UPDATE: This post has been modified to reflect fresh information. Initially, reports came in that the Oregonian Media Group had announced layoffs today. That's not the case. A closely affiliated company headquartered in the Oregonian building apparently announced the changes.
A close affiliate of the Oregonian Media Group today announced a new round of layoffs, a source at the company confirms.
The company recently announced it would switch formats. The Oregonian will soon print as a tabloid—the same size and style as the Mercury.
Update, 4:14 pm: A woman who answered the phone in publisher N Christian Anderson III's office says he's in a meeting (which is sometimes code for "not taking calls" and other times code for "in a meeting").
Any announcement doesn't appear to affect the paper's editorial staff. One staffer says the newsroom hasn't heard anything about layoffs.
Update, 4:20 pm: Anderson has responded to an e-mail, and seems to suggest any staff changes aren't technically among Oregonian Oregonian Media Group employees, but with a company Oregon Media Group contracts with: Advance Central Services Oregon (not OMG's parent company, Advance Publications, Inc., as I suggested earlier). Anderson writes, in part: "Ad production staffers do not work for the Oregonian Media Group."
Update, 4:30 pm: Anderson now writes to clarify points. The Oregonian, he notes, does not have employees. It is the Oregonian Media Group.
"Technically, there are no employees of The Oregonian, and Advance Central Services Oregon is a separate company from the Oregonian Media Group. Advance Central Services Oregon provides a variety of services for Oregonian Media Group."
A recent email message to the general manager of Advance Central Services Oregon has not been returned.
Update, 4:42 pm: A bit about Advance Central Services Oregon. Its employees are not technically staffers at the Oregonian Media Group, but the two entities are entwined enough that they share an address, according to ACS Oregon's web site.
ACS Oregon was unveiled last year, as part of a massive shift at the Oregonian. In June, the company announced the formation of the Oregon Media Group, which operates Oregonlive.com and publishes the Oregonian. At the same time, the company introduced another entity, ACS Oregon, which it reported "will serve as a shared-services company that provides human resources, production, circulation, information systems and technology, strategic sourcing and accounting to Oregonian Media Group and other companies."
"Many of our employees will be offered positions with the Oregonian Media Group and many others will be asked to be part of the Advance Central Services Oregon team," Anderson said at the time.
Nearly 100 employees were laid off in that shake up—as many as half of them newsroom staff, Willamette Weekreported.
To get you all excited for Emerald City Comicon, as if you weren’t already, we’re posting our Secret Origins panels from last year’s ECCC. Last week we posted the Ben Templesmith, and today we post the video with… Kelly Sue DeConnick!
Yes, your favorite comic book lady was interviewed bye Blair Butler for our Secret Origins panel series last year, and we’re finally posting the video! So now you can listen to kellysue talk about her start in comics, manga translations, 30 Days of Night, Girl Comics, Captain Marvel, Ghost, Avengers Assemble, Pretty Deadly, and more.
So watch the video! And then get the full Kelly Sue DeConnick experience by attending Carol Corps Celebration, and her panels at Emerald City Comicon.
Equal Marriage Recognition Suits Filed in Louisiana, Missouri Advocate.com Laws in Missouri and Louisiana that prohibit each state from recognizing the legal marriages of same-sex couples performed in other states could soon be a thing of the past, if two recently filed lawsuits are successful. The American Civil Liberties Union filed ...
With two weeks to go before Seth Meyers' "Late Night" premieres on NBC, the new talk show host has revealed his old "Saturday Night Live" colleague Fred Armisen will be joining him as bandleader.
The Old Reader is finally charging for its service, but the rates aren’t competitive with similar/more featureful services, and most users with more than 100 feeds have only two weeks to decide.
This file is what you’ll probably import into another service to get the same list of feeds. If all you use ThOR for is reading feeds, you don’t really have to do anything else.
This isn’t built in. You have to use the undocumented API (in a probably-violating-ToS manner, YMMV, not a lawyer, etc.).
Log OUT of ThOR
Open your browser’s dev tools.
