Year: 2012

Mini Goats

Urban homesteading’s final frontier

Culture

Urban homesteading, backyard farming — call it what you will, the movement for self sufficiency and sustainable living is booming. In Eugene neighborhoods from the South Hills to the Whiteaker it seems like every other house sports a chicken coop or custom greenhouse. Soon, the most dedicated local homesteaders may be able to join ranks of urban farming trailblazers elsewhere who are exploring a new way of bringing the farm to the city: raising miniature goats.  Continue reading →

Hot Pets

Animals need to keep cool, too

Culture

It happens every summer. Someone makes a quick trip to the mall and leaves her dog in the car “just for a couple minutes.” But the lines get long, the minutes drag on and before long that car sitting in the sun has gotten unbearably hot. A Stanford University study shows that on a 72-degree day a car can heat up to 116 degrees in only an hour. Every summer dogs and even cats get heatstroke, and some die. Continue reading →

Last Exit to Gotham

Film

High expectations sometimes lay you low, and the very word “superhero” spurs one’s anticipation of a movie adaptation to leap tall multiplexes in a single bound and travel faster than a speeding bullet to the box office. It can’t be helped. Walking into the July 20 midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, my hopes were high. I assumed that this grand finale would be not only a step above all predecessors, but also well worth the particular discomfort of cramming into a packed theater at midnight. Neither of these assumptions panned out. Continue reading →

The art of the deal

Arts

What can a person buy with $2.50 these days? A pack of gum? A ballpoint pen? Perhaps a single condom? Certainly not a gallon of gas anymore. But if you have a few bucks in your pocket Saturday, July 28, you can come away with some beautifully strange art, art supplies, CDs and who knows what else at Eugene Storefront Project’s (ESAP) Trailer Park Art Sale.  Continue reading →

Does this toxic coal train make my nose look big?

News

The Eugene City Council decided to wait until after its summer break to weigh on on coal trains, but the Coos Bay World does't think Eugene should have an opinion at all on the issue.  In an editoral published July 18, the World says Eugene should keep its "big nose" out of coal exports and "butt out" of the global energy and climate change issue.    Continue reading →