firehose

Sometimes when I put up a new post on this site, it’s because I have what I think is a good idea and I want to say, “Hey world, here’s an idea I came up with and I’d like to share it with you.” Other times I put up a new post because I want to say, “Hey, quit emailing me and asking me how to do this.”

So, like a million years ago I put up a couple of blog posts on this site, one about making your own ginger beer, and one about bottled carbonated cocktails, both which require some pretty tricky methods for making bubbles: one that called for using ever-unpredictable yeast, and one using a device that was recalled shortly after my post for exploding. Oops.

So about once a week I get an email from someone asking me how to do one of several things:

1. Carbonate cocktails in a way that won’t result in exploding equipment.
2. Carbonate ginger beer or other mixers without resorting to yeast.
3. Carbonate cocktails for draft delivery.

So here are the two systems that can do all of those things. Here we go.

Thanks to the fine folks at my local homebrew shop, I was able to put together a kit that takes less than five minutes to assemble, cost me around a hundred and fifty bucks to build, and costs next to nothing to operate. A bit cheaper than a top-of-the-line SodaStream, but with a lot more versatility (you can carbonate more than just water with mine) and a hell of a lot cheaper to operate long-term. Here’s what you need:

A Regulator

You need a regulator in order to do this. What a regulator does is maintain an exact pressure coming from your CO2 tank. If you’re not using a regulator, you’re dumping the contents of your CO₂ tank into your container, and your container can explode. Don’t ever think of hooking a CO₂ tank up to anything without a regulator, okay? They cost about $60 bucks and you can buy one here.

A Carbonator Cap

This is about the coolest thing ever. It’s a device that screws on to any two-liter bottle and allows you to carbonate whatever’s inside that bottle. I have this system at home and use it primarily for soda water (I’m a nut for bubbles) and sometimes sparkling lemonade, but you can also use this to carbonate cocktails. It’s especially handy for making bigger batches of bottled cocktails, and sometimes in the summer I’ll make a case of Americanos for backyard parties. Anyway, it’s part of the system I’m describing, so you need to pick one up here.

Carbon Dioxide

There’s one good way to get carbon dioxide (CO₂) into a beverage, and that’s by using a tank of the stuff. It’s cheap, it’s plentiful, and it’s real easy to find. I’m not going to tell you to buy it online, though if you want an empty tank that you can have refilled cheaply at a homebrew shop any commercial gas place, pick it up here for around $50 bucks. Otherwise, hit up your gas dealer or homebrew shop.

Putting It All Together

Getting the tank connected to the Carbonator Cap is easy, you just need a few small things. First off, get yourself a Quick Disconnect to attach to the Carbonator Cap. This allows you to take the hose on and off the bottle with ease. They’re like ten bucks and you can get one here.

Next, you’ll need some hose and a couple of hose clamps to secure either end to your equipment. I use about five feet of hose for flexibility, and I found one online that actually comes with two hose clamps, which will save you a trip to the hardware store.

Now all you need to do is connect one end of that hose to the quick disconnect, and the other to the hose barb. Use those hose clamps to get it good and secure on either end, and then screw the regulator to the CO₂ tank. Open up the tank, flip that valve on the regulator so that it’s parallel to the hose, and crank your PSI up to 35.

Time for Bubbles!

Get your empty two-liter bottle and fill it with the beverage you want to carbonate. The most important thing here is that your liquid is as cold as possible, because carbon dioxide is much more soluble in cold water than in warm. So chill your drink overnight in the fridge if you need to.

Once that puppy is cold, screw on the Carbonator Cap, connect the quick disconnect to the cap, and make sure everything is on there good and tight. Now, while the tank is connected, you’ve got to shake the shit out of your bottle. Shaking will increase the surface area between the gas and the liquid, which is where the transfer of CO₂ happens. Shake it hard until you can’t feel or hear any more gas being delivered to the bottle. This usually takes between thirty seconds and a minute.

Disconnect the Quick Disconnect valve and you’re done. If you’re only carbonating water, then you can unscrew the Carbonator Cap and you’re ready to go. If you have anything with sugar in there (and yes, booze and fruit juice all have sugar in them) then you’ll want to unscrew that cap really slowly so that it doesn’t fizz up all over your counter.

And that’s it! Now you can pour it out into glasses, or fill some bottles and cap them if that’s the route you want to take. For reference, here’s your shopping list.

