UO E-clips, Sept. 24

Western cap and trade initiative faces obstacles (Associated Press): A new Western regional plan to cap and trade greenhouse gas emissions faces a tough road in state legislatures, where the details still must be worked out. The Western Climate Initiative would establish a regional market to trade carbon emissions credits, allowing industries that emit greenhouse gases to buy and sell credits for their emissions. The goal is to cut the region's carbon emissions to below 2005 levels by 2020, a roughly 15 percent reduction. … "The extra challenge now -- besides getting the allocations right, dealing with the offset issues, dealing with complex regulatory issues -- I think will be finding the dollars to stimulate the innovation needed," said Bob Doppelt, executive director of the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative.

Digital Safari' at Cleveland State taps into potential of computers (Cleveland Plain Dealer): Computers make everything possible when it comes to cinematic special effects. Animals can speak, a person can melt into a puddle, the White House can explode in a fireball. Given that audiences are used to such things, what's an artist to do with advanced technology? Can technical wizardry go beyond popular entertainment? Or is computer art merely another form of special effects? … A video installation by Ying Tan, a digital animator who teaches at the University of Oregon in Eugene, provokes equally strong associations with a prior work, in this case, Walt Disney's "Fantasia." Tan is displaying a collection of six short experimental animations, called "Wicked Paths, Cruel Deserts," in which abstract shapes and forms are choreographed to accompany compositions by contemporary composer Jeffrey Stolet.