Mike Erickson, a Republican running for Congress in Oregon's 5th District over by Portland, is trying to defend himself against charges that a "humanitarian" trip he took to Cuba in 2004 was mostly a partying, sightseeing, cigar-smoking junket.
But He Didn’t Inhale
Posted inNews
Blowin’ in the Wind?
T.A. Barnhart of the BlueOregon blog made the daring voyage over the hill to Bend with The Bus Project last weekend to ring doorbells for state legislative candidate Judy Stiegler, and says he saw signs of encouragement for the Democrats: Tibetan prayer flags.
Posted inNews
Merkley vs. Smith: The Mud Thickens
Republican Sen. Gordon Smith is out with another ad hitting Jeff Merkley for redecorating legislative offices - prompting a counterattack from Merkley accusing the Smith campaign of "hypocrisy" and a counter-counterattack from Smith's side accusing the Merkleyites of "flat-out lying."
Posted inNews
In Paradise, the Puffery Never Stops
Yawn … Bend and Central Oregon are the subject of yet another glossy puff piece, this one in the latest issue of World Golf magazine.
Posted inOpinion
Spillway Remains Deadly
On Saturday evening another person was rescued from drowning in the spillway. He was a floater with an air mattress and ended up in the middle of the river fighting to get away from the spillway.
Posted inNews
Thrown Under the Straight Talk Express?
John McCain has announced his list of honorary co-chairs for his campaign in Oregon and Sen. Gordon Smith isn't on it.
Posted inCulture
Cruise Yourself: Seeing Bend by bike
Big wheels keep on turning. Imagine yourself as a 20-year-old college student without a care in the world, save maybe Nike's working conditions in Indonesia. You've got three months of free time before fall term and only one problem, no money.
In the post sub-prime and post-post dot.com world, what's a student to do? Pumping gas is always an option (this is Oregon after all) but there are some Karma issues and even good old unleaded is feeling the pinch as folks move to carpooling, biking, and, gasp, even walking. Restaurants have been hit hard, too. Rising food price and a downturn in customers have put the pinch on what was once a go-to industry for students.
Long time friends Peter Daucsavage and Spencer Hill started thinking early about how to turn a buck while home from school and came up with a novel idea. Brainstorming over Christmas the pair decided that they would try to cash in on Bend's summer tourism economy by offering cruiser bike tours of downtown Bend and the Old Mill. Operating with a shoestring budget the two, and a third partner Lucas Zettle, launched Bend Bike Tours. For $30 the pair offer a guided tour of the heart of Bend from Drake Park to the Bill Healy Bridge that includes fun "Did You Know" nuggets like Clark Gable once worked at the Brooks-Scanlon Mill and former Bulletin publisher George Palmer Putnam was married to Amelia Earhart.
Posted inOutside
Fight the Bite!: Take sensible precautions against mosquitos
Female mosquito doing her thing… Well, we might as well go right to the Bad News first: Mosquitoes are Bad News for Homo sapiens; they carry and spread all kinds of nasty diseases that make life very difficult for us. The first documented case of a mosquito carrying West Nile Virus for this year was over in Baker City on August 2.
The Good News? Just about every small bird loves to eat them, along with zillions of bats and fish.
The lifecycle of these tiny, pestiferous insects is linked to water – any kind of water – from snow melt to clean flowing creeks or dirty sewage water. Water is so important to mosquitoes they are usually identified by the water they come from.
The life expectancy of a mosquito depends on a lot of things: gender, and environmental temperature, time of year, and humidity. Generally speaking, an adult male mosquito will live for about a week, whereas a female mosquito can live up to a month.
There is one other element in the life cycle of the mosquito that is paramount for survival of the species; the female must have a blood meal in order to generate eggs. The males, bless their little pointy snouts, feed on flowers, as do their partners from time to time.
Posted inOutside
Carbon Fiber versus Carbon Neutral: The meaning of our stuff, action shooting, and hot chicken
Aisles and aisles of stuff at Outdoor RetailerOn Stuff
As outdoor lovers, most of us try to tread lightly on our planet. We Leave No Trace, we join Blue Sky, we ride to work, we recycle. But we also love our gear: our full-suspension mountain bikes with disc brakes, our biomechanically designed running shoes, our lightweight carbon fiber paddles. Cool stuff.
George Carlin, the satirical comedian who passed away in June, had a famous routine on stuff (Google him to find the YouTube video of his five-minute sketch). He made fun of how attached we are to, and possibly bogged down we are by, our possessions.
The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard at storyofstuff.com takes a harder line on manufacturing and the evils of Stuff in our consumption-based socioeconomy.
So, how do we align our environmental ethos with our desire for techy new gear?
Manufacturers in the outdoor industry are faced with an especially ironic challenge. They are in business to build products that enable people to get out and enjoy the great outdoors, but the manufacturing of those products ultimately consumes finite resources.
Posted inCulture
Twenty Candles for Madden’s: It’s couch quarterback season again!
What’s wrong with this picture. It's hard to believe that the Madden Football franchise has turned 20 years old with Madden 09. Back in 1989 the first Madden game was just called John Madden Football from EA Sports. Over the years the Madden games have always dominated sales in video game football. In mid 2005 EA Sports signed an exclusive licensing deal with the NFL for use of players, teams and stadiums that will last through 2012. In acknowledgment of EA/Madden's sheer domination, other franchises like Sega's NFL 2K and the ESPN series have folded. Some companies have tried a different approach with football, but nothing has even touched the Madden football series.
With this year's Madden game there is a bit of old and new. The regular features from past games include a new and improved "franchise mode," Madden moments let you "relive" highlights from the 2007 season. You can also choose plays by formation, as in previous editions. However, in this installment you can also choose the type of plays, so you might want to bone up on those for maximum strategy.
New to the Madden franchise is the Madden IQ test, which starts the game with John Madden himself giving you instructions. Madden puts you through the paces in a cool Tron-like simulation. This is a series of tests that simulate offensive and defensive passing and rushing difficulties to hone your skills.