Upcoming Events:
"Annotated Cartoons By Davenport"
Book Release Party - Saturday, August 25 – 6:00 pmThe Davenport Project and GeerCrest Farm & Historical Society are pleased to announce a special Book Release Party to celebrate the publication of “The Annotated Cartoons by Davenport.”
This event, set for Saturday, August 25, at 6:00 pm is to honor the many backers of our recent “Kickstarter” Fund Raising campaign, that made the publication possible. Folks who donated $25 or more during the Kickstarter Campaign are the honored guests of the evening. Others may attend for $30 per person. Please do RSVP to the farm via phoneat 503-873-3406 or Email.
During the evening, light refreshments, beer and wine will be available. Gus Frederick, the book’s researcher and compiler will be on hand to autograph copies, which will be available for purchase for $15, a 25% discount off of the cover price of $20, for this event only. Additionally, a short presentation by Frederick will provide some historical context to Davenport, the Gilded Age and how reprographics technology enabled a local country boy from Silverton, Oregon to become the highest paid cartoonist in the world.
In 1898, Homer Davenport published Cartoons By Davenport, a collection of over 80 cartoons which originally appeared in William Randolph Hearst’s New York Evening Journal. It was a large format work, with hardbound cover and an introduction by Senator John J. Ingalls, (R-Kansas).
Over 100 years later, Davenport historian Gus Frederick researched, compiled and reprinted a fully annotated edition of this historic work. The faces and the issues behind Davenport’s witty, satiric caricatures were teased out in a cartoon-by-cartoon commentary.
This revised, expanded edition will number just under 200 pages, and measure slightly over 8 by 10 inches. “Annotated Cartoons by Davenport” will be the first publication of The Liberal University Press, based out of Silverton, Oregon.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Once and future history of Oregon
One of the greatest gems in this area is Geercrest Farm, a sesquicentennial farm on Sunnyview Road in the Waldo Hills between Salem and Silverton, where GeerCrest Farm and Historical Society is making great headway in preserving and bringing this irreplaceable treasure into the future, providing a place where the future pioneers of Post-Carbon Oregon can reskill and learn how the last generations thrived in the era before fossil fuel farming took over.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
A petition worth signing: REINSTATE GLASS-STEAGALL
griftopia (Photo credit: cdrummbks)Hi,I signed a petition to The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama titled "Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act".
Will you sign this petition? Click here:
http://signon.org/sign/reinstate-the-glass-steagall-5?source=s.em.cp&r_by=756599
Thanks!
Friday, August 17, 2012
Young Writers Contest from one of America's best magazines
Few magazines cause me to think about what a great and interesting read I've had as often as this one. My bride and I both comment about what an unusual magazine HCN is, and what a pleasure it is to see serious journalism on environmental issues that isn't always solemn, along with great photography.
If you know a young writer (2012 grads and later, down through HS), suggest that they peruse some issues of this fine publication and thinking about whether they have anything to offer on this topic:
If you know a young writer (2012 grads and later, down through HS), suggest that they peruse some issues of this fine publication and thinking about whether they have anything to offer on this topic:
In 600 words, describe why your heart is at home in the American West. Is being a Westerner a physical state, a frame of mind, an emotional experience? Is it something you earned? Something you were born into? A title conferred on you, or one you adopted on your own?
2012 Annual High Country NewsRelated articles
Student Essay Contest
What does being a Westerner mean to you, and why do you consider yourself one?
"How I Became a Westerner"
Entry Deadline: Sept. 21,2012
Send essays to studentwriters@hcn.org. Visit hcn.org/edu for more information.
In 600 words, describe why your heart is at home in the American West. Is being a Westerner a physical state, a frame of mind, an emotional experience? Is it something you earned? Something you were born into? A title conferred on you, or one you adopted on your own?
The contest is open to all currently enrolled high school students and undergraduates at American schools, colleges and universities as well as 2012 graduates. Submissions must be original, unpublished work (the writing can have been published in a student publication). One entry per person, please.
Include your name, contact information, school name, and area of study with your submission.
The winning essay will appear in the upcoming HCN Books and Essays special issue and the writer will receive these backpacking essentials from MountainSmith:High Country News 119 Grand Avenue, PO Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428
- Lookout Backpack
- Poncha 35 Degree Sleeping Bag
- Rhyolite Trekking Poles
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
WEIRD: Oregon Ag Dept working to undermine Oregon Ag
The Willamette River Valley (Photo credit: Wikipedia)This is another example of how moneyed interests capture public agencies and bend them back and use them as weapons against the public interest instead of regulators on behalf of the public well-being.Allowing genetically tampered crops loose in the Willamette Valley is unwise, unnecessary, and totally undesirable. There is no benefit to Oregonians from allowing the gene tampered foods to intermix in the Willamette Valley -- the only benefit is to the corporate interests who would be only too happy to despoil the Willamette Valley and destroy its status as a haven for organic producers.
The industrial "phood" that results from gene tampering is designed solely to allow corporate interests to capture the entire food supply and destroy peoples' ability to grow pure, real food.
Good afternoon ~
The Oregon Department of Agriculture has fast-tracked the approval of canola production in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. This would include Genetically Modified Canola.
