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Shirley Leung, PhD

@shirleyswirley.bsky.social

930 followers 680 following 610 posts

Climate/water scientist💧🌊 People = Good

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Shirley Leung, PhD @shirleyswirley.bsky.social · Sep 8

I wrote a rant that addresses EVERY Seattle anti-housing "tree advocate" talking point I have ever seen.

It's long but honestly not THAT long lol. I will be very, VERY happy if 5 people read it.

Come be one of them :)

blog.moreparksmoreneighbors.org/page/anti-ho...

Anti-housing, self-proclaimed "tree advocates" are missing the forest for the trees - or worse

“I have to wait HOW long?!” One of the five neighborhood kids gathered around me threw their dirt-caked hands up in disbelief. They were gardening for the first time ever and simply refused to believe...

blog.moreparksmoreneighbors.org

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Reposted by Shirley Leung, PhD

L. Harrison Jerome @lhjseattle.bsky.social · 1h

Local journalism taking major Ws this week goddamn

publicola.com/2025/10/09/r...

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Lisa Song @lisalsong.bsky.social · 6h

"PFNA is so hazardous that the EPA struck an agreement with eight companies to phase it out nearly two decades ago."

And yet, the report is stuck in limbo, still not released to the public.

Sharon Lerner @fastlerner.bsky.social · 7h

NEW An EPA report found that PFNA, a chemical in the drinking water of some 26M people, interferes with development and likely causes liver problems & male reproductive harms. The report was done in April, scientists told me. But the agency hasn't released it

www.propublica.org/article/epa-...

Scientists Completed a Toxicity Report on This Forever Chemical. The EPA Hasn’t Released It.

Agency scientists found that PFNA could cause developmental, liver and reproductive harms. Their final report was ready in mid-April, according to an internal document reviewed by ProPublica, but the ...

www.propublica.org

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Kate Macfarlane @katemacfarlane.bsky.social · 1d

Bruce Harrell likes to bluster about standing up to Trump

But behind the scenes, SPD is collaborating with ICE, and Harrell’s trying to hide it until after the election

ICE wants data? No prob, that will take 4 days

Journalist question about data sent to ICE? Sorry, best we can do is 4 months

Glen Stellmacher @glentalk.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: Seattle Police Prioritizing ICE’s Records Requests Over Citizens’
www.hardpressed-info.com/seattle-poli...

Seattle Police Prioritizing ICE’s Records Requests Over Citizens’

HardPressed

www.hardpressed-info.com

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taylr @taylordahlin.com · 1d

need a minneapolis mayoral candidate to ride the slow nicollet mall buses and talk about how we can improve their speed in ways the city hasn't tried yet. need a minneapolis mayoral candidate to ride transit in general and talk to transit riders!

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

I'm on the slowest bus line in the city with the slowest buses in the nation to talk to New Yorkers about what it would mean for their lives if we made them fast and free.

Zohran sits on a bus talking to a rider sitting behind him.

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Zack Whittaker @zackwhittaker.com · 2d

Scoop, by @lorenzofb.bsky.social: A federal contract shows ICE spent $825,000 on vans equipped with fake cellphone towers known as cell-site simulators, which can be used to spy on nearby phones.

ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones | TechCrunch

The federal contract shows ICE spent $825,000 on vans equipped with “cell-site simulators” which allow the real-world location tracking of nearby phones and their owners.

techcrunch.com

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Daniel Kibblesmith @kibblesmith.com · 2d

Step 1. Back into business model accidentally or steal one (cabs, food delivery, etc.)

Step 2. Venture capital

Step 3. Billionaire

Step 4. Write mission statement retroactively about how all of this was a plan to make the world a better place

Step 5. Make world worse place

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Josh Cohen @jcohenwrites.bsky.social · 3d

Really good reporting from @ashleyhiruko.bsky.social on shelter beds being paid for but left unfilled, seemingly in part over a deputy mayor's personal dislike of a prominent Seattle homelessness services provider.

KUOW Public Radio @kuow.org · 3d

By December, Seattle taxpayers were paying a hefty $4,200 a month per empty room — at a time when thousands of Seattleites were without a roof over their heads.

Seattle paid for shelter beds that it left vacant despite a massive need for housing

Early last year, the city signed a $2.7 million lease extension to continue using a hotel’s rooms as shelter space. Yet despite committing to pay the rent, the city stopped sending people there.

www.kuow.org

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Ron Davis @ronpdavis.bsky.social · 3d

Bruce Harrell spent tons of taxpayer money to keep private shelter rooms empty, because his administration (which is known for being vindictive) didn't like the lady that runs the program.

Is that the kind of @mayorofseattle.bsky.social you want, Seattle?

ProPublica @propublica.org · 3d

NEW: After paying for hotel rooms to shelter homeless people, Seattle deliberately left them vacant.

By the end of 2024, taxpayers were spending $4,200 a month per empty room at a time when thousands of residents were without a roof over their heads.

Seattle Spent Millions on Hotel Rooms to Shelter Unhoused People. Then It Stopped Filling Them.

Early last year, the city signed a $2.7 million lease extension to continue using a hotel’s rooms as shelter space. Yet despite committing to pay the rent, the city stopped sending people there.

www.propublica.org

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Natalie Davis is a giant now @codefreedomritr.bsky.social · 3d

Does anyone have any resources to help explain to a developmentally disabled adult that they have cancer in an appropriate way? Are there books for this? I’m so overwhelmed

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TallFroGuy [🔜critterposting hours] @tallfroguy.bsky.social · 3d

Wizard frog
#critteprosting

Crude drawing of someone in a costume frog mogging the op shop cops.

