Thomas James [Editor’s note—As Erik Henriksen pointed out in “Good Morning, News!”, we’re ALL GOING TO DIE. The New Yorker just wrote at length about the big earthquake that’s going to plunge the Pacific Northwest into a hellpool of carnage and destruction, but they only just got wise to what we’ve been telling you since […]
Nathan Gilles
Posted inMovies & TV
The Amber Sarcophagus
Dinosaurs, Disease, and Drugs—and the Scientist Behind Jurassic Park
Meet the Oregon scientist behind Jurassic Park.
Posted inMovies & TV
Dinosaurs, Disease, and Drugs—and the Scientist Behind Jurassic Park
Matthew Billington Oregon biologist George Poinar Jr. is bugged by Jurassic Park. But he has a right to be. His science inspired the books and films. It was Poinar’s work in the 1980s that first hinted at the prospect of using prehistoric DNA preserved in amber to restore extinct creatures to life. That work caught […]
Posted inNews
The Bottom Line vs. the Fault Line
Well-Connected Landlords Want the City to Pay for Mandatory Seismic Retrofits
Well-connected landlords want Portland to pay for their seismic retrofits.
Posted inGeneral
All Tomorrow’s Bovines
The Science of Creating a Climate-Friendly Cow and Why Your Stupid Vegan Friends Might Be Right After All
The science of making a climate-friendly cow.
Posted inNews
Bolting Down
Novick Gets Funds for Earthquake Retrofits
Commissioner Steve Novick gets federal money for earthquake retrofits.
Posted inNews
Bolt! Novick Gets Federal Money to Help People Save their Houses
Nathan Gilles Clean Energy Works CEO Derek Smith, US Representative Earl Blumenauer, and Commissioner Steve Novick at the SE Portland home of Stacey Schubert. Commissioner Steve Novick took a definitive step this week toward tackling our coming earthquake disaster. At a press conference Thursday, Novick and US Representative Earl Blumenauer (signature bow-tie and all) announced […]
Posted inNews
BEWARE THE ZOMBIE HORDES! A Peek Inside Portland’s Emergency Coordination Center
Nathan Gilles Emergency Coordination Center In October I reported the City of Portland was preparing to reveal its new Emergency Coordination Center (ECC). This building will be the command center for city managers in the event of a major disaster like a terrorist attack or a massive earthquake. And I got a look inside. Last […]
Posted inNews
PSU Faculty Union Protests Budget Cuts
Portland State University’s administration is once again looking to slim down the school’s budget. Needless to say students, faculty and the faculty union aren’t happy. Yesterday at noon, around 260 individuals, many from the PSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)—the union representing the university’s faculty—along with students and other supporters, marched […]
Posted inScience!
Do You Know Where You’ll Go Poo After a Big Earthquake?
Nathan Gilles PHLUSH Toilets. Once again, the editorial staff at the Mercury has put aside its better judgment and let me write an earthquake story. This time it’s about killer buildings—constructed with unreinforced masonry—and attempts by Steve Novick and emergency planners to address the problem by requiring these structures get seismic retrofits. It’s all part […]
Posted inNews
Coding for Quakes
Novick’s Ready to Fight for Seismically Safer Buildings—Will It Be Enough?
Emergency planners want seismically safer buildings. But will it be enough?
Posted inOccupy
Occupy Portland Earns Right to Jury Trials, Now Will They Get Them?
It’s been nearly two years since cops unceremoniously broke up Occupy Portland’s downtown camps in the name of safety, hygiene, and the health of the city’s grass. It’s also been well over a year and a half since the will-they-won’t-they question of whether Occupy Portland defendants will get jury trials started as a fight between […]