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!

How To Talk To Your Kids About… Bernie Sanders

If you have a child who is politically aware, we’re sure you’ve wrestled with how to talk with them about… Bernie Sanders.   It’s not an easy subject to broach.  For most children it takes a lot of mental gymnastics to believe the people we have sitting in elected office are worthy of respect, despite all the evidence.  When they see Bernie, with his flamboyant integrity and in-your-face reasonableness, their whole world view can be rocked.  Our BERNIEWATCH desk has timely advice on how to deal with this teachable moment.  Be brave, and be strong… your kids can handle the truth.

Portland’s World Naked Bike Ride

The World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) went down on June 27, with thousands of naked people riding around our fair city.  The event is designed to draw awareness to the vulnerability of bicyclists and to build support for the bicycling community.  It’s not just Portland’s weirdness, because as the name implies the WNBR is global with events in 74 cities in 17 countries.  Portland’s NBR is one of the largest with over 9000 people participating in 2014.  It’s too late for this year, but you can start planning for next year today by going to the official site at http://pdxwnbr.org/.

The Art Of The Ugly

Art doesn’t just beautify, it can make you think as well.  Of course, the best art does both.  We ran across a great gallery of grafitti art and murals designed to raise awareness of global warming, social problems, and environmental threats.  These are some magnificent and powerful pieces, mostly in poor and neglected areas that perfectly illustrate the problems they’re addressing.  Not much for us to say that the pictures don’t say themselves, so treat yourself to these 63 incredible images…

Alternatives to Alternative Energy

What comes to mind when you think of alternative energy sources?  Solar?  Wind?  Are you one of the fringe folks who would go so far as to consider geothermal or biodiesel?  C’mon, join the twenty-first century!  Those are all old-school technologies, but if you’re looking for REAL alternative energy then this is where you should start.  Maybe ‘real’ is overstating the matter since some of these are very much in development, but they are all viable directions to consider as we (hopefully) wean our way off of fossil fuels.