a law preventing grocery stores from providing free plastic shopping bags. So the stores now provide paper bags, which cost 10 times more. The production of paper bags is far worse for the environment. Why legislate paper bags? Apparently because there is a plant that manufactures paper bags in the Portland metropolitan area.

Additional coverage of them backing down here. [OPB]

When Oregon’s new Chief Information Officer, Alex Pettit,was on our show recently, we asked him what stood out from his move from Oklahoma to the northwest. He said there were some expected cultural differences, but that in terms of IT he was caught by surprise:

        I was surprised that things like open source wasn’t as bigin government as it is in the East Coast, or in Oklahoma, where I was. I was surprised that transparency wasn’t a bigger issue. It’s certainly a big issue in Oklahoma, and it’s less so here.

This was striking because Oregon is known for its open source community — at Oregon State’s Open Source Lab, at the annual OSCON Conference, and among many programmers. And his comments came right before an Oregonian op-ed argued that open source software could have prevented the Cover Oregon fiasco.

http://www.opb.org/radio/progr...

The only mistake that may have been made by Oregon State gov. tech people was letting Federal officials talk into going outside Oregon for the website project.

It's not just humans. You may find this interesting to read, as well as this. Male fish are definitely not supposed to have female characteristics.

Oh really?

BPA is harmless. It's toxic at levels far above normal intake and concentration in the blood. BPA-Free polycarbonate now uses BPS, which is exactly as toxic as BPA but leaches at a rate 20 times that of BPA. It breaks the toxicity barrier with gusto, so enjoy your new toxic world.

Water bottles are most often PET or LDPE. These plastics aren't made with BPA or any analog.

It's not just humans. You may find this interesting to read, as well as this. Male fish are definitely not supposed to have female characteristics.

As far as humans are concerned, you may find this an interesting read. It indicates that humans may be more susceptible to such endocrine disruptors (like BPA) than previous studied using rodents initially indicated.

So then we're back to what constitutes good decision-making. Fact: I have no overriding reason why I absolutely must use containers made with BPA. Fact: not only are alternatives to such containers readily available, I also happen to like them better for aesthetic and durability reasons. Conclusion: exposing myself to BPA is an unnecessary risk.

Still, if you think it's harmless you are free to continue using it. At one time people were told (by doctors no less) that cigarettes were beneficial. Now if I had some dire need (as in my life and well-being absolutely depended on it) to use BPA-containing plastics, perhaps I'd take my chances. But I don't.

the Affordable Care Act has absolutely nothing to do with Cover Oregon's problems.

the Cover Oregon website was a system devised with the influence of the insurance and health care *industry* to channel people to for-profit companies.

here is an NPR (Oregon Public Broadcasting) story that examines a person trying to use the site step-by-step: http://www.opb.org/news/article/are-health-insurance-companies-ranking-themselves-on-coveroregon/

the Cover Oregon website is only part of Oregon's rollout of Obamacare...they have 30,000 paper applications waiting to be processed

So there are several problems with your criticism of the ACA and socialized medicine in general

1. the ACA and 'Obamacare' is not socialized medicine (i wish it was)...it is a federal government subsidy of personal and business insurance executed in the federal system by either the states or the federal government itself

2. Cover Oregon's online system was made by a company funded by the insurance industry

3. Cover Oregon's website lists **ONLY** insurance plans from health care companies

4. "Cover Oregon" is a program, not a website. The **program** has signed at least 30,000 people to date which is alot more than 44

So you are wrong in every part of your premise.

It's the problem Oregon claims to be addressing.

There are 750 electric car owners in the state. There are 4 million people in Oregon.

"Environmental issues" being the code word for pork. Specifically, most of the money from the sale of helium not going to the National Park Service is going to fund a continuation of the Secure Rural Schools Act. The SRSA itself is essentially a hand-out program for dying, rural counties that ran into budget problems after logging and other natural resource extraction activities were significantly scaled back, which had left those counties with no other significant economic activity to tax for income (and the voters, already hurting, always shoot down income/property tax hikes).