This would mean that our crops that are related to canola (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussel sprouts, etc) would be at risk for cross pollination and contamination by GM canola.
Many gardeners rely on seed grown in the Willamette Valley for their home gardens.
Please read the letter below from the Seed Ambassadors and act now to express your thoughts on this issue.
Please comment by THIS FRIDAY to prevent the Oregon Department of Agriculture's temporary rule permitting GM canola and thus, bypassing the public comment period.
It is up to us to protect the genetics of our food.
Thanks!
Marisha
Hello Everyone!
We here at the Seed Ambassadors Project haven't sent out any e-mails in a while, but are compelled to do so today: There is an immediate threat to our food supply because the Oregon Department of Agriculture has fast- tracked the approval of canola (including GM canola) production here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
As many of you may know the Willamette Valley is one of the top 5 places in the world for growing and supplying specialty seed and maintaining seed diversity. Seed grown here not only is sold by local Oregon companies, such as Adaptive Seeds, but is also bought by other seed companies such as Johnny's, Fedco, and lots of others both nationally and internationally. Basically, seed grown here supplies the world with food.
One of the specialty seeds that the Valley is perfect for is brassicas, which includes broccoli, cauliflower, arugula, rutabaga, turnip, radish, kale, cabbage, etc. Canola is also a brassica but spreads rampantly and cross pollinates with a lot of other brassicas with detrimental effects. Oregon State University has conducted research proving that canola will cross pollinate with many different crops including turnips, broccoli raab, some kales, rutabaga, and possibly radish and broccoli.
Meaning the presence of canola production in the Willamette Valley will definitely contaminate and destroy those other seed crops. Without doubt.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) has previously maintained a canola exclusion zone in the Valley. However, in the past few months there have been a series of meetings held behind closed doors to change this zone to allow canola (including genetically modified canola) to be grown in the valley unchecked and with disregard to existing seed pinning map isolation guidelines.
ODA only just released a press release on Friday, August 3rd saying they will grant a temporary rule to allow canola this Friday, August 10th.
By issuing a temporary rule the ODA is avoiding the requirement for public comment and therefore behaving unilaterally with only special interests in mind. Not only does this decision harm seed growers but GM canola cross pollination will also potentially threaten the livelihood of any of the certified organic growers in the area. There are good reasons why canola has been banned in the Willamette Valley by ODA up to this point, and pressure on ODA to lift these bans needs to be countered.
Please contact the ODA and Governor Kitzhaber yourself and make your voice heard! It does not matter if you are not an Oregon resident, this decision effects everyone in a huge way and they need to be reminded of that.
And spread the word!
ODA phone number: (503) 986-4552
ODA Director Coba: KCoba@oda.state.or.us
Governor Kitzhaber: (503) 378-4582 ; or email
Remember, we only have until this Friday, August 10th to change this decision!
Check out the following links for more information:
Friends of Family Farmers: Willamette Valley Immediately Threatened by Canola
2006 OSU Special Report on Canola Outcrossing Potential in the Willamette Valley
GMOs At The Door, Wild Garden Seeds, Frank Morton
Willamette Valley Farmers Continue the Canola Debate, OregonLive.com
Thanks for your time and help!
Sarah Kleeger
Andrew Still
Visit Beaver State Permaculture
Monday, August 6, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Hugely important as Salem squanders precious funds on 3rd Bridge Fantasies
All the nonsense in the draft environmental impact statement about the value of time saved is just that: Nonsense. Auto drivers want free lunches forever, and are not willing to pay anything like the costs of their autobahn fantasies. Given a choice, only a few will pay tolls to get somewhere faster.
This is a crucial article for Salem, given that our local transportation and construction moguls are dying to tap taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars to throw yet another auto bridge across the Willamette, based on imaginary increases in what counts as "congestion" in Salem and the supposed willingness of drivers to pay tolls.
Most importantly, notice that the planners' fantasy includes tapping property taxes directly, again showing that the line about "roads are paid from gas taxes" is complete and utter BS.
The project is a corporate welfare vampire that needs to be killed dead as soon as possible.
If you click on that table above it will take you to Boondoggle Central, the website for the scam, where you can play with various funding streams and see just how outrageously high tolls, registrations, and gas taxes would have to be to fund this one without adding yet more property tax burdens in Salem, where we already have insane numbers of people who are underwater on their houses and who will be foreclosed in increasing numbers if the boondoggle gets underway.
In fact, that's what people really need to understand -- when you build a boondoggle in a contracting economy, you not only waste precious funds, you drown people on the margin completely, people who would have been able to stay in their homes without the excess tax burden used to fund a wasteful scheme.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Heat Stress Alert -- Do NOT fry your pet or kid
OK, people, all that summer you've been crying for is slated to arrive. In one day. That's tomorrow.Remember, it's a crime to leave an animal or a child in a car. Also insanely cruel. A car, even with the windows cracked quite a bit, can get to be an oven in amazingly short order.
And make sure your pets have ready access to shade and plenty of water.
A wonderful resource, now with an online option
Professional and Noncredit Education
4943 The Valley Library
Corvallis, OR 97331-4504
541-737-8634
learn@oregonstate.edu
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