In the dev tools, go to the network tab.
On the ThOR home page, click “Login”.
Sign in, then watch the dev tools window.
View the POST request to http://theoldereader.com/users/sign_in. You’re looking for something like:
authenticity_token=AwHoLeBuNcHoFrAnDoMsTuFf%3D&user%5Bemail%5D=your%40emailaddress.com&user%5Bpassword%5D=P4SSW0RD%G4RB4GE
If you’re on OS X or Linux, go to the command line. If you’re on Windows, get wget first, then open the command line (Start -> type cmd).
Run this:
wget --save-cookies cookies.txt --post-data 'paste that line above from step 6 INSIDE these single quotes' http://theoldreader.com/users/sign_in
A better bash scripter than I may have a much smarter way to deal with this. You should pay that person to write you a better script.
This will crank out HTML of 100 pages of shares and the comments on them. In practice, this should cover about 1 year of an average sharebro (30 items per page, so 3,000 shared items or about 8 shares/day).
I haven’t found a way to get your comments off other people’s shares as there’s no view for that. However, you can swap YourProfileNameHere for any other user’s profile name or profile ID. Go to their profile page and check the URL for their profile ID.
dude bash what, idek, can u just dump for me and print it out an dship it to me
I can try to dump what I can and email it to you. Follow me on ThOR and comment on this share.
You kind of can’t. If you open the pages while you have an internet connection going, it’ll fetch the javascript and css from The Old Reader and look like the old reader. Otherwise, you only see headlines. But the content’s in there–someone may be able to massage that HTML into something readable. Maybe if push comes to shove I’ll end up doing it.
Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch delivered some pearls of wisdom in his interviews. In one of them, he told reporters that he was, “Just about that action , boss” and also stated that if you want something, “You go get it, no need to talk about it.”
If you’re running a startup, this is exactly how you need to be.
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) Enforcement Division agents are looking for leads regarding two whooping cranes that were found shot in Jefferson Davis Parish this morning, Feb. 7.
The whooping cranes were found and recovered near the corner of Compton Road and Radio Tower Road just north of Roanoke about five miles north of Interstate 10. Agents found a shot and killed female whooping crane and a shot and injured male whooping crane.
The Ambassador Award, honoring someone who is helping video games “advance to a better place” through advocacy or action, is going to media critic Anita Sarkeesian, creator of Feminist Frequency, a video series that deconstructs representations of women in game and pop culture narratives.
i suppose you have no choice but to #shredding the world
The flower is perhaps the most widely used motif in the world of jewelry design, but few designers or brands can claim a flower named in their honor. Yves Piaget, scion of the Piaget watch and jewelry company, has been so honored for his lifelong passion for roses, a passion that is reflected in the brand’s Rose jewelry collection.
This 1981 advertisement for Lego sets has been given a renewed life in the reaction to Lego's Friends line, a line of Lego products that remain the only ones marketed expressly at girls, with minifigures that are incompatible with other Lego products. Apparently this mostly passed by Rachel Giordano, the thirty-seven year old naturopathic doctor who was once the little girl featured in the ad. Women You Should Know.net tracked Giordano down to interview her and recreate the photo with a modern Friends set (a news caster van thats interior contains, not broadcasting equipment, but a makeup vanity).
So I decided my new life goal is to become a magical girl viking
Because I love metal. I love metal so much. It’s the music that calms me down the most and I fucking love metal heads. Everything about it is great.
I just also wish I could be super fucking cute while also being a metal head. I mean I do it anyway but imagine if I could do it BETTER. LIKE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS! Be super brutal and badass but also super femme and adorable!!
I want to chug beer and smash it then explode into rainbow sparkles and bows and get a cute little outfit with a little skirt and a fur cloak and take my sparkly weapon and go cut off the head of a dragon and write it’s name on my face in it’s own blood and drink some more and giggle adorably and have a talking pet that instructs me and my comrades about our magical powers. That’s what I want out of my life.