This is one of the bigs reason for why Congress has been raiding the helium reserve, despite the fact that they've cratered prices in the process, as helium is seen as one of the few natural resources and/or assets under exclusive Federal control that can be quickly sold off to raise much needed revenue. Which doesn't really solve the issue - we'll run out of helium eventually - but it at least kicks the can down the way for a while longer.

I just want to point out that Senator Merkley (D-OR) has been really clear about being against broad and secret surveillance. http://www.opb.org/news/article/sen-merkley-wants-debate-patriot-act-rules-extension/
This committee action is NOT about the NSA program. It is about threatening Russia, who finds itself once again positioning itself as an anti-US power with their support of Assad, and weapons they gave Syria having been transferred to Hezbollah.

Not to mention the history Oregon has with other genetic engineering companies releasing invasive species into the wild.

Feeding cows with grass uses more land and makes them fart more:

http://www.opb.org/news/blog/ecotrope/which-is-greener-grass-fed-or-grain-fed-beef/

But that's only half of the story. A lot of rainforest clearing is done to give cattle room to graze - not to grow corn to feed them with.

Its being done at a lot of places including here:
http://www.opb.org/news/article/osu-researchers-make-electricity-sewage/

Will probably take decades to make it to common usage though. How often do they rebuild Sewage Treatment Plants?

Maybe they could get a parent to co-sign. Or, they could finance per-semester instead of the whole 4-years. This would give the finance company an indication of the value of the education. Or businesses could sponsor students through college with an agreement for a certain number of years of service to the company afterwards. Some towns do this. There is always another path to your destination, if you're not closed minded.

Certainly, if the government was out of the student-loan-business, that would make room for actual businesses to take up the slack. Likewise, if the colleges didn't have a blank check in front of them, maybe tuition would become affordable, making the loans much smaller and the financing easier to obtain.

It's a cascade of changes all resulting from the elimination of one federal agency. How much private sector business is taken by federal agencies that can lose money year-after-year? It's in the best interest of a federal agency to spend more money each year - because this increases their budget.

Most good radio stations also do internet streaming. The 2 stations I listen to do: kink and . So why does my cell phone need an FM receiver, when I can get better quality audio from the built in browser? The only difference is FM radio doesn't use up internet and wireless bandwidth, but that wouldn't be as much of a problem if the idiots would just use the IP multicast protocol that's been around for over 20 years!

Comcast has shown what it will do everywhere else if they get their hands on a monopoly of anything by their behavior here in Oregon. 1/3 of Oregon can't get Blazers games broadcast on local sports network, Comcast NorthWest due to anti-competitive Comcast practices.

"How soon will all Portland Trailblazer games be accessible to fans in the Northwest?

The Portland Trailblazers are expected to have a great season this year, but many of their dedicated fans won't get to see 65 percent of their games. For a second season in a row, some fans will miss crucial Blazer games because negotiations between Comcast Sportsnet and other cable and satellite providers remain stuck.

A year ago, Comcast spent $130 million on the rights to air Trailblazer games for the next ten years. Comcast Sportsnet said at the time that the deal would make Blazer games more accessible to more fans, but it hasn't worked out that way. Comcast Sportsnet, Direct TV and Charter Communications have not agreed on price and packaging, leaving Direct TV and Charter Communications customers out of luck when it comes to watching Trailblazer games. Some fans have gotten so frustrated that they've joined forces to boycott Trailblazer sponsors in hopes of putting pressure on Comcast and cable providers to reach a deal. At this point, the only option for Blazer enthusiasts without Comcast Sportsnet Northwest is to watch the few games broadcast nationally on ESPN, or their local television networks...."

http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/the-blazers-blackout/

That's what Bill Sizemore said.
Wanna see his mug shot?

http://news.opb.org/article/3686-multnomah-judge-sends-sizemore-jail-contempt/

The IOC still seems to think it owns all use of the word 'olympic'. http://news.opb.org/article/usoc-cracks-down-olympic-peninsula-winery/ I wish somebody could explain to them that owning the copyright to the games does not entitle them to prevent others from either using their symbol to protest them, or from using locale names (like the olympic penninsula in WA) that predate the founding of the modern olympic games.

