RE: UFOregon Feature, 4/28
An interesting and relatively objective historical article. We now know that the unofficial media policy of ridiculing UFO/UAP interactions was backed with money by agencies like the CIA, who thought (probably rightly, given the panic over Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of "War of the Worlds") UFO hysteria induced by the Soviets might be used to jam U.S. communications systems in a national emergency. There is something very mysterious happening on this planet, but no one — NO ONE — knows for sure what it is, except the ones doing it!
—Malcolm Brenner via bendsource.com
Just to clarify, the UFO festival was the efforts of the Greater Redmond Historical Society and then chairperson, Kathy Clark, and a group of great community people who shared an interest in UFOs. It was a huge group effort of which I played a small part. Thank you to those who participated...would love to do it again!
- Tracy Thille via bendsource.com
RE: Water conservation during a drought Letters, 4/21
Regarding the topic of lawns and your saying owners of rental properties should reduce water consumption by "stripping those mandates from leases voluntarily," first of all, consider the neighbors where the renter has decided not to water their lawn, and doesn't care that dry weeds grow and their lawn wilts to save on their water bill. The neighbors will definitely resent them. Another aspect to consider is many neighborhoods have Home Owner Associations that have strict rules about maintaining such lawns, and a renter who ignores this adds an unnecessary cost to the homeowner to replace it, risking an eviction notice if the renter fails to follow the HOA rule. A solution would be that the builder of such neighborhoods specify drought-tolerant landscapes in the first place.
—Judy McClean
OR-05 election - up to us!
Do we want to let over a million dollars of PAC money BUY the election in our Congressional District 5?
We have a great candidate in Jamie McLeod-Skinner. She accepts no PAC money, zero. Jamie will represent our best interests in Congress. Her roots are here, and she will vote for the needs of Oregonians. In spite of what all the slick TV ads say, her opponent is no longer in touch with Oregon.
Based on itemized data available from FEC.gov, Jamie's opponent has received over $1,200,000 in PAC donations, and over 90% of his donations are from out of Oregon. Almost all Jamie's donations are from Oregon.
We need someone like Jamie representing us in Congress.
She holds a law degree with a focus on Natural Resources. She's led wildfire recovery efforts, bringing in millions of dollars in aide and emergency housing to Oregon. She will be a leader in addressing climate change.
Jamie is accessible, and she listens. She will always put our priorities first. Her opponent's PAC money donors couldn't care less.
I'm voting for Jamie McLeod-Skinner and hope you will too!
—Katherine Applegate
800 Rose Bowls per Year
Using Google Maps, I estimate that the Rose Bowl stadium and its parking lots, if pushed into a rectangular shape, would cover a half-mile by quarter-mile space. Therefore, two such rectangles would cover a half-mile by half-mile square, and eight of them would cover one square mile.
The area of Bend is 33.32 square miles and Redmond is 16.68 square miles, which combined equals 50 square miles. Since eight Rose Bowl stadiums and their parking lots would cover one square mile, 400 of them would completely cover Bend and Redmond. The modern capacity of the Rose Bowl stadium is 92,542 people. In 2021, the human population of Earth increased by 74,000,000, which equates to 800 Rose Bowl stadiums filled to capacity. It would therefore take only six months to completely cover Bend and Redmond with Rose Bowl stadiums filled by humanity's unremitting population increase!
Environmental attention is focused primarily on climate change, but population increase is the invisible wooly mammoth standing in the room. There is not a single environmental or societal calamity that is not being exacerbated by THE 2.2 SOLD-OUT, STANDING-ROOM-ONLY ROSE BOWLS THAT ARE ADDED TO THE PLANET EVERY FREAKING DAY!
People are smart enough to land spaceships on comets, but not smart enough to control the Homo sapiens pandemic that is ravaging and sickening our biosphere. Alarming announcement from the cockpit: "Ladies and gentlemen, Spaceship Earth is grossly overloaded and we will soon crash. Say goodnight, Age Of Humans."
—Eddie Kinnamon, B.S. Geography, B.A. Biology, M.S. Environmental Health
