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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2019)
2 Wednesday, January 30, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O Editorial… That time when nothing happened A little over a week ago, the Internet lost its collective mind over a pseudo-event. The scene was the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. A kid smirked; a First Nations man beat a drum; Black Hebrew Israelites threw out some taunts. That9s it. Not exactly Days of Rage, but social media kicked into high gear, followed by hours of cable TV news analysis and exclusive interviews. And then came death threats and the ritual menac- ing with lawsuits. America 2019. We9ve been hacked, and we9re being played, by the data-gathering and data-selling giants to whom we9re selling our souls. Historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari notes that, <So far, many of these giants seem to have adopted the business model of 8attention merchants.9 They capture our atten- tion by providing us with free information, ser- vices, and entertainment, and they then resell our attention to advertisers. Yet the data giants probably aim far higher than any previous attention merchant. Their true business isn9t to sell advertisements at all. Rather, by captur- ing our attention they manage to accumulate immense amounts of data about us, which is worth more than any advertising revenue. We aren9t their customers 4 we are their product.= And with the Great Smirking Kid Caper, the Data Leviathan captured the attention of mil- lions upon millions of people with a pseudo- event onto which we projected all manner of social, political and cultural hostilities and anxieties. Outraged, roiled, played like Nathan Phillips9 drum 4 and for what? As Joshua Rothman notes in The New Yorker: <When the dramaturgical or rhetori- cal interest of a debate exceeds the interest of the real events that inspired it, that debate becomes a fantasy 4 an occasion for dra- matizing our values, rather than testing them against the real world. This, in turn, makes our values feel hollow.= It would be bad enough if this phenomenon was confined to our online <lives,= but it leaks out into our real life, too. We are conditioning ourselves to make judgments on the thinnest slices of information; we judge our neighbor before we even glance to see if he9s wearing moccasins or not, much less venturing to walk a mile in them. We9re all susceptible to this insidious phenomenon. Disconnecting is probably the right thing to do 4 but that doesn9t guarantee escape, and anyway, it9s not a realistic option for most of us. But we can discipline ourselves to take a moment and decide what we want to give our commodified attention to and how much drama we want to get sucked into 4 be it online or in our hometown. Or online in our hometown. We9re lucky here in Sisters; we have lots of options. Sometimes 4 maybe always 4 the best thing to do is to just go for a hike. Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer9s name, address and phone number. Let- ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday. To the Editor: Kudos to Craig Rullman, who always speaks his mind, and expressed so well the divisive hyperbole going around these days! Our First Amendment free speech rights are in danger as are other freedoms we hold dear. Carefully weigh and investigate what comes across the media. There is a lot of hype and hysteria out there. Jeanne Brooks See LETTERS on page 19 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Friday Thursday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Mostly Sunny Rain PM Showers PM Snow Showers Partly Cloudy 51/32 54/36 46/33 47/33 42/26 36/25 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Graphic Design: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partners: Vicki Curlett & Patti Jo Beal Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2019 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper9s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. N Why I am upset by idling vehicles By Steve Nugent Guest Columnist Idling a vehicle unnec- essarily adds CO 2 to the atmosphere, increasing global warming. Even though I don9t travel much and don9t live where hurricanes, floods and tornadoes are a threat, the impacts of global warming on me are still significant. I breathed toxic smoke from the California fires last year for two months, not to mention smoke from other local Oregon fires. Scuba trips to dive on reefs are disappointing because 50 percent of the reef is dead. Salmon and steelhead fish- ing in Oregon is getting harder because of declin- ing stocks of wild fish. The cost of wild salmon in the market continues to rise. Some fruits, vegetables and nuts from California are getting more expensive and scarce. I have to continually fireproof my house to pro- tect from more frequent, increasingly intense wild- fires. My fire insurance is increasing because of all the western wildfire claims. We are all paying more taxes to support $300 billion in Federal disaster relief in 2017 and even more in 2018. What a waste of my tax dollars. When I ask why a per- son is idling when parked, they generally give me one of six answers: 1. <It saves money because I9m only going to be in the post office, bank or store for a minute.= It9s a myth that this saves any money. Idling your vehicle for more than five seconds uses more fuel than stop- ping and restarting. 2. <My diesel needs to idle to save the starter and keep the oil pressure and temperature up.= Myths. Diesels need to be under load to be at optimum tem- perature to minimize wear. Unburned fuel causes pol- lution and dilutes the oil, causing excessive wear. Starter wear is not a con- cern. Hybrid car starters start hundreds of times dur- ing each trip. UPS trucks re-start at every stop. 3. <I need to let my engine warm up before driving.= Gas cars should be immediately driven after starting to prevent excessive wear and short- ening of life. Diesels should be driven after a 30-second warm-up of the oil to prevent exces- sive wear and unnecessary pollution. Diesel manu- facturers recommend no more than three minutes of warm up. 4. <I need to let the diesel turbocharger cool down.= Another myth. Totally unnecessary and ineffective. Just turn it off and save some money. 5. <Diesel exhaust does not hurt anybody.= Human studies show an increase in lung cancer and cell damage due to diesel fume inhalation. It9s carcinogenic. 6. <It9s my God-given right to pollute if I want to.= This is not like leav- ing the lights on in your house. This impacts every living thing on the planet, including your neighbors, friends, and relatives. It9s a global impact. I often talk to people that are avid hunters, fish- erman, birders and out- doors hikers. These people should be the most con- cerned about the global warming impacts on their quality of life. They should be the people conserving, minimizing car trips and definitely not idling when parked. Most people can- not believe that what they do as an individual makes any difference. Well it does, particu- larly when millions are doing the same thing. Oregon actually has laws against idling an unoccupied car, maximum fine $250. Diesel trucks over 10KGVW must turn engines off after five minutes in any one-hour period. There is no reason to idle a vehicle once it is parked, unless it is for survival in sub-zero con- ditions. Do the smart, responsible thing and just turn it off. If it9s cold out- side, go inside and look at your cell phone. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.
