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Reposted by Max M.

Mount St. Helens in 1980 @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 1d

Okay, switched to Average White Band (AKA Vulfpeck before Vulfpeck).

From the valleys to the lakes, signs poked through as early as Summer—fireweed, trillium, berries shaded by snowfall.

It would be brutal, but the process had begun.

A small cluster of fireweed and other low plants sprouting from fine gray ash on a slope near the North Fork Toutle River, showing the first signs of life returning after the Mount St. Helens eruption. Cowlitz County, Washington. 1980. USGS.

A trillium plant emerging through blast deposits at Upper Clearwater, its green leaves breaking through a layer of gray ash loosened by melting snow. Photographed by Jerry Franklin, Oregon State University, June 17, 1980 (ABB-051).

A cluster of bright red berries clings to the branch of a mountain ash shrub on the shore of Meta Lake, one of the few plants to survive beneath winter snow cover within the Mount St. Helens blast zone. Photographed by Fred Swanson, summer 1980 (ABB-061).

Two researchers stand among a dense spread of fireweed blooming across gray ash deposits and clearcut stumps in the Upper Green River or Clearwater Valley area, showing the landscape’s early recovery after the eruption. Photographed by M. Hermstrom, September 15, 1980 (ABB-067).

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Max M. @ambystomax.bsky.social · 1d

Chipmunk is a go for launch in 10... 9... 8...

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 1d

31 USC 1341 is clear.

Each employee of the United States Government... furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations.

"covered lapse in appropriations” means any lapse in appropriations that begins on or after Dec. 22, 2018.

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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 3d

Your moment of calm this morning, in totally unwartorn Portland. Cedar waxwings lit by the sun, preening on branches.

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Reposted by Max M.

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 2d

Judge: That's what I'll do. Prohibit federalization or deployment of any NG troops into Oregon. For all reasons in prior opinion. Deployment of federalized military is ultra vires and contrary to law, violating Title 10, section 12406. I also find it's likely that defendants violate 10th Amendment.

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Max M. @ambystomax.bsky.social · 3d

Every person ripped from their families, ever cruel heartless jab, every child experiencing trauma they will carry with them the rest of their lives - I feel all of it, and I don't understand how others can't, much less how they can be the cause of it. It doesn't make sense to me.

Max M. @ambystomax.bsky.social · 3d

I choose to believe good and hope and compassion will ultimately prevail because that is the future that fuels the fire inside of me, but do not mistake that for a refusal to acknowledge the pain of the present. There is a deep seated grief too, and this thread expresses it very well.

LorennaCleary.bsky.social @lorennacleary.bsky.social · 3d

I’m tired of chaos. I’m dying for order. A machine that’s functioning. It’s parts working in symphony with each other.

Everything in its right place.

Nothing is now. No one is doing the job, let alone doing it well. I feel like there’s something they’re all in on. Something drives them.
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Reposted by Max M.

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 4d

NEW: Judge Immergut BLOCKS Trump's federalization of the Oregon National Guard, writing that the govt has "made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

CONCLUSION
For the above reasons, this Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, ECF 6, and temporarily enjoins Defendants' September 28, 2025, Memorandum ordering
the federalization and deployment of Oregon National Guard service members to Portland. The
TRO expires in fourteen days on October 18, 2025, and the parties are ORDERED to comply with the attached TRO. The Defendants' request to stay or administratively stay the Temporary Restraining Order, see Defendants' Opposition to Plaintiffs' Motion for Temporary Restraining
Order, ECF 35 at 41, is DENIED.
IT IS SO ORDERED
DATED this 4th day of October, 2025 at 3:40 p.m. pacific daylight time.
/s/ Karin J. Immergut
Karin J. Immergut
United States District Judge

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C.R. Gill Art @catalyst-artworks.bsky.social · 5d

Finished this one today. It will go to Cline House gallery after it dries and is varnished.

#botanicalart #bloomsky #invertibrate #painting #watersolubleencaustic

Water soluble encaustic painting of a cluster of ghost pipes growing out of a black background. These plants are parasitic on fungi and have no pigment. The pipes in the painting have blue and pink shadows because that's what I saw in the field. A bumblebee hovers nearby because these are flowers, bees polinate them.

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Max M. @ambystomax.bsky.social · 5d

Word on the street is that everyone who is exempt is getting paid out of unspent FY25 salary, and paid on time no less even during the shutdown. No clue how much of that there is or how long it'll last.

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Max M. @ambystomax.bsky.social · 5d

There's some good'uns left yet, unfortunately many are retiring. Hoping to be able to pay it forward if I can hang onto my job.

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Max M. @ambystomax.bsky.social · 5d

I mean, same here 😅 I'm just glad the gaggle of 8 interns I'm responsible for over the next two weeks still get to work and get paid, because I'm exempt and can supervise them (not that they aren't capable of being self-sufficient, they're great)

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Max M. @ambystomax.bsky.social · 5d

This one is extra weird. The determinations of who was exempt and who was furloughed seem to vary wildly across the board. Hearing about entire forests being exempt while others are almost all furloughed, etc. Sounds like almost no direction came down from above.

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Reposted by Max M.

Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 6d

Acts of imagination and creative play do have a place in countering the rancid, psychotic imagination of this administration. It's just one way, but the juxtaposition is important because it helps us remember how utterly bankrupt it is in normal human values.

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Reposted by Max M.

People Who Work @deptofworkers.bsky.social · 6d

Apparently making sure health insurance premiums don’t double for 22 million people isn’t urgent work, but Trump’s $200 million vanity ballroom must continue.

Glad they have their priorities straight.

FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · 7d

The Trump administration has announced construction of the White House ballroom will continue during the government shutdown.

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Max M. @ambystomax.bsky.social · 7d

Collect em all!

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Reposted by Max M.

Ben Vernasco @verntasco.bsky.social · 7d

Happy to share a new USFS General Technical Report on passive acoustic monitoring my collaborators and I put together. We discuss sampling design and introduce the Simple Passive Acoustic Monitoring (SPAM) protocol (R/python code/scripts included!)!

link here: research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/6...

Workflow and training materials for validating species detections from passive acoustic monitoring: a case study from the northern Blue Mountains | US Forest Service Research and Development

research.fs.usda.gov

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Reposted by Max M.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 7d

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

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Max M. @ambystomax.bsky.social · 7d

That's because it's a blatant Hatch Act violation. Makes me feel ill (that's the most PG way to phrase how I feel about it)

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 8d

i was invited to a gathering tonight and initially wasn’t gonna go because every extra thing feels like so much these days but i made myself go and i’m so glad i did because it turns out community is so fucking important right now

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Cabel Sasser @cabel.panic.com · 8d

portland update: this just crossed the street in front of me holding a bright yellow sign that said WELCOME TO HELL

(a person in an inflatable unicorn costume to be clear)

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 8d

regular reminder that "he wants" ≠ "he will"

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AAUP @aaup.org · 8d

BREAKING: WE WON!!!
💥 💥 💥

Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment.

Full ruling here:

Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #261 in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10685) – CourtListener.com

Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW, PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 52(A)(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) (Additional attachment(s) added on 9/30/2025: # 1 Main Document) (J...

www.courtlistener.com

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Max M. @ambystomax.bsky.social · 8d

🤮🤮🤮

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Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 8d

Thinking of all my federal colleagues today, holding our government together by a thread while preparing for a potential shutdown from which they may or may not return. You all deserve so much better, and so do we.

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