Notices by Ahimsa (ahimsa_pdx@disabled.social)

"‘Not about improving elections’: Oregon secretary of state slams new Trump election threats"

https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/21/oregon-election-threats-trump-tobias-read/

"Secretary of State Tobias Read urged Oregonians to turn their ballots in at dropboxes if they live more than 50 miles from the Portland area."

Dropboxes are "an even safer, more reliable way because we don’t have to worry about the post office… That’ll go directly to the elections office."

#USPol #Oregon #Elections #Voting #VoteByMail #Resist

@tomstafford
Here's an old one that I found right around the first big migration from X/twitter. I can't remember the source - forgot to save that info.

#Mastodon

@ai6yr @mattblaze

“Rush made several requests ... to obtain a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses"

Work. Related. Expenses.

Are legitimate requisitions for gold bars so common that this fraudulent request just got lost in the shuffle?

More good news about COVID vaccines!

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/covid-vaccination-may-protect-household-members

"COVID-19 patients who were vaccinated against the virus were much less likely to infect household members than unvaccinated patients"

"…household contacts of patients vaccinated in the past six months were 43% less likely to test positive than household contacts of unvaccinated sick people, the study shows"

This effect was not found if the vaccine was more than 7 months ago.

#COVID #CovidIsNotOver #Vaccines #CIDRAP

"Dogs descend on downtown Portland for a heartwarming cause"

#GiftLink = https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2026/05/dogs-descend-on-downtown-portland-for-a-heartwarming-cause.html?gift=c56bdf16-9ae6-430d-8c71-1d3a0c7361bc

"A few thousand pups and their human companions descended upon Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Saturday to partake in an annual fundraiser organized by the Oregon Humane Society."

Includes photo gallery and video.

#Oregon #PDX #Portland #Dogs #DogsOfMastodon #DoggieDash

Yet another real headline that feels like it's from the Onion 🙃

#USPol #TaxTheRich #Resist

https://www.the-independent.com/tech/ai-news-humanize-chatbot-conscious-b2963788.html

Worth reading just for quotes from Emily Bender. Here's a quote about one of my pet peeves:

“The fact that these systems output ‘I/me’ pronouns is totally a design choice,” [Emily Bender] says, as one example. “There's no ‘I’ inside of there, but the fact that it is set up to behave as a conversation simulator where it's not just outputting academic-looking text, but responses back and forth, again heightens that illusion.”

#AI #AIHype #LLM

Another good quote:

In Bender’s view, there is simply no good way to interact with an LLM. Language models can be “extremely useful for things like automatic transcription and machine translation. There's a role for that kind of technology,” she says. “But turning it around into this chatbot interface and producing synthetic text by repeatedly answering ‘what's a likely next word’? That is not technology that I see beneficial use cases for.”

#AI #AIHype #LLM

@ana When someone doesn't think women are people (at least as shown by their actions) then it makes sense that they see chatbots as women.

"May Day rallies take place across the Pacific Northwest"

https://www.opb.org/article/2026/05/01/may-day-protest-pacific-northwest-international-workers-day/

Includes photos from Portland and Salem in Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. Also has a short video.

#USPol #MayDay #Oregon #WashingtonState #Portland #PDX #Protest #Rallies

"Oregon became the first state in the nation to vote exclusively by mail following a 1998 ballot measure that passed with broad support. That policy has led to the state having among the highest rates of eligible voting-age residents who cast ballots."

Everyone I know in Oregon - Republican, Democrat, or other - loves our vote by mail system.

#USPol #Oregon #Voting #Elections #VoteByMail #VoteAtHome #Resist

Leave vote-by-mail alone! 😠

"Oregon AG joins 22 other states in asking judge to permanently block Trump’s vote by mail restrictions"

#GiftLink = https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2026/04/oregon-ag-says-trump-wants-to-turn-your-mail-carrier-into-election-gatekeeper.html?gift=dcb92549-0401-47bc-af2c-3f521b591933

"The latest court filing says the president has no power under the Constitution or federal law to interfere in elections or stop delivery of mail. Under the Constitution, elections are controlled by states, while the U.S. Postal Service is governed by Congress"

#USPol #ORPol #Voting #Elections #VoteByMail #VoteAtHome #Resist

🚨Urgent!