1. CO₂ tank: $68.40, $15 to refill.
2. Tap-Rite Regulator: $58.99
3. 5 feet of hose and two hose clamps: $5.24
4. Ball Valve Quick Disconnect: $9.99
5. Carbonator Cap: $12.65
6. Empty two liter bottle: $0.05

Total cost: $155.32

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Draft Cocktails

Now, if you really need to serve cocktails on tap, then this system isn’t going to work. For that you’ll need what’s referred to as a “Cornelius Keg”, which is a five-gallon keg typically used for soda. They’re great for this because they have a nice wide opening that makes them a cinch to clean.

I had a whole thing written where I went through the individual parts for you, and then I realized you can just buy a complete system online. It’s around $200 and includes everything you would need to serve cocktails or soda on tap (I do own this system as well). Now, if you’re hoping to connect this to your draft faucets in a professional bar you’ll need some additional connections, but if you’re at that level I’m going to assume you know how to navigate the back-end of your system and get the right connections from the homebrew shop.

Once you’ve got that all assembled, then the method is the same: mix up your drink, get it very well chilled, shake the hell out of it until there’s no more gas running into the container, and you’re almost ready. The one difference with the keg system is that once you’ve reached your full 25 or so PSI of carbonation, you’ve got to turn down the pressure coming from the regulator to about 8 PSI, otherwise you’ll be firing foam all over the place (that’s what she said). You can do this by pulling the ring on the top of the keg to release pressure while turning the regulator knob counter-clockwise until you’ve landed somewhere around 8 PSI.

That’s it! I hope this helps those of you looking to add some bubble to your beverages. I’m starting my 2014 (and my eleventh year of writing this blog!) by helping myself to a nice, cold glass of sparkling water. Cheers, you guys.

Post from: Jeffrey Morgenthaler. Follow me on Twitter.

How to Build Your Own Carbonation Rig

Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by a new movie coming out that week. This week: To celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another, we look back on films about new starts in life.

Ikiru (1952)

Akira Kurosawa may be best remembered for his samurai and Shakespearean epics, but the legendary Japanese director never made a film more assured and affecting than Ikiru, his 1952 tale of a Tokyo bureaucrat struggling to confront his own mortality and the legacy he will leave behind. Diagnosed with fatal cancer, Watanabe (the magnificent Takashi Shimura) searches for something that will give his previously meaningless life some purpose—a quest that is stymied by relatives who care little about him (save for the inheritance they will eventually receive), but aided by his relationship with a younger, enthusiastic coworker. In her, Watanabe sees a life beyond the stacks of paper that routinely crowd ...

How 1939 saw fashion in Y2K.

fyeahswords:

The Snartemo sword, a Vendel era spatha found in Norway

A different kind of "Palindrone" emerges, thanks to Arctic reconnaissance and oil spill cleanups.

There was a time when being willing to eat anything got people a career at a carnival. And then there was a time when being willing to eat anything got a very special person a career in science. Fortunately, both those times are over.

Read more...

by Mick

A pair of eggs cooking in a frying pan appears to be saying “lblblblbl” in this funny video by Matthew Black. Previously we posted about a talking boat.

via reddit, Daily Picks and Flicks

Dutch newspaper Volkskrant (link in Dutch) took a clever comedic swing at French president Francois Hollande this week. In a collage published on Dec. 31, Hollande is seen standing awkwardly, hand outstretched, on nine separate occasions.

The compilation, which looks back on the French president’s year in botched handshakes with other world leaders, was meant to suggest that Hollande’s popularity problems extend well outside of his home country, where the French leader’s approval rating has dipped to near-historic lows. A poll this fall found that only 15% of respondents in the country backed Hollande.

Pooled together, the photos paint a pretty ungraceful picture of France’s head honcho:

The collage has been firing through Twitter since it was published, but French media haven’t all taken kindly to the clip. According to Le Huffington Post, (link in French) for instance, many of the photos included in the “cheap” compilation were simply taken just before Hollande successfully shook hands. A fair point, but one that doesn’t exactly detract from the humor. After all, just because the handshakes eventually happened doesn’t necessarily make the getting there appear any less awkward.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

The gunmaker Mossberg has teamed with Duck Commander, the company owned by "Duck Dynasty"'s Robertson clan, to release nine different shotguns, as well as two semiautomatic rifles and a semiautomatic pistol.

