Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe. https://cnn.it/3Ovxzwk
What was not but could have been
Was my obsession way back when
Staff at an Oregon Amazon facility have continued to come forward since our reporting last week on a death there to describe what they say are challenging and sometimes dangerous working conditions.
We take you inside our reporting in this episode of Notes from the Edge.
Gil Duran tweet: TLDR: Fascism in response to Palantir's long fascists screed on X.
"Your Account is Suspended" Message on X
The CEO of Palantir posted a fascist manifesto on X.
I pointed out that it was fascist—which resulted in a permanent suspension from X (my second time!).
So, when you hear the tweeters complaining that BlueSky is intolerant, remember why many of us came here in the first place.
the word “smirk” in a police report should by itself constitute grounds for dismissal of charges
Now they're just writing Torment Nexus fan-fiction as justification for building it.
When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.
pope tweets good
Photo I took of these wonderful people (the faces of whom I’ve blacked out) singing happy Birthday to their lovely old dog at a bar I was at tonight in Portland
I was at a dog-friendly bar in NW Portland tonight and a table behind me started singing Happy Birthday and then I realized it wasn’t for a person but a really old dog who was wearing a crown and he was old and fucking adorable and I love this city
Extremely normal and fine for a company to put this in a public statement
Act up activism is actually an amazing model for social change, in your face direct action, inside outside organizing, science led policy platforms, no monopoly on action, incredibly savvy media strategy, etc. and what a legacy to have been affiliated with this movement
Louisiana now makes it a crime for police to refuse ICE cooperation. Florida created a board to punish officials who don't comply with ICE. Texas forced nearly all sheriffs to become immigration enforcers. And the crackdown on resisting ICE is spreading.
Mushroom worker at work
"Susana" works for Monterey Mushroom Morgan Hill under a contract. She has the skilled job of thinning out the mushroom to ensure quality. She also takes care of sanitization to keep the production rooms free of diseases that attack the mushrooms. #WeFeedYou
"She tutored the activists on immunology and virology and schooled them in the intricacies of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process and pharmaceutical research protocols."
[Gift article]
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/h...
Picture of a speaker on the ceiling of the first of three floors.
Being a millennial in Portland in 2026 means going to the ambient music show at the mall ice rink.
“On multiple occasions in the past year, members of his security detail had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to information supplied to Justice Department and White House officials.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Not everything that breaks is technically the fault of vibe coding but the kind of culture that would foster vibe coding is the kind that produces a lot of shit that breaks.
"'We were afraid that there might be a lot of harassing or retaliatory lawsuits against our elected officials... [b]ecause it’s a new experiment in representative democracy at a time when the federal government is trying to reduce representative democracy.'" -Attorney Ben Haile
Using facial recognition tech, the Knicks surveilled a trans woman, tracking her every move out of fear she'd show up on MSG's tv broadcast
And they can do it to any "enemy" of Jim Dolan, who's built his own deep state. From @noahshachtman.bsky.social & me @wired.com www.wired.com/story/madiso...
BREAKING: Louisiana has advanced one of the cruelest anti-homeless bills in the country. It would force homeless people to choose between jail and involuntary treatment, make them pay for it, and if they can't pay, force them to perform unpaid labor. buff.ly/d6rXj5h
absolutely impossible to overstate how critical Jonathan’s elbow grease has been to the larger local transportation advocacy ecosystem over the past twenty years
So at the risk of maybe overreading this and making an educated guess, I think I can guess what specifically Wyden is talking about.
I think it's about use of AI (LLMs) by FBI to surveil American communications without a warrant
If the hardcore band’s guitarist looks like this you’re about to die in that pit
I remember a certain Portland Metro Chamber lobbyist ranting on his FB page about how illegal (and outrageous) it was for progressive city councilors to have pro bono counsel to defend them against politically motivated ethics complaints.
Welp, per usual, he was wrong.
we just really don't know much and I'd like us to act with that humility more often
Enron should come back but branded as an AI company.
AI-powered paper shredders.
to summarize, this week jd vance laysplained st augustine of hippo to the augustinian pope, while the pope visited hippo
Multnomah County commissioners urged state officials late last year to change what they characterized as a discriminatory policy that’s contributing to people with “severe persistent mental illness” falling into homelessness.