Also I might have to draw more of these and by might I MEAN FUCKING YES
Darren Herman, Mozilla’s VP of content services, said the Directory Tiles will suggest pre-packaged content for first-time users. Some of these tile placements will be from the Mozilla ecosystem, some will be popular websites in a given geographic location and some will be sponsored content from hand-picked partners to help support Mozilla’s pursuit of their mission, he said.
”Now for the million dollar question.” "What’s that?" "Did you break the foot while riding the unicycle?" "No, I didn’t." "OH MAN, I thought I was going to have a great caption." "Well, there is good news." "What’s that?" "I broke it playing Quidditch."
We here at Type G(eek)+ are happy to announce our first official blood drive taking place during one of our favorite times of the year: Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC) in Seattle, WA.
It will be taking place during March 27-30, 2014.
During this time-frame we ask convention attendees and Seattle residents (and even those out of state!) to donate a single unit of blood or blood components and help SAVE THE WORLD!
To reward our mighty superheros we are offering limited edition TG+ buttons to everyone who completes the quest, as well as a raffle ticket with the chance to win some pretty cool stuff - like a photoshoot with the talented Rhianna Howard [Facebook] [Tumblr].
For Seattle Locals and ECCC Attendee Participants:
To be eligible for a limited edition TG+ pin and raffle ticket:
If donating blood in Seattle the blood center for Puget Sound is called PSBC. Their range is from Vancouver, WA to Bellingham, WA.
If donating in Eastern Washington or out-of-state: Find a local blood center and go in and donate! I can help you find one if you need help, just send us a message!
FOR BOTH OPTIONS: You MUST provide a “proof of donation” form signed by a member of the staff with the date. These forms can be obtained by letting the staff at the center know that you need something to prove to your work/church/organization(US!) that you donated blood. That easy!
On SUNDAY, March 30, 2014 we will be meeting at a (TBC) location in Freeway Park alongside the Convention Center at 2pm. During this time we will draw for prizes, share stories and rally around blood donation! Bring your proof of donation at this point!
For Seattle Locals and ECCC Attendees that CANNOT DONATE BLOOD for ANY REASON:
As a person that cannot donate blood due to being a research participant I want to keep this open to EVERYONE! While wandering around the convention my partner-in-crime and I will be taking donations for limited edition TG+ buttons and raffle tickets. These donations will allow you to eligible to participate in the raffle and will allow Type G(eek)+ to continue to operate and spread the joy of giving up a bit of your life-force to help others!
Extra raffle tickets will be available at the park event so join us then for more fun!
For Out of State/International Participants:
Take a picture of yourself with your bandage/wrap or while donating blood with a sign that says you are saving lives with your GEEK POWER! and tag it with #typegeekpositive (Be Creative! We’ll have a vote for the best sign and send you a little prize!)
In April we will randomly select one of the submissions and you will be sent an $50 online giftcard from your favorite online store! You’ll have to keep your askbox open at this time.
If you are interested in offering a donated item to the raffle please contact me at: typegeekpositive@yahoo.com.
"You have people that can be more outgoing, more open-minded. You have people that are a little more close-minded," Vilma said (via Nola.com). "Some people grew up with or without the acceptance of gays within their families. You have a lot of different elements within the locker room that you just don't see right now. Me being on the inside for 10 years, inside the locker room, I've been around that.
"And it's not to say that the locker rooms are bad, it's to say that there are going to be people that accept it willingly as soon as he comes in, welcome him with open arms, and then unfortunately, there will be some, I'm about 99 percent sure the minority, will say, well, they're not comfortable with that yet, they don't know how to respond to that. That's just what's going to happen in the first whatever, the first year, two years. When have more players like Michael Sam coming out and saying that they're gay, the transition will be a lot smoother."
'“You all know something that we don’t know about? What’s wrong with the produce we get in the supermarket?” said James Martin, 58, a neighborhood resident for 44 years.'
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Jasper Stapleton shops at the Bushwick Food Co-op. Cultural barriers and resentment over the gentrification co-ops have come to represent have endangered their spread. Michael Nagle for The New York Times
A group of local teenagers was abuzz over the price of a single candy bar at the new Bushwick Food Co-op: $3.10, plus tax.