The lightweight Nginx web-server alternative to Apache is being promoted to the main archive for the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS release...

OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy

:\

(Further to the sexual harassment at science conferences/conventions/blogosphere issue)

(Via my friend M.)

(@hanner)

I went to Belgrade in October, but did not yet have time to write much about it.

Also in October I moved my blog from its spot at Scientific American back to its home here. For the three years that I was there – the best job with the best colleagues in the best magazine ever – I (as an author on several blogs there) accumulated 1,803,619 visits and 2,214,082 pageviews, which placed me at the all-time #2 spot right behind Katie Harmon (this probably still holds and will take a while for someone else to displace the two of us from the top two spots). If one looks at just my own, somewhat neglected A Blog Around The Clock, it collected 534,460 visits and 640,916 pageviews while it was on their site, if you want to do some mental calculation and add that to the Sitemeter numbers visible here on the sidebar.

After two and a half months of hiatus, I will continue blogging here. What about? I don’t know, I’ll have to play by ear and see how it develops and where it goes. I expect to write about science, about media, and more. Personal stories? Perhaps. We’ll see. I recently had plenty of time to be offline and read actual, physical books, so I may write some book reviews. Hang in there, and let’s see in which new direction this blog goes over the next year. And thank you all for reading my stuff over the years – I promise, there will be more, and I hope it will get better.

Until then, though, make sure to read this beautiful post by Anton Zuiker, a perfect start for the new year – Roots and bitters: What to do when a friend hands you gentian.

Addendum

I can see now that my first blog post was too tentative and not satisfactory. All I hoped to do is get back online today and delve into the issues slowly over time. I did not expect anyone would want to prolong a discussion that has been painful for all of us. But I certainly did not think it was resolved or would be resolved quickly.

Let me be clear: In no way did I mean to deny or downplay or pretend the events didn’t happen. Absolutely not. I accept full responsibility. I was wrong. I am sorry. My public apologies of October 15th and October 15th again and October 16th still stand. My new tweets and posts do not erase or diminish or retract those in any way. Likewise for the apologies issued much more appropriately – privately to the harmed parties.

I didn’t think I needed to offer a new public apology in my first post – I was wrong about that. So, I apologize, this time to the community at large.

More importantly, Anton’s post in no way asks for forgetting or forgiving – neither is up to him or myself to ask, and he is very clear about it in his closing paragraphs. Only the women affected by my actions can decide what they want to do, and what, where, when and how they want to ask me to do.

I had plenty of time to think and I am still learning. I am in therapy and am dealing with all these issues – I was hoping to write about all of this later, slowly, in more detail, not yet today.

I am more than willing and happy to do whatever the women I harmed ask me to do. I don’t know whether it is appropriate for me to do this all in public, though. I have to pay attention to the actual needs and wants of people I harmed, rather than the popular public opinion. I have been shy and embarrassed and tentative and scared about it, but I hope to be able to, via mediators, get in touch with them in a manner safe for them if they want to ask me for additional explanations, apologies or actions.

Because of my actions, I lost my job but I hope to resume and rebuild my career. I am not seeking sympathy. I accept the price I paid and, as you all probably know, I resigned voluntarily from Scientific American (in the morning of October 14th, although it was publicly announced in the afternoon of October 18th), as well as from all the other advisory and editorial boards and such. I will try to now restart my career from scratch.

I am very grateful to my wife for supporting me through these difficult times. After all, I harmed her as much as anyone.

I am also thankful to Anton Zuiker for being a rare kind of true friend, someone who could tell me how I screwed up, and then tell me how to pick myself up and move on.

I hope to repair some of the friendships I damaged, however long it takes. I am angry only at myself and will gladly accept the hand of any friend who may wish to extend it, whenever that may be.

I know that not all questions have been resolved to the satisfaction of the community. Thus, I will explore the events – and the lessons I learned from them – in future posts.

I understand I harmed not just individuals, but also the community. I want your feedback as well – what kinds of changes do you expect to see from me, how can I make amends, what kind of actions will persuade you I’ve changed for real, what kind of changes you’d require to let me back into your circle of people you trust? You can contact me publicly or privately. I am listening.

Original Source

Three Pieces.

David Bowie.

One of our favorite cocktails in one of our favorite glasses. (But Back Down South has much better photography and citrus flaming skills!)

