July 31, 2020

What happens on 1/20/21 if election results are unknown?

July 30, 2020

How a Historian Stuffed Hagia Sophia's Sound Into a Studio

Footage broadcast around the world last week captured some of these striking changes to Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine cathedral in Istanbul, which served as a mosque under Ottoman rule before becoming a museum in 1934. On the orders of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it is now once again used as a mosque.

But for a group of scholars, scientists and musicians, Hagia Sophia’s rededication as a Muslim place of worship threatens to cloak a less tangible treasure: its sound. Bissera Pentcheva, an art historian at Stanford University and an expert in the burgeoning field of acoustic archaeology, has spent the past decade studying the building’s extravagantly reverberant acoustics to reconstruct the sonic world of Byzantine cathedral music. Ms. Pentcheva argues that Hagia Sophia’s mystical brilliance reveals itself fully only if it is viewed as a vessel for animated light — and sound.

“The void is a stage,” she said in a recent interview over Zoom.

Conducting research inside this contested monument has required a mixture of diplomacy, ingenuity and technology. Turkish authorities forbade singing inside Hagia Sophia, even when it was operated as a museum. Now that the building falls under the jurisdiction of religious authorities, that ban will harden, and further research may be even more difficult.
But Ms. Pentcheva’s existing work culminated last fall in the release of “The Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia,” an album that brings to life the stately mystery of Byzantine cathedral liturgy, bathed in the glittering acoustics of the space for which it was written — even though it was recorded in a studio in California.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/arts/music/hagia-sophia-acoustics-music.html

July 24, 2020

URGENT ACTION REQUEST!

Mes cher/es ami/es de DU,
My dear DU Friends,

Please consider sharing this story far and wide in your various circles. This is really happening in Portland and cannot possibly be legal.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213801708

Merci d’avance, mes braves, et bon courage!

Mme. D.

July 24, 2020

ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Downtown jail inmates hitting panic buttons due to tear gas wafting into cells, lawyers say

Inmates at Portland’s downtown jail have complained this week about tear gas seeping into their cells, making it difficult to breathe and causing their eyes to burn.

Women housed on the eighth floor of the Multnomah County Justice Center reported waking up in the early morning hours Tuesday and Wednesday and hitting panic buttons in their cells because they were choking on the gas, according to Oregon Federal Public Defender Lisa Hay.

One woman was so worried that she tried to breathe through the crack under the cell’s door, Hay said.

Sheriff’s deputies at the jail eventually opened up food ports in cells to provide more air, according to defense lawyers.

Read More... https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/07/downtown-jail-inmates-hitting-panic-buttons-due-to-tear-gas-wafting-into-cells-lawyers-say.html

July 21, 2020

Portland's Distinguished Reputation as "Little Beirut".

From the archives of The Oregonian
Updated May 18, 2019; Posted Apr 11, 2016

21 of the most memorable protests in Portland history
Updated May 18, 2019; Posted Apr 11, 2016

Last month, Portland State students disrupted a university governing-board meeting, forcing board members to retreat to a bunker -- er, unmarked basement conference room -- to vote on a proposed tuition increase. Was it one of the more memorable protests in our local history? No, but that’s because Portland sets a high bar. The Rose City is known around the world for its demonstrations. On the pages that follow we offer up some of the most interesting, strange and meaningful Portland protests ever.

In 1934, striking Portland longshoremen protested efforts to bring in replacement workers. They surrounded the hiring hall and disabled buses that were there to take the new hires to the port. “The strikebreakers never even got near the docks,” The Oregonian reported. (Port operators responded by turning an old ship into a “floating hotel” so the replacement workers wouldn’t have to cross picket lines, but strikers infiltrated it, tossing guards into the water.)


In July 2000, 26-year-old environmental activist Tre Arrow, protesting logging in the Mount Hood National Forest, spent 11 days on a 9-inch-wide, third-story ledge on the downtown Portland building that housed the U.S. Forest Service’s Northwest regional offices. He finally rappelled to the ground and “into the arms of his supporters.” (12 years later, Arrow ran for Portland mayor while in jail, where he had landed after a supervised-release violation on an eco-arson conviction.)


President George H.W. Bush supposedly dubbed Portland “Little Beirut” after being met by determined protesters in 1991. (The actual Beirut was wrecked in the 1970s and ’80s during the Lebanese Civil War.) The writer Chuck Palahniuk says Portland “anarchists” during this time gathered outside the downtown Hilton Hotel whenever presidents came to town. They ate potatoes dyed with food coloring and “then, when the motorcade arrived, drank Syrup of Ipecac and puked big Red, White and Blue barf puddles all over the hotel.”

And much, more.

https://www.oregonlive.com/living/2016/04/little_beirut_legacy_20_of_the.html

July 19, 2020

I worry that unless there is a quick injunction and successful lawsuits against DHS

that whatever happens in Portland - protests get worse, or they die down - will be spun as a victory for Trump/Barr.

July 19, 2020

Is His MagaSty's hair getting lighter?

A friend of mine made this observation and thinks he is trying to look more like Joe to avoid comparing less favorably with his more popular rival.

July 18, 2020

This happened today in my part of Portland. This is why I drink!

