Seriously, the worst guy In a newly-released audio tape and jihad scrapbook set, Public Enemy #1 Osama bin Laden shifted his focus this week from “death to the infidel” to “please recycle.” The fugitive terrorist leader noted his concern for flood victims in Pakistan and cited global climate change as a serious concern. Great. Just […]
Green
Posted inGreen
Streetlights Powered By Dog Poop.
Wow. This is what Cambridge, MA is doing: They have also installed a work by conceptual artist Matthew Mazzotta: a streetlight powered entirely by dog droppings, called the ParkSpark Project. It works simply: You put the dog poop into the large container, where it is digested by bacteria, creating methane gas, which can then be […]
Posted inFashion
First Look: Seth Aaron’s Solar Paneled-Inspired Collection for Portland Fashion Week
So, you know that Seth Aaron of Portland Vancouver is one of the big names at this year’s Portland Fashion Week shows, right? And that, weirdly, he will also be joined by two other alumni from his winning season of Project Runway—Jay Sario and Jonathan Joseph Peters—on the Oct 9 show? And that his collection […]
Posted inNews
Energy Firm Plans Green Palace in Pearl
If you haven’t been on the Twitter today, you might have missed this nugget from Mayor Sam Adams’ office: Wind-power giant Vestas is going to set up corporate shop in the Pearl District, turning the long-empty Meier & Frank Depot Building into a palace of green-technology palavering. Construction could begin as soon as October, with […]
Posted inGreen
Lewis & Clark Gets $77,927 Fine For Polluting Stream
Lewis and Clark got hit with a $77,927 fine from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on Friday, after an investigation revealed that the college has been dumping its chlorinated pool water into a nearby stream for four decades. While out on a call about an unrelated water quality complaint, a city bureau of environmental […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Your Lemonade Sucks! OR How to Run a Successful Lemonade Stand in Portland: A Guide for Seven-Year-Old Entrepreneurs
There has been much uproar about the Multnomah County Health Department’s attempted shut-down of seven-year-old Julie Murphy’s lemonade stand during Last Thursday, last Thursday [as covered in yesterday’s Good Morning News]. Everyone seems appropriately up in arms, and the Health Department has even apologized. But as a food critic, I don’t think I’m remiss in […]
Posted inGreen
Oregon Sustainability Center: Who’s Paying for This?
Sustainability Center: Occupied by ghosts, shadowy figures. Portland City Council unanimously voted on Wednesday to move forward with the Oregon Sustainability Center, a $75 million gleaming tower of eco-innovation that will rise eight eco-stories over downtown Portland. The eco-vote directs the Portland Development Commission to spend $450,000 on the next phase of designing the building […]
Posted inGreen
Moving Forward on the $75 Million, Super Sexy Oregon Sustainability Center…
City Council this morning was flush with excitement over a grand new building that, if built, will clearly be the jewel in Portland’s (and Mayor Sam Adams’) King of Green crown. Congressman David Wu and representatives of Senator Merkley and Wydens’ offices turned up to stump for rolling forward with the plan to build the […]
Posted inGreen
How Did Ban the Bag Win in Portland?
Portland’s plan to ban plastic bags from local grocery stores by 2011 breezed through City Council last week with hardly a peep. The only person who turned up to oppose the measure is local crank Terry Parker, who turns up at public meetings on an almost-weekly basis to dismiss environmentalism as socialism and bicycles as […]
Posted inFashion
Seth Aaron to Debut “SolarWorld” Collection at Portland Fashion Week
When Seth Aaron returned triumphant from winning the last season of Project Runway, he answered with no hesitation when I asked if he was moving to New York that he had no plans to leave Portland (er… Vancouver). And leave us he has not. In fact he’s slated to show in this year’s Portland Fashion […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Feel Like Going to a Barn Dance?
This could be some Mercury staffers’ idea of a Worst. Night. Ever., but I think this potentially sounds like a lot of fun. Could be summer in the air, could be the fresh fruits and vegetables, could be Pickathon around the corner, but I guess I’m feeling a bit more forgivingly hippie now than at […]
Posted inFood and Drink
The Environmental Impact of Paper vs. Plastic
It’s not often that big business winds up pushing for the same cause as environmentalists, which is why you should read about how the hell that happened in the local Ban the Bag debate over in the news section. Meanwhile, green thinktank Sightline has an interesting post about the environmental impact of paper vs. plastic. […]