The Drink: There is no need to adjust this “cousin” of a Negroni. This delicious classic first appeared in Harry McElhone’s 1927 bar guide, Barflies and Cocktails, and it’s one of Caroline’s favorite cocktails of all time.

1.5 oz rye whiskey – we used Old Overholt
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth – we used Dolin Rouge

Put all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir well.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Zest with orange peel, or flame orange peel, to release the oils.

The Glass: From The Boston Shaker.

via Drink This Takeover | Boulvardier.

Apparently, the South Korean government has decided that kimchi 김치 should no longer be referred to just as pàocài 泡菜 ("pickled vegetables") in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, but should have its own name to distinguish it from other types of pickled vegetables.  (There's a November 17 news article about it here.)

The Koreans are very proud of kimchi, and it may be referred to as the Korean national dish.  Kimjang, the tradition of making and sharing kimchi that usually is done in winter, has recently been added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.

My brother Thomas, who served in the Marines during the Vietnam War and fought alongside Korean soldiers, told me he was amazed that, when the Koreans opened their K-rations, there was kimchee inside.  Thus it is obvious that kimchee is extremely important to the Koreans, and it is indeed different from Chinese fermented vegetables.  But, if it's no longer to be referred to as pàocài 泡菜 ("pickled vegetables") in Chinese, what to call it?

Usually the Chinese refer to foreign things however they jolly well please.  Niǔyuē 紐約 (lit., "button; knob; handle; wrench; turn" + "approximately; agreement; appointment", etc.) in Mandarin neither sounds like "New York" (it sounds much closer in Cantonese) nor does it mean what that name does, but that doesn't stop Chinese from calling the Big Apple that way.  It is interesting, however, that lately the South Koreans have been winning some battles with the Chinese over how to refer to things that mean a lot to them, even when the Chinese aren't very happy about making the requested (demanded) changes.

One of the biggest victories was getting the Chinese to accept Shǒu'ěr 首爾 as the Chinese way to refer to Seoul instead of Hànchéng 漢城 ("Han City").  Naturally, calling their capital "Han City" rankled, since "Han" is the name of the main Chinese ethnic group.  In contrast, Shǒu'ěr 首爾 both sounds like "Seoul" and has a felicitous, appropriate meaning (viz., "head [shǒudū 首都 means "capital"]) + "thus; so").

For kimchee, the Koreans have decided that the new Chinese name is going to be xīnqí 辛奇.  The Chinese are not accustomed to this and some people have complained that it doesn't make sense to them, since xīn 辛 is usually construed as meaning ("bitter; suffering; laborious") and qí 奇 (means "strange; odd; queer; rare").  As for the sound, although the qí 奇 part is close enough to the second syllable of "kimchee", the initial of the xīn 辛 part is pronounced as x-, s-, or z- in most Sinitic topolects that I know of.

Furthermore, it would seem that the word kimchee is derived from the pre-modern term chimchae 沉菜 (lit., "soaked vegetables"), so there is a ready-made, etymologically exact Sinographic written form available for use.  {If I'm wrong about this derivation, I hope that a Korean specialist will correct me.)  But perhaps the Koreans do not want the Chinese to be thinking of their national dish as "soaked / submerged vegetables")

Upon reflection, however, xīnqí 辛奇 may not be such a bad choice after all, since xīn 辛 is often used to describe the spicy/sour flavor of foods like kimchee.  For example, it may be seen on packages for Korean instant noodles.  Moreover, qí 奇 may be thought of  not merely as "strange; odd", etc., but also as "wonderful; marvelous; mysterious".  So maybe the person(s) who came up with xīnqí 辛奇 wanted to convey the idea that kimchee is spicy / sour and mystical, which is not far from how I think of this fantastic side dish.

[Thanks to Joyce H. Wu]

by Rick Zabel

My wife and I were living in Santiago, Chile when most of the work was done and communicated by email and Skype to get our influence into the design. This is a 1948 Spartan Manor that was pretty much just a shell when we purchased it.

During the restoration we even incorporated some old furniture that we had to be built into the cabinetry. The interior is completely new, and we requested a design that would allow us to dry camp for a week at a time. We have solar charged batteries, holding tanks and very modern conveniences.

The Flyte Camp crew was great to deal with and they do fantastic work. See all the photos here.

