UO E-clips, April 15

Council still interested in UO research park as hospital site (Register-Guard): Eugene’s City Council wants to play hardball with University of Oregon officials who say it might cost the city well over $100 million to help McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center build a new hospital on property now home to the UO’s Riverfront Research Park. Ignoring city staff members who recommended the idea be scrapped altogether, the City Council on Monday pledged to continue its support of the research park as a suitable site for McKenzie-Willamette. Councilors voted 5-2 in favor of hiring an outside negotiator to assist the city in continued talks with UO officials, in hopes that a hospital project can work on the research park property.

City council makes controversial votes (KEZI): News story … for video click here ): Monday night, the Eugene City Council voted against staff recommendations to get property for the new McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center. The councilors voted to hire a negotiator to work with the University of Oregon in hopes of getting the university to sell its Riverfront Research Park property. In the end, the site could cost the city more than $100 million.

Urban slang stays up-to-date thanks to online dictionaries (Arkansas Democrat Gazette): A few months ago David Turnbull, 37, of Portland, Ore., used the term “California car pool” in an online exchange with a colleague, who didn’t know what he meant. Turnbull had used the phrase among friends for years and he turned to the Web site UrbanDictionary.com, his go-to source in such situations, for an official definition. He found no entry for the phrase. … Eric Pederson, head of the linguistics department at the University of Oregon, notes that such byplay is to be expected.

UO, BYU teams named new venture co-champions (Register-Guard, similar story in the Oregonian): A University of Oregon team and a Brigham Young University team were named co-champions in the University of Oregon’s Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship’s New Venture Championship. It was the first time in the competition’s 17-year history that co-champions were named. Both teams received $30,000 to invest in their businesses. UO’s TakeShape team, which included Cody Stavig, Peter Vomocil, Bill Sedlak and Andrew Earle, plans to license a patented, 3D body scanner to sell to institutional sports teams. Klymit has developed a patent-pending, form of adjustable insulation technology, which utilizes inert, noble gases.

Southland due for shakes (Whittier Daily News, California): The chances of a major earthquake striking California in the next 30 years is a "near certainty," seismologists said Monday, and such an event is more likely to happen in Southern California than anywhere else in the Golden State. That prediction came during the unveiling of a new earthquake probability model at USC by U.S. Geological Survey scientists. According to the model, the chances of a Northridge-size, 6.7-magnitude quake hitting California in the next 30 years is more than 99 percent. … "We will see fewer earthquakes in that region, but unfortunately, when we do experience them, they will likely be larger in size," said Ray Weldon, a paleoseismologist at the University of Oregon and member of the team that developed the new probability model. (See a UO notice)