State of Technology, Sharon Fisher
local food
Zucchini Vandalism in Full Swing
Late at night.
A car door slams. The sound of running feet, followed by a thump on porch and running feet again. The car speeds away.
A light flashes on in the house. The front door opens, and a wail of despair as the resident sees what the vandal has done.
Yes, it’s National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day.
[more]
Food/Agribusiness/Health
Food, Inc. Preaches to the Converted
A group of people got together to watch the agfood documentary Food Inc. the other day. The showing was in Boise, and the people were a married couple who lives on ten acres in Ada County, near Kuna, and their son; a single mom who lives on one acre near Kuna in Ada County and a married man who lives with his family on the Bench in Boise.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Food Inc. – like similar documentaries before it, such as Supersize Me and Fast Food Nation -- isn’t getting to the people who *need* to see it, but is, as the film itself describes, “preaching to the converted.” The married couple with a child – David, Tracy, and Christian -- have raised their own beef and have a garden. The single mom, Sharon, has a garden and uses community-supported agriculture (CSA) to provide most of the family’s meat and seasonal vegetables. The married man, Matthew, and his family have six raised vegetable beds in their front yard.
[more]
Travel
What Do You Mean, I’m Driving In the River?
We hadn't asked for the GPS with the rental car -- we certainly hadn't paid for it, and we had our folder of Google Maps all ready -- yet there it was. And while we'd used them in the past -- what self-respecting geek hasn't? -- we hadn't used them in several years and were curious about how the technology had improved.
The first time it sent us in a direction we knew was wrong, though, we were a little worried.
But that was nothing compared to the time it tried to send us up the river.
Literally.
[more]
new economy
Ignite Boise Sets Boise On Fire, Again (Intellectually)Thursday's second installment of Ignite Boise, an evening of performance art produced and presented by volunteers, "sold out" its allotment of 600 free tickets to the Egyptian in just two hours, compared with several days for the first installment, held in March.
Boise Mayor Dave Bieter also proclaimed Thursday to be "Ignite Boise Day."
According to a non-scientific survey the next day on the Ignite Boise website, the most popular presentations were on feminism, the Eagles, and using the Internet's social media capabilities more intelligently.Other presentations included the value of bartering, why we should all go live on the beach, and the virtues of beer and Turkish coffee.
[more]
pnwer 2009
Renewable Energy Developing in Northwest, But Transmission is a Bottleneck
The Northwest -- Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana -- is arguably the region of the United States that is richest in renewable energy resources such as geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar, said Paul Manson, president of Seabreeze Power Corp., speaking at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region conference today (with a windmill pin on his lapel).
There are currently 3000 megawatts of renewable energy generation in the Northwest, powering 700,000 homes and reducing carbon dioxide equivalent to 950,000 cars, said Suzanne Leta Liou, Senior Policy Advocate for the Renewable Northwest Project, a nonprofit based in Portland, Ore., devoted to supporting renewable energy.
But the bottleneck now is transmission, said Denise Hill, of the Northwest Independent Power Producer Council. "I cannot say enough that new transmission is needed," she said.
[more]
pnwer 2009
Western States To Lose Control Over Transmission Siting?
Newly added provisions to the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, next slated to be voted on by the U.S. Senate, give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission final say over the siting of electric transmission lines in Western states -- but not in any other part of the country, attendees of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region conference in Boise learned today.
There is a "real threat" of the federal government taking over, said Paul Kjellander, administrator of Idaho's office of energy resources, noting that seven transmission lines are currently slated to crisscross Idaho.
One of the biggest issues is Gateway West, the siting of which is being fought by Parma and Kuna, which found out that towers up to 180 feet tall along a corridor up to 250 wide were slated to cross the cities' impact areas.
"Everyone agrees it’s essential," Kjellander said. "What they can’t agree on is where it goes," especially since some alternative routes could add up to $1 billion more to the project.
[more]
Bozeman, MT
City of Bozeman Demands Passwords from Job Applicants
Raising privacy and civil liberties issues, job applicants to the city of Bozeman are not only required to list all their social media accounts, but their passwords as well.
"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.," the City form states. The application shows a space for passwords.
[more]
internet technology
Rural Broadband Should Be as Available as Telephone, FCC Says
"Universal service" should encompass broadband Internet access in the same way that it originally encompassed telephone access, according to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission to Congress.
The report, Bringing Broadband to Rural America: Report on a Rural Broadband Strategy, is written by Michael Copps, acting chairman of the FCC. It was written for Congress as a preliminary step for a national broadband plan, due in 2010, and as a requirement from the 2008 Farm Bill.
Comparing broadband Internet access to electricity, the report described the Rural Electrification Act, which brought first electricity and then phone service to farms, of which only 11.6 percent had electricity in 1936. "A shortsighted policy that brought the convenience, innovation, and new opportunities of electricity and telephone service only to urban and a smattering of rural areas could have created two Americas of utility haves and have-nots," the report noted. "We cannot make this mistake today."
[more]
idaho transit
Governor Plays Critical Role in Public TransitAttendees of the Urban Land Institute’s Infrastructure 2009 Pivot Point event in Boise yesterday heard a story. An Intermountain West city determined it needed commuter rail – a train intended to carry passengers into the city for work -- and needed it now, rather than waiting for the more typical 10 to 20 years.
Then the governor of the state decided to get involved. “Once he blessed it and got the support of the Legislature, funding was granted,” said Mark Warner, vice president and general manager of Motive Power Inc., a Boise-based manufacturer of train engines. The whole process took just two and a half years.
The state was New Mexico, and the city was Albuquerque. Now, the train provides 2,300 passenger trips per day, which is expected to increase.
Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter's office refused to comment.
[more]
idaho governor:column
Will the Real @ButchOtter Please Stand Up?
The Idaho Twittersphere was, well, a-twitter this morning with news that @ButchOtter -- a Twitter account set up to parody the governor -- had been shut down and the real Idaho Governor's office, which had been posting under @IdahoGov, had taken control of it.
Boise Tweeters familiar with the situation are tweeting this morning that representatives of the attorney general's office were being sent to people's offices in an attempt to find out who was behind the account, with threats being made about impersonation being a felony.
[more]