This renovation was filmed for Extreme RVs on the Travel Channel, although I admit that I haven’t seen the show yet. Kent found it so check it out below.

Looking for your own vintage trailer follow Kent’s Facebook fan page
https://www.facebook.com/VintageTrailersForSale

westerninfluence:

glassescat:

OK SO I WAS AT THE FABRIC STORE AND I WALKED BY SOME MEMORIAL DAY THEMED FABRIC AND 

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS

WHY ARE THE ABS SO DETAILED AND NOT THE FACE WHAT

OMFG LINCOLN LOOKS LIKE EDWARD CULLEN WITH A BEARD I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS SHIT

I HAVE A DRESS MADE OUT OF THIS FABRIC AND I GOT TO BE IN A PARADE BECAUSE OF IT

In 1908, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his British Polar Expedition made publication history: they created the first book ever produced on the continent of Antarctica.

Produced “at the Sign of the Penguins” while the team overwintered at Cape Royds before attempting the South Pole, Aurora Australis consists of about one hundred and twenty unnumbered loose sheets laced in wooden covers and bound in seal skin.

Its ten pieces of writing make up a serious anthology with surprising literary merit. There is a poem by Shackleton, attributed to Nemo in the table of contents and to Veritas at the end of the text (this poem is also signed “Veritas” in some copies).

Petty officer Frank Wild, under the pseudonym Wand Erer, wrote an essay in the style of the King James Bible.

And there is a fanciful short story by geologist Douglas Mawson, “Bathybia,” proposing that the South Pole, still unseen in 1908, might in fact be a deep crater filled with giant insects and luxuriant plant life, including a forest of toadstools into which an unsuspecting polar explorer might tumble.

Immediately before the expedition set sail in 1907, Wild and another petty officer, Ernest Joyce, took a crash course in typesetting and letterpress printing. A traditional seven-year apprenticeship was compressed into three weeks’ intense training by the renowned London firm of Sir Joseph Causton and Sons Ltd., who equipped Shackleton with a miniature printing plant: two presses (a 10′ x 7′ Albion and a small etching press, labelled “printing machine” and “printing press” in the hut plan below), high-quality handmade paper with handsome deckle edges and a generous supply of ink.

The ingenuity of Aurora Australis is apparent in Shackleton’s clever scheme to furnish the book with covers by repurposing the crates in which the team’s perishables had been imported from Europe and New Zealand.

Aurora Australis is richly illustrated with etchings and watercolors by the expedition’s official artist, George “Putty” Marston. These depict daily life in close quarters as well as the natural wonders of the antarctic landscape.

Marston’s style is spare and somewhat workmanlike. When he used color he did so flamboyantly, as in this frontispiece showing the southern lights of the book’s title.

Marston also created the book’s design. It is a pleasure to read and features suitably vast expanses of blank white space.

In The Heart of the Antarctic, Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909, Shackleton tells of two purposes behind Aurora Australis: to create a unique record of the moments before his first ascent of the South Pole plateau (this mission was not quite achieved, in part because the expedition had insufficient food and no skis), and as one of many cultural activities intended to keep the men occupied for four long, cold, dark months.

From Shackleton’s description, the print shop in the hut at Cape Royds sounds like a constant source of fascination and frustration: Joyce and Wild were inexperienced, the ink froze, the plates were sensitive to the salt in the water and of course the hut was very cramped and dark.

Those overwintering in Antarctica today must still labor to fend off “polar ennui.” The U.S. Antarctic Program Participant Guide, 2013-2014 promises “radio programming from volunteer DJs, a library, clubs, climbing wall, gymnasium, weight room, aerobics room, art shows, chili cook-offs, running races, yoga classes, dances, league play, lessons, lectures, etc.”

Copies of Aurora Australis are not numbered. It is believed that no more than a hundred were manufactured, possibly intended for sale but in the end distributed as gifts to the expedition’s friends and financial supporters. There was no institutional or governmental support for the British Polar Expedition; Shackleton was entirely reliant on private loans and gifts and returned to England with heavy debts.

The seventy or so copies whose present whereabouts are known can be identified by the words stencilled on their boards, as the packing crates could be cut, cleaned and polished but were indelibly stamped with their original labels: there are Petit Pois, Stewed Kidneys and Chocolate copies, for example.