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sick public transit, gloria @seung.bsky.social · 6d

despite how Lee Myung-bak's legacy turned out, he was a truly CEO mayor who led three big projects of major consequence for Seoul:

1) the Cheonggyecheon creek restoration
2) the bus network reforms
3) support for Platform Screen Doors at Seoul Metro stations

Melissa & Chris Bruntlett @modacitylife.com · 6d

Every bold urban transformation asks a question: what will people remember—the controversy or legacy?

Showing great leadership, Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak bet on the latter, replacing a motorway with a waterway.

Two decades later, absolutely no one regrets the decision or remembers the controversy.

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Ben R Lee, PhD @benrlee.com · 6d

🚨 Please repost widely!🚨

I am recruiting a PhD student to join my lab next fall to work on forest and climate change ecology projects in southern Appalachia! Come join me in one of the most beautiful, biodiverse, and understudied parts of North America. Details below and happy to answer questions

An ad for a PhD position to start fall 2026 working with me at ETSU. For more info, please email at LeeBR1@etsu.edu.

A close-up picture of dimpled trout lilies active in early spring, still largely surrounded by the previous year's senesced tree leaves.

A beautiful vista of the Blue Ridge Mountains from on top of Carver's Gap on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee.

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Ryan Packer @typewriteralley.bsky.social · 6d

Next weekend, I'm hosting a little bike ride and gathering to celebrate a full decade of writing for @theurbanist.org. Join us? www.eventbrite.com/e/bike-ride-...

Bike ride celebrating 10 years at The Urbanist

I'm hosting a bike ride to celebrate 10 years of writing at The Urbanist! Join us for a leisurely paced ride that will end in Capitol Hill.

www.eventbrite.com

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 6d

This week, the Global Sumud Flotilla tried to deliver life-saving aid to Gaza.

Instead, 461 people—including New Yorkers—have been detained by the Israeli military.

They must be freed at once. And the deliberate starvation of Palestinians must end now.

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Kyle Jacobson @ks-jacobson.bsky.social · 6d

This is nuts. Imagine all the things we could spend this money on.

jseattle @jseattle.bsky.social · 6d

That helicopter manhunt over Capitol Hill? It was part of Seattle’s war on graffiti

Seattle Police have made it clear they are familiar with the suspect the King County Sheriff’s Guardian One chopper, a police K9 unit, and multiple officers chased across Capitol Hill Tuesday night before making a gunpoint arrest. But SPD hasn’t … Continue reading →

dlvr.it

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Nick Dearden @nickdearden.bsky.social · 7d

Thousands and thousands marching through Rome right now to say: Hands off the Flotilla. A whole day of action and general strike tomorrow.

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ACLU @aclu.org · 6d

BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador.

Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

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Marcus Hutchins @malwaretech.com · 7d

Someone is currently arguing with me that the UK is a surveillance state because it has lots of security cameras, and the US isn't because it doesn't. So, since I'm going to have to explain constitutional law anyway, I may as well just give a free lecture on how the 4th amendment really works: 🧵 1/?

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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 6d

For anyone having a bad night tonight, or feeling like they don’t “deserve” an accommodation they need…. You do deserve it.

Don’t feel guilty.

Living with chronic illness is hard and we should feel empowered to do whatever we need to in order to make life a bit easier.

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Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 7d

A quick note about money and comedy and power.

www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/st...

On a more serious note, Collins thinks the Riyadh lineup reflects something dire about both American politics and the bifurcated woke-versus-anti-woke comedy scene. Collins says there’s “a lot of money” behind enticing anti-woke comics to shill for the political project on the right. “I also like money, but I think getting hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell jokes for 10 minutes about ‘airline food is bad’ is actually illustrative of a much larger thing: The stuff that’s getting greenlit is not necessarily popular with the populace. It’s popular with rich people who are sick of being yelled at in the media. They are using some of these people as vehicles for whatever the comedy equivalent of greenwashing is.”

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse @whitehouse.senate.gov · 6d

Greedy data centers won’t bring their own power to the grid, so drive up electricity bills for everyone. Here’s a sample:

Bar chart showing the increase in wholesale energy prices in major American cities between 2020 and 2025.

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Johnnie Jae @johnniejae.bsky.social · 6d

Folks always go round and round on what we can do to solve these problems and I'm always in awe of how they absolutely refuse to do anything to solve the problem which is so simply it's ridiculous. You give people what they need, no strings attached. Housing. Food. Water. Clothing, CARE.

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Johnnie Jae @johnniejae.bsky.social · 7d

I think it says a LOT about the privilege of not knowing or experiencing despair when you see folks experiencing addiction or homelessness and your first thought is how to punish them or how they don't deserve care or compassion.

Had to go downtown today to see about help with my housing.

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Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 7d

We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 7d

"Jones, 27, is among the residents left at 7500 S. South Shore Drive who are trying to piece together what remains after an early morning, high-powered federal immigration raid led to the arrests of dozens of their neighbors at their South Shore apartment building."

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'

The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 7d

“To put it bluntly, a path to zero emissions that relies on electrifying individual cars is not only the most resource-intensive route to zero emissions, but also the slowest route to that urgent goal.”

- @triofrancos.bsky.social
www.commondreams.org/opinion/gree...

Can We Design a Green Transition That Doesn't Turbocharge Extraction? | Common Dreams

Policies that promote alternatives to car use, reduce sprawl, encourage more compact batteries, and require recycling would all reduce the scale of mining needed for carbon-free transportation.

www.commondreams.org

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