Pigs n’ fords
Tillamook is known for it’s cheese factory and dairy industry – but the Tillamook County Fair also has quirky local fun: pig n’ ford races.
Joseph’s machines
Josesph’s Machine’s makes some fun Rube Goldberg machine videos. I like this one because it messes with you – thinking it has gone wrong when it’s just begun…
I like his one about guessing the outcome first:
Eat the rich? Naw – they just leave
Ask the average Portlander, and they will tell you that the rich should be paying for all the free government services they want. They proved this multiple times by passing a Homeless 1.5% income tax on taxable income over $125,000. They did it again by passing a Preschool for tax in which income over $125,000 is taxed at rate of 1.5% and an additional 1.5% (3% total) on income over $250,000. This makes Portland the 2nd highest tax rate city in the country at 14.69%.
“Good!” say many of the local reddit and forum communities. Eat the rich! Well – it turns out the rich don’t just sit around to be eaten – they leave. Despite claims this could NEVER happen, it is happening. Portland has seen 3 straight years of population decline since 2021. And who is leaving? Overwhelmingly it is the higher earners.
This isn’t academic or speculation – it’s been happening for 3 years straight with no signs of stopping.
The average income of households moving out of Multnomah County was nearly $105,000 a year in 2022, according to newly released tax data. That’s up by more than a third from 2020.
Among those moving into the county, the average household income was about $74,000 – up just 8% compared to 2020.
That disparity may help explain why Multnomah County’s population has declined this decade, reversing rapid growth in the early 2010s.
WWeek
While the activist groups are cheering this heavy tax for ‘rich’ people – actual government and economic leaders are sounding serious alarm bells for years now. Portland economists are even calling it an economic ‘doom loop‘. This trend first frightened state economists, and now we’re seeing basic services like ODOT so badly defunded that they are laying off hundreds and may not be able to make even essential safety work on roads and bridges. Additionally, 36 counties are facing major budget cuts.
It’s a sadly common failure of Oregon government leadership. Portland has gone from the 2nd fastest growing city, to one of the 6th fastest shrinking major US cities.
Articles:
Hardest hike in California
Cactus to Clouds is the toughest hike in California. It’s located near Palm Springs and is a mind-boggling 19.2 mile (one way! you take a tram back down) with 10,629ft of gain. Temperatures in the summer often reach triple digits. Apparently it’s been closed more often due to rescue operations for exhausted and dehydrated hikers.
Why one building falls and another untouched
A really great resonance vibration demonstration shows why in an earthquake one building will fall down and the others around may go almost completely untouched
How fast is a GH200 Grace Hopper?
Google, Apple, and Amazon have been making their own compute chips. nVidia has been in the game too. But how fast is it? GPTshop.ai built an incredibly powerful desktop computer based on the nVidia Grace Hopper GH200 processor and provided Phoronix with access to the chip so it could benchmark it.
How fast is it? The GH200 performance nearly matched the Intel Xeon Platinum 8592+ Emerald Rapids processor.
Links:
When things fall apart and you have nothing but pieces
“You’re never going to get to finish telling your story if you keep re-reading the last chapter”
Brave
“You only have to be brave for a second, the rest will take care of itself.”
Leave a legacy in Portland
Want to leave your mark on Portland?
Buy a brick with your name on it for Pioneer Square ($150), or get a park bench dedicated to you or someone you love ($1500/bench).
Dysfunctional papal elections
History was made in the election of the American Augustinian as Pope Leo XIV.
While this election was fairly straightforward, people love to take for even the most minor signs as indications scandals and diabolical cover-ups.
As anyone who has studied history knows – the truth is far, far more crazy than anything conspiracy theorists have come up with. For those that think the world has never been worse off, perhaps take a moment to hear some real events the Catholic Church has gone through.
As Hilaire Belloc said, if the Church were not of divine origin, it wouldn’t have lasted a month.