Houghton’s Aurora Australis is stencilled “[J & T B]AYLEY Ltd [Exp]ORT [Pac]KERS [Lon]DON E C” on the inside front board, and “[Brit]ISH [Antar]CTIC [Exped]ITION [19]07 on the inside back board. It was a gift of Donald McKay Frost (1877-1958), a Back Bay attorney and noted book collector with a strong interest in the history and settlement of western America. The Houghton collections also contain a copy of the Julienne Soup facsimile.

[Thanks to Christina Linklater, Project Music Cataloger, for contributing this post.]

They're back! We've got a new mayor—but the same old bizarre voicemails! by Denis C. Theriault and Dirk VanderHart

THIS ALL STARTED a few years ago, when we realized that people call the mayor's office with complaints all the goddamned time—and some poor volunteer has to type up almost everything they say. Since then, we've run a select batch of transcripts pretty much on the regular. They're funny. And very occasionally thought-provoking.

We thought maybe it was Sam Adams, our last mayor, who brought out some of the more interesting commentary. We were wrong. Eleven months of voicemails sent to Mayor Charlie Hales' public line are just as passionate, strange, and—more often than not—vile.

Keep it up Portlanders! Way to be heard! Or not.

---

January 2, 2013, unidentified male: This is not a very provocative question, but we need to build more outhouses in Portland. We need to build them out of brick and stone like they did in the Spanish-American War days. More lavatories!

January 11, Wendy: I'm concerned about the structure on the east side of the Hawthorne Bridge. I'm wondering who subsidized it and so on and so forth; and also the wooden art that's in the grassy area by the Burnside Bridge. It's very interesting art. To me it's not very attractive. But, I'm wondering why the Eastside gets all this kind of art and the Westside gets the really more artsy arts.

January 15, Kevin: I heard Mr. Hales had a press conference this morning that he was ill-prepared for. Also, he claims that the AR-15-style rifles aren't used for hunting and they have no use but to kill mass amounts of people. That's all hogwash! If the Federales come to try to take my gun, you'll see another use for it!

January 23, Jennifer: So, I guess we're kicking off the year with earned sick days for working Portlanders. As far as the working poor goes, we don't always get a fair shake. Sometimes we're sick and we have to go into work and get other people sick. We shouldn't have to live in the Dark Ages.

January 28, unidentified female: I'm calling about the new garbage collection that Sam Adams put in. I live in a very nice neighborhood, and I have garbage out in the street. I don't know why, but all of the cans around here are just packed full! It's NOT sanitary!

January 31, unidentified male: I'm one of those people that voted for Charlie; but I'm kind of getting nervous watching what looks like a full-on assault on the kids. I just read today that now we're going to get rid of the [TriMet] YouthPass—after we just got rid of all these after-work youth programs. I'm just wondering what's going on, man.

February 4, unidentified male: I heard that you thought that those of us who live in the suburbs are interested in what you have to say or do. We don't. You're delusional if you think we care what you think, Charlie. You're a has-been; you live in a shithole city with the worst schools in the state. Just keep it to yourself.

February 11, unidentified male: I am a visitor to your town, and I will never, ever return! I got a parking meter ticket that I was two minutes late to get to, and it cost me $39! That is absurd! Secondly, when I was going across the bridge, your little bicyclists you got running all over the place came flying down between the parked car and my car, putting about a $400 scratch in my car, and when I hollered at them for what they did, they gave me the finger! Lovely place to visit.

February 22, unidentified female: If you're serious about saving money you need to delay this sequoia cutting in Pier Park—now! It is not the optimal route; it's not the short route; it's not the logical route; it is, however, the way more expensive route, okay? Please CALL ME BACK, FOR GOD'S SAKE!! Thank you.

March 2, unidentified female: I'm calling in reference to all these people who are getting killed on the road. We need to enforce the jaywalking law again, because I know when I've been out there, so many people have dashed in front of my car; and a lot of them are the foreign people.

March 5, unidentified female: We need sidewalks and curbs on SE 136th Avenue and also Foster Road. I hope Mayor Hales will get off his duff and do something about it. Portland does not end in the Pearl and Lloyd District and downtown.

March 11, unidentified female: I have kind of a wild idea for birds, you know—parrots? You know, they're very smart and people put them in little cages, and then I suppose they go crazy. But, if you could take a tennis court and make it secure, then people could bring their parrots and let them fly around, and the parrots would be very happy.

