Incursio

This is in the entryway to the locker rooms at the Mt. Scott pool in Portland. I found it a tad funny. Your mileage may vary.

I don't need to say too much. The pictures speak for themselves. These pictures were taken at ONE spot on NF-45 forest road in Mt. Hood National Forest. The road is also known as "Memaloose" or "Maymaloose" road depending on which sign and map you read. It is maybe 50 miles outside of Portland, southeast on Hwy 224 - along the Clackamas river. The country up there is some of the most beautiful scenery on the planet. The ridge lines, and the deep jagged canyon from millions of years of raging water in the Clackamas river are something wonderful to behold. Driving up this road, we passed at least 5 spots that seemed to be popular with shooters, before we turned around. The road is a steep one lane paved road, and our GPS said we went from 700ft. at the river to 3000ft. almost instantaneously. At some points there are steep 1000 foot drops on either side of the road. It is breathtaking. Until you come across the shooting sites, which make you nauseous. I ...

There are plans afoot , and it looks like the organizations are following city code this time, to rename a Portland street after the late Douglas Adams . Of course they are working on - 42 nd avenue. This amuses me... Lets hope they don't bull-doze a row of houses to make room for it... And as much as I hate to link to myspace, here is the page for the Douglas Adams Boulevard group. And for the record, I am opposed to renaming streets . But if there is going to be a street renaming frenzy, at least lets have them be clever and fun - and not so controversial. Additionally, I would have to say that this renaming would give 42nd ave MORE significance than the number 42 ever could...

The first definition of stupider is "Slow to learn or understand; obtuse." I think that there would be good cause to add to it "See American". Today, while passing through the security checkpoint at Portland International (PDX) I witnessed the TSA personnel sending people to the back of the line for not taking off their flip-flops. They shouted endlessly about removing liquids, regardless of size. And they generally treat every one of us like we were infants incapable of understanding simple instructions. But perhaps they might be on to something.

There has been a little bit going on with Transportation around Portland recently. One cool thing that I found is ByCycle . They have made a really cool trip planner that supports Portland . You can use it to find and map bike routes. It contains the Metro "Bike There" map, mashed up with Google Maps and a route planning algorythm. Pretty cool, check it out and play with the trip planner a bit. The funding for the new Willamette bridge from Riverplace (area) to OMSI (area) for the Milwaukie MAX and Eastside streetcar loop passed . The new bridge will also have very good bicycle and pedestrian access. This will be very good for southeast Portland, and eventually the MAX line is to run to Oregon City. I am sure we will be seeing more on this in the short term future. This comes hot on the heels of news about MAX exceeding ridership records . Good job legislators, now lets get the Sellwood bridge rebuilt . I came across a site called GoLoco which could be a gre...

Well, there is an awful lot of hubub on the net today about a certain number that the MPAA does not want people to see. Supposedly this number can be used to decode HD-DVD disks or some such use. Of course I would never condone such things. But I do not condone censorship either, and this kind of behavior shows what the DMCA is really capable of . So, people all over are finding creative ways to share the number. I can't vouch for any of these links. They might be valid for a while, they might not. And if you are worried about "work safe" content - I can't guarantee that either. This post itself has profanity... Here is my favorite so far, by Ludwik Trammer: there were 09 planets in the solar system Fucking 9 planets not 11 and not 02 but exactly 9 Damn planets right in the middle and everyone seemed happy until 74 professors meet on the conference and started to wonder: "we should have Exactly 3 planets in our system" – prop...

House Bill 2210B was voted on and PASSED in the Oregon House just now. This measure is designed to encourage the Oregon based growing and production of biofuels. These including tax credits for producers or growers, some easing of restrictions of where biofuels production facilities can be sited, and a standard for quality and volume of biofuels in Oregon use. However one thing that catches my eye, is the consumer tax credits: Sections 24-28 provide for: "BIOFUEL CONSUMER INCOME TAX CREDIT" 25.2.a - "A resident individual shall be allowed a credit against the taxes otherwise due under ORS chapter 316 for costs paid or incurred to purchase fuel blends for use in an alternative fuel vehicle." The sections go on to describe the details, and the amounts. But basically - for E85 or greater use, or B99 or greater use can get as much as 50 cents per gallon up to $200 max per year tax credit for using biofuels! That will be a nice benefit for those of us wh...