Why so much, they asked, when a candy bar costs a dollar or less at the neighborhood bodega?
But this was no bodega candy: It was equal-exchange, fair-trade chocolate, sold alongside milk from grass-fed cows, pasture-raised chicken and produce from the Finger Lakes region.
Besides, explained the co-op’s general manager, Amanda Pitts, the bodega’s chocolate was produced using child and slave labor. “You can pay a little bit more, you can get a really high-quality bar and know that you’re not supporting slave-trading,” she said.
Intrigued, a few of the students, who had been sent to tour the co-op by a Hispanic community nonprofit group in order to learn more about its workings, bought a bar to split on their way out of the building, which also houses lofts, an espresso bar and a crafts shop — a reflection of the forces that have propelled rents skyward in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and squeezed out the predominantly Hispanic population.
Food Co-ops in Transitional Areas
Largest racial or ethnic group
By census block
AREA OF
DETAIL
White
Black
Hispanic
Asian
BROOKLYN
EAST WILLIAMSBURG
Bushwick Food Co-op
BUSHWICK
The Bushwick Food Co-op is located in an area in which whites have been rapidly moving into Hispanic neighborhoods.
BROOKLYN
Source: U.S. Census
Conversations like this one are unfolding here in this borough; West Oakland, Calif.; Detroit; and gentrifying urban neighborhoods around the country, places where a wave of new food cooperatives is spreading the gospel of locally grown vegetables and ethically sourced coffee in what were once low-income areas. Their organizers talk of unifying communities around shared labor and bringing fresh, healthy and affordable options to people who have long gone without. But cultural insularity and the danger of resentment over the gentrification the co-ops represent can make that message a hard sell.
At stake are issues championed by advocates who include Michelle Obama, who has campaigned to combat obesity by eliminating so-called food deserts: poor, often minority-dominated urban neighborhoods without access to healthful food. In New York, the Bloomberg administration pushed supermarkets, greenmarkets and fruit-and-vegetable carts to colonize the underserved parts of the city, with mixed results.
“Food is the best, the clearest manifestation of ‘a tale of two cities,’ ” said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, contrasting brownstone Brooklyn, with its farm-to-table restaurants and of-the-moment cafes, with the borough’s eastern and central areas, where many can barely afford to eat.
Co-ops can help bridge the gap, advocates maintain. Since they are owned and run by members, labor costs and prices are usually lower than at supermarkets or convenience stores.
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The Bushwick Food Co-op offers low-cost membership for those on public assistance. Ten percent of its nearly 200 members are on the discount plan. Michael Nagle for The New York Times
It is not easy, however, to persuade people who may not have heard of co-ops, or who regard them with outright hostility, to shop in one. Besides carrying unfamiliar products, many co-ops require shoppers to pay a fee and work at the store for a few hours a month, to become owner-members, and qualify for discounted prices.
Making food available and affordable is not enough to attract some customers, Mr. Berg cautioned. “You’ve really got to put yourselves in the shoes of a single mother who’s coming home from her job on the bus,” he said. “Cultural compatibility is important, and whether you feel you belong to a place.”
A lack of customers has doomed several co-ops in working-class neighborhoods in recent years, including ones in the South Bronx and East New York, Brooklyn.
There are more than 120 efforts underway across the country to start co-ops, said Stuart Reid, the director of the Food Co-op Initiative, a nonprofit organization.
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The Greene Hill Co-op offers flexible working hours and a discounted membership fee for those on public assistance, yet only 78 of its 1,309 members are on the discounted plan. Michael Nagle for The New York Times
A group of activists in Detroit is setting up a co-op in the North End, a neighborhood long in decline that is now becoming younger and more diverse. The group, the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, has traded on relationships with community leaders and good will from its previous projects to promote the co-op to the largely black population, said Malik Yakini, the executive director.
Mr. Yakini tells residents that African-Americans have a long history of responding to their exclusion from conventional economic channels by organizing agricultural co-ops.