April 12, Larry: My lovely wife and I, who have been here 48 years, are pinned against the wall. We do not have the money for this [arts] tax. We love kids. We love the music. But the bottom line is we're up against the wall. We do not have the money.

April 12, unidentified female: You know that statue that [former Mayor Vera] Katz put on the Portland Building? Why she did that is a mystery to me. The only people who get to see it are the people in the building across the street. I think you should move it to the Burnside Bridge—on the ground, of course—and put it on top of a very big pedestal.

May 7, unidentified male: NW Johnson and I-405—under the bridge! Get off your asses and take care of the fucking homeless camp under there!! I'm getting tired of driving by there every day and seeing these fuckin' homeless camps underneath the bridge next to where I live.

May 8, Lynn: I just do not understand the rush about the reservoirs. It just seems like SUCH a waste of time and money.

May 10, Ann: Yes, subject: It's wild onions—and they're quite dense on my street. They're spreading everywhere. I'd like the mayor to pass a regulation.

May 13, Lynn: This austerity thing makes you look like Republicans, and it doesn't do any good for the budget. Raise some money through wealthy people.

May 17, unidentified female: It just makes my blood boil every time I see dollars wasted on crap in the street. A wonderful example is NE Multnomah and the Rose Quarter. Everybody agrees that a deranged mind re-did that. I just about lose my mind every time I go up and down it.

May 29, Charles: Considering Portland's like of bacon doughnuts, bacon ice cream, and bacon in coffee, I think we should put some Lipitor in the water, because everybody's going to have cardiac arrests pretty soon. Maybe we could put bacon straight in the water. Everybody likes bacon. So, I'm goin' to go get some bacon.

June 3, Luther: This is Luther. I smoke cigarettes, Charlie. You've got a beautiful city here. You're going to have a beautiful Rose Festival.

June 16, Rosemary: Mayor Hales, I'm calling to wish you Happy Fathers' Day—if indeed you are.

June 25, Gale: I live about half a block off Alberta. You want to come over here with high-pressure hoses to clear the people off the street? You're just asking for a riot! This Charlie Hales thing is just... well. Tre Arrow is better than him. I am 72, and I'm not in the mood to deal with crazy people.

June 27, Sylvia: I work in the Wells Fargo tower. It's just rather annoying that we're allowing another camp to start accumulating in front of city hall. They're smoking marijuana, and it's difficult for me to walk down the sidewalk. I'm a very liberal, open-minded person.

July 9, Harris: I'm a minority black business owner. The city has been losing us black business owners from Williams Avenue, Vancouver Avenue, etc. This area used to be very vibrant with minority businesses. You probably don't remember, because you probably weren't here. Now it's all white. It's very disturbing that, for the few blacks that are hanging on, you guys don't do anything for us.

July 17, unidentified female: I don't care what's going on outside of your office. I don't care what those homeless people are doing. I want to know why they are homeless and what are YOU going to do about it? It's not their fault they're homeless; but what are YOU going to do about it?

July 17, Joseph: Thankfully I'm not a resident of Portland. We got rid of Sam Adams and now they have you, and according to the news, this city doesn't look like it's in any better shape, police- and transient-wise. So, I'm laughing at Portland—still—from the comfort of Sherwood.

July 19, unidentified male: I've been living in Portland for eight years. The kids are getting pretty wild. I just saw a kid with a slingshot and—it's pretty wild.

July 25, unidentified male: Oh, I know you're SO busy down there with the scumbag Charlie Hales. I knew he'd be a shitty mayor when you elected him. He lied about being someplace where he wasn't at. You're working for the people and you can't even pick up the phone? You scumbags!!

August 7, Laura: I read today about the mayor cracking down on homeless people, and I really think it's wonderful.

August 8, Adriel: You are a horrible human being. Are you clearing the city of houseless people? Do you have one SHRED of human decency? Leave the houseless population alone, unless you're actually going to do something about it rather than throw them all in jail!! You're a fuckin' piece of shit, Charlie! How would YOU sleep at night?!

August 19, unidentified male: Please, start setting up a lot more infrastructure for other forms of transportation that do not puke crap out of tailpipes! I know you guys are interested in it. I see people riding into city hall on their bikes.

August 19, unidentified male: I'm just calling in regard to that carbon tax. Why didn't you say these things when you ran for office? You might have said it and you might not have gotten elected.