You can help get more research funding for Long Covid, ME/CFS, and related illnesses!

Use the link below to email your senators and ask them to sign on to a "Dear Colleague" letter for FY27 (fiscal year 2027) which calls for "$210 million in Long COVID research funding at NIH, ARPA-H, and AHRQ"

The deadline for this action has been extended to Monday, April 20!

https://win.newmode.net/longcovidcampaign/signonsenatorsfundlongcovidinfy27-1

@longcovid @mecfs

#LongCovid #MEcfs #POTS #Dysautonomia #FundLongCovid #MedMastodon #USPol #NIH

@Catvalente
I hate using this kind of language when describing LLMs! I always want to post this diagram about de-anthropomorphising the output from chatbots (source = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370842240_Mirages_On_Anthropomorphism_in_Dialogue_Systems)

The original response may seem okay at first but then you realize it's using first person language.

#LLM #AI #AIHype

Timeline cleanse: Rescued bobcats released into the wild!
(story has lots of photos)

Does this count as a #Caturday post? 🤔

"Orphaned bobcat kittens rescued in Oregon return to the wild"

#GiftLink = https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2026/03/orphaned-bobcat-kittens-return-to-wild-after-oregon-rescue.html?gift=54489bf9-c15f-49e7-a75b-9504f7d4270d

"Today, the young bobcats are back in the wild, beginning a new chapter of independence and fending for themselves."

#Oregon #Wildlife #Bobcat #Cute

"Live updates: Oregonians rally statewide under ‘No Kings’ banner amid national protests"

#GiftLink = https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2026/03/oregonians-rally-statewide-under-no-kings-banner-amid-national-protests.html?gift=787e9f79-d34b-4fea-ac2e-4f1cc41c3050

"Thousands of Oregonians are participating in dozens of “No Kings” protests across the state Saturday as similar demonstrations unfold nationally for the third time in the past year."

#USPol #Oregon #Portland #PDX #NoKings #Protest #Resist

"NO KINGS ACCESSIBLE RALLY"
Join from anywhere

Saturday, March 28
1:30 – 3 pm EDT

https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/926570/

"ASL interpreting and live captioning will be provided"

#USPol #NoKings #Protest #Resist #Accessible #Disabled #ASL

"Oregon’s senior US senator, secretary of state warn of fed voter suppression under SAVE Act"

https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/14/read-wyden-warn-voter-suppression/

"Sen. Ron Wyden and Secretary of State Tobias Read said they would defend mail-in voting and the state’s election integrity."

"Wyden vowed to fight the bill in the Senate, where it’s expected to get a vote next week, and he and Read vowed to protect Oregon’s decades-old vote-by-mail system."

#USPol #ORpol #Oregon #Voting #Elections #VoteByMail #SaveAct #VoterSuppression

There is no evidence that non-citizen voting is a serious problem or that it has any impact on election outcomes.

"A 2020 analysis by Oregon’s Legislative Fiscal Office found the state’s justice department obtained just 38 criminal convictions for voter fraud across 20 years of votes and nearly 61 million cast ballots. It showed an effective 0.0000006% rate of voter fraud in Oregon elections during the past quarter century."

#USPol #Oregon #VoteByMail #SaveAct #Resist

"Wyden in 1996 was the first federal official to be elected entirely by mail ballots. By the 1998 primary election, Oregon became the first state to have more ballots cast by mail than at polls, and a ballot initiative to move to 100% mail-in voting passed later that year. Oregon became the nation’s first all vote-by-mail state in 2000."

#USPol #Oregon #VoteByMail #History