#!/bin/bash

PREFIX=$1
NAME=$2
LENGTH=$3
datadir=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
if [ -z "$3" ] ; then
            echo "Usage: record_NPR.sh showname length(1H 2H 3H)"
            exit
fi

FILE_DATE=`date`
FILE_NAME=`date '+%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M.mp3'`
FILE_NAME="${PREFIX}_${FILE_NAME}"
echo " Starting to record $NAME at $FILE_DATE"
cd /tmp/NPR
wget -nv -O $FILE_NAME http://edtv.opb.org:8000/radio.mp3 [opb.org] > /dev/null 2>&1 &
WPID=$!
sleep $LENGTH; kill $WPID
sleep 3
tagmp3 set "%A:${NAME} %a:NPR Records" $FILE_NAME
#update_RSS.pl "$PREFIX" "$FILE_NAME" "$FILE_DATE" "$NAME"
echo "$NAME was recorded"
mv /tmp/NPR/$FILE_NAME /mymedia/mp3/podcasts/$datadir/$FILE_NAME
echo "$NAME was moved to mp3 folder"

Correction I record from Oregon Public radio. so you need to adjust your times to record accordingly.
I add jobs into crontab to record them automagically. works great, far better quality than off the air and easier.

I actually got this from someone else here on slashdot but cant remember his name, I'll give credits when I figure out who.

Here's your NPR podcast:

This script records your podcast. Call it record_NPR.sh
=================
#!/bin/bash

PREFIX=$1
NAME=$2
LENGTH=$3

if [ -z "$3" ] ; then
      echo "Usage: record_NPR.sh "
      exit
fi

FILE_DATE=`date`
FILE_NAME=`date '+%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M.mp3'`
FILE_NAME="${PREFIX}_${FILE_NAME}"

cd /tmp/NPR
wget -nv -O $FILE_NAME http://edtv.opb.org:8000/radio.mp3 > /dev/null 2>&1 &
WPID=$!
sleep $LENGTH; kill $WPID
sleep 3
tagmp3 set "%A:${NAME} %a:NPR Records" $FILE_NAME
#update_RSS.pl "$PREFIX" "$FILE_NAME" "$FILE_DATE" "$NAME"
echo "$NAME was recorded"
===================

Stick it in your crontab, and you are done:
===================
0 11 * * 5 /user/joechmo/bin/record_NPR.sh SFR "Science Friday" 2h
0 15 * * 6 /user/joechmo/bin/record_NPR.sh PHC "Prarie Home Companion" 2h
0 10 * * 6 /user/joechmo/bin/record_NPR.sh CTK "Car Talk" 1h
======================

Not all, but on KOAC/OPB certainly (http://www.opb.org/). You can of course stream it, or get it on XM radio.

Discover ran a story about someone who thinks Earth is still being bombarded by smaller bodies like this -- it was a couple of years ago I think. He's regarded as a flake, but he's at least on the edges of the real scientific community.

Regardless of maturity, in order for deep riverbeds such as appear on Mars to form you need a lot of water flowing for a fairly long time (years, not days).

Ever hear of the Lake Missoula ice-age floods? Water from a penned-in glacial lake burst through ice dams several times, ripping up the northwestern US in colossal floods. The entire surface of eastern Washington state was formed through quite sudden flooding:

"In about two days the water of Glacial Lake Missoula emptied through the breached dam. The amount of escaping water was equal to ten times the discharge of all the Earth's rivers today." Water several hundred feet deep flooded the region and ripped up hundreds of feet of soil and rock, carrying it inside the torrent of water westward toward the sea. The flood cut channels and carved islands, leaving behind the scarred landscape now called the Channeled Scabland.

Imagine ripples like in a streambed, only on the scale of hillsides. It doesn't necessarily take years.

Not that I'm buying this idea, but it's not as outrageous as all that.

OPB mentioned last week during their pledge drive that they pay about $800,000 a year to NPR; NPR charges them based on how many listeners they have (according to surveys and such). Of course, OPB also buys radio programming from PRI and other organizations, and television programming from PBS and others.

Around 10% of OPB's radio listeners are contributing members. OPB gets 51% of their revenues from member contributions. Last week, 7,000 listeners pledged a little over $500,000.

These are the kinds of numbers we should be hearing from Slashdot.