September 3, name withheld: I live in the Station Place apartments adjacent to the proposed area where you're thinking about moving Right 2 Dream Too. I hope you don't think that some of the more-strident tenants speak for all of us, because they don't. There are certain people in this building that are negative about everything.

September 9, Mike: I'm a 20-plus-year property owner in the Pearl. I didn't think the mayor and his subordinates could maybe get any dumber than to move the homeless into the Pearl and ruin the property values. I walk with a group of people out of the Multnomah Club in the morning—I mean, 28 or 30 sometimes—and they're all making fun of you guys. You've taken YOUR problems and given them to the Pearl District. Nice work, you guys! GOD!

September 20, unidentified male: I am calling about the cab companies in Portland. I have been trying to get ahold of a cab company here for 45 minutes.

October 4, unidentified female: I am a voter and I am a taxpayer and a homeowner. Right 2 Dream Too should be left alone. They should be allowed to be over there without the Pearl District folk laying in and having Mayor Hales waffle—as usual—and change his stance and be, quote, "open to more communication from business owners." Portland's for the rich and getting richer.

October 7, Clint: So I went on your website, and under "Mayor's Priorities" there's nothin'. I see you goin' out to Pendleton to a rodeo. Google still says that Sam Adams is the mayor. What are you doin'? Come on! Jesus Christ! I'm callin' for him to come down and help you.

November 1, Celeste: It is terribly disappointing that a low-ranking police officer is now the person recommended by Charlie Hales to fill the position to provide oversight for the police. I think a better-qualified person could have filled the position—as well as somebody who didn't have their shoestrings or coat strings, as it goes, involved with the police.

November 19, John: There are no bus shelters in Portland anymore. The shelters downtown no longer have sides. My point is that I will drive tomorrow purely because it is uncomfortable to take the bus. It's almost like a third-world experience. We should prioritize more funds toward things like public transportation and less funds toward being nice to the homeless.

December 3, unidentified male: They knocked off that little girl for selling downtown. God damn it, those are brave heroes! And that queer police chief that you got down there—the narcissistic psychopath! God damn! I don't know. Put them in the infantry where there's a REAL war—like Korea!

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Abandoned since 1942, a Paris apartment

AFP

Chinese helicopter inspects area near ship trapped in Antarctic ice CNN (CNN) -- A Chinese helicopter briefly landed Thursday near a ship stuck in ice off Antarctica for more than a week, but no rescue operation for the 52 passengers has begun, a Chinese official said. The helicopter was scanning the area around the trapped ... Rescue Begins for Icebound Ship in AntarcticaABC News Helicopter Rescue Begins for Stranded Antarctic ShipVoice of America Antarctic rescue of Akademik Shokalskiy ship beginsBBC News AFP -Sydney Morning Herald -CBC.ca all 298 news articles »

An anonymous reader writes "What could have been entering the public domain in the US on January 1, 2014? Under the law that existed until 1978.... Works from 1957. The books On The Road, Atlas Shrugged, Empire of the Atom, and The Cat in the Hat, the films The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and 12 Angry Men, the article "Theory of Superconductivity," the songs "All Shook Up" and "Great Balls of Fire," and more.... What is entering the public domain this January 1? Not a single published work."

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alcoholicgifts:

hulkstina:

fedoraharp:

franklyitsscarlett:

humans-of-pdx:

"I had a bacterial infection when I was two that turned into gangrene. People don’t believe all the things I can do. Like write. I have some of the best handwriting in my class." She put her arms together to show me how she would hold a pencil or pen. 

"Are you in school?" 

"Well I just finished medical school to become a medical assistant." Just then she got a phone call, swiped open the touch screen and effortlessly held the phone up to her ear. I waited patiently as she tried to work out some logistics with a family member. "That was my grandma. She’s on her way to pick me up and take me to my dance studio." 

"You dance?" 

"Yeah, you should come to my performance." 

I told her I would absolutely love to.

You fucking go girl.

Link to a video of her dancing

She’s a truly gorgeous dancer.

What a fucking badass

YOOOOOOOOOO

ladylawga:

Thank you for 50 years of hard work, Miyazaki!

A collection of designs based on some Studio Ghibli movies. Because apparently the best way to show my personal appreciation to someone is to draw clothes based on their movies. 

IN/OUT List for 2014

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