UO E-clips, Jan. 30

Arena project raises concern in community (Daily Emerald): University president Dave Frohnmayer sent a letter on Tuesday to residents of the neighborhood where the basketball arena is set to be built in an attempt to temper concerns that spectators will flood their streets with parked cars and litter their sidewalks with trash. The letter mentions that there will be a buffer of University property between the neighborhood and the arena, the facility won't have a "back door" facing the neighborhood and that there will be litter crews that will clean up after each game. The letter was also personally handed out by Frohnmayer at a community event Tuesday night that featured state Sens. Bill Morrisette and Floyd Prozanski, as well as state Reps. Paul Holvey and Phil Barnhart.

Duck plane takes flight (KVAL.com): To the sounds of "Mighty Oregon" and the cheers of excited fans, the 8:50 flight from Seattle taxied to the gate at the Eugene Airport Tuesday morning. Most planes don't get receptions this warm--but this plane is different. It's the inaugural flight of the Duck plane, the Horizon Air passenger jet decked out in the colors of the University of Oregon. Painted green and yellow and featuring UO logos, the plane is one of four celebrating Northwest Universities. It got a big two feathers up from Donald and from duck fans.

Campus: Security chief says he needs more tools to fight crime (Register-Guard): The debate over Tasers has moved to the University of Oregon, where the head of campus security has said he wants to equip his staff of unarmed officers with the controversial stun guns. Department of Public Safety Chief Kevin Williams said his officers encounter drug dealers, car thieves, armed felons and burglars in the course of their work. Armed only with pepper spray and collapsible batons, they must rely on their wits and back-up from Eugene police officers in times of crisis. “I would like to have Tasers,” Williams told a crowd of about 100 people Tuesday at the UO law school. “But it’s not my decision to make. It’s the decision of the president of the university.”

Living Green: White Stag renovations (KPTV 12 Portland, story in its entirety): NEWSCASTER: The people who designed some of Portland's oldest buildings a century ago may not have thinking about living green. But tonight, some of those buildings are getting an environmental makeover. KPTV's David Wilson joins us live tonight with a closer look. Dave. REPORTER: If you've walked along the waterfront in downtown Portland, you've probably seen them. Three buildings on what's known as the White Stag block are undergoing a major renovation. Developers took FOX-12 on a tour today. The buildings went up in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Now developers are pumping $35 million into a renovation project. Crews are knocking down walls, rewiring and installing some state-of-the-art plumbing. A roof drain will collect stormwater and pump it into the bathrooms where the water will be used for flushing toilets. Developers say despite the changes, they're preserving the original look and charm. MARK DEMURO, OWNER/DEVELOPER: We created a lot of common area space which we think speaks to the historic feel of the space. A two-story-high atrium space, grand stairs, exposure of the natural materials such as the stone and the brick and the heavy timber and the steel. REPORTER: Some other green upgrades: Almost all of the wood removed during the renovation was reused. And molding and trim came from reclaimed timber. Now, part of the building will be office space and the rest will be used for the University of Oregon's Portland campus.

A treasure made with math and marble (The New York Times): "Secrets of the Parthenon,” Tuesday night on PBS, is no mere how-did-they-lift-those-heavy-rocks rumination. It’s a condensed mathematics course, challenging you to keep up as it examines the principles and proportions the ancient Greeks used to erect that majestic building. You may fall by the wayside in the home stretch, which features a detailed analysis of the slight curve in the Parthenon’s columns, but you’ll still feel smarter by the program’s end. “The Parthenon, like a statue, exemplifies a certain symmetry, a certain harmony of part to part, and of part to the whole,” explains Jeffrey M. Hurwit, an art historian at the University of Oregon.