Cool stuff that’s too small for a big article
Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them. From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch. By the way, much (but not all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door!
Gardening? Hmmph. Try RAIN gardening!
Portlanders are gardeners. If you drive around the city you’ll see yard after yard with green creativity bursting from every crevice. But Portlanders are also always on the leading edge, looking ahead to what’s new, so now Portland is moving on to rain gardens. Rain gardens capture part of the 37” of rain we get each year and allow it to soak slowly into the ground. Among other things, rain gardens filter pollutants, provides habitat, and take part of the load from our stormwater reclamation systems. This video from the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services gives the basics of starting your own rain garden. Just add creativity!
$1 a cube for ice. We’re not kidding.
Have you been limping along with regular ice in your elderflower-and-lime martini? Is homemade, cardamom-infused ginger ale not giving your Moscow Mule the kick it needs? Then the latest thing you never knew you needed is here to save the day… artisanal ice. It’s created with a special freezing process that freezes the spring-pure water from the bottom up (rather than from the top down as water usually freezes) to eliminate air bubbles. The resulting ice is stored at -2°, sculpted with a Japanese band saw, and… well, to get the whole story either click this link or call PDX Ice, one of the 20 or so artisanal ice suppliers in the US.
Ten things you need to do after you buy a used car
We have our best advice for buying new and used cars on our website (just click here), but the folks over at Jalopnik may have one-upped us. One of their recent posts outlined the Ten Things You Need To Do After You Buy A Used Car, and it’s well worth reading. While we can quarrel with one of them (They had “Get it inspected by a mechanic” on the list, but we think you should absolutely do that BEFORE buying a used car) the rest of the list was pretty solid. From “Read the Owners Manual” to “Do all the quick fixes” it’s a good list to make sure that your major new purchase will deliver major new satisfaction.
Banks can now disable your car by remote control
What happens if you’re late on a car payment? Until recently you’d pay a fee or, if things were really overdue, you’d get a visit from the repo man. Not anymore! Car dealers and automotive lenders are targeting people with poor credit by installing GPS-based starter-interrupt devices on the cars that they sell. Now your friendly bank can just kill your car with the flick of a switch until you get current. Some cars have been shut down when the owners were only a few days behind on their payments, and others were killed while idling at stoplights. One Nevada woman’s car was even shut down while she was driving on the freeway! She could have been killed or injured, but don’t worry… the bank DID get paid.