“We can situate it within our historical continuum,” he said. “This is not just people moving into the neighborhood and hanging a shingle.”
The store will offer a mix of familiar and local, organic products to ease shoppers in, he said, with the understanding that people accustomed to Big Macs may not be quick to embrace kale. Members will not have to work at the store; nonmembers can shop there.
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At the Greene Hill Food Co-op, members are required to work for a few hours every month. Michael Nagle for The New York Times
In New York, co-ops often imitate the large and liberal Park Slope Food Co-op, which requires its members to work a few hours a month and is not open to nonmembers. The two-year-old Greene Hill Food Co-op, which sits between Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, has adopted a similar policy, a restriction that D. K. Holland, one of its founders, said unified the community by placing all members “on a level playing field.”
With its lower labor costs, the store marks up wholesale prices by 25 percent or 28 percent, depending on the type of product, much less than chain stores. Low prices attract shoppers of all incomes, she said.
“Why would we ever do it not to be inclusive?” she said.
Greene Hill offers flexible working hours and responsibilities and a discounted membership fee ($30, from $175) for those on public assistance, who can shop using food stamps. Yet only 78 of its 1,309 members are on the discounted plan.
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Lauren Lefty weighs apples at the Bushwick Food Co-op. Michael Nagle for The New York Times
Several residents spoke of feeling alienated by the need to become a member to shop, by the seemingly rarefied products or the feeling that they were simply out of place.
“You all know something that we don’t know about? What’s wrong with the produce we get in the supermarket?” said James Martin, 58, a neighborhood resident for 44 years.
Debra Ford, who has lived across the street for most of her 50 years, said she knew only one co-op member, a young white neighbor. “Everybody shouldn’t have to join to go in,” she said. Not everybody has the money to join, and not everybody eats organic, she said.
The West Oakland residents who opened Mandela Foods Cooperative in 2009 say they confront similar attitudes daily. Accusing the co-op of accelerating gentrification is “like someone saying they don’t believe that healthy food is for them,” said James Bell, one of the worker-owners. Once a byword for Bay Area blight, their neighborhood brims with white professionals drawn to its affordable Victorians and proximity to San Francisco.
Mandela sits two doors down from a 99-cent store selling basic groceries, and across the street from a stop where the Google shuttle whisks tech professionals away to work. Though the co-op’s worker-owners are black, which might encourage some residents to overcome their skepticism, black shoppers often peer dubiously at its shelves and then head for the 99-cent store.
To attract its Hispanic neighbors, the Bushwick co-op is translating its signs into Spanish; it offers a low-cost membership for those on public assistance and holds outreach events with local groups. Ten percent of its nearly 200 members are on the discounted plan.
Bushwick has evolved apace: The nearby supermarkets carry some organic produce, and new natural foods stores have popped up.
“I think the co-op is doing less for gentrification than some of the other stores are, just because we do have the community in mind, we do have the low prices in mind, and we want people to be able to get good food at good prices,” said Ms. Pitts, the Bushwick co-op general manager. “But, of course, having the amenities means people want to move to the area.”
Ms. Pitts herself has been priced out of neighborhood; she now lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
My foster sister who is now in her early 20s lives in the Portland area, is a single mother, and has 2 very young children. She has had a very difficult life, has admittedly made some poor decisions, and is now suffering the consequences. I love her very much and have watched her mature quickly, and see that now she is trying very hard to be a high-functioning, responsible adult and good parent to her kids.
She has come a really long way but is still struggling to convince the societal structure that she is more than just a bad record--this is unfortunately a very common pattern for people who were raised the way she was and while no one is absolving her of responsibility, it makes it even more difficult to overcome.
I live in California and I know of a lot of great organizations out here that are aware of these types of situations and help a lot of disadvantaged families through grants, loans, educational classes, therapy, and transitional housing. I've been looking online for similar organizations in Portland and while I've found a few worth calling, I was hoping maybe someone in the area could recommend a place or group that may be able to help someone in need who both deserves it and is willing to work hard to earn it.
