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05 Feb 2012 11:01

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U.S.: Missing mushroom pickers found alive after six-day ordeal

  • They just got turned around. They sought some shelter in a hollowed-out tree and basically they stayed in the same place. But it was heavy vegetation where they were.
  • Curry County, Ore. Sheriff John Bishop • Discussing the disappearance and later recovery of a family of mushroom pickers who spent six days lost in an an Oregon forest. Considering their situation — lost in a forest in freezing temperatures for roughly six days — the three family members (husband and wife Belinda and Daniel Conne and son Michael) came out of the situation relatively unscathed, with the three suffering only minor injuries. It helped that they largely stayed in the same spot. While the trio could see the helicopters circling them overhead, they had no way of sending them a signal informing them of their presence, slowing things down. The trio were lucky — former CNet editor James Kim died under similar circumstances five years ago. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Dec 2011 12:57

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U.S.: More on the case of Crystal Cox: A good decision made poorly?

  • The “blogger-not-a-journalist” thing still sticks, but … In the past few days, there’s been a bit of an uproar on the decision by a federal judge to decide, in a defamation case, that investigative blogger Crystal Cox isn’t a journalist protected by shield laws. We were ticked, too. However, Forbes reporter Kashmir Hill disputes the way the story was first presented by Seattle Weekly, which broke the story: “The facts in the case are far more complicated, and after hearing them, most journalists will not want to include Cox in their camp.” Hill points out that it appeared Cox was attempting to engage in reputation damage, not journalism, including sending out the e-mail shown above, in which Cox reportedly offered reputation-protection services. And ultimately, Cox’s claims —the ones that hit court after she was forced to give up her source — didn’t hold up to scrutiny. The fact of the matter is, the shield law element of this shouldn’t have even come up in the case: Even without it the claims wouldn’t have held up, according to Kevin Padrick, who claims ruin at the hands of Cox’s many sites. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Apr 2011 00:46

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Politics: Oregon lawmakers pull off one of the best Rickrolls of all time

  • At first glance, this just looks like an editing trick: Someone spliced together a bunch of clips of Oregon lawmakers to make it look as if they’re singing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Right? Wrong! In fact, the whole thing was an elaborate prank hatched by the lawmakers themselves; they schemed to surreptitiously insert the song’s lyrics, one by one, into their speeches on the House floor. After over a year of editing (!), Rep. Jefferson Smith, the brains behind the operation, released the finished product into the wild. It was a true bipartisan effort, involving Democrats and Republicans (the chamber is split 50/50). “Just having a little fun together helped develop some professional relationships,” Smith explained. Hopefully, this kind of fun will soon spread to the federal level (nudge nudge, Harry Reid). source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jan 2011 12:21

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Biz: CDs are dying: Sony closing another CD-production factory

  • 277 workers lost their jobs in 2003, after a Springfield, Ore. CD plant (run by Sony) closed
  • 300 workers in Pitman, N.J. will lose their jobs when their CD plant closes on March 31
  • one Sony CD plant (in Terre Haute, Ind.) will exist in the US after that plant closes source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Nov 2010 11:19

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U.S.: Portland tree-lighting bomb suspect had been plotting for months

  • You know there’s going to be a lot of children there? You know there are gonna be a lot of children there?
  • An FBI operative working undercover • Talking to Portland, Oregon tree-lighting bombing suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud back in August, months before the incident took place. Portland police stopped Mohamud a mere 18 minutes before the ceremony began, which is kind of amazing. They say, though, that the the device wasn’t in any shape to actually explode (because the FBI supplied it to him, even though he tried to detonate it) and that the public was never in any danger. Whew. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Sep 2010 11:59

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Biz: Sometimes, Groupon can accidentally strangle small a business

  • The experience jaded me, and the interactions with the few bad Groupon customers we had jaded our staff. After all of this, I find myself not even willing to buy Groupons because I know how it could hurt a business.
  • Posie’s Cafe owner Jessie Burke • Explaining how her experience with Groupon greatly damaged her Portland, Oregon-based business. Her deal, which offered a $6 deal for a $13 item, only earned her $3 for each item sold, with the other $3 going to Groupon. There wasn’t a cap on how many people could use it, so hundreds of people used it over a six-month period. At one point, the deal strangled her business so badly that she had to put $8,000 of her own money in just to cover payroll. While she doesn’t blame Groupon for her experience (she’s way quicker to blame herself), the post has spread online like wildfire over the last couple of days because of the implications it has for one of online shopping’s brightest shining stars. Groupon’s response is pretty reasonable. She’s right to blame herself, but Groupon should’ve told her how to avoid such a situation. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jul 2010 10:01

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Politics: Unlucky Tea Partiers in Oregon unfamiliar with 4chan

A very unfortunate chain of events for the Oregon Tea Party, who shut down their Facebook page and closed off their Web site after 4chan got a hold of this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

30 Jun 2010 21:50

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Politics: You happy, National Enquirer? Al Gore massage case reopened

  • Because it’s going to go somewhere … yeah. Thanks to all the new attention the massage/sexual assault report has been getting, the Portland Police Department reopened the case today. Gore’s people are optimistic that it won’t hurt the former presidential wannabe, with one spokesperson saying reopened the case “will only benefit Mr. Gore.” In other news, we wonder what fellow National Enquirer-outed presidential wannabe (and Lindsay Lohan wannabe) John Edwards has been up to lately … source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Jun 2010 22:07

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Politics: Posted without comment: Taiwan’s take on the Al Gore thang

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 May 2010 10:34

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U.S.: Museums forced to sell pricey items to keep the doors open

  • Some of the items are super-expensive. Many museums are finding that they need extra cash, so they’ve been selling some of their items. It comes with caveats, though: The American Association of Museums says they can only use the proceeds to acquire more items or directly care for the items they already have. Even so, though, it’s not stopping fire sales like these:
  • $3.2M the amount that Cleveland’s Western Reserve Historical Society has earned from selling collection items
  • $81k the amount that the Beloit, Wis. Historical Society made by selling a page of an Abe Lincoln State of the Union draft
  • $1M the amount an Oregon museum stands to make by selling a 1880s-era hotel; they’ve faced deep budget cuts source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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