The Oregonian Triages Eugene Area

Looks like the mainstay Oregon newspaper, The Oregonian, is pulling up its roots in Eugene and Springfield, and is to stop delivering dailies in order to save money on printing costs. I first heard about this from Newspaper Deathwatch, the reaper-like website that has been watching the fall of the industry of 'black, white and read all over'. As a journalism-major this is all a little less than reassuring.

The news came from my mother in a phone call.

Had I seen The Oregonian's letter announcing the end of daily delivery? Seems rising newsprint and distribution costs make it too expensive for The Oregonian to bring its papers to home or retail outlets in Eugene-Springfield on a daily basis, apart from Sunday.

My own letter from The Oregonian's circulation director lay in the unopened mail pile. Another busy day of leaving early and getting home late. I'd managed to start off right by reading the Register-Guard and Oregonian before leaving my house at 6:00 a.m., but hadn't opened the mail after rushing home that night.

The letter was kind. A model of strength-based reassurance. The Oregonian knows its decision to stop visiting my house every morning is a loss, for me and for each and every one of the readers. While the newspaper won't be found in retail outlets in Oregon's second largest metropolitan area, it will arrive on Sunday and web content is available 24/7.

Now all I want for Christmas is for The Oregonian to keep landing somewhere in my yard by 6:00 a.m.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2008/12/waking_up_to_a_morning_without.html

Never Again

This summer I went on a backpacking trip up a mountain about 6 hours away from where I live. We had the best luck all the way up and down that 8,000 ft mountain, only for it all to nearly fall apart at the end.

First we got down, only to realize I couldn't find the keys to my car. 3 hours from cell-phone reception. Miraculously, after a half-hour of searching I found them lodged into my ruck harness - presumably where they had landed when I was quickly packing that morning, despite 6 hours of hiking over rough terrain. That by itself could have turned pretty ugly.

But we got on the road, and drove 3 hours to my friend's hometown, only to eat a bunch of food and burn a bunch of time because we were tired and indecisive. By the time I finally get on the road I've been up 12 hours, hiked down a mountain, and had about 6 hours sleep in the last 48. Alone on the straightest, most boring road you can imagine - and it's getting dark.

After about an hour, I pull off to the side because I'm getting groggy. But with traffic whipping past me I don't want to stop there. In retrospect, I should have slept right then and there. But I don't, I get back on the road and call my friends to see if they want to meet up and drive my car. Only there's nowhere to stop, and I'm barely hanging on at this point.

Eventually we figure out that there's a rest area (the only one for hours in either direction) up ahead that I can pull into and wait in. So now I've got my window open and my radio blasting and I'm drinking water and trying to keep my eyes open. I see the familiar blessed sign - and it informs me that there is a rest area in 9.5 miles. That's like an eternity to me at this point.

Semis are blasting past me on the other side of the two-lane highway with their bright beams disorienting as hell, and their shocking passage is terrifyingly close at this point. I finally see the rest area sign again - 2 miles to go. Dear god, this is brutal.

The cars behind me are getting close as I slow down because I DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS EXIT. But their beams make me further disoriented, and at this point I figure I have about 5 minutes left before I'll just fall asleep. I've already heard the rumblestrip a couple times, and I figure this is it. I see the familiar blue rest area sign (my vision is so bad at this point it's hard to focus on anything more than that) - 3/4 mile. No shit. I remember being infuriated at this. Who the hell plants so many signs for a damn rest area?

The last 1/2 mile brought me to my limit. I had started the day at the top of a mountain, and now I was about to die like a fucking idiot. I pretty much lost control of my speed at this point, coasting along at 10 under and focusing entirely upon the course and staying awake. I see the final sign up ahead, but to add insult to injury a huge line of semis zooms past me in the other direction. It felt like a gauntlet. In the end I'm barely able to limp off the road and into the rest area parking lot, where I fall asleep almost instantly.

I woke up one hour later with my friend knocking on the window with a concerned smile. She got some coffee and then drove us home. I'm never doing that to myself ever again.

More stories of near death experiences can be found in this thread. There's one about a kayaker on a Class 5 rapid that made me wince, and then want to write my own.

Jesse Helms Epitaph

While my 28.8k dial-up AOL childhood scars usually make me shun America Online like the Black Death, this AOL News feature obituary made my heart sing a little.

The controversial Senator Jesse Helms died this Fourth of July, and blogger Ken Layne wrote an amazing obit piece. I have practiced writing them in college, but the examples never read like this:

Jesse Helms died today, 25 years too late, but the stench of his rotten career will always linger in the Senate, and over the South.

He was a hero to bigots and the cigarette corporations, a menace to the poor and downtrodden, and a mean little troll whose heart was so wrecked by wickedness that doctors had to patch it up with coronary valves from a pig.

It was a far better summary of the man's life than I heard on NPR, which featured an infuriating apologist in lieu of worthy journalism.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke Died Today

I was very saddened today to hear that the great science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke passed away today at his home in Sri Lanka. For those who are not familiar with him, he was part of the classic sci-fi triumvirate of Issac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein. He also wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey, invented the communications satellite, and is largely responsible for the American lunar exploration. He was a real inspiration to me as a youth, and his book The City and the Stars remains one of my all time favorites.

I had a couple videos I wanted to share.

The first is a farewell address from him earlier this year: (Link via YouTube)

The second is a demonstration video of one the most advanced robotic AIs yet produced. While Clarke was more concerned with exploration than robotics (that was Asimov's gig), his HAL 9000 remains one of his most well-known legacies. I'm sure he was quite excited by the development of this amazing machine: (Link via Youtube)

As an addendum, the Big Dog robot is being developed as an automated packbot for the US Army. The angry buzzing sound comes from its two-stroke on-board gas engine. This will eventually be replaced by advanced battery power. You can find out more about it at the Boston Dynamics webpage. (Link via Boston Dynamics)