Airplane loses power and makes emergency landing onto street in Northeast Portland Saturday

A small fixed-wing airplane lost power and made an emergency landing onto a street in Northeast Portland on Saturday, according to Portland Fire & Rescue.

The pilot and three passengers - a man, a woman and a young boy – were unharmed.

Officers at the Portland Police Bureau’s North Precinct responded to North Greeley Avenue at North Going Street after receiving reports that an airplane had landed on the street, causing no accidents. The street was closed Saturday afternoon while an investigation was conducted.

https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/07/airplane-loses-power-and-makes-emergency-landing-onto-street-in-northeast-portland-saturday.html

July 18, 2020

NOW THE FAA IS INVOLVED IN THE PORTLAND INVASION

https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_0_1203.html

FAA.gov Home

Sample XML Data Packet Sample AIXM5 Data Packet NOTAM Number : FDC 0/1203 Download shapefiles
Issue Date : July 16, 2020 at 2012 UTC
Location : Portland, Oregon near BATTLE GROUND VORTAC (BTG)
Beginning Date and Time : July 16, 2020 at 2100 UTC
Ending Date and Time : August 16, 2020 at 2100 UTC
Reason for NOTAM : Temporary flight restrictions for Special Security Reasons
Type : Security
Replaced NOTAM(s) : N/A
Jump To: Affected Areas
Operating Restrictions and Requirements
Other Information
Affected Area(s) Top
Airspace Definition:
Center: On the BATTLE GROUND VORTAC (BTG) 173 degree radial at 14.4 nautical miles. (Latitude: 45º30'56"N, Longitude: 122º40'34"W)
Radius: 1 nautical miles
Altitude: From the surface up to and including 1000 feet AGL
Effective Date(s):
From July 16, 2020 at 2100 UTC (July 16, 2020 at 1400 PDT)
To August 16, 2020 at 2100 UTC (August 16, 2020 at 1400 PDT)
0/1203

Click for Sectional
NOTAM Text
Operating Restrictions and Requirements Top
No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM (except as described).
Except as specified below.

A. UAS OPERATIONS MAY BE AUTHORIZED WITHIN THE DEFINED SSI AIRSPACE IF IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS LISTED BELOW: 1) AN APPROVED SPECIAL GOVERNMENTAL INTEREST (SGI) AIRSPACE WAIVER HAS BEEN GRANTED FOR OPERATIONS IN DIRECT SUPPORT OF AN ACTIVE NATIONAL DEFENSE, HOMELAND SECURITY, LAW ENFORCEMENT, FIREFIGHTING, SEARCH AND RESCUE, OR DISASTER RESPONSE MISSION; AND, 2) UAS OPERATORS IN SUPPORT OF EVENT OPERATIONS, WITH A SGI AIRSPACE WAIVER. 3) ANY APPROVED UAS FLIGHT OPERATIONS MUST COMPLY WITH ALL OTHER APPLICABLE FEDERAL AVIATION REGULATIONS.

B. UAS OPERATORS WHO DO NOT COMPLY WITH APPLICABLE AIRSPACE RESTRICTIONS ARE WARNED THAT PURSUANT TO 10 U.S.C. SECTION 130I AND 6 U.S.C. SECTION 124N, THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS) OR THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (DOJ) MAY TAKE SECURITY ACTION THAT RESULTS IN THE INTERFERENCE, DISRUPTION, SEIZURE, DAMAGING, OR DESTRUCTION OF UNMANNED AIRCRAFT DEEMED TO POSE A CREDIBLE SAFETY OR SECURITY THREAT TO PROTECTED PERSONNEL, FACILITIES, OR ASSETS.

C. FAA RECOMMENDS THAT ALL AIRCRAFT OPERATORS CHECK NOTAMS FREQUENTLY FOR POSSIBLE CHANGES TO THIS TFR PRIOR TO OPERATIONS WITHIN THIS REGION.

D. UAS OPERATORS IDENTIFIED IN A.1 AND A.2.ABOVE MUST APPLY FOR A SGI WAIVER VIA EMAIL AT 9-ATOR-HQ-SOSC@FAA.GOV.

E. THE THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS), JARRED PENNINGTON, PHONE 410-245-1545, IS IN CHARGE OF THE ON SCENE RESPONSE ACTIVITY. THE SYSTEM OPERATIONS SUPPORT CENTER (SOSC) IS THE FAA COORDINATION FACILITY AND IS AVAILABLE DAILY FROM 0700-2300 EASTERN, PHONE 202-267-8276 FOR ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS NOTAM.

Other Information:

July 18, 2020

Asking for legal opinions on the situation in Portland

For anyone in the know, how likely is this approach to succeed?

https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/07/oregon-will-sue-federal-police-agencies-open-criminal-investigation-into-use-of-force.html

“ Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced late Friday that her office would sue several federal law enforcement agencies over their response to Portland protests and launch a criminal investigation into an incident of force by federal officers.

Rosenblum is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop federal officers from detaining Portlanders, arguing federal agencies seized and detained Oregonians without probable cause. She said the state’s lawsuit in federal court will name the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Protection Service as defendants.”